The Ultimate Sacred Guide

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The Ultimate Sacred Guide

Underworld 2.28

 

This topic is reserved to the guide. This will be a multi-post thread. In order to keep all the information in one block, please do not reply to this topic. Use the topic dedicated to this right here : Comments, crits and ideas !

In the table of content, in front of each entry, the date of last update. The different articles may be written in a wrong order. To follow the flow of the guide please, after each post read, come back to the table of content to go to the next article. If possible I will add a link at the end of each post to the next in the guide, chronologically speaking.

 

Thanks

 

Nihilith

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Table of Content

 

The Ultimate Sacred Guide

Introduction to the guide (2007/08/17)

How to contribute (2007/08/17)

 

The game

Gameplay

-- General (2007/08/17)

-- Interface

-- Movement and fight

-- Experience

Difficulty levels (2007/09/04)

Modes

 

The World (2008/08/27)

Introduction

Maps

Regions

Caves

Dungeons

 

Classes

Battle Mage

-- Presentation

-- Guides

Daemon

-- Presentation

-- Guides

Dark Elf

-- Presentation

-- Guides

Dwarf

-- Presentation

-- Guides

Gladiator

-- Presentation

-- Guides

Seraphim

-- Presentation

-- Guides

Vampiress

-- Presentation

-- Guides

Wood Elf

-- Presentation

-- Guides

 

Enemies

Races (2007/08/27)

 

NPC or Non Playable Characters

Types of NPC (2007/08/28) Beta

 

Items

Item types (2007/09/13)

Item quality (2007/09/21)

Item mods

Sockets

How to get items (2007/09/04)

Getting rid of the useless (2007/08/17)

Storing your items (2007/08/27)

 

Skills

List, by class and level

 

Combat Arts / Techs

Timers

Special Moves

Spells

List, by class

-- Battle Mage DRAFT

 

Quests

Main quest (2007/09/04)

Side Quests

 

Misc guides

Where to gain experience efficiently

How to get better items (Magic find) (2007/09/04)

Far sight (2007/09/04)

Socketing

Horses and riding

Trading (2007/08/17)

Mules (2007/08/17)

Timers (2007/08/27)

 

Technical help

Loopback interface

Updating your video drivers

 

Terms and accronyms (2007/08/27)

General chat

Places

Classes

Enemies

CA

Skills

Mods

Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

[Nihilith 0]

Introduction to the guide

 

This guide is intended to everybody. Of course, veteran players won't need to read it from A to Z, but I hope everybody will find, at least, one article that is of interest.

I will try to cover most of the aspects of the game throughout these pages, sometimes giving my own conclusions about topics, sometimes just summing up articles found all over the web.

The Final goal of this guide is to give all the cards to a beginner for him/her to go Pro. But not giving him a click by click guide to power, but a guideline to power, by explaining how it works, and why he should take this option and not that one.

Stop reading this stupid introduction, the best is in the following chapters. Move on !

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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How to contribute

 

To contribute to this guide, use the thread about comments and crits here. You can, of course, contact me by pm on this forum. We should then manage to contact each other via mail or Live messenger to share pics, articles or ideas.

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Difficulty levels

 

There are 5 levels of difficulty in Sacred. Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Niobium. But either you play single or multiplayer, prerequisites to reach each of those are different. In single player, you must finish the campaign in silver to gain access to gold, finish gold to get to platinum, and finish platinum to get into niobium. You don't need to finish bronze to reach silver as you can start directly in this difficulty level. In multiplayer, accesses are player level related. Here is the list :

 

- Bronze : 0-60

- Silver : 20-100

- Gold : 60-140

- Platinum : 100-180

- Niobium : 140+

 

 

Understanding that is important for people who wants to mule items as a level 1 mule won't be able to join a game if a level 141 character wants to give it items. The level 1 mule can only access Bronze, and a level 141 character can't join a game easier than platinum. You need two mules to cover all the difficulty levels. One must be level 60 to cover from bronze to gold, and the other must be level 140 to cover from gold to niobium.

Quick Jump to muling guides (same window - new window)

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Gameplay - General

 

Sacred is a fast paced Hack'n Slash. As in all PC Hack'n Slash, you maneuver your character by pointing and clicking on the screen. A good left-hand dexterity is also nice to have, because you'll have to use the keyboard to switch between your combat arts, drink a potion and chat (if you play multiplayer). Gameplay is different if you play single player (campaign) or multi (hack'n slash), as campaign mode offers more exploration of the world. However you can explore the world in Hack'n Slash mode, but as no main quest shows off, I'm sure you'll prefer stay in a narrow cave, slaying mobs over and over, you little b........, sorry, you, fellow player !

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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How to get items

 

As in every Hack'n slash game, there are several way of getting items.

 

- Merchants : You can buy anything from them except : Set and unique items, runes and mentor potions.

- Drops : Monsters often leave an item on the ground when they die. Any monster can drop any object (from normal item to unique and from potion to rune). Your chance of getting better items from them is influenced by your magic find percentage.

- Magical hides : Magical hides are here, all over the world of Ancaria, but as their name says, they do not show at the first glance. By looking more carefully to the landscape, you can sometimes see a little spark, coming from an element of the land. Here it is. Hover the mouse at the exact location you saw the spark, and the cursor will turn to a hand. One hide give one item to every player in the game.

- Chest, Barrels and friends : All over the world, chests, barrels, book stands, crates can give you items or gold when opened. Note : Wells give a healing potion to every player in the game in 99.9% of the case (I can't assume the 100% probability, as I already got nothing from wells). Same remark as for magical hides. Make sure to open every container. I recently drop the Shell for the icon set from the barrel near the merchant in Bellevue near Romata.

- Quest reward : By finishing a quest, rewards are random. You can get gold, xp, random runes, a random piece of set. Even doing the same quest twice doesn't result in the same reward. You may have a rune first, and just gold the second time.

- Trading between players : Only available in multiplayer games. You can give and get items to/from players.

- Easter Eggs : Some items can be found by doing a special quest, killing a monster or going to a hidden place. These objects are easter eggs, as they are out of the main quest and most of time are tributes to movies, books, or whatever (I.e. The Battered Machete, right from Friday the 13th).

- Disarming Foes : The skill "Disarm" allows the player to make an enemy drop its weapon on the ground during the fight, in addition to the normal kill drops. One more item to be sold. The Battle Mage Whirlwind spell also disarms (Thanks to Schot for pointing that out). Take a WW BM, a full Thar Eros Dwarf and a full Dalmar Glad and you got a money machine trio (WW BM disarms, Full dalmar Glad got a chance to drop gold on hit directly in the wallet, and Thar eros dwarf can sell items on the battle field, did I already say that money is NOT a problem in Sacred )

 

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Getting rid of the useless

 

One of the problem in sacred (and many other rpg/h&s game) is that the inventory is quickly full of items. It's time to learn how to get rid of unwanted things.

- Sell to a merchant : The most logical way to get paid for the hours spent bringing peace back to Ancaria (or minutes, because we must admit that it's possible to fill your inventory with one hit sometimes. You can't believe it... just unleash the power of a high level greedy dwarf with full Thar Eros and high far sight in silver creek and enjoy !)

- Give it to someone else : Money is NOT a problem in Sacred. So instead of selling everything, offer items to other players. That frees up some room in your stash, this helps, and a « Thank you » is worth all the gold of the world. In Hardcore mode, it is usual and appreciated to offer some equipment, gold and some runes to a starting character. This doesn't cost anything to a high level character, but starting with some rune, 10% of life leech and some defense can help a lot, especially in a mode where death is not a convenient way to travel to the starting island. And who knows, maybe this beginner will be the one who will give you the missing piece of your set.

 

But as far as you can in multiplayer, for server stability, try not to leave hundreds of objects on the ground. Sell them, or if your alone on a server, leave and re-enter. The server will reset, and lag will be gone. Full Thar Eross dwarves have no excuses. The last bonus on the set allows them to sell on he battlefield.

 

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Storing your items

 

- In your personnal stash

Your personnal stash is a black and blue chest you can find in many locations, principally towns, populated or not. It's a magical box. Whatever you put in it is available everywhere in the game. This stash is available only for one character on your account, that is to say that the objects one of your characters puts in can't be picked up by another character. If you want to trade items between two of your toons, you must give them to it directly, or via a friend that would help you in a multiplayer game. There are also some possibilities to mule (that's the word) items offline. See the section below for muling instructions.

- On another character

The best way to keep items is to dedicate a character to hold them. That's muling. In single player, you must play with your savegames to do so. In multiplayer game, you can exchange directly form a toon to another. See the guides about mules here

 

[note to myself] add links to guide when ready

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Timers

 

This is THE point. Everything in Sacred is about timers. Well, what is a timer ? Simple enough to define, Hard as hell to manage when playing some class builds.

 

- Definition of the word timer : Ok, come on, find your way among the mysterious pages of your favorite dictionnary.

- Sacred Definition and use of timers : Find it yourself, I'm feeling a bit lazy tonight. Uh ? Ok ! As said before, timers are the element of Sacred gameplay to be taken into account everytime you need to change even the pointless thing on your char. A badly managed timer can mess up all your build. And breaking balance with timers is really easy.

 

Special moves and spells use timers to regenerate themselves, and most of the time, you will be using differents techs (Special moves and spells) that share the same timer. The timers come into action each time you use a tech.

The first timer defines when the tech will be ready again. And if using more than one tech on the same timer, this one will define when all the tech on the same timer are ready again. So don't expect to chain 2 techs without waiting some time between, except if the first you use is very low regen (0.1 – 0.2 seconds). That's the regeneration timer.

 

Another timer that doesn't show himself as a numeric value to the player is the casting timer. This one is not shared between techs. But it is useful to manage it to improve the regeneration timer.

 

And the last timer is the execution or duration timer. The time your tech needs to be executed, from A to Z, or the time it lasts before having to cast it again. Again, this timer must be taken into consideration when building a tech up. Among the duration spells or special moves, we find 4 types :

- The one time duration spell : you cast it once, and cannot cast it again until it finishes (Ghost meadow, Dagger Stare, Call of the Ancestors)

- The multi-occurence duration spell : You cast it for a certain duration but can cast it multiple times to get added effect (Hell Sphere, Blazing Disc)

- The one time duration spell with hidden feature : Typical of Underworld. These are the Daemon forms (Poison Daemon --> Ring of poison). These CA are a sort of mix of duration CA and instant CA. But one is only available when the other is on. Hard to write down, but easy to play. It's like casting a buff and using an attack. But you don't have to switch from a CA to another. The counterpart is that your attack CA is down if not buffed, whereas a gladiator for example can still attack his foe with a CA even if Heroic courage is off.

- The one time duration spell you can break : Underworld and Daemon specialty : Soaring Daemon gives you descent, but descent breaks Soaring daemon, forcing you to cast soaring daemon again for a new deadly dive. Moreover, every casting of a form of the daemon breaks the previous one. If you cast poison form while in fire form, fire form stops !

 

Further from that, all the techs are not on the same regeneration timer, and that's a bless. So, if we take the exemple of a dwarf, War cry is on the green timer, Flame thrower is on the blue timer. Green, blue... colors... YES... colors are there, and they are the visual representation of the timers. We can find many timer colors. And the tech color is the timer color... got it ?... take a look at your character. See the circles right of the compass ? These are your techs... got one in it (I hope so). Ok what color is the background of the tech circle... green, yellow, orange, red... That's it ! Timer Color !

How do techs share timers ? As said above, the only timer techs can share is the regeneration timer. Each time you use a tech, the icon fades to grey, indicating that the tech is regenerating itself and isn't available. But all the techs on the same timer show their icon fade to grey also for the same time as the tech you used needs to regenerate. need ?

For example : You are playing a gladiator, using Heroic Courage (with a 30 seconds regeneration time) as your defense buff, and Stomping Jump as your attack tech. Both are on the green timer. Let's assume that Heroic Courage is ready to be casted. Your stomping jump is also up and you know that it needs 5 seconds to regenerate itself. You use Stomping Jump, its icon fades to grey for 5 second, as for Heroic Courage. Both will be ready again in 5 seconds. Now let's reverse the situation. Both are ready. You fire Heroic Courage up. Heroic Courage is down for 30 seconds, but Stomping Jump is down for only 5 seconds. One tech cannot make another tech regeneration timer drop below its max.

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Special Moves

 

Special moves are the techs that needs the use of a weapon. It's a simplified view of the definition, as you can fight with your bare hands. But combat arts can also be buffing techs, as for Heroic Courage for the Gladiator, or Multiple Arrows for the Wood elf. It's kind of hard to exactly define what a combat art is, compared to a spell, but even if the frontier is thin between the two, it's important to know if a tech is of one or the other type, expecially when trying to diminish regeneration times, or adding bonus to it as they don't rely on the same attributes or skills.

Special moves are affected by the "Regeneration special move" Mod. This is a good way to know if your CA is a special move or a spell. Just equip/unequip a RSM item, and see if the regen changes. Generally, special moves are green or red CAs

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Spells

 

Spells are magical techs some characters possess. Some are offensive, and some are defensive. Same remark as for the combat arts. Hard to find out if spell or not, but mandatory. They depends on "Regeneration Spell" mod. Same way to find out as for special moves. Equip/unequip an item with this mod and see if regen time changes. Generally, spells are blue, orange.

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Combat Arts - List by class

DRAFT

 

Battle Mage

 

Name : Ice shards

Type of CA : Spell

Timer : Blue

Type of use : Damage

Target : multiple (no targetting)

Type of damage : Magic

Description :

Notes :

Graphics :

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Trading

 

This is one of the skills that opens a lot of debates. Some love it, some don't even see it in the skill list. This skill is the only one that doesn't show any diminishing return as you level up. To be efficient, it must be higher than your character level. The higher, the better. That's also why some people don't like it. You need to invest a lot of points and time for it to be useful. Beware ! Once you try it, you can't live without it. To unleash the power of trading, you'll need some prerequisites :

a character who can have it. That is, no Daemon !

a lot of money. That shouldn't be a problem.

a lot of time. And when I say a lot of time,a really big amount of time, but the result is worth letting the goblins rest for a while.

a good idea of what you're looking for. You will browse hundreds of items in a very short time.

Once these points are met, let's explain how it works, as far as we know how. First a little explanation of the inner work of the merchants. One's inventory is reset when looking at another's one. That's the golden rule. So to be efficient, you need 2 merchants close to each other. Bravemart ! Take a trip to Braverock castle and :

Open the portal (no need to say it will be helpful for coming back)

Locate the merchant on the market place south of the portal. Beside him is a quest giver. Enrole and follow the quest indicator to a npc across the bridge, east from Braverock castle. Click on him, enjoy the reward. But the quest is not finished. Head back to the quest giver and click on him. He will turn into a merchant. You have 2 merchants just next to each other, no need to walk !

Enjoy !

 

Now trading, please wait...

 

When trading is higher than your character level, the game allows the random item generator to spawn higher mods on items that would need a higher minimum level requirement to handle them. Moreover, as stated by some players, it allows it to spawn mods on items that wouldn't normally hold them. The higher above your level your trading is, the more foolish the item generator goes. You will spawn combination you never ever thought about. But first, before looking for the godly mod that will change your life, let's build our trading suit.

 

Trading suit ? Oh yeah, a pair of jeans, good walking shoes, a t-shirt and a f......g big bag to bring all the stuff home. Don't forget to call your friends and ask them to come with you. They will give you some nice pieces of advice on the color of the sockets you want to buy. And don't come home too late. You have to prepare yourself to go dancing, beautiful as you always are in your brand new clothes. Stop fooling around will you !

 

The trading suit is a complete equipment you'll store in your stash for trading purpose only. It's composed by a full gear with built in bonus to trading or all skills + max socket to put jewelry with bonus to trading or to all skills in. With few efforts, my level 5 dwarf got 23 trading. The trading suit costs for him costs around 300k. And it's far from being finished. First you start with +all skills on any item to raise your skill a little. Then you try to improve by getting +all skills in socketable items. Then you'll start to socket ring or ammys with +all skills. This mod is easy to have, and easy to recognize as it's a golden mod. You should start to see bonuses to trading by now. Pay attention as this is a blue mod, and it's easy to miss it ! I'm sure I missed a trading item, at least once.

Now that your trading suit is complete, you can start to look for other mods. And I promise you won't be deceived by the trade skill.

 

Tip #1

The trading amulet always have the same appearence. Looking for those is really fast. Just open the first merchant on the misc tab. A quick look. Close the merchant inventory, open the second's. Rinse, repeat.

 

Tip #2

In your trading suit, try to have a mod that allows you to kill animals. Close to the merchant in Braverock, there are animals in cages. Try to stay in range. Your survival bonus will grow as you shop !

 

Tip #3

Do NOT forget to switch back to your combat gear after a shopping session. Wandering in Shaddar Nar with a trading suit is really a big hurt. I tell you that from experience.

 

Tip #4

Trading works best with a female character as they are genetically made for shopping ! Works even better when the trader is in a group composed only by female characters.

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Mules

Muling in single player mode

 

It's quite simple once you know how. Let's explain it all with an exemple.

Your battle mage got a nice set piece for a wood elf. You'd really like your WE to own it. Power is just some steps away.

1 – Start a multiplayer campaign game with your BM (if you can't start a multiplayer game, see the section : XIV Technical help on page 31).

2 – Drop the item on the floor

3 – Save the game sith a nice name such as : Uber-super-WE item

4 – Quit (do not export the char)

5 – Create a multiplayer campaign game with your WE using the load option. Load the Uber-super-WE item game

6 – Pick the item

7 – Quit without saving.

Your WE own the item, and the saved game is still here, with the item, as you didn't saved it after picking it.

It's that easy.

 

Tip :

Get a high level character. Use the savegame trick but instead of dropping one item, drop all your gold, runes and items. Save the game. Pick the items back to your toon. Exit the game. You got a lot of money, runes and items for all your starting characters. You got new items, new runes. Load the game, drop them, save, pick them back up, exit. More stuff for the starting toons. Isn't multiplayer a bless ?

 

Links :

Prism's SP Masterguide

Muling in all difficulty levels

 

As said in a previous chapter about game difficulty, one char cannot cover all the levels. So, to be able to mule from any char to any other char, you'll need 2 mules. One must be level 60 (Bronze – Silver – Gold) and the other must be level 140 (Gold – Platinum – Niobium). To transfer an item or rune from a level 140+ char to a level 1, you'll follow this method :

Mule from level 140+ char to level 140 mule in niobium

Mule from level 140 mule to level 60 mule in gold

Mule from level 60 mule to level 1 char in bronze

That's a lot of steps, but the only way to get it working.

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Enemies - Races

 

You will meet many races of enemies throughout the World of Ancaria. Every enemy belong to a race that got some specific strengths and weakness. But variations can be found in a single race. No need to invent to wheel once again, Gogo says it all in his folio : You must read that !. Thinking about dragons, here is Night Wolfe's page about them.

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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The World

 

Sacred offers the players a huge seamless world called Ancaria. Full of citizen, shops, taverns and monsters. Ah , monsters, hero's everyday's delight ! This world is divided into several regions. Each of these offer a different landscape, from the Volcanic plateau, to the snowy mountains and from green valley to rocky desert.

 

Maps

There are a lot of maps of ancaria throughout the web. Here are links to some.

Sacred Plus Map from the official site

 

Regions

The world is divided into regions. Each region has its own inhabitants, though some monsters can be found in many regions. Night Wolfe has already done an excellent job about regions on her site. Here is a link to the page. You'll find info about population, towns and region bosses.

 

Caves

Caves are numerous, and well known of the experienced Sacred player, as they are populated, generally, by interesting monsters, in matter of experience or drops. Another advantage of caves is that if you go out and in again, monsters respawn. This tip is not available in single player. Night Wolfe strikes again on this page.

 

Dungeons

Dungeons...dozens of floors to explore...thousands of monters to destroy...and millions of gold pieces to bring back to...the government...no...luckily, there's no tax in sacred, even if you'll notice that smithes, merchants and combo masters earn everyday enough to make every « fortunated » hero call his mummy and look for a job in a tavern ! Well about dungeons in Sacred. As a counterpart for taxes, there is no dungeon either !

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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NPCs

 

What would a RPG or Hack'n slash be without NPC. You all know these lil persons who love to give your stupid quests, crappy rewards and take all your money for items that are so powerful you won't need them 5 levels after buying them. Sacred has its NPCs, and they don't break the rule.

 

Merchant

This is probably the NPC you'll be giving most of your money and time. There are available in all populated towns, and even in some spots you won't even think you should find a merchant. For example, there is a hidden shop in the embalmed forest, as Night Wolfe explains on this page. The most popular ones are the Braverock twins (Bravemart - BMart merchants), and the richest by the way lol. How to reach BMart, follow this. As said in the item chapter, they don't sell everything, take a look here (new window)

They can be located on the mini map according to this icon : <image to insert>

They have this icon above us on the game screen also. Beware, when holding ALT, you see folks' mood, and sometimes you see a pouch like the merchant one. This dude is not a merchant. Stop harassing him !

More info :

The Merchant Mechanics Unraveled : Nice topic about the inner working of the merchants of Ancaria

 

Combo Master

 

Smith

 

Quest Giver

 

Escort

 

Atmospheric NPC

 

Kid

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Guides - Timers

 

I wrote a guide for timer management. Here is the link (opens in a separate window). Check the HTML version at the end of the second part for a better overview of the guide.

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Accronyms

 

General chat

CYA : See you all

GG : Good game, or great game, to congratulate a player.

- player : GG Nihi !!

- Nihi : Thanks mate !

- player : How you feel after your first goblin ?

LD : Link dead. Used when a player has been disconnected by the server or an error.

- teammate1 : Hey Wait, Nihi is LD !

- teammate2 : Lol. this time he didn't even reach the tower basement !

- whole team : ROFLOL

WB : Welcome back

SYSIG : See you soon in game

IRL : In real life. When not playing Sacred, that is !

RTFM : Read that F...... manual

- Noob : Hey guys. What's a rune ?

- All other players : RTFM !

LOL : Laughing out loud

ROFLOL : Rolling on the floor laughing out loud

ROFLOLMAO : Rolling on the floor, laughing out loud, my a.. off

ROFLOLPIMPMAO : Rolling on the floor, laughing out loud, pissing in my pants, my a.. off

LOLSMD : Laughing out loud, spilled my drink

LSLIFOMCSMDAOMP : Laughing So Loud I Fell Off My Chair and Spilled My Drink All Over My Pants

AFK : Away from keyboard

- Nihi : AFK Mates

- Mates : OK

- Nihi : BRB

- Mates : RIP man (Hardcore classic)

BRB : Be right back

CYATC : See you and take care

TC : Take Care

BBIW : Be back in a while

OMG : Oh my god

ATM : At the moment

ASAP : As soon as possible

IIRC : If I remember correctly

WTS/B/T : Want to sell / buy / trade

LFG : Looking for group

PP : Party please

Noob / Newbie / NB : beginner, rookie

Uber : Extraordinary, top, super

IMO : In my opinion

IMHO : In my humble opinion

SH : S... happens

RIP : Rest in peace (last goodbye to a Hardcore char)

AFAIK : As far as I know

AFAIR : As far as I remember

ZzzzZZ : I'm bored, that's boring

jsdkllllllllllllmfsùùsdjlxvc,'iwdgkopm! : Hey you, on the other side of the screen. Yes, You, the one reading this guide ! WAAAAAAKE UUUUUP ! You're sleeping on the keyboard ! Clean all that mess immediatly !

 

Places

Isle : The multiplayer starting island, also known as Haven Isle

SC : Silver Creek

OC : Orc Cave

GC : Ghost Cave

VOT : Valley of tears

ZN : Zhurag Nar

KN : Khorad Nur

SN : Shaddar Nar

Rims : Shaddar Rims near Valley of Zhurag Nar's Portal

 

Classes

BM : Battle Mage

Glad : Gladiator

seraphim : Seraphim

Succubus : Daemon

DE : Dark Elf

WE : Wood Elf

Vamp : Vampiress

 

Enemies

Cereb / Pods: Cerebropods (Valley of tears)

Spiders : Giant Spider (Shaddar Nar)

Rims : Shaddar Rims (Near Zhurag Nar Portal)

Gobs : Goblins (Silver Creek)

 

Combat arts and spells

 

Seraphim

CL : Celestial Light (Seraphim)

RboL : Rotating blades of light

SoF : Strength of Faith

EB : Energy Bolts

 

Battle Mage

GM : Ghost Meadow

IS : Ice Shards

MS : Meteor Storm

WW : WhirlWind

RoI : Ring of Ice

SoF : Spiral of fire

CoA : Cataract of Agility

FB : Fireball

FS : Flame skin

WF : Water form

 

Skills

WL : Weapon Lore

ML : Magic Lore

SL : Sword Lore

AL : Axe Lore

Conc : Concentration

Med : Meditation

Agi : Agility

 

Mods

LL / Life leech / Leech / Drain : each hit draws opponent's life

Crit / Critical : Chance to land a critical hit

WIDD : Wounds increase damage dealt

OW : Open wounds

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Magic Find

 

The main rules

 

1- The more may not be the better.

2- The percentge applies to the base chance, not to overall chance to get a better item.

3- The bigger the mob/danger/survival bonus, the bigger the chance.

4- The faster you kill, the better you get.

5- The item level depends on the level of the foe.

6- Never exclude luck, this is the main MF booster !

 

Let's explain these rules

 

1- The more may not be the better.

If we set the drop mechanics onto a drop class mechanic, meaning that every item, due to its power, belongs to a power/treasure class (like in diablo2 for instance), the more MF you have, the more likely you will drop a high class item, according to your level and to the level of the foe, regarding rule #5. This way, if you try to get an item that is in a class that just fits your level, and you got a high MF, you will probably drop a superior item than the one you're looking for. So when I say "the more may not ne the better", it's in fact that the more may give you good results but maybe not the item you're looking for. Rule #6 is the only one you can rely on !

2- The percentge applies to the base chance, not to overall chance to get a better item.

Let's take a look at the chance to drop a set item. Base chance is 8 out of 1000. having 100% as MF bonus doesn't mean you will get a set item for every kill, but as it applies to the base chance, you will have 16 out of 1000 chance to get a set item, that is 1.6%. Unique base drop rate is 1 out of 1000.

3- The bigger the mob/danger/survival bonus, the bigger the chance.

No formula for this one, just a simple remark made by many players. Always try to fight mobs, big mobs, with champions or bosses in the pack ! Kill a normal goblin, you will get a single item (maybe a blue/yellow/green or gold, but also potion, white, rune and so on). Kill a boss or champion, you will get 3-4 items if lucky enough (3-4 times the chance). Now add split, use a DOT (damage over time) attack (this increase the chance to split), make a nice mob by running through the whole silver creek. And enjoy !

Let's say you got 2 champions and 20 goblins in the mob. Your split is 20%. 2 champions * 3 items + 20 goblins * 1 item + 4 splitted goblins * 1 item = 30 items if lucky. 75% of crappy drop (potions, nothing), that maybe 6-7 items on the ground with one hit if you're using a strong enough Area of Effect (Area of effect) attack.

4- The faster you kill, the better you get.

Stated by many player. I don't really know if this work but by a matter of fact, the faster you kill, the more you kill in the same time, so more monster equals more drops. That's a fact.

5- The item level depends on the level of the foe.

All the set and unique items have a minimum level. Some mods have a minimum level too. A level 12 set (as Mammon for the BM if I remember correctly) will NOT drop from a foe weaker than level 12. Of course you can find a level 12 Mammon from a level 18 monster, but you will likely drop a level 18 Mammon from him.

Getting the weaker version of a set is really hard. If for instance, you want to equip a level 12 BM with full Mammon, you will probably have to make a lot of MF characters from level 1 to approx. 12 to get the full level 12 set. Get what I mean

6- Never exclude luck, this is the main MF booster !

Even if you have a lot of MF, kill large mobs efficiently with 90% SB, you will not have any influence on luck. This can take your years to get the last piece of the set you're looking for. Beside of this, you will drop enough other items to equip every character of every member of your clan. If you get the 6 pieces of the set you want out of your 6 first set drops, don't forget to play the lottery !

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Main Quest

 

Ancarian Campaign

(According to the Official Sacred Site)

Act 1 : Paths of Destiny

 

In his fortress of Shaddar-Nur, the necromancer Shaddar, a pariah of the Band of Mages from Mystdale Castle, plans his triumphant return to the world of Ancaria: To strengthen his magic powers, he summons a Sakkara Demon, whose power he will absorb himself. These Sakkara Demons rule over those damned to rot in hell, the undead. Not since the Era of the Gods have any of these creatures set foot in Ancaria, not since the Seraphim army drove them back to their dimension during the Wars of the Gods.

However, Shaddar's experiment fails. The Sakkara Demon escapes and turns on his summoner…

 

In the south of the Kingdom, the village of Bellevue is beset by robbers and slave traders sent by the Sakkara Sect to find suitable victims for their unholy magic rituals. At the same time, the Kingdom is infiltrated by Goblins, forerunners of the Orcs of Khorad-Nur.

Under the command of Sergeant Treville, a loyal veteran of Prince Valor, the heroes first fight in the lands bordering the Orcish wastelands against attacks by the Goblins and the Orcs, who are leaving their desert in hordes and venturing ever deeper into the Kingdom of the dying King Aarnum.

 

Act 2 : Banners of the blood

 

In order to repel the enemy troops at Wyvern Pass, Prince Valor dispatches the heroes to ask Baron DeMordrey, the King's power-hungry Field Marshal, for reinforcements. However, DeMordrey orders his notorious Sharuka Guards to kill the heroes and sends the Orcs to massacre the Prince's troops at Wyvern Pass.

Returning to the battlefield after narrowly escaping the assassination attempt by the Sharuka Guards, the heroes find the fatally wounded Treville, who tells them that Prince Valor managed to escape to his mistress, Vilya, Baroness of Mascarell.

By the time the heroes reach the Barony of Mascarell, Baron DeMordrey has taken control of Ancaria following the death of Aarnum and his troops have occupied large areas of the country.

The heroes manage to rescue Baroness Vilya, who leads them to Tyr-Fasul, a long-forgotten forest stronghold in the Land of the Elves. The Prince, who is now believed to be dead, and his few remaining followers take refuge here.

 

Act 3 : The restless dead

 

Acting on the orders of the court sorceress Shareefa, one of the Prince's confidantes, the heroes discover in Khorad-Nur, the fortified desert town of the Orcs, what is driving the Orcs from their homeland: The Sakkara Demon has raised hordes of the undead from their graves and they have now turned this swath of land into an anteroom of hell.

Meanwhile, the Prince, who has secretly returned to his capital Braverock Castle, which is occupied by DeMordrey, is planning a rebellion against the usurper. While the Kingdom splits into regions plagued by rebellion, DeMordrey's oppression, Dark Elf opportunists, sectarians and villages overrun by the undead, the heroes and Shareefa repair to the fortified monastery of the Seraphim, a thousand-year-old bastion against the barbaric Ice Giants. There, they study the ancient scriptures of the Wars of the Gods, which describe how the Seraphim once defeated the Sakkara Demon.

Five elements must be found and the heroes now search the length and breadth of the entire Kingdom and beyond for them. In the deepest recesses of Shaddar-Nur, which has been ravaged by the Demon, they finally uncover Shaddar's records describing the summoning of Demons as well as the fifth element of space...

 

Act 4 : Turns of time

 

However, in order to combine these elements into a weapon to be used against the Demons, they must reach the ancestral forge, located deep beneath the royal palace. Together with Prince Valor and the last of his followers, the heroes recapture the capital and kill the unlawful Regent DeMordrey and Prince Valor takes his dead father's crown.

With the help of Shareefa, the heroes combine the five elements to create the Heart of Ancaria. This metaphysical soul of the world forms a nexus that can rob the Demon of its power. The heroes end up fighting the Sakkara Demon that was summoned up by Shareefa. However, the defeat of this creature sets events in motion that will change the face of Ancaria...

 

 

Underworld campaign

(thanks to Night Wolfe)

 

Act 5 : Underworld

 

Shaddar has been destroyed but Ancaria needs your help once again, more now than ever before! Valor is dead and the Baroness Vilya has been captured by Anducar. You must rescue Vilya for the fate of Ancaria lies in her hands...

 

A dimension gate leading to the upper world has been forged, make your way through the Underworld and destroy all the dimension gates that lay along your path. Beware of Anducar's Demon Lords who guard the gates! You must collect all the gate glyphs they hold to enter the innermost circles of hell and the center of Anducar's power...

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Far Sight

or When the crappiest mod becomes the best MF/Rune hunt ally.

 

Far sight mod allows the player to see further on the mini map. With no Far Sight, if you open the mini map, you will only see the closest monsters as red dots. With a high amount of Far sight (500+) you will see red dots on the border of the mini map. This will make your hunting day easy, as you will be able to anticipate your movement to jump from a mob to another. But this mod doesn't only improve the distance you detect the monsters at, it also increase the number of monsters that spawn. According to some theory, Far sight also interacts with some CA like Dagger Stare, improving the action radius of the CA. A high level DS with a big Far sight and monsters die before you even see them.

 

The good recipe : Overspawn a cave like the orc cave with a big amount of far sight, and prepare for the ultimate monster bashing mayhem.

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith

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Item Quality

 

Talking about item quality is talking about equipment items quality, as potions, runes, scrolls and so on don't exist in different qualities.

An important fact is that quality is a subjective point of view. Let's describe item qualities, sacredly speaking.

There are 5 levels of quality for an item, that match 5 levels of rarity. Each quality as a color, in which the item name appears in game.

 

- White : Normal

- Blue : Magic / Superior

- Yellow : Rare / Exceptionnal

- Green : Sets

- Gold : Unique

 

As stated before, rare doesn't mean good. As a single rule, we can say : Every item, whichever the color, is worth having a look at it. Even white items carry sockets

 

- White color weapons often come with a nice physical damage output, and sockets (got a 4 socket one hand sword last night, beating all the blue / yellow items I found with my low level trading dwarf, as I was able to socket +8 crit and 7% LL. Nice starting pack for a BM, isn't it)

- Blue offer some bonus (1-3)

- Yellow offer more (3-5)

- Sets offer mods and even more when wearing several pieces from the same set

- Uniques should be the best items in game, but we must admit that most of them are crappy

 

As the game drop mechanics is ruled by a random item generator, everything is possible, and traders won't say the opposite. You can find nothing during days, and then find 3 absolutely perfect items in 10 minutes.

 

Never forget : Rarity is ruled by the game, quality is ruled by your toon !

Quality is here when bonus match your needs, no more to be said !

 

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Edited September 21, 2007 by Nihilith