One thing I don't get about the combat, is why they gave players and mobs so much health relative to the damage they do. For a game that boasts of action combat, fights take a surprisingly long time..
Because everything scales quit high in tera, its not uncommon for a lv58 zerk to drop 250k crits or more with the right conditions.
I guess that is his point if a zerk can drop a same level mob in 5 hits but a low level zerk takes 25 then it is not scaling well? In fact you'd have thought it would be the other way round, quicker easier fights at low levels longer epic fights at high levels?
BTW OP thanks for the detailed review.
Do any of the classes have some skills with animations that do not 'root' you? i.e the animation can run while you move? Also be intrested in classes that might play a little quicker?
Not played yet but might jump in for the next beta. Currently playing Amalur, I hope the action combat there does not spoil me for Terra:). Mind you I hope Terras combat doesn't spoil me for GWII. I don't think it will though they certainly seem to have similarities I think GWII might actually be even more 'actiony'.
If it takes you 25 hits to kill anything with a Berserker then you're doing it wrong. Berserker skills can almost instant kill any normal mob in the game which you can attach glyphs to two of them, I believe not 100% sure, that allow you to slowly move while charging them.
One thing I don't get about the combat, is why they gave players and mobs so much health relative to the damage they do. For a game that boasts of action combat, fights take a surprisingly long time..
Because everything scales quit high in tera, its not uncommon for a lv58 zerk to drop 250k crits or more with the right conditions.
I guess that is his point if a zerk can drop a same level mob in 5 hits but a low level zerk takes 25 then it is not scaling well? In fact you'd have thought it would be the other way round, quicker easier fights at low levels longer epic fights at high levels?
BTW OP thanks for the detailed review.
Do any of the classes have some skills with animations that do not 'root' you? i.e the animation can run while you move? Also be intrested in classes that might play a little quicker?
Not played yet but might jump in for the next beta. Currently playing Amalur, I hope the action combat there does not spoil me for Terra:). Mind you I hope Terras combat doesn't spoil me for GWII. I don't think it will though they certainly seem to have similarities I think GWII might actually be even more 'actiony'.
Most classes have different glyphs for movement with certain skills but I dont know exactly which and how many. There are also glyphs to decrease the animations time on a skill which also makes it less 'slow'.
If it takes you 25 hits to kill anything with a Berserker then you're doing it wrong. Berserker skills can almost instant kill any normal mob in the game which you can attach glyphs to two of them, I believe not 100% sure, that allow you to slowly move while charging them.
You mention glyphs, but I'm talking about the early levels, before glyphs even come into play. Even if its just at low levels, I still wonder why. Probably not a great idea, as far as first impressions go.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
If it takes you 25 hits to kill anything with a Berserker then you're doing it wrong. Berserker skills can almost instant kill any normal mob in the game which you can attach glyphs to two of them, I believe not 100% sure, that allow you to slowly move while charging them.
You mention glyphs, but I'm talking about the early levels, before glyphs even come into play. Even if its just at low levels, I still wonder why. Probably not a great idea, as far as first impressions go.
Combat Explained At first, I was honestly dissapointed by the combat. I was expecting an exact clone of Vindictus. Super fast, spammy attacks and instants. I expected to be able to turn mid auto attack to keep my aim precise, ala Vinditus/Dragon Nest. I reached the cap on the second day, and had most of that day + sunday to get used to combat at 22 as a Lancer. I practiced on BAMs and the 22 instance, SB. During this time, my stance towards the combat went from "meh" to "I get it now, I LOVE THIS!" I think this is where I've sadly seen many reviewers of the game fail. People just don't give it enough time. Frankly: most people suck at the combat and don't "get it" yet because it's new. By Sunday, after tanking the instance many times, my motions, skills, and attacks went from being clunky, slow, and frustrating to fluid and precise. It felt responsive and quick. It felt crisp, like I had exact control of my character. This was exactly what I wanted. You see, where TERA's combat is unique is that every skill is instant. When you press a skill, your characer instantly starts to perform the motion of that skill in-game. So if you press "Sword Attack", your character must actually SLICE and finish slicing before you can move, change directions of the attack, or load a different skill. Sadly, many reviewers of the game that haven't "understood" the combat are so used to global cooldowns that they can't comprehend that a global cooldown is actually an antiquated technique to simulate what combat in TERA actually is. You see, a global cooldown used in traditional combat systems essentially adds in delay to simulate the idea that, physically, your character must take time to complete the motions of the attack before you can execute your next attack. For example, in WoW, if you are a rogue and you use Back Stab on a character, there is then a 1 second global cooldown that occurs directly after you press the button. During this time, your character performs the motions of the attack. In WoW and most games with this system, the motions of the attack don't necesssarily need to line up with the 1 second delay, so the motion of your character using skills can change instantly if you are using instant attacks one after another. The game is based around global cooldowns as a moderator of the pace of combat. In TERA, the combat and the motions of your character ITSELF is the moderator. Where TERA differs, is that instead of simulating delay between possible attacks, your character's delay is REAL because your character is REALLY performing the attack. If you press "Lance Thrust", and your character takes .5 seconds to pull the Lance back to aim, .2 seconds to thurst it forward, and .2 seconds of motion afterwards to pull the lance back into combat stance, then and only then can you execute another attack. So you would have waited .9 seconds because your character took .9 seconds to complete the attack in the game world. So your global cooldown is what is actually happening in reality. People are so used to [looking] at their skill bar and waiting for the global cooldown to finish so they can execute another skill, that they don't get that in TERA, your eyes are always supposed to be on your character at all times. The motions and movements of your character and your opponents in combat ARE that delay. Once I started to understand this, I found that I was using my moves very quickly in succession and I actually felt like I could put strategy behind my movements and strikes. I became very good at aiming my attacks, where as before I was getting that "clunky" feeling. It felt visceral, alive, and like I was actually there in the fight myself. I hope that this type of feeling continues as the game progresses, and that others who don't understand the combat will learn and give it some time and practice before making an early judgement call. I think it's a shame so many have dismissed the game, it's combat, and it's challenge, when, if we compared the game's current levels and content to WoW, would be like comparing it to Deadmines, boars, defias thiefs, and OMG HOGGER. I'm sorry, but having done Heroic Litch King before 30% nerf, and having played battlegrounds/arena(gladiator) for years, I can tell you that it would be absolutely unfair to judge WoW's combat based on just having leveled to Deadmines. Thinking from that perspective, I think it's quite amusing and sad that people dismiss a game so quickly based on it's challenge and their understanding of the combat, when they clearly haven't taken the time to reach any challenge or understand the game or it's combat at all. Edit- I may add more to this later, and will post more follow-up information as the next Betas happen.
Best review till now, i felt the same thing about combat, its just beautiful and makes other mmo's combat look like pure crap, this game starts to role after L20, pre-L20 it works as a tutorial, i love my slayer and i would like to try lancer mystic and berserker.
Considering that this is a closed beta, and I had limited time to test everything, I'm sorry I wasn't able to provide you with all of the information your heart desired. This post was a "first impression" and my first impression was simply an overview of the crafting system. Since Closed Beta is on a schedule, I chose not to pursue time in the crafting since it is quite lengthy and time consuming. [Mod Edit]
Why did they have to show objectives on maps. I feal like swearing all over the place, I'm not going to do it here.
And the other part is also bad, aren't you at least hesitant on that last part?
Quest tracking works like Aion's system. If you want easy mode you have to open the quest log and click on the hyperlink for the quest objective. Clicking the link lights up an area of the your map that shows where you should look. I believe you can only track one quest at a time.
Comments
If it takes you 25 hits to kill anything with a Berserker then you're doing it wrong. Berserker skills can almost instant kill any normal mob in the game which you can attach glyphs to two of them, I believe not 100% sure, that allow you to slowly move while charging them.
Most classes have different glyphs for movement with certain skills but I dont know exactly which and how many. There are also glyphs to decrease the animations time on a skill which also makes it less 'slow'.
You mention glyphs, but I'm talking about the early levels, before glyphs even come into play. Even if its just at low levels, I still wonder why. Probably not a great idea, as far as first impressions go.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Maybe that is why they revamp 1-40 stuff? : p
Considering that this is a closed beta, and I had limited time to test everything, I'm sorry I wasn't able to provide you with all of the information your heart desired. This post was a "first impression" and my first impression was simply an overview of the crafting system. Since Closed Beta is on a schedule, I chose not to pursue time in the crafting since it is quite lengthy and time consuming. [Mod Edit]
Quest tracking works like Aion's system. If you want easy mode you have to open the quest log and click on the hyperlink for the quest objective. Clicking the link lights up an area of the your map that shows where you should look. I believe you can only track one quest at a time.