Deck building question thread

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by DalTXColtsFan, Dec 31, 2020.

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  1. DalTXColtsFan

    DalTXColtsFan Avatar

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    I'm going to have more questions about decks to come, but for now I'll start with these two:

    1. I've asked this question before, but now that I have more experience with the game I'm hoping the question will make more sense, and I'll be able to understand the answer better: If I create a deck with any slots unlocked, when I activate or switch to that deck the slots are empty, often for several seconds! In a life or death situation won't that mean INSTANT DEATH? What good are those dynamic slots if they don't come up right away? What am I missing here?

    2. I'm guessing that the combos tab on the deck building screen is informational, correct? You can only combine two glyphs at a time, and the only valid combos are those in that list, we can't create our own correct? The "exception" being that multiple "copies" of the same glyph can be hit "at the same time" and it has the same effect as charging a single, locked glyph but executes more quickly?
     
  2. oplek

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    Do you mean with the grey empty ones? That's usually because you haven't put enough things into your slots.

    Hypothetically, the benefits of the open-slot decks are:
    1. Lower focus cost
    2. Combos
    3. Allowing for more variety of things to be added to the deck.
     
  3. Lained

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    If you want to use those decks instantly after switching have the mind wipe skill in a locked slot an activate it after switching.
    Correct.
     
  4. Violet Ronso

    Violet Ronso Avatar

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    Basically, this will mostly depend on how you build your deck, but you need to actually see it as a real deck of cards from which you are drawing. You will start drawing "Glyphs", and placing them in the next available slot for that specific glyph, from left to right. This means that if you have 2 dynamic slots, one for your offensive glyphs, one for your defensive glyphs, and draw 3 defensive glyphs in a row without using the first one, you are stalling your drawing because you take a few seconds to put the glyph you can't place back into your deck.

    Draw speed is what will make this process faster, Chaotic Feedback (Chaos), Spellbinders Stance (Focus) or Flurry (Light Armor) if you have light armor spec are 3 skill based sources for draw speed, and I know of the Quiver Artifact that gives a draw speed boost as well.

    You also have Mind Wipe which will discard all current dynamic glyphs to draw a new set immediately, which like Lained explained can jump start the drawing process, as well as Mind Lock (Focus) which will make sure your current glyphs stay up (as after a few seconds, affected by your draw speed, currently help glyphs will start expiring, heading back to the deck). This is an especially useful skill if you do dynamic stacking.

    Dynamic glyphs do not accumulate "Heat" (the red cooldown timer when using a locked glyph). This means your glyphs will not cost more focus, even if you spam a single skill 5x in a row. Also, you cannot do anything else when charging a locked glyph, but you can stack glyphs while doing something else (and you can stack multiple at a time, allowing you to release a few 5 stacked skills or spells in a few seconds), this is usually how archers get their best DPS, by charging their attacks (Free Attack) while dynamically stacking their skills.

    I don't know if there are still "Secret" combos, but the ones in the list should pretty much cover it.

    Correct, but you can also stack combos the same way you stack normal glyphs.

    Correct.

    I usually combine them one after the other (so 1 with 2, then the result with 3, then the result with 4). This is generally faster, for a lot of skills, but is a bit more random due to having to trust in the "heart of the cards". Also, your glyphs do not occur a cooldown multiplier which you maybe noticed (as in when a skill has a 10 second cooldown, the cooldown is x% longer when stacked, and is longer the more stacks it gets). This means that a dynamically stacked glyph will only go on cooldown for 1x10 seconds, instead of 1.?x10 seconds.
     
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  5. DalTXColtsFan

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    Is there a particular reason I can't drag the polearms glyphs to the bar yet? I get that none of the slots are "open" but what if I want the polearms glyphs to all be behind other glyphs?

    [​IMG]
     
  6. Violet Ronso

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    You should be able to, I don't see any issues. Which slots are you trying to drag your polearms glyphs to?
     
  7. majoria70

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    Not necessarily if you put all things you want to use to rotate and lock must have immediate access to like your heal, douse (in certain cases), etc. It's best imo to use a Dec that has locked and some skills are OK to rotate.

    Imo it's fun to create certain decks. I am a 2 handed axe user but when fighting elementals that won't stand still I need some ranged or different attacks so I created a deck for elementals. I also have a deck for undead. Imo it is a deep and interesting system we have to play with.

    I also have a healing deck and various decks just for outfits I want to dress up in. We can train about everything so no worries about limits.

    I only have one character who can do a great variety of things. I even have a gustball deck to play gustball.
     
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  8. DalTXColtsFan

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    Here's a screenshot that has the tooltop in it - it seems like it's not letting me drag anything anywhere unless at least one slot is open. I had the same issue with Ice Arrow. All I have to do is make any slot empty and then I can drag new glyphs anywhere:
    [​IMG]
     
  9. Lazlo

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    If you don't draw anything for several seconds after going into combat mode, it's most likely because you have cards in your deck that are being drawn that don't have a slot to go to. If you don't have any empty unlocked spots, all of your drawn glyphs need to be assigned somewhere, otherwise they'll just go nowhere when drawn and you get nothing.

    If you're not doing anything too fancy, making a decent deck is pretty easy if you keep in mind the following:

    Locking works well for skills that are situational. That way they are always there when you need them and not in the way when you don't.

    Stacking or charging works well for skills with lasting effects (buffs/debuffs/dots). There's no additional benefit from continued casting of these (even dots have caps), so you want them to be as strong as possible.

    Charging is more viable for melee and ranged than others because you can auto/free attack while charging skills.

    Stacking is more viable for bards and AoE mage since they have more run around time or time where they can't do anything but stack in the case of bards.

    Drawing works well for instant damage skills. These skills will do more damage if the glyphs are used individually and will use less focus drawn vs. cast from locked spot.

    That's pretty general, but usually about right I think.
     
  10. Violet Ronso

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    Ahh! I see where your question was going now!

    So basically what is happening right now in your deck, is that each keybind you are setting specific glyphs that can be drawn in each slot, so as an example, for your slot #1, only shield bash, shield charge and that other spell can go in that slot. NO OTHER GLYPH CAN GO THERE. This means that all your polearms glyphs and Caltrops that you did not add to your combat bar, but added to your deck, are just junk glyphs that cannot go anywhere. You can resolve this in 2 different ways :

    1. Add your Polearms glyphs to slots, placing them behind the other glyphs, which will allow them to be drawn to that slot, or...

    2. Make "open" slots, which have no designated glyphs. The issue with this one considering your current deck is that every single dynamic glyph added to your deck can go in that slot, meaning you will risk slowing down your draw speed. This open slot is generally used when you have very few different glyphs in your dynamic slots (ex.: 3 damage glyphs with 4 dynamic slots, 1 for each glyph + 1 open slot).

    I will make another post reply in a few minutes with a Guide I don't know if you have already read, but goes into far more detail on how to build a deck, I would recommend reading it, as I did it using a polearms build.
     
  11. Violet Ronso

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  12. majoria70

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    [​IMG]

    If you lock the skill like mine you don't put any other copies of it anywhere so that slot uses all 5 copies. My bludgeon skills are on the first 3. I'm not saying my deck is built correctly but as an example to get full use and power of a skill or spell don't split it up. Just imo. Anyway we have some fantastic deck builders and combat experts playing this game so I'm sure they can guide you.
     
  13. Elgarion

    Elgarion Dev Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    I'm a fan of these tutorials, perhaps give them a looksie -- only 2'sih minutes long each and fill you in on some basics of deck functionality:

    Some skills/items can only go in the non-combat utility bar, some skills/items can go in both the combat and non-combat utility bar, and some skills can only go in the combat bar.

    Press K for all your skills, L for all your glyphs and combos and Y for deck building. Experiment with dragging things around, from most of those areas, you can populate your bar directly, or you can adjust inside your deck building interface (Y).

    Here are 4 great 2 minute videos to teach you the basics of deck building:

    Locked Combat Bar:


    Unlocked Combat Bar:


    Hybrid Combat Bar:


    Combos:
     
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  14. FBohler

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    I'll put a very simple tip for you:

    Try to use dynamic slots for the skills you want to spam, and keep the dynamic slots to a bare minimum. The fewer dynamic slots and the fewer dynamic glyphs, the faster you'll get 'em.
     
  15. Elwyn

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    The important thing to keep in mind when using differently-loaded dynamic slots is that there is only ONE pipeline. If the card that is next in line doesn't fit in a currently open slot, (and unlike Tetris you don't get to see it) it will stall the pipeline for like two or three seconds before it falls off. This is an inherent flaw in the concept of dynamic slots, and being unaware of it will lead to frustration and unhappiness. And probably death too.

    My usual setup has four identical combat and three identical healing dynamic slots. If one of the two groups starts getting full, I will stack identical cards to open a new space. For healing I only use the two basic healing spells, then at worst there is one stack for each, plus an empty one to receive cards.

    NOTE: a feature I should be asking for, which I forget because I'm not tinkering with combat bars much, is some way to copy the entire stack from one key to another. If I have a long stack, it gets very hard to see what's in those distant cards. If you forget to put a card in one of those three or four stacks, it will cause unexpected pipeline stalls.

    The need for stacking cards to free up slots is based on whether I'm offense-heavy or heal-heavy. If I'm somewhere easy, I'll usually be stacking unused heals to shove them aside. If I'm getting pounded, I have to start stacking the combat slots to keep the heals coming.

    One other thing that's kind of fundamental to deck-building games is your card mix. I choose the quantity of combat cards based on how often I expect to use them and how long they last. There will be a full set of two offensive spells (usually fire and light), plus singles of things like Healing Rain and short duration buffs like Ignite Weapon. I don't use combos much, but in a light/banish deck, Healing Rain comes up often enough to stack with Banish.

    So yeah, that's seven slots. What do I put in the other three? I put Dash between them on 5, on the same key as the utility bar. I've learned that being able to go fast is useful both to get away from Bad Stuff, and to help reaching Good Stuff. And it's an ergonomic separation between the two groups to avoid fumble fingers. I usually put Ring of Fire and Immolation into the other two slots. And I keep summons like water spirit in utility slots since I can use them to re-summon even in combat.

    That's why there's a minimum number of cards to avoid slugs, specifically to discourage having a ten-card deck.

    That being said, you want to adjust your card counts to favor the ones you will be using constantly during combat, while avoiding going much above the no-slugs threshold.
     
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