Little Sara

You counted 1-4, 5-11, 12-24, 25-49, 50-150 and 150-200. The error is in counting 150 twice. The real total is 911 (plus 10 from selecting the skill itself, making 921)

That's pretty bad...considering the other three are not tempting one bit. Making a 30 min spell cooldown faster won't save me. I don't use horses, and I don't buy from vendors... Might take Bargaining instead of Alchemy (heh I'm not giving up Enhanced Perception).

That seems pretty correct though Combat Art Expert and Expert are either a different achievement, or only one name is good.

I tend to like extreme builds. After my "extremely melee" Seraphim, here is my "extremely hot" High Elf. Arrant Pyromancer Focus 175 Arrant Pyromancer Lore 175 Armor Lore 75 Constitution 75 Concentration 36 Combat Discipline 150 Ancient Magic 75 Delphic Arcana Focus 10 Riding 75 Enhanced Perception 75 So it focuses *only* on Arrant Pyromancer, boosting its damage, regeneration time, some more damage and some more regeneration time thrown in for good measure. The best buff to have is still Grand Invigoration for such a build. The Fire Demon's AI is sorta screwy, and he doesn't boost Arrant Pyromancer much. The second buff would be Incandescent Skin. For both buffs, regeneration penalty should balance its regeneration bonus. With the few points in Delphic Arcana Focus, the buff can be modded thrice. Arrant Pyromancer Focus makes those runes give all they've got. It's important to keep the cooldown low enough still. Don't put too many runes in Ancestral Fireball, Blazing Tempest, Incendiary Shower, Incandescent Skin and Grand Invigoration - seeing as a high cooldown means your death. Try to keep Ancestral Fireball below 2-3 seconds, Blazing Tempest below 10 seconds and Incendiary Shower below 5 seconds. Given that, everything else is fine. Arrant Pyromancer Lore boosts Damage, Execution/Casting speed and Critical chance. Note that the Execution thingy does not work in combos, but that's a minor point, we're taking this for the damage! Armor Lore at 75 for the regenration penalty reduction increase at Mastery, and well, for the Armor of the High Elf to reduce damage some. It's still not good to count on that build to tank monsters though. Armor is best at low penalty and with good bonuses, rather than high armor value, for this build. Armor Lore is also picked to prevent the movement speed penalty of higher level armor. Constitution at 75 or more, for the "regeneration during combat" found only at Mastery. This stacked with Grand Invigoration makes up for the High Elf's weakness greatly, and a higher HP is always good for a cardboard character. Concentration at 36. Mastery is not needed as two buffs are sufficient. Fire Demon is screwy and ONLY has a penalty for Arrant Pyromancer aspect, while Crystal Skin can't be used at the same time as Incandescent Skin anyways. The skill is taken only to reduce cooldown of Arrant Pyromancer. Next is Combat Discipline. Above 75, but not exactly for the Mastery, because of the higher damage above 75. Good idea to invest a lot in this skill. At Mastery is also makes combos 20% faster, even if the combo is only 1 Combat Art. Personally, for a two-part combo, I like Ancestral Fireball + Incendiary Shower. For a three part include Blazing Tempest to clear any survivors. For a four part (at Mastery), include Glacial Thorns. Ancient Magic tops the damage off with...even more damage. Bring it high enough for it to be worth it, but 75 is fine. Delphic Arcana 10 to give mods for Grand Invigoration. It will also boost the aspect's max level without penalty slightly. Riding at 75 to get the bonus of speed (Mastery) and at all, to boost the unique mount's regeneration speed. Obvously, you should take the Arrant Pyromancer-type mount for best efficiency. Enhanced Perception at 75 to get the "Chance to find Valuables" bonus. Any higher is unnecessary. ------------------------- Main Combat Arts will obviously be the Arrant Pyromancer ones: Ancestral Fireball, Blazing Tempest and Incendiary Shower. Incandescent Skin as second buff once you get Concentration. For Fireball, I suggest getting two fireballs homing-on-target that do splash damage. Good for single and multi-target mobs, and you don't shoot 'nothing' most of the time (because of the homing). For the others, go as you see fit. For Incandescent Skin I suggest: Inferno, Energy Focus and Arrant Pyromancer Expertise. Damage isn't what this build lacks, so extra cooldown reduction is always nice like this. Grand Invigoration would unfortunately lack any mods, but keep investing runes in it up until you reach equal regeneration penalty for the bonus. You won't regret investing in it for the HP regeneration, making potions obsolete in the early game.

Although I haven't seen it, there probably are: Finish Platinum without dying. Finish Niobium without dying. Reach Niobium. If you play Hardcore, you sorta won't have a choice in the matter...but it's not as simple as it seems to do it all without dying once. Even if I die much less often than my friend (who's died over 50 times now). I still have died around 12 times (and am mid-Gold).

Physical CAs might vary with weapon damage. If you have 40% phys-to-magic conversion for example, the CA *might* be 40% magic as well. I can't confirm this now though. Magical CAs wouldn't since they don't rely on the converter thing. Ancestral Fireball would remain the element it is, entirely. Not caring about weapon conversions, for example. Not that it does any good to socket those to a High Elf...they tend to do poorly in melee.

Yes Deathblow seems to be more effective against bosses. A significant base damage increase would definitely be better. I don't tend to favor damage rings however. My Seraphim has two one-handed swords doing 100-135 and 120-150 respectively. Ironically enough they are the same sword (class quest reward from Silver, and from Gold). I prefer "Damage: Physical +xx%", or the better "Damage: +xx%" bonuses. Having a different set of weapons or other equipment for when a boss is under xx% HP could be in your favor. But needn't be used the rest of the time. Pretty useless against most non-boss monsters though.

Some spells have mods that accomplish this. Some who are mostly physical will have a "Add Poison Damage" component (Dryad) for example. Otherwise, I don't think this is possible.

I prioritize 1: Kick Ass 2: Stay Alive 3: MF ... 99: Look good* I prefer doing that in real life

2 years old 3½ years old 4 years old 8½ years old (the one in the middle left, smallest) 16 years old 19 years old 20 years old Lolita 24 years old 24 years old Recent picture (almost 26 years old) Halloween/Lolita 26 years old (and yes it was cold in October!)

This is my own take on the build, I might decide to change it at some point, but it seems fine now: Sword Weapons 1 Tactics Lore 150 Dual Wield 174 Armor Lore 100 Concentration 1 Constitution 100 Warding Energy Lore 100 Enhanced Perception 100 Toughness 100 Combat Reflexes 100 926/926 skill points (and 10/10 skills) Possible modification if Sword Weapons proved unneeded: Warding Energy Lore 100 -> 75 Sword Weapons 1-> 0 Alchemy 0 -> 25 Dual Wield 174 -> 175 Edit: Further modifications and new build: Dual Wield 175 -> 150 Tactics Lore 150 -> 125 Toughness 100 -> 75 Combat Reflexes 100 -> 75 Constitution 100 -> 125 Alchemy 25 -> 75 Armor Lore 100 -> 125 Tactics Lore 120 Dual Wield 150 Armor Lore 125 Concentration 1 Constitution 125 Warding Energy Lore 75 Enhanced Perception 100 Combat Reflexes 75 Toughness 75 Alchemy 75 This new build focuses on the most "potent" aspects, giving the bare minimum for Mastery in the cases of Warding Energy Lore, Toughness, Combat Reflexes and Alchemy (since those skills aren't all that essential). It gives 100 to Enhanced Perception due to lack of points elsewhere. Dual Wield at 150 due to it being needed at highest. Tactics Lore at 125, and the lone Concentration at 1, since the regeneration time reduction is not needed. The best skill point to gain ratio is attained below 75, but the Mastery often offers pretty neat benefits. And then the gain increase per level picks up at higher than pre-75 (and wanes around 90-100), making the 75-100 trek about as gainful as 50-75 was (save for the Mastery itself). 100-200 isn't too gainful, and only considered with bread-and-butter skill, as I consider that putting skills at 200 to leave some at 1 or 25 is a waste, even with "All skills +x" bonuses. Modified build lowering Tactics Lore to 120 from 125. Was counting on 926 total points, and there are 921.

To get less than 20% of the map, you more or less have to stick to roads and only doing your main and classquest. Doing this and being pretty straight-forward would still be pretty close to 20%. Forget sidequests if they even make you stray a little from the road. I suggest doing this in Bronze, and in Silver and subsequent difficulties doing everything (sidequests, optional bosses, Blind Guardian quest, reaching heights of map exploration %). I do wonder if the achievements are tied to character or account. Say I did a Seraphim, got the Finish Light and a bunch of other achievements. Then started ANOTHER Seraphim from scratch, would she get all of that as well?

Bookworm - Read 33 books Slaughter-Fest - Kill 1337 Elite Monsters unknown name - Kill 25 bosses (counts other difficulties) unknown name - Finish main quest exploring less than 20% of map. unknown name - Explore 30% of the map unknown name - Explore 50% of the map unknown name - Finish Bronze or Silver Difficulty without dying unknown name - Finish Gold Difficulty without dying Toughness - Reach Gold difficulty unknown name - Reach Platinum difficulty unknown name - Finish Bronze without buying anything. Globe-Trotter - Reach a certain region during main quest Explorer - Reach a certain region during main quest Wanderer - Reach a certain region during main quest Combat Art Expert - Mod a combat art with 3 mods unknown name - Use a combo Dragonslayer - Kill 1 dragon-type enemy (including small ones) Journeyman - Complete 50% of all sidequests unknown name - Find all 42 towns unknown name - Read 100 tombstones unknown name - Trade in multiplayer once unknown name - Join a party of 3 in co-op multiplayer High Elf lv 15 is Lodain's Hero (not Lorain) and about "I think that is/was the plan, for the consoles at the very least.", in Xbox 360/PS3 I haven't heard of them doing anything, what is the source?

I added this to another thread, but I thought it might deserve it's own. I'll remove it from the original one. Is there some sort of bonus, something unlocked, by getting achievements (reaching lv 5 is Respectable for example)? I know many of them, but not if they're worth trying to get. Most of those "achievements" are acquired through normal play: Level 5 (any character) Level 15 (each character independantly) Level 35 (any character) Reach Main quest in Human, Orc, Seraphim, Dragon, Swamp, Desert, Jungle, Jungle Isle, Wasteland (each is 1 separate achievement) Finish Light Campaign Finish Shadow Campaign Those should all be acquired in Bronze/Silver, without really trying. You'd obviously need two characters (one Light, one Shadow), to get the last ones. But there are others, more obscure achievements, and I'm wondering if there's some sort of bonus to unlocking them, sort of like the stuff you can get in Star Ocean Til The End of Time, by collecting battle trophies (which range from easy "Reach lv 10" to insanely hard "Beat Freya in 4D Difficulty Alone"), at some % ratio of them (there are 300), you unlock character outfits, then a sound test, Universe Difficulty, 4D Difficulty, and Full-Active Mode.

I intend to do *all* the game's quests.

I have 11% MF so far. From equipment mostly. I never noticed an inherent one, but didn't pay attention. Edit: *removed the end of the post, made its own thread*

And in Niobium at level 50 it's up to 100 or so (depending on element, Magic seems to be higher than the others, I think Fire tends to be the lowest). I know if I spawn a very rare orb in Bronze, orb level 200, it will have 200 resistance. I haven't tried in other difficulties. I'm not sure 200 is the cap, but I wouldn't count on more than 600 for 3 orbs (which is decent with +200% armor, making 1800 non-physical armor).

You're welcome, but my name is Sara, not Sarah. Everyone makes the mistake though.

Relics/Orbs at level 45-55 give about 80-100 resistance, I mean the ones that drop. If I'm not mistaken, the resistance is capped at 200/orb. Edit: At Silver at lv 42, I was getting 65 resistance ones. At Gold at lv 45, I found a 85 resistance one.

It's horse CAs though. So it probably does, but it's not your character's attacks. If you meant improve regen time of CA on the special mount. I can't say, but I doubt it. The skill certainly mentions nothing of it (on the wiki or elsewhere).

If attack rate does get higher on a horse, it is minimal compared to the Battle Stance increase. Consider a +200% Attack increase, with base 500 attack, becomes 1500 attack. Even if the horse gave 200 attack, or +50% attack, it wouldn't even compare. And Battle Stance (and Sinister Predator, for Dryad) cannot be used while on a horse. This is why I prefer the special mount (one for defense/evasion), for the additional move speed, the stats bonuses, and the ability to use buffs while mounted. It might be nice to do a comparative build, mine vs a horse-build with Riding. This build wouldn't (be able to) rely on Battle Stance though. As for Orbs, I would prefer Enhanced Perception on all 3 (or all 12). I'd use magic ones in High Elves, Human, Seraphim, fire in Orc and Dragon, poison in Swamp, Jungle, Jungle Isle, ice...hmm where would I use ice? Oh and personally, for Dryad I also do a full normal-attack build, relying on Moribund Animus, Sinister Predator and Ancient Bark. I use Goldenglade Touch (it's actually better than the Kybele godspell imo...) and Malicious Totem to "help" in large mobs of enemies, but I take on enemies directly as well.

Per the post above at the top, Swirling Mist of Miasma's stats are irrelevant. Not only because its level varies with the character's, but because you don't even hit him directly, and he's essentially immune to all damage types except the one done to him when killing the undeads he spawns. He's very similar to Son of Sun enemy in Chrono Trigger. "After that's taken care of, don't attack the Son of Sun directly. There are several flames that can be targeted, all but one will counterattack with fire, the other will damage the Son of Sun when attacked. This is the only way to damage Son of Sun. Every time Son of Sun uses the Roulette Shuffle, the flame that should be attacked switches position."

Well numbers will have a higher chance of drop simply because of the amount. You roll your chance to drop at every kill, so if you have 25 Kobolds attacking you...but Kobolds being weak, their danger class (and experience) is low. The demon thingies in the last region of the game are much tougher in comparison. Depending on what you want, you can achieve it by sheer volume of kills alone. Killing tougher enemies means less enemies, killing weaker enemies means needing to kill more. But you have to concern yourself with your survivability more, since Survival Bonus counts there. If you can kill 10 tough guys, then die, or an infinite amount of kobolds, go for kobolds.

There is another variable from drops, besides Survival Bonus and Chance to find Valuables: Danger class. T-Energy monsters are much tougher than their regular counterparts. I think their danger class might be different (but I can't be sure). Similarly, Champions, Elites, and Bosses, would all have higher danger classes.

I know that Maryann, for the quest Orpheus, is also immortal. Except she is a coward hireling (runs from enemies, does not fight)...she seems to run more from the character and INTO enemies, but seeing she is immortal, it is not a big issue. From what I've seen hireling AI has much left wanting in Sacred 2. They either run from you to get themselves killed, or run into enemies on purpose. Exceptions that matter: Hero hirelings 1. Fire Demon (High Elf). Has decent damage...but misses his fireball often. Decent HP, but does not fight. Dies rather easily. Gives about +10% damage to Arrant Pyromancer damage of the High Elf. 2. Moribund Animus (Dryad). Has decent damage as well. Does not rely on fireballs or any type of attacks, attacks normally. Almost unkillable at higher level. Damage is significant (enough to kill any non-champion fast, champion decently fast). 3. Nether Allegiance (Shadow Warrior). 2 to 4 skeletal warriors fight at his side. Night unkillable, their attack strength is low however. Moribund Animus and Nether Allegiance both have a combat art mod, that allows hirelings to have an armor rating. This armor covers all 5 types of damage (and the armor amount is the total of all 5). Their totals are VERY high for their level. A Seraphim of equal level, with very good armor, Armor Lore 20 and other Armor+% bonuses, will have significantly less armor than them. And SHE is hard to kill. I saw a friend (Shadow Warrior) play with his skeletons, them tanking the main quest bosses. Sometimes the boss would go for him and ignore them. But even if the boss went for them, they never died. This also goes for Nameless Guardian. At level 48, his skeletons had 9800 armor each (1960 of each type). My Seraphim level 47, in comparison, only had 1600 armor total (amongst which 700 physical).