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Who Will Actually Play this game? Lv. 43 Lancer Tera Review
BigBadWolfe
Member Posts: 143
Like a lot of people that are in a MMO rut, I have been following SW:TOR and Guild Wars 2, and even a bit of Secret World to pass the time. Tera was pretty much dismissed by the masses as another Asian grind MMO, but I felt there was something more to this game. Unlike the other next-gen MMOs, Tera is already out (technically) so why not give it a try? Keep in mind this review is strictly MY OPINION, I am not 58, but I have been playing this game for over a month.
Story rating- 5/10: The story of an MMO may or may not be important to you, and in this game's defense I do not understand a word of Korean, so I can't tell you if the story itself is any good. What I can tell you is that the game's quest line does revolve heavily around the story, and that there are a lot of in-game and/or illustrated cut scenes to give the story more of an epic feel. This is a bittersweet approach however because the questing in this game is completely old school. I'm talking kill ten rats, collect stuff, and escort ignorant NPCs, make up 90% of the quests in this game. This was fine 8 years ago, but with revamped storyline game mechanics in SW:TOR, GW2, and even WoW (phasing system), people are just not gonna put up with kill ten rats anymore. The only saving grace to this game so far is the Open World Dungeons, I'm not sure why but the OWDs seems to have a lot better pacing with running through the dungeons killing everything, breaking down barriers, and a boss/mini-boss fight quests sprinkled in. Thankfully you can level up to cap in about a month's time, but your mileage varies greatly by class. Lancers do not level up fast at all, which brings me to my next topic:
Class design - 8/10: The class design is also very traditional, and will put off people especially the anti-trinity movement. I'm not gonna get into whether or not the Trinity is staple or a plague to modern MMOs, but if you are into that stuff, Tera is probably going to be the best trinity based game coming out. SW:TOR shot itself in the foot reducing it's party size to 4, drastically increasing the tank/healer to dps ratio, and no LFD system that I've seen to pair these players up in a timely fashion. Rift and WoW is slightly better off, but they are suffering an endless FoTM cycle with their classes due to game mechanics. Tera's action based combat system helps to alleviate a lot of the issues that the trinity causes in terms of PvP balance, making PvP and World PvP more attractive in this game then other MMOs. All of the classes only have one spec, each with surprising amount of strengths and debilitating weakness, that will force players to rely on one another to progress. That's right I said it, this is a forced grouping game in disguised as a solo friendly game. Forced grouping is an ugly word, but the trinity system is essentially forced grouping, and Tera is unapologetic about that, which is why the Trinity works so well in this game.
Progression - 5/10: Endgame activities include PvP ( a 10 man BG and a 5 man Arena), World PvP (coming soon), 5-man dungeons, BAM hunting, and Crafting. For some reason you can't do Battlegrounds at all until level 57, that needs to change. With BAMs, even though their drops are good, their exp/hr is not good without an optimal group so that's a lot of missed opportunity. This is from what I've heard, but endgame content is definitely lacking and this is the #1 reason why this otherwise extremely beautiful and polished game has not been released yet overseas. But you can see that all the elements of a great endgame experience is there, especially with the Political system tying everything together and putting a more community spin on the end-game roles. This game does not have raiding, which detracts from the variety of content players have access too, but raiding itself is controversial. This game will appeal to players that want to participate in endgame without having to force themselves into an raiding guild to play.
Combat - 9/10: I have not played GW2 yet so I can't say this game has the best combat in any MMO, but it's damn good. In terms of difficulty I wouldn't say it makes the fights anymore or less complicated compared to traditional MMOs. You have less buttons you need to push but you need to be a lot more aware of when to push them. The downside is that latency plays a huge role in your performance as a result. Boss/BAM fights are epic, the later bosses seem to have a lot more personality in their attack animations. It's sad that the combat in WoW has devolved into your party memorizing dance routines over actual combat, but Tera really brings the action back, while still keeping the trinity intact. Tanking is a blast with the new engine, but I can't comment yet on playing a healer.
[u]Bottom Line:[/u] This MMO takes one huge step forward with Unreal Engine 3 graphics, sophisticated UI (gamepad enabled), Amazing amount of polish, and combat that's appealing to watch as it is to play. But it also takes a huge step back with literally stale questing content, traditional forced grouping elements, and lack of endgame. These issues can be resolved overtime however, but what's really going to be the major appeal to this game is the community elements. Believe it not, a long long long time ago, people didn't actually play MMOs to raid or PvP, people actually played MMOs to meet and hang out with other people. I can't speak for Aion, but Tera might be able to succeed where FFXIV has failed in bringing the community aspect back into theme park style MMOs. I don't know if Tera will be a commercial success in the west, but I can tell you there is definitely a huge demand for a game like this, it's really up to En Masse to deliver.
Comments
how can we play this right now if we live in the states?
Good read , thank's for the post , tho i dissagree that forced grouping is a step back , its actually one of the better bits of info i'v heard about Tera in a while , solo quest grinding was the huge step back in mmorpg's its about time to go back to grouping and community as the MAIN point of the games .
Actually sounds pretty promising. Although I can't say I agree with the reviewer's philosophy on MMO's at all. Thinking forced grouping is bad and that a month to get to the level cap is the appropriate amount of time. I find that most of the games should be about leveling rather than sitting at the lvl cap worrying about an "endgame". The reviewer is also a twitch combat advocate which I find repetitive. Hopefully this release will appease some of the twitch combat crowd.
Also I like how the reviewer doesn't understand a word that is being said but he still gives a rating to the story portion...
good read, I think i'll pass on the game. I think they took the easy way out and only had 8 generic classes. Sure it is easier to balance, but everyone will be similar especially among their own classes.
Also the latency problem is what I was worried about when I heard about the combat. Any fps player knows how annoying latency can be in combat.
Anyways thanks for the write up!
I would say anyone that wants real pvp in a non cartoon/lame instance...... Tera will have a nice release with many old school hardcord players.
I am sure the wow crowd will hate this game but hell 12 year olds and 40 year old virgins will not be missed...
To the author, well written indeed.
@Boreil
The entire purpose of MMORPGs is to network with other players and as you have wrote, soloing really does cause MMOs to take a large step back. The entire purpose is to work together with multiple people, the entire purpose to even make an online game. Why play an online game when all you want to do is solo and work for self-benefits? The purpose we go on these raids or dungeons is to improve our OWN selves, our greed and selfishness cause us to diverge away from working together. I really hope to see more teamwork!
i liked the OP thread, and give me a very good new, the outside /world instances, cause its much more better as a mmo player to combat in group and watch other groups coming for the same world bosses, and I REALLY HATE INSTANCE CRAP OLD STUFF
and yes 40 year nerds or childs will not be missed at all
claps.
Wonderful review, This game is gonna be great, and OP are you talking about using a proxy to play>? im really interested even willing to pay pal some money to some one who can help me get on this game.
I really have no interest in this game outside of a slight curiousity (which is why I am here and read this), but your review was well written and presented both pros and cons with reasonable logic and conclusions.
Well done, +internets to you.
I'm glad you guys found my review to be helpful in some way, expect another review for when I hit 58. For now I just wanted to keep the conversation going and maybe add a few things.
Yes, I admitted I don't read Korean, but the score was not based on the story itself, it is more so based on the presentation of said story. It's very easy to tell the differences of production values between of Lords of the Rings the movie versus Lords of the Rings cartoon without knowing the storyline.
I am also not against forced grouping, I just feel that forced grouping in MMOs is considered unpopular in the west and will probably hurt Tera's sales. The thing about Forced grouping mechanics is that even though they aren't nice, they definitely work in terms of community. Players are extremely dependant on their guilds in Tera to have fun, but since their's no raiding the guilds don't have to be as big as other trinity based games to be effective.
About the latency, yes it's definitely more of an factor in this game do the action-based combat mechanics, however I've rarely experienced any lagged based issues outside of PvP while I was playing. I'm playing on servers an entire ocean away from me without a proxy. I'm confident that when the US/EU versions hit, people playing on their appropriate servers will not notice anything severe.
The last thing I want to mention is that, yes it's true that a lot of players have already written this game off because of it's poor performance in Korea, that's that's really the point. I haven't played very long but the people that I have played with all agree that this game has gotten better and better with every patch. Unlike the K-Tera and J-Tera versions, En Masse is smart enough to not release this game until it is finally ready, and I'm hopeful that if these patches to come through in a timely manner, this game will definitely be worth the US/EU's attention.
Actually I had close to 0 interest in this game prior to your post. I hadn't written it off as another grinder, but rather anticipated that the crowd a more action based game would attract might not be my kind of atmosphere.
However, I think I'll definitely have to give it a shot. Especially if the game prior to end game isn't just fluff to prepare you for sitting in a room all night staring at a boss with 20 other people. I'm beyond disgusted with the current 'raid' formula. I did love them a long time ago when a raid was a special event, when dragons were on 7 day respawn timers and something to remember if you won, something that brought communitie together. Now it's just another bland grind in a room with 20 other people memorizing dance moves. Hardly my idea of an adventure.
Tera is the best hope for the futureof mmorpg's. to be honest 995 OF RELEASED MMO'S SUCK SO YOUR REVIEW IS KINDA hmmm pointless until they release the game in the usa.
Now go play wow and sit down k...
We haven't had many reviews like this lately, mostly rants and vitriol. Thanks BigBadWolfe.
Hmm, I do believe I'll have to give this bad boy a try.
I want action gaming. I'd like to see something more akin to Dark Souls or Ninja Gaiden, but realistically I know MMO connections would probably fry.
Still sounds like fun. I don't mind the trinity if the game play makes up for it.
I used to play MMOs like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
Thank you for the review it was interesting to read about the game from someone who has played it for awhile.
So the OP provided the bare bare bare generic boiler-plater minimum stuff for an rpg. I enjoyed the read since I am not actively looking at Tera, but passively. In the end, the OP score is a 6.75.
So what is so "Massively-Multiplayer" about this game aside from 100's sharing the same chat channel?
Is 80% of the enriching game-play community-centric in an open-world? Is the crafting, merchandising and commerce/economy player-based as opposed to NPC-based. How many factions are there, or are we all just one of 4 cookie-cutter replicas of another player? Is the questing on rails with big "?" and "----->" and "!" at the end, or do you uncover quests and artifacts through exploration and player-made? Can I build something like housing, guild hall or town related? Is there factional territotrial and governance control involved in game-play?
For the past 7 years, every MMORPG that came out was EZ mode solo friendly.. The only MMO that has come out since 2004 and is still doing very well is WoW.. Pretty much every other MMO has failed miserably.. You people are absolutely right.. MMORPG's were created to bring a bunch of people together in a living breathing world... But it has since been turned into FPS/MMO "HYBRID" pieces of garbage.. In FPS games all you do is repetiviely run around killing people. There's no goal other than, BOOM HEADSHOT!! I mean, why anyone thought it would be a great idea to combine FPS and MMO games together is ridiculous.. The genre turned into mush and filth... The games are to easy, dull, and repetitive.. Especially those with EZ mode Solo content.. If you spend most of your time soloing, and very little time grouping when the time comes, your going to feel out of place,,,, especially when you mess up a few times in group.. Most people who solo, don't even like grouping for dungeons.. If they can solo to max level, that's usually what they end up doing.. These people can care less about the lore, landscape, community, or anything that truly makes these MMORPG's addicting.. All they care about is hitting max level and pvping until they get bored... Then these same people enjoy to rant, rave, whine, complain, and cry when their class gets beat in pvp.. Then you hear the nerf bats being thrown out there, and general chat becomes like a 1997 aol chat room session, lol..
I blame it on the devs not having the balls to stand up to their bosses and explaining the pro's and con's of trying to create a MMO/FPS hybrid masterpiece.. There's just no real such thing except for WoW.. I miss the old days of UO, EQ, AC, and DAOC.. All 4 games were legendary for their own specific reasons... WoW took the best features from some of these games and added their own flavoring... It's a shame and disgrace to see there hasn't been another true legendary MMORPG since 2004... Thats' 7 years of crap and failed filth...
When will MMO's go back to it's roots and produce the next truly epic experience for true hardcore fans of the particular genre???
I guess time will tell... Maybe Tera may,, but my problem with Tera is it's Korean Made
Nothing against Korean based games, but I was very disappointed with RF Online, Lineage 2, and Aion...
Rallithon Oakthornn
(Retired Heirophant of the 60th season)
Fast lvling, dumb quests and themepark ala korean, ill pass.
Hope to build full AMD system RYZEN/VEGA/AM4!!!
MB:Asus V De Luxe z77
CPU:Intell Icore7 3770k
GPU: AMD Fury X(waiting for BIG VEGA 10 or 11 HBM2?(bit unclear now))
MEMORY:Corsair PLAT.DDR3 1866MHZ 16GB
PSU:Corsair AX1200i
OS:Windows 10 64bit
Combat system makes me want to give the game a try when the Close beta comes out next year.
If questing and story don't draw me in, like SWTOR and GW2, then I'm affaid a new combat system is not going win me over in the long run. I could care less of the U3 engine, looks are one of the least important things for me in a MMO, Story has to be top for me.
Wildstar (2013) & Elder Scroll Online (2013)
Playing: Diablo 3, WOW, Far Cry 3 & X-Com.
Enjoyed: WOW 5 1/2 yrs, LOTRO 3yrs, GW 1/2yr, DFO 1yr, EVE Online 3yrs, and Huxley (Beta).
Failed to impress: GW2 3months, Tera Online 6 months (best combat system in any MMO I've played) STO 1/4yr, Aion 1/2yr, AoC 1yr, CO, Fallen Earth, DDO, EQ2 1/2yr, WAR 1/2yr, Lineage 2 and FF XI 1/2yr, FF XIV.
An interesting review and an interesting read. I would have liked it if you went into more detail about the classes and how they perform, as well as what you meant by "Forced grouping".
Care to elaborate a bit more on your review? You touch on such key topics as forced grouping and end game, but you don't really explain in great detail about why you have such a problem with them.
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for me its all the opposite of this.... combat system made me not want this game... at all.
sad because the game looks great... but im not a fan of mouse-click brawling combat mmorpgs....
personally played the game and its not worth it...honeslty
Bigbadwolfe made an excellent review from his point of view, I might give you an opinion as a healer (Priest lvl 49 at the moment).
)
Oh yes, I play a Castanic Priest so I have only one self-heal. I suggest you to put that skill on the right button of your mouse so you will be able to heal yourself istantly and easily during emergencies.
I think the Priest is horrible in solo because of the low dps but really a funny and great and useful class which can have the most fun by grouping as much as possible.
I want to apologize in advance because I'm not an english native speaker so my review will be shorter and full of grammar mistakes. I sincerely hope you will understand what I mean, through all my babbling.
Even more important, everything I'm going to say about the Priest class is only my opinion, basing on my gaming experience (I'm not here to say "Hey guys, I'm here to tell you the Truth about everything"
Well, what to say? I've played the healer class in Aion (both Cleric main healer and Chanter support healer) and I think it works quite differently in here.
In my opinion healing in Tera is waaaay more difficult (and challenging!), because the healer can't really rest not even for a second. It's not like in Aion when they say "the healer stays on this spot and heals all the time long", in Tera the Priest has to run here and there continously to reach and heal all party members (who are running here and there like crazy aswell :P)
An interesting feature are targeted heals (called lock-on heals also) which allow you to "lock" the heal on your party mates (not more than 3) by targetting them with your cursor. So, make sure your mouse works smoothly because it will be really important if your class will be the Priest, hehe. ^^ Lock-on heals are fast and long-ranged while group heals have a longer cooldown (which can be descreased by using proper Glyphs). Group heals are usually healing circles on the floor and you have to make sure to cast them exactly where your friends are fighting (otherwise they will have to move to reach them, which is not very comfortable if they are already busy in tanking/dodging/fighting). Healing circles are usually heal-over-time skills and they don't last forever, so if you cast them too far away from your friends they will probably reach your circle when its healing effect is already over. So, you have to "take the measurement" of your heals!
I must say, when the tank is a small sized race (Elin/Popori) I have slightly a harder time healing because they are more difficult to target (I want to remind you that in TERA everybody runs continuously so targetting a little bunny instead of a big Aman could make a real big difference sometimes).
Keeping track of your allies -and the monsters trying to kill you—will be a true test of your awareness.
Someone says "when you aren't healing, stay useful and be a dps". That will be your choice but i honestly prefer not to dps and just stay focused and ready on healing...The Priest's dps anyway is barely noticeable during the fight.
Dispel works the same way, it's an istant casted circle on the floor and you have to be close enough to your allies to dispel them BUT far away enough from the eniemes so they won't catch you (and hurt you badly). Priest wears cloth and can be veeeery fragile! :P A 10 second instant shield can save you and your party very often from the harshest situations thought.
Great feature about the Priest that I personally love is Sleep skill. It happened often that I duo'd an elite monster with a tank and unfortunately the tank died a couple of time. The result? I got the aggro and the elite monster was coming towards me, willing to kill me. My sleep skill allowed me to sleep him for around 20 seconds so I could ress my tank and heal him, and the fight started again. Without this wonderful ability the fight would probably have ended at that point. Sleep skill works fine in pvp too, so you have time to take a short break and heal yourself quickly before the other player wakes up.
My belief is that Priest is a strictly party-oriented class. You can reach lvl 40 by grinding alone if you want but dps classes will overtake you in no time. The Priest doesn't have many attack skills (just 5 or 6 actually, most of them are kinda weak) so it would be wise if you find a faithful friend to quest with who could fill your lack of dps.
After level 40 you will clearly feel how weak a Priest is in solo playing. Mobs become harder to fight and it takes incredibly much more time to finish a quest... Good thing is, you rarely die and you don't desperately need Health and Mana potion (the Priest has 2 skills for mana regenerating which are very effective even at high levels!).
So, my opinion is: a Priest after lvl 40 NEEDS a party in dungeons or someone to quest with, otherwise the game becomes slow and dull and boring. The Priest is definitely not a class made for grinding alone until lvl 58!
Another good point of Priest class is the 2 Teleport skills. The first you get summons the entire party exactly on your location, wherever you are (as long as you and the other party members are in the same region), the second one brings you and your party to the nearest campfire, which is absolutely lovely when you fight deep inside an open-dungeon (the maps are often labyrithic-like) and you don't know how the hell to get out of it.
So, I want to finish this by saying that healing in Tera is not super very easy and the difference between a good caring healer and a bad one will stand out immediately. I think you really can't get bored during instances, you've got always something to do and your task is not healing-only oriented
P.S.
Here there is an interesting video about Fyrmount region, the place where I am questing lately.
It's quite amazing, as the video shows.
I hope you will find it interesting. ^.^
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/10/18/new-tera-video-flies-through-fyrmount-region/
"Young males and females wanting to be accepted as adults in Castanic society are sent to the far reaches of Fyrmount to be pushed to their limits. Only those that can overcome their tasks are recognized as an adult amongst their peers. Whilst the Castanics are renowned for their cunning, amongst the lava flows and volcanic geysers littered in Fyrmount, the younglings will need every ounce of will and determination that they possess to emerge successful."
also the fact that most MMO players are the worst pieces of crap in any gaming genre, who wont speak to you unless its to say "d00d your DPS sucks" "omg i has phat loot" or "man ur gear blows"
that being said I am usually grouped in most MMOs, sorry your personality is terrible that you need game mechanics to force people to play with you.