Smurfed

So, here we go. My first 'official' build. So be nice Introduction So after tooling around around and trying to stick with certain builds on various characters, I decided to just create a character and just let things flow and do things that I felt was needed at the time. And this is the result. Which I'm actually proud if so far. He's aimed at running all three buffs simultaneously (GR, RE and NA), while still hoping to be able to maintain decent attacking and defensive prowess. It should be noted that I do have a shopper or two at various levels (45 HE and 88 seraphim), although I have no built Smithers in so far. I was thinking of making this on a smith, but did not choose to go down that path. Also, I'm running CM Sacred 2 Ice & Blood, so that also may influence skill selection and such. At the moment, he's running around at level 87 in Platinum difficulty, single player, hardcore. I've had an interesting moment with the guardians, but otherwise haven't looked too closely at death yet. Attributes Strength all the way. If you're having HP problems, then throw some into Vitality. I haven't had any issues with going all STR though. Also it helps your attack value seeing as how we'll be mastering our weapon lore late. Skills Lv2 Tactics Lore - Needless to say, more damage = good. Also for Death Warrior and Malevolent Champion modifiers Lv3 Armor Lore - Also, less damage is good too. Less regen penalties for your combat arts and you can't go wrong Lv5 Death Warrior Focus - Either this or Malevolent Champion focus.Get to level 5 for Concentration. Lv8 Concentration - Extra buff, less regen. Also good. Lv12 Hafted Weapons - Taken for attack, weapon level and unlocking modifiers Lv18 Malevolent Champion Focus - Lets you rock the faster regen times Lv25 Constitution - You could always use more hit points. After all, if you run out of these, it's a dirt nap for you... Lv35 Shield Lore - More protection never hurt anyone... Except the guy you're hitting from behind that nice big shield of yours Lv50 Combat Discipline - This is more of a 'free choice' skill. Enjoy a refreshing 10% faster regen with your combos with the ability to slot more Arts with one button click! Oh, and more damage too... Lv65 Astral Lord Focus - This one last seeing as how Nether Allegience is less important than Grim Resilience and Reflective Emanation until mastering Concentration at 75, so it pretty much won't be used for 10 levels unless you want to pump some Rallied Souls into your gameplay. Otherwise, just put 9 points into it to fully modify NA and you're done. Masteries Tactics Lore, Armor Lore and Concentration should be mastered at 75. I'm keeping Tactics and Armor at level and placing the remaining points into other skills until they're mastered. Hafted Weapons is fourth Constitution is fifth Shield Lore is sixth Combat Arts Death Warrior Grim Resilience Rejuvenation for more HP regen. I actually had a hard time deciding if I wanted to take this one or Fortify. Discipline for less of a regen upkeep Safeguard for more defence. If Combat Reflexes were taken as a skill though, I'd go with Reflex Rousing Command Persistence for a longer duration of speedy attacks. Combine with Killing Spree Impulse to increase your attack and cast speed, so you hit things more often Leader to pass the attack speed onto your skeletons and anyone else you may be playing with Demonic Blow Wounding for the bleeding damage over time. Handy for bosses Frailty to make things easier to hit, such as bosses Life Leech for a bit more damage, and a bit more healing... Ruinous Onslaught Getaway to make sure you don't get stuck in the mud The other two are up to you. Malevolent Champion Reflective Emanation Backlash So that those pesky ranged attackers get a taste of their own medicine Antimagic So that those pesky spell casters get a taste of their own medicine... Idol So that your skeletons can reflect damage as well Augmenting Guidon Ensign So that allies receive the bonus to healing if they're a little further away Healing To heal your skeletons and other party members Leadership Of course, this makes sure that everyone gets healed Killing Spree Control to increase your chance to hit Perseverence so that you can hit faster and more accurately for longer. Coupled with Rousing Command should see you hit a lot faster Sway so that you get to hit things more than they hit you Astral Lord Nether Allegiance Accomplice for another minion Commander for yet another minion Balm, the only time my skeletons have died is in boss fights. If they're going to go down, they're going down. This just helps them stand back up again quicker Rallied Souls (Optional) Dark Realm otherwise you pretty much have to stand right on top of the body to raise it Demand for more dead people to see Contagion 'cause infection is so cool all the cool kids are doing it Equipment Most of my equipment has +All Skills or +All Combat Arts. As I said in the introduction, I don't have a smith, so I don't have any of my equips with sockets yet (very few of my items actually have sockets). If you did though, you could probably socket +Skills, +CAs and/or +Attack/defense to help round out your build. Also because I'm playing Single Player without Enhanced Perception, Set, Legendaries and Uniques don't drop much for me. Most of the time I receive them is as set quest rewards... Also, +Attack Rating items are good. One drawback for a melee-based character of mastering the weapon lore so late is that the To Hit chance suffers. Compensate by boosting your attack value anyhow you can until you start pumping up your weapon lore. Combos Killing Spree + Rousing Command - Damaging burst with a periodic minor Area of Effect bonus, increase your attack value, and watch as your attack speed skyrockets! You'll have hit that monster 10 times before it realizes that it's supposed to be dead! Belligerent Vault + Scything Sweep + Frenzied Rampage - Jump into the middle of a large group and hit 'em all! 'Nuff said. Tactics Regular mobs I'll just left-click for killing, with the occasional BV/SS/FR combo thrown in. The skeletons do get in the way sometimes, but they can handle themselves and tend to kill things that I'm not killing anyway. Champions I'll wail away while holding down Demonic Bow as well as regular attacks. Bosses I'll have all the above mentioned CAs active as often as possible while wailing on them, along with skeletal support. Advantages Simple, easy, straightforward, jack-of-all-trades. A nice all-round build with nice combat support skills and buffs Disadvantages Doesn't excel at any one aspect. Low attack rating around levels 75-100. No access to other bargainers/smiths might make decent items hard to come by Options As opposed to the Combat Discipline skill at level 50, you could take one of the following to suit your needs and wants Riding - This will help cut back the regen penalty while mounted, which can't be all bad Combat Reflexes - Helps avoid hits, and I'm not sure if it does or doesn't, but could stack with the GR buff Toughness - If you're taking too much damage, try this on for size Spell Resistance - Suffering too much magic damage? This could help Blacksmith - In case you want it Or, you could go with Sword Weapons as opposed to hafted if you want. Outro Well, that about sums it up I think. Of course seeing as how I'm still new to the fine art of character building, any suggestions to improvement are always welcome. Plus, I don't know all the ins and outs of all the games mechanics, so if there's anything that isn't right in there, let me know Cheers, - Smurfed Update 04-21-2011 Okay weird, I updated, hit submit, and it didn't save. Tried refreshing, closing the browser and deleting browsing history, but still... Rewrite time... Gah. So, I modified a few things. Specified that I'm running HC with the Ice and Blood CM version. No longer pumping any points into Vitality, changed it all to strength. Swapped the order of weapon lore and constitution mastery order in light of the weak attack rating at higher levels Elaborated on my equipment a bit more and offered suggestions to compensate for the low attack rating Added in the Combo section to show a few of the combos I use, as well as modifying the Tactics section to reflect this Pointed out the low attack rating in the Disadvantages section Wrote it all out twice... 04-18-2011 With thanks to Schot for making a few suggestions, I've fine-tuned the build a little further. Originally at level 50, I had taken Riding as the skill choice. In testing, I found that Combat Discipline is more beneficial during bossfights, and bossfights are really the only place where you need the lesser regen penalty from riding, but is outweighed by the damage bonus from Combat Discipline. Grim Resilience - Rejuvenation. Originally I had taken fortify, but found that extra HP isn't as handy as extra HP regen at higher levels, especially with mastered Constitution for HP regen during combat.

Personally I like the Hellhound. It's kooky to watch, somewhat original, and you sit on the things HEAD! That in itself is cool. If you were to apply real-life physics and logistics to it all, it would be rather ineffective and the like. As for trying to attack from on top of it though, it would certainly be a bit cumbersome. However, enemies too would be taken aback by its unpredictability as well. It seems as though it would be able to change direction very quickly with those massive, powerful forearms it has....

This is where I am: And this is where I am when Yasi hit us in Feb...

1. What color pants are you wearing? Dark, very dark, green. Most likely originally black, but somewhat faded... 2. What are you listening to right now? Shuffle tooo...... Marilyn Manson - This Is The New S**t 3. What was the last thing you ate? I think it used to be a cow, which was between two pieces of watered, salted and baked flour, and some form of green leafy thing and a round-ish red juicy thing, and some form of yellow-ish, melty bovine by-product.... 4. Do you wish on stars? Should I? Does that work? 5. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Shiny is a colour, right? 6. What is the weather right now? Well, it's bright, and warmish. So... 7. Favorite drink? Monster Juice. Seriously. Monster Juice. 8. Favorite sport? on't know if it's my favourite, but I play Kid Wrangler more than other sports 9. Hair color? Multi 10. Do you wear contacts? Nope 11. Siblings? Two sisters. One older, one younger 12. Favorite month? June. Everyone gives me stuff =D 13. Favorite food? Hmmm, tough one. Have to go chili con-carne with this one... 14. What was the last movie you saw at the theater? Considering we don't have a theater where I live, the last time I went to one was to watch The Dark Knight 15. Favorite day of the year? The day I get my tax done 16. How do you vent your anger? Put on headphones and shoot people. Don't worry, they live in the computer and respawn after 5 seconds anyway... 17. What was your favorite toy as a child? A stick and my imagination 18. Summer or winter? Winter, definitely. Far far too hot in summer here 19. Hugs or kisses? Both. Regardless of who they're from 20. Chocolate or vanilla? Strawberry 21. When was the last time you cried? While watching Hachiko: A Dog's Story. A very, very powerful movie with Richard Gere playing a support role to a dog... 22. What is under your bed? A TV box. And a floor... 23. What did you do last night? Slept. 24. What are you afraid of? Snakes. Seriously. No snakes on my plane please 25. Plain, buttered or salted popcorn? Buttered 26. Favorite car? The one that hasn't suffered years of abuse in the back seat due to miniature humans 27. Favorite flower? Roses. Because they're always good to give 28. Number of keys on your key ring? Seven. One for each sin 29. How many years at your current job? 0.3 30. Favorite day of the week? Pay day 31. What did you do on your last birthday? Worked. Didn't even drink 'cause I worked the next day as well 32. How many states have you lived in? 3. Sober, drunk, and eh wha...!? 33. How many cities/towns have you lived in? 5 34. What is your favourite scent? Vanilla and coconut 35. What is your favorite candy? Is cake a candy? 36. Married or single? Taken 37. Happy or Sad about the direction your life is taking right now? Somewhere in between 38. What do you miss the most right now? Staying up until 4am playing video games 39. Any regrets? Some personal stuff, so no sharing >.> 40. Sunshine or a Rainy day? Rainy. If I'm not working, it's a good excuse to stay inside. If I am working, it's nice and easy 41. Are you in love? Indubitably

Name 3 words that other people use to describe you? Just. Plain. Weird. What is something that gets on your nerves? People who bulls**t What makes you cry? Some movies have made that happen. Also getting stabbed. I imagine that would make me cry. Probably not getting shot though. I'd probably forgo crying for dying. Unless I got shot in the arm or something. Then I'd probably cry... What is your first memory? Kinda personal, so no sharing >.> What level of education have you completed? Tertiary Do you have any siblings? 2 sisters. one older, one younger Favourite milkshake flavour? Blue Heaven When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Peter Pan. That way I'd never grow up. But then again, I don't think I actually have grown up yet. Does this mean... Could I actually have become Peter Pan!? But then I'd have to have grown up for that, but I haven't grown up, so I can't be... Awww shucks Can you speak a foreign language? To some people, english IS a foreign language If you could build a house anywhere, where would it be? On the moon. Would need satellite internet (literally), but hey, I have a house on the f*****g MOON! What is your favourite article of clothing? My black pin-striped fedora. So pimpin' What was the last CD you bought? Golden Rule, by Powderfinger. The day I found out that they were breaking up was one of the saddest days of my life Do you believe in an afterlife? We'll find out eventually... If you could have one superpower what would it be? Immortality Do you have any tattoos or peircings? A few piercings, no tattoos yet. Soon though, probably when I'm extremely drunk and wake up with something completely completely garish that I have no recollection of actually getting... Do you have a personal motto? Meh...

Currently living in Innisfail, north Queensland, in Australia. Also where a raging cyclone passed through a few months ago (a hurricane/typhoon equivalent for you northern hemisperians )

Hi all Well, where does one start? It's been a while since I've had to do an introduction on a forum, so, uhm, yeah... Obviously, I'm Smurfed (my username, of course. Bit strange if it were my real name...), and I've been around Sacred since Underworld, which was what, 5 or 6 years ago now? Something like that anyways... Although I've not really played Sacred 2 as much as I did the original, I've recently started getting back into it not too long ago. And it's starting to become my new obsession. Again. I think? And if it's relevant, I play on the PC. Just in case you're wondering. If not, then too bad, you now know anyways So, a little about me then? Lets see. I'm from Aussieland (where we stand on our heads and the toilets flush backwards...), closer to 30 than 20, couple o' kids, and a woman-type creature floating around there somewhere too. And in case you hadn't guessed yet, I have a thing about small blue creatures that were pretty popular during my childhood. Some say that it's an obsession, others just say that a shrink would have a field day with me... Other than that, uhm, yeah. Any questions, just ask. I'll most likely be floating around the character build sub-forums (currently have a WiP SW build that I haven't seen over there yet), and maybe the Sacred 3 forum as well, depending on how much interest there is at the time... So, for now, that's it from me. Need to know anything else, just ask. Cheers, - Smurfed