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

MisterBones: So you're saying that you can solo with all the classes?

Scott: Very much so. I have soloed every single class well into the teens and some into the 20's and 30's.

MisterBones: What about the weapons? Will the Berserker's weapons be enormous? Is that part of his class?

Scott: It's a big axe blade on the end of a big handle. The Popori wields essentially the same axe as an Elf or an Aman does.

MisterBones: What about races? Will there be a race that's specifically really great as a Berserker?

Scott: No, that's actually one of the areas that we've taken a lot of caution in. The last thing you want is to play your Berserker through and realize, "oh, I picked the wrong race." That's kind of a crappy feeling. No one will invite you to the party because you don't have "stun block" from the front and every other race but yours has that. Or something like that.

So we're going to be adding some racial attributes, but they're going to be a lot of vanity type attributes and things that are more fun and not necessarily game changers, in terms of affecting the outcome of combat. Because we want people to look like they want to look like and have fun and role play and be the race they want to be and not be a race because they have to because of that one specific racial trait.

The Popori swing the axe differently than other races.

MisterBones: Scott, what's the coolest thing you've done with a Berserker?

Scott: The coolest thing I've done with a Berserker is something I did just recently in the focus group test. I spent a lot of time in the Popori area and we hunted a lot of  giant monsters up in the hills. I would get together with a couple warriors and a priest and an archer and we would just go hunting them.

Being able to stand in one place, give out the great Taunting Shout, plant the axe and soak up a bunch of damage. It was great to be up there tanking an enemy and, at a certain time, know that it was time to stop taking damage and start issuing it.

MisterBones: So when you soak up damage with the Berserker, does he do it as well as a Lancer?

Scott: The Lancer has a different kind of defense. One thing that Brian has brought up is that we've got great class balance all the way through there. The Lancer's defense is specifically designed to block all damage in a cone around him. The Berserker blocks damage directly in front of him. So you're not protecting people behind him, but at the same time he's blocking a lot more damage because he's just stopping it

MisterBones: Anything else you want to say about the Berserker class?

Scott: Roll eight of them.

Brian: (laughs).

Scott: They're fun.

Brian: It's one of the more interesting classes that I think defines TERA as an action game.

Scott: And you'll see when you have Berserkers of different races, how they swing the axe changes.

MisterBones: Oh really?

Scott: Some races are smaller than others.

Brian: And that goes into the balance issue between the races. I've mentioned this before but we've really done a good job making it to where everyone's not going to be the smaller one because they're harder to hit. There's going to be a little bit of plus and minus to each and every race in terms of their wingspan, I guess you could say.

Scott: The axe is the same length no matter what.

Brian: Their reach. Because the Popori's arms a little bit shorter than like, a Baraka or an Aman, but at the same time [the Baraka and the Aman] are a bigger area to hit.

There's a little bit of plus and minus depending on what you're doing. But we really spent a lot of time to try and balance that because it is a collision-based action game. It's not an easy thing to do but it's something that we're constantly honing on.