Tera Online News

In these dark times, we all need a TERA fix now and then. While I don't actually have any new videos that were recently recorded and uploaded, I do have videos that I never put in a news post. So to those that either haven't looked on my YouTube or those that weren't following the kOBT and launch video thread or even those that only come here for posts on the front page and not for the spectacular community here (shame on you) - these videos will still be relatively new.

I'd also like to briefly voice my opinion on one of the announced changes to kTERA since my last column - warriors becoming more offensive. Some who have seen me around TERAFans may know my opinion on warriors tanking, and may be expecting little more than "suck it, warriors." However. I'm not entirely sure that this change is for the best. There are a lot of problems with warrior tanks mostly involving the boss not staying in one place and not facing just a single direction. Rather than just eliminating warriors as tanks, wouldn't it make more sense just to rework how they tank?


For the sake of not making the post rather long, I'll only be embedding a select few videos. At the end there will be a link to a YouTube playlist containing all of my current TERA gameplay videos.

As always, all videos are done in the perspective of the lancer tank.










Here's the playlist.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 10:59 am under Uncategorized  Tagged Boss, Current, Front Page, Kobt, Lancer, Launch Video, New Videos, News Post, Perspective, Sake, Shame, Spectacular Community, Suck, Tank, Tanks, Tera, Videos Videos, Warriors, Youtube
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Hey, TERA Fans! Today our translator Kalsteine translated a "sneak peak" of what's to come to K-TERA throughout July and August. There's some interesting stuff in here, so it's definitely worth a read. Enjoy!

July's Sneak Peek

1. Increased Rewards for Shara continent:
We will be increasing the rewards for all types of quests in the Northern & Southern Shara continents.

2. Re-balancing Monsters:
Some monsters have been balanced to be of an appropriate difficulty for their level range.

3. Token Item Distribution:
We changed the way dungeon tokens are distributed. Right now the token items only go to the player who wins the roll. To address this issue, we will be distributing token items to all party members who successfully clear the dungeon.

4. Increasing Dungeon Drop Rates:
On July 7th we’ve made changes so that the end boss of any instance would drop a Unique level items on a 100% ratio, we will also be increasing the drop rate of Legendary items so it feels more rewarding for the players to complete an instance.

5. Lowering the difficulty on the “Black Tower and “Labyrinth of Fear:
Everyone who recently hit level 58 has been complaining that the above two dungeons were too hard; to address this issue we've decided to lower the difficulty on some of the lower tier dungeons. We will try to make a gradual increase in difficulty to help players be able to practice on lower tier dungeons, then conquer higher tier dungeons as well.

6. Battleground abuse:
Battleground abuse has become a big problem and we have been working on some ways to fix it. Some of the fix will be applied within July and we will continue to work to solve this issue.

7. Changed Instance cooldown period:
Currently, dungeon reset timers last 24 hours from the last time you cleared the dungeon and this makes organizing groups difficult. To make it easier on people to gather groups, we'll implemented a reset time that is shared by everyone.

8. Relocation of named monsters:
Having some named monsters spawn near normal leveling areas caused massive amounts of PK and other abuses so we've decided to relocate named monsters that caused those issues.

9. Raising the level bar for voting:
We've made the voting level 40 so people can't abuse the voting system by just hitting level 20 to cheat.


August's Sneak Peek

1. Warrior & Sorcerer class, rebalanced:
Many of you have been asking for this and we will bring it to you: the rebalancing of Warrior & Sorcerer classes. The warrior class will be reborn as an offensive class with the upcoming August patch. They will still do some defensive work but in parties they will be taking on offensive roles much more often.

Sorcerers will have an easier time maintaining their mana during battle with skill balances and MP Leech skills; also they will get some new devastating spells that will aid them.

More precise notes will be available with the August patch notes.

2. New method to gain items:
We will add new methods to gain items, not only the dice rolling option but also an option for party members to bid against each other for a dropped item.

3. Bind on Pick-up items:
We will be adding a bind on pick-up quality to items that are extremely hard to get.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 10:55 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Battleground, Black Tower, Boss, Continent, Continents, Dungeon Drop, Interesting Stuff, July 7th, Labyrinth, Last Time, Monsters, Party Members, Relocat, Reset Time, Rewards, Sneak Peek, Tera, Timers, Tokens, Translator
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Hey, TERA Fans! Today our translator Kalsteine translated a "sneak peak" of what's to come to K-TERA throughout July and August. There's some interesting stuff in here, so it's definitely worth a read. Enjoy!

July's Sneak Peek

1. Increased Rewards for Shara continent:
We will be increasing the rewards for all types of quests in the Northern & Southern Shara continents.

2. Re-balancing Monsters:
Some monsters have been balanced to be of an appropriate difficulty for their level range.

3. Token Item Distribution:
We changed the way dungeon tokens are distributed. Right now the token items only go to the player who wins the roll. To address this issue, we will be distributing token items to all party members who successfully clear the dungeon.

4. Increasing Dungeon Drop Rates:
On July 7th we’ve made changes so that the end boss of any instance would drop a Unique level items on a 100% ratio, we will also be increasing the drop rate of Legendary items so it feels more rewarding for the players to complete an instance.

5. Lowering the difficulty on the “Black Tower and “Labyrinth of Fear:
Everyone who recently hit level 58 has been complaining that the above two dungeons were too hard; to address this issue we've decided to lower the difficulty on some of the lower tier dungeons. We will try to make a gradual increase in difficulty to help players be able to practice on lower tier dungeons, then conquer higher tier dungeons as well.

6. Battleground abuse:
Battleground abuse has become a big problem and we have been working on some ways to fix it. Some of the fix will be applied within July and we will continue to work to solve this issue.

7. Changed Instance cooldown period:
Currently, dungeon reset timers last 24 hours from the last time you cleared the dungeon and this makes organizing groups difficult. To make it easier on people to gather groups, we'll implemented a reset time that is shared by everyone.

8. Relocation of named monsters:
Having some named monsters spawn near normal leveling areas caused massive amounts of PK and other abuses so we've decided to relocate named monsters that caused those issues.

9. Raising the level bar for voting:
We've made the voting level 40 so people can't abuse the voting system by just hitting level 20 to cheat.


August's Sneak Peek

1. Warrior & Sorcerer class, rebalanced:
Many of you have been asking for this and we will bring it to you: the rebalancing of Warrior & Sorcerer classes. The warrior class will be reborn as offensive class with the upcoming August patch. They will still do some defensive work but in parties they will be taking on offensive roles much more often.

Sorcerers will have an easier time maintaining their mana during battle with skill balances and MP Leech skills; also they will get some new devastating spells that will aid them.

More precise notes will be available with the August patch notes.

2. New method to gain items:
We will add new methods to gain items, not only the dice rolling option but also an option for party members to bid against each other for a dropped item.

3. Bind on Pick-up items:
We will be adding a bind on pick-up quality to items that are extremely hard to get.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 10:55 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Battleground, Black Tower, Boss, Continent, Continents, Dungeon Drop, Interesting Stuff, July 7th, Labyrinth, Last Time, Monsters, Party Members, Relocat, Reset Time, Rewards, Sneak Peek, Tera, Timers, Tokens, Translator
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Ello TERA Fans! Today I have the answers to our PAX interview with Senior Producer Brian Knox! All of the questions were based on questions you all asked so thank you very much for that!

While choosing questions, I noticed a lot of repeat questions which we already have the answers to and so I chose not to have them asked. Here are some examples!

• EME has already said over and over again that there will be "as little delay as possible" between K-TERA and Western TERA updates.
  
• There won't be a sub-class system.
  
• There won't be any large scale/siege style battles at launch. There may be later in the game's life.
  
• TERA may have "item remodeling" or a "dye system" someday, but it is not a serious priority.
  
• Guild v. Guild rivalries are to play out through politics.

With that out of the way, enjoy the interview!





Q. A few months ago an En Masse Entertainment post alluded to guild housing, but we never heard about it again. What happened to guild housing and will we see it in western TERA?

It's something I'll say is "in development," I'm not sure when we'll get to it or if it will make our launch, but it's definitely something we're looking at for Western TERA.

Q. At level 60, what will keep players coming out into the open world?

There's a lot of good named bosses that kind of roam the fields. There's some good challenges that, you know--epic boss fights--as well as if you're on a PvP server, there's going to be political intrigue with guild-vs.-guild combat. Hunting zones you can get badges in.

Q. There are some concerns about how damage scales with armor. Will these numbers be tweaked in time for TERA's western release?

A lot of it is through the leveling up process, you have to balance PvE and PvP. So as you're going through, that's consistently tweaked just to make sure you can find that kind of sweet spot. Armor and weapons do make a difference in TERA--it's still going to set people apart when everything else is equal, by quite a bit.

Q. Currently due to the extremely high critical strike damage, damage in PvP is very high. Do you have anything in mind to address this to take it down a notch?

Yeah I mean, that's all stuff that comes with balance over time. We're looking at it--I'm guessing they're playing on the Korean servers, so I can't really comment on that. But at the same time, all that stuff is looked at.

Q. In one of last year's demos the media was able to experience traps and other kinds of interactivity in an instance. Will there be more content added with traps and puzzles?

Yeah we want the world to be as interactive as possible. So in the PvE dungeons, one boss in particular has a couple traps so that you can get the boss hurt as well on them, so I think you'll find a few surprises like that.

Q. How will the PK system work on both PvP and PvE servers in North America?

On the PvE server we're just removing the PK system, so any open world PvP isn't gonna happen unless it's consentual through a duel or a death match, or in the battlegrounds. On PvP servers, there's going to be some slight variance from the Korean rule system, but the Korean rule system is gonna be our base. We'll work off the community feedback on that to tweak the PvP servers.

Q. Will players be able to queue for BGs anywhere in the world in western TERA?

That's something we're evaluating right now, kind of going over that with the lead designer, both in the times it's available as well as where you can queue. So the answer is: not sure yet.

Q. Are there any plans to let players disable or rebind the combo hotkey (spacebar)?

That's a good question. It hasn't really been brought up, but that's definitely something I could ask about.

Q. Are there plans to include more movable, separate, non-paged action bars?

Not at this time, but that's another good suggestion we can queue and see as players play the game more. Stuff like that isn't terribly difficult, but there's a lot of stuff in the queue from other feedback as well.

Q. Are there any plans to change racial bonuses for the western release?

We're going to keep the racial bonuses, but we are going to make sure they're balanced and tweaked appropriately. I think there are a couple that are off right now, but it's more about finding a balance than changing them for the Western market.

Q. Is there any information on a pre-selection service allowing players to reserve their name on their chosen server etc for the NA release?

No official information on it, but we're definitely investigating it. We really liked how it went for NHN, so that's definitely a feature we're seeing how we can best implement for our market.

Q. Will leveling in western TERA be less group oriented than it currently is in Korean TERA?

That's probably the major focus that we're looking at, here and the development team. Korean players want a little bit more soloability as well, so it's very high on our list.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 11:40 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Armor, Badges, Boss, Challenges, Dye System, Fans, Game, Hunting Zones, Large Scale, Launch, Pax, Png, Political Intrigue, Priority, Producer Brian, Pvp Server, Remodeling, Rivalries, Scales, Sweet Spot, Weapons
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Here’s a big, albeit unrealistic, hope of mine – jousting, or a TERAfied version. What I’m trying to say here is horseback combat as a Lancer. I don’t mean Lancer versus Lancer charging at each other to try and knock the other off their mount. Perhaps a combat opening attack launched from horseback?



Mounted combat.

WoW’s answer was the Argent Tournament.

Aion’s answer was winged aerial dogfights.

Neither of them particularly lived up to the expectations of the players, at least for me. What if Tera’s answer to this was – jousting? It could be a lancer only skill where they get a one-attempt attack while mounted, to initiate combat. Hit and you get dismounted, miss and you get dismounted. Of course this all depends on the game’s mount mechanics. It wouldn’t be a hugely game changing mechanic, it would just be a little added incentive to play a Lancer, or a small boost to your mind games if you initiate combat from behind, while mounting, with jousting. I think the reason this type of combat didn’t work with WoW and Aion was because of the targeting system. Click your opponent, then use a skill. No aiming. With jousting you would likely be moving a lot faster than the opponent, making aiming the attack that much harder for you and that much more satisfying when you land it.

The developers have said that at release, there will be no mounted combat of the sort, but that doesn't mean I can't dream. Who knows, maybe one day I can pitch the idea to the developers and see it eventually added in.




In light of the new information on crystals, I thought I’d give my opinions on them and what they could mean to Lancers. The most important thing to take into account is the monster size crystals. As a heavy raiding Lancer, probability dictates that the toughest enemies you’ll encounter will be of the large variety, possibly some of them being medium. I mostly imagine any non-humanoid boss monster will be large. As it’s not easy to replace crystals on a whim, what with the chance of a crystal breaking upon being removed, the size of enemy you choose to equip crystals for will require research and/or trial and error to pick the appropriate crystals. While this holds true for any class, I believe this to be an even more important decision for Lancers than anybody else. Say an Archer or Berserker chooses the majority of their crystals to only affect medium enemies, they lose out on some potential dps or they take a little extra damage by account of a wayward area attack they forgot to dodge from a large sized boss. If a Lancer were to do the same and filled up on medium size enemy gems only to find out the boss for the day is a large, potentially the lack of extra defence or health regeneration could cause the Lancer to fall dead, consequently allowing the rest of the group to die also.

This isn’t to say that enemy size crystals are the only appropriate ones for raiding. There’s also the bog standard “increase x by y” types. Quite probably the most prevalent ones for Lancers - raiding or PvPing - will be the increase HP, increase defence, and recover HP ones. Without more information on which type of crystal goes where, there’s not much more I can say about defensive options. So back to my previous thought of an offensive PvP Lancer. I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently after reading about the crystals. Two particular crystals caught my eye – both related to increasing damage while below a certain amount of life, with both of them being examples of Berserker crystals. First up is “Defiant Hexage” which increases damage done when you have less than 50% HP, the second being “Persistent Hexage”, increasing critical attack power when you have less than 50% HP (which I take to mean successful critical hits do increased damage, though it could well mean a higher chance to land criticals).

As a good Lancer keeping yourself floating around and just below 50% should easily be possible with good use of potions, blocking at the right time, perhaps self-healing skills if any are ever implemented, or even maybe a very competent pocket healer who knows what your plan is. Imagine you’re going for the typical Lancer play in PvP with your healer friend, playing the defensive game with your healer with the mind to not keep you fully topped off on health. Then you drop below 50% HP, your healer puts some sort of health regeneration spell on you to keep your health up but not to put you over 50%. Suddenly, you go on the offensive. With your “below 50% HP” gems, your damage output suddenly gets a drastic boost, scaring and intimidating your enemy. Perhaps not the most effective way to make a name for yourself in the PvP scene, it would surely make for fun and interesting play.


To finish off, here’s an image of what I feel jousting in TERA could look like.

Filed by TERA Fans News at 5:02 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Added Incentive, Boss, Developers, Dictates, Dogfights, Enemies, Game, Humanoid, Lancer, Mechanic, Mechanics, Mind Games, Monster Size, Opponent, Probability, Size Crystals, Targeting System
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Who's the toughest boss in Aion 2.0? I will vote for the Governors of the two races: Marchutan's agent Mastarius (Asmodians) and Kaisinel's agent Vielle (Elyos). If a race conquers both fortresses in the opposing race's region, the regional Governor will appear two hours later. Mastarius appears in the ancient city Marayas when Elyos occupy both fortresses in Gelkmaros.

Filed by vault1@mmosite.com at 12:05 am under vault1@mmosite.com  Tagged Boss, Fortresses, Governors, How Many People, Regional Governor, Vote
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Aion 2.0 just hits the PTS and I bet most of the players are striving to level up now. Since you haven't battle the huge bosses of the new expansion, you can take a look at how Korean players fight the bosses. Here are two boss-fighting videos for you to warm up for your upcoming battle.

Filed by vault1@mmosite.com at 1:59 am under vault1@mmosite.com  Tagged Bet, Boss, Fighting Videos
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Good morning, TERA Fans! You may have read my review a week or two ago about TERA's absolutely amazing E3 demo. It seems that yesterday, an official video of the demo surfaced on gametrailers.com! Now you all can see why I found the experience so fun and exciting!

Video Games | T.E.R.A. | E3 2010: Exclusive Demo Walkthrough

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

This video is voiced by Producer Sam Kim and Associate Producer Stefen Ramirez, just as it was in the live media demo! The two begin by introducing the classes in this epic five-man party, Priest , Warrior , Slayer , Berserker , and Sorcerer . It then switches to clips of an actual E3 demo so that you can experience just what us lucky testers were able to!

The demo ends with the fast-forwarded defeat of the boss, Captain Marduck, as the fight in reality took around 5-6 minutes at least.

Special thanks to TERA fans member stayontarget for originally finding and posting this video! Enjoy and let us know what you think!

Filed by TERA Fans News at 3:31 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged Associate Producer, Berserker, Boss, Demise, Demo Walkthrough, E3 Demo, Fun, Man Party, Marduck, Media Demo, Nintendo Wii, Playstation, Playstation 3, Producer Stephen, Sam Kim, Special Thanks, Switches, Video Games, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360
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PvE (Boss)

Filed by admin at 12:23 am under tera online  Tagged 2nd, Boss, Cbt, online, Tera
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Hey, TERA Fans!

Today has been a very fun day! I was lucky enough to be able to experience TERA's demonstration booth, which was absolutely fantastic. Me and four other lucky testers all had computers equipped with Razer gear and 40-ish inch monitors waiting for us upon stepping into the booth. Each computer had a different race and class selected on the character screen and I sat at the Castanic sorcerer one!

Sam Kim instructed us to put on the headphones which were at each station and then he went around introducing each class available to us. Once that was done, we were to click "play" and begin the fun! Our characters arrived, partied and in a zone called Mistmoar Island . Our group consisted of a warrior, slayer, berserker, sorcerer and a priest, which Sam Kim played. As we moved into hostile territory, Mr. Kim mentioned that the game currently has 80 zones.

We began to fight some monsters, Mr. Kim pointing out the strengths and abilities of each class as we went along. The party gameplay in TERA was really incredibly fun and the monsters got a little harder as we went along. Eventually we got to the boss, who's name I can't remember and prepared for a truly epic fight. While I'm sure Mr. Kim is a great producer, he had some difficulty healing! He died at least three times and we were all united in cheering and laughter as we attempted to kill the boss. At Mr. Kim's last death, however, we just couldn't make it. In a last attempt to save the attempt, I kited the boss for an epic 40 seconds or so before it finally one shotted me!

It was really a great experience. The game is so beautiful, action-packed and fun. If this is the view all of the media is getting, the game should surely garner a fantastic reputation as E3 press starts rolling out.

Check back in a bit to read my interview with Brian Knox!

Filed by TERA Fans News at 3:38 am under Uncategorized  Tagged Action Packed, Boss, Character Screen, Demo Booth, Demonstration Booth, Fans, Fun Day, Game, Gameplay, Headphones, Hostile Territory, Interview With Brian, Last Attempt, Laughter, Least Three Times, Monsters, Mr Kim, Reputation, Sam Kim, Tera
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