While I was able to get my gamepad working great in Tera, there are a few problems I have with the game and it will definitely not be a purchase for me, but I might play when it goes F2P.
1. Magical and Archery classes are boring, it's just a spam fest, same skills over and over again. I know I only experienced early content, but through 13 levels as a sorcerer I never had to change my tactics.
2. Items and loot are boring, through 8 playthroughs of the first 10 levels content I never found anything new, the same boring ring of only one kind, the same weapons with extremely minor and bland differences, even 3 names for weapons found in different locations but no statistical differences at all, same with armor.
3. Dual wielding classes are partly fun for me when I get to mix and match different blades with different statistical properties in each hand, not so here. Weapons for the dual wielding class come in pairs and are just as bland as identical as the next piece you will find, so no mix and matching.
On the positive, combat is still fun but only if I play the close combat classes, especially the dual wielding class. But when it comes to Tera, fun combat is the ONLY good point on the game, everything else is as bland and boring as possible.
The Diablo 3 servers were finally up for a good deal of time on Sunday, and it enabled me to really get through a lot of the beta content. I played 4 of the 5 classes and I found something to enjoy out of all of them, the wizard being my favorite. Plowing through enemies, even at the lower levels were a blast.
Blizzard certainly hasn't disappointed with looting, it's always fun to keep searching for better gear, and with the new artisans it's much more fun to upgrade him and get better equipment made.
Couple of things to mention:
1. No easily visible damage stats. They included even a detail list box that shows all of your attributes from magic find to poison defense, but no damage stats. It was very difficult as a wizard to try and determine the best skills.
But after a while I sort of got used to not really knowing, Blizzard has designed this game to NOT be about designing the max of the maxes possible maximum stats, but rather about kills per second. If you find yourself not being able to plow through large groups of enemies, then your not using the right skills, or better yet you aren't using the right skill rune.
Very few skills in the game work by themselves, but combinations of skills work wonderfully. And there is no right or wrong combination, it's all about your personal style.
2. Attacks are class specific, not weapon specific. So if you are a wizard, your basic attack will be shooting arcane bolts... even if you have a sword, or bow or anything else equipped. The only thing I've found that is taken from the weapon you carry is attack speed. Once discovering this it was easy to pretty much just equip the most powerful weapon I could find; whether it be a magic dagger or a crossbow and I would still keep the same attacks but with better damage.
I was on the fence for this for a while, but after playing through it I found out that Blizzard designed it very well and it WORKS. For some classes if you wait for the appropriate weapon, you could be making the game exponentially more difficult. I found this out during my first play-through as a wizard, I kept trying to find a wand because the enemies were getting harder but then I succumb to a pretty powerful dagger only to find that I didn't get replace my primary attack but rather enhanced it completely. And with all classes' primary attack being MP free, it felt too easy.
But I found out quickly that it's NOT too easy. Movement and utilizing a good variety of skills is way more important here than it is in D3. By the time the beta content was done I had to primary skills to Mouse 1 and Mouse 2 as well as 2 secondary skill slots (2 more will open up later in the game) and I was using them a lot. I can see a great deal of tactics later in the game needed to find the right combination of skills and runes for your play style.
Yes, the first playable area in D3 was, overall, pretty easy, but let's face it, when the beta of D2 came out, it was also pretty easy and people were QQing all over the place of how easy D2 will be. Well, D2 turned out not to be such a pushover (after the initial content) afterall, and I'm sure Blizzard has some nice surprises up it's sleeve for D3 that we haven't the faintest clue about.
It's official, D3 is day-one purchase for me!
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