belgarathmth

Hi, I've been playing a new shopper dragon mage recently to add to my collection of toons. I've noticed that he often says "4782" while fighting certain enemies. What does that mean? It seems awfully close to "Species 8472" from Star Trek: Voyager. Is it a slightly altered reference to the show, or does it mean something else?

One little thing, albeit two years late: In DaveO's build, above, he suggests taking Enhanced Perception as one of the choices for the last skill slot. You can't take Enhanced Perception without spending a slot on Blacksmith plus five skill points.

Brilliant work! Beautiful! I'm paying my respects by replaying Sacred 2; so much fun! Sacred 2 has a permanent place on my all-time favorites list. I think I may go back and replay Sacred 1 as well. Sacred 1 and 2 live on as long as we keep playing them.

@Claudius, that's very insightful. If I really want to depend on shurikens against platinum and niobium bosses, shouldn't I try to get Ranged Weapons skill? That just seems kind of counterintuitive to me that a toon who's supposed to be a spell caster can't rely on his spells. Also, it's really hard to get good equipment without at least one of either EP or Bargaining. I wonder if my failed dragon mage might have done much better by taking Bargaining and using shopped sets of gold outfits, rather than trying to use EP and use green sets. (I've never tried Alchemy for a green skill. The reagent drops seem to be few and far between unless you farm, but the increase of potion drops you suggest sounds interesting.) I think it was a mistake for him to master Dragon Lore, since the only good he gets out of the mastery is for his Dragon Strike, which does very disappointing damage, and often misfires, especially in caves. Also, one of the supposed main attack spells of the aspect, Eternal Fire, does precisely nothing, as far as I can tell, even fully modded. I thought that taking Dragon Lore Mastery would be good for his Familiar hitpoints and intelligence bonus (for more spell damage), but I kind of doubt now that whatever small hitpoints and intelligence bonus he's getting from that (wasted?) mastery could have been much better spent on Elemental Focus mastery. Actually, the *only* aspect that seems to me to do reliably consistent damage with reasonably short cooldowns (assuming extensive use of the x.x seconds to recharge per hit affix, which I use quite a bit), is Elemental Aspect. Mentalism and Dragon Magic both seem to do *very* disappointing damage. All that said, he *did* dominate on silver and gold levels, with no problems whatsoever, at any time. He also did very well for himself on platinum level, up to Octo. I've read from some internet research that Octo may be intended as a kind of "gatekeeper" boss, designed to keep you from progressing too soon through the game levels. Especially if that theory that Octo has a healing regeneration multiplier based on the difference between your respective levels is true, I would guess that my "failed" dragon mage could probably get past him if he were to grind some more levels and come back. But, I play to relax, and I'm enjoying a light saber shadow warrior who pwned platinum Octo while he was only level 77 to Octo's level 90. I already have played him today and gotten through Carnak, with no problems. He's now level 81, and still having no trouble with platinum level. Really, his only incentive not to just hurry straight on to niobium level is that the set armor drops are starting to be too far above his level for him to use, which is a bit frustrating. (Set items are now dropping at level 105, where his Armor Lore limits him to level 100.)

I've noticed this same phenomenon. It happens with some jewelry too. Since I've been noticing it for years on CP versions 1.20 and 1.30, and I'm now just beginning to play with 1.40, I can't narrow down all the CP versions on which I've noticed the audio effect. Also, I've never had a random light saber drop. I've only had the planned ones (Y'Oldah, Corn Circles, Matter of Nerves, Twitty Tister, and Power of Nim tied to the Office Quest.)

@gogoblender, okay, I put a short entry at the end of the "Star Wars" easter egg section under "Yoda". Thanks for the invitation to do so. It's truly amazing how much hard work people have put into the Wiki. For the major contributors, it seems to be a labor of love. I had never noticed the wood pile that looks like an x-wing, and I didn't know there was a statue of Obi-Wan Kenobi. It's really fun to find these things. EDIT: Okay, I also tried to put in one line about the kobold language lesson in the quest description for "Manners Maketh the Kobold".

@Flix, I think you probably hit the crux of it - he needs to be a higher level to take on Platinum bosses, especially with the mistakes in his build (e.g., no Focuses). If I get in the mood to play him again, he probably just needs to go grind some more levels.

@Flix, I really don't see what could have made a difference, when throwing maxed out spells from everything the dragon mage has cannot do any damage. I was casting Maelstrom, Mental Strike, Energy Blaze, Tornado, Destroyers, Gust of Wind, and Dragon Strike, almost all maximally modded, and doing no damage. That was *with* Ancient Magic Mastery, as well as Elemental Lore Mastery and Dragon Lore Mastery. My weakest aspect was Mentalism, but I had all the debuff mods available from there. Also, my experience was that Mentalism does very underwhelming damage through all levels of the game, anyway. And, I did have more than 50 soft points in Mentalism Lore. What was I supposed to put in that Staff Lore slot that would have helped turn the tide? One of the Focuses? I dunno, it still seems to me to be a class failure when you can have so many of its powers maxed and still do no damage against platinum Octo. It could also be a CP issue, since the unmodded game would not have so much boss health regeneration. But, again, other classes have no problem here, even when not optimized.

I'm not sure if this is news to anybody, but I also noticed that Y'Oldah's koboldish language lesson consists of the English phrases spelled backwards, for example, "Greetings, your Greenness!" is translated into koboldish by Y'Oldah as "Sseneerg roy, sgniterg!"

Okay, I just did this same battle on platinum level with a level 79 shadow warrior against a level 91 Octogolamus. Octo went down effortlessly, as one of the weakest bosses in the game should. This isn't even an optimized shadow warrior. He has mastered *Enhanced Perception*, of all things, with mastered *Speed Lore* and *Tactics Lore*. He has only about 20 ranks in Sword Lore, with only 5 hard points spent. His only defensive skills are Armor Lore and Toughness, both *far* below mastery level. He fights with a level 82 Power of Nim light saber, and a level 70 Shield of Mirrors (with no Shield Lore skill). I think there is something wrong with the balance of the dragon mage class, when a sub-optimized example of a different class can do so much better at roughly the same level, so effortlessly. Admittedly, my poor, failed dragon mage was very badly built, in hindsight. He tried to develop all three aspects, at the expense of specialization. He took "Lore" in the three aspects, with no "Focuses". His triple aspect build worked very well through gold level, and he only hit his pre-ordained wall at platinum level Octogolamus. Ironically, I think he could have done the rest of platinum level just fine, although he would have been a red potion junkie. But, platinum level Octo is a wall that he cannot pass - thus, he is a truly *failed* build. He's probably got *some* way to get past, if I cared to bang my head against the wall for long enough, trying different things, but, why should I do that, when I have several shadow warrior toons who can glide through all levels of the game, even with sub-optimal builds? Anyhoo, my continued thanks to everyone who responded to my thread, and who tried to help.

LOL - I can't believe I just noticed this. I'm playing a light saber "shadow warrior" Jedi currently, and I just went into "Y'Oldah's" swamp in Artamark in order to get the random light saber provided by the CP. The first thing he asks you to do is to recover a piece of art by "Skowe", which has been stolen by orcs. Would you believe I just now made the connection that "Skowe" is "Ewoks" spelled backwards? ROFLMAO. If anyone needed any more evidence that the Ascaron devs were huge Star Wars fans, well, here it is!

@Chattius, Maelstrom is fully modded with debuffs. I have a combo with Maelstrom and the other two attack spells from Mentalism. The Mental Strike has two mods, including a debuff, and the electric damage one has only one mod. I have a second combo with fully modded Tornado, Destroyers, and Gust of Wind (all modded for maximum damage increase.) Then, I have a fully modded Dragon Strike, with maximum damage increase, and another debuff. Ancient Magic is also mastered in addition to Elemental Lore Mastery and Dragon Lore Mastery. The game is set for separate aspect timers. I am playing on PC, and I'm using Community Patch 1.40. I think the CP is part of my problem, meaning I could uninstall CP as a last resort, but I don't really want to do that if I can find another way. I fire the Mentalism combo first for the debuffs. Then the elemental damage combo. Finally, the Dragon Strike, after which the first Mentalism combo is ready to fire again. I can rotate through these indefinitely for, say, several minutes. It barely scratches Octo, and what little damage it does do, he regenerates every time I start the rotation. Meanwhile, he can't damage me either. It's an eternal stalemate. The only thing I can think of to try is gain a couple of levels, resocket for higher attack bonus, and try to hit him with my staff (or, I could try that life leech shuriken, without being proficient with it.) My spells can't hurt him. At least, since he's spawned already at level 100, I don't think he'll go any higher if I grind my toon up closer to his level. I've read but not had confirmed that his number of levels higher than you multiplies his healing ability, meaning that if I go up some levels, it might reduce his healing rate. I appreciate all the answers and help here. I think I'm going to take a break from this toon for a bit, though, and maybe come back later and see if I can solve the impass. I'm still interested in any ideas anybody might come up with in the meantime.

Octo can't hurt my dragon mage any more than my dragon mage can hurt him. It's a total stalemate. It's like we'd be standing there whaling on each other forever, if I let it go on. The best idea I've seen yet is to take one of my %life leech shurikens and try that - although, my dragon mage's attack value is so low, I'm not sure if he could hit with it. I guess I could give up a lot of the defense I have socketed and try to get my attack value up, but, the whole idea of using a shuriken when the toon is supposed to be a caster feels like a cheat or an exploit to me. He should be damaging with his spells - which are now useless against Octo. I guess I'll go back to playing my shadow warrior toons for now, who don't have issues like this at any point in the game.

Thanks, @Mibbs, but it's too late for this toon to change his build. I just checked the damage types of my CA's, and it's overwhelmingly physical damage, so that's not the problem. I always think the elementals are doing fire damage because of the fiery explosion animations, but they're pure physical damage. My dragon strike ought to be doing good fire damage, though, and that's supposed to be Octo's weakness. I've read in some posts that Octo may have a super-healing mechanism based on character level, so leveling some more may help. But I hate to invest the time in that if it will be time wasted. My staff is the Staff of Ignis, socketed with fire, so that should hurt Octo pretty well if I could hit him with it. Perhaps I should try to socket some more attack bonus? I need defense usually, but Octo can't hurt me any worse than I can hurt him, so it's kind of a stalemate at the moment. Also, I know that the CP increases boss regeneration, so I don't yet how much the CP may be contributing to my problem.

Hi, I'm playing a level 86 dragon mage on platinum level, and he seems to have hit a wall that I can't see a way around with the Octogolamus. The only kinds of damage he can do barely scratch it, and it regenerates faster than he can do anything to it. His build is mastered Ancient Magic, mastered Elemental Lore, mastered Dragon Magic, with high ranks in Mentalism Lore, Staff Lore, Concentration, Combat Discipline, Enhanced Perception, Toughness, and Armor Lore. With the Combat Discipline, he is using three spells from every aspect on a rotating timer, over and over, with basically no pauses thanks to yellow potions, and all the combat arts are in the twenties for levels - and all of that spell power combined does effectively no damage. He is wearing combination pieces of Mavv's, Torik's, and Pyx's, to get about +21 to all skills. I am playing on CP version 1.40. I have a lot of regeneration per hit items equipped, as well as spell intensity, attack and defense. His survival bonus has enemies at 14 levels above his own, so he is trying to damage a level 100 Octogolamus. It looks like to me that the thing's magic resistance is so high, my entire investment in magical damage has been wasted at this level of bosses. Even with Staff Lore at about 50, he can't hit it with his staff. Would it have helped if I had taken some Focus skills? Actually, I can't see where firing my spells faster would help. A hundred times zero damage is still zero damage. Is there any hope for this toon? I think this experience may put me off playing dragon mages in the future if I can't find a solution here. By contrast, my shadow warrior toons can destroy the Octogolamas in about ten hits with a percent life leeched weapon, or can gradually wear it down even with inferior weapons. I think the problem for the caster vs. Octogolamus is the inability to do good physical damage. Has anyone else ever hit this wall? Advice, solutions?

Hi, friends, I'm back playing Sacred 2, reveling yet again in its awesomeness. So, I used to worry about maximum level caps and survival bonus, afraid that if I ever died, the enemies would be of such low level that I'd *never* be able to gain levels with that toon at a satisfying rate. Then, I just over the past couple of weeks leveled a new shadow warrior to 62, rushing through silver up to platinum. Since I am now playing my first "hurried" platinum level toon, I have become aware for the first time of *minimum* regional levels. Basically, I have a level 62 shadow warrior playing on platinum level in Artamark, where the *minimum* enemy level is 79. So, all the mobs (and bosses) have purple circles. This was challenging but not much of a problem, until I just made the mistake of going up against the "Big Bad Wolf" boss, with my level 62 to his 79 or 80, and, although I almost won by scarfing health potions, he got me at the last moment. My hard-won survival bonus plummeted from almost 90% to .02%! Yikes!. However, the enemies are *still* coming up at level 79 to my 62. So, I guess my basic question here, as a platinum level noob, is, does rushing a character to platinum level render the survival bonus irrelevant? That is, if I continue on to beat platinum level and on into niobium level, with the minimum regional levels near 20 levels above my own, does that render the survival bonus moot? If the game goes on like this, I will enjoy platinum and niobium levels with all regional enemies at least 17-20 levels above my own, regardless of my survival bonus level. That's kind of exciting to me that I might not have to worry about that much any more. It's as if the main death penalty that I always worried about (weak, unworthy enemies almost forever after dying once), has been removed, as long as I always do the "rush job" through silver and gold levels. The only place where that might hurt would be bosses. I might start to do more side quests and exploration just to try to get my level up to where enemies finally turn red instead of purple, even with a survival bonus of zero. Thoughts? Are there other consequences to dying and the survival bonus (or penalty) system in the platinum and niobium levels of the game? Also, I now finally understand why everybody always says "the game starts at platinum and niobium - get through silver and gold as quickly as possible so you can *really* experience the game".

This issue is why I always lose interest in the game about halfway through gold. I've taken about a dozen characters that far, and several more partway. I've never had a character on platinum, much less niobium. After some time has passed, I usually come back to Sacred 2, but I usually want to build a new character when I do. There will have been so much time passed, I will have forgotten what I was doing with the old gold level toons, and will have lost all attachment to them. Actually, this is the way I am with all arpg's. I don't think I've ever played to the final level of any of them. I pretty consistently will play the story once, build the character until there are no new skills to choose, play about halfway through the second level, whatever it's being called, see that it's a big repetitive grind for very little reward, lose interest, and move on to the next game. I've never quite seen the appeal of playing an arpg four times in a row, and spending hours farming areas and bosses trying to get the "lottery drops" of "legendary" sets and items, and leveling up 100 levels past the point of diminishing returns. On the other hand, I see how passionately some people *do* get into that. It seems to become a figurative "drug of choice" for them. I guess it either appeals to an individual, or it doesn't. EDIT: Oh, come to think of it, I did take one of my Sacred 1 battle mages to niobium once. He was an ice shards build, and I could just right click once or twice to blow away everything in the game, including bosses. I wanted to see what the big deal was, where people would say stuff like, "oh, niobium level is so much harder, you'll never survive there unless you do this and that, exactly." My niobium battle mage was about level 50. I had rushed him on speed play through gold and platinum. All the drops in niobium were way up at 100th level or higher. It didn't matter that I couldn't use any of the equipment there. Ice shards, everything on screen dead, Ice shards, everything on screen dead. It was *so* booo-ring. I think that experience is another reason I almost never play much farther than the second level of whatever. I wonder if the divide in experience with the higher levels of the game has to do with single players trying to interact with multi-players? I've found that people who play because they like to compete or team up with other players in multi-player mode have a whole different attitude about games than that of people who mostly play by themselves in single-player mode.

What graphics card do you have? The number one cause of Sacred 2 failing to work is an inadequate graphics card. A weaker processor or less than 4 RAM would also cause problems. My old xp machine never would run Sacred 2 out of the box, when it was first realeased, despite several hours spent going back and forth with moderators in the technical forum. I couldn't play it until a couple of years later when I got my current Windows 7 machine with a top of the line HD graphics card. Sacred 2 is notoriously finicky about running on older or less-than-top-of-the-line machines. You have to have specs significantly higher than the officially listed minimums.

I'm playing right now with dual-wielded lightsabers, and, although I use my combat arts, it feels almost as efficient to just left click attack everything. One of my lightsabers is a Power of Nim, though, which has a direct damage affix on it, so I guess I'd have to switch that one out to be trying the challenge.

Thanks, @lujate, it sounds like you've done exactly what I was asking about, except with Sword Weapons in your case. Did you find it to be a fun, efficient toon, or did you regret spending a spot on the Sword Weapons?

@Spock, hi, and welcome to the forums. The other posters seem to have already answered your first questions, but I wanted to ask you, are you the same Spock who moderates the Fate forums? If so, I'd like to thank you for having done such a good job over there for all these years. You always had the answers to questions I would ask about Fate.

Thanks for the replies, but most people completely misunderstood my question(s). I know the two skills don't stack. My question was whether they will switch back and forth. I know that lightsabers count as sword weapons, but they also don't have affixes to unlock, or at least none in my collection do. I also had no idea I was asking anything controversial. What I asked was whether anyone had tried it before. Anyway, I took the dual wield, and it seems pretty powerful on its own with two lightsabers. Somebody around here playfully called it "Sacred 2's version of the Veg-a-matic. Slice 'em, dice 'em, make julienne fries." I'm going to go look up what "julienne fries" are now.

Hello, I am thinking of taking dual wield on my shadow warrior, but also hafted weapons, to unlock the affixes, especially chance to stun. Is that a smart thing to do? I know that the attack bonuses from the skills will not work at the same time, but I am thinking of switching around from wielding two lightsabers, or a lightsaber and a one-handed hammer or mace, two one-handed hammers/maces, or a two-handed %life leech hammer against bosses. My idea is to leave hafted weapons skill at one point, just for the affix unlocking, and to put a few points into dual wield for some attack bonuses and speed while using two one-handers. Most of my skill points are currently going into Malevolent Champion Focus, Death Warrior Focus, Tactics Lore, and Armor Lore. I want to start building Toughness after that. So, I wouldn't actually build either weapon skill for a long, long time in the toon's career. But they might serve as "one-point wonders", by unlocking both the ability to hold a weapon in each hand and benefit from the affixes on both, and unlocking the skill-based affixes on hafted weapons. I don't really need Sword Lore for affixes, because I am only using lightsabers, not regular swords. Will the game switch bonuses from dual wield to hafted when a two-handed hammer is equipped, and the toon has both skills? Has anyone ever tried this before? Thanks.

Thanks for the answers, and thanks for the link to the archived information. I'll put that in my browser favorites.

Hello, I want to review the order of elements with which the guardians at the end of the game attack, and I can't find the info anywhere after 10 minutes of searching. Can someone help me out here? I seem to remember magic, fire, poison, ice, but I'm not at all sure about that. I remember that it really helps to have the right relics setting in the relic "dial" to match against whichever one you're fighting.