#Wildstar Launch Plans
Tonight is the big night. Wildstar launches at 12:01pm PST / 3:01 am EST Saturday (which I still think of as tonight, although it's technically tomorrow. I won't get started until sometime on Saturday. My days of playing at 3am are sadly behind me.
If you are going to be up and waiting for Carbine to flip to switch, you might want to check out Gamebreaker Nation's launch party on Twitch. They will start streaming at 1am eastern and carry on right up until launch. My good friend, Ghostal is one of the hosts and they are going to do a great job.
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 Engineering started out really cool each expansion and then was constantly nerfed.
In addition, I've always wanted to play a tank with a Ranged DPS offspec (and Boomkin/Feral never appealed to me). Vanguard almost did it, but then SWTOR made them this weird not ranged/not melee tank and I just played him as melee.
Robot pets, heavy armor, giant guns, and the mech suit. Oh, you had me at mech suit.
I'm going Exile. I've always had a preference for the 'good guy' side. My time with the Horde was more about my relationships with the other members of Devolve rather than any affection for that side.
I played both sides in Beta and the Exile quests made me feel more heroic. Both Northern Wilds and Everstar Grove have great stories with endings that give you that emotional punch. Although not everyone was a fan.
On the Dominion side, you feel like a cog in the machine. They thank you for your service and if you did really well maybe they won't kill you. I was also completely turned off by the Draken "blood" village where my Mechari Warrior spent most of his early days.
Algoroc was my favorite zone in Beta. I loved the Firefly feel to it and as soon as I saw the giant robot in the Excavation Camp, I knew I was in for some fun.
The decisions had been pretty easy up to this point. Now they start getting tougher. As an Exile Engineer, I could pick any race except for Aurin. This wasn't a huge problem for me as I'm not a big fan of the Aurin. Granoks as Engineers don't make much sense to me. These guys are supposed to meat heads (rock heads?) They don't strike me as the kind to be spending time in the lab.
That left me with human and Mordesh. My initial thought was to go human, and indeed, my beta Engineer was a human. I love Iron Man so I made him sort of a Tony Stark wannabe. When I rolled my Beta Spellslinger I made him Mordesh and ran him through the Everstar Grove / Celestian area.
The Mordesh lore was fantastic.
But Mordesh have 'big' models. I struggled with the big model when I made my Paladin a Tauren in WoW. In Wildstar, movement would be even more critical. I rolled a Mordesh Engineer at the end of Beta and didn't have any trouble. The other nice thing about the big Mordesh model is the guns are freaking huge. Honors want Big BOOM!
I went back to playing my human and encountered a quest in Whitevale. I don't want to spoil it for you, but it cemented my desire to roll Mordesh.
That said, I loved Algoroc. I would go human just for that zone. Then I learned that your choice of race doesn't lock you into the starting zone. It takes a couple of extra steps, but you can choose which zone you go to.
So I'll be one of those weird Mordesh you see running around Algoroc. Keep the fires warm in Gallow for me.
This is a strawpoll on professions. The gathering professions are out front. That doesn't surprise me since you get both the double gatherer crowd and the people looking to support their production craft.
What does concern me a little bit is how high Technologists is. In case you can't see it clearly in the picture, Tech is at 16% beating out even one of the gathering profs (Survivalist). The next production craft is at 12%. I realize this is a limited sample size with a self selected group, but if this is indicative of the wider game, I could see that being an issue.
The problem is that anyone with MMO experience is going to look at the professions in Wildstar and see really quick that Tech is pretty much the only one with End Game application. Unless WeaponSmith, ArmorSmith, Outfitter, or Tailor get an end game consumable/use, all the armor or weapons they craft will be outdone by raid drops, which will severely limit the ability of these profs to be profitable at end game. But if everyone and their brother is a Tech, the market will saturated and it'll be tough making any CREDD there, too. Tech/RH fits with my Engineer, but now I'm wondering if I should switch.
End game crafting isn't well known. The good news is that Wildstar allows you to keep your progress. If you change from Weaponsmith to Architect, you don't lose your progress in Weaponsmith. You no longer can do the Weaponsmith crafts, but if you change back to Weaponsmith later your progress is still there. It's more like a respec.
I think I'm going to go double gatherer (Mine/Relic Hunter). I'll let the production crafts sort themselves out and I'll make some money in the interim on the Auction House.
Now we come to the hardest decision of them all. I was all set to join Gamebreaker Nation's guild and even had my old WoW guild on board to join them as well.
Then, GBN made the decision to roll on the sole RP server.
I think this was a poor choice. I've voiced my concerns, and while the officers listened and understood my points, in the end, they still felt the RP server was the best choice.
My old WoW guild mates are deciding where they are going to go and if they opt for a different server, I'll be left to choose between two great communities. Sure, I'll roll an alt in the 'other one', but my main will be where almost all my playtime is in the beginning of the game. Wildstar will have server transfers right after launch, so at least I can change my mind later.
See this important update!
We are all rolling on Orias!
So those are my Wildstar launch plans. What are yours?
If you are going to be up and waiting for Carbine to flip to switch, you might want to check out Gamebreaker Nation's launch party on Twitch. They will start streaming at 1am eastern and carry on right up until launch. My good friend, Ghostal is one of the hosts and they are going to do a great job.
My Launch Plans
Class
In addition, I've always wanted to play a tank with a Ranged DPS offspec (and Boomkin/Feral never appealed to me). Vanguard almost did it, but then SWTOR made them this weird not ranged/not melee tank and I just played him as melee.
Robot pets, heavy armor, giant guns, and the mech suit. Oh, you had me at mech suit.
Faction
I played both sides in Beta and the Exile quests made me feel more heroic. Both Northern Wilds and Everstar Grove have great stories with endings that give you that emotional punch. Although not everyone was a fan.
On the Dominion side, you feel like a cog in the machine. They thank you for your service and if you did really well maybe they won't kill you. I was also completely turned off by the Draken "blood" village where my Mechari Warrior spent most of his early days.
Algoroc was my favorite zone in Beta. I loved the Firefly feel to it and as soon as I saw the giant robot in the Excavation Camp, I knew I was in for some fun.
Race
That left me with human and Mordesh. My initial thought was to go human, and indeed, my beta Engineer was a human. I love Iron Man so I made him sort of a Tony Stark wannabe. When I rolled my Beta Spellslinger I made him Mordesh and ran him through the Everstar Grove / Celestian area.
The Mordesh lore was fantastic.
But Mordesh have 'big' models. I struggled with the big model when I made my Paladin a Tauren in WoW. In Wildstar, movement would be even more critical. I rolled a Mordesh Engineer at the end of Beta and didn't have any trouble. The other nice thing about the big Mordesh model is the guns are freaking huge. Honors want Big BOOM!
I went back to playing my human and encountered a quest in Whitevale. I don't want to spoil it for you, but it cemented my desire to roll Mordesh.
That said, I loved Algoroc. I would go human just for that zone. Then I learned that your choice of race doesn't lock you into the starting zone. It takes a couple of extra steps, but you can choose which zone you go to.
So I'll be one of those weird Mordesh you see running around Algoroc. Keep the fires warm in Gallow for me.
Professions
I was all set to go Technologists and Relic Hunter. Then I can across this.This is a strawpoll on professions. The gathering professions are out front. That doesn't surprise me since you get both the double gatherer crowd and the people looking to support their production craft.
What does concern me a little bit is how high Technologists is. In case you can't see it clearly in the picture, Tech is at 16% beating out even one of the gathering profs (Survivalist). The next production craft is at 12%. I realize this is a limited sample size with a self selected group, but if this is indicative of the wider game, I could see that being an issue.
The problem is that anyone with MMO experience is going to look at the professions in Wildstar and see really quick that Tech is pretty much the only one with End Game application. Unless WeaponSmith, ArmorSmith, Outfitter, or Tailor get an end game consumable/use, all the armor or weapons they craft will be outdone by raid drops, which will severely limit the ability of these profs to be profitable at end game. But if everyone and their brother is a Tech, the market will saturated and it'll be tough making any CREDD there, too. Tech/RH fits with my Engineer, but now I'm wondering if I should switch.
End game crafting isn't well known. The good news is that Wildstar allows you to keep your progress. If you change from Weaponsmith to Architect, you don't lose your progress in Weaponsmith. You no longer can do the Weaponsmith crafts, but if you change back to Weaponsmith later your progress is still there. It's more like a respec.
I think I'm going to go double gatherer (Mine/Relic Hunter). I'll let the production crafts sort themselves out and I'll make some money in the interim on the Auction House.
Guild / Server
See this important update!
We are all rolling on Orias!
So those are my Wildstar launch plans. What are yours?
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