Szophie Explores: Soul trees and finalizing your soul choice

Hour 2: The cinematic is over, you've gotten a very visual introduction to your faction, and now your almost ready to get out there and push those planer foes back.  There are a few more things you need to tend to before your really ready.  The first, and most important is to finalize your soul.



When you selected your class type, and along with it a premade build, you got a taste of what your class can accomplish.  Now that you are in game, you will get to see what that choice really means, and, if you feel you'd like to, change it.  It is very important to note, once you save a soul point into a tree you are locked into that individual soul until you reach your class trainers in the main cities*  There is a cost to this, but it is not overly expensive.

The soul system of rift is complex, but there are functions in place to help you along.   In your menu you will see the player button is highlighted.  Going into the player menu (a menu of different customizations and details of your character) you will see "soul tree" highlighted as well.  This will always happen when you have a soul point ready to spend.  You can also get here by pressing "N"

Your full soul will combine three different souls into one.  Each soul will specialize in a different area and once combind will provide a well rounded character.   Individual soul trees are designed with branches and roots.  When you level up, you will receive at least 1 point.  As you spend points in the branchs two things will happen.  Higher level branchs willl become available and root abilities will unlock.  Gains from branchs tend to be boosts to base stats, like additional damge, etc, while the root abilities are usually additional skills (a new pet or ability).

The first time you open the soul tree window you will be shown a tutorial and a list of additional presets soul combinations.  Each preset will be attached to a small list of helpful notes on its playstyle and abilities.  When you are in a prebuilt soul, your next choice is always indicated with an arrow (see image right).

As mentioned before, you can choose to put your points where ever you like, striking away from the preset as early as level 1.  If you would like to develop your own full soul you need to know how to switch one active soul tree for another.   The prebuild you selected will begin with three different souls.  You can left-click the soul icon (between the name of the soul and the points spent) to choose from any other soul.   If, for example, you began with the Rogue tanking soul (as pictured below) but wanted to change to your custome built Bladedancer, you would right-click any soul icon and switch that with the blade dancer soul.  This can be done at any time provided there are no points spent in the soul you want to change.  Also keep in mind the maximum number of points allowed in a single tree is equal to your current level.

The helpful notes on a prebuilt will tell you how many points will be in each individual soul, but if you would like to see exactly where they will be placed, you can choose to preview your soul advancement.  The upward arrow beside the save and exit button will highlight the points that will be spent when you reach maximum level.

With all of this in mind have a look at prebuilts and see if something interests you.

This hardly scratchs the surface on rifts soul system, but the basics will get you going.  If you have specific questions, leave them below and I'll do my best.

F2P players will soon have the opportunity to summon class trainers to them on a cooldown.  They reset can then be instant rather than level 12.