Frequently Asked Questions--SWL Game Play

Last Updated 1/7/19
This thread is a work in progress. If you think of a question that needs to be added or want to modify the answer to one of the questions, please reply to this post and an administrator will update this post as needed.

How do I see cabal chat/raid chat/group chat/personal messages?

There are over a dozen possible "channels" you can "subscribe" to in your chat window. Some of them are automatically subscribed to you and some of them you will need to subscribe in order to see. To subscribe to a channel, right click in your chat window. There should be a Subscribe menu option. When you hover over it, there are options for public groups and system messages. Hover over the public groups option, and you will see a longer list of possible channels. Click on a channel to add it to your chat window.

For whatever reason, SWL has decided to put a lot of system messages in your chat window automatically, which means that sometimes important things will scroll up and away before you can read them. It's a good idea to use the same "subscribe" process above, but instead of adding channels, go to the System Messages channel list and unclick some of the ones you don't need, so that your default chat window isn't cluttered with irrelevant system messages. If you REALLY care about Item Loot, Cash Loot, XP gained, Trade, etc. you can subscribe to them in one of the non-default chat tabs that is nested behind your default chat tab.

What channels should I have in my default chat tab?

Okay, maybe this isn't a frequently asked question, but IT SHOULD BE. The most important chat channels you need to monitor are: Raid, Group, Cabal, Looking for Group, and private tells. Optional (but also highly recommended) are: Trade, Say, General. You should REMOVE anything that isn't one of these channels so the important stuff doesn't scroll up and away.

An advanced technique is to create a second floating window (click and drag one of your tabs out of the main chat window to another spot on your HUD) and split the chat channels. I personally like to have /tell and /say in the floating window, with raid, group, cabal, general and looking for group in my default chat window so that the /tells don't scroll up and away before I can respond to them.

Alternatively, you can use the same click-and-drag technique to put channels in separate tabs on the same chat window - any channel with new messages will light up red on your chat window, so you'll see if you have a new message in tells, group, raid or whatever other tabs you might have.

So many abbreviations! What do they all mean?

Chat can be crazy with abbreviations. Here are a few of the most common and an explanation of what they mean:

• MOF=Mark Of Favor* One of the in-game currencies. Used to buy/sell auction house items, and to buy extra keys when you run out. Also used to buy some of the cosmetic items. Given in-game as a reward for completing the daily missions. Do all your dailies and you will get 12K MOF as a reward. Do it daily and you will soon be rich beyond the dreams of avarice :-D
• AH=Auction House*. All players can purchase items by opening the AH interface using H key on keyboard. If you're a patron, you can collect purchased items from anywhere. Non patrons will need to go to Agartha and speak to AH vendors to pick up their purchased items.
• IP=Item Power.* This is a measurement of your strength and effectiveness in a game where level stops at 50. Higher is better, of course. Your IP can be viewed from your character sheet, in the lower left corner along with Crit Rate, Crit Power, Protection, etc.
• MU=meet up.* You are being asked to select a person, right click on them, choose meet up from the menu option. You will then be teleported to the anima well closest to where they are. If it doesn't work, either they have automatic meet up turned off, or they are in an area where MU is not allowed
• RB=regional boss*. Very good loot. Very tough fight. They are fought in raid groups of 10-13 (depending on number of leechers). More about RB, leechers and Lairs later. . .
• WB/MB=world boss or mega boss*. A group wide raid available for up to 40 people at a time. Loot is signet distillates and considered not as profitable as RB loot, but still decent. Can be accessed through a portal in Agartha. Must be level 50 to participate.
• NYR=New York Raid*. 10 person raid that is accessed via the activity finder (Shift+v). Can be done in SM (story mode), E1 (Elite 1), E5 (Elite 5), or E10 (Elite 10) levels of difficulty. Must be at least level 50 for SM and E1, IP 450 for E5 (although 600+ is recommended for an easy run), or IP 1000 for E10 (and if you can do E10, you're not reading this FAQ).
• PST*=Please Send Tell. You are being asked to /tell (other games call it whisper) your reply to the person who posted. You can also right click on their name and choose "send message" to do the same thing.
• E1, E2, E3, etc=Elite 1, Elite 2, Elite 3, etc.* These are dungeon/raid/scenario levels and the higher the number, the higher your IP needs to be to access that level. The higher the "E level" the more loot you get, but the harder the fights will be. To find out what "E Level" you can do, click on the activity finder (shift +v) and click on one of the dungeon entries. The description on the right side of the window will tell you the minimum IP that is required to enter that dungeon. Fair warning, though. Just because you qualify to enter, doesn't mean you'll be effective. Bad builds or lack of situational awareness can still get you killed :-D
  OD/SH=Occult Defense or StoneHenge scenario.
  SP=Seek and Preserve scenario
• KM=Kingsmouth.* Usually used when recruiting for a lair, and it means the lair leader is going to do the lair on the kingsmouth map.
• SC=Savage Coast*. Again, usually means the lair.
• BM=Blue Mountain.*Usually for lair
• SD=Scorched Desert*. Usually for lair
• CotSG(or COTSG)=City of the Sun God*. Usually for lair
• BF=Besieged Farmland*. Usually for lair
• SF=Shadowy Forest*. Usually for lair.
• CF=Carpathian Fangs.* Usually for lair.
• KD=Kaidan.* Usually for lair.
• HR=Hell Raised*. That's a very annoying dungeon that only crazy people or masochists enjoy.
• HE=Hell Eternal dungeon*
• DW=Darkness War dungeon*
• Pol=Polaris dungeon*

What are these "lairs"? How do I do a lair?

Lairs are group content usually run as a 10 person raid. Lair zones are open world areas designated on the game map by the burned and dark area. Mobs in this area of the map are extremely powerful and require a team to take down. To "run a lair" members of the raid pick up three missions at the starting point. You must be level 50 to pick up the missions. Completing these three missions (which requires killing many MANY of these uber powerful monsters) will reward the raid members with summoning essences for the lair bosses. Defeating the lair boss will reward the players (both raid members AND leechers) with a loot chest full of distillates and (sometimes) signets. A full, two-team raid that has done all three missions will summon six bosses, so a lair=six loot chests.

There is no IP requirement for running a lair, although lazy lair leaders may require higher IP because they're afraid they may fail. You only have to be level 50 to pick up the missions at the beginning. For ODO cabal runs, that's all we require of you: Be level 50 and be able to pay attention to raid chat. Even if you're a low IP player, we usually have enough high IP players in the lair to make up for it and still get you some sweet, sweet loot.

In order to not look like a total noob when you do a lair, make sure you are subscribed to raid chat, PAY ATTENTION TO RAID CHAT, and if the mission has objective at the beginning, you perform the task. For example, BM lair has a mission that requires you to click on a rock at the start. CF lair has a mission that requires you to click on schematics on the ground at the start. Pay attention to raid chat. A good raid leader will remind everyone to pick up the rock or click the schematic.

Also, if you don't want to give your raid leader a migraine, make sure you are not on cooldown BEFORE the raid starts. I have been in lairs where the entire raid is done, we get to the summon and someone says "Oh, I couldn't get the missions. I'm still on cool down--does that matter?" Again, if you pay attention to raid chat, a good raid leader will remind you to make sure you got ALL THREE MISSIONS. If you do NOT have all three missions, it is your job to speak up in raid chat to tell them you do not have them for whatever reason.

People keep mentioning dimensions and servers when talking about lairs and regional bosses. What is that all about?

Because there is a limit to how many players can fit in an instance, if the instance is full, the latecomers will be automatically shunted to a new instance (also know as a server) which means they will not be able to participate in the fun. When the lair leader is calling for leechers and posts a Dimension number and server number, they are letting people know which server/instance the raid is in, so that the latecomers can check to see if they are in the "right instance" and therefore whether they will be able to participate or not.

To find out which server/instance you are in, hit Shift+F9 on your keyboard. That will create a system message that tells you what Dimension and Server you are in. The server number is the important part. If your server number does not match the server number of the raid leader after you've done a Meet Up on the raid leader, then you are too late and the instance/server is full. You will not be able to participate unless someone leaves, or the raid meets up on you to allow you to participate.

What is leeching? How do I leech a lair/RB?

Leeching is when you tag along with a raid team, but are not a member of the team. You can still get the loot, but you do not have to take the missions, and will not be part of the summon. In SWL, each zone will allow a maximum of 15 players on the map. That means each raid team doing a lair or regional boss can have up to five "leechers" following the raid team and helping with kills. Since the map population is capped at 15, too many leechers can cause legitimate raid members to not be able to get in, which is a headache for the raid leader and members. Polite players will wait to be invited to leech, and will wait until the raid leader tells them that all member are in zone and you can MU for leech.

If you do not want to get a reputation as an annoying jerk, do NOT just MU on any lair leader shouting in general chat. Things can get really heated, especially in RB farms, when uninvited leechers show up. Many non-cabal RB farms are "pay to enter" and if you didn't pay the raid leader the required essences as your entry fee, you are depriving someone who DID pay of their spot. Doing this will get you on a tank's shit-list really quick. Don't do it. You've been warned.

Each lair has a preferred summoning area. If you don't know where the summon areas are for each zone (and you probably don't if you're reading this) you may want to run a few lairs with the cabal as a member of the raid before leeching non-cabal lairs. If you're able to follow the group from the start, great, but if you only show up for the boss summon, you may be expected to make your own way to the summoning spot. It's better if you already know the way, so the lair leader doesn't have to stop everything to send someone to show you the way. Cabal runs will happily take this time to help you learn, but if you're leeching a non-cabal lair, you may not get this level of help, and will just die repeatedly while you try to find your way to the loot.

What are scenarios? Should I do scenarios?

Seek and preserve scenarios are one of the best ways to level up your glyphs, and you can do them by click on Shift+V on your keyboard to open the activity finder. They can be done as soon as you hit level 50, and can be run solo or duo. In addition to being an excellent source of glyph distillates, they are also excellent training for your dps rotation and a test of your build. If you cannot successfully complete a scenario "at level", you may want to get some build advice, because it means your dps is lacking. Since glyphs are a huge part of what makes you an effective tank/dps/healer, it is recommended that you use all of your scenario keys every day, and if you're serious about crushing the endgame content, you may want to buy more keys and do more daily scenarios.

Occult Defense scenarios have increasingly difficult waves of enemies, and you can keep going until you fail. You will be rewarded with a loot chest for the last successful wave you completed. It contains talisman, weapon, glyph and signet distillates. Like Seek and Preserve scenarios, you can access Occult Defense scenarios by clicking Shift+V to open the activity finder.

I'm having trouble doing a scenario. What am I doing wrong?

There are many ways for a scenario to go sideways, but here are a few tips:

• Your scenario build should have a mix of single target and multi target attacks. Attacks that do status effects like slow, rooted or exposed are excellent choices
• Have some kind of sustain built into your scenario build. Cruel delight signets, a heal power on your main hand weapon, a defensive cooldown, etc.
• Be full dps on your anima allocation. The best way to get your energy and health back is to kill the mobs as fast as possible let out-of-combat regen kick in. If you're super tanky or super healy, you won't be killing mobs fast enough and they'll stack up, eventually killing your survivors
• Have some kind of knockback gadget or ability to get the mobs out of your face in an emergency. I actually mapped my gadget to my middle mouse button to make it easier to use. I highly recommend Mistress's Bashosen or Ultrasonic Antipersonal Cannon, but your mileage may vary.
• Pay attention to the announcer for the "sabotage" and "possession" events. If you let too many bombs go off or too many survivors get possessed, you'll fail.
• In Occult Defense, make sure you pay attention to the "Commander Entering the Field". Failing to kill commander ASAP will cause a quick failure.
• OD scenarios also have "random challenges" that happen. "Magic 8 Ball" and "Randomizing Enemy Weighting" announcements mean that the scenario is going to throw a random challenge at you and one of the potential challenges is a commander. If you don't see an exploding zombie, ranged succubus or seek-and-destroy revenant after that warning, you better do a quick sweep for a commander lurking on the edges.

I want to do a dungeon. How do I start/join a dungeon group?

If you're wanting to join a dungeon that someone else in the cabal is forming, speak up in cabal chat. If you meet the requirements that the group leader is asking for, spots are filled on a first come, first served basis. It benefits you to PAY ATTENTION TO CABAL CHAT.

As a quick way to show you want to join a group, many people will just put an "x" or "+" in cabal chat. If there are multiple groups forming, it may be useful to say something like "x for e1" so it's obvious which you want to join.

If you are wanting to become a group leader and form your own dungeon team, you can simply post in cabal chat what level dungeon you want to do and what roles you have room for. Not gonna lie--it's a whole lot easier to get a group together when you're the tank, but if you're not a tank, don't let that stop you. You and your other dps/healer caballies may end up sitting in the queue for a while, but teaming with caballies is generally a lot more fun than teaming with strangers.

Once your team is as full as it's gonna get, click Shift+V on your keyboard to open the activity finder. Select the Elite level of dungeon you're attempting to do, and click the bottom right button to enter the queue. Clicking the Private Team check box means that you will enter the dungeon with only the people in your group, and if anyone crashes, they will not be replaced by people in the queue. Private Team will also allow you to leave the dungeon/scenario/raid before the usual five minute time limit.

If you want to plan an event in advance and get sign ups, you can click on the events link (top right corner of this web page). Click the Create New Event link and fill in the blanks. The calendar will ask you which time zone you want to use to schedule your event. Pick your current timezone--the calendar will adjust the times for attendees based on what time they have selected in their website profile.

How do I know what dungeon level I qualify for?**

Elite 1 (E1 for short) starts at level 50, but IP 100 is a bare minimum for expecting success. E1 scenarios, for example, are a straight up dps check, and if you have IP less than 100 you can't realistically expect to succeed.

To find out what IP you need to qualify for the higher elite levels (E2-E10) you can use the activity finder. Click Shift+V on your keyboard. A window will pop up with a list of activities on the left side. Click on the activity you're interested in on the left, and the right side of that window will show you a description of the activity, including the IP requirements to enter that activity.

All elite level IP requirements are the same, regardless of activity. An E2 dungeon requires the same IP as an E2 scenario or an E2 Dark Agartha instance.

Note: just because you CAN enter the dungeon doesn't mean you SHOULD enter that dungeon. If your dps is underpowered for your IP, you may want to do an E1, even though you qualify for E2. How do you know if your dps is underpowered? Try a seek and preserve scenario at the max level you qualify for. If you can complete it successfully, you're good. If you can't ever succeed in a scenario "at level" your dps is underpowered. Ask some caballies for build advice.

I'm out of keys. How do I buy more?

Once you're out of keys, if you click on a loot chest, you will be given an option to buy one more key. Dungeon keys cost 500 MOF, Lair keys cost 1K MOF, and scenario keys cost 1500 MOF each.

Does this game have mods? What are some good ones? What do they do?

Mods are fan-built mini programs that modify aspect of the game client and game play. Funcom does not prohibit mods, but it recommends against them for "stability issues". That said, there are a LOT of mods that make SWL easier to play by modifying the user interface in various ways. You can browse for mods at www.curseforge.com or just do a google search for SWL and Mods. Most of the mods will have directions on how to install the mod, but generally you unzip the download folder and copy/paste it into your SWL data/gui/flash/custom file.

• BooBuilds: allows you to save builds and outfits and swap them with a single click. www.curseforge.com/swlegends/tswl-mods/boobuilds
• BooSprint: Auto sprint whenever you're not in combat. www.curseforge.com/swlegends/tswl-mods/boosprint
• BooBar: top bar modification that lets you see number of friends online, number of caballies online, real time clock and in-game clock, latency and FPS. swl.curseforge.com/projects/boobar
• Effects UI: absolutely essential for high level raids. Makes cast bars, enemy shields, etc. easier to see. www.curseforge.com/swlegends/tswl-mods/swl-effects-ui-legends
  *Tradepost Utility: makes auction house more user friendly, lets you do price checks and shows you when an item has expired on AH. www.curseforge.com/swlegends/tswl-mods/tradepost-utility
• Lair Tracker: makes those annoying collection quests a lot easier by creating waypoints and flags for collection quest objectives. Also works with non-lair missions like dead drop and orochi tower key cards. www.curseforge.com/swlegends/tswl-mods/lairtracker
• Agent Tweaks: makes the agent window more user friendly and allows you to see fatigue level of your agents. www.curseforge.com/swlegends/tswl-mods/agenttweaks
  Auto Repair*: Automatically spends the shards to repair your anima after a defeat. www.curseforge.com/swlegends/tswl-mods/auto-repair
  Don't Make Me Wait*: eliminates the 5 second "rez in" delay. Okay, probably not essential in the scheme of things, but damn, I hate waiting. www.curseforge.com/tsw/tsw-mods/dont-make-me-wait
• Empowerment Helper: With one click, drags all distills of the selected type to the empowerment window. Invaluable on lairs and regional boss farms. swl.curseforge.com/projects/empowerment-helper
• MaXPert: shows how much XP is left until item reaches max level. Excellent for making sure you don't waste a high level distill by overchunking the upgrade XP. swl.curseforge.com/projects/maxpert

The following mods are ones I haven't (yet) tested personally, but I've talked to people that swear by them:

• Clockwatcher: Adds agent alerts and lair cooldowns to your lockout (Shift+L) window. Excellent for figuring out which lairs you can do and which are on CD. swl.curseforge.com/projects/clockwatcher
• MobMarker: puts a marker on each hostile similar to the one used in lair tracker. useful in OD for finding commanders in the dark. www.curseforge.com/swlegends/tswl-mods/mobmarkers
• Target Lowest: I haven't actually tested this one, but I'm considering it for the E10 NYR now that I've read up. It apparently rewrites the behavior of the "Target Nearest Friend" hotkey to instead target lowest HP in team/raid (as expressed by percentage of total HP). Includes logic that excludes blood users with high corruption unless all others are at full health. swl.curseforge.com/projects/target-lowest

Thanks, this is super helpful. I've never done much with lairs because the acronyms got overwhelming.
So if someone says they're doing regionals, does that mean they're summoning lair bosses but not running the lair missions? And I've heard people refer to dogs and spiders -- are those regional bosses from specific lairs?

Lair boss chests in each region have a chance to drop a purple Summoning Ritual. One of these items is all the is required to summon the boss, you don't need to do any mission for it, you just have to go to the regional spot and have the rest of your group click on the heart (just like summoning a normal lair boss).
Kingsmouth, Savage Coast and Blue Mountains all drop the Solomon Islands regional boss, the dog. (Well, wolf guardian thing, but it's a dog to us!) The summoning circle is in Blue Mountains.
Scorched Desert and City of the Sun God drop the Egypt regional, the spider. It is summoned in CotSG in the big underground room in the middle of the lair.
Beseiged Farmlands, Shadowy Forest and Carpathian Fangs all drop the Transylvania regional, the bird (aka bird of the zero point pathogen or flappy to his friends). The summoning circle is in Beseiged Farmlands and can be a little bit of a pain to get to. If unsure, ask and someone will show you. 😎
Kaidan drops the Tokyo regional, the pig. It's summoned (shockingly) in Kaidan.

I couldnt find "new player FAQ" so i am simply going to put this here:

One of our kind of new member thought that 500 IP was minimum to do group content, so they wouldnt join lairs raids dungeons etc. I am simply letting you guys know, in case you want to put a note somewhere that, this isnt the case :D

I've got that info in the Lairs section above (only requirement is to be level 50 and able to follow directions) and in the dungeons I mentioned how to find out which IP is required for each Elite level using the Activity Finder window. I bet that person was told 500IP by some lazy tank who only wants to do speed runs :-P

When people are running lairs there are often these...Terms in use regarding Dimensions and servers. What is that and why is that information of value?

Good question Father! 🤓
So each of the mission zones has a population cap of 15 (agartha and the home cities have higher caps). To make sure that a raid all ends up in the same instance of the zone, we pull up the instance identification information using Shift+F9. As long as you have system information enabled in your chat window, it'll then tell you which Dimension and Server you're in, looking (hopefully) like this:

So in this case, I'm in Dimension 1, Server 100. This would be posted as "1:100". If you're in a raid and your Dim information is coming up different, that means that you're in a different instance. You may need to meet up (mu) on someone else, or they may need to meet up on you to get the whole raid into the same instance.
If you're trying to leech a lair and when you zone in your Dim and Server are different, that means that the lair's instance is full and you won't be able to leech it. It's normal to tell others in cabal who are also trying that it's full, but don't worry about it if you're leeching a public group.

I'm not sure if this fits here, but it seems to be the closest fit. The other day I saw a post in chat about not using greens to empower epics. Perhaps this logic behind this should be addressed here, if it's valid.

There are several schools of thought here, and it basically comes down to the amount of how many anima shards you are able and willing to spend. The big problem comes as the empowerment costs increase with each fusion level. As costs rise, many people choose to save shards by not using green items to empower higher levels of gear, and instead vendor the greens and only upgrade items with distillates. Others maintain a minimum buffer, (plucking a number from the air, 100k shards for example,) and if they are over that threshold they'll still use greens for upgrades, but under the threshold greens will be vendored so that there's no risk of running out of shards for distillate upgrades. Red empowerments cost 1k per time, so it's actually quite possible to blow through a lot of shards on a busy day.

Personally, I take a slightly different approach, where I'll identify one talisman and one weapon to receive upgrades from greens, and I'll vendor any other drops. That way I can use the drops to help subsidise the upgrades whilst not feeling like I'm just throwing everything away. The upgrade process is really slow, but I often feel like every little helps!

Another idea which some people use is to level greens and blues to then sacrifice as fodder for higher items. The idea is that that way you can pay the lower upgrade price, and only have to pay for the big empowerment cost once. Unfortunately, since only about 40% item xp is transferred when you use a levelled item for empowerment, this doesn't really work out to be as cost effective as you might hope. JimmyKnox did some calculations here that help expand that idea a bit more if you're interested in reading further. 😃

Ultimately, there's no one right or wrong approach to this though, it's all down to personal preference!