Combat Deck

is a system that utilizes the Combat Hotbar interface, and allows you to customize decks to adapt to different situations.

Decks and Deck Building
When you create a new character, several default combat skills will be locked to your Combat Hotbar that are suitable for new players. However, as you grow more powerful and gain more skills, you will want to customize how you use your skills in battle. In Shroud of the Avatar, this is done through the Deck system.

Decks and Deck Building may seem intimidating for new players, but note that you can jump into the game without learning what is described below. Discussion with other players on our forum might also be helpful; there you can find suggested deck builds, help on which skills work best with each other for a given combat style, and so on.

Deck Building is an optional advanced technique for combat that you can unlock during a conversation with most Adventurer Trainers, including master trainers. Once you have unlocked this feature and wish to build and equip a new deck, access the Decks window with the Y key.

Deck Creation
Select “New Deck.” Drag or double-click on skills in your Glyph list on the left side of the deck builder UI to populate your deck list on the right.

A deck may not contain more Glyphs of a skill than you have ranks in that skill (maximum of 5). A newly-arrived Avatar has a minimum deck size of 10 cards, and this minimum size increases as the Avatar grows stronger and more experienced. Decks smaller than their minimum number of Glyphs will fill out the extra slots with blank “Slug” Glyphs. Slugs do not help you in combat, though they can be discarded (like all Glyphs). It is recommended that you fill out your deck.

The maximum deck size is 24 for non-subscriber, 48 for subscriber. In general, you may find it useful to concentrate on specific skills and combinations to assure that they are available when you need them. New players and low level Avatars may find it easier to lock their Glyphs (discussed below) while they build up their skills and Glyph selection.

Glyphs can be reused between different decks. For example, you can put all five of your Fireball Glyphs in Deck A, and all five will still be available to add to Deck B. Innate skills cannot and do not need to be added to your deck. They always are in effect for your Avatar.

Hand and Hotbar Customization
All Glyphs in the Combat Hotbar are "locked." This means when a Glyph is used, the slot will remain empty until it's Glyph is available again, and no other Glyph can appear in that slot. This can change later, after you learn about "Deck Building." (See "Locked Glyphs" for more information.)

Eventually, you can talk to nearly any Adventure Trainer about "deck building" and unlock the ability to customize your deck and Combat Hotbar. Until you unlock this advanced technique, the interface to customize your deck will not be available. Once this feature is unlocked, you can choose to keep Glyphs locked or unlocked.

When a Combat Hotbar slot is unlocked, any Glyph can be dealt to that slot. Greater control over where a drawn Glyph is dealt can be achieved by dragging the icon for that Glyph down to a slot in the Decks window.

Assigning a Glyph in this fashion means that, when that Glyph is drawn, it will always be dealt to that assigned slot first. (Provided the slot is open.) If the slot is currently holding a Glyph, then the assigned Glyph will simply be dealt to the next available slot, if there is one. Multiple skills can be assigned to a single slot and the same skill can be assigned to multiple slots. Note that no matter how many slots you assign a skill to, you cannot be dealt more copies of the Glyph for that skill than exist in your deck.

Assigning Glyphs to specific slots allows a high degree of control over the deck system and lets you focus more on the unfolding action than on your hand. For example, you could assign all your healing spells to one slot, ensuring that whenever you are dealt a healing Glyph you know where it will appear.

A slot can be cleared of assigned skills by right-clicking on it in the deck builder interface.

Assigning Glyphs is discrete from locking Glyphs to a slot, described below.

The utility hotbar is a second hotbar that will appear below your combat bar. This additional hotbar will become available automatically after leaving the Isle of Storms. The utility hotbar can hold “non-combat” skills and items, such as bait for fishing and any food item.

Once you have access to both hotbars, the combat hotbar will always be present during combat while the utility hotbar will be present at all times by default. Entering combat mode (by pressing Z or using any combat skill) will make the combat hotbar appear while exiting combat mode will make it disappear.

Note that when you unlock deck building and the utility hotbar, you do so for your character and not for your account. If you create a new character, you will need to unlock these advanced techniques again for that character.

Decks and Inventory
The Linked Equipment section lets you associate a set of armor and weaponry with a deck. Equipping that deck will also equip that set, provided the items are still in your inventory. Note that armor and clothing can only be changed during combat by linking them to an associated deck.

Equipping and Swapping Decks
A deck must be equipped before it can be used in combat. Select your finished deck from the list, and use the Equip button. Decks may not be created or modified in combat, though you may still swap between already created decks. If you cannot modify a deck, make sure to sheath your weapon.