Thoughts on the Re-Reveal and AMA

The Esper: Re-revealed

When I heard the devs at Carbine were going to be re-releasing each class individually with new, more detailed information, I was pretty excited. The old information was sparse, and fairly generic. I mean, we knew that the Esper could do some cool “psychic things,” but we weren’t entirely sure what those “things” were and all they entailed. The re-release meant we would get clarification, or at least a bit of additional information. What I didn’t expect was so much concrete information on some of the mechanics that the Esper utilizes (specifically, the Psi points- that’s awesome). Join me in this article, as I fill your brain with all sorts of mind gold that is the Esper re-release.

I should also note that I’ve included info from the EsperAMA that took place on reddit. This info was as much a part of the re-reveal as the actual class-drop itself. If you ever get confused as to what exactly I'm talking about, I've placed some links throughout that will direct you there, so please feel free to browse that as well!

Know Your Role

The most basic thing we should go over is that the Esper comes in two flavors: healer, and dps.

I don’t think this comes as any big surprise to anyone who has followed the game, as none of the other (revealed and confirmed) classes seem to fit the mold of a healer. The closest you could come would be the Spellslinger, who could shoot wonderful healing bullets into someone, I guess? Ouch. Anyway, the healing the Esper possesses comes in the form of glowing gold as opposed to the typical purples and translucent blues that we’re used to with our mind daggers. Based upon the AMA yesterday, Dev Asyreal (Jade Martin) has stated that we will be the best single-target healers, which is perfect for me. I’ve always leaned more towards single-target; AoE’s feel like cheating!

 Our DPS also doesn’t come as much of a surprise: we cause extreme pain and suffering via a variety of glowey daggers and blasts of mental energy. That said, it was interesting to learn a bit more about the mechanics of the class, most notably the “psi points” that we will use to cast our big, nasty abilities. Additionally, I’m pretty damn excited about our ability to “run and gun,” firing off weaker spells for the sake of mobility. In an action-based game like Wildstar, mobility is so important to keep things feeling active and exciting. Knowing that I can make the trade-off between standing still and unleashing a big hellish bolt of energy vs. keeping on the  move for the sake of escapability is exciting to me.

What may come as a surprise to some, as it certainly did to me, was that the Esper could function somewhat as a pet class. As pointed out in this Massively article (which, again, links to the AMA), one dev stated that he tuned his build to include three small minor illusions and one big baddie illusion (ala Guild Wars 2’s Mentalist?). How much people will actually be able to play as a pet user remains to be seen; my money is more on these abilities being utilized a bit like cooldowns and less as consistent pets.

Tools of the Trade

The next bit of reveal was how our equipment would function. We are provided light armor (otherwise known as “clothes”) to protect our behinds, while also wielding what I would describe as a pinwheel of death. It’s like a giant, psychic ninja star. The website describes the psy-blade as a “wit-sharpened stiletto forged from 100% superego.” I like the idea of my character not having to really worry about using his hands to throw out a weapon. I mean hell, I’m a nasty little psychopath, why should I bother using physical force when I have a near-endless supply of kinetic energy at my disposal?

Also, the Chua who is used as a model for our armor is freaking adorable.

Once Upon a Time…

The bit of info that was probably the least exciting to me came from the lore section. What it basically comes down to is that we were once social outcasts, but have basically risen in the ranks due to need and the desire for others to exploit our God-given talents- the talents that allow us to melt a person’s brain into a substance that I can only imagine looks like pink milk. I’m hoping Carbine gives us an Esper “class lead” to rally around, so we can see how the different factions approach the class from a lore standpoint.

Join Me Next Time!

I could go on and on with these sections, as I’ve barely touched on what the AMA has taught us, but alas, I have to go prepare myself for the wonderful Livestream that will be taking place at 3pm EST (the only timezone that matters), as well as recover from a night of debauchery that has resulted in one nasty headache (DID YOU DO THIS, ESPERS?!?) Please check back here either later tonight or tomorrow morning to learn more about our beloved class as I share my thoughts on the livestream!