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Sarcan and I host our guides and FAQs for The Secret World here because it's really tedious to write and maintain long guides and FAQs inside of forums. Also, this wiki engine offers a built-in Google Translate feature for every page, which can be helpful for TSW's wide international audience. Also, most of the bigger game wikis and guide sites are full of annoying advertising spam, and the wikis can be especially hostile to posting guidance and advice. Here, we can keep everything updated nicely, no one can revert or delete our stuff, and one link from forums will always point to the latest and greatest. Also, this wiki engine renders nicely iPad-friendly websites.
So enjoy what you find under our two respective Guides/FAQs menus, and keep checking this home page regularly for notices about new updates and changes.
BTW, the traffic to this site is not monetized in any way, and you are not subjected to any advertising. This information resource is just a labor of love.
Update notices
Sarcan - Crafting Updates - 15 Jul 2012 20:27
Tags: update
Thanks to a fan submission (Thanks Evie) of the values of Kickback Gadgets from a QL10 Kit, the crafting pages has been updated to include them. I have also added the ability to view the Kickbacks sorted by Effect or by Trigger (A suggestion made by Evie). And to make the page view cleaner, the charts are collapsible so you only have to view the chart you wish to see.
Enjoy - Comments: 0
Yokai - updates to FAQ sections dealing with Hit Rating and glance rate - 12 Jul 2012 16:07
Tags: updates
Some of my original FAQ sections that deal with stats, hit roll order during combat, Hit Rating, and glance rates were drafted back during closed beta, and some UI changes and new information called for some revisions to make these sections more clear and accurate. Specific sections in the FAQ that changed are:
- What is the hit roll order? What hit types are mutually exclusive?
- Which hit type is the strongest to build around?
- How does Hit Rating differ from Attack Rating?
To summarize the essential new/changed info for those of you already familiar with the preceding FAQ details:
- For better clarity, what I formerly referred to as Glancing Chance I am now calling Enemy Glance Chance, because the hit roll mechanics are identical to Enemy Evade Chance, and because Funcom probably just wasn't careful with their naming conventions in the Closed Beta Character Sheet when Glancing Chance was still listed there. (It really should have been Enemy Glance Chance all along.)
- There are no longer any stats related to Glance Chance or Enemy Glance Chance in the live Character Sheet. So these are conceptual stats that we know only from glimpses in CB and statements by devs in CB and by some more recent testing by several dedicated players.
- Your (hidden) base Glance Chance is 10% at 0 Defense Rating. Increasing Defense Rating to a positive value will also increase Glance Chance to a positive percentage value.
- Your (hidden) Enemy Glance Chance is 0% at 0 Hit Rating. Increasing Hit Rating to a positive value will also increase Enemy Glance Chance.
- During the "glance roll" portion of combat, the attacker's Enemy Glance Chance is subtracted from the defender's Glance Chance. The resulting percentage is the chance of the attackers hit to glance.
- Since it's apparent now that Evade rolls and Glance rolls work in identical ways with identical underlying "Chance" percentages, I think it's safe to extrapolate those same details to the Block and Penetration Rolls too. So I've expanded on the details of those two rolls in the What is the hit roll order section. - Comments: 0
Sarcan - SP Growth Chart - 11 Jul 2012 20:41
Tags: update
I have added an SP Growth Chart to my Random Information Page, under Theorycraft section. I am gathering the Combat and Healing Power values based on various gear Attack and Heal Rating. I have posted what I have thus far to show how I am gathering the data in case anyone would like to submit data to help.
This data will eventually result in formulas that will allow us to build gear calculators.
If you would like to help with this project or any other data gathering project, please let Yokai or I know what you would like to help with and how.
Thank you for following our site. - Comments: 0
Yokai - Important update to FAQ description about passive triggering by multi-hit versus single-hit - 10 Jul 2012 15:41
Tags: updates
Apparently, I missed an 11th hour decision by the devs late in Closed Beta about how they were fixing the inherent problem with multi-hit abilities. (For most of beta, most multi-hit abilities could trigger far more passive reactions than single-hit abilities, which was clearly imbalanced in PvP.) The last statement I saw/verified from devs near the end of closed beta was that they were changing all passives to trigger only once per activation of an active ability. Apparently they later clarified or changed their mind as follows. (Paraphrasing) "all passives now have an internal cooldown of one second, so that we don't screw over people who use long channels".
I've therefore revised the Why aren't multi-hit abilities inherently better than single-hit abilities? answer in my FAQ, in the Combat Mechanics section. - Comments: 0
Sarcan - Crafting Updates - 08 Jul 2012 15:52
Tags: update
I am in the process of updating the crafting page with known values and cleaning up the formating. I have also added an area for Gadgets.
I will also be adding areas for each tool kit by QL level and the resulting items, there will be holes in the information for a bit as I work on getting the matertials to find the values. If you would like to help in filling in the holes, your help will be greatly appreciated.
Stay tuned for more data than you can digest in a single helping :) - Comments: 1
Yokai - third try's the charm - 05 Jul 2012 14:58
Tags: updates
I've adjusted my "easter egg" page yet again to fix the omission of Bloodsport from yesterday's revision. Lost it in a copy-paste error and didn't notice the omission until several of you kindly pointed it out in comments to my last update post. I think this version is golden now.
BTW, in case some of you wonder whether I play it too "fast and loose" with my builds:
- By design, build mechanics are very fluid and flexible. There are core "themes" that make any build work, but there are always one or two passives that are "least important" and can be situationally swapped out with any other passive to suit the encounter or the type of gameplay you're aiming for. This applies specifically to my 5 decks in the "easter egg" page in that the core "heal engine" can be stronger or weaker as needed to make room for other passives, and the core "penetration stacker engine" can likewise be made stronger or weaker as needed to make room. Specifically: Leech Therapy is the passive that can be removed from the "heal engine" as needed, and Dark Potency is the passive that can be removed from the "penetration stacker engine".
- It's tough to communicate these nuances and decisions in written form without a lot of successive revisions to the page, which takes time. And I've been too busy playing the game since early-access to spend much time here doing wiki updates. ^.^
- The Post-Op nerf threw me for a loop and I needed to find a couple hours on TestLive to really hone in on a suitable alternative. I previously preferred Anima Shot over Anima Burst because Anima Shot puts out more damage per attack, and because Post-Op and Leech Therapy both made Anima Shot heal essentially on par with Anima Burst and Healing Sparks. - Comments: 5
Yokai - I've adjusted my "easter egg" page to account for nerf to Post-Op - 05 Jul 2012 03:14
Tags: updates
If you had previously found my "easter egg" page showing you the starting builds that I'm using for my first vertical progression, be aware that what I had before is now out of date due to the nerf to Post-Op. I've adjusted all the builds to use a different arrangement for the healing side of things. Tested the new healing "core" of all the decks and it works a peach. I can equal the healing output of the 6x best hots that you can stack with Fist healing. I tested both the Fist core and the Rifle core while letting swarms of werewolves chew on me in Beseiged Farmlands. Both the healing cores put out pretty much the same total healing mitigation while I just stood there and did nothing but heal myself through the onslaught. - Comments: 13
Yokai - Post-Op nerfed, not bugged - 04 Jul 2012 20:06
Got definitive word from a dev over on TestLive forums. Post-Op was indeed nerfed just before pre-release launch and is working as intended.
The Post-Op ability is intended to work with Leech abilities which apply a buff. Abilities such as Anima Shot which trigger a heal based on the damage dealt will not trigger the heal from the Post-Op ability.
Yokai - Post-Op is either bugged or nerfed, please bug report it - 03 Jul 2012 17:03
Tags: bugs call-to-action updates
Welp. I just got around to picking up Post-Op (Rifle 27 AP), which was formerly in beta one of the cornerstones of decent AR healing. It was working with Anima Shot and Anima Burst right up to launch over on TestLive, but I see now in Live that neither Anima Shot nor Anima Burst is triggering it at all. Perhaps this was an intentional nerf, which is unfortunate since IMO AR was the only adequate healing weapon and Fist and Blood were both nerfed too hard just before launch. But in case it's not a nerf but an unintentional bug, I urge you all to file an in-game bug report that "Post-Op is not triggering when the leech from Anima Shot or Anima Burst ends, so it is effectively worthless at the moment".
Edit: After extensive testing just now (Tuesday afternoon) on TestLive, the best sheer healing output for the fewest healing-based actives and passives is currently as follows:
Actives: Anima Burst (Rifle 16 AP) as your heal+damage builder. Shot of Anima (Rifle 9 AP) as your heal consumer.
Passives: Increased Dosage (Rifle 12 AP) to make Shot of Anima much stronger (the leech component of Shot of Anima is useless), Healing Sparks (Fist 21 AP) to add a moderate +heal to every activation of Anima Burst, and finally, if you have a dependable Affliction mechanic in your build (either Anticoagulant or Bloodsport), then Leech Therapy (Rifle 9 AP) adds another nice +heal to every activation of Shot of Anima.
That's it. Everything else in Rifle is crap by comparison, if you're going for the minimal amount of healing abilities to leave room for other things. Although of course if you're looking to stack as many heals as possible in a pure healing build, then of course there are some other Rifle heals that can be worthwhile additions. - Comments: 10
Sarcan - Faction Deck Abilities - 03 Jul 2012 16:44
Tags: update
I have added a Faction Deck Abilities page to allow you to view the Faction Decks with their detailed ability descriptions. Passive abilities on top, Active Abilities on bottom.
Enjoy. - Comments: 0
