The latest DevSpeak is revealed and Cyglaive sits down with Mike Donatelli to talk about these huge WildStar raids.

A set of controversial topics that have come up fairly regularly in regards to raiding, primarily thanks to the MMORPG World of Warcraft, are Flex raiding and LFR. If you’ve been following WildStar for a while then you probably know that the team has consistently said that they have no plans to add LFR, and according to Mike Donatelli, they have no plans to add any type of “flexible raiding system” to the game either.

“We talked about it quite a bit actually, and I think I can definitively say that we have no plans of adding the flex system. These [raids]… we made it hard and that’s how it’s going to be. The hope is that people who have grouped together through the game, those who have leveled up and played the 20-man and get into the 40-man—it’s  going to take 40 [players] to do it and it’s going to be hard, that’s why we did it.”

In regards to these raids being difficult, the philosophy at Carbine has always been give players good rewards for the most challenging content, and raids are no exception. From the 20-person raid players will be receiving purple Epic items and from the 40-person raid players will be seeing orange Legendary items. Additionally though, the 40-person also drops the rarest of the rare items, known as Artifact weapons.

These weapons are extremely hard to come by, but are among the most rare and most powerful weapons in the game. Also, through a process called “Imbuements” a player can attempt to complete a series of tasks and challenges in order to continuously make the weapon evolve and become stronger than it was in its original form.

“We’ve been talking about Legendaries, we’ve been talking about Epics and if you’ve seen the artifact stuff, it’s nuts. There are the ones that you level up by doing content, and then reality is you’re going to see far fewer people in Artifact gear, than you’re going to see people with legendary gear.”

Mike went on to say that because Artifact weapons are extremely hard to come by, he expects the average min/maxer to be focusing more on runes, instead of acquiring one of these insanely rare drops.

“...I think the average min/maxer is going to be chasing the runes and rune sets. Getting the perfect number of rune slots with the perfect set of [elements]. So I think you’re going to see majority of the chase going after that. Artifact gear is [cool], but it’s going to be hard to come by.”

Still enthralled by the possibly of one day obtaining one of these awesome pink weapons (#datpinkdoe), I asked Mike what the team had planned for new raiding tiers. Would these be instantly replaced with each tier like we see happen to “Legendary equivalent” items in other games?

“Well, we don’t want you to get this thing, but then here comes the new thing that makes you go ‘oh wow, now my artifact is trash compared to that.’ The idea is that we can add imbuements as a part of items and weapons that you already possess. Think of it more like you finally got that artifact and now it’s ultra-rare. But now because the new content has come out we can add two new imbuements that actually deal with that content and make your weapon even more powerful. So it’s not always that feeling of now the greens in the next thing are better than the best gear you’ve ever gotten in the previous tier."

“Our plan is more on the lines of adjusting the stuff that you’ve worked your butt off to get. It’s the same thing with your character, though. The reason why we’re putting in so much content for raids, PvPers, solo players and small group dungeon guys, is because you just got to 50. You just got your best gear. You just got your best mount. There’s no expectation that you guys are going to sit around until 18 months from now when [we] finally launch an expansion. The plan is to consistently, every month, give you giant patches worth of content that you can do at 50. You can actually take your character, the love of your life, into the next pile of content.”

On that note, I asked how the team’s aggressive content release schedule would come into play in regards to releasing new raid tiers.

“At launch we plan on having the 20-man, which is the Genetic Archives, and the 40-man, which is Datascape. It’s always been our intention to make sure that we don’t need you holding the bag at the end right? You hit level 50, you hit cap and there’s just nothing to do. Our expectation isn’t for you to just go back and re-level a new character; we want to consistently give you more things. We want you to pay a monthly fee so that we can produce content constantly. We have several raids planned for post-launch within the first year and some dungeon content as well. Our dungeon and raid team is working on that content as we speak, and the proof is in the pudding. You’ll see it pretty [quick].”

With the two raids at launch having a plethora of bosses and mini bosses for raid groups to bash their skulls against, as one final question I asked Mike if he had any favorites that raid groups should be on the lookout for. He mentioned the Elemental pairs in Datascape, the randomized pair of elementals that change mechanics based on the pairing for that week.

“I like the idea of going into the same space, and on any given run having a total of nine completely different fights to learn. There’s all these cool mechanics. Lava floors, snakes, tsunamis, combo lock, tornado dives. I like that there’s so much randomization, not in a way that’s going to tick off raiders, but that there’s these mini bosses that you combine to make very interesting different fights and with different kinds of drops. I like the variety that has, and if I were to say one favorite part of raiding for our raids, it’s that we have some randomization.”

These random elements that Mike mentioned are also spread through the game’s entirety. Often times you’ll find random mini bosses or events in dungeons and adventures that help change the pace a bit and offer different unique rewards for those running them multiple times.

“Heck, if you go all the way back to the level 35 dungeon and visit Skullcano, the fact that you can go in there and just be like, “Hey, do you want to go left or do you want to go right?” You know, one way is a molten chasm where it’s this witch shooting fireballs and trying to knock you off these pillars into the lava. Then there’s a molten cavern, which is like a giant cave with a giant heat vent running, where it’ll kill you if you leave this magical area. Then you have to fight monsters that are trying to knock you out of the circle as it moves through the thing. All this on top of telegraphs and it’s nuts. And it’s [only] level 35 content. For me, I like some variety, so I do like that we have added that to our dungeons and raids.”

“If you’re asking if I have one fight I like the most, I would probably say Dread Phage Ohmna. There are these platforms and this giant worm that goes underneath. I like it because it’s kind of got this Jaws vibe to it. You’re like, ‘oh my God, oh my God where’s it coming from?’ Then it bursts out of the ground and tries to knock you into the goop. Ohmna is my favorite, I think. “

Raiding definitely isn’t for everyone, and being a semi-hardcore raider myself, I know how intense—and frustrating—some raid encounters can be. However, for players who enjoy the thrill and fulfillment of finally getting 20 or 40 people to take down what seemed like an impossible boss, nothing beats that kind of experience. In the case of WildStar, it seems like Carbine is making raids for exactly that type of player in mind.

I want to thank Carbine Studios and Mike Donatelli again for this interview and I hope to be raiding with you all in WildStar’s Eldergame. For more WildStar news, information and updates, keep it locked to ZAM.

See you on Nexus!

Corey “Cyglaive” Jenkins

Follow Corey on Twitter @Cyglaive