Inquisition has started running Expert dungeons in Rift, and so far the experience has been pretty damn enjoyable. The advancement pace is certainly much faster than 2004 WoW raiding, where I believe we spent about a week semi-pug-raid wiping on the first pull (admittedly, that first pull was brutal), but we are still wiping at least a few times per boss, and the two instances we have completed (Iron Tomb and Lantern Hook) have taken us about three hours each. Given that there are achievements to complete IT in 25 min and LH in 45 (or vice versa maybe?), clearly we are going slow, but slow means we are pushing the gear limit pretty damn close to the break point (we spent basically zero time ‘gearing up’ for Expert dungeons after we hit 50), and that’s a very rewarding challenge.

For both runs we have had four guild members and one pug, and all of the randoms we picked up (2 in IT, one in LH) were better geared and had run the instances already, yet they were all consistently far below us in terms of performance. I don’t write that to brag (regular readers already know I’m gods gift to tanking), but more to separate our experience (first time in, full clear) with the ‘average’ group result. I highly doubt most groups go in and finish an expert dungeon first shot, or get the results we get with fresh 50s. Point being, the content is indeed pretty tough for what it is (5 man instanced dungeons), and I’m fully expecting things to continue to ramp up when we move to 10 man raid rifts and the 20 man raid content.

The tuning is sharp as well. For instance, the second-to-last boss in Lantern Hook, among other abilities, spawns a pulsing shard at the feet of one group member at random. This creates a permanent ‘don’t stand in the fire’ spot, and he continues to spawn more shards as the fight goes on. If you have overwhelming dps, the location of the spawns does not really matter as you will burn the boss down long before space becomes an issue. At our gear level (and with a pug rogue who could not faceroll his way out of shard 9/10 times (dps players…)), space was indeed a major issue, and so it become very important not only where we originally pulled the boss, but how we move him with each shard spawn. Our ranged characters also had to make sure not to stand in spots that would eventually be needed to drag the boss along. It took us a few wipes to really nail the path down, and the randomness of the shard target made each attempt a little different. When he finally went down it was a good accomplishment all around.