Weird, I'm having trouble quoting anything right now.
Ebris, the eyepatch I was wearing is one of the starter items my Engineer Norn could choose during character selection! It does have some stat that corresponds to it, but I picked it cause it looked cool
StudioTan, I sort of hate to harp on semantic distinctions, but: No, TERA is not a major MMO. It may be a very good MMO, and a very unique and fun one, and use important technology or gameplay elements that could be influential, but it is not at all a "major" MMO in the sense of WoW, The Old Republic or GW2 (which in a sense echo the original trinity brawl in the early days of "major" MMOs between Everquest 2, Star Wars Galaxies and... WoW round one) I know that seems hard to believe, but the insulated forum environment of a popular gaming website is not particularly representative of the public at large. Consider these four things:
1) Neither its developer or NA/EU publishers have a Wikipedia page
2) Anecdotally, I have had friends (knowing that I'm generallyknowledgeable about upcoming games) ask me about Guild Wars 2, specifically whether I recommend it or Diablo 3. I have not had anyone ask me about TERA. This point can be disregarded if you do not value anecdotal evidence at all.a nerd
3) Advertising- this is no fault of their own, but En Masse does not have the budget to do broad marketing for this game in the way that NCSoft, Blizzard or EA can. I haven't seen any TV ads and I don't expect to. It sucks that this has an impact on whether or not an MMO can be seen as "major" but I assure you it does.
4) TERA has 11 servers, the highest estimate of max people per server has been called at 20k; that's 220000 estimated max capacity players. Guild Wars 2 had over 1 million beta subscribers.
I don't mean to call you out for going "TERA's not a major MMO?" But I wanted to make sure you understood where Zaph was coming from, even if I don't agree that major MMOs will follow in GW2's no-subscription-fee footsteps without a few more stumbles along the way.
Anybody who has asked me about playing with a gamepad: I'm so glad this is gaining some traction! It really is a blast. I'm putting together a post with instructions and my profiles (and some tips for getting used to it) now, so don't despair if I haven't PMed you.
shouldn't let up then
Finally got to play some PVP. Not sure where you even go to play the "WvWvW" so I just stuck to the PVP stuff.
Elementals were completely dominating pretty much every match I saw. Way OP. That was followed by probably Necromancers, which I had completely forgotten about. Also the fun I was having with Engineer was tempered somewhat by their relative weakness in PVP.
Whoa. I'm kind of glad you included the tiny UI for scale :lol
I'm Ele, and having...a..
blast
;D
haha, it's pretty fun though, even though, like you, i can't for the life of me figure out how to get to the WvWvW stuff, and I can't figure out how to actually LEAVE Battlegrounds. So I've been playing these stupid things for like an hour now, and I gave up trying about 40 minutes ago.
You guys? What? I've been posting on both side as warranted. I love the game.
So I've been messing around with it and am still having trouble with a couple things. I would love to have it dialed in today if you have time to send over the profile.
Finally got to play some PVP. Not sure where you even go to play the "WvWvW" so I just stuck to the PVP stuff.
Elementals were completely dominating pretty much every match I saw. Way OP. That was followed by probably Necromancers, which I had completely forgotten about. Also the fun I was having with Engineer was tempered somewhat by their relative weakness in PVP.
Well after getting my Mesmer to Level 17(finished personal story, all of the norn starting area, mix of the 15-25 zones, some PVP) the game seems fairly fun overall with a few key issues.
- The difficulty curve/scaling is terrible. Some of the worst I have ever seen in an MMO. By level 14 my personal story was 19(had to finish with friends helping), and the quests were all 16+. Which in other MMO's would be fine but not here. I would barely be able to kill one level 16 enemy, and two would almost always result in a feint/downing. This is all the more frustrating with all the zones having limited quests for my level, resulting in me having to grind events and lower level content.
- Lower level content being scaled down to provide a "challenge" sucks. I want to be able to run through and get the points of interest/skill points. Feeling like you are getting stronger in an MMO by being able to 1 shot low level trash should be a reward. In addition helping out friends becomes more of a hassle then it should be.
- The combat, at least for the Mesmer feels wonky. Essentially I'm hitting all the cool downs whenever I can, switching my weapon sets back and forth. With the shatter effects(act of destroying my illusions) also seem to have minimal impact (damage or condition wise). Some of the utility skills seem down right useless and/or very situational (which for a limit of three slots, doesn't make any sense). The trait systems lack of modularity, prompts you to just save points until you know exactly what you want.
- Technical issues( hopefully fixed by release). On the plus the graphics and sound are great. The art in this game is almost unparalleled in awesomeness.
- Finally, in my opinion, I found my personal story pretty mediocre and bland. It seemed to do very little to do with the world at large, and too self contained. The writing was filled with cliches and bridges in progress that barely made any sense(ie, just enough to progress). I really wish they would just have one good story for each race respectively. Also I wonder if any of the personal stories will start to come together/branch to other races.
This is actually my most favorite thing ever.- Lower level content being scaled down to provide a "challenge" sucks. I want to be able to run through and get the points of interest/skill points. Feeling like you are getting stronger in an MMO by being able to 1 shot low level trash should be a reward. In addition helping out friends becomes more of a hassle then it should be.
It's a great class. Learning to use Death Shroud effectively is so much deeper than I ever would have thought. I will actually miss my Necro at launch (I really dig the Engineer as a class but it's not at all my style).I just discovered the Necro at 1am. BAH GOD DAMN NOW I HAVE TO WAIT TILL NEXT MONTH.
So Mes is my main that's for sure but slightly favouring the necro over the ele now since you can swap weapons on the fly.
Controller stuff
No problem! I really want to post or contact ANet in some way to describe how excellently their game works with a pad in case they ever want to consider implementing it for real, but I'm not sure where it would go.Thanks man. Looks pretty awesome. Hopefully I have some time to try that out tonight. If not, it will be really useful when the next beta comes around.
- Lower level content being scaled down to provide a "challenge" sucks. I want to be able to run through and get the points of interest/skill points. Feeling like you are getting stronger in an MMO by being able to 1 shot low level trash should be a reward. In addition helping out friends becomes more of a hassle then it should be.
I honestly wish they would provide the player with a choice to be downscaled in order to play with your friends and turning it off so players can feel that sense of power should they just want to collect points of interest, skill points and waypoints.
It's to prevent griefing. Through the obvious issue that arise if a bunch of players start one shotting all the mobs.
"Mesmer is certainly different from GW1. However, I don't feel like they shoehorned it in. "
Drastically altering the ability pool/role of a class so it can function in a game with completely different mechanics is the very definition of shoehorning.
I honestly wish they would provide the player with a choice to be downscaled in order to play with your friends and turning it off so players can feel that sense of power should they just want to collect points of interest, skill points and waypoints.
I would prefer that sense of power be relayed through you, the player, actually getting better at the game because you learned your character and the enemies enough to destroy them.
Not because your numbers got higher while theirs stayed the same.
They seriously toyed with this idea in the dev cycle. I understand why they settled on a traditional progression to a cap, but it was a fascinating concept.So, why have levels at all? =)
So, why have levels at all? =)
To be honest, I actually asked the question because that was what my friends asked about 20 minutes ago. He wondered why they went with levels instead of handing out the progression as you complete hearts, dynamic quests (as rewards), and your personal story.
Not to mention collecting points of interest, waypoints and such.
I honestly didn't have an answer.
To be honest, I actually asked the question because that was what my friends asked about 20 minutes ago. He wondered why they went with levels instead of handing out the progression as you complete hearts, dynamic quests (as rewards), and your personal story.
Not to mention collecting points of interest, waypoints and such.
I honestly didn't have an answer.
RPG nuts like leveling. Simple power train.To be honest, I actually asked the question because that was what my friends asked about 20 minutes ago. He wondered why they went with levels instead of handing out the progression as you complete hearts, dynamic quests (as rewards), and your personal story.
Not to mention collecting points of interest, waypoints and such.
I honestly didn't have an answer.
the movement is too skatey. horribly so.
I wonder if I should try Elementalist before the beta ends. I never play ranged jobs.
I really like the personal story (commoner, missing parents) too
Spoiler:WHITE MANTLE!
It really is a blast, and duel daggers ele plays more like melee.
Does health pool still stop growing at l20?
I honestly wish they would provide the player with a choice to be downscaled in order to play with your friends and turning it off so players can feel that sense of power should they just want to collect points of interest, skill points and waypoints.
It's to prevent griefing. Through the obvious issue that arise if a bunch of players start one shotting all the mobs.