Mikedot's Blog: Play Log - TERA (NA)

Check it: Here's the second half of my TERA online play log for 2/12/2012 is here! My time spent here was really winding down, as I only had a couple more hours to try out the game. Things were starting to get dull after the fairy quest in Fey Forest and the Vortex Shard quest in Scarwood, but things quickly turned around later when reached the Valley of Titans. You'll find out in a little bit, but first: here's a few shots I took in the Scarwood area. I sort of forgot what the quest here was about... Something about purifying the area or something, but whatever...

Not quite sure why my character had to pull out a beaker of purple stuff to break the shards, but it looked kinda neat.

Stand back, folks. I'm doing SCIENCE.

Quickly after destroying the shards, it triggered a cutscene with demon spawns from hell coming up out from the ground. It also triggered one of THOSE quests where players have to defeat a target monster by themselves or with a party. THESE quests are quite annoying to do when you have other people jump in trying to kill it, which completely cancels out quest confirmation towards anyone that attacked it even once.

To give you a better idea, behold the Vekas line:

Yeah... Pretty stupid quest design I'd say, but apparently for those that have played Lineage II in the past, this is nothing new. Going back to the demon spawn quest: I was lucky enough that there wasn't a whole bunch of people crowded the area, so I was able to get the kill in with no problem.

Leaving the forest and heading for the Valley of Titans just to continue with some story quests, I witnessed something awesome...

BAM!

It was the first BAM (Big Ass Monster) I ever saw. There was a group of five trying to take it down and they were getting their asses handed to them on a silver platter. I wanted to jump in so much, but decided to hang back and study the monster a bit. I think the BAM was called "Acorn Spider" or something.

I wanted to try my hand at slaying the monster, but I didn't want to solo the thing, so I waited to see if more people would show up. The old group that died at the hands of the spider came back to try killing again, and I decided to group up with them.

With the group rested, stamina at 120%, charms activated... It was time to kill the damn thing. I was the first one to rush in.

Even though I took the time to examine some of its moves, trying to avoid them were a lot harder than I thought... Those hitboxes, man. Those hitboxes... They're so freaking HUGE, or at least bigger than they should be. My character was taking way too many hits, and I also kept getting blindsided by a stupid buck.

INTERFERENCE!

(I promptly killed the damn Noruk after the hunt.)

I was on my last leg trying to get hits on the thing and sadly I went down...

Bummer...

Luckily, a priest in the group was quick to get me back on my feet.

I got a few more hits in on the spider, only to get killed a second time...

Thank god for that priest. He was so quick on the revives.

Getting my third wind, I got up and helped in delivering the killing blow...

THE BEAST HAS BEEN SLAIN.

Acorn Spider dead. Victory and celebration was well deserved.

[VGTG]

That BAM hunt alone convinced me that TERA was worth playing. Before I ever got to play this, people around me were always saying how the game plays out like Monster Hunter. While the battle didn't have quite the same feel as a hunt in MH, I can now see some resemblance to it. It was pretty fun and I definitively want to participate in more.

It's getting late again. I have a bit more I want to post, but it will have to wait for tomorrow. Ending this post off with my Popori in stitches!