Getting this error for Freeholds, Arachnaea, Celestial Hills, Serpendis Isle, Blightwood, Frostreach, and Dragonfall. The other servers I can connect to fine.

Anyone else getting this? Server status page says all servers up.

Edit: Alas, extended maintenance...and I just got home...//wrist

Does anyone know if BAMs at the endgame will actually have 'mechanics' similar to other MMO's?

Such as 'face away from group', situations where stacking or spreading can mitigate damage, or environmental mechanics (switches, void zones, etc.).

I've only done the 2 dungeons available in Open Beta and was curious if any of you KTera players could elaborate.

Thanks!

Dropping WoW like a hot brick. Been following Tera for about a year now just waiting....*twitch*...

Yup, I know you didn't list healers but they are incredibly engaging in this game. Healers in Tera are not helpless wet rags like they are in other games. My priest can easily solo a small army of mobs at the same time and healing dungeons is incredibly engaging since your situational awareness must always be at its peak. There aren't any healing addons to let you just stand there and healbot.

If you like blowing [filtered] up play a sorc. If you like blowing [filtered] up and still being at full health play a healer.

In 5 man content I don't know why anyone would take a priest and a mystic in the same group, unless just to fill an empty spot. Especially for heroic content, sure you can argue that priests and mystics can provide some DPS but they are not going to put out the same damage that an actual DPS class can, i don't care how you glyph them. If the healer classes did as much damage as the others at endgame, then everyone would just roll healers. That would be bad design.

Can you take a priest and mystic in the same 5 man group? Of course. Is it optimal? Hardly. If you are rolling a priest or mystic in order to play them as DPS you're going to be very disappointed once you hit level 60 and nobody wants you.

On a second note, once you start doing Nexus events and other multi-group 'raid' style kills then you're going to have priests and mystics in the same group anyway.

Really the main problem behind your question is that you're worrying about what healer class you should play in order to bring the most DPS to your group. That is incredibly bad. You should be asking yourself what healer class you want to play in order to bring the best healing/support to your group.

Since both classes can easily 1 heal 5 man content, and both classes will be involved in large scale fights anyway the simplest solution would be to play the class you enjoy the most and stop worrying about DPS. Leave that to DPS classes.

/nod

Healing in Tera is more engaging than any other MMO I've played. The group is constantly moving and keeping up with them isn't always easy. Not to mention how easy it is to get heal aggro. The threat mechanics are actually designed in a way that helping dps in your down time actually helps keep your threat down, so when I'm not healing I'm still spell flinging.

Also you won't really get the feel of what a healer is like from questing. Level up a healer to 20, run some dungeons, and then make your judgement.

I joined Caprica during the last Open Beta and am very glad I did. The community is already very helpful, always running guild groups, hosting surprise giveaways, the tradeskillers are working on maxing their skills, and several times I've already seen guildies sharing their gear and extra loot in order to help each other out.

If you're looking for an active guild with a friendly community, Caprica is definitely the place for you. See you all on Saturday!

=D

I posted this in General as well, but I thought the response may be more class focused here.

Now that the Betas are all said and done, I thought I would compile my observations and suggestions here. There isn't much time left until launch, but we don't stop trying to get better just because the game is live. I hope my thoughts and opinions can be of some help.

I guess the best place to start is the beginning.

Disclaimer: My main is a Priest and my PvE opinions will be based from that perspective as a leveler and dungeon healer. Also I tried to proofread before I posted as best I can, please forgive my bad punct.uation or typso.



1. Prologue

A. Things I like

I like that the prologue gives the player a brief taste of a class they may not have played before. This will weigh heavily on an experienced players decision to level up a new toon. It also introduces the player to some important characters they will see on the Island of Dawn, and is a cool intro into the storyline.

B. Things I Don't Like

As someone who has played previous betas and already knows a little about the game, the prologue was interesting and has its uses, but putting myself in the position of a brand new player with no knowledge of the UI or character controls the Prologue is very overwhelming. You're given upwards of 8 abilites attached to keybinds that you don't know, and have no knowledge of combo skills or how abilities should flow together. This is EXTREMELY overwhelming to me.

The questing in the prologue is awkward. To a player who isn't interested in Lore, all they see is a place full of people, there's nothing to kill, and for some reason they're being told to talk to this person, then this person, then this person, then this person, put these on, and then go talk to this person, now go over there. It has a sensation of being tedious for no reason.

C. Suggestion:

Give all new characters the option of skipping the prologue from the beginning. Before accepting the prologue there should be a disclaimer stating that it is solely to provide a brief level 20 experience of the class you are choosing with a taste of boss-level combat. I honestly think that forcing new players to experience the prologue will turn some people away from the game, because from the moment they log in there will be too much going on. They'll find themselves level 20 and confused, then suddenly they are level 1 and have no idea what happened.

(I understand one could argue that anyone who reads all the UI hints that pop up during the prologue can figure out that it is just a tutorial, but I don't believe most players play that way.)



2. Island of Dawn

A. Things I Like

Overall the Island of Dawn is an amazing starter zone. Lots of quests, tradeskill materials to farm, and a good introduction to how questing and basic combat works.

B. Things I Don't Like

Tradeskill mats being available for farm. (I know I just said I like this. I'll cover this later in my tradeskill section.)

Vekas' location in the cutscene being stated incorrectly, confusing hordes of newbs. A conspiracy Vekas himself is behind, no doubt.

Lack of a 'smart' quest tracker. (I'll go into this more in my UI section.)

Lets face it, most MMO players are accustomed to WoW, and when they log into Tera they expect to find a mailbox somewhere to receive their pre-order goods. I think the banker/postal system works fine, but unless you're observant or someone else tells you, the banker isn't the first person I would ask for my mail. This is an easy fix. I would suggest altering the mouse-over map tool-tip to indicate both bank and parcel services or create seperate NPC's to handle mailing needs (The first option I think would be easier).



3. Low Level Dungeons

A. Things I like

Like it or not, the dungeon finder was a nice addition. I remember the days of old having to spam chat channels for hours praying for a tank or healer to log in. Yes some people are rude. Yes some people will randomly drop group in the middle of combat. These same people would do this regardless of being in the dungeon finder.

The health on trash and bosses feels good right now. The fights are long enough that you stay engaged, but not so long that you get bored by the time the boss is dead.

B. Things I Don't Like

Boss aggro is difficult to read. As a healer I often feel that I am fine on threat one moment, and in sudden peril the next. I understand how current threat works, I just don't feel like there is a way to judge my threat appropriately at this time. I know healing generates crazy threat and that dpsing in between heals will help keep it down. I just want an easier way to SEE my threat rather than feel it. Its too late at that point.

Healer mana needs to be tighter at lower levels. Mana Infusion and Mana Charge either need to start scaling with level, have longer cooldowns, or one of them needs to be reserved for higher levels. At the current time as a Priest I virtually have an infinite amount of mana, and that drastically cuts down on the epic feeling of being a good healer. A good healer should not be someone who can use mana cooldowns every time they are up and spam heals. This is boring.

Using my heals selectively, effectively, and timely goes a long way toward making a healer feel as though they are not only contributing, but that they are good at what they do. If a terrible healer and an amazing healer can both keep a group alive and be at full mana when the boss dies, something is wrong.



4. UI

A. Things I like

Dungeon Finder-Great As Is

Action Bars- An experienced player will know how to customize their bars and key-bindings. The only thing I would like added to action bars is the ability to re-size them and reorganize their positioning and/or layout. If this is currently already available I apologize. I didn't think to play with this when the servers were up.

Quest Tracker- Omg. I'm sure that this has been posted elsewhere but I'm going to say it again anyway. The quest tracker needs a priority system. Assuming all quests in the Quest Log screen could be selected simultaneously my suggestion would be:

Story quests> Zone quests> Guild Quests> Dailies. All by level.

As an example:

From top to bottom the tracker should list-

LvL 18 Story Quest
LvL 19 Story Quest
LvL 17 Zone Quest
LvL 17 Zone Quest
LvL 18 Zone Quest
LvL 16 Guild Quest
LvL 17 Guild Quest

Guild quests and dailies would be pushed off of the list if too many story/zone quests exist as they do not advance player progression or story.

Quest Tracking on the Map- Please, please, please update the map tracking system to always track the lowest level priority Story/Zone quest. In the example above the default quest to be tracked on the map would be the Level 17 Zone quest. Prioritizing quests in this way would keep players from out leveling their Story quests by going crazy on Zone quests or the other way around.

Several times I found myself doing Zone quests that were 4 levels higher than my last story quest. I was constantly having to manually adjust my quest tracker minimap to show me my lowest level quest so as not to pass them beyond the point of still providing experience.

If I press Alt to bring up my options menu, please don't make my menu drop just because I turned left. If i'm running and my menu is open, its because I'm multi-tasking and I want it that way. If there is already an option to disable this, I'll look harder but I missed it.


5. Tradeskills

A. Things I Like

I like tradeskills. I like farming and I like making stuff. I also like making money. But right now newbs worldwide are wondering why they can gather materials on the Island of Dawn, but no information is given until reaching Velika what in the world you're supposed to do with them or where.

In addition to the lack of 'Training' quests for tradeskills, low level tradeskilling is still too expensive to be profitable or usable. Quest gear quickly surpasses low level crafted gear, which really makes low level crafted gear useless for anything but enchanting other gear and providing skillups. I firmly believe that for all the work it takes to make crafted gear, a crafted item and a quest reward of the same level should not be equal. Crafted gear should always be better than quest gear.

Also the sheer number of low level recipes is overwhelming. Even at just a skill of 50, there were SO MANY things I could make, it just became mentally exhausting to try and figure out what pieces had the best stats for the least mats, what pieces some people actually want, and what pieces fit what body slot.

Again, I didn't spend a whole lot of time tradeskilling in beta so if there was a way to list only 'boots' or 'gloves' or 'chest' recipes I may have missed it, but if not already implemented that kind of feature would be a vast improvement.

Extracting may have its uses at some point but right now I really don't get the need for it. Its easy enough to just go farm minerals and essences and fibers that extracting it from gear just doesn't really feel needed. Again, maybe there is a need for this later on but I didn't find it in low level gear.


Please feel free to add or critique as I would love to hear other players' feedback to these ideas.

Now that the Betas are all said and done, I thought I would compile my observations and suggestions here. There isn't much time left until launch, but we don't stop trying to get better just because the game is live. I hope my thoughts and opinions can be of some help.

I guess the best place to start is the beginning.

Disclaimer: My main is a Priest and my PvE opinions will be based from that perspective as a leveler and dungeon healer. Also I tried to proofread before I posted as best I can, please forgive my bad punct.uation or typso.



1. Prologue

A. Things I like

I like that the prologue gives the player a brief taste of a class they may not have played before. This will weigh heavily on an experienced players decision to level up a new toon. It also introduces the player to some important characters they will see on the Island of Dawn, and is a cool intro into the storyline.

B. Things I Don't Like

As someone who has played previous betas and already knows a little about the game, the prologue was interesting and has its uses, but putting myself in the position of a brand new player with no knowledge of the UI or character controls the Prologue is very overwhelming. You're given upwards of 8 abilites attached to keybinds that you don't know, and have no knowledge of combo skills or how abilities should flow together. This is EXTREMELY overwhelming to me.

The questing in the prologue is awkward. To a player who isn't interested in Lore, all they see is a place full of people, there's nothing to kill, and for some reason they're being told to talk to this person, then this person, then this person, then this person, put these on, and then go talk to this person, now go over there. It has a sensation of being tedious for no reason.

C. Suggestion:

Give all new characters the option of skipping the prologue from the beginning. Before accepting the prologue there should be a disclaimer stating that it is solely to provide a brief level 20 experience of the class you are choosing with a taste of boss-level combat. I honestly think that forcing new players to experience the prologue will turn some people away from the game, because from the moment they log in there will be too much going on. They'll find themselves level 20 and confused, then suddenly they are level 1 and have no idea what happened.

(I understand one could argue that anyone who reads all the UI hints that pop up during the prologue can figure out that it is just a tutorial, but I don't believe most players play that way.)



2. Island of Dawn

A. Things I Like

Overall the Island of Dawn is an amazing starter zone. Lots of quests, tradeskill materials to farm, and a good introduction to how questing and basic combat works.

B. Things I Don't Like

Tradeskill mats being available for farm. (I know I just said I like this. I'll cover this later in my tradeskill section.)

Vekas' location in the cutscene being stated incorrectly, confusing hordes of newbs. A conspiracy Vekas himself is behind, no doubt.

Lack of a 'smart' quest tracker. (I'll go into this more in my UI section.)

Lets face it, most MMO players are accustomed to WoW, and when they log into Tera they expect to find a mailbox somewhere to receive their pre-order goods. I think the banker/postal system works fine, but unless you're observant or someone else tells you, the banker isn't the first person I would ask for my mail. This is an easy fix. I would suggest altering the mouse-over map tool-tip to indicate both bank and parcel services or create seperate NPC's to handle mailing needs (The first option I think would be easier).



3. Low Level Dungeons

A. Things I like

Like it or not, the dungeon finder was a nice addition. I remember the days of old having to spam chat channels for hours praying for a tank or healer to log in. Yes some people are rude. Yes some people will randomly drop group in the middle of combat. These same people would do this regardless of being in the dungeon finder.

The health on trash and bosses feels good right now. The fights are long enough that you stay engaged, but not so long that you get bored by the time the boss is dead.

B. Things I Don't Like

Boss aggro is difficult to read. As a healer I often feel that I am fine on threat one moment, and in sudden peril the next. I understand how current threat works, I just don't feel like there is a way to judge my threat appropriately at this time. I know healing generates crazy threat and that dpsing in between heals will help keep it down. I just want an easier way to SEE my threat rather than feel it. Its too late at that point.

Healer mana needs to be tighter at lower levels. Mana Infusion and Mana Charge either need to start scaling with level, have longer cooldowns, or one of them needs to be reserved for higher levels. At the current time as a Priest I virtually have an infinite amount of mana, and that drastically cuts down on the epic feeling of being a good healer. A good healer should not be someone who can use mana cooldowns every time they are up and spam heals. This is boring.

Using my heals selectively, effectively, and timely goes a long way toward making a healer feel as though they are not only contributing, but that they are good at what they do. If a terrible healer and an amazing healer can both keep a group alive and be at full mana when the boss dies, something is wrong.



4. UI

A. Things I like

Dungeon Finder-Great As Is

Action Bars- An experienced player will know how to customize their bars and key-bindings. The only thing I would like added to action bars is the ability to re-size them and reorganize their positioning and/or layout. If this is currently already available I apologize. I didn't think to play with this when the servers were up.

Quest Tracker- Omg. I'm sure that this has been posted elsewhere but I'm going to say it again anyway. The quest tracker needs a priority system. Assuming all quests in the Quest Log screen could be selected simultaneously my suggestion would be:

Story quests> Zone quests> Guild Quests> Dailies. All by level.

As an example:

From top to bottom the tracker should list-

LvL 18 Story Quest
LvL 19 Story Quest
LvL 17 Zone Quest
LvL 17 Zone Quest
LvL 18 Zone Quest
LvL 16 Guild Quest
LvL 17 Guild Quest

Guild quests and dailies would be pushed off of the list if too many story/zone quests exist as they do not advance player progression or story.

Quest Tracking on the Map- Please, please, please update the map tracking system to always track the lowest level priority Story/Zone quest. In the example above the default quest to be tracked on the map would be the Level 17 Zone quest. Prioritizing quests in this way would keep players from out leveling their Story quests by going crazy on Zone quests or the other way around.

Several times I found myself doing Zone quests that were 4 levels higher than my last story quest. I was constantly having to manually adjust my quest tracker minimap to show me my lowest level quest so as not to pass them beyond the point of still providing experience.

If I press Alt to bring up my options menu, please don't make my menu drop just because I turned left. If i'm running and my menu is open, its because I'm multi-tasking and I want it that way. If there is already an option to disable this, I'll look harder but I missed it.


5. Tradeskills

A. Things I Like

I like tradeskills. I like farming and I like making stuff. I also like making money. But right now newbs worldwide are wondering why they can gather materials on the Island of Dawn, but no information is given until reaching Velika what in the world you're supposed to do with them or where.

In addition to the lack of 'Training' quests for tradeskills, low level tradeskilling is still too expensive to be profitable or usable. Quest gear quickly surpasses low level crafted gear, which really makes low level crafted gear useless for anything but enchanting other gear and providing skillups. I firmly believe that for all the work it takes to make crafted gear, a crafted item and a quest reward of the same level should not be equal. Crafted gear should always be better than quest gear.

Also the sheer number of low level recipes is overwhelming. Even at just a skill of 50, there were SO MANY things I could make, it just became mentally exhausting to try and figure out what pieces had the best stats for the least mats, what pieces some people actually want, and what pieces fit what body slot.

Again, I didn't spend a whole lot of time tradeskilling in beta so if there was a way to list only 'boots' or 'gloves' or 'chest' recipes I may have missed it, but if not already implemented that kind of feature would be a vast improvement.

Extracting may have its uses at some point but right now I really don't get the need for it. Its easy enough to just go farm minerals and essences and fibers that extracting it from gear just doesn't really feel needed. Again, maybe there is a need for this later on but I didn't find it in low level gear.


Please feel free to add or critique as I would love to hear other players' feedback to these ideas.

All the nay-sayers must be living on a different planet than I am. I have spent HOURS in WoW ( yes i said their name, we all know what 'other MMO' means) looking for people to fill a dungeon group prior to their own dungeon finder going live and I do not miss it one bit. Sure people leave mid fight, sure some people are rude. But those people are going to do those things whether in a server restricted group or not. And as a side note, many people got to see dungeons throughout the game that they would never have seen otherwise because of the dungeon finder tool. Thank you Tera Team for this feature, it will be used many many times by many many players.