Points in Enhanced Perception vs Attack Skills query

[bhav 28]

Does maxing Enhanced perception make much difference compared to just some points and socketting all skills / valuables jewels?

My options are either:

200 EP and leave 1 point in Swords and Speed lore

or

50 EP and 75 in both sword and speed lore (for the attack and defense boost). 

I dont think that mastery in either EP and Speed Lore does anything significant, but the attack and defense from the latter seems more useful, and I'm not sure if the defense boost from 75 Speed Lore would help if I still keep taking hits.

Also if it ok to leave Toughness at 1 point or should it be raised to 75? Id be planning on 75 in both Armour and Warding Energy lore for my main defense, and speed / toughness were just two extra skills my build could fit to help.

I'm curious about the skills in general, not specific to any class.

Edited December 8, 2019 by bhav

[Flix 5,116]

Enhanced Perception is one of the few General Skills I really support. You'll see a noticeable increase in better items dropping.

[bhav 28]

41 minutes ago, Flix said:

Enhanced Perception is one of the few General Skills I really support. You'll see a noticeable increase in better items dropping.

That I know, but is the payoff from levelling it worth gimping the other skills?

[chattius 2,522]

It highly depends on the build, but normally I stop putting points in a skill after mastery. Look at the formula for enhanced perception from the wiki:

...

The Magic Find bonus at a given skill level x is given fairly precisely by the following formulas:

400 * (x + 1.5) / (x + 100) Pre-Mastery

600 * (x - 32.5) / (x + 66) Mastery

The bold marked numbers are the smallest upper bounds of this progression, which will never at any skill level be exceeded.

...

So 200 points in EP is a waste in my opinion. I prefer a min-max tactic. If a skill isn't needed to unlock spell modifiers or another skill leave it at 1 or push it to mastery. I order the skills in how useful they are and then I master them one after the other without spreading points. For EP you can have +10000 allSkills and you will never go above 400%.

If mastered you have 75 allready.

600*(101/200) is more than 300  for 75 hard points, 59 from equip,  total 134

400*(135/234) is around 230 for 1 hard point, 133 equip, total 134

Other skills have similiar numbers. Normally it is of no much use to go beyond mastery. Main reason would be to modify more than 4 combat arts in a tree.

 

If I remember right I wanted that mastered skills should be more visible and mentioned it in the german sacred forum. The next patch had it ;)

 

[Androdion 875]

I'm of the opinion that if you use EP you'll want it mastered, and if your build is strong enough then having it as a primary mastery won't gimp your build entirely. The better drops allow for a different micromanagement which can be compensating in the end. I'd say that any General Skill is like that in a way, if you're choosing them you'll want them mastered for full effect.

Toughness at 1 or 75 depends entirely on your build, because with enough boost to skills even one hard point can make a difference (even more if you have Armor Lore mastered).

[bhav 28]

17 hours ago, Androdion said:

I'm of the opinion that if you use EP you'll want it mastered, and if your build is strong enough then having it as a primary mastery won't gimp your build entirely. The better drops allow for a different micromanagement which can be compensating in the end. I'd say that any General Skill is like that in a way, if you're choosing them you'll want them mastered for full effect.

Toughness at 1 or 75 depends entirely on your build, because with enough boost to skills even one hard point can make a difference (even more if you have Armor Lore mastered).

Oh right, mastery boosts the MF bonus a lot higher. Actually recalculating my build shows that 75 in all my skills should be possible:

125 DG Lore

75 Tactics Lore

75 Sword Weapons

75 Speed Lore

200 Bargaining

75 Blacksmith

75 Enhanced Perception

75 Armour Lore

75 Warding Energy Lore

75 Toughness

= 925 points. Every attribute point goes in willpower for the energy shield and lightsaber damage, and I can raise stamina / regen further with gear if needed. 

DG Lore could be stopped at 98 as I don't need the last mod in Combat Alert, but then it also affects CA level and regen so all my remaining points after 75 in other skills should go into DG Lore as well as only needing to keep bargaining maxed.

Edited December 9, 2019 by bhav

[Androdion 875]

I don't think you absolutely need to keep Bargaining at char level since above level 100 it kind of "stops improving" with each point. There's something in the code which prevents it, something about the formula on which it's based that makes you see items lesser than rare at vendors even with such high values on the skill. I'd say that anything above 100 hard points in that skill is a waste, at least from my experience. You can use those points to improve other aspects of your build.

[RetsReds 64]

EP at 75 is awesome yes. I've never really used Speed lore so I can't comment on that but if it can be raised to mastery why not? The rule of thumb is to always get things to 75 and then usually leave them there. I only raise combat art skills above 75 and even that's not always. Or just leave them at 1 ofc. 

Anyway, as for bargaining - is it for the lightsabers only or for jewelry as well? For lightsabers you can just redo the lightsaber quests on LAN free world (CM patch) and save yourself the need for bargaining altogether (especially if you have stashed +x to all jewels).  Or are the lightsabers from vendors better/higher level?

A question on blacksmithing - I remember reading that it's bugged so I don't think I've ever used it. Is it working properly? Have I been needlessly skipping it all this time?

Edited December 12, 2019 by RetsReds

[Androdion 875]

You can bargain rare lightsabers with the skill, though 99% of the time you can only purchase two-handed ones, so it really depends on how you want to roll.

The Blacksmith skill isn't bugged, I don't think I've ever played with it bugged since I started playing Sacred 2 Gold. Can't remember with FA though. The skill works very well and allows you to forge jewellery into sockets with lower rarity, so if you're going for a "+All Skills in all holes" kind of build it's a very important skill to have. Forging amulets into silver sockets and rings into bronze sockets gives a lot of manoeuvrability.

[RetsReds 64]

21 minutes ago, Androdion said:

You can bargain rare lightsabers with the skill, though 99% of the time you can only purchase two-handed ones, so it really depends on how you want to roll.

The Blacksmith skill isn't bugged, I don't think I've ever played with it bugged since I started playing Sacred 2 Gold. Can't remember with FA though. The skill works very well and allows you to forge jewellery into sockets with lower rarity, so if you're going for a "+All Skills in all holes" kind of build it's a very important skill to have. Forging amulets into silver sockets and rings into bronze sockets gives a lot of manoeuvrability.

Huh, so blacksmithing isn't bugged... Welp, be careful what you read on the internet, I guess...  Thanks!

For bargaining - bhav is playing TG so doesn't this make bargaining a total waste? The lightsaber quests with the CM patch take 2-5 minutes to complete on LAN free world and give an on-level yellow saber - the only problem being that it isn't above your level... Dunno, especially if you have some +All Skills stashed bargaining seems like a waste. Enhanced Perception Mastery + hitting the good farming spots, on the other hand, is sweet.

[Androdion 875]

Yeah, I agree with you there. If it's not for jewellery then it's kind of a waste since the TG can't use two-handed weapons.