Monthly Archives: November 2013

WildStar Wrap-up, Volume 2

This week’s WildStar news centers around another Class Drop.  The reveal this week, was a re-reveal (the last re-reveal) of Nexus’ space ninja… The Stalker!

Screen Shot 2013-11-30 at 1.54.12 PM

 

Stalker week started out on WildStar Wednesday… err.. Tuesday (that just doesn’t have the same ring to it).  We got our Stalker DevSpeak to get the ball rolling:

This week’s Disclaimer Entertainment, provided us the same panel of the Disclaimer…translated to another language, and then back into English..

Highlights from the DevSpeak:

  • Batman-Wolverine-Predator
  • DPS/Tank
  • Main weapon is the dual retractable claws
  • Stealth ability is provided by the high tech nano-skin
  • Medium armor
  • Nanites aren’t just for stealth, they can be used to absorb damage, siphon health, create clones.  They can do a lot, but, probably still won’t help Stephan Frost win his PvP battle against Pappy.  (#teampappy).

Post Stalker info in the DevSpeak… we get a revisit to the BroFessional, who is still quite dead, and surrounded by some very, very, angry Rowsdower ghosts.  Including the angry black Rowsdower.  The BroFessional is saved from whatever the Rowsdower have planned, by a timely resurrection by one of the yet to be revealed new classes.  So, make sure you watch the end of the DevSpeak video to see the tease.

 

Stalker reveal continued with the normally on Thursday, but now on Tuesday because Thursday is a Holiday….reddit AMA!

Here are a few of the Q & As from the AMA:

Q: hi do stalkers have to use stelth will there be viable dps options for the class for people like me who love fist weps but hate stelth

A: Stealth is the innate ability so you do not have to sacrifice an Action Set slot to use it. There are viable builds that use abilities that do not interact with stealth so you are not forced to use it if you don’t want to. Though you would be losing a massive advantage in many situations in terms of opening fights and in PvP.

 

Q: Will the stalker rely heavily on strike through and other stats to damage past shields or get through damage reduction or will there be abilities available in the limited action set that drop shields, negate armor or otherwise lower defensive capabilities of your target? Will stalker be the only class that has these abilities? Does stalker have a nonphysical damaged based load out available through skill and action selection?

A: One of the Stalker’s abilities Overload deals damage that completely ignores shields and when tiered up disables them for a short period of time.
Q: How will the Stalker compare to the Spellslinger in mobility?
Will they need to invest a lot in mobility in order to stay on-par with the Spellslinger? Or could I have a really speedy Stalker, that maybe even sacrifices stealthy stuff?
What are the Stalker’s mobility skills like? Short or long CDs, short or long ranges, etc.
Will the Stalker have any movement speed buffs for himself or his party?
Can any of the mobility skills be used to negate falling damage or jump over gaps that double jump can’t traverse?

A: The Stalker has no abilities that require them to be stationary, whereas the Spellslinger does. Additionally the Stalker can move about freely to engage encounters (including vulnerable ‘slingers). In terms of actual abilities that move them around the battlefield I would say they are about even.
There are many options to spec into movement enhancement from A.M.P.s. If you as a player value that higher than pure DPS than it’s your choice, in a similar way it’s an Esper’s or Spellslingers choice to forego mobility for powerful nukes.
Pounce leaps to the nearest target. False Retreat as mentioned earlier leaps the Stalker backwards and then can be used to leap to their original position. An Emergency Stealth which can be used to gain full stealth in combat. All of these are between 25 and 45 seconds.
Through Tiers you can empower your abilities that grant yourself movement speed.
Pounce is similar to the Warrior’s Leap and the Spellslingers Gate in that it can be used to avoid fall damage if used with good timing and can also be used to jump gaps.
Q: It says the stalker dps is bursty, but some of the abilities sounded like dots. Are there dot rotations for a stalker?
Are attacks more single target oriented or aoe swipe fests?
Besides the cc mentioned in the Devspeak do stalkers apply any other debuffs?
It was mentioned stealthing in combat would be a way to power attacks. Do you gain access to your stealth abilities when this happens?

A: The Stalker does have access to DoT abilities and allow for him to have better sustained damage in a raid situation while providing great utility in PVP. Overload is a prime example of this; it is a single stacking dot that applies an initial burst damage and over time damage. It is unique because the damage dealt ignores shields and if tiered up it will actually disable shields for a period of time.
The Stalker has a wide variety of abilities that are both single target and aoe. The way you slot your limited action set will weigh heavily on the type of single target or aoe damage you deal.
The Stalker has an array of debuffs available to him. He can Snare, Knockdown, Root, Stun, reduce Armor, reduce Deflect Chance and reduce Strikethrough chance. Of course building a limited action set around using all those debuffs may not be the most efficient but it certainly gives you a lot of things to mix and match to optimize your output how you like.
The nice thing about the Stalker’s abilities is they are all available to be used out of stealth but when the Stalker activates stealth it will enable a “Stealth Perk” on a select few of abilities that will empower that attack when it is used from Stealth granting it a bonus.

No Stalker Livestream this week, due to the Thanksgiving Holiday, so that one will be rescheduled for a later date.

Jeremy Gaffney did take some time to write a quick ‘Beta Progress Report‘ to highlight how Beta is currently going.

Couple of highlights from that article:

  • There’s about 16,000 people currently in the Beta.
  • Some of the testers are brand new to the Beta, and did also get a few invites to give to friends.
  • 80% (ish) of the current testers have played multiple sessions, of multiple hours per session.

It sounds like Beta is going well, hopefully those of us still waiting to get in, will get a crack at it soon!

Kind of a light week news wise for WildStar, but the Class drops are always fun.  Make sure you swing by the revised Stalker page, for all the details!

stalker_classdrop_04

 

Standard reminder:  The only place to get a Beta key is from Carbine directly, make sure you head over to the WildStar page and sign up!  If you are in Beta.. remember the NDA!  Don’t go posting leaks, screenshots, videos, etc..

WildStar Wrap-up

Welcome to the first of a weekly column recapping all the WildStar news that’s fit to print for the last week!  The game is still in beta (I’m not in it), and is covered by NDA, so I will not be posting any leaks.. if you are in the beta.. respect the NDA man!

 

This week continued the “Class Ultra Drop” by giving us a look at some space cowboy action!

Screen Shot 2013-11-24 at 5.32.20 PM

Errr… not that space cowboy, though.  We get the low down on this no good, rotten, totally cute space cowboy:

Screen Shot 2013-11-24 at 5.36.05 PM

 

The first drop came in the form of WildStar Wednesday’s Dev Speak that was all about the Spellslinger!

Highlights of playing a Spellslinger include (but are not limited to):

  • Shooting your friends in the face to heal them!
  • Cool Hats!
  • Interdimensional portals!
  • Long range attacks!

No long, difficult disclaimer to decipher this week, which means no secret hoverboard like reveal either.

Spellslinger week continued on Thursday with the reddit AMA.  Here’s a few highlights from the AMA:

Hey Carbine peeps! Thanks for taking time to do this. My Questions:

  1. I understand Spellsingers can step into the “Void”. Does this serve as somekind of temporary Stealth? Will we be able to see the enemies we’re fighting in through the Void?
  2. Watching earlier Spellslinger footage, I see you guys have changed the resource mechanic of the SS. Is there any reason for this? The earlier resource mechanic seemed cooler and more fun imho.
  3. Can we get an estimate of how many skills the SS has?
  4. How bursty is the SS? Given that he’s an assassin type class, but I recall reading that the esper is more bursty?
  5. We’ve seen that place-switching skill. Would I be able to switch places with someone, if I’m falling mid-air?
  6. This is a general class question: All classes are able to go DPS in WS. I’m concerned about this because you have a dungeon finder implemented. To me that logically means insane waiting times for DPS classes. Will there be like a renown system that combats this? Like where good, friendly, and skilled players get a group faster as opposed to slackers, leechers, and.. douches? Or something to help combat the que time.
  7. Would you consider putting the pistol holsters on the character’s backs, instead of the waists? Possibly their lower backs? From past experiences from other MMO’s (SWTOR gunslinger, GW2 dualpistol thief) I know how people never look at characters waists, only waists up, so putting it on their back would be a better way to show off your epic pistols!

CRB_Hugh’s Answers:

  1. The Void is an entirely different “plane” if you will. While inside the Void you can’t see outside of it, but you can see other players that are in the Void.
  2. The old resource mechanic had very little management associated with it, instead you used your Spell Power as soon as you cast abilities. We now give players control over the Spell Power, allowing them to do spike damage/healing on demand.
  3. Every class is able to choose 30 abilities for their Action Set (8 of which can be equipped at once).
  4. Unlike the Esper, none of the Spellslinger’s abilities are gated by resource. This, combined with their new Innate ability, allows them to choose when to do their burst damage/healing (instead of the Esper which always has their burst after they have built up Psi Points). The burst might not be as high as the Esper, but it is still significant.
  5. Currently no, we will keep experimenting with that though ;D.
  6. Most of the MMOs I have ever played allow all classes to go DPS. We try to help queue times by also letting all of our classes spec as either a Healer or Tank in addition to DPS.
  7. That’s up to the art and animation teams, but it is something they have experimented with ;D
 

My questions are two: Will Spellslingers get a cool gunspinning animation before they put their mag pistols away? That or trick shots with coins would be sweet too.

And: Will our space cowboys have any abilities that allow you to line up a shot that DPSs enemies within the telegraph while healing allies?

CRB_Merkal’s answer:

  1. Yes they do spin their guns before holstering them!
  2. Spellslingers do have an ability called Dual Fire that does damage and healing at the same time but this is more something that the Redacted focuses on.

And it sounds like healing as a Spellslinger will be interesting:

My question is on Freeform healing abilities.
For abilities that don’t call out a specific number of healing targets, will there be output capping as the number of people in the area increase? For example, the Esper ability Soothe (and I assume many Spellslinger abilities) heals all allies in the area for (lets pick a number as an example) 1000 HP at full charge. If there are 5 allies in he area, they each get 1000 HP? If there are 25 allies in the area, they each get 1000 HP?

CRB_Clynch’s Answers:

We have the tech to do this either way! This will actually be determined on an ability by ability basis and the tooltip should inform you on how it will work.

With out tech we can do a variety of things such as:

  • Spread the total amount of heal between ALL targets
  • Heal the X amount of CLOSEST targets to you in the freeform area
  • Heal the X amount of LOWEST HEALTH targets in the freeform area
  • Heal the X amount of FURTHEST targets to you in the freeform area
  • and a large variety of other target requirements

We are still feeling out which of these feel best for each class and our raid/pvp content.

 

Make sure you head over and give the whole AMA a read, there is a ton of good information in there.

 

The icing on this week’s Spellslinger cake, was the live stream Saturday (During the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Episode! Bad timing!).  There, we got to see David Bass, Hugh Shelton, and Marc Matzenbacher give us a brief glimpse into the life of a Spellslinger:

Watch live video from WildStar on TwitchTV

 

Couple of highlights:

  • Damage is done when the animation ‘hits’ the target.  So there is travel time involved.  Carbine did mention that the travel time is tweakable, so it’s possible we’ll see that as a balancing measure going forward (i.e, increase travel time to reduce DPS, decrease it to increase DPS).
  • You’ll be able to have dual specs.
  • Spellslingers have the longest ranged attack in the game.

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  • Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday here in the US..no live stream for the Stalker next week, it’ll be delayed.

 

Looks like the main issue a Spellslinger will have to overcome, besides picking which cool hat to wear, is keeping your target at range, and avoiding melee.  The whole teleport/swap places with your opponent thing, will help with that a bit though.

 

Looking forward to the next of the Ultra Drops, I believe the Stalker is up next!

Quick reminder.. the only place to get a beta key from currently, is Carbine.  If you haven’t already done so.. head on over to the WildStar site and get signed up now!