The Carbine team is at PAX this weekend talking all about WildStar's Eldergame

PAX East is officially underway this weekend and if you've been paying any attention to the news surrounding the upcoming MMO WildStar, then you know Carbine has landed smack dab in the middle of Boston and is preparing for world domination. Seriously, I wonder how many Settlers it took to set up this booth! With 300 demo computers installed with the game, developers answering questions and giant bulletin boards that would give even the largest in-game bosses a run for their money, if you didn't know about WildStar before, chances are it'll at least be on your radar by the time the weekend lets out.

While the WildStar booth is pretty impressive, the highlight of the show for most fans–and those still discovering the game–had to be the Carbine panel, "$#!& Just Got Real", that was held Friday afternoon. During the panel the Carbine team primarily discussed WildStar's "Elder Game", reviewing previous information like rated PvP Battlegrounds and Arenas, but also dishing out a handful of new tidbits including Elder Game solo story-content and Itemization. A pretty epic "WildStar Flick" for the game's 40v40 Elder Game PvP type, Warplots, was shown during the panel as well, but we'll talk more about that at a later date.

For now I want to focus on the information we received relating to solo story-instances and item progression, because who doesn't like epic encounters accompanied by epic loot?

Solo Story Content: Unlocking the Secrets of Nexus

During the panel it was revealed to us by Carbine's Lead Narrative Designer, Chad Moore, that once players reach level 35 or so, they will be able to begin unlocking the secrets of Planet Nexus and learn more about the mysterious disappearance of the Eldan through solo-story instances. While we knew about this existence of this content for a while, the details surrounding these solo-instances were pretty scarce, especially because they aren't currently playable in the beta. However, what was revealed during the panel was that there will be five instances leading up to level 50 and what sounded like a few additional instances at cap, along with the promise of additional story instances that would be introduced to the game through frequent content updates.

As you progress through these story instances you will be accompanied by a mysterious character, by the name of Drusera, who helps you reveal the truths behind Planet Nexus. While this content is specifically designed for the solo-player in mind, you can always bring friends to tag along. So if you don't think you're quite ready to tackle group content, or just enjoy soloing more than anything else, this content–along with open world events and quests–will most likely be for you as you hit level 50 and beyond.

Raiding and Itemization

The next bit of juicy information we received during the panel was from Carbine's Social Systems Lead, Joe Piepiora, who gave us a few details on Eldergame item progression, primarily dealing with Eldergame raiding. If you've read my article on Uncovering WildStar's Eldergame or you watched the Spectacluar fail/success videos shown during the panel, then you know the game's raiding can be pretty intense and, well, "spectacular!" as the team would put it. But what happens when you down that epic boss that's been wiping the floor with your guild for weeks? This is where item progression comes into play.

Item progression in WildStar is as follows:

• You have Junk quality loot which is gray
• Normal quality loot which is white
• Uncommon quality loot which is green
• Rare quality loot which is blue
• Epic quality loot which is purple
• Legendary quality loot which is orange
• And Artifact quality loot which is pink

On the PvE side of the spectrum there are multiple tiers of epic quality loot that usually stem from raiding, but can also be found as rare drops from the open world or even veteran dungeons and adventures. The next quality tier after that is Legendary and these are acquired as the standard drops from the 40-man raid. For the most skilled, daring and lucky players, there is also another tier where the Artifact pieces reside. Artifact weapons are among the most powerful weapons in the game, and while the basic form of these weapons is extremely powerful, they can be "powered up" even further through a process called Imbuements.

Imbuements are found on multiple items throughout the game and are essentially item quest or challenges that the player can choose to complete. If they should complete any of these quests, additional power will be unlocked and added to the item, making it stronger than when it was first acquired.

Lastly, Joe also talked briefly about how Eldergame Rune Slotting would work. For those who may not be aware, once a player hits level 15+, most of the rare quality gear will have slots available for Runes that a player can slot in through the "Runecrafting" system. This affects Eldergame armor in a huge way because of the simple fact that the Rune Slots a piece of gear has available to it are completely random. Even if the same chest piece drops twice, they could have completely different Rune Sets on them, making the player think about how they want to slot each piece of gear in relation to their character's build.

While I personally welcome this kind of decision, I could see how RNG factors in gear may frustrate a few players who are hardcore about min-maxing their character. We'll see how this plays out in the months to come following the game's launch.

PAX East is still underway and you can be sure that we'll be covering all of the big WildStar news to come out of the convention right here on ZAM, so as always keep it locked and dialed in for more news, information and updates.

I'll see you on Nexus!

Corey "Cyglaive" Jenkins

Follow Corey on Twitter @Cyglaive