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The TrAMB or Tripple Aspect Mistress of Bowery


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On 5/18/2019 at 8:14 PM, Thorin Oakshield said:

Introduction:

 

A very long time ago - think about the time the servers went off line, yes, that long ago! - I had in mind to get several Sacred 2: I&B characters to Niobium. Since then I've been playing these characters, sometimes a lot, sometimes just a few hours; but I managed to get some of them into Gold or Platinum. Among  those characters a Dryad, I had intended to become a triple aspect killer babe. Things didn't always work out well for here, but eventually she got parked in Platinum and sortof forgotten. Until the moment one of my other characters ran into a boss that killed her a couple of time, I started a forum thread about it and began learning a lot of mistakes I made.

After getting that character to Niob, I aimed to get the rest up there as well. I started a new seraphim, managed to get pretty far with her, got bored - and in particular because of her voice which ; as Pevil stated at the Beta-test forum "She's such a complete airhead!" - and instead began working at my SW. After he got into Niob, I decided to dust off the Dryad, use my experiences from the other characters on her and get her into Niob as well. Considering she was in Sloeford at Platinum difficulty, it shouldn't be too hard. I certainly wasn't wrong about that, but I never had thought it would actually be this easy as it eventually was.

 

The old build:

 

As said, the plan was to set up a tripple aspect, ranged Dryad. With that in mind, I wanted to use some CA's of some aspects, having the "ghost-immage" of some monsters as pet and hoping in general being able to kill anything I encountered as fast as possible. Given that my Dryad died 3 times during the process, the latter didn't always work out as planned. :twitch:
Another thing that kinda held me back, was that I kept using a lot of various non-CM patch items, despite having better items because of that patch.
Before changing the build, it looked like this (between brackets the skills before the change):

 

level 2: Tactics Lore: (94) - The main skill to deal as much damage as possible. The intention was to level it up to 100 and leave it there
level 3: Concentration: (94)- Required to get that 3rd buff up and running as soon as it's mastered. Again, intended to be leveled to 100 and left there
level 5: Combat Reflexes: (35)- The reason I took this skill, was to have enough evasion of critical hits, she would be able to survive easily. I'm still wondering if toughness isn't a better choice, but decided to leave it as it is.
level 8: Armor Lore: (94) - Obviously needed to reduce the regenpenalty of armor, as well as having enough armour to withstand a lot of damage dealt. Intended to kept at level 100 maximum
level 12: Ranged Weapons: (30) - The other very obvious skill needed for this build. Intended to be kept at level 75 max.
level 18: Constitution: (15) Intended to be kept at level 75 max
level 25: Capricious Hunter Focus: (15) The first required focus skill to get one buff and several required CA's to their maximal capacity. Planned to level 75 max.
level 35: Nature Weaver Focus: (5) The second focus skill, required to reduce the regen of some CA's I was using in a combo, as well as maxing out Ancient Bark. Another level 75 max skill
level 50: Nature Weaver Lore: (5) The other NW skill, used to increase the damage of some NW CA's; while also helping me to boost AB. Guess what.... another level 75 max skill. :) 
level 65: Cabalistic Voodoo Focus: (5) The last skill and the last focus skill, used to increase the regen of one CV CA as well as to modify the buff and one CA I intend to use. Intended to be level 9 maximum; which wouldn't have worked at all.

 

For buff's and CA's I had the following in use:

Buff's:
Sinister Predator, modded with Eagle Eye, Marked Shot and Unflinching
Ancient Bark, modded with Slippery, Repel and Invigorate
Moribund Animus, modded with Malice and Headhunter, planned to take Fury later.

CA's:
Ravaged impact, modded with Perforate, Breach and Double shot
Darting Assault, modded with Reload, Wounding and Pierce
Forest Flight, modded with Roots, Expert and intended to take Escape.

Edaphic Lances, planned to be modded with Thorns, Stings and Barbs
Tangled Vine, planned to be modded with Tendrils, Singe and Intent
Goldenglade Touch, planned to be modded with Flow, Persevere and Diligence

Malicious Totem, planned to be modded with Solid, Pointed and Rapid Fire.
 

Combo's:
1) Tangled Vines + Ravaged Impact: This is your basic boss-killer. The intention is to stop whatever is heading to you and hit it hard; twice because of the double shot mod of RI. With low regen it's possible to cast it again before the vines run out, making it possible to perma root whatever you try to kill.

2) Forest Flight + Goldenglade Touch: Your escape option, intended to root whatever tries to kill you at the spot, breaking your own rooting if  that's cast over you and healing you the moment you arrive at your safe spot.
 

3) Tangled Vine + Edaphic Lances: An alternative to the first combo, but instead of using your bow, using the thorns to damage the rooted boss.
 

As for gear, I found over time that Detheya's Agility , combined with the Chestplate of Time instead of the Detheya chestpiece would give me the best protective result. It meant unfortunately that I missed out at the full Detheya's set bonus; which is a certain percentage life leech; but I hoped to encounter that by using fixed LL stats combined with rapid fire.
Weapons were a lot more difficult story though. One reason is that for some odd reason, ranged weapons drop as often as melee weapons. Or perhaps that's because we got not that many ranged weapons. Either way, at level 94 I was using an Arnum bow, three Bull's eyes and a blowpipe.

 

 

The big build change:

 

When I picked up my Dryad, she was level 94, having 3 skills mastered and at the same level, using parts of gear that were way below her level - as in level 60 silver armour - and didn't do as much damage as she should do overall.

So, my first step was to load her into the Sacred 2 Character editor to remove points from the 3 mastered skills and drop those into the 4th skill I wanted to master, leaving the remaining points to be added to a 5th skill. Resulting in a build looking like this:

level 2: Tactics Lore: 75
level 3: Concentration: 75
level 5: Combat Reflexes: 35
level 8: Armor Lore: 75
level 12: Ranged Weapons: 75
level 18: Constitution: 37
level 25: Capricious Hunter Focus: 15
level 35: Nature Weaver Focus: 5
level 50: Nature Weaver Lore: 5
level 65: Cabalistic Voodoo Focus: 5

The next step was to download a lot of needed items; being armor, weapons and jewelry. I already had downloaded the chest filled with all kinds of +X skill amulets, so  those were added into the build as well.

One of the things I did was getting rid of Detheya's set with the Chestplate of Time, but switching to using a full The Wild Cat set instead, as that set is more focussing at multiple aspects, while Detheya's is focussing at Sinister Predator only. The change did however also mean I lost some aspect, CA and skill modifiers. But I got better protection - the dmg resistance of the chest piece isn't that much different from the Chestplate of Time - as well as damage modifiers in return.
I smithed +10 skill amulets in each and every amulet slot, and added some rings doing life leech or extra damage in the ring sockets. Even with my "old" bows, I was doing a lot more damage and a lot faster kiling as I did with the higher skills. And I had only begun.

 

The next  thing I added was a full Remnants of Glaurung set. I had found the headpiece of that set in one of my previous playthroughs and the added bonus protection was something I found very useful. After studying the Wiki page, I realized that using the entire set would give me a benefit I didn't have at all: Leech Life from opponents: +x%
A modifier which is very useful when fighting champions and (mini) bosses and something I found - to my surprise, actually - not being present at any unique or legendary ranged weapon. Meaning the Detheya's set is the only set available to a Dryad to have that bonus, and only when all pieces are equiped. With that realisation, I was pleasant surprised my Dryad had only being killed three times. It wasn't the last of my surprises though.
 

The third and last step I took was looking for and downloading better bows. I liked the Bull's Eye although playthroughs with other characters told me that poison weapons are nice, but not really needed anymore. Still, I added the bow to my outfit and upgraded it a bit.
The second bow was Arnum's Pathfinder, again modded for extra damage.
To do ice damage I decided to pick the I&B version of the Dragon's Nemesis.
And during that search I had another surprise: there are quite a number of bows out there, however not a single one! is doing additional magical damage. Which meant I had to stick to three bows and had to hope to find a good yellow one, doing additional magical damage.

 

With all armour and weapons socketted with new amulets and rings, either to increase damage or skills, I began changing the CA's I had chosen.

Edaphic Lances got removed from my CA-tree as I barely used it and got better results with the Ravaged Impact at the combo.
Forest Flight lost one mod because I removed a lot of skill points from TL. Over time I will add that mod again when CHF levels up.

 

How to play:


In general this is a very straightforward build. Eventhough you start out with a blowpipe, finding a bow won't take long. But in case players want to use a blowpipe instead of a bow, it's possible. One advantage a blowpipe does have over a bow: you get an immediate hit, even if a monster is running; while a bow will shoot behind the running monster.

The skill choice is very straighforward as well, although one may consider to skip picking Combat Reflexes and instead continue with the rest of the skills, freeing up one skill at level 65.

For what I've seen so far, there are several options to pick as either last skill or as a replacement of CR. Toughness is a choice, helping you to increase your resistances and damage migitation. But one may also consider to pick Cabalistic Voodoo Lore to increase the damage output of both the minion and the totem, Bargaining to get better items - think of a bow doing additional magic damage - EP to find better items or even Alchemy to use the trophy's you find.

 

The use of the CA's and combo's isn't that hard to figure out as well. However for buff's it's better to focus at either Ancient Bark or Sinister Predator first, start using both  the moment you choose Concentration and only add Moribund Animus after mastering Concentration. The main reason for doing so, AB and SP will keep you alive, while MA does provide you with some cannon fodder, but you will need to keep recasting it as long as that minion is low level. However, after choosing Voodoo focus, you will be able to mod MA enough to make your minion stronger, while you may have mastered Conc, giving you the ability to use a third buff.

As for my personal setup:

1st slot: Combo of Tangled Vine and Ravaged impact. As said before, my champion / (mini) boss killer. Root them at the spot, and hammer them down.

2nd slot: Ravaged Impact: I'm not using it that often, but every once in a while you encounter something you don't need to root, but still want to kill fast. This CA does that perfectly for you. :D 

3rd slot: Malicious Totem: This is more a supportive CA to me, as a real boss killer. The idea of using it is to supply my with a 3rd option of attack after both my own and that of the minion. The poison damage is a nice addition and works very well when using a magic enhanced weapon yourself. That is, if you can find any of those.... :huh:

4th slot: I had used it for my Tangled Vine + Edaphic Lances combo. But as said before, I was barely using it, so I removed that combo. Will most likely change it to Darting Assault, so I can deal with multiple oponents at once.

5th slot: Forest Flight and Goldenglade Touch combo: My "escape plan", meant to jump away and heal while doing so. In case you're able to switch between slots fast, fire this one, switch to the first slot, aim at the monster and fire the TV/RI combo. Helps you healing while that monster can't get to you and giving you a new chance to kill it.
 

And finally:

Skill mastery:
 

Although this build is very straightforward, the order of skill mastery is still very important.
First and for all; TL, RW and Conc are the ones you should master asap to make sure you deal tons of damage fast, but also to start getting that third buff activated.
After that you should aim at AL and Cons for your defence. What you do afterwards is up to you.

Quests to do:

 

Depending at what you want to you got several choices. If your aim is to get to Niob asap, you'd like to do as few quests as possible. If you like to get to Niob in a more balanced way, there are quests you can take to help you level more before switching difficulty. However, what often is forgotten, is that the CA-patch gave us two quests (for the light path, for shaddow path it's only one) offering an additional skill and atribute point as reward. Therefore ALL games should start in Bronze until those two quests are done, before switching to silver. Leaving us with the next quests to do:

Shadow path and racing to Niob:

Main quest,
Ancarian Airlines (found in Sloeford near the light path starting point)
Class specific quest (optional)
Hold Up!

Light path:
All of  the above
"Food for the poor" (found in Thylysium slums)

 

For a slower progress:
All of the above,
The introduction quests
The Undead Legion
Blind Guardian


For an "ease your mind" progress:
Start exploring and questing in Platinum. By the time you're close to level 100, you're also close to finishing the main quest and moving on to Niob.

How does it all work out?

 

I have to admit, a lot better as I even had hoped for. 

After converting the build, I began picking up the main quest after Sloeford, while doing the class specific north of Sloeford. It took me about two hours before getting to the Gar'Colossus, killing it a lot faster as I expected. Octo went down fast as well and by then I realized this build was getting a lot better as I thought it was. But I really knew it was a strong build, when Xanthiar went down within a minute.  And not just that, the stats showed how easy it was as well:
xoGq7Pt.png

Same thing happened with the next boss encounter I had.
The Carnach went down even faster, mainly because it's having a bit more fire resistance, making it a lot more vunerable to ice damage. However, with AB as buff, I noticed I was vunerable to his firedamage as well. And for some weird reason, one of the fire-elementals it spawned, spawned exactly where I stood; meaning the lava hit me a lot even before the elemental showed up. Still, some potions and the percentage of LL helped me survive it.
FTrsVNp.png
 

Level 100 was reached while I was in the swamp, but the Miasma didn't turn out to be a big problem. One thing that helped me a lot with fighting it, is the fact all monsters it spawns are spawning at the same spot. So while attacking one, I pierced through it and also hit the other monsters; making killing them once spread out very easy.

 

After that, the Garganthropod went down about as fast as the previous two big bosses. In fact, it went down that fast, that the two T-mutant scorps it usually spawns, didn't attack me until after I had destroyed the Gargan and looted the boss-chest.
Khral took a bit longer, but only because I focussed at those energy pylons first. Facettelleon went down fast as well, somewhere in about 45 seconds, I think:
t5Sf0rr.png

 

And even Nimonuil and the four guardians went down fast, although each one of them took a bit longer as the previous bosses. But the result of the changes I made is that this build turned from a mediocrene one into a killer build, dealing with bosses faster as I've ever done. 

All in all it took me "only" eight levels to get her from the just past the start of the Light campaign in Sloeford through platinum into Niob. Of course, each level is about 4M in XP, but it took my SW a lot longer, despite the fact he was starting further down the campaign.

And all that questing this killer babe did, resulted in:

hCzVyIo.png


Thorin :) 

Brilliant work Thorin! I saw your build go up last week, but im so happy to get to it now and eat it up while sluruping some coffee on a lazy hot sunday afternoon.  The great killer builds are what everyone hopes to craft, love seeing the thoughtful work you put into yours when considering all the armor and buff benefits and seeing how fast she can melt down the baddies...

This is why this game and community is so awesome...thank you for this delicious read!

:hugs:

 

gogo

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Glad you liked the build, Gog, but did you really have to quote the entire booklet I wrote? :D

 

I have to admit that out of all the builds posted at  this forum, the "downside" of this one is, that it's very focussed at the use of CM patch items.

I'm pretty certain it can be achieved without CM patch items, as I managed to get her up to lvl94 without using those items, still; with the CM patch items she's a lot stronger, since both the armour and jewelry set give so many better bonii (or is it bonusses?) Considering how fast I killed the main quest boss monsters at a higher difficulty as I did in a lower one tells a lot. And my guess is, she'll only become stronger at higher difficulties the moment I'm able to fully exploit all tripple aspects.

 

Thorin :) 

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