The Secret World

Yeah, my experiment with blood magic didn't go over too well. It probalby would have paired better with shotgun instead of assault rifle. (especially with the passives I have setup) Exsanguinate was cool but not cool enough to justify the switch. I'll try pistols next.

I have a lot of things that weaken and because they weaken they do damage over time and afflict which causes something else (heal, increased crit or penetration). Or I have an elite that impairs and does extra damage, etc.

I am a fan of pistols. Good mid range and a lot of variety to suit the combay need (i.e. One dude, or mob)

Issue 7: A Dream to Kill is now live.

IMAGE(http://l3cdn.funcom.com/tsw/artworks/issue7.jpg)

The brand new story line in Issue #7 is not only full of plenty of new action filled missions, but also continues The Secret World’s main story line in Transylvania, and reveals significant details and important individuals crucial to the future of Gaia herself!

Play through the story and reveal new layers of depth and deception and get answers to old questions. This is one update you don’t want to miss!

In A Dream to Kill you can play out your secret agent fantasies. The story is full of mystery and intrigue, but you also get to go on a high speed and highly weaponized snowmobile chase through the Carpathian Fangs, blow up the Orochi Helicopters as you paraglide off an exploding bridge or escape from a devious villain in proper secret agent style, all while wearing your brand new tuxedo from the Item Shop.

This update lets you acquire and learn how to use the brutal Flamethrower Auxiliary Weapon. Get the parts needed from Vampire Hunter in the Besieged Farmlands and be on the lookout for a way to infuse the weapon with Anima so it can achieve its full power.

The Flamethrower is great for both doing damage to groups of enemies and for doing damage over time, but also has several other tricks up its sleeve, like slowing down opponents or covering an area in oil.

The story and finale in Issue #7 build on the main story line in The Secret World and set up the continuation in Tokyo. Filth from Tokyo is starting to leak into Agartha and threatens to corrupt the branches leading from the Tokyo portal and beyond. In the coming weeks and months the players will have to fight against the creatures of the filth to stem this tide of darkness. If the players are successful in this struggle the way to Tokyo will open.

I haven't played for a while; who's up for a run later this week?

Whoever recorded this has their graphics settings set way low...

On sale again today, jumping in! I haven't played an MMO since WoW so I'm kind of intrigued to jump in. Happy with the story-focus of the game, any actual multiplayer activity is just bonus for me. Is there a guild or something I should be joining?

Even if you don't end up playing it forever, there is a lot of game in there to play. I don't know if I will go back to it or when but I did enjoy many hours (60+) with it for sure.

Guilds aren't cross-faction so we never created one.

tanstaafl wrote:

Guilds aren't cross-faction so we never created one.

those of us at the start had one but not many folks any it

Was it Templar? I've been here since open beta and didn't know we had one. Of course, I'm a dirty Lumie...

tanstaafl wrote:

Was it Templar? I've been here since open beta and didn't know we had one. Of course, I'm a dirty Lumie...

naw Dragon

We have guilds cabals for all three factions. They even have their own thread, if memory serves me correctly.

As far as I know I'm still in the Templar cabal on my main.

I've been eyeing this since it's been a Steam Daily Deal and was considering getting into it since the theme interests me. Is all the content from Day 1 still playable? One thing that always bugged me about MMOs is old content being sunsetted and no longer available.

Yes, day 1 content is still playable.

In fact, one of the things they have been doing with later updates is giving more experienced players reasons to go back to the starter zones. So there are quests there that a starting player absolutely shouldn't try but all the original content is there as well.

Just picked it up in the Steam sale. Any tips to keep in mind for those of us just starting out?

MacGyverBomb wrote:

Just picked it up in the Steam sale. Any tips to keep in mind for those of us just starting out?

Try every weapon before you leave the training area at the very beginning of the game. Actually pay attention during quest cutscenes/text because they often contain important hints. Only sell items you can't disassemble for parts. Don't concentrate on just the skills for your two weapons, most of the passive skills will work regardless of which weapon you have and can be very useful. Don't worry about wasting skill or ability points, you can pretty quickly grind out as many as you need.

Look at the decks. Find one you like. Look at your starter decks. Find a starter deck that has one or both of the weapons required for the advanced deck you like. Work towards that deck until you feel comfortable with the skill system. Once you have a working build that you like then start experimenting with different weapon types.

There are great passive skills that work with any weapon type available with only a few points in most weapon trees. (especially self heals and extra damage) I especially like the one where it does aoe damage if you kill something with shotgun combo points on it.

Try and set up chains where one skill that causes hindered state triggers an effect and another state, that causes and effect and another state, repeat. I.E. hindered causes weakened, causes impaired, causes hindered.

You can replay missions you like. They have several hour cooldowns but are very useful if you are struggling with current stuff that maybe too hard. I usually replay missions that I like the next day as a habit.

Disassemble everything. Then reassemble the components into higher tier ingredients. (5 lesser = 1 higher tier) Crafting weapons and talisman are fun and simple puzzles.

Spend money on expanding your inventory. It took me a while to realize this. You can also reshape the inventory window so long as there isn't an item blocking the change. Be sure to shift around stuff in your inventory so that you can better shape it.

I play in a window because I like using Google rather than the sluggish in game browser for puzzle quests.

I really love shotgun and the skill pump action. It is a cone aoe that builds resources for both weapons. Even if it doesn't do great damage for single targets, it builds resources fast so that you can use your finishers to wear down the armored single targets.

For your first build you want 1 builder and 2 consumers (1 for each weapon). If at least one of your weapons is a gun, use an AOE builder to build resources on multiple targets at once, then you can switch targets and have the 2nd guy ready to hit with another consumer. They put a 4 sec cooldown on gun consumers because of this, but you can work around that.

You can use any passive, even if you aren't using the weapon. Once you get beyond the inner ring of skills you'll want to look for passives that set and exploit a condition on the target. Affliction and Weaken conditions are the easiest for this.

All the quests on Solomon island give you tokens. About the time you are ready to leave Kingsmouth you have enough to buy a blue weapon at the vendor by the police station. Don't, instead wait for the next zone and buy a better blue weapon for about the same price there. The weapon vendor in Savage Coast is on the west coast at the north corner of the map. You can run there safely on the road.

When you get faction level 2 you can buy a run speed buff from a vendor in your faction HQ. There are additional run speed upgrades at later levels.

/reset kills you. There are a few quests that you need to be dead for part of them. Also you can res at any unlocked anima well. If you unequip your gear first it doesn't take damage. There is no other death penalty.

Don't worry about spending your AP wrong, there is always more and it comes a lot faster at higher levels. Eventually you'll want to unlock all sorts of different weapons anyway for the passives. The quest difficulty rating shown when you take a quest is based on your skill levels. There is no xp penalty for "weak" quests, but there is a penalty for "devastating" ones (presumably to prevent powerleveling).

There is an auction house in the post office in London right outside the portal exit.

You can make new bags in your inventory for sorting your stuff using the + icon. The pin icon makes the bag stay open when the rest of the inventory is closed. This is good for adding a potion bar to your UI.

Be sure to look at the abilities you are selecting to make sure they complement each other. If you have one that sets "Afflicted" for example, try to get another that exploits "Afflicted". Make them work together.

Always move in combat. Not just when the chalk lines showing an attack area appear, always. All of your abilities work while moving. You'll be surprised how much that helps your survival.

And go through all the dialog trees. (Keep talking until the topic gets a green check mark; there's more than one response for most.) The story and lore are actually pretty good.

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone! I really appreciate it.

I have a lifetime sub and am going to start playing again. I have a high end lumie but i want to start a fresh toon, what are you new players choosing, I may as well go where the goodgers are.

I'm just getting started with this. Made my first character. It was shocking how many of my usual character names were taken. In the end, this is what I ended up with:
Dirk 'Beltless' Dagger

I'm not sure how grouping works since there are no levels per se, but I'm working on the starting area with the barricaded police station doing some of those missions.

Friend me up, if you are still playing.

I bought this for the cheap on the last sale, but have only put an hour or two into it. I have to jump back in.
I hear you about the names. I resorted to the name picked for me from "The Hunter".
Burt "Hunter" Covington.

I still play occasionally, but not as often as I'd like. I'm still Sera "Waite" Asenath.

I managed to down a few golems for the "Gilded" event tonight, it's pretty lucrative. You get a boatload of sp/ap and pax as well as a reward bag that drops signets, special clothing items and/or a vanity pet for killing one.
They spawn in random zones, to participate just join the #gildedevent chat channel and meet up on people who call out their locations.

This is a game where I have no interest in the end game or progression system, but whenever they release a new Issue with storyline content, I'm buying the new missions to run the stories. That aspect of the game is so well done and I can't wait for all the Tokyo stuff coming at the end of this year.

Wish I was at home for the event. I'm on vacation and don't think it will run on this tablet...

I finished the main storyline a while back. Now I just poke at the new content as it comes out and am waiting on Tokyo.

I played again for the first time in months the other night. The end game Transylvania stuff gets quite difficult, which is why I ended up putting it on ice, I think. It could also be my choice of abilities, I went down the paladin path and ultimately made an ability set that was based around that playstyle, but it does feel a little weak at times.

I've started going through the Tyler Freeborn quests now, which are a little bit more forgiving, in an attempt to get some more AP together so I can buy some more pistol/sword skills and fix up my ability set a bit.

The writing, voice acting and atmosphere in this are still second to none, every time I come back to the game I feel instantly immersed again. I really wish this had done better commercially, it feels like a real tragedy that it didn't grab a bigger audience.

Edit: My characters are Celia "Neonai" Guildford and Kara "Capricieux" Crowley, should anyone want to find me in game and team up at any point.

I finished the main storyline (for now) but have a few of the DLC missions yet to go. (The one in Egypt keeps kicking my ass.) I'll show up if we ever happen to be on-line at the same time. (Atlanta and Adelaide aren't exactly in the same time zone.)

The blurb I saw on this at Massively said it was a feature film, but IMDB lists it as a 17m short.