TERA Online

[Mow Yun]

Its much easier with a ranged class than as a melee class unless you have your timings down perfectly :S

[Xion Valkyrie]

Shouldn't take more than 5-6 minutes to solo a BAM as a warrior. At levels less than 25 you have to manage your health a bit more but once you hit 25 and get the life gain glyph you should be able to kill any BAM fairly easily.

That's before you even get your 2nd dodge at 26 and your main damage skills at 28. I'm going to try to get to 28 before the open beta ends and just see how quickly I can kill BAMs.

[Kismet-chan]

Originally Posted by Lawfer

Fail didn't even like WoW, I like MMO which has spices to the quests to make it interesting and force people to actually work together to get past them.

With Korean mmos it's all the same, fetching quests were all you have to do is kill this or that and in these games everybody is playing solo, even though it's an online game. Games at lunch like Guild Wars, Dark Age of Camelot or Lord of the Rings Online had some very interesting quests and made them intricating with lots of reason to group, which is something that Tera and korean mmorpgs in general fail to do nor achieve (SUN being the exception). But that's also because developpers of these games don't feel the need to do that, because the vast majority of asian players wether they be japanese or koreans don't like grouping much.

If you're looking for innovative quest systems, then TERA is NOT for you. That is the weakest point of this game, and the devs are not concerned about it because it's not TERA's selling point. TERA's selling point is its combat mechanics. Unless you were specifically looking for a game that looks great visually and has fast, action combat that doesn't involve tab targeting, you do not play TERA. It's as simple as that.

What online games DO have innovative questing systems? In my personal opinion, no currently released MMORPG does. Quests will always be boring to me. The story that goes along with them might be interesting/given more thought in some games, but they will always be "go kill x of y" or "slay boss x" or "gather this" or "run here and flip a trigger". Some games tell you that information outright. Other games "disguise" it with fancy plot-oriented bells and whistles (see: Final Fantasy XIV). But under the hood in the calculations of the code, it's all the same. Even in the upcoming GW2, despite their claims.

Until a dev team comes along that isn't being whipped by a money-hungry publisher, you won't find single player RPG-quality plots in online games. GW2 and Blade & Soul seem like/are claiming that will be trying to break that stereotype, but that has yet to been seen (and I highly doubt it will happen for either game).

[Jaden]

Haven't played Aion...maybe that's why this game feels fresh to me.

So far I've played Lancer (pre-closed beta stress test weekend), Priest and Archer (closed beta) and now a Warrior (open beta)

Warrior is the best class for soloing stuff. The attacks are sufficiently fast and easy to hit with, and attack animations can be interrupted with the dodge ability. The combo attack moves the warrior forward while hitting everything in a small radius around him, so that can be used to sidestep enemies while attacking them and gaining mana. There's also a lot of tools for keeping aggro, so I can see warriors being used as tanks in some cases.

Lancer, Priest and Archer seem like the three "pure" classes, being the tank, healer and damage dealer without a lot of utility. I haven't decided what I want to be yet.

[Xion Valkyrie]

Wow, the glistening crystal is broken. I never have mana problems now with just the level 11 one. Also got my restorative rain of blows glyph so I'm a BAM killing B.A.M now XD

[Westlo]

God damn Overhand Strike, shit just got real, total #gamechanger.

And to think that this skill that chains out of nearly everything... is able to chain into the Level 60 Slayer skill... sooooogood.gif.

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

Ahh, heya Westlo. Long time no see.

Hey man.

How's Dragonfall are far as an Oceanic numbers is concerned? I really think the Oceanic guilds messed up going with Sepertise Isle over Dragonfall.... Dragonfall/Valley of Titans would've been just like the Proudmoore/Blackrock combo from Wow... instead SI is one of the servers with the less amount of people on it... Curious too see if a lot of aussies just rolled on Dragonfall anyway...

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Well the guild Im in seems to have people on all hours of the day, like around ~50. Has a roster of like 200 though haha. There are loads of people on the server though.

Havent really asked if anyone is from Aust, but there do seem to be people from our time zone. Just wish I could get more play time, been crazy busy recently.

[Solace]

Originally Posted by Kismet-chan

If you're looking for innovative quest systems, then TERA is NOT for you. That is the weakest point of this game, and the devs are not concerned about it because it's not TERA's selling point. TERA's selling point is its combat mechanics. Unless you were specifically looking for a game that looks great visually and has fast, action combat that doesn't involve tab targeting, you do not play TERA. It's as simple as that.

I have to agree. TERA's selling point is boss fights using mobile fighting mechanics. It is very unique from an MMO standpoint, because most of them are built around dungeon crawling and large scale raiding. I can't compare it to GW2 since I haven't played it and the huge amount of hype for it distorts a lot of the previews, but TERA is not a traditional MMO once you get closer to twenty and certainly not after that.

Yes, there are quests. The plot is "ok". The questing system could use refinement but only in the quality of life sense. I wish the design was better balanced, to eliminate backtracking and sometimes getting stuff you can't wear yet. Otherwise the system is quick, simple, and intended to get you out in the world killing stuff, and does that job well enough. At least travel is easy, so the backtracking isn't too annoying.

This is not a game for clickers, which I think will be the hardest part for the casual MMO player to adjust to. You need to be familiar with keybinds at least somewhat or you will die, a lot. The UI is simple enough, but it could be more intuitive and I think after more feedback and patching, it will be. Speaking of which, I wish the tooltips were more informative when hovering over players, and that nameplates weren't so small and blurry. The combat system itself is very active and you actually feel like you are participating instead of clicking a rotation while standing in place. It is very smooth, well animated, and your hits never feel "weak". I think this will be a model for future MMO combat systems.

The graphics and sound are gorgeous. I know people have nitpicked on this (I recall one rant stating Vindictus looked and ran better...c'mon, really?), but I wish every MMO had this level of quality and ran this smoothly. The areas, despite the open world feeling, are a bit linear, but it's far better masked than many other MMO's.

The problem is lasting appeal, and what audience TERA is intended for. As I said before, it's not quite a game I'd pay a subscription for. It is fun, but I can't say I feel like I'm progressing my character. The progression is monster oriented: more complex AI, stronger fights, bigger, faster, lots more health, etc. You can solo BAMs but it is very slow and dangerous, which is great for encouraging groups and community but not discouraging for players who seek a challenge (and you will get it). I also like that each class feels very different. This is the first MMO I've played in a while where the classes might perform the same functions, but play wildly different....and more importantly are balanced.

So it's definitely a good game, but I have doubts it will last as a subscription based MMO.

[synaesthetic]

It's been going for a year in Korea as a subscription game, I doubt it'll go F2P so quickly. While I like free (and who doesn't) the single biggest problem with a subscription MMO going F2P is that it increases the stupidity concentration drastically. The monthly fee is a small barrier to entry for idiots, trolls, griefers and gold sellers.

I hope that you're right though and other developers take note of what Tera did in regards to its combat system--and then copy it, tweak it, improve upon it.

I'd suggest fewer skills. I was hoping it'd have very few abilities per class and then I wouldn't get finger-tangled like I do hitting multiple-key shortcuts in WoW and SWTOR, but that isn't the case (still, the number of powers is somewhat less--unfortunately not enough less that I don't have to use Alt+1, Alt+2, Alt+3, etc to get access to everything...)

[Solace]

A fair point on the fee (although the fee doesn't get rid of them, it does cut them down). I'm not opposed to paying subscriptions, I've been playing MMO's since Everquest (dabbled in Ultima but never committed), but the last few years I've been beginning to question if that 180-200ish a year really buys me that much. I can see TERA offering entertainment, but more like short bursts of fun, like "do a few quick matches in a FPS fun". So unless TERA's devs are going to really work hard on the game to keep it fresh and full of things to do, it's a hard sell for me personally.

I definitely agree on the ability overload. The focus should be on the combat, not on finger twister. I'm not much for keybinding, personally. For all the people who I see boast of its virtues, I've only met a few people who are actually use it well. The rest seem to keybind more out of convenience than necessity. I'm somewhere in the middle - I use keybinds when they make sense, but otherwise click. There's a reason the Naga is so popular.

[Dist]

Originally Posted by Lawfer

I did, otherwise I wouldn't talk about it. I am lvl 15 and it's seriously boring.

But you did not read the part where I said it gets more fun and engaging at lvl20+ where you NEED a group to do BAMs.

Syn : I disagree. Why would you wish for less abilities? For TERA it does not work, the combat is not like Dark Souls where you only need few different attacks and then use them wisely. And finger twister.. how? You know you don't have to use 1-9 numbers right? I move with WSAD, and have my skills bound on QERZXCV1234 and then Ctrl+ZC .. I'm at level 32 and those are all of the buttons I need for all of my skills. And if you have a mouse, even with few extra keys, that helps a lot.

[Sugetsu]

Can someone give me a comparison between this and AION?

[Thany]

Originally Posted by Sugetsu

Can someone give me a comparison between this and AION?

It's still in Open Beta for a few hours more so you may as well check it out yourself... Though it might be too late now since it'd take a while to patch up.

[Lawfer]

Originally Posted by Dist

But you did not read the part where I said it gets more fun and engaging at lvl20+ where you NEED a group to do BAMs.

I did, but the open beta is only up for 3 days, there is no way I am going to get lvl20+ in the lapse of time.

[Sugetsu]

Originally Posted by Thany

It's still in Open Beta for a few hours more so you may as well check it out yourself... Though it might be too late now since it'd take a while to patch up.

I will try to catch a glimpse of the game then, currently downloading it at 5.5mb per second, and only 2 and a half ours of open beta left...

[Dist]

Originally Posted by Lawfer

I did, but the open beta is only up for 3 days, there is no way I am going to get lvl20+ in the lapse of time.

Eh .. uh .. what? Even if we assumed you have work and stuff, it's still very easy to level. First 1-10 come in couple hours. From there on maybe another 2 for 18-ish. Farm Basilisks for 25 that takes 2-3 hours in good group (the nearby Instance dungeon while at it) etc. You can get level 30 in a day. Even with casual gameplay level 20 would come in a day.

Originally Posted by Sugetsu

I will try to catch a glimpse of the game then, currently downloading it at 5.5mb per second, and only 2 and a half ours of open beta left...

Wrong. From the moment of writing this message, there are still 12 hours and 39 minutes of OB left.

[Sugetsu]

Ok so I far what I have seen looks good, really good. In the graphics department this game has no equal, which brings me to a little "problem" I detected, why does this game make women look like complete sluts? XD

I mean, sure, AION, WoW, guild wars and all other games do this. But this game is on the level Bayoneta sluttiness. This is not a real problem for me, as the view is very "pleasing" from all angles, but it gets kinda hard to focus on the game itself

The lolis were a bit too much for me, I felt like pedo bear from the moment I created one.

The movement and combat mechanics are a little hard to get used to, but i can see the game's potential for great combat and immersion.

[Mow Yun]

Originally Posted by Dist

Eh .. uh .. what? Even if we assumed you have work and stuff, it's still very easy to level. First 1-10 come in couple hours. From there on maybe another 2 for 18-ish. Farm Basilisks for 25 that takes 2-3 hours in good group (the nearby Instance dungeon while at it) etc. You can get level 30 in a day. Even with casual gameplay level 20 would come in a day.



Wrong. From the moment of writing this message, there are still 12 hours and 39 minutes of OB left.

Maybe for people like you :P , I'm still at level 27 or something But Priest takes years to kill anything if you're as bad at games as I am X_X Though Priest is more enjoyable than I thought it'd be, except for the parts where your party mate tells you to poke a world boss and then you get killed in 3 hits

[Xion Valkyrie]

Anyways, the one thing I'm kind of puzzled about is the death penalty. This game probably has one of the most ridiculous death penalties I've seen. Losing a random crystal is pretty big, especially when you start using the more expensive ones.

I'd much rather take a exp loss.

[Dist]

Originally Posted by Mow Yun

Maybe for people like you :P , I'm still at level 27 or something But Priest takes years to kill anything if you're as bad at games as I am X_X Though Priest is more enjoyable than I thought it'd be, except for the parts where your party mate tells you to poke a world boss and then you get killed in 3 hits

Hey I didn't know they were that dangerous

Where have you been? You could've be 32 by now had you logged on . In fact, you should log in right now so we could do SM. There are other guildies online who I tried to get to SM but without a priest it would be a suicide.