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Bringing back the leveling experience?
Just a quick question, I thought I saw a post from one of the GM's about improving the leveling experience with an upcoming patch. I remember back in the day you actually had to try harder to get a character to max level. I'd be nice if there was a sense of level progression within the game aside from ilvl, because as it stands I feel it's far to easy to reach max level.
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how long is it now, a day... day and a half and you can just ignore the story completely.
I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment when I reached 60, I don't think recent players reaching 65 in a day would feel the same thing.
While I do think they took it too far, and do think it makes sense to tone it down a bit, some of the later levels from ~45-58 were a pretty abysmal grind back in the day. I know a lot of people who just gave up during the leveling process because it was just dull, and I know I lost a lot of my will during that stretch many times as an alt-a-holic. The problem is that they never really fixed the "dull" aspect of leveling and instead just made it faster and easier... which is really just a bandaid. Increasing the XP earned from battlegrounds and dungeons (and the many XP boost systems) was another sort of placeholder to mask the fact that open world questing was/is dull. Newer areas are a bit more focused, which reduces travel time and increases the ratio of time spent in combat, and I've found that to generally be an improvement, but a whole lot of the world still needs reworking.
So I guess I would say that leveling in TERA has always been one of the game's weaker points, despite the combat itself being fun. I don't think they've ever actually found the right balance. Back in the day when it was still feasible to create BAM parties in the open world, that was probably about as close as they've gotten, IMO, but clearly that can't last once your players have generally leveled past those areas without a good gear sync system. It sort of shows that they tried to awkwardly transition from grind-based progression (RO-style) to a quest-based progression (WoW-style) and never quite nailed it back in the day.
it was never grind based, some people chose that path though*. there's probably still old guides around on how to grind in old tera without touching quests. though you might consider the quests themselves grindy as despite being in different locations they tended to be all the same. collect these, kill those, go to this instance and slaughter everything that moves (some stuff that doesn't for good measure) later, rinse repeat...much the same as it is now. bam nerf since their xp alo got nerfed wasn't a big deal. instance buffs and nerfs to bosses/mobs also not a big deal...what really kicked it all in the teeth was the avatar weapons along with the xp buffs to main quests and the 'streamlining' of quests and quest areas.
not complaining at all about some of that streamlining...escort quests like seravy tended to suck. way back he walked as slow as molasses. 58-60 tended to be the massive slow down point, still is kind of. 45-58 was annoying on some classes whose damage output didn't scale well in those level ranges....like archers....and val elenium quests tended to be difficult for all.
avatar weapons changed all that more than anything else. all in all it helped BHS somewhat succeed in making the game more accessible. fewer players give up early compared to old tera which only really became an issue after f2p. after all when you pay for something up front you tend to stick with it for longer than if it was free. f2p transition so many newbs wouldn't even bother getting to 20
"too hard, can't stop dying, where do you get pots, warriors suck," etc. steep learning curve for players who may have never experienced tera's combat style. that turnover was improved by changes that many didn't like...the ones who took the time to learn the game and classes/mobs.
everything considered, it helped the game.
*early on, quite a few considered tera an 'asian grinder' so instantly looked to grinding mobs as the main source of xp as opposed to quests.
In the end, yeah, I think what's needed is a good compromise. Make the leveling system interesting and varied, reduce the time spent travelling and doing pointless busywork, spend more time enjoying the combat system, and give a sense like you're making regular progress towards the next goal. Given that the BAMs and avatar weapons are the way they are now, I'd like to see them integrate them more into the main quests so you can have some challenging fights. Making the dungeons a bit more challenging so that it requires a team again is also probably a good move. And yeah, although I want them to continue to make use of the huge open world, they need to use it more efficiently so you don't feel like you're wasting time (even today, if you do the main story quests from 22 to 60, the bulk of your time is travel time).
Anyway, I don't have high hopes that they'll actually revamp all the things, but some of the small moves they're doing don't seem entirely bad to me on the surface. We'll see when we get it.
No matter what they have tried since it hasn't been as good.
For people who think its too slow and want to reach endgame as fast as possible - give them a "fast track" option
Maybe give people who stick through the slow levelling option all the way a special achievement title and exclusive mount.
**Forgot to mention that I have done only the story quests and an occasional Vanguard (green !) quest on the low level characters I've played since coming back. My Mystic is now level 45ish from doing only the above mentioned quests and I have soloed ALL the dungeons so far. Game is far, far easier and faster to level then when I use to play.**
They have an option and is called "Level 60 scroll".
one of the worst ideas i've ever heard, no one liked how slow, tedious and painful leveling was back then. you think you have a tank and healer shortage now? you'd definitely have one then-- leveling a healer back then was pure torture. not enjoyable whatsoever, tera's combat can only keep you entertained through monotony for so long.
there's a reason people put effort into finding the best grinding spots, finding out how to abuse the dragoons and respawning minions for decent exp gain and later on devans in the same area.
i agree that leveling the way it is right now is a joke, considering you just afk in velika and instance match for dungeons (makes me wonder how level 60 scrolls are profitable at all), but going back to leveling during p2p days is even worse. tera isn't a Main Character game, this game encourages you to have alts and plenty of them, which makes the leveling a very noticeable weak point-- there's no variety after your first time, you just want it done with.
now if tera was actually creative and say... had a different leveling story and progression for each race or something, then maybe i'd be more inclined to agree.
(no i wouldn't, level 60 scrolls would inflate like crazy just for people wanting healer alts)
MMOs can be divided into 2 extreme types of players
1. Those who like levelling and find endgame pointless
2. Those who like endgame and find levelling pointless.
Obviously most people are somewhere in between, but you are never going to make a single xp rate that will please everyone
So if you have a fast track path (for those who just want to get to endgame as fast as possible) and a hardcore path (for those who enjoy the open world levelling) you will please more people.
I'm a person who likes leveling a lot, but the problem is that leveling in TERA isn't very engaging, either now or at launch. So I don't think it's a matter of a "fast path" or a "slow path" (making leveling faster was just a way to mask the monotony). It's to make leveling more fun for everyone so they want to do it. (Part of that, as Killstyle mentioned, would be to remove/smooth over the leveling walls so the whole thing feels more progressive. I also think part of that is reducing time wasted to go from point A to B, more varied quests/encounters/combat, etc.)
Technically speaking, people do have most of a "hardcore path" today -- avoid avatar weapons, avoid XP boosts, avoid battlegrounds, avoid XP-boosted red quests, etc. They'll also soon be making dungeons harder again so that soloing dungeons won't be a cakewalk. I've said before that I'd also like to see them re-introduce some additional BAMs that have the original tuning into the world map for people who want to try them. But even with all this in place, I don't think it will make things more fun, and I don't think most people will elect to choose that "hardcore option". My general impression is that a lot of people pining for "hardcore modes" (not necessarily you personally) don't just want to challenge themselves, but they want the recognition for rising to the challenge. If everyone else takes the easy path, I think most "hardcore" people will lose interest (because then it's just them wasting their time).