Jump to content

When do you start eating runes?


nunof

Recommended Posts

Hi gang,

I'm pretty new to Sacred and I have a question about when I should really start "eating" runes with my archer focused wood elf. I've eaten a few and am not having any problems killing stuff at the moment (around level 55 in Silver difficulty, single player) but at this point I've got over 100 runes saved up and they're making my inventory space difficult to manage. That's after converting all the runes I've found for other classes to WE runes that I might actually use. So far I've mostly been using Multi Shot and Penetrating Arrow along with a very high level Unicorn. However I'm also thinking about adding in some of the other bow skills as well.

Of course I'm wary about raising my CA regen times too much, but I'm also worried because I don't know what to expect in the higher difficulty levels. What levels of the various combat arts am I going to need in the hardest difficulties? I don't want to eat my runes now and have that make it so I don't find enough runes from now on to give me a shot at the higher difficulties.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Link to comment
On 8/20/2018 at 3:49 AM, nunof said:

Hi gang,

I'm pretty new to Sacred and I have a question about when I should really start "eating" runes with my archer focused wood elf. I've eaten a few and am not having any problems killing stuff at the moment (around level 55 in Silver difficulty, single player) but at this point I've got over 100 runes saved up and they're making my inventory space difficult to manage. That's after converting all the runes I've found for other classes to WE runes that I might actually use. So far I've mostly been using Multi Shot and Penetrating Arrow along with a very high level Unicorn. However I'm also thinking about adding in some of the other bow skills as well.

Of course I'm wary about raising my CA regen times too much, but I'm also worried because I don't know what to expect in the higher difficulty levels. What levels of the various combat arts am I going to need in the hardest difficulties? I don't want to eat my runes now and have that make it so I don't find enough runes from now on to give me a shot at the higher difficulties.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi Nunof, and welcome to DarkMatters!!!
I never really had a chance to play WE myself, was mostly Seraphim and the Deamon... but I think there are some good guides availlable here on this site, maybe something that has info for you? Hoping that someone who has more experience here can offer you some help 

:)

 

gogo

Link to comment
23 hours ago, gogoblender said:

Hi Nunof, and welcome to DarkMatters!!!
I never really had a chance to play WE myself, was mostly Seraphim and the Deamon... but I think there are some good guides availlable here on this site, maybe something that has info for you? Hoping that someone who has more experience here can offer you some help 

:)

 

gogo

Thanks for the welcome, Gogo. It's nice to see that somebody is still checking in here. I wasn't sure if anyone would be with a game this old. :)

I'm just kinda winging it for now. I went ahead and ate a few (not many) runes to clear out some space and I'm still seeing runes drop so I know I haven't totally gimped myself in the future.

I have read a LOT of guides and information on here. All of it has been quite helpful for many things and I'm sure has kept me from making a ton of mistakes already.

Cheers!

Link to comment
On 8/20/2018 at 3:49 AM, nunof said:

Hi gang,

I'm pretty new to Sacred and I have a question about when I should really start "eating" runes with my archer focused wood elf. I've eaten a few and am not having any problems killing stuff at the moment (around level 55 in Silver difficulty, single player) but at this point I've got over 100 runes saved up and they're making my inventory space difficult to manage. That's after converting all the runes I've found for other classes to WE runes that I might actually use. So far I've mostly been using Multi Shot and Penetrating Arrow along with a very high level Unicorn. However I'm also thinking about adding in some of the other bow skills as well.

Of course I'm wary about raising my CA regen times too much, but I'm also worried because I don't know what to expect in the higher difficulty levels. What levels of the various combat arts am I going to need in the hardest difficulties? I don't want to eat my runes now and have that make it so I don't find enough runes from now on to give me a shot at the higher difficulties.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

One of the big strategies people would use is to only eat one rune of the selected CA you wanted to use.  Specially with a Elf... you want your CA to fire as quickly as possible.  Eat one run, and then try to augment it's level by socketing it or wearing armor with that CA in it... like a set...this way you get the full power of the run, but only a fraction  the regen.

As well... and this works especially brilliahntly with original Sacred... create a *casting suit* of a CA you need... like a buff or moderate to higher power heavy hitter...or create a casting slot with high CA levels of a power CA you need...switch to that, cast the pumped up CA then switch back to your regular meat and potatoes equipment slot you were using.

Yes, the game was fun!

:)

 

gogo

Link to comment

For the most part try to get combat art bonuses from gear rather than eating runes (its half the regen penalty iirc). As for combat art level/no. of runes - its subjective. Try look at all the factors for damage (weapon lore, strength/dex, elemental damage, base weapon damage, set bonuses, etc) and all the ones for reducing regen (regen special moves, concentration and physical resistance improves it too - can get decent bonuses on gear). If you are having trouble killing monsters its usually because 1. you need better gear (vs no. of runes or combat art level) for more damage or less regen

and 2. you should make a buff suit, get some yellow potions and start using combos.

 

Never used the unicorn much - you could try using call of the ancestors - very strong esp if you are lucky enough to get full ettol rahc bow and set or use thorn bush - always fun when it explodes

EDIT - For a comparison, I looked up a multi shot wood elf build - Level 73 GOLD SB 87%, Explosive arrow at L9 - 1.6 sec, Penetrating arrow at L18 - 1.8 sec - damage of 23K to 30K, Combo of penetrating arrow (L32) x 4. Multi shot at 19, resistance at 4900.  Weapon lore at 106. Picked trading. Araelfis bow and 3 others of the set. Could improve regen to about 1.2 - 1.3 shuffling things around and shopping, maybe a bit more damage.

At Level 55 and Silver (bonuses are much better in gold and beyond) you would want to do (as a rough  estimate) 8 to 12K damage depending on your gear and set bonuses. As long as you happy with your killing speed then its not a worry.

Edited by Augmint
  • Like! 1
Link to comment
16 hours ago, gogoblender said:

One of the big strategies people would use is to only eat one rune of the selected CA you wanted to use.  Specially with a Elf... you want your CA to fire as quickly as possible.  Eat one run, and then try to augment it's level by socketing it or wearing armor with that CA in it... like a set...this way you get the full power of the run, but only a fraction  the regen.

As well... and this works especially brilliahntly with original Sacred... create a *casting suit* of a CA you need... like a buff or moderate to higher power heavy hitter...or create a casting slot with high CA levels of a power CA you need...switch to that, cast the pumped up CA then switch back to your regular meat and potatoes equipment slot you were using.

Yes, the game was fun!

:)

 

gogo

Hmmm.... I may have "screwed up" for the long term then. I've definitely eaten quite a few runes. Especially on CA's that I use a lot. I've been focusing my gear on damage and RSM so none of my regen times are over 1.5 seconds except for Multi Shot which has a duration of 20 seconds anyhow.

One question though, if a person only eats one rune of each CA they plan to use doesn't the limited number of sockets in gear mean you never have particularly high level CA's except for what you've used the casting suits to create combo's for? If that's all you're going to have, what do you really need that many runes for?

BTW, I'm doing the casting suit trick for my unicorn as well as my finisher combo of 4 Penetrating Arrows that are well above my normal level. I played around with making another combo of a high level Spider Arrow but it didn't seem to be all the good even as high as I could make it.

Cheers!

Link to comment
3 hours ago, Augmint said:

For the most part try to get combat art bonuses from gear rather than eating runes (its half the regen penalty iirc). As for combat art level/no. of runes - its subjective. Try look at all the factors for damage (weapon lore, strength/dex, elemental damage, base weapon damage, set bonuses, etc) and all the ones for reducing regen (regen special moves, concentration and physical resistance improves it too - can get decent bonuses on gear). If you are having trouble killing monsters its usually because 1. you need better gear (vs no. of runes or combat art level) for more damage or less regen

and 2. you should make a buff suit, get some yellow potions and start using combos.

 

Never used the unicorn much - you could try using call of the ancestors - very strong esp if you are lucky enough to get full ettol rahc bow and set or use thorn bush - always fun when it explodes

EDIT - For a comparison, I looked up a multi shot wood elf build - Level 73 GOLD SB 87%, Explosive arrow at L9 - 1.6 sec, Penetrating arrow at L18 - 1.8 sec - damage of 23K to 30K, Combo of penetrating arrow (L32) x 4. Multi shot at 19, resistance at 4900.  Weapon lore at 106. Picked trading. Araelfis bow and 3 others of the set. Could improve regen to about 1.2 - 1.3 shuffling things around and shopping, maybe a bit more damage.

At Level 55 and Silver (bonuses are much better in gold and beyond) you would want to do (as a rough  estimate) 8 to 12K damage depending on your gear and set bonuses. As long as you happy with your killing speed then its not a worry.

Hi Augmint, thanks for the detailed reply and tips!

I have been using the casting suits for the buffed combos trick. Very nice to have those things be so high level and on different timers.

My (noob) strategy so far has been to max out Physical Regen though I did put a few points into Dex at the start before I figured out how critical timers were. I've also maxed out shopping so I could buy good gear. My next most raised skill has been Concentration to further reduce regen times. But I actually have 95 unspent skill points right now.

I'm currently level 67 and very near the end of Silver difficulty. I've got Penetrating Arrow level 6 regen 1.1s dmg 5,164, Exploding Arrow level 5 regen .7s dmg 21,073, Eye For an Eye level 6 regen 1s dmg 5656 and Multi Hit level 14 regen 1.1s dmg 7197. I also have a 4x PA combo at level 35 from a casting suit.

My damage numbers seem pretty low based on what you're saying, but I'm really not having trouble killing anything. The last dragon I fought died within 10 seconds. That's part of the reason that I've got so many unspent skill points but I'm just worried that it's going to be very different when I get to Gold difficulty or beyond.

My gear is optimized (as best I can) for 1. Physical Regen (have 199), 2. Damage, 3. Magic Find (have 139) and 4. Bonus to all skills (have +9 to all and various other bonuses to individual skills).

I will give Call of the Ancestors a try. I've been planning on having one of the spell CA's going since they are on a separate timer from the bow CA's. I had been using Quick as a Flash but reading here seems to suggest that it becomes useless as you find higher level gear and max your speed out anyhow.

Cheers, mate! Thanks again for your help!

Link to comment

Good to see 4x PA combo at level 35. You won't have trouble with bosses for a long time. In gold difficulty you might wanna get more resistance, and tailor it for the region.

RE: the 95 unspent skill points? Are you using a mod?

I'd put it mostly in weapon lore and concentration. And try and find some +combat arts.

I didn't want to make you feel disheartened by the numbers I posted. It was just a rough estimate - with shopping and good drops it will all click and your damage will go up dramatically. My regen times are pretty high, got alot of +CA and weapon lore bonuses and if you look at the wiki the bonuses for the bow, the ring and Araelfi's Pure Misery (Body Armor) are REALLY good

http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred:Araelfi's_Return

 

And in case you haven't checked it out Wolfes lair has great info. I like to farm the Rim valley ALOT. Great drops.

http://pctalk.info/Games/Sacred2/Wolfes.Lair/SacredUnderworld/Pages/PopularHG-RimValley.html

Link to comment
19 hours ago, Augmint said:

Good to see 4x PA combo at level 35. You won't have trouble with bosses for a long time. In gold difficulty you might wanna get more resistance, and tailor it for the region.

RE: the 95 unspent skill points? Are you using a mod?

I'd put it mostly in weapon lore and concentration. And try and find some +combat arts.

I didn't want to make you feel disheartened by the numbers I posted. It was just a rough estimate - with shopping and good drops it will all click and your damage will go up dramatically. My regen times are pretty high, got alot of +CA and weapon lore bonuses and if you look at the wiki the bonuses for the bow, the ring and Araelfi's Pure Misery (Body Armor) are REALLY good

http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred:Araelfi's_Return

 

And in case you haven't checked it out Wolfes lair has great info. I like to farm the Rim valley ALOT. Great drops.

http://pctalk.info/Games/Sacred2/Wolfes.Lair/SacredUnderworld/Pages/PopularHG-RimValley.html

The PA combo is something I'll be boosting up again fairly soon. I've found another piece or two of equipment that boosts it but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

No mod in use, I just haven't really felt the need to spend many skill points. I'm getting a fair amount of +skills from my gear and I've noticed that most points spent just give a few percent bonus at this point so I'm not really missing out on much. I did play around with maxing out my weapon lore last night and doing that was adding over 1000 dmg to most of my CA's so I've got plenty of wiggle room.

Mostly I'm waiting to see if I really need to take Parry at the higher difficulty levels. I still haven't picked my level 50 skill. Most of the guides I've read recommend Parry but I'd rather not take something quite that defensive if I can help it. I hardly ever get hit now so I don't need it but things may be a lot different as I move up.

Thanks for the advice. I'm a big fan of Concentration skill at it's easily got the second most points invested in it.

Araelfi's stuff does look really good. Unfortunately the three pieces you recommend are the ones I haven't found yet. LOL. I am using the helm and amulet (socketed into the helm) though and I have the armor but I'm using Octanian's armor for the Magic Find. I would really love to try the bow out, but I've got such an awesome (comparatively) magic bow (3 mods on it that boost damage, nice boost to Weapon Lore and 3 sockets that I put rings with damage and RSM) that it's going to have to be a pretty impressive thing to get me to change. ***edit*** whoops! I'm wrong. I swapped out the Araelfi's helm and ammy for Octanian's helm (also have Oct's belt).

Wolfe's Lair does indeed look great! I'll poke around there some more on your recommendation. :)

Would you say it's worth farming in Silver for a while or should I go straight to Gold? I'm pretty near the end of the campaign.

Also, I've never done the Underworld campaign. Would you recommend doing that before going to Gold?

Thanks again!

Edited by nunof
  • Like! 1
Link to comment

If you have trading and agility, then parrying IMO would be wasted. You can get good defence on amulets & armour if you shop for them and agility already gives a decent % boost. Plus as a multi-shot/ranged build you don't really need to be in close range. Use life leech and call of the ancestors and its all good.

I'd farm the rim valley (if you have a high survival bonus and they are still higher level), try see what drops before going to gold. Underworld has some weird quests and the map can be a bit confusing - Wolfes lair details them well. I never played UW below Level 40 or 50, so jump right in. Early part of the game has creatures that mostly do poison damage iirc, so that's something to look out for. There are alot of undead pirates as well if you have weapon bonuses vs undead, and the heroes cave is a good test of just how strong a build is.

 

Link to comment
On 8/24/2018 at 4:23 AM, Augmint said:

If you have trading and agility, then parrying IMO would be wasted. You can get good defence on amulets & armour if you shop for them and agility already gives a decent % boost. Plus as a multi-shot/ranged build you don't really need to be in close range. Use life leech and call of the ancestors and its all good.

I'd farm the rim valley (if you have a high survival bonus and they are still higher level), try see what drops before going to gold. Underworld has some weird quests and the map can be a bit confusing - Wolfes lair details them well. I never played UW below Level 40 or 50, so jump right in. Early part of the game has creatures that mostly do poison damage iirc, so that's something to look out for. There are alot of undead pirates as well if you have weapon bonuses vs undead, and the heroes cave is a good test of just how strong a build is.

 

Thanks for all your help , mate. Much appreciated!  I think I'll probably finish up Silver this weeken and then give the Underworld a try.

  • Like! 1
Link to comment
On 8/24/2018 at 7:23 AM, Augmint said:

Early part of the game has creatures that mostly do poison damage iirc, so that's something to look out for.

Do you think there's a kind of chronology or elemental chronology timeline that is a reflection of advancement in the game?

If poison is early game, do the other elements progress in this way as well?

:)

 

gogo

Link to comment

Used spoiler tags for Nunof. I searched resistances by region and not much came up for Sacred/sacred UW. Would have to play through it again and cross reference things with the wiki and the map to be sure but here goes.
 

Spoiler

Taking a look at http://pctalk.info/Games/Sacred2/Wolfes.Lair/SacredUnderworld/Pages/Maps-Region.html

and http://pctalk.info/Games/Sacred2/Wolfes.Lair/SacredUnderworld/Pages/Bestiary.htm

Starting UW at Dwarven ruins - the insects/flying monsters, armoured louse and glorb hunters dish out poison. The hornets surprisingly do fire damage.
then there's fungi hillock - poison from plants and mire worms, larvae. There's the underground mines with the demons - who deal mostly magic damage - then its forest area - Purgatori and embalmed forest where you face demons, soldiers (modva) & witches that trap you - so magic and physical. Then you have to fight skull rippers, nuk nuks (need strong physical - they do nasty damage) & wreathed chokers (some magic and some fire). Before a big boss fight and going through the portal.

So its mostly poison and magic damage. But some that do fire - nuk nuk chieftain does - hate that guy.

After the portal its the desert - NQuali - so Fire and a bit of poison is needed. From the desert its underground fighting zombies and crabs before Pirate island and Volcano island. Lots of Undead Pirates (physical) and crabs. Crab queen does poison damage iirc. Some Modva there too near volcano and heroes cave. So there is a bit of fire resistance needed in the areas but nothing like original Sacred with the desert and nor draco region with fire trolls and harpies.

Last few stages of the game you face Hell golems (do mostly magic damage), frazzlers (physical, some do fire), bolting terrors (magic), Cerebropods (mostly blue ones who do magic, some do poison, some magic + fire) and Sakkarra demons (fire damage).

So it does seem to progress in a certain way, but the fire damage creatures are more spread out. The treetops where you fight druids and the amazons has a spread of all damage types.

Might edit this later.

 

Edited by Augmint
  • Thanks! 1
Link to comment
5 hours ago, Augmint said:

Used spoiler tags for Nunof. I searched resistances by region and not much came up for Sacred/sacred UW. Would have to play through it again and cross reference things with the wiki and the map to be sure but here goes.
 

  Hide contents

Taking a look at http://pctalk.info/Games/Sacred2/Wolfes.Lair/SacredUnderworld/Pages/Maps-Region.html

and http://pctalk.info/Games/Sacred2/Wolfes.Lair/SacredUnderworld/Pages/Bestiary.htm

Starting UW at Dwarven ruins - the insects/flying monsters, armoured louse and glorb hunters dish out poison. The hornets surprisingly do fire damage.
then there's fungi hillock - poison from plants and mire worms, larvae. There's the underground mines with the demons - who deal mostly magic damage - then its forest area - Purgatori and embalmed forest where you face demons, soldiers (modva) & witches that trap you - so magic and physical. Then you have to fight skull rippers, nuk nuks (need strong physical - they do nasty damage) & wreathed chokers (some magic and some fire). Before a big boss fight and going through the portal.

So its mostly poison and magic damage. But some that do fire - nuk nuk chieftain does - hate that guy.

After the portal its the desert - NQuali - so Fire and a bit of poison is needed. From the desert its underground fighting zombies and crabs before Pirate island and Volcano island. Lots of Undead Pirates (physical) and crabs. Crab queen does poison damage iirc. Some Modva there too near volcano and heroes cave. So there is a bit of fire resistance needed in the areas but nothing like original Sacred with the desert and nor draco region with fire trolls and harpies.

Last few stages of the game you face Hell golems (do mostly magic damage), frazzlers (physical, some do fire), bolting terrors (magic), Cerebropods (mostly blue ones who do magic, some do poison, some magic + fire) and Sakkarra demons (fire damage).

So it does seem to progress in a certain way, but the fire damage creatures are more spread out. The treetops where you fight druids and the amazons has a spread of all damage types.

Might edit this later.

 

This is a great guide!! specially as it follows the path a player takes when advancing chronologically

I love the idea of "mostly elemental" areas

:)

 

gogo

  • Like! 1
Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...
Please Sign In or Sign Up