Welcome to the final weekly wrap-up of WildStar news for 2013.  I’m taking next week off, and spending time with family, and all that fun stuff (playing video games, of course!).  So, unless there is some earth shattering WildStar news, like a surprise release date drop… I won’t be doing a wrap-up next week.

 

The big news for WildStar this week, was another Stress Test conducted starting Friday evening… no tweets about melted RAM, melted Devs, or anything like that.. so it sounds like the test is going well.  The WildStar team did warn people watching streams that since the stress test was ongoing this weekend, they could see a large number of disconnects, lag, etc.

Friday night, stress testers were apparently treated to a little Monster Bash.  From the description (and pictures) over on Wildstar Fans, it looks like it was a huge draw..lots of people crammed into the same spot.. which is exactly what you want for a stress test.  Must have been crazy having the Devs spawn those monsters on top of huge crowds of low level folks.

The main news out of Carbine directly this week… was the announcement of the winners of the WildStar Vine contest (winners will receive a Beta key… lucky cupcakes!).  Here’s my favorite winner:

Since the level 1-15 NDA drop, there has been a lot of good information coming out from the various fan sites (and, of course, ‘real’ media like MMORPG.com).  While I’m sure there’s been articles, or videos that I haven’t seen… here’s the highlights of what I have seen this week:

• Alice over at the Nexus Report, has started a series of zone spotlights.  This week’s zone, is Algoroc.  Enjoy the tour of this low level Exile zone.  The scenery looks great, but I would have liked to have also gotten some more information from Alice about the zone in the video, like what’s up with the giant robot at 4:00 into the video?
• WildStar Fans has a nice write up about questing in WildStar.  I like the way they broke down the various sources for quests at early levels.
• WarCry provides us with their take on the Engineer Class, combined with the Explorer path.
• JB and crew join in the Engineer love as well, with this week’s WildCast.

 

That’s it for the week.. a bit light, but with no new classes left to be revealed, and with Christmas coming up, that’s to be expected.  There’s a ton of folks streaming WildStar still, thanks to the partial NDA drop for select sites.  So, if you’re looking for something to do, head over to twitch and watch some game play!

 

Team WildStar has announced the winners of the Vine contest they ran on Twitter for the last week or so.

They’ve posted their list of winners here.  They’re all pretty good (they seem to mistakenly believe that Stephan Frost will be able to beat Pappy in their inevitable duel though… which is weird.. because Pappy is gonna totally win that).  Here’s my favorite:

Head over, and check out the winners!

If you were concerned there might be a slowdown in WildStar news, now that the last class was getting it’s turn… you’d be wrong.  In addition to being the week of the Engineer… there was also a limited drop in the NDA for the media (real media, not me).  Let’s talk all things Engineer first, then we’ll talk about the NDA drop, okay?

Engineer week started, as all class weeks have, with the DevSpeak:

Quick notes from the DevSpeak:

The disclaimer this week, reminds us that we should not give the WildStar dev team with sports cars, cookies, World Cup tickets, Star Wars film props, or a Soda Fountain.  So, please call and cancel that order for 300 pounds of cookies delivered by Ferrari.

• The Engineer is a heavy armor wearing, ranged tank class…. with Bots, and gadgets.
• It’s a pet class, but doesn’t play like a pet class.
• Class Features are:
  • Heavy Armor
  • Launchers
  • Bots
  • Exo Suit (innate ability)
• Has DPS, CC, Tank, and Healing bots.

 

The shiny new Engineer page, tells us that the race breakdown for Engineers is:

• Exile:
  • Human
  • Granok
  • Mordesh
• Dominion:
  • Cassian
  • Chua
  • Mechari

So, a fairly even distribution there.  Little surprised that the pug sized Chua will be wandering around in Heavy armor, but hey.. it worked for Gnomes in WoW..so why not?

The Engineer AMA over on Reddit brought us some good Q&A, here’s my favorites:

Q: Plans to add customization for Engineer bots? (colors, names, skins, etc..)
A: (Disclaimer: Bot customization kinda falls outside of the Class Design Team department since that requires Art and UI support) We have definitely talked about that sort of thing here at the studio. But for launch, I can’t say for sure. Someday I do hope I can give my Bruiser Bot a scarf and glasses …

Q: As a long ranged class (in contrast to the short-mid ranged Medic) with heavy armour, what trade-offs does the Engineer have in exchange for his “safety”?
A: When trying to max out your DPS as an Engineer, you’re going to want to be in your “ExoSuit: Eradication Mode.” This mode sacrifices a large amount of your survivability to increase your outgoing damage. Also, all of your cast time abilities slow your movement by 30%. This means you won’t be able to kite quite as well as some of the other ranged classes.

Q: If Warriors are the archetypal “mitigation tanks” and Stalkers the “avoidance tanks”, then what niche will the Engineer fill? – will a skilled engineer for example be swapping threat from himself to the Bruiser Bot to mitigate spikes in damage?
A: I wouldn’t go so far as to say Warriors are just “Mitigation Tanks” or that Stalkers are just “Avoidance Tanks.” Both of those classes excel at those to gameplay styles, but they have a lot more to them as can be seen through the DevSpeaks/Livestreams/Class Pages. So as for the Engineer, they are ranged tanks with a bunch of mitigation, bots for distraction, they pack a number of group utility abilities, plus more that you can see in this weekend’s Livestream!

Q: How will the engineer be able to control his bots to prevent them from dying in raids?
A: We have a ground targeted “go to location”. Once used you pick a spot using your mouse cursor to command your bots to move to the location. Beyond that, we are still doing raid testing and tracking how well the bots stay alive and perform in those raid environments. Based on those results we may look to raising survivability through health or mitigation adjustments. We are taking it slow with the changes because we want the bots to be fun in all situations.

Q: Good evening! I would like to know how the healing bot works, i’ve saw it works with hots but it heals for a percentage? it does only that? Thanks
A: The Repair Bot, once summoned, gives you access to “Shield Restore”. The ability “Shield Restore” is granted on your action bar and replaces the Repair Bot summoning ability, while the Repair Bot is alive. Now that you have your Repair Bot summoned, you can command it to attack a single target or command it to use “Shield Restore” by using the action bar ability. Using the “Shield Restore” causes the Repair Bot channels a Shield Capacity restore to allies in an area around it. The Shield Capacity restore scales with Support Power on the bot and the bot inherits their stats from the Engineer. And I love quotations because that ability name could change in the future.

Q: I really liked the look of the gun in the class drop trailer, it seemed much different then anything we saw the engineer using in any other footage though, it looked like a shotgun rather than a launcher. Do these smaller weapons exist for the engineer? Is it race based?
A: There are a ton of new launcher models going in every day and there is a huge amount of variety in how they look. I don’t believe we have any race-specific models at this time.

Be sure to read the full AMA when you have time, since there is some good information in there.

Saturday brought us the Engineer Livestream.  The stream is currently archived on Twitch if you haven’t seen it yet.  Part 1 is here, and part 2 is here.

Here’s the notes I took, including some of the Q&A that occurred during the stream.

• Stalker Livestream is not forgotten, it will be happening early next year (they’re going to be taking a break for the Holidays).
• Hugh has been “photobombing” some of the media who have been live streaming this week.. he’s been having fun dropping in and playing with people.
• We got introduced to Steven Ingle the Engineer’s class designer (and the guy who will be playing the Engineer for today’s stream).
• The Engineer will have a little lower DPS than a SpellSlinger or Esper, due to having heavy armor to help them soak more damage.
• We got a peek at one of the ‘ship hand’ missions.. it looked fun.  The ship they were on had obviously been damaged, they had to run around fixing holes in the hull.
• Bots have a 15 second cool down before being resummoned after they go boom.
• Target Acquisition/Tactical Strike.. marks mobs you hit with it (very narrow area).. mobs are subject to heavy damage strike at the end (Orbital Bombardment!)
• Most Engineer abilities seem to have a max range of 20-25 meters.
• Engineer class innate ability is the Exosuit!  (Improves damage output for DPS, increases damage reduction for Tanks).
• Once bot is summoned, that key on your action bar tells the bot to use it’s main attack
• Showing off a botless build now. Engineer viable with/without bots
• Sprinting/dashing will stop charge/release spells from charging.

2v2 PvP Time..our hero the Engineer is working with a Medic, against a Warrior/SpellSlinger team.  Steven is currently using a tank build on the Engineer, to show PvP is viable in that setup.

• Warrior/SpellSlinger took round 1.  We did get to see the ‘blind CC’ being used agains the Engineer.. whole screen went mostly black..neat way of implementing it.
• Our Heroes came back with a vengeance, and handily took round 2.  They took round 3 as well.. everyone else started fighting while Steven was trying to switch the Engineer’s action set to a be a botless build and show off the taunts.
• 4th round went to the villainous Warrior/SpellSlinger team..though it was incredibly close.

After the PvP showcasing, they headed off to a dungeon.  We’re getting a look at a different dungeon from the previous streams, today we got to see Kel’Voreth.

• There is a bone trap mechanic in the first area, that is really neat.  When someone (player, NPC, or mob) gets too close, the trap activates, holds whoever it got, and does some damage to them as well.  Can be used to kill ‘weaker’ mobs.
• They mentioned that there are too many active abilities on the bar currently, for purposes of the livestream, they added more to have a good variety of skills to show off.
• Showed a different area of the dungeon, with laser beams moving around the floor.. pulled mobs through the beams, they got damaged.  Pay attention, use the environment against your enemies!

We got a brief overview of the AMP system:

• Customize your character, make it a bit more unique
• increase stats
• unlock abilities
• unlock proc events

Available at level 6, gain an AMP point a level after that, more during Elder game.

They currently have 1000 different spell files (including various tiers) to balance/manage.

Here’s the Q&A I wrote down during the stream:

Q: Engineers seem less mobile than other classes, for dps that don’t get benefits from being tanky, what skills are available to control a fight, or gain breathing room
A: Can cast on the move, heavy armor lets it soak some of that extra damage, urgent withdrawal

Q: Does Bruiser Bot’s taunt work on players?
A: Yes, Taunts in W* mean taunted does reduced damage to all players except whoever did the taunt..same applies to bruiser

Q: PvP escapes?
A: Urgent Withdrawal

Q: Downsides/limitations of Exo suit use
A: Pretty awesome right now.. not much down side. Innates getting things added to balance more.. Exosuit will reduce speed by 30%

Q: Bots controllable by player? or do their own thing?
A: Both..

Q: Bots healable.buffable? can they tank in a group?
A: Not in a dungeon (kinda distract mobs for a little), dungeon bosses especially will tear through a bot

Q: Ranged tank..boss positioning meelee/dps
A: DPS needs to be aware of where the tank is.

Q: Will the engineer rely on constant kiting or can they take a hit as well as a warrior?
A: Heavy armor, they don’t need to kite, can soak up the hits.

Q: Will engineer have a bigger shield than other tanks?
A: By default, no.. possibly with AMP

Q: Range increase?
A: Not currently via AMP or Tier

Q: 2 engineers in pvp group, stack taunts to reduce damage to each other, and everyone else?
A: Some taunts will stack, some won’t.

Q: Can bots be healed by other classes, shown on raid UI?
A: Not shown on default raid UI. Healers can heal them.  Heals are prioritized to players over Bots.

 

That covers the Engineer reveal (no more [REDACTED] at all now, class wise!).  But, that wasn’t all the of the news from WildStar this week!  Carbine set us up to have a very WildStar Holiday season…

We got a new Comic “The B Team” featuring the Bots for a, as yet, unnamed Engineer.  Episode 1 introduces us to our cast of Bots (Tank, Arty, 4K, and the new guy, known only as ‘Kid’ so far).

And, the Big, Big, Big, news for the week…  Carbine held a media event last week in San Francisco (and London).  The folks invited to those events (a mixture of ‘real’ media, and fan sites) have had the NDA dropped!  For Levels 1-15 ONLY.  They can talk about them, they can stream them, they can write weird fan fiction about them… whatever they want!

For everyone that is NOT one of the above groups… The NDA is still in place.  I found this post over on Reddit reminding people of that (ironically, using what appears to be a leaked post from the beta forums to do so).

Hey everyone,
Having gone through this a couple times before, I know a press embargo lift can be a little confusing for beta testers. This post should hopefully clear up a couple common questions and concerns about it for everyone in the beta!
Has the WildStar NDA been lifted? No, the NDA is still in effect. You may not discuss, stream, post images and video, or share any information about the content that you’ve experienced in beta.
So why can some website talk about the game? Last week we held press events in San Francisco and London to show off the game to press, and allowed them to play the level 1-15 experience in order to post game previews beginning today (December 12th). The press were also granted limited access to the beta in order to continue playing for more coverage. Some outlets have been granted permission to livestream the game as well, however these are limited in scope and do not include everyone.
What can a beta tester talk about publicly now? Anything you see covered in press articles can be discussed, however you must still keep your involvement in the beta a secret. Feel free to share your excitement for WildStar, watch livestreams, discuss the things that are now public, etc, but make sure you’re not leaking anything directly from the beta!
When will the NDA be lifted/when can I talk about my game experiences publicly? We’ll let you know when this happens, but I think it’s safe to say that the plan is to lift the NDA early next year. We want to ensure there is plenty of time between the NDA lifting and launch for everyone to get hyped up about WildStar, preorder the game, and join us for beta!
Hopefully this clears up the most common questions, but if you have any additional ones, let us know!

So, if you’re in the Beta.. be mindful of that NDA! Don’t assume because these media/fan sites got permission to, that you can too!

WildStar Fans has done a GREAT job putting together a list of links covering everything that’s come out from the limited NDA drop.  Rather than try and compete with that list… I’m just going to link it here.. it’s got everything I was able to find on it anyway.  So, go HERE for the mega list of levels 1-15 coverage!

I will tell you that my favorite tidbit released so far, is gameskinny’s footage of the character generation for all races/classes.  I’ve never heard of them before.. but these videos seem pretty well done, and do a good job showing off the current options.

 

So…that’s the crazy, news filled week in Nexus.  There is no shortage of game related information out there now.. All 6 classes have been revealed, so it’s time to start planning what you’re going to play!  I’ll be rolling an Aurin SpellSlinger, though I haven’t decided on a path yet..

 

What about you Cupcake, what are you gonna do?

Oh yeah! We also got to see a Lizard mount via the WildStar Vine feed.

Ok..I think that’s it…for real now… see you next week! If you need more WildStar goodness before then.. Make sure you’re checking out WildCast.. the MOGNation WildStar Podcast!

This was the week of the [REDACTED] with some teasing about [REDACTED]…. only.. it’s not [REDACTED] anymore!

That’s right… the worst kept secret in WildStar is officially revealed, the last two classes are the Medic, and the Engineer!

 

 

Medic week started out with the Medic DevSpeak:

Our disclaimer this week, is a parody song to the tune of “Highway Star”.

 

In the DevSpeak we see:

• Carbine acknowledging some of the early peaks at the Medic
• Close range hybrid healer/damage dealer
• The class is described as “Tron meets Neurosurgeon, only weaponized”
• Don’t want healing to be about the “UI Minigame”
• Class abilities: Resonators, Probes, Fields, medium armor
• Just probe it!  (probes can also go boom!)

We also got a new WildStar Flick!  This one recaps all the classes, and gives us our first official look at an Engineer:

It looks like Nexus may not be safe place to visit after all, it seems there are quite a few psychopathic folks on the planet!  Plan your travels accordingly, and watch out for those dangerous Warriors, Espers, SpellSlingers, Stalkers, Medics, and Engineers!  (Note, I would avoid asking an Engineer to change the oil on your hoverboard).

The shiny new Medic page tells us that on the Exile side, we’ll find Human, Granok, and Mordesh Medics.  While over on the dirty Dominion side, we’ll see Cassian, and Mechari medics (It was mentioned in the Medic AMA, that this will be expanded pre-launch to also include the chompy Chua, so look forward to being healed at ankle level only!).

The page also goes into some basic information on the Medic resource “Power Cores”, which seem to function a bit like ‘combo points’ used by Rogues in that other popular MMO… except, you can start the fight with full Cores:

The Medic’s resource is Power Cores. Power Cores start at full and are consumed by powerful attacks and heals. The Medic can use their basic attack or heal to generate Power Cores in combat. When you leave combat, your cores will quickly restore to full.

 

The Medic Reddit AMA was held on Thursday, and..as to be expected, there are lots of good tidbits in there.  Here are some of my favorite Qs, and their As:

• Q: Would healing fields and I guess damage fields stack? Like in a raid setting could a few medics place extra damage in one area or extra healing in one spot or would the most powerful field be the only one to work? I’m thinking that medics could create a “safe” spot if a raid needs to eat a damaging telegraph for whatever reason.
• A: Healing and Damage fields are independent meaning they can be placed on top of each other. This is a viable counter medic strategy in PvP. In terms of PvE it’s usually inadvisable to place healing fields where the boss is dealing damage unless you have no other option. Groups will need to communicate effectively to get the best out of healing fields.

• Q: What type of dps abilities heal as well?
• A: Here are two examples of Hybrid abilities they more support centric. a. Shield Surge – Costs 2 Power Cores with a cast time. Deals damage to enemies and restores Shields to allies in a line. b. Paddle Shock – Can be used after a Crit instantly. Deals damage to enemies and heals allies in a frontal cone.

• Q: Do probes fade if they are never exploded? If so, do the explosions become less deadly/heally if you wait to the last moment or would that be part of the skilled player approach?
• A: Probes will expire if they are not detonated but the detonation is at full power regardless of how long the probes have been active. This gives strategy to decide when you want to detonate; sometimes it’s more beneficial to detonate early rather than to wait for the last second.

• Q: Most abilities seem to be aoe heals other than probes. Do the Medics have many single target heals?
• A: Medics are definitely more focused on AoE healing. Here are two examples of single target abilities. a. Treat Wounds – Instant Cast (10 second CD), Heals the target for a significant amount. At higher tiers will also restore shields and restore bonus health to enemies at low health. b. Barrier – Instant Cast (90 second CD), Restores a significant amount of Shields and applies a powerful HoT and Interrupt Armor. This is one of your primary Oh Sh@t buttons to save a tank.

• Q: Would you convince the marketing department that us fans need rowsdower plushies in generic and evil appearance? This would be the best collector’s edition/special edition item ever if you guys go that route.
• A: Sorry don’t know about plushies but I think they would be cool!

• Q: Would you say the medic has a high or low skill cap compared to the other healing classes? Eg. Should a new MMO player choose medic over esper or spellslinger healing?
• A: Our goal by launch is that a new MMO player could pick up any of these classes and will be effective with them by the time they start encountering difficult group gameplay. Experienced MMO players will find the Esper healing style familiar while healing as a Spellslinger or Medic should feel a bit different. While all of these classes are going to require skill to play effectively, different skills will pay the different… bills. For example: Due to their short range, Medic healers will need to rely on their mobility and their ability to keep allies close. On the other hand, Spellslingers have narrower skillshots that will have to be lined up properly to be most effective.

• Q: How effective will a medic healer be with ranged DPS in PvP? I am worried that I will have to stay close enough to them to heal, but that will almost always be too far to do support damage/CC?
• A: Playing a 2 ranged class Arena comp is always a bit of a tango regardless of which healer you play especially vs. double DPS teams that may try to separate you from your buddy. That being said I actually think that the Medic is pretty strong with this type of Comp because you have Medium armor and you take a bit more punishment as you will take incidental damage when standing near your DPS friend. Additionally because all of your heals are mobile you will be able to move when your buddy moves and still get heals off.

• Q: What kind of peels, slows, or roots will be available to the Medic?
• A: The medic has Roots and Snares. The Snares are fields so they have to be placed effectively. One field is a ground target spell whereas the other creates the field at your feet and then blinks you backwards. Additionally the Medic has Urgency which can do one of the following. a. Blink you forward 20 meters (this is if no allies or enemies are in front of you. b. Blink your to the nearest enemy and deal AoE damage c. Blink you to your nearest ally healing yourself and AoE healing.

• Q: Will Medic heals be less effective in 3s in arena because they can’t heal both their partners at the same time if they are far apart on the map?
• A: With all classes and healers the effectiveness of the group comes down to communication and positioning. If you have allies that are running around doing whatever they please without paying attention to where there buddies are and where the enemies are you will likely lose.

• Q: How did you decide which races would get the Medic? What was your reasoning for the exclusions (Chua, Aurin et
• A: We make these decisions based upon a few things like:
  • How much time do we have allotted for class animations?
  • What is the lore behind the race?
  • Are both factions getting equal access to the classes?
  • Using the time constraints and lore background for each of the races, we tried to create the best fit for the launch of WildStar.
  • One clarification though – the Chua race WILL have access to the Medic class.

Not really medic specific, but an answer I was very interested in:

• Q: Are there any plans (assuming the game is successful 😀 ) to allow more races to be classes they are not currently like WoW has done in past expansions?
• A: The primary limitations for the current restrictions is animation time. This is definitely something that will likely push for post launch as many of the devs also want to be a Chua Warrior or an Aurin Engineer =P.

 

Of course, the week wouldn’t be a Class Drop weak, if we didn’t have a livestream!

The archive of the livestream on Twitch is in two parts.  Part One can be found here.  Part Two can be found here.

Here’s the notes I took during the stream:

• David Bass and Stephan Frost started off the stream looking very snazzy… they were wearing ties and everything!
• Engineer drop next week, including livestream.  Still working on rescheduling the Stalker Livestream due to Thanksgiving.
• Carbine is the only source for keys, don’t go to sites claiming to have them, and buying one could get you banned.
• Get your Beta Survey filled out, they are prioritizing beta invites based on filling that out!
• After replaying the class flick, they jumped right into a Medic vs Stalker duel:
  • Medic took round one pretty quickly
  • Stalker won round two by the skin of his nano-suit
  • Marc came back, with a decisive win for round 3.. the Medic takes 2 out of 3, and the championship! 😛

They did a walkthrough of the abilities for Marc’s current Medic skill loadout, complete with pictures about ranges.  You’ll definitely want to watch the last 10 minutes or so of the stream’s archive to see that.

Quick Q&A while Marc swaps to a different build.

• Q: Kinds of Damage in WildStar
• A: Tech, Magic, Physical – Medic centers on Tech.

Part two of the stream starts with another ability walkthrough, going over some of the healing abilities Marc has slotted now.

Probes are applied to yourself, as well as any friendlies in range.

• Q: Medic healing vs Esper/Spellslinger
• A: Medic upclose, Esper/Spellslinger more ranged.. more AoE vs direct heals

• Q: Field abilities stack (from different Medics)
• A: Yes, can stack your own fields in some cases

• Q: Favorite role for medics in raids (tank healing/AE/single target/dps?
• A: Certain healers will have pairings with certain kinds of tanks (tank healing/group healing both work for medic)

Showing off some 2v2 dueling, Engineer/SpellSlinger vs Medic/Stalker.

Our Medic/Stalker team was handily defeated in round 1.  We did get to see the OOC rez that all classes now have.

Round two started off with the Stalker showing the amount of damage they can do from stealth (and, behind a target who didn’t move), he almost took the SpellSlinger down.  Unfortunately, it didn’t help.  The Medic/Stalker duo lost round two as well.

More Q&A while Marc switches out to a healing build for the dungeon:

• Q: Boost defenses up close? or rely on armor?
• A: Few boosts, but you’re gonna want to stay mobile

• Q: Energy Cores? Replenish during fights?
• A: Basic attack restores Cores.

• Q: Special CC due to odd ranges?
• A: Snares, roots, stun

 

Preparing for taking on the final boss in Stormtalon, walk through of the healing build Marc is going to be using, complete with more graphics showing ranges.

The group handily defeated Stormtalon, the fight looks pretty interesting.  Stormtalon has an attack that creates a “safe” zone around one player, and then proceeds to throw lightning bolts at the player, forcing them to run around StormTalon to avoid those.

A few more questions to close out the stream:

• Q:  How do you heal in raid, without worrying about UI minigame
• A:  Position, pay attention

• Q:  More detail on abilities that do both damage/heal
• A:  Shield surge — uses cores, damages enemies, heals friendly shields

• Q:  How many repair stations?
• A:  By default 1, careful timing will let you have 2.

• Q:  Field healing in a game where everyone has to be super mobile.
• A:  Players have to keep an eye on friendly, use extricate to pull friendly to you.

• Q:  Do medics have any long range ability
• A;  Single targets are both 30m

 

As if that wasn’t enough for one week… there was a Stress Test this weekend too!  No tweets from WildStar about ram melting this time around, just one of someone banging their head on the desk.. so.. it must have been a pretty successful weekend for them!

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..