TERA's release was some serious hype for my friends and I, let's get that out right now: I was super hyped for TERA's release. Not because of the game's gorgeous visuals at the time but because of the promise of action combat in an MMORPG in a time of World of Warcraft clones galore and mostly free to play mush. It was quite exciting at the time.
I, like many, quickly grew bored of TERA while it was still a subscription-based game. The combat was sufficiently 'action'-y but the rest of the game felt 'off' -- and it felt that way until the new content and increasing community communication on the part of publisher En Masse Entertainment.
There is no traditional armor in Blade & Soul. Instead, armor equipment is in the form of clothing called outfits. They do not have any stat properties, thus your character can look however you wish. However, there are some outfits that will flag your character for PvP. It is also important to note that if you unequip your outfit, your Soul Shield stats will also be disabled. For players with. Miscellaneous costume gallery for Blade and Soul (BnS). Exiledmessenger 18 December 2019. I did a small 411 runs got 5 outfits and 0 mask i. Mar 22, 2016 - Begin a heroic journey to confront dark forces and seek vengeance as a master of the martial arts in Blade & Soul, the free-to-play MMORPG. Blade & Soul - Dazzle (Yun Outfit) Mod The first time I worked on the Dazzle outfit was somewhere in November 2017 and it was only for the Jin race. Then, around September 2018, a patron asked for the Gon's version and four months later, another patron finally asked for the Yun's version; which brings us to the Yun Dazzle for this week's mod.
Fast forward to January 2016 and NCSoft's own total action MMORPG Blade & Soul released to much excitement. Another new action MMO! And this one's newer! If I hadn't played Blade & Soul in Chinese and in the NA/EU, I probably would have been more excited -- but people that didn't play previously got their first taste of its style of action combat, and they liked it.
Since its release, I have seen so many comparisons between TERA and Blade & Soul that the discussion has gotten tiring. The two games are ultimately focused around their combat but they handle it differently to the point they play nothing alike outside of questing. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion on which game is better, but I can't imagine anyone saying TERA's combat is completely superior with a straight face.
I don't want to make it seem like I'm ignoring the other action MMORPGs on the market today. While MMOs like WildStar have their own action combat style, none are as comparable to one another as Blade & Soul and TERA and the reasons why aren't exactly hard to figure out:
- Both have over the top outfits and reasonably good visuals
- Both have similar questing styles
- Both tote their 'action combat'
- Both have token small cute races (Elin/Popori in TERA and Lyns in B&S)
The great debate.
Anyone who has played them both extensively can understand why some would draw comparisons between the two, though at the heart of they both are very different from one another. The pace of the games matches the pace of their combat styles, which in turn affects the types of people attracted to them.
TERA - Combat... evolved?
TERA's big push has always been its combat and it's easy to see how Blade & Soul overtook it in South Korea when you compare the two's combat.
The one thing that has always held TERA back is the adherence to the old MMO staple of one class having a ton of abilities. Normally, one can't complain about classes having several abilities in an MMORPG, but it somewhat detracts from the 'action' part of the combat that it advertises so heavily.
When the game was released its combat was truly fresh and new -- but with the waves of Korean action MMOs that came soon after it's hard to say it stayed fresh for long. There's definitely a reason the servers were ghost towns a couple months after its subscription launch: while the game's combat was interesting, it wasn't fun enough when paired with the abysmal questing and boring world.
This is something TERA still struggles with today. Player numbers are much higher than they were before the game went free to play, but ultimately the combat isn't good enough to keep people running on that treadmill for prolonged periods. I know -- I've come back and left four times since the Rising launch.
If there's one thing Blade & Soul does well, it's the combat.
TERA's combat always (woefully) left something wanting in me each time I went back. I've played the game for months at a time, but often that was driven by social circles more than the gameplay or personal drive. It's hard not to get wrapped up in drama and group activities when you're in too deep with TERA, believe you me. Not so much in Blade & Soul.
I hoped Blade & Soul would satisfy the hunger TERA couldn't fill in regards to fast actual action combat, back when I played the Chinese version.
Even at 250+ ping it did, and it did it so well I practically threw money at Tencent for premium and cosmetics despite knowing only minimal Mandarin. I couldn't see myself doing that with TERA were their release situations reversed.
Blade & Soul's combat is ultimately more modern and fits the 'action' bill in a way I don't think Bluehole Studios could have anticipated while they were developing TERA, even with much of Bluehole's staff coming straight from NCSoft themselves during development.
Combat boil-down
One way to compare the two games in a way non-MMO players can understand is TERA's combat is more akin to Monster Hunter and Blade & Soul's closer to a fighting game.
TERA's combat is slower and at endgame requires players to learn enemy telegraphs and patterns, and get good. Some skills are lock-ons, but the majority are manually targeted. Things feel slower and more deliberate, mostly due to some skills' long animations.
Blade & Soul's combat is faster and highly reliant on countering skills, no matter the class. Many skills are lock-ons but it meshes so well with the overall combat style it's hard to complain about. Arena PvP feels like a simplified fighting game and it's hard not to love.
'All right, they're different. Which one should I play?'
Uh, the one you like the most.
It's true that TERA is an overall outdated MMORPG and ultimately it doesn't have much to keep players going. While it does have a good amount of endgame content, the overall goal of ramming yourself into it is a hell of a gear grind.
What keeps people playing TERA is the community -- and if you don't mesh with it, you probably scoff at that statement, but it's true. The most fun you'll have with TERA will probably be just messing around with other players.
You know if you fit in with the types of people that play the game not long after you start, and if you do then you're in for a good time between the game's political system, GvGs, and arenas. If not, it won't be for you. It's pretty much as simple as that.
Blade & Soul doesn't have that community aspect and, let's be honest, you're never going to see the type of player-driven activities and BS in Blade & Soul that you see in TERA thanks to its huge focus on arenas. If you're serious about the game, you're serious about the arena.
This in itself is the game's biggest detractor for me. I can certainly spend weeks playing solo just fine, but it's lonely. Every player is just focused on their own personal progression then shoving gold at their clan to progress it. And that's fine -- but it feels more like a singleplayer experience overall than TERA.
You'll be spending most of your time like this - alone - unless you go out of your way to remedy that.
The big comparison focus between the two games almost always lies squarely in talking about its combat, but the types of people drawn to the two are different and it ends up making for a vastly different gaming experience in the long run.
Both games are undoubtedly Korean-style MMORPGs - but when it comes down to their combat styles and communities they couldn't be more different. People who do better with slower games and just being silly may be better suited to TERA, but anyone looking for a fast-paced MMO with an emphasis on progression but minimal interaction with other players need look no further than Blade & Soul.
The first time I worked on the Dazzle outfit was somewhere in November 2017 and it was only for the Jin race. Then, around September 2018, a patron asked for the Gon's version and four months later, another patron finally asked for the Yun's version; which brings us to the Yun Dazzle for this week's mod. Coincidentally, this outfit is currently available through an outfit chest event, where players can buy the outfit chests from the online Hongmoon store. However, the chest will only give a random outfit from a list of fifteen outfits, and which one the player gets depends on their luck. 😮The list of outfits ranges from new outfit such as the Ninja Tortoise (inspired by Ninja Turtles?) to older ones like Dazzle. So, I am guessing that many players' pockets are bleeding in order to get their desired outfits. Hopefully you guys can get what you want without blowing your pockets. 😅
In the Gon Dazzle post, I have mentioned that the outfit is exactly same for all three races, except for the cleavage portion. The cleavage portion for the Jin's version has an actual inward curvature so I can paint almost the entire region to skin. Unfortunately, this cannot be applied to the Gon's version where the inward curve is not deep enough. As such, I retained the mid portion as cloth while modifying the sides to a translucent layer.
Looking at the Yun's version, the cleavage portion seems similar to the case of the Gon's. As such, I will apply the Gon's design on the Yun's, instead of using the Jin's mod design. Luckily, this is also what the patron has requested.
Before we get into the mod, let us take a look at the original Yun Dazzle below.| Front View - Original Outfit |
| Front Close-up View - Original Outfit |
| Rear View - Original Outfit |
| Rear Close-up View - Original Outfit |
| Side View - Original Outfit |
Blade And Soul Outfit List
| Side Close-up View - Original Outfit |
| Front View - Modified Outfit |
| Front Close-up View - Modified Outfit |
| Rear View - Modified Outfit |
| Rear Close-up View - Modified Outfit |
| Side View - Modified Outfit |
| Side Close-up View - Modified Outfit |
With this, I can finally wrapped up the Dazzle.
Since, I do not have this outfit on my Yun and I don't really want to send them over from my Jin or Gon, using outfit tickets, I can only show the mod through the in-game Tailorshop. Hope it is enough for your comparison.