Guide:New player guide/Character creation

Character Creation

 * There is a very slight (+/-3 points) stat difference based on race; starting stats are determined mainly by your class. What you can do with your character, however, is determined mostly by your choice of class. See the Race and Class pages for discussions of the different race and class option.

Race

 * As your character increases in level, these racial differences become negligible with the exception of racial traits, which can be strategically useful in some situations. Therefore, play the race that you find most interesting based upon appearance and racial traits, and don't sweat the little differences.

Class

 * Can't decide what class to play? Make one of each that sound interesting (you can have up to 8 characters per server), play them up to level 5-15 or so, and decide then. It only takes an hour or two to get the first few levels, and then you'll have a much better idea of what it's like to play each class. You may still miss out on the more significant parts of playing a class, as some important skills are given at level 20 or 30 for the first time, but you will get the gist of the class so that you can at least understand what higher level characters are talking about. Alternatively you can read the description of each class to have a general idea of them.


 * An important factor to consider when choosing a class is whether there is going to be much demand for characters of your class in groups. Generally, tanks and healers are in higher demand than damage dealers for most servers. Therefore, if joining instance groups is your first priority, choosing classes that can spec tank or healer may improve your chance of getting invited.


 * For those who want to be the tank in instances, lancer (Block Tank) and warrior (Evasion Tank) are your choices. With the right gear and specs, they can have higher health and armor than the rest of the party. You can absorb large amounts of damage and prevent others from being attacked. Lancers can wear metal which provide them with very good armor and survivability. Warriors can only wear leather. However, they get buffed when using the Instance Matchmaking tool, which gives them large amounts of health and armor bonus.


 * If you want to heal others, mystic or priest can be considered. These classes, with specific talent point allocations, will make a competent main healer. In addition, both of them provide useful buffs to the other members of the party. Mystics grant a passive crit buff. Priests grant an attack speed buff by helping attack.


 * The four classes mentioned above can also be damage dealers (DPS Damage Per Second) with the right gear and spec. However, there are four classes that can be considered as pure damage dealers: slayer, archer, sorcerer, and berserker. Sorcerers excel at dealing massive magical damage to their enemy. Their powerful AoE damage is helpful in many encounters. Berserkers are known for their huge axes that crush opponents, having the highest crits than any other DPS, but also the slowest attacks. Slayers are unique in that they wield a giant weapon like berserkers, they however are masters of chain combos and can speed their attacks up a lot. Archer is the only ranged class in game that do mainly physical damage. Archers also have the unique ability of putting down various traps to help the party and handicap their opponent(s). Depending on their spec, they can also boost their party members' damage output in different ways.

Name

 * Picking a name can be tricky. Nearly everyone wants something unique, awe-inspiring and/or "cool". However, the name you pick does tell others something about you.


 * Keep in mind that your name needs to be easily type able in conversations, and that it probably shouldn't clash too much with the tera/medieval themed environment. Names that you probably shouldn't pick include:


 * Legolas - Wrong universe. Too unoriginal. Far too commonly used already than you may expect.


 * Mrcoolguy / Iownyousohard - More than anything, this suggests to other people that you're immature. Maybe you are, but not making it quite so obvious makes it a tad easier to earn the respect of other players.


 * Agsdjasgd - People will assume that you don't take the game seriously and/or that you're a farmer. Neither is good for you.


 * Lukeskywalker - Wrong time, wrong galaxy.


 * Elleon / Fraya / Samael - No, you are not these lore characters. Picking names like these is a sure-fire way of having a GM enforce a name change on your character.


 * Picking something unobtrusive that actually sounds like a name is usually your best bet. Your name doesn't have to be cool to make you cool. You make your name cool by who you are and what you do; TERA may be massively multi-player, but the core population of any given server is really only a couple hundred players. Rumors, names and stories of feats do travel quickly.


 * Can't decide on a name? Try BehindTheName.com.


 * What if the name you want is already taken? It is commonplace to see several spelling variations on a name. The biggest reason for this is making it easier for others to type in your name. So, if you find 'Joe' is taken, try 'Joey', 'Joseph', or other variations.

Gender

 * Lastly, you can choose your gender, male or female, when creating a new character. Functionally, there is no difference between a male or female character in effect, only appearance. The only in game differences are the appearance, animation and speech. When in doubt, choose according to your real gender. Nevertheless, some people like to do otherwise for various reasons. As a rule of thumb of playing TERA as well as any other MMORPG, do not assume the gender of anyone by the look of their character!