Dryad - much better than I thought !

[cider_steve 26]

Hi There.

I've never got on with ranged toons, so I originally dismissed this class.

On my return to this game (now on PS3) I thought I would give her a quick half an hour, then move on.

Almost from the start, I just fell in love with this class !

I really love the blowpipe and the fact that you can take mobs down before they can even get to you !

I was going to give each class a short burst before choosing a couple to spend some time on, but have become addicted to the dryad.

Here's what I have done thus far..............but please don't think of this as any kind of guide !!! I am the world's worst ranged builder and wanted to share to see if anyone was interested in giving me a bit of feedback.................like "yo, Steve, you suck dude" lol !

Ok :-

I have reached lvl25 in silver & I'm trying to do as many quests as possible rather than just lvling quickly. I want to get as much from the game as I can.

I have been raising my attributes of stamina and dexterity, as these seem to be most benificial to my build.

The skills I have taken so far are :- capricious hunter focus, enhanced perception, ranged weapons, tactics lore, bargaining, concentration, and combat discipline.

I have 10 points in sinister predator and ancient bark for my buffs.

I have only taken ravaged impact and darting assault as ca's so far, but am thinking about maybe taking tangled vine and goldenglade touch as I progress. They are around 9 or 10. Don't want to slow them down too much.

I am exlusively using a plowpipe atm. They have amazing speed, so I'm going for that over the bows higher damage.

I'm hoping that between bargaining and enhanced perception that I can bag some really nice items as I advance.

I hope that you won't spot to many flaws, but I would really appreciate any advice or even critics. I have played around 19 hours, but would be happy to restart if some-one were to find this build to be really bad.

Cheers,

Steve.

[gogoblender 3,068]

I love her!!

lol, I remember being so frustrated with so many of the toons when I first started playing. And even the Dryad was so strange...but the moment I had that pipe in me hands, the gods smiled.

Have you added some leech to it yet? The effect is what I adored most, plus the roaring sound it would make. Really miss that first time experience, but so glad you're getting to enjoy it now!

 

gogo

[wolfie2kX 528]

I'll have to go along with Gogo... The Dryad is just a huge pile of AWESOMNESS in a fairly well shaped female form. The blowpipe is just incredible for taking down enemies with Darting Assault and Ravaged Impact.

 

Speaking of Darting Assault... You did realize that in the opening sequence - the Dryad is demonstrating DA when she's taking the three skeletons down - just before the lich blasts them with the ice beam.

 

I'm also going to go with Gogo - Add some Life Leech. On the PC, you can see those lovely lines of life force flowing to you - not sure if that's the case with consoles... Either way - with the Dryad it's easy - the Cabalistic Voodoo branch of the Dryad's tree all have Life Leech featured as a secondary effect. So if you socket CV runes into her armor, you get the double bonus of having the combat art AND +x LL. The bottom line - the faster you can take the baddies down, the longer your character survives. Sacred 101.

 

I'll go Gogo one better - socket some RpH rings/ammys as well. That should allow you to eat a few extra runes and not get nerfed with the regen.

 

Goldenglade Touch is a good one to have as well for when you go up against ranged fighters... I like having the Malicious Totem as well - as a backup in case I get into a situation that needs it.

 

You might also want to look at using Moribund Animus as a buff at some points. You will have an extra hand as far as fighting goes, plus you get the bonus of getting shrunken heads from your enemies - especially if you use either (or both) Black Curse and Viperish Disease. (This is btw, the way, the ONLY time you'll ever see me advocating giving someone VD... ) Correctly modded, you increase your chances of getting a new shrunken head.

 

My only beef with what you've got - Combat Discipline... I wouldn't have taken that. Thinking Spell Resistance would be a better fit.

[Aegis 256]

On console, spell resistance isn't useless, but is not a necessary skill to use as nothing in the game does enough damage for your toon to feel anything unlike in ice and blood. A different defensive skill would be better. Goldenglade Touch even unmodded is a thing of beauty, so yes, I would use that CA extensively while fighting tougher enemies, just in case.

 

Also, maybe it's just me, but there was one enemy I encountered where the blowpipe was useless. One of those stationary machines that shoot lightning. Bow kills them fine in comparison.

[wolfie2kX 528]

Hmm.. I came across at least one of those lightning towers so far - in the cave under the telescope. And I was able to blow it apart with my blowpipe.. But then again, I'm on the PC and it might be different from what you see on Consoles.

[Dragon Brother 619]

Dryad sure was fun I'll second what aegis said, no need for spell resistance on console so combat discipline is fine, sometimes blowpipes could miss those little blue balls that shot lightning, but I think moving seemed to fix that. And def lifeleech, with bargaining you'll be able to buy rings with it present that are probably more useful than runes though.

Perhaps have look at dustdevil for bosses if you think they're hitting you to often and too hard, it has some pretty nifty mod choices!

[Aegis 256]

Hmm.. I came across at least one of those lightning towers so far - in the cave under the telescope. And I was able to blow it apart with my blowpipe.. But then again, I'm on the PC and it might be different from what you see on Consoles.

There's a couple more of those you encounter in a cave whiile doing the quest with the mind controlled women. And I'm not surprised that there would be differences between PC and the PS3 in that regard. I also wonder if bats are as irritating to kill in the swamps with ranged in general, and not just with the BFG. Bats don't do jack, but they are irritating.

[wolfie2kX 528]

Most bats I've come across in the game do +LL damage to you... They are, after all, vampires... On the PC, they're not so bad to deal with just line up the mouse so they're targeted (they have the circle under them) and fire away.. The only tricky part is finding where that spot is... And this sort of situation is a good use for one of those totems.. Let the game figure out where to target on it's own..

 

The lightning tower things are all over the place. They're in quite a few caves IIRC - including the great machine complex.. They're best to be taken out of service by ranged or Area of Effect attacks...

[cider_steve 26]

Wow, some great feedback there guys. Many thanks for all your words of wisdom.

LL does have a visual effect on the PS3, which is a nice touch. You see a gold coloured line of death leading to your rapidly dying enemy.

Lightning towers, yep, can't touch them on PS3 with blowpipe, but I have managed to get by with just ignoring them so far.

Playing this game on the PS3 is a lot of fun, but in truth, there is no match to the pc. This game on the pc is 10 out of 10 IMHO.

I have just upgraded my blowpipe, and the new one doesn't have LL, so I miss that, but I'll keep an eye out for things to socket or rings.

IIRC, it isn't a good idea to go down all 3 lines of CA ? There are some nice things in Voodoo, but I was thinking of sticking to Hunter & Weaver aspects. I'm just hoping this is correct ?

Dust Devil, hmmm, maybe I should have another look at that. Especially if it helps on bosses.

On the PS3 you have to switch between 2 lots of action slots. Maybe I should think about a bow for slot 2 ? Hmmm, tough choice. Higher damage or higher speed.................

One thing I had forgotten was how much time you agonise over item choices !? Whenever I come to upgrade my items, I fret over whether I can live without xyz so that I can have a higher abc, if you know what I mean ? I sometimes take ages at the merchant, because I can't decide between, say, 2 helmets !

Thanks again for all you have posted. What a fantastic community we have here.

All the best,

Steve.

Edited July 15, 2013 by cider_steve

[wolfie2kX 528]

Yeh.. I know what you mean... I had a yellow labeled helmet I fretted over swapping out. I had it since level 1. I finally decided to ditch it at like level 30. I had a VD rune socketed in there for +4 LL.. Took me until level 30 to get a set item helm to drop - which I'm now wearing - and the only reason it won out finally was it had TWO sockets - one for a LL rune and 1 for an RpH ring..

 

FWIW, I primarily use only the Hunter aspect. I only use the totem from the Voodoo lounge and I use GGT from the Weaver aspect. I tried most of the others - but they as yet, haven't really done much to take the baddies down. I only really use GGT when I've had my backside singed in a fight.

 

Since blowguns don't seem to damage the towers - yeah... might as well grab a half way decent bow and use it when you come across one. They do sometimes have nice drops (on the PC, mind you, NO clue what they do on consoles)... I have like 4 blowguns lined up - each with different attributes. One has a chance to banish undead - which is coming into play now that I'm in a part of Ancaria where the skellies run free. I also have one that has poison damage, one magic damage, and the last has physical damage - but has a +x% run speed mod - which is good when I need to move quickly. My 5th slot has a bow - just in case I can't hit whatever with the blowgun or need that extra little kick.

 

Sometimes, in spite of inherent coolness, you need power to take something down. That's why it's good to have a bow handy.

 

I don't take too much time at merchants... I look at the price of the item, I check to make sure I can use it immediately or if the item is above my level and if I have to wait. I check to see what it does and compare it to what I've got. More often than not, I find I can do without the item and move on. Tho sometimes I do find something seriously better than what I've got currently. I rarely ever come into a situation where there's more than one item of any type (helmets, for instance) that even remotely whet my whistle...

 

And yeah... Darkmatters rulez...

[essjayehm 58]

Heya, Steve... glad you're having fun with the Dryad!

 

Triple-aspect toons are easier on Console, but usually entails having to skip on the General skills (ie no Bargaining). Since you're already there, I would say stick to the 2 aspects... especially since Weaver Lore does very powerful things for the CA's you don't want to skip out on it to get some Voodoo goodies.

 

The blowpipe is nutty DPS, and using the bow messes up RpH timing, so IMO stay with the pipe. You do have to get lucky in the latter difficulties keeping finding the uber-pipes but bargaining on the Console is pretty powerful (thanks to un-nerfed +allskills).

 

Dust Devil I never used. Ancient Bark is the stone nuts, when modded correctly.

 

As a final note... as a console-first Sacred 2 lover, I definitely prefer it on them to PC... the mouse/keyboard is clunky compared to the controller (proly from being a 'consoler'), and the difference in the graphics levels don't really appear too large. I have noted the terrain is a lot more 'pronounced' in the PC version, but otherwise the trees and grasses, buildings and roadways all generally seem the same. I do notice differences in monsters (esp. finer details) but all in all if you could patch up the console version (and possibly have the CM-addon as well) I would pick the console 100% of the time.

 

Happy Hunting!

[gogoblender 3,068]

Dust Devil I never used. Ancient Bark is the stone nuts, when modded correctly.

 

 

 

Tried DustDevi sometimes, but I got a better "yield" from making her damage go up more with leech coming off weapons.

And...what's the best mod yer saying for bark... I remember using the resistance increase...that the one you used too?

 

DB, how did you mod your dust devil?

 

With the game so in our pockets, I kinda get an urge to try out wacky/theme based builds.... kill speed is kind of old now, but funness can be everything!

 

 

gogo

[CoolColJ 87]

She has the " dat ass" nuff said

[essjayehm 58]

And...what's the best mod yer saying for bark... I remember using the resistance increase...that the one you used too?

DB, how did you mod your dust devil?

 

With the game so in our pockets, I kinda get an urge to try out wacky/theme based builds.... kill speed is kind of old now, but funness can be everything!

 

 

gogo

Yeah... forget exacly which ones... but the +resists and +HP regen are stoopidgood with buffsuits Used to love melee dryads, personally.