Dobri

Second pair I really love the color contrast on that one. Both look great, but the second pair caught my eye straight away.

Exactly, lujate - the good old evil Dark Savant, a.k.a. Bubblehead... That's how one of the burly males calls him I also miss the old-style RPG's where you could do anything anyway you wish. For example - make a Fighter that can cast magic and one-hit kill every 7th hit or so - no problem, as long as you're willing to set aside the appropriate time in training. Pretty awesome - few games offer that. To give a clue as to what I'm doing, I started the slowest leveling party - 5 ninjas + 1 bishop. 4 of the ninjas will change to their final main profession - fighters, samurais, rogues, rangers - who knows, depends on the loot I get The Bishop will become a Monk (he already has 1 level in it, I swapped him to train stealth) after he's got 18 levels in Bishop and unlocked all the necessary spells. This way he'll retain his full spell potential and will gain 1-hit kill chance along with some special traits. Sheesh. If only Sacred gave me the chance to swap things around like this. The chars would have been even better

Well recalled, chattius Gadgeteer's the guy. Start off poor, nothing much to show for, but once he upgrades that wicked Omnigun well enough and manages to combine a few gadgets, the enemies have very tough time against him. Even today, I still can't say which was my favorite party. Every single one has so many differences. Any number of chars ranging from 1 to 8 makes the difference - especially the Solo Fairy Ninja EDIT: BTW, Wizardry is the second oldest RPG series in the world I think. Ultima is the first in 1980, Wizardry follows in 1981.

It has been a long, long time since I gave that 10 year old classic a spin. I was really hooked to in the beginning of the first decade of the new millennium and what do you know - I found it buried deep in a long forgotten directory on my laptop two days ago. Now I'm hooked again. Sometimes I do miss that good old classics that had more thought, creativity and content and used to hook up the player with its thrilling world and background story (if I recall correctly, the wizardry lineage - Wiz 1 to Wiz 8, are actually interlinked) rather than with shiny-glowy-pretty-overbuffed graphics. I am sure there are some people out there who have never heard of Wizardry 8, and that's ok. It's a 10 year old RPG. The game outlook is Wizardry/Might and Magic style - meaning you have an interface with your characters on any side of the screen and a freely movable camera. It boasts 15 classes, 11 races (12 if we count the Android that may join you), 2 genders, 9 personalities with 2 specific character lines for each gender, big map, 1-8 playable characters, lots of quests, well thought-out turn-based combat system, lots of humor and fantasy/sci-fi mixtures, and to top it all, presents a nice challenge and big replayability thanks to its multitude of class/race/number of playable characters combos. It was a big hit back in the day thanks to the qualities I just explained. The combat gives a lot of tactical possibilities, there is a big number of buffs and afflictions that can affect one or all characters (like blind, nauseated, paralyzed, irritated, etc.) There are 7 attributes that govern a multitude of skills (meaning higher value in the controlling attribute means the skill goes up faster) - skills are trained by skill points and respective skill/spell usage (Swinging a sword will increase the Sword skill, inspecting/disarming a trap will increase locks & traps skill, etc.). Classes can be freely swapped around, as long as the character meets the minimum attribute class requirements - with the penalty that the new class starts from scratch (but keeps all knowledge from the previous class). This is like a High Elf in Sacred 2 becoming a SW for 15 levels to master Toughness! This gives the game a great sandbox-type feeling and even greater replayability. For example, a Mage can subclass to Rogue for 1 level to master the Stealth skill and become harder to kill (gives extra armor class which a mage wouldn't normally have), or a Ranger (chance for ranged insta-kills) subclassing Monk, Ninja or Samurai to train Critical Strike (the skills that grants chance for insta-kills, apart from class traits) and improve the chance for insta-kills even more! Outstanding really. Any build you make is only limited to the extent of your imagination. I personally, really love the humor behind every character quote - and they're giving a lot of them, thanks to their specific personalities. For example, Cunning characters will always give a line based gaining profit: - Everyone must sleep... You sleep, I'll guard the valuables! - Wow! This is AMAZ--uh, nothing that special! I'll just keep it. - (after resurrection) I'll tell you what's on the other side for 100 gold! Chaotic male character (my fave) acts like he's insane (not far from the truth), but he also has a ton of great lines: - A trap... wonder what would happen if I just PULLED THIS THING HERE! - (after resurrection) And a big HELLO! from alla your dead relatives! - (after he's been paralyzed) What do you want me to do like this, BLINK people to death? - (after being grievly wounded) Now where do ya want me to put my body parts... - He's dead. Hey, that's an interesting organ! Or maybe these: - (after shooting up enemy ship) Coming in for a landing, this is Savant Flight 401. We'll be arriving in PIECES! Ha ha ha! - This just BLOWS! - I can't believe we're wasting our time TALKING TO A CHIPMUNK! - He seems like a kind, generous soul. *pause* I hate him. - (after doing nothing for a while) Bleccch! Rocks taste bad! - (kindly female, after getting an affliction) Ugh, it feels worse than when they tell you they love their wives! - Holy CRAP! - I must have a sign on my forehead volunteering me for bizarre and unpleasant experiences... And of course the fact that you can say pretty much to an NPC and expect an answer... Like "S_crew you" and get a response like... Whaddya know: "Well, I'm on break later..." Makes me LOL and fall off my chair anytime!

The percentage of life leeched is based on the total health of the enemy. This is what makes this modifier so great against bosses after a certain point of the game The damage inflicted remains separate from your weapon damage - you'll see orange numbers from the life leech and yellow from the normal damage. Life Leech +XXX is best used against normal monsters up until niobium. They simply don't have that much HP to make the +% leeched a meaningful contribution.

Thanks, gogo. Things here have been hectic - with all the job interviews, getting used to the new environment, learning the language and such... I had hardly any time for extracurricular activities

Yes… It always boils down to the big question – to shield, or not to shield? Common sense dictates that, unless you're using two weapons, or are otherwise unable to put a shield in your character's left hand, you will get one for additional protection, specific use, or extra sockets. Sometimes, it's just as simple as that – put a shield on that slot, slap in one or more nice socketables, and then forget about it – in essence, passively using the innate shield bonuses. In other situations, things are not so simple. All characters, with the exception of the Inquisitor and the Temple Guardian can select and use the Shield Lore skill. In addition to that, shields spawn with a number of special bonuses that have a good synergy with a number of skills and combat arts. In this case, when shield selection is based on build synergy, we're talking about dynamic shield usage. 1. Passive shield usage. Passive shield usage, in its essence, means having a free left hand slot and equipping a shield in it, regardless of its bonuses. In such occasions, a player is usually concerned with number of sockets, in order to add more blacksmith arts, runes and socketables to augment his chosen build; or, in other cases, a shield is a good source for boosting the armor value. It is common knowledge that character protection in the early game is governed by high armor value. The Stalworth Safeguard is the best shield to find and use in the early stages of the game (levels 1-74). It provides an excellent armor boost, at the cost of having only a single socket to utilize. On the other hand, if a player is going for lots of socketables to boost the skills if his/her build, a shield like the Shield of Mirrors and its three sockets will augment it perfectly. The defense boost of the shield will be poor, but the multitude of sockets will allow for additional tweaking of the build, which greatly helps many caster or utility builds. 2. Dynamic shield usage. Dynamic shield usage means that a player wants to find and use a shield that will augment his skills, buffs, and general vision of the build. In this case, the shield will not be a simple tool to put in the left hand and forget about it for a while. It becomes an integral part of the build and the player must constantly be on the lookout for a better one. Dynamic shield usage is usually segregated into several categories: - shield usage based on skill boosting - shield usage based on buff boosting - multi-purpose shield usage 2.1. Shield usage based on skill boosting. As soon as a character hits level 75 and unlocks a number of masteries, shields become much more than a tool. There are two skills in Sacred 2 that are greatly influenced by the shield that is currently equipped. Those skills are Shield Lore and Toughness. - Shield Lore, when mastered, grants a passive bonus to Chance to Block: Close Combat. In addition to that, simply having this skill improves your defense rating. This allows you to go for big defense rating or close combat blocking. The best shield in this area is Kira's Protection, which has a passive bonus to close combat and projectile blocking unlocked by the Shield Lore skill – which at very high levels can achieve over 100% close combat blocking. - Toughness – the toughness skill provides all channel damage mitigation and increased armor (once again, all channel). There are two shields in Sacred 2 that come with innate all channel damage mitigation and have wonderful synergy with this skill – Kira's Wall and Glacial Defender. 2.2. Shield usage based on buff boosting. Every character in this game has at least 3 buffs to play with. Some of these buffs have either innate or unlockable modifiers that can be augmented by one or more mods that show up on shields. These buff modifiers cover the following: - Chance to reflect: Close Combat – Battle Stance, Reflective Emanation, Incandescent Skin, and Ancient Bark. Reverse Polarity and Combat Alert don't go with shields, unfortunately for the Inquisitor and the Temple Guardian. There are a number of shields that spawn with "Chance to Reflect: Close Combat". The Legendary Impenetrable Protector is the best there is, but since it's hard to find, one can try to shop for a rare shield with reflect + 2 sockets + decent secondary modifiers. A rare Shield with Close Combat Reflect, +XP per kill and 2 sockets is a treasure to behold at higher levels. - Chance to Block: Projectiles – Runes of Protection and Incandescent Skin. The Block value can be boosted by unlockable modifiers on shields and other equipment. Once again, Kira's Wall is the king of shields when in comes to projectile blocking, as long as the player has selected the Shield Lore skill for the character. 2.3. Multi-purpose shield usage. The multi-purpose shield usage generally means the following – the player takes his/her time to find/shop/grind for a shield that will serve one or more aspects of his/her build. There are a number of shields that can serve as multi-purpose ones. The unique Shield of Mirrors with its three sockets is one of the best multi-purpose shields, because the player can add 3 socketables to suit all kinds of current or impending character needs. A shopped or dropped 2-socket rare shield with decent modifiers (blocking, defense, armor, reflect, xp per kill, etc.) can serve just as well. 3. Shield usage evolution. Even if the character doesn't have the shield lore skill, as the levels go by, the type of shields a player equips on his/her character undergoes a certain evolution. In the early game, up until level 75 or so, the modifiers that provide the most defense are very modest, and one cannot hope to achieve much by means of damage mitigation, for example. This is why resistances rule the early game, and shield usage is usually based on that – hence the usefulness of the Stalworth Safeguard shield until level 75. As the character obtains one or more skills at master level, everything changes. From level 75 on, the skills–equipment synergy starts getting stronger and stronger. If a character has gone for damage mitigation, using a shield and other equipment that boosts this value is very important. If the character has a buff that provides close combat reflection, using a shield that improves the reflection value is very important. If the character has decided to master the shield lore skill, then using shields that improve the chance to block is very important. It is also very important to note that reflection and blocking (and in a sense, damage mitigation) serve as damage reduction regardless of the enemy's chance to hit. Even if the enemy has 100% chance to hit your char, if you can reflect or block 75% of their attacks, that's as if they have only 25% chance to hit you. It is very important to know that this regularity becomes more and more striking as the levels go by – especially when the character enters niobium difficulty. By pulling the correct strings of a build, making skill choices that have good synergy with equipment, and using the proper modifiers on items and jewelry, you can build a near-invincible char that can hunt in a number of areas with minimal risk and to great effect.

it's a good exploit and we all tried it once in a while However, as the Pyro Elf gets stronger, it's not really necessary, as her damage is more than enough to kill even the nameless guardians with minimal damage taken.

Only one word is needed to describe it - magnificent Imagine streaks of leech coming off the pillars and into the char...

Hmmm... If czevak added the mutation sets to these 2 droplists, they should drop sooner or later from any monster that can drop set or unique items - even the normal ones.

Loco, I'd venture to say that we're guessing

I completely agree with Silver_fox. I'll also check out the T-Energy creatures spawn areas... Hopefully the basic logic behind the set's name is right Oh and... Do we have T-Energy bosses?

For all I saw, Mutation sets have only 1 modifier per item combined with lots of sockets. Technically, there are no modifiers to tone down - unless you want a 4-socket item with no modifiers whatsoever - however, that will make them underpowered compared to other set items. Let's take Holy Protection vs Mutation armor with low defense, no mods and 4 sockets - Holy Protection always wins, or how about Armantin's Belt vs Mutation belt with 4 sockets and no mods? It's much better to have a good set that drops rarely and takes a while to get. I also like the idea that it should only drop from certain monsters or bosses. The question is which ones?

Well, maybe they should stay in those 2 droplists - however, would you tell us which mobs those two droplists cover? I personally like the idea of specific mobs dropping specific items, but it would be nice to know what and where to look for

I can confirm loco's results - I haven't gotten one of the new set items in-game, and that's assuming I put at least 5 hours today

Yep, gogo, certainly looks better in the swamp, rather than elven lands. Dark scene with bright is truly awesome. Too bad there are no truly dark areas in Sacred 2 - save for the underground that is. Having a pillar cut through pitch black darkness, illuminating all your surroundings would be awesome. lujate, that is actually one of the reasons I like the Seraphim. You can make a protective "shield" of light and stay within it safe as a cookie in a jar with no kids around It was with the new CM patch that I tried a rev/celestial seraphim caster by taking the celestial aspect as my main... The experiences taught me that I should have been doing this years ago P.S.> To elaborate on gogo's note - Pillars are a great tool for everyone who likes mass killing. Assume you've rounded up a 20+ creatures mob. I have noticed that, based on their size, only 8 can hack at you at the same time at most (close combat), while the rest wander around aimlessly. Pillars can be positioned in strategic places so that they can hurt enemies without causing them to flee - I should note that enemies usually flee if they can't hit you, or stay beyond close combat range, at least - my scaredy-cat inquisitor vid shows that. I used to play with warding energy and flaring nova for mass killing - no more. Divine Protection + Dashing Alacrity combo is better in tight situation, while keeping NO buff active. Not to mention that it also lets you cast combat arts at much higher level... Granted, you won't get to the effectiveness a High Elf can achieve, but you're much better protected - at level 75 I had 61.9% damage mitigation with the CM patch and its items.

I checked out the new version of the CM patch, I liked it and I was fooling around in some areas with a sub 100 level caster Seraphim. I've been slapping pillars like crazy, which is a big deviation from my usual revered oriented casters - I chose celestial instead. That made me think celestial is better - or prettier, I'd say 2 screens for you - it happened today I kinda liked them - and I hope you will like them too and this one:

Hmmm... Those schools are waaaay too pretty than mine Even the website isn't so good http://geomilev.info/index.php The banner on top of the page is my school. Quite shabby - and I was only 1 of the 2 school students to enter a university on exam marks - not big semester payment.

Blizzard boss, you say? Sounds icy. Must be weak to fire damage then. Time to make a bunch of Pyro HE's and we'll kick that boss to oblivion in no time! I also think that the CM patch crew are doing phenomenal job. All chars have new stuff, it's worth questing, worth hunting everywhere and everything. This makes the continuous exploration of the map much more fun. Sheesh, I even got hyped up about a Dryad - and that's the char I never thought I would touch anymore. I really liked the intro and loved the way they drew her and her equipment. I started one and what do I see - nothing of the sort in this game. In my opinion, the dryad is the worst character when it comes to her looks. A Dryad must look sexy forest spirit-like (nothing of the sort), with long legs and slim figure (she has those), items that bring out the best she can offer - like they made the Seraphim and the High Elf. But the Dryad... All her set items are so weird... Detheya's set makes her look like a Roman Centurio, Daerwain's set makes her look like a gypsy, Leaves and Twigs, Call of the Forest and Meho'Sun make her look like an Elven scout - not to mention that those few sets look very much alike. Tendrils of Time makes her look as if she's put a brown full bathing suit with weird shoulders, and eternal flame looks really poor on her - nothing to show that she's a true forest-loving Dryad... And Glyphs of torment... as if I'm meeting a gypsy market seller. The new mutation set brings the best out of the Dryad. Let's hope I'll get to equip a Dryad with a real one soon

I can confirm that with these values in balance.txt: tier13: 1000 tier14: 750 tier15: 500 I'm not getting any of the mutation set items. However, I am yet to do any bosses yet - just fooling around with a caster Seraphim, trying to discover how quickly I can get her to invulno-status. Maybe they drop like legendaries or tier 12 items? I'll do some boss hunting as well and check it out.

Done

BTW, can we get some more tidbits about these mutation sets? For example - what tier are they, are there any special rules that govern their drop, what's the level increment? Quite honestly, these mutation sets really got me hyped up... I just love making my own equipment the way I see it - so I'm sorry if I'm going too far ahead of myself or sound overly pushy

Well, what you postulated here is certain and pretty much obvious Still, it's free to dream, isn't it? Silver, I stand corrected. I wrote that before checking up for newer CM patch version. I can see that all set items have their boni. I only saw one very small mistake though - shadow warrior's torso armor is considered a unique item rather than a set item and as such, is out of the set. No problem really, and my guess is that it can be corrected by changing a single value for the type of the item

Well done guys. Honestly, I didn't know what the developers were thinking when they created the Dragon Magic aspect. Granted, the combat arts there have their usefulness, they have the options and situations to use, but compared to other classes, dragon form and dragon berserk were underpowered and outclassed. It's cool to look like a dragon, but it's not cool when a Seraphim with battle stance or a TG with combat alert do more than you can do

Why not? The new mutation sets are really beautiful. I really like the idea of having a customizable set for each character. To answer my own question - I assume they're not implemented yet. I used the MD-SGM tool Wolfie noted in one of his posts in the downloads section and some chars' mutation sets don't have modifiers yet. In any case, I commend the CM patch developers on the idea to make a customizable set.