Tuesday, October 15, 2013

The Augment System

Issue #8: The Venetian Agenda is nearing completion. This update contains two brand new and important game features – the Scenario and Augment Systems. Today we are going into detail about the Augment System and talk in depth on how everything works.

At the bottom of this article you can also enjoy the all new cover for Issue #8!

The Secret World's game system has one core principle: You can learn everything and choose exactly what you bring to each fight yourself. Giving the players freedom and choice is always most prominently on our mind.

The new Augment System coming with Issue #8: The Venetian Agenda follows this principle to the letter.

The Secret World already has an immensely deep character development system, with more than five hundred Abilities to learn and choose from. The continuous expansion of the Auxiliary Weapons System has added even more choice and depth to the game since launch, and now yet another layer gets added to this rich cake of game systems.

This new layer is made for experienced players who have already acquired most Skills and enough Abilities to be effective in many situations. It gives them a new opportunity to customize their characters, try out more tactics and acquire more power!

As the players learn more and more about wielding Anima powers they also learn new ways to fine tune these Abilities. The better the resonance with the Anima they can create, the more powerful their Abilities can become. This is what Augments are – tuning forks which lets the players channel the power of Gaia better than ever.

The basics of Augments

The Augment System offers four brand new Skill lines and a total of forty Augments which each has five different Quality Levels. Any player can learn any, and potentially all, of these Augments if he is diligent enough.


There are four main groups of Augments: Damage, Support, Healing and Survivability. Each group consists of ten unique Augments. These ten are divided into different degrees of rarity: One Green, four Blue, four Purple and the rarest is the one Yellow.

The new Augments have gotten their very own Augment Wheel, where all of them can be studied and progress monitored.

You use Augments by attaching them to the active Abilities on your Abilities bar. Each Augment group has a color and each active Ability uses this color coding to show which types of Augments can be attached to it.

For example: The Assault Rifle builder Ability Suppressing Fire is a pure damage ability and therefore can only have damage Augments attached to it, while the Blade builder Blade Torrent can have both Damage and Survivability Augments.


The bonuses you get

The power of each Augment depends on several factors, such as its rarity, what QL it has and what Ability it is attached to.

Damage Augments do things like increase the chance of Critical and Penetrating hits, increase Attack Rating and Hit Rating or in their rarest form give a significant damage increase. Survivability Augments can boost Health and protections or Block, Defense and Evade Rating, and also increase Hate generation or give a handy self heal based on total Health.

Support Augments can increase team healing or damage and even reduce the amount of damage taken for the whole team. The most helpful Support Augments may still be those which reduce the recharge cooldown on either your own Abilities or those of the entire team!

Healing Augments give you a higher Heal rating, buff Heal over Time effects, Barriers or Leeching Abilities. They also increase the chance to do Critical Heals or Critical Power. The rarest Healing Augment gives the Ability it is attached to a big boost in the amount it heals per use.


The tactical choices

Most Augments only augment the Ability they are attached to, and since the diligent player quite quickly will have many Augments to choose from, which Augment he attaches to which Ability is critical.

These are the choices which add another layer of depth to The Secret World's character development system. Knowing which Augments to use on which Ability and for which situation is the key. Perhaps some added self healing might be the way to go for soloing and PvP? Perhaps going all out with Damage Augments will be the way to go in Dungeons or perhaps buffing the entire team with Support Augments is even smarter?

The process

Augments are acquired as loot in the game, but not in their finished state. What you get from defeating bosses in Scenarios are unattuned Augments. Only the least rare (green) Augments can be used straight away when you loot them.

The rest of the Augments must be crafted together with both Pure resources and Runes to attune them. When you have a finished Augment you must also posses enough Ability Points to learn it and have the appropriate Augment Skill.

 

As you learn the new Augment power the Augment is removed from your inventory as an item and instead becomes active in the new Augment Wheel. The required number of Ability Points is consumed by this process.

To increase the QL of your Augments you just repeat this process. The only difference is that you need to combine two finished Augments to get to QL 2, three to get to QL 3 and so on. The number of Ability Points required increases for each QL of the Augment and you of course need to have invested more in your Augment Skills to use them.

To learn more and more Augments you need to get your hands on the right loot, gather crafting resources and save up both Ability Points and Skill Points. Then you can build the Augments you want, consume them in your inventory with a right click and finally choose them in the Augment Wheel and attach them to an active Ability.

So look forward to Issue #8 people! Soon you will get the chance to fine tune your Abilities with Augments, get tons of new tactical choices and increase the power of your characters to new heights!

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