WildStar is poised to offer an innovative sci-fi MMO spin at every turn. From the standout class abilities, dynamic combat mechanics, unique races, customizable housing, personalized pathing system, easy-to-read quests, fast-paced PvP, or even hardcore end-game raiding, developer Carbine seems to have an answer for everything, making us very excited about what’s to come. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with a few WildStar developers, including Hugh Shelton (Lead Class Designer), Chris Lynch (Lead Combat Designer), Chad Moore (Lead Narrative Designer), and Marc Matzenbacher (Warrior Systems Designer) to dig deeper into the Warrior class. Read on to find out 10 things we learned about WildStar’s most stalwart bunch.

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1. What type of player will the Warrior appeal to?

The Warriors in WildStar may live in the future, but they’re still tied to their brutish roots. Their sword still defines who they are, and as such they're the type of character who lives for getting straight into the heat of battle to test their strength. Players who love tanking and defending their allies, as well as straight on force, huge sword swipes, and big, over-the-top direct damage will make the perfect Warrior.

2. What types of weapons can the Warrior use?

While WildStar's Warriors may be traditionalists at heart and mainly carry around a huge tech-sword, they recognize that a blade can't always solve the futuristic problems of Nexus. To remedy this problem they carry an Arm Cannon. This fun toy, which will be used a little more on the tank side than the damage dealing side, is like a Swiss army knife that allows Warriors to use many ranged attacks – something uncommon in standard Warrior archetypes. "The Arm Cannon gives you access to a large variety of attacks, they're not all just ranged missile attacks," explained Shelton. "Some of these things create a plasma wall in front of you so you take less damage as long as it's up. It gives you a wide range of utility."

3. What kind of armor does a Warrior Wear?

Warriors are the biggest and most imposing characters in WildStar. To that end, they wear the beefiest armor in the game, Heavy Armor, and are also the most resilient to damage. To make up for their high survivability, they deal less overall damage than some of the other classes.

4. What kind of shield does a Warrior use?

In addition to Heavy Armor, Warriors also use shields. Since WildStar takes place in the future, we're not talking your typical sword-and-board-type shield here. WildStar's shields are more like forcefields added to your health that regenerate as long as you don’t take any damage. Shields are itemized and you'll get better shields over time as you level up. Warrior tanks in particular have extra abilities that bulk up their shields that other tanks don't have access to, like moves that regenerate their shield when they attack.

WildStar's swords are imbued with power.

5. What is a Warrior's role in combat?

WildStar makes use of a system called Action Sets to help players not feel overwhelmed by the number of abilities at their disposal. Each class will have 30 abilities total, but you'll only be able to put eight on your Action Set at a time. According to Lynch, "You are building your set or your play style that you want to go into combat with." Action Sets are generally made up of a few basic abilities, a main strike ability, a proc ability that triggers when certain conditions are met, and some utility moves. Warriors in particular will have to choose an action set based on whether they want to be tanking or dealing damage.

6. How do I improve my Warrior's abilities?

In addition to Action Sets, WildStar also incorporates Ability Tiers, allowing you to improve specific abilities based on your personal play style. "At level 10 you start earning points that you can put into your abilities to make them more powerful," explained Lynch. This is a way for players to upgrade the abilities they like or deem valuable, and will allow players to differentiate their Warriors.

7. How can Warriors be tanks and damage dealers?

While you can choose what kind of Warrior abilities you'll be using via your Action Set, Warriors also have access to two stances that will further enhance their combat potential. The offensive stance, Juggernaut, reduces mitigation but increases damage output. Alternatively, the defensive or tank stance, Bulwark, increases a Warrior's threat generation without sacrificing any mitigation, only damage output. Players will be able to freely switch between stances and action sets when they're out of combat, so it will be easy to change things up based on every situation.

8. What is the Warrior's Primary Resource?

In WildStar, Warriors use a resource called Kinetic Energy to dynamically change the power of their abilities. Basically, a Warrior starts a fight with no Kinetic Energy, but as he fights and moves around the battlefield, it will start to build up, strengthening his attacks or in some cases unlocking new ones. "One example from the DPS side is power strike," said Matzenbacher. "You need a certain amount of Kinetic Energy to use it, and as you use it more and more it becomes faster." Using attacks doesn't necessarily consume energy, but if you stop moving and attacking, your energy will begin to decay. You get a lot of bonuses for staying at high energy, so the developers hope Warriors will want to charge into fights first to get their energy up so that they can use their powerful high-energy attacks sooner. Kinetic Energy buildup and decay will also help Warriors to unleash sustained damage over time rather than strong burst attacks.

9. Do Warriors get any unique abilities?

Every class in WildStar gets some sort of innate, or powerful unique ability. Since Warriors have two stances, they also have two innate abilities, one for each stance. Innate abilities are to be used situationally, as they have the longest cooldown of any ability on an action set, currently two minutes for the Warrior's, and they greatly enhance either stance. Activating a Juggernaut Warrior's innate ability makes him go into a frenzy. It resets cooldowns, increases their damage and movement speed, and stops Kinetic Energy decay. A Bulwark Warrior on the other hand can activate an innate ability that prevents incoming damage and stops Kinetic Energy from draining.

10. How do Warriors approach area of effect combat?

Melee combat in WildStar is quite different from other MMOs thanks to the freeform targeting system. With freeform targeting, players can hit every enemy around them rather than just the one they're targeting. For Warriors in particular, freeform targeting greatly enhances gameplay. "You really have to pay attention to your surroundings, where your enemies are at, positioning yourself so you can hit the most amount of enemies possible while taking the least amount of damage yourself," said Lynch.

Warriors are just one of WildStar’s six classes. We’ll be taking an in-depth look at the Esper next. What do you think of the Warrior?

Leah B. Jackson is an Associate Editor at IGN. Feel free to follow her/send tips on Twitter and MyIGN