Your soul is MINE!

So, been playing around with Rift since the release and I'm really liking it so far, graphic style is far enough away from WoW that it doesn't feel too much like a rehash, despite Rift stealing with every limb and then some from WoW and other toolbar-style MMOs.

Rift is a bit short on unique features, but the 2 that are there, are exceptionally unique. Souls and Invasions/Rifts are both game features that can have a fairly drastic effect on your gameplay.
Souls create a very convincing illusion of freedom, by allowing you to design your own class, rather than selecting from a dozen pre-made ones. The concept goes that as you grow in power you gain access to the souls of masters of different ways of combat, from Paladins to Marksmen, Chloromancers and Bards. In total there are some 30 souls, spread over 4 classes. Warriors are melee, either tank or DPS, Rogues are either ranged DPS, tank (yes, really) or melee DPS, Clerics are healer/dps/tank, with mages focussing on DPS, but with a healer soul as well.
The concept is such that you can pick 3 souls at a time and then put your talents points in each as you please. This means you have far more choice in creating your character than most games, but in essence it turns out into the same few things, Melee DPS, Tank, ranged DPS or healer. Some are bows, some use 2-handers, some use 2 weapons at the same time, all stick pretty boringly to the old formular.
Most classes have a few abilities that show off their own speciality, Champion (my own spec) deals with 2-handed weapons and so have several abilities that take a while to fire off, but do a ton of damage in a very small space of time (so far I'm enjoying the combination of guaranteed crit + 6-target AOE (7-800 damage per target), with a follow up ability on attacks that crit. Very nice combo.

The game is good, mechanics work (although the current world event could have benefitted from another week or so of dedicated QA work) and the graphics, even on a relatively mediocre laptop like mine, are very nice indeed. I'm just a bit fed up with the WoW/EQ2 formular, especially with all the ranting regarding addons that WoW has caused.

I'll elaborate on my own position regarding add-ons soon, since we see so many discussions on the subject popping up in Rift, but next up for dissection - Rifts! Do they screw you over, or spice up the gameplay?

For now though, I'm off once again, fair travels and remember, shit may stink, but on the world wide web no one can smell you.