How to Become a Demi-God in Sacred 2

[Dobri 55]

How to become a Demi-god in Sacred 2

 

Soldats brought up the aspect of immortality to FDM. That pretty much changed the minds of many players as to how to make their builds. They most certainly owe him much, as this has made their playthroughs a lot easier.

 

The most important thing to grasp here is that pretty much every build comes close to becoming a demi-god - meaning to get very hard to kill whilst sacrificing minimum firepower. The thing is that it has been in front of our eyes the whole time - but as usual, a person checks what's going on "under his nose" (as we Bulgarians say) the last.

 

The key to becoming a demi-god is having a good level shopper in platinum or niobium - preferably level 100 upwards, although all channel DM armors show up earlier. Still, going up to level 100 isn't a big deal and isn't hard for experienced players even with underpowered and tough-to-play character builds. You should be ready to invest a lot of time in shopping - in my case that was over 15 hours real time jumping from start island to hissil'ta in niobium to find 2 decent pieces of armor.

 

The next thing you should be aware is that single or all channel damage mitigation doesn't show on all armors. This makes the shopping a bit quicker and easier. It never shows on a robe-looking armor. Low-grade damage mitigation based on armor lore mastery shows at light armors, if I can call them like that - these are armors that do not look like each characters' plate armors and tend to provide less damage mitigation (for example it was around 11.1% in niobium in my case). Mid and High-grade damage mitigation shows up on heavy armors like the ones looking like Celdrahil's Torso for HE, Chestplate of Time for a Dryad, Edijian's armor for Seraphim, Armantin's armor for SW, and so on. The same goes for shoulders.

There is also a "mid-high" grade damage mitigation, which shows up on certain set items, and is better than the general mid-grade damage mitigation but is outclassed by a little paint by the high-grade damage mitigation trait.

"Stacked" damage mitigation trait means that 2 types of damage mitigation traits have been stacked in one item, thus providing substantially higher Damage mitigation output. This could mean all channel + all channel and all channel + one channel (usually physical) damage mitigation.

 

You should also be aware that some chars have more options to achieve Godlike status than the others. For example, the High Elf is the most frail char of them all, does not wear shoulder armor (and thus deprives herself from a big chunk of damage mitigation), but she can still compensate for that. She and the Dryad do not have access to Toughness, which also make the task of becoming a god a bit harder, but again, they both can compensate for that with close combat reflection, shield block chance, etc. The Seraphim, the Temple Guardian and the Shadow Warrior are the easiest to become Godlike. The Inquisitor is the easiest to get physical damage immunity, as he has a lot of set items that work in his favor.

 

There are also numerous items that I didn't list which can be of great use for you char. For example, Serpent Tongue sword has Chance to reflect: Close combat trait which scales with item level. The Memetar's Protector hammer (hafted) provides physical damage mitigation, which also scales by item level.

Keep in mind that the same level rare/set/unique item provides bigger bonuses at higher difficulty.

 

So, here are the basics for each char to become Godlike (in essence - achieve immortality) or reach a Demi-god status (in essence become very hard to kill and thus nearly immortal):

 

 

The Seraphim:

 

1. Armor lore mastery.

2. Torso Armor with stacked high-grade damage mitigation traits.

3. Shoulders with stacked high-grade damage mitigation traits.

4. Endijian's Wings (mid-high grade damage mitigation trait).

5. Glacial Defender (mid-high grade damage mitigation trait).

6. Toughness mastery.

7. Constitution.

8. Warding Energy buff modded for projectile and spell reflection and block.

9. Darwagon's circlet and Tanit's Collar amulets to use or as socketables.

 

The High Elf:

 

1. Armor lore mastery.

2. Torso Armor with stacked high-grade damage mitigation traits.

3. Glacial Defender (mid-high grade damage mitigation trait).

4. Celdrahil's Devotion Boots (fire damage mitigation).

5. Virgo's Pants (damage mitigation - physical).

6. Shield lore mastery to open up the chance to block,

7. Chance to block: Close combat socketables used along with the eternal block shield.

8. Constitution.

9. Incandescent Skin buff modded for close combat reflect - the buff itself provides substantial fire damage mitigation.

10. Crystal skin buff provides substantial armor rating, but it cannot be used in conjunction with the incandescent skin buff.

11. Grand invigoration, modded for healing (life energy silver mod) provides a substantial boost to the buff itself and will heal most of the damage taken in a second.

10. Darwagon's circlet and Tanit's Collar amulets to use or as socketables.

 

The Dryad:

 

1. Armor Lore mastery.

2. Torso Armor with stacked high-grade damage mitigation traits.

3. Shoulders with stacked high-grade damage mitigation traits.

4. Glacial Defender (mid-high grade damage mitigation trait).

5. Ancient Bark buff modded for armor + close combat reflection.

6. Decent level Goldenglade Touch.

7. Tangled vine keeps enemies in one place.

8. Shield lore mastery to open up the chance to block.

9. Chance to block: close combat socketables.

10. Constitution.

11. Darwagon's circlet and Tanit's Collar amulets to use or as socketables.

 

The Temple Guardian:

 

1. Armor Lore mastery.

2. Torso Armor with stacked high-grade damage mitigation traits.

3. Shoulders with stacked high-grade damage mitigation traits.

4. T-Energy Shroud buff modded for reduction and reflection (more damage absorption + chance to reflect spells).

5. Combat alert - as aura or CA modded for Riposte (close combat reflect)

6. Jolting touch modded for Payback + Shelter (close combat reflect and 25% + 0.5% per CA level damage mitigation).

7. Greaves of demiurge (all channel damage mitigation).

8. Toughness mastery.

9. Constitution.

10. Darwagon's circlet and Tanit's Collar amulets for use or as socketables.

 

The Shadow Warrior:

 

Option 1:

1. Armor Lore mastery.

2. Torso Armor with stacked high-grade damage mitigation traits.

3. Shoulders with stacked high-grade damage mitigation traits.

4. Glacial Defender (mid-high grade damage mitigation trait).

5. Denderan's Plans boots (physical damage mitigation).

6. Grim Resilience modded for Readiness and Safeguard (defense value + physical damage mitigation)

7. Reflective emanation modded for Backlash and Antimagic (close combat, projectile and magic damage reflection)

8. Toughness mastery.

9. Shield lore mastery to open up the chance to block.

10. Chance to block: close combat socketables.

11. Constitution.

12. Darwagon's circlet and Tanit's Collar amulets to use or as socketables.

 

Option 2: Permanent Shadow Veil, teach yourself never to decloak and as long as the Veil is high-level, you're invincible.

 

The Inquisitor:

 

1. Armor Lore mastery.

2. Torso Armor with stacked high-grade damage mitigation traits.

3. Shoulders with stacked high-grade damage mitigation traits.

4. Toughness mastery.

5. Saraki's Demise belt (physical damage mitigation, more than Deylen's belt).

6. Insignia of Deference Helm (physical damage mitigation)

7. Reverese Polarity buff modded for Rebound, Counterblow and Evade for party play and Rebound, Counterblow and Exploit for solo MP and SP hunting.

8. Purifying chastisement buff modded for inure provides 9.9% + 0.1% per CA level damage mitigation.

9. Constitution mastery.

10. Darwagon's circlet and Tanit's Collar amulets to use or as socketables.

 

There is one major setback, though. When you become a god... what else is there to play for?!

Edited August 21, 2009 by Dobri

[Zinsho 0]

For the TG at least I suspect Constitution won't have nearly the necessity it would for other characters since his huge energy shield (and then mounted on the generic wheel to keep some regen) means his shield will never go down, especially later on with high values of mitigation. Add to that the fact that at level 150 Jolting touch it provides 100% Mitigation, as long as you can keep the duration longer than the regen time you will be completely invincible... as long as you don't get killed before you can cast the CA once.

[Zonc1 0]

Inqusitor gets all channel mitoigation with Inure mod for Purifying Chastiment. Cowl of Catharsis also seems godd choice for an armor.

[Dobri 55]

Cowl of catharsis is a very poor choice of armor. Yes, it does have 3 sockets, yes it does have prismatic armor, but nothing beats stacked high-grade damage mitigation. That's like comparing a brick with a shield The extra defense may produce a few % damage reduction, but if I am to choose between 10% damage reduction and 30% damage mitigation... the choice is easy

 

As for the Inure mod, I'll add it. Thanks.

Edited August 20, 2009 by Dobri

[chattius 2,653]

So the highelf is the only character which can't reach 100% all damage mitigation? So my melee elf can call all other characters tricksters

 

I was close to this idea, but just against fire damage. Avoiding getting outnumbered for my HC-melee-elf, so I fought mainly in hallways: seraphim island, temple-guardians. So I optimized my fire protection and came close to 78% fire mitigation.

 

In germany we have a saying: 'Nicht kleckern, Klotzen!' = Don't spread, focus. Made famous by a panzer/tank general against the french, which had more and better tanks but put 2 in each infantary platoon instead having a full tank division. Mitigation is same, you have to bring it really high, you can't stop half way. This is especially valid for high elves and dryads. You don't want to socket 10 amulets with 2.5% mitigation just to reach 25%. But if you are already at 70% and have a working offense you may spend the 10 jewels, if you have them.

 

So to have a bit of challenge back to my horse-whisperer dryad. She only did 231000 damage with her horse combat art and I want to reach the million.

Edited June 12, 2010 by locolagarto

[Dobri 55]

Great work

 

So far I think that only the HE and the Dryad can't get there, simply because they lack toughness. Toughness at higher levels (300+ skill level) provides about 20% damage mitigation, and that's a lot. The HE is even deprived of stacked DM on the shoulders, since she can't wear such an item. Looking at my test inquisitor, who's level 200, I see armors with close to 17% all channel damage mitigation, so at level 200, the stacked DM can be about 34% in the armor. Wicked...

Edited August 20, 2009 by Dobri

[soldats 0]

nice write up

 

=]

[Dobri 55]

Thanks. You brought this here actually I was merely fiddling with the builds and the skills, trying to get things better, when you changed the minds of the people around here in FDM, bringing in a fresh perspective and new builds

Edited August 20, 2009 by Dobri

[Katran 0]

Love the idea of being indestructible and nice writing but on how many toons it has been field tested yet?

 

Oh and this is a dangerous thing you give gogo one of this toons and he will never stop talking he. At this time he doent talk on servers because he cant multi task fighting and chatting but this opens Pandora`s box.

[Dobri 55]

So far in SP:

 

Seraphim (works perfectly)

Inquisitor - works perfectly, he's immune to physical very early on, in platinum. I think I can do it at the end of gold, but that's a lot of shopping time

Temple Guardian - works perfectly. I did it today. Zinsho was by no means exaggerating when he said that jolting touch is wonderful. If you can spam it, and if you can keep your T-Energy shroud and your battle aura or combat alert up at all times, you're pretty much invincible - provided you don't get caught right before you cast those by a stun or debuff. I had 1 close shave because of that, but after I got up to platinum and shopped about 50% damage mitigation gear (greaves of demiurge included), had 15% from toughness and serious block from the shield - not to count the close combat reflect, etc. - he because a snap to play and the mobs were either not doing damage, or were committing suicides trying to hack at him.

 

I'm going a SW run now. I'll be done in the next few days, but the playthrough with all these chars is pretty much the same and the result is the same. The only thing left to try it out is a Dryad and a HE, since they don't have toughness. I've been saving them for last because they should prove to be the most challenging.

 

Close combat, ranged, and caster builds for seraphim, inquisitor and TG can do it, because the skill setup is pretty much the same. Close combat SW should do it without a problem (I'm level 77 now, doing the accelerated run, and it works), and the caster sw is permanently cloaked, so he's invincible by default.

 

As for the HE, I know it can be done. I have a lot of experience with her. Some damage mitigation, some blocking and she's fine. The dryad is another thing. That's the char I've played the least, because she may have the biggest jugs in the game, but she looks like a gypsy or like a roman centurion when she puts on her gear. Well... nothing like some "on-the-job" training to get the adrenaline pumping! But thanks to my overall experience, the info I have from various playes and different sources, I think I can make the same generalization about them as well - even before I did their runs. As I said, the playthroughs are pretty much the same - and the HE and the Dryad are 2 of the most overpowered chars in this game and should be able to do it much more easily - using their damage as "defense" - a mob can't hit you if he's dead, isn't that right?

 

As for gogo, we'll all keep an eye on him... or his chatting

Edited August 20, 2009 by Dobri

[soldats 0]

I can tell you why the he and dryad don't have access to toughness or shoulders[he]

 

the fact that you can reach 150k+ armor value with both and some reflect + expulse[he], you don't need to sacrifice anything to achieve high dm.

 

on mo's, 200 and on syd's mahadeva dryads, they can sit in the swamp and take single digit dmg in 5man niob games....and this was a few months ago before any research was done for dm. any mitigation on top of crystal skin or ancient bark is icing on the cake. you can have it, but since there's already such high defensive ability, there's no need to spend any time looking for ways to further mitigate armor.

 

I know this because I've raised a 103, 162 and a 150[without crystal skin and I don't need dm, I can assure you of that....] he's and a 103 dryad with ancient bark at high levels. the healing provided by ancient bark when boosted by nwl makes it so that any dmg, even spike dmg is quickly healed. if you're afraid...there's always goldenglade t.

 

quick response, but I'm on my way out. it's the gf's birthday today

 

 

[edit]

forgot to add that the he has access to the healing mod on gi, which translates to 3000+hp/sec regen on my 150 he with appropriate dal.

 

she heals even faster than a dryad with ancient bark...

Edited August 20, 2009 by soldats

[Dobri 55]

That is a very strong point, one that I was aware of. I saw chrona's pic of his dryad with over 100k armor (108k to be exact) and my jaw just dropped down. The HE gets the wicked crystal skin and GI with healing, as you pointed out, and since that's a buff, she gets a perma-heal all the time.

 

I'll still do a Magic Coup (or glacial thorns) run with the HE and a caster dryad run, but even now I can tell you that they will be an outstanding success

 

A big thanks for sharing that. I'll add it to the first post.

Edited August 20, 2009 by Dobri

[gogoblender 3,305]

Great paper on Mitigation mechanics.

 

Invulnerability sounds wonderful. I"m just wondering though for a HC player, how much of our damage slots we'd have to trade out for this?

 

I'm always looking at fast kill speed with a balance for defense. Does a build with invulnerability have a chance of making very quick kills in Niob specially in the swamps to level up on?

 

For example, at high levels it seems like most peeps have to socket a ton of experience equipment... does this get in the way of an invulnerability build?

 

 

gogo

 

p.s. lol, my chatting C'mon... I've got lots of delicious tales to tell!

[Dobri 55]

You don't sacrifice a thing that would hinder your build a lot, gogo. In the worst case scenario, you will sacrifice 4 sockets (if the body armor and the shoulders spawn with stacked mitigation and no sockets) and probably the extra sockets you would have had on the set items that have a damage mitigation trait (like helm and belt for the inquisitor, greaves for the TG, etc.) - meaning rather than using a 3-socket item there, you use 1 or 2 socket.

 

So you generally don't miss much

Edited August 20, 2009 by Dobri

[SolomonGrundy 1]

Question: is there such a thing as Magic damage mitigation? (ie general magic damage damping?)

 

Also, how much damping does one need to reduce damage to the point where your armor/etc can absorb it?

[soldats 0]

magic dmg as in ca dmg?

or

magic dmg as in elemental magic dmg?

 

both can be mitigated with dm. so I guess it doesn't matter.

 

as for damping, that depends on what armor value you have. the higher your armor value, the less dm you need to completely mitigate armor

 

 

and since no one has done the calculations[yet] for what armor value = what %dm, it is not possible to answer your question

[chattius 2,653]

For my melee high elves I prefer the fire skin and not the crystal one: Reflect melee, arrow block. Then add shield block and a yellow shield scaling with it and some evasion in equipment or from cascading shrouds or trophies. if I would aim for something close to invulnerable I would change perception in my alchemy using elf from the guide section here into storm focus. Sounds weird, but a melee elf needs no weapon skill.

 

For the physical armour crystal skin may bring, if I really need high physical, I use alchemy and the iron ore trophy. In niob at 300 alchemy such a trophy gives 3000 physical armour more than 50 seconds. Now this 3000 doesn't sound much, but this 3000 count as an armour piece. So armour lore, smith arts and all boost this 3000 even more.

 

And remember there is no mitigation for life leech., for the people who play PvP.

Edited August 21, 2009 by chattius

[Rllulium 0]

This is quite nice, but I doubt that I will ever use it. A "easy" way to reach invincibility does not sound too fun in practice.

 

magic dmg as in ca dmg?

or

magic dmg as in elemental magic dmg?

 

both can be mitigated with dm. so I guess it doesn't matter.

 

as for damping, that depends on what armor value you have. the higher your armor value, the less dm you need to completely mitigate armor

 

 

and since no one has done the calculations[yet] for what armor value = what %dm, it is not possible to answer your question

I am pretty confident that the game uses a formula to directly reduce damage with armor instead of converting armor to DM%. The formula:

 

(Original damage * Original damage) / (Original damage + Armor) = Mitigated Damage

is thrown around lot. I haven't tested it throughly, but it feels accurate. I can atleast say that Armor does NOT provide DM% that can be stacked for this immortalpurpose.

[Zonc1 0]

You can't calulate armor for DM, becouse they behave differently depending on amount of damage taken. DM works better with hard blows, while armor does better with multiple small strikes.

Edited August 21, 2009 by Zonc1

[SolomonGrundy 1]

DM removes some of the damage before it enters into the armor calculation, right? so if XX armor will stop YY points of damage then it should be easy test.

 

damage may vary from enemy to enemy, but if you have 99% damage mitigation, and it is "easy" to get to an armor value that stops the remaining 1% of damage, then you can just dial back the damage mitigation to find the right damage mitigation/Armor "blend"

 

I'd speculate that somewhere between 60-75% all purpose dampening would be enough that your remaining defenses (armor, spell resistance, etc) would reduce daamge to zero

[Dobri 55]

That is not true 70% damage mitigation will reduce the incoming damage by a substantial amount, but you will still take a hefty chunk of damage in niobium. For example, with 98.5% DM the spiders in he swamp were still hitting me for 1-7 damage. With 80% damage mitigation the orcs in the orc cave in niobium were still hitting me for over 1000 damage, over 1500 on crit. 70% DM isn't that much in this case but that amount will reduce the incoming damage by a great deal. However, if your char is frail, that may not be enough

[SolomonGrundy 1]

That is not true 70% damage mitigation will reduce the incoming damage by a substantial amount, but you will still take a hefty chunk of damage in niobium. For example, with 98.5% DM the spiders in he swamp were still hitting me for 1-7 damage. With 80% damage mitigation the orcs in the orc cave in niobium were still hitting me for over 1000 damage, over 1500 on crit. 70% DM isn't that much in this case but that amount will reduce the incoming damage by a great deal. However, if your char is frail, that may not be enough

 

that's exactly the type of data I was looking for. so my only question is: how much armor does this character have?

[Dobri 55]

Generally, very low - but he/she will not need more, because he/she will not take damage at all The seraphim I posted had around 14k armor (including relics) at level 140.

[chattius 2,653]

Dobri, remembered when I wondered how the PvP character of my daughter would approach your serafim?

Life leech from magic coup?

 

The AddOn has a quest, which spawns 8-10 demon-eye like creatures. They behave like the small blue balls in the dryad island (can't remember the english name at the moment). But their damage looks like x% life leech combat art.

The Character of my daughter nearly died at them, they fired a salvo of 6 and only 5 of the salvo were blocked by expulse magic or reflected by crystal skin. The one which passed this defense got unhindered all the way to the hit points, because there is no mitigation for this damage type, no resistances, .....

 

Well, at least I have found no new modifier giving stuff like this in the new items. So everyone who wants to bring a character into the Addon should know that the mitigation approach has one big weakness. I started a mitigation dragon mage without constitution and I have not enough time to restart him, now with the new knowledge. Luckily I modified one Buff for CA-blocking. I hope that I can do the area at high levels with the buff and reflect/block-ca socketed and willpower from the companion.

I think the chest carrying imp will now be really used, to equip the character fitting for the challenges of the next area.

[chattius 2,653]

Virtual Hitpoints

If you take away life leech attacks and some combat arts with strange DoT, then you can consider multichannel mitigation as virtual hitpoints. If you have 50% mitigation you can take double the damage till you die, at 66.7% mitigation you can take 3 times the damage, at 80% 5 times, at 90% 10times the damage:

 

virtual_life = (life *100)/(100-mitigation%))

 

So you start to wonder if you still need constitution. It looks like a waste if you can reach mitigation values above 60% without toughness.

 

So my question would be, if I have have only one choose: toughness or constitution, what would be the breakpoint in mitigation to take toughness and not constitution.

 

If we put mitigation from toughness at 15% and say that constitution doubles the hitpoints:

 

Constitution:

virtual_life = (life*2*100)/(100-mitigation)

Toughness:

virtual_life =(life*100)/(100-mitigation-15)

 

So Constitution is better if:

(life*2*100)/(100-mitigation)>(life*100)/(100-mitigation-15)

2*(100-mitigation-15)>(100-mitigation)

100-mitigation-30 > 0

70 > mitigation

So if the mitigation without toughness is below 70% constitution would be the better choose.

 

The calculation becomes more important if the mitigation addition which is now undampended will get dampened to never reach 100 in a possible patch.

 

Perhaps someone can do a diagram at which mitigation% and which % of extra hitpoints from constitution constitution wins.

 

Of cause this calculation ignores that constitution gives in combat regeneration and that the extra armour from toughness gets more and more important the less damages passes because of mitigation.

 

I did this question because of a melee-dragon mage my daughter is playing:

Dragon mages have no combat arts which use a weapon, so staff lore, tactics, damage lore and alchemy to hit and damage bosses was a must, 3 buffs and concentration and you have only room for armour lore and 1 more defensive skill.

Edited September 29, 2009 by chattius