Analysis of a Deck: Ninja (Dragon)

Posted by on Jul 7, 2012 in Blog, Featured, Guides, The Secret World | 0 comments

Since I haven’t made much progress in understanding character builds, decks and the ability wheel, I need to slow down for a while and study. And why not do that by just analyzing the deck I am using, pre-made by FunCom: “Ninja”. It’s a melee build using blades and elemental magic for some ranged abilities and to spice up things. And by spicing up I mean synergies, something, the designers of “The Secret World” have declared as basic principle behind the creation of the abilities for player characters.

“The Secret World” organizes character abilities in a wheel, consisting of 3 sections with 3 weapon/school types each. For each weapon type, there are 2 inner and 6 outer groups of 7 abilities each. Add 3 more groups with miscellaneous abilities. This adds up to 9 * 8 + 3 = 75 groups or 75 * 7 = 575 abilities. Getting all skills of an inner group will cost you 19 ability points. All skills of an outer group will cost you 169 AP. That’s a total of 9975 AP.

To say the least, this is overwhelming. There are already a good number of guides out there, but I am still far away from really understanding what’s going on. Let’s start with a quick overview of guides & tools: The most comprehensive guide is Yokai’s guide to build mechanics and build philosophy. It’s still a lot to digest. There’s Seki’s “Weapon synergy and build discussion”, which will go away once the TSW boards are reformatted. You’ll find a copy of the post here. There’s also a nice calculator at Bad Omens.

Now we will take a look at the abilities being used for the deck. The damage amounts are taken from an empty build, most of them will be higher when more skill points are added. Please ignore them for now, the actual damage is secondary.

 

Active:

Delicate Strike: Builds 1 resource for each equipped weapon. A single target attack that deals 48 physical damage.
Resource Builder, buffed by “Delicate Precision” passive to increase penetration chance.

Clearing the Path: Consumes all Blade Resources. A PBAoE attack that deals 57 physical damage. This attack penetrates any Afflicted targets it hits.
Blade PBAoE finisher, exploits Afflicted status

Blaze: Consumes 3 Elemental Resources. A single target attack that deals 164magical damage, or 181 magical damage to Afflicted targets.
Elemental single target resource consumer, exploits Afflicted status

Surging Blades: A column dash attack that deals 58 physical damage.
Utility: gets you to your target fast, and if you do it right, away as well.

Flashpoint: A single target attack that deals 35 magical damage. The target also becomes Afflicted with a damage over time effect that deals 20 magical damage every second for 5 seconds.
If the target is already Afflicted, it will cause 5 enemies in a 5 meter radius around them to become Afflicted with a damage over time effect that deals 20 magical damage each second for 5 seconds.
Single target, exploits and triggers Afflicted.

Ice Manifestation: Places a manifestation at the targeted point that lasts 9 seconds. Every 3 seconds it will hit up to 5 enemies in a 5 meter radius, dealing 40 magical damage. Affected targets will also be rooted to the ground for 2 seconds.
Targeted AoE, crowd control.

Four Seasons: A channelled attack that deals 31 physical damage each hit. The damage dealt increases by 5% for each hit, and all hits will penetrate. The last hit will cause the target to become Impaired and unable to act for 3 seconds. This ability has a 15 meter range.
Single target attack, triggers Impaired and Afflicted, the later because it’s buffed by Incision.

 

Passive

Fortunate Strike: Whenever you attack an Afflicted target, there is a 10% chance you will perform an additional hit that deals 21 physical damage.
Exploits Afflicted.

Aidelon: “Blaze” has a 100% chance to critically hit Afflicted targets.
Exploits Afflicted.

Twist the Knife: Whenever you penetrate you also gain 1 stack of a beneficial effect, which increases all damage dealt by3% for 10 seconds. This effect can stack up to 3 times.
Triggered by Penetrate. 

Incision: Whenever you penetrate, you also cause the target to become Afflicted with a damage over time effect that deals 10 physical damage every second for 3 seconds.
Triggered by Penetrate, triggers Afflicted.

Sudden Return:  Whenever you penetrate, you also perform an additional hit that deals 18 physical damage.
Triggered by Penetrate. 

Delicate Precision:  Increases the Penetration Chance of “Delicate Strike” by 10%.
Self explanatory. 

Flight of Daggers: Whenever you attack, you build a Flight of Daggers counter. When the counter reaches 5, you will hit up to 3 enemies in a 5 meter radius around you, dealing 46 physical damage. Affected targets also become Afflicted with a damage over time effect that deals 10 physical damage every second for 5 seconds.
Triggers Afflicted.

 

Summary

The key to this build lies in the passive ability Incision and the active ability Clearing the Path. Incision causes affliction with the first penetration and Clearing the Path penetrates everything that’s afflicted. Thus, as long as you keep up with time-outs, your target will remain afflicted and penetrated a lot.

This deck gains even more by abilities exploiting the constant affliction and high rate of penetration. Blaze and Flashpoint are active abilities which benefit from the target being afflicted. Fortunate Strike and Aidelon are passives which benefit as well. Additionally, Twist the Knife, Incision and Sudden Return all amplify the effects of penetrate.

 

Conclusion

By analyzing a single pre-made deck, we’ve seen how well 7 active and 7 passive abilities can interact with each other. Writing this article was an exercise for myself to learn how this interaction happens and I think I know much better now what to look for in other builds. It will still be a challenge to come up with a build of my own, but the first step is done.


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"The Secret World" is a registered trademark of Funcom GmbH. All logos, images and names are intellectual properties of Funcom GmBH unless otherwise noted. This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with Funcom GmbH.


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SWTOR Overview to Sith Sorcerer and Jedi Sage Guides

Posted by on Jan 3, 2012 in Guides, Star Wars: The Old Republic | 0 comments

The Sith Sorcerer and the Jedi Sage, although using light sabers are primarily casting classes. Both classes are able to heal and to deal burst damage through their Lightning or Telekinesis trees or using the Madness and Balance trees to deal periodic damage.

Here are a few guides I came across when researching the Sith Sorcerer and the Jedi Sage advanced classes. The SWTOR main forum hosts these guides for the Sith Sorcerer and the Jedi Sage. Both guides are nearly identical, having only translated the Sith and Jedi abilities and vocabulary. In the long run it’s probably easier to read the guide for the side you choose, since you’ll be much more familiar with the skill names.

The guides themselves contain an introduction of the class, details about the three skill trees, builds for various scenarios, more information about the companions, about equipment and crew skills.

Another set of great guides (PvE only) comes from sithwarrior.com, which wants to be the prime theory crafting site for SWTOR. There’s the Sith Sorcerer Healing Compendium, which of course is valid for Jedi Sage’s as well. Both, the Madness/Balance Sorcerer DPS Compendium and the Sith Sorcerer/Jedi Sage Lightning/Telekinetics Compendium follow SithWarrior’s standard format with ability descriptions, builds, how to play the build and how to gear.

This table lists the builds discussed in all guides. Builds named SW xxx are from sithwarrior.com , all others from swtor.com

PvE Healer Standard 32/7/2
Offensive Leveling 30/9/2
SW Healer 31/7/2
Standard 32/7/2
Offensive Leveling 30/9/2
SW Healer 31/7/2
PvP Healer PvP Standard 32/7/2 PvP Standard 32/7/2
PvE Telekinesis / Lightning Standard 3/31/7
SW 3/31/7 
Standard 3/31/7
SW 3/31/7 
PvP Telekinesis / Lightning PvP Standard 3/31/5 +2 PvP Standard 3/31/5 +2
PvP Balance / Madness Sever Force 3/7/31
Hybrid Telekinesis 0/13/28
SW Sever Force 0/7/31
SW Telekinetic Wave 0/13/28
SW Telekinesis Effusion 0/17/24
Creeping Terror 3/7/31
Hybrid Lightning 0/13/28
SW Creeping Terror 3/7/31
SW Chain Lightning 0/13/28
SW Lightning Effusion 0/17/24
PvP Balance / Madness PvP Sever Force 3/7/31 PvP Creeping Terror 3/7/31

 


© Disclaimer: Star Wars: The Old Republic
This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with LucasArts, BioWare, or Electronic Arts.
Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. LucasArts, the LucasArts logo, STAR WARS and related properties are trademarks in the United States and/or in other countries of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. © 2008-2011 Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved. BioWare and the BioWare logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of EA International (Studio and Publishing) Ltd. You may not copy any images, videos or sound clips found on this site or "deep link" to any image, video or sound clip directly.
Game content and materials copyright LICENSOR. All Rights Reserved.


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SWTOR Bounty Hunter Guides

Posted by on Dec 22, 2011 in Guides, Star Wars: The Old Republic | 0 comments

I’ve been looking for bounty hunter guides for my own character and found good ones at the SWTOR main site. This one is a guide for both advanced classes: Bounty Hunter guide. It contains answers to some frequently asked questions, some more details about the advanced classes Mercenary (heal and dps, dual wield blaster) and Powertech (tank and dps, single blaster), and some talent builds to get you started.

The second guide is a specific Mercenary guide in the form of a Q&A: Ask a Mercenary thread 2.0. It starts with a basic hybrid leveling build and leads into a longer thread answering various questions over time.

There is not yet a Powertech specific guide.


© Disclaimer: Star Wars: The Old Republic
This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with LucasArts, BioWare, or Electronic Arts.
Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. LucasArts, the LucasArts logo, STAR WARS and related properties are trademarks in the United States and/or in other countries of Lucasfilm Ltd. and/or its affiliates. © 2008-2011 Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved. BioWare and the BioWare logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of EA International (Studio and Publishing) Ltd. You may not copy any images, videos or sound clips found on this site or "deep link" to any image, video or sound clip directly.
Game content and materials copyright LICENSOR. All Rights Reserved.


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