Spend soul points in ability of your own choosing

Question

I've just started with Rift, but I'm having some trouble spending my soul points the way I want. If I select the skill I want to put a point in, it just says:

"You cannot spend any more points on this Soul until you level up."

You can see this in the following screenshot:

Why is this? I have 1 point remaining, I don't want to spend it in the suggested skill but in a skill of my own choosing.

I've tried Googling the issue, and the Soul System FAQ did seem to have the appropriate info:

Why won’t it let me put points where I want?

The Purpose system is in place in order to guide you to Soul builds that are widely used and are useful to many players. You can override this system by clicking on a talent outside of the recommended one. Once you do that you will see a popup like the one below:

[Image]

Click on ‘OK’ and it will place that point where you chose. Once you do this, hit 'Save', and then exit the Soul UI, you will no longer be following a preset build and will have to make all choices for spending Soul Points.

However, this is just not what happens for me, as you can see in the screenshot.

What am I not getting here?

Answer 1

I don't have extensive knowledge of the soul trees in Rift, but here is what I know from my leveling experience. I wasn't one to follow the guides set out for me, so I spent the points myself as you are doing. However, the soul trees are designed so you use multiple trees (usually 2, I don't think using all 3 is very efficient). They make sure you semi-evenly distribute your points by putting a limit on how many points you can put into one tree for each level, this means you can't put all of your points into one tree.

That message is basically telling you to put the remaining points for that level in your other tree. I don't really know the reason why they decided to do this but it is good to get a good range of abilities and stats.

You will be able to spend points in that skill the next time you level, the restriction does not carry other to your next levels.

Note that if you try and spend a point in a skill that isn't part of the auto level up guide it will ask if you want to cancel the soul guide. If you want to distribute the points on your own then I would suggest doing this as it gives you full control over what skills to choose.

Answer 2

Do you happen to be level 5? If I remember correctly from when I actively played Rift, you can only spend (character level + 1) points in a soul in a single build. Using the build in the posted screenshot, you can either grab something from Warlord or Paragon with your final point, or save it to spend later.

Answer 3

@Tom's answer is correct; n+1 is the maximum allotment of soul points per tree, where n is your current character level. The general build tends to be that you have one primary tree that eats all or most of your points (except in certain level dependent builds where you may catch up later), while your secondary soul gets most or all of the remainder. The third soul is generally used to provide just the base passive bonuses, or to grab 1 or 2 select passive or active skills low in the tree.