Episode 19: Double Negative

Hey Overcast fans! We've got a little treat for you today. It's not much but we wanted to say hi and see what everyone thinks about patch 1.11. In this first episode of a probable series of "minisodes" Matt is solo and seeking to spark a little discussion about what makes a soul or a combination of souls interesting and fun. With all the changes across the board to the souls in 1.11, Matt got to thinking about this fairly in-depth. Have a listen, enjoy and leave us a comment below, email, facebook, or tweet with what you think about the topic!

I've decided to get on the mic and personally say farewell to our audience. Those who frequent our website or the forums already know everything contained in this recording but we wanted to be sure our audience on itunes and stitcher radio were aware of the situation as well. Also wanted to bring attention to my (Matt's) personal TwitchTV channel, in-case anyone feels like stopping in to say hello and see what we're up to, now that the show is over.

Community Voice guests Khan & Myrkel, from US guild No Quarter, join us this week to discuss a wide array of topics including patch 1.10, dimensions, the support role in Storm Legion, and much more.  Elrar was lurking in the chatroom and tossed us a couple of crumbs as well.  Later on, our guests give us some insight into their guild and what its like to be a part of No Quarter.  We discover a little about what happened with the recent exploiting that lead to some controversy regarding credit for the Maelforge world first kill.  And most importantly, we're on a boat!  Don't worry, you'll understand.

What a jam-packed episode we have for you all this week! There's so much that we were live for almost 2 hours and had to stop ourselves from talking even more! Khel joins Matt & Joe again this week as we discuss the latest news regarding patch 1.10, Rift's newest mount is a tad to 'cheeky', the almost complete removal of factions on pve servers, and Trion's newest 'experiment' with normalizing gear stats for instanced pvp. We've also pulled several juicy tooltips from Trion's revealing of the new mage soul, the Harbinger, which we discuss in great depth! Everything is better with sprinkles, especially this week's episode of Overcast.

Expectations are extremely high for the expansion! With the reveal of the new Mage soul right around the corner, Matt & Joe discuss some specifics about what it will be. Recent screenshots and images have shown a Mage wielding a two-handed sword! Is it a tank, a melee dps, or is Trion just messing with us? Your hosts have abandoned the Vigil and are now firmly seated in the ranks of the Defiant! Matt returns to the Mage and Joe picks up where he left off on his original Warrior. Find out what prompted our decision to swap factions and why Joe is suddenly interested in the Warrior once again. Oh, and did we mention the Geomancer?!

This week, Matt & Joe analyze the recent Reddit AMAA (ask me almost anything). With SWTOR's recent announcement that they're switching to a "freemium" or free-to-play model, several sites have inspired discussion about which subscription MMORPG could be the next to adopt F2P. We discuss how RIFT seemingly dodged the bullet, as many players commented on RIFT's success as a subscription model. What are the benefits of F2P and will RIFT ever consider it as an option? Later on we're joined by our Community Voice guest, Juuno from the popular podcast, Rift Shinies to discuss the most recent revelations in Telaran lore and the endless possibilities for where the story could go in the future.

Matt & Joe are back, along with Khellendros, this week. We discuss if Guild Wars 2 could have an impact on RIFT subscriptions and if this week's Play-RIFT-Free promotion could be a direct response to the most recent GW2 beta weekend. Can we go at least one episode without mentioning Conquest? It's possible but not this week. We revisit our feelings regarding the most recent changes to the Conquest reward system and touch on some ideas for balancing PvP stats, such as crit and avoidance. Also, this week, what ever happened to those awesome World Events we used to look forward to?

This, our second week of live recording, we are joined by Amanatin & Betowulf of US Guild, Tabula Rasa. We get to know Tabula Rasa and move on to discuss Conquest... again. We want to say this is the last time we'll have to discuss Conquest but the feature appears to be ever changing. Are the latest changes to PvE focused? Trion also confirms that there will be no rollback. The controversy surrounding Conquest leads to even deeper discussion about RIFT PvP and the state of the game.

This week we discuss: the latest issues plaguing Conquest, the EU server merge and if we could see one for US soon, review the newest Instant Adventures, reinforce our request for an in-game help index of sorts, and discuss the pros and cons to an Armory (player database) feature. Also, Joe has chosen to get involved in PvP and talks about his experiences thus far. Much to Matt's surprise, Joe is greatly enjoying instanced PvP. This week is also our first time recording live on twitch.tv/riftovercast. Future recordings will also be live so be sure to follow the twitch.tv channel and our Twitter for updates on the live schedules!

Many Telarans rejoice for Patch 1.9 & Summerfest hitting the live servers this week but some aren't so joyous and we'll discuss why. Joe experiences some classic open world PvP. Wait, did I say PvP? I meant getting ganked and camped. We remind ourselves about some of RIFT's original hooks at launch and Joe discovers a new class called "The Hedge Mage". What exactly is a Hedge Mage anyway? Find out, in this week's Overcast!