Tera Nexus Times

The current nexus times are:

Saturday, Sunday—2 a.m., noon, 7 p.m. pst
Monday, Friday—noon, 7 p.m. pst
Tuesday, Thursday—6 p.m. pst


Thursday, February 14, 2013

Explanation of Tera Online's Client lag

Many of the users coming to the blog have asked about the client lag of Tera Online and have been asking for more information on what causes it. Many of them say that they have really well built computers but still experience client lag. So for today I will explain what causes Tera's client lag and more detailed information so you can get an idea why the other topics for tweaking tera's client settings makes the game run more smoothly.

The biggest problem with Tera Onlines client is the way they built the UI system. This system as said before is built using autodesk scaleform which is a flash based system. The problem with using flash for any well built game is that flash uses your CPU for its process this also means if your running flash videos in the background or other flash based programs your system performance in Tera Online will be greatly degraded. The mix between using flash's CPU process and then mixing that with video graphics from the GPU and unreal engine causes a major delay in the client communications and that's why skills can also seem like they have some sort of delay bug. I've experience that as well but in the most current update it seems to be slightly improved.

The bad thing is because Tera Online most likely has no plans on changing this system chances are there might not be a incoming fix for this so all we can do is continue to tweak the game client in various ways hoping that it smooth's out enough to the point that its playable.

One thing that you do have to consider if you've tried some of the tweaking to your client and are still running into issues remember that like I said flash is CPU based so if your processing power is really low you'll end up with a bottleneck between your CPU and GPU processes.  Bottlenecking means that your CPU or GPU is having a loss of performance because of a single or limited number of components or resources. When your GPU bottlenecks its because you are lacking the CPU processing power and because of that your game lacks the processing. Since the UI system in Tera is based on CPU and the graphics system is based on GPU the mix of these two components cause a lag within the clients interface. But with computer that is lacking CPU processing this lag will increase by much more then the average user. So if you barely meet the minimum requirements for your CPU to play Tera Online chances are your game is sitting around 10-20 fps even if your graphic card is really amazing. Upgrading your CPU in that case would be recomended to see better performance.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Tera Online Client Censorship


Tera Online is a very interesting game that has many different armor designs but for the localized US version of Tera many of the model designs for armor has been censored from the original Korean Tera versions of armor. One example is that of the Elin class. Armor for Elin classes contain an extra piece of clothing giving them pants instead of the more revealing armor which shows them in panties in Korea.

                                          Uncensored                              Censored

                                          Uncensored                             Censored

As you can see above in the pictures there is quite a difference in the model's appearance between the two of the pictures for each type of armor. While the Elin race looks similar to a small child within the lore of Tera Online Elins are supposed to be an older race which still raises controversy on whether they should be censored or be uncensored.

Many people feel that Elins should not be censored because it ruins the original designs of the artist and many people feel that the censored versions of these models are poor quality and should have been reworked so they looked more proper rather then the quick censorship that took place. While other people feel that Elins are a direct representation of children and should not be shown in clothing that is revealing.

Regardless of what people think or feel this does not stop players from doing modifications to there own Tera Online clients. And while En Masse says it is against the TOS (Terms of Service) to make modifications to your client people still do it. Some of the popular modifications also includes more simple changes like changing the voice of NPC's or the cut scenes. One reason for making changes like these is someone prefers hearing the Japanese voices of characters and NPC's because they used many anime actors in the design for the Japanese voices and otaku's love anything anime related.

If your looking for doing these types of modifications to your client you can visit the article posted here about Tera Online mods.




Saturday, February 2, 2013

Preparing for Level 60 in Tera Online

So with the overflow of new players in Tera Online one question which I see posted often in global is always about what to do for gear at level 60. Most new players that hit level 60 really have no idea what they should be grinding even returning players really might feel like they are lost and are not sure what steps they need to take to progress content wise. So today I'm going to explain about what you should do to prepare for PvP or endgame content as a new player.

The biggest thing when you hit level 60 will be gear you will not be able to run most of the newer content in game without really good gear. So one of the things you will want to keep in mind is that you will not be just pugging hardmodes with junk gear. While Tera Online claims to be a true action mmorpg it does not mean that gear does not matter. Gear plays a very big role in endgame content and in PvP. Since when you hit level 60 you will most likely be in the tier 11 level 58 gear that drops from the dungeon Ebon Tower this gear is not good enough to run level 60 dungeons. If the gear your wearing is anything but level 60 gear you will get punted like an elin getting hit by a truck. So it's usually a good idea to get some armor of some type that's level 60.

The best recommendation for gear is either do some battlegrounds to get the cheap victors PvP gear because this will be amazingly better then most tier 12 PvE gear. If PvP is not your thing then you could always check to see if the discord tier 13 set is for sale on the trade broker this is enchantable but it cannot be masterworked. Once you have the tier 13 set of either type you are ready for some of the basic dungeons you will want to run AC normal for rings, and earrings as well as a necklace for your character.

You will also want to make sure that you come prepared with the right crystals for any dungeon. This can be accomplished by straight boss crystals in your armor this goes for every class because a reduction of 30% boss damage works regardless of the situation. It allows you to stand in fire longer be stupid and get hit by an effect you should not have gotten hit by or just survive during a phase that does a lot of damage to the group. You can never go wrong with having Anarchic boss crux's in your gear.

As a DPS you have quite a few options for weapon crystals of course they vary depending on class and your play style with the skills you use. But two of the most common you see people using is either straight up boss damage mutinous crystals. Which can also be used on bosses that are immune to criticals or have very high crit resistance. Or you can use the critical based gems which increase the amount of damage of your criticals by a small percentage like for example Acrimonious crux which increases critical damage by 1.38 times the amount of damage.

For Warrior & Berzerker consider using these crystals:
1x Acrimonious Crux - Critical attacks against boss monsters do +1.38 times damage when attacking from the rear. Cannot stack with other Acrimonious crystals.
1x Fine Savage Crux - Critical attacks do an additional +1.38 times damage when attacking from the rear. Cannot stack with other Savage crystals.
1x Mutinous Crux - Inflicts an additional 7.7% damage to boss monsters.
1x Fine Focused Crux - Your attacks do an additional +1.7 times critical damage against enraged monsters. Cannot stack with other Focused crystals.

With the crystals above the Mutinous could be switched out for another crystal of your preferance remember it depends on your playing style but criticals on a warrior happen very often and with a Berzerker they have the lowest attack speed in game so shooting for straight damage with a weapon and having:
2x Boss Monster increase
1x Enrage Monster Increase
1x Behind Monster Increase



The double boss above would appear in the bottom stats which have the recycle button on them one of them would be the bonus you get without the item being plus and the other would be when the item is plus. This of course would be your best set up for most classes since it would maximize damage. Lancer would be one of the classes that would not focus on this since they have increased aggression. As a DPS if you cannot roll the weapon to the double boss double behind is the second best but then you need to make sure that you are always behind the boss to increase your damage. As a tank or healer you would replace the increased DPS towards a certain monster and go with the double attack speed. For a lancer it would be double attack speed and increased aggression. For a healer it would be double attack speed and increased healing to others.


Earrings for your character do not provide you much to worry about not as of currently most bonuses are pretty useless so usually the most valuable to any person are the ones with stun resistance which are PvP and the ones which come with HP restore on them. There is two types of stun resistance. One is stun duration and the other is stun resistance. These are the most valuable stat's for PvP because of the slayer stuns which seemingly last forever. The stun resistance makes it so you are less likely to get stunned. The stun duration reduction lowers the time you remained stunned making it a perfect PvP combo.

Another valuable tip that can help you in PvE and when your outside in world PvP or a GvG situation is coming with the proper scrolls. These are slightly limited to either critical, attack speed, and critical damage multiplier. As a healer you would go with attack speed and usually the same for a lancer tank since it will increase the speed in which your animations go off at. These scrolls last for 8 minutes so if a fight takes longer then that you will have to refresh them during a fight and they do stack with the potions which reduce the skill cool-downs which are another useful potion to carry for fights especially in end game content. The scrolls are crafted by alchemy while the potions can be bought from the merchant store. 

Gear wise if your sitting in tier 13 or PvP gear your next objective will be to get the tier 14 enigmatics from the nexus traverse. Of course you could buy the abyss set from the broker which has similar stat's as the Agnitor set the difference is regardless of whether you buy abyss or not you will need the Agnitor gear in order to craft the tier 14 PvP armor which is conjunct. The conjunct set of PvP gear when masterworked and +10 is better then the fraywind +9 gear which cannot be masterworked you also can roll the stats on the conjunct weapon which is not possible on the fraywind. Some gear in the PvE has the same stats as other pieces just different model of look. Example:

Agnitor vs Abyss: Abyss has 100 more attack or defense on the base stat as the Agnitor.
Abyss vs Queens Wrath: Has the same stats but Queens Wrath matches the model of the Queen Regent armor.
Abyss / Dismay: Dismay is the same as Abyss only it is obtained from KN10 man this is not any easier to masterwork like people have tried to claim.
Abyss / Queens Wrath vs Queen's Regent: Queen's Regent armor is the best stated PvE armor in game aside from the vision marker so it is much better then Abyss.
Mayhem: The new best PvE gear with an extra stat so 5% more damage then the Regent set easier to masterwork.
Vision Maker: Armor which can be rolled for PvP no longer the best PvE gear.

While it is possible to by the abyss armor you save some money buy just going to nexus traverse raid and winning the agnitor pieces instead then using that money to upgrade the agnitor gear so you can compete in doing the queen's fight for the regent gear. Playing with a good guild that takes care of the members that go to nexus can make it easy for people to get gear and progress to end game. My guild lets our new members have the items they need if no one else needs it this way the guild progresses as a whole instead of being greedy. But it will come down to how good the guild leader is and the guild members you join with.

That wraps up most of the information that you need to know when you hit level 60. I hope this guide has helped you get more familiar with the game and better your playing experience. If you like this guide and play on Mount Tyrannus vote Dragonfury for vanarch election to show appreciation for useful guides! Stay tuned for more useful guides soon~