TERA and more...

It's been a long time, but I'm still here and here's an update:

As you may already know, I'm constantly seeking distractions, especially with my most recent medical problems. My latest, fondest distraction is TERA: The Exiled Realm of Arborea. I'm still dabbling in D3, but after beating it in normal mode with no deaths and not really feeling a great deal of motivation to continue to repeat myself, I've mostly come to the conclusion that it will be a game I play with my husband when he feels up to it and a game I use to play the Auction House and have a tiny bit of entertainment from that.

So, TERA... It's absolutely gorgeous and the combat system is such that you can never AFK or mindlessly tab-target: it requires a certain degree of constant vigilance. Also, “mobs” take up real space – you can't run through them, you have to jump over them or run around, which generally prevents me from auto-running anywhere. In a party or group, team members also take up real space, which is both good in that it is realistic and bad in that it makes things particularly challenging for melee and tanking.

I've even made a new blog in which I will attempt to compile information relating to Achievement Titles in TERA, as I cannot find any good source of information online.

I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase this game due to a combination of “income” earned by creating lego-like connectors and from a very small but unexpected settlement check, and have also been able to purchase Guild Wars 2 in advance. (My husband promises he will play that with me, at least for a time.)

Back to TERA:

Level 60 is the max and I have yet to achieve it, (I think my highest is level 42). Leveling and questing is slow and due to the fact that all races and classes share the exact same quests while leveling and almost every quest must be completed to prevent being “under-leveled” it can be quite tedious, especially if you are, like me, an ALToholic and unsure which class to level first. I think I've finally decided that my Sorcerer should be my first 60, but this is after having played almost every class for hours. So, despite my large time investment, I have very little to show for it. I've also created characters on two different servers, between which I split my time, thus further reducing my speed of leveling. Frost Reach is the server I first chose, and I found a good guild there and made one out-of-guild friend, who then decided to transfer to Dragonfall, where I've made more characters and friends. Most of my characters on Frost Reach are Castanics, a sexy elven-ish race with horns, and on Dragonfall most are Elin, a fae, childish race with ears and tails of different woodland creatures, so not only do I have to choose which class I enjoy playing most, but also which race. I love naming characters, and most of my characters on Frost Reach have “RP-ish” names while most on Dragonfall are clever plays on words.

Queue times on both realms are rather long, unless playing a support class such as a tank or healer. The classes themselves are, in general, much different from WoW. It could be argued that the traditional Warrior class in WoW is represented by 3 or 4 of the classes in TERA, while there are few magical classes and the Rogue class is not at all represented. There are no pets in TERA, either combat or non, and this makes me rather sad, after having been an avid collector of both in WoW. According to the grapevine, non-combat pets are in the works, and there are several potential models implemented already in the game. The closest there is to a pet class is the Mystic, a challenging healer who can summon “thralls” to assist him/her in combat.

I majorly slept in today and just wanted to release some form of update, so I'll be on my way now after having provided this snippet. Ciao!   

Update

After going through a family tragedy, I've once again found myself desperately seeking distraction.

If you're interested in reading about that, you may do so here.

I've been getting into Diablo 3 for a few different reasons. First, it's not WoW. I'm so accustomed to everything in WoW, every class, every dungeon, almost every raid, that it has lost its “shiny” appeal. It's no longer the wondrous world of Azeroth of which I could explore every corner. Second, it's there, it's something to do, something new. I received a free copy of it when signing up for the annual commitment so we have had it, mostly un-played, since release. My husband had lost most interest in games prior to this incident, and had only been playing very casually, leaving the game untouched for me to experiment with. Third, it's not entirely unfamiliar to me. The controls are definitely different from WoW, but not so different that I have trouble with them. I'm sure there are more reasons than this, but I just can't come up with anything else right now.

As I had written previously, the game at first did not catch my interest. Without having played the original two Diablos, I was missing the “epic” story-line and its significance, and without that, the game might be considered a bit lackluster. Despite the extreme amount of time Blizzard/Activision worked on it, or perhaps because of this, Diablo's graphics are several years behind most new games. (My husband informed me this is because the graphics engine has been in place for years, outdating the game from the start.) With the settings turned all the way up, it is basically seamless, with no jagged edges or blurring, but it's also missing the feel of a new game, the way that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning made me feel, astounded by the clarity and colors. Granted, Diablo is supposed to be dark in theme and color, but it still feels like it is missing something. I am, however, rather used to being disappointed with graphics, because I have been playing WoW for so long, and even those unfamiliar with the game would probably recognize its chunky, cartoonish landscapes and characters. I most definitely prefer the “shiny things” in general, though.

I have a few other complaints with Diablo 3. Apparently, according to those who have gotten so far before, there are only 30 original levels: the rest are repeats of the first. Basically, you get to level 30 and do it all over again!?! Add to this the fact that every single character and class has to do the exact same quests, and you have even more monotony than you do in World of Warcraft. At least in WoW you can pick your questing zones and each race has a different starting area. It takes a few characters to make it monotonous. Questing itself is not very fun, but there are unique story-lines that branch out and span across the whole Warcraft world. The mechanics of questing are better in Diablo, this is almost definite, but with so few quests, does that even begin to make up for it? Thankfully, I am not yet at that point, but I have created one of each class (five in total) and have had to do the exact same things just to try to get to level 10. There is a lot of exploring you can do, but this almost makes it worse... you may have a goal for a quest, like finding and entering a specific graveyard, but you may come across several other obstacles along the way. While these are not necessary, someone like me usually cannot pass up the chance to grab more “epic loot.” (I don't even know what the terms are for Diablo, but I'm fairly certain it's not “epic.” I know there is a “rare” class of item, but I'm not sure what that is comparable to in WoW.)

Well, now I'm back to playing World of Warcraft. I've played Diablo for about seven hours the past couple of days and am trying to not get burnt out on it yet, so decided to give my baby orc shaman another spin. It's amusing that heirlooms seem to make me level almost too fast, while in D3 I am trying hard to level faster. I've temporarily sworn off on dungeons on this character, because I am overall so tired of them and I have about five different characters currently in this level range to “share” the dungeon queue with. I can grind dungeons for hours on my baby warrior, switch characters, and get stuck grinding the same ones over again.  Instead of queuing, I'm currently questing, in Stranglethorn Vale, to be precise.

So now I'm off to fall into yet another trap, thinly veiled evil and treachery causing my naive self to succumb.  That poor baby Lashtail Hatchling! I'll come for you someday, if only I can get a group together for it... (Remember how they changed the queue and you can no longer queue for Zandalaris? I'm still upset over that.) So, here goes!...