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Sunday, April 06, 2014
Choosing a class in Wildstar
I pre-ordered Wildstar, and as a result I have beta access during special beta weekends before release in June, or rather headstart end of May. So what does one do in beta, when one knows that the characters are going to be wiped, and the purchase decision is already done? Well, choosing a class for example. I first tried out all the classes through the first two zones, to level 6. That eliminated engineers from the choice, as I still don't like pet classes. And the two classes I liked the most were medic and warrior.
Now at first I thought I would go medic. The medic's combat mechanic is front-loaded, that is you start with full resources and get to cast your most powerful spells right away. Only once you depleted your resources do you need to fill them up again with a different spell, which can be either a small damage spell, or a small healing spell. As a result easy fights go very fast. But playing the medic a bit longer, to level 10, revealed that this wasn't actually all that good. The resource recovery actions are quite weak and slow, so whenever a fight is harder you spend a lot of time just recharging.
The warrior works the other way around: Starts with no resources and needs to charge resources first before he can use his more powerful spells. But in practice to level 10 that actually worked better than the medic: The resource charging action is fast and not so weak as the medic's one, so a few hits with that and than a finisher works fast enough on easier mobs, and much better than the medic on harder mobs. The warrior also deals with multiple enemies much better, as his attack have a wider arc.
What finally made me decide to go for the warrior on release was crafting. The warrior wears heavy armor, so a good crafting combination for him would be armorer and miner. Weaponsmith and miner would also work. I like that, because I like node-based resource gathering. The medic wears medium armor, which would require survivalist, skinning leather from creatures. I like that less well. So I tried something else with the medic, relic hunter plus technologist, but I found the potions he made not half as useful as crafting armor.
Are you going to play Wildstar on release? What class will you play?
Now at first I thought I would go medic. The medic's combat mechanic is front-loaded, that is you start with full resources and get to cast your most powerful spells right away. Only once you depleted your resources do you need to fill them up again with a different spell, which can be either a small damage spell, or a small healing spell. As a result easy fights go very fast. But playing the medic a bit longer, to level 10, revealed that this wasn't actually all that good. The resource recovery actions are quite weak and slow, so whenever a fight is harder you spend a lot of time just recharging.
The warrior works the other way around: Starts with no resources and needs to charge resources first before he can use his more powerful spells. But in practice to level 10 that actually worked better than the medic: The resource charging action is fast and not so weak as the medic's one, so a few hits with that and than a finisher works fast enough on easier mobs, and much better than the medic on harder mobs. The warrior also deals with multiple enemies much better, as his attack have a wider arc.
What finally made me decide to go for the warrior on release was crafting. The warrior wears heavy armor, so a good crafting combination for him would be armorer and miner. Weaponsmith and miner would also work. I like that, because I like node-based resource gathering. The medic wears medium armor, which would require survivalist, skinning leather from creatures. I like that less well. So I tried something else with the medic, relic hunter plus technologist, but I found the potions he made not half as useful as crafting armor.
Are you going to play Wildstar on release? What class will you play?
- posted by Tobold @ 3:52 PM Permanent Link
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Trying out all the classes in beta, I believe I am going to go Esper, though Medic, Engineer, and Stalker are all fun. The only two I really didn't enjoy playing were Warrior and Spellslinger.
There is so much that I find very appealing in Wildstar: humor, personality, paths, housing, addons.
I regret that I won't be playing due to action combat.
GL to all and looking forward to your thoughts.
P.S. I see two very different WS audiences: "2005 hardcore" and "modern casual". Hard raids and action combat for the former; humor, the 3 non-warrior paths, housing for the latter. In particular, the art style would seem to put off Serious Raiders for a Serious MMO and have appeal for the latter group. So I would be interested in whether you think this worked (mass market game for broad customer tastes or whether you feel they should have picked 2005 or 2014 and focused on that)
I regret that I won't be playing due to action combat.
GL to all and looking forward to your thoughts.
P.S. I see two very different WS audiences: "2005 hardcore" and "modern casual". Hard raids and action combat for the former; humor, the 3 non-warrior paths, housing for the latter. In particular, the art style would seem to put off Serious Raiders for a Serious MMO and have appeal for the latter group. So I would be interested in whether you think this worked (mass market game for broad customer tastes or whether you feel they should have picked 2005 or 2014 and focused on that)
I found that with the warrior, "action combat" wasn't much of a problem. And I can't even mouse-turn properly. But as the warrior has such a wide arc, if you are approximately aiming in the right direction, you'll hit the enemy. And if there is a major attack incoming, you interrupt it with your knockdown attack, so you don't need to get out of the way. Probably not a good idea for raiding, but for solo questing that works just fine.
Going warrior as well, just because I'm ecstatic to get back to a trinity tanking role after GW2.
For crafts, I am leaning towards Relic Hunter/Technologist only because they create consumables.
In most games, crafted gear eventually loses out to quest/instance rewards as a game matures. But there always seems to be a market for consumables.
For crafts, I am leaning towards Relic Hunter/Technologist only because they create consumables.
In most games, crafted gear eventually loses out to quest/instance rewards as a game matures. But there always seems to be a market for consumables.
As for a class, from the moment I saw her, I knew the Engineer was going to be my class. Regardless of my class in WoW, I always had at least one toon with max level Engineering as a profession. I thought many times that Blizzard could solve the balance problems they had with the profession by making it a class. It was a hero unit in WC3 just like the DK. Instead the Engineer was constantly nerfed.
Plus, I've always wanted to play a tank with a Ranged DPS offspec (and Boomkin/Feral never appealed to me).
Robot pets, heavy armor, giant guns, and the mech suit. Oh, you had me at mech suit.
I agree with Simon on the crafting option.
- Honorshammer
Plus, I've always wanted to play a tank with a Ranged DPS offspec (and Boomkin/Feral never appealed to me).
Robot pets, heavy armor, giant guns, and the mech suit. Oh, you had me at mech suit.
I agree with Simon on the crafting option.
- Honorshammer
I'm enjoying my engineer and my medic. Stalker, not so much.
I'm having a hard time getting my hands around of a ranged main-tank. With many thread enhancing abilities, how do you stay at range?
I'm having a hard time getting my hands around of a ranged main-tank. With many thread enhancing abilities, how do you stay at range?
2 brand new AAA mmorpg's release this year! So happy :)
ESO has me completely right now, but Wildstar is next on the list... assuming NCSoft doesn't give it a premature death...spring of 2015 for me on this one.
Looking forward to your take on the game and again, disappointed you opted out of ESO Tobold...there are some very unique mechanics in ESO like being in 5 guilds at once. Good stuff.
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ESO has me completely right now, but Wildstar is next on the list... assuming NCSoft doesn't give it a premature death...spring of 2015 for me on this one.
Looking forward to your take on the game and again, disappointed you opted out of ESO Tobold...there are some very unique mechanics in ESO like being in 5 guilds at once. Good stuff.
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