The Queen of Blades

[Antitrust 32]

Some of you might be already familiar with my Dual Wield seraphim. Here's yet another one Dual Wield build A much more powerful yet simpler version, this seraphim can wipe the floor with any monster or boss.

 

Build concept: Dual Wield seraphim with Sword Weapons skill and Bargaining. Aka "how to be overpowered without relying on bugs or exploits".

 

 

 

I’m bleeding, I’m fading,

Here in my final hour,

When long-lost memories return...

And a voice keeps calling: “All dead and gone”...

 

 

Skills overview

 

1 Tactics Lore

2 Armor Lore

3 Dual wield

4 Enhanced Perception

5 Bargaining

6 Exalted Warrior Focus

7 Combat Reflexes

8 Toughness

9 Constitution

10 Sword Weapons

 

(This build was originally written for vanilla Sacred 2. Since Ice and Blood expansion players have come up with a few improvements to the build in a few posts here)

 

The distribution of skill points depends on your personal preferences, but skills that should be mastered asap are Dual Wield (your main skill), Constitution and possibly Enhanced Perception. You might also want to invest heavily in Exalted Warrior Focus in order to modify and use high-level Combat Arts, so keep that in mind.

 

I recommend assigning about 20 points in most of the skills before trying to master the important ones. That is usually the point where the diminishing returns kick in, so you get the best bang for the buck. This build has an easy access to +all skills gear, so some skills can be left at low levels, giving you more points to focus on important ones.

 

 

 

Choosing skills

 

There is no particular order in which you should choose your skills. Get what you need most as early as possible, and you're done. This build is very forgiving in that aspect.

 

Level 2-3

Tactics Lore is one of the first skills you should pick if you want to get Dual Wield as soon as possible. At level 3 you can pick one more skill (Armor Lore recommended).

 

Level 5

This is the first level at which you can get Dual Wield. For later game, no more than 75 hard skill points are needed here.

 

Level 8

Enhanced Perception unlocks Bargaining. Another general skill can be used, but EP is more useful for this build. This will help you find more good items.

 

Level 12

Bargaining. Now you can shop some nice items Put most points here until the skill has about 20 hard levels. Don't put more than that in this skill (you can make up for it with +all skills gear (christmas set is a nice option for a bargaining suit). When you approach char level 100-110, it is recommended to master Bargaining, but 75 hard points are more than enough.

 

Level 18

Exalted Warrior Focus. When splitting points between EWF and Tactics for modification purposes, you might want to put more points in EWF. That way you'll be able to use higher level Combat Arts, which is rather important for this build.

 

Level 25-35

Combat Reflexes and Toughness.

 

Level 50

Constitution, for that extra hitpoints and in-combat regeneration. This build has a LOT of hitpoints

 

Level 65

The final slot is reserved for a utility skill. It can be any skill you wanted, that was not in the list so far. I always wanted to make a sword seraphim, so I'll go with Sword Weapons. The skill bonuses don't stack with Dual Wield, but there are some very nice swords with unlockable bonuses that really shine when dual wielded (uniques and legendary). This can be left at a rather low level, letting +skill gear to do the work for you. You need skill level 250 to unlock the maximum values of item bonuses.

Alchemy is also a nice option here.

 

 

 

Stats

 

I put about 70% in Vitality, and 30% in Willpower. For hitpoints and Spell Resistance boost. This build is not lacking damage, defense or regeneration, so I see no reason to pump Strength, Dexterity and Stamina, while Intelligence is totally useless here.

 

This allocation of stats is definitely not mandatory, so feel free to put them wherever you like.

 

 

 

Combat Art Modifications

 

You can modify your Combat Arts any way you like, but here are my recommendations:

 

Battle Stance (Buff) - this is the only buff to use here.

Premonition for an increase in Attack Rating, Drill so you can use high level buff with lower cost, Retaliation so you can avoid some damage which will be reflected to your attackers instead. This CA should be gold-modded as soon as possible.

It gives 20% reflect at level 1, 45% at level 30, 55% at level 50...

 

 

Pelting Strikes - this is the spam-art that practically replaces your left mouse attack. Better left at low level for a while, the goal is to have the regeneration time at approximately 2,5-3 seconds (less if you can perform it faster).

Succession for the double-hit chance, Focus for the regeneration bonus, Precision for the Critical hits chance. You might want to mod it just to silver in the beginning, to save a mod for another CA like Dashing Alacrity (or if you don't want the chance for critical at all).

 

 

Playing is simple, just run up to a monster and pelt him. This leaves the other 3 CA slots for Flaring Nova (to spread Weaken on enemy groups), Assailing Sommersault (for fun and to jump over obstacles to avoid running), and for Dashing Alacrity.

 

Using booster slots is an extremely convenient option for Battle Stance, which can be kept at level 1 (memorized runes). Socket a few + Battle Stance rings or runes in two weapons, and possibly wear similar armor pieces. Precasting such a high level Battle Stance gives you a high chance to reflect melee attacks, a very high bonus to attack/defense, and a very low regen penalty. Learn more about booster slots in Making the best of Booster Slots and Key Bindings in Sacred 2

 

 

~~~~~~

 

 

I also like modding Dashing Alacrity. This CA will break roots, will give you a chance to resist roots, increase run/attack/cast speed, what's not to like. The drawback is it's short duration.

 

Recommended mods: Sprout will increase run speed (you won't need Attack Speed with Dual Wield), Delay will increase the duration by another 10 seconds, Impatience will reduce the cooldown to 40 seconds.

 

At CA level 1, the duration is 30 seconds vs 40 seconds cooldown (not including regen time of course). At CA level 34 the duration will be 35 seconds, vs cooldown of 40 seconds (this allows to have it on most of the time). At CA level 67 the duration gets to 40 seconds, but you need a high Exalted Warrior Focus to achieve that.

Don't expect to ever get higher than 45-50 seconds, that is hardly realistic as the CA level without penalty makes it way too hard.

 

With these modifications you can cast it very often, and benefit from ~50% Run Speed bonus (that's faster than on tiger, and about as fast as with a horse). Needless to say, if you don't like the idea of recasting it every 30-40 seconds, don't bother modding it.

 

I think the bonuses outweigh the inconvenience. Horse doesn't allow using Battle Stance, while tiger slows Pelting Strikes (but seems to increase the normal Dual attack speed). Using items with Run Speed occupies slots that can be used for other bonuses.

 

 

~~~~~~

 

 

All in all, this is an extremely tough Seraphim, both defensively and offensively.

 

Bargaining gives you access to amazing jewelry (hitpoints, all skills, all combat arts, deathblow) that fills any defensive shortcoming you might think this build has. I had 7000 hitpoints at level 50-55ish, with all the other defensive goodies included.

 

Dual Wield and Sword Weapons give you some nasty offensive capabilities, though you don't necessarily need to always use swords.

 

Lots of hitpoints, lots of damage, lots of fun

 

 

 

It’s not over now, watch me I will rise,

Time to reveal now...

I know I will not fail anymore...

 

[Erling 3]

so this is Merella or whatever it was true form! I remember I wondred what build you were using this build looks rock solid! pretty basic and not to complicated, thanks for the write up I shold get a shopper above level 6 soon...

[Kanafire 0]

This is almost identical to the build I'm using for my duel wield seraphim. The build works like a charm. Bosses die in little under a minute.

[Antitrust 32]

Yeah it has been pointed out that I'm not the first to make this build

 

But I'm the first to post it Or am I? I'll look really stupid if someone has already done this...

[Kanafire 0]

there are a couple of duel wield builds posted, but most of them used radiant pillar, and flaring nova (think thats right) for crowd control. The only thing I do differently on my build is I did not take bargaining. Dont' know exactly what I took instead, I'm at work and cant look at my toon.

[Schot 415]

Playing is simple, just run up to a monster and pelt him.

Sounds good to me!

 

 

Very nice write up trust. Love the use of the wiki to do all the explaining. Keeps the guide itself nice and tidy I think. Perfect timing on a Seraphim Bargainer build me thinks. ^^

[Viper007 1]

taking sword lore really worth it just for extra mod?

[Dobri 55]

It depends. A lot of people think it's a wasted pick, but equal share of the players like to have higher chance to inflict wounds, more death blow, better sword modifiers and such.

[Antitrust 32]

taking sword lore really worth it just for extra mod?

These mods are quite powerful

 

Chance to disregard armor, wounds, opponent's armor -%, critical, all these can significantly increase your killing speed. You can better compare weapons while shopping/upgrading, since you always see 4/4 bonuses on rare weapons instead of ignoring a weapon just because you don't have the skill. Some cool weapons can really benefit from Sword skill.

 

Now whether it's worth it, only you can decide

[Immali 2]

Nice guide, really!!

I learned to love Enhanced Perception and Bargaining, and I was amazed to see my level 65 TG taking 1 point in sword lore and, thanks to the + to all skills equipment, have it at level 89 in one second!! So I'm thinking of using the sword lore in one of my next dual wielding characters....I really think it's not a wasted skill point if added with + all skill equipment.

[gogoblender 3,304]

An amazing guide. And your timing with it's release was fantastic. Trust, I was so fed up with my ranged TG, that I was looking elsewhere to get my greed for another gunner filled. I had gotten so sick of Seraphims from Sacred, that I had thought I'd never put one together again... but when you look at her amazing stats for Dex, there's just no denying she's made for it.

 

I was about six skill choices in when your build went up, and I was delighted when I saw that amazing article you put up in the wiki about Dashing Alacrity.

 

As soon as I saw how convinced you were about it's potency I started putting all my further points into EWF and Bingo...the build was born. DAlacrity has to be one of the most useful Combat Arts I've had to play with, and after seeing how much faster things started going down, I created booster buff slot with plusses to all Combat Arts which was easy to do with Bargaining as you have in your build.

 

With a little bit of bargaining, I was, at level 50, able to cast a level 40 CA of any kind in addition to any of it's levels of Combat Arts in my armor...this just coming from the booster slot.

 

heh, yeah your build's a DW but your build concept's are sound and your explanations are great, and because they are it's easy from there to tinker with the Seraphim and get her to do other things, like make this for a ranged with Pelting.

 

And you even managed to get a second lore on too? Excellent. Maybe I'll take a sword lore as well, to give me an Area of Effect. If you're saying you can do it and still not break a sweat, that may be what I'd like to try, as I'm not sure I want to take another aspect focus just for an Area of Effect, and having a second lore just tickles me...especially if I'm going to pull it in to transform my pelting strikes from just ranged which I'm using it for now to, as well, an Area of Effect to take out anything that gets close to me.

 

If using my last choice for a Weapon Lore ( I already have Ranged and using Pelting Exclusively with a pistol) what would you suggest as best way to get the Pelting to take out all enemies close to me Area of Effect fashion... Sword or Duel?

 

Thanks for this amazing guide Trust.

 

Cheers

 

 

gogo

[Antitrust 32]

I was delighted when I saw that amazing article you put up in the wiki about Dashing Alacrity.

Hey, I just added a tip on what to expect in reality, since people think they can get a rather high duration

 

I don't use booster slots to cast DA though. Switching to the booster slot every 32 seconds is too much of a chore. I use booster for Battle Stance, and just my usual slots for DA. I do have some bonuses to it, so it's still higher level than the runes I read.

 

 

If using my last choice for a Weapon Lore ( I already have Ranged and using Pelting Exclusively with a pistol) what would you suggest as best way to get the Pelting to take out all enemies close to me Area of Effect fashion... Sword or Duel?

In this case Dual Wield will be better than Sword Weapons. An extra weapon equipped does more damage than many unlockable bonuses together

[ScoobyDouche 0]

nice guide!

I like single aspect builds

[RabbleBabble 0]

The distribution of skill points depends on your personal preferences, but skills that should be mastered asap are Dual Wield (your main skill), Constitution and possibly Enhanced Perception. You might also want to invest heavily in Exalted Warrior Focus in order to modify and use high-level Combat Arts, so keep that in mind.

 

I recommend assigning about 20 points in most of the skills before trying to master the important ones. That is usually the point where the diminishing returns kick in, so you get the best bang for the buck. This build has an easy access to +all skills gear, so some skills can be left at low levels, giving you more points to focus on important ones.

 

Antitrust

 

Is it possible for you to post exactly how you distributed your attribute points as well as skill points.

 

Thanks

[Dobri 55]

That would be a lot of typing I remember trying to show how did I put my point for about 25 levels, and it was half a page...

 

Antitrust said it. It depends on your personal preference, but you must have dual wield mastered by level 75 (meaning 1 point each level, keeping it at char level), constitution too (again keeping it at character level) and probably exalted warrior (close to char level). Armor is important too, so don't forget about it.

 

You should also keep in mind that this guide was written prior to patch 2.40, where you could keep the skills at 1/2 of the char level, get + all skills stuff and have skill mastery. As of patch 2.40, only hard points are needed, so follow the basic guideline - if you want mastery in a skill, assign a skill point to it at every level, and keep it at the same level as your character (naked, before equipment bonuses).

[Antitrust 32]

When I was level 80 I had the following stats, naked and with equipment:

 

 

 

Now my character is level 87 and will master Constitution in 4 levels. Here it is on the ladder.

[llChromEll 0]

does anyone know if this works on the ps3? I got up to level 5 and dual wield isnt in the options to choose yet

[Antitrust 32]

You need to put 5 points in Tactics Lore or similar skills first, at least on PC.

[ken840 0]

Hi and thank you for your great guide!

I have a couple questions:

How do you "spread Weaken on enemy groups" with Flaring Nova?

Also should I put more than one point in combat arts? It looks like the increased times are not so beneficial, what's your insight from higher levels?

Edited May 31, 2009 by ken840

[claudius 104]

What do you think of the 10th pick take revered tech focus and mod flaring nova for two pulses and stun and mod divine protection then use divine protection against mages (reflect) or any time your a little nervous.

[Antitrust 32]

How do you "spread Weaken on enemy groups" with Flaring Nova?

You cast Nova when there are a lot of enemies near you There's a high chance that they'll all be weakened by the magic damage of Nova.

 

 

Also should I put more than one point in combat arts? It looks like the increased times are not so beneficial, what's your insight from higher levels?

I sorta answered this in my SIF thread (iirc more than one time ) Check it out.

 

 

What do you think of the 10th pick take revered tech focus and mod flaring nova for two pulses and stun and mod divine protection then use divine protection against mages (reflect) or any time your a little nervous.

It's a good backup strategy

[TacoMan 0]

Combat Art Modifications

 

You can modify your Combat Arts any way you like, but here are my recommendations:

 

Battle Stance (Buff) - this is the only buff to use here.

Premonition for an increase in Attack Rating, Drill so you can use high level buff with lower cost, Retaliation so you can avoid some damage which will be reflected to your attackers instead. This CA should be gold-modded as soon as possible.

It gives 20% reflect at level 1, 45% at level 30, 55% at level 50...

 

 

Pelting Strikes - this is the spam-art that practically replaces your left mouse attack. Better left at low level for a while, the goal is to have the regeneration time at approximately 2,5-3 seconds (less if you can perform it faster).

Succession for the double-hit chance, Focus for the regeneration bonus, Precision for the Critical hits chance. You might want to mod it just to silver in the beginning, to save a mod for another CA like Dashing Alacrity (or if you don't want the chance for critical at all).

 

 

Playing is simple, just run up to a monster and pelt him. This leaves the other 3 CA slots for Flaring Nova (to spread Weaken on enemy groups), Assailing Sommersault (for fun and to jump over obstacles to avoid running), and for Dashing Alacrity.

 

Using booster slots is an extremely convenient option for Battle Stance, which can be kept at level 1 (memorized runes). Socket a few + Battle Stance rings or runes in two weapons, and possibly wear similar armor pieces. Precasting such a high level Battle Stance gives you a high chance to reflect melee attacks, a very high bonus to attack/defense, and a very low regen penalty. Learn more about booster slots in Making the best of Booster Slots and Key Bindings in Sacred 2

 

 

~~~~~~

 

 

I also like modding Dashing Alacrity. This CA will break roots, will give you a chance to resist roots, increase run/attack/cast speed, what's not to like. The drawback is it's short duration.

 

Recommended mods: Sprout will increase run speed (you won't need Attack Speed with Dual Wield), Delay will increase the duration by another 10 seconds, Impatience will reduce the cooldown to 40 seconds.

 

At CA level 1, the duration is 30 seconds vs 40 seconds cooldown (not including regen time of course). At CA level 34 the duration will be 35 seconds, vs cooldown of 40 seconds (this allows to have it on most of the time). At CA level 67 the duration gets to 40 seconds, but you need a high Exalted Warrior Focus to achieve that.

Don't expect to ever get higher than 45-50 seconds, that is hardly realistic as the CA level without penalty makes it way too hard.

 

With these modifications you can cast it very often, and benefit from ~50% Run Speed bonus (that's faster than on tiger, and about as fast as with a horse). Needless to say, if you don't like the idea of recasting it every 30-40 seconds, don't bother modding it.

 

I think the bonuses outweigh the inconvenience. Horse doesn't allow using Battle Stance, while tiger slows Pelting Strikes (but seems to increase the normal Dual attack speed). Using items with Run Speed occupies slots that can be used for other bonuses.

 

 

~~~~~~

 

 

Antitrust,

 

Thanks for posting this build. I'm new to Sacred and am thrilled that the title has finally made it to the Xbox 360. I have been using this build for my first character (which is up to level 63 at the moment).

 

I have a question about the last CA... Instead of Dashing Alacricity or Assailing Sommersault, how about Soul Hammer? Based on description of Soul Hammer, it seems like it would be a nice one to have against singular strong targets (e.g. bosses, mini-bosses, etc). Plus, the benefits gained through the points already put in Exalted Warrior -- and those appearing on sets like Niokaste's -- lead me to believe that Soul Hammer would be pretty powerful right out of the gate.

 

Am I missing something?

 

Thanks again,

-->Taco

Edited June 2, 2009 by TacoMan

[Antitrust 32]

I've been considering Souls Hammer as well It can be quite powerful, doing thousands of damage later on. I was thinking about modding it for Open Wounds and Deep Wounds.

 

What I'm not sure about is whether it's better kept at low level, or whether it should be used for seldom strong blows. The second would work nicely with the Wounds mods I believe.

[TacoMan 0]

I've been considering Souls Hammer as well It can be quite powerful, doing thousands of damage later on. I was thinking about modding it for Open Wounds and Deep Wounds.

 

What I'm not sure about is whether it's better kept at low level, or whether it should be used for seldom strong blows. The second would work nicely with the Wounds mods I believe.

 

 

Thanks for the reply. I did some searching and it appears that a lot of people are modding with Aim (+ chance for critical hits), Battering (reduce target's armor class) and Coup de Grace (2x damage when target's health drops). It seems like this would be a nice combo with Pelting Strikes. The Coup de Grace mod should finish off the target once their health is taken down with a few combos.

 

I currently only have one mod point available, so I'll learn one Soul Hammer rune, mod it with Aim and give it a try tonight.

 

-->Taco

[Antitrust 32]

I gues it all comes to how you are using it

 

If you want it to be an opening move, Wounds make more sense. For finishing off, the others would be better. Aim could work nicely in both cases though