Yes, WildStar is coming to Steam in the first half of 2016…but wait there is more!
Okay, now that we have the Steam thing out of the way, what the heck is going on with WildStar? Just this past year it has gone free to play, but players have been waiting a long time for more content. The reception from the game's fans has been very positive according to Carbine as players continue to give feedback on upcoming changes they want to see in the game. Also just recently the closed beta test went live in China so a whole new region is set to explore Nexus in the coming months.
But what about all the new stuff for existing players? You'll be happy to know that tons of new content is on the way. Over the course of the next several months and updates, WildStar is taking you to the ice regions of Arcterra, a huge new continent in the game where players will go far deeper into the history of the planet than ever before. Along with this new content we’ll see a new item upgrade system, the next chapter of the Nexus Saga, an instance called Vault of the Archon and a new epic raid called Redmoon Terror.
Let’s start with Arcterra, the icy wasteland that has been hidden away on Nexus from players. There are massive megalithic ruins all over the zone which used to carry some ancient powers. These ruins and the heavy snows make up the bread and butter of the area. You’ll have plenty to do in the zone playing solo, in a small group, or even with large group play.
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WildStar is also boosting their boss fights in the new zone with something called “snowballing” boss encounters. Smaller two man boss fights will be scattered across Arcterra which players can take on. You’ll be able to track the bosses you defeat. Once a bunch of them have been defeated a larger five man boss will appear and give players a bigger challenge. The two man groups can form up and start going after these larger boss fights. If that was not enough, once you have defeated a number of five man bosses, the zone will drop a huge twenty man boss for a huge battle. Each boss will tier up loot as noted in the fights. These will go on all over the zone.
As if this was not enough, the team at WildStar also gave us the scoop on an event boss fight that sounds pretty awesome. There is a snow storm that comes and goes on the continent. If players can find the storm, it will unlock four bosses in Arcterra. Players will have to get a key from all four boss fights in order to win access to a faction specific dungeon. So, the Dominion or the Exiles, if they can defeat all four bosses will get to search for some pretty heavy loot once the unlock occurs. Sadly, unlike previous designs on this idea, the other faction cannot win access and try to fight them inside the new dungeon. Regardless, this will make things very interesting on Arcterra.
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Another big addition with the expansion is the item upgrade system. It accompanies a huge change to the salvaging system where players can now choose what component you get to keep. The item upgrades will allow you to boost by up to five items levels higher on your gear. These upgrades will apply to weapons, armor, and runes. You’ll also be able to combine lower quality components to make higher quality items. Yes it can even be used on artifact weapons. They did not go too deeply into the details but, this pretty much tells any veteran MMO player what they can expect.
It would not be WildStar without epic instances and the Vault of Archon is no different. This instance continues the Nexus storyline and pushes the lore to new limits. All of the information you gather will lead you to the Vault. There will be single player content, the story content will be group based with the multiplayer instance (five man) that will be repeatable. You’ll also have the benefit of iconic faction characters guiding you through the Vault as Artemis Zin and Dorian Walker make appearances for their respective factions. If that was not enough, the team has hinted at another instance they plan to launch into the game this year as well.
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The Redmoon Terror, the new raid, will also be going live on the public test realms alongside the content update. This way players can get in and give feedback to devs about the raid (something that happens a lot with this game). Not too many details were given about the upcoming content, but it will be a twenty man raid and have some new spell mechanics for boss encounters. We will just have to wait and see.
So there you have it, WildStar will be bringing a huge update this spring, followed by another large one later on in the year. It really is a great time to get started in the game and build up to the launch of the expansion. We will bring you detailed updates on all of the new features as we get closer to launch.
