nokka

I think it's weaken, too. Here's a pic of me wearing the brand new, super cool weaken (probably) halo: The text I left in the picture says "..speed 50.0%". I had been trying to fight the ghost dragon from the dragon mage char questline. I was stuck like this until I reloaded. I could only walk. I thought I had accidentally pushed a toggle key for always walk/run, but as it turns out it must have been that effect. I say it was the ghost dragon. Could also have been skeleton mages (near Terus' camp).

Has anybody seen this cat? If so please call 555- . . . I followed this cat around Sloeford trying to get 'The Shot' to post here. Has anyone else seen this before?

I was running around with my mentalist dragon mage (all magic damage on Energy Blaze) when I saw a new secondary effect aura/animation: I have reason to believe this is the new 'weaken' aura. If it turns out you need these pictures, I'll try to get some during daytime. Nathaniel

made minor edits to the following pages (in all available languages): Skills Combat Discipline Combat Discipline Full Table Combat Reflexes Bargaining Dragon Mage Added lvl1 Combat Art info on page: Dragon Berserk

Adjusted the chart to accomodate the fifth weapon/Combat Art slot. Consolidated the rows for 'new weapon slot' and 'new Combat Art slot'. Checked the slot available at lvl1 as being 'new' ("no new skill pick at lvl1 -> no skill at lvl1", "no new slot -> no slot", so I called the slot 'new'.)

Idea I always like to see if a character can survive on one given aspect (a pure Voodoo Dryad, for example, is one I still wonder about, as is the Celestial Magic seraphim). I bought the add-on and decided to see which of the aspects was the weakest. Since Dragon Magic was a breeze early in the game and Elemental Magic was also quite easy, I figured Mentalism was the weakest. I turned out to be wrong. As I played, I realised that Energy Blaze was a very powerful spell (honestly almost boringly so). My first test character I took to level 43 using it almost exclusively. Energy Blaze is like a Clustering Maelstrom shaped Blazing Tempest. For those of us coming from Sacred UW, it reminds me most of a freely placeable version of the Succubus' Poison Ring, which I also found had a very enjoyable rhythmic pace. Firstly, the Masterhand option should be checked in the case of a pure Mentalism build. This may be reconsidered if your build ends up as a hybrid of some sorts. Skills Mentalism Lore (100) for damage, crit., faster casting Mentalism Focus (100) for regen and raised malus threshold Armor Lore (75) for regen and resistance, mastery for the unlocked modifiers Constitution (75) for life, mastery for in-combat regeneration Ancient Magic (75) for damage, mastery for even more damage Concentration* (1) for regen (and buff slot depending on your build) Toughness (75) for resistence, mastery for damage mitigation Enhanced Perception* (75) for MF Alchemy* (1 or 75) if you find yourself used to using potions and feel you'd benefit from the trophies' effects Combat Discipline* (1) for even more damage I don't like the idea of picking a skill I don't use all of all the time, so taking Concentration gives me a buff-slot begging not to be wasted. But taking Concentration for the regen bonus alone is not bad: At high levels, it can cut your regen down to less than half. My SP build had no Concentration, for example. As far as Alchemy is concerned, for those of you who understand German, Chattius has a very helpful guide, explaining the benefits Alchemy offers and which builds can profit most from it. Alternative Skill picks are Shield Lore (75), for block, defense and unlockable modifiers Bargaining (75), if you don't already have a trader. Although Antitrust's exposition has turned me off to this skill. Combat Reflexes (75), for evade hit/critical Or (See also below) Tactics Lore and a Weapon pick (sword, polearm, staff) or Aspect Lore and/or Focus from the other two aspects Attributes Vitality (my current test character is in HC, so I chose to be more careful) Stamina, Dexterity and Intelligence (or Strength, depending) are also viable but I find Vitality to be the most rewarding. Spells Mind Strike (Weakness, Impact, Drill) Main attack for single opponents. Hence no area of effect mod. I keep this below 1sec. Energy Blaze (Confusion, Zone, Afterglow) Main attack for mobs. I chose radius over damage, as +damage modifiers are far easier to come by than +radius modifiers. I keep this below 2sec. I suggest 5sec as the final maximum. Maelstrom (Grind, Extension, Demoralise) Very nice when you find a place to use it. Lowering your enemies' stats is always good. I try to keep the regeneration below duration. Combat Trance (Awareness, Experienced, Energy Flux) The Ghost Meadow for the Dragon Mage. I chose stun resist over root resist, because where being rooted is annoying, being stunned is even more so, because you can't cast spells. Runes of Protection (Protection, Stone Skin, Flux) Stone Skin can be replaced by another Protection, but when you're surrounded by archers, an inherent chance to block of >22% is very helpful. The buff Familiar can also be used, with good reason. The only 'drawback' would be giving up the idea of a 'pure Mentalist' and settling for a more efficient and (yet to be tested: significantly) more powerful 'mostly pure Mentalist'. Item Modifiers Besides everybody's favorites: + all skills (take as much as you can spare), + all Combat Arts (specifically Mentalism, same as for + all skills) deathblow (try to get over 50%, more than 70% I find to be a waste), critical hit (same as for deathblow) wounds (of all sorts, pref. "Deadly ~" and "Serious Open ~"; take whatever you can get) Directly Important modifiers are: +% damage (specifically magic) -% regen (specifically Mentalism) regen. per hit (for those with Tactics Lore) Good to have modifiers: Chance to halve regeneration time Reflect (close combat is most important, as a lot of arrows and spells can be dodged manually or Maelstromed out of the way) WIDD (is risky unless you play tank-like, and the Dragon Mage's vitality is only mediocre.) MF and +Experience go without saying. Playstyle If/when a mob is large enough, or when you're ready for your boss, open up an experience potion and a concentration potion. If you have alchemy, throw on any protection you need (Iron Ore, Talisman). Turn on Combat Trance, and (if they're magic resistant) a Maelstrom or two. Maintain these as best you can throughout the fight. For Mobs: Lead your mob from group to available group applying (if possible spamming) Energy Blaze to the middle of the densest section of the mob. Again, this tactic should be familiar to the Poison Demons among us. Early in the game, due to high regen times, you'll find yourself frequently casting on yourself. For Bosses: Cast Energy Blaze and spam Mind Strike while Energy Blaze is loading. With low enough regen, you can also spam Energy Blaze and then spam Mind Strike while the stacked Energy Blazes are working. Variations Dragon Magic Lore and Focus: In order to actually be using both aspects, we'd need to stay away from the two Forms (Dragon and Berserk) for the most part, as you can only use the Combat Arts the respective Form allows. So if the Forms were our main focus in the Dragon Magic section then taking Mentalism at all would be a bit of a waste. So, what remains are the buff Familiar and the spells Eternal Fire and Dragon Strike. Familiar (Fire Bug, Protection from Fire, Energy Flux) with its intelligence bonus is a good buff for a mentalist to have as a caster. The Willpower and Hitpoint bonuses add to the survivability of the character, again helpful to casters. Both Eternal Fire (Licking Flames, Hunger, Fury) and Dragon Strike (Heat, Heat, Scatter) are more than capable of taking care of a mob by themselves. So, if a mob is already burning, both Energy Blaze and Dragon Strike are unnecessary and also, in a way, counterproductive as killing the mob puts out the fire. Using Dragon Strike as a complement to Energy Blaze is a bit more sensible: For Mobs: Using the same tactic as a pure Mentalist, alternate between Energy Blaze and Dragon Strike. In addition, lead your mob through the dragon flames as long as they're there. Another option is setting them on fire with Eternal Fire and using Energy Blaze when it starts to get too slow or dangerous or if they just won't die. For Bosses: Along the same lines as a pure Mentalist, cast Dragon Strike whenever possible and suitable. Eternal Fire makes little sense here. Elemental Magic Lore and Focus: The attack spells here are all well useable: Gust of Wind: Good against bosses. Focus like Ice Shards. Destroyer (Explosive, Swarm, Explosive): Good against monsters close to you as otherwise they tend to run away. Tornado (Storm Zone, Unleashed): Good against mobs. Cast and forget. For Mobs: In my experience, a combo of Gust of Wind and Destroyers works nicely in alternation with Energy Blaze. Set a Tornado loose before really laying into them. For Bosses: Your spells for bosses have a low enough regeneration time, that you almost have to choose between Mentalism and Elemental. An possible attack might be to use the GoW/Destroyer combo repeatedly and spam Mind Strike if there's time. Elemental and Dragon Magic Focus: Is another option but I won't go into it here, because I have no ideas for explaining it sensibly. The spells and buffs of both aspects benefit from their respective Lores. In this case the spells of the other aspects rely solely on Ancient Magic and/or Combat Discipline for damage bonuses. Tactics Lore and/or weapon pick: For this case, I would suggest you read Chattius' guide "the Sohei", as a build like this is already dealt with concisely with variations and edits at posts #8-11. His edit in post 11, however, leaves the build more along the lines of Weapon + Dragon Magic, which suit eachother nicely, but takes the focus away from the Mentalism aspect.

I've taken some pictures of orcs under my secondary damage effects. You can decide if they're good enough. I'm sure that the pictures labled poison and burn are right, with weaken I was expecting a cloud to appear over ttheir head and for freeze.. I had no expectation at all. Instead I got two visually indistinguishable status effects. (with my weapons I had 75% chance for weaken and 55% chance for freeze, no deep wounds or anything else) Here you go: I tried to make it so you could cut out the one you like... Hope I could help. nat

does this +X% grow with Blacksmith skill level? please? If not then mastery is enough. I don't use Smith Arts that often, it's really only +all skills jewelry with some nice extras like +damage or deathblow or (fingers crossed) ignore armour. Two side notes: Firstly, is my understanding of a Tank correct in saying that the point is that when you are at 25% max health (WIDD peak) you have enough life left over and enough reistance/evade/mitigation that you're safe remaining at that level (and dealing your insane WIDD). Secondly: Why, by the hammer of Thor, can I not edit my own posts! I had a few posts that I wanted to update, but the edit option is not there. Are they too old to edit? I can edit the other two posts in this thread, for example. Can anybody halp! nat ps: I have a sneaking suspicion that the bronze/silver/gold socket multipliers don't scale with any kind of level... fingers still crossed..

Thank you for the quick reply. I'm still waiting for a game where nothing is capped, you use the resources you have, suffer the consequences of your negligence and get the full benefit of your commitment (e.g. to a skill). My hope was to be able to build myself a blacksmith to end all blacksmiths. (... turns out it isn't really worth the points?) I was hoping to have a smith I could community chest a level 25 piece of equipment and a level 25 piece of jewelry and perform a perfected socketing job turning any 5,5% into an 11% at least. The max level cap on Blacksmith isn't a problem. If I'm level 200, I'm sure it'll be fine if I can only work up to level 250 gear. It's whether there's a cap on the quality that I'm wondering about. Specifically, that bonus you sometimes get when socketing +skills jewelry and +1 turns to +2 and +2 to +3 or even +4 (!). I looked on the SIF a little (english), and couldn't find much more than lots of confusion and some nice posts with no real answers. So far Blacksmith seems to be a bit of a mystery... I think I'll take the levels before 75 to carefully think it over. First opinion, master all the skills and +all skills (is there an abbr. for that?) the rest. (enough points to master all, max one and have 46 pts left over.) In your (anybody's) opinion, is there any skill worth maxing? (xept Bargaining) Thanks for the word of caution. nat ps: As for recasting auras, in Sacred, Ghost Meadow's 3min runtime went by quickly enough. I'm far too inattentive to be able to keep recasting every 20 seconds. To avoid that, I'd be willing to suffer a weaker buff.

Slightly off-topic question: Has Ascaron changed ALL the skills in 2.40 so that only hard points give mastery bonuses? I'm trying to make a TG that's very utility and a little bit tank. Before I leave the drawing board, It'd be useful to know. I'd use the same skills as you named: Blacksmith : 200 Armour Lore: 75 Bargaining : 195 Tactics Lore: 75 DG Focus: 75 Concentration: 1 Sword Weapons: 75 (It seems the items are better than Hafted; Stylistically, though, smiths wield hammers.) Constitution: 75 WE Lore: 75 EP: 75 But I'd honestly rather be able to max Constitution as well, and would be willing to give up Mastery in Sword/Hafted Weapons and Warding Energy maybe even EP (bad idea?), especially if I knew they weren't necessary or were even granted by soft points from +all skills. What do you (or anybody for that matter) know about that. (Advice, critique and slaps on the hand concerning the idea are also very welcome.) Thanks in advance, nat

Small note on Fire Demon. When active the buff gives an (additive, despite being listed separately) increase in fire damage. Roughly +125% at roughly level 60. And additive in the sense +p +q fire damage additively is a factor of (1+p+q)*fire damage. Multiplicative would amount to +p +q translating as (1+p)*(1+q)*fire damage. Which would have been amazing combined with my current >+400%. ^^ I figure since I didn't know probably neither did others. I have to get my HE to 100 to fully mod the demon (for the regeneration times) and then I'll see if the benefits outweigh the annoying distractions and the fireballs that diminish before hitting the opponents and even get redirected away from them. (what is that?) Will report later if necessary. As of yet, my HE: level 73 at Dragonmaw Pass in Niob difficulty (opp. level 116). >+120 all skills and then some (+skill, + skill category). I'm at a point where Shadow Step has been incorporated into my tactics. Necessarily. I had modded my SS with Vanish and the Vanish time at level 100 is at ca 7 sec (regardless of what the wiki says). I use this invisibility actively when dealing with mobs: The "point" at which I am is that my kill speed and that of my opponents is roughly the same. Meaning if I don't kill them fast, they will kill me. Fast. And I've died twice since end of platinum (Act VII). Statistically because I didn't take shield lore. Still fun, though. Little off topic question on skills and hard points: I've noticed that some skills can be mastered by armor bonuses. Such as Concentration (3 buffs), Combat Discipline (4 CA combo, -20% regtime). Does this go for all skills? If not, then for which? I have no +180 MF, so I guess not Enhanced Perception. From Dobri's formulation I gather not Constitution. Any leads? Thanks in advance, nat

I decided to go with my +Skills armor and read in all the runes I could in order to keep the regens at civil durations. My times have not changed (1sec for Fireball, 2sec for Shower and Tempest) and the damage has quadrupled: Fireball is at 10k and Tempest at 2k and 3.2k DoT. The damage on top of the defense bonuses. I couldn't agree with you more on the sockets. All I'm looking for at the moment is a shield with three sockets (silver+) if such an item even exists. My other HE decided to donate her Velaria's Armor (and her Stalworth Safeguard shield) to my Bargaining HE. Sockets AND high end resistences, what more could an elf need? Apart from finally getting out of Gold and into Platinum to get some quality gear. One little habit I picked up while looking into Shadow Step's Area of Effect Explosion: I picked Vanish as my silver mod. It's a fantastic getaway if ever necessary and it's how I get mobile Bosses to hold still while I shoot them with Showers. Prime example: Kral. Couldn't hit him with Tempest, let alone with Shower. Once I vanished, he stopped looking for me. Done. 2-3 Showers in 6 sec. Deathblow is pretty useful. I decided to stock up on rings to easily finish off bosses. I noticed that deathblow probably stacks below 100%, because I had 30% in a sword, 20% from a socketed ring and 4 other 20% rings equipped. All that gave me a total of about 65%. Hard to get over 70% but that and a good +crit chance will kill off a boss even more efficiently. And it also seemed to work on energy shields: I had to Shower past the Nameless Guardian's Shields and the last one he put up at about 10% life I plowed through in 2 hits. This was before I did my +all skills makeover. anyway, nat

So far I've aways gone for the +all CAs and only read one rune lest my regens get out of control. From what I gather you read in all/most of the runes you find and outweigh the regen with the +Concentration +Focus from your +all Skills armor? Worth a try.. Small side note on the Energy Shield: In silver Expulse Magic worked on Gar'Colossus but not on the Guardians: That poor clay giant never saw it coming. He stepped into the ring and his shield disappeared. He still chased me around with his projectile double shots. That second stone I've always felt I had to dodge since the time it one-hitted my Inquisitor. Your numbers make me twitch with anticipation... I can only imagine what kind of damage level 72 CAs do with +Ancient Magic +Lore (and in my case +Combat Discipline). Thanks for the tip, nat

Sometimes I think that the HE's pyro aspect is too strong. Tempest in particular. Honestly, it would be disappointing but understandable if the makers redid Tempest to, say, be blocked by opponents it hits (cf. Glacial Thorns w/o pierce). THEN the spell would require a mentionable amount of tactic to apply effectively. But, I figure, as long as my char keeps dying I can't complain. Up till now: Gold: I've got Xanthiar 11 sec / 4 x Shower; Carnach 15 sec / 6 x Shower. Silver: Nameless Guardian 4: 31 sec; 15 x Shower. (CharLvl 56 - 60) Thank GOD for deathblow! nat

Good to know about the lack of skill-capping. Thanks. I'm also roughly where you are: level 58 Seraphim Island - Gold. I have been maxing Bargaining, Arrant Pyromancer Lore and Focus. With my trading suit, my Bargaining is at 152, I think... Trying to push it up higher: I'm looking at another 15 points once I get my hands on some more +4 rings... And is it just the level, or has Bargaining been taken down a notch? Because I haven't seen a Unique or Set or Legendary since I patched. As for Greek Fire vs Explosion, I use fireball not for single opponents, but for those annoyingly small groups of 5 or 7 that I meet everywhere. Their too small for me to use Tempest in good conscience, so I took explosion to be able to kill 3-4 monsters in 1-2 hits. Greek fire would come in handy against really single opponents, but the regular monsters are all one-hits and for bosses there's Shower. So.. It's nice to see the diversity Sacred 2 has to offer being put to good use. ^^ nat

I honestly only have good experiences with this build. Some time ago I had also started a trading pyro elf (Jane). It worked wonderfully until level 53 when I finally lost my patience with Bargaining and started a new HE (same w/o Bargaining). Keeping my CAs at full capacity runewise, I was struggling to get my Tempest-Shower combo under 4.3 sec and my Fireball under 1.1 sec. When I decided to patch things up with Jane (after reading this guide), I noticed that I hadn't needed to put more than one point in any of my CAs, had all of them at capacity via armor and was unhappy when Tempest went over 2.0 and Fireball over 1.0. Burning to ash as many mobs as will follow you has never been more of a breeze than with my bargaining pyro elf. ^^ Nice build, by the way. nat ps: My two cents on modding fireball. I tried two homing fireballs and was annoyed by how often it targeted other opponents than the ones right in front of me. Ever since then, I've gone with Explosion and Globe. Also: Is it worth pushing Bargaining up to 200 hard points or are skills capped at 255 again? Because I won't push it over 75 if I can't maintain 3xCharLvl at level 200.

No, I actually have not seen his latest build.. where? And as for the CAs in which order, maybe I could lend a hand: 1. Incandescent Skin (Buff) 2. Grand Invigoration (Buff) 3. Frost Flare 4. Raging Nimbus 5. Incendiary Shower 6. Ancestral Fireball after that: 3 5 4 6 6 6 6 3 5 6 6 6 4 (3) (3) because Frost Flare had been activated, but not executed before death. Essentially, this HE is a Pyro - Stormite build. Nicely done, too. Hope I could help, nat

I wait with baited breath for your Darting Assault build, gogo. Blazing Tempest kills pretty quickly. (The video below has a HQ option) nat

Made changes in Blazing Tempest article: Added pro, cons, usage strategy and changed mod names and descriptions to those given ingame. Would like to add another achievemant to the list: Perseverence Again, I can't be sure, but I have reason to believe it goes with "Reach Gold difficulty". It could make sense with there being Legendary and Heroic Perseverence. The other option would be "Finish main quest exploring less than 20% of map". Again, anyone feel the same way? nat

Can't say for sure, but I just found I had an achievement "Scrooge" that wasn't on the list. It'd be logical to assume it pairs up with "Finish Bronze without purchasing anything.", which as of yet has not been spoken for. Can anybody second this? nat If it seems right to everybody, I'll just change it in the Wiki...

Only one suggestion up till now: An "edit existing guide" option would be nice, if at all possible. Otherwise, nice sidestep on the "disappearing skills" problem Schot had mentioned.

As for whether Expulse Magic works on the buff. Good news is it does. Bad news, I don't believe any class other than the High Elf has that specific priviledge. So for all Magic Coup HEs out there there's an easy way out. nat

It's great that you got your release out, Max. And the page is a good idea. It'd be a great place for guides to be indexed and organised. I hope it catches on and people will upload. I know I will.

Real nice video. Shame she got nipped in the end, though.

hehe.. cat got your tongue? surreal.