chattius

Lottery in character choosing for a PvP tournament forced my daughter to design a Netherworld-Inquisitor. One tactic we had in mind was to use Callous_Execution modified to reduce targets maximal lifepoints for a while. So we stumpled above following question: Is Deathblow based on the actual maximal life (so after weakening, Callous_Execution, .... has reduced it) or on unaffected maximal life. X% life leech for example works on the actual maximal Hitpoints. For my melee elves a Cobalt strike modified for weakening resulted in less x% life leech damage. Help is welcome, and help for the above Netherworld-PvP-Inquisitor too.

Pacifism would be a useless skill for the first 120 levels in hardcore. The 120 hardcore levels were brought in to prevent pure bosskiller/PvP builds. We very very long discussing about pacisfism. It affect would be like virtual hitpoints from mitigation. But noone said anything if it will work against life leech. And arcane elves are very common at this tournament. So constitution is probably the better skill because of the 120 hardcore levels. Questions are: How to modify Combat Art's to have a good defense and offense against elves, shadow warriors, temple guardians, dragon mages, dryads and other inquisitors. Only good thing is: it is dark side so no seraphim with BFG.

We would need some help in designing a netherworld Inquisitor which is not a target dummy in PvP. The local youth club does PvP tournaments in school breaks. Each player wrote an aspect of a class on a blackboard. Then there was a lottery in which order players could choose an aspect from the blackboard and it was then wiped out (it is possible that several did the same aspect on the board, then it was only wiped once). The best three of last tournament chose last in opposite order and got the most stupid combinations. My daughter, who won with her 3 aspect melee elf the last challenge, was the last to choose and only Inquisitor-Netherworld was left on the board. Playing is in 2.64 or 2.65.1 (if the chatbox patch is working) in the AddOn. Rules A character has to be played to level 120 hardcore in Singleplayer on the club server to be allowed to the tournament Everyone starts with an empty chest and can't get items from another character or help from a player smith Only the chosen aspect can have 2 modifying skills Damage mitigation on equipment is limited to 70% No healing potions allowed, healing with spells, trophies, ... is God powers are not allowed After each fight the pre-fight backup is restored A game is won if a player won 3 of 5 matches versus another player The tournament rules are double-KO, you are out if you lost 2 games The character needs both: Hardcore surviving and PvP The planed character so far: Attributes: all vitality Regeneration system: classic with RpH (regeneration per hit) God: testa for singleplayer Skills: 02 inquisition focus 03 armour 05 bargaining 08 concentration 12 astute supremacy focus 18 netherworld lore 25 netherworld focus 35 constitution 50 alchemy 65 ancient magic The early levels before netherworld will be played in melee with just the modified buffs and unmodified Combat Art's. With focusing on netherworld mid silver difficulty the following tactic will be tried: Using a shuriken with life leech and RpT. Having mutilation slightly higher than double the RpH value. So a successfull hit with normal and a single mutilation hit will recharge mutilation fully, hitting two or more targets with mutilation will do the same. Subjugation will be at 4 times RpH level and recharged with shuriken hits from mulilation. The controlled ghost army will be modified to attract enemies so it is hopefully saver in hardcore. PvP The rules are good for alchemy, since restoring the backup means that we don't loose trophies. So Alchemy is planed to free sockets: healing, RpH, attack value, attack speed, block chance roots, blockchance ranged can all be done with alchemy. Alchemy has to be unlocked so bargaining is taken to give us the equipment we need. Help is needed for: So the questions left are PvP with an Inquisitor. What combat arts to choose and how to modify them. 15 modification points in inquisition, 15 in astute and 20 in netherworld are planed for level 120. Purifying Chastisement: Mystic, Eradicate, Hallow Reverse Polarity: Rebound, Counterblow, Evade Inexorable Subjugation: Effort, Menace (monsters attack the horde and not me ?), Probation are planed for leveling in necro style Doppleganger and life leech shuriken for bosses Rest of the combat arts could be used for PvP. Anyone has any experience with a non melee Inquistor in PvP?

The shield maiden

Also in this guide section is the shield maid of my daughter. It is for PC and had no access to regeneration per hit (RpH) before the AddOn. The console had (RpH) from the beginning. The idea is to use arcane melee style in the beginning of the game and develope the ice tree later. But with RpH a full hybrid playstyle is possible: Do an ice storm, do a magic coup and at a successful weapon hit RpH kicks in. If you have 1 second RpH every weapon hit will shorten your regeneration (not cooldown) by this 1 second. My daughter in niob has RpH around 2 seconds and can have 6 high level snow storms at the same time because she removes her regeneration times with RpH. But you have to play melee range for this hybrid so you need a decend protection. Life leech from magic coup fills your health bar quite quickly. Some people say that the shield maid plays nice on a console.

I think 'Cannot Evade +X%' is 'sichere Treffer' in german which translates back to sure hits. I was trying to understand these modifiers, and it looks like: For the sure hits there are 2 theories: Theory A: The final CtH is calculated in 2 steps: First a intermediate CtH is calculated without these sure hits. In a second step 100% are splitted to 30% sure hits and 70% unsure. Then these 70% unsure hits use the intermediate CtH formula for their hit chance. Then both probabilties are added. Theory B: Intermediate CtH and sure hits are directly added. But I did the tests nearly a year ago. Try to get a CTH near 300-400% (bronze) without sure hits. Add several rings with sure hits. If the CtH raises then it is most probably Theory B if it falls then most probably Theory A. (because the sure part has 'only' 100% hit chance while the unsure one has 300-400)

If it is different life leech damage, perhaps it is because it is x% life leech dependant on the character's hit points. Perhaps do a test gear with lot of +life points stuff and see if you get more damage. Would be another proof for my weird theory that in this case - x% life leech and a good energy shield - less hitpoints would be better. Another thing someone with a lot of spare time can test: If you have gear, buffs or stand in expulse magic circle (dustdevil,....) with blockchance (combat arts) then this blockchance can be carried to your spells. If you check the combat art for special damage an block chance spells will appear. I am not sure what that exactly is. But if it is like a weapon effect than perhaps the enemies spells are blocked for a short time? I was kinda puzzled that my sohei dragon mage was not debuffed in niob yet and found that his mind strikes had a block combat art effect because of his buff. But as in all tests, it could have been pure luck, quick killing, .... Tests of my daughter said that she was hit by spells, very very rarely. So perhaps even the chance is listed as above 100% in combat art screen, the really used formula prevents 100% block. But it could be that the hits came from unseen mages not hit by her attacks already.

So with not 80% instead 100% absorb my calculations would be at least a bit not false.

It seems that at least one of the people testing it is satisfied and playing closed HC. I have not tested it myself yet and no time to play outside LAN environment before next weekend. It was just an infomation that there is such a thing. I am normally fighting more with my old 32 bit windows and giving sacred more than 2G memory. The workaround checks a checksum so I would have to first copy my old sacred2 exe back, than do the workaround and then patch in support for large addresses. I hope that others read this, test the workaround, and give some results.

Yes, I was unsure if I should do an extra thread or add into the deepsilver thread. But then I thought that it would be best to do an extra one and link it to the other article, because many are annoyed by the 2.65.1 chat but not all of them probably think/exspect that deepsilver will fix it. HimmelHerrgottSacred noch e moal. Seems the QNX browser does double posts. sorry, just noticed it.

I posted it already here in Post 20 at: Deepsilver doing a Hotfix:)

In the german forum an inofficial patch popped up. It will make the chat window permanent. Link to this patch: inofficial patch Translatio nfrom someone without ever having english classes: There was a problem with the chat cursor in 2.65.1 which annoyed hardcore players. The poster exspected a Hotfix to take some time so he did a workaround. The patch brings: The chat window will be permanent opened but not active. The cursor is not trapped. It can be closed with 'ESC" or the 'close'-button, but it will remain on the screen. Messages can be send and received as normal. It brings some optical Annoyance in exchange for a functional chat and undisturbed playing. To the best knowledge the lobby server are accepting this patch without a ban. .... But I have not tested it myself yet, so try at your own risc. There is more Text, but my lunch break is over, Doing backups and such..... It was just for information.

So you want a left click staff attack? Why? The shield maid of my daughter can use any weapon she wants. Bow, shuriken, Staff (without shooting), .... and the weapoin damage is boosted by magic coup. If you have staff lore and magic coup then the target system considers the staff as a melee weapon and runs to the target. For left clicks it shoots. Some say for some combat arts with multiple swings it only does melee on the first target and shoots for the others. But an elf has no such attack.

The IS combat art seems no longer to work in a combination in the addon. Before you could start a combination with it and had killing Combat Art's finish the target while it was under effect. In the addon: Reg per Hit -Idea: No Minion Yet: Have it at really high level. Tip a target with your weapon, IS is recharged, start IS. Once you have some minions: command them to stay close and attack a single target, the one you use the IS on. If you have enough minions at a powerful Combat Art, command your minions to select individual targets, perhaps command them even to swarm. Pick a (damaged) target and transfom it into a new minion. You can use reflection aura and IS at melee range for the first minions, or damage lore and DOT. My daughter played something like this into gold. So no experience with higher difficulties. There is a german guide about an IS build but it reports problems in the AddOn.

You know that staff shooting is only for normal attacks? Not for magic coup ? If you have a staff with high natural fire or ice damage than certain buff modifiers will do some damage boosts. Damage lore for damage over time. But I think for just staff combat the dragon mage is better: Intelligence boosting buff

So in your theory the clay golem with its energy shield should take no shield damage if I throw with the lowest life leech shuriken I have? I seem to remove the shield first with my life leech weapons. I always saw life leech as a 6th damage type which has no resists and mitigation, but works the same as the other 5 damage channels in energy shields. But if I would be sure I wouldn't ask. If it works on shields, then a 20% life leech attack (other damage types done to you are low because of mitigation) and the energy shield taking 80% of the damage : player 5000hp, 1000 damage, 200 to life 800 to shield, 4% of your total life, 25 hits to remove all your hp player 8000hp, 1600 damage, 320 to life 1280 to shield, 4% of your total life, 25 hits to remove all your hp So if the shield is up all the time, then in both cases your enemy needs 25 hits. But if the shield falls then it falls way quicker if you have more hitpoints. The other possible defense against life leech is healing faster than they can damage you. Again your healing from your own life leech, or hp-regen from spells is fixed. You are more quickly back to full health if you have less hitpoints obviously. So if these big life leech amounts are really x% life leech and if I can handle all the other dangers, then having less hitpoint, as funny it sounds, would be better.

STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION The Archangel I still need a name for this Characterbuild This will perhaps turn into a guide if someone or myself finds the time STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION In germany we don't use the phrase 'Jack of all trades, master of none'. We have the saying eierlegende Wollmilchsau which would translate to egg laying wooly pig you can milk, the only animal a farmer needs. So we want all in a single character: shopping, perception, weapon combat, celestial magic, BFG, energy shield, Nova and undead burning aura, .... Too much of it can easily turn the character to the normal reason a farmer has a pig: to be slaughtered. And the goblins and orcs in the lands are happy of such a tasty meal like a seraphim. So we can't have all, but a lot of it. And perhaps we can turn the pig the orcs are preying on into a Daeodon. And now the orcs are the prey.... The beginning: It all started when my 2nd daughter had to spend afternoons at a youth club because her afternoon school class was closed because of cases of influenca. So she started to play sacred there. She was starting totally new: no smith, no shopper, ...... She had played only 2 characters before a shieldmaiden and a dragon mage: a sohei bargainer. Both characters shared the same playstyle: Go in melee range and recharge your combat arts with weapon hits using Regeneration per Hit. At an evening walk with our dogs she said she wanted to play a seraphim at the youthclub. My best seraphim was level 25 so it was hard to give some advive. But the good thing was: I was not at my computer. So I was not influenced by any guide. So we discussed how she wanted to play and she said, the first thing she wants would be a shopper who reaches Niob quickly to support her next then real character. Planning the character So we went creative, fast niob is something else than fast experience: It is dashing the campaigne and mainly boss fights. A good way to kill bosses is x% life leech on your weapon. If we would use archangel's wrath then we had a combat art which would use the lifeleech of the weapon, and even better we could modify it for double shots = 2 times the leech. We can do damage way quicker if we are close to our target, so close that we can't miss (well the shots, not the chance to hit ). So there was no need to modify the wrath for guided missiles. Explosion was chosen to have some Area of Effect damage against groups. The Forens god power lasts 15 seconds and double life leech and the normal damage from archangel's wrath should do quick boss fights at this low levels. The pillar and its hypnosis were used to gather groups and have the explosions of the wrath take full effect. So that was the character: 2 fully modified buffs: battle aura and energy shield 2 fully modified combat arts: archangel's wrath and radiant pillar Bargaining and technic lore (for attack speed) were kept at level and concentration was pushed as third, mainly to lower concentration times of all 3 aspects. And then the surprise. It was fun to play and quick in killing. Having a 0.5s Reg per Hit triggered by anything in the explosions recharges the combinations very quickly. The original Character as it was played 02 Divine Devotion -we need something to unlock bargaining and for a niob dasher we will get money from other characters we hope to do it like: finish all boss fights as long Forens is up 03 armour - unlock modifiers on non set armour 05 bargaining - get us some equipment 08 concentration - 2 buffs, we have all runes from other characters early on, BFG for archangel's wrath 12 exalted warrior focus- modify buff for better hit chance, we will play with regeneration per hit on archangel 18 revered technology lore - buff, archangel (reg per hit working?), nova 25 revered technology focus 35 celestial magic focus - pillars, restoration(breaks root effects and other useful stuff) , later buff Around level 15 she started party playing with a boy in a chairwheel she knows from her archery club and who plays a shadow warrior smith around her level. She decided to continue the character in party play and against niob dashing. So at 50 celestial magic lore will be taken for better restoration spell and damage with the pillars. 65 is planed for energy shield lore. The character was not planed to take constitution because niob should be arrived before any mastery. So this seems to be the best compromise if the character is played not only into niob but in niob. Problems: At level 41 the nova was modified for radius. Will'o wisps at close distance are hard to hit, they can kinda hide between your 2 arms so one fireball misses left and the other right. Flying demons at close distance have your archangel wrath miss. Either try to get some distance again, use pillar and nova, or have a hard hitting weapon attack at its malus for this enemy. The optimized Character, as a non bargainer to be published, possibilities: BFG based archangel, take polearm skill: chance to hit more enemies (seems to work for archangel?), constitution, The trick is to take synergies: if we do archangel's wrath and not a normal weapon Combat Art then we don't need tactics lore. Technics lore will boost the damage and attack speed of archangel wrath. A weapon lore is not really needed, we just need 4-5 sockets for CtH gear at bosses. Only 2 weapon lores seem useful: ranged for BFG and shuriken based archangel, frees some sockets otherwise used for CtH. polearms: chance to hit more enemies, better Area of Effect damage A hardcore variant could be: constitution and reflexes instead gods and bargaining, getting rid of combat criticals and more hitpoints. I still have the hope of a final patch which fixes the chat, damage mitigation reaching %'s above 100, ....

Sorry for the very late answer, but we didn't play a seraphim before. technic lore armour technic focus warrior focus concentration would be my try. Use archengel's wrath modified for 2 fireballs, explosion and criticals in melee range with a big two-handed sword or lance with x% life leech. Energy shield and evasion and melee reflect from buffs. With concentration 75 even a BFG used with archangel's wratch is possible. If you have so few skills you have to use synergies. The battle aura even boosts damage of archangel wrath, not only the hit chance. You have to shop for jewelry with -x% chance that an enemy can evade. Dopplehits, attack speed rfom a weapon skill are useless for archangel's wrath. At close range both of our fireballs will hit, so no need for fire and forget balls. These allows us to take explosion as modifier for Area of Effect damage. Boss enemies are hit with 2 balls with a x% lifeleech weapon in a single wrath: dopple life leech. Don't know which version you play and if Regeneration per Hit is working for you. For me in the AddOn wrath triggers it and every beasts in the explosion too. Don't know if this is still of use for you, but perhaps for others.

My second daughter started to play at a youth club which has its own server. She had to do a new character without the support of our family characters. So we discussed a bit and she decided to play a seraphim, a class she didn't play before and I played only to level 25. She played her customized shield maiden and a dragon mage, sohei with bargaining, as her only characters so far. So we decided to do a melee range serafim which would be close to her older characters in playstyle: archangel's wrath modified to do 2 exploding fireballs with criticals and it is mainly used in melee combat, not ranged She gathers a group and fires the wrath into the group and hopes for 2 explosions. Each hit at a boss is a doublehit with 2 times life leech from a x% life leech weapon. It has equal Area of Effect damage to a nova Serafim but adds the x% life leech versus Bosses. I will do a thread about this character, which is currently level 46, started 2 days ago. The biggest danger to her build in my eyes are life leech attacks. She will have one skill at 65 to counter this. In brakets the skillpoints at level 35 02 god (5) 03 armour (1) 05 bargaining (35) 08 concentration (13) 12 warrior focus (9) 18 technic lore (35) 25 technic focus (1) 35 celestial focus (9 for pillar to bundle mobs and fire wrath into groups at close distance) 50 celestial lore (planed to have restoration counter DoT's) 65 constitution - more hitpoints 65 ancient magic - more damage, so being less time under fire. AM works not on archangel's wrath 65 energy shield lore- to have a bigger energy shield to eat the life leech damage We are very close to decide in favour of the better energy shield, but there is one question left: If the very big life leech from the enemies is fixed life leech than putting points into vitaliy to counter the missing constitution skill would be wise. BUT if it is x% life leech then more hitpoints are more life leech damage and as said: life leech is what we fear the most. It sounds stupid, but: Are less hitpoints better than high hitpoints if you have an energy shield?

My daughter plays a technic seraphim-shopper with archangel's wrath. The wrath is modified for 2 exploding fireballs with criticals and is used at melee range. So no time lost at projectile flight in this Reg per Hit build. It is a very funny playstyle and to our surprise a hell of a lot better than being weak. It works well on the PC but I am not sure what the auto targetting of the consoles will do to this build. But gathering a group and firing 2 fireballs with a single wrath at close range and both can explode and all hit target get life leeched, awful. Even with .5 reg per hit and 2.5s reg-time in the wrath it is recharged right again in early game if the explosions are triggered.

The character is great fun so far: Pillars with hypnosis to gather a group and fire archangel's wrath into the group: 2 explodings fireballs with critical chance and x% life leech. The battle buff adds to damage of the archangel wrath. Still the possibility to play an archangel based BFG build, but life leech from a big two handed sword is very nice. The character is level 39 so far. Bargaining and technic lore stay at level and concentration will be 3rd.

I won't post something as a guide which is based from experience with other characters: similiar but not the same. The build can fully modify all 15 combat arts. But in which order to allow powerful and save playing from start to end is not tested yet. If you don't play hardcore: Constitution would be my candidate. But you need the damage mitigation stuff (set shoulders, the unique ice shield, ...) and have to reduce damage over time. You can get many hitpoints from the buff if you have the lore.

Will be 3 buffs probably. And one of the buffs is for hitting and the other to slow down attacks of enemy. And I did a mistake: Testa can't be chosen.

This character is for my daughter, she wants a seraphim shopper to make this character or her next seraphim good looking and deadly. No need for another seraphim if this one proofs to be good already. The goal is to reach niob as quickly as possible. Because the characters are on the server of the youth club she has no other shopper. A classmate starts a smith but is of cause not at niob yet. The planed skills: 02 Divine Devotion -we need something to unlock bargaining and for a niob dasher we will get money from other characters we hope to do it like: finish all boss fights as long our god power is active or severely damage it (Testa) 03 armour - unlock modifiers on non set armour 05 bargaining - get us some equipment 08 concentration - 2 buffs, we have all runes from other characters 12 exalted warrior focus- modify buff for better hit chance, we will play with regeneration per hit on archangel 18 revered technology lore - buff, archangel (reg per hit working?), nova 25 revered technology focus 35 celestial magic focus - pillars, restoration(breaks root effects and other useful stuff) , later buff 50 constitution 65 ancient magic bargaining, revered technology lore to mastery first. If the idea would be niob-capable and fun to play then concentration could be brought to mastery 3rd. Vitality only first. God: (Need help here) Forens: great protection versus bosses and hopefully they fall as long it is active Testa: nice damage, and early on you can collect big groups, fire Testa, collect the loot and sell it and bargain while Testa regenerates It is planed that this character will recharge a nova/archangel combination with the archangel and regeneration per hit. The weapon will have x% life leech. Pillars will be used to collect mobs for the novas. Archangel will be used in close combat, sounds weird I know.

It was a step by step: First levels unmodified protector and companion are already useful. As soon runes of protection aer modified the protector is swapped for this. We can keep Protectors at its malus because we won't use it anymore after level 18 till we have concentratio nat mastery. You reach level 3 choose armour just to unlock modifiers on items. Level 5-11 we work to modify the companion and only it. Extra runes we don't need can be put into berzerkerform or dragonform to have some fun testing them. I would test them early, because there damage leaks late in came. But Kept up to their malus they can help in bossfights as long they do mainly physical damage. 12-17 is used to play with destroyers while the shifted forms regenerate. Level 18 we can modify runes of protection fully and use it as second buff for protectors. The following levels we just choose the skills. You can bring concentration to 75 as soon as possible for a 3rd buff and choose a full aspect you like to brings its focus and lore to mastery at level 75 too. Or you say you don't need a mastery at 75, you go equal in all school and reach masteries later than 75, all up to the player... My advice: For an elementalist I would just put 8 in lore and 1 in focus at dragon magic for the buff, and same for mentalism for the other buff. And push elementalism focus and lore to mastery together with concentration. Bring one skill after the other to its mastery and do the rest with + all skills. concentration, elementalism lore and focus ancient magic dragon magic focus (damage and hit point in buff) mentalism focus (stun and combat block in buff) dragon magic lore constitution mentalism lore armour Then you are at 750 of 921 points spend already. For the regeneration times: for a non Reg Per Hit build (*) I would keep them around Animation speed. My riding dragon mage did way better experience with a quick destroyer/gust of wind combination than with a one hitting one. The sheer numbers (42) of 7 waves of 6 destroyers will do a hell of damage in a big area if you can do them quick, If enemies come to close the destroyer between you and the enemy will explode and the following gust of wind will blow a perhaps still living enemy away. Hard to describe, you have to play it. (*): it's hard to hit an enemy with a weapon to recharge spells if it is blown away by gust of wind