Yokai's Guide to Build Mechanics, Build Philosophy, and Newbie Build Tips

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.

I'm going to start this guide with three charts, because that's what you'll be referring to over and over after reading the guide at least once. All the explanation for the charts comes after the charts.

IMPORTANT: All of the charts are currently provisional and subject to significant change by later in the weekend beta period, by launch, and possibly after launch as Funcom makes balance changes. For now, consider these not as gospel, but as broad examples of how to think about the 9 weapon types and their abilities. TIP: IF YOU'RE NOT SEEING FULLY FINISHED CHARTS, REFRESH THE PAGE TO REFRESH YOUR LOCAL IMAGE CACHE.

Chart 1 - Weapon Matrix

This chart helps you compare the properties of all tanking, healing, and support weapon types with each other.



Chart 2 - ACTIVE React/Apply Matrix

This chart further explains the basic "character" of each weapon type by showing you specifically how the ACTIVE abilities of each weapon type can react to a given state, subtype, or trigger condition by applying various effects.

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Chart 3 - PASSIVE React/Apply Matrix

This chart is hugely important to creating sophisticated builds, because it is weapon-neutral. Remember that you can use a PASSIVE ability from ANY weapon in your deck, regardless of which two weapons you actually have equipped. This chart lists all the bridge passives and support passives that you can use to strong effect in ANY deck. A "bridge" passive is specifically any weapon-neutral passive that can apply a STATE or SUBTYPE. For example, Chaos has such a passive that will apply Weaken whenever you land a non-glancing hit on an Impaired target. There are also many triggers that will apply states. And Elemental has a passive that will turn a critical hit on an afflicted target into a Chain attack.

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Understanding builders and finishers

Some abilities "build resources" and are called builders. Others "consume resources" and are called finishers. 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 finisher 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 appear to 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 finisher 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 finishers should you go back to building.

Many abilities are written in a manner that does not suggest that more resources = more damage for the finisher. IMO this is a quality issue with the tech writing for the ability descriptions. In my testing, I've found many such finishers 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 finishers is that you don't always need to build to 5 resources before popping a finisher. For example, two of the elemental finishers 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 > finisher > builder > finisher 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. In my charts, I distinguish these with the term "State-Like". 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".


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.) The charts should make it clear what triggers generally are and which weapons have both active and passive abilities that can synergize with those triggers.


Passive abilities are not limited by your equipped weapons

When choosing abilities for your deck, the actives can come only from your two currently equipped weapons, but the passives can come from ANY weapon. This is a very important point of sophistication and one that can yield some really interesting and powerful synergies.

You should always pay special attention to chart #3 above (the Passive React/Apply Matrix), because it shows you all the cool support passives and bridge passives that you can add to literally any deck.


Yokai's newbie build philosophy

As a complete newbie, focus on only two weapons at first until you've unlocked most or all of both inner circle cells (two for each weapon, four total). The inner circle cells contain literally everything you need to have a well-rounded build that's good enough for any content in Kingsmouth, even making you able to solo the 1-skull elites in the northern part of the map by the time you're packing mostly QL2 - QL3 gear (or even sooner if you find some really strong single-target synergies).

Focus first on creating a single deck that has: one single target builder that builds resources for BOTH weapons, one AOE or cone builder that builds for BOTH weapons, and one hard-hitting single-target consumer from EACH weapon that you can use back-to-back. That's 4 active abilities in total. The other three actives can be whatever you like, but if there's room for an AOE finisher, that can be useful too in your first newbie build. (And bear in mind that AOE in this sense really means "multi-target", so cone abilities are perfectly usable instead of AOEs.)

When learning this first deck, learn to use either builder as needed to load multiple resources for each weapon type, and then pop both of your finishers back-to-back before you go back to building again. And if you use a ranged weapon in your deck, also learn to target each different mob in a swarm to use your ranged finisher(s) on each mob before you go back to building again.

After you've got this general purpose deck working well for you, try to build some basic variations of it before you leave Kingsmouth. Note that in most cases, this will require you to invest both SP and AP in additional weapons beyond the first two that you've grown comfortable with so far! Don't worry, there is plenty of AP and SP to be earned by doing all the mission content in Kingsmouth. Don't be in a rush to move on to Savage Coast. There is no race-to-endgame in TSW. The endgame quite literally starts in Kingsmouth.

Ideally, you want the first three deck types I list below before you move on to Savage Coast. And you want to be closer to rank 3 with each deck than to rank 2. (See my guide on group mechanics if you don't know what I mean by the "rank" of a deck--link in my sig block below.) You'll also probably want to experiment with the 4th deck type below soon after you start doing Savage Coast content.

1) A deck specifically geared around mostly/all single-target damage, for taking down elites (which are usually alone).

2) A deck specifically geared around multi-target AOE and/or cone damage, for taking down swarms. You *will* hit some missions that will send waves of swarms at you and if your build isn't pure AOE carnage, you will have a rough time surviving.

3) A deck primarily using long-range attacks (AR or Elemental-distance: 20meters plus), because some fights will require you to stay out of melee distance entirely.

4) A deck that has one "column dash backward" or "column dash forward" active. For example, Shotgun and AR have the dash backward abilities, and Hammer and some others have the dash forward abilities. These dashes work like mini teleports in that you will move through any mobs that are in your way. These dash abilities can be handy because the "reaction indicators" when mobs do their special attacks move especially slow at first, but as you encounter tougher mobs, but you will have less reaction time to manually move out of the way if you fight primarily in melee distance, and dashing can make it easier to avoid these faster specials. You can pick up a basic dash pretty quickly/cheaply. For example, Assault Rifle and Shotgun both have the dash backs for only 12 AP. The shotgun variety recharges faster (10sec) than the AR variety (15sec), but this is balanced by the AR version applying a hinder and some AOE damage.

5) Don't focus on the bottom skill row for each weapon at first. (There is one important exception to this guideline: Elementalism--more on that in a moment.) As a newbie, you want to push the skill level of the weapons you use to Skill 2 right away in Kingsmouth, so that you can equip QL3 weapons as fast as possible. And shortly afterward you want to hit Skill 3 and 4 in each weapon so that when you leave Kingsmouth and start getting QL4 and QL5 drops you can take advantage of those too. This means you should dump all your SP in the top DPS row for each weapon at first. Don't bother dumping points in the bottom rows for a while, because they benefit only the specialized "role" of each weapon, and those specialized roles can't really be played effectively until you have invested in some of the outer circle abilities. At first, you want sheer damage output more than anything else.

Now, Elementalism breaks this general rule of thumb. The top row for Elementalism doesn't increase DPS per hit, it increases DPS by adding a chance to transform any single-target ability into AOE damage!! This means that long range single-target ability you're using to pull single targets away from other enemies might sometimes AOE on you and will draw multiple enemies! So For Elementalism, you should put skill points ONLY in the bottom row at first, until you get more comfortable with dealing with unexpected adds.

http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=31494

Yokai's guide to advanced build philosophy

http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=31933