With the July 23rd (Korea local time) update which includes the new “mysterious island” zone (called Exodor), Bluehole (the subsidiary studio at Krafton which handles TERA) also unveiled changes to the gear system which is outlined in a posting on Inven. As a quick note, this patch also added in a “card” system which besides the collectible component, gives players additional bonuses (this is another game system that is being recycled from Devilian; in this case, it’s a modification of the Talisman card system – not to be confused with the Talisman system that was proposed and cancelled for TERA).
This new gear will end up overlapping and then superceding existing level 65 gear (Heroic Oath being the highest tier) due to the different grade/rarity types; uncommon (green), rare (blue), and superior (yellow). This new equipment is available in the Exodor zone (with green and blue items dropping in the open world while blue and yellow dropping in the regions dungeon). Uncommon (green) items can be equipped from level 68 while superior (yellow) items can be equipped from level 69. Existing Heroic Oath tier gear will be utilized for a new unique tier of weapon which has added effects (more information will be released in a future developers note).
The new gear will also have its damage calculated utilizing physical and magic based damage (some class skills will be physical damage while others will be magic damage); the new gear will have stat options on them which can be enchanted to boost their strength. Furthermore, there will be no crystal slots on this new gear (some of that functionality will be rolled into the base stats).
The rationale for that change is based on revisions being made to the combat system since the development team (likely based partially on in-game metrics) revealed imbalances where existing gear has high critical damage along with a wide variance between critical and non-critical attacks resulting from crystals (for example, those with back crit or enraged properties). Some of these variances exist due to actual player skill (like being able to maintain proper positioning to attack from the back or recognizing when a monster is enraged and doing their maximum DPS rotation at that time). The removal of crystal slots again, does not mean this functionality will disappear since it will be rolled into the base stats (so skilled players will be able to achieve higher DPS by continuing to play the way they’ve been playing).
Additionally, power and crit factor has had this tendency to affect each class in an identical style (i.e. some classes got the most out of prioritizing power while others got the most from crit factor). One of the design objectives with this new gear was to provide for more diverse game play. Another is it is being used as a method to get more players doing the content (which realistically is mostly recycled) that is being released (more on this later). The new gear has the usual base stats, fixed rolls (replaces crystal properties), and random rolls (reverting back to the RNG system used prior to the existing Guardian, Twistshard, Frostmetal, Stormcry, and Heroic Oath where players can select the exact properties).
The current item XP system will also be removed for this new gear. Enchanting materials and gold will be required. There will be 15 tiers to enchant through and failed enchants can result in the piece of equipment becoming damaged (it can be repaired using material from dismantled items). Also unlike existing equipment, this new gear will be tradable (existing gear can only be liberated via a cash shop scroll from its soul bound status at very specific enchant levels on Stormcry gear which is at +7 or higher).
Basically, this new equipment is not a surprise to me since I did mention before that I felt the new gear slots and augments introduced with patch 80, were just a stopgap (to level 70 gear). However, we’re not quite there yet since I believe that even this new gear is still transitionary to that eventual max level equipment in the future. I believe it’s transitionary in regards to stepping away from the item XP system (which at higher equipment tiers, is just one huge massive grindfest with lower chances of success), re-introducing random property lines (which pushes the grind back to grinding for gear that has the proper rolls), and moving to an enchanting system reminiscent of the previous feedstock and alkahest system (separate types for weapon and armor) and having a similar damage component as is the case with the newer PvP specific equipment.
With the revamped story questing/progression introduced in patch 83 (deployed recently in all the other regions), lower level questing gear introduces players to this by dropping weapon and armor relics which is used as enchanting material along with a gold cost (the prior feedstock and alkahest material required no gold). Enchanting pre-65 gear is 100% success rate. This quest gear can also be dismantled into these components (and there are different tiers depending on the level of that gear). To offset the gold cost, the gold rewards have been adjusted upwards.
What I see is just shifting the RNG aspects around especially at the higher end since as I’ve noted before, a lot of these changes are being made based on metrics from the hardcore/try hard demographic that indulges these systems (Stormcry and Heroic Oath enchanting, upgrading gathering tools and Angler’s Whiskers, Halidom and Relic upgrading, the grind to level 70, the companion system). Bluehole sees it in their engagement numbers and made a conscious decision to introduce systems that are based heavily on RNG induced grinding. They haven’t yet reached the point of actually being concerned with retention numbers though (since they would need to drastically adjust the leveling between 65 and 70).
The gold costs at the higher echelons of end game gearing (plus changes made to the trade broker listing fees in a prior patch) is/has been IMHO, an effort to try to remove excess gold that has been accumulated from past events and bugs. That unfortunately hurts newer players or those who did not try to profit before because there are some accounts that have millions of gold which can be used to dictate the economy of certain desired items. Like many games with a virtual currency, it can be arbitraged (by purchasing fast movers like desirable cosmetics or premium subscription vouchers with the virtual currency, and then selling it for gold on the trade broker or via 1:1 trading).
Since this new gear is tradable, superior tier equipment with the proper rolls will command a hefty gold premium; Bluehole knows from their metrics how the hardcore/tryhard part of the player base will push to get the best gear (with the desirable properties) as quickly as possible. There will eventually be a trickle down effect with some items that don’t necessarily have all the best rolls ending up being traded/brokered but still require gold that the middle tier of players may not necessarily have (but can get by trading a virtual currency purchased item for gold). My point is that their data shows this is where a portion of their revenue is generated across all regions the game is published in.
Does that mean the hardest of the hardcore are happy about this? Absolutely not. The sting can feel real to them because of the work (grinding for materials along with burning through gold/materials to fail more often than succeeding when enchanting through Stormcry and Heroic Oath). This is why Bluehole is going to have an overlapping mechanic for Heroic Oath tier weapon with a yet to be detailed unique/mythical tier item. This is why they didn’t immediately introduce new gear sets that obsoleted the entire Guardian through Heroic Oath tiers (which was designed by the previous team that was handling TERA). This new gear is the current teams design for “solving” some of the complaints regarding the grind (grind for item XP and grind for materials/gold). What won’t change is the failure based RNG for the highest tier given the damage and repair mechanic.
The tl;dr is a simple reminder. This is a Korean MMO with Korean designers who know how to create these sort of designs. With regards to TERA, it’s a game that was released in 2011. Bluehole and Krafton have been telegraphing for awhile that they aren’t really interested in growing the player numbers (as they’ve honed in on where they have the most engagement and where they get the most revenue from). They’ve reached the point where they are milking the franchise on mobile (as well as the above mentioned segment of the PC player base who may vocally complain about these sort of changes, but continue to put serious time and money into these designs they are railing about; which is why many of these complaints ends up falling on deaf ears – you want to effect change, you need to vote with your pocketbook and/or for the hardcore/tryhard players, to tone down the no-lifing which naturally, isn’t going to happen for that part of the player base that helps provide the sort of data points which Bluehole uses for these designs).
For myself, there are parts of this update (which NA will see in 3-4 months) which I can enjoy (but will naturally stop trying when the success rate is designed to go down quickly) since it represents progression (even if it is in smaller increments compared to the hardcore/tryhard demographic). This however doesn’t address the growing gap that will exist due to the level 65-70 grind (I do believe there will be a point when the XP and leveling will be adjusted but only once they a bit more level 70 content completed; the Exodor zone is just a starting point for that). The very casual part of the player base ends up hitting that wall at 65 where it takes awhile to hit 66 which is where the real XP grind starts in earnest where some players fall off the wagon.
Being a free-to-play game, their data likely still shows enough newer players coming in (though Korea has lost enough players to where it is down to just a single server) to keep the leveling the way it is for at least a few more patch cycles. By that time, Ascent: Infinite Realm (A:IR) will likely be soft launched (OBT) in Korea and possibly Southeast Asia (providing a new revenue stream while other projects like MISTOVER also begin coming online to further provide a more diverse revenue stream). Krafton is looking for another PUBG but I doubt A:IR, MISTOVER, and several of the non-TERA related mobile titles they are working on, will strike gold in that same manner.
