Androdion

Usually the first time RPH appears on a ring it's 0.2 seconds, so wouldn't the 0.06 value be turned into 0.1 by default due to approximation? And I guess so, if it becomes too rare and too small of a bonus then being present or not may be the same thing in practical terms.

Well, an interesting aspect of RPH is that the devs themselves nerfed it. As far as I'm aware it used to work with spell-based CAs as well, so if you think a melee multi-hit CA becomes overpowered when RPH is socketed then imagine casting Glacial Thorns. The +All Skills modifier was also immensely nerfed by the devs, just check out the D.A.R.K. toons in the download section and you'll find jewellery with +15! The thing is, some modifiers are utterly game altering, so even when they're nerfed they're still very powerful! Another one is %LL. Once you get to Platinum every boss will die in few hits with it, and if you don't have it you'd better have a really solid build! I think the fun part about broken modifiers in Sacred 2 is that you can make weird builds that shouldn't really work and make then work. A full melee Magic Coup High Elf is not supposed to be a proper build in the game, yet you slap it with a %LL modifier and you have a powerhouse build. To me that's the fun with having stuff like RPH, +All Skills, %LL, Damage Mitigation, high level Bargaining and probably something else I'm forgetting right now. To be able to play it through and through even though you're not supposed to. That's a lot of replay value right there.

RPH is indeed broken, but in that respect so is +All Skills. In fact once you use Bargaining extensively you can pretty much circumvent every mechanic in the game by simple buying item with the modifier you need to do so. That's just how Sacred 2 is really. I mean, players used to have buff suits just to be able to bypass regen penalties, and that was considered being smart. But once you take advantage of a mechanic that the game presents you in order to do the same it's somehow wrong?! Eh, I fear this may devolve again into a "what you should and shouldn't do with your game" debate. You know, the "twinked vs untwinked toon" dilema. I guess if we look at the game from a certain perspective much of it is broken from birth, but then again that much works too so I'd just say that each person will have its opinion on the matter.

And that's why it's hard for it to materialize. Too many different opinions.

Not sure if the current one is the final version of EE, though the Diablo mod sure is. But since Flix makes both you're bound to find the same fixes on both mods.

There was some talk about it in the "making ancaria great again" thread, but again there was no general consensus. Even players and general users had too many different opinions, so it's complicated. A new patch would have to be built from scratch to be as close to vanilla as possible and with only the code fixing, which is a huge task already. Then all the remainder of cosmetic changes, community created gear, etc. would have to be pooled as there's no general agreement as to that. Some asked about modularity on extra content but again theres was no consensus. So you see, easier said than done. And I'm an apologist for making a newer version mind you.

Your diaries always read more as guides, as I believe you and your own put more thought into planning than most players. Thanks for the explanations. If this itch I'm feeling keeps going on I may need to try this triple buff aura killer mage staff pseudo ranged blaster on my own. And I say that with the best intention possible!

That's exactly what I asked. So Incandescent Skin's damage is also affected by Ancient Magic (as all others buffs that cause damage). Thanks.

I've reread the guide with the Wiki opened on the Paladin page and man, those buffs combined look splendid just by reading them! The synergy between them is really something. Some questions though. Why leave Energy Shield Lore at 1 when Holy Shield is such an active part of the gameplay, and furthermore when there's no other defensive skill in the build? And why choose Blacksmith to have it at level 1 too? Or do you socket that many +All Skills jewellery that it just doesn't matter? @Flix: Holy Fire's page in the Wiki has a line that says "This is a Spell Damage Based Combat Art.", which I assume is why Ancient Magic has an effect on it. Is that behaviour the same in vanilla Sacred 2 sans the Diablo mod or was this something you changed for the mod?

Glad you worked it out. Play it as it is, if later on you decide to give additional commands as a QOL improvement then go for it. If something stops working it's easier for you to troubleshoot it.

Thanks for the input. My real issue with installing the mod is that I'll want to get a hold of all of it, which will result in many long nights at the PC.

How is the XP gain with the Diablo mod? Faster than vanilla, closer to EE, even faster? I'm afraid of setting this mod up because I think I'll stop sleeping at night again, ha ha.

Nah, try it vanilla first to try to understand what the issue is. It should always run vanilla, and if not we can troubleshoot. Be sure to delete all local folders of the game, the uninstall sometimes doesn't delete everything.

What do you mean? You can dual-wield single handed mage staves like any other melee weapon. I'm not entirely sure if it's a vanilla thing or a CP thing though, but since you're playing CM 1.60 then you can totally do it. As for ranged weapons you're right, they can never be dual-wielded even if they're one-handed. Funny thing is, a mage staff with CM 1.60 is basically a ranged weapon. So it's actually fun to dual-wield staves! You can find out that your CAs now behave in a whole different way. PS: Even the Wiki description states it's a set designed for dual-wielding staves - http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Disciples_of_the_Architect

Probably design since the set is for dual-wielding mage staves.

Ok I should've phrased it differently. If the second CA in the combo requires you to actively target an area then it usually fizzles after the first CA in the combo executes. First example that comes to mind is Shadow Step, which a user asked about some time ago why he couldn't have it second placed in a combo. That's because it requires you an action (targeting the area for teleporting) which the combo execution doesn't allow for when it's the second CA because you don't click again mid execution. That's what I was talking about. I can't give you the full list of CAs that behave like that though. Combos in Sacred 2, imo, act like they do in order for you to save a hotkey, which are limited to five like you know. That's a non-issue when you have a single aspect toon, but if you use two or three aspects then it can be good to have several CAs into the same hotkey wouldn't you agree? I get why you say that "x works better with x", I do. But I use combos to improve efficiency of multiple CAs at the same time. Like I said above, casting FF+PD in a combo is faster and requires less clicks and micro management than casting both CAs separately. Same goes for CM+RM. But yeah, to each his own I guess.

Oh, this is indeed news to me. Thanks for clearing that up. Well, of course we are. Why would you think otherwise?! That's the thing with DarkMatters, we're all on the same side here. That doesn't mean we can't disagree but we're all here for our love of the game, so believe me when I tell you that no one bashes anyone else here. It's not the MO of this forum, but I do realize how easy it is to be defensive when that's the norm everywhere else. We're all a bit "intense" but no one here tries to overcome the other. So yeah, we're cool.

Forgot to address this. If you put a CA that needs targeting in the second slot of a combo then that CA won't execute because it has no target. Casting a combo depends on clicking on your RMB once and letting the combo execute, but if the second CA needs targeting then your combo stops there. You may not agree with it but that's just how it works. I mainly use combos for temporary buffs (Frenetic Fervor+Paralizing Dread for example) as there's no need to execute them separately, or for multiple weapon-based CAs in a row (Ruthless Mutilation+Callous Execution for example). My favourite combo with the Inquisitor is Clustering Maelstrom+Ruthless Mutilation followed by Ruthless Mutilation+Callous Execution, so with one RMB click and two presses of the other CA/combo numerical key you can literally wipe out the floor of Ancaria. Three keys, countless dead. Combos can work to your advantage but you can't make them into something they're not.

Oh, I'm light as a feather and slowly savouring my newly found love, Ardbeg 10. I wish it was as cheap as tea! Thank you for the thorough explanation, I've understood all of your points clearly. The only thing I don't think I agree with is the 4% increase in CA animation speed at 150% attack speed. I mean, the numbers may prove me wrong but from my experience having played extensively with a Shadow Warrior and Frenzied Rampage I just can't see how the animation speed on that CA could be improved so little when it's executed all that faster. It could be placebo, granted, but the speed at which multiple hits are made when you cast a high-level FR with the 150% AS cap is just too different from the standard 100% AS. Maybe it has to do with the CA level and it has some sort of hidden formula underneath the hood, I couldn't say. But graphically and visually the difference is evident. To me at least. But like I said above, guy who listens to music vs audiophile you know?! Taking the BFG+PS example once again, if I may, when the scenario is the same as with Frenzied Rampage (high CA level and high AS) the shooting is visually much faster than just a 4% increase. At least it "feels" that way. But I won't debate this to the ground. According to the Wiki (yes I know it's not written in stone) you only need level 103 on a weapon skill to achieve the AS cap, and if you make that weapon skill a primary mastery and even leave it at 75 hard points then sure, it's pretty easy to achieve that value via +all skills and the likes of it to reach the cap before you even get your toon to level 100. And then you can climb all the way to 200. You can definitely hit the cap faster if you get extra bonuses from gear, so yes it caps really fast! And then you feel like there's no more progression, I can understand that. You call it poor design and implementation and I couldn't even try to begin to convince you otherwise. I just try to live with what the game has to offer really. I began playing the game with version 2.0.2 or something, the vanilla Fallen Angel DVD. At some point in time I discovered the game patches and played extensively with 2.40. Then I tried 2.43 which was terribly unstable, and for years I was left at that. Then I bought Sacred 2 Gold and played a few more hundreds of hours. Then came CM 1.50, then CM 1.60. Nowadays I'm not playing it, but I've already tried EE too, so if you ask me what exactly was the original plan with Sacred 2... I mean, I couldn't really say given all the transformations (and nerfs) it endured. The game has been altered so much since its inception that it's hard for me to fault it for being this or that, so when I get to it I try to make the best out of it. It's like when people started twisting the game builds to have something that shouldn't really work but it actually did. Maybe it's just the Ardbeg talking, or my romantic view of a game I've played for ten years, but I think the possibilities the game gives us are so many that no one will ever find a "perfect version" of it. Or a perfect build for that matter. Just their own I guess. PS: I'm really sorry to keep misspelling your name at every turn Dmitriy, I don't know why but I just can't seem to spell it correctly from memory. Maybe I should start copy-pasting it (like I just did).

I gave that second example because those two animations are very very similar, and if there are technical differences between the animations in terms of code with the Inquisitor then it'd be interesting to compare. Just that. You're right when you say that comparing melee and ranged is comparing apples and oranges, but I was just stating that there are different animations for different weapons. So the animations of a certain CA will be quite alright on one and not the other, PS being the best example. If you have PS with low regen and regen per hit to cover the distance you can basically machine gun every mob, and the BFG will shoot different enemies while the CA is being executed if the first falls down. But if you use PS with melee weapons then you'll find out just how long the animation for the CA execution is. That was the comparison I made, that with different weapons there are different (better, worse) effects. I'll have to say, I don't "speak code". I had a very hard time catching up with Flix and Dmitry when we were going on about CM 1.60 because those two have a much bigger understanding than my own of cause-effect in terms of code strings-actual effect. I can only talk about what I experience with the game. Think of it like in audiophile terms, I'm the guy who "feels it" and they're the ones who tell me I'm wrong because the numbers don't match. When I say that attack speed is a major factor in increasing your DPS I'm talking about both LMB attacks and RMB weapon-based CAs (since AS counts as cast speed for those). The more you have over the base 100% value the faster you're able to hit with LMB and the faster the RMB CA is executed (you could say the animation is faster). That's very evident with multi-hit CAs, and one of the reasons why +%AS jewellery is so good at lower levels because it gives you a jump start over mobs before the SB starts increasing their levels. But by then you should have enough skill points into a proper weapon skill which essentially negates those small percentual bonuses. By the time you hit mastery you'll easily have hit the 150% cap for AS so yes, it caps out pretty quick indeed. But playing at higher difficulties without having hit that cap makes your DPS drop substantially. I'll admit I'm not understanding this part. I remember asking Dmitry if mastery double attacks were restricted to LMB hits or if they were also applicable to RMB CAs, but for the life of me I can't remember the answer. He and Flix can tell you that. Skill mastery on weapon skills does unlock further bonuses yes, they're even called "mastery" bonuses on the weapons description. I think they only spawn after Platinum though. For your first question, I think it depends on your build more than anything. For instance, Dual Wield (the skill) replaces the AS bonus of any other weapon skill when you use two weapons combined, so in fact unless you're going after the specific bonuses of specific weapon classes you can pretty much "only" master the Dual Wield skill. Sure you'll loose on the bonus to attack value, but it's a worthy sacrifice if you can make better use of another skill on your build.

That's quite cool actually.

The most glaring example of CA animation speed might be using Pelting Strikes with a dual-wield build and comparing it to using the BFG weapon. If your AS is at 150% (cap) for both instances you'll notice just how faster PS hits with the BFG. Yes it depends on the animation of each CA, and furthermore of each CA with each different weapon type. Some CAs will work better with specific weapon types, but to me that's part of the variety the game has, and only adds to how much we can explore while playing and enjoying Sacred 2. Another interesting example is using a dual-wield build with an Inquisitor and a Shadow Warrior, using a mage staff as your primary weapon, and then casting Ruthless Mutilation with the Inquisitor and Scything Sweep with the Shadow Warrior. Check it out, it's fun. I won't go as far as saying that AS isn't important in this game. In fact if you're using weapon hits and/or weapon-based CA hits your AS will be a major factor in increasing your DPS. Try casting a multi-hit weapon based CA (Pelting Strikes or Frenzied Rampage for example) with 100% AS and then with 150% AS. It's clearly not the same thing. That's why having a weapon skill is such a necessity when planning a build that's going to make use of weapon-based CAs, and even more if you intend to replace normal attacks with using mainly those CAs. Just my two cents, I hope they're helpful.

This is the uncropped image. It's actually more like a metallic punk record than anything else. Its cartoonish look kinda negates its evil look I guess. It has a very "Treehouse of Horror" vibe to me.

Back to my metal related avatar then!

Hey Nick. It's the first option, the gloves have that specific enchantment. You can only socket damage type modifiers in weapons. ;)