144066-a-running-log-of-experiences-by-a-returning-player

== Content ==
			
Due to the recent 'reboot' of Wildstar going F2P, I've decided to give it the full range of experience in order to re-evaluate where the game is at. To this end I've started a completely new character, and I will not give any support from other characters in terms of loot or plat. I intend to play almost exclusively solo from level 1 to 50, with only the occasional forey into group instances if the queue pops while I'm in the correct level range.   I'd stream or record video for Youtube, but honestly I'm not sure my computer could handle it on top of the strain that WIldstar puts on it.  I haven't upgraded in a couple years. So text log it is!  
 
What I'd like to see is how well the F2P model holds up for a solo player of moderate skill and experience with MMOs.  Everything from leveling speed, to gear aquirement, to customizing the UI and addons.   I'll keep a log of anything I see that merits noting, but if you guys see anything I've missed, or would like me to try something specific out, please drop a post.  
 
I'll be playing as a Chua esper(Soldier Path), because insane rodent space wizards are pretty damn awesome.  The last time I played Wildstar with any kind of seriousness was back during...drop 3, I think?  Anyway, it's been awhile, so I feel like I'll have something of a clean pallette to base my experiences on. I'm sure some of the muscle memory will kick in after awhile, but I'll basically be re-learning the game almost from scratch.   
 
I don't intend to read quest descriptions, because I feel like the strength of Wildstar is in it's gameplay, not it's story. The setting is background for what's really fun, IMHO.  And if I REALLY want the lore and story for context, there's always the wiki. Anyway, here we go:  
 
(BE ADVISED!  THIS LOG MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS AT VARIOUS POINTS!  I WILL NOT REFRAIN FROM TALKING ABOUT KEY STORY ELEMENTS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!) 
I will try my best to put up a spoiler warning before anything super critical, but I make no promises.
 
Level 1:
Character created on 10/18/2015 at ~12:20pm PST, Sunday.   
 
Novice Tutorial:  The first thing I noticed was the info on the bottom right side of the screen: Nearby Players and Events. Not much explanation of what it is, but it's pretty clearly a quest/task tracker of some kind.   I also immediately had to change my camera settings to my liking, but couldn't find them immediately.  I figured the camera settings would be under controls, but they're actually under Video.   
 
I also turned off 'Double-tap to Dash' almost immediately due to the twitchy nature of how I move using WASD. Happy to see the default dodge-dash key is V, the same as GW2!   Had to change the A and D keys to strafe left and right instead of turn left and right. Not really sure how anyone could survive this game by keyboard turning.   But I guess it's a thing for some people? Regardless, it shouldn't be the default.    
 
Noticed the flashing icon on the bottom left, near the options bar. Takes you to the cash store, which is nicely laid out. No real explanation for what cosmic points are, but I guess it's a reward system for buying stuff.  
 
Madam Fay's fortunes is some kind of gambling similar to lockboxes from other games? Props for having a confirmation to make sure you accidentally buy more coins if you don't want. Cons:  No real obvious way to get out of the Madam Fay screen other than a tiny X in the top right of the screen, and the ESC button on your keyboard. 
 
Took me a little bit to remember what the keybind for the character screen was(it's the P key). I'm immediately assaulted by a giant list of attributes.  The mouseover tooltips are mostly useful, and many of the character attributes are pretty self-explanitory. Strikethrough still doesn't make sense. There's no way to know how much you need just from looking at it on the character screen. No explanation of what Focus does.
 
One thing I immediately noticed was the lack of enemy healthbars or nameplates above their heads.  Again, I expected it to be under "Combat", but I guess it has it's own section below. The interface for it is nice and clean, very easy to understand and change settings.  
 
Tutorial pop-ups were up out of the way in the top right of the screen. I didn't even notice they were there until I was level 4.  
 
Overall I really do like the new intro.  It serves as a quick refresher on movement and basics if you're a returning player, as well as a better story intro to give the player context for the beginning player experience. And if you're new to the game, it covers the basic concepts of the gameplay pretty well. 
 
Levels 2 and 3 get dumped on you very quickly for completing tutorial missions on the Arcship.  Total time to complete was probably around a half hour, given all the initial messing around with the settings to customize it to my liking. After completing the opening tutorial area on the Arcship, I chose to go to Crimson Badlands, which is where I'm at during the time of the post.   EDIT:  How can you NOT like these guys? ;3 
EDIT:  I should have mentioned that I would have put this in the Esper forums, but I felt it was more of a general review of the game rather than a specific review of the Esper class.
			
				
	Edited October 21, 2015 by Elite Seraph	
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			I've seen something similar in hearthstone where a player decided to climb the ranks with no real money expenses to prove people wrong, have a nice adventure ^_^, curious to see how you experience the game.	
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Crimson Badlands: 
 
One of the first things I'm noticing is that the acquisition and flow of questing is very smooth. There's very little need to run back and forth just to get and turn in quests. That's something I really appreciate in a modern MMO.  I noticed there's lots of new players running around. Plenty of people to see doing quests, but no interferance or tagging issues. I can help kill things, or people can help me, and it doesn't hurt my quest progression.  
 
Recieved a quest to use a Rune, but with VERY little instruction.  Figured it out by Ctr-Right Clicking the piece of gear and selecting the 'Edit Runes' option.  That could maybe use a popup tooltip or short instruction maybe. 
 
Got my first couple of challenges.  I like the new heads-up tracker. But the reward system seems a little weird. I guess it's just a bar that fills up and you get to pick your reward? Not sure what the effect of repeating challenges will have on progress. Guess I'll have to test that out later.   Ahhh....I see now.  Once the bar for a zone is full, it resets and starts over.  And being a subscriber means you get more progress from challenges.  For the first difference between F2P and sub, that's not bad. 
 
Soldier missions are boring as hell. LOL!  Good exp I guess, tho. Completed a world event to kill the Warbot and got some kind of score screen. No idea what any of it was good for, not even sure if there was loot involved. 
 
That's pretty much it for Crimson Badlands.  So far it's a cakewalk, as expected.  Total time for completion was about 50 minutes.  On to Deradune!
			
				
	Edited October 18, 2015 by Elite Seraph	
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Deradune(Part 1): 
 
First thing I notice upon arriving is nice red highlighted text in my quest tracker telling me about the Nexus Content Finder. Pretty nice little feature. I queued up for Walatiki Temple, 
and immediately see that once I close the window there's no way to track how long I've been in the queue.  There's not ANY indication that I'm even in a queue at all, even though it popped several
minutes later.  
 
I have to be honest...PVP at level 6 when the queue popped was probably some of the least fun I've ever had in a PVP game.  Even with a PVP damage buff I wasn't able to hardly scratch enemies. 
Stunning, dodging, landing telegraphs, and basically not failing to do my job.  But when 5 people are pounding on a single person and it still takes like 30 seconds to drop them? yeah....that's
really not so fun.  I did not win the match, but still got a bag of loot.  I'm not sure what message this sends..... 
 
Back to Deradune. Picked up a 2 hour mount liscense for 5 silver. Seems very cheap. Not sure what this is meant to do, since a player could just keep buying these things. Why not just give them
a cheap, slow, permanent mount instead of the hassle?  However, it IS a raptor that can double-jump, which is pretty freakin awesome! 
 
 
Encountered  MAC, the noob-bot who does a valuable service of not only telling me my class can heal, but offering to let me 'practice'. lulz.  Sadly, I think this sort of thing is kind of needed, 
especially with classes that heal with telegraphs.   
 
First 'Expedition'(Ship-Hand) mission is available: Fragment Zero. Solo instance, prety easy, although kind of annoying with all those low HP enemies only worth 1 exp each.  Gold rewards a support
weapon.... wooo...feel my excitement?   -_-     
 
Ran into my first bout of serious lag. 2 second spikes where nothing happens, then all your abilities fire off at once. Makes interrupting anything pretty difficult. Hopefully as I get further into the higher level 
zones this'll clear up a bit.  Noob areas tend to be overloaded with new players. The lag caused a bug with the exploding rhino quest.  The thing blew up, but my hotbars stayed stuck on the 
UI for the quest.  Couldn't move, had to restart Wildstar. 
 
Another thing I noticed about Deradune is that it virtually assaults you with quests. Every time I move more then 20 feet I swear a new quest pops up. That's both good and bad, I think.  On the one hand
you always have something to do. On the other it could be a tremendous time-waster if you're not good at prioritizing.  I can't even imagine reading ALL these quests, either.  By being just a little bit overlevel
I was able to plow through them super fast. 
 
Got a Protostar Games run after only a minute in the queue as DPS. The group did surprisingly well. Only wiped on two bosses.  People Only made the same mistake once before learning. I was pleasantly surprised. 
I honestly expected a facerolling mess of low-skill wipe after wipe after wipe.  If this is the type of player that Wildstar is attracting with F2P, I have high hopes for the future. The dungeon itself did a fantastic job of reinforcing the basics with increasingly more advanced techniques.  I think it's a good introduction for what future group content can be expected. 
 
			
				
	Edited October 19, 2015 by Elite Seraph	
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			Good read, pls keep updating!	
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Deradune part II: Return of the Lag
 
The lag came back in force around 7pm PST.  I guess even on a sunday night people are making the most of the weekend. Carbine or NCsoft, or whoever needs to really get a handle on this. Tolerant players like
myself know it'll get fixed eventually, but there is a pretty large part of the playerbase that finds any kind of lag to be completely intolerable. And in a game like Wildstar where so much of the action is based
on reaction time, high latency is the one thing that will outright KILL your game.  
 
On the positive side, the game appears to be regularly throwing Omni-coins at me. Not sure if they're random drops, or from completion of parts of the game, or what.  I don't actually even know what they're
for, but I'm assuming it has something to do with the cash shop. 
 
I ran into the first instance of not having enough bagspace. Part of the problem of forgetting about salvaging and having waaaaay too many quests rolling all at once.  I missed a few and had to backtrack to do
quests that were too low level to give exp even.  I'm all for sandbox style freedom, but maybe a little bit better quest flow in Deradune might be warranted. However, I will say that with all the running back and 
forth I did find a lot of quests that I might not otherwise encountered if I'd just quested in a straight line. So maybe it's not that bad after all. 
 
Soldier missions remain exceedingly blunt.  "Take poison.  Use on Aurin."   Hard to argue with that. xD  
 
The lag is persistently sticking around.  Spikes aren't nearly as often, but they're still happening late into the evening. The last one was at 10:13pm PST.  
 
I also clicked on the "Rapid Transport" button next to the minimap. Quick teleportation around the map for a fee.  Very nice!  That didn't used to be in the game. Saves the hassle when you REALLLLLLY don't what
to haul your furry butt across the map on foot. I'll call it a night here and pick up tomorrow.  EDIT:  I should point out that while I do note the lag as being a problem in this log, most of the time the game runs just fine.  But the occasional spikes cause some minor annoyance. Human nature is to notice when things are going wrong, not all the rest of the time when things are good.   
			
				
	Edited October 19, 2015 by Elite Seraph	
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			love the screenshots!	
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			Probably my favorite thread on here, the pictures are great.	
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Deradune Part III:  
 
So far every 'group'  quest I've received has been very easily soloable. I'm not sure if this is a result of me being slightly over-level for the quest, personal skill, or simply that the lower level group quests
are meant to be easy.  Hopefully group quests will remain soloable in the future, but only if you play VERY well.  On a side note, I haven't seen a single 'prime' enemy anywhere. Did these get removed from
the game?  
 
Backtracked and completed some more soldier missions. I unlocked the helmet, which is super awesome on Chua. 
 
 
Looks like Wildstar is kicking off their Halloween event: Shade's Eve.  I guess you have to go to the capital city(Illium or thayd) to participate? Can't be bothered to stop leveling for that!   UPDATE:  
was able to queue up for it even though I was only level 13. I guess it scales up?  This is a weird instance.  Gotta run through the dark with all your class abilities replaced with 3 basic ones: Flashlight,
Anti-ghost thing, and signal flare. Run around in the dark til you find a rally point, then do some pretty bog standard quest-style stuff:  Click here, run there. Fight some bosses.  In the end it's pretty easy, 
and I got a cool chest piece, but it's a pretty garish shade of green. Totally doesn't match my eyes, yo.   xD Might have to keep doing it til I get all the pieces. Not sure if I'm OCD enough for that tho. 
 
Doing that event pushed me even further over-level for Deradune, however. At level 14 now, and most everything is level 10-11.  Just makes finishing up the rest of the zone that much easier, I guess.   Sadly I have to go earn some real life money at this point. To be continued:
			
				
	Edited October 19, 2015 by Elite Seraph	
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			I'm gonna /bump this because it's so cool! I want it to stay on the front page.	
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I really, really miss the Primes as well.  They added some danger (or challenge, if you were that type of player :P) to the open world.  Now they are gone and it's much more boring.  I mean, there's a *handfull* of them, but the ones that remain aren't hard. Generally, It goes something like: Pull horde of mobs.  Faceroll for 10 secs.  Why is that creature still standing? Oh, it's prime.  I guess I'll finish killing and get some extra xp.
 
Previously, you had to be on top of your game to solo them while leveling, but it could still be done.  That was a sweet spot imo.  It forced situational awareness of what you were pulling.  Now I just chain pull everything in sight.
 
Group quests were definately over-nerfed, they don't get harder as you level up.  I can see reducing them from requiring 5 ppl, but they don't even come close to needing a group at all now.	
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			Deradune Part Iv: We're STILL here?     Running around the Falkrin area is kind of cool. If you run into the whirlwinds, instead of taking damage like most red circles on the ground, you get launched into the air. Lets you skip past a lot of annoying terrain and potential fights. It also lets you see the terrain from a whole new perspective, which is neat. I still haven't felt like I ever needed to use fast travel yet.  The rented mount gets you around pretty quick, and I feel like even though I'm backtracking and criss-crossing across the map a lot, every time I do that I seem to find some new quest, or soldier mission, or something else cool.  So it doesn't feel like I'm wasting time at all.    I think I might also becoming a little bit of a psychopath. Every time I see a new creature I kill it to see if it starts a challenge or drops a quest item.  >_>   Maybe playing a chua is rubbing off on me..... On that note, here's something funny about the presentation of quests:  Conservationist Caius is all "Ohhh! Those damn poachers must be stopped! They're killing too many animals."  Then, in the exact same area of the quest there's a challenge that has you more or less exterminate every animal within a square mile.  Yes Caius, I'll stop those evil EVIL 'poachers' for you! xD   The second Expedition, "Outpost M-13" was so stupid faceroll easy.  The team of three I had for it just ran through and pulled as many enemies as possible then used AOE to clean up. Granted, it's normal mode, low level group content, so I don't really blame it for being so easy. But it seems like it would have been nice to at least present a LITTLE challenge.  I guess that comes later in level-cap instances, though.  I'm now at level 15, which unlocked the 'Halls of the Bloodsworn'  PVP battleground. But I have absolutely no interest in doing it after how ineffective I was in Walatiki Temple.  Getting close to the end of the zone, and  finally some actual relevant story! First encounter with "The Caretaker". I never noticed before, but he looks a LOT like the holo image of the Emperor.  Coincidence?   What's really odd is that I literally ran out of quests to do in Deradune. It wasn't until I ran around to some spots on the map that I hadn't explored that I found more quests and path missions. IIRC this was always kind of a problem with Wildstar. Well...if you even consider it to BE a problem. Rewarding exploration with more content is kind of good, IMHO. But if you don't like exploring you'd miss out, I guess. Not everyone is a completionist I suppose.  And that finally wraps it up for Deradune.  Big place. Reminds me a lot of the barrens, only with less Chuck Norris jokes and more space aliens and robots. Which...now that I think about it....actually isn't like the barrens at all. Final set of selfies for Deradune gear. Finished at level 16, and it took a bit longer than I expected.  Chua...are an odd bunch, but I'm starting to really like em. And don't worry, I'll update at least once a day unless the servers die, or my internet connection explodes.  This is turning out to be a lot of fun for me.  EDIT:  Honorable mention:  Can I give a shout-out to the complete and utter madness of the challenge where your job is to kill as many sentient vegetables as possible in the time given?  WTF were you Carbine guys smoking? ROFL!!! 
			
				
	Edited October 21, 2015 by Elite Seraph	
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			Posting to show my support. This was an excellent read.	
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			Your chua looks adorable Seraph	
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Your chua looks adorable Seraph
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Speaking of which...
 
Olivar, you are the person who knows all about the chua. I would like to make one that looks somewhat (but not too much) feminine without resorting to the long eyelashes and pink fur combination. I know that the chua are not supposed to have obvious external differences between the sexes but however I customize mine, it either looks very masculine or very feminine. Any ideas?
 
(Apologies for going a bit off-topic here!)
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			This is actually a really fun read. o_o. I look forward to more. As a new player to Wildstar it's kinda nice to see a more experienced player's perspective when taking the game on with "Fresh eyes".
			
				
	Edited October 21, 2015 by Faded Lich	
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{| class="blockquote"
Eh....
Eum....I don't really know...
Try big eyes and soft edges for cheeks etc?
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{| class="blockquote"
Speaking of which...
 
Olivar, you are the person who knows all about the chua. I would like to make one that looks somewhat (but not too much) feminine without resorting to the long eyelashes and pink fur combination. I know that the chua are not supposed to have obvious external differences between the sexes but however I customize mine, it either looks very masculine or very feminine. Any ideas?
 
(Apologies for going a bit off-topic here!)
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			Really enjoying this thread!	
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Due to the recent 'reboot' of Wildstar going F2P, I've decided to give it the full range of experience in order to re-evaluate where the game is at. To this end I've started a completely new character, and I will not give any support from other characters in terms of loot or plat. I intend to play almost exclusively solo from level 1 to 50, with only the occasional forey into group instances if the queue pops while I'm in the correct level range.   I'd stream or record video for Youtube, but honestly I'm not sure my computer could handle it on top of the strain that WIldstar puts on it.  I haven't upgraded in a couple years. So text log it is!  
 
What I'd like to see is how well the F2P model holds up for a solo player of moderate skill and experience with MMOs.  Everything from leveling speed, to gear aquirement, to customizing the UI and addons.   I'll keep a log of anything I see that merits noting, but if you guys see anything I've missed, or would like me to try something specific out, please drop a post.  
 
I'll be playing as a Chua esper(Soldier Path), because insane rodent space wizards are pretty damn awesome.  The last time I played Wildstar with any kind of seriousness was back during...drop 3, I think?  Anyway, it's been awhile, so I feel like I'll have something of a clean pallette to base my experiences on. I'm sure some of the muscle memory will kick in after awhile, but I'll basically be re-learning the game almost from scratch.   
 
I don't intend to read quest descriptions, because I feel like the strength of Wildstar is in it's gameplay, not it's story. The setting is background for what's really fun, IMHO.  And if I REALLY want the lore and story for context, there's always the wiki. Anyway, here we go:  
 
(BE ADVISED!  THIS LOG MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS AT VARIOUS POINTS!  I WILL NOT REFRAIN FROM TALKING ABOUT KEY STORY ELEMENTS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!) 
I will try my best to put up a spoiler warning before anything super critical, but I make no promises.
 
Level 1:
Character created on 10/18/2015 at ~12:20pm PST, Sunday.   
 
Novice Tutorial:  The first thing I noticed was the info on the bottom right side of the screen: Nearby Players and Events. Not much explanation of what it is, but it's pretty clearly a quest/task tracker of some kind.   I also immediately had to change my camera settings to my liking, but couldn't find them immediately.  I figured the camera settings would be under controls, but they're actually under Video.   
 
I also turned off 'Double-tap to Dash' almost immediately due to the twitchy nature of how I move using WASD. Happy to see the default dodge-dash key is V, the same as GW2!   Had to change the A and D keys to strafe left and right instead of turn left and right. Not really sure how anyone could survive this game by keyboard turning.   But I guess it's a thing for some people? Regardless, it shouldn't be the default.    
 
Noticed the flashing icon on the bottom left, near the options bar. Takes you to the cash store, which is nicely laid out. No real explanation for what cosmic points are, but I guess it's a reward system for buying stuff.  
 
Madam Fay's fortunes is some kind of gambling similar to lockboxes from other games? Props for having a confirmation to make sure you accidentally buy more coins if you don't want. Cons:  No real obvious way to get out of the Madam Fay screen other than a tiny X in the top right of the screen, and the ESC button on your keyboard. 
 
Took me a little bit to remember what the keybind for the character screen was(it's the P key). I'm immediately assaulted by a giant list of attributes.  The mouseover tooltips are mostly useful, and many of the character attributes are pretty self-explanitory. Strikethrough still doesn't make sense. There's no way to know how much you need just from looking at it on the character screen. No explanation of what Focus does.
 
One thing I immediately noticed was the lack of enemy healthbars or nameplates above their heads.  Again, I expected it to be under "Combat", but I guess it has it's own section below. The interface for it is nice and clean, very easy to understand and change settings.  
 
Tutorial pop-ups were up out of the way in the top right of the screen. I didn't even notice they were there until I was level 4.  
 
Overall I really do like the new intro.  It serves as a quick refresher on movement and basics if you're a returning player, as well as a better story intro to give the player context for the beginning player experience. And if you're new to the game, it covers the basic concepts of the gameplay pretty well. 
 
Levels 2 and 3 get dumped on you very quickly for completing tutorial missions on the Arcship.  Total time to complete was probably around a half hour, given all the initial messing around with the settings to customize it to my liking. After completing the opening tutorial area on the Arcship, I chose to go to Crimson Badlands, which is where I'm at during the time of the post.    
EDIT:  How can you NOT like these guys? ;3
 
 
 
 
EDIT:  I should have mentioned that I would have put this in the Esper forums, but I felt it was more of a general review of the game rather than a specific review of the Esper class.
 
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Only a super short update today. I put my phone through the wash and so I've gotta go deal with that instead of playing Wildstar today.  :(  
Illium part II, The Day After(patch day):
 
 
So wow....did you guys read the patch notes? They updated and fixed a LOT of stuff!  So much for all the complainers saying Carbine isn't doing anything!  
 
So one of the things I've noticed about Illium is that everything is covered in holiday crap. Neon green trim everywhere, pumpkins, scarecrows.  Blah blah blah.  Call me a hater, but I never do get into these holiday events much. 
I think if there weren't any rewards involved, I probably wouldn't bother. But I get that people like this kind of stuff, and it does break up the monotony of the capital city. I suppose I should give the event
objectives a once-over, just for posterior(that's a clever way of saying it's ass, get it?).   The first thing I noticed is there are a LOT of people around the holiday vendor area. That's good. However, there
are SO MANY people that it makes doing some of the objectives a little annoying. I'm not a fan, but that shouldn't be a surprise given my normal opinion of holiday events. 
 
Purchased my first permanent mount. 10g.  Of course I went with the chua-ball!  I noticed a lot of giant, fat, yellow cats floating around the city.  When I asked about it people said it was a Snarfulophagus or something,
and the only way to get it is a 1/3 chance by purchasing the Wildstar box?  Can anyone confirm that? Seems like a stupid use of RNG if it's true.  	
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This mount is called a Snarflynx.
 
Yes, the way you get it is by purchasing a physical box copy of the game. You enter the code from your physical box, and receive a mystery box in game. This contains either the cat mount, a hoverboard, or a marauders costume.
 
(the box also gives 12,000 cosmic points and a month of signature status). This promotion started well before f2p, it is meant to clear the boxes off the shelves since carbine is not making anymore boxes. It's worth noting however, you should check the AH for the snarflynx. I actually bought my first snarflynx off the auction house myself. (buuut as a low level you probably do not have a lot of plat, so, there's that)
			
				
	Edited October 22, 2015 by Kezra	
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{| class="blockquote"
 
 
 
This mount is called a Snarflynx.
 
Yes, the way you get it is by purchasing a physical box copy of the game. You enter the code from your physical box, and receive a mystery box in game. This contains either the cat mount, a hoverboard, or a marauders costume.
 
(the box also gives 12,000 cosmic points and a month of signature status). This promotion started well before f2p, it is meant to clear the boxes off the shelves since carbine is not making anymore boxes. It's worth noting however, you should check the AH for the snarflynx. I actually bought my first snarflynx off the auction house myself. (buuut as a low level you probably do not have a lot of plat, so, there's that)
 
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That's.....an interesting way of doing things I guess...
 
I'm still not even certain what cosmic points are, or how you use them. Same goes for omnibits. I'm assuming they're somehow tied to the F2P store.
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Love this thread, and nice to have you back around the forums.
 
Please carry on updating, I've really enjoyed your adventure so far.
 
I went with the default pink fur, big eyes for a female chua, but she looks so innocent and sweet(ish) for a maniacal killing machine...
We should be able to choose whether to use female or male models of clothes on our chua! pls crabene	
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I agree this is a lot of fun to read. Also nice to read the thoughts of another returning player.
 
As for the Snarflynx, don't let it get to you. Those of us who bought the digital copy on release got other stuff, but (as far as I know) no shot at it ourselves.	
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Illium Part III:  Alpha Sanctum (minor spoilers ahead)  Can I just say how good it is to have a capital city hub with banks, crafting, mail, vendors, etc....that also actually has stuff to do like challenges and quests?  Instead of just being hive of scum andvillainy where lag is the currency, it actually has relevance.   SPOILERS AHEAD 
On that subject, we get into some real deep story/lore stuff with Alpha Sanctum, a single-player story instance in Illium.  Kill a few mobs, click some stuff, get some story.  The best part is that the story talksvia recordings while you go about your business.  This is the way to do it, Carbine.  Don't stop us from playing to read a wall of text.  Talk to use WHILE we're playing.    So...there's this guy:  who we get absolutely no explanation about who he is.  And a little bit later on is the first time you get to see Drusera.Although I think it's hilarious that as she teleports in it's a total upskirt camera angle(No I didn't take a screenshot you pervs!).  Showing off that divine ass, Carbine?  LOL!  She doesn't actually do anything besides say "DO YOU SEE?!?!?!"  and then take off again.  Which really only makes you wonder what's going on. I suppose that's the entire point.
 I went to my housing plot.  The most useful thing I see is that there's a vendor right there inside which I used to buy bigger bags using renown(which I can't remember how I got, but w/e). I purchased a garden so I can unload all these seeds I've picked up along the way questing. I didn't actually go into the whole nine-yards of building a crazy customized home. But I can see how people would donothing but waste hour after hour setting up the perfect housing plot.    Not really my cup of tea, since I'm more utilitarian.  Vendors for selling and repairing, and a place to unload extra junk thatI gather out in the world.   Perfect.   There used to also be a daily buff vendor, but I didn't see it anywhere. Was it removed? Relocated?  Turned into a cash-store item?  It's not as though I need it since I'm already ahead on levels. But I'd liketo know.   Then I went trick or treating in other people's housing plots.  The first place I went was "Universal Chua Resort".  DAaaaaayummm.....This guy went all out. He had built a movie theater with tiered seating. He had the Caretaker busting out techno music. A dance floor with lopps, a smoke room full of hookas, a balcony facing out towards the starlit sky with fireworks, and a damn ferris wheel?     I am impressed! I also went to the plot "Fort Kickass", which I expected to be...well...Kick Ass.  It was an empty plot with a candy bowl underneath a carboard box trap.....   -_-  Nice try, dude. Chua is too smart for that.  Let me tell you, getting the 100% trick or treat quest done was kind of a pain.  Lots of different housing plots, and searching for one that had that last type of candy took awhile. But I did get to see a lot of cool plots, so that's something I guess.  And that wraps it up for Illium. I did run the Shade's Eve expedition again(since I got a quest for it). Hardly any loot from the trash mobs, and only a couple decor items at the end. This is why I hate RNG drops. :(  Well...next stop: Auroria!EDIT: HOLY CHUA BALLZ BATMAN!  Getting the spoiler window to actually work correctly was dumb.  uhg...
			
				
	Edited October 22, 2015 by Elite Seraph	
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I think I'm okay with the trick or treat thing because it encourages you to either, A) see a bunch of housing plots or B) talk to people in zone for a streamlined list of buckets.
 
So, you socialize! cooooool :D
 
but yeah, its not super clear and can take a lot of hunting
 
edit: Damn you sunglasses emoticon!!! B I meant B
			
				
	Edited October 22, 2015 by Kezra	
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Auroria part 1:  Farmers and Peasants
 
Yup...nothing more epic and exciting that travelling across the galaxy to an alien planet to help peasants and farmers with their diseases.  But at least it's a target rich environment. Individual enemies aren't threatening, but I'm finding new challenge is rounding up as many targets as I can. There's the direct part about staying alive(which isn't actually all that hard). And there's also the part about actually getting and keeping enough enemies in range for AOE attacks.  It's kind of fun.  
 
Still getting quests left and right.  Every time I find one quest, there's another one just on the edge of the minimap, and I feel compelled to go get it immediately. Of course....this leads to killing more stuff, and going to new areas, which leads to more stuff.  It's kind of good that I'm playing a chua, cause other races might seem a little weird to be mass-murdering stuff like this.  But with a chua? Meh...just yell "FOR SCIENCE!"  every now and then and you're ok.   
 
 
 
			
				
	Edited October 23, 2015 by Elite Seraph	
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Yup...nothing more epic and exciting that travelling across the galaxy to an alien planet to help peasants and farmers with their diseases.
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I really, really miss the Primes as well.  They added some danger (or challenge, if you were that type of player :P) to the open world.  Now they are gone and it's much more boring.  I mean, there's a *handfull* of them, but the ones that remain aren't hard. Generally, It goes something like: Pull horde of mobs.  Faceroll for 10 secs.  Why is that creature still standing? Oh, it's prime.  I guess I'll finish killing and get some extra xp.
 
Previously, you had to be on top of your game to solo them while leveling, but it could still be done.  That was a sweet spot imo.  It forced situational awareness of what you were pulling.  Now I just chain pull everything in sight.
 
Group quests were definately over-nerfed, they don't get harder as you level up.  I can see reducing them from requiring 5 ppl, but they don't even come close to needing a group at all now.
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.   :( Can anyone confirm that? Seems like a stupid use of RNG if it's true.  
 
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My SO and I bought physical copies from Gamestop to accomplish this. If your local GS stores in your area still have them, they're selling for $4.99 each. You can't beat that price (other than free I suppose). We each paid $20 and bought four boxes each. We both received the GlitterKitty Cruiser Hoverboard package, the Marauder Pirate Outfit, and the Snarfelynx. This completed the 'Kitty-Captain' achievement for us both, gave us both signature until 2016, and enough cosmic points to be in Tier V/VI. She received an extra marauder outfit, and I have an extra GlitterKitty cruiser, both of which we plan to sell for platinum.
 
Not a bad deal for $20 and totally worth it to us.
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I might have scoured my entire state and purchased every copy Gamestop had in my area. Maybe. I admit nothing.
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Auroria Part II: Bugs?  
 
Ran into my first bugged quest today. It was pretty minor. The quest name was just listed as a number [15], and when I clicked to see the quest text, it was just "You must serve the empire".  It's funny, because 
while this is clearly a bug, effectively it's the same as every other quest I do because I don't read the text anyway.  xD   
 
And I know I was complaining about helping farmers and peasants, but I just did a quest where I was literally pulling weeds.  Come on now, Carbine. That's taking it a little too far, isn't it? 	
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Auroria Part II: Bugs?  
 
Ran into my first bugged quest today. It was pretty minor. The quest name was just listed as a number [15], and when I clicked to see the quest text, it was just "You must serve the empire".  It's funny, because 
while this is clearly a bug, effectively it's the same as every other quest I do because I don't read the text anyway.  xD   
 
And I know I was complaining about helping farmers and peasants, but I just did a quest where I was literally pulling weeds.  Come on now, Carbine. That's taking it a little too far, isn't it? 
 
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Auroria Part III:  More bugs?  
 
Actually,  the bugs in question are bees.  I've upgraded from helping farmers to helping Protostar...which...is actually a downgrade, now that I think about it.  It's a good thing that I don't actually care much about lore or story, otherwise this might bother me.  The progression from the level 1 story about how you're special and here to discover the secrets of the elden, too...this pleb nonsense busywork is almost offensive.  There was one tiny area where I blew up some Aurin base using the launch code 1337, but so far that's been the highlight of Auroria.   I'll grant that a LOT of this stuff is tasks and not actual story or regional missions. But someone less tolerant than me, or more interested in the primary story of Nexus, might get frustrated with this.
 
On a completely unrelated note, I spent a little time on the auction house for some costume pieces.  Can I just say how much better the costume system is than the early days after launch?  Easy to unlock items, easy to access from anywhere without having to go to a vendor. My only real complaint is the cost of dying items, and that dyes are not account wide. But that's all cosmetic crap anyway, so I'm actually ok with it.  
 
So here's the interesting part. Despite being ahead on levels going into Auraria, the quests have finally caught up to me. I'm level 19, the quests are level 19.  And I don't THINK I missed anything anywhere, but I suppose there might be a quest hub hiding somewhere.  I'm actually kind of glad I spent so much time slaying everything in sight now, because otherwise I'd now be BEHIND the curve.  It's a weird system Carbine has set up for questing, although I suspect that part of the problem is my fault for the way that I complete objectives.  	
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Auroria part IV: Group content
 
Soooo....I ran the big event at the end of Auroria. Following an NPC around killing stuff and doing objectives.  Took maybe 15-20 minutes.  I did everything solo and it didn't seem that difficulty at all. The rewards at the end were garbage, worse than regular drops I've gotten previously. So I'm not really sure what the point was. Got an achievement I guess, and some experience, some coin, and a little bit of material drops.   I don't think I'd ever repeat it.  
 
Jumped into the "Riot in the Void" adventure. It was also very easy, and unsurprisingly....the loot was also bad.  I'm trying to figure out what Carbine's game plan is here.  Group content so far seems like a giant waste of time and effort.  It's all experience in the end, I guess, and this IS low level content. So maybe it's not supposed to be difficult, or even remotely challenging. After that I jumped into a Stormtalon run. Slightly more difficult, but not altogether faceroll. A good step up from protostar games and Riot in the Void, and pretty enjoyable.  But still no loot or any other noticeable gains.    
 
That's it for Auroria. Coulda used some more good story, but I guess that's what the mysterious portal in the capital city is for.  Some more info on Dru and primal energies, nothing fancy. Although she does make a Star Wars reference, which is cool.  
 
Ran the shades eve instance for the daily and got the pants. They're so snazzy! And...green!  
			
				
	Edited October 26, 2015 by Elite Seraph	
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Whitevale Part I: Level progress
 
Just like in Auroria, the level of quests seems out of synch with my own progress.  Or rather, the only reason I'm actually the correct level for the quests in Whitevale(lvl 23) is because I've literally done
EVERYTHING so far. All the tasks, all the quests, all the adventures and dungeons.  I imagine someone who wasn't as OCD when it comes to finishing things might be behind.  Although there are the experience runes
that I haven't been using, and I only just now joined a guild for that exp bonus too. So maybe it would even out.  
 
So here we are, in the snow-covered land of Whitevale.  Quite a change from the savannahs of Deradune, and the farmlands of Auroria. But since there's so much snow, I picked up a hoverboard. It seemed appropriate.  
 
But when I tried to do the quests for the hoverboard event, apparently it had already ended. This resulted in me travelling across the map and trying to reach waypoints that were impossible to get to without the boosts. I didn't know this until after I'd wasted 15 minutes trying to get to spots, and eventually looked up the run on youtube.  But part of me wonders....why do these hoverboard quest events even expire? This seems like a very cool thing to do, so why take it OUT of the game?  Makes no sense to me, but w/e.  
 
Nothing much else to report so far in Whitevale. Lots of quests to knock down, but nothing that really stands out.  There was one mission inside a poisoned cave where you use a hazmat suit that I thought was a little interesting. Chua in hazmat suits with cat-ears are....beyond cute! And a nice detail:  Inside the poisoned cave there's a cage with a dead bird. This is the way miners used to tell if they'd hit a pocket of poisonous air while digging deep into the earth. They'd keep a canary in a cage, and because it was so tiny the gas would effect it first. If it died they knew to get out as fast as possible. Kind of grim! EDIT:  For those of you who are saying that the lag makes the game 'unplayable'  on Entity. Stop.  It's annoying, but it's not game breaking.  The way I see it, either stop playing until they fix it if you can't handle it, or just keep playing and having fun despite it. But either way, quit blowing it out of proportion. Really.....
			
				
	Edited October 27, 2015 by Elite Seraph	
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Aw your chua looks so cool with a hoverboard all dressed up for whitevale.
 
And I agree about the lag, it's annoying but playable.
 
Shame you didn't get chance to do the hoverboard event, I hope they'll bring new ones to us soon!	
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			I prefer not to have annoyance in my relaxing entertainment. If I wanted annoying I'd play mobas with immature wankers. I hope WildStar can provide an annoyance free experience.	
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			You can get a slight XP bonus by adding the 2 step verification to yout account too...  I can't remember if you said you did that or not tho.	
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I actually have used the authenticator in the past, but because I spend so much time logging in from my phone, it became a real hassle when combined with how often the forums force you to re-log. 
 
But strangely enough, by the time I hit lvl25 I was back ahead of the exp curve again. Most quests are marked as lvl 23. And I should note that I stopped actively seeking out all challenges, because there are just too many. I do whichever ones pop up in the course of questing, but that's it.
 
I think that if I added in exp runes and the authenticator and maybe a potion, I'd be able to skip a lot of tasks.	
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I actually have used the authenticator in the past, but because I spend so much time logging in from my phone, it became a real hassle when combined with how often the forums force you to re-log. 
 
But strangely enough, by the time I hit lvl25 I was back ahead of the exp curve again. Most quests are marked as lvl 23. And I should note that I stopped actively seeking out all challenges, because there are just too many. I do whichever ones pop up in the course of questing, but that's it.
 
I think that if I added in exp runes and the authenticator and maybe a potion, I'd be able to skip a lot of tasks.
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Whitevale Part II:  The Slog
 
Sorry guys, not a lot to really report in Whitevale.  I haven't had nearly as much time to play as I expected this week, and Whitevale is pretty dull, all things considered. Lots of "kill X"  or "click x"  quests.  I've been in the queue for adventures for quite awhile now.  Not sure if it's because I'm DPS or because I play during the off hours, but the wait to get a group so far has lasted longer than my playing sessions.  I usually sit down for 45 minutes to an hour in one go, then get up and take a break for a bit. I was able to get into a group for the level 25 expedition pretty quick: "Rage Logic".  Which was surprisingly easy and fast.  I honestly think the idea of group content that doesn't REQUIRE a tank/healer is a better design. But I'm pretty biased when it comes to this kind of stuff.   Not a fan of the trinity at all.  xD Finished Whitevale right at level 30.   
Anyway, since I don't have much in the way of actual experiences to share, here's an awesome screenshot of my Chua powering up.   :)   Now that I've got some costume pieces and some dyes to work with, I've actually been spending a lot of time with the costume system. I think it's pretty awesome that you can make your character look super badass, even before level cap.  Most games screw you in that regard, forcing you to wear rags until you're 100 hours into the game.  But Wildstar...yeah. Doin it right, in this case.   As a side note, I haven't experienced any of the costume bugs other people have reported.  Haven't lost any dyes, or costume pieces, resulting in expensive do-overs.    Just lucky I guess. On the plus side I haven't noticed a single lagspike over the past few days.  Either I'm getting lucky again, or Carbine fixed whatever was causing it.  Either way I'm not going to complain.    EDIT:  One thing I've noticed:  Wildstar does a pretty poor job of letting you know when you've looted an item that starts a quest. I've gone entire levels before checking my bags to clean up and make space at a vendor, only to find a quest-starting item there from halfway across the zone.  Seems like there should be a better way.  Maybe an addon or something? Oh well, that's enough for today.  Stay away from the salt, Space Cowboys, and I'll see you next time.   Good night, Wildstar!  
			
				
	Edited November 1, 2015 by Elite Seraph	
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			Love it!	
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			This is probably my favorite thread in existance. Amazing work, amazing screens, amazing character.Hopefully i get to shoot you in the face in the future.Aurin - Spellslinger - Ratchy Rushbolt D:
			
				
	Edited November 2, 2015 by Torguish	
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This is probably my favorite thread in existance. Amazing work, amazing screens, amazing character.
 
Hopefully i get to shoot you in the face in the future.
 
Aurin - Spellslinger - Ratchy Rushbolt D:
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Farside Part II: Random Random
 
Can I just say that there's something very satisfying about beating the omnibits out of monsters? These things seems to drop all the time. From monsters, from quests, from just walking into a new area sometimes(unless I'm confusing it for some other trigger).  It's like Carbine saying "thanks for playing our game, here's some stuff".  
 
So I was farming away at quest in Biodome 4(the desert area of Farside), and I did something scary and unusual: I talked to my guildies.  xD    We had a discussion about the nature of MMOs. Fundamental game mechanics and the difference between scaling systems and static linear leveling. Super-nerd stuff. But it was fun, so I guess it was worth it. 
 
Ok....challenges. Most challenges I generally like doing. It adds just a little bit of skill to an otherwise mindless grindfest of slaughtering enemies.  You're working against a timer, and there's various levels of success(fail/bronze/silver/gold).  Honestly I wish ALL quests worked this way, with the better you did at it, the greater your rewards.  Anyway, like I said, mostly I like them. However, there's one type of challenge that I abhor, and that's the type where you have to click on something then activate an ability while moving.  For whatever reason in WIldstar, literally half the time you click on something while moving it just won't register the click.  I think you need to have your mouse over the target for a half-second or something before it will register.   This makes challenges like the one in Biodome 4 where you have to use a grapple-gun to swing like tarzan from one spot to another extremely difficult. More difficult than intended, I believe, and it makes it EXTREMELY likely for me to rage when I fail because of bad design instead of my own failure.  
 
Another annoying thing:  Placing bases from the enemy faction in the middle of roads.  Seriously. Stop doing that.   There is no reason to have level 60 guards who one-shot people in the middle of a road between two areas, forcing you to go ridiculously out of your way due to terrain.   Maybe...MAYBE this would be ok if Wildstar was a PVP game with actual pvp objectives, and the guards weren't one-shot indestructible badassess.  Or at least make it so that on PVE servers, if you're not flagged for PVP that you can't attack or be attacked by the other faction's NPCs. 
 
Got my soldier chest piece for dominion. Not impressed. I honestly expected armor or something, but it was just a shirt with some medals on it. Kinda meh, and doesn't go with the helmet at all.  	
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EDIT:  One thing I've noticed:  Wildstar does a pretty poor job of letting you know when you've looted an item that starts a quest. I've gone entire levels before checking my bags to clean up and make space at a vendor, only to find a quest-starting item there from halfway across the zone.  Seems like there should be a better way.  Maybe an addon or something?
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			Great read, and love the screenshots. I think I the reason I am enjoying this thread so much is because I stopped doing the open world PVE in favor of PVP at around lvl10. Open world PVE quests are usually easy because they really don't expect you to group up for them...I'm saving the zone PVE for times when I just want to catch scenery instead of stressing about PVP or Vet dungeons. (which are very not solo-friendly)	
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Farside Part III:  The Darkness This isn't the first time WIldstar has used light and darkness. IIRc there's an expedition early on where you only have your head-lamp to show you where things are. But out in Farside during the space-zombie quests there's really good use of light and darkness. I wish more games would make use of environmental effects like this.  Low gravity + poor light can set the atmosphere and be used to all kinds of interesting puzzles and other challenges.  Too many games always have perfect lighting conditions where you can see everything perfectly.  Sorry for the largish screenshot below, but this part of the game virtually oozes atmosphere!  So dark and foreboding!     I found a crazy jump puzzle that I never knew existed, tucked back in the corner of the darkness in the zombie area. Pieces of the floor disappear, and you have to climb all the way to the top as part of a challenge.There's also a quest at the top and one of those data-cubes.  Pretty cool!    And on the topic of darkness, there's this guy:(Spoiler)
He just shows up with typical badguy flare, all dark and mysterious. Then...MWAHAHA! You fell for my trap card! Now I will leave my minions to fail at killing you!    He apparently thinks that turning a cute, cuddly chua into a killing machine is somehow going to work....  It's like putting a little kid in a batman costume. Such wow. Much violent.	
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			This thread is The Best. Give this guy some NCoins or something.	
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Wilderrun Part 1: Welcome to the jungle
 
Sorry guys, I finished up Farside without much fanfare. I swear you spend more time fighting random NPCs and monsters instead of the other faction. I'm playing dominion, and I swear the exiles might as well not 
even exist.  Why do we have two factions again?   Anyway, on to Wilderrun.
 
WITNESS ME!!!    Holy V8, greatest of all engines, grant me your power! 
 
Soo....can I just say how much I despise enemies with auto-attacks that don't use telegraphs? This is a skill-based game, IMHO, and all attacks should carry a skill component.  HATE HATE HATE  attacks that automatically hit 
you wihtout aiming, or without any way to avoid them.  It's the biggest flaw of Wildstar. It's right up there with unlimited respawning enemies.  
 
I tell you what, for some reason in Wilderrun I'm just not enjoying myself. None of the missions or quests seem fun. It's just more of the same.  I think it's just the monotony of the quests and that I've just had enough of doing the same thing over and over and over again. They're all the same at their core: Click this, go there, kill X. And the worst part about it is that none of it's even remotely challenging. Part of it's also because wilderrun is so frickin huge, with walls to seperate the areas that force you to run around in circles to get anywhere.   
 
Maybe I'll take a break for a few days and see if my tolerance for the game has built up a little. Sorry guys, I know a lot of people were really enjoying this thread, but I need to figure out what it is that's bothering me about the game. 	
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