DaveO

The game has its merits, but to me the lack of waypoints is too much of an oversight. Needing town portal becomes more important, and eventually you're pretty much forced to accept the return to point of origin choice once you delve deeply into the dungeon. Tons of modding on the game though, so this may be up somebody's alley.

I do have all of the Combat Arts invested in, including Exploding Arrow. As an added challenge in Silver, I'm going to try using just my spells on the Dragon bosses to see how powerful they are. I don't expect D'Cay to survive more than a few hits from Call of the Ancestors. If I recall correctly, D'Cay is more vulnerable to magic damage than the poison damage of Poison Tendrils. I'll let everyone know how the Dragons turn out in Silver SP, and her continued adventures in Silver Underworld including VoT.

I believe that's my cue to continue playing the character along in Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Niobium. I managed to reach Gold before, but restarted the different SP character due to Underworld changes and overall dissatisfaction with the build. I have a handful of SP characters I need to get to level 50. Once that's done, I'll devote the free time to going further along in SP with the build.

Ok, you asked for it. I'll list a few of my specialized builds so that I don't bore everybody reading it. I have over 20 SP builds, and not all have reached level 50. A few have yet to start or are at level 30 awaiting their turn while my current character run proceeds thru Ancaria/Underworld. Pure Magic seraphim: Energy Bolts - 50, Rotating Blades of Light - 50, Celestial Light - 75, Lightning Bolt - 26, Light Shield - 6, BFG - 7. Well over 800 runes with a 4 for 1 exchange. Standard Wood Elf build: Spider Arrow - 2, Knockback Arrow - 4, Penetrating Arrow - 51, Explosive Arrow - 3, Multiple Shot - 27(trying to reach the 7 arrow limit if there is one), Multi Hit - 2, Hard Hit - 7, Eye for an Eye - 2, Poison Tendrils - 22, Call of Ancestors - 7, Recuperation - 1(9 with equipment boost), Quick as a Flash - 9, Companion of the Woods - 11. Over 550 runes for the build. Battle Mage: Fireball - 25, Purgatory - 17, Fire Spiral - 17, Stoneskin - 105, Circle of Fear - 20, Meteor Shower - 14, Lightning Strike - 15, Ice Shards - 18, Water Form - 13(directly read runes), Spiritual Healing - 19(only directly read runes if they dropped for this CA), Shield Wall - 18, Reiki - 13(same as Spiritual Healing), Ghost Meadow - 105. 1450+ runes(not a big surprise here if you ask me) Standard Dark Elf Dual Wield build: Cobra - 19, Mongoose - 1, Revenge - 1, Sudden Fury - 1, both Pak CAs at 10, Battle Fog - 1, Adrenaline - 99, Poison Mist - 7, Testosterone - 74, Explosive Charge - 10, Bottomless Pit - 1. 900+ runes for this build. Melee Dwarf: War Cry - 113, Wrath - 5, Heavy Blow - 5, Greed - 125, Dwarven Steel - 19, Entrench - 50, Cannon Blast - 7, Flame Thrower - 9. Both CB and FT are boosted by equipment, so I believe few runes invested in both skills. Rune total - Over 1250. I'll let others post here with some other comparison totals, and continue with other SP builds if others request the rune counts.

My Single Player builds are all outrageous in terms of rune cost. I'm talking several hundreds of runes gobbled down in order to make the builds as powerful as possible. And this is just getting to level 50 with the SP builds. I don't have this sort of luxury online, so I try to make investments more efficient due to the lack of muling. I can make mistakes from time to time, but usually a build of mine online can survive a few inefficient rune choices.

I'll freely admit that Bronze difficulty in Single Player is hardly a test of the capabilities, advantages, and disadvantages of the character. If there is enough demand, I could play this build thru SP as long as I can and post results along the way. I'd expect Platinum and Niobium to be the true challenges for the build, but by that time my Combat Arts would very likely be invested in quite heavily. At level 50, I have the following investments into the magical combat arts: Transformation - 30, Thorn Bush - 14, Poison Tendrils - 40, Plant Cage - 30, Call of the Ancestors - 50, Recuperation - 1(boosted to 10 by equipment), Quick as a Flash - 25(mainly for the extra duration, I reached max speed at 15), Companion of the Woods - 13(boosted mostly by equipment). I don't expect to encounter much serious resistance until Platinum and Niobium at the current investment allocation. Think of how much damage this build can do in any situation, and being adaptable to the opponent. If a creature has high physical resistance, use Poison Tendrils for help. If it has high resistances to physical and poison damage, then try Call of the Ancestors. Very few monsters are going to have high resistances against Physical, Poison, and Magic damage. Add in the fire damage I usually add on with +fire damage rings socketed in the bow, and now you're having to resist Fire heavily as well. Extremely unlikely. Adding up the 4 for 1 exchange, you're talking about 750+ runes just to reach that level of investment. That's assuming no direct CA contributing runes drop at all while leveling up the character in order to be able to equip the full set. The actual investment of CA runes should be lower, but you're going to need rune drops like a Battle Mage in order to pull this build off. I have the luxury of two computers that I can transfer runes from a SP character with the inventory and stash filled with runes. This won't be possible in an online environment, and could require significant trading requests with other players online. P.S. - Here's a virtual offer of coffee to those who no doubt just took a 'spit take' on the massive rune investment requirement. Cheers!

Thanks so much for the earlier replies. To answer a few questions, I mainly use Multi Shot and Penetrating Arrow for increased damage when needed. Going thru the Hero Cave required me to be much more flexible. By that I mean I could use Poison Tendrils for those highly resistant heroes as well as Call of the Ancestors. I needed both occasionally, so this is the great appeal of the build to me. If I want to use Transformation or Plant Cage, I just keep the CA investment to either half regeneration or within five seconds of the 30 second CA regeneration limit. If I had to pick just one Combat Art that I'd see being a life saver in Niobium, it would be Poison Tendrils. Just lay down one, get slightly behind it and let it do the mass killing. The monster AI will often just suicide itself within the Tendrils. I do also have Thorn Bush that I could use. I've invested in every combat art with this build, and that's the greatest appeal to me. No useless Combat Arts, since I can get boosts to several with only equipment. As far as the low bow damage, I don't have Bravemart to rely on in Single Player so that I can socket rings into the Octanion bow easily. I had four available sockets for the bow, and none were being used due to lack of good rings. To answer the skill allocation question, I always keep Trade maxed with the intention of having Concentration, Constitution, and Meditation at 80% of the character level. For online multiplayer, obviously Trade and Constitution would be consistently kept at maximum. You still could reach the 80% character level point for the skill allocations, but it will be a longer journey in multiplayer. The other skills only need to be at half of the character level in my opinion. More screenshots of the other combat arts in action: - This one shows better damage against a boss opponent. The hero bosses in the cave are highly resistant! Edited by Myles: Merged the images into the post.

I like the Apple vs. PC adds from MacIntosh. At the moment, Vista is like Windows ME in my opinion. I've already switched browser and email clients to Mozilla due to other Microsoft frustrations. Hubris is one of the greatest means for an organization to get out of 'sleepwalking' mode and being committed to make absolutely certain that the customer's needs come first(without customers, your business is going to have problems staying in business long).

At gogoblender's request, I registered to this forum to provide my suggested Blizzard Wood Elf build. This is a Single Player build with the full Blizzard set completed, but it can be adaptable to multiplayer without much difficulty in my opinion. I picked specific skills for specific reasons, and below is how I developed the Wood Elf up to level 50. Attribute allocation and reasoning behind attribute points: I did a 6/2/2 split into Dexterity, Mental Regeneration, and Physical Regeneration. For online play, you can safely get by without the Mental Regeneration allocation so put the attributes in whatever area you like. Bear in mind that my attribute allocations are specifically focused for the build. I always choose Dexterity for the added attack damage from my bow shots. I know many guides adhere putting points into just one attribute(usually Physical Regeneration), but I truly feel that a split of some sort is better in order to provide multiple specialties whenever possible. With the attribute allocation out of the way, let me proceed to the skill choices and reasoning behind them. Level 1 and 2 skill choices: Concentration and Meditation. Concentration improves the Wood Elf ability to use the bow combat arts. Since the Blizzard set has bonuses to Meditation and Moon Magic, I decided to pick this skill. I also chose Meditation since spell casting is much more important to this build(in my opinion) versus a standard Wood Elf build. For online multiplayer, I'd choose Concentration and Constitution as the starter skills. Level 3 skill: Weapon Lore - Pretty obvious skill. Added weapon bow damages. Level 6 skill: Trading - Best skill in the game besides Constitution in my opinion. You can change your socketed items at will practically, AND you don't need to worry about the belt part of the set affecting your Charisma like Forest Stalker does. Level 12: Constitution - Best time to pick this skill since Armor is the next one that's available at level 20. VERY important to put points into the skill for added hit points. Level 20: Armor - Extra resistances and no mobility penalty by equipping the completed Blizzard set items, which have minimum character level requirements of 46. Level 30: Moon Magic - Best time to pick this skill in my opinion. Items that provide bonuses to this skill range from level 42(Forest Stalker) to 46(the Blizzard arm greaves) in general. You may find items to provide bonuses to Moon Magic earlier from rares or magical items bought at a merchant place. But I believe that it's better to postpone choosing Moon Magic as an earlier skill so that when you do choose it at this level, it adds in a multiplied benefit of picking Meditation. Level 50: Magic Lore - Spellcasting is pretty important to the build in my opinion, so getting extra damage maximizes the synergy of picking Meditation and Moon Magic. The only bow I can use realistically with this build is the Octanion bow. This is beneficial in providing nearly Seraphim levels of experience boosting from equipment, and the bow has four sockets. Excellent bow to really tweak to your heart's content. I know some will ask why no points in Ranged Combat? Again my focus for this set build is to get as many benefits from the equipment that I can. I can't get every skill boost(the set adds points to Agility as well), but if I get most of the skill and combat art boosts, then I'm happy. The set does add to the Companion of the Woods combat art significantly, so you'll be lonely for a while without your Unicorn. You could put one or two runes into CotW, but each rune adds five levels to the Unicorn's level. If the Unicorn is too high over your level any kills it makes will have reduced experience. Advantages of build: Flexibility and ability to effectively use every single Combat Art. This is what I really like about the set. You can do anything you want for the Combat Arts. I put points into Transformation and Plant Cage just so that every combat art was covered. The Ice Damage cannot be resisted by monsters, so that is beneficial on the higher difficulties where it gets harder to bypass resistances. 'Fun factor' is another advantage of the set. You can advertise Xmas or winter parties at any time of the year(and being in Arizona, I appreciate any opportunity to not think about the HOT weather starting down here). Disadvantages of build: Excessive rune requirements if you want to use all of the Combat Arts. This set would require fairly consistent rune and quest hunting in order to be effective. The fully completed set is weak for Poison Resistance(like many other Wood Elf sets), and the set item bonuses of the armor is merely ok compared to the more useful bonuses of the other pieces. In conclusion, this is the most fun I've had with a set character build after multiple runs thru Single Player in Sacred: Underworld. I hope others here have enjoyed my comments and insights into this unusual build, and I am looking forward to your replies! P.S. - My favorite screenshots of this Wood Elf build in action are below: