One of the greatest strengths of RIFT over the last five years has been its amazing community, and the stellar individuals who share their efforts with their fellow players. In celebration of 5 years of RIFT, we’re highlighting these players and their contributions. Our first Pillars of Telara spotlight falls on Khortish!
If you’ve ever searched the internet for information about RIFT, one of the top results is almost certainly Khortish’s website, RIFTgrate. We sent Khortish a list of questions about his time as a RIFT supporter.
Ocho: What’s your name in game?
Khortish: Marko@Laethys.
Ocho: What class is your favorite and why?
Khortish: I usually play a Mage in most RPGs, preferring to attack enemies at range and deal large-scale AoE attacks whilst other players took the front line or support. However, thanks to the variety offered by RIFT’s soul system on a single character, I decided to give the Cleric class a go as my first shot into Telara. It was a great choice.
The Cleric brings forth a lot of variety. I’ve absolutely fallen in love with the Inquisitor soul and with just a few tweaks it makes for an excellent ranged solo or PvP spec. Clerics also have numerous healing souls that the other classes simply don’t possess and this keeps things fresh.
If anyone is just starting out in RIFT or looking to create a new alt, give the Cleric a go!
Ocho: How long have you played RIFT?
Khortish: Started playing RIFT some time during the open beta, so that would be around Feb 15th-21st 2011. A good 5 years or so.
Ocho: What initially got you interested in RIFT?
I stumbled across RIFT after trying out numerous other MMORPGs. Previously, I had spent ~8yrs playing Ragnarok Online and had little experience with a Western MMORPG outside of Runescape. Tried out a whole bunch of MMORPGs but none of them piqued my interest.
What got me to download the game was the soul system, with the ability to perform DPS, Tank and Heal roles on a single class (Cleric). I no longer had the time to level and gear 17 different alts, so being able to experience all class variants in just 4 (now 5) characters was just what I was looking for. The idea of dynamic content, which was a relatively new concept back then, was also a plus.
Ocho: What’s your favorite RIFT moment? What experience do you remember most fondly in RIFT?
Khortish: What got me to download RIFT was the soul system, but what made me stay compared to all the other MMORPGs I had experienced was the dynamic content and community. There’s countless fond memories made over the past 5 years, but the most memorable experience in RIFT would have to be in open beta when there was a massive amount of players in Silverwood.
Whilst questing, the sky suddenly turned green, a battle horn blasted out and a heap of Life Rifts appeared with countless Life invasions streaming out. Since there were so many players packed into the one zone, the invasions were all Elite. I went from foothold to foothold joining a ton of players just trying to kill the invasions. Back then, when the defend point in Argent Glade was overtaken, new rifts opened up in the town and giant mini-boss Treants spawned. I also remember them streaming across the bridge in Sanctum. There was just a ton of communication in zone chat between players and large groups moving all across the zone. It was truly an epic experience!
Another favourite moment would have to be the first time tackling Volan. Watching Volan come out of his cage was amazing. What sealed the deal was his bridge jump that surprised many players and left a whole field of tombstones. Even though the area was largely devoid of NPCs, Volan’s size, movements and interaction with the structures brought the entire place to life.
Ocho: What made you want to run a fansite for RIFT?
Khortish: It all began when I was in an Oceanic guild called Blitz. To help the guild stay informed, we had threads about Public Test Shard changes and “hold-off-on-opening/consuming-this” type notices.
At some point I started getting a reputation as a RIFT encyclopedia due to all the questions I’d answer, and was encouraged to share it with the wider community. I also realised it would be easier to write a guide on a topic once, rather than answering the same questions multiple times. A site would allow me to compile information on single pages, like Upcoming Events, PTS/Live Comparison and the Reference List, which were better than trying to find quotes about upcoming content or events all over the forums.
There were also a few things that the other fansites weren’t doing – more frequent RIFT news, additional info not included in patch notes, PTS updates and livestream summaries. It seemed as though there was room for a news-focused fansite, so I created RiftGrate.
Ocho: How has running a fansite changed how you look at RIFT?
Khortish: Since starting RiftGrate, the site has branched out and taken a lot of additional content under its wing, including databases like the Minion Card Database, various guides and datamining the PTS. With this comes a much greater requirement and thirst for knowledge surrounding the game.
I spend a much larger portion of my time looking through files, the PTS or various sources for information about changes and upcoming content. When playing through a piece of content, I’ll often take screenshots, record or take notes for a potential future article or guide.
Running RiftGrate has also given me a far greater appreciation for the work that the community puts in to provide players with videos, guides and contests. The Minion Card Database would not be so comprehensive without the tons of information sent by the community. RIFT has a very supportive and helpful community!
Ocho: What are your 5 pieces of advice for someone starting RIFT today? Do you have any specific articles they must read right now?
Khortish: Take it slow and soak in the experience. There’s no need to rush. You don’t need to know everything in a short amount of time. There’s a certain magic to being lost in a strange, new world that you might never be able to experience again if you just race through all the content.
Join a Guild. Joining a guild will open up the game and help make it a lot more enjoyable. Guilds will often help you out with information, in grouping and resources. Hit “G” hotkey to search for guilds on your shard, or “SHIFT+G” if you are already in a guild.
Check out the Class Guides Sub-Forum. You can’t go wrong with the Class Guides Sub-forum and they will be a fantastic resource both whilst you are levelling up and for when you hit max level!
Don’t worry about ‘messing up’ your character. In RIFT you can unlock up to 20 role slots and there’s plenty of ways to customize yourself. You won’t find yourself ‘stuck’ with a ‘wrong’ character as you can re-customize appearances at a Stylist (even race/gender), respec your soul points for minimal cost and even if you dislike your shard, there’s free shard transfers on a 7-day cooldown!
Check out Resources. Once you are settled in, there are plenty of resources you can check out. If you are in North America, type “/join crossevents@faeblight” to join a region-wide chat channel. Check out Magelo for a Rift Database, consider a quick skim of some RIFT Terminology, have aReference List handy and check out a quick way to get some nice Lvl 65 loot. There’s also plenty offansites offering a range of resources as well as a plethora of guides on the RIFT Forums.
Ocho: Do you have any advice for anyone looking to start a RIFT fansite?
Khortish: Go for it! You don’t need any amazing technical knowledge to create a site. Any one is able to create a RIFT fansite, and Trion provides a nice RIFT FanSite Kit as well as an Assets folderwith all the game’s various icons. With screenshots and an image editing program like GIMP as well as some kind of publishing platform like WordPress, you’ve got all the tools you need to create a fansite even if you have no coding knowledge at all!
Make a list of topics, features or content that you would like to have on your fansite and estimate how much time it will take to create and/or maintain the content. Take a look at the existing fansites out there and ask yourself what you can provide that they don’t. What kind of gaps can you fill, or how can you present content in a different fashion that would benefit players? The topics don’t have to be broad – perhaps you’re really into puzzles and would like to create a site dedicated to puzzle guides and resources.
Don’t be afraid to ask the community for help and their opinions on what kind of fan content they would like to see. Most of all; have fun building and running your fansite!
Ocho: What would you like to see over the next 5 years of RIFT?
Khortish: I’d like to see us travel to more Planes. We’ve heard of the Platinum Keep in the Plane of Fire and there’s plenty of interest in exploring the Plane of Air. There’s just a ton of possibilities for RIFT with multiple Planes and Cosmos out there to fill the next 5 years.
Big locales I would love to visit would be Shi-Ming, Myrkur Depths and to finally take back Port Scion. With Regulos gone and the current events of the game, surely we are powerful enough to retake Port Scion! The introduction of Hybrids adds even more possibilities for the game. What is it like at the boundaries between two Planes, or when they cross over? How about when three Planes cross over?
There’s also the matter of the Vigil. Now that we’ve met Enslaved Gods from a foreign Cosmos, it’s about time that our own Cosmos’ Gods revealed themselves.
Other things I would like to see in the next 5 years of RIFT include vast improvements in game optimization, persistent open world pvp zone, a chronicle and/or Instant Adventure for every raid, multi-player mounts, triggers and ‘wiring’ in dimensions (say, to make objects appear/disappear), total-achievements-accumulated reward bands and new RIFT merchandise, including a large lore/concept art book.
Ocho: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions Khortish, the RIFT community is definitely a better place thanks to your wonderful contributions!