Riftwalker Guide

Guild Location:

Continent: Rothikgen
World Location: Randomly moves but can be found in the lake in north-west Rothikgen north of the Riftwalker cave. Look for the 'O' in the lake, and once on it "touch sphere" to enter the guild.
Warning: There are a large number of vampire bats (they show up as 'B' on the map) that roam around the guild and will absolutely murder you when you are full of EXP and trying to get to the guild to spend it.

Guild Requirements:

Magical Background

Disclaimer:

I'm only level 12 in the guild. So there are huge gaps in my knowledge about being a Riftwalker. I'm writing this guide to document what I'm learning as I learn it.

My Overview of the Guild:

Riftwalkers have the ability to summon an elemental entity to tank for you. This provides some of the best Newbie solo abilities in Batmud as you can cast damaging spells while letting your rift entity take the hits. The trade-off is that Riftwalkers underperform in parties since (with a few exceptions) your elemental will only remain active if you are in the front row, and while your elemental is nice, it's not a real tank. At only 15 levels though, this guild adds a lot of flexibility to any character with a magical background and is probably the first guild magical characters should join unless you plan on exclusively earning your EXP though being in a party.

While Riftwalkers are often recommended as one of the better Newbie guilds, I've found the learning curve on them to be very steep and the documentation to be limited. Hence this guide! But I will say that this is an amazing starting guild once you figure it out. In my limited experience, they are dramatically stronger than other Newbie combos such as a Giant/Nomad/Ranger.

Pros:

Amazing ability to solo quests and monsters at low levels

You can cast damaging spells
Your entity can tank damage
You can regen and heal yourself and your entity very quickly allowing you to get back in the fight
As a level 21 character I was able to solo a 20k monster!

Has access to useful exploration spells such as invisibility
Only 15 levels to max it out
Your main damaging spells scales with your entity's power.

This means your main blast and damage over time spell remain useful throughout your character's leveling progression

Cons:

Does not help much for higher level parties

For a newbie party you can serve as a semi-tank, but if you have access to a real tank they will get annoyed that your entity takes so much damage. This can be negated a bit by keeping your rift entity fed so it isn't targeted as much, but it still causes problems
I've been informed by the guild leader that riftwalkers can make great tanks if the rest of your party knows what they are doing. The big gotcha is your healer needs to know to keep track of health using party stats and not the Batclient GUI.
Long story short, tanking as a riftwalker can be challenging :)
If you want to do pure damage or buff party members, other magical guilds are much better.

Initially, your elemental entity will lower the rate you earn EXP by 15%.

This only applies when you have your entity summoned. But this can slow down your advancement.
On the plus side, your entity provides such a bonus to soloing that you will probably earn more EXP overall since you'll have less downtime and can target bigger monsters.

The guild is not "friendly/intuitive"

The number of times I've been killed by the vampire bats around the guild ... is greater than once...
Figuring out the mechanics of the guild is complicated. For example, only later did I find out how to teleport to the guild to avoid those vampire bats.
It requires a lot of customization to my game-client configuration to support the different commands and displays.

You can not summon your entity until you have at least three levels in the Riftwalkers guild

The first two levels are pretty much useless. As a player you need to advance through them as fast as possible to get your third level in the guild.
This was very annoying (and confusing) to discover as a player....

Your main damaging spell scales with your entity's power

Yes, this is in both lists ;p
But if you reincarnate to Riftwalkers, it's going to take a lot of grinding before your damage spells start to perform relative to your level. This isn't noticeable as a Newbie, but if you are a level 80 player, you don't want to grind Newbie content.

Your damaging spells are all of type cold

This means that they are largely ineffective against undead creatures (which there are a lot of in Batmud)

Riftwalker Quick Start Guide:

Make sure you have at least 2 (and ideally 3) free levels. There is no real benefit to the first level of Riftwalkers on its own.
Find and join the Riftwalker guild and spend your 2 free levels

Study Spark Birth and Create Rift immediately so you can teleport back to the guild for all future training.
Spark Birth is used to gain rift sparks. Once you have 10 rift sparks you can use create rift to teleport back to the sphere.
The whole idea here is to make life easier to get back to the guild so you don't have to brave the overworld travel to study/train and advance levels.

When you can, advance to the third level of the Riftwalkers Guild. Now you can finally summon an entity!

Study Summon Rift Entity, Regenerate Rift Entity, and Establish Entity Control. You don't need them studied to a high percentage, but you do need to have all three of these spells.

Next step is to capture your first entity. When you are in a safe place, cast Create Rift to capture your entity.

Pick the type of entity you want to capture. You can only capture one entity a day. Also, the type of entity you can select is determined by you levels in the guild. So if you only have 3 levels, your only option is to pick a Fire entity.

Fire entities advance the fastest and do the most damage
Air entities have a channeled spell that will switch from one target to another. Their skills will keep monsters from running away from you in addition to the damage they do. They will also have an easier time following you
Water entities are a defensive entity. They heal very fast which makes them best if the damage they are taking is slow and steady
Earth entities are a defensive entity. They have the most hitpoints and the most resistances, making them better at soaking up large bursts of damage.

I'll try to write a guide on capturing entities later, but long story short, you are on a race against time to find your entity in a maze. Once you find the entity you can capture it. You can later summon any entity you have previously captured.

To actually have your entity join you in battle, earn at least five rift sparks and cast "Summon rift entity at <type>"
Figure out how you want to keep track of your entity's health during battles

You can create a party and use the batmud battle party_sc output to get reports of your entity's health
You can use the "gem cmd sc" command to have your entity periodically report its health.

Until your gem is full with 10 rift sparks, initiate all fights using the "Spark Birth" spell to create more rift sparks.

I normally like to have around 22 sparks on hand (10 in my gem, and 12 in my inventory), before I stop starting fights with Spark Birth. The extra allows me to teleport to the guild after a playing session to spend my EXP.

This will be a pain starting out, but try to maintain control of your entity as much as possible when you are killing things using the spell "Establish Entity Control" and have your entity use their skills in a fight. This is to train up your entity's offensive skills.
Heal your entity whenever it gets low health using the "Regenerate Rift Entity" spell.
Try to avoid letting your entity die since it'll get mad at you and loose power, slowing down your progress a lot. An entity's death will also damage you and drain most of your spell points.

When your entity gets mad at you for all the deaths, you can teleport to the shaman to pacify it.

Enjoy the rest of the game! There's a lot more to this guild, but this should start you on the path to being an elite Riftwalker!

Guild Help

When in doubt, look at your gem. It'll remind you about the command 'gem'
The command 'gem' lists the main Riftwalker specific commands
As an acknowledgement, much of my information comes from the batwiki. There are multiple pages on different Riftwalker topics available there.

This entry talks about the entities themselves (power, focus points, and types): Link
This entry talks about rift entity levels: Link
This entry talks about the various tasks/quests for the Riftwalker guild: Link

Here is a link to Riftwalker Tasks/Quests that I've been updating: Link
Here is a link to Riftwalker entity statistics that I've been recording as I advance: Link

Training and Guild Locations

Note: The guild is broken into two different locations.

The sphere:

This is where you advance your levels and train/study your skills/spells.
This is also where you spend your entity's focus points.
It randomly moves around the lake and is surrounded by aggressive vampire bats
IMPORTANT TIP: You can teleport directly to the sphere by casting "create rift at sphere"
When you travel to the sphere via create rift, when you leave "out" you will return to where you cast the spell.

The shaman:

This is where you can pacify your entity if it gets mad that you've been leading it into deathtraps too often. This is the main reason to visit the cave.
The shaman also will explain the quests available to you, allow you to reset your entity's focus points, and performs other helper functions
You can also use the spell "consume weapon" to sacrifice nice weapons to your entity. You can then put those weapons up for sale in the Shaman's cave so that higher level players can buy them from you and use them.

This is not really in keeping with the spirit of Damogran, but at least those donated weapons aren't going to waste.
I view it like the Goodwill model of donations. You don't use the weapons yourself but can make some money off of them.

IMPORTANT TIP: You can teleport directly to the shaman by casting "create rift at cave"

Rift Spark Management

Overview: Rift sparks are generated by the Spark Birth spell, and they power many of the Riftwalker spells.

Gaining Rift Sparks:

When a creature dies that is wrapped by your Spark Birth spell they will give you one or more rift sparks
You can get more rift sparks from higher level creatures. Also the Mastery of Rift Entities skill can give you a better chance of getting multiple sparks from the same creature
If you have a Magic entity, the spell Spark Birth can become an area of effect spell, wrapping multiple creatures in the room at the same time

Storing Rift Sparks:

By default, you can store up to 10 rift sparks in you Riftwalker gem

This can be increased to 20 rift sparks if you complete the task "Cup Half Full"

You can see how many sparks are being stored in your gem by looking at your gem
Rift sparks in your gem will persist over Batmud reboots. They will still be there the next time you log in
Extra rift sparks beyond want can be stored in your gem will be stored in your inventory

Don't worry, they don't weigh much at all

Rift sparks in your inventory will vanish/disappear when Batmud reboots. So you need to spend them or lose them before you log off for the day.

Feeding your Entity Rift Sparks:

You can give rift sparks in your inventory to your entity

I do not know of a way to transfer rift sparks from your gem to your entity

Your entity will hungerly eat rift sparks. It takes around 5-6 sparks to fully fill up an entity.
If you entity is well fed, they will be less likely to be targeted by monsters when you are in a party. This is very useful!!

If you are not in a party though, it does not matter.

Extra rift sparks in the entity's inventory WILL save over reboot.

I would highly recommend you give all your rift sparks in your inventory to your entity before you log off for the day.

Sometime when you try to give your stack of rift sparks to your entity it will refuse them, saying that they are too many.

In this case use the "repeat" option to give it a single spark multiple times. Aka "50 give rift spark to entity"

I do not know of a way for the entity to give you back rift sparks.

Entity Management

Note: This is more of a general overview and quick reference for new players. More details about each of the following points can be found in the Riftwalker skill/spell sections.

Entity Levels/Power/Reputation:

Entities earn levels based on the number monsters you kill while they are summoned

I "think" they siphon off EXP that would normally go to you. So they get around 15% of the EXP earned from killing things.

Message when your entity levels up:

Your entity appears to glow for a brief moment. Multicoloured bands of energy repeatedly flow from the tip of its head, down the full length of its body, and fizzle out when they reach its feet. After a few seconds the magical display comes to an abrupt halt. You sense your entity is stronger!

You can see an entity's power along with its current progress to its next level with the command "gem entities <entity_type>"

Here is what the different symbols mean when you look at the entities power. Note: This does not directly relate to the entities level. Aka an X does not stand for 100,000 levels. A closer analogy would be this is the entity's "experience".

, == 1
: == 10
! == 100
o == 1000
O == 10000
X == 100000

Different entity types require more power to "level up". Aka an Earth entity requires more power than a Fire entity to advance its level.
For example, a Fire entity needs 680 power to get to the "small" size. This corresponds to a power reading of "!!!!!!::::::::". An Earth entity needs 1980 power to get to the "small" size. This corresponds to "o!!!!!!!!!::::::::"
As you can see, this is why Fire/Air entities are recommended to start out with. You simply won't be earning enough experience/power as a low level player to rank up Water/Earth entities.

Periodically after gaining a level, your entity will also gain one focus point

You will get roughly 3 focus points every 10 levels.
I'll talk about this more in the "focus points" section of this guide below.

You can also see your entity "growing in size". The will grow one "size" every 10 levels they advance (so it will gain the Titchy size at level 11). You will notice below there are 10 sizes. So an entity will max out at level 100, (just like a player). The different sizes are:

Tiny
Titchy
Miniscule
Small
Medium
Large
Huge
Enormous
Humongous
Gargantuan

The entity's "sublevel", (or size mod 10 for fans of math), can be determined by their adjective. So there are 10 adjectives to fully tell you what level they are. The adjectives are:

glowing
shimmering
gleaming
sizzling
sparkling
glittering
radiating
throbbing
pulsating
blazing

Putting this together, let's say I have a Miniscule Fire entity pulsating with power. This would mean that it is level 29. Note, "glowing" is equivalent to 1, (your entity starts out at level 1).
When your entity dies, it will loose a percentage of its power.

I've read it is 1%, though I need to keep track of that. If this is true, then having your entity die at higher levels is really going to be a problem.
Unlike players, an entity can lose levels by dying. Aka death doesn't just destroy "unspent" EXP/Power for the entity.
You will not lose focus points you have spent though. So your entity can go down in power and lose levels when it dies, but you won't need to retrain it.

Focus Points:

Here are the levels where I've seen my entity gain focus points:

Level 4, 6, 9, 11, 14, 16, 19, ...
Basically with the exception of level one, if the level number ends in [1,3,4,9] you will get a focus point.

To train/spend an entity's focus points have the entity with you in the guild room.

"touch cube"
"think about <entity talent you want to train>"

You can also reset your entity's focus points by talking to the shaman

This will cost some of your entity's power and some money

It cost me 35k gold. My entity lost around half a level of Power.

Here is what each of the areas to invest focus points does (from the batwiki)

Offensive Might: "appears to increase the strength, damage, and hitting ability of an entity, also its size."

My observations: This had a bigger impact on my fire entity than my air entity. It can increase STR and SIZE. So it will allow the entity to wield bigger weapons.

Offensive Prowess: "improves skills although the different entities seem to adapt better to different weapons, but I do not have enough data to draw any solid conclusions."
Defensive Valor: "appears to harden its exterior surface, what we would call skin. Also ability to avoid hits, and general health are improved."

My observations: This had a bigger impact on my air entity than my fire entity. It consistently increases DEX, and sometimes also increases WIS, INT, CON, and CHAR. I have no idea how WIS, INT, and CHAR impact the entities though...

Defensive Talent: "selecting this focus appears to make the entity be more skillful in defensive techniques such as dodge, parry, and other likeminded skills."
Energy Revival: "increases health regeneration, but as a percentage of what is already there. The adage 'a large part of nothing is still nothing' seems to apply in this case."

Based on what I've seen, here's my recommendations:

The fire entity benefits a lot from Offensive Might.

I'd recommend spending 2x focus points on offensive skills vs. defensive skills. Aka once offensive might and offensive prowess are at level 2 each, invest 1 point in defensive valor and defensive talent.

The air entity doesn't benefit much as all from Offensive Might. I'd recommend skipping that and do an equal distribution between offensive prowess, defensive valor, and defensive talent.
Both the water and earth entities should focus on defensive skills and energy revival. You are not using them to do damage.

Entity Skills:

Using Entity Skills:

Entities can only use their skills if you have the spell "establish entity control" active
You have to manually enter the command "gem use {{ Entity_Skill_Name }} at {{target}" for the entity to use their skill

I would HIGHLY recommend creating a command for this

If "control rift entity" is not active, then your entity will not execute the skill
If your "control rift entity" drops in the middle of executing a skill, the skill will not complete.
If you use the skill while the rift entity was in the middle of executing a previous skill, the new skill will interrupt the previous skill attempt.

This can be annoying since the number of rounds it takes for a rift entity to execute their skill is highly variable.

To see if your rift entity is currently executing a skill you can use the command "gem use info"

I'd recommend making this into a command/macro as well.

Another quality of life change is to make a badmud client trigger to highlight text when your entity uses a skill. This way you can see in the battle logs when your entity can start a new skill.
When your entity uses a skill, it will cost you spell points. Right now it costs me 38 spell points for every skill my entity uses

This can actually take you into negative spell points. So the skill will not stop/fail if you run out of spell points

Maintaining Control of an Entity

The spell "establish entity control" takes six rounds and one rift spark to cast.

While you can always cast it again to refresh your control over an entity, this is not something you want to cast in the middle of a battle.
Casting it will also significantly slow down your adventuring.

Having entity control up will significantly increase your offensive power (for fire/air elementals), and defensive strength(for water/earth elementals).

That being said, it's not the end of the world to have it down. Your entity can still tank and do damage. This is an important point since I didn't realize this until I started playing a Riftwalker. You can still be effective with an out of control entity.
Entity control is more important for attacking monsters close to your maximum difficulty/capability to maximize your chances of killing them.
This is another way of saying, don't slow down your party by insisting that you need to constantly re-up your control over your entity.

There are three main ways you will loose control of your entity:

Time Based:

When I first started casting the spell, it only seemed to stay up for a minute or two before dropping.
Now it seems to last around 11 minutes.

The time it lasts is somewhat variable. Right now it varies between 11:05 minutes, and 11:52 minutes.

Possible things that influence the time entity control lasts:

The combined level of all your entities?
The "control rift entity" spell level?

Things that do not influence it

The control entity skill. For a bit I thought it did, but further testing disproved it.
The entity's skill level. The control time seems the same across all my entities.

Using a non-Riftwalker offensive spell

If you cast a non-Riftwalker offensive spell, (like magic missile), that will automatically break your control over your entity.
Note: You can complete some riftwalker tasks that modify or remove this constraint.

Burn them all: With a fire entity, allows you to initiate combat with a non-riftwalker spell without breaking control
Blow them down: With an air entity, control breaks when your offensive spell hits vs. when you start casting it.
Drown them all: With a water entity, control breaks when your offensive spell hits vs. when you start casting it.
Defender of the Earth: With an earth entity, control breaks when your offensive spell hits vs. when you start casting it.
Divine Control: Offensive spells will no longer cause you to lose control of any of your entities

You or your entity dies

I figure I should add this here for completeness ;p

Tips/Tactics for Knowing if You have Control Over Your Entity:

The best option is to create a party and then use the "party prots" command.

This will tell you exactly what spells your entity is effected by as well as how long they have left
Entity control shows up at "EC" in the list.
Force Absorption shows up as "FAB"

You can always just command your entity to use a skill with no target.

If they start doing it vs. giving you a "doesn't understand it" error message, you have control.

Training the "entity control" skill will increase the changes that you will get a messages when your control drops. When this happens you will get the following message:

Entity sense: You feel free of your master but it leaves you feeling weak.

Also you can enable your entity to report its status by using the command "gem cmd sc".

Your entity will then report out every round of combat and/or every 30 seconds its health and if it is under control or not.
Personally I find this annoying, so I don't use it (instead I create a party even if it is just me and use a battle report to track my entity's health)
I'd really like to find a batclient plugin that creates a sidebar like the player status sidebar that tracks your entity.

Advancing an Entity's Skill Percentage:

Each entity has a percentage associated with their skill use.
I assume the higher this percentage is, the more powerful the skill is. But I'm just guessing.
This percentage is increased by your entity using their skills.

Every 1% that an entity gains in their skill you will get the following message:

Your entity becomes more skillful, grinning wickedly

It initially advances very quickly, but starts to require more skill uses to advance as it progresses. Aka getting the first 1% requires only one use of the skill. Going from 24% to 25% requires many, many skill usages.

Entity Types:

Fire Entity:

Pros:

Does the most melee + entity skill damage
I use the least spell-points when I have the fire entity summoned. That means less downtime regenning.
Levels up very quickly
Can wield larger weapons than other entities due to its larger size and strength
Natural resistance to fire

A lot of monsters cast fire spells

When this entity is critically hit, it will become enraged and do more damage for 30(ish) seconds.

This only occurs if the fire entity is not wielding a shield
For my level 29 fire entity, it gained 7 STR and 7 CON when this occurs.

Cons:

The worst defensive tank entity.

Does not scale for tougher monsters unless you are partying with another tank, and are keeping your entity fed to prevent it from being targeted.

Skills (Blazing Sunder)

Example Command Alias: command gb gem cmd use 'blazing sunder' $*
Description:

Does fire damage to target.
Single cast skill/spell. Much like magic missile.

Damage Messages:

Fire entity quickly strikes its opponent's exposed weapon hand!
A small spout of fire jets from Fire entity's chest, hitting <MONSTER> on the knee.
A booming gush of molten plasma bursts from Fire entity's chest, hitting <MONSTER> on the shoulder.

Preferred Weapon Types:

Long blades and polearms

Notes:

I started with a fire entity, and as a true newbie it did great.

Almost all my damage was done by my entity's melee attack
The monsters weren't that tough so I didn't need a focus on defensive skills
Advancing your entity quickly helps jumpstart the damage your other Riftwalker spells do

Basically, if you are killing a lot of trash mobs quickly, going with a fire entity is a solid choice.

Air Entity:

Pros:

The air entity will follow you through most transportation spells, which makes it useful for higher level players.
The air entity is nice when fighting a lot of smaller creatures at once since its skill will move from one to the other as they die.
It's nice not having to constantly recast its skill like you have to do with the fire entity.
(Need more data): The air entity seems to do more % of its damage with its skills than its attacks compared to the fire entity.

Once its channeled skill kicks in it is doing damage with its skill just about every round
Therefore it might be able to out-damage the fire entity over longer fights

(Unconfirmed/Rumor): I've head that the air entity can help you with your endurance points when traveling long distances in the overworld.

I really haven't seen any evidence of this tough.

Cons:

For a damage focused entity, it has surprising challenges doing damage with its regular attack.

Training Offensive Might doesn't do as much for the Fire entity
Air entities do not have a lot of strength

It's skill is not reliable. Sometimes it'll spend all of its time trying to find a target to latch onto vs. doing damage. It may get better the higher trained it gets, but right now it is not something I can count on.

Skills (Suffocating Embrace)

Example Command Alias: command gb gem cmd use 'suffocating embrace' $*
Spell Point Cost: 13 spell points per round it is active
Description/Notes:

Unlike the fire entity's skills, this is a channeled skill by the air entity. Once it is successful, the entity will continue to do periodic damage with this skill until at some point it fails and needs to be cast/used again.
This channeled skill will transfer to other creatures you are fighting if the primary one dies.
This skill can also ensnare the target, preventing them from running away.
It will cost you spell points (right now 13 for me) per round it is active. This can take you into negative spell points.

Damage Messages:

(Initial Damage/Hit):

Air entity lunges towards <target> with one of its wispy tendrils, but does no significant damage.
Air entity embraces <target> with its wispy tendrils.

(Failure to Ensnare Message): Your entity's target squirms away

Skill Has Ended Message:

Your air entity falters and its wispy tendrils fall to its sides.

Preferred Weapon Types:

Axes

Notes:

Given the channeled nature of the air entity's skill, the protection spell "iron will" can be very helpful to keep it from being interrupted.

Water Entity:

Pros:

I'm in love with this entity. It's very good for helping to take down big monsters.
In general, this is the entity you should use for tanking when you are soloing.

The earth entity is geared more towards being a traditional tank for a larger party

It has the ability to regenerate hitpoints quickly, making it a great tank.
It has a very small ability to cure poisons. Not reliable enough to count on though.

Cons:

It's skill doesn't do a lot of damage. It is more defensive focused
It needs about 4 - 5 rounds before its tanking skills become active

The entity's skill needs to activate, and then it is a round or two before it heals itself.
This can cause problems for higher damage monsters you are whittling down by running in, firing one spell, and then getting out to regen.

It is a very mana intensive entity which means you'll be running out of spell points a lot

It's skill was draining me 111 spell points.
Given that I also needed to do most of the damage will spells means that I was burning through my mana very quickly.
This isn't a good entity if you plan on moving fast and killing a lot of things.

Skills (Subjugating Backwash)

Example Command Alias: command gb gem cmd use 'subjugating backwash'
Spell Point Cost: 111 spell points when cast, around 10 - 25 spell points when it does damage while channeling.
Description/Notes:

(Unconfirmed) According to the skill emote, it seems to make the entity more resistant to physical damage.
Every couple of rounds it will heal the entity around 100 - 200 hit points worth of damage
Occasionally it will heal you around 100 - 200 hit points as well.
Occasionally it will do damage against the target

If your primary target dies, the damage attacks will transfer over to any other aggressive monsters in the room

(Unconfirmed) It may occasionally cure poison for you.
It will only get skill % training credit if it is currently fighting a monster.

You can cast/use this skill out of combat but I don't see it healing fire off and it does not train the skill.
I could see using this before initiating a fight so the skill is active and the entity starts healing faster when you do hit the monster.

Preferred Weapon Types:

Bludgeons

Notes:

This is an expensive entity which is slow to level up. But it's worth it.
As a newbie, this probably won't be your primary entity, but it can be useful to select if you are tanking for a party or trying to solo tougher creatures.

Earth Entity:

Pros:

In general, this is the entity you should use for tanking when you the main tank of a party

It has more hitpoints and more damage reduction than the water entity
This makes it easier for another healer (or you casting regenerate entity) to heal it and keep it tanking during tougher fights

Cons:

This entity requires the most experience to advance in power
Almost non-existent attack ability. It is really just a damage sponge
Can be challenging without a party since you need to both do damage with your spells, and keep the entity healed.

This can be mitigated later on with the Dimensional Leech Spell + related task to cause critical hits to heal your entities.

Skills:

Example Command Alias: command gb gem cmd use 'earthen cover' $*
Spell Point Cost: 79 spell points to cast/use
Description/Notes:

This is a pure defensive skill that will make you and the entity more resistant to damage
But using this skill will initiate a fight if your entity is targeting something!!!

I was not expecting that.

If your entity is not targeting something, it will not automatically start a fight, but monsters may be disturbed by the skill usage.
(IMPORTANT): If you entity is not targeting a creature with this skill they will not learn/train the skill more. So it is important to use targeting to increase its skill percentage.

Preferred Weapon Types:

Short blades and shields

Notes:

It is good to take this entity out a bit and level it up as its levels contribute to your spell power. But it probably won't be your primary entity until you get much more experienced.
It wasn't until my earth entity was level 6 that it was big enough to wield a medium shield.

Magic Entity:

Pros:

Can be summoned when you are in the backrow of a party
Will enhance several of your riftwalker spells

Spark birth now has a chance of becoming an area of effect spell
Regenerate rift entity can now heal you at the same time
Absorbing meld can last longer, and as it gets more powerful, you can refresh the spell vs. letting it expire.

Cons:

Placeholder until I learn more by summoning one

Skills

Placeholder until I learn more by summoning one

Preferred Weapon Types:

Notes:

Placeholder

Helpful Command Triggers:

Setting your skills when you summon a different entity:

The following commands are useful to swap your main skills when you summon a different entity type. When you invoke this command, give it a '$*' argument so that translates through. So for example: sair $*

sair command gb gem cmd use 'suffocating embrace' $*;command ges gem entities air
searth command gb gem cmd use 'earthen cover';command ges gem entities earth
sfire command gb gem cmd use 'blazing sunder' $*;command ges gem entities fire
swater command gb gem cmd use 'subjugating backwash';command ges gem entities water

Riftwalker Specific Spells and Skills:

Attack Spells:

(Spell) Spark Birth:

Description: Does some minor damage (type: cold) and "wraps" the target so that it will provide you one or more rift sparks when it dies, as well as some bonus spell points. It also does some damage over time as long as you are in the room with the target, but not a lot of damage.
Training Priority: (High, until you have it at 50%)

I rarely see it fail after I trained it to 50%.
I don't believe training it higher will make it more effective.
Also, I've never "fumbled" and cast this spell on myself so that isn't much of a concern.
Training is above 50% is a "nice to have" vs. required.

Notes:

This is the standard "fight initiation spell" that I use against small/medium difficulty creatures.

Rift sparks are really important to power your other entity related skills and keeping your entity well fed when in a party. So stocking up on them by always having spark birth active on targets you kill is really helpful.
I like casting this first to make sure the creature doesn't die before I have them wrapped.
For tougher creatures though, I skip this spell since the damage it does is very low. You are casting this spell to get rift sparks, not to do damage.

When a target is effected by this you will see <-=wrapped=-> after its name.
The effect lasts for roughly 10 minutes, in which case you will get a message that it has expired.
About 30 seconds before it expires you will see it say <-wrapped->
You can have multiple creatures wrapped at one time.
Only one Riftwalker can wrap a creature at once. So if there are multiple Riftwalkers in your party you need to coordinate who is casting this spell.
The SP regen gives you around 40 spell points when you kill a wrapped create. It is nice but that is not why you are casting this spell.

(Spell) Rift Pulse:

Description: This is the main Riftwalker offensive spell. Does cold damage and scales in relationship to the total power of all your entities
Training Priority: (High, until you have it at 60-70%)

You can get away with it being at a lower priority, but fumbling this spell and accidently casting it on yourself can really ruin your day.
Eventually you want to train this to your racial max, but for a new player starting out, the 60-70% range seems "good enough" for the most part.

Notes:

At least for me starting out (with a single entity of size Miniscule) this spell does "ok but not great" damage. You are better off casting this than healing your entity or doing nothing, but your entity will be doing most of the damage with their attacks and skills.
The high spell point cost of this spell will drain you during longer fights. Make sure you stop casting this if your spell points get low so you can still continue to heal and control your entity.
Compared to the Mage guild spells, Rift Pulse is severally underpowered. The advantage of this spell is that your entity can continue to do skills when you are casting it.

(Spell) Dimensional Leech:

Description: A channeled spell which damages a creature over time. Scales to do more damage the longer it is cast.
Rift Spark Cost: 2 rift sparks on a SUCCESSFUL cast. Later on once you complete some tasks it will also cost 1 rift spark every time it makes a critical hit that will empower (aka heal) your entity.
Training Priority: (Low until you character gets to a higher level)

Given the rift spark cost of this spell and the way the damage scales over time, you'll only be using this for longer fights. This also means you'll likely need to be running with a more expensive defensive focused entity (water/earth). So you likely won't be using this spell until your character is in the level 40-50 range.
Long story short, as you are leveling your character this is a spell you can skip. But it can be a fun spell, so it doesn't hurt to throw EXP into studying it.

Notes:

The main reason to cast this spell is to manage spell points during a longer fight. Rift Pulse is an expensive spell, and you are also spending spell points when your entity does skills. It's easy to run out of spell points, so Dimensional Leech lets you continue to do damage even when your spell points go into negative values.
A secondary reason to cast this is it is just one less thing to worry about during a fight. Since you don't need to worry about casting other spells you can focus on managing your entity and keeping track of the rest of your party.
A third reason to cast this spell is if you've completed the quest The Grind is that this spell will heal your entity as well. The Grind is a Tier 2 quest though and requires 2500 rift sparks to complete.... So this reason likely only applies to very experienced Riftwalkers.
One random use for this spell is to open chests and other locked containers. Rather than draining your spell points casting other blasting spells at the box, you can cast Dimensional Leech once and it will eventually blow open the locked container. (Warning: The container may still trigger traps and kill you).

Defensive/Protection Spells:

(Spell) Absorbing Meld:

Description: Damage taken by you may be transferred to your entity instead
Rift Spark Cost: 4 rift sparks
Training Priority: (High to 30-40%. Low afterwards)

This is a situational spell. It will save your life, but the rift spark cost means you will likely only be using it against "bosses" and other tough monsters.
Training it to a higher % will increate the maximum number of hit points you can transfer before this spell breaks/dispels. But if you don't have a lot of hit points you probably won't hit that cap if you are only casting this spell for single encounters.
As your combined entity power increases and this spell lasts longer, you may start to run into the "total points transferred" cap more. This is when training it more helps.

Notes:

Spell % increases the TOTAL damage this spell can transfer before it breaks
Combined entity power of all your entities increases the LENGTH this spell lasts, as well as lowering the damage THRESHOLD which causes this spell to activate.

Aka it might only activate if you take 100 damage in one hit initially, but as your entities gain in power, it might then trigger when you take 50 damage in one hit.

I need to test this more to get a better understanding of length and thresholds for this spell.

(Spell) Force Absorption:

Description: Reduces physical damage the target takes by around 10-15%
Training Priority: (Very High to 30-40%. Medium/Low to Racial Maximum)

You want to be able to cast this reliably. It will make your entity a better tank and help out if you are in a party.
It's a good spell that you will be using a lot.

Notes:

Lasts around 10 minutes until you start training up the related "Mastery of Shielding" skills.
I'd recommend re-casting it whenever you have to cast "Establish Entity Control"
A 10-15% reduction in physical damage might not sound like a lot, but it will allow you to take on tougher monsters, and reduce the downtime healing your entity when killing smaller monsters.
Knowing if it is active on your entity can be tricky:

If you can "see magic" then you can look at your entity to see if it is active.
You can also create a Batclient macro to highlight when the "brown flash" occurs when this spell expires.
Another option is to cast it on yourself after you cast it on your entity. Then recast it on both of you when you see it expires on you. You can always use the protection too!
I'll admit I usually just recast it before big fights or when I need to re-up my entity control.

(Spell) Iron Will:

Description: Helps prevent the target from being stunned. This minimizes their skills being disrupted, and keeps their defensive abilities active.
Training Priority: (High to 30-40%. Medium/Low to Racial Maximum)

You want to be able to cast this reliably. It will make your entity a better tank and help out if you are in a party.
This is a more situational spell than Force Absorption. It makes more of a difference in bigger fights. If your entity gets stunned it'll take a lot of damage quickly, and it's skills will be interrupted.
It's hard to notice the impact this spell has since getting stunned is so random and you don't notice all the stuns you would have gotten without this spell. But a number of high level players I've talked to swear by this spell and say it is very important.
To put it another way, Force Absorption will speed up your game by limiting the damage the target takes. Iron will will save your party from being wiped.

Notes:

Lasts around 10 minutes until you start training up the related "Mastery of Shielding" skills.

(Spell) Mirror Image:

Description: Will create between 4 to 6 "images" of the target which will absorb on hit each.
Training Priority: (High to 20%. Medium/Low to Racial Maximum)

You want to be able to cast this reliably. But you get some "bonus" skill % from your magical background which helps out.
This is a pre-fight initiation spell against non-aggressive monsters. The images will disappear when you leave the room so you will only be casting it against tougher monsters.
That being said, this spell can help out a ton. It'll give you a couple extra rounds to stay in a fight as the images will take hits aimed at you and your entity.
You can cast this on multiple targets. I've actually found it more useful to cast on my character vs. my entity since it'll protect me from big blasts that monsters throw my way.

Notes:

Unfortunately this spell is super unreliable. There is no guarantee that the mirror images will be hit instead of the target.
I've also had the worst time with how long this spell lasts. Sometimes it will be five minutes, sometimes it'll be 30 seconds.
The hardest part about this skill is remembering to cast it. Given its long cast time, you don't want to be using it during a fight. So usually what will happen is I start a fight, realize I'm going to have a tough time, and then regret my life choices of not casting this spell before it. This spell doesn't work in the "run away, heal up, re-engage" model of whittling a monster down.

(Spell) Heal Self:

Description: Will heal around 40 of your character's hit points.
Training Priority: (High to 48%. Low to Racial Maximum)

It's a useful spell, and you'll need to have trained it to 48% to advance to level 8 of the Riftwalkers guild.
Being able to spend spell points to heal your hit points will get you back in the fight significantly faster. Spell points regenerate a a much higher rate than hit points do.

Notes:

You can fumble and cast the spell on someone else which is amusing. It can be helpful as well.
I normally heal myself up using this spell before I cast regenerate rift entity. Given the channeling nature of regenerate rift entity, it's much easier for me to then leave that running and go do something else in the real world.

Entity Management Spells and Skills:

(Spell) Summon Rift Entity:

Description: Summons your rift entity
Rift Spark Cost: 5 rift sparks on a SUCCESSFUL cast.
Training Priority: (High for the first 20%. Minimum required to advance after that)

Once you can study this spell, you need to study the first bit ASAP
That being said, there are very few downsides to failing when casting the spell. After you get this spell semi-reliable, the main reason to study it more is to fulfil minimum requirements to advance your levels in the Riftwalker guild.
Long story short, don't bother trying to get the % up high. There are better things to spend your EXP on.

Notes:

I highly recommend making a command for this spell, since I always forget to specify the entity type I'm summoning
When you summon your entity, it may only have 1 hitpoint unless you previously dismissed it properly. I'd recommend always checking its health immediately after summoning it, unless you want to have to summon it a second time after that pigeon hits it once...
This does not cost any rift sparks if you fail your cast or you didn't specify an entity type.

(Spell) Dismiss Rift Entity:

Description: Dismisses (unsummons) your rift entity
Training Priority: (Low. Study it the minimum required for advancing in the guild)

This is a situational spell that isn't that important and has very little downside if you fail when casting it.
You do need to train it to advance your Riftwalker levels though, so I'd recommend studying it to the bare minimum you need to advance.

Notes:

When you go linkdead, your rift entity will continue to hang around without you. This means that a wandering monster or another player might kill it.
Therefore, if you are planning on finishing up your playing session and logging off, the safest thing to do is to dismiss your rift entity first so it doesn't get killed and lose some power.
Also if you dismiss your rift entity, when you re-summon it, it will have the same amount of hitpoints as when you dismissed it. This will save you time from having to heal it again.
Long story short, this spell is useful, but there is very, very, small returns for training it more than 20-30%.

(Spell) Beckon Rift Entity:

Description: If your rift entity has already been summoned but is somewhere else, this will teleport it to you.
Training Priority: (Medium to 20%. After that, study it the minimum required for advancing in the guild)

This is a situational spell that has very little downside if you fail when casting it.
I'd recommend studying it to 20% so you can use it when you need it, then only advancing it the bare minimum you need to level up in the rift walker guild.

Notes:

There two main situations where you will use this spell. The first is if you died and your rift entity survived somehow. A good example is if you are in a party and caught an acid arrow to the face, but your party vanquished the monster before your rift entity was killed. The second option is if you need to pass through some area your entity can't follow you.
There are some rooms that your entity can not go into. One approach then is to use the command "gem cmd stay" to cause your entity to stop following you. Then go where you need to go to, and then use the "beckon rift entity" spell to bring your entity to you.
Both of these situations are fairly rare, so don't waste your EXP on this spell beyond what you need to study to advance your Riftwalker level. Having this spell is very helpful, but you don't need to study it very high.

(Spell) Bind Rift Entity:

Description: Will let you name your entity when it reaches a "medium" size (level 40).
Rift Spark Cost: 500 rift sparks
Training Priority: (Low. Get it to 20% and forget about it)

It's a quality of life spells. Everyone likes their pets to have names! But you'll only cast it a couple of times the entire time you are playing Batmud.

Notes:

It'll be a while before I'm able to cast this spell and provide notes on what happens if you fail this spell. Aka do you lose your 500 rift sparks? Can you cast it again to rename your entities?
I'd also like to see if you can give all your entities the same name. This might make it easier to set up shared command aliases and macros for them.

(Spell) Establish Entity Control:

Description: When this spell is active, you can command your entity to use skills
Rift Spark Cost: 1 rift spark
Training Priority: (High to 40%. After that, depends on if spell % increases duration)

My recommendation would be to study it up to at least 40%. It takes 6 rounds to cast, and you'll be casting it a lot, so spell failures will slow you down a bit.
If spell % increases the duration though, you'll want this as high as it can go. Having to refresh your entity control is a real pain, so keeping it up longer is a huge quality of life improvement. The problem is I don't know if spell % increases duration...

Notes:

Your entity's skills will significantly increase its offensive power (Fire/Air) or defensive power (Water/Earth). This allows you to command your entity to use those skills.
This is another way of saying you'll likely do more damage with this spell starting out than your actual offensive spells. Having your fire entity hit with skills really speeds up fights and allows you to take down bigger monsters
Also, the more your entity uses their skills, the faster they train them. So having this up most of the time, even when you are attacking smaller critters is super helpful.
That being said, it does take time to cast, and it does cost a rift spark to cast, so don't feel like you always need to keep this spell active. You can kill a lot of monsters without it!

(Spell) Regenerate Rift Entity:

Description: Heals your rift entity. One of the most frequent spells you will be casting.
Training Priority: (High to 40%. Medium/Low to Racial Max)

This is a spell you'll find yourself constantly as your rift entity will be tanking most of the damage. So getting it so that you can cast it reliably is important
I don't think it heals more/faster though with higher % training so training it up super high isn't a huge priority. But having it high is nice, since you don't want to spend a lot of time hanging around recasting it when your entity is at 1 hit point.

Notes:

This is a channeled spell so you will keep casting it until you stop the cast or the rift entity is fully healed.
This channeled heal is semi nice if you are tanking for a newbie party as you can have that going and forget about casting other spells. This lets you focus on what is happening with everyone else and using your rift entity's skills.
As long as it is being channeled, it will drain 1 spell point every few seconds. If you run out of spell points, this spell will stop and you will need to recast it. Be mindful about this if you are really low on spell points and trying to get back into the fight.
Side note, this uses Cast Rift, and not Cast Heal as the skill that influences its success.

(Spell) Rift Scramble:

Description: Your entity will lose less power when it dies. You will also earn less experience.
Rift Spark Cost: Variable Based on Number of Entity Deaths
Training Priority: (High to 40%)

This is an important spell to have. But it's a spell you probably aren't going to have enabled all of the time

Notes:

I haven't used this spell much, so I don't have a lot of experience with it
Given the number of times my entity has died and gone backwards in power, I should be using this spell more.
Will have a bigger impact the more powerful your entity becomes since the power loss from your entity getting killed will increase as well.

(Spell) Consume Weapon:

Description: Allows you to sacrifice a weapon so that your rift entity can use it.
Training Priority: (Medium to 40%. Low to Racial Max)

Training consume weapon up higher supposedly makes the weapon last longer before it breaks down from your entity using it
I'll admit, I've yet to see any degradation of my rift entity's weapon's energy.
Training this skill high probably only matters if you are equipping your rift entity with high level (e.g. expensive) gear. Otherwise, getting it to 40% is probably good enough.

Notes:

You can give Damogran donated equipment to your rift entity!!!!!

Therefore, before you hit level 30 make sure you consume a lot of donated weapons so that your entities can use that until you are ready to get them higher level gear.

The weapons your rift entity can wield are dependent on its size. Starting out your entity will likely only be able to wield short blades, small maces, shields, and some long blades.
Giving your entity a shield will dramatically increase its resistance to damage.

Not only does it make your entity's parry more effective, but it gives it some armor and protects it from critical hits
It will reduce the damage your entity does with its normal attacks though.

When you get around to actually buying weapons for your entity to use, I've heard good things about giving them "spider sabres" which normally sell for around 40k gold. They are small so starting entities can wield them, do decent damage, and provide +3 parry skill which make your entity a better tank.

(Spell) Transform Rift Entity:

Description: Lets you swap one entity for another without having to dismiss the first and then summon the second.
Rift Spark Cost: 1
Training Priority: (Low)

This saves you 4 rift sparks plus some time to swap your entities.
It is a pure quality of life spell that you'll probably cast to swap between your "kill trash mobs" entity and your "tank" entity.

Notes:

Once I start training up my second entity I'll report back on how much I find myself actually using this spell.

(Skill) Entity Control:

Description: You will get a message when the entity is no longer under control or if a protective spell expires on your entity.
Training Priority: (Very Low or Skip it altogether)

The messages this skill provides aren't that helpful. You have other ways to see the status of your entity. From what I've seen its a pure "quality of life" feature vs. helping you in fights.
You can always see how long skills/spells will impact your entity by using the "party prots" command, so the messages from Entity Control really aren't that helpful. Basically, skip this skill as it's worthless.

Notes:

If you do find yourself relying on the text outputs this skill, I recommend setting up a macro in the Batclient to highlight the text messages this skill produces to make it easier to see them.
This does not influence how long you have control over your entity.

Other Spells:

(Spell) Create Rift:

Description: Allows you to initially capture your entities. Mostly used to transport to the guild location and the shaman cave so you don't have to physically travel there.
Training Priority: (Very High to your character level number)

This spell will only work if it is studied to the same percentage or higher as your character level. Aka if you are a level 29 Duck, you need Create Rift studied to 29% for it to work.
This means you will eventually need to study it to 100% when your character maxes out at level 100. But at that point you'll have all the EXP to spend anyways :)

Notes:

To travel to the guild training location: "cast create rift at sphere"
To travel to the shaman cave: "cast create rift at cave"
At the end of your playing session for the day, if you have 10 rift sparks in your inventory (aka in addition to the rift sparks in your gem), go ahead and use this to spend any unspent EXP you might have at the guild training location. Since rift sparks in your inventory are lost when Batmud reboots, you might as well spend them.
You can only capture one entity type per day. So to capture all four entity types, it will take you four days to do that.

(Spell) Create Rift Vortex:

Description: Creates a rift vortex which all party members can "pluck" from to gather one rift stone each. If they then "grasp" these rift stones it will give them 5 minutes of protection against the spell "Suppress Magic".
Rift Spark Cost: 5 rift sparks
Training Priority: (Don't Bother Until Player Level 60+)

Some monsters cast suppress magic which can really mess up mages and healers. If your party is attacking these monsters, this spell is super important.
You are not going to be attacking these monsters unless you are in a high level party. Until you start doing these equipment runs, you are not going to get any value out of this spell.

Notes:

The rift vortex you create will last around 2-5 minutes before it disappears.

Other Skills:

(Skill) Analysis of Magic Lore:

Description: Will let you know if your spell target has resistance to the offensive spell you just cast on it.
Training Priority: (Low, but useful when you get to your second guild)

In Riftwalkers you only have one spell type (cold). It's not like you are going to switch things up when the undead monster is resisting this.
Also, you already have a pretty good idea of what is resisting cold damage. Undead, Yetis, polar bears.... This skill isn't that helpful to riftwalkers
When you join your second guild though and have multiple different damage types to pick from for your spells, this skill becomes very useful. So experience spent on it is not wasted.

Notes:

Here are the messages you can get from it (From the batwiki):

screams in pain (0% resist)
writhes in agony (20% resist)
shudders from the force of the attack (40% resist)
grunts from the pain (60% resist)
winces a little from the pain (80% resist)
shrugs off the attack (100% resist)

(Skill) Ceremony:

Description: Increases the success chance of your next spell
Training Priority: (Low, but useful when you get to your second guild)

Riftwalkers don't have many (or any) spells where the cast time is long and the impact of fumbles is dire. Therefore I only use this skill when I'm bored and have some downtime.
Other guilds do get a lot of use out of this skill though. So as your character advances in levels and branches out to Channellers/Mage/Psionicist, it will become useful then. So experience training this skill is not wasted.

Notes:

This might make your protection spells last longer and be more effective. So if you use this skill, those are the spells you probably want to buff.

(Skill) Mastery of Rift Entities:

Description: Rift pulse does more damage. Spark birth's bindings last longer and increases the chance of creating bonus rift sparks.
Training Priority: (High to Racial Max)

In general, mastery skills are super powerful and important in Batmud. So my gut says you really want to train this up as much as you can.
Based on what I've heard about this skill, it sounds like having it high is very helpful :)

Notes:

My information for this was helpfully provided by Pypo. I don't have real tests or data to back this up. So there may be other benefits to training this skill.

(Skill) Mastery of Shielding:

Description: Makes your defensive spells more effective and last longer
Training Priority: (Very High to 40%, which is the max you can train it)

Read the description. Everyone wants their defensive spells to block more and last longer. This skill provides that.

Notes:

I need to find out more information about how effective this skill is. I'd like some actual numbers to really understand it.

(Skill) Rift Energy Flow:

Description: Increases the amount that your Regenerate Rift Entity heals per tick, and the damage that Dimensional Leech does per tick.
Training Priority: (High to Racial Max)

While you probably won't be using Dimensional Leech that much, this skill makes it a more viable attack
The real important part though is healing your entity faster. This lets you get back in the fight faster. If you are a newbie tank for your party, it also lets you heal your entity better in the middle of a fight.
Of all the skills, this along with quick chant are the two that maxing them out (aka training it more than 50-60%) will have a noticeable impact on your gameplay.

(Skill) Rift World Resistance:

Description: Lets you spend more time capturing entities in the rift world
Training Priority: (You need it trained to 54% to get to level 14. Otherwise almost useless)

You'll use this five times to capture your entities, and once a month to recharge them. If this wasn't a requirement to level up your character I'd say skip it completely.
Trash skill. Only used as a speedbump to slow you leveling your character

Notes:

More of a disclaimer. I've only captured my fire entity so far. I had 0% in rift world resistance at the time. Maybe capturing more advanced entities requires more rift world resistance?

(Skill) Quick Chant:

Description: Lets you cast your spells faster
Training Priority: (Very High to Racial Max. High to 100%)

This has a direct impact on how powerful your character is. Faster spells means more spells and less downtime.
You can only train it to 60% in the Riftwalker guild, but make sure you continue to max it out in the other guilds you join afterwards.

Notes:

Not a riftwalker specific skill, but worth highlighting given how important it is to characters with a magical background.
The impact this skill will have on your gameplay is noticeable and immediate.. Riftwalker has a lot of slow spells so it will have a much bigger impact than if you were in the Mage guild casting 1 round magic missiles.

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