Thorin Oakshield

It's pretty easy to check. Open the inventory and hoover the mousepointer over the damage stats of your weapon. A new panel will open up, showing the regular attackspeed and the CA-attackspeed. Thorin

Am I the only one here, who doesn't like RpH and tries to avoid it at all cost? Perhaps it's a result of the beta, where we were told the purpose of the skills is to be able to kill most opponents with a regular attack and using the CA's only to control mobs or the very tough opponents. Either way, I've always tried to build my toons without concentrating at RpH, meaning you actually need to add another skill to the tree; especially since you also need another buff. So, perhaps this is a possibility: level 2: Tactics Lore => keep equal to level up to level 100 level 3: Concentration => keep equal to level up to level 100 level 5: Armor Lore => keep equal to levl up to level 100 level 8: Capricious Hunter Focus => max level 75 level 12: Ranged Weapon Lore => max level 75 level 18: Constitution => max level 75 At level 25, 35, 50 and 65 the other four skills can be chosen. Since I'm working at a triple-buff Dryad, I'd chosen Combat Reflexes, Nature Weaver Focus & Lore and Cabalistic Voodoo Focus., but of course skills like Bargaining and Enhanced Perception might be chosen as well. As for attribute points; 80% are put in Dexterity, the other 20% in Willpower. I think this build is self explaining. Starting with Tactics early on, gives an increased damage output. Which with the blowpipes kills opponents faster, since the pipe got a direct hit. Concentration enables the 2nd buff - I'm using Ancient Bark & Sinister Predator - while also helping to reduce the regen effect of both buffs. Armor makes the use of better armor possible; while CH Focus decreases the regentime even more. Ranged Weapons increases attack speed; thus making it possible to use bows more often, instead of the blowpipes. Of course, switching CH Focus with Ranged Weapons Lore is possible as well, since the build is focused at using the regular attack only. However, I noticed that opponents became quite a challenge at this level, therefore forcing me to start using the Attack CA more often. At least, until I got some better armor and weapons. Perhaps it's even advisable to put Constitution above CH Focus, to increase the amount of hitpoints a char got, before switching to the more damage doing bows. As for weapons: Use blowpipes doing poison damage; as there are just a few opponents - Kobold Shaman's and the occasional undead - able to resist that. Equip another weapon with the magic pearl - and plenty of those dropping along the coast - as magic weakens! an opponent, thus making it more likely to be killed by physical damage. There's a quest to find out what the Kobolds use to fight the undead, dropping a lava-stone. Equip that as well. In general the only two tough opponents would be the Griffin and the Undead General. But as a ranged char, using the hit and run tactics are a lot easier to do. Thorin

Things are a bit dull in "our" tomb. Perhaps it's time to throw a Halloween party, to atract more skulls? Thorin

Not to mention: it's the first quests giving you a legendary item; making you VERY hungry for more of those. But then, the Empty Office quest is the only one giving you a legendary item and two set pieces. Thorin

Glad to see that some folks down here finally begin to understand why I was always doing quests at the Sacred: Underworld servers. Simply because you need to grind for them as well, thus giving you extra XP, items, runes and gold. About time too, btw. I do have a minor warning about questing, though. When playing the game, do the Main Quest, Character Quest and 3 Chain Quests in Bronze and Silver; even Gold if you want to hit Platinum early. After that, start doing all the other quests. Otherwise you risk outleveling the monsters sooner or later; something that's unlikely to happen in Gold. As for the 3 Chain Quests; "Blind Guardian" is one of them. The other two are the "Empty Office quest" - without doubt the one taking most time and covering the largest distance- and the "Undead Legion" quest. Thorin

For the record, I'm using a Samsung S4 as well and I'm able to remove my g-mail account from it. However, when doing so, I also delete all the emails and things related to it - like other contacts etc - so it's something you really need to think through before doing so. On the other hand; usually you get everything back the moment you use the same account again to sign in. Thorin

I guess everyone got some book(s) they read at least once every year. For me, those books are "Lord of the Rings", by Tolkien, "It" and "The Stand" by Stephen King; and both in the uncut version. I've read the first two this year - as well as a lot of other books - and am currently reading "The Stand". One of the reasons I keep reading those books, is because every time I read them, I discover something new in them. The gaps between those books are usually filled with some new books I keep buying, or with the "Jack Ryan" series by Tom Clancey. So one might say I like the bug uns. Thorin

It's things like this, which keep me going to visit some blues-concerts from September to March. Just listening to good music, being able to talk to the band-members about their songs, their influences and the things I like; to try to get a CD (and / or T-shirt) of the performing artist and getting it autographed; it's all worth it. Most of the artist perfoming can make a living out of their shows, some happen to break through. I've seen two bands who'd performed at the club, did another gig in another village, then went across the ocean to perform at some clubs there and got their breakthrough. Knowing you've seen that band, having talked to them and having their autograph before they were famous is priceless. So, cherish that moment you were able to talk to Slash; as it tells a lot about you, but also a lot about him. Thorin

I've Always had the feeling the QUALITY of dropped items went down the moment my SB and char level increased. However, with only one char over level 100 and 3 in their 80's and all of them having various levels of SB, I never had the "evidence" of it. Problem is, there are just too many variables to keep in mind. Char level is one, SB is another, EP - present or not - is a third and area a fourth. In therory, a char having a high SB and high EP skill should find more "special" items as one having a high SB or a high EP only, which is finding more "special" items as a char having neither the high SB nor the EP skill. When playing, it's often the oposite, but there are exceptions, making a "law of Item drops" impossible to create. Anyway, I've got to level a bit more, before switching to my HE or Dryad, as I'll try to keep the chars close together before continuing my level 103 seraphim; since she needs some bargaining / smithing support. Either one of those two chars got EP and a nice SB; so I'll check her drops as well, compared to my SW. Perhaps it's possible to figure out a difference. Thorin

I just finished a 125 minute testrun in the Swamp. The chosen area - as I'm currently mapping - is the map square east of Hissil'Ta, minus the triangle made by the Southern road and the left bottom corner. Total number of kills: 509 Drops: Potions: Not counted, but at least 60 drops in total. Runes - 10 normal enemies. 4 champion enemies; Grey Items - 13 normal enemies, 0 champion enemies; White items - 56 normal enemies, 21 champion enemies; Blue items - 18 normal enemies, 31 champion enemies; Yellow items - 6 normal enemies, 7 champion enemies; Set items - 3 normal enemies, 1 champion enemy (Lucretis' Power, Lucretis' Comet Tail, Denderan's Bluff, Guenhwyvar's Refuge) Unique items - 2 normal enemies, 0 champion enemises (Dyashea's Hunter, Baelthow's Strenght) Legendary Items - 0 normal enemies, 0 champion enemies. NO items: 418 normal enemies, 15 champion enemies. So, by the look of it, the drop RATE has decreased, while the drop QUALITY has increased. Having the items mod added to the patch might have to do with it, as in previous sessions I've found at least 4 items from that mod. After all, if you got a larger pool to choose from, the chances you actually get something from that pool are larger as having a smaller pool. Personally I'd say; keep things as they're now. Thorin

As said in a previous post; has something been done at the drop rate; as I kept finding better items. Your post shows that my suspicions were correct. I was about to do a run in the swamps with my SW; so I'll check the drops for that playing session as well. Out of curiousity: which char did you use and what was its level and SB? And did it have EP as skill? Thorin

Perhaps the difference in drops is caused by what I did. I had the v140hf CM patch, which I wasn't able to disable. And I didn't get any notification about updating it. I also wasn't able to uninstall Sacred 2, so eventually I used a trick to revoke the game, then manually removed most files, bought and installed the Steam version of Sacred 2 Gold, installed the v150 CM patch and started playing with my old toons. My previous version of Sacred 2 was a boxed version; which got upgraded to I&B by using the expansion I bought at GamersGate. With Sacred 2 Gold I got the feeling the game's running a bit smoother now - though all settings are the same, as I didn't delete the options.txt file - and drops have improved a bit. Or perhaps I'm just Lucky. Thorin

Out of curiousity; has the droprate been adjusted? After installing the v150 CM patch, I've found 7 Uniques - including 2 of the items-mod - and 4 setpieces with my SW in about 5 hours of playing time. Even my HE having EP didn't find that many items in such a short time. And for the record; that SW is level 79, though I started with him again at level 78 and he's having 90% SB; if that matters. Thorin

Gogo, (or Schot ) Is the download section blocking Download-managers? I know some sites do, as those programs use both the upload and download channels, thus making downloading files faster, but occasionally also blocking internet trafic of other users. Reason why some sites have blocked the use of those kind of programs. What I understood of "TheEye2108"s post, he's using one of those programs; resulting in the message he posted in the OP. Thorin

For the record: The link to download the patch from Dark Matters is apointing to the v140hf patch. So those who want the v150 patch, need to use the first download link in the first post of this topic. Thorin

Just did a check at the MS site and it says the "General support" of windows 7 ends at january 13th, 2015. However, the "security support" is still continued for another five years. However, when checking some "tech"-sites, I see a lot of expectations that the first deadline is pushed forward, since Win7 is undergoing the same thing Windows XP did; being the most stable and most popular OS at the moment. So, personally I would install Win7, wait for a while until every problem with Win10 has been solved - which could easily take a year or so - and then switch to Win 10. Over time I've learned that when it comes to Windows OS, it's better to be safe than sorry. Thorin

Probably both. Thorin

Compared to the "who's got the Faldamar Axe and rings for me?"-kinda conversations we later had, those were epic indeed, Gogo. Remember how everyone all the sudden began to use colour in their char names? Including the "Unique gold". I remember one of the French players had a Gladiator, with the name "Bugkiller" in that colour. As a result everyone tried to pick up the unique "Bugkiller" the moment a lot of items were dropped at the Island and he was there. Better yet, when anyone asked what kind of item the "bugkiller" was, he said it was the best item at the server, giving amazing stats to HH or FotG. It may have been the reason why that particular colour was requested to be avoided in char-names. Thorin

Epic conversations, indeed. Going more or less like this: Gogo [ Dark ] Shoppahollic enters server Gogo [ Dark ] Shoppahollic Hi everyone. Is Bravemart open? Knuckles [ Dark ] Lorath's Slasher Just opened it up. Am there now Gogo [ Dark ] Shoppahollic Cool. OMW! 4 hours later: DreD Flamer enters the server Dred Flamer has anyone seen Gogo? Knuckles [ Dark ] Lorath's Slasher Try Bravemart. That's where I left him 3 hours ago. Gogo [ Dark] Shoppahollic I'm at Bravemart, Dred. Dred Flamer I've got you a trading ammy, giving +35 to bargaining. Gogo [ Dark ] Shoppahollic Cool! When I replace my +15 to trading Amy, my bargaining skill gets to 275. Going for some epic shopping! JimmyP Forger Want me to socket that Amy, Gogo. I can add some bargaining runes into your gear as well. Gogo [ Dark ] Shoppahollic Yes, please, Jimmy. You're on the Island? Yup, epic conversations indeed. BTW: the name of the town was Braverock. Bravewall was a small village to the east of the town, when you were heading towards Zhurag-Nar. As for the location: yes, I think it was done intentional; however, I also think the Dev's had underestimated the effect of it. With Sacred+ you had a few chars able to do some shopping, but the good items were part of a set and not that easy to come by. If not mistaken the Wood Elf and the BM had some set-parts giving a boost to shopping. Even when it was revealed that you could set your starting skills by adjusting the options, and thus bargaining became available as starting skill for more chars, shopping for good items was time consuming. When the Dwarf appeared in Underworld, things changed. The combination of Blacksmithing, bargaining and the Greed-CA made shopping for good items a lot easier. Another thing having influence were the number of players in a server, thus several players having multiple accounts - and computers! - entered a server, parked their char at the starters Island and went shopping. So the Dev's added the command that you had to move your char after some time to be avoided to be kicked off of the server, making shopping a bit harder, but still managable; as long as you kept half an eye at the chat-screen to see that "movement warning" showing up. Thorin

When looking at the map of Unbended, I noticed a new skull to the left of the Sacred Castle. When looking closer, I found it in the city of Sedhannia; where something called "Magic Load" is located, with the description: "Here you get thing they even don't exists" Somehow, I got the feeling this is going to be a very special shop. And remembering Gogo's addiction to Bravemart........... Thorin

Two more I came up with - having a minor burnout apparently works well for my creativeness - one based upon a TV series, one based upon an REM song and two based upon Pink Floyd Songs. - I'm badly going where a lot went before too. - It's the end of the world as I knew it. - Goodbye cruel world. - I'm just another skull in the wall. Thorin

I don't know which movie it was from, but I remember there was a repeating quote in it, saying: "Don't call me 'babe'." and eventually the woman who was called "babe" all the time, pretty much hurt the guy calling here that. So in that light, the next text for a skull: "Well, she said I shouldn't call her "babe". Thorin

@ Dorimil: Perhaps we're running around in circles? 'Cause then you're following me and I'm following you. :D But yeah, we're most likely going to meet at Mediëval. Or P5, PR4 etc. Thorin

You're following me, buddy? Glad to see you here as well. I already new you had a Sacred 2 history, didn't know you had a S1 history as well. As least there's another "real" Ascaronie to join us. So, Welcome. Thorin