In my humble opinion, The Secret World is probably one of the few MMO I've played that I don't feel like doing an alt. The main reason is because, except for some faction quest, the rest is exactly the same from faction to faction. Zone quests, skills, gear, etc. Even crafting doesn't require to have a multitude of alts to have every profession covered. It doesn't give a big incentive to create alts. On the other hand, the game doesn't need you to have tons of alt, because your main can be a jack of all trades, as long as you get all those skills and abilities. This can be a no for those who suffer of "altcoholism", but on the other hand is a good thing so we don't spread all our attention to "over 9000" different characters.
That being said, I've made an alt. :P
But my main reason is simple. My "main" is a Illuminatti, and I've only played it with a friend, and not often that friend or me are available, so it defeats the purpose of it being a main. So I created a Dragon to give it a few kicks alone, and as a given bonus, to create some sort of in-game progress of it. It will not be a diary.
So with no further delays, here's my new Dragon born character, LethalLamb.
After a quick intro, and a unexpected video sequence, this is where we go to try out all different sort of weapons. It's a sort of tutorial to allow players to see what they enjoy most. And to have an idea on what is what. I'm gonna call from now on to weapons, skills.
So, the skills for the game are as followed:
Each weapon has a array of abilities that players will need to unlock as they get ability points. The ability wheel, which is what it's called, is where players will work out there builds, which abilities they can pick.
The inner circle where Range, Melee and Magic words are, are related to basic skills to each type of weapon. In this case I have shotgun selected. To the left there are all the available abilities for the basic shotgun skills, and it's respective cost, from 1 ability point to 7. The outside wheel, is related to all advanced abilities, again for each type of weapon. The abilities at the outside wheel are more expensive.
There are some specific templates to help newcomers built a more typical build. But the sheer amount of abilities, can still make it a bit daunting at first.
On my highest toon, I already have an big amount of abilities unlock, and I got to a point that I'm unlocking them just for the fact of not stacking much abilities points. Ah yes, if for any reason you stack more than 40 skills and/or 175 ability points, you will start "loosing" points since you are capped. So if you have where to spend them, just do it.
After picking the weapon of choice, move out of the training ground. A small tip: each character will always have two weapon equip, of different type, so let's say, you pick, as I did, Blade and Pistol, do the tutorial, pick the Pistol, come outside and get back in to get the Blade. The first time you are inside the training ground, you will only be able to bring one weapon out, so going in a second time, will allow you to bring what else you pick (or even all).
After this part, you are sent to Agartha. Agartha works like a main hub which connects every zone of the game. Here you can access the three main cities of the game, London, New York, Seoul, or the different zones for questing, like Solomon Island, Egypt or Transilvania.
You will also be given an item that works much like World of Warcraft soulstone, that will teleport you to Agartha in case of need.
Besides linking the zones in the game world, I haven't seen any other utility for it.
All done here, and it's time to move out and start working - ahem questing. Solomon Island is the place to go. It seems some odd fog attacked the island, and start turning it's inhabitants into zombies and other creatures. Guess the Dragons want to figure what is going out.
By the way, as most should know, unlike other mmo games, The Secret World, doesn't have a quest journal where we can fill it up with all the quests we get on our way. Here we have slots for quests of specific type. So one type is the story mission, which is taken by the zone main quest. Second we have the dungeon quest, which you got it, it's related to the dungeon. The main quest, is next and it's related to most quests in the zone, that range from Action, Sabotage or Investigation. And finally the side missions, which you can have up to three.
So let's suppose you get one Action quest (typically a red button). If you go and try to pick up right after another Action (or Sabotage or Investigation) quest, it will replace your current Action quest for the new one you are picking. Also, I'm not 100% sure but if any case you have any progress done on a previous main quest done, and you replace it with a new main quest, I think the progress from the old one will be saved. You just need to get it back again. In any case, I always complete what I'm doing before getting a new one.
Also, most quests are repeatable on a daily basis, but until now, I haven't repeat any quest. It can be interesting to repeat some, because quests will give tokens that can be used to get better equipment, Weapons or Talisman. There are no armors like other games. Most armor, like jackets or helms are all cosmetic and players can acquire them either from completing quests, completing pre-made ability builds, buying from npc vendors or shopping on the in-game shop. The only gear in game are Talismans, which are basically a sort of rings, belt or necks (and other pieces). And as for weapons, they have skills requirement. But comparing to weapons, they are simpler. Just need to get more skills on it to use better gear.
So wrapping up for now, LethalLamb is on Solomon Island and kicking zombies ass out. He will come back again. Until then, Dark Days are coming.
