Steerpike1

That's pretty incredible. Nicely done, Wolfie.

"Sophia the Seraphim gave birth to a son. Whether he could be an actual Seraphim isn't really said as far as I know." Thanks for the reminder, Graeystone. The book is one I found (and copied out) in a recent play through Sacred 1. The closing words of Stadalus, the Abbot of the Fortress Monastery of Icecreek Dale are: "Only very few Seraphim are born nowadays and even Sophia has not given birth to a blessed girl, but to a boy - my son, Aarnum." It seems to imply that seraphim were female only, male offspring were human (or whatever the male parent was, guess). I really must go back and see if I can copy out all the books. The problem is that after the introduction of Underworld, the History books all got a bit crazy in their chronology (which is bad for a set of history books).

I have to agree with Wolfie, it's not really a fair comparison between a main plaot character from S1 and a character that you could miss entirely if you don't pick up the quest. To be honest, the first time I did the quest in Sacred 2 I was looking at the number of escorts it gave me and thinking "Great, now I have to try to keep all these numskulls alive!" and not really paying attention to the plot. I S1 (que nostalgia) I actually felt betrayed by the guy, especially when my up until then immortal companion suddenly found he was no longer immortal. I do find it interesting that one family seems to have cornered the market on evil in Ancaria for over 2,000 years. Surely this is something the Competitions Commission of Ancaria needs to look into?

I think for me the reason I'm still playing (other than Sacred 2 being the best game I ever bought), is that I'm still thinking of what ifs. I'm sure most of these have been done by other people, and maybe even discussed here, but a game that two and a bit years down the line still has me thinking "what would happen if?" has got to be a good game. It's the sheer amount of possibilities out there that keeps me going. True, when you look on the surface, it's seven characters with a limited range of CAs and weapons. Scratch that surface, and there's a whole load of ways and means of doing things. One thing I would add, in relation to certain other ARPGs, is that Sacred isn't all doom and gloom. Yes, you go out and fight evil monsters, some of them spawn of hell, but there's always something to lighten things up a little. (I realise that for some this would actually be a breaking point, but for me it's a reason to keep on at it).

Thanks for explaining the small white bear line the High Elves come out with. I'd never thought of Knut, as whilst he got into the media in Britain, it probably wasn't to the level it did in Germany. Rather embarrassingly, the only white bear I could think of was Rupert the Bear, and I was fairly certain that we wouldn't have been able to syndicate that cartoon in Germany!

Nice find, Spunky. I love the fact it's called a blade when it's a spiky hammer thing! How does it thwunk?

Steve - on PC, if you socket a ring into an item it does alter the level. It's actually possible with bargaining to buy a ring or amulet that pushes the level of the socketed item above equippable level. From what I've read, this does not apply to blacksmith arts. For those on console, level change doesn't apply, from what I've seen. Thanks for the reply, Dobri. I think when I do it, this build will be stand alone, just out of interest. Sort of an 'if this had been my first build, what would have happened?' approach. I can always delve into the +all skills stockpile if necessary. I'm not that far with the latest character, though, so it might be a little while (although I will be trying this).

Interesting build, Dobri. It shows real creativity and making the most of all available possibilities. I;ve got to say up to the release of Ice and Blood, I was a bit of a + all skills slave, which would have stopped me building a seraphim like this, due to needing bargaining. I'll give this a go after the current build I'm playing with, who's only just got to gold, to see if I really am as good with seras as I think I am*. * I doubt it!

Got to say I have two different experiences with Orducail. The first (on PC), with a Mystic Stormite High Elf, the dragon died so quick I was amazed. I was convinced that I had come up with my killer build, until she ran into the mist monster and she ended up parked at that point. The second (on PS3) was an Inquisitor who got cut to ribbons by the dragon, didn't last more than five seconds even with attempted healing pot abuse. Admittedly, that was a single aspect build, using only soul reaver as his buff, and that might have been the weakness. To be honest, I think the dragons in both campaigns are the benchmark for characters. If you can take down the dragons at that point, your character has a reasonable chance of being able to get through the game (with the possible exception of my High Elf...)

I don't use combos a lot, but my favourite for a seraphim with Combat Discipline is Assailing Somersault-Soul Hammer-Pelting Strikes - basically, somersault towards the enemy champion, take him out in one hit (hopefully) then hit his followers as well. Without Combat Discipline, it's abbreviated to Assailing Somersault-Pelting Strikes. Normally, I just spam Pelting Strikes, though.

Okay, so from what I see you have one spare skill, which I'd take armour lore with (it's the only skill I consider vital for all characters). I'd also consider dropping Sword Lore in order to take Concentration. Whilst this means you aren't getting the lore based bonuses for most swords, a lot of the unique swords lack hidden modifiers anyway. My take on this would be: 2. Tactics Lore 3. Concentration 5. Dual Wield 8. Armour Lore 12. Revered Tech Focus 18. Combat Reflexes 25. Constitution 35. Toughness 50. Warding Energy Lore 65. Exalted Warrior Focus You would need to drop five points into Tactics Lore to open Dual Wield at level five, and then get five points into Concentration before taking Revered Tech Focus at level 12 (so that you can start modding Warding Energy). I'd take Revered Tech Focus there, as you haven't got the Lore skill - I don't normally take Focus skills early as I don't consider them necessary until Gold*. Personally, I'd take Polearms over dual Wield, in order to get the life leech % for boss fights, but that's just me. The damage output on polearms is pretty good as well, even without the life leech. * I should explain that I tend to take both Lore and Focus skills for the aspects I plan to use, and take the Lore skills early on, leaving the focus skills for later in the game when you need to be running buffs at stupidly high amounts. (Essjayehm got there first!)

Okay, I've been playing around with a throwing weapons seraphim, with the community patch. It started as a fun build, one I was planning on just playing around with, maybe levelling in LAN, as I didn't think the damage output would be that good. However, I decided last night to see if she could beat Xanthier in silver SP - which she did at level 38. All right, she didn't break any records for speed, but she got through with minimal healing pot abuse*! So, I'm now fairly convinced that this build is robust enough to take on the Nameless Guardians. However (and here's my question), I seem to remember that the Facetellion is very difficult for ranged characters to kill. Can anyone tell me if this is true and, if so, is he the only one that presents unusual trouble? I think it was his life leech/health regen which presented the problem. He's the only one I can remember seeing a problem with, so I'm hoping it's only there Temerity will have to switch to the two handed sword she's been carrying as back up. * I should add to that she's in the heaviest armour available, although non-set and without many sockets.

I'd just like to say thanks to all those involved in the CM patch. I finally got around to doing Christmas island again last night (only second time since I started playing back in October 2008) and had a great time. Poldiano - I have Sacred 2 Gold and the CM patch installs fine for me, having first installed the official patch from the former Ascaron website. I couldn't even get the game running without installing the patch to 2.65.

"Six is the standard, which is reduced to four whilst mounted ( special mount )" Not sure about mounted, but it's six if dual wield, five if polearms or single wield (I think) and three if using a two handed sword, just to make things more complicated. I think it's three with ranged weapons as well, but I generally use soul hammer as my main CA there.

Thanks both. While I didn't go for a coffee, I did get bogged down with skeletons, toxic elementals and the occasional rat. I must have spent enough time with them for the regen to be noticeable!

This is a really silly question. Following a recent reinstall, I'm running my second seraphim through gold and got to the bit where you pick up Mialyn on the way to Thylysium. Because she had more HP left this time than she had in silver I noticed where she was (so to speak). Later on, she had almost reached full HP! Even though I had not used a healing pot. My query is do escort slowly regenerate, or did the fact I was using a Life Leech + 1.2% weapon what healed her?

The rubbish dirk you get for killing the giant boar near Twainbrook always gets me (part of the hunters chain). The knife is meant to mark you as a hunter extraordinaire, but is always a rubbish (grey) item on PC, or non-starred item on console. Even kobolds carry better knives than these elite hunters. No wonder they need someone to escort their lady friend back to town with the ill gotten goods you've gathered for them...

They need more people to work on S3 than they do on a Star Trek game? Strange. Anyway, I wish them all luck and look forward to the next installment of S3 (with less rats this time).

The crazy level of detail on the world graphics (suc as the pictures based on Leanardo Da Vinci's works etc). Sometimes it looks like you could zoom in and read the books open on the tables...

I generally listen to the game music, even though I still have the battle music turned on, which meant it was playing continuously for about two and a half hours last night as I wended my merry way through the Blood Forest. That said, I did once have Yakkety Sax playing in the background whilst playing the Shadow Warrior in Tyr Lysia. It's true what they say - that tune can make any game a little more enjoyable...

Very impressive, Sankekur. Nice work, although in my case I'll need stronger glasses