The Fellowship of DarkMatters

Hello everyone Clan D.a.r.k Sacred is a growing clan. As such we would like everyone, candidate and full member a like to wear their tag in this way [D.a.r.k] Once everyone has their tag formatted this way Csaszar will also be running a ladder thread for everyone in the clan. Due to the way the search works the clan tag has to be the same for everyone. The idea isn't about raising competition within us but to inspire all the clan members. This thread can give us all valuable information - through accessing Sacred International Highscore about our chars. Seeing which type of chars and what level could be useful when planning excess item distribution. The "ladder thread" would be updated every 2 weeks and would cover every member of the [D.a.r.k] Clan. We hope that this will indeed be fun and used to inspire each and everyone of us playing in [D.a.r.k] In order for the thread to run please make sure your clan tag is : [D.a.r.k] Best of wishes to Csaszar and everyone else with success on the ladder. The D.a.r.k Team

DarkMatters proudly presents the hottest guides in the land. The Index of all submitted guides at DarkMatters has met with success here and around the world. In our hopes of inspiring and encouraging the writing and submission of guides, we now present the hottest Sacred Guides in the land. They have been arranged from most popular downwards and are each representative of how many "views" they have received. We hope you enjoy this little tour through the most popular and most read Sacred Guides and happily await any new and wild builds that you think are great enough to be published and shared. Enjoy the read Sacred Guide: Prism's SP Masterguide SP Tips & Tricks: Prism Sacred Guide: Monster Resistance Tables: gogoblender Epox Thunderboy Guide Epox: Epox Graphic Walkthrough of Ancaria: Myles Death Comes From Above: Therion X Epox NightSlayer Guide: Epox Dragons and other Interesting Places (Ancaria): Myles Woode Elf Blizzard Set Build: DaveO Myles GoW (Gust of Wind) Build: Myles Tactics for SB: Sylph Epox and his BoomStick Guide: Epox Progression of Skills & Average gain per Skill Point: Myles Epox Marksman Guide: Epox The Poison Lady: Therion X Achieving Great Magical Spell damage: gogoblender Miss Bolt Thrower: Therion X Trading, Time & The Bigger Picture: gogoblender Myles Gun Dwarf Guide (UW): Myles Guide to Armor Glow & Resistance Bonuses: Myles Special Sacred Damage Screen Shots: DaveO Roosters Gladiator Guide: Rooster Sacred ORLA: Perq The Unorthodox Vampire Guide: Csaszar Balanced Seraphim Guide: Cygnus Epox Poison Ivy Guide: Epox

The Witch: German WE Guide (translated) by Gelu Guide: The Witch (Poison is Queen of Faeryland Wood Elf Guide) by Gelu The Witch Contents I Prolog II Skills III Combat Arts IV Equipment (Ausrüstung) V Tactics VI Epilog I Prolog The witch is a pure Magic Woodelf. It used only spells and it is times an alternative to the ranga. In addition the witch is designed for mobkills and not individuals. II Skills First off, you need to disable default skills in your settings.cfg file in your Underworld program directory. Your line should be: DEFAULT_SKILLS: 0 level 1: Magic Lore and Meditation Magic Lore and Meditation are actually the core skills of each Mage. Invest 135 points in Magic Lore and Meditation. The rest of the points can come from equipment. So, initially, keep them both at your character level.level 3: Moon magic Take it to reduce spell time in lower levels, and speed up animation. level 6: Constitution Approximately under half of the Char lvls. level 12: Trade Keep at char level. (forever). level 20: Agility We're taking this now 'cause Parry is not yet available. When parry becomes available, invest there. level 30: Armour Keep high enough so you're comfortable. Don't invest heavily. level 50: Parry Somewhat more highly than armour and agility. You'll be using ashield, so the full bonus from Parry will accrue. II Attributes: With the attributes I would set only on Mental Renegeration. Some people might put points into Charisma, because it increases poison damage, but we're not too interested in damage over time as outright killing speed. III Combat Arts Our main combat arts are Poison Tendrils and Thornbush (thorn ball). Poison Tentrils have an advantage: Good damage and low regen. Aim to keep your regen time between 7.5 and 15 seconds. Use equipment to boost power with lower regen time than reading the runes. Thornbush makes high damage and can hit several opponents (Frost says: Particularly when you shoot an arrow into it and have it explode!) Keep your regen time between 1 and 1.5 seconds. Again, use equipment to boost the damage with lower regen time penalty. IV Equipment (Ausrüstung) The witch uses spells and not weapons, so you're looking for good bonus on your weapons for the spells. So, you're looking for sockets, bonuses to Regen Spells, Crit, lifeleech, to Thornbush, or PoisonTendrils. You might consider MF (Dwarf Forge) too. Set:Xrystal set: Look for pieces with bonus to Thornbush or PoisonTendrils. Bonuses eventually go as high as 20. Helmet: Hymir set: magic lore and regen spells. (may find better atmerchant) Bracers: Hymir set Good bonus on mf, moon magic and crit Boots: Brunhild (may find better at merchant)mainly because of mf Belt: Hymir Good bonuses on MR, Regen Spells and MeditationRings: Grimnirs virtue adhesive decoration life leech and more experience of opponents Amu: Xrystal something Magic LoreThere are also good Uniques too. Their German names are: "coat of armssign of the Gilde", "Cubbis last Pentagramm" or "Löwendolch of theforest spirit". V Tactics Simple (Take special care in v2.25 IN the VoT! (TDT): 1. Collect the opponent 2. Cast Poison Tendrils 3. Cast Thornbush into the mob. 4. Shoot it with a bow. VI Epilog Flame war time again. Please constructively criticize and explain whatis wrong and why. Give enough detail so that people completely unfamiliar with your topic will understand you. {Frost writes: try writing as though you were explaining it to a child. I'm still in my first childhood, let alone my second! lol} Gelu

The Grotesque Choir Girl Guide Having experimented with the Daemon for a few months now, I've decided to go against the norm and build an "Abysmal Choir Daemon". This is by far the most enjoyable magic daemon I've made since it requires more strategy and input and it is a refreshing change from the more passive Blazing disk and Hell sphere builds. I play single player and all my characters begin in silver. This guide assumes you are fairly familiar with the game. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Attributes Put all your attribute points in to mental regeneration. No more needs to be said. CAs: Abysmal Choir The main offensive skill you will be developing would be Abysmal Choir. The skill operates by affecting every one in melee range (or at very close proximity) with a lingering "curse" which will slow them down by 50% and does constant damage up to the spell's duration (I think level 1 Abysmal Choir lasts around 20 sec). While the damage may be low compared to other daemon spells, the net damage is actually much greater since it affects every thing in melee range and lingers until the enemy is dead. Thus it is possible to instantly curse ten enemies at once as opposed to killing them one by one. In my opinion, it is not advisable to make a huge rune investment in to this skill. While you may get a higher damage, you will have to deal with longer regeneration times, which will leave you vulnerable while you wait. Instead, have a lower level Abysmal Choir with a lower regeneration time allowing you to curse more enemies faster and just let the Choir slowly do its work. I developed Abysmal Choir while pegging my regeneration time at 5 seconds. Battle Daemon By keeping Abysmal Choir at a low regeneration time, you will most likely have a lot of extra runes. Don't let it all just sit in your stash, exchange them and develop the Battle Daemon form. Battle Daemon is probably the only other skill you will want to use. It compliments Abysmal Choir in two ways. A. The more enemies you have around you, the more effective Abysmal Choir will be. The Battle Daemon form comes handy by offering physical resistance, which will be a lifesaver in both early and later stages of the game. B. The Battle Daemon form also offers boosts in physical damage will increase the damage of Abysmal Choir since its half physical and half magical. While it may not be a lot, it will help to offset your Abysmal Choir damage/regeneration trade-off This skill is used purely for defensive and complimentary purposes so regeneration time isn't an issue if you don't use the "Attack" move (you shouldn't need to any way). If you are not developing Abysmal Choir, consume Battle Daemon runes till your hearts content. Optional CAs: Soaring Daemon Useful mainly due to mobility. It offers some defense boosts but I prefer Battle Daemon since it reduces damage as oppose to avoid it and also increases the damage of my Abysmal Choir. Tentacles I think this spell is very interesting. It creates an aura allowing you to raise damaging tentacles over the bodies of your enemies. I am yet to experiment with Tentacles but it may act well as a supporting spell… did I mention it adds a lot of gore? Skills: The three most important skills are Magic Lore, Meditation and Hell power. The first increases abysmal choir damage and while the latter reduces regeneration time. Consistently put skill points in these skills until you experience diminishing returns. It is then better to develop other skills such as parry, armor, constitution etc since they'll offer higher benefits per point. I'm sure I don't need to go in detail as to what skills to choose since they are all self-explanatory. ITEMS: Since I play single player, I don't have the luxury of trading and getting good items early on. I just take what I can find but with an emphasis on mental regeneration, life leech and magic find. The most important thing to look for early on will be socketed items in which you can socket vampire runes. Aim to get around 9% life leech and you'll be reasonable safe. After my life leech issue was dealt with, I place priority in magic regeneration beyond any thing else. I always went for items with the highest regeneration bonuses regardless of defense/resistant since you'll have the Battle Daemon form and life leech to reduce damage. Socketing abysmal choir instead of consuming them will allow you to raise its level while only rising half of its regeneration time. I'm sure most people know that already. I also found the Blacksmith socket attributes to helpful since one of the option is X% increase in spell damage and X increase in mental regeneration. Enlighten Iron is a good item to be carrying since it gives you two sockets, regeneration bonuses and magic find. My socketing policy is to socket the first slot with either a rune or jewelry and the rest with Blacksmith socket attributes. STRATEGIES: Using Abysmal Choir: What makes Abysmal Choir so useful is that it affects every one around you so it's a good spell for crowd control. Run to a place where there are enemies and wait until they react and charges towards you. Run to a new place and repeat. After you've rounded up a mob, take a leap of faith and run in to the center of the crowd. With Battle Daemon form always active, you shouldn't take too much damage. Wait until most of the enemies are in melee range and then cast Abysmal Choir and then run out of the mob so you'll stop taking hits. Once abysmal choir has done its work, your life should be back to full if you have invested in life leech. Make sure you are always in Battle Daemon form. In the event that you turn back to a normal form, you can instantly recast Battle Daemon if you didn't use the "Attack" move. Dealing with range attacks: The major weakness of this build will be its inability to deal with range attacks. To make abysmal choir work, you'll need to get in to melee range but with most range enemies, they run away as soon as you go in to range. One way to deal with them would be to left click on an enemy so you have a lock on. You daemon should approach and engage in melee attack. Initially, the enemy will try to run but keep attacking it and it will switch to melee. You can then cast abysmal choir and move on to the next range attacker. I usually incorporate this while I farm mobs but I focus in getting rid of the range attackers. By time the range attackers are gone, my abysmal choir would've affected and killed all my melee attackers. Final words Out of all that has been mentioned here, I think the most important thing that will make this character work would be patience. The Abysmal Choir Daemon takes a bit more time to fully develop and will be weaker in the early stages but that's what made it so fun compared to the other more…"effective" builds. So if you are bored with Blazing disk and Hell Sphere, give the Choir Girl a try and watch your enemies die before the screams of the abyss.

Thanks to Frosty for permission to post this here This guide is made up of things I've read, things I've been told, and things I figured out for myself. Often, these are opinions. There are many ways to skin an onion, and Sacred UW is no exception. Any contructive comment or criticism is welcome. Save the other kind. In the age of music videos, personal mp3 players, dvd rentals, file sharing, we want things quick... and we want them now! So, the summary comes first: Survive Damage comes in four types: physical, fire, magic and poison. Life leech runes (about 1/2 of vampiress runes are lifeleech) give you back 3% of damage dealt. Use 'em. (Note: for most characters you will find vampire life leech runes dropping around char level 9) Limit on toons Your means to thrive is using your combat arts and spells or special abilities. Hereafter these will be referred to as "things". At the beginning, these things are VERY slow to regenerate. You need one fast thing--to kill one opponent. (level 1) Avoid groups of enemies till you have one slow thing. You need one slow thing--to kill groups. (level 7) Each toon has buffs--things that aid in defense. (Duration > regen...even at start) Pick one buff to use...and have it on all the time. Learn how to play with it active. When it runs out...disengage and run away. Come back when buff is on again. Do what you can to speed up regen of the things you are using. Skills and attributes both help. Make sure you don't choose the wrong skills for your flavour of your character class. Limits on toons Regardless of character class, minimizing regeneration of combat arts (aka fighting by sword/axe/bow) and spells (vampiress abilities, dark elf traps, Wood Elf moon magic, all battlemage spells, dwarven technology...) is key. Combat: attribute Physical Regeneration, skill Concentration, +x% Regenerate Special Move, + X Lore Spell: (BM Water) attribute Mental Regeneration, skill Meditation, skill Water Magic, +x% Spell Regeneration Spell: (BM Fire) attribute Mental Regeneration, skill Meditation, skill Fire Magic, +x% Spell Regeneration Spell: (BM Earth) attribute Mental Regeneration, skill Meditation, skill Earth Magic, +x% Spell Regeneration Spell: (BM Air) attribute Mental Regeneration, skill Meditation, skill Air Magic, +x% Spell Regeneration Trap: (DE) attribute Physical Regeneration, skill Ballistics, skill Trap Lore, +x% Regenerate Special Move, Vampiress abilities: (V) skill Vampirism, Spell (seraphim) attribute Mental Regeneration, skill Meditation, skill Magic Lore, +x% Spell Regeneration, skill Heavenly Magic Spell (WE) attribute Mental Regeneration, skill Meditation, skill Magic Lore, +x% Spell Regeneration, skill Moon Magic Basically, the short form is: Your level will limit how many viable points you can put in a skill. Equipment can boost the skill above this limit. Best to increase each portion as much as you can. Smaller regen=more frequent use. Most characters have a LORE skill, which boost damage and reduces regen time. In the case of combat there are many lores: Axe Lore, Sword Lore, Ranged Combat, Unarmed Combat, Blade Combat (DE only), Long Handled Weapons Lore. Some of these skill conflict with Duel Wield. Whichever gives the best bonus is used by the game. Note: many lores are very specific in what aspect they speed up. If using another aspect, the wrong lore speed/damage bonus will not be applied. Also, many classes can use Dual Wield Skill. Three timers. Use 'em all. At least at the start! At the start, most characters are given two rune-based abilities on different timers. Eg: WE: hard hit, and Recuperation. First is a combat art, second is Moon Magic. The WE has three timers: Combination, Combat arts and Moon Magic (spells). At the start, each of these will regenerate very slowly. Therefore, you should try to use each timer in turn--for maximized playability. Strength vs weakness Four kinds of damage in the game: physical, fire, magic and poison. Using your strength against an enemies weakness will kill the enemy quickly and efficiently. Eg: goblins and orcs are resistant to fire and physical. Use poison and magic to kill them. So when fighting goblins and orcs, use armor with physical and fire resistance. Your toon will complain if damaged excessively by one of these kinds of damage. Listen to it. undead weakness: fire, magic goblins weakness: magic, poison frost giants weakness: poison (and possibly physical or fire?) Monster strengths: physical,fire,magic,posion resistance + damage flight ranged attacks (bows & crossbows, and magic spells) immbolization (nasty when combined with Giant Spider or Dragon) dragon fire (and Meteor Storm in UW) melee attack speed dodge pattern of movement (sakarra priests and enemy battlemages) Single vs Many opponents If you are facing a single opponent, use a quick thing. If you are facing many opponents, use a slow thing. Slow things usually have large areas of effect. Position yourself so the monsters must cross your killing field. Keep moving. This avoid archers and you can make them cross the killing field again. If you find yourself running away a lot, invest in a horse (and bridle) or equipment with the speed modifier...and avoid using equipment with higher level than your character. You lose speed when using equipment with too high a level. Lethal surprises Crossing Zones in MP: monster level has a cap in each area, in each level of difficulty. If a high level player runs thorough, monsters will spawn at their level (capped by level cap). Also, in South Desert (south of Porto Vallum)...just south of Urkenburough the area changes from level 12 cap to level 24 cap in bronze. The minimum level for monsters jumps to level 18. And they appear in groups. So the difficulty level increases exponentially, with little warning. Holding down the alt key will reveal a circle under monsters. Red means above your level, orange at or near your level, yellow below that, green well below your level, and grey, sadly weak compared to you. Groups of reds appearing where you were dealing with singles of orange or green can be a lethal surprise. Fireball Fireball from a skeleton mage, mummy, battlemages, or sakkara priest. Fireball is the BM's version of hard hit. Avoid fireballs. Immobilization combined with boss Petrification, Plant Cage by goblin shamans, dark elf priestesses, ice elves, mummies, and battlemages when combined with a Giant Spider or a Dragon. Dark elf combat kick and hard hit in Valley of Zhurag Nar. By the time you get to Zhurag Nar, you probably have access to the split attribute. If an enemy is split when using hard hit aimed at you, you get an exact copy...so two hard hits. If your defensive buff runs out at that point...it's over. Mobbed and buff runs out Most common form of death. You can't see clearly what is going on... your buff runs out and you die. Can also occur if a large creature (like a Dragon or Giant Spider) is in front of your character--you can't see if you buff has run out. Out of health potions If you rely on potions to constantly get you out of trouble...your toon will die when you run out. If you need potions to survive, perhaps your playing at too hard a level in the game! Combos---a way to jump ahead Concentration Potions (yellow) can be used to regenerate the combo timer instantly. If you have a set of armor in your chest bought to maximize one of your things...you can pay the combo master to put this super attack into a combo. Once the combo level is set (paid for), you can take that armor off (putting it in your chest). The combo level will remain very high. For a BM the Ghost Meadow is a must. My BM has level 43 in GM (runes read), and level 104 GM combo (1X). That gives a much better spell regen rate and duration than level 43! _________

Coming to China in time for the Peking Olympics. View the full article

[url="http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/gogoblender[/url]

Melee Battlemage Guide While browsing these boards for a while all I ever see are posts about Ice Shard mages, Meteor Shower mages, Fire Spiral mages, Gust of Wind mages, etc. So a while ago I decided to try something different, a melee mage. Sure you can melee far better by choosing a class that is inherently suited for melee, so if you want to race through the levels and difficulty levels with ease go play one of the other classes, if instead you want a challenge for a change, read on. My character is currently level 100 and almost ready to finish Platinum (although I might need some more levels before I'm ready for Niobium), I've only ever played SP though, so my experiences and this guide might be different for MP, especially hardcore MP. Although I haven't been to Niobium yet I feel my build will be strong enough to handle it eventually, and I wanted to share my experiences with you all which is why I'm writing this guide now. Stat Distribution Skill Choices Spell Choices Equipment General Combat Tactics 1. Stat Distribution Our main focus with this build will of course be melee, so I recommend you put all points into Strength. With each level-up a BM will get 1.6 points of Strength and 3.0 points of Mental Regen. We will need the Mental Regen for our (few) spells, but 3 per level is quite enough for this. Strength with give you hitpoints, damage, attack rating and defense rating. All of which are invaluable for this build. 2. Skill Choices I recommend the following skills: (between brackets is the level to choose them at) Magic Lore (1) Meditation (1) Weapon Lore (3) Agility (6) Sword Lore (12) Constitution (20) Fire Magic (30) Parrying (50) I choose Fire Magic because you'll be using Flameskin (see section 3), some of you might value Trading more, but personally I've never been much of a fan of Trading since you can get all items as drops as well. As for leveling your skills, I recommend: Agility: Max until at least level 100 Weapon Lore: Max until at least level 100 Meditation: half your level Constitution: half your level Parrying: 25 points total Fire Magic: 25 points total Sword Lore: everything that's left Agility is your most important skill here, and also the reason why you're going to get your *** kicked in the early levels. Levels 1-30 were very hard for me, I had to drink a lot of potions to stay alive because 1) I had a hard time hitting things, and 2) I had lousy defense so things hit me all the time. So your first priority should be to increase your Attack Rating (AR) and Defense Rating (DR) with items as much as you can, later on you can swap the things in your sockets to increase your damage instead. Weapon Lore: I don't think I need to explain this one, more damage is always good . Meditation is needed for the buffs you will use. Lots of BM specific items have high mods to Meditation, Mental Regen and Regeneration Spells, so more than half your level in Meditation is not needed, you will get the rest from items. Constitution is of course important but half your level will usually be enough, once you get your defense up high enough you won't really get hit much anymore. Also if you look for Paternus set items you will see some have really high bonusses to Phys.Regen and Strength, so they also increase your hitpoints. Fire Magic and Parrying I only took to 25 points total just so you get the highest boost with the fewest amount of points spend into them. Both are nice to have a few points in, but not essential to keep very high. Fire Magic will only be used to reduce the regen time of your Flameskin and to cast it a bit faster. Parrying will give you a nice boost in DR, but since you already have your Agility maxed and are using Flameskin+Stoneskin you don't really need more points. Sword Lore is something you will only need to spend 1-10 points in in the beginning to max your attack speed. Also Paternus's Sword has a requirement of 12 Sword Lore to use. However on the higher levels your Agility will start to hit diminishing returns at which point Sword Lore becomes very important. I recommend you stop increasing Agility at level 100, and start putting points into Sword Lore every level thereafter to keep your AR high. 3. Spell Choices Early on in the game I suggest you read a few Cataract of Agility runes to increase both your AR and attack speed. Both of which will be sorely lacking at low levels. Later on you will have maxed attack speed with only a few points in Sword Lore, and combined with high Agility you can stop using it altogether. Your main spells through the medium to higher levels will be Flameskin and Stoneskin. Flameskin gives a slight increase to DR (not mentioned on the spell, but it does do it trust me), Fire resist, blocks arrows and does Fire damage to anything that comes too close. Stoneskin greatly increases your DR and raises your Physical and Poison resists. I always have my Flameskin up (level 104 atm) for normal combat and only cast Stoneskin when I'm fighting tough mobs like Dragons. I find the increase in DR from Flameskin is adequate enough already to survive most normal mobs, but I must admit the added damage is sweet too . Something you will greatly lack as a BM is resistances, so when things hit you, they tend to hit hard! The trick is to not let them hit you, something which Flameskin and Stoneskin are very good at. Some optional spells which might be useful are Reiki, Ring of Ice and Phase Shift. Reiki is nice as a substitution for Life Leech runes/items, which works quite well in my experience provided you get the level quite high. Mine is around level 70 atm and it can even keep me alive with 0% Life Leech (although it's not really recommened lol). Ring of Ice is of course nice to slow things down, but I'm not using it because most things die so fast that slowing them down isn't very useful to me, although it might help at those early levels when you're still vulnerable. Phase Shift I just added because I hate walking around looking for a bridge when I can just teleport over the river instead. Get this to around level 12 to reach the maximum range of 200, anything more is wasted. 4. Equipment Because you don't have any Combat Arts which automatically increase your chance to hit when you use them, you should always keep an eye on both your AR and DR. Especially in the beginning you should only socket rings/amulets that increase your AR or DR, more damage is nice but you need to learn to hit things first. As your spell levels rise your DR will vastly increase, therefor the need for socketted items with DR lessens, and you can start focussing on damage instead. I suggest you will try to keep your chance to hit at around 80% and your chance to get hit at around 10%. As equipment I recommend you get Dagowits or Paternus items, or combine them. Dagowits because it increases your weapon's magical damage based on your Mental Regen, Paternus because it increases your weapon's physical damage based on your Strength. Dagowits in general has mostly spell-related mods, Paternus on the other hand has mostly hitpoints increasing mods. I'm using a combination which works very well. For your weapon I recommend you use Paternus's Sword, because it has a critical chance mod (albeit a low one), and because it increases both your physical and magical damage based on your Strength and Mental Regen respectively. As shield Byleth's Wall is an absolute must because 1) it raises critical chance, 2) it gives a huge boost to defense based on your Mental Regen and 3) because of the high Flameskin bonus. If you use the equipment I mentioned above you'll want to completely avoid both Fire and Poison damage items, mainly because nothing boosts that kind of damage, so the little amount you will do will get absorbed by the enemy's resistances and will thus be useless anyway. I actually throw all rings/amulets that do Fire/Poison damage away. You might think that mobs that are highly resistant to either physical or magical damage will kick your ***, but once you get both of these damage types up high enough they won't be a problem (and you will always have Flameskin licking away at them as well). 5. General Combat Tactics Since BM's don't have any melee Combat Arts all we've got are our normal attacks. But to be honest I don't even miss not have an Attack or a Hard-Hit. Most normal mobs drop dead with only 2 hits from my sword, and with a high level Flameskin+Stoneskin to protect you, not even Dragons can hit you. To avoid the hassle of re-casting your buffs all the time I've resorted to only keeping Flameskin up all the time, and only use Stoneskin in special encounters like Dragons. However at lower level you will need both to keep you alive. The damage from Flameskin is pathetic at low levels, but at my level it is now quite nice, especially when it strikes with a critical. It is also very nice to keep your Life Leech going so you can concentrate on killing the things around you without needing to watch your hitpoint meter. Tactics don't really exist as such, just wack things with your sword and recast your buffs when they run out. You will hardly ever use a potion (once you get past level 30 or so) because between Life Leeching and Reiki you will heal up very fast in case you get hit. That's it so far, I hope all of this is helpful to some people, it certainly has been fun for me.

1.8 Shard Mage Guide OK, I think I got a pretty good build going, so I thought I would share it for the community at large. The shardmage is a Battlemage who will primarily rely on Ice Shards for his early leveling, until going to platinum where he will branch out a bit for additional safety. First let us discuss the skills to take, and how to place the points as you level up. Skills: Magic Lore Meditation Water Magic Agility Trade Constitution Air Magic Parry Ok you'll start off dropping points into Magic Lore, and Meditation. I like to keep this up till they're around level 10 each. Once that happens, I catch Water Magic up to my level. From there on in, I keep Water Magic maxed out, and do so until after level 51. By level 53 or 54, you should have skills that look like this (before item bonuses) Magic Lore 50 Meditation 50 Water Magic 51 Agility 10 Trade 1 Constitution 10 Air Magic 1 Parry 1 These numbers might be off by a couple points. There may be a few points left over to stuff a couple into parry. From level 53 - 75 is when we're going to work on Agility, Parry, and Constitution. Over this period we'll gain 88 skill points which should get those three skills in the mid 30's ranges. Apportion points how you see fit according to equipment (for instance if you find a shield with a huge constitution bonus, place points primarily into Agility and Parry). From level 76 - 100 we're going to put all our points into Trade, to pump it to level 100. From level 100 on, we'll mostly be maintaining trade at our level, and pumping up Air Magic, and making additions to Constitution, Agility and Parry. With the exception of Trade, you'll want to place your points into the skills you will feel to give the largest pay-off. The skill growth rate generally drops to abysmal levels post 50, which is why I chose that as a bench mark for Meditation and Magic Lore, and why you'll likely use them for the last 4 skills as well. Update: Skills at Level 108 Magic Lore: 70 Meditation: 50 Water Magic: 51 Agility: 27 Trade: 108 Constitution: 36 Air Magic: 2 Parry: 54 Just a little look at the route I've taken my current HC Ice Shard Mage. For the next while I'll be working on Magic Lore, Constitution, Agility and Parry. Of course, maintaining trade at my level is a constant part of this throughout the rest of the game as well. Combat Art Selection: Ice Shard Ghost Meadow Stoneskin Flameskin/Whirlwind/Shield Wall (pick one to suit your tastes, I recommend Flameskin) Gust of Wind Phase Shift Ring of Ice From the start you'll be using Fireball as your primary attack spell. If you get really lucky in an early quest and get another Fireball rune, feel free to read it, but I wouldn't recommend using more then 1. After this, hoard every rune you get, and make sure to pick up sellable loot so you can start a little gold stockpile. Largely for the first 50 levels or so, you'll be trading in every rune you for Ghost Meadow's and Ice Shards. The only exceptions to this are to read the first Phase Shift rune you get, you only seem to really need 1, so the rest are exchange bait. Also read any Stoneskin rune you get (to a point where you are comfortable with it's regen time), and whatever choice you made of Flameskin/Whirlwind/Shield Wall. Starting around levels 30-40 I start reading any Gust of Wind runes I get my hands on as well. The same goes for Ring of Ice although I start that a bit later, closer to level 50. What level to aim for on Ice Shard and Ghost Meadow? Well, I consider the optimal level for Ice Shard to be around 2/3 my level, and whatever Ghost Meadow it takes to get Ice Shard's regeneration time down to 1.5 seconds. Don't be shy about Ghost Meadow though. There is simply no such thing as having to high a Ghost Meadow skill. I'm generally particularily pleased when I get Ghost Meadow above my character level. Don't feel bad if you're not hitting the 2/3 character level for your Ice Shards. It isn't necessary. It's just terribly nice. You'll be fine maintaining Ice Shards close to half your level. I really can't recommend having a lesser Ice Shard then this though, mostly cause I'm anal and will do Wolf quests until I meet at least 1/2 Character level for Ice Shard level. Allright, now that you've been told how to level Ice Shards, lets discuss WHY you've chosen Ice Shards over the other spells. It is my opinion that Ice Shards is the most versatile of the attack spells. It doesn't have the absolutely concentrated damage of Meteor Storm, nor the wicked Stun effect of Gust of Wind. What it does have is a much greater utility and party friendliness. Meteor Storm has a delay between you clicking a target, and the Meteor's landing which can cause them to miss should a creature move. Further, I'm just not thrilled with the delay overall. It is however less rune intensive then Ice Shards, which can be a nicer bonus for those of you who are less patient in the collection of runes through the early stages of the game. Gust of Wind is a powerful spell from my observations as well. It does however have a nasty effect of pushing creatures around the screeen which can severely effect your party members ability to enjoy grouping with you, or otherwise provide damage output in the killing of creatures. However, we'll be using Gust of Wind as a secondary attack form with this build. Now let us discuss why we've chosen the other spells in our collection. Stoneskin: This is simply a great spell, and while with great equipment it's not necessary, it simply never hurts to be safe. It adds to our physical resistance as well as boosting our defense thus making it harder for creatures to hit us in the first place. As an added bonus, it gives us a bit of Poison resistance as well. Flameskin/Shield Wall/Whirlwind: The primary reason for this spell type is it's chance to block missle weapons. I find missle users to be the biggest danger to my health typically (other then certain boss type creatures like Raptor's and Big spiders). My personal choice is generally Flameskin as it damages any creature close to me, and add's to Fire resistance as well for if you like killing dragons. If you have enough runes it's quite possible to maintain all three at decent levels, and pick the one you want for different encounter types. Ring of Ice: This spell creates an area around the caster, which doesn't move after being cast. The bonus of this spell is it slows creatures, including their attack rate which is why I particularily like it. Oh, it also does some damage. I've found keeping it around 1/4 or so of your level is enough to maintain it's general effectiveness. Gust of Wind: This spell is something we're going to boost around level 80. Why do we want this spell if we have Ice Shards as our main damage spell? Well, it's damage is all poison, which makes it an effective back up for when we encounter creatures who are very resistant to physical and magical damage which is what our Ice Shards uses as a damage type. In addition if we find ourselves in a desperate situation where we're getting mobbed, casting this will knock creatures far away from us and stun them, giving us time to deal with the situation in a much safer and more leisurely manner. Ghost Meadow: Lowers cast time, and once it's level 54 (I think) it last for 3 minutes. All we really need to know is it lowers the regeneration allowing us to cast spells faster and thus increase our damage over time potential. Socketing our Equipment: For the first 60 levels, I mainly socket Ice Shard and LL into all my available sockets. Socketing Ice Shard's only gives a 1/3 regen penalty of what we would get to raise it by a level. Thus if you would normally get a 3 second addition to regeneration for adding an Ice Shard level, socketing an Ice Shard will give us a 1 second addition to regeneration. The Life Leech runes (Vampire Combat arts with 3% LL) will help keep us alive by continually drawing life from creatures you're damaging and giving it to you. Once you hit level 60, I highly recommend heading to a gold server, going to Braverock, and doing some power shopping, looking for rings and amulets with a bonus of 40 or more to defense. For those of you not knowing what to look for when you go shopping, I'll try and do a pathetic illustration of what you would see. Super Cool Amulet Name Resistance: 100 Level: 67 DEFENSE: 40 Minimum Level: 50 Blah blah bonus blah blah bonus The part in Bold is what you're looking for. Socketing 12 or so of these in your armor in addition to your parry/agility can take your defense from 1000 to over 5000 quite easily. This is quite an immense bonus, and will up your survivalability considerably. Obviously the higher the Defense number the better. Until you reach level 90 or so, I wouldn't worry about what the ring/amulet has except Defense. Once you hit 90, and have a decent tradeskill, you should be able to start finding amulets/rings with additional bonuses such as Split, Life Leach, Experience bonus, and other wonderful things written in orange. ((I learned all about socketing from RUN1, he's my guru! Love the defense bonus, thank RUN1 for teaching me, so I could share it with you.)) Equipment in general: For a large part in the early game you'll be relying on magical/rares/set pieces for your equipment. I start of with mostly Dagowits (once I start finding them) and then replace the Head, Body, and belt with Blackstaff pieces. For gloves,boots,arms and greaves I generally like rare items with a high Regeneration Spells bonus. Rares tend to be best here, as they'll give you other bonuses which can be excellent. For my rings/amulets I look for ones with the defense bonus shown above, and equip those to help boost my defense early on. Of course however, you'll have to base your equipment on what you find in game. Generally what you want to look for when deciding which piece of equipment to wear is this: Does it increase my damage while maintaining/decreasing the regeneration time of Ice Shards. If the answer to this question is yes, then it's what you want. I always use a 1 handed weapon and shield post level 15. The reason for this is quite simple. More sockets, and more possible bonuses then a two handed staff will give you. Side Note: A lot of people like to wear the complete Blackstaff set as it gives you permanent GM, thus negating the need to recast it every 3 minutes or less. I believe however, that the total bonuses you can get from wearing just a few select set pieces and really good rares, outweighs the lazyness factor of needing to recast GM. Item bonuses: This is largely stolen from Alexfrog's WE Guide, and slightly modified for the Battlemages special needs. Yes, this part is mostly a plagarized effort. Focus on items with as much bonuses to the following as you can get: Bonus to (your attacking CA) (More damage, without increasing regen times much at all!). This is the most important. Bonus to Mental Regeneration (more spell damage and faster spell regen) Bonus to skills you use, such as Magic Lore, Parry, etc... Life Leech ("Each hit draws life from enemies X%"). (This keeps you alive while killing monsters. You should have enough, once you get good items, that your leeching keeps you health meter full, and constantly restores the damage you are dealt. (Alexfrog has) about 12%, and it does fine, some people like more. I like 15-20% Split %. (Creates new monsters that die easily, increasing experience gained and giving more item drops). Bonus to finding special items. (This increases your rewards gained). Bonus to experience gained from monsters. (Also increases rewards gained, which by the way we get when socketing Ice Shard runes, which is another reason I like to socket them). +% Critical Hit. (A critical hit deals several times the damage of a normal blow, and help you kill monsters faster). Bonus to Movement Speed (Running fast lets you get to monsters quicker, and increases killing speed). Spell Regeneration bonus (Even faster regeneration times for your spells, I haven't found the cap for this yet). Bonuses to Defense. Bonuses to Resistances, especially physical resist. And of course, sockets on items are great, as they allow you to put runes or jewelry in them, and can be very versatile in helping you get whatever item modifiers you are lacking. That's about all I can think of at this point. Anything I've missed addressing, let me know and I'll edit it in if I have an answer.

Many thanks to Zinsho for this build which was originally posted on SIF Hunter-Seeker Seraphim Hunter-Seeker Hybrid Premise: Up until now most Seraphim guides have recommended the use of Attack as the primary melee CA be it for a Hybrid or a Melee toon. Multi-Hit is too hit-or-miss with regards to it's hit ratio, Hard Hit is quite effective but is not the attack of choice for a seraphim. Attack is because of the number of attacks you get per volley. Regardless of the weapon, a seraphim positively shines with Attack, not to mention she looks great. If you want details about Attack and how to build a toon around it, you can look at almost any guide that has a melee component. Hunter-Seeker is a unique CA, no other class has anything quite like it, although as I use it more I sometimes think that FotG has aspects in common with it. When using HS the Seraphim is immobile, if she moves the weapon jumps back to her hand and the attack is cancelled. Once she catches it she pauses for a moment before she can swing again, or use a CA. My guess is that this is to simulate her trying to resettle her grip properly. Advantages: Unlike Attack, Hunter-Seeker can hit multiple enemies at a single time. The arc of her thrown weapon is consistent, with practice it becomes almost intuitive to judge where it will hit. As well it has a greater damage increase. Unfortunately that cannot be clearly documented as the CA does not display the %increase to the damage, nor does it list the damage with any semblance of accuracy. But to give an example of the damage increase, a level 18 HS was dealing roughly 9k-12k damage per hit before criticals, a normal sword swing for the same seraphim was dealing between 1.8k and 2.9k, give or take. Roughly estimating based on those perceived amounts of damage at level 18 the +% damage seems to be in the range of +400%, which I believe is roughly the same as a level 85 Attack. Another definite advantage of HS is dealing with archers. Archers have the most annoying tendency to dance back a few steps every time a melee toon moves up to attack them, often leading to a merry chase across the map, gathering all the more enemies and archers. On the other hand, with HS when the archer takes a few steps back you simply need to throw, the arc of HS is the same distance as the archer will back up from you, placing it right in line with the toss. A potential advantage of HS, although one that some people might call a disadvantage is the execution time. Regardless of whether you are planning to use Attack, a left-click swing or another throw of HS, the total execution time of HS is somewhere close to 3 seconds. 3 seconds means that much less regeneration gear needed to keep a manageable regen on HS, or that much higher a level. Disadvantages: Not counting the above paragraph, the main disadvantage of HS is the same as that of Multi-Hit. It can be extremely frustrating with regards to successfully striking enemies, particularly those in close melee range. This is the specific reason why I suggest making a hybrid if you are going to use HS, Attack will work quite well on the melee enemies but with that the issue becomes having to switch back and forth between them while also disregarding the archers and mages that stay out of melee range, both of which can be hit by HS, either on purpose or simply by their walking into it. Stats: In this regard I won't be overly specific, different methods work for different individuals. Physical Regen will speed up the regen on HS, Mental Regen will do the same but for the spells. Dex will improve fire damage, Abdiel being quite useful in conjunction with that. Strength increases life and physical damage, and so on and so forth. My recommendation though would be to put at least some emphasis on Mental Regen, it will both decrease your spell regen times and increase the magic damage that they deal. So put at least some points into MR, perhaps 3 out of every 5, the other two being at your discretion, although I suggest you keep them solely in one stat, rather than spread the other points between multiple stats. Skills: Since this is a hybrid you don't need to change the first two skills, you can start with Magic Lore and Weapon Lore without wasting a skill. On the other hand if you want to change them you can do so freely. There are two main ways to start a hybrid, either start out as a Magic seraphim or as a Melee seraphim and then as you start to survive that way expand into the other aspect. I typically start with Melee and so will write the skill choices in the relevant order for such. If you want to start out with the Magic side then simply swap around the relevant skills in the order they are taken. Level 1: Weapon Lore – Increases your damage, pump it as needed to keep your damage up Level 1: Constitution or Concentration – Constitution for more life, quite useful early on in HC Level 3: Concentration or Constitution – Concentration to speed up your melee CA regenerations, keep it at a high enough point that you can manage your CAs. Level 6: Sword Lore – Substitute for LHW if you prefer, I don't suggest DW because you only throw one weapon regardless. Level 12: Heavenly Magic – More useful than Meditation. Meditation can be substituted with +RS for the exact same boost to regeneration, whereas Heavenly Magic cannot, not to mention it speeds up casting. Level 20: Magic Lore – Increases Magic Damage, see weapon lore. Level 30: Armor – Improves resistances, resistances are life. Level 50: Your Choice although I suggest either Parry or Trade. Agility 'could' take the place of Parry since it boosts defense as well as AR, but Parry has more of a boost and you already have SoF and your specific weapon lore. If you already have a trader that can transfer over gear then go with Parry. Do the same if you really dislike Trade, it is a subjective skill. I won't say set them to a certain degree relative to your level because I don't follow such, I boost them as I feel like, going by feel rather than fixed increases to keep them at some ratio that isn't always relevant. Since it is near impossible to determine exactly what stats the items you use will have, it isn't worth focusing on fixed ratios and such, if you can survive with less Weapon Lore or Constitution then go ahead, if you need more then you need more. Base your spending of skill points on what your gear requires. The only skill I will say differently for is Trade (Or Forging for a Dwarf, but this is a seraphim), it's most useful when it is maxed so you might as well do so (And you can afford the points). CA Choices: Hunter-Seeker: Obviously you need Hunter-Seeker, otherwise there's not really any point in even looking at this guide. Keep the regen somewhere around 2-3 seconds, that's roughly what you need for it. Attack: I'm not actually suggesting you use Attack after level 30 or so, but until you have a strong enough basis to your skills, damage and leech it is a very useful skill to use. After that you can phase Attack out, or keep using it if you like, even to the exclusion of HS, but then it's simply a Hybrid, not a HS Hybrid. Spell Choices: Rotating Blades of Light: Pretty much the standard Magic seraphim Spell, it also works quite well with HS. It keeps your life up when mobbed, it kills off those enemies who survive your throw or who don't get hit in the first place. It also gives you a way to deal with those enemies who get split, regardless of where they were when you hit them, the clone will get hit by the next pulse of the blades. Keep the regen somewhere manageable, just below duration if that's what you want although then you can't use other Spells, at some point lower so that you can use other Spells. As you see fit Celestial Light: Another standard, works well for gathering enemies, or killing them for that matter. It can take the place of RBoL, something I've done more than once, the only issue being that with HS you do move around, trying to place yourself for the proper throw and so there goes your padding leech wise, or your split remover. There are two choices here, either get the regen down as low as you can, say 1-5 seconds as you like. The other choice is once more to get the regen close to the duration, which would increase the damage all the more. (Although with proper application of crit, +%magic damage and WIDD you can get similar damage levels, if not higher with the low regen, although using those on a high regen does boost them all the more regardless, just low regen does equal more damage, the more CLs you can have on the field, the more damage you'll be putting out. Light: Same as RBoL, except only applicable to undead (includes Shaddar-Rims and Nuk-Nuks). If you want to hunt these things, then go ahead and invest in this Spell, same idea as RBoL as far as regen. Strength of Faith: I'm not entirely sure it is useful in this build, HS seems to hit quite effectively regardless of your Attack Rating. There isn't anything listed in this regard so there aren't any clues based on what the CA states. I suspect there must be a bonus because killing 5 mobs in a row, each of 5 DEs without a single whiffed hit when my to-hit was ~60% does make me suspect it either has a bonus or some other method used to calculate whether it hits or not. BUT: there are times where it will help. You will occasionally face enemies who you can't seem to hit, either the HS keeps missing, or it shows a hit-check flash (the sparks and such) and sometimes does make the blocking sound, but sometimes does not. Regardless in these cases you won't hit the enemy. Casting SoF and then once more trying to throw will hit the enemy as often as not if the sparks were showing. If they weren't... then they might now be hit, but they might not. In which case either reposition and try again, or just go after them with normal swings/magic. Light Shield and Lightning Bolt are up to you, I personally have never really enjoyed the second, although one day I'll likely build a toon specifically to destroy things using it. Light Shield I can see being useful and will almost certainly end up using it later on, most likely through a combo where the durations of the relevant Spells are similar. At that point I'll likely also expand into other CAs and Spells, but we'll see when I get there. Combat Jump I haven't said anything about, I happen to enjoy using it but because it currently (UW 2.28) can cause your seraphim to freeze and so I'm avoiding it for the moment. I don't want to lose a toon to it. Gear: I won't get into gear choices, I happen to like Abdiels set and therefore Fire damage. The main details you really need are: +Regen Special Move +Regen Spell %Leech +Critical (+Magic Find) (+WIDD) +Skills/Combat Arts/Spells, be they to all or to specific ones that are relevant for you. +%Magic Spell/Damage as well as to your damage type of choice for melee. +%Split As I get to higher levels I happen to like focusing on Split and Critical, balancing my leech to an appropriate point to keep me alive, WIDD to be phased in later on but it's not easy to find in proper amounts at lower levels. (Aarnum's does provide both, even by just using the rings, which also happen to increase fire damage). Damage is life. More damage means fewer enemies standing, meaning less damage for you to take. It also means more life leeched back to counter what damage you do take. So keep your damage up and as long as you have enough life and resistance you'll survive. __________________ Insane is doing the same thing over and over the same way and expecting the outcome to change. Lucky is doing so and it actually changing. I'm not insane, I'm lucky.

Hello and welcome to our applications Centre! The following guidelines here will help you through your process of applicancy as quickly as possible. First, you will need to post your application in the Clan Applicants Lounge after having made a minimum of fifteen (15) posts,then wait while you hopefully win a positive vote in your favor on our discussion/vote thread which will be opened up for you internally. You will also need to state which one of our sponsored clans that you are officially applying for.. Sacred, Ogame, Vendetta...etc... After you have done this please state your reasons why you want to be a member, what you have to contribute and why you think D.a.r.k is the clan for you. Please also make sure you have read our Clan Questionnaire making sure all the fields are filled in properly and honestly. Please list all of our clan members you have met online in the HC EU servers... this is important. It shows that you have begun making friends, and this very much helps when we vote regarding your application. After you have made your application then...you wait for one week while the clan discusses and votes upon the granting of a probationary period for you in Clan D.a.r.k You will also need to make a minimum of 15 posts before before even being eligible for a discussion towards a probation offering. During that time we encourage you to make good use of your posts and get to know if our community is a good fit for you. You can use our introduction section and get yourself known to the gang pretty quickly and if D.a.r.k is the place for you, making those posts is something you should enjoy. Your presence during this time will have a great effect upon the voting and discussion that will take place over the following week regarding your entry into the clan. So post and show us who you are^^ If, you've made yourself known whether by in game presence and/or here on this site, the discussion on your acceptance should be satisfactory and you'll probably win your vote for a probation. If the vote goes in your favor, a pm will be sent to you regarding the offer of a one month Fellowship Candidacy. This is a probationary offer during which we will see whether you are a fit for us and we are a fit for you. Presence on this board is important, and your candidacy will be subject to how you post and the attitude and energy you show in your posts. Not showing presence on our boards is subject to a review by us which can result in a termination of Clan Membership or your Fellowship Candidacy after a considered period of time. In the case of Sacred and perhaps other games, your clan tag is mandatory during this probation. Please make sure you have the tag [D.a.r.k] affixed to your name. This shows that you are a Fellowship Candidate for D.a.r.k and also marks your name and presence on the servers to other members of the clan who can easily find you to play with. As well, regarding Sacred 2, we are currently only accepting applications from people who play on the PC version EU servers.. The majority of Clan [D.a.r.k] is in the EU HC servers. Unfortunately, with the servers being separated at this time, we do not have the manpower and time to admin and oversee two separate clans in two different servers, especially with us unable to get to the U.S servers. Our sincere apologies. As well, others from our clan have been asked to post upon your applications thread to say hi and also tell you of their online times for Sacred. This will help you with your probation and let us get to know you better. We also ask everyone to read our forum rules regarding posting guidelines as we ask all member of our community be aware of all the many people from all over the world who use this site. Once your probationary period is over, your name will be affixed to the appropriate Clan D.a.r.k Roster (Your proof of being a member of a D.a.r.k Clan), your permissions will be adjusted so that you can see all our internal boards, you will be allowed to use our official Clan D.a.r.k Sigs and an acceptance and welcome thread will be started for you here in our public forums with an all you can drink party thrown in!. We'd like to wish you luck with your application and hope to see you playing with us in our clan and/or a member of our boards.. Cheers and good luck! The FDM Team

r00sters Gladiator Guide The Gr00 Guide This guide is dedicated to my gladiator Gr00, as he taught me all I know. Foreword: This guide is intended to help make the most powerful gladiators. It is not intended for power-levelers, experience sockets, or magic find. This guide is also not for players wanting to use only one weapon as it is not an optimal method of play. Switching weapons is easy and effective. If you don’t like hitting keys, video games may not be for you. This guide will require you to play. It is also not intended to tell you exactly what to do. I will not be giving you exact math such as keeping armor skill at exactly half your characters level. This guide is for people wanting to maximize. Get the most damage, highest resistances, most power etc. Pre Planning You are a gladiator. Take a few moments before you embark to plan your characters course. Think of skills, weapons, and tactics. Knowing a little of what you what beforehand will ensure you waste no runes, weapons or armors. This guide will follow these skills; Weapon Lore Concentration Constitution Dual Wielding Agility Armor Parry Trade The first 2 skills are there, no explanation needed. Constitution should be the first skill you choose, as you will take it eventually, may as well take it at level 3. Next is Dual-Wielding. This guide is for those that wish to dual wield and maximize its potential. Agility raises attack and defense ratings. These will factor into Heroic Courage as well, as a larger base makes a larger buff. Armor is for when you get hit. This guide will deal a large amount with resistances, and yours should be stellar. Parry is more defenses. I will not go into the argument of taking a second weapon lore, as dual wield over rides it, and a larger base defense makes a higher rating with courage on. Trade is essential. You will need many items, weapons and armors throughout your characters life, make sure you are able to buy them. Skills So, going with dual wielding these combat arts will be of most use to you. Attack is the combat art you will use most often, and is priority number one in learning first. Hard Hit This is good for singles, and generally fast movers. Mages hate Hard Hit. Heroic Courage both of your hands has weapons. This is your shield. It is also necessary; as it makes sure you hit things. Fist of the Gods regeneration does not matter. Neither does the wind up. Pay no attention to the nay-Sayers, as you will smash anything in 1 hit. The regeneration wont matter, as whatever it was is dead, and you have courage while you wind up. Awe This will save your ***. It stuns mobs and drives them back. The animation is under .5 of a second, and regeneration is super fast. Combat Jump Lets you jump around. Nothing useful besides this, but will help you reach areas faster. The rest should be left grey, as it will increase your rune drop rate. Get an Attack rune as soon as possible, and get courage to 255 (eventually) Attributes There is only one you will boost, STRENGTH. There is the argument that high level combat arts will over-ride boosting this attribute. This is true; however the weapons and jewelry we will be using will use percents of strength to damage types, resistances, and later on will pass having an extra level in attack by far. Have faith, you will thank me later. Choosing a Main Damage Type There are four elements of damage, Physical, Fire, Magic, and Poison. It is imperative that you choose one to specialize in. I will be using poison for this guide. This will be your highest damage type, but will not be the only one that you use. This guide emphasizes you use ALL damage elements. As well we will be specializing in vs. “enemy” damage. Using the correct damage type vs. an enemy that is weak to it is superior to even critical strike. Poison kills orcs faster than using fire weapons with 100% critical. Yes, I’m serious, and yes I have proof. I have 2 Paternus’ Arguments with 90% critical dual wielded. It takes 2-3 hits vs. an orc with them, yer my poison axes take 1 hit. Sets Some say sets are a waste, and do not compare to other armors and unique gear. This can be true to some extent, but sets do one thing that will make the main damage type a lot more damage. They give you an attribute boost. I.e. strength + 50 then use a % of the attribute boosted, to one damage type, and each piece will be likewise. Using a full set is not needed, as we are dual wielding, and lorgars set uses a 2 handed sword. However, this guide will use Lorgars Healer as the example set. Setting up your Gladiator Accumulate gold as fast as you can, as maximizing the dual wield build is going to be expensive. You will be given 5 slots for weapons. USE them. Have element damage in each slot. Physical in 5, Poison in 4, Fire in 3, Undead in 2, and Magic in 1. Your armor should work with your main damage type. Lorgars gives all poison damage and is another plus to using a set. Or Dalmars Masterful set if you have chosen your main as Physical damage. You get the idea. Sockets Make sure in one piece of kit that you stack amulets with high defense ratings. I use my breastplate, as I can stack 3 amulets. This will make the boost from courage so much more. Of course socket leech, but keep in mind, the more damage you deal the less leech you will need. Leeching 3% of a 5000k hit will give you more than hitting for 50k with 50 leech. We will be dealing a lot of damage, and tons of leech is not needed. Around 9% is plenty. In the other slots socket resistance, maybe one or two attack speed amulets, a resistance with a high attack rating, but generally protective gear. Lorgars amulets are always nice, as they give more charisma, more %’s of that attribute to poison damage, resistance, and regen special move. Get as many as you can. Also anything with regen special move and good res is welcome. Also, no damage rings in armor. Keep those in the weapons, and keep them mono elemental. Do not put anything but fire dmg rings in your fire weapons set. This rule also applies to armor vs. weapons. Dmg rings in things that do damage. Resistance in things that resist. It is far easier to manage your damage, as you want to keep it as mono elemental as possible from weapon set to weapon set, besides your main damage type of course. This is enough to worry about till about platinum level. By the 100 mark, you should have all element weapons, great resistances, full attack speed, courage should be very high, attack ca should be high with a regen of around 2.5-3 seconds. Hard hit should be near 1 second, and fotg should kill all lesser enemies in a single blow. Your main damage type should be firmly established, yet you should know when to use other damage elements. You know all enemy resistances, and pick the right weapon slot before you even warp. MAXIMIZING This is where your gladiator will come to life. He will take no damage, and give more than anything ever wanted. This is for through platinum to niobium levels, and is where we specialize. Uniques These are the uniques you should get. Lonidras Enlightened belt of Might, Foul Feet, and King of the swallows. All armors, and give you more sockets than most other gears. Bahamuts amulet of the Dead. Gives a + to strength, and also has a mod, +232% of strength to physical damage vs. undead. This is where boosting strength all this time will start to pay off. At least 5 Lorgars Bright Amulets. These at high levels will give amazing resistances (+58% of strength to physical resistance. Another plus to boosting strength), great regen special move, super poison damage boosts, defense rating, and constitution. These are the best socketable item in the game for gladiators in my opinion. Dark Amulet of the Temple Servant. +100 Physical regen, physical and poison resistance, physical damage + 34% strength (gee, another strength +) dexterity to attack rating, and 9% leech. Good stuff. Glimmering Amulet of Luck. These babies are rare. But with due cause. Armor, endurance, constitution, attack rating, attack speed, magic find, arguably the best amulet in the game. Try to get one. An amulet with +34% to all resistances. These can be bought with trade skill. Will up your res a lot. Especially if you put it in lonidras belt, with 2 other slots. Anything with endurance. It raises your resistances, and by a fair amount too. Use as much as you can. Jagged Amulet of Darkness. It has physical +%, to all combat arts, regen move, + a lot of strength, another must have. Unique Weapons or high powered rares. These are extremely important. These are the conduit of your growing power. Here are some great choices you should seek; Physical Jasons machetes, or dwarf splitter axe of fear. Another great choice is the Gladiator battle hammer, as not only is it physical, it makes killing any gobliniod creature simple. Poison Raisors Bloodsuckers. +65% of strength to poison damage. That’s a hell of a lot by now. Telcontars Legacy is another excellent choice, as the poison dmg is lower, but you get +40 to courage. Fire Barbarian Axe. Lottsa fire. On par with thains almost, and these have critical, + to awe and dagger stare. Another is Infestors diplomat, +str to fire dmg, and fire dmg +103%. Undead It is good to have undead weapons, as many undead creatures pack some serious power, but you can use any vs. my favorite enemy type weapons. Great choices for undead are Paternus’ Arguments. 48% critical, + str to fire dmg vs undead. Feacs hammers, drugalurs war mace, braggis battle hammer, heras hammer of satisfaction, and mace of malediction are other notables. Magic I use ornate axes of resting, as they also have high physical damage properties, but another good choice is magic blade of rage, as again it uses a % of strength to magic dmg. These are just suggestions for weps, but best use the ones with +%’s of strength to damage. By now a % of your strength is a very high factor. Also, none of these uniques require axe lore, for those thinking that. Dual Wielding IS Duality! Get 2 of each weapon. Whatever you decide to use, get 2 of them. It will double the properties. Take the machetes for example; that’s a lot of physical damage exactly the same. Slot these weapons with the same rings and it’s like doubling the bonuses all around. It is much more effective than using one of this, and one of those. Pain You must realize the make up of a gladiator to benefit from using advanced mods. Pain is like a % of hp to damage. You are a gladiator, with all strength boosted, lots of constitution etc, you have a lot of hp. So using around 10% pain is a lot of added dmg. More Lorgars! Late in the development, remove the defense amulets and replace them with Lorgars Amulets. This will increase resistance, Poison damage, Constitution, and regen you moves a fair bit faster. Its also why I wear lorgars, as every glad sockets the amulet, so why not use them to their fullest having poison as main damage. Another Look at why We Boosted Strength I have noticed, that any truly amazing unique, rare, anything that is of value to a gladiator uses + strength to damage. Gr00 has over 1500 points in strength. Anything that uses a % of it is going to get a lump sum. Evaluation You should be able to slaughter anything with your main damage type. Poison trolls should fall in 2-3 hits from the attack ca sequence, with poison weapons on. Using proper element damage, almost anything should fall in 1 hit from attack. A mob of dark elves should each die in 1 hit of attack with fire weapons on. Spiders should take 1-2 fotg’s. orc mobs should die from poison weapons in 1 hit, etc, etc. Your attack ca should kill mobs as fast as multi hit with a 2 handed axe. Hard hit should kill all lesser creatures in a blink of an eye. Courage should be at 255 read. Awe should be enough to let you run. Resistance should be over 80k. Magic find, xp, and power leveling are fun, but it also usually leaves you weak, unadventurous, and often creating new characters out of boredom. Do not use these things unless the items have other more important benefits. Consider them a luxury on gear. Gear you would use without the mf and xp. Dual Wielding enlightened irons is NOT the way to deal big damage. I have enclosed full screenshots from Gr00. This is your goal, and reference. All weapons, armor, slots are available for study. This is by far my most powerful character, not in level alone. Following these tips, I take no damage, I deal insane amounts, barely get hit even. Meteor does maybe 300 per stone from an orc shaman, skeleton mages fireballs hit for 5k, even the vaunted dark elf kicks hit for only 12-14k. Boss raptors are a joke; hit me for 1000 dmg, while fotg can do in excess of 10 million to them. In a quote from Gr00 himself, “the world is my oyster.” I wish you good luck in getting the best and having fun from your gladiators as I do. Also, please leave me able to edit this as I find more useful tips.

This is the Official Indexed List of all the Guides and Builds available at DarkMatters. The Index comprises guides regarding player builds, Tours of Ancaria, Important lists, Maps and other miscellaneous but important reference information regarding this game. The index is made up of links to every guide that has been submitted here at DarkMatters. It is the culmination of innumerable numbers of people that have worked hard, donated their time and played Sacred over many years. Many of these people are now gone but their work remains and has been recorded here on this site as testimony towards the greatest of builds and guides. We believe it will make a player's experience only that much better. Our respect and greatest thanks for all of the submissions and work involved and to everyone who was a part of this. Writers Dreamers Builders Formatters Indexers Thank you Enjoy the Index. Unique and General Game Guides and Character Builds Csaszar's Guide to find the famous ICON set, or create a succesful low level item finder Csaszar Sacred Guide: Shift Key Shielding, The unwritten defense Schot Regen Time / Duration : The good balance, How to simply manage your boost CA/Spells level Nihilith Possible preparation before starting a new char Csaszar Denizens of Ancaria by Terrority...Map, Originally Posted at $Wanted$Sacred. Created by FX Interactive $Wanted$Sacred Sacred Guides: The Fiend Folio, Monster Descriptions and Resistance Tables, Dragons, Cave of Heroes, Demons, Goblins...etc gogoblender Special Sacred Damage Screen Shots: Various set or item damage mods. DaveO The Dracobane. FrostElfGuard & Tharkane Tactics for SB. Slyph Achieving greater magical spell Damage: A list and pix of ways to socket your way to greater damage. gogoblender MacTak's Sacred Underworld Single Player (SP) Starting Guide. MacTak Tharkane's Weapons & ArmorGuide: Figuring it out. Tharkane Combo (& Rune) Guide. BondBug Tharkane's secret Mojo: Juicing up Spell Damage. Tharkne The Merchant Mechanics Unraveled: How to shop with an edge. Thorin Oakshield John K.C: Defence and Physical Regeneration in Sacred: Comprehensive paper on in-game Mechanics. John K.C How To Add Widd to Your Build: Best Damage Mod in Sacred. gogoblender Trading, Time and the Bigger Picture: Why trading WILL pay off. gogoblender Pevils Horse Builds: General Tips to make Horses Work. Pevil Prism's SP Masterguide: SP Tips & Tricks. Prism Graphic Walkthrough of Ancaria Maps on Regions, Towns, Portals, and Campaign point A to B. Myles Progression of Skills + Average Gain per SkillPoint, Extracted from Librarian's full progression tables. Myles CA and Spell Regeneration Formulae (+ Base Value), by Telenochek and Covenant and edited by me. Myles, Covenant and Telenochek Inner Works of Resistances, Translation of a German thread by Librarian. Myles Dragons and Other Interesting Places. (Ancaria), Need a place to go?. Myles Guide to Armor Glow and Resistance Bonuses, Modified from an old test thread in Sacred Official Forum. Myles Rumors in Ancaria, based and expanded from "NPC messages" by Librarian Myles Frosty's General Sacred Character Guide for Noobs, Originally posted at DA. Frosty World Discovered (WD) Guide Knuckles and masteff Seraphim Builds and Guides Sacred Guide: A slimmer, more powerful seraphim in five easy steps, Quickies for wonderbabes gogoblender How to add WIDD to Your Build. gogoblender Seraphim Character Reference Thread, HIgh Damage Checklist for your Wonderbabe. gogoblender Seraphim thread for High Damage. gogoblender Balanced Seraphim Guide, Cygnus Seraphim Build. Cygnus Seraphim Super Model Build, KOTR Seraphim Build. KOTR The Uriel's Build, KOTR Seraphim Build. KOTR Hybrid Seraphim Build, KOTR Seraphim Build. KOTR All Magic Seraphim Build, KOTR Seraphim Build. KOTR The BFG Seraphim Build, KOTR Seraphim Build. KOTR The Seraphim Mounted Archer Build, KOTR Seraphim Build. KOTR Pure Melee Seraphim, KOTR Seraphim Build. KOTR Jonny x's seriously wicked ebolts build!. JonnyX Zinsho's Hunter-Seeker Seraphim, Originally posted on the SIF . Zinsho Undead hunter build . Obsession Wood Elf Builds and Guides Runefarmer wood-elfs, Different wood-elf runefarmer builds. Obsession Wood Elf Blizzard Set Build, The Big Blue Chill. DaveO Ranged Wood Elf Build, Written by me! . griffman Magic Wood Elf Build, Written by me! . griffman WE Combat Ranger Guide, formerly a part of Librarian's Complete WE reference. Myles Stalky's Wood Elf Guide. Stalky Spider Queen. Llama Wood Elf - Spear Build, by foot or riding an horse. Patroclo Picchiaduro My Hybrid WE, Mistress of the (D.a.r.k.) Woods. Csaszar Erling's WIDD Wonder Wood Elf of Wrickles and Blood Erling > The Witch: German WE Guide (translated) by Gelu, From SIF posted by Frosty. Gelu Gladiator Builds and Guides Epox Marksman Guide. Epox X-box Gladiator. Obsession The WIDD Gladiator. Obsession The The Fist of the Gods! by forumjoe, Gladiator with FotG only . TherionX Rooster's Gladiator Guide. Rooster Daemon Builds and Guides Hell on Wheels. Wordsmith Epox Poison Ivy Guide. Epox Miss Bolt Thrower. TherionX Melee-Fire Daemon Guide. Christian-Kiss Death comes from Above. TherionX The Poison Lady. TherionX Tharkane's Incredible Codex of Daemons (Guide) Part 1-6. Tharkane Beware_the_Hooly's The Grotesque Choir Girl Guide, Originally posted on sif Beware_the_Hooly Dwarf Builds and Guides Csaszar's Tech Berserker, Size does NOT matter after all!. Csaszar Tharkane's Tharkane's Guide to the Dwarven Trader. His own trader dwarf. Tharkane Tharkane's Tharkane's Guide to the Dwarven Trader. Part 1 Tharkane Tharkane's Tharkane's Guide to the Dwarven Trader. Part 2 Tharkane Tharkane's Tharkane's Guide to the Dwarven Trader. Part 3 Tharkane Tharkane's Tharkane's Guide to the Dwarven Trader. Part 4 Tharkane Tharkane's Tharkane's Book of the Ancestors: Dwarven Guide.Part 1 Tharkane Tharkane's Tharkane's Book of the Ancestors: Dwarven Guide.Part 2 Tharkane Tharkane's Tharkane's Book of the Ancestors: Dwarven Guide.Part 3 Tharkane Epox the Dude and his Broomstick Guide Epox Mini-Guide: The Rune-Hunter Dwarf, This Build will let your inv. burst under the weight of runes Rotluchs Melee-Physical Dwarf - Guide Christian-Kiss Myles' Gun Dwarf Guide (UW) Myles Dark Elf Builds and Guides Epox The Cobra Guide, ssssssh Sexy Epox Tharkane's Dark Elf Compendium Weaponry Parts 1 - 3 Tharkane Tharkane's The Dark Elf Compendium UNDERWORLD Parts 1 - 3, Underworld addendum Tharkane Tharkane's The Dark Elf Compendium Parts 1 - 6, Sacred PLUS Tharkane Csaszar's Hybrid Dark Elf, ** The funny way to be powerful ** Csaszar Poison Mist Trapper Guide Knuckles The Dark Elf Fire Trapper Moon Reaper Battlemage Builds and Guides The Force of Nature, An evil Ice/Air Mage Combo EvilMale The Hot Meteorologist Battlemage mik209 Evil's Meteor Storm Battle Mage Evil Male Epox Thunderboy Guide Epox Csaszar's GoW BM Guide Csaszar Myles GoW (Gust of Wind)BM Guide Myles nephytes 1.8 Shard Mage Guide, Originally posted on the SIF nephyte Amonai's Melee BattleMage Guide, Originally posted on the SIF Amonai Vampire Builds and Guides Epox Nightslayer guide Epox The General Mini-G The Unorthodox Vampire, Melee Vampire Guide Csaszar FDM Featured Video Game-Play Guides Sacred Guide to Easy Splitting, An alternative to using the burning feet bonus from Icons Schot Burning Down the VoT with my Widder BM, Burn baby burn! Schot Casting Dagger Stare on all the npcs at once., Silearth's idea done Extreme! TherionX No children were harmed in the making of this....., Test: Using Dagger Stare on NPC's Silearth The Crit Machine, My newest Gladiator TherionX Fireballs Away!, An example of a fireball BM build with WIDD Schot Soaring Daemon in Action, Killing the World! TherionX Energy Daemon in Action, Some Impressions for you TherionX Poison Daemon in Action, Some Impressions for you TherionX Experimenting with NPC('s)!, Lazy buggers! Wasn't sure what to do with them so... Schot Experimenting with NPC('s)!, Video logs Schot Schot's Infernal Voodoo Rider! Schot Epox XBow we build + movie, a guide and a tribute Epox Sacred Documentary...Part 1 ...Portals DreDBanGeR

Many Thanks to FrostElfGuard & Tharkane for permission to reproduce this guide here on FDM and gogoblender for Table 1.1 The Dracobane written by: FrostElfGuard & Tharkane The Dracobane The Dragons of Ancaria are fearsome beasts of tremendous size and power. Their powers are manifold. They may summon huge stones from the sky to smite the would-be dragonslayers who trespass in their domains. With a breath they may unleash torrents of incinerating fire, utterly consuming all unfortunate enough to stand before them. These mighty creatures also enjoy ripping their victims limb from limb with their talons and sword-like teeth. Their scales are as hard and unyielding as the finest Dwarven steel. To become a Dracobane – a slayer of Dragons - is understand your enemy, and uncover every weakness. Find these and exploit them to the fullest. Understanding can not only serve as your weapon, but also your armor: with it, you may turn the various attacks of your foe to the side, escaping harm. Before you Approach a Dragon, Approach a Merchant! (Shop before the Drop) Often a hero will stock up on potions before seeking out a Dragon. The best place to do this is at your local Merchant's shop. These potions are: health (red); concentration (yellow), antidote (green); and undead death (purple). Mentor potions (blue) are not available at the shop. Those are only found during your adventures. Be sure to save at least one of these for the last few moments of the Dragon's life: doing so will yield an additional 50% experience bonus when it collapses lifeless to the earth! Any or all of these potions might prove useful as some Dragons have poison attacks of their own…or their minions will. Boss Mods for Socketing your best Armor Lifeleech (at least 18%), Critical Hit, Extra damage to Dragons are all goods mods. To Combo or not to Combo Many Dragon hunters shop for a suit of armor with maximum sockets. Torso armor for example can have up to 4 sockets. This suit of armor (torso, gloves, helmet, belt, greaves etc…) can be used to boost the Trade Skill (if possessed) of the hunter… or may be used to create a combo suit. A combo suit boosts a specific combat art or spell to about 22 levels above normal use. The suit is worn when the combo is purchased from the combo master, and then is stored in the private stash for making other combos later. At low character levels, a combo suit can make a Dragonslaying very, very easy. The level of the Dragon is 2 + character level, not 2 + highest combat art/spell level. So you can have a very powerful bag of tricks to draw from when facing a Dragon. Normal combos are: 4x Hard Hit 4x Celestial Light 4x Fire Spiral 1x Ring of Ice + 3x Fire Spiral And so on. Note: when casting a stationary combo you may cast it before luring the Dragon over with a tasty morsel (that would be you!). You may cast several stationary combos regenerating them with a concentration (yellow) potion each time. Unlike the spell caster, the melee fighter will have to bravely face the Dragon’s talons and teeth to land his or her blows in battle. Be prepared to take your licks! Understanding Dragonfire … Prepare for the Worst All the Dragons of Ancaria can breathe fire. I have tested myself against a representative sample (D’Cay Lady of the Orcus (Undead dragon), Sisslith (Dragon of Frostgard), Sssisliths (Swamp Dragon) and the Twins: Winter’s Rigor and Frosted Death (Ice Dragons). All the Dragons of Ancaria breathe a fire that deals Physical and Fire damage. All of them rear their heads a certain way before they unleash their fearsome breath weapon! Learn to recognize the signs…and get moving when you see them! The breath will come in a wide arc. Don’t be where you were when it started! So, if you plan on facing Dragon fire…then know this: Dragons will only breathe fire when you are in range of their breath but out of range of their claws. The fire breath comes out in an arc, it sweeps over quite a wide area…and it lasts for quite a while. The lake of burning firebreath can damage you many times in short period. My test characters teased a firebreath from the dragons, and then briefly sampled some of the damage. My guess is that you will be hit about 20 times with fire/physical Damage, in the span of a second or two. Damage to the unprepared is phenomenal! However, if you wear the best Fire and Physical armor you can buy…and socket it with Dragon Scales, you should easily live to tell the tale of your epic battle. Dragon Scales are given as a quest reward for the Dragon Scale side quest in Alkazaba noc Draco. Each Scale (when socketed into armor or weapon) will boost your fire resistance by 40%. If you’re wearing Fire protection armor already you can save your sockets for a number of these Scales. No need to limit yourself to just one. Simply repeat the quest. (Export if in SP, and restart the campaign). One thing to note about Dragonfire: some Dragons breath fire more often than others. The Guardian of Frostgard breathes quite often. There is no set limit on how many times it may breathe fire in a row. Be prepared for it at any time. Understanding Meteor Storm (spell) … Learning to Dance A new trick for the Dragons of Ancaria is the Meteor Storm spell. One of the highest damaging spells in Ancaria is now in the claws of Dragons!! This spell is generally cast when you are out of breath range. Dragons may cast boulders from the sky at you even if it is off-screen! The spell casting animation is a bobbing of the head…quite short. Like the firebreath animation, learn to recognize this too. As soon as you hear the sound of Meteors---MOVE! The range of a hit is fairly tight, but you don’t want to be crushed like an insect! So move it! Please keep in mind that as long as your character is at range, Meteor Storm is a possibility. I’ve had 3 Meteor Storms cast at me in a row. Don’t think you have breathing room between casts. You don’t. Understanding Melee attacks … Dancing to the Beat of Different Drum The Dragons also possess something like the Hard Hit combat art. If you are within reach of their claws, expect some serious damage coming your way. Each dragon deals different elemental types of damage with their melee attack. If you plan to melee with them, you should build your resistance to their specific melee attack. Melee Damage types Dealt by Dragons Acutami Poison and Physical D'Cay Poison and Physical Draconis Mortis Physical Frosted Death & Winters Rigor Magic and Physical Lorinor Fire and Physical Sirithcam Fire and Physical Sisslith Magic and Physical Sssiliths Poison and Physical Note : Refer to table 1.1 Understanding Draconic Armor … Strike while the Iron is Hot Most Dragons of Ancaria are especially vulnerable to one elemental type of damage. For most, that is a susceptibility to poison. Some are vulnerable to 2 elemental damage forms... but not especially weak to any. Their resistances will vary in degrees. D’Cay, Lady of the Orcus of Khorad-Nur is wide open to FIRE damage. So, stock up on your fire damage to take her down quickly. Any other type of damage will probably see you long dead before she is even scratched. Dragon Vulnerabilities Acutami weak to Fire and Magic D'Cay weak to Magic, very weak to Fire Draconis Mortis weak to Poison and Magic Frosted Death & Winters Rigor weak to Poison and Fire Lorinor weak to Poison and Magic Sirithcam weak to Physical, very weak to Poison and Magic Sisslith weak to Poison and Fire Sssiliths weak to Magic and Fire Movement around Dragons---Circle those wagons! One simple tactic for ranged magic and archers is to constantly circle the Dragon at range. This should convince the dragon to employ his/her ranged weapons: Breathe and Meteor Storm. Which is fine with you…since these will appear behind you. Just maintain a clockwise or counter-clockwise movement. For best effect, boost your character’s movement speed by socketing items with the +X speed modifier. Of course, avoid using armor that makes you suffer movement speed penalty. Another trick is to steal the undead horse from the Portal at the Fields of Urkuk. It is a 220 speed horse that does not require the riding skill. That is, you do not need to invest in the Riding Skill to attain 220 (or greater) movement speed. You may buy a bridle (or find one) with up to (at least) +31 movement speed. This additional movement goes above the 220 movement speed cap, making it possible to be faster on the horse than you ever could be on foot. (Dwarf note: the little fellow might not have the same movement speed cap as other classes due to hardy nature. Wood Elves, Seraphims and Battle Mages all benefit greatly from the use of a horse. Other classes less so. Keep in mind that you cannot cast a combo from mounted position…and that a horse caught in Dragonfire will die. However, the Dragon will generally not target the horse…and if it does… you can distract the Dragon easily by hurting it. Clearing out the riff raff ---Send in the Clowns Dragons generally are not found alone. They have a cadre of support monsters. For some characters (the Vampiress and the Daemon), these puny monsters provide fodder for their damage increase abilities (Vampiress at night automatic power-up, Daemon “Call of Death” spell). For others, the friends of the Dragon provide attack rate increase (Dwarf with Battle Rage). For most classes, these monsters provide distractions—however sometimes these Dragon friends can prove deadly. The reason is simple: Petrification/Plant Cage/Binding/Stunning. Anything that can glue your character to a spot is potentially deadly. It allows the Dragon to aim its Breathe or Meteor Storm when you cannot evade. Just one pass of either could be enough to ruin your day. So, plan accordingly. That means: draw out the supporters without aggravating the Dragon. Use a bow, crossbow or spell to specifically irritate one or more of the Dragon’s minions. Draw them to you…without attracting the attention of their Draconion master. If the Dragon notices you…it will come for you. Flee from it! Circle around and return from another direction. You can’t afford to be stuck in place if it casts one of its area of effect combat arts. Either create killing fields. A word on Cursed Treasure – YEEEEES PRECIOUS! Sirithcam (Fire Dragon) and Lorinor of Tyr Fasul both guard Cursed Treasure. Lorinor guards ten batches of cursed treasure…each good for 1000 gold in bronze (and going up each difficulty level) and a drop (based on your Survival Bonus and “Chance to find Special Item”, and whether Greed has been cast on you—your chances of better drops improve). These treasures will not harm your character. Loot at will! Take it like a Man! (or a Woman!!) For those pursuing the ranged attack (bow/crossbow/spell) method: be aware. If the Dragon has decided to take a swipe at you… it will attempt to close with you. It will not stop trying to get within melee range. It will move fairly swiftly…but not at the maximum speed possible. You may evade it successfully. Or, you may decide to take it like a man… for this resets the Dragon’s attack choice. If you quickly dodge back after the attack, it will switch to one of its forms of ranged attack…most likely. That is why you brought healing potions. You gotta break some eggs to make an omelette… or in this case a few bones to slay a Dragon! Putting it all together. Potioned up. Armor –protect against how you expect the Dragon to attack? (Keeping in mind each Dragon melees with different damage?) Weapons/Spells –selected for the Dragon’s weakness(es) On foot or Mounted? Movement rate high enough? Be prepared to dodge fires and sky-rocks. Remember to eliminate supporting monsters that will stun or stop you. Have a good time Dragonslayer! Get Ready to rumble!! Go get them tiger! Note: in MP you may slay 3 of the Dragons to release Ilith'Bah, the Sakkara Demon under Braverock Castle. They are D’Cay (south of Khorad-Nur), Sisslith Guardian of Frostgard (north of Monastery of the Seraphim), and Sirithcam the Fire Dragon (under the lava plains). Table 1.1 Courtesy of gogoblender .

Sacred 2 Fallen Angel [D.a.r.k] Roster Sacred Underworld [D.a.r.k] Roster

Many Thanks to Mactak for permission to post this wonderful guide here Sacred Underworld Single Player (SP) Starting Guide My Qualifications: Absolutely none. A Senior Gheezer. At age 58 my son introduced me to computers and Diablo 1. "They did not have these neat toys when I was a kid". Still play Diablo LOD 1.11 HC and Morrowind. Nothing wrong with MP or HC, just love playing SP more. I am among a rising minority of retired seniors over 60. Beware we are now 21% of the known players. This post is a compilation of ideas to give the newer Single Player a much better starting character. Most games on the market are made in mind for MP play. These ideas will help make up for the MP advantage of starting on MP Island and having the ground littered with equipment, weapons, runes, etc. free for picking up. Some have called this method cheating. I say it is not. This is SP and the only one I have to please is me. 1. All characters start in Silver, or move up to Silver by level 6-10. Move them up at your discretion. I usually start all Melee characters in Silver. 2. "1st Rule: Talk to absolutely no one". Doing so will stop you from getting runes from the chest. The Bellevue Merchant is the only one you talk to. Rule number 2, refere to Rule 1. 3. The idea is to accumulate 24 runes, A good full set or armor, a couple of good weapons, and at least $50,000 in gold before starting the main game at level 6. 4. Using Wood Elf (WE) for an example. Create your WE. Now move over by the gully and notice the red circle beneath your feet. The red circle means your Survival Bonus (SB) is working and you are considered to be in combat. Many names for SB. I call it your (Luck Factor). "Check Forum Search Function for a full description of SB. Also those who want to mule: Check the search function, I do not use muleing, as it is to complicated for this senior member. Now: Leaver your computer. Go grab a beer and make a sandwich. Leave your WE in combat for at least 20 minutes. When you start again your SB will be 14-20%. Characters other than WE: Go inside any building that has an enemy outside and trigger your SB. Also you may click on any signpost and the enemy can hit & not hurt you. "Caution: Any NPC, Wilbur, Unicorn, Wolf etc. will destroy the enemy and ruin this effect." 5. Now click on the chest behind you. (DO NOT click on the Dark Elf) From the chest you will receive one rune and 1 pair of gloves. At this point talking to anyone may shut of your supply of runes, and you will start getting bells, harps or icons instead. 6. Time to start accumulating. Hit esc. Select export. Click on one of the 7 character spaces you want to export to. Click export. Click back. Click esc. again. Click Quit game. Start a new game. Click import. Click on your character. Click import. Continue this method untill you have accumulated 24 runes. NOTE: A little trick to this: When importing your character start it in Silver each time. This & your SB really improves your drops from the chest. Example: Sometime during this process for the WE, usually get this pair of gloves. MIGHTY GAUNTLETS: Level 3 - Protection 5 - Dexterity +1 - +20% to Attack - Attack Speed +15 - "RSM +30%. NOTE: "You are now free to talk to everyone when you have your 24 runes." 7. Any other character other than the WE will require at least one trip to a merchant to to empty and sell inventory. Buy a bow - X-Bow - or gun depending on your character to trigger the long range SB red circle. 8. You are now ready to start playing. In and around Bellevue kill everything, opening every chest and keg, completing every Quest, especially the Blacksmith Quest to be able socket equipment and weapons. Continue this method and Import and Export until you reach level 6, selling everything. Continue with the Main Quest or Export-Import to move up to Silver Level. 10. If your are a WE or Dwarf you have to wait until you reach Silver Creek and do the Combo Master Quest to swap your runes. 11. Any other character that jump-fly or move by line of sight can drop into MP Island South of Bellevue and utilize the Merchant, Blacksmith and Combo Master as soon as you receive the proper rune to do this. 12. "Save Character Now". You are now a fully capable warrior and upon reaching level 8 can rapidly level up. 13. All ideas in this guide are taken from this forum. To each individual who contributed each idea "I Salute You". No slight is meant by not naming you. 13. Veteran players: Please feel free to make any corrections needed or PM me and well meet for a brew and celebrate the great game of Sacred. 14. Please: No flames, as I am a very sensitive and caring master killer. MAY YOUR KILLS BE QUICK & MANY: __________________ Senior Armchair Archadist

Weapons & Armor: Figuring it Out If you're wondering about how to read and make sense of the various statistics of weapons and armor, and how that all translates into the game experience, then here is a generalized reference to help you out in that regard. Note: The information here has been collected by yours truly over time playing the game. It is general in nature and, if you're new without alot of play-time under your belt, it's worth remembering that there are exceptions to virtually every rule in this game. Keep that in mind, and you'll know how to use this reference. Weapons Considering the headache involved in accurately plotting out a realistic map of the actual damage your character does, here's some basic guidelines to use in judging the overall worth and performance of any given weapon: The total damage figure: generally speaking, the higher that number is, the better. This is a relatively safe way of judging the average damage output of any weapon. Presence of Attack and Defense rating bonuses: A weapon does not have to feature either attack or defense rating increases to be effective in combat. When you see either (or both) of these figures on a weapon, they represent bonuses. Bonuses are always a good thing...as long as they apply to your character. For example: +1 to Hard-Hit is entirely useless to a Battle Mage and a Daemon. Why? Both of those characters lack the Hard-Hit combat move. What follows is a run-down of weapon types...remember, there are always exceptions to every rule, so take the following information as generalized stats: Swords: Generally speaking, Longsword types feature a balanced attack and defense rating bonus. Attack Speed bonuses are also prone to appear on these kinds of swords. Damage is usually moderate to low, but many sport three slots, which can be used to amplify damage output. Sabers and Scimitars: these swords typically feature a numerical defense rating bonus, and feature a + % of Dexterity to Attack modifier. Slots are rare (sabers are more prone to have slots). Damage output is moderate. Two handed swords obviously are the heavy-hitters, and can have the most slots (4). While their damage output is not as high as two-handed axes, they generally offer more in the way of attack speed bonuses, specialized damage, and other nifty bonuses and mods. Daggers: daggers almost always offer superior attack rating modifiers, and a damage type modified by a statistic. While their end damage output is low, the potential for use by dual wielders is excellent. Note: Daemons perform very well with swords in melee. She swings a two-handed sword faster than any other character in the game at comparable attack speeds. Wood Elves swing daggers faster than any other character in the game at comparable attack speeds. Axes: Overall, axe weapons offer the highest damage output of the melee weapons. One-handed axes: these almost always feature physical damage modified by a % Strength. Some use Dexterity instead. You will find that certain styles of axe conform to boosting by particular statistical scores. An attack rating bonus is usually present, though a defense rating bonus is rare to find. The average axe will deliver more damage than the average sword. One-handed maces and hammers: in my opinion, these weapons are ideal for use by dual wielders. The maces seem to swing slightly faster than the axes with most characters, and most offer excellent damage output. Battle Axes and Two-handed Hammers (generic, Gladiator, and Dwarf-only): the two-handed axes/hammers offer a very high damage output, and are ideally suited for demolishing foes in melee with the Hard-Hit CA. Some types of battle axe will feature both an attack and defense rating, though most feature only attack. Note:Only Gladiators and Dwarves can use the TH battle axes and hammers. Two weapons appear in the game that are two-handed axe weapons; these can be used by any character. One looks like a staff with a mace-head on the business end (strangely enough, these will also appear as long handled weapons...a Dwarf can use the Axe Lore version, but not the Long Handled Weapon version! ), and the other is a three-headed, two-handed flail (Orcs will employ these quite often in the game). Dwarves perform best with axe weapons; a Dwarf will swing both a one-handed axe AND a two-handed axe weapon faster than any other character in the game at comparable attack speeds. Long Handled Weapons: Generally speaking these weapons are two-handed, with one notable exception: Mage's Short Staff, a one-handed staff weapon. Staves typically offer either an attack rating, a defense rating, rarely both, and usually offer + % of Dexterity to Defense. Damage is typically physical with few or nod mods at all. Mage's Staves offer the anticipated bonuses to spell damage types, spells, Spell Regeneration, and so on, and are prone to feature two types of damage, usually physical and magic, or fire. Spears typically offer an attack rating, and usually do extra damage against mounted foes (useful on a limited basis in the Underworld campaign), and Dragons. Spears ordinarily offer just physical damage, but some might add fire or even poison to the mix. Several spears/polearms exist which are for Seraphims only - these can be ordinary, all the way to unique. Note: Seraphims perform very well with spear-type long handled weapons. Wood Elves perform very well with staves. Daemons perform well with non-Battle Mage Mages' Staves, and spears. The Mage's Short Staff is a Battle Mage-only weapon. Ranged Weapons: The addition of Underworld brought more variety in this area. Bows: Short bows: Short bows offer the least amount of damage amongst the bows, but are handy since they often do a variety of damage types. They can be used by any character except for Daemons and Dwarves. Long bows: Long bows offer better damage, but are less versatile in their damage offerings. Any character can use them except for Daemons and Dwarves. Polemides Bow of Terror, a WE set weapon, is this type of bow. Wood Elf bows: As the name implies, these bows can only be used by a Wood Elf. Octanion's Rage and Arelfi's Glorious Retribution are WE set bows of this type. Two types exist: those with no Ranged Combat requirement, and those with Ranged Combat as a requirement. Generally speaking, the Ranged Combat bows are more powerful. In terms of damage, long bows actually have higher output in general, but Wood Elf bows compensate by (usually) offering Regeneration Special Move bonuses, bonuses to Arrow CAs, often sport two damage types (physical and magic the most common). Crossbows: Crossbows have the highest damage potential of the bow weapons, but conversely have the slowest rate of fire. Crossbow damage is usually boosted by a % of Strength. There are a number of excellent crossbows in the game, including several outstanding uniques. Crossbows can be used by any character except Dwarves. Note: while in Soaring Daemon form, the Daemon has a ridiculously fast rate of fire with crossbows. On foot, she is a slow as everyone else. Crossbows are very likely to show up with 4 slots, making them a potentially powerful weapon. Because of the slow rate of fire, I suggest using them only to fire off CA hits (such as Hard Hit). This takes advantage of their excellent damage. Guns Guns can only be used by Dwarves. Two general types exist: pistols, and muskets. Pistols offer a slighty faster rate of fire than muskets, but do less damage. Muskets pack more punch, but are a bit slower to fire. Guns almost always feature physical damage modified by Dexterity. Pistols are more prone to feature fire damage in addition to the standard damage fare, making them useful against undead. Blade Combat Weapons: Click on the Dark Elf Weaponry link in my sig for a thorough run-down on Blade Combat weapons. All of the Blade Combat weapons (except for Dark Elf-only) can be used by any character, whether a Battle Mage or a Wood Elf. Generally speaking, most of the characters attack at a high rate of speed with claws. The Daemon is likely the fastest of the characters with claws. The Blade Combat weapon skill can only be taken by the Dark Elf. He is the fastest with fist blades, and amongst the 4 characters in the game who can dual wield (DE, Glad, Seraphim, and Daemon), is arguably the best-suited for it. Unarmed Combat Weapons: In version 2.24 of Sacred (Sacred Gold, I.e. Underworld), Combat Gauntlets are the only weapon in the game governed by the UA skill. A character's bare hands, of course, are as well. In versions past, only Gladiators could use these. Presently: combat gauntlets, unless specifically stated as Gladiator-only, can be used by any character in the game. Although many unique combat gauntlets are for use by the Gladiator only, there are some out there for use by any character (thanks to Hawklaser for the info!). Gladiators and Dwarves both perform very well with combat gauntlets. These typically do one kind of damage: either physical (most common), and rarely fire. Attack Speed and how it figures into play Here are some general rules: Certain characters favor certain weapon types. They will attack more quickly than other characters using that kind of weapon, even when the others have higher attack speeds! A brief run-down of weapon synergies amongst the characters: Knight: all swords. Vampiress: is pretty fast with everything the Knight can equip since whatever weapon she was equipped with in Knight form becomes her "claws" in Vampire form (the Vamp is a killing machine); [b]Daemon:[/b] claws, and two-handed swords; Dwarf: all axe weapons; Wood Elf: bows, staves, and daggers; Gladiator: combat gauntlets; Dark Elf: fastest when dual wielding weapons, one-handed weapon: fist blade; Battle Mage: when on horseback, all of his attack speeds increase (swings a sword more quickly, swings a staff faster, etc); Seraphim: like the Battle Mage, her attack animation speed with weapons is faster when she is mounted. Principles of Damage: Bonuses and Modifiers As a rule, special weapons will feature more bonuses than "white-titled" weapons. There are exceptions to this, however, so beware: that white-titled two handed sword you left lying on the ground just might have four slots, and do incredible physical damage! Types of weapon damage modifiers Weapon Damage (Physical, Fire, Magic, Poison): sometimes a percentile of a statistic, other times a simple numerical value. Often, this modifier will specify a particular opponent it is effective against. Dragons: all dragons, and dragon-like monsters (fire lizards, wyverns, etc). Goblins: goblins, orcs, and ogres. Undead: skeletons, zombies, liches, ghouls, skeleton mages, ancarian trolls, animated conjurers, nuk nuks, etc. Energy Beings: ghosts, restless spirits, life leechers of the orcrus, tormented souls, etc. Monsters: certain creatures in the game fall under this category. This classification will appear as you hover your mouse pointer over the target. Hirelings: DeMordreyan Soldiers, Swordmasters, Bloodhunters, Valorian troop types, Marauders, etc. Tip: the Weapon Damage type of bonus is the most commonly occurring damage bonus type on weapons. (Physical, Fire, Magic, Poison) Weapon: + X%: a simple modifier, exactly the same as the previous one, except it applies to weapon damage vs. any opponent. Tip: Physical Weapon: +X% is very prone to appearing on Dwarven backpacks. (Physical, Fire, Magic, Poison) Damage: +X%: officially my favorite damage modifier, this handy bonus not only applies to the damage you do with weapons, but the damage you inflict with spells and traps, too. Tips: Physical Damage: +X% is very prone to appearing on white-titled swords and and axes. This sort of damage bonus is ideal for a "hybrid" sort of character that likes to mix melee with spells/traps/Dwarven Cannon moves. (Physical, Fire, Magic, Poison) Spell: +X%: this type of damage modifier, usually found only on the various Mage staves, amplifies spell damage of the specified damage type. For example: the Poison Spell bonus will increase the poison damage done by the BM's Gust of Wind, the Daemon's Tentacles spell, and the Wood Elf's Thorn Bush and Poison Tendrils spells. Tip: The various Spell: +X% mods are very prone to appearing on Mage's Short Staves (typically Fire Spell), the generic Mage's Staff (usually Magic Spell on those), and certain swords with titles such as "Heavenly Sword of the Famous" (also Magic Spell). Straight-up Numbers: Sometimes, a weapon will lack any sort of damage modifiers. Do not despair: often, weapons like these will feature more than one damage type (sometimes up to three!), or offer excellent attack and defense bonuses, have plenty of slots, etc. Tip: I have tested some of these weapons before and have discovered that the raw numbers alone are actually higher in actual output than comparable weapons with bonuses...so, equip them and look at your output before dismissing them. I have found some real gems this way.[/font] Armor Protection: This figure is generally a good way to judge the overall worthiness of an armor piece. There are other details to consider, but this is the place to start. Attack and Defense ratings: Both are desirable, though in the case of armor, I recommend focusing on defense. You can use weapons mainly to amplify attack. I normally use the following pattern: Helmets: defense. Shoulder Guards: attack & defense. Body Armor: defense and heavy on resists. Bracers: attack & defense. Gauntlets: defense. Belt: defense. Greaves: attack and defense. Boots: defense. Amulets: defense. Rings: if four slots on the fingers, two defense, two attack. If two slots: defense. However, ALL rings worn should add to damage somehow (avoid resistance rings unless they also do damage, are a set ring, or a very sweet unique). I like to build a solid defense and great resistances with armor, and let weapons/CAs take care of attack ability. Resistances: This is an important place to look. For general use, you want armor that provides excellent protection against physical damage. If you're wanting to design a suit of armor for a particular area of the game or, wisely, assemble a suit of armor that will work against dragons, then you will want to see other damage type resistances here. Here's my general tips regarding game areas (in Ancaria, anyway; I will add Underworld-specific later): From Bellevue to Braverock: Physical resistance-heavy. Basically, the "green" and forested areas of the game west of the swamps and the Valley of Zhurag-Nar. If the various mage-type foes in these areas are a concern, then add fire and magic resistance to the armor. Valley of Zhurag-Nar to Mystdale: Physical and poison resistance are key. The southern deserts: Any modifier to help protect you against ranged attackers is something to get if you can, since there are lots and lots of archers in the Ancarian deserts. Fire Plateau: Physical and Fire. vs. Undead: Physical, Fire, and Poison. The Skeleton Mages shoot fireballs. The Animated Conjurers toss Explosive Charges. Liches toss Poison Mists and hit for physical + poison damage. Zombies, Ghouls, and Ancarian Trolls will do physical + poison damage. Skeletons generally do pure physical except for some of the archers, which often do fire damage with arrows. vs. Dragon: Heavy on defense rating, physical resistance, and fire resistance. Dragons hit hard; usually the only way to escape being hit hard by one is to be buffed by a BM's Stoneskin and Flameskin. Flameskin, or a Daemon in Fire Daemon form, can generally stand in the middle of dragon breath with few problems unless your health is already low, or the CA/spell levels are low. My BMs buffed with both FS and SS have no problems with dragon-related damage. Those two (together) protect against breath, meteor storms, and melee hits. vs. DeMordrey: Up until Gold, DeMordrey is easy. He starts becoming tough in Gold; by Niobium he is insanely tough and dishes out alot of damage very quickly. Very heavy on defense and physical resists. vs. Sakarra Demon: good defense, and fire resistance. The Demon's eye beams can hurt if you don't have adequate fire resistance. His burning feet stomp attack can peck away at your health without a good resistance to fire. Principles of Protection: Resistance, Attack, and Defense Modifiers You can use armor, rings, and amulets to boost virtually every aspect of your character: resistances, attack rating, defense rating, abilities, skills, CA & spell levels...you name it. The same also applies to weapons! Your style of play will ultimately reveal what works best for you. I will suggest a moderate/balanced approach to getting the most out of your armor and other items. Adjust it as you see fit. Primary role of Armor: Resistance boost, defense rating boost, and receptacle for the following special modifiers: life leech, critical hit bonuses, open wounds modifiers, bonuses to all CA and Spell levels, etc. Why use armor pieces to house these bonuses? Chiefly so these modifiers will apply at all times, no matter what weapon you're using. It's difficult to replicate these bonuses/mods on every single weapon in your slots; very simple to have them always present on what you're wearing, so they're always there! Primary role of Amulets: Defense rating boost, resistance boost, and hopefully will offer nice little perks like + X to all magic spells, + X to all combat arts, etc. These should be worn, and socketed into armor pieces. Amulets offer the highest contribution to resistances and defense rating bonuses in comparison to rings, CA runes, and Blacksmith Arts. Primary role of Rings: Damage boost, attack and defense boost, additional source of desirable modifiers listed under Armor above, and statistic/skill boost. First and foremost, the rings your character wears should add damage to your attacks. Better that the damage boost takes the form of the <Damage Type> Damage: +X% modifier. Many rings feature that bonus type...go for those. Rings are best suited for wearing, or socketing into weapons since most add to damage. Primary role of Shields: Resistance boost, defense rating boost, and receptacle of the modifiers found on Armor. Socket amulets into shields. Tip: As you will see by now, Armor is the best place to locate the "exotic" bonuses, since there are more places to wear armor on your character's body than there are weapons to wield in a weapon slot. Average places to wear armor on a character: 13 (rings and amulets included in that), not counting a shield. Maximum number of weapons you can equip at one time: two if you dual wield. EDIT - more to come later (bonuses and mods, a master plan for both weapons and armor, etc.)[/font]

Many Thanks to Tharkane for permission to post this great guide I didn't have a good title for this thread in mind, so I just cooked up a silly one on the spot. Anyway, it occurred to me to share some damage-boosting methods with those who are new to playing BMs. I'm sure none of this will be news to BM veterans, but I notice a recurring theme regarding a BM being a bi or tri-elementalist. Posh...your BM can be a Pan-Elementalist, if you focus on jacking up each damage type using your gear. Pan-Elementalist Flexibility This kind of versatility comes in pretty handy. While you only have a total of eight skills to choose for a BM, you can take advantage of all those wonderful slots in armor and weapons to pump up the damage he does using spells (and his weapons, as well) to very nice levels. A level 5 Fireball can be a whopper if the damage it does is multiplied expotentially by your gear. Your skill choices are limited, but the slots in your gear are not. Five weapon slots = a lot of possibilities for a BM, especially if you stick a weapon + shield in at least 4 of them. Each weapon slot will represent a damage booster for a school of magic...and as we know, most inflict two forms of damage (with the exception of Air Magic spells, which are confused ). Magic Schools and their Corresponding Damage Types Fire Magic (4 damaging spells): Fire + Magic Earth Magic (1 damaging spell): Physical + Fire Air Magic (3 damaging spells): Physical (Whirlwind), Poison (GoW), Magic (LS) Water Magic (2 damaging spells): Physical + Magic The common damage denominator: Magic. The least common: Poison. The Secret Mojo requires the use of body armor and finger rings to boost magic damage, since this sort of damage type is pretty common. A good example of BM set armor that boosts Magic spell damage: Blackstaff's. There are several non-set and non-unique rings which will boost magic damage by a percentile amount. The primary damage modifier we want to use is: <Type> Damage: + X% We want to avoid "weapon damage" bonuses and modifiers here since those do nothing for spells. However, the Secret Mojo perk is this: the aforementioned damage modifier will benefit both spells and weapon damage. Now that's good mojo. Fortunately for us, Battle Mage weapons are ideally suited for this job. Mage's Short Staff (BM only weapon): The only one-handed long handled weapon in the game, I absolutely love these things. Many feature an impressive number of slots...try four!...and feature useful mods to juice up your spells. The fact that these are a four-slotted one-handed weapon is good enough. However, these often feature Fire Spell: + X% on them, or Magic Damage: + X%. Those are the ones that you want. Pair a four-slotted Short Staff with a three-slotted shield in a weapon slot, and you have 7 ways to make your Fire Magic spells kill everything on the screen, dragons included. Mage's Staff (generic weapon): This two-handed long handled weapon usually features a maximum of three slots (I've never seen one with four). I generally don't use these unless a particular one is very exceptional. The typical bonus pertains to Magic Spell and Magic Damage. The Short Staff tends to be better overall, since these are also prone to having useless mods like Regeneration Special Move. Various Two-handed Mage's Staves (BM only): You'll recognize these by the forms they take. The Poison/Physical Staff: Identical to Dagowit's Wrath in appearance, these staves often feature Poison Spell: + X%, Poison Damage: + X%, or the same mods in regards to physical damage. Three slots are most common, though four slots do occur. Generally speaking, you want four. The more slots, the better the mojo. BM Swords (generic weapon): Identical in appearance to Mammon's Final Cut, these swords almost always pump up Magic Spell or Magic Damage. A typical title for one of these swords: Heavenly Sword of the Famous. They can have up to three slots. If you're a Sword Lore BM, these are a boon for you. Assembling the Mojo A Trading BM has a definite advantage here. The types of rings we want to socket into weapons and shields are the ones which feature the <Type> Damage: + X% modifier. A Trader can find these rings at Merchants very easily...and the most common one by far is the Fire ring. However, rings for each damage type can be bought at Merchants. A non-trading BM can pick them up from Merchants, though it will take greater patience and more time to do so. The ones a Trading BM can buy are always more powerful and prone to feature other handy bonuses, like life leech, a spell regeneration bonus, etc. This is where it pays to have a muling system in place, or good friends in multiplayer. Weapon Slot 1: Fire Magic Weapon: Mage's Short Staff with shield Ideally, you want a four-slotted Short Staff. You will place a damage-boosting ring into each slot on the weapon. If the Short Staff features fire damage mods, then socket magic damage rings. If magic damage mods are present on the weapon, then socket fire damage rings. The Shield: socket fire damage rings, or the Blacksmith Art which boosts spell damage. If you have Trading, put some life leech on the shield. If you have a Forge Lore Dwarf friend, have him socket the MF art into the shield slots. Weapon Slot 2: Earth Magic (also Whirlwind) Weapon: Two-handed Physical Staff or Weapon: Short Staff with shield If you're going to use a Short Staff, make sure it is one with fire damage mods on it. Socket rings which boost physical damage into the weapon. I have yet to see a Short Staff that boosts non-weapon specific physical damage. Follow this pattern with the shield as well. If a two-handed Physical Staff is used, socket fire damage rings into the slots. The goal here is to make your Meteor Storms pack a very mean punch. Turn a seven-meteor storm into a crowd killer. Weapon Slot 3: Poison set (for gusting) Weapon: Two-handed Poison Staff Pretty simple and straightforward: the goal of this weapon slot is to amplify the poison damage your BM does, which will make GoW do more damage. Installing a critical hit mod here is an excellent idea. Weapon Slot 4: Generic Magic set (good for ROI, IS, LS) Weapon: Mage's Short Staff and shield or Weapon: BM Sword and shield This catch-all weapon slot will serve to beef up spells which are heavy on magic damage, like Ice Shards, Ring of Ice, and Lightning Strike. Ideally, you'll want a Short Staff which features magic damage mods, or a BM sword with the same feature. Although these spells have a physical component, I recommend sticking to magic damage rings: make your magic damage go through the roof with this set. You'll also want to focus on Regeneration Spells as well, to speed up your use of IS. The faster you toss out those Ice Shards, the more casualties you cause. My highest level BM can slaughter entire crowds + their boss with one or two uses of Ice Shards. One, if enough critical hits happen. Weapon Slot 5: Your Call! Your choice of skills doesn't have to dictate what spells you rely on. Use items and equipment to turn your BM into a pan-elementalist. No sweat!

Thorin Oakshield of Clan DA reveals the secrets of shopping at the Sacred merchants. Posted here with his permission. The Merchant mechanics unraveled I've already posted this at the SIF, but since not all of us visit that site, here I go again. It's been for a while I had the feeling the merchants in Sacred were using some sort of system to generate items. So to find me some proof, I did some testing in both MP as SP and found simular results for the merchants. Since most players are obviously looking for the best items, it might be useful to know how the merchant-mechanics actually work. What's commonly known is that by changing merchants, the items they have in stock change. It's an exploit we all use when shopping at BraveMart or Porto Vallum Market; something which is a bit easier to do in MP as in SP. However, the change of items isn't just that. The quality of the items is changing too, with a reset point every once in a while. And I've discovered the reset point of the items is very easy to spot; being the moment the merchant isn't having any sort or just one or two kinds of jewelry in stock at all. Between two reset points both the quality and quantity of the items increase and decrease, with the best items found somewhere in the middle of two reset points. In general the mechanics work like this: Stage 1: Lots of bad items, occasionally some good items. Stage 2: lots of good items Stage 3: some good items, several better items Stage 4: several better items, several best items Stage 5: several best items, lots of exelent items Stage 7: several better items, several best items Stage 8: some good items, several better items Stage 9: lots of good items Stage 10: Lots of bad items, occasionally some good items Stage 11: few items of bad quality, usually followed by a merchant reset. Another thing I discovered is that the +x to trading amulet's are having just one shape; but that they're available for all character classes and that the stats increase depending at the server level. All trading amulet's I've found in both MP as SP are having the pin shape, making it quite easy to spot them. However, these amulet's show up very occasionally, making them very hard to find. But like I said, the stats depend at the server you play in, making them better over time. So far I've discovered that +1 Trading amy's are found in Bronze, +2 Amy's are found in Silver, +6 amy's are found in Gold and +8 amy's are found in Platinum. Which makes me wonder what the stats for a Niob Trading would be.:scratch: Thorin

Note: If you do not have Underworld loaded, please refer to The Dark Elf Compendium thread for dual wielding as it applies to that version of the game. ************************************************** *** Single Weapon Wielding Wielding one weapon requires no special training nor ability. Du'Blade* = Blade Combat Du'Blade* + Shield = Blade Combat * Also applies to generic Blade Combat weapons. for reference purposes: Normal Sword = Sword Lore Normal Sword + Shield = Sword Lore Dagger = Sword Lore Dagger + Shield = Sword Lore Two-Handed Sword = Sword Lore Axe = Axe Lore Axe + Shield = Axe Lore Battle Axe = Axe Lore Mace, Hammer, Morningstar = Axe Lore Mace, Hammer, Morningstar + Shield = Axe Lore Cudgel (two-handed mace variant) = Axe Lore Spear, Quarterstaff, Halberd, Lance, Pike, Staff, Mage's staves (two-handed varieties), Mage's Small Staff = Long-Handled Weapons Combat Gauntlets = Unarmed Combat Bows, Crossbows, Pistols, Muskets = Ranged Combat Dual Wielding Wielding two weapons in one weapon slot requires the skill Dual Wielding. Special Note before proceeding: Understand that while Dual Wielding skill permits your Dark Elf (and the other 3 character types that can gain it) to equip any two one handed weapons in one slot, your ability to wield a weapon is first decided by the basic requirements for the weapon in question. For example, as much as I love Seraphim swords, the mighty Dark Elf can't wield one. Just the same, if a certain weapon features "Minimum Sword Lore: X", you'll have to possess Sword Lore skill in order to equip it. Just because an item you're wearing might give a bonus to Sword Lore, if you don't at least have one skill point in Sword Lore naturally, you'll be out of luck. Items can't give you skills, they can only augment them. Du'Blade* + Du'Blade* = Dual Wielding Du'Blade* + Normal Sword/Dagger/Axe/Mace/Hammer = Dual Wielding * Also applies to generic Blade Combat weapons Again, just for reference: Normal Sword + Normal Sword = Dual Wielding Axe + Axe = Dual Wielding Mace/Hammer/Morningstar + Mace/Hammer/Morningstar = Dual Wielding Hopefully, this helps to explain Dual Wielding in Underworld. I took the time (and space) to cover other weapons so an overall understanding of the game mechanics behind the weapon skills might be gained. That just helps to clarify things for the knowledge-seeker. Addition: Special Note on "Creative Socketing" As the rules state, a weapon can only be wielded if the minimum requirements are met by your character. This is true regardless of whether your Dark Elf dual wields or uses one weapon. Does that mean you can never wield a certain weapon because it requires something your character doesn't have? No, not necessarily! How to Creatively Socket For the purposes of this illustration, your DE wants to use Aarnum's Fiery Blade, a special two-handed sword added to the game by the Underworld patch. He does not have the Sword Lore skill (DEs can take the Sword Lore skill, but in my example here this guy doesn't have it). Aarnum's Fiery Blade requires a minimum Sword Lore of 10 to wield. If this is not overcome, then your Dark Elf will not be able to equip it. Aarnum's Fiery Blade happens to have three slots. You will utilize one of these slots to overcome the Sword Lore requirement. You will do that by socketing a ring which features a requirement higher in value than the Sword Lore requirement of Aarnum's sword. For example: A ring which requires a Concentration skill score of 11, when socketed into Aarnum's sword, will negate the Sword Lore requirement. This same method applies to other weapons, such as DE weapons which require Blade Combat skill. If you don't have Blade Combat skill, use the previously described method to overcome that item's requirements by substituting a different requirement of higher value. Be careful: don't socket a ring that requires something you don't have (like Magic Lore or Meditation)!! Creative Socketing Limitations: A different character's set weapon can never be wielded. Creative socketing does not effect this. A different character's armor can never be worn. Creative socketing can't change that. Another character's racial weapons can never be used. For example, only Wood Elves can use Wood Elf bows. However, with all of that out of the way, you can use the rings and amulets of other character's sets in your equipment. It will not make your armor or weapon restricted to you...unless that set ring changes the requirements!!

Weapon Ballistics To round out this treatise on Du'Blades and the other Blade Combat weapons, I will list the attack type each weapon follows, plus what damage features are typically found on each one. Attack type is defined as the pattern of swings in combat. A dagger class weapon, for example, swings as follows: strike/strike, pause. A sword class weapon swings more slowly, but is more consistent and steady: strike, strike, strike. Note that poison damage can appear on any Du'Blade, and is the most common damage type. Fist Blades - Dagger class attack type. Typical damage features: Physical, Poison modified by % of Dexterity. Tri-dagger - Dagger class attack type. Typical damage features: generally follows standard daggers in the game. Scorpion Blades - Sword class attack type. Typical damage features: Physical, Poison. Poison damage can be modified any number of ways; there is no one method typically found more than others. Butterfly Swords - Sword class attack type. Typical damage features: heavy on one type of damage. No firm rule applies. Poison is most common, but in higher levels of play variants start appearing that do fire, and even magic, damage. Fang Swords - Sword class attack type. Typical damage features follows Scorpion blades. Note: despite recent patches to the game, this weapon type has "fallen through the cracks." A bug prevents the Blade Combat skill from influencing the use of these weapons. Case in point: I have tested Ethan Rhys' Malicious Blade with my level 135 Niobium Melee DE and have found this to be the case. Silver Swords - This recent addition to the Du'Blade arsenal follows the sword class attack type. Typical damage features: not enough information at this time. (Will update when enough research yields results) Dark Elf Longsword - Sword class attack type. Typical damage features: Physical, Poison. Like most swords in the game, usually offers good attack and defense ratings. Dark Elf Broadsword - Sword class attack type. Typical damage features: Physical, and one other elemental damage type. Fire is most common, followed by Poison. Bladed Spears - New with the Underworld patch. Sword class attack type. Faster than average speed, even in the hands of an unskilled character. Typical damage features: Physical, fire damage modified by dexterity or vs. enemy type, such as elves. Also is very prone to offer RSM bonuses. Thau Blades - Sword class attack type. Slightly slower than other sword-type weapons. Typical damage features: highest damage output of the Blade Combat weapons, typically poison, sometimes fortified with physical damage. Poison damage is often modified by % of the Charisma statistic, making this weapon quite effective in poison delivery, since the Charisma score directly influences poison damage. A pixel glitch makes it difficult to have two Thau blades in the same weapon slot. These are one handed weapons, however, and a little patience will result in the successful use of two of them in the same weapon slot. Claws - Dagger class attack type. As with the other generic Blade Combat weapons, these weapons have a fast attack rate, even when used by an unskilled character. Typical damage features: physical damage modified by a % of a statistic, usually Dexterity, though sometimes Strength. Occasionally, Claws will also feature poison damage. Knuckles - Dagger class attack type. Typical damage features: follows claws.

Many thanks to Tharkane for his Dark Elf Compendium Dark Elf Weaponry Considering the mass confusion regarding DE weapons and their names here in the forum, I thought some kind of standard would help whenever they are referred to in posts. This way, everyone has something to work with. Some of the names I have come up with are arbitrary, others hearken back to earlier versions of the game. Collectively, all Dark Elf weapons are called Du'blades. Refer to the attached screen shot to view the actual weapons. I have included the other four generic Blade Combat weapons in the game for completeness. Special note: Some of these weapons are new to the Underworld addition. If you are playing Plus or an earlier version, some of these weapons will not be available to your Dark Elf. An asterisk (*) denotes a Dark Elf-only weapon. For your general information, I have identified the DE set weapons with their corresponding type. From left to right, top to bottom: Fist Blade * (Cordell's Dagger) Tri-dagger (Note: two versions of this weapon exist in the game: a Blade Combat weapon, and a Sword Lore weapon) Scorpion Blade * Butterfly Sword * Fang Sword * (Ethan-Rhys' Malicious Blade) Silver Sword * Dark Elf Longsword * Dark Elf Broadsword * (Krag's Judge) Bladed Spear Thau Blade * (Bahamut's Blade) Claws Knuckles

Dark Elf Build - The Universalist Utilizing the Dark Elf's Combat Arts, building a warrior that's able to meet virtually every challenge in the game is easily accomplished. An understanding of the underlying simplicity involved is required in order to appreciate the elegance of the universalist build. The Challenges of the Game In a nutshell, Sacred offers three basic challenges to a character. The universalist attempts to address all three, and in my Sacred gaming experience, does so successfully. 1) Defense In the lower levels of difficulty, adequate defense is usually not an issue. However, any player who has ventured forth into Niobium appreciates the need for defense...gobs of it, in fact. Two factors are key: basic defense rating to avoid being hit in the first place, and some way to address the annoying arrows of Niobium archers. Adrenaline As has been discussed in Mjollnir's Poisonist Triad guide, this Trap Art supplies all the raw defense rating a Dark Elf will ever need. As Mjollnir accurately points out, Adrenaline offers higher returns for your investment than Parrying (which requires the use of a shield to be most effective), or Agility. The universalist uses Adrenaline, and based on his method of stat investment, skill choices and optimal armor/weapon configurations, aims to achieve a very low regeneration time. Pak Dain (Projectile Deflection) Even with a good Adrenaline-enhanced defense rating, the Dark Elf will still be harassed by Niobium archers. It can be rather frustrating to watch your 50K defense rating mean nothing in the face of numerous arrows. Fortunately for the Dark Elf, he possesses the means to turn the tables on his ranged foes in a very satisfying manner, befitting his sarcastic and sardonic outlook. The Universalist, thanks to possessing the Concentration skill and wise investment in Physical Regeneration, is able to activate the Pak-Dain combat move and keep it running perpetually, its regeneration time well below its duration. 2) Attack Like defense, in the lower levels of play, the need for a robust attack rating doesn't figure into the gaming experience. As the Dark Elf progresses into Gold and beyond, however, the need for increasingly greater attack capability becomes very apparent. Testosterone Testosterone supplies the Universalist with unparraleled attack power, reaching far beyond the scope of weapon skills and the modest attack boost offered by the Agility skill. Like Adrenaline, his skill choices and stat investment insure that the regeneration time remains well below the duration. It is very possible to have both Testosterone and Adrenaline running concurrently on your Universalist Dark Elf. Dual Wielding The ability to wield two one-handed weapons in concert - both in the same weapon slot - still offers high dividends despite the balancing brought about by the Underworld patch. The attack rate of a dual wielder vs. a single weapon wielder illustrates the difference. While the intrinsic damage of dual wielding is reduced compared to using one weapon, the speed gained compensates for the reduction quite well. The bonuses of both weapons added into this equation, in the end, means more damage inflicted. For example, a critical hit bonus modifier is more likely to happen through several attacks vs. a few. The universalist chooses Dual Wielding as a skill. Whether it's his only weapon skill or not, the advantage of wielding two weapons addresses the attack challenge more than adequately. 3) Damage Damage done, even in the lower levels of play, is a constant requirement if opponents are to be vanquished in a reasonable amount of time. There is no question that the Dark Elf specializes in the application of damage in ever-increasing amounts! The Universalist, through lower combat move and trap art regeneration times, is able to annihilate his foes whether in close combat, or from a distance, in a relatively brief amount of time. Ranged The Explosive Charge trap is one way to attack opponents at range. It offers an excellent damage spread that continues to rise as levels are added. It is very effective against the undead as it inflicts fire damage. Poison Mist can be used against stationary archers, and placed strategically around the Dark Elf to damage incoming foes. Dropping a Poison Mist on top of himself, he can damage encircling enemies. Bottomless Pit has uses both at range and in close. The fire and poison damage it does makes this trap useful against a great variety of enemies. The Universalist, through the Trap Lore and Ballistics skills, takes full advantage of his resources to become an expert Trap Artist in combat. Both skills work to reduce his trap art regeneration times, making their swift use in combat feasible. Melee Specializing in Trap Arts does not mean a Dark Elf must be weak in combat. Dual wiedling and the use of Dark Elven combat moves makes the Universalist a melee specialist. Multi-Hit and Cobra are his primary combat moves, while Hard-Hit and Mongoose are secondaries. Sudden Fury is amongst the best Multi-Hit combat moves of the characters in Sacred. Once CA level 3 is reached, it begins to hit surrounding targets very consistently. What sets the Dark Elf's Sudden Fury apart is how targets who are struck (even Dragon-sized!) are driven back from the Dark Elf, and usually become stunned for a few seconds in the process. This combat move is a true gem and is a mainstay of the Universalist. Cobra, once CA level 8 is attained, becomes extremely effective at rendering encircling enemies stunned for great lengths of time. Even the most powerful bosses are not exempt from the effects of Cobra. The author has used Cobra on dragons, and even against Baron DeMordrey with great success. Cobra is one of the Universalist's secret weapons, one he unleashes upon those deserving of a stunned, clueless death. Revenge is employed by the Universalist as the coup de grace on senseless opponents in combat. He also employs it in duels against the champions and bosses of his enemies. First, he clears the battlefield of their pitiful minions. Then, he exacts his revenge upon their ringleaders. The Universalist: Regeneration is at the Core of Power Unlike the hybrid characters who use both melee and magic, the Dark Elf uses CAs which share common regeneration formulas. He shares this with the Dwarf. To his benefit, the two types of his Combat Arts - Combat Moves and Trap Arts - both "run" on different timers, enabling the constant use of both concurrently in combat. A review of these regeneration formulas: Combat Moves: (Physical Regeneration) + (Concentration/Regeneration Special Move) Trap Arts: (Physical Regeneration) + (Trap Lore/Regeneration Special Move) + (Ballistics) The Universalist invests all available statistic points in Physical Regeneration. First, this common denominator serves to improve the regeneration times for both of his CA types; and secondly, it has the effect of increasing his health points, permitting him to withstand more punishment in combat. Quick regeneration is needed to facilitate the use of both Adrenaline and Testosterone concurrently in combat, the cornerstone of Dark Elf attack power and defense. True combat power for the Dark Elf rests in the ability to execute combat moves and traps consistently and at a high rate of delivery. The regeneration benefits the Universalist build offers makes this a reality. It's commonly believed that speed = a sacrifice in damage, and for the other characters in Sacred, this is true for most part. For the Dark Elf, however, speed is his forte, and he achieves greater damage the faster his attacks are in combat. Better that these attacks be combat moves and/or traps, rather than the default normal attack. The topic of damage will be covered more completely later in this build guide. Skill Selection and Skill Point Investments Note: The default skills the Dark Elf begins his quest with are sufficient and are used in this build. Weapon Lore (1 point per level until 30th level) Concentration (1 point every other level) 3rd level: Dual Wielding (advance to 5 points maximum) 6th level: Trap Lore (as per Concentration) 12th level: Constitution (1 point per level) 20th level: Armor (1 point per level) 30th level: Ballistics (1 point per level) 50th level: Player's choice.* *Suggestion: Blade Combat. While creative socketing can be used to overcome the BC requirements of the DE set weapons with that requirement, this means that you have one less slot to work with...I.e., you *must* socket a ring with a higher requirement in one slot. Unless you plan on making a Trader of your Universalist, taking Blade Combat frees you of this restriction and permits you to use every slot in these weapons to the maximum benefit possible, permitting you freedom of choice. If Blade Combat is selected, only 5 points are needed. Statistic Investment: All points into Physical Regeneration. Primary Combat Moves: Sudden Fury, Cobra, Pak-Dain Secondary Combat Moves: Revenge, Mongoose (for efficient obstacle-hopping and battlefield mobility) Trap Arts: Adrenaline, Testosterone, Poison Mist, Explosive Charge, Bottomless Pit Damage Essentials Since the Universalist is a dual wielder, he relies upon Weapon Sets to inflict melee damage. Please refer to the earlier parts of the Compendium and the Dark Elf Weaponry thread for a more thorough definition of Weapon Sets. What follows are special modifiers you will want present on your armor and weapons. Special Bonuses on Items and Equipment Chance to Land a Critical Hit - A very desirable modifier, when activated it will send your damage sykrocketing upward. A 20K maximum Hard-Hit can easily do over 80K. Note: this modifier affects all kinds of damage inflicted by your Dark Elf, both direct and indirect. Direct damage: blows from your weapons, damage caused by traps. Indirect damage: DOT from poison, DOT from burning bones, damage caused by open wounds. Each Hit Draws Life From Opponent - The most desirable bonus of all, life leeching is the best way to stay alive in the midst of fierce combat. It becomes a virtual necessity in the Niobium level of play. Note: the reverse of this modifier, called Pain, is useful if you wish to use the "Wounds Increase Damage Dealt" (WIDD) method of attaining very high damage output. As WIDD is not a topic covered in this guide, please search the forums to find more information regarding WIDD builds if you are interested in pursuing this rather novel (but very effective) approach. The Universalist can be a successful WIDD build. Split - Splitting occurs when any direct or indirect damage caused by your Dark Elf results in the cloning of the affected opponent. Normally this is a rather small, seemingly innocuous percentage amount that doesn't seem to amount to much. However, a Split chance of 2% is plenty! Consider, if you will, the amount of DOT the hordes of your foes will be suffering by your hand. When you stop to think about the numerous "hits" occuring every second, you begin to understand the probabilities involved. I am not a physicist nor a mathmetician, yet the numbers game is there to see in plain sight. Splitting is desirable for two reasons: first, you are effectively gaining double the amount of experience for one target; and secondly, the cloned opponent will drop items just like the original might. Double the experience, double the item drops. If you are concerned about handling the extra load of foes, remember that you possess an arsenal of traps and combat moves which affect everything in a defined area. Since the clones of your split opponents appear right next to you, it is best to toss a few poison mists in your immediate vicinity to deal with them swiftly. Chance for Open Wounds - Open wounds is a form of damage over time that results from direct damage done by either your Dark Elf's Weapons, or traps. It normally manifests as 3% - 5% of the original damage that triggers it. At first glance this might not seem like much, but understand that numerous Open Wounds "ticks" often afflict a single target at the same time...and that each "tick" is subject to score a critical hit if your items and equipment sport that modifier. These can add up quickly, creating a satisfying attrition rate in battle that makes your job easier. At this point, it is easy to see why fast attacks foster greater amounts of damage for a Dark Elf. The more attacks that occur in a given period of time, the greater the chance that special damage types such as open wounds and critical hits have of occurring. It is therefore possible to accomplish in 1.3 seconds what might take another character 3 seconds to do. In higher levels of play, 1.7 seconds can mean life or death for your Dark Elf (not to mention your online buddies), especially on a Hard Core server. Fire Damage: + X%, Poison Damage: + X% - These bonuses are important as they amplify the damage done by both weapons and traps. Whenever possible, arrange to increase damage done by both with this type of modifier. Weapon Damage Fire, Weapon Damage Poison - This sort of bonus increases damage done by weapons, and is a desirable addition on armor and weaponry. Typically the damage is modified by a percentage of a statistic, such as Dexterity, Strength, Physical Regeneration, etc. For a Universalist, Physical Regeneration is the desired attribute. However, considering the greater need for execution speed and it's effect on damage (plus the poison damage increase caused by Testosterone), any attribute will be fine since Strength and Dexterity are boosted by items and equipment. Damage will primarily be boosted by greater CA levels and quicker execution times, made possible by exclusive investment in Physical Regeneration. Regeneration Special Move - This modifier reduces the regeneration times of both combat moves and trap arts. This is very desirable as its presence will enable the Universalist to increase CA levels accordingly while managing to keep regen times low. Attribute, Skill and CA Boosters - Nearly all of the Dark Elf's special sets will increase his attributes, skills, and CA levels on a point by point basis. Each item of a set will generally adhere to a unified theme: Huron's, for example, increases the levels of the Explosive Charge trap art. Bahamut's set increases Weapon Lore and Trap Lore. Percentage Increases to Attack and/or Defense, and Resistances - Three versions of the attack and defense modifier exist: % to Attack, % to Defense, and % to Attack and Defense. The latter modifier is of course the most desirable. Percent to All Resistances is preferable to any attack or defense modifiers. Resistance modifiers become important once the Universalist reaches Platinum difficulty, as opponents will strike for much greater amounts of damage. Good resistances are as important as a good defense rating. Testosterone and Adrenaline will supply more than enough attack and defense; concentrate your efforts and investments in increases to resistances. Rules of Thumb for the Universalist: Once you reach Gold difficulty, your Universalist's average percentage chance to hit a typical opponent should always be above 85%; their chance to hit you should never rise above 10%. You will always encounter exceptions to this: dragons, and other powerful bosses. By Gold difficulty, the need to drink a health potion should be so rare, you end up forgetting about the spacebar altogether. Try to keep your Pak-Dain reflection chance at or above 58%. The higher, the better. Stagger the casting times of your buffs, establishing a rythym that becomes simple to maintain during gameplay. Think APdT: Adrenaline, Pak-Dain, and Testosterone. That particular sequence leaves room for your Trap art timer to fully regenerate between Adrenaline and Testosterone. If you're into Combos, simply make a combo of your buffs in order to save time and space on your CA bar. Keep in mind, however, that you won't be able to use the combo again until the last buff expires. It is for this reason that the author only employs buff combos when the CAs are all roughly equivalent in duration.