The new Dungeon/Adventure Challenge reward system is LIVE!

Last night’s maintenance window brought us a couple of bug fixes, and the much waited for adjustment to challenge rewards for dungeons/adventures.  Relevant snippet of patch notes:

• Dungeons and Adventures no longer have unique rewards on Bronze, Silver and Gold Medal rewards.
• Bronze Medal will no longer sometimes award good-quality loot.
• All excellent-quality and superb-quality items that were previously only available on the Silver and Gold Medals are now available from the final boss.
• Medals now also multiply the amount of money awarded from the final encounter:
  • No Medal – 100% money reward
  • Bronze Medal – 150% money reward
  • Silver Medal – 200% money reward
  • Gold Medal – 250% money reward
• Medal rewards now confer additional loot rolls on an instance-wide loot table. Each of these rolls has a flat bonus chance to select from the final boss’s superb item list.
• The reward structure is now as follows:
  • No Medal: 1 roll on the final boss table
  • Bronze Medal: 1 roll on the final boss table, 1 roll on an instance-wide loot table
  • Silver Medal: 1 roll on the final boss table, 2 rolls on an instance-wide loot table
  • Gold Medal: 1 roll on the final boss table, 3 rolls on an instance-wide loot table

I’m surprised this level of a change could be hot fixed in, and didn’t require being part of a normal weekly drop.  This loot change should help make things a little more PUG friendly, since people won’t be dropping after the first wipe anymore (which, really is poor behavior.. don’t be that guy).  I’m excited to get in and give these changes a go.. probably won’t get the chance to run a dungeon/adventure until this weekend though.   =(

Full patch notes after the break:

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One of the plugs you can add to your house, is a Moonshine Cabin..  adding the Cabin allows you to try and complete the “This Ain’t No Bathtub Hooch” challenge.  Completing the challenge allows you to get one of four rewards.  A Neon Sign (BEER!), a 4 poster Granok Bed, a collection of dyes, or 70 renown.  Like other challenges, selecting the reward you want increases your odds of getting that reward..

The music playing during the challenge, is very fitting!

You like mounts don’t you?  You’ve got the shiny hover boards from beta, and/or pre-ordering.. you probably bought a Grinder… if you’re really lucky, you got a mount from one of your Boom Boxes (If so, just know that I’m very, very jealous)..

You want a free mount?  Sure you do…who wouldn’t.  Well, Carbine has decided to up the rewards for adding a two-step authenticator to your account… in addition to the existing rewards…Starting July 10th, anyone who adds an authenticator to their account, will get a “RetroBlade” mount added to their account inventory.

It’s like a Grinder and a Hoverboard had a baby!

Now there is no excuse for not taking that extra step to secure your account…. Head over to the KB article to get the full instructions to add two-step to your account!

PTR is back, and Drop 2 is up and waiting for you to jump on and test it.

As hinted in the Strain DevSpeak, this patch is PvP Centric, with the main addition being a new battleground “Daggerstone Pass”.  The overall drop is being called ‘Sabotage’.  Here’s the highlights of the new battleground:

• The goal in Daggerstone Pass is to destroy your enemy! It’s all about base destruction, where Exile and Dominion players must control satellite uplinks to initiate air strikes against their enemy’s base. And, for those who really want to get down and dirty, players can also carry bombs to detonate in the enemy base! Now that’s hardcore!
• Practice Battleground brackets for Daggerstone Pass are level 30-49 and level 50.
• A rated version of this Battleground (at level 50) is also available.
• Enjoy wreaking carnage and mayhem in 15v15 battles.
• Ground mounts are not only allowed, they’re encouraged!
• For the extreme player we offer bombs with timers that could explode while being carried, so set that puppy down and run!

It looks like tons of fun.. I was going to try and login and record some gameplay… but, I don’t have a level 30 character on the PTR, and the ‘boost’ NPCs are only for level 50s.  It would be nice if Carbine opened up character copies to the PTR, and/or added boost NPCs to get to different level ranges for testing specific things.  Maybe with a future PTR build.

Best note in the patch:

• The in-game model for Kit Brinny now more closely resembles the cinematic version.

You see… Poor Kit looks nothing like herself.  Here’s a screen cap from her “Meet the Exiles” video:

And, here’s Miss Brinny as she is currently in game (Had to take a Selfie with her on my SpellSlinger..she’s famous you know! – Kit…not my SpellSlinger):

Quite the difference between the two.  Looking forward to seeing how much more like herself Kit is looking post 2.0!

In addition to the PvP content (and Kit fix!), there are a ton of general fixes being added in this patch.  Check out the full patch notes after the break!

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Normally, I prefer to just play a DPS role, but, occasionally.. I like to branch out and heal or tank.

Since WildStar gives us multiple action sets…I set one up for healing, and jumped into a random battleground.  It’s a chaotic, insane mess… but, it’s also pretty fun.  I just got a new Nvidia card, so I figured I’d give the ShadowPlay/Gameplay recording aspect of their software a go… the below is unedited (so, no voice over, or commentary, in-game audio only) footage from my first recorded PvP match.

As you can see, there is a lot to keep track off.  It would be nice if the default ‘raid bars’ in WildStar showed if the player was out of range.. there’s a couple times I tried to heal someone who was really low (by using a direct heal), only to find out that they were too far away.

Oh, semi-related note.. if you’re trying to use Nvidia’s GeForce Experience/ShadowPlay to record in WildStar… you need to have WildStar set for full screen – exclusive.. otherwise ShadowPlay won’t trigger.

To celebrate the first month of launch.. the WildStar crew is letting us all get Squirged!

If you’ve got a retail key applied to your account by 12:01 AM PDT on Monday July 7th.. you’ll be granted an account level Strained Squirg hat.. that’s right.. you too will be able to have your head enveloped by an infected Squirg! Just what everyone needs:

Talk about a face only a mom could love…

See? The Devs do love us… enough to give us an infection!