DOES THE XERXES RIFT GUIDE DESERVE THE “BEST RIFT GUIDE” TITLE?

Here’s my review of the Xerxes Rift Mastery Guide.

I’ll present you with the facts of this guide, the good and bad, then you can make your own mind up.

First of all, if you want to skip my review and dive straight into the Xerxes Rift Guide then you can access it below.
Just to let you know I’ll get a commission if you buy the guide from the link below but I have used it and my opinion of it is honest.
The Xerxes Rift Mastery Guide site

OK, first of I have to say there is A LOT of things to cover in this Rift guide. Don’t expect to open one e-book and read through it. Their Rift guide contains lots of separate e-books and maps, so some people might find this a bit confusing.

I did in the beginning but I found by downloading all the books and maps first then printing off the download page, I could use that print off to show me the correct order to open the e-books and maps. If you decide to get their guide I would advise you do the same and you’ll be fine.

The Xerxes Rift guide is split into various sections, which I’ll cover below.

1 – RIFT BEGINNERS CRASH COURSE

This obviously covers the basics and comprises of a Rift Beginners Guide, Rift UI Guide, Rifting Guide and Auction House Guide.

I know Rift pretty well, so obviously I didn’t get too much out of these guides (although I did learn a thing or two) but they’re well written and easy to understand. Below is a brief explanation, I’ll go into more detail on the more advanced guides.

• Rift Beginners Guide – This goes into the basics of creating your character, the soul trees, multiple soul choices, what the stats do, what happens when you die etc.
• Rift UI Guide – This one goes into great detail explaining the UI. Not much more to say really!
• Rifting Guide – I liked the Rifting guide. It tells you about all the different kinds of rifts, what happens when they are created and what types of events occurs afterwards. It also goes into the Rift crystals and what effects each crystal has. Plus it has a good explanation of the Rift events, the contribution system (stolen from…err, I mean ‘inspired!’ by Warhammer) and their rewards.
• Auction House Guide – To be honest, I wasn’t that impressed with this one. I was hoping for a detailed guide on how to make lots of gold or platinum but it’s more of an overview on how the Rift AH works. But I supposed this mini guide was in their Beginners Crash Course section, so I guess I can’t expect that much.

2 – RIFT LEVELING GUIDES

This is where it started to get interesting! The Rift leveling guide books are for both Guardian and Defiant. They’re split into level ranges, with one book per side, area and level range. For example; Defiant Stonefield 21-28.

They use a color coded key throughout (‘Interactive Character’, ‘Usable Item’, ‘Quest Objective’ etc), which is a little confusing at first but once you get used to it, I found it very useful and saved time.

Also, they include a detailed map with each Rift leveling guide, showing all the important quests and in what order you need to do them.

So basically the leveling guide shows you who to speak to, where to go, what item to pick up, in a very detailed, step by step manor. And each step has a number of screenshots, to make sure you’re in the correct area.

Once I got used to the color codes, I found it refreshingly simple to follow, compared to some guides I’ve used in WOW.

They do state however that you shouldn’t solely level in Rift purely by these quests but you should take part in Rifts, invasions and other events when they occur. I agree with this and besides, I love doing Rifts.

At this point in time, they have Rift level guides up to level 35 but the rest of the guides up to level 50 should be release any day now (or at least by the end of March), which they’ll release for free to anyone who has bought the guide.
UPDATE: It took them longer than they thought but they’ve finished the guides to level 50 for Guardians and Defiant!

3 – RIFT BUILDS GUIDES

I LOVE the character customization options in Rift! We have almost an unlimited number of choices. Now, like most players, I like to find the best mix of powers possible. That’s where I really found their builds guides for Rift so useful.

They go into detail on what powers work well with each other in the various soul trees and what rotations you should be using for maximum damage or effect.

There are also sections which show you the best combination for a certain role. For example, they have a DPS section for their Rift Mage guide, which shows you exactly which skills you need use, from which tree.

Another section I found really useful was the ‘yourclass vs anotherclass’ section. It shows you various tactics and tricks to use vs certain classes. For example, “Mage PVP vs Rogues”.

I must say, I really like their class build guides. I’m the kind of gamer that’s always playing around with combinations of skills/powers. I spent a bucket load of gold in WOW on so many talent build ideas!

4 – RIFT WARFRONTS GUIDES

Their Rift Warfront guides are quite small (around 4 pages) but I guess there’s only so much to say about what to do in Warfronts.

I picked up some useful tips though, such as when to use safe spots effectively. They mainly give you a run down on what’s in the Warfronts with a couple of useful tips.

I’m not sure how useful these Warfront guides will be to seasoned WOW or Warhammer PVP gamers (like me!) but I still think they’re a worthwhile read, even if you only pick up a couple of tips.

And the Warfront maps were quite useful as well.

5 – RIFT DUNGEONS GUIDES

They added the Rift dungeon guides only a couple of days ago, so it was quite a nice surprise when I logged into my member area to find four new dungeon guides!

The dungeons instances which are covered so far are;

• Deepstrike Mines
• Darkening Deeps
• Iron Tombs
• Realm of the Fae

I really like these Rift instance guides a lot and they’re MUCH more detailed than the Warfront guides.

They include the following;

• Map of the area – To help you find the Rift dungeon.
• Map of the dungeon instance itself – Which shows where the pull areas and bosses are.
• List of loot – Which shows where to get it from and what quests are available.
• A complete instance walk through – I loved this part, it contains a detailed walk through of the instance, including lots of information on the boss fights. What powers they use, what loot they drop etc.

6 – RIFT MAPS

These a LARGE (around 2603×1600 pixels) maps which you can download of various Rift areas. They have lots of information on the maps, even down to naming the roads which I found pretty cool.

There are currently six maps which you can download but they’re adding more (one was added a week ago).

The Bad – What We Did Not Like About This Rift Guide

1 – The number of guides
My main gripe with the Xerxes Rift guide is that they have LOTS of guides to download. I think this will confuse some gamers, it did confuse me anyway, at least in the beginning.

You can work around this by printing off your member area screen and use that to show you which guide to read or use their online screen to check as well.

2 – The Auction House guide
Maybe I was expecting too much but I was a bit disappointed with their Rift auction house guide. It’s OK, it shows you an overview of the AH but I was hoping for some secret tactics on ways to make tons of gold or platinum on the Rift AH.

3 – Knowing when there are updates
You have to remember to check their website to see if a new or updated guide has been published. I think they need to have an email or RSS alert, so you’re told when something is new or has been updated.
UPDATE 25th March 2011: The Xerxes guide guys have announced they will put in a feature where they tell you when there are updates, so this negative point is no longer a problem.

The Good – What We Liked About This Rift Guide

1 – Covers both Guardian and Defiant
Unlike some other guides I’ve seen (reviews to come), the Xerxes Rift guide covers both Guardian AND Defiant. The benefit of this is obvious, I don’t have to buy another guide if I want to play the other side.

2 – Not just a Rift leveling guide
It’s NOT just a Rift leveling guide. It also contains very detailed Rift class build guides, Rift Warfront guides, Rift dungeon guides and Rift maps.

I found the Rift class and dungeons guides alone were a great read and filled with useful tactics and ideas. I think the tips from the class guides will help me in PVP and PVE.

3 – Free updates
When you buy the Xerxes Rift guide, you also get regular free updates to the existing guides and even new guides. These are released via their website (as long as you remember to check!). I could simply download the updated or new Rift guide and I was away.

4 – Rift leveling and class guides quality and detail
Their Rift guides are extremely detailed and high quality. The Rift leveling / quest and class build guides are really explained in a detailed step by step method. I think it would be pretty difficult for someone to make a mistake, as it’s all spelled out very clearly.

5 – 100% Legal
All the methods and tactics are completely legal, with no Rift hacks or cheats. There’s no way I’m getting banned from Rift!

The Summary – Is The Xerxes Guide Any Good?

Apart from those small problems, I really like their guide. Especially the fact that is covers both factions and has many great Rift class and dungeon guides.

I didn’t find any ‘fluff’ or filler content, it gets straight to the point, offering real techniques for fast Rift leveling and Rift class combinations.

I learnt a number of useful tactics which I think are going to prove very useful in Rift PVP (I LOVE PVP!) and PVE.

Overall, I have to give it the ‘thumbs up’ and recommend it.

You can get the Xerxes Rift Mastery Guide below.

Just to let you know if you buy the guide from the link below, I will get a commision but I have used their guide and my opinion of it is honest.

The Xerxes Rift Guide