Play Log - TERA (NA) - CBT4 Weekend

(For those that want to get into the CBT for TERA (NA) this weekend, take a peek into this post and grab one! Just do me a small favor and post a comment stating which key you've used. First come, first serve.) All keys used up!

It's time for another one of my oh-so-exciting play logs for TERA (Now with slightly less tl;dr and more ACTION!)

I recently downloaded Bandicam to record in-game footage since I wasn't too fond of using FRAPS and how it fills up my HDD when recording raw footage. I just loved how Bandicam cant take Hi-Res footage while keeping the file sizes down to a minimum, so I'm never going back to FRAPS again! Now with the inclusion of videos, I hope this will make my logs more enjoyable for you readers (yes, all five of you.)

I also got Sony Vegas from my college bookstore for cheap to do some video editing, but I'm currently having trouble rendering my current videos, although I have no problem rendering videos using Windows Live Movie Maker and it seems to work well enough for what I need, so I'm sticking with that for now until figure out how to use Sony Vegas properly.

Now then... This CBT weekend was my favorite one so far. En Masse hosted an event where players could find treasure chests spread across the game world, and inside those chests: Clothing Dyes!

From this event: Lots of players got to try out the dye system for the first time. There's dyes that come in solid colors or colors with patterns, but theses only last for one day before wearing off. The dyes that could be earned from the event however were filled with custom color selection, including RGB sliders, and had unlimited time. Biggest drawback is that the system only allows players to dye one part of any armor, gloves and footwear.

As it is now: The dye system is pretty weak, but its definitely better than nothing. Everyone was looking so fly in their colored outfits, and I even witnessed people arguing over which dye colors looked better on certain races.

I swear once headwear and accessories gets thrown into the mix, TERA will become the next Fashionogi.

But my time spend playing TERA during the weekend wasn't all about fashion and SWAG. There was plenty of BAMs to slaughter, most preferably of the Fimbrilisk and Ovolith variety. First battle against the Fimbrilisk didn't go so well due to a little friendly interference (video related), but I got it on the second try.

But the Ovolith... Now that fight was a pain in the ass. Tackling the Ovolith was a breeze while playing in a party, but trying to solo it was a bit frustrating with its poison attacks and broken hitboxes. While I had already completed my area hunts against the Ovolith in a group, I wasn't about to let the challenge of a solo BAM hunt slip by.

Another BAM down. Sure, the battle took me a bit longer than it should have, but a win's a win, right?

Kumas: Defeated
Ovoliths: Defeated
Balisilks: Defeated
Naga Mercs: Defeated

Won't be long before every BAM is defeated... BY ME!
(I wonder if there's an achievement for defeating every BAM in the game...)

During the last day of the test: The Amity Guild was hosting another social event. This time: the contest was a scavenger hunt in the city of Velika. Players were tasked with searching and buying items from various NPC merchants around the city. First players to deliver all the items wins a prize. The runner up prizes were all "meh", but the 1st place prize was a commissioned speed painting of your main character by one of the members of the guild, which I really wanted, but unfortunately for me: I wasn't prepared at all. I had a difficult time finding two of the last items on the list, even though I pasted the NPCs that sold them... TWICE!

Several players already turned in their items and claimed their prize spots, so I was already set near dead last. When it came time for me to turn in my items, my inventory was SOOOOOOOOO unorganized. I couldn't find most of the items I had purchased, thinking that I might have forgotten to confirm some of my purchases, so I had to run back and repurchase the items again... What was even more sad was that when I did a double check, I already DID have everything!

GUH. Never again.

The last bit of my time in TERA was spent with random group of Poporis that were heading off to complete the Caravan Ambush quest leading up to Sinestral Manor. They needed another player to get by and I figured "Why not" since I was on the same quest as them.

"At your service"

The Caravan Ambush quest was no sweat, so I won't bother with the details. Sinestral Manor was the real challenge waiting for us, and we had no time to waste as the server was about to shut down in an hour. We had no idea what was in there, we didn't have any real tankers either. Still, we gave it our best shot.

Spoilers: EVERYONE DIED.

(except me)

Even though my managed to survive, I couldn't say the same for everyone else in my group. Everyone was defeated at one point, even though we had a Priest and a Mystic, but the Priest's healing skills were... shall we say... a little less than adequate. I had already used up one of my ressurection scrolls before we had gotten deep into the dungeon, so the Mystic had to respawn back in town and run all the way back before reviving the other two.

Once the Mystic got back and revived the two, we only had a few minutes left, and the Mystic wanted to defeat a field boss inside the dungeon before heading off. The field boss was a creepy looking raccoon doll thing. That thing was just... hideous, and it was begging to be killed.

Defeating that rabid raccoon...bear... whatever thing was where our dungeon run ended. My party wasn't very chatty during most of the run, but they were a lot more chatty during the end of it. The Mystic even made a few Popori fat jokes here and there, ending everything on a fun note.

Oh, and this happened:

BETA KEYS FOR CBT5:

H3695MFNLCC73KG4DKJL6TAMD

NHMLRWWLP5NTJCR39T6KM9M7F

EJYEADNDXKFJH5XAFX7KHF5XW

RK4JMHJ4XYGGDXRJYEXFYACJJ

JGEAYAYF47KXJY4WPXGR9DYRG
DWEHM7CLDT7A9GKR6XHTL5HCA
EL3REK4HRRKMP6A9PEYMDTWEN