Very short one today, mostly just so I can squee over how amazing Planetside 2 is shaping up to be. How amazing, you might ask? Well, besides looking at Totalbiscuit’s videos, we finally got to see something I’ve been very interested in. Care to guess what it is? I’ll give you a hint.
For those of you who don’t feel like clicking a link, let me just show you why today is one of those rare days where I get to be in a good mood:
NC Female
Looks good, right? It gets better.
TR Female
Really? Really? She looks like shes outfitted in military gear! You know, what the TR are famous for. Oh man, I’m so excited for this… wait, what about the Vanu?
VS Female
Nope, nope. I can’t stand it anymore. I have to have this game. Keep in mind this is only the Light Assault armor. There are more armor models for Infiltrators, Heavy Assault, etc. But with everything looking this good already? SOE, you stole my heart. I can’t stand not playing this game now! Very eagerly awaiting beta.
Oh boy. Oooh boy. I’ve been waiting on this. The newest addition to League of Legends, provided by the one and only Meddler of Riot Games. I was eagerly awaiting this champion, because Meddler also made Ziggs. Dying to know if that was a one-off or if he’d keep up the same quality of work. And did he ever nail. Meddler’s now sitting with Xypherous a favorite designer, and that’s about the biggest compliment I can give. Now, with that out-of-the-way, let’s take a look at how Varus actually functions, and break down his playstyle.
Varus, The Arrow of Retribution:
(Passive) Living Vengeance: Varus gains attack speed for a short time after killing a target. Minion kills grant Varus 20% attack speed for 3 seconds. Champion kills or assists double this, giving Varus 40% attack speed for 6 seconds.
Piercing Arrow: (first cast) Varus draws his bow back, charging up a powerful shot. Range and damage are increased as you charge, up to a cap. If the spell is held for too long, Piercing Arrow is cancelled and refunds half its mana cost. (second cast) After charging, Varus fires a long-range attack, dealing damage based on how long the skill was charging, up to a cap. This ability does diminishing damage the more targets it passes through.
Blighted Quiver (Passive ability): Varus’ arrows apply blight to any target hit, along with a small amount of bonus magic damage. Blight stacks up to three times, and can be proc’d by any of Varus’ other abilities, dealing a percentage of the target’s maximum health as magic damage for each stack of blight.
Hail of Arrows: Varus fires a hail of arrows at target location, desecrating the ground under it. Enemies on desecrated ground suffer a move speed penalty and receive 50% less healing.
(Ultimate) Chain of Corruption: Varus fires off a tendril of corruption, binding the first champion hit. This corruption will spread to any nearby enemy champions, rooting them in place if the tendril makes it to them. This effect can continue to spread until all no targets are available, but can not spread to the same champion more than once.
Varus excels at poking and long-range harassment, even more than most other carries. His Piercing Arrow ability has the single largest range of any non-ultimate skill shot when fully charged, and hits like an absolute truck at full charge. Varus has an insane amount of tricks up his sleeve, allowing for truly impressive play. With proper vision, Varus can easily snipe red or blue buff, dragon, or even Baron Nashor with a well placed Q, easily granting himself and his team a large advantage. Hail of Arrows applies a decently sized area that slows enemies and reduces healing, making it an essential skill against enemies with sustain, such as Soraka or Dr. Mundo. His ultimate can easily change a team fight, spreading out and binding an entire team if they clump together. View full article »
Whoops. Seem to have forgotten to actually get this out last week. Let’s just blame Varus and call it a day. I’m seriously putting Meddler up with Xypherous as my two favorite designers. But that’s enough about angry-bow-man for a while, he has his own post coming up. Now it’s time for TERA! All the good things I’ve been waiting to say, it’s time to put to light.
First, and most obvious, is the combat. I know, I know, I harp on this all the time, but trust me, it truly is worth it. There is no such thing as tab-targetting or “spell-hit/accuracy” or whatever. If you want to hit it, you have to aim at it. There are a few auto-lock skills, but these are mostly in the realm of healing or AoE skills, like archer’s volley, oddly enough. Monsters actually take direct location into account, it’s very easy to dodge some attacks simply by moving away. This is easy to practice in the start zone, watch for the telegraphed attack and then walk back a few feet. Unlike all it’ contemporaries, monsters in TERA will miss if they do not physically connect with you.
Aggression from players also carries positional based rewards. A lancer has the largest melee-attack range in the game, but at its longest you’ll only tap an opponent once. Attack when they’re in your face? The lance will proc up to three hits on that target. And any other target you hit, there is no “damage cap” that reduces outgoing damage. If you can line up one-hundred minions (and not die), you’ll nail all of them for the same damage as any other, with any melee weapon. Caster’s have their attacks stop at one target, but gain powerful long-range abilities to compensate. There are literally endless combinations of play-styles, classes, and monsters to interact with in the game. No two players will ever approach a problem the same way, even if they are the same class! I’ve seen tank and damage lancers who are soloing, and those that augment different skills when dungeon running. The possibilities are endless.
Seriously, I can’t tell you how much I utterly adore the combat. What other game would I go out of my way to kill something just because I want to? Well, besides Monster Hunter, smart alec. Really, I would never do something like… this:
So this was delayed because of my little whinge on Tuesday, because that’s kind of my thing. I like picking apart games, especially ones that annoy me to figure out why. But now that I’ve got all that ou of my system, I can move back to enjoying the game. Seriously, despite all that I’m still playing the game happily. So next time will (finally) be all the things I enjoy about the game. But for now… the Archer!
Archer:
Role: Damage
Difficulty: [***]
The Archer is TERA’s answer to a long-range sniper class, although it’s a bit wonky. It does feel like you get to play a long-range sniper if you would so desire, but they still have the same basic attack range of the other classes. However, this is toyed with in an interesting way; quite a few of the Archer’s skills do increased damage the closer you are to the target. Which would make sense, being that you’re shooting straight ahead, so that arrow is as strong as it’ll ever be right as it leaves the bow. Alternatively, magic. Magic did it. For a good comparison, consider this: The Archer is the physical version of the Sorcerer, only where the Sorcerer has insane burst and crits, the Archer deals steady ad consistent damage.
Skill wise, Archers get a few fun things to play with. The classic “hail of arrows” and “piercing shot” are all here, and you get those pretty early on. But, do remember what I said before, most of your ranged skills do more damage the closer you are, so knowing how close to be to something is the key to perfect use of your skills. The targeting on Arrow Volley can be a little weird at times, but the skill is still alright for aoe-clearing. Like a certain other game I could name (or twelve), Archers in TERA also gain access to several traps to help out. These come in various flavors, ice-burst slow, big area fire, and so on, and can be fun to use and set up in a chain. Thankfully they also have a close-range smack with a chance to stun, giving you all the time you’ll need to hop away from the fight, rounding out their already fun skill kit. View full article »
So, today is the day that TERA goes live, hooray! Or I would be saying that, if I wasn’t so infuriated with the game. So, instead of doing the Good bits today, we’re putting it off while I vent all the other things that infuriate me. So here we go, another full article on things TERA does poorly. Once again, keep in mind I am (for now) still playing the game, even if one of these pushed me closer to quitting than any other one. In no particular order…
Loot:
Why is it the default loot settings are absolutely retarded for loot? By default it sets to superior gear only as the minimum. If you don’t know about how loot works, the first piece of good loot is usually Rare, which is blue. Because of this single stupid setting, you will have to spend the first five minutes of every single instance trying to get whoever randomed to party leader to change the loot settings for you. What happens if you don’t? The odds of you getting the loot you want are minimum at best. The first run I lost the best lance I could possibly get to a Berserker, who got nothing else. The Priest got plate armor and I got a bow. Keep in mind you can’t trade if you aren’t from the same server, so if that loot randoms to someone from over-yonder, it’s gone forever.
Prologue:
Please believe me when I say the actual game is not as bad as the prologue. You can’t rebind skills, the quest texts is unclear, and the ending is a literal ass-pull. To expand on the last two, several times I had to run around like a headless chicken just trying to get the next phase of the quest to trigger. After that, I got a quest saying “fight your way to the top of the cliff.” Which I did. With no problems. Only the next phase again didn’t start. See, what it should have said is “kill every living thing between you and the back wall.” Since this is an MMO, you will be trained that things respawn, and will assume it as a given after a while. There is no indication that nothing will respawn once you kill it here.
To be fair, the Prologue is also extremely pretty. I'd live there.
So, today marks the head-start event for TERA and will, presumably, be the last time we get spammed beta invites from En Masse, so I figured now would be the perfect time to start up a new three-part series, similar to what happened with rift. This will be called the same thing, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. So why start with the worst category? Well, because TERA has a lot of problems. So this isn’t the game for everyone, and if any of this sounds like a deal breaker already, then go ahead and skip the game. It won’t get much better. However, just because I’m about to verbally assassinate the game doesn’t mean I’m not going to play it. Far from it. The combat truly is great enough for me to deal with these issues. Mostly.
Now, you might be thinking, “Kana, what could possibly be that wrong with the game?”, and the answer always comes back to the same thing, time and time again. This is a game designed from the ground up and maximum level play and only max level play. Every major complaint I or anyone else has ever had has been BS’d around by the community going, “oh, it’s that way for the high level players!”
Last time I checked, the Korean and Japanese players got their own server, and won’t be coming over here. So why is it that this game still has such a terrible design even though no one is even at the level to exploit it? I’m talking about things like…
Wrecked Economy:
There are a lot of things to do in TERA with your character. Glyphs, Crystals, crafting, dyes, armor remodeling, and even more. And TERA wants you to do absolutely none of it until you get of your lazy bum and go grind a few dozen levels. I came out of the Island of Dawn with close to two-hundred pieces of ore, to practice weaponsmithing with. I almost broke my newbie character doing it. You might think, “well, don’t buy expensive recipes then!” The recipe I was using? Yeah, the game gave that to me for free. I wasn’t making weapons, I was just trying to smelt all that ore. And that took almost all my money. Crafting recipes are even more ludicrously expensive, and all rely entirely on the player flat-out buying most of the components anyways.
So yeah, it’s a good thing this isn’t an rpg or anything, or it would be troble trying to convince myself my character has any skill what so ever when she has to continuously buy half the pieces to a weapon instead of just making them herself. Feels like cheating when I keep buying metal handles and shield pieces. Seriously, what was the point of getting all that ore if the game was just going to break my bank and then still not do anything with it? View full article »
Time for another foray into the realms of Arboria, this time to look at the Mystic class. Promising ahead of time I won’t be so mean to this one, even if it is a support/healer class. Mystic is still boring compared to the other classes, but is miles ahead of the Priest in terms of fun. Mostly because of the area-drain vampire skill. But we’ll get to that in just a minute…
Mystic:
Role: Support/Healer
Difficulty: [*****]
Mystic is an odd little class, being a healer with more emphasis on damage than the Priest, and less on direct heals. They’re also the only class that gets a pet, so there is that. However, the little bugger is so annoying I found myself trying to commit suicide multiple times just to get rid of him, so there is that as well. Honestly, a first impressions on Mystic is kind of hard, simply because they’re supposed to be a support class, but you only get one support spell at all through the intro area. It is nifty though, so it’s alright for the time being. I’ve heard their player support comes in the form of summoned orbs, and if it’s anything like the first you get, then the orbs grant a unique and interesting mechanic to the class overall.
Unlike Priest, most of the skills a Mystic grabs are focused on hurting things. You share an AoE spell or two, but other than that the skills have a different emphasis. Heck, you even get a vampire-aura that boosts damage (and I’m assuming burst healing to you) the longer you channel the spell. Early levels can be very boring, falling into the same “hold basic-attack to win” strategy that plagues Priest. Since both classes start with a heal, there’s no punishment for just face-tanking everything. However, the Mystic’s heal differs from the Priest’s in two special ways: the Mystic’s heal is a heal-over time effect, and is “castable” on other players. In an interesting twist, it’s not a true spell at all, but is instead something of a creation spell. Once cast, the Mystic creates an orb that plonks down on the ground, and is usable by anyone nearby. Once used, the orb disappears and begins healing the person who used it over time. Likewise, the orbs last for a while, and there doesn’t appear to be a hard cap on how many you can toss out. View full article »
Hey guys, Kana here with some good news. With Open Beta on it’s last legs and head start quickly approaching, now would be the best time to announce that we’ve started a guild for players on the Arachnaea server. If you feel like stopping by, or making the server you home, send us a message. Black Lotus will always be up for more members!
Right now, with the game having just launched, we’re primarily focused on providing a friendly environment for people wanting to level up or just sit around and chat. Later on, we’ll probably shift to late game PvE content (hard mode 5-mans, maybe raids if they are ever implemented), and maybe some PvP on the side for fun. So we’ve got a little of everything either now or planned for down the road. Why not stop by and say hi?
Okay, confession time. I hate healing. I like healers, don’t get me wrong. Having someone pull my ass out of the fire is great, and I’ll never underestimate a healer’s contribution to the team. But I hate playing one. Vehemently hate playing them. TERA probably takes this feeling and makes it even worse, so that’s your warning for this. Figured it’d be better to get the bad out of the way now so we can focus on the more fun Mystic later. If you want to see my first impressions (spoiler: it’s not pretty), keep reading. If you like healers and like playing them in this, skip on down to the bottom where I have the late game/crystal stuff.
Priest:
Role: Healing
Difficulty: [*****]
The Priest is exactly what you’d expect for a class with the name of ‘priest’, only these don’t ever really get the chance to go around exorcising little girls or yelling about brimstone and fire. Though I guess you could role-play that with a friend who’s willing to play an Elin for the whole package. Priests have the biggest healing package of the two healers (the other being Mystic), and focus on support by keeping allies alive. There are various spells in their arsenal, and most of them involve keeping your little red bar as high up as possible for as long as possible. For everything else, there always is… the basic attack I guess.
Priests are a slow burner of a class, you won’t start getting any decent skills until you’ve nearly left the Isle of Dawn. By that time though, you’ll have at least 3 different heals up your sleeves. A self-cast, near instant ‘panic’ heal for yourself (that you’ll use a lot), a “pool” of light you can summon a few feet away that heals allied units standing inside of it over time, and a lock-on heal dual-target heal for precision moments. As for combat skills… there isn’t much to say. They feel weak and worthless, so grab a friend to kill for you. Otherwise you’ll be beating on mobs for a long time when going solo.
Combat is almost an embarrassment. Priests have to be the single worst class in the game for fighting anything. And you might think, “well, duh, it’s a healer!”, but I’m talking about a level of incompetence you can only imagine. The basic attack has a relatively long wind up and travel time, and it doesn’t track enemies. Nearly every other ranged character has some small measure of auto-correct in their attacks, usually to guarantee a hit after you’ve locked on and fired at a moving target. But the Priest doesn’t, so shooting at anything moving quickly becomes an exercise in frustration. The little area of effect you get is also weak and has a fair cooldown, so coupled with the very weak attack makes the whole class feel like you’re trying to kill with a pool noodle. Combat often devolves into a very boring slug-fest, where just spamming the basic attack and occasionally using your panic heal is the best solution to everything. Like I said before, get a friend, preferably someone else not playing a priest or you might both die of frustration and/or boredom.
Crystals are a bog-standard choice. If you’re leveling, get health and mana regeneration. You’ll need literally nothing else, since nothing will be able to kill you with that self-target heal having no cast time and almost no cooldown. Glyphing for damage is a borderline waste, but if it keeps the tedium at bay, go for it. Otherwise if leveling with a friend, just glyph healing and pray they don’t get bored carrying you to the point you can do instances. Total mana is also a decent enough choice, with the class having a relatively early gotten mana-regen skill on a short cooldown. Health regen and damage reduction/bonus are just wasted on this class though.
So there it goes. Priests are a slow burner and a masochistic experience to play leveling up. They have no damage, single or multi-target, and no armor, so healing is about all they have. Late game they’re probably the best healer just because of the control they bring, consistently being able to keep health bars up and preventing party death with little involvement from the other players. If you like healing already, go for it. But if you’re wanting to try healing or looking for an alt, I can’t recommend this class in the slightest.
See you next week for the Mystic! For real this time, too.
This is something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile now, and it just never felt like the right time. I was considering just skipping along past the crazed yordle, but with the delay to Hecarim, this brings up the perfect chance to get information on Lulu out there before the patch. That and I never get to play Lulu, so anything more than a first impressions on one game would take some time. I’m usually stuck in the jungle, and while you can do jungle Lulu, I’d rather just wait until I get good enough with the support role to know what in runeterra I’m doing.
So Lulu is a support champion and the most recent addition to the line up in League of Legends. While being support, she has no sustain mechanics and no in-built heal outside of her ultimate, so careful play is going to be required of both your carry and yourself if you take her out to lane. While sustain lanes can be a problem to deal with, Lulu has some of the greatest harass and control a support can give, only really being rivaled by Janna. To know why, let’s take a look at her skills.
(Passive) Pix, Fairy Companion: Pix is a fairy companion to Lulu, and will launch a barrage of attacks at anything Lulu attacks. These attacks scale per level to Lulu, and are delivered in a three-shot burst. Bullets from Pix do have hit detection, and will deal damage to the first target they hit, which may not be the target Lulu is attacking.
Glitterlance: Pix and Lulu both fire a bolt of magical energy that damages and heavily slows all targets it hits. An enemy can only be effected by one Glitterlance per cast.
Whimsy: Single target spell that can be cast on allies or enemies. If cast on an ally, Whimsy will give a boost to ability power and movement speed for a short time. If cast on an enemy, Lulu will polymorph them, silencing and preventing the enemy from attacking, while applying a very weak slow. Enemies still have full control of their movement.
Help, Pix!: Pix jumps to the target Lulu has chosen. If that target is an ally, they will gain a shield and Pix will attack for every basic attack from that ally instead any attack from Lulu for 6 seconds. If cast on an enemy, Pix deals damage and then follows that enemy, granting vision for 6 seconds.
(Ultimate) Wild Growth: Lulu enlarges an ally, granting bonus health and briefly knocking up all nearby enemies to that target. In addition, as long as Wild Growth lasts on a target, they will have a passive aura that slows all nearby enemies. View full article »
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