Yokai's guide to build mechanics and build philosophy

Note: Those of you who've seen my earlier version of this guide that was posted on the official TSW forums might wonder "where are your charts in this version?". I've dispensed with the charts for two reasons: 1) The ability descriptions are a moving target. Funcom will be changing and rebalancing their 580+ abilities for quite some time. 2) Honestly, you don't need them. You just need to know roughly what each weapon type's general attributes are, and you need to use the in-game Search panel to find specific keywords. Trust me; charts will push you into "analysis paralysis". It's much easier, and just as effective, to approach builds in a more organic fashion. Also, this guide has been streamlined and modified quite a bit from its original version.

Intro

Build mechanics in TSW are deep; far deeper than any other MMO to date, with the possible exception of EVE Online. What makes the build mechanics so deep is not the classless system with 580+ different abilities to choose from, but the amazing sophistication of the possible synergies between abilities.

The basic mechanics

You can have multiple builds (or more properly, decks) available to recall for use from the Gear Manager interface at literally any time except when you are actually "in combat". By default, you get 5 gear manager slots for free, and you can eventually unlock an additional 3 slots.

Each such build (deck) comprises:

  • Your equipped gear, which comprises two weapons and seven talismans.
  • Your "7/7" set of abilities: 7 active abilities and 7 passive abilities.
    • The 7 actives can be chosen only from your two equipped weapons.
    • The 7 passives can be chosen from ANY weapon. This is VERY important to finding and creating the strongest synergies.

Every time you update your deck in any way (just found a better talisman or two, or learned a new ability and found you like it really well, etc.), you should select that deck in your Gear Manager interface and click Overwrite to update that deck accordingly.

To load any of your saved decks, open the Gear Manager, select that deck, and click Load. All your gear and abilities are swapped out accordingly.

Inventory management and decks

Inventory management with regard to swapping out different decks is currently a bit cumbersome. I strongly recommend the following best practices to keep your sanity until Funcom has time to streamline the deck management system.

  • Keep your inventory window open when you swap decks. This enables you to visually see where the gear items that were removed (and not used in the new deck) are actually being placed in your main inventory window. You can then drag them into a side bag or their own row of the main inventory window to keep better track of them.
  • Instead of the preceding technique, I like to use four minibags for all my best gear that is actually used in decks, and I first drag all my current gear items into their respective bags before swapping a deck. When the new deck loads up, all the unused gear items are already in their respective bags, nice and neat. The four bags I use this way are:
  • My weapon bag. It contains all of my current best weapons for each of my builds.
  • My Tanking Talismans bag. It contains a full set of all my current best Tanking talismans.
  • My DPS Talismans bag, which contains a full set of all my current best DPS talismans.
  • My Healing Talismans bag, which contains a full set of all my current best Healing talismans.
  • (If you don't know what I mean by these three "types" of talismans, go read my Talisman's guide.)

The central theme of any given build/deck

The strongest deck designs are tightly focused, and based around amplifying only 2-3 combat stats. The basic approach is very simple:

  1. Pick two weapons that have active abilities that revolve around your chosen 2-3 stats that you want to amplify.
  2. Look through all the passive abilities available in the entire Ability Wheel for any passive that can synergize with both your chosen 2-3 stats AND with the attack subtypes (Frenzy, Strike, Blast, Focus, etc.) that your two weapons specialize in.
  3. One of your active abilities should always be a resource builder that will build resources for both weapons. This should be the hardest-hitting builder you've unlocked so farand ideally it should also be listed as a subtype so that you can proc a subtype synergy or two with every single builder attack in your combat rotation.
  4. Two of your active abilities should always be the hardest-hitting resource consumers you've unlocked so far and ideally also listed as subtypes so you can proc a subtype synergy with every consumer. One of these consumers should be for weapon 1, and the other consumer should be for weapon 2.
  5. The remaining four actives should be considered as "utility" slots and you can use nearly anything you like, but it's typically very useful to dedicate one of them for use as a multi-target (AOE/Cone) builder (for both weapons), because you must often deal with swarms.
  6. As for your 7 passive slots, the whole trick here is to find those passives you've unlocked that will do three very specific and simple things:
    • Do they somehow "pump" (boost) one or more of the combat stats that your build theme revolves around?
    • Do they somehow proc extra damage or proc a boost to one of your chosen combat stats when you use an attack subtype that one or both of your weapons specialize in?
  7. By now you should have chosen 7 actives and 7 passives, but it's time for one more "fine-tuning" pass based on the states (Afflicted/Weakened/Hindered/Impaired) that your two weapons can apply.
    • Every weapon can easily apply Affliction or Weaken, but Hinder and Impair are harder to apply and reapply during a fight (they're usually on long cooldown timers and applied mostly by elite actives).
    • If you find any actives or passives that do something useful when you hit a target that is Afflicted or Weakened (per your chosen two weapons), consider replacing one of your 7/7 choices so far but only if the synergy with Affliction/Weakened is stronger than one of your synergies for your chosen combat stats or attack subtypes. This advice might not make much sense at first, but as you gain more experience you'll see the usefulness of prioritizing stats and subtypes over states.
    • If you find any actives or passives that do something useful when you hit a target that is Hindered or Impaired, these might be very useful in your build, or not useful at all. The reason for this is due to how infrequently you can actually apply Hinder/Impair, and how short the duration of such states typically are. It's certainly worth reviewing for synergies with Hinder/Impair, but typically you'll find far more bang for the buck by looking for other synergies instead. There are always some notable exceptions to this general guideline, though, and it totally depends on the theme and specific weapons used in your build.
  8. The final aspect of your build is to decide on the exact mix of talisman types you need to support the theme of your build. This is an art in itself, and you should read my talisman guide to fully understand what to do in this step.

Those basic steps, done in order, will always lead to a very strong build without too much thrashing, confusion, or "analysis paralysis".

Which combat stats to use for build themes?

Combat stats fall into three broad categories:

  • DPS: Critical Rating+Critical Power, Penetration Rating, and Hit Rating
  • Tanking: Defense Rating, Evade Rating, Block Rating, Physical Protection, Magical Protection, and high HP pool
  • Healing: Heal Rating

Note: For the tanking stats, the two Protection Types and Block Rating are the weakest of the bunch. I'd strongly advise prioritizing Defense and Evade up to the point of diminishing returns, and flesh out the rest only after that.

When choosing offensive/defensive/healing stats to choose for the core theme of your build, the role you're playing suggests some best stats to focus on:

  • If soloing, you probably want to focus on either:
    • Mostly DPS-oriented abilities, with a mix of DPS and Tanking stats on your gear.
    • Mostly DPS-oriented abilities, with at most 2-3 Healing abilities, with a mix of DPS and Healing stats on your gear.
  • If tanking for a small group, you'll want to focus on either:
    • 50/50 Tanking/DPS-oriented abilities, with a mix of 50/50 Tanking/DPS stats on your gear
    • 30/20/50 Tanking/Healing/DPS-oriented abilities, with a mix of 30/20/50 Tanking/Healing/DPS stats on your gear.
  • If tanking for a large group, you'll want to focus on either:
    • 70/30 Tanking/DPS-oriented abilities, with a mix of 80/20 Tanking/DPS stats on your gear and a very large HP pool.
    • 50/20/30 Tanking/Healing/DPS-oriented abilities, with a mix of 50/20/30 Tanking/Healing/DPS stats on your gear and a very large HP pool. You probably also want to make Assault Rifle the "healing" part of your build, because only Assault Rifle can put out DPS while also healing yourself.
  • If healing for a small group:
    • 40/60 Healing/DPS-oriented abilities, with a mix of 50/50 Healing/DPS stats on your gear.
  • If healing for a large group
    • 80/20 Healing/DPS-oriented abilities, with a mix of 70/30 Healing/Tanking stats on your gear. (with that 30% of tanking stats including high-HP "Tanking" talismans for extra health pool on yourself if you grab aggro).

The basic "character" of each weapon type

The actives and passives for each weapon tend to each focus on one role (tanking, healing, or support), one "common" state (Afflict or Weaken), one "uncommon" state (Hinder or Impair), usually only one or two combat stats, two specific attack subtypes, and a general set of special buffs. Each weapon also has a general range that its attacks can reach.

Blade

  • Role: Tanking (defense [meaning more glances and fewer crits against you])
  • Range: Short
  • Common state: Afflict
  • Uncommon state: Impair
  • Combat stats: Penetration Rating, Defense Rating
  • Attack subtypes: Focus, Frenzy
  • Buffs: Def+, Glance+, Hate+, Runspeed+, Self-Heals, AOE taunts, Hinder Resistance

Hammer

  • Role: Tanking (block)
  • Range: Short
  • Common state: Weaken
  • Uncommon state: Impair
  • Combat stats: Crit Rating, Defense Rating, Block Rating
  • Attack subtypes: Strike, Blast
  • Buffs: Crit+, Block+, Resource+, HP+, Damage+ (for builders), KB/Stun duration+, CC Immunity

Chaos

  • Role: Tanking (evade)
  • Range: Short
  • Common state: Weaken
  • Uncommon state: Impair
  • Combat stats: Hit Rating, Defense Rating, Evade Rating
  • Attack subtypes: Burst, Frenzy
  • Buffs: Evade+ Resource+, Hate+

Blood

  • Role: Healing (shield/bubble) (unique in that consumers can be fueled with your own HP instead of only by resources)
  • Range: Long
  • Common state: Afflict
  • Uncommon state: Impair
  • Combat stats: Crit Rating, Penetration Rating
  • Attack subtypes: Focus, Chain
  • Buffs: (coming soon)

Assault Rifle

  • Role: Healing (damage leech) (requires doing damage to an enemy to heal, cannot heal out of combat)
  • Range: Long
  • Common state: Afflict
  • Uncommon state: Hinder
  • Combat stats: Hit Rating, Heal Rating
  • Attack subtypes: Burst, Frenzy
  • Buffs: Heal+, Grant leech effects to teammates

Fist

  • Role: healing (direct heals)
  • Range: Short
  • Common state: Afflict
  • Uncommon state: Impair
  • Combat stats: Hit Rating
  • Attack subtypes: Burst, Blast
  • Buffs: Glance- on targets, Heal+, Move+, and Blast+

Elementalism

  • Role: Support (DPS buffs and Turret Summons)
  • Range: Long
  • Common state: Afflict
  • Uncommon state: Hinder
  • Combat stats: Hit Rating
  • Attack subtypes: Strike, Chain
  • Buffs: Damage+, Hit+, Crit+, Hate-, Resource+

Shotgun

  • Role: Support (Traps, CC, and Turret Summons)
  • Range: Medium
  • Common state: Weaken
  • Uncommon state: Hinder
  • Combat stats: Penetration Rating, Defense Rating
  • Attack subtypes: Strike, Blast
  • Buffs: Pen+, Def+, Resource+

Pistol

  • Role: Support (Debuffs, Buffs, Pet Summons)
  • Range: Medium
  • Common state: Weaken
  • Uncommon state: Hinder
  • Combat stats: Crit Rating
  • Attack subtypes: Focus, Chain
  • Buffs: Crit+, Runspeed+, Damage+, Heal+, CC/Debuff Immunity

Understanding passives and how they multiply synergies

Creative use of passives is the main thing that separates weak or "okay" decks from very strong decks.

  • You can use ANY passive from ANY weapon at ANY time, regardless of the two weapons you actually have equipped. Quite often, some really strong synergistic passives for one weapon are found in the Ability tree for another, different weapon.
  • Some of the strongest passives are those that trigger off of an attack subtype. Look for all passives that say Strike, Burst, Blast, Focus, Chain, or Frenzy. These are the ones with huge potential, and their existence explains why often weak-looking actives in the Teir 2 cells are actually very strong (because they can cause these particular passives to proc their effects).
  • Many passives can be used to create a "bridge" between one state or subtype and another. For example, there are passives that turn critical hits on an Afflicted target in into Chain hits (which can then in turn automatically trigger a Chain-based passive). Or there are such passives that do things like applying Weaken every time you land a non-glancing hit on an Impaired target.

Important: Passives do NOT react to each hit (or "tick") of a multi-hit active. For example, if you use a Focus attack that ticks 5 times over 2 seconds, you get only one chance to trigger passives from the use of that attack. Not 5 chances.

Understanding builders and consumers

Some abilities "build resources" and are called builders. Others "consume resources" and are called consumers. Depending on your weapon type, some resources are built on yourself (visible just above your health bar), or they're built on each target you're attacking (floats above their head). Melee weapons like hammer start out fully built with 5 resources ready to pop with a consumer as your opening attack in each new fight. (This helps tanks do some front-loaded damage to build hate faster than teammates, or can simply be used to apply more overall DPS.)

Most builders do so for both weapons at the same time, but some (usually the healing builders) will build only for one weapon. Pay attention to this when choosing your builders, because it's always more efficient to use builders that build for BOTH weapons at the same time.

It's also most efficient to have one good consumer for EACH weapon in your deck, and to pop them back-to-back once you've built up 5 resources for each. Only after blowing both of your consumers should you go back to building.

Many abilities are written in a manner that does not suggest that more resources = more damage for the consumer. IMO this is a quality issue with the tech writing for the ability descriptions. In my testing, I've found many such consumers where clearly 5 resources made them do more damage than with only 1 resource, so assume this pattern as a general rule of thumb even if the ability description doesn't explicitly say something like "does X damage for each resource".

Finally, a nuance of timing your builders and consumers is that you don't always need to build to 5 resources before popping a consumer. For example, two of the elemental consumers require only 2 resources and 3 resources, respectively. (of course, with 5 resources on the target, you could pop them back to back). Another example is that the *difference* between X damage for 1 resource and Y damage for 5 resources isn't large enough, such that it's actually higher DPS (damage per *second*) to spam builder > consumer > builder > consumer with only one resource each time. And yet another example is that sometimes a target is near dead and you're confident that two resources will finish him off.

Understanding "state" abilities

In TSW, "states" are temporary flags put on either your offensive target or yourself (or any of your teammates). The states are reflected in the UI with those four small bars immediately beneath the HP bar for yourself, teammates, and your currently selected target. When a state is toggled on for anyone, many abilities will REACT to that specific state by doing something interesting. Broadly speaking: Afflicted states are applied along with a DoT, Weakened states are applied along with a damage-reducing or hit-reducing debuff of some sort, Hindered states are applied along with a snare or root, and Impaired states are applied along with a stun, knockdown/knockback, or silence.

It is very important to understand that many of these typical MMO effects (roots, stuns, debuffs, DoTs, etc.) can also be applied by various weapon abilities WITHOUT ALSO APPLYING A STATE. Generally speaking, when an ability can apply a state, the state name is clearly listed in the description of the ability.

Understanding "SubType" abilities

In TSW, "subtypes" are specifically the shape of a weapon attack:

Strike is a single-target attack (but not every single target attack is a "strike"). Burst is a single-target attack that comprises multiple small hits, each with their own independent hit/reaction roll. Focus is a channelled attack over time, that ticks more damage the longer you sustain it. Frenzy is typically a circular AOE of some sort. Blast is usually a cone-shaped multi-target spread in an arc in front of you. And Chain is a single target attack that subsequently spreads to other nearby targets.

As with states, it is very important to understand that not all attack shapes are also subtypes. For example, not every single-target attack is also a "Strike", not every AOE is also a "Frenzy", and not every cone is also a "Blast".

Finally, you will hear the term "multi-hit" a lot. This refers to three specific subtypes that each generate multiple smaller hits per target over a short span of time, rather than one single instant hit per target:

  • Multi-hit: Focus, Frenzy, and Burst.
  • Single-hit: Strike, Blast, and Chain.

Useful Subtype passives

There are a handful of passive abilities for each of the six subtypes. Most of these are in my opinion too lackluster to influence your choice of weapons based strictly on their subtypes. However, there are a few notably strong subtype passives that might bear close examination, because they offer some fairly compelling arguments for using the corresponding weapon type:

  • Frenzy subtype (Assault Rifle, Blade, Chaos)
    • Voracity (Blade 34 AP): All Frenzy abilities have a +7.5% Penetration Chance. That's pretty huge!
    • Shoot 'Em Up (Rifle 21 AP): All Frenzy abilities apply a medium DOT for 5 seconds. At Skill 10 with green 50/50 DPS/Heal talismans, for example, this DOT ticks for roughly 35-ish damage per second, which can really help if you're in a cycle of Anima Shot x5 > Fire at Will x 1 for spam healing or ranged tanking. Anima Shot at that same skill/gear hits for roughly 65 damage each, so this one passive effectively boosts the damage output of your Anima Shot spam by +50%. That's huge! Another way of looking at it is that this passive's DOT hits just a wee bit harder than Incision (Blade 16 AP), which lasts for only 3 seconds.
  • Strike subtype (Shotgun, Elemental, Hammer)
    • Violent Strike (Elemental 21 AP): All Strike abilities have a +7.5% Critical Chance. That's pretty huge!
    • Strike Force (Shotgun 12 AP): All Strike abilities have a +7.5% Penetration Chance. That's pretty huge!
    • Wrecking Crew (Hammer 21 AP): All Strike abilities have a +20% Crit Damage boost. That's pretty huge!

Understanding Triggers

Note that I didn't use "trigger ability" in the title of this section. That's because there are no abilities that cause a trigger. (But there are abilities that cause states and subtypes to be applied.) Triggers are instead any general condition that some abilities (especially many passives) can react to.

Synergy combos

The concept of a "synergy combo"

Just like in trading card games (TCGs), the core theme of most strong decks (builds) center around one or more ability combos that the deck is built to set up and execute as often as possible during a fight. For example, there are ways to guarantee application of an Afflicted state on your target, and there are other passives that will do useful things when you subsequently hit that now-afflicted target. Such abilities, when used together to achieve one or more synergistic effects, are collectively known as a combo.

This section lists only the guaranteed combos that can work with any equipped weapon types. There are many other ways to create the trigger conditions than the ones I list below, but they are not as reliable or consistent. There are also many other possible (and interesting) combos, but since they cannot be produced with 100% reliable consistency, I don't include them in my list. For example, there are many nice combos that can be triggered off of a penetrating hit or off of a critical hit, but since you cannot control/predict pens and crits with 100% consistency, I don't include such combos. However, it's certainly worth looking for and exploiting such combos if you are using a crit-heavy or pen-heavy build.

Notes:

  • There are no guaranteed, reliable ways to trigger the Impaired state with any weapon, so there are no "Impair combos" listed here.
  • Since hit types like crits and pens are not 100% predictable, I don't list any combos based on hit type here.
  • I don't list any attack subtype-specific combos here (such as combos that can be triggered with any Burst attack or with any Focus attack, etc.), because all of these will limit your weapon choice in some way. However, there are many good subtype combos to be found and employed, so I encourage you to use the Search blade of the in-game Ability Wheel to browse through all passives that can be triggered from each subtype.

Affliction combos

Affliction is one of the easiest states to inflict on your target due to one simple 16 AP passive from the Fist tree: Bloodsport. With Bloodsport in your deck, every single successful hit (re)applies Affliction plus a stacking DOT that does a medium amount of DOT damage every second. If you glance, one stack is removed, so this key passive isn't as useful if you're fighting red or orange targets, but certainly against yellows and easier, you can keep Affliction applied most of the time. There are other passives that can also trigger Affliction (primarily from the Blades, Blood, Elemental, and Rifle trees) that might be easier to unlock at first, but Bloodsport should be one of your high-priority unlocks just because it's so useful to making any two weapons able to trigger Affliction and therefore use any of the following Affliction combos:

Affliction > Penetration Booster and Weaken Stacker

Trigger: Any non-glancing hit from any weapon type
Passives: Bloodsport (Fist 16 AP), Dark Potency (Blood 2 AP), Iron Maiden (Blood 12 AP), 12 Gouge (Shotgun 12 AP)

Synergy flow:

  1. Your first hit triggers Bloodsport to apply Affliction and start stacking DOTs
  2. Your subsequent hits on the now-Afflicted target each trigger:
    1. A 1x stack of the Penetration Rating buff (from Dark Potency), granting you +150 Penetration Rating at 5x stacks.
    2. The Minor Penetration Chance buff (from Iron Maiden), granting you +10% Penetration Chance.
    3. Your Penetration now happens often enough that 12 Gouge will quickly stack the Debilitated debuff (from 12 Gouge) plus the Weakened state on your current target, reducing their damage output by 30% at 10x stacks.

Weaken combos

Weaken is also an easy state to apply to your target regardless of your weapon types:

  • The Affliction > Weaken Stacker combo described above (Bloodsport + 12 Gouge) is the easiest way to Weaken your target with any weapon at all.
  • The Hinder > Weaken Stacker combo describe further below (Close Quarters + Bad Break) is another dependable method, but it requires you to attack from within a 3m range of the target, and one of the passives in the combo is an expensive 50 AP elite.

Naturally, since all of these Weaken combos are triggered by either a basic 2-passive Affliction combo or a 2-passive Hinder combo, it's easy to combine any of these Weaken combos with your favorite Afflicton combo or Hinder combo.

Weaken > Hit Booster

Trigger: Either the Affliction > Weaken Stacker combo or the Hinder > Weaken Stacker combo
Passives: Fixation (Chaos 9 AP), Fever Pitch (Chaos 34 AP)

Synergy flow:

  1. Your trigger combo applies the Weakened state to the target.
  2. Your subsequent attacks on the now-Weakened target each trigger:
    1. A 1x stack of the Improved Hit Rating buff (from Fixation), granting you +150 Hit Rating at 5x stacks.
    2. A 10% chance to trigger the Major Hit Chance buff (from Fever Pitch), granting you +50% reduced chance of dealing Glancing hits against the target. Normally I wouldn't consider a 10% chance effect to be worthy of a "guaranteed" combo like this, but this particular buff lasts a whopping 12 seconds, so you have a damn good chance of keeping it running nearly full time after you first trigger it. (Should trigger once in every 10 hits, on average, and lasts for a duration of 12 hits, on average.) Less useful/dependable in very short fights but quite strong in longer-running fights.

Weaken > Crit Damage Booster

Trigger: Either the Affliction > Weaken Stacker combo or the Hinder > Weaken Stacker combo
Passives: Punishment (Hammer 9 AP)

Synergy flow:

  1. Your trigger combo applies the Weakened state to the target.
  2. Your subsequent attacks on the now-Weakened target applies a 1x stack of the Improved Critical Power Rating buff, granting you +250 Crit Power Rating at 5x stacks.

Hinder combos

Hinder > Crit Chance Booster

Trigger: Any non-glancing hit from any weapon type made in melee distance to target (within 3 meters)
Passives: Close Quarters (Shotgun 50 AP), Hothead (Pistol 1 AP)

Synergy flow:

  1. Every hit made within 3 meters of the target triggers Close Quarters to apply the Hindered state. (The fact that the snare itself is subject to diminishing returns is of no consequence. You're not using this for the snare.)
  2. Hothead reacts to the application of Hinder by itself applying the Minor Critical Chance buff to yourself, for a +10% Critical Chance. Basically, you can keep this buff up permanently as long as you keep making melee-distance hits at least every 8 seconds.

Hinder > Weaken Stacker

Trigger: Any non-glancing hit from any weapon type made in melee distance to target (within 3 meters)
Passives: Close Quarters (Shotgun 50 AP), Bad Break (Pistol 9 AP)

Synergy flow:

  1. Every hit made within 3 meters of the target triggers Close Quarters to apply the Hindered state. (The fact that the snare itself is subject to diminishing returns is of no consequence. You're not using this for the snare.)
  2. Bad Break reacts to the application of Hinder by itself applying 2x stacks of the Corrupted debuff plus the Weakened state on your current target, reducing their self-healing output by 50% at 10x stacks.

Hinder > Debuff Cleanser and Buff Purger

Trigger: Any non-glancing hit from any weapon type made in melee distance to target (within 3 meters)
Passives: Close Quarters (Shotgun 50 AP), Exploitation (Pistol 9 AP), Perjury (Shotgun 34 AP)

Synergy flow:

  1. Every hit made within 3 meters of the target triggers Close Quarters to apply the Hindered state. (The fact that the snare itself is subject to diminishing returns is of no consequence. You're not using this for the snare.)
  2. Exploitation reacts to the application of Hinder by itself cleansing you of one (randomly chosen) debuff.
  3. Perjury reacts to the application of Hinder by itself purging the target of one (randomly chosen) buff.

Hinder > Penetration Booster

Trigger: Any non-glancing hit from any weapon type
Passives: Close Quarters (Shotgun 50 AP), Beanbag Rounds (Shotgun 9 AP)

Synergy flow:

  1. Every hit made within 3 meters of the target triggers Close Quarters to apply the Hindered state. (The fact that the snare itself is subject to diminishing returns is of no consequence. You're not using this for the snare.)
  2. Beanbag Rounds reacts to the application of Hinder by itself applying the Minor Penetration Chance buff to yourself, for a +10% Penetration Chance. Basically, you can keep this buff up permanently as long as you keep making melee-distance hits at least every 8 seconds.

Yokai's advice regarding your "first build or two"

I debated a long time whether to give specific advice about early builds. There are soooooo many "good" builds possible and the game is in some ways very forgiving about less-than-optimal builds, especially if you often run around with a duo partner.

But frankly, a lot of the "horizontal flexibility" of The Secret World can only be experienced fully after you've developed an early two or three weapons to Skill 10 and have built some decks that you can always fall back on when you need something strong and dependable for tougher situations.

And more importantly (and this is something that only closed beta testers got to see), you will start encountering certain mob types in the 2nd Egypt zone and continuing into Transylvania that are very strong against certain weapons and builds. If your first two or three weapons and corresponding decks aren't able to deal with these, you'll be forced to either skip a lot of content (and hate certain zones) or else you'll find yourself going back to earlier zones to grind up the weapon skills and abilities you'll need to deal with them.

The things you will absolutely need on your first vertical progression

Your "first" vertical progression is the trip from Skill 0 to Skill 10 in your first two or three chosen weapons. Once you get to Skill 10 in these and have a few good decks for these, you can can then afford to branch out horizontally and start skilling up other weapons and building more different types of decks.

You will specifically need to deal with certain "problem" mob types during this first vertical progression:

Ability to apply the "Corrupted" debuff

In Blue Mountain, you will meet one boss type in three different places who is essentially impossible to kill unless you can stack her with 10x stacks of the Corrupted debuff, which comes only from certain Pistol actives and passives. To successfully land each stack, you must make a non-glancing hit.

  • This strongly suggests that Pistol should be one of the early weapons you skill up, at least to the Skill 4 or Skill 5 you'll need to make enough non-glancing hits on this boss.
  • Of course, you can simply skip the one action mission (a solo instance) that contains this boss, and avoid her in the two places she appears in the zone. But you'll meet other mobs like this again in Egypt and Transylvania, so…

Ability to apply 10x stacks of Weakness

In the first Transylvania zone, you'll meet lots of vampires. And they all get much stronger and harder to kill if you do not apply 10x stacks of any type of Weakness debuff within the first 20 seconds of the fight.

  • This strongly suggests that a weapon that can efficiently and reliably stack a Weakness debuff with every hit should be one of the early weapons you skill up. Chaos, Hammer, Shotgun, and Pistol all fit this bill nicely, but…
  • There is a combo of two passives: Bloodsport (Fist 16 AP) and 12 Gouge (Shotgun 12 AP), which can make any weapon capable of stacking Weakens on a target. It's not quite as quick and reliable as what you can do with the above-listed weapons that specialize in Weakness, but in most cases it will get the job done in time.

Ability to have a completely non-Affliction build

In the second Transylvania zone, you'll meet many mob types that get stronger and harder to kill if you Afflict them. This doesn't mean you need to avoid the weapon types that specialize in Affliction (Blades, Blood, Fist, and Rifle), but you should be sure to develop and test a build that doesn't rely on Affliction to get the job done, by the time you reach this zone.

Avoid specializing in Impairment and Hindering

Of the four states, both Impairment and Hindering are the least useful during your initial vertical progression, for a variety of reasons:

  • These states are often applied only by Elite abilities.
  • These states are only on skills with long cooldowns, so can be applied only once or twice in typical easier fights.
  • Nearly every elite mob (especially in the special Skill 10 "lairs" in each zone) is immune to both of these states. The state will be applied and passives will trigger off the application, but the actual effect of these states (root/snare/stun/knock, etc.) will be ignored by these special mob types.
  • Most dungeon bosses and mini-bosses are also immune to both of these states.
  • Many normal mobs in Transylvania are immune to these states or do something nasty if you hit them with one of these states.

Don't get the wrong idea: these two states can be very useful in some cases, especially if several members of a team rotate application of them. And even if you're soloing, a really strong opening attack to soften up a tough set of normal mobs can be to use a combo like Whiteout (Elemental 50AP active) plus Toxic Earth (Elemental 50AP passive) to root an entire pack and do lots of front-loaded damage between those two skills plus your ranged nukes before they ever get to you.

And there are a few passives (such as Close Quarters (Shotgun 50 AP) that can proc Hinder much more frequently (which is useful for some buff combos), but this comes at a cost of diminishing returns. For example, with Close Quarters, the first application will snare for 4 seconds, the 2nd application will reapply snare for only 3 seconds, the third for only 2 seconds, and so on down to only a second or less. After 10 seconds this cycle resets and the full 4 seconds will be applied on the subsequent application, and the cycle of diminishing returns repeats.

Evade, Defense, and Self-Heals are your best friend during initial vertical progression

I'll say it plainly: The damage mitigation that you get from Block, Magical Protection, and Physical protection is very inferior to the mitigation you get from Evade and Defense. Not that you should ignore the other ones entirely, because scaling and diminishing returns often means that stacking a little of everything creates a stronger overall mitigation than over-investing in only two particular stats. (Although min-maxers, especially in PvP where burst damage is everything, tend to feel that it is worth it to over-invest only in Evade and Defense.)

But where I'm going with this thought is that on your first vertical progression, you'll be better served to focus on weapons and builds that can give you some significant boosts to your Evade Rating, Evade Chance, Defense Rating, and (Minor) Defense (Chance). Especially if you plan to main tank any dungeons along the way.

This clearly points to either Blades or Chaos as being a strong choice for an early weapon. Blades specializes in Defense buffs, and Chaos specializes in Evade buffs.

Both of these weapons also have strong offensive buffs too: Blades specializes in Penetration buffs, while Chaos specializes in Hit buffs.

Another very strong type of mitigation is self-healing. If you plan to do your first vertical progression mostly as a soloist, then there is absolutely no question that you'll have an easier time of it if your second weapon is a healing weapon. Sure, you can do okay with a pure DPS build or a Tank/DPS build, with no dedicated healing weapon, but you will have a harder time of it in places and you will die a little more often.

Of the three healing weapons and types, I'll say it plainly again: Fists is the weakest of the three, because Fists are HOT-based and HOTs cannot keep up with the incoming damage rate of a swarm or hard-hitting "orange-con" enemy nearly as well as Blood or Rifle can do. Fists are great on a dedicated healer as one of their healing weapons, or in a team as a second healer or off-healer, but as a primary healing skill (especially when soloing), it's quite lackluster compared to the other two healing weapons.

So both Blood and Rifle are equally good for your first vertical progression if you choose to run with healing as your second weapon type. But it can be very subjective to say which of those two is better. They look and feel very different. My observation is that:

  • If you like to stay at range and kite as long and often as possible, then Rifle might feel "better" to you. And frankly, there is a leech heal multipiler combo you can unlock pretty quickly that doesn't even require you to kite at all. Perhaps the main thing about Rifle that is "nice" is that it's the only heal that can do damage while it's healing you.
  • Blood is a more "tanky" feeling type of heal weapon.
  • Blood will definitely feel weaker than Rifle until you unlock a 50 AP passive called Clotting. However, if you can afford to fit that elite in your passives for the deck, then the various blood barriers/heals like Blood Shield and Hermetic Rites start doing some really heavy lifting for you.
    • Important: I should caution you, though, that Clotting works only on yourself. In other words, it's great for soloing with Blood as a healing skill, but it's essentially useless for healing a partner or teammates. This is another reason I recommend Rifle over Blood: if you plan to ever be able to really help out a partner or teammates instead of soloing full-time, then I strongly recommend you take Rifle first and foremost as your healing weapon during your initial vertical progression.

Yes but what would Yokai do?

Well, for what its worth, I've tested nearly everything with a fully unlocked ability wheel and Skill 10 in all weapons. I'll definitely be launching with:

  • Blade/Rifle for my character, also keeping Pistol skilled up not too far behind. My duo partner will be launching with Elemental/Blood on her character.
  • If I encounter "spare" SP along the way to Skill 10 in Blade/Rifle and Pistol, I'll be putting any such extra SP into Chaos. Not necessarily for dungeon/lair tanking, but for PvP (Blade/Chaos).
  • Only after Blade, Rifle, Pistol, and Chaos are at Skill 10 will I start branching out horizontally.

Can you tell I really like Blades?

  • Matador and Crimson Theatre plus Shadow Play for nice Defense buffs
  • Brandish plus Brandishing Support for a nice 25% ward for 2.5 seconds, plus another Defense buff.
  • Lots of juicy Penetration buffs (and Penetration-oriented actives like Clearing the Path and Delicate Strike plus Delicate Precision are just right up my alley.

But this is personal preference based on playstyle considerations and certainly isn't a one-size fits all recommendation. And it is a very close toss-up between Blade/Rifle versus Blade/Blood for soloing, but what clinched it for me was not having to wait as long to get all the Rifle unlocks needed to make leech-healing reasonably effective. I'll be giving up magical damage until I get Chaos caught up with the first three, but that's not the end of the world by any means. Some mobs are easier if you can pick and choose your damage type, but none require you to use one particular damage type to get the job done.

Easter Egg: So, have you read this far? Have you read this entire looooonnnnngg guide? Good for you, lol. Here's your reward for effort: I've gotten many emails asking me to repost my original "Community Decks" page or to at least post the Blade/Rifle/Pistol build that I mentioned I'll be starting with for my initial vertical progression. Well, I still feel that all you really need to know are the basic combos I list above and the few rules of thumb I list above, but sure, why not? So here you go: Yokai's Starting Build(s)

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