JXS

thank you kindly brother I probably will slip a rune or 2 into nether allegiance just to have some minions providing cover for those gawd awful protect/heirling missons (I am surprised that by now programmers still dont give better AI to minions/heirlings) in terms of combat arts, since I am taking tactics lore, DW and MC focus both those CA trees will be fully modded. DB wounding > poisoning > ?both seem equal, not sure what trauma's "cause severe wound" does SS force > intent > rage RC war song > impulse > surge GR fortify > readiness > reflex FR double attack > double strike > vampire KS berserk > burst > sway RE backlash > anti magic > riposte BV reach > shock > commotion AG elite > tutor > leadership is the vampire and trauma life leeching effect calculated after the inital dmg from the CA or calculated with it? not sure about RO. my main ones that I am focused on using are the ones I listed. RC and KS I plan on using in combo especially when something needs to be cut down fast. wanted to focus mods on cranking out maximum ammont of DPS. nothing to fear if its already dead does my mod choices look solid or am I missing something?

using FR with dual wield is what drew me into using SW in the first place and would be the bread and butter of my attacks. what you said about CD having a set regen time bonus is true. sacred wiki lists it as having a -10% regen and increases to -20% at level 75 mastery. what appealed to me about CD was the dmg bonus it gave to CA but looking closer at the numbers it seems that the gains are not as good as I originally thought. I see your point with investing in astral lore. if I want to be a summoner I should go the whole 9 yards which I probably will when I play thru the shadow campaign think I will keep both DW and MC focuses while dumping AL focus all together. then forget CD and instead, as u suggested, pick up riding. I had not considered mounts till you mentioned it... infact I am not sure where to even get them yet. yet again in place of riding I might take speed lore (thinking about my Diablo2 frenzy barb running at mach 3 ), or combat reflexes. hrm... each has benefits I would want :S any final suggestions for a 10th skill?

a penny saved is a penny earned. I very much appreciate your 2 cents Knuckles perhaps this revision to my skill choices (no order) death warrior focus - >75 pt min tactics lore - 200 pts dual wield - 200 pts astral lord lore - 9pts (gain 3 mod pts for NA) combat discipline - >75 pts concentration - >75 pts armor lore - 131 pts constitution - 75 pts toughness - 82 pts malevolent champion - undecided since the only CA in malevolent champion I wanted to focus on was frenzied rampage, perhaps not as many points but instead dump more into concentration and combat discipline to off set regen time. then again not sure about leveling of combat arts. I know that increasing the level gives negative returns (ie the increase in regen). would this mean it would be preferable to keep CA level that are used frequently at low level if not just level 1 to have the skill and rely more on damage from weapons? knowing about the CA level penalty I was content to increase it with natural character level progression or is this something that will haunt me later?

Just picked up Sacred 2 for the 360 and I am loving the game. I was working on a dual wield build that would utilize Nether Allegiance the break down of skills in no particular order, was this (excuse me for not using abbreviations, not familiar with them yet) : sword weapons - 1pt (unlock weapon bonuses) tactics lore - 200 pts dual wield - 200 pts astral lord lore - 9pts (gain 3 mod pts for NA) combat discipline - 75 pts concentration - 75 pts armor lore - 131 pts constitution - 75 pts toughness - 82 pts undecided skill (perhaps combat reflex, speed lore, death warrior focus, pacifism) combat arts would be : demonic blow, scything sweep, rousing command - frenzied rampage, killing spree, reflective emanation - nether allegiance this was my first build in the game which I tried to model after my dual wielding barbarian from Diablo2. Also coming from a D&D background putting 1 point into sword weapons to gain weapon bonuses wasnt a bad idea. however I have been reading thru various guides and some said that at higher levels I would need to have sword mastery to gain weapon bonuses associated with this skill. others have made builds that only have 1 point and make no mention of losing bonuses. having sword weapon bonus is nice but only until a certain level seems to be more of a waste. I consider that while its only 1 point, it still takes up a skill slot that could have been for something more useful when thinking about end game. can any of the seasoned players clarify? Can I also get some suggestions on how high I should level my CA and best mods for them to consider?