It’s the moment fans have been waiting for—Carbine Studios has at last confirmed the final two classes of their up-and-coming MMORPG Wildstar. The Medic and Engineer have officially joined the ranks, and they are two classes that fit the Nexus universe like a proverbial glove. They are the cherry on top of everything else exciting about this game…. unless of course you don’t like cherries. Chocolate sprinkles? Whatever. You get where I’m going with overly used metaphors here.
A few weeks ago I joined a conference call with lead combat designer Chris Lynch and lead class designer Hugh Shelton along with class designer Steven Angle. During the conference we got some details on these two new unique bundles of awesomeness… I mean classes. So, let’s get straight to it. Without further ado, meet the Medic and Engineer.
The Medic
Races: Moredesh, Mechari , Human, Cassian, and Granok
Tron-esque in style and accompanied by a sharp aesthetic, the Medic acts as a close-ranged healer and DPS class. You read correctly—the Medic is close-ranged despite the fact that it can act as a healer. It is because of this that they are the only healing class with access medium armor (unlike their long-ranged counterparts, the Esper and Spellslinger). The Medic duel wields resonators, essentially glorified technologically stuffed handgun-like items (that's a mouthful), which put them up close and personal in combat situations. While fighting or healing as a Medic, you don’t necessarily have to be on top of your enemy, like a Warrior or Stalker, but you have to watch your location; if you stray too far from allies or enemies you risk being out of range for important attacks or heals. Because of this, Medics are considered to be a “high skill cap class.”
The Medic is a class that needs to move around in order to be effective—for healers or ranged DPS classes that are used to sitting back and spamming a casting rotation, this play-style may be a difficult, but fruitful, adjustment. The Medic is what the Widstar dev team considers to be a fully-mobile class, meaning that it can cast heals and attacks at full speed while in motion. This makes it extremely useful and tactile in situations that might involve crowd control and kiting.
Though healing and DPSing as a close-ranged class can be difficult, the Medic has a few things up its sleeve (or at least, its giant glowing resonators) to make it a powerful asset, even in end-game content. Using power cores as a resource, which begin fully charged and build backup over time, they can lay fields (telegraphs) on the ground that can either do damage or heal allies within its boundaries.
The Medic can also place stations that, when activated, can heal and/or buff nearby allies. Medics also use probes. Similar to what the name sounds like, probes , which run on cooldowns rather than power cores, can be launched and attached to either allies or enemies and cause harmful or beneficial effects depending on the type of probe. While Repair Probes can attach to allies and heal them and Empowering Probes can attach to allies and provide them with beneficial buffs, Devastator Probes can attach to enemies and deal DoT damage or add nasty debuffs. One neat thing about the probes is that most of them can be detonated for burst damage and burst healing as well.
Overall, the Medic is sorting out to be a unique and strategic hybrid class that can effectively do DPS and heal. Though it does have limited range, its abilities and use of medium armor make it a class that provide players with a novel and challenging MMO experience. Through classes like the Medic, Wildstar, shows us once again that it has no intention of becoming a button-smashing MMO.
The Engineer
Races: Cassian, Granok, Human, Chua, Mechari, and Mordesh
Heavy armor. Ranged. Tank or DPS. PETS. These terms appear to have little to do with each other. But this is Wildstar we are talking about people—in the context of the new class called the Engineer, they have everything to do with each other. The Engineer is a ranged tank or DPS class that uses loyal bot companions to help them on the field of battle.
The pet bots, which can be deployed two at a time and also scale themselves with the Engineer’s stats, differ depending on their abilities. For a bit of good old fashioned DPS, the Artillery Bot deals heavy damage in the form of direct attacks or telegraphs. In terms of crowd control, the Diminisher Bot casts DoTs and can snare enemies in traps while the Bruiser Bot can taunt enemies and lead them around. There is even a Repair Bot that can heal the Engineer and his or her allies. To help the bot's overall effectiveness in end-game and PvP content, the developers worked to make their control as fluid as possible, applying multiple stances like along with an action bar that will allow the player to micro-manage their bot's overall actions. The various abilities of the bots alone make the Engineer a unique, versatile, and effective class. You could have your Diminisher run around and snare groups of enemies while you handle the main boss as the tank, or you can increase your DPS output by having it cast AoEs while your Bruiser keeps the enemies off of yourself and allies. Another thing to note about the bots is that these lovely adorable companions will be with you until they are destroyed with very little cooldown.
Bots aren’t the only thing fueling the fire of the Engineer. The Engineer is a ranged class after all, an ability granted to them through the launcher, which is exactly what it sounds like…. a massive gun. The launcher is essentially a cannon, and it’s not a very stable one. In this context however, lack of stability is a good thing—it builds up volatility, the Engineer’s primary resource that is used to cast powerful attacks. While not a fully-mobile class like the Medic, the Engineer has the ability to move while attacking, though its casting time will be slowed.
The Engineer also has a Pulse Blast ability that creates a massive cone of damage (25 meter range) and deals more damage at its center. They can also mark targets (up to 12 marks, all of which can be applied on a single unit or multiple) which can help increase the overall damage a target takes and can also help in maintaining aggro. Eventually the Engineer can also use what’s called Mark IV exo-suit that, as the devs so bluntly put it, “makes you aweome.” The exo-suit has two stance: a tank stance that takes less overall damage and a DPS stance that builds volatility faster. Currently the exo-suit last 20 seconds and has a 2 minute cooldown. Overall, the Engineer is what the dev team called a “shock trooper” class and can handle end-game content as the main tank or as DPS. As far as it seems, the Engineer may be a solid reprieve for melee tanks who are growing tired of the tank-and-spank routine.
Keep an eye out for more content and updates as the beta for Wildstar progresses.
Katy Goodman is a freelance writer and graduate student. When she isn’t busy training birds of prey, horses, or freshman composition students, she can be found playing video games or bothering her neighbors by playing guitar. She also really likes chocolate milk. Follow her on Twitter @InvizzyB or on her blog, Pixel Hearts.
