Esper thoughts from closed beta

[Rumze]

The esper is a flashy class and I guess pretty much the closest thing to a mage caster in wildstar.
Its mechanic is fairly simple - you use builder casts to build up psi points which you can then expend on finishers . Kind of like rogue combo points ( max 5 ). Heals and dps spells are built around this.

Its built to get its most damage from stationary casts although it does have mobile builders. Some of them are melee, some have good range, but the esper also has wider telegraphs for casting compared to say the spellslinger.

The class really starts to shine around level 20. Before that, its powerful until about level 10ish , then gets slow because the difficulty of the world has scaled up and the esper doesn't have its full tool kit yet ( although that can apply to most classes ).

I didn't do much healing aside from grabbing a heal spell for soloing so Ill focus on mainly the dps part.

I tried using melee builders and/or builders that don't require a cast but were on timers. To be honest, I preferred the cast time builder you get at the very start - tk strike. Using this , I learned how to dodge effectively and be mobile while still being able to orient myself, cast and move.
It became a lot easier when I got the geist ( a summoned temp tank pet which is decent for holding mobs attention for a little bit ) and in conjunction with restraint ( aoe root at target ) and use of stuns.
Along with tk strike , I used concentrated blades - an aim and insta cast - you can get off two and then have to wait for it to recharge. These are great and sometimes while moving around, I used these for my dps and building points for my finishers.

My main finisher was mind burst - a semi aoe that hits about 3 targets in its telegraph. Great bird visual and at t4 adds a dot which is really nice . Storm is nice but its an aoe not front loaded damage - however storm becomes better at higher moxie/assault power levels and it hits more targets to boot so depends on what you are doing.

My rotation was pretty much as follows near the end:
Find target - aim - 2 concentrated blades - tk strike, restraint, tk strike, mind burst, tk strike, geist , conc blade, tk strike or heal and burst and dps till dead.

It was fairly fluid actually and although I was focused on leveling , I wondered how other builds would work because Ive seen some pretty awesome melee builds as well.

All in all, esper dps is pretty good - if a bit stationary - I can see it working really well for pve , but not too certain about pvp.

And while I really enjoy the esper and its visuals , and its lore, Im not sure Ill pick it for my main. Im not sure.
I do have to say though, the class feel changes A LOT as you level and get more amps and abilities. So Im thinking, go with the class you like the look and feel off rather than relative power.

Part of the elder game is doing dailies which gives you currency that you can use to buy more amp points so eventually you can fill out your amp tree which would be amazing in so many ways. Im not sure how they will deal with that but it gives me hope for true flexibility within a class later on.

I will try out a tank class next since I do like tanking.

Oh and as for settler - the buffs are awesome and great but its not what I wanted from that path. I expected more building - I will try out explorer or scientist next as well.

[Talon]

I tried the esper in the beta weekend. I like the feel of the class but I did not like its combat.

I did not feel powerful at all (made it up to level 7) and without that sort of power off-set, I found the static casting really hampered combat.

The spellslinger felt far more powerful and was able to move all over the place at the same time.

I like the esper in theory but did not in practice. I will likely give it another go at launch and try to find ways to enjoy combat as you describe but on the whole, it was disappointing.

Chances are a full group may change that as I won't be attacked every five seconds and have to move and interrupt my spells but then, in a group, the longer cast times also meant I rarely got to hit anything.

While I have no idea about the rest of the game, and I'm not one of those people that cry foul instantly, from the starting person's point of view comparing to other classes, it feels a bit unbalanced at lower levels.

[Rumze]

The esper definitely lacks mobility - and at lower levels without reliable snares or stuns , it can be quick tricky. Later on though , the esper gets amps that apply snares and higher tiers of abilities add snares and roots as well . The geist is really good especially now that you can get it at level 6 - its a temp tanking pet that will keep focus on itself and while its out , you get 15 percent less damage taken which is pretty big.

Its a gorgeous class - and  it really has a lot of pizzazz but really the closest class I can compare it to is the Mesmer in how long it takes to come into its own. And I mean its takes a while to get all your abilities and grow comfortable with it.