The Kinds of Builds You Need -- Secret World

Initially, I posted this here. But, it is good enough that I thought I should get double use out of it. In The Secret World, you'll hit Blue Ridge Mountains, which will become one of the harder, more frustrating zones. Or so I'm told. I've dallied there a little bit between questing, and it doesn't seem significantly harder than Savage Coast; you just have to go slower and do a proper gear check.

But, you want to know how to make a good build? Let me give you a down and dirty example. It's not great, but it works, usually. The general Guild Wars rule of solo builds applies, with a slight variation, due to the combo point mechanic. Build for synergy; outlast pressure damage; deal sustained damage; be able to spike; know when to engage. Simple stuff. Example below the fold.

1. Builder -- Only take one, unless the second applies a useful effect, for example, the Shotgun builder that applies Weakened to debuff a target's outgoing damage is an excellent builder. It is very hard to justify taking any other builder, unless it brings you something amazing like Chaos's first builder, Escalation, which buffs all damage to a target.

2. Consumers for both weapons. This is where your damage is going to come from. You may want to bring different levels of consumers for magic, since they don't spend all your resources.

3. Snare, stun, hinder or other escape tool. Running away will happen. Enable this.

4. Utility and survivability. At least one, two is ideal.

Right now, my primary soloing blood/pistols deck looks like this:

• Boiling Blood -- Blood ranged builder.
• Infection -- Blood consumer; chain DoT
• Blood Spike -- Blood consumer; single target DoT; on second cast, deals bonus damage.
• Blood Pact -- Blood consumer, puts a decent sized shield and stuns the first target that hits me.
• Wanted -- Pistol consumer, chain attack.
• Health Drone -- Pistol consumer that Chain heals and triggers my Pistol self heal.
• Cardiac Arrest (Elite Blood) -- Stuns target, deals damage, costs no resources.

My passives:

• Corrupted Blood (Blood) -- Makes Boiling Blood add afflicted.
• Dark Potency (Blood) -- When I add afflicted, I gain Penetration.
• Vessel Walls (Blood) -- When I use a chain ability, I gain a shield. When this shield falls, I trigger my Blood healing passive.
• Chain Feed (Pistol) -- Chain abilities are 7.5% better.
• Immortal Spirit (Sword) -- When I Penetrate, gain a HoT.
• Thicker Than Water (Blood) -- 10% bonus blood damage.
• Fluid Defenses (Elite, Swords) -- When I am glanced, gain protection. When I penetrate, gain damage.

It's not ideal, but it is the kind of build you should be looking to make. Abilities are pulling double duty; Infection and Wanted are giving me a shield, while the Health Drone is working over time to keep my health from draining too fast. I have two stuns in Blood Pact and Cardiac Arrest, and I build on damage as I layer on DoTs and proc my passives. I still need to find the balance between tanking, healing and damage talismans, but I thought an example was better than just advice.

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P.S.,

Things Matt Links back this evening.