En Masse Entertainment recently announced The Argon Queen update for TERA. We had the opportunity to chat with Producer Chris Hager all about The Argon Queen. See what we discovered and then leave your thoughts in the comments.

MMORPG: For those who haven’t been keeping up with TERA lately, can you give us an overview of what The Argon Queen will include for the game?

Chris Hager: The Argon Queen update brings great new content to the world of TERA. Three new level 60 instances, a 20-person raid accessible through our nexus events, battlegrounds, and a lot of changes and enhancements to our existing classes. There’s also a ton more, all aimed at giving players new experiences and enhancing what they already have.

Read more of Bill Murphy's TERA: Argon Queen Interview.

Bill, I notice you didn't bring up the impending stam system for lancers and warriors... ^^ The stam system for those of you who don't play the game, makes blocking cost stam. Which of course limits how long one can block. Given how the dynamics of the shield system worked before this, those of us mere mortals who lack the 733t skills of timing attacks, used block to stay alive in BAM and dungeon fights.  Now before the strawman "argument" of  Bad lancers never doing anything but blocking comes up, its almost impossible to maintain aggro if one was foolish enough to attempt that. 

 I suspect many lancers are either going to switch to alts, or move on to another game such as Guild Wars 2. This of course is going to make the tanking shortage even worse.  The stam system is a "solution" to a non existent problem.  But thats never prevented Dev's from tinkering with things in the past. But I question the wisdom of imposing this system, so close to the release of Guild wars 2 on the 25th of this month. 

FIRST off Wraith, its called "Resolve" not Stamina, Stamina is already in the game.

http://tera.enmasse.com/the-argon-queen/new-skills

Secondly Lancer is getting some ability love, they NEEDED a backstep and the knock down they are getting is just a wonderful bonus.

Third, this is mostly to make it so warriors have a resource to block with that can be weighted against lancers, making warriors block less effective than lancers was needed, and the way they did that was give both tanking classes a new resource from which to draw upon, making lancer's block consume LESS of said resource, balancing the two.  

In short, I disagree with every single thing you said Wraithone.  Mostly because none of it is based in the realm of reality.

"The Nexus Traverse uses TERA’s new raid system and can only be accessed after a successful nexus event. Going inside this instance will send your raid group to a cross-dimensional fortress where the nexus creatures come from."  

This is terrible news :-(  

Arg!

Nexus' are only available 2 times a day 3 days a week. So on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday you have 2 chances at specific set times to try to attempt these raids?  

This is terrible news.

Originally posted by Laughing-man

Secondly Lancer is getting some ability love, they NEEDED a backstep

 

Meh, odd. I have 2 level 60 lancers, both running hard modes and never did i think *Hey I need a backstep*
I also play a 60 warrior, the new changes are ok I guess, hope they help the current player base but for me its too little too late. After running HM FOK BT KL over and over ... i'm done. Sub runs out on the 3rd sept but I'll be playing something else way before then.

Love the combat in Tera, thats about it. (My own opinion)

My main point was that I never felt the need for a backstep on a Lancer, the overhand smash looks like a great addition though, some burst and a knockdown, win win.

Originally posted by Laughing-man

FIRST off Wraith, its called "Resolve" not Stamina, Stamina is already in the game.

http://tera.enmasse.com/the-argon-queen/new-skills

Secondly Lancer is getting some ability love, they NEEDED a backstep and the knock down they are getting is just a wonderful bonus.

Third, this is mostly to make it so warriors have a resource to block with that can be weighted against lancers, making warriors block less effective than lancers was needed, and the way they did that was give both tanking classes a new resource from which to draw upon, making lancer's block consume LESS of said resource, balancing the two.  

In short, I disagree with every single thing you said Wraithone.  Mostly because none of it is based in the realm of reality.

 

You might also look at the "block better"... How is limiting what lancers can already do, and have been doing since the game started in Korea, "better"?  So its "resolve" now? Fine, I stand corrected.  That doesn't change the fact that its a "solution" in search of a problem.  As for making lancers less effective at blocking being "needed" , by whose perspective? Warriors? No conflict of interest there... ^^ 

So lancers can block a few *seconds* longer than warriors? So what? That is supposed to make up for such a drastic change in the core dynamic of the class?  The REALITY is that lancers as a class were doing just fine in the role for which they had been created. Tanking. They had the best defense in the game, and if played well made the best main tanks. 

One of the reasons that there is a tank shortage is due to the grind of getting one to level 60.  Having a level 60 myself, I'm painfully aware of that. But one of the other reasons is that tanking in general is a thankless task, and doing it well takes focus, experience and patience.  You can disagree with reality all you wish. Reality has demonstrated that it is no respecter of ideology. ^^

Originally posted by demarc01

Originally posted by Laughing-man

Secondly Lancer is getting some ability love, they NEEDED a backstep

 

Meh, odd. I have 2 level 60 lancers, both running hard modes and never did i think *Hey I need a backstep*

Man this will be so much fun, cant wait. Truly sad though that En Masse couldnt have had this out at launch, really broke the back of the game. Still a ton of potential in Tera and I will keep my sub going especially with chronoscrolls to play for free.

I LOVE healing in this game, truly the most challenging and fun healing by far in any MMO and I think the battlegrounds are going to be damn awesome to try and heal.

Give this game some love people although not perfect really is a nice step for the genre and I would much rather give a company like this my money ... then ... say ... Blizzard.

Not one question about the recent settlement with NCsoft?

I'll just go ahead and imagine I read a "No comment".

@Wraithone - TERA is what Lineage3 was.  "remains to be demonstrated?"  How ignorant can you be?  Read the court documents for youself.

Originally posted by Wraithone
When/If Lineage3 ever shows up, its likely to be as PvP centric as the first two have been. That means it will be a niche market at best in the west.  As for the various claims that the TERA Dev's some how "stole" Lineage 3 IP from NCsoft, that remains to demonstrated. 

Tera went from 37 servers down to 4 in korea..please talk more about niche audience.Blade & Soul tore this game a new 1 and if people arent playing in korea you can kiss your character goodbye because they sure as hell wont be making expansions just for the west.

Lineage 2 is actually not as pvp centric as you would think.Many who play it do simply for the PVE.

Like already mentioned above, if you read the court documents you can see all the proof you need that lots of Lineage 3 content was stolen and is used in Tera.For somebody who wants to mouth off about pvp you really arent good at forum pvp.

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by demarc01

Originally posted by Laughing-man

Secondly Lancer is getting some ability love, they NEEDED a backstep

 

Meh, odd. I have 2 level 60 lancers, both running hard modes and never did i think *Hey I need a backstep*

I also have a lvl 60 lancer and I don't think we needed a backstep.

I have a 60 lancer, I say that they do.

Think of it for PVP and PVE, not just hard modes guys, thanks.

Also, ever  had a monster walk over your hit box?  Cus they do it all the time...  Guess what move would really help avoid that?

Oh right!  a backstep!

Edit:  Why would you have 2 60 lancers?  It just seems like everyones making claims to validate their weighing in.

Originally posted by Wraithone

Originally posted by Laughing-man

FIRST off Wraith, its called "Resolve" not Stamina, Stamina is already in the game.

http://tera.enmasse.com/the-argon-queen/new-skills

Secondly Lancer is getting some ability love, they NEEDED a backstep and the knock down they are getting is just a wonderful bonus.

Third, this is mostly to make it so warriors have a resource to block with that can be weighted against lancers, making warriors block less effective than lancers was needed, and the way they did that was give both tanking classes a new resource from which to draw upon, making lancer's block consume LESS of said resource, balancing the two.  

In short, I disagree with every single thing you said Wraithone.  Mostly because none of it is based in the realm of reality.

 

You might also look at the "block better"... How is limiting what lancers can already do, and have been doing since the game started in Korea, "better"?  So its "resolve" now? Fine, I stand corrected.  That doesn't change the fact that its a "solution" in search of a problem.  As for making lancers less effective at blocking being "needed" , by whose perspective? Warriors? No conflict of interest there... ^^ DOES it make them less effective?  That remains to be seen chicken little.  You do realize that blocking currently drains their MANA right?  Just checking.

So lancers can block a few *seconds* longer than warriors? So what? That is supposed to make up for such a drastic change in the core dynamic of the class?  The REALITY is that lancers as a class were doing just fine in the role for which they had been created. Tanking. They had the best defense in the game, and if played well made the best main tanks.   We have no details on how long a warrior can block vs a lancer, I'm sure a lancer can block longer, perhaps significantly longer.  What if this happens, what if Lancer's block is weighed against how it functions now with the average Lancer's MP, making it so that the change was nearly unfelt by lancers.  You are speculating far too much bucko.

One of the reasons that there is a tank shortage is due to the grind of getting one to level 60.  Having a level 60 myself, I'm painfully aware of that. But one of the other reasons is that tanking in general is a thankless task, and doing it well takes focus, experience and patience.  You can disagree with reality all you wish. Reality has demonstrated that it is no respecter of ideology. ^^   There is an instant queue for healers most of the time I queue on my 60 mystic, however I have had to wait a bit now queueing up as my 60 lancer.   So I question your logic and your statistics.  Reality seems to be something you are making up as you go along.

Originally posted by Coolit
Looks great, what about EU? left out in the cold again?

EME doesn't run EU servers.

Originally posted by lustbust

Originally posted by Wraithone
When/If Lineage3 ever shows up, its likely to be as PvP centric as the first two have been. That means it will be a niche market at best in the west.  As for the various claims that the TERA Dev's some how "stole" Lineage 3 IP from NCsoft, that remains to demonstrated. 

Tera went from 37 servers down to 4 in korea..please talk more about niche audience.Blade & Soul tore this game a new 1 and if people arent playing in korea you can kiss your character goodbye because they sure as hell wont be making expansions just for the west.

Lineage 2 is actually not as pvp centric as you would think.Many who play it do simply for the PVE.

Like already mentioned above, if you read the court documents you can see all the proof you need that lots of Lineage 3 content was stolen and is used in Tera.For somebody who wants to mouth off about pvp you really arent good at forum pvp.

Linage2 isn't PvP centric? You have a rather odd definition of what PvP is, and isn't... ^^ As for the dispute between Blue Hole Studios and NCsoft, I suggest you examine the entire affair, and not just NCsofts press releases... The documents in question are in Korean, so I'll see if some friends of mine over there can translate them for me.

 But BHS is still in business and still running TERA in both Korea and elsewhere, so I suspect it didn't go NCsofts way... Just like their loss of 23 million or so to Richard Garret (AKA Lord/General British) in their last go around (over their antics after Tabula Rasa).  NCsoft has quite the "interesting" history, if one examines the details, and doesn't just read their press releases. 

As for TERA in Korea, that doesn't really surprise me. It has its good aspects, but what really attracted me was the active combat system. Not to mention the female Castanic armor. ^^  The graphics are quite nice, but the over all game needs more polish. But the client has been quite stable, and thats more than I can say for many games.  You might wish to take your own advise, and brush up on details yourself. 

Originally posted by Zooce

Not one question about the recent settlement with NCsoft?

 

I'll just go ahead and imagine I read a "No comment".

 

@Wraithone - TERA is what Lineage3 was.  "remains to be demonstrated?"  How ignorant can you be?  Read the court documents for youself.

Many thanks for that.  The impression I'd received was that it was in reference to the Korean case.  "How ignorant can one be"? Quite, but that can be corrected by supplying the relevant information.  But doing it in a semi civil fashion would help it to not be over looked, and your effort wasted. 

Now, having examined the documents (as I assume you have) did you notice the date? Jan 9 2012 of this year. It is now August 13th (2012).  If the NY court was going to issue an injunction, it would have long since done so.  Also keep in mind that the document is that submitted to the court by NCsofts lawyers, and thus follows the usual form.  Going by only one side in a dispute, rises  obvious questions of bias, and agenda. 

You may also note that entire sections of the Korean case have been over turned, and are on appeal.  Might I suggest we wait for the courts decision before we rush to judgement?  

Other wise, one ends up looking foolish, as some who predicted that the US court would issue an injunction, when it obviously hasn't. ^^

This is from our own MMORPG.com in reference to the matter. 

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/loadNews/23322

Finally, in reference to legal disputes, its not who is right or wrong that counts the most, its who has lawyers who can best game the system who end up winning in the vast majority of cases. Given NCsofts results from their case with Richard Garret, lets hope they retained better legal representatives this time...^^