Tera Online

[Rennn]

Since it went Free to Play, I decided to install it and try it out. As soon as I started playing, I couldn't stop laughing. Omg, I'd be really mad if I was a girl. I'm male, and I'm still mad for their sake. The animations and sound effects are so comical... Every female character looks like they're a lolicon stereotype from the equipment and animations, they run in the most cliched "feminine" posture imaginable, and when they get into combat it sounds like one continuous orgasm. Meanwhile, the male characters get flaming spike armor and emo hair. I'm honestly not sure if I can stop wincing/laughing for long enough to actually play... Is it worth the effort?

Edited March 31, 2013 by Rennn

[Vindekarr]

No, it's not. I recomend Guild Wars 2, female characters are only as "feminine" as you want them to be, as a matter of fact, you can even be a fat chick. It's also free to play, but it's actually got a really good end game, and none of the pay to win nonsense you get in game like Tera. An example of Guild Wars being Guild Wars is this: Play a female character, find a skimpy outfit: 1: most outfits which are skimpy are skimpy on both sexes, there are some hilarious "male hooker" outfits to match the female hooker ones, 2: if you don't like skimpy just find another, non-skimpy outfit you like, go do your Dailies, get a Transmutation stone, use the stone to trade the nice skin onto the skimpy one, problem solved. Or make your level 80 look like a noob.

 

Other points of note: you don't have to pay a sub, but neither do you need to actually buy anything, the cash shop sells skins you can wear OUTSIDE of combat, and "services" such as extra character slots, but you already get 5, minor buffs, like 5% more armour for an hour, and some big, crazy ones like fireworks and other party supplies for some in-game festivities. The beauty of it is, you can actually buy all the stuff for in-game money, which can be transmuted into cash-shop funds. It's also a very pretty mmo, some of the later environments in particular, especially BlazeRidge, which looks like Yellowstone in the midst of a volcanic eruption, complete with earthquakes, swaths of burning woodland, and some absolutely stunning lava flowing into a lake of liquid tar.

 

And finally, it's got a really nice community, since PVP is handled on it's own server battlefield, and there's a walk-up-and-join events a la Rift, people are very willing to help, and I've met some absolutely heroic people. I accidently overpaid on an item I bought from a guildmate last night, I came back to a note informing me he'd accidently doublecharged me, complete with a complete refund and an extra five silver as apology.

[Vagrant0]

After playing a little while, I decided to just go with it. Sure, some of the male characters (archers I think) shouting something that sounds like "Sega" still brings a chuckle to my throat, half the female NPCs say things that sound like comeons, and even the non-tiny characters are carrying around weapons larger than their body. But that should pretty much tell you that this is a non-western MMO, and that it probably doesn't take itself too seriously. The punny quest names and out of theme costumes should also point this fact out.

 

As for it being pay-to-win. Nope. Don't see that at all. Not on NA servers atleast. About the only "advantage" you can get from paying is higher exp rate, and faster mounts, and those can be bought for low level characters once you have a max level one with normal game currency. Actually, EVERYTHING in the cash shop except for elite status can be bought with gold earned while playing the game. And at end-game, most of it is reasonably attainable within a day...

 

Since there are those who would take a look at "100% exp boost" items and combine it with "Korean made MMO" and have the result connection "Grind fest", I thought I would comment on this. The rate of gaining exp is actually pretty darn high, even without boosts. At lower levels it's very easy to end up 3-6 levels above your currently active quest just because you were used to other games where you need to do every quest under the sun to get 10% of that level. That really isn't the case here, and at several points I've even skilled whole sections of random quests just so that I'm not overleveled for story quests or dungeons. Even at higher levels, about the only killing you need to do for exp is related to one quest or another. And it isn't even quests of "Kill 500 of x" like some... Although most quests are framed like that, the actual kill counts are usually between 5 and 20 for smaller stuff, 1 and 5 for bosses and things you would have to group for. And every class can solo well once you know how to use them. Oh, and you can still get double exp for free just from logging out in towns... Giving you about about 10-20% of a level's worth overnight. Level 1-60 is easily doable within 3 weeks at only about 4 hours a day. I'd almost be tempted to say that you level too quickly to be honest, since you have so many people in the mid-levels who just don't know how to play.

 

Class-wise, I almost think that Tera might be the first to actually get healers and tank classes right. Due to the combat mechanics actually being live actions (instead of turn based dice rolls like WoW), tanking bosses actually FEELs like standing toe to toe with something deadly and countering its actions. No automatic shield blocking/dodging here here, you actually have to be able to pay attention to what you're fighting and block before you get hit then spring a counter attack while the opponent is stunned. If you're good, you can even hunt bosses solo without needing a pocket medic or self-heals. Healing classes are also done right in that it isn't just sitting back spamming the same skill and just watching health bars... But rather maintaining a line of sight to the tank and dps and constantly moving around to avoid getting hit when the boss suddenly decides to jump on you. Healing is target based, as well as range based so takes some real skill to keep a party alive and kicking (especially when you have dps that doesn't know how to dodge). Once you get past everything else, the actual gameplay is pretty darn solid and closer to an ARG. It even has those moments of sheer fps style badassery that is mostly absent in other MMOs.

 

Given all the other MMOs I've played over the years... Ultima Online, Everquest, Ragnarok, Anarchy Online, WoW (BC and Witchking), Perfect World, Lineage 2, Mabinogi, Aeon, and countless others that didn't leave much of an impression, Tera is one of the few where combat was actually enjoyable, where running around and killing stuff didn't feel like a massive grind because you'd spend 10 minutes just getting 1% of a quest or achievement complete. The world is lush and varied, characters are colorful (if maybe too emo), and most quests can be done in 10-15 minutes. You just have to be able to look beyond your biases (and sometimes your urge to facepalm) to just enjoy it for what it is.

 

 

The downside though is this...

 

All that stuff about Korean MMOs being a grindfest is still true, just that with Tera, it's all at the end. Once you hit 60, you start having to grind reputation for some of the NPC factions in order to even have equipment good enough to run easier dungeons. For a free player, this can mean about a week or two per faction (10 quests a day(elite status can do 20)). Then there are countless times you have to run through dungeons for loot just to have what you need to run other dungeons. And since you're not leveling or doing any area quests any more, there is relatively little new content available to you. But that's about the same with just about any other themepark mmo and levelcap.

 

Crafting is pretty much worthless. The game has a large and somewhat complex system of crafting, but there is almost 0 benefit to it until you get to max level, have all your stuff, and decide there and then to go for broke and work towards a set of equipment that is slightly better than everything, but requires both maxed crafting skills as well as a silly amount of materials (and reputation). For everything else, it's pretty much just there so that you can re-skin your current equipment to look like part of any other tier of equipment, or for twinking out a second character. Alchemy is still good for potions and scrolls, but usually isn't needed or worth the money.

 

Pugging, or queuing for instances with randoms is usually an unpleasant experience. Very rarely do you have people in your party who know their role, and often times when you have people rudely telling you what it is that you aren't doing right just because they can't be asked to dodge or block those obvious attacks. And due to the rate that you level up, even joining a guild usually doesn't mean having people to party with at lower levels or run dungeons with. To make it worse, queue times for dps classes (berzerker, archer, sorcerer, slayer, warrior (5 of the 8 classes) can usually last between 30-90 minutes just because there isn't an available tank/healer online who also wants that dungeon (even among multiple servers). Which is good in one way since a tank or healer can essentially say "You're going to complain about how I play, fine, I'll just find another group, enjoy sitting and waiting for another hour or two and reflect on your actions douchbag". and either get them kicked from party or find another group almost instantly. But it's bad for those classes with long wait times since you're kinda just standing around or completing other quests while you wait. Alot of this is standard for most MMOs, but I think the part where there is an apparent lack of tank classes (lancers) leveling or active at any given time makes it more pronounced (probably even more so because you actually need to do more than stand there spamming agro while a boss hits you).

 

Women running on stiletto heels with their asses in the air, flipping through the sky... To name other things. Realism folks, and those who just can't stop shouting "Pedo" every time they see someone playing as an Elin character should just skip this game. Between most of the female outfits not having proper leggings, loli catgirls, and most of the male characters falling into the "Bishi" category, this game looks like the entire art team were otaku or at some point said "The story is dark enough, let's just make everyone cutesy and overly exaggerated" If you can't look beyond this choice of aesthetic, then you probably won't really be able to enjoy the game. Just like those who couldn't stand the cartoony graphics wouldn't be able to enjoy WoW.

[Vindekarr]

See, that's where guild wars beats Tera, it's got much, much better class design. Eight classes, Thief, Ranger, Warrior, Mesmer, Elementalist, Necromancer, Engineer, Guardian. Each class also has a slew of different weapons available, and each weapon gives a different skillbar, and often a different role. I play a Guardian, which means I'm a heavy armour wearing tanker, if I have a Hammer, I receive active abilities geared for tanking, if I wield a claymore, I get AOE dps, if I wield a staff, I get support. And then there's the one-hand weapons, your main hand gives you your 1,2,3 skills and 4,5 are dictated by the offhand. The result is a single class with tremendous depth; if I equip a Sword/Torch I'm melee DPS, if I pick up a Mace/Focus, I'm a melee tank, if I pick up a staff, I'm a ranged healer.

 

Every class also has the ability to heal itself, revive others, and so even if you don't get a dedicated healer(A water-specialist Elementalist or a Guardian or a Ranger or an Engineer) 90% of the time the group will be fine. Very rarely will you need to spend a long time looking for a group, since it doesn't matter what server you're on; the dungeon finder is trans-server and when you enter, everyone gets loaded into their own dedicated shard. Even more so, class matchup doesn't really matter much, you'd want an Ele for Ascalon or a Ranger for Twighlight Arbour, but they're purely optional and any good group could do it without them.

 

And finally, you downscale to dungeons, but the loot upscales. As a level 80, if I did Ascalon, a level 35 dung, I'd get level 80 gear, have a full chance to get exotic gear(top tier) and also get tokens for Ascalon gear. Top-tier Exotic is pleasantly easy to get, although uneccesary, the massive buffs help with dungeons. The main difference between dungeon gear and normal exotic are the looks; dungeon gear adds some wild particles, and cooler looks.

[Rennn]

I already have Guild Wars 2, by the way, and it's awesome.

[Deleted472477User]

I tried Tera for five minutes, and my gripes are the same as Vindekarr's. I deleted it pretty fast. I use the armors modded for skyrim from it, but that's it. If I ever see a steady job again in this life, I'd love to check out GW2: the place where it looks like Yellowstone exploded sounds awesome :D