Tera

I was looking at it, looks interesting. Not open world PvP like AC or UO, still have to flag like in Lineage 2, but better than SWTOR and WOW I think. I'm signed up for beta(not accepted yet), although if you preorder you get auto-accepted to beta, but I'm not ready to preorder anything at this point.
 
The action combat system certainly looks interesting and a nice change of pace (particularly from Korean MMOs that tend to be "lock on" fighting and button mashing). The problem, though, seems to be whether you can get enough people together to enjoy all of the content. I loved the single player experience in SWTOR and got my money's worth, but with only 4-man PvP teams and not enough interest on the KoC roster to do many of the operations/flashpoints, the game ultimately grew boring for me after I hit 50.

It seems like WoW caused MMO burnout for many people and without a PvP substitute nothing lasts very long right now.

I'd probably check it out if I was accepted into open beta, but I doubt I'll order unless it seems like a lot of people were going to give it a real go.
 
I've played the game up through level 17, here are my thoughts:

Pros:
- No factions, everyone is available as a target (outside of town)
- There is no "lock on" fighting, you have to aim your spells and arrows, and face the right direction if you're melee
- You can toggle your PvP flag on at any time, and it doesn't matter if the target has his toggled on. Once you've activated your Outlaw Decree (PvP flag), anyone can attack you and you can attack anyone
- Dying sends you back to the closest hub town, so there's no instant rezzing and rejoining the fight
- Classes are distinct and play completely different from each other (as much as possible at least)

Cons:
- Ranged classes dominate in open world PvP, at least from a 1v1 perspective. There's no "cripple" effects in the early game (not sure about higher levels) so kiting is a significant problem for melee classes.
- Lancer is the one melee class that can get by because its so durable and has a charge, it dominates other melee, but still struggles vs. ranged kite/slows
- PvE is HORRIBLE. The voice overs are hilariously bad (think All Your Base) and the quests are boring as shit. You quest and grind simply to make your character stronger for PvP but it has no redeeming value atm. I haven't done raids or dungeons where the active combat vs. a boss might be more fun, but leveling is god awful.
- Slayer and Berserker have some of the most appealing melee attacks, the problem is they are too slow to ever catch anyone with a brain making them worthless choices at the moment, which is ashame because the whirlwind attacks they do are visually fantastic and great AOE damage vs. monsters


It's nice to be able to fight whenever and whoever you want. There's no PvP penalties per se, but the game works off a stamina system which modifies your health (i.e. if you have 1000 hps and 70% stamina, you have 700 hps), and stamina drains as you fight people so there's a cap to how fast and frequently you can PvP, which is a big minus IMO. They are trying to prevent people from rezzing and jumping right back in, or camping all day, but the mechanic penalizes you for winning multiple battles in a row and not dying. Stamina is SLOW to regen unless you drink potions for it.

I'm still undecided whether I'll play this game on release. Maybe it gets better when you level up more (more skills to cope with ranged, more abilities to regen stamina, etc.)
 
So, my Lancer advanced a bit more (I didn't have the time to hit the OBT cap of 32) and I'm fairly confident that Tera will offer good PvP. Granted, I only have experience with 1 of the 8 classes, but some of my fears of melee vs. ranged were assuaged as I gained new skills and glyphs. For example, the Lancer has an ability where he tosses a spirit chain at his target and pulls them back to his location (Mortal Kombat Scorpion style), then you can immediately Shield Bash (stun) and work your damage combos. The Lancer also has a Frost Nova that slows rather than binds, but it's still a somewhat effective cripple. I chose to Glyph my Charge to increase my in-combat speed by 100% for 7s, which definitely helps chase down enemies trying to kite. While it's not perfectly balanced, I'm satisfied with my PvP options. Lancer and Berserker can also block spells with their block mechanic. Slayer and Warrior, conversely, have a dodge mechanic to dodge spells (harder to master, but adds mobility where block does not).

Griefing is VERY viable in TERA, and it can be quite fun. There are many escort quests that allow you to camp out by the destination and turn on your PvP flag to kill the person trying to complete the quest, forcing him to start over and some escorts take 10 minutes or so. Since the game is new, there's often streams of people doing the same quest at the same time offering several targets back to back. Also, currently you can add ANYONE to your friends list since there are no factions, which further allows you to track down anyone you might want to kill until they realize what you're doing and they remove you from the list and toggle the "do not allow people to add me" option, which isn't on by default. You can camp people across multiple zones as they try to teleport and flee, at least until they wise up about how you're gaming the system.

Guild v. Guild wars are also interesting. It's somewhat like the old Order vs. Chaos part of UO. It allows you to kill anyone, anywhere (except in major hub cities), including new players on the newbie Island of Dawn without flagging to the rest of the populace. There were situations were low levels were leaving their guild over the weekend because level 32s were trolling level 5s on the Island of Dawn.

PvE:

I also ran the first dungeon available, which is built for level 20-25 characters. Similar to the rest of the PvE it was pretty dull. Every fight is tank and spank, the only difference is you don't just stand there like in WoW, you have to dodge attacks manually and use your block/dodge key to mitigate direct attacks. I guess its better than WoW, but the simplicity of the mechanics was a turn off. Of course, I'm sure as the game goes on they will introduce more complex fights and the "action combat system" is marginally better than most other MMOs I've played (WoW, SWTOR, Lineage 2, Shadowbane) in that it requires more focus on your positioning and such.

Bottomline, if you decide to dive into TERA, be ready for a much longer grind than prior MMOs. In the time it took me to hit 24 over the weekend I'd probably already be max level in SWTOR (by comparison) and the max level in TERA will eventually be 60. Also, you'll basically be playing it to PvP all the time, but they aren't releasing the battlegrounds and rated system for the US server on release (though it does exist on the Korean servers so it probably won't take too long to implement). The game has its gratifying moments in that justice is meted out by the players themselves--someone tags the boss mob you were waiting for, just flag and beat their ass (and you can talk shit to them too since there's no factions). But, it lacked any PvE to make the grind somewhat enjoyable and PvPing in the open world without any real penalty to the target (escort griefing notwithstanding) has some limitations.

If only they would remake old school UO with the TERA engine...
 
Not yet Seth, which is why I'm hesitant to play. I imagine if you were in large GvG fights for bragging rights it would be fun, the world is quite compact so there's less place to hide (only one continent is currently playable, not sure how "thin" open world PvP will be when both are in play). The GvG scoreboard is tracked across the entire server so you can see who won or lost, but right now they have a ridiculous system were you have to rack up something like 1,000 points in a 48 hour period (each member is worth 1, guild leader worth 10) to even have a winner, otherwise its a draw--so small guilds can't use the system.

Unless you like griefing quests and being able to talk shit until you're ignored, there's little practical incentive to PvP atm. Can't take anyone's last reagent bag and make them cry, unfortunately.
 
I'm pretty happy with the game thus far as well. I've heard later in the game pvp is more balanced.. I was noticing ranged advantages but this game does remind me of UO without the housing aspects. You do get negative infamy for PKing and there are already PKK guilds forming. Played a cleric to 25 and I enjoy it thus far I am having a great time. Thing it's important to remember this game seems to be pretty raw but has great potential.

If anyone decides to play or likes having a healbot I'm on basilisk crag. Names Brinth.
 
The two biggest things that annoyed me about PvP were:

1) No penalties for your victim other than a 2 minute "timeout" while he regenerates stamina in town

2) That it costs YOU stamina to kill people. What kind of game penalizes a successful player? If I win a fight, I shouldn't go into the next fight capped at 70-80% of my maximum health, and if I win that one, I shouldn't go into the third capped at 60%. It's hard enough winning against 3 guys, let alone having your max hps continuously dropping.
 
Best as I can figure, they wanted to limit the amount of time you could camp any one spot (eventually you have to flee and regen your own stamina in a safe town or at a safe location where you can drop a campfire). I guess it was their way of balancing the freedom they give you to PvP anywhere and with anyone. Just a really poor solution, IMO. I'd much rather factions and no stamina penalty than free-for-all with a lot of downtime.

Or, you could just chalk it up to Koreans being crazy...
 
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