Need advice for dual wield/speed lore Sera build.

[nmcooke 0]

Currently have the following skills:

 

Tactics Lore

Speed Lore

Dual Wield

Sword Weapons

Armor Lore

Constitution

 

Expect to get:

 

Exhaulted Warrior Focus

Toughness

Combat Reflexes

Combat Discipline

 

Any glaring errors in this build that would prevent the coveted 200 level?

 

The concept behind this build is that I want a dual wield seraphim with emphasis on speed. Defensively I would like to opt for high evade numbers instead of high armor. I've seen attack speed maxes out at 220%. Can anyone verify this?

 

Couple of major questions about build:

 

Do I have to get EP in order to ever get to level 200? I know the XP gear gains would be welcome. If not could I opt to slot XP rings/amulets in order to get the XP gains?

 

Do I have to take Exhaulted Warrior Focus? Could I get away with a different skill here? I have yet to see a dual wield seraphim build without it but just curious.

 

Lastly, any way I could incorporate Warding Energy Lore in there somewhere? Anyone with experience using it know if I could rely solely on high evade numbers and Warding Energy Lore on the higher difficulty levels?

[Antitrust 32]

Do I have to get EP in order to ever get to level 200?

Hell no. Statistically, killing enough monsters or doing enough quests to get to 200 will give you tons of good items. At high levels you'll be spending a lot of time to gain even one level, so you'll get plenty of opportunities to upgrade your gear. EP and/or Bargaining is nice though.

 

Most Dual Wield seras get Exalted Warrior Focus because they want to get a high level Battle Stance. You need a Focus to get any combat art to a decent level (because Focus increases the maximum level without penalty of combat arts).

Edited October 10, 2009 by Antitrust

[Grillgrim 0]

Just looking at your build I think you would be able to get up to 200. I think you will start to see the need for more armor when you get mobed in the higher levels Plat/Noib. A fast hard hitting character is great as long as you are not over run or get crited by a magic user from affar, but with constitution and toughness you should be fine. You will start to pour more points into those two later in the game.

 

+% level for deathblow will help that quick kill process greatly. Remember if you are using %deathblow make sure not to socket two rings in the same item. The second ring/amy stats get cut in half.

[Born to kill 0]

Hello im new to this fourm (darkmatters) and I was going to build a seraphim almost exactly the same to yours but replace sword weapons with spell resisitence lol

 

Though I still got my shopper inquisitor to build to like 200 (hopefully) only like level 50 and my xbox 360 is getting fixed it will come back to me in 2-3 weeks w000t meanwhile when my brother has a xbox 360 which I barely get a chance to go on to level my shopper inquisitor =,=

[Barristan 14]

Heya,

 

First of, all of what I write below is based on PC. I am not familiar with Sacred on other platforms. Here is how I would see it for PC.

 

I assume you would want WEL for Divine protection (or Warding Energy)?

 

Now... this can be done without WEL, but without the Rev Tech Focus, your DP/WE will:

 

1. Not be strong enough

2. Not be modified

 

So if you want a shield, Rev Tech focus IS needed, WEL could be missed.

 

Looking at the concept op the build, and being fixed on speed lore... your only option would be to take

 

1. Rev Tech Focus

2. Warding Energy Lore

 

You can create a shield this way that can handle anything... at every level. If not there is always DP.

 

Leaving out two skills would change your build concept tho... if you are fixed on this 'evasion' concept, then I'd say Warding Energy cannot be incorporated.

 

If not, either permanent shield is strong enough without Toughness and Combat Reflexes.

 

Remember tho, that WE will require that you:

 

1. have concentration to use a second buff

2. swap out Battle Stance for WE when needed.

 

If you play without a shield, you will need tougness. All channel Damage Mitigation will be welcome too.

 

Hope it helps,

 

Greetz

[Nikarah 0]

Currently have the following skills:

 

Tactics Lore

Speed Lore

Dual Wield

Sword Weapons

Armor Lore

Constitution

 

Expect to get:

 

Exhaulted Warrior Focus

Toughness

Combat Reflexes

Combat Discipline

 

Any glaring errors in this build that would prevent the coveted 200 level?

 

The concept behind this build is that I want a dual wield seraphim with emphasis on speed. Defensively I would like to opt for high evade numbers instead of high armor. I've seen attack speed maxes out at 220%. Can anyone verify this?

 

Couple of major questions about build:

 

Do I have to get EP in order to ever get to level 200? I know the XP gear gains would be welcome. If not could I opt to slot XP rings/amulets in order to get the XP gains?

 

Do I have to take Exhaulted Warrior Focus? Could I get away with a different skill here? I have yet to see a dual wield seraphim build without it but just curious.

 

Lastly, any way I could incorporate Warding Energy Lore in there somewhere? Anyone with experience using it know if I could rely solely on high evade numbers and Warding Energy Lore on the higher difficulty levels?

 

yes, you could get to level 200 using this build.

however, honestly, and I dont intend to sound mean or critical in any way as there are hundreds of different builds with their own merrits; but there are some problems here.

 

sword weapons a lot of people love; since it allows you to get the benefit of mods requiring sword skills/mastery.

personally, I'd rather have another skill slot.

besides, I think chosing sword skills, hafted weapons or whatever mitigates one of the main advantages of a dual wield build:

you Combat Art use ANY 1 handed melee weapon type with the same proficiency as any other, since the added attack speed and attack value of the sword weapons skill WILL NOT STACK with the added attack speed and attack value of dual wield. the only advantage is the exclusive modifications. and frankly, I love being able to mix (for example) an officer's sabre with ker's sceptor without feeling that I'm losing something by not having a second sword. but this is entirely a personal opinion. chosing sword weapons by no means will cripple your build.

as for the rest of the build, I will continue with (what I believe) may not necissarily be problems, but might be something you regret doing later on if not provided with the following information;

 

first, we'll deal with speed lore.

speed lore=wasted skill on a seraphim, plain and simple. now, on paper, when you're a beginner it looks great. it adds run speed, attack value and defense value; what could be bad.

the answer to that is two fold.

 

1: speed ores attack and defense values are in fact NOT a flat number added on; they are a percentage added to the base AR/DV. the reason this isnt good is that the attack rating/defense value (AR/DV) this skill adds is NOT modified by battle-stance or any other gear, skill, or item that adds +XX% to attack rating or defense value. while they do still add attack rating and defense value, its just not as high of a number that would be required for it to be an ideal skill.

 

2: and this ones more important; the run speed on speed lore is a total waste. why? because you can EASILY reach the speed-cap on a seraphim without it using battle stance and some +run-speed items (particularly wings of revenge; a set item which add +50% to run speed at item level 230 and appx 25% at item level 100). combine this with dashing alacrity, and you're set to go. not to mention that +run speed is really only most useful for certain times when you're specifically trying to get your percentage of map explored up quickly; the rest of the time there are more than an adequate amount of teleporters around the map to get you where you need to be going without too much of a travel time.

 

 

as for the question about remaining skills;

yes, take exaulted warrior focus.

for any melee seraphim; its mandatory. Period. the modification points it allows for battle-stance and pelting strikes are substantial. ad I do reccomend you use pelting strikes instead of your regular attack, it does significantly more damage and if modified propperly will give you a much higher chance for critical as well.

now that thats out of the way.

while combat reflexes is great for base evasion chance; where it really shines its it's chance against critical hit, which substantially lowers your chance of seeing your HP bar go down dramatically in one or two lucky hits form the enemy.

that having been said; if its purely the evade you're looking for drop combat reflexes and get revered technology focus. this will allow modification points for warding energy, as well as for divine protection; along with increasing their level without penalty. that, and theres plenty of set items that have bronze slots which are ideal for using blacksmith arts and runes.

and niob-difficulty runes in the celestial magic tree add (if I remeber correctly off the top of my head) +46.4% chance to evade. 2 or three of those and you're loking at a higher chance to evade han anything but a severely modified combat reflexes would provide; as due to diminishing returns it doesnt easily get above 60%. but again, the chance against critical hits is the more useful part of this skill. however, if its between combat reflexes and revered technology focus; take revered, for sure.

furthermore; I, personally would shy away form combat discipline for a seraphim. before I even go here let me say this; do NOT use warding energy without concentration so you can run both this and battle stance.

honestly, while it's added damage is helpful, its regen time doesnt help all that much for the same reason combat reflexes evade gets nullified; bronze sockets. add a few "enchance" blacksmith combat arts into these slots and you can easily be staring at 20 or 30% lower regen times (its -12% regen time and +4% critical at level 125, niob); with large amounts of added critical hits. and given youre penchant for what seems to be a defensive build, instead take warding energy lore. that would very easily more than double your shields' energy (damage absorbtion) and if you take the right modifications to divine protection/warding energy you will not see a lot of damage taken, I promise you that. see below:

 

for modifications to

divine prot I suggest:

1: dampen -increases dmg absorbtion

2: boost -decreases cooldown 100% MUST HAVE MODIFICATION

3: improved reflection -reflects ranged attacks

 

while many people prefer the extra duration provided by capacity if you use the boost modification eventually the duration will exceed the cooldown time anyway, but the shield will absorb more damage. the main reason for getting the capacity modification is chain-casting it. at combat art level 34.2 with capacity the duration will exceed cooldown, it takes much longer without capacity.

boost is a must have simply because not only does it reduce the cooldown by 50% +1% per combat art level; because of this divine protctions regen time actually goes DOWN with each level, while its duration goes UP. Do the math.

improved reflection. wy not choose to reflect spells? well, because the spell reflect mod (improved mirror) is broken. it only BLOCKS spells.

instead get the magic mirror mod for warding energy; that one does work. then you can have a chance to reflect both.

 

for modifications to warding energy I suggest:

1: field force -higher energy=more dmg absorbtion before it falters

2: magic mirror -reflect spells

3: either -see below

 

definetly, 100% get field force on either bronze or silver. heck, get both if you feel like it. personally, id rather have a chance to reflect spells than both. but divine protection with its improved reflection mod will already reflect ranged attacks so no reason to get that here unless you really just dont farm in caster laden areas at all and would rather have a boatload of ranged dmg reflect.

the other option is to get field force for both bronze and silver modification levels, but if you do indeed decide to get warding energy lore, that may be overkill.

as for the third modification level; it depends on you.

personally I went with block in my newest build (a dual wield pelting strikes seraphim), and ive managed my gear so that my pelting strikes has a regen time of not more than 5 seconds, ever, with plenty of regen per hit, so I really dont have to worry about the regen time penalty added by warding energy.

however, for most people resource would most likely be more appropriate to avoid killing your other Combat Arts regen times, but as I said it depends on you.

I would however not make a decision untill at least level 65 or above, since your regen times tend to fluctuate a lot at lower lvls as you manage the balance between regen time and killing power. after level 65 or so (for me at least) I find that it stabilizes substantially.

 

as for toughness;

get it.

100% get it.

its very, very useful.

HOWEVER

DO NOT PUT POINTS INTO IT AFTER YOU GET IT.

why?

because it gives you the same damage mitigation with or without added points.

if you get mastery of tough ness (level 75) it will give you the SAME damage mitigation as getting level 75 from +skills items.

read that one more time

if you get mastery of tough ness (level 75) it will give you the SAME damage mitigation as getting level 75 from +skills items.

this means that even 1 point put into it, is wasted, especially since at about level 180-200+ its diminishing returns are such that it will only give +1 armor to all types and +.1% dmg mitigation roughly once every 3-4 lvls.

your skillpoints would be FAR better served getting constitution to level 199 (IMO this is a must do since it has no downsides to being pumped up like hanz und frank).

 

anyway, that is all.

sorry about the copy of ivanhoe I just slapped this forum with, but I felt you deserved access to the info.

Edited December 11, 2009 by Nikarah