SWA: Walk Like an Egyptian

After hitting a brick wall in Blue Mountain, my transition to Egypt was an easy one.  My build hardly changed, and I was left wondering how to spend my points.

My solution, ever elegant, was "throw points at things until I had no more points."  I filled out my inner ring and got most of the hammer and assault rifle abilities, noting my experience banging my head against the Blue Ridge.  Here's where I discovered a lot of synergy in inner ring abilities, and honed my primary build -- an Elemental Striker build that focused on maximizing critical and penetration ratings.  I admit, I was a bit roughshod and aimless with my spending, but I stumbled across a build halfway through Egypt that became the foundation of my Transylvania build -- and all because I attempted one little sidequest that I'd abandoned in the City of the Sun God.

All the old paintings on the tomb
They do the sand dance, don't you know
If they move too quick (oh way oh)
They're falling down like a domino

Egypt is really a test bed for builds.  Your AP rewards skyrocket, leading to a feeling of having a wealth of choices at your fingertips.  You should experiment by filling out your inner ring, as this will also give you the ability to splash for some synergy later in Transylvania.  Egypt is also Funcom's warning shot across the bow, telling you that there will be mobs immune, or even enhanced, by your particular playstyle.  There were two such warning shots in the Sun God zone that I noticed.  The first is a sidequest that is filled with mobs that happen to be nigh-immune to magic damage.  The second came much later -- a hallway that made me fight clusters of five or more mobs at a time at melee range.  Having completed the normal quests in Transylvania, I'm grateful the experience in hindsight, because Egypt is the time to pick your third weapon, before you run into creatures that become more deadly when hindered or afflicted.

All the bazaar men by the Nile
They got the money on a bet
Gold crocodiles (oh way oh)
They snap their teeth on your cigarette

The first step in selecting that third weapon is looking at what you have now.  You should be asking yourself the following questions:

• What damage type do I primarily do?
• My answer: Magic
• What range do I operate at?  Do I need CC?
• My answer: Ranged, and yes.
• What conditions do I utilize (weakness, affliction, etc)?
• My answer: None
• Do I use single target, AoE, or a combination of damage types?
• My answer: Single Target
• What role do I (want to) play in dungeons?
• My answer: Current: DPS.  Eventual: Support/Tank
• Where do my abilities currently work together?
• My answer:  Abilities with the Strike key word; crit and penetrate
• What aspects of my current ability sets do I not currently use but that I would like to?
• My answer: AoE

 Foreign types with the hookah pipes say
Way oh way oh, way oh way oh
Walk like an Egyptian

There are two ways one should look at this list: short-term and long-term synergy.  You should be at least trying new builds as you're in the desert, because if you're still testing builds when you reach Transylvania, you'll get schooled like Vlad Dracul.  At the same time, you need to identify how to vary your questing build enough that any number of mobs don't just completely break it.  Looking at what I currently had (Elemental and Shotgun), I only had three viable weapons: pistols (physical damage; synergy with Elemental's Chains for AoE and Shotgun's drones), Hammer (physical damage; synergy with Shotgun's Blast, providing AoE, and a tanky weapon), and Blood (magic damage; adds survivability; has some chain synergy).

Of the three, Blood was the first to get ruled out.  It had magic damage, and my primary source of damage was magic already, meaning that I'd still get hosed by any mobs with a resistance to magic.  From there, it came down to pistol and hammer.  Both had good synergy with my existing weapons, but here, it was a matter of preference.

Hammer

• Tanking/Support Group Role
• Quick synergy off of the "Blast" and "Strike" key words.
• Soloing through mitigation/Weakness
• Lots of short-term synergy

Pistol

• Healing/Support group role
• Extra mobility
• Soloing through self-heals
• Little short-term synergy, as I had not invested in either drones or chain abilities

After weighing these options, and consulting Seki's Weapon Synergy charts and  Mr. Bunnyman's Tanking Guide, hammer won out.