TERA‘s new patch brings players a choice of three factions: The Free Traders Collective (Velika), The Enlightened Union (Allemantheia), and Iron Order (Kaiator). Each faction has a new territory (level 60s only), a headquarters, and a faction specific buff. Free Traders Collective enjoys 1% additional gold drops, Enlightened Union gets 5% more credits from daily quests, and Iron Order boasts an additional 5% stun resistance.
While it is not required, guild leaders must pick a faction for their guilds if they wish to receive the faction incentives. However, those who prefer to play solo are not left out; there are generic guilds for each faction so that they can also participate in the action and reap the benefits of the faction buffs without having to find an actual guild.
The Premise
The whole premise for this system is a new resource called noctenium, a substance you can use to make your character hit harder, aggro more, or heal more. It’s the video game equivalent of a performance enhancing drug. Everyone wants more of this noctenium so each faction fights to control the extractors that pull the substance from the ground in the new zones.
The Content
Each faction has it’s own zone complete with 100 extractors, a home base, 2 enemy camps, an executor (a high value target for the opposition), and various monsters and BAMs (including invisible BAMs that must be coaxed out of hiding using a special tool). Monsters drop decent loot and materials required to make both the noctenium infusions to enhance performance and craft the new PVP gear (mid-level gear that is roughly equivalent to the Conjunct set but seemingly easier to attain). During scheduled PvP times players infiltrate the zones in an attempt to shut down the opposing faction’s extractors. They do this by stealing the key to the machine which they must then walk back to their camp without being killed by players or mobs. In non-PVP times the key-holding players can only be stopped by using a special bomb that stuns the player and forces them to drop the key which can then be picked up by anyone in the vicinity. Players holding keys cannot mount, use teleport scrolls or spells, or be summoned without dropping their keys on the ground. If the player makes it back to their camp and is able to turn in key to their NPC who initially offered them the key quest (repeatable ten times a day per enemy faction territory) the extractor is removed from your faction’s tally and added to the enemy’s. At the end of the day, the amount of noctenium extractors controlled by each faction determines the access schedule for the new single person instance called The Alliance Vault and the 5 person instance known as and Vault of Allies. Vault access is scheduled on an hourly basis and changes from day to day. Poor participation from a faction means they receive less access to the vault.
The Exarch System:
Replacing the old Vanarch system is the new Exarch system. Gone are the days when individuals were voted in as the leaders of the different areas. Now, the guild leaders of the guilds with the most faction contribution points are automatically elevated to exarch status with the power to set the tax rate for their areas (large chunks of the continents) as well as activate powerful buffs for their faction-mates. The exarch appointments reset every two weeks so theoretically, if a guild gets lazy, the top spot can change. Clearly this system benefits larger guilds as the more players you have, doing quests and participating in PvP, the more contribution points your guild earns.
There’s also benefit to personal contribution. The more points you accumulate, the more your personal rank rises in your faction. With a high enough contribution score you can become an echelon and gain access to a special merchant, acquire special masks (to clearly announce your awesomeness, of course), and summon war flags to aid your allies in battle, providing either power, movement speed, endurance, or resistance.
In addition to the exarchs and echelons are the commanders… Exarchs have the power to appoint three commanders each: a raid commander who can summon an infiltration beacon, which allows other members of their alliance to teleport directly to a location, a security commander who can summon NPC guards, fences, and siege weapons in their territory to aid in defense, and a supply commander who can summon a special alliance merchant who sells… well, we don’t know what he’ll sell just yet but we’ll just assume it’s something good.
After a full day of playing in the new content, here are my thoughts:
First of all, this patch means large scale world PvP. If you’re a fan of that, you’re in luck. If you already have a full set of plussed up PvP gear, you’re really in luck. If you’re like me, somewhat new to the game and completely lacking PvP gear, it can still be fun but it’s bound to be a little frustrating as well. As in all world PvP, if a group of people gets a hold of you, you’re a goner even in PvP gear. Without PvP gear… well you’re pretty much a goner before they really even get a hold of you. But that isn’t a deal breaker in my book. Part of the fun is trying to avoid the situations that get you insta-killed, instead choosing your battles carefully and, of course… preying on the weak, a standard of all video game PvP. The new alliance chat channel comes alive during PvP times as impromptu raid leaders attempt to rally the troops and share vital information on the enemy’s locations. So far it hasn’t degraded into a spam channel, but we’ll see where it heads after a few months.
In a few days I’ll be able to comment on the exarch system but for now we’re all having fun exploring the new zones and instances, collecting the new materials and gear, and beating the tar out of each other on the battlefield. It’s a lot of content to digest and many players are still struggling to make sense of it all. However, I think it’s a good move for TERA. The developers seem to be steadily marching towards making PvP a larger part of their endgame experience which can only make the game more well-rounded and attract a wider variety of players.
Published: Aug 15, 2013 12:18 pm