More TERA Eye-Candy

I continue to be amazed by the graphics in this game.  I've been playing almost daily for over a month now, and still, every single day I find myself standing still and admiring the scenery.  This is such a beautiful game.  In fact, the last three images above came from a "dungeon" . . . not exactly a crawl through a dark cavern.

TERA Trial Done Right

Bhagpuss recently posted about his experience with the TERA trial allowing folks to play the Prologue to the game.  Unfortunately for Bhagpuss and many others that may have given this a shot, the prologue to TERA is a terrible representation of what the game has to offer.  I've been playing TERA since release, and I hated the prologue; my wife felt the same.

Happily, En Masse got wise to the problem, so they have changed the trial offer to a full seven days of play allowing you a chance to create 8 different characters and level them all to 23.  Now, this is the way a trial should be done.

I really encourage anyone who wants to give TERA a shot to do so.  I keep asking myself why this game has flown below the radar for so long.  It simply seems that no one is really paying it much attention, but I can attest to the fact that TERA is doing a lot of things right.  The combat is excellent; the graphics are superb.  Even a lot of the little "quality of life" additions are great in TERA.

To find out more about the free seven day trial, go to https://tera-support.enmasse.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/433.  This will answer any questions you may have about how the trial works, as well as, get you started on setting up your own account.

Have fun, and I hope to see you in game!

TERA - Try it Yourself!

TERA has just set up a demo for those who may want to know more about how the game plays.  It will allow you to play through the prologue to the game.  While this isn't an amazing portrayal of how the game plays, it is definitely better than just guessing.  So, if you've been wondering how TERA combat feels, click over to http://tera.enmasse.com/demo and give it a shot!

Summer Plans

Summer officially starts for me this week, so I've been thinking about what I want to do with the extra time I'll have while I'm not teaching.  Of course, as any MMO affecionado knows, spare time means video games.  I decided I would like to sit down and think about my goals for this summer to see what I can accomplish.

Goal #1:

I would like to continue playing TERA quite a bit.  Right now, I have an archer and a warrior at level 41, and I think my first goal for the summer will be to get both of those characters up to 60.  I'm not sure yet about how much end-game I'll want to do in TERA, but I'm sure I'll at least give it a shot and see how I like it.

Goal #2:

Grab a couple more pets and maybe a mount from Darkmoon Faire in WoW.  I have been working on this steadily each week that the Darkmoon Faire is available, but I still have a long way to go.  I'll be working on this goal some this week, since it is once again time for the Faire.

Goal #3:

Work on alts in both TERA and WoW.  In TERA, I would really like to create one more character, but I'm not sure yet which class it will be.  I'm sure I'll have to play around with a few to decide on what I want to try.

In WoW, I've had a mage and a rogue sitting in the 75+ range for quite awhile now, but I've never put in the time or effort to get either up to 85.  I would really like to get both of these characters up to 85 sometime this summer before the release of MoP.

Goal #4:

If it looks like I will be successful with the above stated goals, then I'm thinking I might try out a new game or two.  I'm not sure what I might want to try; there are several MMO's that I've read about extensively but never had the time to play.  I've started characters on DDO, LotR, and Rift at different times, but each time my time and attention ends up somewhere else, so maybe I'll go back and pick up one of those again.  I also have my Sith Assassin sitting in the low 40's on SWTOR that may entice me back to at least finish that class story.  There are just so many options for this fourth goal; I'm just not sure what I want to do with my time.

Anyway, it looks like a fun summer of gaming.  I can't wait to get started.

Visions of TERA

So, I've been talking a bit about how great TERA looks, and I'm still amazed with each new area I enter into.  Now, I've moved to a new continent with the level 40+ quests, and I continue to be impressed there as well.  I thought I would share a few visuals with you guys to show you how great it really looks.

I started with the Pegasus ride out and ended up in Blightwood . . . enjoy!

Such a beautiful game!

Status Update

If anyone has been checking regularly, you will know that I've been pretty quiet for the past couple weeks.  This is due to the fact that I'm a teacher, and this time of year is incredibly busy for me as I wrap up the last of grades, exams, etc. all leading up to graduation.  I thought it would be good to stop in just long enough to give everyone an update and let you all know that I'm still here.

As for MMO activity, I haven't had a ton of time to play, but when I have, I find myself, more often than not, continuing to level my two characters in TERA.  I started with an archer, but I've recently found a lot of enjoyment with a warrior.  Both are around level 40 now, and my first priority this summer with the extra time I'll have will be to get both these characters to 60.  I still maintain that TERA is an amazing game with graphics that continually impress me and combat that is a load of fun. 

Not only that, but I really feel like TERA is making me a better player.  I was feeling a bit nostalgic the other evening and decided I wanted to play WoW some.  I really haven't been playing much WoW since there isn't really anything I'm interested in doing there at the moment.  I am excited about the new x-pac, and I'm sure I'll be back playing hot and heavy once that drops, but for now I have a hard time building up much enthusiasm for it.  Anyway, I decided I would do a LFR run of the first four bosses in Dragon Soul, since I could still use a shoulder upgrade on my warrior.

The first thing I noticed was that the combat was not nearly as inter-active as I had gotten used to in TERA.  Obviously, I didn't have to worry about my target since WoW has targetting.  Also, I noticed that the mobs in WoW don't move very much at all as a general rule.  In TERA, everything moves . . . a lot.  The second thing I noticed was that my rotation was a bit tighter resulting in a DPS increase in general.  I was really surprised at the difference since I felt like I was playing much like I always had, but I think TERA has forced me to play with more focus while keeping up with more things at the same time.  I can remember lots of times playing WoW without actually ever looking at the center of the screen, but now I was able to watch meters and warnings while also keeping an eye on the boss we were fighting.  Overall, I ended up 1st on the damage meters with the next closest over 8k dps lower.  I can only conclude that TERA has helped me to become a better player in general.

I'm sure I'll be posting more frequently once summer comes.  Until then, have fun in whatever game you choose to play.

[TERA] Cultist's Refuge

Upon hitting the upper 30's level, my archer was granted access to the Cultist's Refuge, the 3rd instance dungeon in TERA.  I wasn't sure exactly what to expect from a place called "the Cultist's Refuge," but what I found was not what I expect.  Again, I was amazed by the scenery that has been produced for this game.  I have simply never seen better rendered environments and NPCs in any other game I've played.

The dungeon started at the entrance portal; no shimmering, little, blue oval here.

Once inside, I was amazed by the buildings themselves and how everything was so clear and precise in the way it was rendered.  Even the lighting and shadows were dynamic, and I simply had to stop and take in the view for a few moments before continuing on into the dungeon.  (Please ignore the stupid orange leopard onsie I'm wearing.  It seems that TERA insists on dressing me like a fruit-loop instead of a warrior.)

That view was pretty impressive, and I was really excited about going into this dungeon; I was hoping the bosses would be as equally impressive as the setting.  I wasn't to be disappointed . . .

This was the first boss we encountered.  A huge monster of some sort wielding two impressive, glowing swords.  During the encounter, he also summoned in a variety of other large, imposing beings at intervals.  All-in-all, this was a good, hard encounter and lots of fun.

This was the second boss encounter.  When we first entered the room, we were met by a seemingly harmless woman, but as we approached, she began to grow substantially until she became the sorceress/witch shown here.  I don't remember her being a particularly hard fight, and we moved through without much of an issue.

The most impressive by far was the last boss of the dungeon, a huge machine of some sort with tentacles ending in dragon heads of all things.  This was definitely an original boss; I don't think I've ever seen anything like this in any game I've ever played.  The novelty of the boss quickly wore off as we started fighting, and we all realized this boss was tougher than any that had come before.  In fact, we lost our tank at one point during the fight, but with some good play and a quick resurrection scroll we were able to complete the fight without a wipe.

I enjoyed this dungeon so much, I ran it twice.  This is a rarity for me in a leveling dungeon, because I usually only want to do them one time through to see them and complete the quests, but i really just didn't feel like I was able to take it all in the first time through.

TERA continues to hold my interest with amazing graphics, fun combat, and well thought-out areas and dungeons.  If you haven't tried TERA because of all the scantily-dressed hoopla, then I truly think you are missing out.  I am trying to put together a post that discusses that subject in more depth, but for now, I highly recommend that folks at least give TERA a chance before writing it off completely.

Working on the Chain

As I've been playing TERA Online, I've found quite a few things that I really like about the game.  As I got my character up over level 20, I found another feature of the game that I think is really neat in a lot of ways.

Somewhere between 20-22, I received a quest to head back to the main city and talk to a trainer there about glyphs.  I was not aware before this point that there were glyphs in this game, but since I've played WoW extensively, I was able to determine what glyphs probably were.  Sure enough, they were glyphs that a player can add to his skills to increase their potency in some way.  After spending about an hour looking at the different glyphs and finally deciding how best to spend my glyph points in assigning them, I settled on a few I felt would be beneficial.

It was as I was assigning glyphs that I started realizing there was another part of using skills that I had not really understood up until this point:  Skill Chains.  I knew that skills could be chained together so that using one activates an on-screen prompt to use the next, but I didn't really realize how this system worked until I was spending time on my skills due to glyphing.  Now, I realized that I could chain all of my skills one to another so that I would have an unbroken chain through a rotation once that rotation was started.  I started setting up these skill chains, and after a couple hours of killing mobs to fine-tune it, I think I'm finally where I want to be (at least until I level to the point where I add another skill or two that I want to work in).  I actually set up two different chains:  a ranged chain and a melee chain.  I use the ranged chain most of the time to start fights and then use the melee chain when the mob starts to close with me to attack.  With these two chains set up, I can pretty much handle any normal fight by only pressing one or both of the two mouse buttons and the spacebar.  I start my ranged chain with the left mouse button and then hit the spacebar for each new skill as it is displayed through the chaining.  When the mob gets close, I hit the right mouse button to initiate my melee chain, and after that, again, I only need press the spacebar to cycle through the different skills.

The page for chaining skills is set up pretty well (as the picture above shows), and it was easy to set up the full rotation through my skill progression.

Some may think that only hitting a few buttons would be boring in the long run, but I haven't really found it so.  For one thing, I have to be constantly diligent of the movement of whatever I'm fighting.  Mobs in this game tend to rush and jump about, and I need to be sure I'm initiating the right chain at the right time.  Also, I have to keep a steady eye on my MP levels.  If my mana drops too low, I have to break the skill chain and start using Rapid Fire or normal attacks to build it back up.  And, there is always the fact that some fights just aren't "normal" fights, so I have to be ready to adjust on the fly.  This has really been the part of combat in TERA that I have loved.  You must pay attention and be ready to adjust on a moment's notice; otherwise, you will quickly find yourself staring at a gray death screen.

[TERA] Bastion of Lok - My 1st Dungeon

As predicted yesterday, I was able to run my first dungeon in TERA last night.  Actually, I ran it twice, once with a full group at level and again with a mid-30's level warrior who blew through just to finish quests and get loot drops.  Though a bit hectic, I did enjoy the runs through.  It was very interesting to see the differences in running instances in TERA and other games I've played, and it was educational to see how I would have to play my Archer differently with a group compared to solo.

First, a little about the dungeon itself.  The instance is called the Bastion of Lok, and it is a large cave complex where the Devas, a demon race from what I can ascertain, are gathered in an attempt to resurrect their dead god/lord, Lok.  As you enter the dungeon, you are met with a short cut-scene that explains that the inner sanctum of the cave is protected by a door shielded by an elemental.  Thus, your first goal is to kill the elemental boss.

After a mixture of trash pulls, we came to the first boss who constructs in the middle of the room.  This is an impressive dungeon boss.  He is big, and he has a lot of spinning and glowing parts that just add to this sense of awe.  We defeated him easily, opening the door to the inner sanctum.

After several more trash pulls, completing quests along the way, we came to the last boss, which, after fighting for a bit, turned out to be a dual boss encounter.  It started by killing a large monster called a "Blooded Vulcan," and as it got close to death, the leader of the Devas comes to "take care of the issue himself."  This fight, while a bit more complex than the first, was still pretty easy from my point of view.  Granted I'm playing a ranged dps class, so I may have missed some of the intricacies that only the tank or perhaps melee would have seen.

After finishing the first run, the one with the full party of five at the appropriate level, I sat back to reflect on the experience.

My Reflections

I decided first that I enjoyed the overall dungeon experience in TERA.  While there were some real differences between it and the dungeon experience in WoW, there were enough similarities that I didn't feel uncomfortable with stepping in for the first time.  I thought that both bosses were large and imposing, and I like those qualities in dungeon bosses; I want to feel like I'm killing the big baddies.  The trash pulls were pretty chaotic to begin.  I'm so ingrained in the culture created over the years in WoW where focus firing is of utmost importance that it took me a bit to adjust to simply attacking.  I still tried to stay on one target at a time, but with the amount of movement involved for most of the mobs, I can honestly say that it was hard to do consistently.

I was not overly impressed with the visuals throughout the dungeon.  With the beautiful and varied landscapes presented in the "outside" world, I was really expecting something special in the first dungeon a player encounters.  However, the constant cave walls with scant decorations were not exactly impressive.  The room with the final boss was a bit better with an elaborate throne area along one wall, but that wasn't really enough to redeem the dungeon as a whole.

Moving around constantly during boss fights was interesting.  I've played a hunter in WoW, and I can remember a lot of fights where I could simply stand in one spot and hit the same 2-3 buttons in rotation.  This was not the case with either of the bosses in BoL.  Both bosses moved frequently and violently, jumping and/or charging toward and away from players.  This required constant diligence on my part to stay in range and to stay away from the damage dealing abilities.  I really liked this dynamic during the fights.

I can't wait to try the next dungeon.  I hope the visuals are more appealing.  And, of course, I always like the loot drops from dungeon bosses.  During my two runs, I was able to get a blue quality bow and gloves which really added to my current gear set.

TERA - Initial Impressions

Over the weekend, I found myself browsing around in our local video game store while my son was picking out an XBox game to buy with a gift card he'd been given as a gift.  As I was looking around, I saw several posters, advertisements, etc. about TERA Online.  Now, I have read some stuff about TERA, so I wasn't completely clueless about the game, but up until I saw it in the shop, I hadn't really considered it as an option for me.

So, call it an impulse buy, general boredom, or what-have-you, I decided to take the plunge and buy TERA to try it out.  I figured with the 30-days of play that came with the purchase of the game, I was only out the $40 for the box if it was totally horrible and I never played again.

Installation went easily enough, and after an hour or so of installing, patching, setting up an account, etc. I was creating my first character.  I played through the weekend, and now I have a level 21 Archer waiting for me when I get home this evening.  From my two full days of play (minus Saturday evening when I was raiding DS on WoW), I took away some positives and negatives about TERA.

Positives:

1.  Graphics - This game looks AMAZING!!  I really love the art, and everything is rendered to a wonderful degree.  I literally found myself just sitting and looking at a panoramic vista from the top of a hill several times.  The visuals do have the "dream" quality I've come to expect from asian anime type art, but I've always liked that style, so I'm really finding it appealing.  The first Pegasus ride I took from the starter island over to the mainland was especially nice as I got to enjoy the scenery while flying.

2.  Combat - I had read a little about the combat in TERA and how it was "live action."  I didn't really know what that meant until I started playing.  From the very beginning, the combat feels good.  I enjoyed the fact that I had to keep moving so I wouldn't get hit, and I enjoyed having to make sure several enemies were lined up together to use certain AoE type attacks.  I'm playing an Archer, and so far, I'm really enjoying the combination of long-range and short-range fighting techniques used in tandem.  I don't think the combat is vastly different than other MMO's I've played; you still have to press buttons that go on cool-down in a rotation, but the fact that there is no auto-attack and no lock-targeting make you think a bit more about what it is you are doing.  Even regular trash fights while questing have a bit of an "epic" feel to them.

3.  Crafting - So far, I've not done a ton of crafting; I think my highest skill is somewhere around 60 right now, but the way in which the crafting is done is pretty good.  It is simple to understand, and everyone can do everything, no picking only certain crafts to pursue.  However, so far, I've not started training all of them because they are quite expensive in both materials that must be farmed and in coins to buy the reagents that are needed to complete any pattern.  At the same time, it is also complex enough, with pieces coming from several different sources, that it was enjoyable.

4.  Leveling - I feel like the speed for leveling is pretty good so far.  I didn't fly through the first 10 levels like I do in WoW, but at the same time, I didn't feel like there was ever a time when the leveling was dragging.  I found that I remained in a questing area or hub about as long as I would expect, and in each one, the quests ramped up in difficulty as I played.  All of this felt right to me, and thus the leveling experience as a whole, at least through the first 20 levels, has been very smooth.

Negatives:

1.  Character Models - As anyone who keeps up with MMO's knows, there has been quite a stir across the internet about some of the character models used in TERA.  Accusations have ranged from "cheap and tawdry" all the way to "pedophilia," and I would agree that the character models are a bit over the top.  As I was starting the game and trying to make my first character, I went through all of the races and classes to see what was offered.  As I was going through, I literally laughed at several of the character models just because of the ridiculousness of them.  For instance:

This is the High Elf Sorceress model.  Obviously, there is an emphasis on showing skin here with cleavage all the way to the belly-button and a slit in the skirt up to her hip.  While I'm not necessarily offended by this, I certainly don't prefer it in my video games.   A second example (and this one really made me laugh):

This is the Castanic Archer.  As I scrolled through the different races and classes, I already had an idea I wanted to play an Archer to begin, so I was looking at this class especially.  I had already been thinking that the armor was wholly inappropriate for any actual combat, but when I saw this guy in his purple leopard print onesie I knew this was the character for me!  I mean if I'm trying to hide in the woods and underbrush and fire my bow from safety, I'm sure purple leopard would be the perfect camoflague.  I had to show this one to my wife because I simply couldn't believe it was for real.

Ultimately, the character models are not what I would choose; however, I noticed that once I got into the game I really didn't even pay attention to that anymore.  So, while this is a negative, it is not one that will make me quit playing.

2.  Chat - I really thought I had seen the worst of in-game chat while playing WoW, but I was soooo wrong.  The chat channel in the newbie area alone is full of cursing, arguing, trolling, and every other type of unsavory communication imaginable.  It did get a little better after moving to the main continent, but even there, I started wondering how anyone was getting any playing done with all of the inane comments.  The up-side of this is my conviction that with the number of total ass-hats on the chat in TERA, Barrens is finally safe!

**As a side-note, because there is a "newbie" island where everyone starts and levels for the first 11 levels, gold-spammers are essentially non-existent after you leave the starter area.  They don't seem to want to spend the time leveling for 11 levels just to be banned shortly after hitting the mainland.  Whether this was intended or not by the developers, it is a pretty nice set-up.

3.  Quests - I had read before playing TERA that the quests were pretty generic with no good story-line through them.  I would agree with this; however, I'm not sure it is any worse than other MMO's I've played.  I've never been one to pore over quest texts, and the same holds true here.  There is a story that goes through the quests I've been through thus far - it seems that they are all leading up to the first dungeon, Bastion of Lok, that becomes available at level 20.  There are still the pre-requisite "FED-EX" quests, the "kill 10" quests, and the "go talk to that guy" quests that all MMO's seem to have in spades.  There have also been a couple escort type quests which have been especially annoying because invariably the npc being escorted walks like an old woman with two bad hips.  I've never seen an npc moving so slowly!

*********

Overall, I would say my experience with TERA has been positive.  Positive enough to continue playing after the first 30 days?  I'm not sure yet.  I am really looking forward to trying my first dungeon now that I'm level 21.  Last night, I saw that I had the required gear score to enter the dungeon, but by then I was out of time for the evening.  I hope to find a good group to run it this evening though grouping can be a bit of a chore it seems since there is essentially only one tanking class, the Lancer.

If you have played TERA, what are you impressions?  Do you think it is worth a subscription?