Imagine my surprise when the Tera open beta was still running this evening! Sweeeettt!!! I jumped in and took Bart to level 23.

I’ve been learning about Enchanting since my last post. Some gear can be Enchanted (it’s indicated on the tool tip) and here’s how you do it.

First you need to know that all gear is separated into Tiers in Tera. At level 23 I just got my first Tier 4 gear.

OK so to enchant an item, you open the enchanting interface and stick the item to be enchanted in the middle. To the left you have to put a piece of gear of the same type and tier. So if you’re enchanting a Tier 3 Sword you’ll need a 2nd Tier 3 Sword…it can be any Tier 3 Sword… non-magical (“White”) is fine. Then to the right of the item you have to put in 3 vials on Enchanting Juice that Merchants sell. I forget the name of this stuff…it’s the very first thing in the inventory of the merchants I’ve seen.

OK now you got all your pieces, just click the Enchanting button. Spin the wheel and wait. If you succeed, your item is now +1 and gets some small stat increases. The 2nd weapon and the juice get used up. If you fail they get used up too. You can enchant things up to 9 times and at the bottom of a piece of gear that can be enchanted you’ll see extra bonuses that you get at +3, +6 and +9.

But there’s a catch. Once you’ve enchanted an item once, if you enchant it again and you fail, there’s a chance you’ll LOSE a level of enchantment. I suspect that chance gets higher with each successive enchantment. When people get to, say, +6 enchantment on an item, a zone-wide message goes out: it’s kind of a big deal.

So that’s what I know about Enchantment so far. Back to adventuring.

At level 20 you can do the first instance in Tera, but I never got around to it. I’m really wary about joining PUGs in any game, though this is the time for me to do it if I ever am, since no one can expect everyone to be an expert already.

Instead I kept on my questing journey…until I met the Basilisks. I got a quest to get 5 Basilisk eyes and merrily went out and smacked a basilisk with my giant sword. What followed was a long and ultimately catastrophic battle. I died for the first time (other than once in the Prologue).

When you die, you can lie there in the dirt and hope someone comes along to res you, or you can Resurrect back at town. I chose the latter. My Stamina was at 0, so I had to pay a Cleric of Restoration to recharge it. I coulda waited by a fire…probably will next time. I also had a minor piece of gear break (vanish). Not something I couldn’t live without, but one of the Emblems that you can attach to larger gear. I -assume- you’ll never have your weapon or a major piece of armor break. Losing an Emblem is a minor setback (they drop all the time). Losing your sword would be heartache.

Anyway, back into the fray. I check my quest log and notice that this quest is meant for a party of up to 5 people. Doh! Also Basilisks have a little Icon next to their name to tell you that you can’t solo them. Doh! Again!

At this point I did something that I have never, EVER done in an MMO. I used the LFG tool. No one was looking for this quest so I started my own request for a party. And pretty soon someone joined and huzzah! She was a healer. So off we went after a Basilisk. It was a long fight but OMG was it ever fun, and we won. Tera combat is lots of fun solo. Tera combat with two people is GREAT, and soon enough I found out that Tera combat with 3 people is insane fun!

I only needed 5 basilisk eyes, but I spent the rest of the night fighting the beasties, with other party members leaving and new ones joining. Healers of course are awesome (in what game are they not, right?) and I learned that I really want an Archer in every party I’m a member of. They just do a great job of pouring on the damage.

I just had a hell of a good time. I’m really going to miss Tera while I wait for launch. I just can’t remember the last time I had so much fun playing an MMO. What a total surprise this game has turned out to be.

So as I say goodbye to open beta, I leave you with this, my death: