Hercule the Shadow Warrior.

[Finder 0]

Hello. I am new to the dark matters scene, but I have gleaned much information from the guides you have posted, and I have found the information invaluable to my character creations. I am now embarking on my very first HC character. Hercule the shadow warrior. I have already leveled a normal SW to 47, and after having tested a few different builds, I want to make a sort of progress report. Every three levels I will put another post up of where I put my points, and how I feel the character is progressing. Any feedback will of course be greatly appreciated.

 

First skill is going to be Tactics lore. The first attribute point is going to be Vitality. I am aiming for a variance of the standard tanking build, with a little tendency toward damage. While the spec I have in mind does less damage than other potentials, it's totally worth never having to use potions. Well, here we go!

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: In my previous post, it was unclear on whether the HC character was 47. I have cleared this up =)

Edited March 31, 2009 by gogoblender

[Schot 407]

Heya Finder. What a great way to keep track of your build. No doubt you'll receive much advise during your characters progress. I've not made a tank build yet so reading about yours will make a great reference for me and others.

 

Welcome to DarkMatters.

[gogoblender 3,069]

Hi Finder, I don't have much info on a shadow Warrior, however I'd like to welcome you to the community and am pleased you have found the guides to be useful.

 

Hopefully someone will soon come along with great info that can help you with your SW build.

 

Enjoy the boards

 

gogo

[Finder 0]

Level 4 now. Took melevolent champion for my second skill while increasing tactics lore for DW at level 5. After I take DW, I will be taking concentration. Will not be putting points into it, the regen it gives is very small, and I only want it for the dual buff. I have placed mods immediately on RE, one to reflect spells, the other to reflect ranged. The less damage I take, and consequently the more damage the enemies take, the better.

 

 

Thanks for the welcome!

Edited March 31, 2009 by Finder

[Knuckles 904]

If you have any questions on SW's let me know....been playing them exclusively basically since last June. And good luck with your build

[Finder 0]

Thank you =)

 

Level 7 now, keeping the points flowing through malevolent champion so I can buff the heck out of reflective emanations and rampage. Fully modded RE; I decided on reflecting both spells and ranged, as well as adding more damage with the last mod. The next skill I am picking is concentration so I can have the two buffs. The added attack and defense from GR really help to hit and mitigate that damage, when I do take some. Soon after concentration is armor lore for the most basic of reasons... I don't want Hercule to kick the bucket. Now, one might normally go ahead and get the death warrior focus so they wont have the penalty. Well, I have no problem getting tons of runes, so I'm just going to pump into that bad boy with lots of runes so I have the extra slot open later.

 

 

I just applied my second buff, and it's working well. Taking less damage is always a good thing, and I can tell RE is shooting back projectiles and weakening my opponents before I get to them, making it easy work. Thumbs up so far!

[Knuckles 904]

Pumping GR will increase regen on FR too. Without DW focus the regen penalty to other Combat Arts will be even higher. So make sure you check FR regen while increasing GR. You'll need to de-buff and then recast GR when increasing lvls as it doesn't immediately show regen change

[Finder 0]

Pumping GR will increase regen on FR too. Without DW focus the regen penalty to other Combat Arts will be even higher. So make sure you check FR regen while increasing GR. You'll need to de-buff and then recast GR when increasing lvls as it doesn't immediately show regen change

 

I'll keep an eye out on it. I primarily focus on regular attacks, using Combat Arts more as an occasional attack. That may or may not sound odd to some people, but it has worked well. I'm going to go ahead and plan out a little more and decide if I have an open slot for DW focus, because it would be nice to not only cut that regen down, but to get more mod points at the same time.

[Knuckles 904]

If you're only using Combat Arts as an occasional attack you might consider pumping up say FR and DB and putting them in a combo to deal with Bosses, Champions etc

 

Also got me thinking that a max GR/RE buff SW is viable too. Take both focuses (so you can have a higher buff level without running into penalty). But otherwise level them as much as you can. Then just rely on mods like 'Damage of enraged players' or 'chance for Death Blow' and other similar mods to get dmg up

[Finder 0]

Totally, I already have 3 deathblow rings waiting for him =)

 

 

EDIT: I've also noticed that chaining some of my Combat Arts like FR and DB appear to not work. Either that or the animation is bugged and it only shows the motions of on CA. I'll test it out more.

Edited March 31, 2009 by Finder

[Knuckles 904]

Currently there's a bug where the 2nd CA in combo won't always execute. It supposed to be fixed in patch due out soon

[Finder 0]

Yeah, once that happens, I'll be all for getting some combo's for bosses going

[Finder 0]

I decided to test out my little spec on something a little more hardy, so I took a trip to say "Hello!" to white griffin. I must have forgotten my deodorant, because as soon as I saw him, he came after me. After much complaining about his de-buffing, I finally downed him. Took about four minutes total, and around 9 potions. Good trade if you ask me, and it lets me know I'm stepping in the right direction.

[Epox 2]

if ya want an idear this is how im gonna play the sw im gonna make sooner or later

 

-Tactics Lore

-Sword

-Death Warrior focus

-Shield Lore ( for the shields with block chance )

-Concentration

-Malevolent Champion Focus

-Combat Reflexes

-Armour Lore

-Constitution

-Toughness

 

this is kinda my base line

 

as for Combat Arts I probally go

 

DW:

Demonic Blow -

Schying Sweep -

Rousing Command -

Grimm Resiclence -

 

MC:

Argunemtering Guidon -

Freenzied Rampage -

Refelctive Emantion -

Edited April 1, 2009 by Epox

[Finder 0]

Nice, RE is a staple to my life now. You might try just going with the armor and buffs and see how that feels before you commit to shields though. Past level 25 on my non HC SW he rarely got hit. Or perhaps you are going for the "NOTHING will ever hit me" way. I'm interested to see how that turns out =D

Edited April 1, 2009 by Finder

[Finder 0]

Made it to level 20. So far so good! I did end up taking DW focus. Regen lowering and mod points gooood.

[Finder 0]

Man. My find magic items is very low, since I don't have perception to buy rings and whatnot. I fought a group of enemies and they dropped a set item. I then fought another group RIGHT AFTER, and another one dropped. Three groups later, ANOTHER piece dropped... I'm not going to complain, but what the heck?

 

And I also have a question. I did a quest (I cant remember which one), and I picked up a gray item called "Item", Its icon is a fruit basket, and it is level 18... Not sure why but I am going to keep it forever (who doesn't love a good fruit basket?). Is this the Sacred equivalent of vendor trash? I seem to remember something similar in Sacred 1.

[Finder 0]

All good things must come to an end I guess. I went afk to have a smoke, no enemies near by, came back and he was toast. I will immediately start a new one and continue on!

[Knuckles 904]

Sorry to hear:(

 

Enemies roam far and wide in Sacred 2 and even into smaller towns. In MP the only safe spot is the starting isle, Though even that can be hazardous if another player unleashes the Ker Spell.

 

The basket is from a quest in Thylysium and I forget the name of it also. But you'll get the fruit basket. According to the dev's it's useless and not supposed to be in game.

[Finder 0]

Hercule the risen has..... arose. Back up in the 20's now, and everything is working well. Using the same spec I had before.

[Finder 0]

Ok, I figure instead of putting in character updates every couple of levels, I would instead do it every ten, and notate any mini bosses or regular story bosses I took down, and how it went. I just hit level 32 and went after Bloodclaw. He was remarkably easy, and I only had to use a potion after he died. Not quite sure what I did with this character over the last one. I think it has been my distribution of stat points. I have been putting in 2 points of strength for every one vitality ( Last time it was 50/50). It seems to be a pretty noticeable difference.

[Finder 0]

Level 40 now. Took down the dragon in Grunwald. Made sure to use my relics in the fight, and it was a piece of cake. Used one potion in the middle. Everything is working well so far. I have also learned my lesson, I now only afk while talking to vendors or logged out =)

 

 

Edit: Wowee, I just picked up a sword that does "170.8% damage of enraged players"... That's some crazy numbers right there.. I tried to take a screenshot, but the pictures always end up without the UI. If someone knows how to leave the UI in, let me know and I'll take a pic and post it here =D

Edited April 14, 2009 by Finder

[Knuckles 904]

I believe if you use 'ctrl + printscreen' you'll get UI in pic. I can confirm after work if no one does before I get back.