A quiet Wildstar beta weekend

There was another Wildstar beta weekend, and I played a bit. Having already used the beta to answer all my open questions on what I want to play in release, I just played a different class some more: The spellslinger. I very much liked the style of that character, especially with the mustachioed Chua I had taken. With the dual pistols and the mustache he made for a perfect Wild West hero.

Gameplay-wise I was less enchanted by the class. The special resource and the innate ability of the spellslinger to me have a less good flow than some other classes. Basically the innate ability is a toggle which makes you do more damage until your resource is emptied, but then there are no abilities to recharge it, you just have to wait. Furthermore beyond level 10 the spellslinger becomes kind of a glass cannon, and you need a lot of movement to keep him alive. For me, as somebody who isn't great with things like mouse-turns, a stun ability which leaves me with my back towards the enemy isn't ideal. I guess I have to leave the spellslinger to younger and more mobile players.

The most annoying thing this weekend was the way that Carbine had changed the costume screen. Now you need to travel all the way to the capital city and seek out the dye vendor to change your costume. Which means that I probably simply won't bother with costumes at all, if I can't modify them easily. Otherwise the current version (after a Friday evening hotfix) was quite stable and low on bugs, with many bugs from the previous beta weekend already fixed. A release in a month is not too soon.