For newcomers to the raid scenario, the Free2Play MMORPG Rift will soon have a “Beginner Mode” with massive simplifications.
“The Comet of Ahnket” introduces Beginner Mode for Raids
The transition from regular group instances to raids is often a painful experience for many players. Either they feel their performance is too poor, don’t know the various bosses well enough, or simply feel unsure if they are up to these difficult challenges.
These concerns lead many players to avoid trying raids altogether and turn their backs on these gameplay elements.
With the next major patch, Rift will introduce the new raid instance “The Comet of Ahnket”, which consists of a total of 6 encounters – 4 bosses and 2 minibosses. In addition to the usual difficulty levels “Easy”, “Normal”, and “Hard”, there will also be a 4th one, the “Universal Introduction Mode” or the introduction mode.
Increasing Chances through Stackable Buff
In particular, two things are supposed to make these encounters easier for newcomers. First, all players will receive 1600 hit rating points, significantly reducing the chance to miss attacks. Second, there is a powerful buff that makes the encounters progressively easier over time. The “Ascended Odds!” buff ensures that players in the raid gradually become stronger.
Every 30 seconds they are in combat with a boss, dealt damage, healing, and HP increase by 2%. This means players gradually become stronger the longer they are engaged in a boss fight. The stacks of the buff are only removed when the fight is won, the difficulty of the raid changes, or the instance is reset.
Whether this beginner mode will make it beyond the test realm is yet to be determined. So far, it’s just an experiment to see if it feels “smooth” and achieves the desired result of motivating more players to raid.
World of Warcraft has a very similar principle in its “Looking For Raid” mode (LFR), where each defeat increases the group’s damage and healing by 5%. Among hardcore players, such mechanics are often disparagingly referred to as “loser buff”.
For more news and articles about the MMORPG, visit our RIFT theme page.
