So the Esper had its day in the sun today as we were taken
on a guided tour through the various abilities and functions that the psychic
phenom possessed. Mr. Stephan Frost (producer), Hugh Shelton (lead class
designer), Jade Martin (lead Esper designer), and Chris Lynch (lead combat
designer) showed off how the Esper solo's, how they heal in dungeons, and even
a bit of how they perform in PvP. It was a great watch, and despite a few
technical difficulties (mostly on the part of my shabby internet), I really had
fun and it got me itching to give the game a go.
One of my major fears after watching the Warrior stream
was the feeling that combat progressed a little slower than I thought an
action-combat based game should go. I realize that the Warrior was spec'd as a
tank, but things still felt a little sketchy. The Esper stream did a TON to
assuage this fear for me. The fact that they demonstrated the "burst"
of the Esper class helped to put my mind at ease. I believe it was Shelton who
stated that if the Esper timed their build-up abilities and one of their
stronger attacks correctly, it would generate a big strike of damage; this was
something I didn't see the Warrior do. Granted, we only had a limited snippet,
and perhaps the Warrior provides more sustained damage over time, but it's good
to see that there is a distinct "feel" to each of the classes and how
they play.
Something else that sort of surprised me was the Esper's
reliability in PvP. Matched up against a Warrior, the Esper seemed very capable
of holding its own despite the armor disadvantage. I am used to PvP in WoW when
melee used to be able to pop down a caster in practically no time. Now, I
should point out here that I am by no means a PvP guru and that a lot of what I
say may be perceived as ignorance from more practiced hands, but I like the way
combat looked a bit more measured and took a bit more time. It's the exact
opposite of PvE for me: PvP should be deliberate, difficult, and take some
time, and that's what I saw. The Warrior had his chances, but Jade Martin
played well and timed his cooldowns well. I'll be curious to see how Espers
fare as more players get their hands on the class.
There was one minor point of concern for me in regards to
the performance of the Esper. Watching the short bit of Stormtalon's Lair, a dungeon
shown in the stream, things seemed difficult. Don't get me wrong: I like
difficult. It adds to that feeling of accomplishment. That said, I struggled a
bit to recognize what exactly the Esper was doing with the heals at his
disposal. Granted, the pulls weren't totally on-point and things were a bit
messy, but there were times when it looked like the Esper struggled to bring
his tank back from the brink, even when he had a reasonable amount of time to
do so. I didn't notice any good "Oh sh*t!" buttons that helped to
turn the tide of a fight. I'm making a lot of assumptions here, since I don't
have a list of the abilities and what they do on hand, but hopefully we have
enough juice as healers to help turn the tide of a fight that's going south.
Overall, the stream was great, but I wish I was a bit
more familiar with the class as a whole on a mechanical level. That's obviously
wishful thinking, given that these are meant to be little introductions to the
class and you aren't going to understand all of what's going on. The game is
still in beta and there's a lot of data to be crunched and systems to be
tested. It was still fun, and I'm looking forward to more information trickling
out as we move closer towards December's beta.
Be sure to check out the Esper Live Stream linked here and
at the top, and share your thoughts with me in the comments! Also, tune in next
time as I discuss Paths from an Esper's perspective, and why I think Settlers
are awesome!
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