Dragon Mage, hardcore, no shopping, just normal smith

[chattius 2,522]

I finally bought a new computer and installed Sacred2 and CM-patch. With an empty chest I decided to do an ultraman character:

Hardcore

Never visit a shop

Just normal smith

 

I tried to follow Aristoteles -The whole is more than the sum of its parts. So I tried a very synergetic beginning, sacrifying some damage to protection.

Its like using maelstrom from mentalism tree to boost the damage of the elemental tree with its mainly physical attacks. Also Maelstrom reduces stats. So enemies have less hitpoints (good for offense) and weaker stats (good for defense, they hit less). Since Maelstrom is used in an attack combination there is no need to modify runes of protection for ranged protection, ...

Mindstrike is used for boss fights, but since mentalism lore is not taken, it is used to longer the regeneration times of boss Combat Arts. It does still some damage, because bosses normally have high physical resistances.

The companion gives intelligence to boost the damage of all 3 trees.

 

Expert touch is not taken. So all 3 trees regenerate on their own. Useful in the beginning:

2s for a maelstron, energy blaze, mind strike

8s for a destroyer, gush of wind

12s for a dragonstrike

Using a combination whenever it is recharged.

 

All stats stamina

Skills at 29:

 

armour lore 29

concentration 5

dragon magic focus 9 (companion for burning, fire mitigation, 20% reg time)

Mentalism focus 29 (maelstrom (reduce armour, duration, reduce stats) and runes of protection (stun, physical armour))

combat discipline 1

elemental focus 9 (destroyers for more damage, more destroyers, more destroyers)

elemental lore 1

 

Till level 29: I found only 4 (four!!) rings and amulets which were useful.

4 set items found: Mavv head and gloves and stupidly Pyx head and gloves

Uniques: a hammer with half regeneration time and casting speed

 

Sockets are filled half with regeneration time and half with damage from smith, no jewelry because I found none.

 

I really start to consider to take enhanced perception instead of constitution, just- if it wouldn't be a hardcore character.

 

Till now: a lot of fun and something totally different to the max CA range characters I tried lately and needed a lot of carefully chosen equipment.

[siddham 19]

I hope you will continue to post reports about this character.

I am considering a dragon mage hardcore for a playthrough. I have a couple at level 10.

I like the notion of playing only with what is won from the world - not shopping etc.

Not sure if enhanced perception is worth it...

I get quite good drops without it.

Other more experienced players may have some advice:)

 

PS...didnt realise I was replying to an experienced player

Edited November 14, 2013 by siddham

[chattius 2,522]

Well, to be honest:

The Addon with the dragon mage came when I had already a smith character and a bargaining chain. So I never really started the DM from nothing. So this a a new experience for me. Also the last years I was more trying what is possible with carefully chosen equipment. So I thought writing a sort of diary about this character may help new players who want to start with a dragon mage best.

 

Talking about synergies:

Destroyers and companion

Destroyers list 259 damage. With the companion buff (80% reg time malus) it are 414 damage. Some quick calculations in linear progression showed that I could reach equivalent damage without the buff by reading more destroyer runes. But the buff adds intelligence to all 3 trees. Also it adds a nice willpower to help in spell protection. So I think my high comopanion ca-levels are no mistake.

Desytroyers and maelstrom

Fighting a level 36 wolf in silver with destroyers:

414 damage listed in tooltipp: average damage actually done 373

One maelstrom (with minus physical resistance modded) first: average 386

Three maelstrom first: average at 401

 

So for a gush of wind attack in the hopefully later life of the character: maelstrom to reduce physical resist and move speed of a distance target and send a bundled gush of wind towards it.

 

Character advance

Character is at level 33 and the last 4 levels were just boss runs. Mainly because I had just 5 minutes intervals to play while making quinces jam and quinces bread.

I found rings with hit chance, weapons with x% life leech, ... but nothing for a caster DM. The only items I actually use from the boss runs: set arms from Pyx (because of the sockets) and a 2 socket blue shield. I am more and more the opinion to choose enhanced perception but I will delay the decision till the final skill.

[chattius 2,522]

Character is at level 40:

Equipment:

Tinwara staff, blue shield with 2 sockets

Pyx: arms

Torik: shoulder, torso, boots = +3 all Skill

Mavv: head and hands = +2 all Skill

 

Never found a set for girdle and legs. Only Jewelry socketed is an amulet with -9% damage over time for all times. I would socket more if I could only find them. So all other sockets are smith art regeneration time. 90% buff malus from companion and 30% from runes of protection.

 

Still 3 combinations.

A dragon magic one with just dragon strike at 15s.

An elementalist one: with destroyers at 6s and gush of wind at 5s.

A mentalist one with maelstrom at 2s, energy blaze at 1.3s and mindtsrike at 0.7s.

 

Destroyer damage is at 768.

 

 

Just finished the mist and now hunting in the desert. Took toughness at level 35.

 

armour lore: 40/47

concentration: 5/10

dragon magic focus: 9/16

mentalism focus: 31/38

combat discipline: 32/37

elemental focus: 9/16

elemental lore: 1/8

toughness: 1/8

[chattius 2,522]

Update of the character at level 50:
Finished silver at level 46. Took alchemy at 50 to avoid the most often reason for a death: reaching gold and the small heal potions only heal 40% at the new difficulty. With one point in alchemy I have 10 total points and 48.3% heal with a potion. Mentors last longer, as do concentration potions at boss fights.

armour lore: 40/47---50/61
dragon magic focus: 9/16---26/37
concentration: 1/6---1/10
mentalism focus: 31/38---31/42
combat discipline: 36/41---50/59
elemental focus: 9/16---9/20
elemental lore: 1/8---1/12
toughness: 1/8---1/12
alchemy: 0/0---1/10

Destroyers are now at 1282 damage, keeping the reg time at 6s. Boosting dragon magic focus at bit: more intelligence= damage from better intelligence from companion. Modifying dragon strike for a defensive use at this hardcore character.

A bit strange that this character will be an elementalist and I put only 10 points into the elementist tree so far.


The character is named: Tenthird 'Sixpack' Greifenfreund out of obvious reasons.

[chattius 2,522]

Don't know what happened:

The character is a single player character to play the character quest of the DM which I never did before. However I played some multiplayer at gold first and now the character is at main land with the main quest marker still at the start place. Is there any way to get back to the start place of the dragon mage. Or do I really have to play the character all the way with leveling to platin because there is no way to play the main quest?

Is it a known bug?

[tom.morrow 89]

.

 

Try starting SP on gold with him, where does he start?

 

 

Positioning GPS satellites... please stand by...

[chattius 2,522]

When I try to start single player gold again:

 

Main land...

And the marker at the start place in the very southwest

[tom.morrow 89]

.

 

wait, you finished silver in SP, right?

and then you went SP gold but did not start/finish the start area quest?

Then you loaded MP free?

And since then SP gold has relocated your toon on the main land?

If that's the case then thats probably a game-bug for the DM

If those start area quests are *not* part of the main-quest line,

you could fast play through SP gold (level him as far as he needs to enter platinum)

and start over in SP platinum

But if thats the main-quest line then you need to find a way

to send your toon back to the Dragon lands

Hmm... maybe an ex beta tester could post the console commands for teleporting?

I know they used them to test things in the beta

I hope you get a solution to that.

 

There is another thought tho:

If none can help you relocate, just make another toon

use the chest to transfer all items

and use the save-game editor to bring the new toon up to level

and skill as the old one was, should go pretty fast

 

Then breeze through SP silver and ... TADA !.!.! your there

 

I hope this helps a bit

 

 

cheers

 

 

The game will start when it is ready and not before!

[chattius 2,522]

I would rather edit balance.txt and turn needed level for plat to 80. And on the way to 80 I could kill all main quest beasts in multiplayer. But it seems like a bug that there is no teleporter back to DM start place.

[tom.morrow 89]

.

 

uhm... AFAIK this is by design that there's no way back to dragon lands,

the bug is that it doesnt start you back where you actually belong

I may be wrong, but to enter plat SP you also need to have beaten gold SP,

and that's the problem with your toon: you can't start gold SP campaign.

try the new toon + chest swap + save game edit,

you will be back to level in less than 5 minutes

and then an hour to beat silver SP maybe

 

cheers

 

 

I don't have time to bleed.!

[chattius 2,522]

Killed all main quest monsters in multiplayer. Doing the guardians with my nearly non existing equipmen took 10 minutes and 83 healing potions

With this done I used an editor (I hate to be forced to do this) and set gold difficulty finished flag as done.

 

So I am now in single player platinum

 

The problem is that I am level 56 and the equipment I find is level 75.

[tom.morrow 89]

.

 

before starting plat SP go on a Gold MP - XP farming kill streak

 

You need about 10-15 levels to wear the plat gear ( high armor lore ? )

 

Good to hear you fixed it

 

 

cheers

 

 

Unloading silly messages, not silly enough! Loading silly messages...

[chattius 2,522]

With a hardcore character and no shopping I keep armour lore at level. I tryto avoid peek damages because of too low armour. Sadly I didn't find an artamark star amulet yet , nor more than 3 armour piec es of any set. Even thr all armour type unique shield hasn't popped up yet.

[tom.morrow 89]

.

 

 

 

Uhm... could you point me ( or post a link ) to that s.g. editor

that has the option to enable / disable a started / finished difficulty level please?

 

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Emergency exits are here, here, and here... hey, look here!

[chattius 2,522]

Played the character in gold till 65 and now I hunt around farview in platin.

 

There was a thread about a sacred2 editor. It included the source code so I just did a small script which set the flag. I hate full editors but they are useful if someone failed totally and wants to reskill but lacks time for a restart. Better use an editor than give up the game. I hope this is the discussion thread, it has some links for compiled versions but I can't guarantee that they are free of virusses or will rob you all the fun of the game.

 

Here should be a link to the sourcecode and a compiled version, try to edit as few as possible. In case of the DM singleplayer island it is an bug which forced me.

http://www.cheathappens.com/show_board2.asp?headID=79184&titleID=14440&onPage=31

[chattius 2,522]

Level 75 and the single player campaign is at platin and the octopus.

Mastered: armour lore, combat discipline and mentalism focus. The strange part is, this character is an elementalist

 

Some things which are useful to know if you have alchemy:

If you reach platinum with a too low level the little healing potions heal just a third of your hitpoints. The trophy heals better in this phase of the game.

Not having a bargain chain or a smith character for this one: There are a lot of rings and armours with an amount of x to base attack and defense value. The base defense value is boosted by runes of protection and the base attack value by a troolteeth trophy. Take a weapon with x% life leech and use the trophies for x% attack value and x% attack speed. It helps fighting bosses like the poison lord who isn't impressed much by the physical attacks of the elementalist tree.