The Secret World

Cobble wrote:

50% off at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007VTVKG6/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk

15 bucks is well well well worth it for this gem of a game. 30 bucks is worth it. even the full 50 was worth it.

Yup, saw it, bought it, will download it, then play it. Eventually. When the pile lets me. And the wife and kids. Which never let me. The only downside is it doesn't activate on Steam. But if I work hard and get some professional help I think I can live through that tragedy.

DeThroned wrote:

So without having to read close to 50 pages of thread, can someone tell me pros and cons of the different factions? I probably could read about it myself but would rather see what the fine people of Goodjerdom think. I normally play a ranged class in MMOs, not sure if that matters. I am not sure how much I will be on to group with everyone so a solo-friendly class would be nice. Although I don't think there are classes .. or levels.

Uhm .. help? :)

Factions are minimally relevant; you can group with players from any faction. There are a couple of missions that are faction-specific, cabals (guilds) are limited to a single faction and you (obviously) fight for your faction in PvP but that's about it.

There are no classes so you can design your character however you like. There are 9 primary weapons (3 ranged, 3 melee and 3 magic) and (currently) 3 auxiliary weapons. You can train in any of them but can only have active abilities from 2 primary weapons available at a time. (You can have passives from as many as you like.) So it is possible to become ranged, melee, magic, dps, tank, support or any combination.

You don't have levels you just have skill and ability points. Skill points let you use higher quality weapons. Ability points let you use, well, abilities. There are a large number of abilities for each primary weapon.

This is a video I did of the intros for all of the factions (though for some reason I keep calling the Dragon the Templar through the whole thing) if you want to see what the factions look like without playing through all of them.

While there aren't classes per se, if you don't know where to start there is a rather large selection of predefined builds you can select in the skill window. They highlight the specific skills you need and reward you with a nifty cosmetic outfit for completing one. Many people work off these builds and customize them to their own needs and playstyle.

I became interested in this game the first time I saw screenshots on Dead End Thrills. The Amazon sale is just too cheap to pass up.

Bear in mind, the builds they give are essentially there to help people figure out how to combine weapons and passives. There are a huge number of different skills - nearly 600, I think - and many of those have dependencies on others. There are multiple types of skills that increase the power of other skills, there are groups skills and solo skills and passive and active effects and all sorts of things. As you learn more weapons, you open up their skill trees and can create different sets of skills and gear to play different roles for whatever situation you find yourself in.

It's a really good system.

Part 2 of the new ARG just went up...

http://situationroom.thesecretworld....

I'm extremely interested in the game but I have heard mixed reviews. Is this a game I should get into? I loved Rift, CoH, vanilla Wow, and STO. I dig the MMO genre but understand that the GUI and some of the controls are not well designed. I also have been hoping for a new MMO in a fairly new environment which Secret World seems to cover.

Blondish83 wrote:

I'm extremely interested in the game but I have heard mixed reviews. Is this a game I should get into? I loved Rift, CoH, vanilla Wow, and STO. I dig the MMO genre but understand that the GUI and some of the controls are not well designed. I also have been hoping for a new MMO in a fairly new environment which Secret World seems to cover.

Combat is fun and active. The class system is also very flexible! Quests are fun and the setting is definitely a breathe of fresh air. I really enjoyed my time. I only took a break because GW2 was coming out. I may jump in now that it is free. I was up in Transyvania pugging dungeons so maybe we have some higher guild numbers now

I think I'll pick it up and join the GWJ guild. I've always wanted to be a Templar...

I love this game so far! Very friendly community (on the server that starts with a C, I forget the name). I'm still learning and have not done much with the game yet but Kingsboro is scary! What a weird place

The game is far more about story and atmosphere than any other MMO I have seen. Yes there are "go kill x of y" quests but most of them are justified within the story. It's hard to compare it to other games out there. You really do need to read (or listen to) the quest text.

Also remember that you have investigation missions that require you to do out-of-game research; you have an in-game web browser for a reason.

Always move in combat. Always. Not just when you see the chalk lines on the ground.

If you want to try out a new ability before taking it, go to the training room for your faction and take it there. Unless something has changed you can swap new abilities while in there; your AP aren't permanently allocated until you leave.

And the GWJ guild seems inactive; at least I very rarely see anyone in it. Too bad; I'm in late Transylvania and could use some backup for a few of those quests. Plus I still haven't done half the dungeons.

For those of us who have been playing a while; should we set up a time and take a few of the newcomers through Polaris and Hell?

tanstaafl wrote:

For those of us who have been playing a while; should we set up a time and take a few of the newcomers through Polaris and Hell?

I have been playing casually and never got a chance to do either of those so I would be in for sure.

I'm in the guild; just not on much lately.

I don't find the GUI or controls to be bad; I think that's pretty subjective. It's skill system is unique, however, so experience in other games is not of much use.

I don't think I was ever in any of the guilds, but I've been playing pretty steadily this week. I've been off since GW2 dropped, though, and was rusty enough with how my abilities are supposed to interact that the high-level content was kicking my ass and I had to start a new character as a refresher.

Or, Ruhk, you could just start a new set of weapons and run the beginner areas again on your old character.

yeah I know, I've done that a couple of times already. This time I was stuck in the auxiliary weapon quest instance, though. The enemies were kicking my ass and there didn't appear to be any way of leaving the instance without clearing it. My choices came down to rolling a new toon or waiting half an hour for the cool down on my agartha portal.

One thing that I'm having issues with is the non-linearity (sure, it's a word) of the quests. I can go all over, it's great! But how do I know when I'm really done with a zone? I had the story take me out of the main zone and into the next but not sure I want to do that yet.

There are achievements associated with completing all quests in a zone, if you are really concerned with that, though be aware that all zones have a handful of quests and areas that are way beyond everything else in that zone (there are QL 10 areas in Kingsmouth). I'd say just follow the main storyline when you feel comfortable. You can always come back.

Picked this up over the weekend and am really enjoying it. If their is a guild, i'd be interested in joining.

Does anyone know of a good guide for crafting and modifying weapons? Haven't wrapped my head around that system yet.

IUMogg wrote:

Picked this up over the weekend and am really enjoying it. If their is a guild, i'd be interested in joining.

Does anyone know of a good guide for crafting and modifying weapons? Haven't wrapped my head around that system yet.

This helped for me:

http://www.tentonhammer.com/tsw/guid...

Can anyone suggest a good fist build? I want something similar to the Iron Fist comic character so I am thinking Chaos or Elementalism.

We also have an old and probably terribly out of date thread with players, cabal(guild) info, and resources here.

In terms of builds if you're totally lost the "my first 60" builds here tend to be decent; http://wordpress.tswguides.com/tsw-build-page/ , the "survival" builds there tend to be suitable for solo play. For fist/chaos for example there's this.
The main page there also has some great articles; http://wordpress.tswguides.com/why-cant-i-a-response-to-the-i-give-up-post/ , http://wordpress.tswguides.com/build-to-play-or-play-to-build/, among others.

My understanding is that most goodjers were on the Arcadia server/dimension but I think they've since implemented cross-server play so that may not be relevant anymore.

You've always been able to group cross-server. The only time you were restricted to your home dimension was Fusang and they've added (some) cross-server to that now.

krev82 wrote:

We also have an old and probably terribly out of date thread with players, cabal(guild) info, and resources here.

In terms of builds if you're totally lost the "my first 60" builds here tend to be decent; http://wordpress.tswguides.com/tsw-build-page/ , the "survival" builds there tend to be suitable for solo play. For fist/chaos for example there's this.
The main page there also has some great articles; http://wordpress.tswguides.com/why-cant-i-a-response-to-the-i-give-up-post/ , http://wordpress.tswguides.com/build-to-play-or-play-to-build/, among others.

My understanding is that most goodjers were on the Arcadia server/dimension but I think they've since implemented cross-server play so that may not be relevant anymore.

Thanks! Building my guy around that fist chaos build.

I'm on as "dethroned". I forget my server name but feel free to send me a whisper if you want. Not like I can answer any questions for you but I'll at least be friendly

(removed post) nevermind

I just jumped in Arcadia as complexmath. No idea what my play time will be like, but I'll be around if anyone else is just starting.

Just started Christmas day. Still loving Kingsmouth. If there's a GWJ Cabal invite "Sangwyn" please.

I'm really loving this mmo since figuring out the combat & deck building systems. My wife and my brother have been teaming up to clean up Kingsmouth, and it's very much a team friendly game. I wish I had given TSW a fair shake when I got it last summer, but it just didn't click with me at the time. Now it's all I want to play, and I'm ignoring winter sale games I just bought in order to run and rerun a few more missions. Will probably subscribe next week.

Running Man wrote:

Will probably subscribe next week.

I thought there was no more monthly fee anymore. What's the benifits of subscribing, and what is the cost?