The Secret World is going to feature one of the most complex abilities systems in any MMO to date. The dev team has partnered with MMORPG.com to unleash new information about the pre-made "deck templates" that will help players navigate the complexities. Check it out and then let us know what you think in the comments.

The Secret World does away with classes and levels to let players develop any combination of abilities they choose. They can learn any out of the five hundred found in the Ability Wheel, to create exactly the type of character they want.

This system offers great freedom and depth, but may initially seem be a bit daunting for some. For those who may want a little guidance, we have developed the deck template system.

Read more of our exclusive look at The Secret World: Deck Templates.

Awesome!! Now give us the game :D

Damn! I can't wait for this game! Looking good.

I can't express how much I love this system.  It is a perfect design for a skill based system with no classes to give direction and rewards and simulate classes.  Ragnar and I see eye to eye on most of his design decisions.  Really shaping up to be a dream game on paper.  I just wish I could pre order it now.

OMG, five F****** hundred skills... I'm already lost! so many combinations...!

release the skill wheel so we can start theorycrafting!!!

Originally posted by rpgalon

OMG, five F****** hundred skills... I'm already lost! so many combinations...!

release the skill wheel so we can start theorycrafting!!!

 

Not that it will help you, because there is no theorycrafting in this game. Everything is viable, at some point in some combination or other.

Yet, those builds were only using 4 active and 5 passives and already felt complete, I don't even know how much more complex they can be with 3 more active and 2 more passive skills being added.

thank god it is just 7 active and 7 passive. 

Originally posted by AdamTM

Originally posted by rpgalon

OMG, five F****** hundred skills... I'm already lost! so many combinations...!

release the skill wheel so we can start theorycrafting!!!

 

Not that it will help you, because there is no theorycrafting in this game. Everything is viable, at some point in some combination or other.

We'll see if everything is viable or not.  I'm pretty skeptical of that claim.  There might be a lot of viable combos, but everything?  We'll see.

Anyway, skill templates are good to get the creative build process going.

Can't wait!!

(But I will because I must!!)

Originally posted by rpgalon

Yet, those builds were only using 4 active and 5 passives and already felt complete, I don't even know how much more complex they can be with 3 more active and 2 more passive skills being added.

thank god it is just 7 active and 7 passive. 

Its not about complexity, its about situation.

TSWs mobs behave and act differently and you need different skill-combinations to not get mauled. I think i explained this before.

Playing a single-target DPS + DOT deck against 2 packs of 5 zombies is completely pointless because you will get mauled.

You need to use a AOE DPS + AOE control skill-combo. Most likely shotgun+rifle or a specific Tier 3 elementalism build + shotgun.

Trying to hack them to death with a hatchet one by one is not going to work.

TSWs combat is centered around knowing your skills and knowing when to use a specific combination of them when the specific situation arises.

Don't expect to stick to one "deck" and it being "complete".

Originally posted by Torvaldr

Originally posted by AdamTM

Originally posted by rpgalon

OMG, five F****** hundred skills... I'm already lost! so many combinations...!

release the skill wheel so we can start theorycrafting!!!

 

Not that it will help you, because there is no theorycrafting in this game. Everything is viable, at some point in some combination or other.

We'll see if everything is viable or not.  I'm pretty skeptical of that claim.  There might be a lot of viable combos, but everything?  We'll see.

Anyway, skill templates are good to get the creative build process going.

of course there is going to be a lot of builds that are really bad... like, why would you pick one active skill that can only be used with hammer, one with sword, one with pistols, one with claws, one with rifles, one with shotguns.... etc, if you can only use 2 weapons at the same time...

Obs: passives are always working, even if you are using a hammer and the passive you are using is from the sword tree... 

Originally posted by AdamTM

Originally posted by rpgalon

Yet, those builds were only using 4 active and 5 passives and already felt complete, I don't even know how much more complex they can be with 3 more active and 2 more passive skills being added.

thank god it is just 7 active and 7 passive. 

Its not about complexity, its about situation.

TSWs mobs behave and act differently and you need different skill-combinations to not get mauled. I think i explained this before.

Playing a single-target DPS + DOT deck against 2 packs of 5 zombies is completely pointless because you will get mauled.

You need to use a AOE DPS + AOE control skill-combo. Most likely shotgun+rifle or a specific Tier 3 elementalism build + shotgun.

Trying to hack them to death with a hatchet one by one is not going to work.

 

TSWs combat is centered around knowing your skills and knowing when to use a specific combination of them when the specific situation arises.

Don't expect to stick to one "deck" and it being "complete".

those skillsets felt "complete" for their jobs assigned....

Very cool.  I like where this game seems to be headed.

GW2 is so overrated. TSW on other hand looks better in every single way, Just that Funcom's bad reputation isn't giving TSW a fair chance right now. But things must change after the open beta. Anarchy Online is still my all time favorite MMO and Funcom does know how to innovate things in MMO genre.

I have lost all interest in GW2 after i read this article.

lets see them balance this so it doesnt turn into 40 viable skills and 460 nonsense abilities. I find it hard to believe this system wont just turn into people asking for the best and nobdy experiementing, followed by the ones who experiment sharing what they learned so nobody else experiements.

I dont see funcom being able to balance a system like this, all wait and see however.

Originally posted by Shivam

GW2 is so overrated. TSW on other hand looks better in every single way, Just that Funcom's bad reputation isn't giving TSW a fair chance right now. But things must change after the open beta. Anarchy Online is still my all time favorite MMO and Funcom does know how to innovate things in MMO genre.

I have lost all interest in GW2 after i read this article.

And the articles they wrote about age of conan sounded equally awesome. Don't be so easily swayed.

Originally posted by nerovipus32

Originally posted by Shivam

GW2 is so overrated. TSW on other hand looks better in every single way, Just that Funcom's bad reputation isn't giving TSW a fair chance right now. But things must change after the open beta. Anarchy Online is still my all time favorite MMO and Funcom does know how to innovate things in MMO genre.

I have lost all interest in GW2 after i read this article.

And the articles they wrote about age of conan sounded equally awesome. Don't be so easily swayed.

All articles about every MMOS sounds awesome before release..but if i have to be swayed i would put my money on TSW.

Hopefully TSW is a good game but im not stupid enough to buy it at launch..funcom have a bad track record.

It will be really interesting to see how many builds are viable and how many skills that get used. if they get 30 builds to work it's ok (on par with the current mmo-builds, but if they manage to get hundreds of builds to work, I think it will be a great success.

(I have tried the game for a couple of hours and I found the combat/skill system very good)

Originally posted by Shivam

GW2 is so overrated. TSW on other hand looks better in every single way, Just that Funcom's bad reputation isn't giving TSW a fair chance right now. But things must change after the open beta. Anarchy Online is still my all time favorite MMO and Funcom does know how to innovate things in MMO genre.

I have lost all interest in GW2 after i read this article.

I have tried TSW for a few hours and played AoC and have seen a buddy of mine playing AO a lot. TSW reminds me of both AoC and AO. It looks like they have taken the interesting parts from both games, refined them, added some new ideas and made TSW.

Both AO and AoC had very bad technical launches. The current TSW beta is very stable - I know some guys that have played the TSW beta for 30+ hours without a lagg, disconnects or crashes. That side of it looks really good.