Last night I finally made it into TERA’s first dungeon, the Bastion of Lok. This is a 5-man instance meant for (I believe) levels 20-24. Our run took a little over an hour (no wipes, a couple bio breaks and Stamina recharge sessions).
Our party was a lancer (TERA tank class, run by Scott of Pumping Irony), priest (run by Oakstout), a sorceror (DPS, run by Scopique of Levelcapped), a warrior (DPS, he was a PUG guy) and my Slayer (DPS). Our levels ranged, iirc, from 21-23.
It was a successful run with Scott doing a great job of tanking and Oakstout being a first rate healer. We had 1 death all night, the PUG dude, who (as PUG dudes are apt to do) kind of kept running off to do his own thing. He was gracious about it, though, acknowledging that the death was his own fault.
I had a lot of fun doing the instance though it was more “spectacle” fun than “thoughtful gaming” fun, if you know what I mean. There’s not a lot of nuance playing DPS in a group, or if there is I haven’t gotten good enough to grasp it yet. Basically I was waiting for the tank to get aggro, then unloading with everything I had until I got the little “You’re about to get aggro” icon and backing off. Though that didn’t happen very often since my skill cool downs were enough to moderate damage I guess.
The only “downside” (and that feels like too strong a word) about the massive unleashing of damage on these innocent dungeon denizens is that it can be really hard to see where you’re facing in all the effect-spam. Since TERA has no enemy lock-on system you have to aim at the baddies and more than once I unleashed my best attack into empty space by accident. At least at the start.
A bit farther along I got into the habit of rushing in, hitting hard, then rolling out of the fray, lining up, and rushing in again. And I think this is how a Slayer is intended to be played. As a leather-wearing melee class I can’t stand there and take the hits. When playing solo I watch the mob and dodge away when it’s about to attack but in the flying furball battles of the Bastion of Lok I’d often miss the tells and get walloped. By rolling out of the battle I get out of the line of fire, give my skills a few seconds to cooldown, and I’d sometimes pop a potion to take some of the strain off our healer.
It’s the first time in an MMO where I felt like getting out of the battle and taking a few seconds breather was OK and not indicative of being a slacker (I always feel a lot of anxiety about people thinking I’m not pulling my weight in a group), though I dunno how other members of the party felt about it.
At the end of the dungeon I got a blue (rare) piece of Lancer armor, and Scott got a blue Slayer sword. So that was weird but we traded and everyone (well, at least the two of us) left happy, but I guess that loot drops are random and not tied to character class (unless this stuff dropped and someone was picking it up and it was just going into normal rotation. From where I stood it seemed like it just popped into my inventory).
The only bad news is that my Slayer went from level 23 to just under level 25 from quest and kill experience in one run-through. I kind of would’ve liked to do BoL another time or two without being over-level for it. But I guess I’ll just have to look forward to the next dungeon!