Tera: The good!

Whoops. Seem to have forgotten to actually get this out last week. Let’s just blame Varus and call it a day. I’m seriously putting Meddler up with Xypherous as my two favorite designers. But that’s enough about angry-bow-man for a while, he has his own post coming up. Now it’s time for TERA! All the good things I’ve been waiting to say, it’s time to put to light.

First, and most obvious, is the combat. I know, I know, I harp on this all the time, but trust me, it truly is worth it. There is no such thing as tab-targetting or “spell-hit/accuracy” or whatever. If you want to hit it, you have to aim at it. There are a few auto-lock skills, but these are mostly in the realm of healing or AoE skills, like archer’s volley, oddly enough. Monsters actually take direct location into account, it’s very easy to dodge some attacks simply by moving away. This is easy to practice in the start zone, watch for the telegraphed attack and then walk back a few feet.  Unlike all it’ contemporaries, monsters in TERA will miss if they do not physically connect with you.

Aggression from players also carries positional based rewards. A lancer has the largest melee-attack range in the game, but at its longest you’ll only tap an opponent once. Attack when they’re in your face? The lance will proc up to three hits on that target. And any other target you hit, there is no “damage  cap” that reduces outgoing damage. If you can line up one-hundred minions (and not die), you’ll nail all of them for the same damage as any other, with any melee weapon. Caster’s have their attacks stop at one target, but gain powerful long-range abilities to compensate. There are literally endless combinations of play-styles, classes, and monsters to interact with in the game. No two players will ever approach a problem the same way, even if they are the same class! I’ve seen tank and damage lancers who are soloing, and those that augment different skills when dungeon running. The possibilities are endless.
Seriously, I can’t tell you how much I utterly adore the combat. What other game would I go out of my way to kill something just because I want to? Well, besides Monster Hunter, smart alec. Really, I would never do something like… this:

A Helping Hand

Yes, we’re back here again. I can’t help it if I love this game and enjoy talking about it, there is a lot I can say and pull from the world of  Telara at large. So anyway, Support. This is a new addition to the ‘purity’ of the trinity that’s made up gaming for awhile now: Tank, Healer, and Damage Dealer. Rift introduces the role of Support, rewarding players who might want to spec into a more hybrid type build. I know some people who like to have both damage and healing talents to make leveling up easier. Yeah, you will never heal or deal as much damage as a more pure build will, but unlike those builds, the hybrids have versatility. So today I will be going over what, exactly, makes a Support character, and why having one is good for the group. At the end, I’ll do a break down of each class and tell you how Support usually works for them.

What is a Support? Support is the new role in Rift that allows players to take on various sub-roles in parties. Generally speaking, there is no one thing a support has to do. If your groups damage is lacking, deal damage. If your healer is struggling, help heal. If something breaks off from the tank, try and grab it before a squishy gets pounded. Buff allies, debuff enemies. Support exists to do everything it can to make everyone’s lives easier. I’ll give an example of how I play support, just to give you an idea:

Rift: The Ugly

And now we’ve come full circle with the game. From the things I loved, to the things I dislike, and now on to the things I despise. These will be a much smaller list in theory because the things that truly set me off in this game are few and far between, but they do exist and I’ve been waiting a whole week to really get into them and start tearing things apart. If you are allergic to vitriolic comments, you might want to skip this, because we’re starting with the one thing I hate most.

“Expose”: Now you’re probably wondering what expose is, and I’ll answer that right now. Expose is a very simple mechanic in Rift that slows you by 6%, stacking 5 times. So why is expose bad? Every mob in the game has access to it. Every creature in this game has the ability to slow you with basic auto-attacks, up to the point where it is impossible to run from them. Your only options are to keep moving a stupidly diminished speed or turn around and fight, and if you have Exposed stacked up to 5, odds are very good that there are more than just one freakish abomination trying to run you down and turn you into paste. So, you have a mechanic in your game that gives everything with the default attack (Literally everything) the ability to slow players who are actively trying to leave. What could be worse? Oh, they also have access to your player skills. In a move I used to enjoy, nearly all PvE mobs have access to one or more souls, depending on the intended difficulty. This means you can easily find, say, a Reaver soul infused monster, or Assassin soul, and this makes a good deal of sense in the game for the humanoids and undead. What doesn’t make any sense is then going and giving those mobs player slows. I’m talking about PvP centric talents like the ability to slow your opponent by 70%, or disorients and stuns on semi-low cooldowns. Pray to your deity of choice once a big pack starts following you, because odds are good that something in there has access to those 70% slows along with everything else rapidly stacking exposed on you.