Hello all,
For those of you new to the Secret World, it's one of the latest and greatest MMORPGs on the market. The premise is pretty much "You know all those tales, conspiracy theories, myths and legends? They're all true."
From Lovecraftian horrors to Egyptian gods to secret cults and secret societies, and much more.
The game has realeased, and I'd say "It's not without its bugs," but that's unfair to TSW, because it has had one of the smoothest launches of any MMORPG I've ever beta'ed/prereleased. I've run into three bugs since launch, and that might sound like a lot, but I played for nearly 65 hours since then.
Now, to the heart of the matter, what makes me think everyone should play the Secret World, at least until they have run a few dungeons.
Everything Funcom and Ragnar have designed and incorporated into the quests along the way leads you in a roundabout way towards each new dungeon, and teaches you some of what to expect.
For example, very early on you learn to dodge white outlines, you may also learn to stay out of hazardous environments, and/or avoid walking into traps, literal traps, not ambushes. Though those too.
In the 60+ hours I played over the weekend, I got through the first four dungeons, the first major storyline quest, and tons of sidequests along the way. So let's talk about those dungeons without spoiling them, shall we?
I number them in the order of gear quality dropped, not necessarily the order you will complete them in. The Secret World is very open, and you can dive right into tougher material with a good group, or a lot of luck, or a really great build. These are the group instanced dungeons meant for a group of five. There is no specific 'class' need, nor even any archetype. Often a survivable character with utility or healing powers can suffice to 'tank' things as needed, so neither healers nor tanks are strictly necessary, but they do make it easier. Crowd control is... limited, unless your entire group specializes in it, in which case, you have an interesting task of coordinating all that.
Dungeon '1': Electricity, avoid it, avoid it more again later, and avoid it again later. Dark roiling water, avoid it, avoid it more again later. Don't stand near things about to explode, and do that again later. Kill adds or burn bosses, depending on group makeup. There is also a fight in which you need to learn how to hide efficiently while possibly needing to move a good distance, as well as simply hiding, or dodging out of the way of frontal attacks.
Dungeon '2': Electric... spires, avoid them. Fire, avoid it, lava, avoid it. Learn about eye of the storm style AoEs, and hug bosses. Learn about frontal cone spam, avoid the front of bosses(and some trash) unless you are the tank. Learn about mob-placed auras, and nigh-infinite hitpoint shields, and how to mitigate, negate, or avoid them. Learn to really burn down adds in a fairly limited timeframe, and when to burn down a boss. Learn to kite-tank, or kite-damage while a tank kites a boss to specific areas in the arena. Also learn that some bosses and mobs dive backwards away from the tank, so tank positioning is done in reverse.
Dungeon '3': Avoid Filth/black tar, and blood on the ground. Assume that all adds should be killed from range, and killed where the tank or group leader designates. Avoid whirlwinds, fight certain bosses from melee range when possible, and active dodge out of their charges, because fighting them from range makes their charge attack yoink you and stun you. Learn to not grab aggro at all or to at least let tank position mob facing away, so that it spews black tar in an unoccupied area. Learn to not accidentally leap off cliffs to your death. Learn that not all adds are created equal. Learn about precise movement area effects, stepping slowly away from them instead of dodge leaping, or running.
Dungeon '4': Face DPS bottlenecks, learn to break through doors and kill adds before getting into trouble. More filth/black tar type attacks. Learn to interrupt 'powerup' sources. Learn to split group efforts efficiently/leave tank to survive on his or her own while needing to climb high. Learn to really listen to NPC voiceovers because they warn you about very powerful shtick attacks. Dodge wispy things that silence you, learn to be very precise on catwalks, you had to know a catwalk fight was coming when you entered this dungeon.
Okay, with that all said, let me tell you, the dungeons, the atmosphere, the quests, the cutscenes, the voiceovers, it's all magnificent.
This is one of few game worlds that has gotten Z axis utilization right. No obnoxious layercake caves (yet at least) but there's actually reasons to jump around, and to overlook spanning chasms and maleficent pools. While the dungeons may come to seem quite linear eventually, there are still secrets and offshoots. The linearity removes a certain obnoxious maze aspect that leads to "Oh great, where did everyone go?" Also, the instances are so well designed, that it's just -fun- running through them over and over, hopping around or dashing around.
My impression of the bosses?
1: You meet a lot of these guys as minibosses in early sidequests, weak versions anyway, often much smaller, all except one. Still, very cool, and the one you haven't met is simply amazing, it's a wonderful fight, and can make you want to spout a popular trope. The enormity of some bosses make this feel epic.
2: You'll meet a few of these near the area where this instance is picked up, though the bosses actually have powers and abilities. The models are great, everything is impressive. The fights are well designed, intuitive but challenging nonetheless, though there is something of a learning curve here, but this is one more where I felt awed in an epic sense of wonder, felling the bosses.
3: I honestly kind of skipped most of the content getting to this point, but some of the adds and one of the bosses are familiar types that are in a number of zones. The rest seem pretty much directly made for the instance. This dungeon is challenging, the bosses are challenging, a lot of them feel like 'more of the same' from the trash in the dungeon, but they're not. The abilities they each use make them unique, and interesting fights. This is the first one I know of with optional minibosses for extra loot.
4: I very much skipped the content getting to this dungeon, so in that regard, all the bosses were entirely new to me. These are obviously lovingly-crafted works of dungeoneer-slaying art. They're meant to be quite challenging even with a good strategy, and they make you feel proud every time you best one. This is also the second I know of with optional minibosses for extra loot.
Will I go back and do content instead of just grinding dungeons? You bet your sweet buppy, I went from a mediocre self-healing DPS'ey tank, to an all-out survivor-tank from running dungeons and gearing up in one before rushing to the next, as well as the wonderful experience rewards from running them, and the quests will be much easier because of it. Would I run dungeons all day every day, even just the same four or five instances? Probably, but then I'd be robbing myself of the wonderful cutscenes and voicers of the story quests and sidequests. So I will not -just- run dungeons.
