The time of TERA: Rising is nigh! Fear not, fellow TERA players. The transition will be slow, painful, and ultimately rewarding as we get a bunch of quality of life changes to go with our new content.
That 24 hour downtime, though. Geez. What am I supposed to do while I wait, work on my backlog? Guffaw.
This TERA Time, we’re going to be taking a look at Elin lancers, how server transfers are going to work, and what some of those changes in the patch notes mean to long-time players. A group hug may also find its way in here. Who knows.
Elin Lancer Master Race
The debate on whether Elin lancers have a longer range than other races is an old one — and it’s silly. There’s no need to debate on something that’s been proven multiple times. Elin lancers have small hit boxes, and their lance literally has the longest range thanks to collision detection.
Don’t believe it? There’s always a skeptic. Maybe you’ll believe it if you see the difference with your own eyes. En Masse forum user Mushimushi 4-boxed to run some experiments comparing Baraka and Elin lancers, and the results are pretty damning.
The Elin lancer’s weapon detects collision at the tip, while the Baraka’s weapon detects collision in the middle. In addition, you can see the Elin in the video move forward much more than her Baraka counterpart.
With the smaller hit box and range that is 3m longer, why would anyone roll a lancer of any other race? This is a balance issue that seriously needs to be worked on if they’re looking for F2P success. I love Elins — but I love balanced races even more.
If you need more proof, check out Mushimushi’s other videos in the thread and read the discussion. Or hey, just look at how depressing the Amani female lancer’s attack range is.
Server Transfers, choo choo!
Server transfers are back! For the longest time I couldn’t transfer any of my characters, but the Rising patch is temporarily implementing free transfers among all of the old servers.
From Celestial Hills but looking for a more.. murderous lifestyle? You can finally transfer to Mount Tyrannus. Sick of groups of Elins running a train on you while you’re trying to down BAMs? To Tempest Reach or Celestial Hills you go! All three of the old servers will be able to transfer to and from each other.
Before you get all excited, do know that there are restrictions on transfers as always. The restrictions/changes to the transfer system are as follows:
- Individual character transfer cooldown increased to 30 days, from 7 days.
- Minimum character level for transfer increased to 40, from 10.
- Maximum 10,000g transferable.
I might rush one of my characters on Celestial Hills to level 40 over the next 24 hours for an easy transfer, but otherwise these restrictions are easy enough to follow. Characters cannot be transferred to or from the new servers, which is also more than fair for those of you planning on rerolling on the new realms to race for firsts.
Quality of Life Changes
The patch notes for TERA: Rising shines a bright light on the future of the game. Sure, we didn’t get all of the changes that Korea got (and our patch notes were initially pretty depressing), but the changes we are getting are going to make everyone’s lives easier. Except Mystics, because those guys are jerks.
We’re not going to go through all of the class changes this patch. If you are interested in how your favorite class is going to be changing with Rising, check out the patch notes on the official site. The second half of this patch’s class balance changes can be found past the main body of the notes — here’s a link to that for your convenience.
So onto making life easier.
Crafting Changes
As it stands now (but not after tomorrow), crafting in TERA really sucks. You know it, I know it, that Velik statue in the middle of Velika knows it. It sucks. It’s terrible. It’s cumbersome and too complicated for something that barely pays off. Why do I need all this useless stuff to make one almost-as-useless tunic?
Crafting in TERA: Rising is going to be easier and more streamlined. The patch notes reflect this pretty well. Let’s just sum up the best parts:
- New regeant system – No longer a bazillion regeants that are useless outside of crafting four items.
- New recipes – Adding more useful recipes.
- Removal of major potions and elixirs; holism recipes also removed.
- Recipes and regeants that are no longer usable can be sold to merchants for their original price.
- Scrolls to make crafting and gathering faster! Both are craftable.
- Healing and mana pots now on separate cooldown timers! Hurrah!
Gathering Changes
Gathering really isn’t a big part of TERA, and to be honest crafting really isn’t either — which is why I’m hoping this patch gives the whole system the overhaul it so desperately needs. Gathering is getting some love alongside crafting.
- Plentiful nodes now have a 50% higher chance of dropping uncommon materials.
- Monsters will drop fewer crafting materials outside of hides, which will retain the current drop rates.
- Gathering time decreased.
- Gathering rewards increased.
- Gathering success rate increased.
These simple changes are just the thing to make gathering less of an annoyance. Does this mean it will be more useful? Well, that depends on whether or not the crafting rework does its job.
Enchanting
We all know that Masterwork Alkahests are being removed from vendors with the patch. I’m sad to see them go, but happy to see enchanting being made easier. I spoke about the enchanting changes in the last TERA Time.
Technically the changes are going to make life easier, but will that ease come at the cost of real world money? EME have stated on the forums that MW Alkahests won’t be available in the cash shop right off the bat, so we’ll have to see how this one plays out. For now, I’ve stocked up on them to sell a few days after Rising launch. Have to fund my level 50 enchants somehow.
To Part 2!
We’re about done with this part of TERA Time. There’s too much in the patch notes to go over here. They are far too extensive and there is a lot to cover. Be sure to read up on them to know what you’re getting into when you launch TERA after the patch.
Head over to TERA Time – Rising, Buffing, and Group Hugs Part 2 for the (sort of?) emotional conclusion to the end of my time with pre-Rising.
