Early Impressions: Power sets

[Sjofn]

Pistols has a MOAR CRIT active ability, btw.

[Sky]

Yep, that's been on my bar for a long time. Really works for the oh shits.

I also use the self-heal, with a pretty strictly limited situational weaken from pistol I need it. I'm sure the pistol weaken is awesome for that handful of encounters, but compared to shottie's weaken...RAEG

[Segoris]

Pistol/Shotgun that I liked in theory based on a convo with someone. Basically, my plan for gearing would be 400 crit/pen, about 150 crit power and then hit glyphs on weapons and that should bring me close to an effective rating of 350 or 400 on each stat and a shitload of +dmg from passives and then adding in group buffs.


Options for when needed:
I may drop one of the buffs if another in the group has them available to add in a shotgun turret or some sort of debuff (purge or cleanse)
Possibly drop Brawler for Lethality (which could bring me up to +38% damage with Lethality fully up, total of +68% then since every tank uses exposed).
Another option would be dropping Brawler for something Coup De Grace (if pistol resources are left on a target when it dies then it causes an explosion) or Magnum (reduces shields/heals on target up to 50% though with proper purging and impairs I don't know how useful this is as shields/heals haven't been much of an issue).
I have Sureshot as my shotgun finisher (basically just because I was messing around with different purge/cleanse options), but would otherwise be Out for a Kill.

I haven't picked up the cooldown reductions on any group buffs since I can't remember the debuff which prevents people from having the buff on them again for X duration (I believe it's 90s as well, so cooldown reduction seemed pointless unless I'm not remembering correctly).

edit: saving an idea I have for amelee impair build here for later use/thoughts http://www.drakkashi.com/secretworld/wheel.php?16=4&18=4&10=2&19=5&16=6&17=3&73=0&18=1&43=6&11=0&37=5&16=5&18=5&2=1

[Tyrnan]

I haven't picked up the cooldown reductions on any group buffs since I can't remember the debuff which prevents people from having the buff on them again for X duration (I believe it's 90s as well, so cooldown reduction seemed pointless unless I'm not remembering correctly).

Short Fuse is the only one I've seen that adds a debuff like that, I don't think there's any reapplication restrictions on any of the others.

[Segoris]

Thanks, and that may be it as I'm not used to seeing buffs used besides SF. So now it may rely on if others are using the CD reduction or not (most probably will in NM) which may cause me to drop one buff and let someone else cast it while I pick up a different active, and replace passive with a CD reduction.

I don't want 2 group buffs and 2 cooldown reductions, it's a bit too crowded for passives already and that would drop me too much outside of casting those buffs.

I also just noticed The Business says it's a multi-hit ability but doesn't state being a burst ability, meaning Ferocity might not work. :rabble rabble: Might have to rework that and find something else, or just slot in Lethality permanently

[Flinky]

I haven't picked up the cooldown reductions on any group buffs since I can't remember the debuff which prevents people from having the buff on them again for X duration (I believe it's 90s as well, so cooldown reduction seemed pointless unless I'm not remembering correctly).

Short Fuse is the only one I've seen that adds a debuff like that, I don't think there's any reapplication restrictions on any of the others.

The pistol tree crit ability (Deadly Aim) definitely works with its passive. I've been using it to help overtaxed healers in dungeons for a while now.

Segoris - Ferocity only works with Burst attacks. Unless I'm missing something (you don't seem to have any Burst actives), Lethality seems the better choice.

As a side note for a Pistol/Ele build; the pistol consumer Shootout counts as 5 separate attacks for the purposes of calculating on-hit triggers, so if you like to run a crit based build with Elemental Force and Livewire (like I do!) one use of Shootout will complete a full cycle of Livewire (if it crits on 4 out of 5 hits) as well as giving 5 Elemental Force charges. If anyone can explain to me why Shootout works this way while other abilities like Hair Trigger don't, they are better at Funcom than I am (not hard).

Edit: Seg noticed it too 

[Segoris]

I'm kind of torn on multi-hit abilities and things such as Livewire. I was testing this stuff the other day with Tressa, I found them inconsistent at best and believe she had better results. Though she linked me a thread on the official forums which had one person saying they had a LW proc every 2-3 seconds, meanwhile I went times where I had 4-5 burst attacks with a single crit in each burst attack and only received 1-2 stacks of the Live Wire buildup buff. I think a lot of it has to do with the 1s internal cooldown with on-hit abilities, and I wonder if the first hit in a burst attack will allow for the next burst attack's crit to proc Live Wire, but if I crit with the 3rd or 4th attack in a multi-hit then the following attack couldn't proc on the first or second hit


That said, I'm still giving multi-hit a chance with The Business (it's not a burst attack but it is a multi-hit) and may try out Shootout if I can get Live Wire proccing as fast as some other people have been (thanks for that suggestion, if doing multi-hit may as well go both builder/consumer).

[Tyrnan]

As a side note for a Pistol/Ele build; the pistol consumer Shootout counts as 5 separate attacks for the purposes of calculating on-hit triggers, so if you like to run a crit based build with Elemental Force and Livewire (like I do!) one use of Shootout will complete a full cycle of Livewire (if it crits on 4 out of 5 hits) as well as giving 5 Elemental Force charges. If anyone can explain to me why Shootout works this way while other abilities like Hair Trigger don't, they are better at Funcom than I am (not hard).

As I understand it, multi-hit abilities should only be able to proc on-hit effect once per second (this was added near the end of beta as multi-hit builds with a bunch of on-hit passive were just wrecking people in PvP from what I read). Since Shootout is channeled over 2.5 seconds I would have assumed that the max it could proc would be three times at 0, 1 and 2 seconds (assuming it doesn't damage on activation). Sounds like it may be bugged if it's doing more than that.

[Sky]

That sounds about right.

[Segoris]

In pen/crit power ql10 blues (Blaze build gear basically) I was testing out that pistol/shotgun build and it did pretty well even while very incomplete. this is all I was using and it was still pull close to 1k dps or so without weakness from chaos being on a target dummy. Once I re-adjust my gear and get the rest of my passives (and Do or Die) I should be able to pull closer to the current Blaze build (probably within 10% of Blaze, potentially higher for sustain)

This could have some potential to be a good base for later

[Rasix]

Even with the upcoming change to Aidelon, I'm not sure I'm going to change my build much, if it at all.   Could possibly work in Violent Strikes/Social Dynamo.  

Search panel.. why did I not know this existed before. 

[Ingmar]

The 'burst' and 'strike' and whatever else abilities could benefit from being a little more clearly marked. Tooltip should have a subheading for that, like card type in MTG or something, instead of hiding it in the text of the ability.

Templating like:

<Sample Shot>
<Shotgun Blast>
<Description text...>

instead of the current:

<Sample Shot>
<Sample Shot is a Shotgun Blast that description text...>

[Tyrnan]

The 'burst' and 'strike' and whatever else abilities could benefit from being a little more clearly marked. Tooltip should have a subheading for that, like card type in MTG or something, instead of hiding it in the text of the ability.

Templating like:

<Sample Shot>
<Shotgun Blast>
<Description text...>

instead of the current:

<Sample Shot>
<Sample Shot is a Shotgun Blast that description text...>

That's something I'm still a bit confused over. For example, are all cone and column abilities classified as "blast" or only those where it specifically says so in the ability description?

[Miasma]

I think they have to specifically say it.  Seems like many of the abilities that aren't builders or closers don't have specific types of attack, they usually do high damage and have a long cooldown.

[Ard]

So with the impending nerf, I completely retooled my chain aoe build to remove elemental and use pistol instead, and I'm really really pleased with the end result.  

http://www.drakkashi.com/secretworld/wheel.php?28=0&60=2&24=4&27=1&56=6&59=1&72=2&43=2&44=5&46=2&59=4&28=3&57=0&43=6

The first cavaet before I get into how this works is that my dps gear set has a really crit rating (441).  I probably need to find a sweet spot with crit power for max damage, but this is a lot higher than most people, and this whole build is very crit reliant.

Basically you open with Dirty Tricks, which roots everything, and applies hot head to you to increase crit chance.  You then use open veins 3 times.  
Every time you crit, you cause another chain from criticality, extra damage from one in the chamber, and building up a tick on live wire.  After 3 open veins, if there's enough still alive, you apply infection for another aoe dot, as well as a corpse explosion that should chain react the whole group down.  Open Veins two more times, and use Semi-Auto on whatever has the most health left, to make sure the channel goes the full duration.  Usually everything in a group pack is dead by this point, but if you need to reapply the hinder, that's what Shake and Bake is for.  If you end up in an even longer fight, Dirty Tricks recycles pretty fast.

Anaesthsia is there because I like having an emergency impair, but there might be a better utility active, but I couldn't find anything I personally liked.

Other things I tested:
Salt in the Wounds - Did not come out to higher damage than Damage Control.  Was about 200 dps lower with my gear.  Salt in the Wounds might trump Damage Control with enough targets.  It's hard to test that on the dummies though.
Chain Feed - tried this without damage control, and it did less damage, even if it's not crit and hinder reliant


Note, this build will suck balls on Lair mobs, or anything immune to hinder, since you won't get the crit buff.  It can still work, but you won't be anywhere near full damage.  If up against those, I'd swap back in salt in the wounds for hothead.

[Ghambit]

I'm slowly but surely getting into this turret-aoe, purge build via Grifter.  Purge is one of those conditions that is VERY buried within the skillwheel (it's not tooltip-underlined at all) and doesn't even show up on the synergy tables.  Yet, there's a million finishers that rely on it in the shot/ele trees.  I haven't mathed it out yet but assuming all this stuff will stack I could just throw down my killing field, smoke a cigarette, and watch the world burn.

[Ghambit]

note: the above sux ass during lvling for single target     And there's very little in the way of viability on the way to the deck it seems.  Anyone have any suggestions?  

selfedit: gonna have to be the usual hinder-crit-strike build with some cc until I can make a purge-penetration-dps build viable near the end of the deck.  The latter being an oxymoron since DoT aoe is more suited to crit.    The former has too many built in crit passives to ignore.

[Segoris]

Been messing around with blade/fist, adjusted Tyrnan's build a little bit and have been bored with pve more than usual from spamming 1,1,1,1,1,2,3 repeat even down in the Roman Baths.
http://www.drakkashi.com/secretworld/wheel.php?1=1&4=4&16=2&21=0&22=5&1=3&7=6&2=1&19=2&0=5&7=1&19=0&5=3&22=6

Might switch in a charge or something, but for now with a tank helm, healing minor tali, and the rest DPS (I'm using very balanced crit/pen/crit power stats right now as well, this works with just about any stats as long as you can hit the mobs) the build is just easy mode

note: the above sux ass during lvling for single target     And there's very little in the way of viability on the way to the deck it seems.  Anyone have any suggestions? 

selfedit: gonna have to be the usual hinder-crit-strike build with some cc until I can make a purge-penetration-dps build viable near the end of the deck.  The latter being an oxymoron since DoT aoe is more suited to crit.    The former has too many built in crit passives to ignore.

If you're asking for suggestions, link your build. There are a few things I don't agree with just on what you're saying already

-DoTs don't crit or penetrate (which is why I don't know why you say a purge/pen/dps build is actually a DoT build and more suited to crit in this game, I'm guessing purge/pen/dps should be purge/pen/dot and I mostly just answered as such)
-Purge is awful until you're running Elite or NM dungeons (very very few exceptions until that point). It doesn't show on synergy tables because there aren't a million finshers which rely on purge (not one single finisher does better if it purges a target or does better if the target does not have purgeable buffs on), there are some that will purge but not improve if the target is purged. In elites and nm it's still awful, but unfortunately it is somewhat mandatory for some bosses.


The way to find purges in the abilty wheel is to hit the bar on the right side which brings up a search/filter function, and type purge in the text box. Should this be underlined? I think so, as should cleanse, but I think since they don't do anything but remove buffs or debuffs, respectively, it is not as important. I wouldn't mind them being highlighted though

[Seraphim]

By request here's an AR/Shotgun build I used for Polaris Nightmare:

Weapons: shotgun/assault_rifle
- Cost: 948 AP (Link to Deck)

Actives
1. Safety Off
2. Raging Bullet
3. Three Round Burst
4. Breaching Shot
5. Cleanup
6. Confuse
7. Sleight of Hand

Passives
1. Breach Party
2. Extra Bullet
3. Fever Pitch
4. Iron Maiden
5. Twist the Knife
6. Ferocity
7. Live Wire

Viper's Deck Manager Import:

Code:

VDM%-%6377845%-%7080868%-%6806479%-%6371930%-%7080863%-%7494898%-%7494887%-%6372003%-%6378207%-%7094271%-%6943080%-%7080596%-%6942573%-%6863509

Rotation is 4 Safety Off followed by Raging Bullet and 3rd Burst, rinse and repeat, Usually pop Breaching after the the builders for the second rotation. Keep in mind it's made for the usual group where Palmer applies Weaken for my Fever Pitch and it might be worthwhile replacing Live Wire and Iron Maiden with say Eagle Eye and Seal the Deal, haven't had time to test it yet.

[Segoris]

New challenge: viable chaos dps build. This one is frustrating me to try to create something with chaos that might be within 10% of ele/x or pistol/shotgun/ar combos

[Lantyssa]

DPS is all you care about for it?  It's got lots of things I like, but building for pure DPS isn't something I've tried yet.  Hmmm.

[Segoris]

Yeah, only for DPS. It's the most used tank choice afaik, but I don't see viable dps builds using it and wanted to try to challenge myself to come up with a viable (hopefully competitive build) using many of the unused abilities. It's proving much tougher than I thought it would even using the obvious connection of burst attacks.

I was giving myself a 2nd requirement though - must be able to apply exposed which made it more of a burst/hinder build, I may need to remove the 2nd requirement for now

[Tyrnan]

Have you found a decent way to apply Exposed outside of Escalation? I assume that's the only reason that you see so many tanks with it. Everyone expects them to spam Escalation to increase the groups DPS.

[Seraphim]

New challenge: viable chaos dps build. This one is frustrating me to try to create something with chaos that might be within 10% of ele/x or pistol/shotgun/ar combos

Ok so this isn't as much a Chaos build as a Fist burst one but you can probably work in some small expose into it through Uneven/Discord without difficulty. It does fit the within 10% of Ele/AR atleast...

Weapons: fist/chaos
- Cost: 828 AP (Link to Deck)

Actives
1. Prey on the Weak
2. One-Two
3. Four Horsemen
4. Do or Die
5. Reckless
6. Amor Fati
7. Confuse

Passives
1. Predator
2. Follow Through
3. Ferocity
4. Twist the Knife
5. Fever Pitch
6. 12 Gouge
7. Adrenalise

Viper's Deck Manager Import:

Code:

VDM%-%5784459%-%6942570%-%7094295%-%7494892%-%6942579%-%7094289%-%7494898%-%5782607%-%6942571%-%6942573%-%7080596%-%7094271%-%7080855%-%6942584

Open with a one-two and then the rotation becomes 2 prey, one-two, 2 prey, one-two and four horseman repeat 'til it's dead...

[Segoris]

That was another reason why I was thinking about a chaos dps, but the most non-tank ways to apply exposed are Uneven Ground (45s cooldown, AE 3 stacks of exposed), Discord Rising (30s Cooldown, single target, 3 stacks of exposed), and Breakdown (passive, applies exposed when hitting an impaired target).

I remember hearing either UG or DR was bugged and applies more than 3 stacks (something like 3stacks per second as both have effects that last a certain duration), but am trying to not plan for that in the builder, but may adjust in practice. Still, combined they could apply 6 stacks which will last for up to 60s (depending on which order you stack them I think, since one has a 8s duration per stack and the other has a 10s duration per stack which would have to go 2nd I think). With Breakdown passive being utilized when a tank impairs a target (or the Chaos dps could even take over impairs if the tank goes heal/tank spec) and keep the exposed buff up until UG/DR are off cooldown

All that, while also trying to stay at a minimum of around 850dps with 10/10.1 gear.

http://www.drakkashi.com/secretworld/wheel.php?37=0&34=2&10=2&38=3&35=5&35=3&8=6&35=0&n&37=5&26=1&32=5&2=1&18=5


That's what I came up with earlier before I got sidetracked of thinking of a new AR build and ended up almost exaclty with what Seraphim posted a couple posts back.

Fake Edit: yeah Sera, that is more of a Fist build than what I was looking to try and do, though I do like that build for a melee that isn't involving Blade
Real Edit: yeah I know my build only had 6 passives, that was due to considering other passives but kept going back to weaker ones, so left that open while brainstorming.

[Segoris]

Just abusing this thread to save some links to some fun builds that might be worth trying while questing
http://www.drakkashi.com/secretworld/wheel.php?64=0&66=0&24=4&64=2&64=6&67=1&29=4&64=1&64=5&51=6&28=5&18=5&26=1&2=1
http://www.drakkashi.com/secretworld/wheel.php?26=0&24=2&56=2&24=4&62=3&56=6&59=1&5=5&24=5&51=6&26=5&58=3&26=1&2=1
http://www.drakkashi.com/secretworld/wheel.php?50=0&53=2&55=6&61=4&62=3&56=4&53=4&50=5&60=1&59=4&51=2&61=3&46=6&53=3