This past week I reached a couple of milestones in the MMOs I’ve been playing; in Blade and Soul I reached level 20 on my Kung Fu Master—the class I chose to continue progressing—and I finished the main, side, and story missions in The Secret World’s Transylvania zones with the exception of those labeled “Nightmare.” With Blade and Soul, that achievement came with the decision to sunset the game for now. I’m glad I gave it a try but knew from the onset it was temporary. By the time I reached level 20 I was skipping through quest text and growing disinterested with the combat system which was the main draw for me to the game. So I uninstalled the client, closing the door for now which is fine, as the Black Desert Beta test will start next week and my time in Blade & Soul would have come to a close anyway.
Only fools bring a sword when attending “the gun show.”
The Secret World is another matter. For the past 2-3 months my objectives have been clear— I would work my way through Solomon Isle, Egypt, and Transylvania completing all available missions. Now that I’ve completed that goal and have seen the close to that portion of the main story (which has left me with far more questions than answers) I’m unclear on what to work on next. I thought it would be simple; finish the three primary zones then work my way through the issues from five through thirteen. However once I finished Transylvania, I ported to Agartha which began a quest to the council of Venice. I have no idea what this is about, and only played long enough to find the Sunken Library and watch a cut scene. Now I’m supposed to pass a few trials but to what end, I do not know.
Once that’s completed, depending on where that leads me, I’d like to go back to Solomon Isle to see if I can solo any of the lairs, to possibly queue for the dungeons tied to that zone, and to begin Issue 5. I’m also at a point where I need to do a little more research on how to improve my gear so that I don’t waste any of the black bullion that I’ve accumulated. I received a QL10 epic weapon for completing the main story in Transylvania and went ahead and bought a second from a vendor at the council of Venice however I’m not sure if I should spend more on Talismans that they sell there or if I should wait. I also need to figure out glyphs and signets, as right now all I have are QL10 green glyphs and a handful of useless signets (as near as I can tell.)
Why do all my blind dates end up like this?
I’m not concerned or frustrated by the sudden onset of uncertainty, but I do want to find a guide of some kind to help me take the next steps. My main concern is that I obtain the gear I need to complete the issues in order, and that I do not waste Black Bullion by buying the wrong things. It takes long enough to accumulate that a mistake could set me back quite a bit. Other than that, I’m excited to explore the stories I have yet to play through with Issues 5-8, and I’m curious as to what I’ll find in Tokyo and where the story will go from there. There’s also the group content I’ve yet to try so plenty to keep me busy. I’m still greatly enjoying The Secret World and despite feeling a little disoriented I’m eager to take on whatever challenge comes next.
Waiting For Rez 
“I received a QL10 epic weapon for completing the main story in Transylvania and went ahead and bought a second from a vendor at the council of Venice however I’m not sure if I should spend more on Talismans that they sell there or if I should wait. I also need to figure out glyphs and signets, as right now all I have are QL10 green glyphs and a handful of useless signets (as near as I can tell.)”
A rough guideline on that:
– You can buy custom weapons and talismans at several places. In the faction HQ, in the sunken library, at the council of Venice vendor near Nassir in the Scorched Desert, at the concil of Venice vendor (the one with the four side-missions) at the camp at the Shadowy Forest and at the council of Venice vendor near Ricky Pagan in Kaidan.
– While most of the stuff you buy is QL 10.0, some talismans at some of those vendors are available at QL 10.1, (for the same price of Black Bullion aka BBs) saving you one upgrade.
– The 10.1 usually are only one slot, for example at the Scorched Desert i think you can only get head talismans, but i am not sure.
– Note that there also are specific signets available for those 10.1 talismans. These signets do only fit into those talismans, not in any others. Those signets are purple, but while some of them are good, others are actually quite worthless. So take a close look before buying them.
– Custom weapons and talismans can be upgraded. You can buy upgrade kits at the faction HQ.
– The glyphs can also be upgraded, but those glyphs have to be created by a nightwatch toolkit.
– While nightwatch toolkits can be bought for BBs at the faction HQ, you get plenty of them in nightmare dungeons. So unless you absolutely insist to never go into a dungeon, i would not buy them for BBs, but rather do a bit of dungeoning on the side, qualify for nightmare dungeons and get the toolkits “for free”. Veteran players don’t care for those toolkits. I have a stack of about 50 of them in my inventory, unfortunately they are bind on pickup so you have to be in the dungeon yourself to get them, but veterans just greed on everything and don’t bother if the toolkits (or other purple drops) are needed by other players.
– Really casually running dungeons gives you enough nightmare toolkits, you will need one for each custom talisman and weapon and are done for. All the rest of the upgrade process “only” requires Black Bullions (BBs) and Mark of Patheon (MoPs). BBs you get some for about anything you do in the game and MoPs you get whenever you complete a daily or weekly challenge. So while they’ll come in slowly when not doing dungeons, they still do come in.
– Upgrades cost onla BBs up to QL 10.4. After that, things get a little more complicated. If you want to upgrade to 10.5, you have to still use a normal upgrade kit, but you also have to put an astral fuse or criterion upgrade into the crafting window . The astral fuse and criterion upgrades are drops from the New York raid, but also can be bought for 200 BBs and 40 MoPs. As you not only need to raid for that, but also still need to be lucky with the drop, it’s generally advised to buy them.
– While glyphs can not be upgraded over 10.5, your weapons and talismans can be upgraded to 10.9. After QL 10.5, you have to buy appropriate superior (or supernal or something like that) upgrade kits at the faction HQ, which cost both BBs and MoPs. (Note that there are two different versions, one for upgrading 10.5->10.6->10.7 and the other for 10.7->10.8->10.9. The second one is significally more expencive than the first one. )
– For signets: I would only use them in custom equipment. (And really take a look at the purple signets at the above mentioned specific talismans. Some of them are really good and for just 200 BBs are a steal. ) Everything else you might replace in the future and signets come in way too slow to waste an gear you are sure to throw away again. Note that you do get blue signets when repeating the last missions of some of the issues, but they still are random signets and getting the good ones takes a lot of luck, or patience. As that feels like a grind to me, i never bothered for it.
– As a rule of thumb, the bonus of a custom head item is so great that having it custom first and upgrading it to all 10.9 with 10.5 glyph is a good investment.
– For the rest of the gear, if you have the MoPs spare, you could upgrade them to 10.9, as MoPs will come in very slowly in your playstyle, that probably won’t happen for a long time.
– If i was you, i would go with custom talismans on the head, then mayors. Upgrade all of them to 10.4, then also take your primary weapons to that level. After that you can care for minor talismans.
– As you definitely want to have a health talisman once you don’t wear green talismans any more, note that the improvement of health of such a talisman gets really small once it passes QL 10.5. Upgrading that one over 10.4 / 10.5 really only is a thing for a completionist and not adviseable for normal play.
I hope that this huge wall of text actually is helpful. 🙂
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Yes, this was very helpful. I’ve read a few guides but many are outdated while others were written in a way that assumes The reader knows more than I personally do (like where to find some of these items, or whether they are talking about vendor gear or drops from group content, etc.)
What you’ve provided is great though. I’m going to copy and paste it to a word document so I have a road map to reference while I’m gearing up, thank you.
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A small clarification on this part:
“I have a stack of about 50 of them in my inventory, unfortunately they are bind on pickup so you have to be in the dungeon yourself to get them, but veterans just greed on everything and don’t bother if the toolkits (or other purple drops) are needed by other players.”
What i mean is, i have an addion which just rolls “greed” on anything in nightmare dungeons for me. Most other players do the same. When a new player joins us for a dungeon tour, he beforehand gets the instruction to click “need” for anything that drops. For us, all the toolkits are worthless and all the purple equipment will be disassembled for crafting materials, of which we also have large stacks.
So if somebody is along who can still actually use anything of that stuff, he is supposed to click “need” for everything that drops. 🙂
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