Well so far the game seems alright. Combat is different and a bit more engaging than the standard MMO targeting style. First thing that stood out when entering the game though, were the graphics and art style. The game looks pretty nice for an MMO and the zones look pretty awesome.

Game has the typical "rail questing" going on though. Which works for me right now since the client is all in korean and I have no idea what any of the quests are about or what's happening in the story at all. Makes it a bit harder to get into the game, not knowing whats going on in the world around you. But it's still pretty easy to figure out most of the quests by using the quest markers. The quests are all the usual kill X of these or gather Y of those.

I'm only level 11 right now, so haven't got too far into it yet. But so far the biggest things TERA has going for it is the combat system and graphics/art style. Running the game with everything maxed and it seems to run really smooth and looks great.

With everything maxed no lagging and is there something there that you dont like about that they can improve on?

Well they wouldn't be able to approve upon it at this point, but the quest system is pretty linear. Same "on rails" quest system most MMOs like Rift use.

Start at point A, get a bunch of quests that tell you to go kill 10 of x or gather 5 of y, then it leads you to the next quest hub. I mean the game is in a completely foreign language and I still have absolutely no problem figuring out where to go and what to do.

This games saving point is going to be it's combat system and fighting in groups. I think the combat system will make for some interesting group play, especially on boss fights. And the boss fights in this game are pretty awesome looking. That and the zones look amazing. It's almost worth playing and progressing just to get to explore the zones.

Very nice I actually have been waiting for this game for quite sometime. I was have tempted to play the Krn version but figured I wait till it comes out for NA. I am looking forward to it though the game has alot of potential

Beta sign-ups for NA now available.

http://www.tera-online.com/content/tera-beta-sign-up

Beta is now guaranteed through all events if you preorder.

http://login.ign.com/prime/promos/tera/?_cmpid=ign1486

Haven't gone through it but apparently you can just sign up for free membership for 7 days and then cancel it to get your key.

I've done this for starcraft before and it worked fine.

From teamliquid sc2 forums

On February 12 2012 13:06 darkponcho wrote:
I'm going to make a quick post here with my feelings regarding TERA. Keep in mind my experience comes from the Japanese version, and I'm not sure what patch version the NA version plans to release at.


Qualifications:
Level 58 (Max) Slayer on Kaiya server (PVP)
Member of strongest guild in server, quit with full tier 12 items and about half a billion in gold

Regarding race:
Doesn't matter at all, racial skills really don't make that much of a difference, so pick whatever race looks best to you.
The game is much more item and player skill-based than it is based on class/race differences

Regarding classes:
I'm only going to speak regarding endgame content, because honestly getting from 1-58 should only take a matter of like 2 weeks.

There will be a huge demand for lancers and healers. As in, if you're a lancer/healer class you will easily be able to find an instance party at level 58. Many parties prefer elementalists over priests, simply because the elementalist has a rebirth buff that automatically revives the target if they die, and their healing/mana balls help a lot. Deaths against the final boss in the level 58 instances can quickly snowball into a full wipe.

Warriors deal a lot more damage than lancers, but can tank less. In some cases, parties prefer a warrior tank over a lancer tank because the warrior can dish out more damage and thus clear the instance more often. In most cases, parties prefer lancers because many warriors aren't experienced enough to tank effectively. It really comes down to player skill (and equipent).


Slayers/Berserkers:
These are your main melee damage dealers. The berserker outdamages the slayer by a lot and is preferred in PvE, however they are kind of slow and that makes them weaker in PvP (easy to dodge attacks). PvP is where the slayer shines, they have knockdown skills, gap-closing skills, stun skills, you name it.

Sorcerer:
Every party wants a sorcerer. These guys deal insane ranged damage, and in fact I would say that every level 58 instance party requires a sorcerer. They are good at mass PvP too.

Archer:
Every party also wants an archer. In PvE, ranged DPS is always preferred over melee. Because the melee DPS is usually the one dying if the can't dodge/block attacks correctly.

A typical level 58 instance setup is as follows:
1 lancer/warrior
1 priest/elementalist
1 archer
1 sorcerer
1 slayer/berserker
If people want to be safer (like doing the instance for the first time), they'll replace a DD with another priest/elementalist.



Tips and tricks:
Save blue/pink enchant powders, their price will rise a lot. Blues > pink > white.

There will also be a huge number of "fixed" parties. Basically groups of 6 people who run instances with each other exclusively. I'd suggest finding or creating a fixed party, as it makes it easier to keep everybody's instance cooldowns the same, you have better teamwork, etc.

Don't spend too much time enchanting items that aren't at least tier 11 (I think level 56+), as you level up fast and most of the time you spend will be farming endgame items in the instances. Save your tier 11 gold/blue quest reward equipment, as they can be used to enchant the equipment you get from the 58 instances.

You will encounter some quests which recommend 6 people and require you to kill elite mobs (not instanced). These mobs are actually soloable, but take a considerable amount of time to kill. If you are skilled with your class, you should be able to block/dodge all hits. However, I'd recommend you party to kill them, as usually the only people who solo them are people farming for crafting materials, or people who can't finda party.

Typical instance run order at level 58:
Normal Labyrinth of fear until you get the weapon drop from final boss
reseal/unseal the weapon until you have 2 attack speed enchants on it
Upgrade the weapon to whatever + you need until both attack speed enchants are active
Normal black tower while collecting quest items that you can trade in for better armor

Hard mode labyrinth of fear: Try to get the best tier 12 weapon (there's a weaker tier 12 weapon that drops too)
Hard mode black tower: same thing

In terms of drops:
labyrinth of fear = black tower
In terms of difficulty:
black tower > labyrinth of fear

The normal mode is designed so that you can pretty much clear it on your first or second try. The hard mode, especially the black tower, is something that is most likely impossible without at least +6 weapons(2 attack speed enchants, always)/armor. Back when I was playing, I saw a stream of a Japanese player who was trying the hard mode of labyrinth of fear, and I think she died like 34 times. It became so frustrating that she actually started crying a little. If you can't clear the hard mode within the first 3 attempts, it may be time to give up. Most of the times players go into the hard mode without proper equipment, and skill can only take you so far. The fastest I saw people clear the hard mode was 1 hr 15 minutes. The longest (after switching in and out many party members) was probably like 12 hrs+.

Lastly, player skill is just as important as equipment. As such, ping is also important. I'd suggest you play on the version that is closest to where you live. Lower ping = faster combo register = higher DPS. Also dodging/blocking attacks have a very small window of opportunity, so screw that up in instances and you're basically dead.

That's all I can think of for now.

I don't really like the fact that you have to play a certain class to be considered useful. It's like this with a lot of mmos to some degree, but when it's to the point where you HAVE to roll a certain class just to be considered for groups it's pretty lame. Thankfully we won't have to deal with that in GW2.

Free beta keys:

http://www.zam.com/giveaways/tera.html