11 February 2012 | |
Mike
The first TERA closed beta session began yesterday, and today we bring you our first impressions of the game so far. This first session has a level cap of 22 and is limited to PvE only.
Character creation is above average when compared to other MMORPGs. There’s 7 races, 8 classes to choose from, and plenty of customization options. Although, nothing is really ground breaking. The guess work as to what type of class you’re selecting is effectively removed as everything is laid out for you at character creation, telling you exactly what role each class is capable of, as listed below.
- Warrior – Evasion Tank / DPS
- Lancer – Absorption Tank
- Slayer – Burst DPS (Leather Armor)
- Berserker – Burst DPS (Metal Armor)
- Archer – Ranged Sustained DPS
- Sorcerer – Ranged Burst DPS
- Priest – Primary Healer
- Mystic – Support Healer
The user interface is what you would expect, however coming from SWTOR, which had one of the worst UI’s ever, it makes TERA’s interface seem light years ahead. All windows can be moved around or resized, there’s 3 maps players have to navigate. A standard radar compass at the top right, a mini-map to the right and a full-screen map, which seems redundant, but are very useful.
I selected my favorite class for the closed beta, an Archer, and have to say – combat is pretty fun so far. TERA uses an action combat system, no tab-targeting, so players will have to actually aim and hit their targets. There is an auto-face which I was very glad to see. A lot of melee players don’t understand why it’s such a big deal, but it’s really meant for ranged classes. As an Archer, if there’s no auto-face, I’m as good as a standing attack dummy in PvP verse melee classes, because Archers cannot move and attack at the same time. Melee players who decide to run circles around an Archer are unhittable without auto-face, and I would suspect it would be even worse in TERA, since again, Archers have to aim themselves; so auto-face is really a necessity.
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8 September 2011 | |
LHStaff
Editors Note: This guest article was written by Beararms.
During PAX Prime 2011, I was given the chance to sit down (finally), and try out En Masse and Bluehole Studio’s new MMORPG, “TERA.” TERA takes place on the world by the same name where the Amani, Barakas, Castanics, High Elves, Humans, Poporis and Elins have gathered together to fight against the Argons.
As Mordil and iTZKooPA conducted their interview (coming up soon), I was offered the chance to join a few of my PAX media brethren in playing one of TERA‘s many dungeons, “The Necromancers Cell.” The developers sat me swiftly down in a room with three other media members, and one of the developers then briefly explained that the dungeon we were in was one that is found sometime later in the game, and that we would be going after one of the bosses in the dungeon.
As fate would have it, I would be providing the role of the tank, playing as an Amani Lancer. The Lancer class is one of the eight classes you can play in TERA, sporting heavy armor, an over-sized shield, and of course, a lance. I was pretty sure that this guy could take more than few blows. The team was a classic five-man team consisting of me as the tank, the three other PAX media members as the DPS, and the developer playing the role of the healer.
As we started, one of the first things I noticed was TERA‘s amazing art style and smooth textures, although we were in a dark and “spooky” dungeon, everything just looked top notch – even each character’s armor looked very in-depth and detailed. As we started our first pull to get us accustomed to the controls of the game and to get a general feel for it, I realized that this was not like any other MMO I had played before. Continue Reading
4 May 2011 | |
Kershocker
Lately, Blizzard has been releasing a ton of information in regards to Patch 4.2, “Rage of the Firelands.” So far, everything looks amazing. The new quest hub sounds like a good concept and all the phasing that is being implemented with it is going to make it 100% cooler. Oh yeah, Firelands (The raid) also looks a.w.e.s.o.m.e. I can’t wait!
Over the weekend, the World of Warcraft community website released one of the things I was most anticipating about Patch 4.2 — Tier 12 Armor Set previews. Only 6 classes have been covered so far, but that’s fine because 4 out of those 6 are classes I have at level 85!
Here, I’ll cover each of the new Tier 12 Armor Sets, and I’ll also let you know what I think about them. Do you agree or disagree? Leave a comment to let me know. Now on to the loot:
1. PALADIN [9 out of 10]
I love it. In my opinion, it looks pretty similar to the Paladin’s Tier 2, which is considered by most people as the best looking armor in-game. I’ve heard a few people complaining on how this set doesn’t look like plate, but it looks more like cloth instead. That is true, however, you can’t deny the fact that it’s a very nice model.
What do I think about wearing a skirt again? First of all, it’s not a skirt, it’s a kilt. Erm, anyway, I really think kilts look much better than actual pants when it comes to Plate DPS, but that’s just my opinion.
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22 April 2011 | |
Amatera
Whether you need a refresher or just haven’t been keeping up with it, Blizzard has put up a full post detailing every nook and cranny of the upcoming content patch. Despite my current disappointment with the state of World of Warcraft, I can’t deny the fact that packing 4.1 with new features at least partially redeems the lack of a new raid dungeon (it certainly shows they’ve been working on something). Here’s a quick summary of what to expect, with the full notes on Blizzard’s site:
Rise of the Zandalari
The days when great troll empires stretched across ancient Kalimdor are long past. Millennia of war and internal strife have stripped these nations of their power, lands, and glory. As Azeroth recovers from the destruction of the Cataclysm, the world’s divided troll populations face a bleak future. These dark times have spurred the trolls of the Zandalar, the historically wise and scholarly tribe from which all trolls originated, to take drastic action. They have embarked on a bold crusade to save their race by uniting trolls into a single mighty empire. With the Zandalari’s aid, the fallen capitals of the Gurubashi and Amani nations—Zul’Gurub and Zul’Aman—are already rebuilding, replenishing their forces for a bloody campaign to expand their territories.
Yet Vol’jin and his Darkspear trolls are not aligned with the Zandalari. They have sworn to stand with their Horde comrades—and even work with the Alliance—should the trolls ignite a new war on Azeroth. Soon, Vol’jin might be forced to act on his promise, for if the Gurubashi and Amani are left to their own devices, the world will know the legendary strength and savagery of the ancient troll empires once again.
Guild Challenges
Built into the Info panel of the guild user interface, Guild Challenges are weekly tasks guild groups can tackle for additional guild experience, achievements, and gold. At the top of the guild user interface Info pane, a new Guild Challenges section is displayed and broken into three categories: Dungeons, Raids, and Rated Battlegrounds. Any guild group will qualify for Guild Challenges credit and there is a set number of times each challenge can be completed per week.
Guild Finder
Guild Finder is a new system designed to enable easier and faster guild recruitment. Guild leaders and players who are looking for a guild to call home will use the Guild Finder to meet one another and begin communications that can lead to a prosperous membership. Whether you’re a guild leader looking to fill your ranks or a player looking for a guild that meets your strictest requirements, the Guild Finder provides an easy way to make new friends!
Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms
A new system intended to lower queue times, Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms offers additional rewards for queuing as the currently least represented role. To be eligible for the additional rewards you must solo queue for a random level-85 Heroic in the role that is currently being Called to Arms, and complete the dungeon by killing the final boss. Every time you hit these requirements (there is no daily limit) you’ll receive a goodie bag that will contain some gold, a chance at a rare gem, a chance at a flask/potion, a good chance of receiving a non-combat pet (including cross faction pets), and a very rare chance at receiving a mount
Clearly the most important thing, though, is that this is a good indication Blizzard is ready to release the patch itself. There is a high chance we will see “Rise of the Zandalari” this coming Tuesday.
30 March 2011 | |
pixiestixy
We’ve discussed our handles, our character names, and the inspiration that led to them. But what about those characters who are made on a whim and then, quickly, all but forgotten? As it turns out, I hoard more than just mounts, pets, gear and random game loot. I also hoard character names — and I’d make a wager that I’m not the only one.
Sometimes, it seems that inspiration just hits. You have a sudden realization that you have found the perfect character name — if ever you want to play such a character. They may not be the most original names — but really. If they’re that awesome, who cares?
Take Tinkerbells up there as an example. She was created on Cataclysm launch day and never again touched. It just seemed the perfect combination. An homage to the ultimate pixie, a reference to the fact that Goblins are born tinkerers (she would be an engineer, of course), plus a hint of the Tinkerballa character who I adore in The Guild. Why a priest? Well, I suppose a hunter would have worked better for that last reference. But I had hoped that I would actually play her, and I’ve been wanting to try out the priest class.
But despite that thought process, she still remains rejected. I’m too faithful to my main. Maybe one day she’ll have her turn to shine. Continue Reading
23 March 2011 | |
Ronix
Welcome back to a series that aims to get you acquainted with all things TERA. In our last entry, we covered the melee classes available in the game. Today, we are going to introduce the rest of the crew: 1 ranged class, 1 caster class and 2 support professions.
Archers represent the ranged melee class in this game. Being skilled in both medium and short ranged attacks, combined with the ability to manipulate traps, makes them a challenging opponent, similar to Warriors in their ability to stay flexible and change their tactics when necessary.
In PvP, Archers can afford to stay back concentrate on harassing healers and helping bring down focused enemy targets. Should the opponents get too close for comfort, you have a couple of tools to slow them down and buy you the chance to get escape. Traps remain invisible for enemies, usually produce AoE damage and a have various status alignments associated with them.
The ranged caster class is represented by the Sorcerer, who is the primary magic damage dealing class in TERA. Just like in other games, Sorcerers rely on keeping their distance from enemies while unleashing a ton of damage when the opportunity arises. Control wise, if you’ve played a similar class before, things will feel familiar but also slightly more intense, as you will have to exercise precision when timing and aiming your attacks.
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12 October 2010 | |
Amatera
As sweet as this water looks, it's the least of the changes being made in 4.0.1.
[Update: Servers still aren't up, so why not freshen up on those stat changes?]
Whether through the internet or the game client itself, you’re probably aware by now that the massive Patch 4.0.1 for World of Warcraft is set to hit live servers today. While it needs to be reiterated that this is not the patch that forever changes the world, it will change yours. And by that, I mean everything you know about how the game, and your class, should work.
There’s simply so much to consider that it would be a waste of space to reproduce the entirety of the changes here (though we may post official patch notes when they’re up). Instead, we’re going to run down the litany of new features and, if applicable, let you know where you can find out more about them. Look ‘em over while you wait for the servers to come back up:
- Major Classes Changes: In an official Blue post, Bashiok clues us in to the most critical, paradigm-shifting class changes such as Eclipse for Balance Druids, Soul Shards for Warlocks, and switches to alternate power sources for Hunter and Paladin.
- Minor Class Changes: As the bulk of the update, individual changes to spells and whatnot are hard to track down. Chances are, if you play World of Warcraft, it’s safe to say Blizzard changed something critical about your class! The link provided will take you to Elitist Jerks. If you can parse the theorycrafting jargon, check your class forum, as they’re already diving deep into the tweaks.
- Talent Changes: This one’s huge, too! Remember that Blizzard has actually shrunk the talent tree, changed the way in which you spec into multiple trees, and added Mastery! Most of the “useless” talents have been removed, changed, or replaced. The EJ link above probably has a lot of information, but if you’d like to play around with the new system in a sandbox, this WoWTal link has you covered.
- Glyph Changes: As skills and talents shift, so must Glyphs. Prime glyphs have been added and you now only have to use a glyph once to “learn” it, after which it can be switched in and out when not in combat. Blue Lylirra gives us the lowdown.
- Currency Changes: Badges are out, points are in. Any Honor or high-tier badges will be immediately converted to the new system. Low-tier badges and other non-monetary currency will be converted to gold. The system applies to current raiding and battleground content, but will come into its own with Cataclysm.
- User Interface Changes: Improvements are coming to just about every aspect of the UI, which is great but means that you’ll probably have to reorient yourself over the next few days. Check out many of them in the linked video, put together by our very own Mordil. It’s worth taking a look at the one he produced for the Druid UI, as well.
- Flexible Raid Lockouts: Bashiok comes at us again with more learnin’. Flexible raid lockouts mean that even if you missed some days in your raiding week, you’re not completely out of the game. It’s being put into the game now, but will make even more sense when the Cataclysm comes.
- Stat Changes: Don’t fret if you log in and all your gear has changed. Some stats have been changed, converted, or removed in order to simplify the system a little bit. Remind yourself what’s been done to your precious gear by following this link.
- Reforging: NPCs in major cities can swap secondary stats with other secondary stats on your equipment. See if you can squeeze a few more points of awesome out of your gear.
- Power Auras: The popular third-party mod has been co-oped (read: copied) by Blizzard. The basic idea is that custom graphical effects will pop up around your character when it’s kosher to activate an ability or when it comes off cooldown. While some may still opt to use the original, the rest of us will get the functionality built in.
- Socketed Relics: Relics now have stats and sockets for gems. Rejoice, relic-using classes!
- New Water Engine: Those shiny, new water settings we’ve seen in previews for the expansion are coming in 4.0.1, but make sure your rig can handle it first.
- New Guild Member Cap: Mega-guilds, beware! If you’ve already listened to our most recent podcast, then you’ll know we look like fools talking about the 600-member cap. Bashiok followed up the initial announcement stating that feedback had caused them to “re-evaluate” the decision and bump it all the way up to a cool 1000. This is now a had cap and necessary to accomodate all the new new guild features.
Can’t wait to check out of this stuff, myself, but I still don’t expect to be playing hardcore until 4.0.3, myself. While all the new changes are cool, there still isn’t any new content (well, beyond the impending pre-Cataclysm events which should be a part of this patch, as well). Tell us what has you pumped (or disappointed), and if I’ve missed anything, please let me know.
16 July 2010 | |
Amatera
Now that the Cataclysm beta is in the wild and the playerbase, at large, is exposed to the current state of the game, they no doubt have had a lot of questions as to how the expansion is progressing. This anxiety was compounded by the announcement of the new 31-point talent trees, around which the latest Twitter-based Q&A seemed to focus. As indicated, class changes dominated the discussion, though there are a few other tidbits here or there (including, likely the biggest announcement, a major change to Paladin play mechanics).
Below is a sampling, but the original log is far too long for some basic copypasta. You can check out the full chat on Blizzard’s forums.
Q: What about some class specific quests for Cataclysm? I enjoyed them in the early levels of WoW!
A: It’s very expensive to create class-specific quests given the literally thousands of new quests we are already adding for Cataclysm; however, we are going to have class-specific dungeon quests for everyone at levels 20 and 50. These won’t be as involved as, say, the old Benediction quest line, but they will give you a way to get some blue loot that isn’t otherwise available.
Q: How much of an impact will the new medium glyphs have on the fun factor of choices in the new 31-point talent trees?
A. We hope it adds a lot. Part of the problem is that if there is, say, a Glyph of Mutilate, you feel like you have to take that as an Assassination rogue over anything else. The medium glyphs are designed to let you customize your character a little more. They are the glyphs you would take if Mutilate didn’t exist.
Incidentally, the new tiers are called Prime, Major, and Minor. Majors are the new Mediums. Glyph of Mutilate would be a Prime.
Q: Are there any plans to add Ghostcrawler in-game as a critter or elite crab?
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