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The Secret World: Illusionist, Pandemonist & Soldier Decks
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Funcom has partnered with MMORPG.com to give our readers the first look at custom decks that players will have access to when playing The Secret World. These decks guide players in finding an awesome build for their characters in game. This time, we bring you the Illusionist, the Pandemonist and the Soldier decks. Read on!
The Pandemonist combines the forces of Elementalism with Blood Magic to be a raging torrent of magical power on the battlefield. She is excellent at crowd control, being able to Impair and Hinder large groups of enemies with roots and stuns. She can keep a safe distance from her rooted foes and let loose with wicked Chain attacks which not only hit them all, but also do brutal critical hits and Afflict them with punishing damage-over-time effects.
Read more The Secret World: Illusionist, Pandemonist & Soldier Decks.
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Comments
I like these decks! They should make more of them. But its not enough to prevent people from making broken decks / skill combinations. Its something they must address.
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I only just started a character Sunday June 17. I went with Assault Rifle. I still have some learning to do as I still don't have a secondary power ability (AR/??). I have a question pertaining to decks. My AR choices active/passive do not list any of the abilities listed in the deck (Soldier). Are those late game choices? I don't see any at the beginning stages.
Also you won't be running one deck and one deck only, you need several decks. E.g.
Solo mob packs
Solo single mobs
Dungeon builds (not just tank, dps, support & heal) hard modes require specific types of dps / mitigation etc.. on a fight by fight basis, hardcore also require different group composition on fight by fight basis, and hybrid builds.
Pvp builds which will be different also, e.g pvp healer will want lots of tank stuff.
It's not something they "must address". Making a deck is a major part of playing the game. In fact, that freedom is the point of making a skill-based game, instead of simply making it class-based.
Personally, I love the theorycrafting and experimentation these types of systems allow. While I do like the fact that they've created some decks which are useful as a guide, they don't need to hold everyone's hand.
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I really like the concept with decks and making your own builds instead of classes. I am currently playing Diablo 3 which also has a lot of freedom when it comes to picking powers, runes and so on. It lets me change my character whenever I want instead of re-rolling and I get a lot less bored playing. My girlfriend also liked it a lot since she doesn't like to theorycraft, but try things out. Instead of being stuck with a bad build, she can just fix it.
Anyway, I came here to say that I LOVE the icons. Especially these:
Keep these "decks" coming! It's interesting to read about skill combinations that I hadn't thought to put together.
I had my own little combination of Assault Rifle and Fist Weapons, which I primarily used as a slow-and-steady DPS build with healing properties. After seeing these decks posted here with their appropo names, I've come to the conclusion that I'll dub mine as "Machine Gun Missionary" (or "Nun with a Gun" if I roll a female character.)
Same here! After looking over all the Dragon decks Wu seemed the most appealing when I got into the weekend beta. I love the synergy with DoT's and penetration, and the ability to deal massive burst damage from range and melee. Focusing on single target damage was great for grinding elites after all my missions were on cooldown, and devastatiting for dungeon boss encounters. The lack of AoE was painful at times while following the early Wu path, but I got by with Infestation and a couple blood shields.
There are definite improvements to be made for optimizing the Wu deck as it is, and some more powerful options for abilities from other areas of the wheel to alter the playstyle a bit I will be grabbing. Outfit will be interesting to see in action!
I also really liked that because I was in Blood, I could easily spec a hybrid healer/DPS so I could solo effectively when out exploring. It's just really cool to see how versatile the builds can be. It'll be worth the effort needed to get tons of skills.
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You learn by making borken decks. A broken deck in PvE might be a world beater in PvP. I don't need or want anyone to insure I succeed or insure that I don't fail. It's not even a game if it's "fixed"
These are late game choices, or higher tier skills, depending on how you refer to it.
(Missed the quote button when I posted this, but was in reply to Boldman58's question).
I love the theorycrafting of the deck system with the amount of freedom the system gives the player, yet i do hope they manage the potency of the build combos though. I mean making a build that is ammazing is great even finding a op-build, yet if we get certain builds that dominate the scene in pvp or pve too much or for too long, than why not just make classes as players will copy this op build to be competitive in the game. In that way of making sure that the viability of builds in the game stays high enouph that more than a handful of builds are used, they should look into builds that get very popular or are seeming to be op in game. There is a huge difference between fixing broken/op dech combos, an insuring players do not make broken/worthless decks, as balancing/fixing broken decks allows other decks to become veiwed as viable when with the broken decks not fixed they would not be even considered. examples of such would be rift an the soul system really as it has alot of customization in that system, but without manage the power of soul combos only a finite few build.combos are seen as viable.
As I'm not planing on playing fro a few months after launch there should be a deck planner developed by then and I can do a lot of research to figure out the best synergies between decks. I was thinking of an Assault Rifle or Pistol as my main skill set but has I've not even been in beta I have no clue what what would complment them.
Yes. I found my starting Templar's Preacher (Blades & Blood Magic) deck to have a nice blend of DPS/AoE. When I wanted to help people out with heals I would add Angelic Aegis to change things up. The ability to save the decks on the go without having to go to a vendor to set them was grand. I cannot wait to see what this weekend is like. Cheers.
The biggest thign i hope for is that they keep a steady supply of new powers going into the cells, adjusting the powers that are too similar tto other powers to keep unique feel there. While also working on giving us entire new decks as well, since they have the majority of standard play styles covered, but there are many others that would be desired by players that could be eaily added, and also would help to re-balance the power of decks as people find need ways of combining the powers too.
I was loving my bounty hunter deck, all shotguns and pistols. yeh.
Just a heads up man, 72 weapon combinations, 133 possible skills in each combination, onlt 7 active and 7 passive can be active in any one combination. so out of 133 you can choose 14. This system doesn't lend to "broken combinations" it lends to playstyle simple and pure. You have to really gauge the skill abilities and synergy, and some of them you won't even realize have good synergy until you test it. The 33 decks they give you don't actually even cover 33 combinations. The decks are good starting points, I don't want people thinking this game has broken combos right off the bat. People are approaching it with the "ok, what's the best damage/heals/tank" mentality already in beta. It's sad people can't figure it out, or just instantly assume there is already a golden strategy. Ya, i'll get flak for saying this, but I think most people will be shocked when they use the decks, or abide by someone elses decks, and then see someone come along with an unexpected combo and completely fuck up their veiws on the game decks.
Though, I think the term "deck" is good jargon for the 14 skill combos, I like it, plain, simple, instead of "skill setup/skill assembly/skill combo" quicker, easier.
I was playing my own Blades/Blood magic deck,but for some reason I decided I wanted to try the Witch Hunter deck because the outfit looked cool and well a big Hammer is always nice. After playing the WH and getting deeper and deeper into it, I fell in love with it, that said there are times when I wish I had more ranged abilities etc so I will slowly start a BH deck next. This game has unlimited potential for character building the likes I have never seen.
even funcoms decks are not flawless. finding the perfect set of skills active and passive that accompany each other is a pain in the ass. i hope someone comes up with a working skill simulator soon that shows the detailed effects.
Oh, you can make a deck so bad, you can't survive or barely survive mobs and then go QQ it's too hard.
Or go to an instance with all people having random "playstyle" decks that have worse DPS, survivability and healing as good decks and compare.
Anyway, if people make decks that do the job, it's ok /care what skills they have. If their deck sucks and they drag down the team = bad deck and imo broken.
Is it something that they need to adress as the poster in your quote said: OMG no, please no. Let people make crappy decks and learn from their mistakes.
Templars win again in terms of looks. Soldier is another deck i am going to unlock to get the outfit. You guys know that if you unlock the complete deck you can wear the outfit shown in concept art?
Looks sexy.
Oh, Damn! I didn't know this!
Now I'm going to have to go back and check out the "Preacher" deck, because I'm still set on strolling around as a "Machine Gun Missionary".
Why so many skills are made around building resources and spending them ? Is it only me who finds it boring ?
wow the Pandemonist is an awesome deck concept, I guess this is the closest we have seen so far to a pure crowd control build. Love the idea of this combination supporting a front line attack group. My only concern is that the Pandemonist is gonna be really weak and flaky, spending a lot of time dead.