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Of course the listed options are not compulsory, this can be used simply as a base for a different build.This is my take on the Dual Wield Seraphim. A no-brainer build that will kill rather quickly and reliably. Neither overpowered or nerfed, suited to both beginners and veterans alike. It is a solid toon that provides enough challenge to keep you on the edge, but forgiving enough to not get you killed the first time you fall asleep while fighting too many rats...
Comments and criticism are very welcome. I might add a thing or two later on, but it should be good enough by now.
Skills overview
1 Tactics Lore
2 Exalted Warrior Focus
3 Dual wield
4 Armor Lore
5 Revered Technology Lore
6 Combat Reflexes
7 Toughness
8 Constitution
9 Revered Technology Focus
10 Enhanced Perception
The distribution of skill points depends on your personal preferences, but skills that should be mastered asap are Dual Wield (your main skill), Toughness, Constitution and possibly the utility skill (if it's worth mastering).
I recommend assigning about 20-25 points in most of the skills before trying to master the important ones. That is usually the point where the diminishing returns kick in, so you get the best bang for the buck.
Choosing skills
At first levels the order of the skills is not very important. You level up so fast that it doesn't really matter if you pick Armor Lore instead of Exalted Warrior Focus at level 2. At level 18+, however, it's good to know why you should pick Combat Reflexes or Toughness, at which order and why.
Level 2-3
Tactics Lore is one of the first skills you should pick if you want to get Dual Wield as soon as possible. At level 3 you can pick one more skill (Exalted Warrior recommended), but don't spend skill points in it yet (put them in Tactics Lore to get Dual Wield).
Level 5-8
This is the first level at which you can get Dual Wield. Armor Lore can be taken instead, if you want to use BFG for a few more levels (which can get you to level 8 in no time).
Level 12
Time to get some modifications for the Flaring Nova. Revered Technology Lore ftw
A good idea would be to keep a few skill points unassigned from previous level-ups, so that you have exactly 9 points to spend in this skill immediately. This should be the last time you touch this skill for the next 20-30 levels. Other skills are more important, and we need the Nova mostly for crowd control anyway.Level 18
Combat reflexes is a nice option here. Toughness will be more useful later in the game, while there can never be enough chance to evade.
Level 25
Toughness is the final skill choice that belongs to the core of the build. At this point you will have enough skill points in Armor Lore to give a decent boost to the armor granted by Toughness. With the added bonus from relics, you will have a very decent Armor rating for your level. Try to get this skill to level 25-30 as soon as you can.
Level 35
Now the remaining skills, which merely make the build more solid. Constitution is a very useful option, more life is good for very obvious reasons. It fills the void left by the absence of a shield and Warding Energy, giving you a much better chance to live another day.
Level 50
Time to make the Nova more useful again. It should be very weak by now, so we need to read more runes (or get items with bonuses to Flaring Nova). Without Focus the overleveled combat art will not be very efficient, plus we need to do something about that regeneration time.
Level 65
The final slot is reserved for a utility skill. It can be any skill you wanted, that was not in the list so far. Warding Energy Lore for more tanking power, Sword Weapons to unlock the bonuses for your swords, Riding for those cool mounts... You can really take your time with this, there is no need to choose this skill right away. All the core skills are in place, so you should be able to survive without this skill slot. This is usually a skill that you should not invest heavily in, increasing it with +skill bonuses instead.
I prefer Enhanced Perception, which will unlock the "chance to find valuables" mod on items, so I can find some nice gear. Celestial Magic Focus is also a nice option, which would have allowed me to use higher level Radiant pillar with cool modifications and lower cost.
Combat Art Modifications
You can modify your Combat Arts any way you like, but here are my recommendations:
Pelting Strikes - this is the spam-art that practically replaces your left mouse attack. Better left at low level for a while, the goal is to have the regeneration time at approximately 2,5-3 seconds (less if you can perform it faster).
Succession for the double-hit chance, Focus for the regeneration bonus, Precision for the Critical hits chance.
Flaring Nova - the secondary skill, used for its high damage at early game, and as crowd control skill at later stages (where it's damage is no longer that great).
Expand for a nice increase in Nova's Radius, Stun that will helpfully immobilize some of the enemies for about 5 seconds (even bosses), Laggard for the slow effect (though you can choose Flux if you really want more damage output).
Battle Stance (Buff) - this is the most reasonable buff to use.
Premonition for an increase in Attack Rating, Drill so you can use high level buff with lower cost, Retaliation so you can avoid some damage which will be reflected to your attackers instead.
These are the beginner-friendly core arts that will ensure your simple and steady progress. Throw a Radiant Pillar into a group of enemies (or rather a bit in front of them), nuke them with Flaring Nova, and finish them off with Pelting Strikes while standing near the Pillar (the Pillar will become rather useless at about level 30+, unless you take Celestial Magic Focus).
You will want to use other arts and combos as you play, but these depend on your personal style so I won't mention them here. The above tend to be the most used ones in my build, though I do use a lot of other spells.
Game progress
This is a sturdy build, which allows you to decently tank the monsters and damage them at the same time. You will be able to rush though Silver almost without leveling (that doesn't mean that you should avoid too many monsters
).At about level 14-19 you can safely encounter the first bosses.
I recommend leveling to about 25 to face Xanthiar, and up to the jungle. At that point you should be around level 29-30, which will give you a good chance against Kral & Co (remember to press the space bar twice every time you take some damage with that one, he can easily kill you in two hits - one of the most challenging bosses for this build).
I recommend leveling a little at that point, and farming some decent gear before venturing into the Dryad island (or be extremely careful).
By now you should already have a nearly unkillable Seraphim (though don't get too overconfident). Good luck with Gold
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Here is the most I was able to squeeze out of her, in hardcore.
Don't try this at home With the latest incarnation of Jedi seraphim, I went for the main quest to see how quickly I can complete it. The gear was rather mediocre, mostly what I found or bought (most of the twink stuff was lost in previous deaths). It is important to equip items with certain modifiers, like evade, opponent's chance to burn/poison/etc -%, received damage over time -% etc. You don't need godly gear, but some things are a must.
I was able to kill Gar'Colossus at level 10. I would have tried earlier, but leveled on the way there. Wasn't particularly hard, but it required me to pay enough attention to the health bar.
Octagolamus went down at level 14, this was rather dangerous
Level 18, Xanthiar and Carnach. The dragon was tough, I nearly died a few times. Carnach was a pushover compared to that, and leveled me to level 19.
At level 19 I defeated the Mist. It wasn't anything difficult, but it did nearly kill me once. It was a bit too early to go there
Level 21 Garganthropod. This one was very easy. He went down so fast, he didn't even have time to summon his little scorpions (take that!).
At level 22 I faced Kral, the nemesis of Jedi Seras. As always, it was a very dangerous fight. Still, he went down
I tried the Forest Guardian at level 23, but wasn't doing enough damage (shouldn't save skill points for level 25
). Perhaps with better gear I would have done it.Facettelion at level 24. The main problem with this one is that he keeps stunning you. As I didn't have gear with "opponent's chance to stun -%" (iirc it does exist), it took me a while to kill him. As he kept dishing out quite some damage, it was a rather difficult battle.
I reached Nimonuil at level 26. He was pretty easy, but he really made me keep my eyes on the healthbar.
Note: with this build, dealing damage is not really a problem. The trick is to stay alive while dealing it. While it may seem easy the way I describe it, in reality this run for the main quest nearly killed me on many occasions.
And finally, the epic battle with the Guardians at level 26... This was insanely tough, they deal a LOT of damage. Good thing was that I saved some points for a while, and pumped Toughness to a relatively high level (at least 15-17). It really helped me survive. The final Guardian was the one with poison damage, and almost killed me. And I mean almost. Phew... I ran out of potions when I brought him down to near death. Unfortunately I was also near death... Thankfully I had chosen Kybele as my God, and used the spell at that moment to heal myself.
Being hardcore, I should have bailed that very instant. But bailing would not be so epic, so I went for all or nothing. I attacked his remaining hitpoints, and defeated him while my own healthbar went dangerously down. I quickly gulped a Recovery potion to counter the dot poison, and proceeded to looting the damn mother. The end.
I love this seraphim
Edited by Antitrust, 18 December 2008 - 02:57 PM.
