In the last article, I argued the pitfalls of calling this game "next generation", but hearing that this game will attempt to incorporate collision detection in weapons does sound incredibly ambitious. This, as far as I know, has never been attempted in an MMO setting. Hopefully this feature isn't hindered by lag, since if you're lagging, the enemy is not going to remain in the space you think they will be when you started your swing!
I hope they've given the berserker abilities that allow them to get enemies/players out of their face if they are too close. I can see a slayer running right into a berserker's face and attacking so close that the berserker doesn't have any attacks they could do since he would not be able to move away fast enough to get an enemy/player into the correct position. If this proves to be a problem, I could see a lot more people switching to warrior instead, since I doubt swords will have any place that won't do any damage on them like an axe does.
Also, don't confuse "the axe does the most damage" with "the axe does the most dps" :)
Exclusive Interview and Screens of The Berserker
An exclusive interview and never-before-seen screenshots of TERA's most terrifying class: The Berserker.
We sat down with executive producer Brian Knox and story consultant and class expert Scott James Magner for part one of ZAM's exclusive look at TERA's most terrifying class: the Berserker.
MisterBones: When I was looking at the website, I saw the four different melee classes, and I would like to know what you felt made the Berserker class stand out from those other classes.
Scott James Magner: Well, I'll tell you flat out, I don't think the Berserker is the best of the classes. I think that it's the most fun for me to play.
MisterBones: Ah, ok.
Scott: Right. All the classes have their own advantages, and I've played every single class and every single character combination there is in the game so far, over the last five or six months.
And I really just keep coming back to the Berserker. It was the first one I found; I liked the concept of the big axe, but also, it really epitomizes the way our combat works in TERA.
It's a class that has to keep moving all the time, but it also has to be very mindful of where the attacks are going to land, because you're not swinging a giant sword like the Slayer is, you're swinging a three-foot blade that's five to eight feet away from you. And where that blade goes is where your damage goes, so you want to make sure there's a monster on the other end of it when you finish your attack.
MisterBones: So you're saying that the only damaging area on the axe is the blade?
Scott: It is. It just moves really fast. A lot of the Berserker's attack patterns move that blade as fast as it can around the Berserker, and a lot of times you'll be moving just so that there will be a monster at the end of it. But I've stood right on top of a monster and not been able to hit him, but hit the guy behind him.
It's really interesting, especially when you're fighting a much larger monster, because you have to get a lot closer than a lot of other character have to, to really do your maximum damage. But you're doing the most damage of any character class in the game.
MisterBones: I see.
Scott: Yeah, that monster may have a longer attack range than you. So hit your attack, move, hit your attack again. Your attacks take a little bit longer, so you've got to make sure you're positioned right. If you're in a group, you work really well with somebody who's doing a lot of damage over here on the side, while you're getting a really big attack in over here.
Brian Knox: It kind of goes back to collision, right? You know, some games have done collision, some games haven't and for the most part it's never been a factor in the game as it is in TERA. This collision has different areas of the weapon doing different damage and the way you're positioned with your enemy, you know, you can't just run through the enemy and turn around and swipe him. You would have to actually physically run around the enemy.
It adds a layer of strategy to it and, also, just more realism in terms of the action that's involved. Where you swing is where you hit. And, you know, that goes so far as the blade of the axe verses the hilt of the axe.
