Facial customization feels like it's been gutted, and the new approach to combat makes me feel like I have absolutely no sense of a correlation between the keys I'm pressing and the on-screen consequences . Maybe I'm just reacting really badly to change, and I'll definitely give it another few hours, but... I do not like this game right now.
After playing some this weekend (and clearing Kingsmouth) my impressions of TSW vs TSWL is:
1. I really like most of the new weapon mechanics. Both elementalism and the Shotgun are pretty great. The mechanics for the blade and pistols are not bad, but not that top notch either.
2. I'm not sure if I like how each action tree is more selfcontained. No skill effects anything outside your own weapon tree. On the passive tree we generally have three rows of skills that boost specific active skills, and then 2 rows of general mechanics skills, as far as I can teel these trees focus on boosting a particular aspect of the weapon.
The upside to this is that it's easier to manage your skills. The downside is that gameplay seems to pretty much be "I'm going to pick 2 AoE skills and 2 Single target skills and then two booster skills, then take the passives that support this stuff".
3. The storyline is of course still awesome but TSWL has really done its work on improving the quest flow.
4. It seems pretty chill on the P2W front. Aurum&Patron makes things easier, but nothing gameplay-affecting seems to be available for Aurum only and there is an exchange where you can trade your Marks of Favor (which so far has been awarded through daily quests in relatively decent amounts) for Aurum.
5. Combat is somewhat more active. You aim at what you want to kill (or not if you use PBAoE). Things die. Generally not too hectic but a bit more engaging than before.
Fiendishrabbit on
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Marks of Favor are only awarded through the daily challenges. Players can use the currency exchange to trade it for Aurum with other players, but Aurum is theoretically limitless - people can buy as much of it as they want to. Marks of Favor are hard-limited by the number of players and the number of challenges they do every day, and Funcom has said this is a deliberate design decision, that the most valuable currency can only be "bought" with time and effort.
Secret Knights of Arcadia
Penny Arcadia Society (or just The Arcadia Society)
Enlightened Brotherhood of Wang
Penny for your Thoughts
The Penny Pack
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
One thing to note about the faction choice in the game: Unlike in The Secret World, players will be able to create cabals consisting of players from any faction, and there is no faction-specific PvP in SWL, at least at launch. So feel free to pick whichever secret society sounds the best to you, without worrying that it might prevent you from hanging out with your friends.
MJ Guthrie of MassivelyOP has written up a primer guide to each of the factions for players wondering which side to choose. Dragon Illuminati Templars
Let me know if there's any questions you have not addressed in the OP. I will try to answer and add them as necessary.
Post also reserved, hopefully, for list of folks playing the game.
List of PA folks playing:
DarkPrimus: Paul "P-Dubs" Weston
Stragint: Redacted "Stragint" Redacted
Zetx: Felicia "Zettie" Arashi
TheRoadVirus: Erin "RoadVirus" Ashe
Edith Upwards: Random "Randomella" Harris
Pixelated Pixie: Stephanie "Pixy" Winters
Oats: I'm Phosz "Phosgene" Oatway
Kay: Fumiko "Itachi" Kusanagi
Jutranjo: Morat "Jutranjo" Zakalwe
Darkmayo: Joshua "Darkmayo" Coltan
@DarkPrimus Sign me up too. Rchanen playing (ahh fuck it I'll come up with a name when I start) I'll wait for it to pop on steam. But I will try this come Friday.
Given that this is the game's second iteration, maybe The New Arcadians?
I'm still salty about the skill tree and weapon changes (I don't feel any cross weapon synergies; it seems so much more one-dimensional)... but I can appreciate how accessible the game is now. My wife never really got a handle on TSW, but she loves this, so we're likely to play much more of it together. Realistically, that's probably a good trade-off for me. @DarkPrimus, sign me up. Maureen "Radala" Ward.
I'm finding the skills and combat much worse, while I actually really like the gear upgrading mechanics. I'll give the game a chance, although I'm pretty unhappy with the way this whole thing has been managed (eg releasing the museum after they planned to shut TSW down).
I liked the upgrading mechanics up until I got my first blue talisman and suddenly my leveled up talisman couldn't even level up the new one once for the cost of 400 currency. OTOH, the blue is much better, so I guess I shouldn't be complaining. Hit level 10 or so before I stopped playing yesterday. I really like the mission flow (there's always a mission around!) but at the same time after a bit I have to stop myself from going "just one more mission."
I'm finding the skills and combat much worse, while I actually really like the gear upgrading mechanics. I'll give the game a chance, although I'm pretty unhappy with the way this whole thing has been managed (eg releasing the museum after they planned to shut TSW down).
It may be small consolation, but all the clothing rewards from the subscriber rewards and events that took place since the Museum's launch in TSW (Hatekeeper, Four Horsemen, etc) are all listed as TSW Exclusive items in my SWL Dressing Room.
I liked the upgrading mechanics up until I got my first blue talisman and suddenly my leveled up talisman couldn't even level up the new one once for the cost of 400 currency. OTOH, the blue is much better, so I guess I shouldn't be complaining. Hit level 10 or so before I stopped playing yesterday. I really like the mission flow (there's always a mission around!) but at the same time after a bit I have to stop myself from going "just one more mission."
Having to spend the MoF to fuse items seems like smart design to prevent people from power-leveling their equipment too quickly. I mean, unless they want to utilize the currency exchange.
Yeah, I think it makes sense, I would say it just surprised me at the gap between greens and blues, but again, that is reasonable for item stat diversity.
I think I want to try to buy some of that real-world money currency with MoF; I remember that sort of currency exchange was really undervalued at the beginning of GW2's life
The more I play the more I feel that the F2P model resembles Star Trek online.
1. Marks of Favor vs Dilitium (except that marks of favor can't be saved up so that you can spend a few days with just "login, refine, log out")
2. Caches requiring keys that can only be acquired for aurum/zen
3. Marks of favor/Dilitium exchange
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
0
Options
KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
So I was asking in the wrong place.
Is there any easy to digest list of weapon active/passive abilities, or do I just need to log in and read it there? For some reason, I find that harder to parse. Dunno why.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
0
Options
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
One thing I'm noticing is that since passives no longer function across weapons, you're strongly incentivized to focus on one weapon almost to the exclusion of your secondary.
You still generate energy for your secondary, so you want some skill to dump that energy, but aside from that you get the most mileage by catering your actives and passives to a single weapon.
My Chaos mage is currently just using the first Fist heal, and not bothering with any skill that spends fury.
So getting use to this upgrade system.. have done all the quests in Kingsmouth so far, my pistol and shotgun are sitting around 10, I have been merging like weapons and gear with each other as that appears to give you the most bang for you buck. I havent seen any different weapon skins yet. I assume those are dungeon found or purchased?
I haven't found anything that indicates that there even is such a thing as weapon skins anymore. The old crafting system is gone, and the new seems to aim at finding a weapon you like and then levelling it up.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I haven't found anything that indicates that there even is such a thing as weapon skins anymore. The old crafting system is gone, and the new seems to aim at finding a weapon you like and then levelling it up.
Hmmm maybe i'll need to try on a pistol or two to see if the look changes.
Switch SW-6182-1526-0041
0
Options
KayWhat we need...Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered Userregular
I want the downtime to stop so I can plaaaaaaaaaay~
Still not sure what I want to end up using, but from looking at the abilities, I'm inclined to agree that you're primarily one weapon type and the second is just a utility/DPS consumer if your main weapon is out of energy, which is sad. No real cross-weapon synergies like there were in TSW.
Weapon skins are apparently going to be available Soon™ and while they haven't given specifics, they made it sound like you'll be able to swap how your weapons look on the fly.
DOh...So look like the currency market was really exploited due to the way it was setup. People were making a shitton of Aurum by buying and selling really quickly or something.. hense the extended downtime..
Switch SW-6182-1526-0041
0
Options
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
edited June 2017
There's also a minor consideration that some weapons need at least two skills to function, or don't function as well with fewer skills.
If you only have a single AR skill on your bar, you will end up eating grenades to the face, if you only have a single Elementalism skill on the bar you'll end up overheating, if you only have one Fist skill you can't spend fury (not a huge deal granted), if you only have one sword skill you can't utilize your chi sword.
Pistol, Chaos, and Hammer seem to be very solid secondaries due to a lack of reliance on building up resources and then using a second skill to spend them. (Hammer builds and spends a resource, but you gain it from being hit even when the weapon is your secondary)
There's also a minor consideration that some weapons need at least two skills to function, or don't function as well with fewer skills.
If you only have a single AR skill on your bar, you will end up eating grenades to the face, if you only have a single Elementalism skill on the bar you'll end up overheating, if you only have one Fist skill you can't spend fury (not a huge deal granted), if you only have one sword skill you can't utilize your chi sword.
Pistol, Chaos, and Hammer seem to be very solid secondaries due to a lack of reliance on building up resources and then using a second skill to spend them. (Hammer builds and spends a resource, but you gain it from being hit even when the weapon is your secondary)
Having one more passive slot would allow for players to keep a secondary weapon passive that helps with that special skill somehow (Blade has some passive that make Chi build during combat, AR has one that makes grenades not damage you when they explode, etc) or having one more active slot that's exclusively for your secondary would encourage people to use that special ability more.
But, they were pretty adamant during beta testing that the number of active and passive abilities was already decided upon. So we'll just have to wait for a while for people to get more skills unlocked and begin experimenting with builds to see what combinations come up.
As far as the AR goes, I know grenades only start appearing once you've purchased a grenade active ability, so if you were using it for a secondary weapon, you could just not buy into that row of active abilities...
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
The other consideration is that using a weapon increases a sort of proficiency level with it that grants passive stats just by being equipped
DPS weapons (Pistol, Blade, Elemental) give crit rate, crit power, and hit rate
Tank weapons (Chaos, Hammer, Shotgun) give defense, evade, and hit
Heal weapons (Fist, Rifle, Blood) give heal rating and crit rate
0
Options
StragintDo Not GiftAlways DeclinesRegistered Userregular
Right now I have elemental as my primary and chaos as the secondary but I think I'm going to switch it. I really like chaos.
PSN: Reaper_Stragint, Steam: DoublePitstoChesty
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
0
Options
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Chaos is a LOT of fun
I'm doing Chaos/Fist right now just to have a heal from Fists, but I think I'm probably going to either go back to Chaos/Pistol or Chaos/Hammer
DOh...So look like the currency market was really exploited due to the way it was setup. People were making a shitton of Aurum by buying and selling really quickly or something.. hense the extended downtime..
Wow, it must be really bad, they just extended the downtime to an additional 3 hours. Total of 8 hour downtime today (so far) from an initial 2 hour downtime.
Is there any discussion on the exploit? I take it that it's more than just flipping b/t the two currencies really quickly?
Posts
I'm Phosz "Phosgene" Oatway
Fumiko "Itachi" Kusanagi, Dragon member and Chaos Mage.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
Morat "Jutranjo" Zakalwe
I will leave that decision up to you fine folks!
Also, I should have everyone who @'d me added to the player list now. Let me know if I missed you somehow.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Joshua "Darkmayo" Coltan
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Oh thank goodness. I don't know if I could ever decide between templars or dragon if I just had one.
1. I really like most of the new weapon mechanics. Both elementalism and the Shotgun are pretty great. The mechanics for the blade and pistols are not bad, but not that top notch either.
2. I'm not sure if I like how each action tree is more selfcontained. No skill effects anything outside your own weapon tree. On the passive tree we generally have three rows of skills that boost specific active skills, and then 2 rows of general mechanics skills, as far as I can teel these trees focus on boosting a particular aspect of the weapon.
The upside to this is that it's easier to manage your skills. The downside is that gameplay seems to pretty much be "I'm going to pick 2 AoE skills and 2 Single target skills and then two booster skills, then take the passives that support this stuff".
3. The storyline is of course still awesome but TSWL has really done its work on improving the quest flow.
4. It seems pretty chill on the P2W front. Aurum&Patron makes things easier, but nothing gameplay-affecting seems to be available for Aurum only and there is an exchange where you can trade your Marks of Favor (which so far has been awarded through daily quests in relatively decent amounts) for Aurum.
5. Combat is somewhat more active. You aim at what you want to kill (or not if you use PBAoE). Things die. Generally not too hectic but a bit more engaging than before.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Any name ideas?
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
@DarkPrimus I'm in as Ryan "Lugh" Carraher
Penny Arcadia Society (or just The Arcadia Society)
Enlightened Brotherhood of Wang
Penny for your Thoughts
The Penny Pack
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
@DarkPrimus Sign me up too. Rchanen playing (ahh fuck it I'll come up with a name when I start) I'll wait for it to pop on steam. But I will try this come Friday.
I like Secret Knights of Arcadia.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
Ended up just impromptu-shotgun tanking my way through a story mode Hell Raised. Having a bit of survivability and healing defintiely helps in there.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
I'm still salty about the skill tree and weapon changes (I don't feel any cross weapon synergies; it seems so much more one-dimensional)... but I can appreciate how accessible the game is now. My wife never really got a handle on TSW, but she loves this, so we're likely to play much more of it together. Realistically, that's probably a good trade-off for me. @DarkPrimus, sign me up. Maureen "Radala" Ward.
It may be small consolation, but all the clothing rewards from the subscriber rewards and events that took place since the Museum's launch in TSW (Hatekeeper, Four Horsemen, etc) are all listed as TSW Exclusive items in my SWL Dressing Room.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Having to spend the MoF to fuse items seems like smart design to prevent people from power-leveling their equipment too quickly. I mean, unless they want to utilize the currency exchange.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I think I want to try to buy some of that real-world money currency with MoF; I remember that sort of currency exchange was really undervalued at the beginning of GW2's life
1. Marks of Favor vs Dilitium (except that marks of favor can't be saved up so that you can spend a few days with just "login, refine, log out")
2. Caches requiring keys that can only be acquired for aurum/zen
3. Marks of favor/Dilitium exchange
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Is there any easy to digest list of weapon active/passive abilities, or do I just need to log in and read it there? For some reason, I find that harder to parse. Dunno why.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
You still generate energy for your secondary, so you want some skill to dump that energy, but aside from that you get the most mileage by catering your actives and passives to a single weapon.
My Chaos mage is currently just using the first Fist heal, and not bothering with any skill that spends fury.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Hmmm maybe i'll need to try on a pistol or two to see if the look changes.
Still not sure what I want to end up using, but from looking at the abilities, I'm inclined to agree that you're primarily one weapon type and the second is just a utility/DPS consumer if your main weapon is out of energy, which is sad. No real cross-weapon synergies like there were in TSW.
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
If you only have a single AR skill on your bar, you will end up eating grenades to the face, if you only have a single Elementalism skill on the bar you'll end up overheating, if you only have one Fist skill you can't spend fury (not a huge deal granted), if you only have one sword skill you can't utilize your chi sword.
Pistol, Chaos, and Hammer seem to be very solid secondaries due to a lack of reliance on building up resources and then using a second skill to spend them. (Hammer builds and spends a resource, but you gain it from being hit even when the weapon is your secondary)
Having one more passive slot would allow for players to keep a secondary weapon passive that helps with that special skill somehow (Blade has some passive that make Chi build during combat, AR has one that makes grenades not damage you when they explode, etc) or having one more active slot that's exclusively for your secondary would encourage people to use that special ability more.
But, they were pretty adamant during beta testing that the number of active and passive abilities was already decided upon. So we'll just have to wait for a while for people to get more skills unlocked and begin experimenting with builds to see what combinations come up.
As far as the AR goes, I know grenades only start appearing once you've purchased a grenade active ability, so if you were using it for a secondary weapon, you could just not buy into that row of active abilities...
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
DPS weapons (Pistol, Blade, Elemental) give crit rate, crit power, and hit rate
Tank weapons (Chaos, Hammer, Shotgun) give defense, evade, and hit
Heal weapons (Fist, Rifle, Blood) give heal rating and crit rate
What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable? ~ Mario Novak
I never fear death or dyin', I only fear never trying.
I'm doing Chaos/Fist right now just to have a heal from Fists, but I think I'm probably going to either go back to Chaos/Pistol or Chaos/Hammer
Wow, it must be really bad, they just extended the downtime to an additional 3 hours. Total of 8 hour downtime today (so far) from an initial 2 hour downtime.
Is there any discussion on the exploit? I take it that it's more than just flipping b/t the two currencies really quickly?
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar