essjayehm

Which may help in caves and at night to see better around the hero. Silly question - only because I thought of it just now, when reading this tread.... Do light range increasers increase the size of the Seraphim's Celestial Magic Buff (Cleansing Brilliance?) Just the thought of having a CB cover a full screen sounds like fun! No more toiling in darkness!

I get them from time to time on characters. All of the ones I've found however cannot be equipped so I'm assuming that it was in the plans but got scrapped and Ascaron simply missed a file or two. It's more annoying than anything to find them because it usually takes a few attempts at deleting them to finally get them out of your inventory. On PS3 I got 2 pairs of knuckles... 2-handed weapons that have the (locked) modifier "Fist Combat Lore". They can be equipped, used, etc... Pretty sure this is a "bug" - something akin to picking up "item", "parchment", "vellum scroll", etc... I got them with one of my first characters, and never seen any more I would've totally checked them out if I had continued to get them, but just having a level 2 and 3 weapon didn't seem like it would be a good idea to base a character build out of it. Tried them out for a minute (forget which class, prob Shadow Warrior), and the animations were just like the High Elf enemies that use these knuckes. Nothing special. Back to the darkness! Scott

Hrm... I've been playing a melee seraphim, so I haven't been using any of the Celestial spells. From what I've seen, the main attraction for Radiant Pillar is the "slowing" mod you can get with it. Mainly used for Bosses and champs, or so I've read. Yes... finishing Gold at 56 was sweet.... and tough. Mostly because I was boosting Enhanced Perception instead of my Exalted Warrior Focus or Offensive Skills, so my damage has always been low with this build. Not that it mattered that much, since the life leech % really does "all" the work against the Bosses. Completed Platinum at level 78.... and extremely tough. Just not enough hit points (I assume) as any critical hit (or Combat Art, whatever it is that does the HUGE damage) from the Final Guardian is a one-shot-kill. Tried 4 times, on the second try, I got an amazing random drop chest armour piece from the 2nd Guardian, and that made all the difference as I added 8.5% all channel mitigation and +80% armour value (after filling the 2 gold slots with armour % boosters). This improved my armour enough to survive a critical hit by the Final Guardian, and spamming health potions to the beat of some good drum'n'bass seemed to do the trick Well, back to toiling thru darkness! Scott

Just my two cents, but I highly recommend your last skill choice be Exalted Warrior Focus. You will need to increase your "max level without penalty" for Battle Stance and Pelting Strikes/Soul Hammer as you progress through higher levels. It will also help to get you Dashing Alacrity up to the level where the duration of the spell is longer than the cooldown (don't need to worry about the regeneration part due to regen per hit), so that you can continously have DA "on". I may be totally wrong here, but I think you may have issues with the amount of damage you deal if you do not keep your melee attack Combat Arts at as high a level as possible through Platinum and Niob difficulties. I would assume you're playing this character as a "hybrid" - a fighter-mage if you will - and I would think that most of your damage is dealt with your weapons, with the spells as support - Radiant Pillar, Flaring Nova and Hallowed Restoration. Actually, Archangel's Wrath is a very good attack Combat Art, the main issue I have with it is "flight time" - which really screws with your regen. per hit modifiers if you happen to auto-target a distant enemy in the heat of battle. (playing on console?) Can I ask whereabouts you are in the campaigning? I only ask because I just barely squeaked past the final boss on Gold difficulty at level 56. Although my build has many different skill choices, it would be difficult to compare, but I was curious! Best of luck toiling in darkness! Scott

I'll chime in on this one! If you're set up correctly, the best (fastest) way to gain levels early in the game is just to progress along the main quest. Playing my HE "hardcore" - not using high-level smithing exploits - I had no issues finishing Silver difficulty by level 30. It's not "really" a hardcore character, as I do use runes and set pieces out of the chest, but I don't have my higher-level characters forge rings/amulets/smith arts. I did have about 25-30 runes read into my Grand Invigoration (only one buff used at low levels, for keeping the flame wave at a respectable regeneration time), and having Incendiery Shower modded for Stun to be able to handle the bosses easier. If you just want to grind out a few levels, I feel Loco's advice is very good. The Kobolds go down quick, and there is LOTS of them! They re-spawn fairly quickly, and there aren't too many places where you can get cornered easily (although Shadow Step solves that problem, if you do get surrounded). After that, the skeleton mobs between Thylisium and the Human region are good for grinding - but they hurt a lot more, and it is easy to die if you aren't careful. There is a forum topic entitled "Kat's Pyromancer-elf hunting grounds" that is AWESOME for grinding in the Elf region. I'm not sure how to make a link to the topic, maybe one of the moderators (or another helpful person!) can so it's easy to find. The side-quests in the game are tricky to use for levelling. I do suggest learning them on the easier difficulties, as there are quite a few that can be done quickly, with enough experience that you aren't "wasting" time. On the higher difficulties, they actually become faster than killing enemies, but maybe that is because I focus on a balanced toon rather than having lots of damage capability. Sorry I can't help you with the talking with other players, I am internetless. Happy Hunting!

Well.... I may be jumping the gun here, as I still have 750 K experience. before I get there, but... Level 75 Seraphim (Melee, sword+shield for grinding, 2h sword with % leech life for bosses) Wooo hooo! This is the highest I've managed to stick with a build. My previous high was an Inquisitor at 74, who couldn't beat Gar'Colossus in GOLD! Many thanks to the contributors here at DM; and the wiki, of course! In Platinum now (about to fight Carnach), and not having too much trouble with mobs or bosses. Finished Gold at level 56 (was VERY tough) - not enough hit points to take multiple shots from the final guardian. I was fine if I hit him every time he hit me (after he dropped my Divine Prot), but I died if I missed with the 2h sword. My cousin is playing a Shadow Warrior alongside me (offline, on PS3) and he is about to get to 75 as well, but that character is not quite as strong as mine, mostly due to seraphim having the Bargaining skill! Planning on grinding through to the end of Platinum, hopefully around level 80 or so, just to see if we can withstand the 4th Guardian. If not, I guess it'll be time to do Something Wonderful. (been waiting to do that bad-boy, as I really only want to do it once... to get the Legendaries) I have to go now, to toil through darkness

Well, only playing for a couple of months (3 if you include "rentals" - I try before I buy!) and I anticipate playing this for a long time. Or until the bugs make me throw my controller thru the screen. Slowly learning the system... quite different than a lot of RPG's I've played in the past, as far as the Combat Arts are concerned, anywho. I've almost got my understanding of pure melee characters finished, then it's on to a High Elf pure caster... then I'll tackle a hybrid or specialty build (ie. enraged player build, or a Divine-Devotion based toon) when I am more comfortable with the game. OR>>>> Until Sacred 3 is released on Console. <<<<<<<<<<<<<< No rentals for that would be needed! Scott

Not a bad question, actually... Usually I just use the Skills page to see if an All Skills +X is working. These work fine for me. The "All Combat Arts +X" does not increase the levels of any of my combat arts (whereas an Aspect: Exalted Warror will raise all Combat Art's in EW) For this I use the Combat Arts page; as this will show me my damage and regen. times. Plus, the overview you would have to add up the All Combat Arts, Aspect: (whatever) and the individual Combat Art bonuses to get a total bonus for any of my Combat Art's I usually don't use the overview window... information overload! I'll use it to monitor some things (total RpH, attribute bonuses, or w/e). I tried several variations with equipping and re-starting last night, but to no avail. Does noone else experience this?

Well, I certianly hope I'm not missing something (simple, or complicated...) to get the "All Combat Arts +X" modifier to work on the PS3. As I was thinking this morning about how to post this, I realized I may have missed an important step in my testing. I didn't try re-setting the game (quitting and re-starting) after my tests... so I will be trying that tonight. Steps I have taken so far - (Seraphim and High Elf (evil campaign) tested so far) Equip the amulet on my inventory Forge the amulet on weapons, armour (& equip the item) Ensure I have all Combat Arts "opened" - at least one rune read into each Combat Art All the equip / unequip / equip combinations I can think of. Of course, I have tested equipment pieces (bracers, 2-star; and Ker's Scepter) with this modifier on it. I've exhaused all my thoughts on this subject, and it definitely is not a display bug (Combat Art damage decreases, regen times get faster, etc) I went through the entire Console thread and the first 10 pages here, and didn't see anything on this subject, so I thought I'd better post my findings, and either have it confirmed (whaaaaa....) or told what I am doing wrong (pleasepleasepleaseplease). If it doesn't work, I believe the most important effect this will have is that 3-aspect builds will be quite a bit trickier to get to high levels. Another question, on the PS3 - there is a modifier that says "Block Chance: ________" (with no "attack type" afer the colon) - does this refer to all attacks (Melee, Projectiles, Combat Arts, Root, etc...) or is it a display bug, and it is actually for only one of the attack types? Many thanks in advance for all suggestions! I'll go toil some more, through darkness

G'day! I've experimented a few times with the Alchemy and the trophies on PS3, and not unlike the PC, they are "almost unusable". I say this because you cannot slot them into potion slots, so you have to open your inventory, tab over to Misc. items page, find the trophy you want to use and then press "x" to use. Since the duration is not very long (that I noticed on low levels, anyway), they turn into a real pain in the cincture to use. I thought the effects were good enough, but the usage was not. I liked the troll tooth (+atk %) and Leather Hat (atk speed) trophies the best. With a high enough Alchemy, I would assume a couple of the others would be useful as well. I had only tried it with a low-level toon (under level 20). If you have the free skill space, and you want to use Alchemy, you MUST keep your Misc. items page of your inventory as clear as possible. That means eating or stashing all runes (of your class, anyway) and keeping the unwanted trophies sold/scrapped. I would not suggest relying on them for boss fights (unless you have "invisibility" which the Shadow Warrior and High Elf are capable). The other negative thing with the trophies is that they take up inventory space. Not such a big deal with the Health and Mentor potions (as you can have 1000's in "one" slot), the trophies need an extra slot every 20 you collect. What I mean by that is that 101 mentor potions only takes up 1 of your 169 slots in inventory. 101 trophies would take up 6 slots (5 @ 20, and 1 @ 1). Oh, I just thought of another negative! It is really hard to tell if a trophy is active unless you zoom right in on your toon. The regular potions have a nice, VISIBLE aura so you can tell when they are on/off, but the trophies are quite difficult to see (especially in the frenzy of battle). Just my 2 cents. Scott

Thank you for the reply, Chattius! My Delphic Arcane elf is a pure caster, and the first thing I tried when I got my first RpH ring was to see if it would work with Blazing Tempest and Incend. Shower, but it did not work. I did not bother to try other "spell" Combat Arts after my initial testing, so I am unsure if it works with the fireball, or snowball or lightning bolt, etc. I assume it works great with Magic Coup (as it is a weapon-based Combat Art), but that I consider that "swinging a weapon", a no-no for my caster. I guess for consoles the RpH only works with melee attacks, which my elf is not planning on doing... but my melee seraphim really enjoys it! I think you misunderstood what I was asking regarding the casting times. Right now (Level 47), I have a Incend. Shower regeneration time of 1.8 seconds. When I cast it, the character on screen does the animation (she points to the sky, then downwards, then the meteors fall). The amount of time it takes for the avatar to do this sequence of motions (and thus, "cast" the spell) is almost exactly that amount of time. I have had my regen. time lower than 1.8s, but I cannot re-cast an IS (or any other spell, for that matter) before this "animation" is complete. I will have to get Arrant Pyromancer Lore to see if that consideribly speeds up the casting animation, so I can truly have a spell spammer. Of course, I have tried playing around with the "casting speed" items, but I have not noticed enough of a difference to warrant replacing an all skills or aspect: jewellery for them. Salut! Scott

Hooray! I was looking for a topic regarding a DA Elf, and here it is! I will share my build, as I am looking for a little advise on how to finish her off. Level 42, all attribute points have been/ will be put into Vitality Skills (hard points in brackets) Bargaining (1) - my first shopper, and she doesn't need any of the others to unlock! Only one point for now, as relics, and more recently, +allskills jewelry have been keeping this around my level DA Lore (10) - need to open DA Focus. I DIDN'T WANT CONCENTRATION AS IT INCREASES REGEN. TIMES (when you have 2 buffs!). DA Focus (42) - keeping GI as high a level as I can. AP Focus (32) - after modding GI for fire spells, I chose AP as my second aspect. only need 31 points for now, to fully mod Tempest and Shower. Armour Lore (15) - ok... need to ensure I incorporate some defence. also helps spell regen. Constitution (15) - my main thought to surviving Platinum / Niob levels was to have as much HP as possible, and when mastered, will combo well with GI's HP regen. Shield Lore (1) - I had a Stalwart Safeguard I was drooling over. It was level 30, so taking it now to start the survival bonus "bonus" Ancient Magic (12) - needed more offensive power. also helps against damage prevention / immunities. I am 95% sure I will be taking AP Lore at level 50. Increase damage, and more importantly, the CAST TIMES. I try to keep my spells at "casting animation" speed, meaning that the time it takes to cast the spell (animation) is the same as the regen time for the spell. Have a couple of choices, then, for the final skill. This I kinda need some input from people who've played longer than I. Do I take combat disclipine? In my playing around with the combos, I worry that if I don't have the time to execute an entire 2-spell combo before I am surrounded. Never mind 3 and 4-spell combos! This = death at Plat / Niob as I understand. Concentration? I would only take this for a second buff (Incandescent Skin), but never master as I have no want of a 3rd. Magic Staffs? The Elf class quest has a nice staff reward... and it would open up Magic Coup as a realistic option (I don't hit with weapons atm) Combat Arts Only one buff build - Grand Invigoration. I am eating runes at a rate of about 2 per level. The usual suspects here, Blazing Tempest, and Shadow step (with explosion) takes care of groups. Incend. Shower for elites and bosses. Cobalt strike as a "debuff" and does decent damage to one target. See casting times note above. My stategy for bosses is to have the CS and IS in a combo, as the CS helps with the targeting if the bugger moves while I'm trying to cast IS. Mods (sorry I don't remember names of mods, just effects) Grand Invigoration - fire focus, more HP regen, reduce impact of incoming detrimental effects. Shadow Step - reduce cooldown, invisibility, explosion Cobalt Stike - more damage, reduce opp. stats, (not sure what I will take when I get there) Incend. Shower - stun, more phys. damage, more critical hits Blazing Tempest - faster regen, can't remember the other 2 mods I took 8( Notes: I am only planning to get this character into Niob level (for shop/smithing for my other characters), but I may give Niob a "go" if she doesn't die before then (I'd like to see a 99.9% survival bonus Just started Gold campaign (offline, solo). Mobs are starting to be able to do enough damage to overcome GI's HP regen, so I guess I'll be sinking more points into defensive skills. My other main question I have about my build is which skills to master first. I believe that you can get 3 skills to mastery at level 75, and my main thoughts here are to do Armour Lore, Constitution and DA Focus. After that I don't know! I am guessing Bargaining and Sheild Lore for mastery #4 and 5. Please help! I will be away from komputer for weekend,so I will not be back to reply until Sunday or Monday!

Good day, everyone... Just thought I'd introduce myself, been lurking for a couple of weeks, and decided to join in on the fun! I'd played a few characters, and thought I had a good one with my Inquisitor (dual-wield pain-bringer), but he ended up being entirely too squishy when I started the Gold campaign. I play offline exclusively, only occasionally 2-player on my PS3, so I had to go looking for resources as I was having difficulty figuring out what was actually "powerful" (ie which skills are needed, as opposed to cool). I looked thru allthe typical sites (gamefaqs, etc...) but they don't have anything I didn't already figure on my own (except the Viperish Disease exploit). I found this site, and all my questions are answered! I copied a couple of builds on here, and am now designing my own characters (well, tweaking, really, as all the "classes" seem to have been thought up 8/) I won't be posting too much on the forum, but had to sign up to see if I can get some opinions on my builds, and input on how to develop them into Niob-surviving toons (as you folks say). In conclusion, Thank You, DarkMatters, without you I wouldn't be playing Sacred 2 anymore! Scott