The Secret World

I paid full price at thesecretworld.com and all I got was some p*ssy (cat) and a pre-order t-shirt...

TheArtOfScience wrote:

I'm having an odd issue with this game: Abilities too good to not have.

Right now I've got 3 abilities that perform so well I honestly can't justify NOT having them when I'm doing high end content. Every time I try to switch it up I find myself missing these three abilities and I always end up going back to them whenever I am in Transylvania.

The three abilities are:

1. Escalation - Chaos inner ring active. This is a well known "must have" ability and I think it's got to be nerfed soon. It applies debilitate weakness on hit (without needing a passive), hit's for AoE with nice damage, and generates extra hate. There's honestly no need to put another AoE builder on your ability bar. About 99% of my builds these days are something + Chaos because Escalation is just so damned good.

2. Forged in Fire - Hammer 50pt Elite Passive. This passive heals you over time for 40% of your total hitpoints whenever you go under 50% life. It can only occur once every 70 or 90 seconds (can't remember offhand) and it is so powerful. Walking around with 4.5k hitpoints and you add Forged in the mix and suddenly you have over 6k effective hpts without nerfing your attack rating. This ability has not left my bar since the moment I unlocked it.

3. Bloodsport - Outer ring 16pt (I think) Fist passive - ALL hits cause affliction. This is such an easy way to create synergy and buff DPS that the only time it's worth removing is when the enemy resists affliction or procs something nasty off affliction. Even if you don't slot passives for synergy with affliction it's still worth it just for the added DPS.

That's the great thing about this game. Every time I try to run a general purpose solo build that uses Escalation, I find it lacking. I'm also not using Forged in Fire very often either. But Bloodsport, yeah, that's in basically every build I use.

The problem I have with Forged in Fire is that I'm either fighting mobs that I can burn down without it triggering, or I'm fighting mobs that will trigger it every time, which means I'm waiting on its 75 sec cooldown to be up before moving to the next fight. Whereas if I slot some heal rating and use either an AR or Blood self-heal consumer in my rotation, individual fights take longer but a series of them takes less time overall. There are still some times where I use Forged in Fire but it's very situational for me.

I haven't been able to have much success with Escalation in my solo builds either. I find that I lose so much DPS from Escalation compared to a single target builder like Grass Cutter (which does extra damage to afflicted targets) or Safety Off + Extra Bullet, that the buff from the Exposed debuff just makes it a wash at best. Or when I need an AoE builder I'd usually rather use Forking Paths and get the self-heal. But I think I need to do some more unlocking of abilities in Chaos and keep trying combos here.

I like 12 Gouge more than Escalation, especially since I can use it with any weapon. When I'm fighting mobs with 15k health, I can't just burn them down with the attack rating and health bar that's available to me in green/blue world/quest gear. Since mobs have lower DPS and higher health than me, reducing their DPS by 30% from debilitate gives me a greater increase in time to live than increasing my DPS by 30% reduces time to kill. Of course you can have both kinds of weaken in one build... like I said, I'm working on unlocking some more stuff in the Chaos outer ring to try that out. Then maybe Escalation will become a must have for me.

This looks like it might be a wall o' text so fair warning.

Right now I'm using:

Escalation
Grass Cutter
Reality Fracture
Brandish
Stunning Swirl (I switch this out for mobs that don't react nicely to Impair)
Chaotic Pull (this is a utility slot and I change it up quite often)
Turn the Tables

Bloodsport - Causes Affliction
Dark Potency - Affliction Causes +Pen
Body Piercing - Pen causes +Pen
Iron Maiden -Pen on afflicted target causes +Pen
Accuracy - Extra flat 5% damage
Lethality -Each attack +1% damage stacks to 10%
Forged in Fire - extra 40% hitpoints

Right now this is my "all-purpose" build that I use to quest in Transylvania so I use it vs normal and Nightmare mobs. Hear are some thoughts on why I have the abilities that I have.

Escalation = Yes it does less DPS than grass cutter but it is an AoE and that is very important to me. Why? Because I can *always* hit with it. If I am fighting a single Nightmare mob I will build with Grass Cutter for the extra DPS but vs groups it is my highest priority to begin applying weaken to them immediately. Take, for instance, the werewolf + 2/3 wolf groups in Farmlands. I can't afford to just eat all that dps to take them out one at a time so I will target the nightmare mob and drop escalations then lay down a reality fracture. I follow that up with Brandish which is a single target blade consumer that reduced damage taken to me during the focus attack. Using this method I take the non-Nightmare mobs out very quickly and I minimize the amount of damage I've taken up front.

Another thing to note is that with a PbAoE I can _always_ hit. With mobs that do a bunch of AoE's I find having a PBAoE very useful for maintaining DPS while I move. Grass Cutter requires the mob to be in front of you so I always want to have an attack that I can apply as I maneuver out of the AoE's. Reality Fracture is also nice in that I can drop it at a mobs feet and run away as they channel keeping the DPS going.

Forged in Fire - Regarding the 70 second cooldown I have not had an issue with this. I never even check to see if the CD is up. Generally speaking vs weak mobs they either don't get me down low enough for it to kick in but it is a great "oh sh*t" ability for adds. It's also awesome for those fights where there are waves that barely give you time to recover. I've even had some boss fights (vs dungeon bosses I was trying to solo) where I've had TWO Forged in Fire's go off during the same fight! (yeah long fights lol)

Vs Nightmare mobs forged in fire is pretty much the only ability that allows me to fight multiple Nightmare mobs without being on the brink of death by the end of the fight. I'm in all green/blue drops as well so Nightmare mobs are very nontrivial for me to fight and Forged in Fire gives me the best bang for my buck out of all the passives.

Obviously with my build a lot of my DPS is coming from Penetrating hits and I've tried swapping out different passives for all of those +pen passives but I find that I would much rather get more penetrating hits than have a small debuff or heal applied to the hits I do make. I'm sure there is a better passive setup but this is working pretty nicely for me now so I'm following the 'if it aint broke" school of thought.

A lot of this relies on gear as well. I'm running around with about 4.2k HP and about 1.5k AR right now so your mileage may very. I find it fascinating that the gear changes dynamics so much. For instance a build that you kick ass with may be complete sh*t to me because I have more/less hp or more/less attack rating.

Sorry for rambling. I'm bored as hell at work.

I've played a very, very trivial amount of this game but am loving the setting. It's like they made a game out of The Invisibles. Then again, The Invisibles was much like The Illuminatus Trilogy! in that it took sex, drugs, occult study and just about every conspiracy theory, put em in a blender and spit out a book.

This is the first MMO world that actually interests me. Bye bye generic fantasy worlds. (Well, until Guild Wars 2 hits.)

I thought this was pretty cool, someone extracted the loading screens.

Tannhauser wrote:

I thought this was pretty cool, someone extracted the loading screens.

Ooo, nice find!

This game really needs a group finder for dungeons, etc.

El-Producto wrote:

This game really needs a group finder for dungeons, etc.

Absolutely. I have run two dungeons so far. Pretty much given up on puggin them.

I'm loving the atmosphere so far, but for me it really lacks that "carrot". The questing in Kingsmouth is really uneven, you can go from an easy quest to an impossible quest quite easily. The motivation to keep going just isn't there for me, combine that with a lack of dungeon/group finder and I don't see myself subbing past the first month. I will likely resub once they fix a bunch of stuff, but it just seems unfinished to me.

El-Producto wrote:

I'm loving the atmosphere so far, but for me it really lacks that "carrot". The questing in Kingsmouth is really uneven, you can go from an easy quest to an impossible quest quite easily. The motivation to keep going just isn't there for me, combine that with a lack of dungeon/group finder and I don't see myself subbing past the first month. I will likely resub once they fix a bunch of stuff, but it just seems unfinished to me.

It's missing a few major systems found in other MMOs, for sure, but unfinished couldn't be further from the truth from my perspective. And while it's not a great answer, or one the dev would relay, just go exploring if you hit a hump. There are loads of sidequests to be had, most on main paths to and fro regular quest givers, some near quest objectives, and a few off the beaten path.

El-Producto wrote:

I'm loving the atmosphere so far, but for me it really lacks that "carrot". The questing in Kingsmouth is really uneven, you can go from an easy quest to an impossible quest quite easily. The motivation to keep going just isn't there for me, combine that with a lack of dungeon/group finder and I don't see myself subbing past the first month. I will likely resub once they fix a bunch of stuff, but it just seems unfinished to me.

The thing you want to grok to really enjoy this questing model, is that it's not a hub and spoke design. If you pick up quests in the area from where you finished one (just look around, it's set up so that it's rare you can't do this) then you will stay on track with difficulty. If you try to just go back and forth from the hub, like we've all been trained to, yeah the difficulty is jumpy.

@TheArtOfScience

Again with the great allowance for playstyle differences I can't imagine using Blade and not having Clearing the Path slotted, so I can use its guaranteed penetrate on afflicted mobs.(except of course when fighting the stuff in Transylvania that procs back at you if you afflict them).

You know Body Piercing and Dark Potency together will just build up a stack of 5 +Pen rating faster than one alone but won't stack beyond that? I think you could slot something else instead of one of them and be better off. Like 12 Gouge -- I use it combined with Clearing the Path and Four Seasons (against mobs that don't proc back at you on Impair) for the guaranteed penetrate stacks of debilitate.

I agree with you on AoE builders and how convenient they are when running a melee weapon. I just haven't found Escalation worthwhile over Forking Paths usually. If I'm using leeches in my build though I run some heal rating (and no health, just AR and heal) so if you're always gearing just AR and a bit of health, you won't like it as much.

With Forged in Fire, I totally agree and will slot it if I'm going to have to deal with adds, especially Nightmare adds. It's awesome when I'm repeating something like "Too Deep". But that's situational and not general purpose IMO. If it's not being triggered every fight, I want to slot something else. Usually I wind up with Flight of Daggers as my elite passive.

How's the DPS on Reality Fracture? Is it comparable to pre-nerf Crimson Theatre? If so that might be why I'm always finding Chaos kinda lacking when I try it; I haven't unlocked that yet. I really need to unlock some outer circle Chaos stuff and try your build out.

I think I may have played too much TSW last night as

Spoiler:

today, for the first time in my life, I have an intense craving for honey, the real stuff too not that corn syrup crap.

OK, I need some assistance. I'm a very casual MMO'er, and this one is way over my head. It doesn't do a very good job of explaining the game mechanics. I'm about 14 hours in, and still questing around Kingsmouth. I really have no idea how to gauge my progress. I hear lots of talk about QL3, and I understand that means the level of your gear. How does one get better gear? I rarely get any gear drops from mobs, is it through crafting?

Funny you should mention that Strekos because I just switched Body Piercing out last night.

At one point I counted 15 penetrating hits in a row vs Shadowy Forest Mobs and I figured that my pen chance was high enough and I could get some better functionality. I switched it out for "Twist the Knife" which gives me a 3% damage buff for each penetration stacking 3 times for a 9% damage buff. With 10% from lethality and 5% from accuracy that gives me an average damage bonus of 28% when all the buffs are up, pretty snazzy!

The DPS on RF is decent. The nice things are that it is A) a hate building ability which comes in handy during some quests or when I'm trying to rescue someone or in an impromptu group and B) it's a ground targeted AoE DoT that I can lay on the ground and it will continue to apply damage. I like dropping it at the feet of a mob that is casting.

El-Producto wrote:

OK, I need some assistance. I'm a very casual MMO'er, and this one is way over my head. It doesn't do a very good job of explaining the game mechanics. I'm about 14 hours in, and still questing around Kingsmouth. I really have no idea how to gauge my progress. I hear lots of talk about QL3, and I understand that means the level of your gear. How does one get better gear? I rarely get any gear drops from mobs, is it through crafting?

Crafting is the easiest way, though you will need crafting kits of the appropriate level. Crafting materials shouldn't really be an issue since you can (and should) disassemble most items items you find.

Gear DOES drop, but it happens more rarely than in most other mmo's. Typically, the stronger the enemies the higher the likelyhood of them dropping gear. The Hulking Masses and Unstable Hulks on Priest Island in northern Kingsmouth have the best drop rates I've seen in Kingsmouth, and they drop weapons, talismans and kits. The best gear will come from the Polaris dungeon, but finding a group to go can be a bit of hassle sometimes.

You can also buy weapons from the Council Of Venice envoys. That's how I stayed geared up for most of the game. Once I got into mid-Egypt I started getting a lot more weapons drops. At least that was my perception.

*edit Oh, and they've added an auction house that you can access in London if you just want to buy your weapons.

I just use the auction house in London if I'm not up to snuff from quest and mob drops. Haven't crafted once yet. I guess that's irresponsible since I have so many damn crafting items. I'll do that the next time I want new gear. It's not like I'm using the materials for anything but a dust gatherer.

Looks like the early take on the money making saide of TSW is not so good

I hope the smaller but very interested base keeps this from going F2P for at least a year.

And why was it getting butchered by the reviewers? Aggregate of 72 is nuts! As in, I wouldn't touch a 72 metacritic game with a 10-foot pole. Why does TSW have 72?

MoonDragon wrote:

And why was it getting butchered by the reviewers? Aggregate of 72 is nuts! As in, I wouldn't touch a 72 metacritic game with a 10-foot pole. Why does TSW have 72?

Bugs. Not WoW. Etc.

Some of it has to do with reviews like this, which were based on the beta and are filled with objectively wrong information.

Tannhauser wrote:

Some of it has to do with reviews like this, which were based on the beta and are filled with objectively wrong information.

Forget the beta, that was a poorly written review. Very poor.

G4 wrote:

But who in their right mind wants to exit a game, visit Google and look up a passage? It interrupts gameplay and just feels like lazy design.

Me!

That is an awful review.

Yeah, I can't believe they left that up; not even an editor's note. Sad to hear the game isn't performing to their standards. I just hope there's no negative side effect for the players.

Anyone know if they're giving Steam codes to pre-existing customers? I've heard that Valve makes those available without charging the developer.

cyrax wrote:

Anyone know if they're giving Steam codes to pre-existing customers? I've heard that Valve makes those available without charging the developer.

They do not as of yet and currently have no plans to do so, at least according to many posts on the official forums.

TrashiDawa wrote:
G4 wrote:

But who in their right mind wants to exit a game, visit Google and look up a passage? It interrupts gameplay and just feels like lazy design.

Me!

That is an awful review.

It is, and clearly regarding beta as release has a built in browser.

piss-poor voice acting

what? What game did I miss that set the voice acting bar so high?

That said the numbers Funcom mentions in that massively article seem rather ambitious and unrealistic for a niche setting mmo so I'm not terribly surprised that they're now realizing they won't meet them. I hope they don't just write it off as a failure as a result though :/

Anyone interested in doing instances tonight? This is last minute, so I figured I'd gauge interest. Ideally I'd like to do a handful later tonight, around 9 EST. I'd like to do DW, and maybe the earlier dungeons for the newer players, if they're around.

I haven't done DW yet, but I'd be willing to try.

If I'm on I'll help out.

I'd be interested, but as a newer player, I think I'm only ready for Polaris and Inferno at this point.