WildStar has something for everyone, but it really delivers when it comes to challenging groups of adventurers. Each of the Dungeons and Adventures you find throughout your time on Nexus provide unique challenges. They also provide the first tastes of WildStar’s most serious side: its group content.
Adventures and Dungeons are very different. Adventures offer a unique spin on the standard instanced PvE of your typical MMO. The first two Adventures, one for Exiles called ‘The Hycrest Insurrection’ and another for Dominion players called ‘Riot in the Void’, work like a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ novel and can be accessed at level 15.
At the beginning of the instance, your party is given three options to choose. The content feels more like questing with friends than conquering a dungeon. After each segment, your party votes a new set of options. While each part is straight-forward, voting makes each run unique, offering a valid reason to queue again with strangers or go again with friends.
The first Adventures aren’t as challenging as they are fun. For a real thrill, players can enter one of the game’s first dungeons, Stormtalon’s Lair, at level 20.
Unlike Adventures, WildStar’s dungeons are more traditional. Players fight their way through trash mobs then fight a boss for cool loot. Unlike other MMORPGs, Stormtalon’s Lair throws encounters at you that you wouldn’t expect until the game’s final levels. Featuring multiple stages, sometimes adds, crazy telegraphs to avoid, and moments that require coordinated precision, these bosses are no joke. Stormtalon’s Lair is the place diehard MMORPG fans will likely fall in love with WildStar’s PvE.
Rather than a step-by-step guide or a specific overview of the early group content, I thought I’d share some of the basic insights I learned from tanking in the game’s early goings.
Stage directions are important. WildStar relies a lot on targeted abilities, so it helps to have players bunch together when otherwise not in danger. Dodging the giant, red telegraphs on the ground is always important, but it’s just as important to stay in the green ones. Green means healing and mistakenly rolling out of the green can sometimes mean your death.
One of the better tips I experienced firsthand involves the game’s marking system. Similar to other MMOs, players can mark targets with special icons to aid communication and strategy. Instead of marking mobs, marking both the Tank and Healer helps a ton in identifying where the other players need to be. It was a lot easier to stay in healing range when I could identify which person frantically dodging things on the outskirts of the battle when I could keep my eyes on their icon instead.
WildStar also features an economy of motion. Equally important as moving, sometimes it is necessary to stand still. Though most players are free to move and dodge, the Tank and Healer need to maintain the groups stability. If a Tank dodges or moves too much, he’s likely avoid too many heals or reposition the boss at the DPS’s expense.
Many bosses have front-facing telegraphs which an experienced Tank can help mitigate by doing the traditional ‘turn boss away from party’ maneuver, but rarely are bosses locked into place. Some will move or target other players (and face them to do it). Often this can make a battle feel far more chaotic than it actually is, forcing your tank to react when he still has the bosses attention. Be patient as you learn the encounters.
Mastering motion is one step, but mastering interrupts can be just as important. WildStar’s Interrupt Armor system has a vague similarity to stacking crowd control on bosses in City of Heroes, but it’s far more elegant and refined. Bosses (all mobs, actually) come with Interrupt Armor which is designated next to their portrait. Each stack of Interrupt Armor protects the mob from a single crowd control spell, and only after they’ve all been dissipated can the mob be affected by a crowd control spell.
This is a hallmark feature of WildStar’s PvE, and is something you’ll see used throughout the game’s group encounters. Several bosses, including the second boss of Stormtalon’s Lair, have giant attacks that charge up over a period of time. If the players don’t coordinate to take out the boss’s Interrupt Armor in time, then the result is almost always a game over. It is important that every group member be willing and able to have an interrupting ability ready for certain encounters (including the Healer).
Learning WildStar’s encounters can be a trial by fire, but it’s a rewarding experience all the same. Dungeons especially are quite fair with minimal trash mobs and nearby respawn points. They are also challenging since each encounter puts a lot of pressure on every group member to get things right. Mastering movement and interrupts early will give you a fighting chance at winning, but be prepared for a lot of practice.
