The Secret World Maximum Range DPS Build Guide

The Secret World Maximum Range DPS Build Guide by Kobal

As the title indicates I would like to start off a hopefully fruitful discussion on maximum range DPS builds for PVE with the goal of finding the best generic builds out there. The maximum range requirement will limit the useable weapons to Assault Rifle, Blood and Elementalism, but that only affects the choice of active skills.

Also I would like to put the focus of this discussion on group settings, particularly dungeons, since that is where a long range likely brings the biggest advantage. This also implies that high single target DPS will be the most important goal of the build. That does not mean soloing concerns should be completely disregarded.

After that lengthy introduction in the next posts are the best builds I have come up with so far. All descriptions and numbers have been directly taken from Sarcan’s spreadsheet.

Blood/Elementalism

Actives

• Shock (Elementalism 1 AP)
  1 sec cast, Builds 1 resorce for each equipped weapon.
  A single target attack that deals 48 magical damage
• Combust (Elementalism 1 AP)
  1,5 sec cast, Consumes 2 Elemental Resources.
  A single target attack that deals 138 magical damage. The Elemental Resource cost is reduced by 1 when attacking Hindered targets.
• Bloodshot (Blood 27 AP)
  Instant, Consumes 2 Blood Resources.
  A single target attack that deals 107 magical damage, or 118 magical damage if the target is Afflicted.
• Molten Earth (Elementalism 7 AP)
  Instant, 20sec CD
  A single target attack that deals 138 magical damage. The target also becomes Hindered and unable to move for 6 seconds.

  Do or Die (Subversion 50 AP)
  Instant 40sec CD
  Increases the damage you deal by 25% for 10 seconds.

Passives

• Volatile Current (Elementalism 1 AP)
  Whenever you hit with “Shock”, the target also becomes Afflicted with a damage over time effect that deals 7 magical damage every second for 10 seconds.
• Rapid Combustion (Elementalism 2 AP)
  Reduces the activation time of “Combust” 0.5 seconds
• Elemental Precision (Elementalism 4 AP)
  Increases damage dealt by Elementalism abilities by 10%.
• Iron Maiden (Elementalism 12 AP)
  Whenever you penetrate a target that is Afflicted, you gain a Minor Penetration Chance effect, which increases Penetration Chance by 10% for 8 seconds.
• Highly Strung (Elementalism 27 AP)
  Whenever you reach 0 Elemental Resources after using an Elemental resource consuming, you gain the a beneficial effect, which causes you to deal 10% more damage for 6 seconds.
• Molecular Explosion (Elementalism 9 AP)
  Whenever you hit an Afflicted target, you perform an additional hit that deals 7 magic damage.
• Twist the Knife (Blades 12 AP)
  Whenever you penetrate you also gain 1 stack of a beneficial effect, which increases all damage dealt by 3% for 10 seconds. This effect can stack up to 3 times.

Passives, honorable mention:

• Dark Potency (Blood 2AP)
  Whenever you apply Afflicted, you gain a single stack of the Penetration Rating effect, which increases Penetration Rating by 30 for for 8 seconds. This effect can stack up to 5 times.
• Salt in the Wounds (Fists 9 AP)
  Whenever you apply Afflicted, you deal 10 physical damage to the target.

Comments:

• This is more or less a rather generic Afflict/Penetrate build, as I coudl not come up with anything better.
• I know how awesome the Molten Earth/Combust combo is, but sadly every boss in a dungeon instance has at least a drastic reduction of the Hinder buff duration, making it far less effective. Hence why I would switch to a simple Shock -> Shock -> Combust -> Bloodshot -> repeat rotation, maximising Highly Strung, and would replace Molten Earth for Do or Die in these cases.
• In longer fights it might be better to use Boiling Blood as the builder and swap Volatile Current for Corrupted Blood and Elemental precision for Thicker than Water. The Corrupted Blood DoT does slightly more damage than the Volatile Current one, on the other hand Combust is a bigger hitter that Blodshot and therefore would benefit more from Elemental Precision that Bloodshot benefits from Thicker than Water. Likely a very close call.

Assault Rifle/X

A little preface. Assault Rifles bring one unique quality to the table. With safety Off and Three Round Burst they offer a builder and a consumer of the Burst type, meaning in particular many little hits instead of one large one. While any attempts to abuse this with on-hit procs like Molecular Explosion have been thwarted by the internal 1 second cooldown all these procs have now, that still has a lot of potential with any passives that proc on a critical or penetrating hit, since Safety Off with its four shots has a much higher chance to have at least one critical and/or penetrating hit than any single hit ability. So I went looking for good abilities that proc on penetrating or critical hits. While there are more and more synergistic ones for penetrating, none of them pack quite the punch that Life Wire does, so critical it is.

Actives

• Safety Off (Assault Rifles 1 AP)
  1sec Cast, Builds 1 resource for each equipped weapon.
  A single target Burst attack that hits 3 times, dealing 16 physical damage per hit.
• Three Round Burst (Assault Rifles 9 AP)
  Instant, Consumes all Assault Rifle Resources.
  A single target Burst attack that hits 3 times, dealing 30 physical damage per hit.
• Flame Strike (Elementalism 16 AP)
  1sec Cast, Consumes 2 Elemental Resources.
  A single target Strike attack that deals 111 magical damage

  Exsanguinate (Blood 4 AP)
  Channelled: Every 0.5 seconds for 2.5 seconds., Consumes 5 Blood Resources.
  A channeled Focus attack that deals 51 magical damage. If the target is Impaired, it also becomes Afflicted with a damage over time effect that deals 6 magical damage every second for 10 seconds.
  (The choice of the second consumer will determine the second weapon, naturally)

• Do or Die (Subversion 50 AP)
  Instant 40sec CD
  Increases the damage you deal by 25% for 10 seconds.

Passives

• Extra Bullet (Assault Rifles 1 AP)
  “Safety Off” performs an additional hit.
• Ferocity (Fists 34 AP)
  If at least 2 hits of a Burst ability do not glance, you gain one stack of a beneficial effect, which increases damage by 3% per stack for 5 seconds. This effect can stack up to 3 times.
• Mad Skills (Pistols 21 AP)
  Whenever you critically hit, you gain a single stack of the Critical Rating effect, which increases your Critical Rating by 30 per stack for 8 seconds. This effect can stack up to 5 times.
• One in the Chamber (Pistols 27 AP)
  Whenever you critical hit, you also perform an additional hit dealing 28 physical damage to the target.
• Live Wire (Elementalism 50 AP)
  Whenever you critically hit, you gain a Live Wire counter. Once this counter reaches 4, the attack triggers an additional hit, dealing 197 magical damage.
• Eagle Eye (Assault Rifles 4 AP)
  Increases damage dealt by Assault Rifle abilites by 10%..
• Twist the Knife (Blades 12 AP)
  Whenever you penetrate you also gain 1 stack of a beneficial effect, which increases all damage dealt by 3% for 10 seconds. This effect can stack up to 3 times.

Passives, honorable mention:

• Sharp Shooter (Assault Rifles 12 AP)
  Whenever you penetrate or critically hit, you gain a single stack of the Hit Rating effect, which increases your Hit Rating by 30 per stack for 8 seconds. The Hit Rating effect can stack up to 5 times.
• Explosives Expert (Fists 27 AP)
  Whenever you hit, you apply an explosive charge to the target. This charge explodes after 3 seconds, dealing 23 physical damage.
• Insult to Injury (Hammer 16 AP)
  Whenever you critical hit, your target becomes Weakened by a single stack of the Debilitated effect, which reduces all damage dealt by 3% per stack for 10 seconds. Debilitated can stack up to 10 times.
  (Can be very useful if the tank can not provide the Debilitated debuff himself)

Comments:

• This build is somewhat gear dependent as it relies on a high enough natural crit rating to get started. As long as that is not existent it might be better to go the Afflict/Penetrate route via Bloodsport/Dark Potency/Iron Maiden/Sudden Return. This will also make Bloodshot a better second consumer than Flame Strike.
• Whether to use Flame Strike or Exsanguinate is again a tough call. Exsanguinate has the advantage of bringing more hits per ressource invested, tying in nicely with the theme of the build. On the other hand Flame Strike offers more damage per ressource invested and allows for a much smoother rotation of Safety Off x2 -> Flame Strike -> Three Round Burst -> repeat.
  Maybe Life Wire is even good enough to warrant a pure Assault Rifle rotation?
• One of the advantages of this build is that it does not rely on any state being present on the target.
• It might be better to replace Twist the Knife with Sharp Shooter depending on whether the penetration rating is high enough to keep the buff active. In general that is the most flexible Passive slot, see the comment at Insult to Injury.

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