I don’t often make a point to post on game forums, this is probably the first time actually. Because I love this game so much though, I feel the need to post my thoughts. I’ve put about 50 hours so far into a swordsman class and haven’t been bored once yet, even during a 10 hour session. The game is already amazing and the most fun I’ve had with any game in a very long time. I see a lot of griping over balance of classes and questing vs grinding but that isn’t a big concern of mine because it’s all stuff that can be adjusted in coming patches.
Maybe it’s just my mindset coming into this because I wasn’t thinking “This looks like Tera, I must maximize dps, I must be support or tank”. I came into with the impressions I got from the gameplay footage I saw and that was Legend/Secret of mana, Legend of Zelda, hell even old school Mario and Metroid. Part of the appeal was playing through with any class you like and not being confined to roles. I feel like this game is sitting on a gold mine with people like me and in my age group (late 20’s). By borrowing more from these old school games for the boss fights and dungeon puzzles, it could really set itself apart. I also feel like it’s an opportunity to level the playing field a bit from some of the “weaker” classes by making some boss fights that are heavily skill based rather than dps based. The mobility of this game and the jumping mechanic are a huge draw, so use them more!
For instance:
A boss that’s invulnerable until you hit 4 switches on different sides of the room, but you have to dodge AOE attacks or minions to get to them and the switches reset after a time.
A wall type boss where you have to climb platforms to strike it’s weak point.
A boss that you dodge and trick into hitting a wall, leaving it stunned vulnerable.
So far all the bosses have been huge, maybe a small agile boss you have to jump on to stun and get decent hits in?
Perhaps a boss that doesn’t attack at all, rather it’s susceptible to stuns, slows, knockbacks and you have to stop it from reaching a certain point on the map.
I feel like these objective based bosses would also encourage party play to defeat them and boss challenge modes would be an awesome change of pace.
TL;DR Make use of the mobility of the game to set it apart from other mmo’s rather than making it more similar to what’s out there.
