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Does this game have meaningful professions?
Whats the primary mode of obtaining gear?
Can players craft gear? If so, is it competitive?
Is there anything I should know from the beginning that will save me effort later on?
Is there any class I should avoid?
I have played a lot of mmo games, and I just want to give TERA vets an opportunity to save me a little grief, if they are so inclined.
THANKS
Comments
The best item in the game is crafted but it's pretty much the only thing worth crafting. You can just gather mats till 60 and power lvl it.
Harvesting gives buffs that help quest so you'll be gathering them anyway.
There are no bad classes. Like always lots of dps in the game but all types are needed and worth while. Mystic is probably one of the harder classes to lvl but being a healer it's always easy to find groups.
Questing is how you lvl so...quest! Not really anything to it. It is also the main source of gear. Even if you never do a dungeon the quest rewards never really leave you way out geared for long.
My number 1 advice. Turn off global chat. It's the worst part of the game.
Meaningful classes would depend on if you want to solo or not. Solo is possible in Tera but difficult so far from what I have seen, Sense I play as a warrior which is mainly a dps class.
Getting gear can be done one of three ways, mostly by doing quests and killing monsters. More so for monsters because I have picked up tons of gear for monsters. You can also get crafted gear if you can find somone who has been working crafting.
Yes you can craft gear but as far as I know it is not Competivie.
Chat in starting area can get rather..interesting sometimes. Other then that if you want to get the gear a monster drops attack it first if you solo if not then work as a group.
You will most likely get random duels in your time on the starting island. I dueled two people in my time on the island and won them both. One was of my class a warrior and the other was a slayer.
Enjoy and see you on the battlefield
Just to clarify, the classes breakdown as such;
Lancer: Probably the hardest class to kill when played right in the game. With the right setups they can be nearly impossible to kill. They're also the games most traditional tanks. However, as a result they can be a bit of a wet noodle. Insane survivability / dmg reduction, but they don't hit very hard at all.
Warrior: Typically viewed as a DPS class, and they can do some insane single-target DPS from lvl ~20+, however they can also tank pretty well (though it's harder than tanking as a lancer). Probably one of the harder classes to play well in the game, but if yo uare good as a Warrior they are one of the most solo-friendly classes in the game. Due to stances you can easily switch between a more defensive or offensive playstyle as you see fit. Warriors start out rough at early lvls, and get really strong later in the game.
Berserker: This is your slow, heavily armored melee DPS nuker. Kind of a 1-trick pony, zerkers dish out some insane damage when they manage to land their hits. Because of this, zerkers are very good in PvE, but not as good in PvP (since they tend to have trouble landing blows).
Slayer: This class is somewhere in between a warrior & a zerker. They are faster than a zerker, but slower than a warrior. A slayer's individual skills also tend to not hit as hard. However, slayer's are able to chain together attacks rapidly, which can quickly add up to some scary damage output. They are also very reliant on knockdowns, and can be able to spam knockdowns quite a bit when setup for it. A very strong class that isn't hard to get into, viable for both PvE and PvP.
Archer: Typical single-target ranged DPS class. Archers are good at pumping a lot of damage into a single target, and are a fairly common class in TERA.
Sorcerer: Mid-Range AoE Nuker class. Sorcs start off a bit weak, but get scary as you lvl them into mid-late game. It's nearly impossible to run out of mana as a Sorc, they get some really good AoE CC, and some of their spells can hit for stupid amounts of damage (was hitting with one of my spells for ~15-16k dmg @ lvl 30). There is a rythm to playing a sorc, and if you can't keep an enemy at mid range it gets difficult, however once you get that rythm down sorcs are a very strong (solo-friendly) class in the game. Also good in both PvE and PvP.
Priest: Your typical direct healer. Though not quite as good as Mystic (on paper) they are much easier to play, and tend to be prefered in PvP groups. Viable for both PvE and PvP. They have a lot of direct heals, but lack some of the utility you get from Mystics.
Mystic: A summon-based healing class. Very difficult to play well. However, a good mystic is invaluable to groups. Mystics can prep battlefields with items that heal. They can act as mana batteries. I've even seen Mystics tank some of the dungeons (using their thral of protection summon). Like priests, mystics start off fairly slow. However once you get your summons buffed a bit, they are very solo friendly & you'll have no trouble getting groups for dungeons. However, because mystics need a bit of prep time to fully be viable in PvP, they tend to be less useful than priests outside of large group fights. For GvG battles, though, mystics are invaluable.
Honestly if you want to save yourself some time I'd say don't even start playing TERA. What a disappointing mess of a game it is.
The graphics look terribly dated with very little difference between zones and instances. The mobs are incredibly generic with no personality whatsoever.
The combat is cumbersome and anything but revolutionary. Seriously, the combat was one of the touted features of this game but in reality instead of pressing 1,2,3 you can press 1, spacebar, spacebar. Aimed combat? Yeah right, turn towards your target while you're busy pressing the spacebar: amazing rite?
The questing is pure, unimaginative grind. Every single quest hub repeats exactly the same quest sequence as the last ie: kill 10 of this and 8 of that and while you're out there pick 4 of these flowers. And you'll also recieve a BAM quest which forces you into grouping. Move on to the next hub and repeat.
Stale, ugly and repetetive and imho not even worth playing as a F2P title. What a mess.
I have to say I am agreeing with Crabdog on every point he raised. I was expecting far more from a game only released last year, and I am hardly surprised it has gone free to play - it just isn't worth paying for the boxed set and it most definitely isn't worth a subscription.
The questing is pretty unimaginative, but everything else in this post is completely wrong.
Lots of mobs with different personality, the graphics are absolutely amazing, combat evolves as you level, and BAMs are soloable if you're good enough.
Leveling a slayer was really interesting. You start with basic attacks and eventually get knockdowns and combos. Then you get skill reset glyphs and different skills for many situations. Then comes the mana management, you can't just spam everything all the time, until you get better gear. As you level, the classes all get much more in depth.
TERA is still one of the best MMO's visually speaking. Environments are spectacular and have a theme relating to the mobs in that area.
edit: For melee classes, the reticle does only need to be facing the right direction. As you swing a giant sword/axe around, it does hit everything. But for the ranged, it is all aim. Every ranged class has to aim their skills for them to connect.