gial

. . . You say That's it. I've learned. I am never losing another HC toon again. I have it all figured out now.

hehe the old rebate scam. At least mine (EVGA graphics card, NZXT case OCZ memory and PC Power&Cooling PSU) all show up as received. Whether I'll see the $$$ is another matter. They usually manage to lose the UPC or find some other readon to void your submission. That's why it's always 10-12 weeks to get it, too. They hope you'll forget. Just hope I am luckier than most. It will be June before I can expect mine to show.

There are items in game that have stats based upon alchemy, so boosting it would improve those items. Otherwise it looks like it just makes potions last longer. So the recovery potion, mentor potion, concentration or undead death will have longer effect, I suppose. Does not appear to me to be a really valuable place to put skill points, though.

I had the same results at 365 and play, which is why I regrettably settled for the US version. Looked at Sacred 2 online store, but they want as much for a second license as the whole game -- more even once I convert the euros to dollars.

10pm central is ok by me. I'll do my best to make it. I would have responded sooner, but have been out of town on business.

whoa, and then they have the nerve to show "replay" when it's over actually, though, it is better than most current rap "music" . . .

Yeah, but what about dust? You'd need a deionizing environmental air filter for the room, too.

Is Sacred 2 like Underworld? The more runes you read, the fewer drop? If so, I'd defer reading the unlikely to use until I had a store of runes. Of course I guess it's pretty easy to mule them over in the shared stash now.

Get yourself a nice present there, Sil. Hehe. Just don't get caught. Stealth sometimes can backfire.

I rarely *ding* unless I am playing with others that do so regularly. Otherwise, I'd reserve it for special accomplishments.

Let the octo chase you up onto shore. As the orcs said, he is weaker on land. He's a lot easier then.

Precisely what happened the first time, only I didn't go into the cave. I landed right next to it. When I went to move into it, I saddled up and entered the cave together. And yes, I was rooted in place until a nice opponent strolled by and allowed me to use a CA. That seemed to release me. Seems I've seen that as a solution for characters getting stuck just about anywhere. Edit: OK, this is definitely not the expected behavior. It happened again, and my lizard was invisible and moved very slowly. Think I'm gong to try to avoid this in the future. Very dangerous situation surrounded by foes and virtually unable to do anything.

Hehe, all Dryad's can carry a shrunken head. Gives some defensive bonus, plus an attack bonus against that character type.

About half the time I end up inside caves with my monitor lizard. My Dryad runs up to the door mounted, and automatically dismounts at the door before going in. Usually she stops right there, and usually she is right next to the lizard. I move the mouse, and when the cursor changes to the saddle, I click. The Dryad takes a step or two toward the lizard, as if mounting, and the screen blacks as normal for entering a cave, then refreshes . . . and voila, the Dryad is in the cave on her mount. Usually, she is locked in place, but if an enemy is on screen, invoking a CA unfreezes her.

Let me rephrase that - my motherboard is capable of running. I only have a single 9800GT so no SLI here. Sorry for the confusion.

Not all motherboards have that limitation. Mine runs x16 with 1 or 2 and x8 with 3-way SLI -- only 2 of the 3 PCIe 2.0 slots are 16x. I suppose I could use the wrong slot(s) and force a slowdown.

sif -- what's that? hehe -- Once I discovered the power of the dark side, I can't go back

Note about SLI: Not every card of the type listed is SLI capable, or at least when I bought, they weren't. Some still don't list the capability (e.g. Asus EN9800GT does not say "SLI" at newegg). Make sure you verify the particular model number.

I finished Orpheus too. As I recall I had some difficulty completing. I think maybe it was just walk to the right place outside to trigger him.

Asus M3N-HT has 3 way sli. A couple others too, if I recall. And I think psu at the bottom is better. All the ram sits near the top. Power supply at the bottom moves it away from all of the heat generating components.

OK, how hard is this quest, really? I found the white griffen easy, and did the boar in a party. Gar'Colossus was easy -- I just range attack and don't get too close and whacked. Octagolomus hit me hard with poison once or twice, and almost got me, but mostly just missed. The unique mount quest, only the big spider is scary, needed maybe 1 or 2 potions for the other 7. (First 2 rounds are almost too easy). So, given that background, I tried Xmas alone at level 20 and lost my mount to the swarm of ghosts just inland a bit. I suppose if I went slower, I'd be a little safer, but the first half dozen went down like nothing and I guess I got cocky. Never having done this one, should I wait until level 30 or so, or maybe find a party to do it together? Does it get much harder? My main attack is fire based. I want a crack at it before it is gone, but don't want to lose this character.

I've only seen common ones: Barbarian, human, elf, monster animal and insect, I believe. But I have not been everywhere yet.

Just this weekend I got my characters up high enough to get some good equipment, finally, and to get the mods on my Combat Arts. What a difference in play that made. Got the 3rd mod to Ravaged Impact, my unique mount and the Enui's Swift String virtually all at once. The orcs and trolls just started melting like butter on a hot griddle. The complexity of character build is enormously greater here than in Underworld. It's hard to grasp that at the really low levels when you just grind away with minimal damage. It's a better game than I had thought, and getting better daily, now. Erling, your puzzle analogy is exactly on target -- the abilities are much more complementary. It takes more thought to use them optimally.

NZXT Tempest is what I have. Their slogan is "The Airflow King" although there is no spec on cfm. And it's huge. Room for up to 10 drives inside, if you are so inclined, although more than 4 and you begin to obstruct the front fans. Here it is at newegg: NZXT Tempest

My case has 6 case fans - 2 intake on the front, 2 exhaust on the top, another exhaust on the back and another intake on the side. Plus the cpu fan and the power supply fan. It is a lot quiter than my old box. The power supply in that was obnoxiously loud. Bigger, slower fans are much quieter. And the cpu (intel v amd) will determine which motherboard you decide upon. They are not picn-compatible with each other.