Do I play as the giant-sized, brute-force of a stone warrior, or the unrealistically hot pink-haired elf supermodel? Hmm...
Things in Tera have been pretty good. Not only has the game been holding my attention reasonably well (although I’m still eyeing Max Payne 1&2 as MP3′s release date draws ever closer), but my guildmates have provided what I would honestly consider an essential part of the whole experience. We had a guild picture event a while back during the last hours of open beta, vent is always active on some level, and we just hit 100 members. I bring all this up because without these guys, my interest in this game would not be anywhere near what it is now. I’ve discovered I need that social draw of MMOs in order to keep me playing. Alone, I’d much, much rather go off to play, well anything else. As good as Tera’s combat is, soloing in MMOs is not something I really enjoy, so I’m really grateful to be a part of these great bunch of guys and girls. Also, ponies.
During my past week with the game, I decided to try something a little different. I had been playing a Baraka Slayer, and although I was enjoying the class and being lovingly referred to as “Mr House” by several guildmates because of my character’s size, I felt an urge to try out one of the ranged classes in the game.
I went with the Mystic, which is the support caster of Tera. You get ranged AoE/Cone abilities, heals, and the ability to summon minions of varying sorts. Unfortunately, I found the minions to be mostly useless – sure, they draw aggro and can hold their own pretty well – but their attacks are, for the most part, rather weak. The only thing they’re really good for is creating distractions. It’s kinda nice sending in your minion over as a punching bag of sorts to a group of mobs while you fire off bolts at them from afar. Of course, the fun doesn’t last for long once the mobs get wise and realize you’re the real target. Still, ordering your little guy with his club towards a pack of ravenous wolves or something similar and watching him take off eagerly is kinda smile-worthy.
Something that initially bothered me upon making the character – and will continue to bother me in the future – is that Tera’s questing zones are pretty much the same for every character you make. That means you’ll be doing the same stuff again if you decide to make an alt. That’s a serious flaw. Most MMOs start you off in different areas of the world depending on what race you pick, but for Tera, everyone starts in the same place and continue from there. Luckily for Tera, the combat saves it again regarding this problem. I basically just played through the same content this past week, only with a different class, and I definitely enjoyed myself. The Mystic is a lot of fun to play since you can teleport around past or behind enemies pretty frequently, and then line them up for quick AoE/Cone attacks for pretty substantial damage. It’s a nice contrast to the Slayer, where missing attacks and combos felt like a huge letdown because of how slow your attacks generally are. With the Mystic, I felt a lot more nimble and quick, and mistakes are less penalizing since cool downs on most abilities are very short. Overall though, it’s quite the change going from a giant piece of walking stone with a sword to a pink-haired elf who is roughly half the size or less – but big where, you know – where it counts.
Anyway, just wanted to piece some of my thoughts together. I’ll probably be hitting 20 on my Mystic tonight. Some of my guildies are already level 60, which is just crazy.
-rav4ge
