Platinum Dragon Mage Octogolamus Help

[belgarathmth 21]

Hi, I'm playing a level 86 dragon mage on platinum level, and he seems to have hit a wall that I can't see a way around with the Octogolamus. The only kinds of damage he can do barely scratch it, and it regenerates faster than he can do anything to it.

 

His build is mastered Ancient Magic, mastered Elemental Lore, mastered Dragon Magic, with high ranks in Mentalism Lore, Staff Lore, Concentration, Combat Discipline, Enhanced Perception, Toughness, and Armor Lore.

 

With the Combat Discipline, he is using three spells from every aspect on a rotating timer, over and over, with basically no pauses thanks to yellow potions, and all the combat arts are in the twenties for levels - and all of that spell power combined does effectively no damage.

 

He is wearing combination pieces of Mavv's, Torik's, and Pyx's, to get about +21 to all skills.

 

I am playing on CP version 1.40.

 

I have a lot of regeneration per hit items equipped, as well as spell intensity, attack and defense.

 

His survival bonus has enemies at 14 levels above his own, so he is trying to damage a level 100 Octogolamus.

 

It looks like to me that the thing's magic resistance is so high, my entire investment in magical damage has been wasted at this level of bosses.

 

Even with Staff Lore at about 50, he can't hit it with his staff.

 

Would it have helped if I had taken some Focus skills? Actually, I can't see where firing my spells faster would help. A hundred times zero damage is still zero damage.

 

Is there any hope for this toon? I think this experience may put me off playing dragon mages in the future if I can't find a solution here. By contrast, my shadow warrior toons can destroy the Octogolamas in about ten hits with a percent life leeched weapon, or can gradually wear it down even with inferior weapons.

 

I think the problem for the caster vs. Octogolamus is the inability to do good physical damage. Has anyone else ever hit this wall?

 

Advice, solutions?

Edited February 28, 2014 by belgarathmth

[mibbs 29]

A specialist always wins.

You should specialize in one thing and improve it!

Gust of wind with stun-squall-impact modifications can inflict great damage when focused (just aim at the edge of the screen).

When GOW focused, base damage increases by 2.2 times and number of squalls increases from 7 to 11.

Increased base damage help to ignore enemy's armor value (due to higher base damage reduces the effectiveness of armor, follow http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Damage_Mechanics_for_Spell_Damage_Based_Combat_Arts">http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Damage_Mechanics_for_Spell_Damage_Based_Combat_Arts page on SacredWiki for further explanation)

As for me, it is the best boss-killer CA in game (of cause in invisibility High elf with her ice shards is the best)

Octogolamus likes to hit summons, you can use "protector" buff to distract him

Edited February 28, 2014 by mibbs

[belgarathmth 21]

Thanks, @Mibbs, but it's too late for this toon to change his build.

 

I just checked the damage types of my CA's, and it's overwhelmingly physical damage, so that's not the problem. I always think the elementals are doing fire damage because of the fiery explosion animations, but they're pure physical damage.

 

My dragon strike ought to be doing good fire damage, though, and that's supposed to be Octo's weakness. I've read in some posts that Octo may have a super-healing mechanism based on character level, so leveling some more may help. But I hate to invest the time in that if it will be time wasted.

 

My staff is the Staff of Ignis, socketed with fire, so that should hurt Octo pretty well if I could hit him with it. Perhaps I should try to socket some more attack bonus? I need defense usually, but Octo can't hurt me any worse than I can hurt him, so it's kind of a stalemate at the moment.

 

Also, I know that the CP increases boss regeneration, so I don't yet how much the CP may be contributing to my problem.

[mibbs 29]

hmm...it's never to laaaate

 

CP increases boss regeneration

 

Yes, it increases...by 1,0000001 times. Their CA always use cooldawn with minimal CA regen time, CP doesnt help because it not affects cooldawn.

Edited February 28, 2014 by mibbs

[Dragon Brother 619]

You could always try buy a shuriken with %LL, equip a decent shield and go whack him with that? That would make things quite a bit easier.

[Flix 5,116]

Destroyers should have fire damage in addition to physical damage with CM Patch.

 

Mind Strike is a good attack against physically resistant enemies. If I understand its mechanics correctly, the higher the physical armor of the opponent, the more damage it causes.

 

Try the Berserk form. He chews through bosses if he's properly leveled, and he can use alchemy trophies with the CM Patch.

 

Maelstrom is a good opener because of its weakening effect. I think it stacks so you can keep casting a new one on top of the previous ones.

[claudius 104]

just a tidbit.. I tested spell intensity and I couldn't see any effect.

 

My test was an ice elf which was modded to have the spell intensity mod of ice skin. She had gear with niob ice skin runes. So she could by taking off and on equipment make values of ice skin: 1, 7, 13, 19 etc (iirc and I probably don't recall)

 

Then she had a shadow warrior buddy with Grim Resilience giving various values of spell resistance. I tested each match up. I think I used 3 or 5 tests trials at each combination.

 

What I found was that various spell intensities don't affect damage. Whereas various willpowers (spell resistance) did affect the damage. It could just be a bug in the display, but I think spell intensity does not work and I never use it.

-----------------------

Another matter: how much damage is the Octaglamus doing to you? Is he dangerous? If he is easy to tank you could switch from defensive gear to offensive. Whets are good for % damage increase. +skills is good.

Edited February 28, 2014 by claudius

[belgarathmth 21]

Octo can't hurt my dragon mage any more than my dragon mage can hurt him. It's a total stalemate. It's like we'd be standing there whaling on each other forever, if I let it go on.

 

The best idea I've seen yet is to take one of my %life leech shurikens and try that - although, my dragon mage's attack value is so low, I'm not sure if he could hit with it. I guess I could give up a lot of the defense I have socketed and try to get my attack value up, but, the whole idea of using a shuriken when the toon is supposed to be a caster feels like a cheat or an exploit to me. He should be damaging with his spells - which are now useless against Octo.

 

I guess I'll go back to playing my shadow warrior toons for now, who don't have issues like this at any point in the game.

[mibbs 29]

Destroyers should have fire damage in addition to physical damage with CM Patch.

I have CM 140 and Destroers dont have any fire damage, may be in 140 hf it was included?

As I know, adding to them some fire damage greatly reduces theese final damage, because enemy's armor will absorb it more (a character needs a large alpha-strike to descrease armor effectiveness, great phisical damage is better than some phisical+some fire damage)

Edited March 1, 2014 by mibbs

[chattius 2,522]

Which combat arts do you have modified? Maelstrom? It should reduce stats of the enemy, reduce physical armour, ... Normally a combination of maelstrom and gust of wind is enough for bosses. The maelstrom effects stack, so the enemy has less and less max hitpoints, less physical armour... So the physical attack should take advantage of this.

 

Use a two or three socket shield and a three socket sword, fill all six sockets with sure hit, reducing enemy chance to evade and reg per hit...

 

Should be possible to kill all bosses without x% life leech.

[belgarathmth 21]

@Chattius, Maelstrom is fully modded with debuffs. I have a combo with Maelstrom and the other two attack spells from Mentalism. The Mental Strike has two mods, including a debuff, and the electric damage one has only one mod. I have a second combo with fully modded Tornado, Destroyers, and Gust of Wind (all modded for maximum damage increase.) Then, I have a fully modded Dragon Strike, with maximum damage increase, and another debuff.

 

Ancient Magic is also mastered in addition to Elemental Lore Mastery and Dragon Lore Mastery. The game is set for separate aspect timers. I am playing on PC, and I'm using Community Patch 1.40. I think the CP is part of my problem, meaning I could uninstall CP as a last resort, but I don't really want to do that if I can find another way.

 

I fire the Mentalism combo first for the debuffs. Then the elemental damage combo. Finally, the Dragon Strike, after which the first Mentalism combo is ready to fire again.

 

I can rotate through these indefinitely for, say, several minutes. It barely scratches Octo, and what little damage it does do, he regenerates every time I start the rotation. Meanwhile, he can't damage me either. It's an eternal stalemate.

 

The only thing I can think of to try is gain a couple of levels, resocket for higher attack bonus, and try to hit him with my staff (or, I could try that life leech shuriken, without being proficient with it.) My spells can't hurt him. At least, since he's spawned already at level 100, I don't think he'll go any higher if I grind my toon up closer to his level. I've read but not had confirmed that his number of levels higher than you multiplies his healing ability, meaning that if I go up some levels, it might reduce his healing rate.

 

I appreciate all the answers and help here. I think I'm going to take a break from this toon for a bit, though, and maybe come back later and see if I can solve the impass. I'm still interested in any ideas anybody might come up with in the meantime.

[belgarathmth 21]

Okay, I just did this same battle on platinum level with a level 79 shadow warrior against a level 91 Octogolamus. Octo went down effortlessly, as one of the weakest bosses in the game should.

 

This isn't even an optimized shadow warrior. He has mastered *Enhanced Perception*, of all things, with mastered *Speed Lore* and *Tactics Lore*. He has only about 20 ranks in Sword Lore, with only 5 hard points spent. His only defensive skills are Armor Lore and Toughness, both *far* below mastery level.

 

He fights with a level 82 Power of Nim light saber, and a level 70 Shield of Mirrors (with no Shield Lore skill).

 

I think there is something wrong with the balance of the dragon mage class, when a sub-optimized example of a different class can do so much better at roughly the same level, so effortlessly.

 

Admittedly, my poor, failed dragon mage was very badly built, in hindsight. He tried to develop all three aspects, at the expense of specialization. He took "Lore" in the three aspects, with no "Focuses". His triple aspect build worked very well through gold level, and he only hit his pre-ordained wall at platinum level Octogolamus. Ironically, I think he could have done the rest of platinum level just fine, although he would have been a red potion junkie. But, platinum level Octo is a wall that he cannot pass - thus, he is a truly *failed* build.

 

He's probably got *some* way to get past, if I cared to bang my head against the wall for long enough, trying different things, but, why should I do that, when I have several shadow warrior toons who can glide through all levels of the game, even with sub-optimal builds?

 

Anyhoo, my continued thanks to everyone who responded to my thread, and who tried to help.

[Flix 5,116]

A triple aspect DM is not a bad idea, but when ALSO taking Staff Lore and using modifiers to help weapon-based combat, you're basically making a quadruple aspect Dragon Mage, which is way too unfocused. To make weapons worthwhile with the DM you have to put everything towards that goal. A triple aspect DM as described in other posts (With all 3 Focuses and Lores, Armor Lore, Combat Discipline, Concentration, and Ancient Magic) will do fairly well. The only trouble I had with such a build was at lower levels, when Dragon Berserk was a much safer and more devastating way to fight.

[belgarathmth 21]

@Flix, I really don't see what could have made a difference, when throwing maxed out spells from everything the dragon mage has cannot do any damage.

 

I was casting Maelstrom, Mental Strike, Energy Blaze, Tornado, Destroyers, Gust of Wind, and Dragon Strike, almost all maximally modded, and doing no damage. That was *with* Ancient Magic Mastery, as well as Elemental Lore Mastery and Dragon Lore Mastery.

 

My weakest aspect was Mentalism, but I had all the debuff mods available from there. Also, my experience was that Mentalism does very underwhelming damage through all levels of the game, anyway. And, I did have more than 50 soft points in Mentalism Lore.

 

What was I supposed to put in that Staff Lore slot that would have helped turn the tide? One of the Focuses?

 

I dunno, it still seems to me to be a class failure when you can have so many of its powers maxed and still do no damage against platinum Octo. It could also be a CP issue, since the unmodded game would not have so much boss health regeneration. But, again, other classes have no problem here, even when not optimized.

[Flix 5,116]

With Focus skills you have higher CA levels. Also the Regen per Hit/Attack-Defense/Spell Intensity gear could be swapped for damage gear. I dunno how much of a difference it would make but as long as you're dedicated to spell damage and spell damage only, a triple aspect DM is not unfocused. Less powerful than a High Elf and most other dedicated spell casters for sure though. Most other characters, seem like gods to me, with decent gear and proper leveling. One or two seconds of repeated castings of Incendiary Shower, Nameless Guardian dies. Cast Tangled Vine, just run to the corner while it kills Khral. DM on the other hand always seemed at best evenly matched against bosses to me.

 

It's hard for me to gauge how powerful your DM should be since I don't take level 86 characters to Platinum. At that stage I'd be fighting the Octogolamus in Gold. What I remember is this: In Silver, using the Dragon Mage's combat arts against any boss was nigh impossible. They would just take no damage off. I always had to use the Berserk form. As I progressed into Gold (level 75) the Berserk slowly became less powerful and more prone to losing health, and the Combat Arts seemed to swell in power. By Platinum (level 115), the Berserk was almost to weak too use anywhere, while his Combat Arts could finish off any mob or boss easily. When starting Niobium (level 135), this seemed to be the status quo.

Edited March 2, 2014 by Flix

[belgarathmth 21]

@Flix, I think you probably hit the crux of it - he needs to be a higher level to take on Platinum bosses, especially with the mistakes in his build (e.g., no Focuses). If I get in the mood to play him again, he probably just needs to go grind some more levels.

[claudius 104]

Just an idea, but if you rebuild take alchemy and master it. The huge bonus to attack of troll teeth might make it easy to use a %life leach (LL) shuriken and in addition have mentor potions running the whole game.

For gust of wind are you aiming it manually so the spread of the cone is tight? You can do more damage to big targets like bosses. You can practice on bears. Personal message Chatiuss (spelling?) He is the one I know of who has made a lot of DM builds.

1 Ancient Magic

2 Elemental Lore

3 Dragon Magic lore

4 Mentalism Lore

5 Staff Lore

6 Concentration

7 Combat Discipline

8 Enhanced Perception,

9 Toughness

10 Armor Lore.

 

Those are all good picks aside for staff lore. I would take focus of Dragon Magic for the familiar buff. Also take focus of mentalism instead of lore since you are using debuffs rather than hard damage.

Or take Dragon focus instead of lore and alchemy instead of staffs. Have a slot with a % life leach shuriken. Sockets in the LL shuriken are bonuses. But get a 2 socket or mirror (3 socket) shield and slot %chance opponent cannot evade attacks.

[belgarathmth 21]

@Claudius, that's very insightful. If I really want to depend on shurikens against platinum and niobium bosses, shouldn't I try to get Ranged Weapons skill?

 

That just seems kind of counterintuitive to me that a toon who's supposed to be a spell caster can't rely on his spells. Also, it's really hard to get good equipment without at least one of either EP or Bargaining. I wonder if my failed dragon mage might have done much better by taking Bargaining and using shopped sets of gold outfits, rather than trying to use EP and use green sets. (I've never tried Alchemy for a green skill. The reagent drops seem to be few and far between unless you farm, but the increase of potion drops you suggest sounds interesting.)

 

I think it was a mistake for him to master Dragon Lore, since the only good he gets out of the mastery is for his Dragon Strike, which does very disappointing damage, and often misfires, especially in caves. Also, one of the supposed main attack spells of the aspect, Eternal Fire, does precisely nothing, as far as I can tell, even fully modded.

 

I thought that taking Dragon Lore Mastery would be good for his Familiar hitpoints and intelligence bonus (for more spell damage), but I kind of doubt now that whatever small hitpoints and intelligence bonus he's getting from that (wasted?) mastery could have been much better spent on Elemental Focus mastery. Actually, the *only* aspect that seems to me to do reliably consistent damage with reasonably short cooldowns (assuming extensive use of the x.x seconds to recharge per hit affix, which I use quite a bit), is Elemental Aspect. Mentalism and Dragon Magic both seem to do *very* disappointing damage.

 

All that said, he *did* dominate on silver and gold levels, with no problems whatsoever, at any time. He also did very well for himself on platinum level, up to Octo.

 

I've read from some internet research that Octo may be intended as a kind of "gatekeeper" boss, designed to keep you from progressing too soon through the game levels.

 

Especially if that theory that Octo has a healing regeneration multiplier based on the difference between your respective levels is true, I would guess that my "failed" dragon mage could probably get past him if he were to grind some more levels and come back.

 

But, I play to relax, and I'm enjoying a light saber shadow warrior who pwned platinum Octo while he was only level 77 to Octo's level 90. I already have played him today and gotten through Carnak, with no problems. He's now level 81, and still having no trouble with platinum level. Really, his only incentive not to just hurry straight on to niobium level is that the set armor drops are starting to be too far above his level for him to use, which is a bit frustrating. (Set items are now dropping at level 105, where his Armor Lore limits him to level 100.)

Edited March 2, 2014 by belgarathmth

[claudius 104]

Yeah dragon focus and not lore. the dragon strike misfiers as you say. %LL is just useful because there is so much advantage to % LL. I mean even if you hit only 1/2 times and you do 2% LL in platinum you still take the boss down in 20 hits or so... But really I am not too experienced in DM. I only made it to platinum farming of trash kobolds.

[belgarathmth 21]

Hmm, I haven't been to platinum Octgolamus yet with my new dragon mage build, but I just pwn'd it on gold, and I think I see several mistakes with this original build that I did.

 

One is that I had built my CA's by reading runes, and hoped to use +regen per hit to compensate it. That was a huge, huge mistake, arguably for every class, but *especially* for a caster.

 

Another is that physical damage is the supreme weakness of most bosses in the game. Every class should be trying to maximize physical damage output at all times and at almost all costs. One notable exception to this rule is The Ghost of Chistmas Future, against whom you must do fire damage or lose all hope.

 

For those few bosses in the game who make physical damage ineffective, it *really* helps to have a %life leech item of some kind in your quick slots, even if your toon has no proficiency with it. That particular affix is so witheringly effective against bosses, it doesn't really matter if your toon has a lousy hit rate with it. Among the shurikens, two-handed swords, fist weapons, and halberds that qualify for this boss-beating affix, I think all of the classes can use at least one of them. The only thing non-melee or non-qualifying-weapons builds might need to do is temporarily to equip or socket some +attack of some kind to increase their hit rate.

 

I'll probably keep playing my current less badly build dragon mage up to platinum level Octogolamus, and we'll see if I wind up coming back here to eat these words.

[belgarathmth 21]

Okay, so I just beat platinum Octogolamus as a level 69 dragon mage against its level 82. Yay, it was very satisfying! My current elementalist dragon mage build is doing quite well. Notice that at level 69, I don't even have any masteries yet.

 

One of the keys to defeating Octo with this build was to have a %life leech shuriken, combined with sockets filled with attack bonuses, critical hit bonuses, and attack speed bonuses. Although, Octo had some kind of slow enemies combat art, so the shuriken alone could not prevail against its insane CP health regeneration.

 

But, I had also built Elemental Lore, Elemental Focus, Concentration, and Ancient Magic, and had avoided reading runes except up to the point where I could cast my combo Destoyers and Gust of Wind as close as possible to the "sweet spot" of a spammable or near-spammable 2.5 seconds.

 

I also have a very strong Tornado, and a very strong Maelstrom and Mind Blast combo, but my attempts to keep both a Tornado active and to keep Octo debuffed with the Mentalism combo wound up getting in the way of spamming my Elemental combo, for a net loss of damage that had no hope of getting past Octo's CP health regeneration.

 

The key to my eventual victory was to cast my Elemental combo, then throw however many %life leech shurikens I could during the one second or so periodic cooldown.

 

Anything else I"ve ever tried against platinum Octo with a dragon mage has wound up being a stalemate. Btw, I had my defense so well-built that Octo couldn't scratch me. So, this wasn't win or lose, it was win or stalemate.

 

I've had so much success with my new dragon mage build, I am thinking of playing him until beating niobium, and then perhaps posting some kind of build guide, although not many people would ever see it, since most people have left Sacred 2 behind. (Not I, I'll likely still be playing a few times a year for life.)

 

Thank you if you've read this post.

Edited January 5, 2015 by belgarathmth

[DaveO 88]

The latest CP adds in the Dragon Mage armor that gives %LL bonus.

Now as far as Shadow Warriors having a much easier time, that's due to armor having higher resistance values than the equivalent DM armor at the same level.

You could always take a look at my DM "Magic Staff" build idea and see if you can come up with either better skill ideas(like taking out Spell Resistance) or a better focus.

[belgarathmth 21]

@DaveO, the original build was a failure. The one I just beat Octo with is new.

 

It is:

1) Bargaining

2) Mentalism Lore (for Runes of Protection and Maelstrom/Mind Blast debuffs)

4) Concentration

6) Elemental Lore

6) Constitution

7) Elemental Focus

8) Armor Lore

9) Combat Reflexes

10) Shield Lore

 

Masteries in progress are Constitution, Elemental Lore, and Concentration, others to be decided. I know the Concentration may be a sub-optimal choice, but I am wanting to try three buffs to see how it works out.

 

The bargaining has been really good for finding good jewelry at merchants. It's mostly got soft points in it from relics and +all skills bonuses, and I'm still finding a lot of good +all skills jewelry. I'd probably find even better if I can get around to investing more hard points in it, but it isn't a priority yet. The toon is mostly shopping for himself - he isn't intended to support any other toons.

 

So far on platinum level, this character is so well-defended that most enemies can barely scratch him, if they can touch him at all. Survival bonus has enemies spawning at about 15 levels over mine - I'm seeing a lot of reds and a few purples mixed in with some deep yellows and oranges.

 

He's having more of a challenge getting his damage up higher than with defense. I attribute the good defense to maxed out constitution and a good shield with 50% to block close combat, as well as 50% chance to evade from Combat Reflexes. The damage is getting better as I get Elemental Lore and Focus up enough to finally start reading a few runes. (Not too many, though!)

 

We'll see how he does in niobium level.

 

You said something about dragon mage armor with %life leech. That doesn't make any sense to me. How can you have that affix on an armor? Which armor did you mean specifically? I always thought that %life leech only appeared on shurikens, two-handed hammers, two-handed swords, and pole arms.

EDIT: I think I found what you meant. Were you referring to Flix's new dragon mage sets mod? There's a two piece jewelry set listed there that gives the %life leech affix as a bonus for wearing both of them. I'm not sure how he has that implemented - does it give the bonus to any equipped weapon? If so, that's an interesting novelty that would really help a dragon mage to have. I'll see if I can install the items mod. CM patch 1.5 won't install for me in its present state without my completely reinstalling my game, so I'm not willing to do that to get the items, but I may be able to install the Items Mod as a standalone.

 

EDIT #2: No luck. The Items Mod is now only available through CM patch 1.5. I don't want it bad enough to go through a complete reinstall of my game. Maybe they'll fix it later so it will install over 1.4hf. Right now, it just thinks it's already installed if you try to do that, and the only workaround I've seen suggested is a complete reinstall of the game.

Edited January 6, 2015 by belgarathmth

[Flix 5,116]

You said something about dragon mage armor with %life leech. That doesn't make any sense to me. How can you have that affix on an armor? Which armor did you mean specifically? I always thought that %life leech only appeared on shurikens, two-handed hammers, two-handed swords, and pole arms.

EDIT: I think I found what you meant. Were you referring to Flix's new dragon mage sets mod? There's a two piece jewelry set listed there that gives the %life leech affix as a bonus for wearing both of them. I'm not sure how he has that implemented - does it give the bonus to any equipped weapon? If so, that's an interesting novelty that would really help a dragon mage to have. I'll see if I can install the items mod. CM patch 1.5 won't install for me in its present state without my completely reinstalling my game, so I'm not willing to do that to get the items, but I may be able to install the Items Mod as a standalone.

 

EDIT #2: No luck. The Items Mod is now only available through CM patch 1.5. I don't want it bad enough to go through a complete reinstall of my game. Maybe they'll fix it later so it will install over 1.4hf. Right now, it just thinks it's already installed if you try to do that, and the only workaround I've seen suggested is a complete reinstall of the game.

 

You know, if you've got CM Patch 1.4hf installed, you can just install the old CM Items Mod 1.2 on top of it and get the full benefits of the mod. I think it's still available on the download page under "previous versions."

 

Alternatively "Flix's Dragon Mage Sets" mod could also be installed on top of CM Patch 1.4hf. If you're just looking for that LL% armor it's the chest piece from the Auspicious Powers set (Bashe's Voracity). I also made a ring set with LL% as a set bonus (Tooth and Nail).

Edited January 6, 2015 by Flix

[belgarathmth 21]

Hi, @Flix, thanks, man, I tried that. I guess I won't know if it worked until or unless I see one of the new dragon mage items drop.

 

I followed the instructions the best I could - I installed the General Mod Enabler, then extracted the Items Mod into the new Mods folder. I then used the General Mod Enabler to activate it.

 

The only thing I don't understand is that the instructions say to start the game through the GME. But, there are no controls that I can see in the GME to do that. I have the Steam version of the game, if that makes any difference, so the GME and the Items Mod were installed into Steam/SteamApps/common/Sacred2Gold .

 

The other thing I'm not sure about is that I also tried to install and activate the hotfix file. Is that a mistake? Will the two things together on a CM 1.4hf install without CM 1.5 cause problems? It would be easy enough to deactivate the hotfix if I shouldn't have it, but I would hate to corrupt my save file or something awful like that.

 

But regardless, whether it works or not, thank you for taking your time to help me.

 

EDIT: I have to stop playing for tonight, but I think it worked! I've got your new graphic on my startup screen, the one with the dragon, and the "Item Mod" graphic at the top of it, and the graphic "CM Patch 1.4" at the bottom. Wow, thanks again! I'm so glad that you and Gogoblender and others are watching these forums and working to keep our community alive!

Edited January 16, 2015 by belgarathmth