Staff Writer Paul "LockeColeMA" Cleveland continues his adventures in Rift! This time he reflects on his experiences during the third closed beta event.

For me, the best part about rift hunting was the social aspect. While it is possible to take down rifts solo, it can be dangerous and time consuming, especially if the spawned enemies are elites. Instead, oftentimes other players will show up and be more than willing to group. This brought me into group dynamics, where I figured out that my Reaver is actually a tank class more than a damage-dealing class. Using my high-threat moves primarily, I managed to hold onto several enemies at once with a cleric healing me. After a rift was sealed, our group would move on to any others in the area, or quest, or disband. Everyone was friendly, primarily because loot doesn't seem to be hoarded on a first come basis, but evenly distributed based on contribution. The few times I was outside a group I had the same experience; if I killed enough enemies and stayed for all the stages of the rift, I received better loot.

The loot itself for rift hunting was not necessarily fantastic. Each rift or invasion would award some tokens that could be spent on some items from special vendors in the game. The common tokens would just net you consumables. Once in a while I received a blue (rare) quality token, and 10 of those could be traded for rare equipment, but out of a couple dozen rifts I destroyed I received only three. Other items dropped included artifacts which could be compiled into a collection and turned in at the city of Sanctum for a reward, and planar focuses and essences, pieces of equipment with customizable stats. However, all the items vendored for very little, so unlike with questing or grinding, hunting rifts wasn't exactly profitable.

The rift hunting reached a zenith during the world event on the last day of beta. I logged in to find more than a dozen rifts open, spewing out all sorts of Aelfwar invasions. The entire zone was tagged as participating, even if they were not actively helping. Soon some 20 or more elites were attempting to establish footholds outside the gates of Sanctum, and I joined dozens of other players attempting to keep them at bay. During the fighting I gained one and a half levels. Every time an elite fell, anyone attacking it received bonus experience.

After failing to protect the camp outside Sanctum and running back to my corpse for the fifth time, I joined a group devoted to shutting down rifts. This worked out much better; by the time we finished closing the rifts, no more elites were spawning and then it was just a matter of killing off the remaining invaders. I reached another level in less than an hour by participating in the group fighting, and was rewarded with an epic token for my troubles along with tons of other loot. The entire event must have lasted only a couple of hours, but it was a blast and some of the most fun I've had in an online game for a long time.

There was also some sparse PvP action during my time online, but it was limited and brutal. One time I witnessed a group of Defiant players invading a town and slaughtering anyone who flagged themselves for PvP combat. I joined in, and was swiftly dispatched. More PvP combat is expected in the fourth beta event this weekend when Warfronts will be tested. These are PvP zones similar to World of Warcraft's Battlegrounds, with different PvP-based objectives. Trion also announced the official release date of the game this week: March 1. Assuming the next beta phases go as swimmingly as the last three, I will doubtlessly be pre-ordering the game.