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Variable Haircut
Jan 25, 2012


Welcome to The Secret World; where every conspiracy theory, every myth, fable and urban legend is true and ancient societies pull the strings to decide our fate. Forced into alliance by circumstance, they stand united against the rising darkness, but remain divided in pursuit of power.

There are three playable Secret Societies, and a handful of other factions that hide behind the shadows of the real world.



The Templars are a faction of individuals who see themselves as the first and last line of defense against the evils in The Secret World, and will do whatever it takes to ensure that the world is rid of the evil that plagues it.



The Illuminati are invisible puppet-masters and corporate manipulators, they crave power and wealth by any means necessary.



The Dragon understand that there is no pattern, only acts of great change to be committed. From a whisper to an explosion, they divine that an incident here, a disappearance there, can change the course of everything.

Everything is True. Every urban legend, every conspiracy theory, every myth, every legend, every fable; all of them are true and occurring in the world today. Egypt is beset with biblical plagues and the rise of ancient pharaohs. Solomon Island and Kingsmouth town are the victim of a zombie plaque. Vampires hunt the streets of London and Demons stalk their victims in Seoul. Players will align themselves with a secret society to wage war against the darkness.

New Players

Missions
The Secret World uses a tiered/stepped mission experience, where one step might be go to point A, the next step is to collect three items, the next step is to kill five mobs, then end the mission by using the items collected in the earlier step to summon a boss type monster and then kill it. The rewards are experience and usually a piece of equipment. Missions are broken down into several flavors:

  • Story Missions – These are long missions, which will see you through an entire region before they are complete.
  • Sabotage Missions – These missions are a little different, rather then being a stand collect and kill type, they usually have you going into an area that is above your level and doing some sneaky espionage type tasks. Disable a camera, avoid being detected, steal item A, escape without being noticed.
  • Dungeon Missions – If you zone into a dungeon your automatically granted the mission.
  • Investigation Missions – These can include tasks that require using google to find an answer too, as the answer is not located in the game itself. For instance, you might be asked for a password and the hint could be the 2001 Superbowl loser. Some people might know it, but google is there for everyone else.
  • Action Missions – These are the standard MMO kill/collect type missions.
  • Item Missions – These are missions you will usually run across while doing another mission. They have 2-3 tiers at most, and usually require you to deliver the item to another quest giver. You are allowed to have 3 of these at a time.

Most missions can be repeated after a certain amount of time has passed, between 24-72 hours.

Experience
Experience is awarded for killing mobs, earning achievements, finishing missions and such. For every 40,000 xp you receive an Ability Point (AP), and for every 120,000 xp you receive a Skill Point (SP). Ability Points are spent on purchasing new weapon powers. Skill Points are used to upgrade weapon and equipment levels, which allows access to higher quality gear. There is no limit to the amount of abilities you can unlock, you can and will unlock the entire wheel. Initially you can keep a maximum of 175 AP and 40 SP unspent, the AP limit can be increased through the augment system. If you do gain the exp to gain more AP/SP while you are maxed, those points will be lost.

Abilities
In general, the ability system consists of hundreds of active and passive abilities that fit together to make your own personal build. As long as you are not in combat, you can switch out abilities on the fly to meet different challenges.

525 active and passive abilities make up the Ability Wheel, with 28 Aux abilities on the side. Purchasing new abilities costs Ability Points, which are earned at a rate of 1 for every 40,000 xp. Abilities cost anywhere from 1 – 50 AP, with abilities becoming increasingly expensive as you progress down a tree.

Active abilities are your attacks, your heals, your buffs and your oh poo poo buttons. Passive abilities come in different forms, some will increase damage by a set amount and will be on all the time. Others require a condition to be met to trigger; for instance, in the assault rifle tree Extra Bullet will cause the builder Safety Off to hit an additional time. Some passives will only boost one ability, some passives will give a generic damage increase to all abilities, some passives will trigger heal over time effects, some passives will grant defensive buffs that reduce incoming damage, and many other effects. There are also several powerful abilities that are called Elites, and have a gold background.

Attack abilities fall under three general categories: builders, consumers and attacks with long cool downs. A builder is an attack that will build a resource for your primary weapon and your secondary weapon, except builders that heal your friendly target only build for your primary weapon. These will build a maximum of 5 resources, at a rate of 1 resource per attack. Consumers use those resources to perform hard hitting attacks, general rule is a consumer gains +20% damage per resource used. Some attacks have longer cool downs, anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute, and usually do decent damage and perform a special effect like stunning or rooting.

Pro Tip, you can return to your factions training room and any abilities you purchase inside can be refunded as long as you do not leave.

Active abilities require the associated weapon to be equipped, passive abilities have no such restriction. You can use any passive ability once you have unlocked it.

Skills
Similar to purchasing new abilities, you need to purchase skill levels in your weapons and your talismans. Purchasing new skills costs Skill points, which are earned at a rate of 1 for every 120,000 xp. Initially, new skills cost 1 SP to purchase and increase by 1 for each level. The level of your skill in a weapon or talisman determines what Quality Level of that type you can wear. You can wear skill level +1 except with epic gear, which requires equal skill in the weapon.

Builds
Your build is the 7 active and 7 passive abilities you have equipped at a given time. You're restricted to only using two weapons at a time, but you can use any passive regardless of the weapon it belongs to. You are further restricted to only take one Elite active and one Elite passive. There are premade builds which are unique to each faction, these are generally regarded as trash. The only reason to get the abilities required is to get the outfit that comes along with the premade deck.


Weapons and Equipment
The game starts you with 9 weapon choices. Each can be used effectively for causing damage and they each have their own gimmick that they bring to the table, such as tanking, healing, crowd control. A quick look at these weapons:

Melee: 5 meter range
  • Blades – Damage, Tanking
  • Hammers – Damage, Tanking
  • Fists – Damage, Healing (Heal over time)
  • Chaos – Damage, Tanking

Ranged:
  • Pistols – Damage, Healing Support, 10 meter range
  • Shotguns – Damage, Tanking Support, 10 meter range
  • Elemental – Damage, More Damage, some crowd control, 15 meter range
  • Blood – Damage, Healing (Barriers), 15 meter range
  • Assault Rifle - Damage, Leech Healing (Healing through Damage), 20 meter range

:siren:EVERY WEAPON CAN BE USED TO DEAL DAMAGE:siren:


Talismans are The Secret World's wearable equipment, they do not change your appearance and function solely as a statistic container. Talisman's contain three distinct stats:
  • Primary Stats - Health, Heal Rating and/or Attack Rating.
  • Secondary Stats - Offensive and Defensive supplements that increase your ability to evade an attack, counter someone else evading, increase the chance for a critical hit, increase the damage you do on a critical hit, and such.
  • Signets - Signets are restricted to the higher level gear that can increase your damage, survivability or healing with unique effects that happen when special conditions are met.

Weapons work similar to talismans, except their primary statistic is weapon power.

Some equipment can have their secondary stats changed by using a glyph. Mission rewards and dungeon boss drops typically can not have their stats changed, but crafted weapons and the gear you purchase during the end game grind is 100% customizable.

Secondary stats are broken down into two categories, offensive and defensive:
Offensive stats:
  • Hit – Ability to overcome your opponents Defense stat, nullifies a portion of the targets evade chance.
  • Critical Rating – Chance to score a critical hit
  • Critical Power – Determines how strong critical hits are
  • Penetration – Ability to overcome your opponents Block stat, nullifies Physical/Magical Protection.

Defensive Stats:
  • Defense – Increases chance for incoming hits to be a glancing blow.
  • Block – Increases chance for incoming hits to be blocked.
  • Evade – Increases chance for incoming hits to be evaded.
  • Physical/Magical Protection – Provides damage reduction to incoming attacks.

Crafting
Crafting is a little different then most MMO's, there are no recipes to grind for. From the moment you create your character you can craft everything. Crafting uses a minecraft style concept, where you have a grid and you place materials gathered in specific patterns, along with an appropriate toolkit and get an instant product. Additionally, almost every green item and above can be disassembled inside the crafting interface for materials. This includes potions, weapons, talismans and glyphs.

Combat
The Secret World uses a system where you have some abilities that build resources and others that consume them. While in combat it is best to keep moving as much as possible, its possible to avoid some enemy attacks and you can use your abilities while on the move. Some enemy’s will charge up an attack and leave a white outline on the ground, its possible to avoid all the damage if you move out of the silhouetted area. To aid in this, we have a free dodge that can be used by either double tapping in the direction you want to go or activating a hot key while moving.

You can have two targets assigned at any given time, a hostile target and a friendly target, and abilities will act accordingly without the need to constantly click between the two.

How the hit roll works is still largely a mystery, but here are the possible outcomes.
  • Evade/Miss – 100% damage reduction
  • Glancing Hit – 60% damage reduction, secondary effects will not trigger
  • Blocked Hit – Variable, between 30-50%.
  • Hit – Full Damage
  • Critical Hit – Full Damage plus a variable amount determined by critical power
  • Penetrating Hit – Full Damage plus an additional 60%.
  • Penetrating/Glanced Hit
  • Critical/Blocked Hit
  • Penetrating/Critical Hit
  • Blocked/Glanced Hit



There are four possible states a target, or yourself, can have applied:
  • Affliction- Damage over time effects
  • Weakened – damage, healing or defensive debuffs
  • Hindered – Roots and snares
  • Impaired – Stuns, Knockdowns and Silences



PvP
Pvp is isolated into three play fields: Fusang, El Dorado and Stonehenge. Pvp offers an alternate path for obtaining end game quality epic gear through the use of a special currency awarded when competing in mini games. Killing another player also grants pvp experience for purchasing new unique outfits. All mini games are made up of three faction specific teams, the players for the teams are pulled from specific battle groups. Battle groups are based on which server you are on, currently there are only two battle groups.

Stonehenge is a king of the hill style map, with five person teams.

El Dorado is a murder ball mini game, with ten person teams. The teams battle over four relics, each relic will grant one point every few seconds. Hold all four relics will start a two minute victory counter.

Fusang is a persistent battlefield that has several bases that can be captured from the other teams, or defended against capture. Each base as a PvE element to it in the form of NPC defenders, namely a sentry turret that guards the entrance and a custodian that guards the base. Both need to be defeated before the base can change hands. Fights that happen in Fusang are rarely even, its usually 1 vs 25 depending on the time of day. Fusang features four side item missions that can be completed for regular experience: Capture a facility, Capture an anima well, Kill 10 players and activate your factions patrolling custodian. The patrolling custodian is granted to the team with the least amount of players.



Achievements and Lore
The game has a ton of achievements for doing things like killing a type of creature 10,000 times or finishing all the missions in a region. Lore appear as yellow honeycomb boxes and help to tell the story of the region you're in.


Your First Build
I will not tell you which two weapons will make the best combo for finishing all the solo or group content in the game, instead I am going to give some of the concepts that many of us follow to create successful builds:
  • The ability wheel has a search feature, that can search for key terms inside of the ability descriptions. So if you need a hinder, search for hinder. If you need passives to go along with burst abilities, search for burst.
  • You need a builder ability that builds resources for both of your equipped weapons.
  • You need a consumer for each weapon that uses resources.
  • Having some form of AoE will help out a ton, either as a builder or consumer.
  • Most mobs have some sort of gimmick that either makes them easier to kill, or gives them a bonus that makes them harder to kill. Take a second and review their buffs before you engage them, and make sure your build exploits their weakness and avoids their strengths. An example is bugs in Shadowy Forest that will afflict you, if you afflict them.
  • Having some sort of survivability can help out in a pinch, most weapons have some sort of sustained defense to protect yourself or the ability to heal damage. But the best defense is a good offense, and that holds very true in The Secret World.
  • Having a buffer of extra hit points can help out a lot, this is even more true when you get into the QL10 blue and purple gear, that no longer has health built into it.
  • Which passives you take can be the hardest part of putting a build together:
  • Things like Lick Your Wounds, Advantage Me and Immortal Spirit can provide the passive healing to keep your health topped off so you can move onto the next fight.
  • Additional damage through extra hits like Sudden Return, Arterial Pulse and One in the Chamber can help eat through mobs, if you have the stats to trigger the effects constantly.
  • A good portion of abilities have a passive that is unique to them; Safety Off has Extra Bullet, One-Two has Follow Through, and such. Consider taking these if they will help you in one way or another.
  • The Exposed debuff which can be applied by hammers, blades and chaos will help take down mobs faster. The Debilitate debuff will cause mobs to hit for less, which will let you last longer. Both are good options for harder fights. Use the search function to see what applies them.

Ask in mumble, in game, on the offsite forums or in this thread if you need help putting together an effective build.

Variable Haircut fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Dec 7, 2016

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Variable Haircut
Jan 25, 2012
The Secret World is game by Funcom, the company that botched the Age of Conan release. Though not on the magnitude of Conan, this game does have its faults, but it also has some real charm that is rarely seen in single player RPGs, let alone in MMOs. The single player content is top notch: memorable characters, impressive settings, rich lore and back story, and great voice acting. Group-wise, TSW has some of the best dungeons ever made.

:siren:The game no longer has a subscription fee, pay once and play forever.:siren:

72 Trials are available. Ask for a referral key in this thread, usually takes a couple hours for someone to toss one out. If you complete 30 missions while on the trial you get an additional 48 hours, plus 1200 Funcom points as a bonus to spend in their cash shop.

How to play with goons
We have a mumble server: east1.voice.enjin.com port 60419 (join The Lonely Holla Hole)
We have a channel in game: /chat join awful (Due to FunCompetence, you have to log back into the channel every time you log in or change zones, unless you use a work around)

Because there is no longer an organized goon presence in TSW; here are a few pubbie channels that are goon approved: (Thank you Fewd for the info on these channels)

#noobmares - A channel that is better then the Agartha LFG channel to get help running the early Nightmare content.
#sanctuary - Global help channel.


Returning Players
The game has had several content updates since launch, called Issues. These updates bring a handful of new missions, an aux weapon, ability balances/nerfs, and bug fixes. There have also been some seasonal events: one during Halloween, one during the prophesied Mayan end of days and one during the one year anniversary.

New Aux Weapons: Mostly they bring a heavy hit or some utility to your deck and the missions to acquire these are easily completable in QL 10 greens. These weapons do not use your typical 7/7 deck space, instead they have their own 8th slots. There is a Rocket Launcher, a Chainsaw, the Quantum Bracer, and a Whip. It costs 35 SP to purchase the weapon skill, and each active and passive ability is 50 AP. The Rocket Launcher is a good initial investment, because it brings a dash without sacrificing your ability to heal, hit or tank.

Issues 1 through 4 had a mix of stand alone missions, while issues 5 through 7 feature connected mission arcs revolving around the events leading up to the Tokyo expansion. Most of these missions are QL 10, and the new mission arcs from Issues 5 and on reward signet bags when complete, including a blue signet bag when you finish the entire arc.

For end game content; every dungeon now has a Nightmare mode, the lairs now have daily repeatable missions that reward decent exp and the lair piece of your choice, and two raids have been added. The NY raid is on a 72 hour cooldown timer, and the lair raid is on a 16 hour cooldown timer requires pieces collected from region bosses to access.

Most abilities have received a damage nerf or buff; however, only a couple abilities have actually changed their functions. Some notable changes include the ability to apply Exposed from Hammer, Blades and Chaos, and the ability to reliably apply major ward from inner wheel Blade, Chaos and Hammer elite passives.

Useful Links
https://everythingisgoon.enjin.com This is the legacy forum we used during launch; however, it has not been updated in over a year. You can join if you want.
https://unfair.co - Spoilers and solutions for the games missions.
Here is a discussion about tanking, a good read for new and vet tanks.

Useful Add-ons
Eth's Buff Bars
Eth's Ultimate Crafter
Viper's Top Bar Overload
Viper's Deck Manager
Viper's Cast Bar Relocator
Misata's Advanced Inventory Sorting
Aedani's Combat Statistics

Frequently Asked Questions
How does the subscription, Buy to Play, pay to win and all that jazz work?
Buy to Play
When you purchase The Secret World you have access to easily over 95% of the content in the game including the story line through all the zones, the entire ability wheel minus some auxiliary weapons, PVP and full access to the end game gear grind. Rather then make a long list of what is included in the base game, I will detail what IS behind a pay wall.

Cash Shop
The in game cash shop is largely for cosmetic items, a few DLC packs that contain small but amazing story arcs and some experience boosters that can give you a helping hand when starting out. Some can argue there is a little pay to win in the shop, but I see it more as pay to remove the grind for experience. You can not purchase something in the shop that will make you better then someone else, only prettier.

Subscriptions
Being a subscriber gives you a 10% discount in the store, a monthly cosmetic item (like the horsehead from May), $10 in Funcom Points to spend in the store and an hour long experience booster that can be used once per day.

Lifetime subscriptions are also available for $200, and grant a 20% discount in the store.

Being a subscriber also gives early access to new content and access to the test servers.

Downloadable Content (DLC)
Known as Issues, each contains a series of missions that explore the story and the events the lead up to the Tokyo expansion. Issue's 6 and 7 have unique auxiliary weapons only available through the DLC.

To get the most out of the game you do not have to subscribe, the DLC is optional and can be purchased without a subscription.

Which dimension/server should I choose?
Goons originally joined on the Grim dimension. You can do all of the PvE content with anyone, regardless of the dimension they are on. Cabals are not dimension specific. The PvP battle group you belong to is determined by your dimension.

I feel I chose the wrong abilities, should I restart?
No, do not start over because of poor ability choices early on. With the ability to repeat missions for experience and how much more experience that gets awarded in Egypt and Transylvania compared to Solomon Island, restarting just to correct an ability choice is not required. There will come a point when having the flexibility of changing weapons and passives becomes very convenient, so just consider your mistakes an investment into your future.

How do I make it so I don't have to type /chat join awful every twenty seconds?
The Secret World has the ability to auto execute scripts at both login and after zone changes. You need to create two extensionless files (ImmaDocument vs ImmaDocument.txt) with the following inside them:

code:
delay 5000

/chat join awful
/chat list awful
Save them as auto_login and auto_teleport in your scripts folder (Typically found here: \Funcom\The Secret World\Scripts}. To leave out the .txt extension on a PC I used notepad to create, when saving encase the file name in quotes (i.e. "auto_login"). To save a couple keystrokes you can create one and make a copy then rename it. Any slash command can be added to these scripts, I use /logcombat on so I can review logs using a parser later if I want.

There is a post on the offsite forums, here, if you want to learn more or just download already created files.

How do I get my horse mask?
Unfortunately, the horse mask was a reward for being a subscriber during the month of May '13. There is an option in the cash shop for a Unicorn Vestige, which is a white horse head with a glowing horn.

Which servers belong to which battlegroup?
Group A
Grim
Drac
Arcadia
Cerberus

Group B
Daemon
Kobold
Leviathan
Huldra

General PvE Progression
This is a rough guide, and only aims to steer you in the right direction. Following the storyline will lead you along the same path. When you defeat the gatekeeper, your officially flagged to run the Nightmare version of dungeons.
  • Create Character, tutorial, Kingsmouth (QL1-3), Polaris Normal (QL3)
  • Savage Coast (QL 4-5) and Hell Raised Normal (QL 5)
  • Blue Mountain (QL 6) and Darkness War Normal (QL 6)
  • Scorched Desert (QL 7-8) and Ankh Normal (QL 8)
  • City of the Sun God (QL 9) and Hell Fallen (QL 9)
  • Besieged Farmlands (QL 10) and The Facility Elite (QL 10)
  • Shadowy Forest (QL 10) and Hell Eternal Elite (QL 10)
  • Carpathian Fangs (QL 10) and Slaughterhouse Elite (QL 10)
  • Complete all Elite Dungeons
  • Defeat the Gatekeeper

Variable Haircut fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Jan 31, 2015

orcane
Jun 13, 2012

Fun Shoe
Hurray for horse masks. And finally, no more chaos/blade build suggestions :woop:

May I suggest the following sites for the "useful links" section:

Theorycraft your own deck (ability descriptions may be outdated)
http://www.badomens.net/calculator
http://www.drakkashi.com/secretworld/wheel.php
http://thesecretsandbox.com/Deck/

Glyph/gear calculators (for endgame purposes)
http://joakibj.com/tswcalc/
http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=57674 (standalone gear planner)

orcane fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Jun 3, 2013

guppy
Sep 21, 2004

sting like a byob
Good OP, I love the prominence of horseface. Two things I noticed:

- You probably don't want to post the Mumble server info, leave that to the offsite forum. This one is publicly viewable. People shouldn't be getting on the Mumble server until they've been vetted and supplied the passphrase.

- A tip for newbie deck building: don't ever base your build, either solo or group builds, around exploiting Hindered or Impaired. In group's you can't use them at all because they prevent the tank from interrupting, but even in solo play, Hinders and Impairs are either unreliable (e.g., proc chance) or on long cooldowns/Elites.

orcane
Jun 13, 2012

Fun Shoe
I think the consensus on the Mumble info was that it's no big deal (and you can actually find it on public Enjin sites anyway) and might actually lead to more people joining it. It's not like we have to be afraid of a mass invasion of pubbies telling us what terrible people we are like in certain other games.

Zephonith
Jun 25, 2008

Maybe if I actually played Mafia, I'd get a better gift from my Mafia Secret Santa. :(

guppy posted:

- A tip for newbie deck building: don't ever base your build, either solo or group builds, around exploiting Hindered or Impaired. In group's you can't use them at all because they prevent the tank from interrupting, but even in solo play, Hinders and Impairs are either unreliable (e.g., proc chance) or on long cooldowns/Elites.
A good thing about Hinder is that it will proc even if the target is resistant to it, but that's getting removed in 1.7 I think. I've seen a few builds which use the Close Quarters passive and rely on that. I found Hinder (mostly Whiteout/Coldwave/Sticky Drone) useful for soloing until Transylvania, where a lot of mobs are resistant to it.

Iymarra
Oct 4, 2010




Survived AGDQ 2018 Awful Games block!
Grimey Drawer
Last time I played this was during the End of Days event, enjoyed the ARG but never saw the ingame event through completion (i.e, the contest to kill the most Mayans) - was pleasantly surprised to find out that they gave everyone the hatchling and title.

Query on that - do you guys know if the hatchling is claimable on multiple characters, including characters made after the aforementioned event?
Further query - do we still have the organised clanthing - cabals, I think?

Conskill
May 7, 2007

I got an 'F' in Geometry.

guppy posted:

- A tip for newbie deck building: don't ever base your build, either solo or group builds, around exploiting Hindered or Impaired. In group's you can't use them at all because they prevent the tank from interrupting, but even in solo play, Hinders and Impairs are either unreliable (e.g., proc chance) or on long cooldowns/Elites.

My main soloing deck is a Hinder build, which so far (early City of the Sun God) has only let me down twice due to Hinderance-immune creatures. It's doable solo at the newbie level.

I'm looking to eventually find some other gimmick for myself, though, since I've heard they become more prominent as time goes on.

Variable Haircut
Jan 25, 2012

Innerguard posted:

Query on that - do you guys know if the hatchling is claimable on multiple characters, including characters made after the aforementioned event?

Nope

Innerguard posted:

Further query - do we still have the organised clanthing - cabals, I think?

Yup

Harrow
Jun 30, 2012

That Illuminati picture is exquisite.

Fantastic Alice
Jan 23, 2012





Cross posting the blade chaos build from the last thread I guess. This is not a group build. It is a leveling build. You do not need to follow it exactly.

Toshimo posted:

Beginner Blade/Chaos Build

SP:
1 - Blade Damage
2 - Chaos Damage
3 - Major Talisman
4 - Minor Talisman
5 - Head Talisman
6 - Blade Survivability
7 - Chaos Survivability
Repeat 1-5 (not 6 and 7) until max.


AP:
1 - Delicate Strike
2 - Delicate Precision
3 - Balanced Blade
4 - Hand of Change
5 - Entropy
6 - Call for Eris
7 - Gnosis
8 - Escalation
9 - Intensity
10-11 - Expose Weakness
12-14 - Dancing Blade
15 - Immortal Spirit
16-19 - Sharp Blades
20-26 - Stunning Swirl
27 - Blade Torrent
28 - Perfect Storm
29-30 - Martial Discipline
31-33 - Regeneration
34-35 - Illusion
36-38 - Master of Illusions
39-42 - Paradox
43-49 - Probability
50-51 - Paradigm Shift
52-54 - Schism
55-58 - Chaos Adept
59-65 - Domino Effect
66-74 - Shaken Foundations
75-86 - Backlash
87-102 - Karma
103-111 - Sleight of Hand
112-123 - Unfair Advantage
124-139 - Turn the Tables

Start with Delicate Strike(DS) as your builder. It's pretty much the same as Hand of Change(HoC), but getting a Blade consumer first will be better.
Once you get Balanced Blade(BB), you can use that at the start of a fight for more damage. So, your fights will go BB->DS->Repeat. Balanced Blade doesn't scale well with extra resources.
Once you have Hand of Change, you'll probably never use Delicate Strike again. You can just take it right off your bar. It will generate both resources and it has a passive that makes it better.
Call for Eris (CfE) will be your first Chaos consumer. It gets exponentially better with more resources. So, you should go BB->HoCx5->CfE->Repeat. If you get penetrates for bonus Chaos resources, use CfE as soon as you hit 5 resources.
Once you have Escalation (E) and Intensity, you'll probably use that for a builder, even on single targets. It hits more often (5% less glance) and it applies Exposed, which is a Weaken that makes the enemy take more damage. This gives you a chance to do extra damage with Gnosis on every hit.
Next, you get Dancing Blade, which is marginally better single target damage than Balanced Blade. I'm not a fan of it, but you should give it a try to see how it works.
Next is Blade Torrent, which is a bad Escalation that you shouldn't use. And Martial Discipline which is a defensive cooldown which also gives significant healing with its passive.
We grab Illusion as a second cooldown and Paradox on our way to Probability which is your first Elite Passive. Don't bother using Paradox. It's not very good.

So, your bar should look like this after your first 42 AP.
Balanced Blade/Escalation/Call for Eris/Martial Discipline/Illusion/Dancing Blade
Immortal Spirit/Regeneration/Gnosis/Intensity/Master of Illusions/Probability

Grab Paradigm shift as a 7th passive. Your bars are now complete until you get Karma (replaces Dancing Blade), Turn the Tables (Replaces Call for Eris).

Congrats, you should be soloing your way to greatness (or at least until the middle of Blue Mountain).

Edit
This is considered bad advice so take this post with a grain pile of salt. I haven't even gotten to Blue Mountain so I'll deffer to the others here on and so should you.

Fantastic Alice fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Jun 4, 2013

Zephonith
Jun 25, 2008

Maybe if I actually played Mafia, I'd get a better gift from my Mafia Secret Santa. :(
From previous thread:

Zhaan posted:

Can I ask what the rest of the build is? I'm already gathering gear for a leech build, I might as well use it in more than dungeons.
It's AR/Ele, relying on Blaze-spam for damage and AR for healing and building.

Actives:
1. Safety Off
2. Anima Burst
3. Three Round Burst
4. Transfuse Anima/Shot of Anima
5. Lightning Manifestation
6. Blaze
7. Whiteout

Passives:

1. Extra Bullet
2. Anticoagulant
3. Ferocity
4. Aidelon
5. Insult to Injury
6. Healing Sparks
7. Forged in Fire (before I had this, it was Contortionist)

It's not the most practical of builds, because you need an Outer Ring Hammer elite and Outer Ring Elementalism elite, but it's pretty drat unkillable, no matter how much I try. The only real issue I have is that sometimes with the long range of AR, I hit Safety Off one time too many and pull a second mob, but it has enough healing that I can survive that as well. Every now and then I switch out the passives depending on what I'm fighting.

Cheston
Jul 17, 2012

(he's got a good thing going)
To anyone new, I regret to inform you that the Horse Head was only available for one month, as a subscriber item. You may have to content yourself with a Unicorn Head.

**Woah, the OP takes care of everything!

xanthan posted:

Cross posting the blade chaos build from the last thread I guess.

To every new player who will ask if they should use a specific build: You can level with anything, and on Solomon Island, you should level with anything, because your skill/ability point gain skyrockets once you reach Egypt. Mess around with stuff. Good combinations include Assault Rifles and anything.

Cheston fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Jun 4, 2013

GEMorris
Aug 28, 2002

Glory To the Order!

xanthan posted:

Cross posting the blade chaos build from the last thread I guess.

This wasn't in the new OP for a reason, which you could have discerned if you had read the new OP

guppy
Sep 21, 2004

sting like a byob

GEMorris posted:

This wasn't in the new OP for a reason, which you could have discerned if you had read the new OP

Don't be lovely. It's a perfectly fine build and there's no reason not to repost it, it's just not the only option.

Toshimo
Aug 23, 2012

He's outta line...

But he's right!

xanthan posted:

Cross posting the blade chaos build from the last thread I guess.

You are loving adorable.

Can I have your horse babies.

Cheston
Jul 17, 2012

(he's got a good thing going)

Toshimo posted:

Can I have your horse babies.

You can if you both subscribed in May!

Testlive info about 1.7: There's going to be a semi- (or very well-) hidden side mission in the 1.7 chain. Don't know yet if it's an equivalent to how you could get the Whip during Last Train to Cairo, but it seems like it.

Cheston fucked around with this message at 00:59 on Jun 4, 2013

Dreadwroth
Dec 12, 2009

by R. Guyovich
EDIT: Hey thanks for the invite! Back to stabbin zombies in their stupid faces.

Dreadwroth fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Jun 4, 2013

Conduit for Sale!
Apr 17, 2007

HughGRect posted:

Trials are available. Ask for a referral key in this thread, usually takes a couple hours for someone to toss one out.

How long is this trial?

GEMorris
Aug 28, 2002

Glory To the Order!

guppy posted:

Don't be lovely. It's a perfectly fine build and there's no reason not to repost it, it's just not the only option.

No, that build is pretty awful and more than one goon was rudely awakened when they tried to start doing group content and no one wanted to group with them.

That skill point plan is literally the worst advancement plan I have ever seen for this game.

GEMorris fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Jun 4, 2013

Reverend Dr
Feb 9, 2005

Thanks Reverend

guppy posted:

Don't be lovely. It's a perfectly fine build and there's no reason not to repost it, it's just not the only option.

That's the reason to not post it. People see only one build listed in the OP and the implication is that its either the only way to go, or its far superior to any other option. The build itself isn't completely horrible, but its not any better than any other inner circle builds for any other two weapons. We have had many people come in saying that they wanted to run other weapons but felt compelled because this one build was presented as the one build to rule them all and that is not a good thing.

It also doesn't help that every reason listed under "why blades/chaos/fist" is wrong or irrelevant and that "efficient SP spending" is anything but that.

Reverend Dr fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Jun 4, 2013

orcane
Jun 13, 2012

Fun Shoe

Conduit for Sale! posted:

How long is this trial?
72 hours: X6ZYGXC5UXK2FAJ6Q27N

Conduit for Sale!
Apr 17, 2007

orcane posted:

72 hours: X6ZYGXC5UXK2FAJ6Q27N

Thanks.

Gerbil2309
Nov 29, 2009
Is there a consensus on the use of Assault Rifles as a DPS option? I'm not terribly far in - just made it to Egypt - but I've been largely playing with an AR/Blood Leech build for soloing up to this point and healed dungeons. On the rare occasion that I have run dungeons as DPS, it really hasn't been pretty. I'm now moving towards putting together something similar to what is discussed here, but I thought I should check in and see whether I'm barking up the wrong tree before I get too far invested.

Amante
Jan 3, 2007

...


^^^
AR is actually the best DPS, especially combined with Shotgun.

Re: OP -- needs more Space Fixer. Rating: 9/10.

Amante fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Jun 4, 2013

Paxman
Feb 7, 2010

This game is a lot of fun and a nice change from endless WoW clones/DIKU muds.

Another small hint for newbies - get a second weapon as soon as you can and equip and learn a few skills in it. Don't try to specialise in one weapon and move on to a second later - that might seem sensible but it's not the way to go in this game.

You can't get your skills wrong, at least not as a newbie. Putting two or three points into the "wrong" skills might seem bad when you're just starting out but you'll get new skill points before you know it.

orcane
Jun 13, 2012

Fun Shoe

Gerbil2309 posted:

Is there a consensus on the use of Assault Rifles as a DPS option? I'm not terribly far in - just made it to Egypt - but I've been largely playing with an AR/Blood Leech build for soloing up to this point and healed dungeons. On the rare occasion that I have run dungeons as DPS, it really hasn't been pretty. I'm now moving towards putting together something similar to what is discussed here, but I thought I should check in and see whether I'm barking up the wrong tree before I get too far invested.
What were your problems in dungeons? And what build were you using for assault rifle DPS? You can use it with basically everything (especially in below-nightmares content) so if you want to make an AR-blood build go ahead.

Len
Jan 21, 2008

Pouches, bandages, shoulderpad, cyber-eye...

Bitchin'!


Paxman posted:

You can't get your skills wrong, at least not as a newbie. Putting two or three points into the "wrong" skills might seem bad when you're just starting out but you'll get new skill points before you know it.

To elaborate on this it might seem like you've spent your points badly because at first xp doesn't flow but power on, ask goons for dungeon runs, and then you'll get to the places where the game shits xp all over you.

Dreadwroth
Dec 12, 2009

by R. Guyovich

Paxman posted:

This game is a lot of fun and a nice change from endless WoW clones/DIKU muds.

Another small hint for newbies - get a second weapon as soon as you can and equip and learn a few skills in it. Don't try to specialise in one weapon and move on to a second later - that might seem sensible but it's not the way to go in this game.

You can't get your skills wrong, at least not as a newbie. Putting two or three points into the "wrong" skills might seem bad when you're just starting out but you'll get new skill points before you know it.
You absolutely need to dual-wield or you will probably be quitting pretty fast out of frustration.
I think you can pick up a second weapon in the training room during the intro questline.
Blades is usually a solid choice, it has a ton of aoe and defensive abilities, and it pairs well with healing weapons like fists. Well that's what I'm using anyway.

Dreadwroth fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Jun 4, 2013

Pewdiepie
Oct 31, 2010

This game is one of the most repetitive and deserted MMOs I've played. Does the combat ever move beyond use building attack 5 times then use different attack?

Saltpowered
Apr 12, 2010

Chief Executive Officer
Awful Industries, LLC

swamp izzo posted:

This game is one of the most repetitive and deserted MMOs I've played. Does the combat ever move beyond use building attack 5 times then use different attack?

You're summed up most MMO's with this. There are very few classes in current MMOs that don't have a major class feature like combo points. There's plenty of other things that you will have to do in combat later. Debuffing, cleansing, staying out of lots of bad things, positioning, etc. like most other games. Different weapon types have their points work differently as well. Melee weapons build points on you when you attack, guns build them on each target, and magic builds on you but doesn't always consume every point with every attack. There are some other nuances such as blood having blood sacrifice to manage.

For as much as the game excels in many, many ways (storytelling, dungeon design, quest structure), the combat is pretty lackluster at times. Things get much better with interesting Nightmare bosses but the basic builder/finisher dynamic doesn't change.

guppy
Sep 21, 2004

sting like a byob

Reverend Dr posted:

That's the reason to not post it. People see only one build listed in the OP and the implication is that its either the only way to go, or its far superior to any other option. The build itself isn't completely horrible, but its not any better than any other inner circle builds for any other two weapons. We have had many people come in saying that they wanted to run other weapons but felt compelled because this one build was presented as the one build to rule them all and that is not a good thing.

It also doesn't help that every reason listed under "why blades/chaos/fist" is wrong or irrelevant and that "efficient SP spending" is anything but that.

I'm not suggesting that it be in the OP, I'm suggesting that there's nothing wrong with posting it.

Amante
Jan 3, 2007

...


In theory, there's nothing wrong with putting a couple of suggested builds in the OP for new people who feel completely directionless. The most important part is making it clear that you can't really make any wrong choices with the skill wheel. Any weapon combo works for leveling, and the game outright throws free points at you by the time you're midway through Egypt.

The problem with Mayushit's OP was that he posited Blades/Chaos as the one true leveling build, as if it was the best (or even only) option. Hilariously, Blades/Chaos doesn't even touch the top three most efficient solo/leveling builds.

But that's part of the fun. You can do almost anything for leveling and have fun with it. Builds only start to become a real consideration when you're dipping into Nightmare missions/dungeons. One of the few things with the skill system Funcom actually did right.

Amante fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Jun 4, 2013

rizzen
Apr 25, 2011

So I haven't played this since the beta, is it worth picking up now? I remember the combat being pretty lackluster, but the lore and story stuff being top notch? The OP does a nice job of getting me interested again, but I thought I'd ask this anyways.

GEMorris
Aug 28, 2002

Glory To the Order!

guppy posted:

I'm not suggesting that it be in the OP, I'm suggesting that there's nothing wrong with posting it.

Its terrible information that leads new players to making bad decisions, it should be derided and anyone not familiar with the game should be warned that it is terrible advice.

Sandwich Anarchist
Sep 12, 2008

Conskill posted:

My main soloing deck is a Hinder build, which so far (early City of the Sun God) has only let me down twice due to Hinderance-immune creatures. It's doable solo at the newbie level.

I'm looking to eventually find some other gimmick for myself, though, since I've heard they become more prominent as time goes on.

That won't really hold up once you hit transylvania, if it's anything like it was on release. You pretty much need to have some kind of survivability based deck to stand a chance. That place was a huge meatgate for alot of people around release time.

Nostalgia4ColdWar
May 7, 2007

Good people deserve good things.

Till someone lets the winter in and the dying begins, because Old Dark Places attract Old Dark Things.
...

Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 04:27 on Mar 31, 2017

Zephonith
Jun 25, 2008

Maybe if I actually played Mafia, I'd get a better gift from my Mafia Secret Santa. :(
Oh yeah, this is a link of all the crafting recipes available. The game doesn't really tell you what the deal is with some of these (gadgets I'm looking at you), so I found this really useful for reference. http://yokaiblog.wikidot.com/guides:craft-patterns

Cheston
Jul 17, 2012

(he's got a good thing going)

rizzen posted:

So I haven't played this since the beta, is it worth picking up now? I remember the combat being pretty lackluster, but the lore and story stuff being top notch? The OP does a nice job of getting me interested again, but I thought I'd ask this anyways.

From what I understand, combat improved quite a bit towards the (very) end of beta, but it is still definitely the game's weakest link. The boss fights do make the most of it though- a lot of them are very active, emphasizing movement, dodging, and such. Anything good you heard about lore and story is probably true.

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Toshimo
Aug 23, 2012

He's outta line...

But he's right!

GEMorris posted:

Its terrible information that leads new players to making bad decisions, it should be derided and anyone not familiar with the game should be warned that it is terrible advice.

You seem pretty upset about this, bro. Tell me more about how it should be derided. Give me the hot, sweaty details.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

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