Well, it's a new MMO that's been fairly quiet on the news front, http://www.riftgame.com/en/, been beta testing it's last round of events and I'm quietly impressed.

Key points are the class system: 4 classes, 8 "talent trees" per class and you can use 3 at once. Each base case has it's own defining mechanic, mages build up charge, clerics straight up use mana, rogues build up points on an enemy and warriors build up points on themselves. The talent trees provide the real variance in play-styles, with rogues getting a couple of ranged and pet options plus an evasion tank, mages getting couple of pet options and a healer, clerics get flexibility having melee and ranged roles as well as the most healing types and warriors cover tanking, a pet class and an odd spellcasting tank type.


The nice part is being able to use 3 at once means you can for example, have a tank that also has a pet helping out with damage, or a healer with a good ranged DPS support.



Other key difference to WoW is a constant background "group quest" opperating, in the form of Rifts that open and spawn enemies that if unchecked can eventually stomp all over your quest givers. It's kinda fun to have one spawn on the horizon, turn up, auto-form a group with the people taking part and beat back the invasion. Even at low levels, you can still take part easily as the rifts match the level of the players involved.