When choosing classes there are always a lot of options and I often wonder why people choose to play a certain type of class. This week in TERA news we got a look at the Berserker and the Priest. They could not be on further ends of the spectrum. We’ll try to break down both classes and see what the right choice is for players.
The Berserker is about what you would expect. They carry a giant axe and have a pocket full of very solid melee abilities. The class works as an alternative tank to the Lancer and relies more on dodges and evades than a heavy armor shielded stance. The great thing about the Berserker is you can play main tank and support roles. They also have some serious heavy attacks to stun foes and cause major DPS. In terms of overall game play experience I played a Beserker in the demos last year. The class was fun and I truly enjoy carrying around a giant axe. The class has the appearance of being one dimensional, but actually has more to offer than most straight up melee DPS roles.
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The Priest is a pure support class, yet is does have many options for players to explore. One of the most vicious attacks in Dark Age of Camelot came from the Midgard Healers with crowd control. This attack stunned everyone in a radius. Take this idea and apply to how a Priest might be played today. The Priests in TERA work with damage, crowd control, and of course healing. The healing classes in MMOs often get a raw deal. If you don’t keep everyone alive even when they make stupid decisions, it’s your fault. They need you, but they hate you, is really the attitude to healers. I think the Priest in TERA will break some of that mold which really came to a head with Warcraft. Allowing the Priest multiple options for game play gives players a great template to build on.
Lastly I wanted to talk about the upcoming demos for TERA at GDC. MMORPG.com will be attending the Game Developers Conference in full force in two weeks and we have TERA on the schedule. I have said many times that last year TERA had by far the best demos of any upcoming game we had seen. Even though Guild Wars 2 was amazing, having the devs run you through scenarios and play along side you in TERA was truly fun. Not only do we hope to come back to you with some serious hands on game play, we also hope to see more of the game and talk to developers about what is happening in terms of the changes over the last four months.
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TERA continues to remain on the radar of games for the 2011-2012 MMO season. That list grows almost daily, but TERA remains strong. Seeing all the classes now and going over the races I think the game gives a clear picture to players on how things will be played. It will be interesting to see how the game does here in the North American audience compared to overseas with the Asian audience. From what we have seen the game delivers strongly and we hope to have much more information after GDC to bring you up to date.
