Creatures Of Darkness, Prepare Thyselves For a Merciless Thrashing

Me in my long-coveted outfit from the Witch Hunter deck, which I finally completed last night in The Secret World. The hubby is in his Exorcist outfit which he says makes him look a little like Father Guido Sarducci. Wait, who? Oh, old SNL references.

Of course, the irony is that while I’ll be sporting the Witch Hunter get-up, I don’t actually know how much I’ll use the deck itself. The abilities seem tailored to a high-DPS play style which shines when dealing with single targets, but doesn’t have much in the way of survival. It also appears built around quite a lot of impair effects. This has implications for its usefulness.

As you know, there are a ton of options in the ability system in TSW. The idea is that given time, any player can gain access to all of them. What I find interesting is how the game is also always encouraging you to tinker with your deck, throwing tough fights and other obstacles your way to make you think about your current build and how you can tweak it to increase your potential. Effectively, you have to constantly adapt to the environment in order to survive.

As to why I probably won’t be using my Witch Hunter deck (much), I’m finding a lot of mobs in Egypt to be impervious to impair effects. Most bosses also are. Thus I’m still currently running around in a Blades/Chaos burst damage self-build that relies heavily on penetration, but this weapons combo also has a lot of synergy in the defense and survival department which means I also have a set-up for tanking on the fly.

I really should be branching out into firearms for some ranged damage (as I discovered being melee only has landed me in a few precarious situations) but the next deck I’ll chase is probably the one with Hammers and Chaos (Templar Warlock). Heck, with where my current points are right now, I’m already halfway there.

Speaking of which, when it comes to point allocation I’ll admit I’m sometimes driven more by the clothing items they reward. However, I’m sure the Witch Hunter deck will get some use as it’ll most likely be my go-to PvP build when I do Fusang.

In other news, “Unleashed” patch 1.1 was released today, adding more missions (seven in all, five of which are investigation quests) and new fashions — not to mention that completing all the new missions unlocks “a new achievement and unique clothing rewards.” Looking forward to the brain work out and the hats and glasses and handwraps, oh my.