WE Combat Ranger Guide

[myles 2]

This is the first of the numerous infos I will drag out that has been gathered or written by Librarian (at least two years has passed! ).

 

I claim no credit about the info, but I have taken the liberty to reorganize as well as remove points that are no longer valid. (I will make UW 2.28 the standard, but note that Plus players need not worry about too much, not much has been changed about the characters)

 

Still, the author has his own mind, and I will honor his own preference whenever possible. If there is confusion within I will "Edit" instead. I think this will make it more clear.

 

Also note that I have included the original citation message by Librarian.

 

As always, I welcome comments and questions.

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WE Combat Ranger Guide

 

Submitted by Librarian on October 9, 2004 - 5:24am. Wood Elf

 

Written by Sammy Jankis, first published at Sacred forum on RpgForums.net

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Introduction

 

This guide is written especially for those who consider playing Wood Elf (WE) beyond the SILVER difficulty and need to do some planning for such a journey. I hope you will find this guide useful and that you will give me some feedback. Despite the fact that English is not my MT I hope I am doing better than Glubba (the ogre from Shaddar-Nur). If not, well then ... read another guide. One more announcement: The apostrophes (from my CPU) are not displayed correctly on the web. That is why I do not use them (I do not enjoy it at all).

 

---- Sections ---- (Search Jump)

 

1) Concerning Wood Elves (AAA)

 

2) My experience (BBB)

 

3) The character (CCC)

 

4) Multi-hit (DDD)

 

5) The Skills (EEE)

 

6) The Attributes (FFF)

 

7) Combat Arts (GGG)

 

8) Equipment (HHH)

 

9) General hints (III)

 

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1. Concerning Wood Elves (AAA)

 

Rejoice! This is, as far as I know, the first computer RPG Wood Elf that is both powerful and fits the description of a WE. I was very disappointed by the childish, short "Wood Elf" from Morrowind and I am very, very happy to write a guide about such an excellent character as the Sacred WE. She is tall, elegant and lethal. Speaks (or rather swears) Elvish, loves nature and hates cities. She is kind to friends and has no remorse for her enemies - especially orks.

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2. My experience (BBB)

 

I got Sacred on Friday. On Saturday I was on level.50. As you can guess I did not waste time by browsing the forums and so I made a few -not very wise- decision (+riding, +strength). After that I read almost all that people posted about Sacred and I did a lot of testing myself. Then I started over and now I am on level. 72. I skipped silver and now I fight with Gold. It is a real challenge and it is a lot of fun. You have to think, you have to drink and you have to move and sometimes even run. I recommend it to everyone.

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3. The character (CCC)

 

The Combat Ranger is not a typical ranger. Yes, she uses a bow but she also comes very close to her enemies, with is not very typical for a ranger. This character is designed to kill as fast as possible and survive as much as possible. The strategy is based on the ultimate combat technique called Multi-Hit, which is described below. Even if you use the unicorn tank you will still need a lot of defense and you will have to be very fast. The best thing about the WE is that you are not bothered by enemy plant cages and other spells that prevent your movement. You can still kill everything in the range and you do not have to wait for that.

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4. Multi-hit (MH) (DDD)

 

It fires 5 targeted arrows with enhanced dmg at up to five creatures at an incredible speed with an rather short reg. time. I have not seen such a powerful ranged skill before.

 

4. 1. Facts about MH

 

- MH can be used both with ranged and melee weapons.

 

- MH 's hit chance is determined by attacking rating (as all combat arts do). Edit: I have changed the statement.

 

- It fires up to 5 arrows on level 4 and I do not suppose that this number can be further increased. On level 25 it is still 5 arrows.

 

- The range of MH reaches beyond the zoomed-out screen and it often happens that it targets creatures you do not see.

 

- If there is only 1 creature in the range, MH fires all the arrows (MAX 5) in the direction of that creature. Such creature may be hit by 1-5 arrows, which depends on its movement, its size and the distance between it and the WE. So there is a big chance that all 5a will hit a dragon, which is a screen away.

 

- If there are 2+ creatures in the range, WE fires 1a in the direction of the creature you clicked on and the rest at other creatures (one for each). I do not know how the game chooses the targets if there are more than five creatures nearby (Do you?).

Edit: The extra arrows will fire to the closest target.

 

- The targets may be all around you. It is not true that the creatures must be in a certain angle to be targeted.

 

- Creatures behind obstacles are not targeted.

 

- MH %dmg modifier = (MHlvl - 2) * 10

 

- The number of frames (the length of animation) of MH is affected by AS.

 

4. 2. The best use of MH

 

In order to kill really fast you should be aware about the toughness of the creatures. You should know how many MH arrows you need for each type of creature. The more arrows the creature needs the closer you want to stand (if possible). This is why you need to be fast and need lots of defense. So if you see a group of monsters with a their leader among them:

 

- Fire from a distance so that they will come closer.

 

- Run to the leader so that you stand next to him and he is between you and his followers. Fire! The WE will target the leader and 4 of his minions. But, the leader stands between the arrows and their targets and gets "accidentally" shot by 3-5 of them. This "accident" is what you want and what you should practice a lot.

 

- Finish the remaining pathetic creatures if there are any left.

 

When you have more experience you will not have to come all the way to the leader but you will be able to keep some distance. The problem is that even if you estimate the trajectories and the HP of the leader correctly, there may be another creature in the range which you cannot see and which steals your "much needed elsewhere" arrow. On the other hand, with sufficient defense and 220 MS and AS, you will be able to move among the powerful creatures without being hit at all ... but you have to be really FAST.

 

Dragons and other bosses are easy. Make sure they are "home alone" and let them taste all 5a from all four MH of your combo. You do not need to come too close to them because they are (with 1 exception) very, very big.

 

There is another nice thing about MH: You can use it while holding CTRL in order to:

 

- Kill creatures that are hard to target with the pointer (riders, small spiders)

 

- Find out the direction of nearby creatures (while in the middle-zoomed).

 

- If there are no creatures in the range the max amount of arrows is fired in the direction of your cursor. In other case - they become the glorified TARGETS!

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5. The Skills (EEE)

 

Each character in Sacred can choose 8 out of 15 skills. The choice for an Elven Ranger is quite simple when you know what the skills are.

 

5. 1. Offensive skills

 

Weapon Lore - A MUST for all who use weapons.

Concentration - This is the most important skill. Keep it MAXed.

Ranged Combat - NOT necessary but there is nothing better left.

 

5. 2. Defensive skills

 

Agility High defense - monsters do not hit you that often.

Parrying (level 50) - Even higher defense - monsters hit you even less.

Armor - When they do, it does not hurt that much.

Constitution - When it hurts (you have to wait till GOLD) you have plenty of HP to spare.

 

Trading - more sockets. My XP: When I played the first character I had 30p in it at level 30. I had 2 things with 3 sockets and the rest with 2 - they were common. Now I had only 5 points in it at the same level. I found (not bought) 1 3-s item and I have only three 2-s items. I have not seen any set item in the shops so far.

 

5. 3. Useless skills

 

Riding - If it is you first game - go for it and have fun. Otherwise use your feet.

Disarm - Looks good but it does not help you to kill faster.

LH Weapons - You do not use them. If you do, MH is fast enough.

Sword Lore - Same as LH Weapons.

Meditation - We are no wizards, are we?

Moon Magic - We are no wizards, are we?

Magic Lore - We are no wizards, are we?

 

5. 4. Skill Investments

 

The monsters do not hurt you much during BRONZE (They usually die before they manage to attack.) I suggest that you improve your offensive skills first. Conc. and WL should be MAXed all the time. There is plenty of time during SILVER to work on you defensive skills. Put a few points into Ranged Combat and Trading as well. When you reach level 20 choose armor and put about 5 points in it. Look for +speed items to reach the ultimate 220 as soon as possible (level 30 is the right time to do so).

 

- I suggest that you keep Concentration maxed at all times. You can even pump it above the character level by +conc. equipment.

 

- Weapon lore is also very useful but pump it only when you feel safe.

 

- Armor does not need too many points to be effective. I still have only 10 points in it.

 

- Constitution, Parrying and Agility keep you alive. You should literally "feel" whether you have enough points in them.

 

- Do not invest too much into Trading until you kill fast enough and survive enough. Then it should be maxed. I have seen a few characters around level. 150 and they have it all maxed. I am not sure about its actual bonuses but at such level you look for different attributes than at level. 50 and you need as many sockets as you can get (5+). If trading helps you to get more of them it is definitely worth maxing.

 

- Ranged Combat is a tricky one. It adds AS and AR. When you hit 1s or even 0s reg. for MH will not need AS. It is true that the frames of MH are affected by AS but even 0s reg. does not allow you to fire constantly and your rate of fire is still delayed by the reg. timer. On the other hand, early in the game you have time for 2-5 normal shots between the MH shots and both AS and AR are useful.

 

- The decision is up to you but you should not probably put more than 5 points into RC unless you find a very good reason for that. Edit: Note that when the author wrote this guide Attacking Rating has not been a factor at all for CA. This comment may or may not change if he knows that AR makes a different now.

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6. The Attributes (FFF)

 

I do not suggest strength unless you want to use crossbows. I have not seen any amour that would be better than my current one and that would require more str than I had at that moment. The 4HP/point bonus is very nice but Physical regeneration (PR) offers it as well.

 

Dex should increase your ranged dmg but you will barely feel the difference. I had 4 rings that gave me together +85 dex when I did the testing. The dmg bonus was only about 5%. It is true that dex significantly increases your defense (in this game def IS important) but you have Agility and Parrying to solve your def problem and therefore you should not invest your points into dex.

 

Physical Regeneration is the way to go. It gives you the 4HP/point bonus (it is not it its description), it regenerates your HP faster and it shortens the reg time of your Combat Techniques, which is exactly what you want. I put EVERYTHING in it and it pays off. I do not know how much it stacks with constitution a concentration but I did see a difference in the MH reg. time when I put 15 points into PR.

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7. Combat Arts (GGG)

 

7. 1. Combat Techniques

 

Spider A - Interesting but Explosive is better.

 

Knockback A - I do not need to knock them back or stun them - I want to kill them.

 

Penetrating A - Guided from D2 strikes back, however, the D2 bug is now a part of the trick. Once more: Interesting but Explosive is better.

 

Explosive A - HUGE DMG is dealt to 1 target (+thousands%dmg). The explosion is a bit disgusting but...on the second thought...it is quote nice. I convert all my runes to EA runes now. On high levels it is only usable in a combo (high reg. time).

 

Multiple Shot - The total damage does not increase and the skill is thereby quite useless in most cases. Maybe, if you decide to level your character beyond level 150 and have no problem killing the enemies - you may kill a bit faster with it - but you need a large group of enemies for this plan to work.

 

Multiple hit - See section 4 of this guide.

 

Hard hit - If you liked the rail gun in Q3 Arena this is a skill for you. The target has no chance to escape this laser-guided arrow. You can use it form a horse but the dmg is not as brutal as with Explosive A.

 

Eye for an Eye - MH is better even against a single target. There is no reason for using EfaE unless you have a melee build.

 

7. 2. Spells

 

Transformation - Should you ever feel unsafe use it.

 

Thorn Bush, Poisoned Tendrils - They cannot help you.

 

Plant Cage - It is faster to wait until the riders get stuck than use it.

 

Call of the Ancestors - Looks interesting but the damage is nothing compared to your bow. It may be useful for a different build.

(Edit: CotA is the most powerful spell for WE, the damage is nothing? oneeye)

 

Recuperation - I prefer to press spacebar than to switch to this spell. I am not even sure whether it can restore 10K+ HP. Some people say that it is hard to get good healing potions on Gold. Well, if you make a few runs across Porto V. you can get as many as you want - not that you would need to do such thing.

 

Quick as Flash - If you do not mind the sound then you can use it till level cca. 30. Then it is useless since 220 is the ultimate limit.

 

Companion of the Woods - The best spell for a ranger. The unicorn is an excellent tank. It does not have an incredible dmg but it is extremely tough. I started gold with level 26 CotW, which summons a level 130 unicorn. It often kills lesser creatures and it has not died yet. It attracts a lot of attention, which saves me a lot of running around. I love it.

 

7. 3. Combos

 

The 4x MH combo is the way to go until you reach 0reg time with MH. Then it becomes useless. Until that, use it even for bosses - stay close to them and they shall not survive.

The 4x Explosive A combo is excellent for rescue missions when you need to be quick about it. Warning: It leaves a mess.

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8. Equipment (HHH)

 

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

four rings for the Sacred Wood Elf.

 

8. 1. Bows

 

A good bow is a big (long) bow. There is hardly ever a good one of the middle size and the small bows simply suck. Physical damage (PD) and Magical damage (MD) will be those to concentrate on. Someone on the forum stated that it is better to deal two types of damage than three types even if the later option appears more attractive. I did not believe it first...but after some testing I found out that it is true. So, if you want to compare a 3dmg bow to a 2 or 1dmg bow equip them both and watch the dmg it does to the poor creatures. I suggest you do this with all good bows you find or buy.

Damage, sockets, +dmg modifiers and +HM are the only attributes to look for early in the game. Things such as +ranged +attack speed etc. are much less important but you can socket them in your gear anyway. Do not use bows with higher level than your character's level as long as you need to use your basic attack between you MHs. After you stop using it I recommend it strongly because of the much higher dmg.

 

8. 2. Crossbows

 

I do not use crossbows. You may find it stupid but I do NOT think that a crossbow is a suitable weapon for an Elf. Most people say that they are too slow and that they do not offer enough dmg to be effective. I think that a WE with a lot of STR may be able to use one with +%dmg STR modifier. The speed of the weapon is quite unimportant at higher levels when you get 0reg with MH. Someone should probably test it?

 

8. 3. Armour

 

Look for sockets, defense and PH resistance in this order. Early in the game sets are quite useful, however, later on you can get many more sockets in regular gear and sets become pretty useless - as far as I know.

 

8. 4. Socketing and useful attributes

 

In the beginning socket MH runes only. There are three useful types of them:

WE: +15 def. +15 at.

VAMP: 3% life leech

GLAD: +10 spec. move regeneration

 

Since I play single player and do not have an unlimited access to GLAD runes I could not do a proper testing. I just know they work. My suggestion is to get as much leech as you need and then insert GLAD and WE runes 1:1. But, as I said before I cannot estimate how much they help.

 

Later in the game you will get more sockets and more interesting attributes. Those are the other attributes to look for:

 

+SPEED - You need 220, remember?

+XP of foes - No comment.

+CHANCE of getting special items - Diablo nostalgia!

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9. General hints (III)

 

1. Do not improve combat arts by reading of runes unless you are absolutely sure that the regeneration delay is worth it. You get only 1/2 of the delay having those runes socketed in your gear. (Edit: Thx Frost for pointing out a mistake.)

 

2. Always press F9 after you gain a new level. I sometimes clicked on mental instead of physical regeneration and lost a few minutes by loading the game.

 

3. Always check the level of the item you are equipping. It should not be higher that the level of your character. The penalties (attack speed, movement speed) are now worth it.

 

4. Buy all Mentor potions you see. Use them before engaging medium and large groups of enemies and before you finish the bosses.

 

5. Use the P.O.U.D potions against the annoying undead creatures. This saves you a lot of time and nerves.

 

6. Reload! I mean ... press R when you used all your combos recently.

 

7. While playing the Wood Elf, should you ever feel the need to swear, follow your character's example and do so in Elvish!