Thinking of coming back to TERA - few questions

sati · Aug 27th 2018

Hello!

I'm thinking of coming back to TERA after like 1.5 year break (or maybe more, don't remember correctly when I quit). I've got 3 types of questions - software ones, changes that could affect my account when I wasn't playing (I don't remember any GF mails that were important account wise, just some "here's a code for you", but maybe I missed something) and the last part are mostly opinion ones. The two first ones are more important, that's why the last will be in a spoiler.

#software
1. TERA on Steam - does it grants any additional bonuses? I didn't migrate my account and never had problems with the standalone launcher (who knows, might be different this time ) so is there a reason to use Steam for TERA? (if it matters I don't use Steam for any games atm, so I don't have it even installed )
2. The game still has this stupid way of installing/updating when it requires 2x more space on disk than declared? What's the amount of space needed now?
3. Did BHS did something to improve FPS or it's still going down every new class/content update?
4. Probably the most important: what do you suggest when it comes to game optimization for better fps? I don't have the game, formatted my drive last year and didn't bother to backup TERA folder so I don't have my old .ini files and notes that said what I changed to squeeze some more fps So I would appreciate every suggestion/link/guide in this matter.

#changes
1. I saw there was a server merge. That's probably why all my chars have a "_renamed" in their names (checked via website). So does it mean I will need to get Name Change Vouchers to change them?
2. When I quit I had all my characters grouped in 3 separate own-guilds (well 2 guild banks were empty, I was just too lazy to move all alts to one guild). One guild had it's bank full with various items (that when the guild leveling got added was just mostly withdraw only, but still was saving me plenty of space). Could something happen with those items?
3. Do we still get PvP credits from BGs? I think I had few characters full on both PvP credits, so maybe I could use them for something...
4. What the economy like? Still everything is overpriced?
5. Can I use alts to get "stuff" for my main character or materials (mostly needed to upgrade gear) are not bankable? What gear is rather easily obtainable for alts?
6. Whats like the current class DPS ranks? I saw on moongourd zerk and warrior are two on top (due to awakening?) but whats the whole list atm? What classes should get awakening/buffs soon? [due to break I can choose a new main ]
7. What are those "seasons"? Do PvP ratings finally reset?
8. Is Ghiliglade (or w/e it was called) still present and is it still by far the "best instance"?! Or did some other instance take GG place (like same idea, limited via scrolls, solo only, boring as fek)

And here are the mostly opinion based ones (mind I'm only interested about after 65 lvl gameplay) in a spoiler:

Display Spoiler

1. Is the game active during evenings (18-22 CET) so it's possible to do stuff via LFG, IM or PvP BG (BGs only with Jackpots I assume)? Don't really care about other hours
2. Whats the timespan of current gear/content patch? It just started or new content (next sets of gear) is soon to be here? (btw which VM is now? 9? 10? 11?) What are the current gear names and their respective tiers (low, mid, high, vm-tier)?
3. Whats like the common daily routine? Just farm instances for gear exp / materials or are there also some other group activities? What about solo stuff - are they actually worth it? Last time I was playing normal dailies were crap, solo bams were good if you could rekt them fast and didn't mind doing same bams every day and the worst nexus was so bad nearly no one bothered with it.
4. How many instances there are? Is there like a decent variety for entry/mid/high gear, or the amount is limited to few so as someone without gear I'll just spam same instances for a month with near zero option to rotate them? (TERA EU Page doesn't list all instances in their Guide Section... Guess GF still rocks)
5. Is doing instances via LFG elitist? So are ppl crazy that you don't have gear or that you aren't skilled/high DPS class and then you hit a moment when you can't do harder stuff cause you can't get gear via IM and you can't do instance via LFG cause bad gear.
6. Is IM like it used to be? 9 out of 10 times you end up with people that don't exactly know what they are doing and struggle to finish it so like you don't IM for anything that is above entry level or that don't have 1hit KO / wipe mechanics (I was doing TSNM for achievements via IM, wow the amount of ppl that didn't know the easy color+floor mechanic :D)?
7. Are there any guild only activities (don't mean guild runs for instances/raids!) so there is an encouragement into joining guild?.
8. Whats the state of PvP? Finally dead or fully EQ (+/- crystals) and decent in activity during jackpot hours?
9. If there is noEQ PvP - how annoying/long/grindy is getting PvP gear and do you get it only by doing PvP or you also need to do PvE? Is it even worth getting or PvP gear can be just used to get better PvE bonuses (like mixing accessories sets, or some pvp gear gives decent pve bonuses but is easier to get)?
10. Are the PvP BG matches one sided or are there also tight matches? Like can you win CS by a margin of few seconds or just after first 2 min you know you lost and can afk at base waiting for the enemy team to finish it quick?
11. Lets say I got bored of instances and PvP BG for few days, is there anything else to do? Some achievements that aren't tied directly with instances/bgs (I think I had 100% OW available achievements completed when I quit)? Crafting? Maybe something else?
12. What part of game is the most affected by ppl using proxy - OW PvE, OW PvP, Instances, BGs, something else?

Plenty of questions, but I prefer to first research (did read threads here, but it's just too many threads about various things, that's why I made this thread with all questions I have) and be sure of coming back instead of downloading the game and then realizing that stuff that matters for me is still bad and it's not worth investing time to play. (mostly fun of playing, I did enjoy the game during KR20-WH times, then WW patch was meh, FoA update was cool, but after that the gear update scheme was just too stupid for me so I wasn't able to tackle instances due to low gear, while new classes and overall changes just made the game less enjoyable for me, plus fps issues).

I don't mind partial answers, every feedback will be appreciated. Oh yea, if I will come back I plan to do it in like 2-3 weeks (got important stuff to do first), so I'm not in extreme hurry.

Thank you!

Devoravit · Aug 27th 2018

i dont know for the software part, but i think i can awnser some of the changes part.
1. At some patch every character that was inactive for at least a certain amount of time got his name changed into "Name_renamed", to make names of characters accessible again, that may never get touched upon anymore.
3. Right now the Bellicarium and Killing Spree shop are in the game, but they are disabled. In the next patch however, killing spree shop will be completely deleted and Bellicarium will get activated again, as well as recieve an update.
4. If you know how to farm your money, you will most likely not have problems with buying things you want (except maybe 2.0 effects and the newest costume box from jackpot wheel, its just natural that those are kinda overpriced)
5. Every upgrade material besides the Veilthroch is bankable right now. Next patch three new materials will be added, of which two of them will be unbankable too. (New accessory). The gear you may aim for alts should be Frostmetal, so you can do the most stuff with them. However, getting Stormcry +0 also wont take eternally, so if you want a little better geared alt, you may also go for that.
6. Right now, Berserker and Warrior are the strongest classes, but that will definitely shift due to the second awakening wave in october. From what i have seen, it is like
Berserker>Warrior>Slayer>Archer>Gunner/Reaper>Valkyrie>Sorcerer>Ninja
Thats just my observations, i cant say how accurate they are.
7. Seasons for the leaderboard are a system, where you get ranked for your Clear speed of a dungeon or battleground. Best ranks get masks, one can also get emeralds and other things from that.
8. Ghillieglade has been kinda out of commission the moment, the gearing system changed. If you wanna run instances to farm money, you will most likely go for the gearscore 412 ones, and guardian missions give more for quite easy bosses.

The opinion based ones...lets see.

Display Spoiler

1.The activity at that time is okay to good, you can find your dungeon parties quite easily. Maybe the pvp update next patch even revives that, but as PvE player i dont know about pvp^^
2.Since the gearing system was altered, the time of VM is over. You can convert some of the older gears into new one, and then you have to enchant the gears to their highest level (+6 for guardian, +0 for heroic vow, else +9)and by upgrading it then you get a new piece of the higher gear set. New enchantment levels of gears get added half a year, as well as some dungeons. (next one is about to hit in october to december, in three parts)
So right now we have Guardian gear as the beginning thing, the next higher is Twistshard, the third is Frostmetal, the fourth Stormcry and finally Heroic Vow.
3. Depending on your gear and what you need. If you are about gold, 412/431 instances are the best (for this patch at least. that gets adapted next patch). If you are about enchanting material, you look which dungeons do drop those and then go there or farm materials to decompose into Metaphoric emblems you can buy materials from.
4. Right now we have 3 dungeons for guardian tier, another 3 for twistshard gear, i think 8 or 9 for frostmetal tier, 4 for stormcry tier and one that is only for the high stormcry levels and/or heroic vow. So you dont have many dungeons for the first two sets, but with Frostmetal and onwards you have enough dungeons.
5. Well, some elitist people are around, but most of them kinda live in their own world, so you will most likely not see them that much.
6. Some people new to the dungeon/game will still fail at the same rate as ever before, but the below stormcry dungeons are quite forgiving for mistakes.
7. Gotta disappoint you here
8. Outside of jackpot times you will most likely not find parties for battlegrounds, but the rewards get an upgrade in the next patch, so i wouldnt bury hope for PvP yet.
9. PvE and PvP Gear (except for crystals) got merged when the new gearing system was introduced. And some battlegrounds do still have the gear equalization.
10. Havent played pvp, so i dont know. Sorry
11. As already said, there are guardian missions which are quite profitable. However they get boring quite quickly. Crafting has become essential with the gearing update, because the material for enchanting frostmetal and higher must be crafted by Weapon Smith Artisans/Masters. And you can look around, 6 of the world bosses got powered up to an low tier instance bosses strength and their loot was adapted too, maybe you get lucky to find one. (Nyxarras, Divine Reaver, Yunara's Snaggletooth, Linyphi, Tempest Kanash and Betsael)
12. I dont know anything about proxy, so again, sorry

Gyusza · Aug 27th 2018

Quote from Devoravit

From what i have seen, it is like
Berserker>Warrior>Slayer>Archer>Gunner/Reaper>Valkyrie>Sorcerer>Ninja

After awakening2 korean streamer said this:

1.Ninja,Archer,Gunner,Reaper,Valkyrie>>>2.Warrior,Slayer,Zerk,Sorcerer

Chevv · Aug 27th 2018

Wow ... 8 hours and no one has answered. Oh well... ill give it a try.
#software
1. Don't know - Don't use Steam
2. I never noticed that. So can't comment.
3. BHS um ... well ... I can't say that I have less FPS than 2014, i did have a long break in between, maybe it was bad then and i wasn't around to know?
4. There are a few guides:

I'm sure there are more. Maybe some which are more up-to-date.

#changes
1. When I started again and one of my chars had a changed name i was allowed to rename it when i logged back in. No name change voucher needed.
2. Can't claim to know. But probably not.
3. Don't do pvp so can't comment on that.
4. Supply and demand work as in any other mmorpg. Things people want of which few are available are expensive. Things that are highly available which people don't want are actually hard to get rid of at a reasonable price. So ... no, i guess not. Yet many of the things I would like to have are more expensive than I have the time to farm for.
5. Anything up to Stormcry +9 is bankable. The only unbankable material so far is Veilthroch from AAHM used to upgrade to Heroic Oath.
6. This is a can of worms and deserves its own post really.
If you simply check in which order the classes appear in AAHM on moongourd you'll find:
Berserker, Warrior, Slayer, Gunner ...
... and that is where it gets wierd. Gunner isn't usually considered a top class. It also doesn't show how superior to the rest Berserker and Warrior are atm.
IMO Warrior currently has the best skill kit. Lots of iframes, very good damage potential, damage mitigation allowing more dps uptime. But Berserker has more damage potential, there is no denying that.
The grapevine has it that with the coming second Awakening Reaper, Ninja and Gunner are supposed get real good. Though mostly Reapers, Ninjas and Gunner talk about that so I tend to take those assumptions with a grain of salt. Before the first Awakening people said Slayer would be top tier as well... Well we don't have many Slayers that compete with top berserkers and warriors. Maybe because there simply aren't many slayers, maybe because warrior and berserker kits are simply better and the good player chose to reroll as those instead. Only time will truly tell.

7. not enough context to understand the question... maybe you mean the season for pit of petrax, tower and AAHM?
8. w/e "the best" means ... IMO the best instance i AAHM because "best" = most fun, most challenging
but you might mean most profitable ... in that case ... go do guardian legion with a mystic rolled as DD ... that certainly is the most profitable

sati · Aug 28th 2018

Thank you!

To clear @Chevv (big thanks for those links):

Quote from Chevv

7. not enough context to understand the question... maybe you mean the season for pit of petrax, tower and AAHM?

I read in other threads about "seasons" and ppl "not getting / waiting for their rewards". When I was playing you could consider "seasons" as:
- CoF ladder, ppl got smoulder and gems every second week iirc
- PvP ratings were getting reset and ppl could get Bloodrave gear
- Alliance Vault times were based on alliances fighting over (don't remember what :D)
- Last I remember were guild ladders, no idea what it gave to guilds who were at top ranks
- There was also Dreadspire "seasons" but it was just to separate 20 floor DS to 22 floor or to show that different rewards were added, it didn't really matter how players performed there.

So I was interested what kind of seasons are now but @Devoravit already said what's it about. Will figure it out fully if I'll play.

Quote from Chevv

8. w/e "the best" means

That's why I used "" in terms of GG. GG the moment it got added as a "Premium solo instance" during FoA/SCHM update (and then next few patches) was the most profitable instance considering it required near zero gear, no other ppl to mess up something and was super fast. And each was like 5-10k gold (depending on luck). Oh and it dropped VM materials that you should only get by clearing HM instances (but let's not talk about this). So the most common suggestion of farming was "farm VG, buy GG scrolls > profit"
But since Devoravit cleared that GG isn't the best I'm glad, maybe I won't have to go there at all :E

Still if someone has anything to add - thanks in advance.

Arlos · Aug 28th 2018

I think I will answer now as well.
software:
1. Steam has some newcomer packs you can buy that are not available otherwise. Also you are not able to log into a different account over Steam.
2. Yes it does and if you calculate 80GB you should be fine.
3. They toned down skill effects but no other changes to improve FPS.
4. Chevv already gave you good links.

changes:
1. You can change the name of these characters for free.
2. They are not sorted anymore but should still be there.
3. No but I think the shops are still there.
4. Not everything but many important things.
5. Yes.
6. zerk > warrior > slayer > gunner > sorc/archer > valk > ninja > reaper according to my last research.
7. Yes the PvP ratings reset.
8. GG drops mostly shit but you can drop diamonds there and have a chance to get the best brooch in the game.

opinionbased:
1. Not sure about servers except Yurian but on Yurian you find groups in that timeframe. Also BGs only pop during jackpot.
2. There is no VM anymore. Current gears are Guardian < Twistshard < Frostmetal < Stromcry < Heroic Oath.
If I remember correctly with the next gear patch that will enable us to get the HO gear to +3 they want to start a 3 month cycle.
3. Bams are useful if you need some glyphs or etchings. From midtier tokens you can buy tier 2 etchings and from hightier tokens tier 3 etchings. Guardian missions give the most gold but are boring as f*ck. The daily routine is very different for everyone. Most people include doing guardian missions on at least one char.
4. On entry level are 3 dungeons but you should be able to get out of the entry level in 1 or 2 days. Low tier dungeons are also 3 and you should also be able to get through this tier in a few days. The mid tier has 5 dungeons and getting your gear encanted here will take a few weeks. High tier dungeons are 3 and you will see them a lot. There is also one more dungeon that is above high tier. The tiers I just described also are the dungeons you run to enchant the correspending gear. Then there is DS that I do not count as part of any of these tiers.
5. You can get better gear through guardian missions since their reputation shop offers a lot of enchanting materials. Also I would say every server has it's own elitist people and you will just need to learn who these are and stay away from them. Also there are always some people around that do not inspect other people.
6. The higher you go up in IM the higher the average skill level of the players but it doesn't rise by much. Also IM is definitely acceptable for entry and low tier dungeons. Mid tier dungeons are often doable as well but for these I recommend queueing with at least one other person you know won't fail.
7. No but there are guild buffs that raise your power, crit rate, hp, mp and other stuff. technically there is also CU but thats only on Sunday and it's mass PvP.
8. I would say kind of dead. I have a guildmate that is ranked in top 3 of different classes with at least 5 characters. Then again I'm on Yurian and the PvP interest there is not that high.
9. There is no PvP gear. You need to roll your PvE gear differently if you want to do PvP which is isn't really a problem since you can have 2 different roll sets on your gear. Oh yeah I forgot to talk about gear in BGs. Every BG is equalized with gear but if your gearscore is high enough you are able to use your own gear. Not sure if that last part applies to every BG.
10. I think it depends on two factors. Class distribution and how good the team leader is. There are cases where the opponents have more tanks and heals then your own team and naturally it can happen the other way as well.
11. Crafting is definitely needed to get better gear. And except for doing achievements there is nothing else except you like exploring the map.
12. If you do not want to be the best in your class the proxy in PvE won't affect you. OW PvP was killed by the awakening. Not sure what exactly Proxy does in PvP. Well except you meet a memeslash cheater or something similiar because then you will always kiss the ground. Since they cheat so hard that they oneshot everyone.

sati · Sep 10th 2018

Hello again! I did manage to find time faster so I started to play (atm just getting used to changes so nothing worth mentioning).

Now I have few more questions that I didn't put before regarding game play.

1. Flying Guardian Mission buyable items
The items that can be bought via Flying Mission token (the one that looks like Essential Mana) - are those bonuses account wide or character wide - that one that boosts the flight duration (can't open the game atm to check their prices / make screens).
(I assume those are character wide, since BHS&GF combo loves to make every aspect of the game as grindy as possible )

2. Is there a timer for collecting Guardian Mission rewards (the 100.000 contribution ones)?

3. Does the Reputation booster work on the Guardian credits? (this is mostly to get the 100.000 credits achievement, 40 rewards are 10k credits so even a 30% booster would give 3k more credits)

Cheers!

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