After a quiet September and October post PAX, TERA came out with some news this week giving us a deeper insight into some race and class combinations. The Castanics were discussed in great detail as the devilish almost dark elf looking race, expect they have horns. En Masse also gave us a brief look at the Slayer class. We demoed the Slayer at E3 this past summer and enjoyed playing the two-handed sword wielding damage class so let us see what new information was given.

First the Castanic seem to be hitting for the darker team. They do not look nor feel like the good guy race in the game. They are a tough hardened race through a dark history. The death of their god has made things even worse for them and trying to pull themselves out of the gloom has made them part of the alliance of races.

The look of the Castanic on the website does not seem to coincide with the description of the class. The character shown is the female version of the race and looks very elven in nature. If the race has a dark side, the character shown on the website does not reflect it in looks. Still, the idea behind the race is very interesting and looks to present a rich history to players. For gamers looking to explore the dark side of races, the Castanic seem to offer this option. Overall, I am not thrilled with the appearance. Do not get me wrong, I like the character image. I just don’t see a dark brooding side to what they are showing on the site.

The Slayer was next on the list of news this week and from what we have seen this class is pure fun for damage dealers. While the Berserker and Lancer offer some tanking abilities the Slayer and Warrior from what we have seen offer great melee DPS. The info this week outlines the Whirlwind attack. Though it has a cool down and a “casting time” from what we have seen this can be pretty vicious. The other part of the Slayer that is great is the ability to open up some heavy attacks while an opponent is down.

Overall this update from TERA was nothing really new. The game remains solid from the demos we have played and I think everyone wants a shot a Beta to see how the world has built out and what classes will be the best to play and test. Right now, we are looking forward to the new updates as they come out. Hoepfully, the next one will have more information.