TERA: The MMO That Won't Let Me Go

Last summer I was passionately in love with TERA. I’m talking the play-for-sixteen-hours-and-forget-to-eat type of love. As a healer, it was more difficult to level and I was dependent on parties for help rather than soloing. Despite the shortcomings of my class, I liked the rewarding feeling I received once I was finally able to take down a BAM (big ass monster) all by my lonesome. However, before even reaching max character level, the honeymoon period began to fade and I wandered off to other games. Recently I picked TERA back up again and was immediately reminded of how drawn in I was by the whimsical landscapes, darling characters, and the badass fighting choreography. I had to ask myself what pulled me away? After some reflection—and reopening my bank full of unusable items—some concerns came back to me. Between the farming of BAMs by players too high leveled for the area and the shoddy crafting system, I felt as if it was playing during low traffic time or nothing. Is that really an enjoyable experience? The crafter in me is screaming no.

At the time of my original TERA binge, BAMs were being farmed for rare drops. If one was lucky and sunk in enough time, they would find a T, an E, an R, and an A. When these four rare drops were brought together, the player would unlock a rare mount. At least, it was rare until everyone who was farming finally got one, creating a seemingly never ending line of the same creature running past in high populated areas. When I first began playing, the craving for BAMs was so extreme that there was a crowd of players attacking the very first BAM a player would come into contact with. What did this mean for me as a starting player? I spent hours trying to swat at this monster first so I could move forward with the storyline and escape the insect-like swarm.

Eventually, I was lucky and someone heard my pleas for help. A large group of beginning characters created a party so if one person hit the BAM we could all move forward. I’m sure that isn’t the “what is that huge thing and how the heck am I supposed to kill it?” moment the game creators were hoping for. Whenever I would encounter a BAM that didn’t require me to be whisked away to another secret dimension where it would be only he and I, I would find a similar frenzy.

Besides fetch quests, storyline quests, and special mounts, what was killing a BAM even good for? The drops. For someone who’s first MMO experience was lapping up every bit of crafting in Runescape, I picked up every bit of crafting material I could get my tiny character’s fingers on and filled my bank up. Once I finally figured out the where and how of crafting in TERA, I realized it was a bit lackluster. After buying my desired recipes and extra material I needed, I found that I blew through what little money I had made while fighting and through the brokerage. I put that thought to the back of my mind, though, because I was finally able to dig into the crafting. Much to my surprise, the recipes only leveled up my crafting for a short period of time and then, with the exception of alchemy, they were no longer good to me. The next highest recipe was far too expensive and there was no way of making my money back selling low level items in the brokerage. I did what I could to earn the next bit of gold, and hours later purchased the next recipe only to find the same disappointment. I felt there had to be a better way to prevent players from leveling crafting too quickly but still made them feel rewarded for their work.

Despite these frustrations, I still came back to TERA after quite a few months. I started over with a new character and a different combat class. I worked through the introductory area with my less-squishy slayer and was impressed with the extreme differences in the classes. I still found myself attempting to do things that only the stats of my healer could accomplish, and found my slayer lacking. On the other hand, I was blown away by the things the slayer was capable of that I wouldn’t have imagined while playing as a healer.

I was about to face off against the first real BAM of the starting area. I was relieved to see that, with the new introductory area, I was brought into a separate space than the rest of the players. As the ground began to shake and a huge creature came into view, I had a “I’m supposed to kill that thing?” moment. Despite the fact that it was a battle I was supposed to lose—a trope that I will never enjoy—I was already more captivated by the game than I had been the previous time playing. Once again I fell in love with the amazing combat system and the rewarding solo fights.

As a player, I have always been drawn more to the non-hostile parts of MMOs. I would rather garden marigolds than farm dragon skin. However, there’s something enticing about fighting in TERA that causes my preferred style of gameplay to change dramatically. Not only are the characters’ moves beautifully choreographed, but the combat system is dependent on the player’s actual skills. The player needs a decent reaction time, well laid-out key bindings, and knowledge of what their skills actually do in order to fight effectively. The mixture of power attacks, defensive maneuvers, and boosts plus the opportunity for combos create an advantage for players who plan their attacks strategically rather than those who hit their number buttons randomly.

It isn’t only the combat system that causes me to uncharacteristically go around stabbing hyenas and bears, though. The rewarding feeling of soloing a boss or even a dungeon has yet to be matched in any other game I’ve played. Despite the fact that I enjoy the socializing aspect of MMOs I’m not a fan of battling in parties. I’ve has some bad experiences, especially as a healer and dealing with strangers who attempt to tank when they’re ranged. However, with enough persistence and patience I could potentially crush a BAM or take out an entire dungeon on my own. It often take many attempts, many deaths, a lot of time waiting for stamina recharge, and several instances of lucky moments, but the reward a player feels once the final fight of a dungeon is finished is worth the hours that were poured in.

Despite a flawed crafting system and some unfortunate reward campaigns that disrupted game playability, TERA keeps me coming back and has turned me from a crafter into a warrior. The aesthetically pleasing world and characters brought me in and the amazing combat mechanics will never let me go. All I need is a cup of coffee and a low traffic channel and I’m good to game.