Hello everyone, my name is Novos and I'm going to begin my warrior monthly articles with  a big 'Welcome!!' to the Tera Europe Affiliates Blog project! For those of you who are new to this site, this blog and all of it's articles are written by dedicated fans of the upcoming MMORPG game Tera  (The Exiled Realm of Arborea) Online coming this year! The game is made by the same developers who made Lineage 2 and is currently already released in Korea right now. For more details about the game or the Tera Europe Affiliates please visit the following links below!

There are TWO tanking classes in Tera online: the shield and lance, armour-plated Lancer, and the dual wielding, leather-equipped Warrior. I was involved in many competitions relating to Tera Online back when it was first announced in early 2009, and I was fortunate enough to be selected for a Focus Group Test as well as playing the released Korean version of the game. More recently, I just finished testing the Community Play Event offered by Frogster (who are the EU publishers of the game) In all instances I played as the Warrior class. Me and my other co-writer AlexiusApollonious will be focusing solely on the Warrior class and we will try to give as much hints,tips,info as we can during the upcoming months about this class and why we think this is the most AWESOME class out of all the possible classes. Also, I hope these monthly articles make everyone a better Warrior player in general once the game is finally released in the West.

I'm a big fan of tanking classes (having played a protection Paladin in World of Warcraft) but the idea of 'tank and spank' by just standing in one spot and spamming hotkeys really put me off MMORPG's for a good number of years. Games like Aion the Tower of Eternity tried to spice it up a bit using flashy skill chains, but the general idea was the same in tanking-you click on a mob and hammer keys until the monster is dead,occasionally casting one spell or two to protect your allies. When I played the Warrior class for the very first time in the first Focus Group Test offered by Enmasse Entertainment last year, (who are the North American publishers of Tera Online)  I was absolutely hooked on playing the Warrior!! Why you say? To sum it up in a nutshell-the Warrior is an EVASION tank.

Tera is an action combat game. This mean that the game behaves a more like Dungeons and Dragons Online and Mass Effect 2 rather than World of Warcraft or Aion. If you want to hit an enemy-you'll  have to aim at it using a small reticle in the centre of the screen. In the case of a tanking class like the Warrior,you need to dodge and attack at precise moments otherwise you will get stomped down into the ground. The Warrior has very low damage output compared to other DPS classes and has terrible defence compared to a Lancer making them quite squishy. But there are two things that make Warrior's unique-they have the highest health pool out of all classes and they have TWO dodges abilities that make them INVINCIBLE for a second or two. Thins means that a skilled Warrior player (in theory)will be able to dodge through all the attacks dished out by a boss or mob. I'll won't kid you readers for one second-the warrior is very hard to master, but extremely rewarding if you manage to pull it off. It is also one of the most fun classes to play since a Warrior can still pull quick strikes and nimble attacks that continuously chip away the enemies health while effectively dodging the enemies attacks during the combo sequence if necessary. Of course, the dodge abilities have cool downs to prevent constant spamming, and once you're out of mana, you can't dodge out of trouble-which can mean instant death against a high level boss or elite. This means that playing this class requires good timing as well as having a sixth sense in being able to read the enemy attack patterns and dodging at the right moment.

Being a tank naturally means you have some skills that increase aggravation against other mobs so your healing team mates don't get slaughtered but here's the catch-the skills require you to hit the enemy up close. The Lancer has a AOE (area over effect) taunt that allows him/her to pull large numbers of enemies around him.  Whereas the Warrior has to hit the enemies up close to taunt them with your special taunt moves which drains your mana . Also, the only way to regain your mana bar is to use normal attacks. Putting all these ideas together means you have to strike a balance between attacking,dodging and taunting. Challenging? You bet. But extremely satisfying if you manage to pull it off like I said earlier.

One reason why I like playing the Warrior is the combo attacks and slashing abilities are quick and a real treat to look at-very much like a Rogue in WoW or Assassin in Aion. Combine this with the fact that they can duel wield makes them one of the coolest classes in terms of animation in my opinion. The two swords are counted as a single item but with the announcement that weapons can have added effects like glowing or burning animations enchanted in future updates makes the Warrior class THE eye-candy class to go for. Imagine duel wielding katanas! Epic? Oh yes.