TERA Online: Something incredibly nifty.

The grind is faster than most MM Os I've played. Even faster than GW 2 if the non-quest EXP sources in the latter are disregarded. You'll eventually run into enough non-repeatable sidequests to outlevel the main story entirely if you try to do them all, which is a bad thing because the main quests tend to award strong equipment and in any case the main endgame content still needs a lot of fixing despite the host of changes made in each patch.

Questing structure is 100% generic but the game is all about soloing giant monsters and/or PVP anyway.

On what is free:

The model is very similar to Aion's in that most of the in-game features from the paid version are free. Death penalties are relatively light and enchanting failure does not destroy equipment (and I think it does not disenchant as well). The usual boosts and storage/broker expansions are sold in the shop but in most cases they aren't absolutely necessary.

Free players are restricted to two character slots but this is per server rather than for the whole game. Server transfers are free but with extremely long cooldown.

edited 15th Mar '13 2:47:55 PM by Recon5

Con: Too big of a download. lol

I'm just at 28% lol

edited 17th Mar '13 7:51:14 PM by entropy13

I gave this game a go because the action-based combat seemed to be exactly what I want out of an MMO. My first task was creating a female character that was conservatively dressed.

I think I'll stick with SWTOR.

I gotta hand it to them, the customization with the face and everything was pretty neat. A good bit more extensive than just the usual 'pick eyes and mouth' seen in other MM Os.

This is why Baraka are the Master Race. No pants and no undies and yet no fanservice whatsoever.

Or maybe just roll Popori and be a cute spherical bunny or something.

Females do have conservative options unless they're Castanic (for whom covering up seems to be culturally unacceptable in-universe) or Aman (in which case they're semi-monstrous, which would explain why so few people play the women) but you'll have to make extensive use of remodeling if you want to be well covered all the way from 1 to 60. Elins have the most complete covering for obvious reasons.

edited 18th Mar '13 5:06:30 AM by Recon5

Of course, there are no female Baraka or Popori.

I rolled an Elin to stay decent, but her animations kind of annoy me.

So... finally approaching endgame and I must say that while the game is more generous with gold than any other I've played, the enchanting and crafting mechanics tend to inhale it straight out of my bag.

Monster difficulty jumps up quite suddenly in the level 53+ zones. Normal enemies are more agile, have larger movesets (including more lockdowns), do more damage and have several times as much HP as in the immediately preceding maps. Minion clusters are now positively deadly. Some gear upgrades did close the gap a bit so this may simply be a serious Beef Gate.

Conversely, the much vaunted BA Ms get mostly more HP and attack power with only a token new move here or there. Good thing is that their loot tables get a much bigger upgrade, probably to prepare players for the epic gold sink that is endgame gearing.

Regarding fanservice, I've come to realize that playing the game at anything less than maximum zoom distance is asking to be blindsided by mobs or BA Ms, so I can barely tell what people are wearing most of the time, let alone how much.

edited 3rd Apr '13 7:34:44 PM by Recon5

Bumping.

Tried a simple Fo V fix that Youtube uploader sheepheadCG suggested and it makes a huge difference. The game literally fees several times faster with the larger Fo V and I can see why it's treated like such a big deal in some circles, outside of the health problems that certain people have with small Fo V.

Went to spend some time with my Slayer alt and I realized that those who consider the class' gameplay brainless are really mistaken. I get big dividends from applying what I learnt as a Berzerker, especially about the importance of interrupts and waiting for openings. I have to admit that BAM fights are much easier especially since I've learned to circle the enemy a lot more as a zerk as well and the Slayer's extra mobility is awesome in that regard.

While GW 2 allows for easy group play without joining a party, TERA has some of the easiest overworld party finding in any MMO I've ever played. Almost no one rejects you if you randomly apply to their party and I've actually turned down invitations to parties far more times than I've been rejected from one. Dungeon LFG is still easier with friends, though that could just be because my time zone causes me to start playing at the time Americans go to bed or right after they wake up.

edited 9th Apr '13 4:17:52 PM by Recon5

Taking advantage of my spankin' new laptop to get this game, which I had had my eye on for a long time. Any active players 'round these parts?

I used to play this quite a bit and I maxed a Berzerker but I've stopped since I'll soon be moving out of the region where it's available.

Is this game supposed to take forever and a day to download?

It's one of the biggest downloads out there that wasn't originally a Bluray title.

Has anyone (still) here tried playing the Japanese version? I mostly want to know how easily you can get banned or suspended or blocked or...something when they find out you aren't playing on Japanese soil.

So this game in the west is now TERA Rising and is F 2 P. It has a cash shop, but it's very much unnecessary.

I'm finding it to be a very enjoyable action MMO - the sort of thing that makes me want to play continuously. It's also really rather pretty (what with it running on a version of the Unreal Engine, after all). This was my first venture into the MMORPG genre, and it's just great.

However, me and my 2 friends are running into a few...problems. We tried to fight through an instance (all 3 of us at level 22), namely the Bastion of Lok, and we got ourselves promptly stomped into the ground before we could even defeat one of the bosses. While we am pretty sure as for where our problems were (a tank struggling to hold aggro - playing Lancer, the resident tank class, is a difficult job), even when things did go right, even battles against trash were long and slow slogs. There's a reason the game proclaims front and center that a party of 1 tank, 1 healer and 3 DPS can make short work of any opponent.

So...any poor soul that happens to play this game and wants to join us? We tend to begin playing at around 7 PM Eastern on random days (but usually not on Wednesdays). We use Skype to coordinate ourselves; I'll give mine once we find interested parties.

I've been playing off and on for about a month now.
Enjoying it greatly thus far.

Server: Tempest Reach
Level 37 Castanic Berzerker, unguilded, "Shinyseeker".

I might play with you guys. I've had this downloaded but life and other games dragged me away from it. Some people to play with would be fun.