fraz

You're Welcome I stopped playing before I hit 200, although I'm chopping at the xp bar intermittently now and I'm 147. You will go through some rough patches in Platinum where you just aren't killing fast enough to make all that defense worth it, but those levels pass, and you just do the best you can to adjust your skill point allocation and attributes. Adjust some equipment to lower regen times and eat a few more runes or find some better weapons and then you're back on track within 10-20 levels which are easy enough to come by. Also, if you have Ice & Blood... I've been told that higher damage becomes more important against the mobs there, so you may consider taking either Combat Disciplin or Damage Lore, and dropping one of the last 4 defense skills (Con, Tough, Spell Resistance, or Combat Reflexes) That would be a tough choice for me, and I think I would go with Combat Reflexes to drop, the other 3 are way more important IMO. We'll I'm playing through with my brother is is playing an inquisiter. Between the two of us, I've found I've got ample defense and would favour going more dps. How would you modify this build if you were going to go for high DPS? The only two skill slots I've got left, so I'd have to drop either spell resistance or toughness.

Sorry guys, I stopped playing for a while, but I'm back at it. I'll try to edit the original post later, as I need to at least link to Qwalens post for clarification, and I'll make the combos I use more clear, although they are in there. Combo 1 - DB / FR Combo 2 - SS / FR Combo 3 - KS / RC ( duration buffs) Non-Combo 4 - I mostly keep Augmenting Guidon here, but switch it out for beligerent vault when I need that. Also, while I seem to be notorious for late answers... The problem with FR hitting is sometimes due to the "chance to recharge" mod, if DB happens to activate the recharge, the combo will instantly reharge and FR won't fire. @Gogo, Is the wiki guide editable? If so, I will edit both guides. I'm about to do another play through. I do not have the expansion though, so I am not sure how much effect it has on all of the skills and attributes... Do you know of any major changes I should include? Thanks for the update. Makes it clear. What I found helpful about your guide more then others is that you give an idea of how to spec whilst leveling up from the beginning progressing through to the higher levels. This makes it easy to follow for the beginner as most other guides just tell you where to put the points (not when). I've now reached level 42 and found it an absolute breeze to follow and my characters been solid the whole way. Thanks again

Yes I'm using the CM patch, its not made a difference to the crashing though.

I'm following this build with my Shadow Warrior, so far very pleased. Does anybody know the exact list of combos to use with this build, as its not 100% from the first post?

If its this patch you mean, I've tried it 4GB Game Patch I see you have a soundblaster, have you tried adding - skiponal to the end of your sacred2.exe shortcut? it has something to do with soundblaster? Yes I've got this added along with -nocpubinding neither seems to make a difference. Its strange I played for about 3 hours this morning, no crashes, then when I go to log out of the game, it crashes the system, couldn't even force quit. Yesterday it had a minor crash in game where the game froze, was able to F8 back to starter island and it carried on playing without any problems.

If its this patch you mean, I've tried it 4GB Game Patch

I have the Gold Edition and am using the latest Patch V2.65.2

Oh how I long to play Sacred without any issues. My system is: Windows XP 32 Bit, Intel Core 2 2.66 mhz, 4 GB Crucial Elite DDR 800 ram, Nvidia 470 GTX (femi card), Sound Blaster X-fi, Sacred 2 Gold edition I'm getting a freezing up problem that seems common and I'm starting to wonder if there's actually a fix or if I'll just have to live with it. Basically game runs fine, I think the problems gone, then every now and again (usually after long play period), the game just freeze's, you can here it in the back ground but the graphics lock up on the current screen and can't do anything other then ctrl, alt, delete and force quit. Sometimes ctrl, alt, delete doesn't work and its a forced restart job. Sometimes the game locks up when you hand in a quest, or open the map, it just freezes. Sometimes it just does it when your moving, but its entirely at random or play time related. My brother is having the exact same issue running Vista 64 bit with and ATI, so its specific to my setup. I have tried the following: 1) Disabling physx both in game and Nvidia control panel. Disabled cuda's as well. 2) Disabling AA, reducing graphical options. 3) Uninstalling graphics drivers, trying older drivers or clean install of lastest. 4) Run Sacred Cleaner application. Deleted options.txt to created new options.txt. 5) Tried /3G setting in Windows XP boot.ini. None of the above has proved sucessful. Does anyone out there have any other suggestions to fix the crashing / freezing memory leak issue.

Thanks for the replies Chattius / Furian, things are making more sense, but the more you learn, the more you realise there is to learn. Furian, yes a complete guide would be awesome. Can't vouch for others but personally I probably need something like "Dragon Mages for Dummies". I found this guide for inquisitar which seem very comprehensive, but so far other then Chattius excellent thread, guidance on builds seems a bit space, probably because its the newest class!

Furian that would be great, I've really been looking hard to find a comprehensive guide, I've seen some very detailed posts for other classes which give you a step by step on how to build their character, combos etc, but Dragon Mage info seems to be a bit lacking a wee bit. Thanks for helping and look forward to reading your post later. Ok I'm somewhat new to the game and trying to understand the elementalist build you describe, so I can get my build exactly as you describe. Please can you answer the below questions to ensure I do this right: 1) Is this build for an end game dragon mage, I.e. level 200 or will there be more points made available that will make the above build obsolete later in the game. 2) What order do you take the skills, I.e. in what order and at what level? I don't believe they are listed as I should take them because you can't take focus before lore. 3) I'm not sure which modifiers to take on each of the modifier branches. Can you spell it out for me exactly. 4) What do you mean by 'companion and protector if having runes from a common chest'? Thanks for helping, Fraz Actually... He DID mention the order and the level where he took the skills. The numbers at the begining in his list above IS the level (and consequently, the order) in which he took the skills. Companion (Familiar) and Protector are two of the Dragon Mage's buffs... The Familiar is a small dragon that follows you around and gives your Dragon Magic CAs a boost. The protector is a largish Earth Elemental that follows you around fighting at your side. The common chest thing he's refering to likely means he's storing runes in the Shared space in his Player Chest and retrieving them as needed. Thanks yeah I figured that out, however the amount of skill points to invest in each is not clear to me. Ah the buffs right, doah!

Ok I'm somewhat new to the game and trying to understand the elementalist build you describe, so I can get my build exactly as you describe. Please can you answer the below questions to ensure I do this right: 1) Is this build for an end game dragon mage, I.e. level 200 or will there be more points made available that will make the above build obsolete later in the game. 2) What order do you take the skills, I.e. in what order and at what level? I don't believe they are listed as I should take them because you can't take focus before lore. 3) I'm not sure which modifiers to take on each of the modifier branches. Can you spell it out for me exactly. 4) What do you mean by 'companion and protector if having runes from a common chest'? Thanks for helping, Fraz

We'll I've tried the above and unfortunately the game is still crashing in the same manor, freeze's up when your bring the map up or similar.

Thanks I'll try as you say and disable the physx in the nvidia control panel. I have physx and elite graphics, and it was crashing evening without them selected. I do feel the physx adds a lot of immersion to the game and my graphics card can handle it. I don't think its the issue though as my brothers having the exact same crashes, using an ATI card. I'll also add the settings to my optionscustom.txt file. Thanks for advice, I'll report back the results.

We'll I've been playing Sacred 2 about a month and I love the game but the crashes are getting me to the point of almost quiting the game. I'm tried googling for solutions but nothing I've tried seems to work, so am hoping the good folks here can point me in the right direction. Here's the summary: Windows 7 . Installed game, patched to latest version. . Tried running with various graphics settings but crashing persists. . Tried -nocpubinding as well as -skipopenal but crashing persists. . Tried defragging game, tried with openal, but crashing persists. . give up and install xp 32 bit as dual boot to get the game working properly. . The crashes are basically occuring when you enter or leave a dungeon or teleport. Crashes are at random anywhere between 30 mins, 1 hour or 3 hours. Crash's freeze the game, and not responding shows in task manager. . Sometimes get client crashes. Windows XP . Installed game, patched to latest version. . Tried with various graphics settings but crashing persists. . Tried -nocpubinding as well as -skipopenal but crashing persists. . Tried defragging game, tried with openal, but crashing persists. . The game crashes far less then in Windows 7 but enough to still take the enjoyment away from the game. Crashes occur most often when opening map, I've noticed particulary after a save, when you bring the map up. Occasionally game just freezes. Can sometimes get task manager up to force quit, sometimes not. Both OS issues sound to me issues with memory. I can confirm I'm running a dual core 3.5 ghz intel cpu, 4 GB ram, nvida 470 GTX graphics card, Creative x-fi xtreme music. Can anyone assist with me with a solution on either system (would prefer windows 7, but will stick with Xp 32bit if its easier). There's a lot of crashing info out there but can't find any recent guide that has been stickied to fix crash. Thanks for helping, Fraz

Thanks for the info, yeah I've had a good browse through the forums, and it seems modding is fairly limited. I'm playing a multiplayer lan character with my brother, so not sure if the CM patch / CIsacred will work.