Senior Staff Writer Chris "Pwyff" Tom spent the past few weeks in the Dragon Nest open beta. Read on to see what he thinks!

Ever since I first set foot in Nexon's Dungeon Fighter Online back in September 2009, I've had a heavy fascination with all things "action." Maybe it's just nostalgia running rampant from those days spent playing Marvel vs. Capcom, but I've always felt that if any new MMORPG genre was going to take the throne, then real-time action combat would be it. So when Nexon announced their next action MMORPG, Dragon Nest, to follow on the footsteps of Dungeon Fighter Online and Vindictus, you can bet that I was all over that open beta from the moment it first started. Now, almost three weeks after my first foray into the lands of Lagendia, I can safely say that Dragon Nest is the most fun I've had in an action MMORPG to date.

If you haven't watched Mike B.'s BFF Report on Dragon Nest, I strongly suggest you do, to catch the basics. While the four initial class choices (Sorceress, Cleric, Warrior, Archer) may seem limited, they quickly branch into two different upgrade choices at level 18. While I haven't had personal experience with the other three classes, Archers get to choose between two very different paths: the Acrobat or the Sharpshooter. Sharpshooters are, obviously, the long-range archers that every Legolas wannabe wants to play, while Acrobats are refreshingly fun as gymnastic combo-fiends who fight at close range with short bows, kicks, dives and the occasional chi blast. I went with an Acrobat just for the unique appeal of dive kicking baddies in the head, Super Mario style.

Moving on to the main component of any action MMORPG, Dragon Nest's combat is smooth and lag-free; a quality I took full advantage of with my Acrobat. Nothing is more satisfying than juggling monsters in the air with well timed somersault kicks. A solid net code also means more than just having your attacks land at the right time; many action MMORPGs like to reward aggressive players who stay in the enemy's face, dodging out of the way at the last second. Unfortunately, this rarely happens due to delay, and in boss fights where three hits can flatten you, players prefer to play cat and mouse, keeping maximum distance while trying to fight a war of attrition. In Dragon Nest, I was quite happy to discover that my acrobat could literally 'tank' the hardest boss in the game (General Umbaba in the recently introduced Minotaur's Nest) with well timed dodges and jumps.

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