We interview the experts and get never-before-seen screens of TERA's most terrifying class: The Berserker

MisterBones: That's cool. If your buddy is playing as a Berserker, what class would really compliment him?

Scott: The Berserker!

Brian: (laughs).

MisterBones: Two Berserkers?

Scott: Truly! If you've got two guys who can knock an opponent down successively, it's going to stay down.

Brian: Yeah.

Scott: So you don't have to wait to cue up your own really damaging attack, your buddy can do it.
If you want to look at the order of battle, you can have a Lancer in front of you, holding a lot more agro than you can, while you move around to the side and do a bunch of attacks.
You can have a Priest in back of you, healing you, as you stand there and take damage, while the Warrior comes from the side and does more damage.

Any class can work with any other class combination. The real magic of it is that you've got two players who are both taking actions at the same time against one monster.

Brian: We keep saying that the game is half action and half MMO and regular mechanics. That's true when you're partnering with someone. It's not just a class combination. Not every two Berserkers together are going to be awesome. You know, there's so much skill involved in the combat system. If you don't have two good players, you're only going to be one Berserker, even though you have two of your guys there. So it's really how those two people interact and are able to work together.

For example, when I first started playing, a buddy and I went out and we were hunting and we started realizing how some of these spells were affecting the different tactics we could use. So I ended up gathering a bunch of monsters up, getting them all in a straight line, diving out of the way and he does this spell that goes through all the enemies, all in a single line, and damages every single one of them. That's just not something that I'd ever done in an MMO before. It really just kind of struck me as "these are the kinds of things that players are going to figure out."

Maybe you don't see these moves or these things on a stat sheet or in your skill book, but it's the player skills and the player moves that they're going to develop on their own.

MisterBones: Yeah, you guys sound like you took the action in this game so seriously.

Brian: Yeah, from the very beginning the developers were saying, "We want the focus to be on the middle of the screen." They've gone through many different types of user interfaces, like what's the right balance to where [the player isn't clicking icons like a game of whack-a-mole] verses focusing that energy on the right amount of the screen, but still getting the right amount of information for MMO players and RPGers out there.

MisterBones: What about additional abilities that the Berserker will gain later on in the game? What will differentiate him from other Berserkers?

Brian: That's actually one of the big parts of the feedback we've received from our last focus group test. They wanted ways to differentiate themselves within their own class. So we're working on a few different ways to do that. Some of that will be gear and the way you slot your gear

Another way is we're working on a system where you can add points to specific skills. So perhaps you could add skill points to things that allow you to do a little bit more damage, or maybe a little bit more defense. So you can go down a little bit different path than other people.

MisterBones: How does the Berserker do against different types of enemies? Scott, you were saying that you went up against a couple of bosses that you couldn't deal with playing as the Berserker. But how does it do against smaller enemies that swarm you?

Scott: Very well. When the monster's presented to you, it's usually got that name above its head. So monsters that have a red name above their heads are warning you, flat out, it's going to take a while to kill this monster. Or it's going to take a coordinated attack; you and couple of other people really need to focus your attention on this monster.

Any class can solo one of those monsters, given enough time and the skill to not be hit. I find with the Berserker that its skills are specifically designed to knock an opponent down and to deny them access to their own damaging attacks.

There are skills that allow you to spin a grand circle, knocking everything away from where you are. There are skills that are designed to specifically put you on the ground, or turn you around, or drop you and punish you later once you've done the damage.

Any kind of monster that you come across you can fight; it's just how you approach it.