Csaszar

Hi Ladies and Gentlemans! I would like to Announce something that seems to turn into a tradition: Our Claire (and my unworthy person) got a new char to the very top: to 216! Lets congratulate to Claire (maybe to my unworthy person too) for this accomplishment. WOOT! Night after night (ok it was day after day for Ari) the same party assembled and ventured into the most dangerous places in the Underworld to find fame and fortune (OK we were after the XP too) And when finally Claire reached the top we were so lucky that all the friends who were accompanying us in this long journey could share this moment with us. So here are the 2 newborn 216: [D.a.r.k] Desire [D.a.r.k] DeviL Now its time for Ari, Enci, Ganto and Katran to visit the top very soon!

Hi after an old saying (slightly modified): God created Windows to train the faithful. - Muad'Dib

Hi I have theese Tree Rages waiting for you:

Hi A promised the pic of dual Tree Rages (hehe I know I am a bit late with it):

Hi Some more pics from Enci's BD party at Braverock Cafe The heavy drinking are just about to begin: Hehe we are after our first barrels: And then the party: Hehe it was a big fun! Happy BD again!

Hi Boldog Szülinapot Enci! If Moorbrook Whiskey will do then I have Booze!

Hi ... intitialising sequence .... complete ... ... creating account ... created ... ... accepting challenge ... done ... ... creating character ... created ... xxxx error error xxxx serious lvling detected .... Danger ... Csaszar made a Dark Elf *sigh* again...

Hi What level is your DE now? And what build?

Hi Gorgeous pic!

Hi As you all know the official sacred High score (ladder) takes a pic of your char regulary. Sometimes that pic can be a really good one or really funny. When I saw the one taken about my BM I thought it would be a nice idea to start this thread to collect pics you think funny or god looking enough. OK here is the first one:

Hi Sure sure! As soon as I manage to maintain more account selectors I would start a char at the german servers too - if thats possible ofc

Hi WB Timo! Great to have you back!! Now I am off to find a shelter with enough space to move in. Hell why are all of them already occupied...

Hi Got the keys myself! Rotluchs: your name will be included in the current night prayer.

Hi Sorry to hear that It would be a too long list to post everything "what makes you angry" in Sacred. Luckily listing everything what makes me happy would be also a very long list . Actually a much longer list. Hehe let me tell you the story of my ever first sacred char: Ofc I started HC with my first char soon after the game originally came out. I discovered playing Hardcore at D2 and I wanted to try Sacred that way for the very first time. My new BM emerged at the island I got a party invitation I accepted then at the next second I was lying on the starter island dead and burned by invisible Dragon fire from hundred miles away. Discouraging eh? So I passed HC because of this for some time but luckily I found my way back long ago Dont let yourself discouraged by such things! (hehe I remember how I whined when my beauty fell to a bug )

Hi Finishing the demon sets and working on the modifiers.

Hi Sorry I cant let this out: Hell Sphere has its own place at the armory of a demon. Maybe not as a main Spell but it could be greatly useful in quite a lot situation AND it could be your ride to glory with a low level Demon who has lotsa runes want level fast but do not wants to screw a major CA with too high level. hehe sorry again

Hi Formulas are tricky things in Sacred. Of course IF there is a way to make a viable one then dont stop dont sleep until you create one! Just dont forget that in Sacred there are LOTSA things that modify for example a spell's damage. Just to sort *some* of them: - CA (spell) level - Mental Regen - SB - XX% damage to a certain damage type - XX% damage to a certain damage type only with spells - XX% damage to all type of damage - other CAs amplifying the original spell - level of difficulty where the spell is cast - level and resistances of the enemiy who suffers the spells effect - any other mods amplifyng the spell in any way (for ex. WIDD, PAIN) - the related bugs (damage roll over and such) - etc... etc... Sadly the info listed on the ingame char sheet is (at least) *inaccurate* so relaying on that is not really possible. Anyway GL!

Hi Great news! See you in the servers soon!

Hi Nice to see other BG and Nwn fans! IMHO Nwn1 easily beats Nwn2 - well except graphics Do you know theese? Mirent Tusk or Tornado of Souls? Best PWs I ever tried.

Hi I think there are a difference between gray monsters and grey monsters At least I got really good drop from thoose Sylvian Spirits - IMHO thats it because they are not simply below your level but waaaaay below. Ofc that was with good MF chars. CS. Ps.: I think I had some really lucky drops because I got several sweet jewelry there around level 50. But in the long run patience is advised

Csaszar's Mini Guide series: How to find niob grade items with low level requirements? I am sure you all saw from time to time relatively low level set and uniq items with a gold indicator showing that it is from the niob difficulty. In this mini guide we will try to cover how to find these stuff and why its worth finding them. Basicly there are 3 categories of these items: #1 Quest given #2 Found in a chest (for example the one located in the Valley of Tears Bear Cave (or Golem Cave or simply BC)) #3 Got from a low level enemy in niob difficulty -------------------------------------------------------- #1 Doesn't require too much explanation. Quest given set items tend to be (but not all the time) much lower level than the char who gets the quest reward. To my best knowledge every quest which has a chance to reward you with a set item could produce a lower level item reward and this is independent from the facts: how many and what level of players are in the same server. I got some of these stuff alone some of them partied. #2 There are more than one chests that could produce sets when opened but as far as my experience goes the big chest in BC is the one what does this most frequently (other chest could also produce some nice rewards randomly)*. Its quite possible to get something useful from a few runs here. Of course the place is full with those nasty Golems who are trying to prevent you reaching your goal - so getting to this chest isn't that easy - but if you have patience it could be a very rewarding trip. this kind of result is common to both: #3 Now this is the most interesting among the three options. In niob difficulty its not easy to find a really low level enemy - we are not speaking about a few level lower bad guy but someone who is definitely not a niob level monster. Occasionally you can find some here and there but there is a place where they can be found (quantity may differ each time and respawn) in large numbers. Lets visit: the Dryad Forest! Enter through the portal lets head North-east. Now we are after those little Sylvian Spirits. How truly amazing creatures they are! They are either very high or very low. The red circled ones are reaching maximum level very early and the grey circled ones are lvl1. If you are lucky you can find a nice amount of thoose level 1 ones in groups. These grey guys drop very interesting stuff: either absolutely worthless level 1 items with a niob indicator or very low level but niob grade uniqs. I am sure I don't need to mention that we are after that last kind. With every plan based on MF the outcome could varies a *bit* - but sooner or later you will hit the prize and find something really worthy. some funny drops: and now something that is really worth our time: Enter Dryad forest - find (preferably grey) Sylvyan Spirits - kill lotsa of them - grab the loot - hehe I know it sounds soo simple Why to bother with all this? These items - if you are especially after them - require sometimes great efforts to get so one could think: why even bother with them? The answer is simple: they could mean the difference. But even if they are not really needed they offer a plus to your char what is not available others at this level. Having a same level Byleth armor as an another BM? Well yours will have all the benefits of a niob grade gear - much more spell regen/defense/bonus to all spells. Imagine your - soon after started - Vampire as she slaughters undeads with the huge damage bonus of that Ozzy ring. Theese are things that you are not required to do but they could add massively to the fun factor. E

Hi Superb work!

Hi Agree 100%

Csaszar's Guide to find the famous ICON set In Sacred Underworld the famous ICON set - the one that gives you burning feet - became a very very rare find. Its much harder now to have a full set in your possession than in earlier versions of the game (I.e; Sacred PLUS - where most players had at least one full set) To make it more difficult to find was a good idea IMHO. Back in the old days we didn't have sets like Fad or Orla and ICONS was used either to split the enemies or for pure cosmetic effects. Now we need to face big changes: #A, Servers are much much more unstable now and their performance is far more worse than in older days. #B, With the already mentioned "new" sets (Fad & Orla) the purpose of the ICON set changed greatly. Its important to understand that I am not writing this guide to further the use of ICONs. My goal is simply to help those people who never had a chance try it. ICONs is and could be a source of a lot of FUN. And if its used with care others wont suffer that much because of its use. Overall these ideas could help you get burning feet if you are willing to pay its price: long boring hours. I will try to split this guide into 3 main section: #1,How to find it? and #2, Some ideas for general set hunting around the starter lvls and #3,How to use ICONS relatively safely #1, How to find ICONs The process is based on the observation of the SETs level: its ALWAYS lvl1! So its not hard to figure that a lower level char would find it easier than a max level niob toon. Of course this isn't that easy. Icons are very rare - and the chance to find them is low. So to increase the chance to find them we need a low level char with a considerable amount of MF. Before we go into details I need to remind you of a few things: #a, Like any other Magic find (or trade) the only thing we can do is to increase the chance. There are no guarantees that it will work for you. (but it worked for me more than once) #b, It could take a lot of time. Not necessarily but possibly. Trying it wont harm you but generally only the really patient and determined souls will see its fruits. The Char Basically every char could do it. But if we would like to optimize it further I wont propose Wood Elf (simply because she cant use jump or fly to get around obstacles more easily) and the Seraphim (because of her lack of available sockets.) Two chars are IMHO exceptionally suited to the job: Dwarf*:built in MF - GREED - pros: increased MF / cons: GREED needs rune investment and if you stick to the idea keeping him low level and restarting your char often the runes would go to waste) Vampiress: She is one of the toughest starter char (IMHO) and can jump across obstacles. My ICON finder was (is) a Vampiress. (well more of nostalgia than everything else) The Gear Sockets sockets and more sockets - we are after a lot of sockets. Put max level dwarven MF forge in thoose sockets and your you MF will be increased DRASTICALLY. The setup will be the following (vampiress): Item Number of sockets Helm 2 Shoulder Guards 2 Armor 4 Boots 1 Gloves 1 Belt 2 Bracer 2 Greaves 2 Sword** 4 Shield 3 So you will have total 23 sockets available. That is +460 MF for a level 2 char. Amazing isn't it? (Another nice feature of this forged bonus that your char will be almost invulnerable - each forge will give you 30% to all resistances - total 690% bonus to all resists) #1,Where and how to play We see that staying low level is important to reach our goal. So we need to stick to the starting territory and wander only a little bit around it. You can do it 2 ways: First you use your level 2 vamp and you avoid getting any XP. That means you need to repeat quests where little or no fightings are involved. Best would be to repeatedly do the "Pay Book"*** quest. This quest has a chance to reward you with a set item and it is pretty easy to complete (and fast. Relogging to start again is longer - at least for me - to finish the quest itself) and you don't need to fight at all. Of course doing this way means that you need to get into a pretty boring cycle: log in - do the quest - log off - log in again - start doing the quest again - etc... The second way is to make the a low level hunter gear then pass it from char to char. I mean you start a new Vampiress (or Dwarf) play her till she reaches level 8-9-10 then start her over. Alternatively you can level her till 10-15 (maybe even 20). This way you will have increased chance to find some of the lower level sets. You can find them here. If you choose this way the Goblin Lawn and the Porto Vallum area is an ideal place to hunt. #2, Some ideas for general set hunting around the starter lvls Basically this is the above detailed way just you are not after the ICONs and do not restart your char until you feel it became too hard in your lvl1 MF gear. With minimal rune investment a Vampiress can get to and over level 20 in such a gear without any problems. Ideal to find rares and the minimum level sets also mentioned above. Remember: you need to spam the MF socket into your gear. Don't start exchange them into anything else. The sole purpose of this char is to have the highest MF possible at low level. #3,How to use the ICON set relatively safely ICONs set will generate LAG. Its not a big deal if only 1 player are using it but the situation could become dire really quickly if more players log in with full ICON set. As previous experiments and research proved it the main source of LAG considering the ICON set comes not from the graphical side (the burning effect) but the splitting effect. ICONs will cover a relatively large area really quickly with a damaging trail of fire which dissipates after a while but if your char is moving around you chance to split the enemies around you will be increased dramatically. Even with very low split (1-5%) a lot more enemies will be doubled. If your split is higher (10-20%) its almost guaranteed that every enemy who aren't killed really quickly will be split. Any more split over 20% would mean you are making an army of enemies in a few seconds. Now this is what the Sacred engine cant really handle. So when using ICONs try to reduce the split you are using to a real low amount - it will still work better than a much greater value without burning feet. Secondly: if you plan to use Fad (or Orla - don't do it) with ICONs avoid populated servers. It could be ok with 1 or 2 ppl (even together with 3 ppl) but if any more players are joining and/or the others use LAG creating CAs or they are using also ICONs too flee from that server! Lag will build up pretty quickly and it will threaten you and the others. In our HC way of playing that threat can turn easily to the end of your (or someone else) char. Its also a good idea of ask or warn the others (if there are other players around). Last words about ICONs and LAG and such things ICON could create lag - thats true. Fad and Orla could create LAG as well. And there are a lot of things who could cause LAG (sometimes much worser LAG). But never forget: the main cause of LAG isn't your actions but crappy coding and programming. So as long as you try to avoid threaten other ppl too much you can and you should try every strategy that suits you. * Dwarf could be an interesting experiment. I am not sure how Greed influences Quest rewards. If it does Dwarf would be definitely the number 1 choice for us. This thing would need some future experiments. ** It is possible (not easy but possible) to find a 4 socketed one handed sword. My level 1 dwarven trader uses such a blade. If you are not able to find that one a simple 3 socketed weapon will do. *** the "Pay book" quest is much easier to do if your char is able to jump or fly. If you know the quest you will understand what I mean I would like to thank Erialc (again) for her invaluable help! (converting my babbling into something that resembles written english language)