Tera Midgame

I've been playing Tera for about a month now. I've had a chance to see many of the game's systems in play and I'm now past the honeymoon phase. The new look and feel shine has worn off a little bit, and the reality of the game is starting to sink in. At this point I have a level 41 sorcerer, my original priest is level 36, and I've played both Warrior and Lancer into the 30s. I've done crafting, and instanced dungeons, and grouped up for BAM fights. And while I have no idea what Tera's endgame is like, I feel that I've had enough time to figure out the leveling game. Fortunately, I'm still having fun with Tera, enough that I'll probably be keeping my subscription past the release of Guild Wars 2.

  

There are some harsh realities that have set in though. The most obvious is the fact that Tera stays too close to the WoW foruma--and it's the vanilla version of that to boot. Tera's game systems are rather simplistic. There are fewer gear slots and fewer meaningful stats. It's questing system is beyond simple, with a very limited variety of quest types. It's crafting system is even more simplistic than WOW's, if that is even possible. It's dungeon finder tool is next to worthless, and it's LFG channel is a cess pit that's worse than I've seen in most MMOs (and that is saying something).

All of these were problems with SWTOR as well. However, while The Old Republic tried to make up for that with story, Tera tries to make up for it's deficiencies in it's combat system and class mechanics. And without this combat system, Tera would be a true flop. As it is, though, Tera's classes and combat save the game even into the mid levels. It's not fresh, or exciting anymore, but it is still fun.

Leveling from 1-20 is very simple, and takes a very short amount of time. 20-30 is slower, sure, but still very fast and painless for pretty much every class I've played. So when I say that I've gotten 3 classes into the level 30 range that's not saying much. It's only at around level 30 where the leveling slope starts to turn verticle and the newness of the game starts wearing off.

It makes me wonder...would a game like this do better with a much higher level cap (say in the 200 range), but with faster levels? It would necessitate a lot of marginal power-up skills, but most of these MMO systems are designed to scale well anyway.

Anyway, it's around level 30 where you hit the leveling brick wall and everything slows down a lot. I've read that a lot of people give up on the game at this level, and I can understand why. Everything is the same...it just takes longer. Kill quests get longer, and give a percentage smaller amount of XPs for the next level. And by this point, the simplistic quest design really starts to show the failings of the system. Levels 1-30 does not feel like a grind. Levels 30 to 40 most certainly do.

The pace does settle, though, and it remains pretty constant from levels 30 to 40. And in reality the amount of time it takes to level isn't all that bad--a few hours at most per level, less if you know where everything is (which I do not). I think I've read where it's possible to get from 1-60 in about 72 hours, and I can certainly see that. And while the quests do not become any more complex, the environments and monsters most certainly do.

This is a common feature of most MMOs, especially when leveling. It's not uncommon for characters to actually feel LESS powerful as they go up in level because the monsters outpace the power of the characters. This is partially by design, especially at low levels. Developers want you to get comfortable with the system before upping the challenge. But in Tera, this difficulty usually manifests itself as monsters having more HP. This is a very bland way of upping the difficulty because it means that the monsters you are fighting aren't really substantially different to what you fought earlier...they just take longer to kill.

Sorcerers seem less susceptible to this, but this is mostly because they seem almost rediculously overpowered in the 20s, and they still do very well in the 30s. Lancers, however, seem to start moving at a glacial pace because everything takes way too long to kill. And at the same time, it becomes much more difficult to solo BAMs in the 30s. Doable, but more difficult. I've had very good luck doing this on my Warrior and Lancer, but very little luck with Sorcerer and Priest. Even then, the fights just start taking too long for the rewards to justify it. My lancer can still pretty much solo any BAM, but at 10-15 minutes per fight it's simply not worth it.

  

While the quests and the classes don't change much, the environments you encounter in the 30s do open up a bit. Not only do you find some large open environments, deserts and such, but you all start finding various open-world dungeons. There's a mine, a pirate cove, and a wizarding school that comes straight out of harry potter. These open-world dungeons are a bit more difficult, mostly due to tight corners and limited space limiting movement (a big deal in Tera combat). Not to mention the trains and adds that inevitably pop up. The variety, though, helps and does create some more focused experiences and story lines. But it's still not something that makes you forget the grind.

There is a lot of talk about some of the negative aspects of Tera here, but really I'm still having fun with the game. I just wish that as a whole Tera was in a more polished state. And I'll admit that I'm a little concerned about how 'gridy' the game is getting. Right now it's about 'right'--slow enough to make each level seem like an accomplishment, but not so slow that it's painful. My goal at this point is to try to hit 60 on my Sorcerer, but at this point that seems less and less likely. Guild Wars 2 is less than 3 weeks away at this point, and while Ive decided to maintain my subscription for a bit after the GW2 launch, I'm not sure how much time I'll be spending with the game past the 25th.

Guild Wars 2 Guilds

When my friends and I began playing The Old Republic, we decided to create a guild for ourselves. In hindsight I think that was a bit of a problem, especially for me, as it limited me from the social aspects of the game more so than any other. And since at least one of my friends is very anti-social (in an online sense), trying to join another guild wasn't really possible. He would have quit first before ever considering that kind of switch. So, my options were limited in that regard and by the time I hit 50 I really had no social pull for any of the more difficult content.



With Tera we have not created a guild at all, though at this point we probably should go ahead and make one. I'm certainly not interested in the political aspects of the game--they are cool and all and present a more interesting form of end-game. But it is also something that is just as much of a commitment as a high end raiding guild. To be successful at that you need a big group, and you really need to commit to it to be successful in any meaningful way. And even if some of the Vanarch seats aren't heavily challenged, it's still way too much of a commitment for a game that I'm really only planning on playing for another month.

With Guild Wars 2 it looks like I can have my cake and eat it too. Apparently in Guild Wars you can create, and join any number of guilds, though you only 'represent' one guild at any given time. That means that we can create a guild just for our friends, but still reach out and join other guilds for more focused content (such as PVE, or PVP, etc). This is a very cool concept (FFXI had something similar, and hopefully this won't take up inventory space like Linkshells did in FFXI). This is again something that points to the way Guild Wars 2 seems to invert core basic concepts with an eye towards usability and openness.

Guilds also seem to include some leveling functions that allow you to increase the abilities of the guild. I looked at this, and this seems cool, though less impressive than the guild leveling I've seen in Warhammer Online, and in World of Warcraft. Of course, this could be expanded later and probably isn't really necessary for release. But I'm not entirely sure it's worth it just to purchase basic 24 hour buffs--it's cool, but not cool like some of the abilities you got in, say, World of Warcraft.

Thoughts on Guild Wars 2 Classes

Thoughts on Guild Wars 2 Characters

After my short experience with the beta I'm looking at playing several different characters. At this point I'm not sure what I'm going to be using as my main (and I won't for a bit), but here's what I'm considering at this point:

• Human Elementalist
• Asuran Engineer
• Sylvan Necromancer
• Char Warrior

Elementalist seemed like a lot of fun the time I spent with it. It's certainly fits with my play style (being a closet mage and all). Lots of options, lots of effect types, and lots of pew-pew. Glass Cannons, however, seem like they will have a hard time in this game, so this may or may not be the best class pick outside of PVE. I also have a friend who is definitely playing this class, so I might have to pick another instead. You can definitely make some very cool looking humans to with this game.

My next choice is an asuran Engineer. The asuran Engineer starting zone is just awesome. I really liked the human starting zone, but the asurans are just cool. The Engineer itself is a cool class, though I didn't get access to all of the class's weapons, I generally liked the mobility and flexibility of the class and it looks to be a lot of fun. It takes a bit of work, but you can also come up with very cute/ugly looking asurans through character creation.

Past that I'm looking at a Sylvan Necromancer. The Sylvan starting zone was the least interesting to me story-wise, but has a cool alien aestetic that I really liked. Everything I've read from people were stating that Sylvan = Elves, and that is definitely not true. They seem much more Fae-like to me--more like nature spirits than anything. The Necromancer Class itself looks a lot of fun--and it seems like it could be a very effective class. The mechanics of the class seem very interesting to me--and my work as an alternate spell caster if Elementalist doesn't pan out. Sylvans are somewhat hard to make look 'good' in the game, though I managed to make a few 'ok' looking characters.

My last thought was to try a Char Warrior, or possibly Thief or Ranger. I spent the least time in the Char zone, so I didn't really get to see much of it. Warriors look OK, and are apparently beasts in PVP. I usually don't like melee classes, but since there are very few true melee classes in this game I think Warrior might be good.

Honestly I didn't do much with Warrior (I only got to level 2). I never even touched Ranger, Thief, or Guardian, though a thief for PVP seems like that might be good. Whatever my main turns out to be, I'll probably be creating at least 2 other characters to play around with, and with those other characters I'd like to hit a wide variety of play styles.

Oh, and as you might have noticed I haven't mentioned Mesmer here. I did create one, but honestly I didn't like it very much (though admittedly I only got to level 3 before I quit). Mesmer is the only class that I'm not planning on touching at launch.

Guild Wars 2 (Beta Impressions)

So I failed. My intention was to completely skip the Guild Wars 2 Beta even though I had already preordered the game. My original plan was to simply look at the character creation options available, but not play the game at all so it would be fresh and new when I started playing next month. Instead I ended up playing the game for about 6 hours, including the end-of-beta event. And as expected I very much liked what little I saw of the game.

During my time with the beta I created 6 different characters of various races and classes: a Human Elementalist, a Auran Thief, a Norn Engineer, a Sylvan Necromancer. and a Char Warrior. The highest level I got on any character was level 5. This was enough to see some of the basic mechanics of each class. It was enough to unlock several weapons, and to see the 'heart?' quests and dynamic quests in action.

I have to say that Guild Wars 2 could very easily be relabeled ADD Wars and with good reason. Maybe it's just the game front-loading the starter zone, but with the heart quests, dynamic quests, and world events going on it became very hard to stay focused on one task. Event were popping up left and right, making the world seem very active and packed with content. This was both good, and bad. Good in the sense that there was always something to do, and it was easy to just get caught up in it and lost in the world. But bad in the sense that it quickly became a bit overwhelming at times. And this was made worse considering the sheer numbers of people in the game doing the events, where there were often scores of people doing the same thing at the same time. Things often became confusing and hard to follow, and since the world doesn't wait around for you it can sometimes end up with you getting lost, or missing out on things because you couldn't keep up.

The chaotic nature of the game made my transition with the interface itself a bit problematic. My fingers are now used to Tera, which has an interface different than most MMOs. Guild Wars 2 has a slightly more traditional interface, but it was one I was having a hard time adjusting to. I don't think this will be a major problem for most people, but I did end up heavily modifying the default interface to get it to where I liked it. By the time I was done, and Hunger Royal started, the interface wasn't bothering me so much.

I never figured out how to gather (I guess you have to purchase items to enable this but I never got a chance to test it). I also didn't get to do any crafting at all, so I don't know how good or bad that system is or how good the gear is. I avoided doing story quests (except for the ones you have to do in the starter area). Instead I primary focused on heart quests and dynamic quests, and a bit of exploring. I did a couple of skill challenges, found several vistas (which are very Assassin's Creed-like). There will be a LOT of possible exploring in this game, which should really help with the longevity of the game.

Overall my first impressions with the game are is that it is very beautiful, very smooth, and it can clearly scale pretty well. Combat is very tight, and combines some of the best elements of WOW and Tera. It seems faster paced than either of those games, though, and the game does suffer from having so many effects on screen that it can be sometimes hard to stay up with the action. I'm also not quite convinced about the way skills are tied to weapons. From what I can tell it doesn't take very long to unlock things, so it's pretty obvious that you can unlock all of the abilities of your character very early on. Weapon swaps will certainly help, and I presume will be a cornerstone of the system when that ability unlocks.

I'm definitely excited to get a chance to play the game in late obvious. Perhaps more excited than I was before. In the meantime, I've still got Tera to play around with and that's what I'll be doing in the short term I think.

On another subject, I finally cancelled by subscription to Star Wars: The Old Republic. While it had it's problems and the game lost its luster long too soon I have to say that I really enjoyed the game and will remember it fondly. Too bad TOR's end game was so boring. I have about 20 days to log back in and do stuff before my last play period expires.

Tera Mystic (First Impressions)

After getting Priest to level 30 I've now manage to get a Mystic to level 25. This wasn't really my intent, but as my other friends have been playing now I decided to create another healer to run through Bastion of Lok, and leveling Mystic to 20 was pretty easy. While I'm no means a master of the class, I do have a few things to say about it at this point, though keep in mind my impressions are limited to the level 1-25 range.

And unfortunately my impressions of the class up to this point is that it is a poor man's priest, and no where near as interesting.

Offensively Mystic works very much like a Priest (except with fewer spells). Mystics have a standard ranged attack (just like Priest, and Sorcerer), a short ranged cone-based AOE (like Priest), and a short ranged high damage strike (just like Priest). This combination is very effective at low level, just like priest, and I have to admit I was MUCH faster soloing this time around. But this isn't because Mystic is faster or harder hitting (quite the opposite I think), it's because my soloing tactics have changed due to experience.

While I leveled this range as Priest I stayed at long range, plinking and jumping to stay at range. This is a mistake, in fact. At low levels (up to 25), it's much more effective to pull packs of mobs, stay at close range, and chain your AOEs at close range while circling your opponent to avoid most hits. While before I was taking on 1 mob at a time, I'm doing 4+ as a mystic. And with packs of small mobs I'm pulling 3-4 packs at a time, and AOEing them. Priest could do the same thing, but I just didn't even think about it at the time.

Mystics do get an effective lock-on poison effect that is very effective and has the advantage of being castable in motion. This is a cool spell, which can stack up to 3 times on a target, but is hampered by a 10 second duration, which means that you will be casting this a LOT. Too bad, because with this spell, and other DPS spells, the Mystic would be much more effective, but as it is it can actually be somewhat annoying to keep 100% of the time this up while healing.

As a healer Mystics just don't have the options that a Priest does. Mystics can drop healing orbs, which are very nice. And they have an effective lock-on heal. They also have a lock-on cleanse...and a very expensive healing fairy that stays up only for a few seconds. That's it. Priest definitely feels more versatile.

Of course Mystics DO get summons, but in practice I've not been enthused with them. Besides the tanking summon, most of the summons don't last very long (10-20 seconds), have a high MP cost, and aren't  that affective anyway. The tanking pet, for example, holds aggro 'ok', but on average is hitting for about 28 damage and gets knocked down a LOT. The Thrall of Vengeance, a ranged attacker, lasts for less than 20 seconds, and does just about 180 damage a hit (about the same as the primary nuke at this stage), and uses a lot of mana so you can't just leave it up even if you wanted to.

In fact even with using my main nuke, with the DPS pet, and the poison debuff at 3 stacks I feel like I'm doing...less damage than any other class than perhaps priest (at range anyway). And this is simply not sustainable for very long even under the best of circumstances.

And unlike Priests, Mystics seem to have a mana issue. While Priests can easily get mana back pretty easily Mystics only have Circle of Corruption at this level and this is a low damage AOE that's short range and returns a relatively small amount of damage (though on the plus side it provides mana to everyone in range). From experience the spell is not that useful solo, and is harder to use in a party where there is a lot of movement and AOE. That's not to say it's worthless, but the spell would be much better with a slightly larger radius, or a reduced channeling time.

As for evasion the Mystic class gets Teleport (just like the sorcerer), which is a pretty cool spell by itself. But priests get two evasion skills, one with a damage component, so even in that regard Priest seems more versatile. Fighting BAMs solo, I definitely preferred the two jumping skills that Priests get over Mystics single (if cooler) teleport.

At 25 I think I have enough information to say that while the class is not broken, it may not be the one for me. It's features mimic those of other classes too closely and it's distinctive abilities (such as its summons) are just not that cool. They need to last longer, and be more effective than they are right now (it would also be useful if you could heal them). Party Auras are much more useful (at this point I've only got the party speed buff), but burn mana which is already a scarce resource.

The two Bastion of Lok runs I did with the Mystic showed me that unlike Priest, who can still DPS in a fight, as a Mystic mana was too much of a precious resource to burn. Every time I tried to heal and DPS, I ended up having to stop for fear of running out of mana. And Circle of Corruption was completely worthless in a boss fight--it wasn't worth the risk of getting that close and staying in one place long enough for it to be effective. At least 50% of the time I tried, I'd get knocked down, and loose the channel anyway.

So at this point I'm not likely to take my Mystic much farther. I might do a few more BOL runs, or possibly SM?, but I'm much happier with Priest at this point and am looking forward with the rest of my group catching up to 30.