Week 2 of TERA’s closed beta has come and gone. I didn’t notice much difference this time around. They added hi-res textures to the game but I already thought it looked good…the only thing that might have changed with the new textures is I noticed some lag this time around now and then.
They mentioned that they added a /bug command this time to report bugs but it only took you to the screen that told you to email your bugs. I don’t know if it was broken or they thought this was what people wanted, but it is sure not what was needed. They also told me to post opinions in the forums and not email them…so others can comment and add to your thoughts. That is a good thing, but with 1000’s of people posting – your post instantly gets buried and no one sees it long enough to build up and good collection of comments.
I continued on my warrior on Friday night and got past 20, but started feeling overwhelmed with all the buttons I needed to press. Like I said in the first post -Beta Week 1- you don’t click skills on a hotbar – they are all mapped. I am horrible at using the mouse, ASWD AND number & F keys to play a game…I am a clicker. Having my mouse with 12 buttons helps a ton but the warrior is getting too many for my brain to handle and I’m not even half way to max level.
Saturday I started an Archer. Over the weekend I got her to 23 and am having just as much fun, if not more with her. The ability to sometimes choose how to chain your skills makes it much easier to handle and not need to map half your skills, though it does make it so you can’t use them out of order. 🙂 Archers kill a bit slower than a warrior and you need to dodge a bit more.
The areas I got to see this time are pretty nice and the music was great. I do have a bit of a problem with the character sound effects being used a bit too much, like almost every swing makes you grunt or yell in some way. Also horses are always grunting, breathing hard or neighing every step of the way. Too much realism shoved into a small amount of time.
What I did realize about the questing is that it is extremely linear and everyone has to take the same path. I skipped a level 15 area with my archer that I did on the warrior, only to have to backtrack because you NEED to do the main storyline quests or you are missing a chunk. Its not hard to go back through quickly to clear them, but you catch up to the next level area only to have to do the storyline quests in the higher level area you completed before you had to backtrack. This means that there are more than enough quests to get you leveled and it is fine to skip some in each area. If you are a completionist like me, you are going to be a higher level than the mobs you are fighting as you quest throughout the game. This isn’t a bad thing, as for some reason, many quest rewards right now are 1 or 2 levels higher than the mobs you are fighting. Kinda irritating sometimes not being able to equip your rewards.
Starting around level 20, you start to get quests you need a group for…some you can try alone but it is very hard. Some you just can’t do alone, others are quite a fun challenge solo, as in the Basilisks. I killed 2 out of the 3 I engaged and they took me about 5 – 7 minutes each to kill, and a health pot or two. All depends on how good you are at getting out of the way for each attack it does. This mob probably had 6 or 7 distinct attacks it would randomly do, some easier than others to avoid.
Last night at 1:00 AM – 2 hours before servers went down, I made a little Elin Bunny Mystic on a PVP server. I ran into someone wondering how to start a duel. We wound up fighting (i lost) and then teaming up to quest for a bit. Their name was Thirteenyearsold (not sure why there are brackets around their name) and they kinda seemed like they were 13…wanting to just play with anyone that will run around with them…but then again people love to complain and troll about the way the Elin race are a bunch of little girls made for pedofiles to play. People need to grow up or climb out of their little bubble worlds and realize everything isn’t based on sex and have negative meanings.
I hear cries of balance needs and agro adjustment but I haven’t been in a group situation where I could see those areas. I found a few typos, graphical bug with a fence, and some quest oddities that could use fixing, but pretty much looking good so far.
