My BFG/Dual Seraphim

[Sarcolemming 8]

Since I can't seem to get a pure BFG build to work in gold mode, the highest I've unlocked so far and have been following the suggested builds on here. I thought I would try something different so I found out daggers use Dex just like ranged weapons. Without further ado here goes...

 

Stats:

Levels 1-20 Sta

Levels 21-50 Dex

Levels 51+ ~1:4 Sta:Dex

You want to have most of your CAs down to about a 1 second recharge. After that you can go pure Dex or continue to add and just munch runes to your heart's content.

 

Skills:

in no particular order we have...

 

Enhanced Perception- 75

Master it! with 75 points you'll have sets and trading partners galore.

 

Exalted Warrior Focus- 124

=Level all the way to 124, since we're getting all the exalted arts we need this to improve levels and regen times. It also helps to have all those awesome mods to use! Since we're getting tactics, 124 is the exact number +75 to give us the 15th mod. more points never hurt if you have left overs though!

 

Revered Technology Focus- 200

=Level all the way to 200!, we need shields just cause nasty stuff comes our way, we dont wanna die and lose our previous SB now do we?

 

Warding Energy Lore- 75

Master it, pretty self explanatory makes our shields that much better and gives us some cool bonuses from armor and stuff.

 

Concentration- 75

-Whats to say? master it, better regens, more buffs, with mastery we can have BFG, Shields and Battle Stance active all at once.

 

Swords- 1

-We need it to get the hidden abilities of our daggers, put 1 point here and upgrade it with rings, amulets and armor when you can find them. No rush the basic bonus for ignoring armor will take effect usually just when you want it too.

 

Tactics-75

We wanna master this, it improves both damage and skill points for Exalted Warrior and our BFG/Archangels wrath(damage only on these two)

 

Dual Wield- 75

-master it, we need the attack(& speed) bonus since we're not getting it from sword mastery

 

Toughness, Speed, Armor, Ranged Weapons, Combat Discipline(if it works for you..), Alchemy

Any two of these is good, Speed will magnify our already amazing dex and avoidance, no hits = no damage

Toughness will help deal with damage from any unlucky shots that get through our dodge, armor, and of course our killer moves

Armor improves, well... our armor, why not? better armor usually has better mods on it, so all the better for us! Diminishing returns at later levels, but it will always reduce some armor regen.

Ranged is highly recommended if you prefer the BFG for general use at later levels. It improves accuracy and attack speed, but you'll be munching runes for the BFG and using it mostly as an Anti-'Omfg This Dude Is Massive!' weapon, that being, boss killer, to make our lives that little bit easier.

Combat Discipline it increases combo size and supposedly recharge+damage. Personally I have Never. Ever. Seen it work out, I do the same damage consistently regardless of skill level and my skills recharge no faster regardless of level. Perhaps it's a PS3 bug, maybe it's just my game? Maybe my game just doesn't like me cause I got it used for cheap x.x who knows?

In any case mastery is recommended for the two skills you do pick.

Alchemy, a wonderful skill but it requires another general skill to be at 5 first. It allows the seraphim to use trophy's that increase attack speed, hp, and even make those mentor potions last longer, as well empowering your HP potions to become more effective. Potion spammers will adore this skill cause of its effects.

 

That gives us a total of 850/911 points(according to sacred-wiki 911 is the max), plenty of spares to play with, use however you like. =)

 

For order I recommend the following...

1.Exalted Focus-just one point here at first, after we have dual wield we wanna find our daggers(cheap shoppies will do otherwise use any two weapons you like), and then begin to pump until we hit Rev tech

 

2.Tactics- 5 here right off the bat

 

3.Dual Wield- first point here and then go back to focus

 

4.Rev Tech Focus-start pumping it right away now that you have it, hopefully you can level it alongside Exalted focus

 

5.Warding Energy

 

6.Concentration-more buffs on, by now you've probably got them all at a good enough level to justify it

 

7.Swords-the bonus is most useful here later on, early enemies arn't terribly tough till higher difficulty levels anyways

 

8. Op-1

9. Op-2

 

10.Enhanced Perception- Items are great, but only the really good stuff is what we want, before 65 there's not much point as farming is really tough(and we're probably just entering gold mode), so the stuff we already find is good enough to start. Once we can farm we can use this more effectively. If you already have an EP character as most probably do, you can swap this skill for Any of the Optional ones listed above without issue. Good luck getting Seraph sets though.

 

Combat arts and mods:

unless otherwise noted, eat runes only to keep your damage up and make sure your regen times don't get out of hand(>2 seconds).

 

Soul Hammer Aim-Battering-Coup De Grace

One of our main attacks, as it levels it improves damage and works well with both BFG and Dual daggers. A wonderfully spam-able skill for any single monsters left over, or Bosses/Champions

 

Aim allows for a much greater chance to critical, this becomes crucial in later levels as it happens ALOT and deals monster damage, with 220% attack speed it'll happen almost every 2-3 seconds(or more if you're lucky) at high levels of this skill. That is assuming you kept your recharge down to spam it quickly, which you should.

 

Battering reduces armor, simple enough, while your daggers will have a fairly good chance to ignore armor to begin with, this works wonders on BFG.

 

Coup De Grace, doesn't it suck when that one boss/baddie is almost dead and suddenly you are too? its happened alot to me, more times then I can count especially in higher difficulty areas, this almost ensures a killing blow will be dealt before they get through to you. A great mop up skill and as it levels it becomes more effective.

 

Pelting Strikes Succession-Enfeeble-Precision

one of our mob/mop up skills, we use this with flaring nova for crowd control. Keep recharge to about 3-4 seconds, it takes a bit for your seraph to actually perform the combo so recharge isn't terrible at this rate, higher attack speed executes a little faster, but still takes 2-3 seconds to hit everybody nearby usually.

 

Succession, chance for double hits, we get 5 hits assuming we don't roast every bad guy nearby, with good luck you could double hit and get 10 hits on those enemies. 2 hits have a much better chance to kill no? all the better : )

 

Enfeeble, reduce armor class, in higher difficulties less armor means more damage, and honestly alot of baddies have way too much armor. They should share or else, in this case, we do the "drop it sucker! " move.

 

Precision, critical hits, need I say more:) it's a much smaller chance than Aim(see above) but with greater hits, and a chance to double hit(double crits?) we can rack up monster damage on any nearby enemies

 

Assailing Somersault Spurt-Impetus-Concussion

This attack leaps into the air and slices down on opponents a great opener with the right mods, which are...

 

Spurt, better range, really it's the range the skill Should have had when it was first made. Sadly we need the mod x.x

 

Impetus, area damage, a great opener especially when combined with...

 

Concussion, a chance to stun that improves with levels. This combos nicely with Impetus as we hit crowds easily, stunning them leaves them open to the rest of our combo... see more under tactics.

 

Dashing AlclarityBloodlust-Reprisal-Optional

Our beserker move! when injured we throw this on and wreak our holy vengence!

 

Bloodlust, more attack speed? Why Not! more attacks in a shorter time are even better. Works great with BFG which you probably wont get to 220% unlike your daggers

 

Reprisal, at level 20 we deal 200% damage, at 40 we deal ~250% truly monster damage when it criticals, but we need to be wounded first...

 

Impatience, lower cooldown means we can use it more frequently, though we hope we dont have too at all. while...

 

Ardor, lowers the regen of All our attacks, including this one, but only by a small(still useful) bit, not terribly important at later levels but for early modding it may be the way to go.

 

In the long run you could skip either of them or just leave it for the last mod chosen, neither of the last two are important(long term).

 

Battle Stance Aggression-Flexibility-Retaliation

Our main buff, on all the time, recast it quickly if it gets taken down by any chance. Run away if you have too just keep it up!

 

Aggression, extra damage that gets even better with levels, at level 40 you can expect to deal about 50% more damage than normal.

 

Flexibility, chance to evade, a wonderful ability, we want to evade. Anything helps and this is no exception

 

Retaliation, damage reflection, another wonderful ability. About the same chances as flexibility, but this allows us to kill a nasty super monster sometimes without even hitting him to begin with. Not to mention less damage to us!

 

Archangel's Wrath Salvo-Explosive-Greek Fire

A nice combo move that can open up for the BFG or daggers but will only use the first weapons(right hand) damage. The damage is improved alongside our weapons so it doesn't need to be leveled right away, faster recharges are great, at .1 seconds it can machinegun groups without a problem. Great for monsters that resist our daggers/BFG but weak against fire. Early on(level 20-) skeletons fit into this group.

 

Salvo, two shots! so much better than one no?

 

Explosive, Area of Effect, nice.

 

Greek Fire, a huge chance for monster DOT

 

Flaring NovaImpulse-Stun-Flux

One of our main combo moves, an excellent two hit killer move.

 

Impulse, two hits for the price of one, awesome! We lose a little range but since we're leaping into the throng it's of little consequence.

 

Stun, isn't it obvious? another stun move with a decent chance of leaving our enemies that survive this onslaught dazed and confused.

 

Flux, more damage woot!

 

Divine Protection Capacity-Boost-Optional OR Dampen-Uplifted Force-Optional

The really big red button, push it if you have too or with careful attention keep it up all the time. It's your choice but Warding energy lore makes it very powerful and capable of absorbing everything that comes our way.

 

The choices here depend on use. Simply put if you want your uber shield to last forever pick the first group, otherwise if you want it as that important emergency button go with the second. I chose the second and personally think it's better left as that emergency catch-all button.

 

A note on the last two choices, you can either reflect ranged damage(Improved Reflection) or block magic(Improved Mirror). Since most magic is anti-buff this is quite useful, however reflecting projectiles keeps those annoying temple guardians at bay not to mention other ranged monsters that run away from you.

 

Warding Energy Projectile Reflection-Field Force-Block

Your basic defense, sometimes reflects arrows/blasts, has good strength and can mitigate some damage.

 

Projectile Reflection, just as it says, it's odds are tiny though, if you dont want it take Field Force for more strength

 

Field Force, a 50% improvement of our shields strength almost mandatory to have at least one of these, since there are two you could take Magic Mirror to reflect magic damage. I personally don't grind near a whole lot of magic users so I never found this to be a useful mod. To each their own though, if you prefer mopping the floor with spell casters take this for the bonus.

 

Block, it does just what it says, it blocks about 5% of any incoming damage all the time, more than just useful, down right a life saver when we get hit.

 

BeeEffGee Enhance-Enhance-Optional~

 

Enhance It's a damage skill, it increases the BFG's physical firepower by alot, in fact it greatly improves the usefulness of the BFG against monsters who resist magic! That being bosses and mini-bosses(that you wanna kill fast for set items!)

 

The choice...

Accuracy

Most people take this mod to hit more often, but with high dex and any points in ranged skill it really isn't neccessary. Take it if you arn't going for ranged mastery, it'll help you hit enemies more often that way. Otherwise see below

 

Penetrate

For those who chose ranged mastery this is the one you want, penetrating enemies is more than just blasting through them, for some reason on the PS3 it almost always inflicts some kind of critical hit! Possibly a bug, but in any case monsters tend to line up quite easily when you follow my tactics below.

 

The tactics and combos...

 

For the most part you wanna open up with an Assailing Somersault straight into a mob of enemies, then Nova them and mop up any survivors with Pelting Strikes. This works well if you circle around a large group gathering enemies and then aiming just in front of the group as you're running away. If done properly you'll hit the whole group and see a green screen of experience, and possibly fill your inventory in the process. Mmmmm super muffins, yummy items indeed!

 

The combos you want to have, (with) and without C.D.

 

Combo 1- Daggers

(AS)+FN+PS

Basic attack combo listed above, hotkey so you don't have to push too many buttons, it makes life much easier.

 

Combo 2- BFG

AW+PS+(SH)

Basic BFG combo, big hits especially against bosses. Spamming any of the individual skills also works, but is less cool than watching this one fire off. With the right recharges you can see a spear of blue slam into anything, looks awesome. : )

 

Combo 3-OMG!

DP+DA+(PS)

An emergency button, if it were only really huge and red. Then it'd be the perfect panic button...sigh.

 

Combo 4

Anything you want? I never use this slot as there is no real need, so it's all up to you.

 

Items to look out for...

 

Well first we want daggers. What kinda daggers though:) Honestly any will do, my build never relies entirely on items to begin with. I use whatever daggers I can find, usually with a fire/ice combination. Switching back and forth as needed depending on enemy weakness. Ideally you should have 8 daggers, two for every element. Since this isn't practical though any two will do, just make sure they're as strong as you can get. If you can't find daggers use short swords, they do a bit more damage, hit a little more often cause of Atk+ and Def+ and are fairly common especially in the early levels. =) so to put it short, either a short sword + dagger, Short swordx2 or daggerx2 will work. If you have a unique and strong dagger work it in somehow, they usually look pretty good with seraph armor.

 

Rings, amulets, armor, et al. Try to find +reflect damage, +defense, +armor, +evade and other defensive mods or +skill mods. You have tons of options here~! Oh and lots of strong relics, they help against elementals more then you would imagine at first. Its not hard, just time consuming, and ever changing as you level too.

 

So after about 4 hours of typing this up I am exhausted, haha, comments anyone? this is the plan I'm using for my seraph based off all the guides I've found here, the Sacred Wiki, and countless level 5 seraphim that I've made and killed off as test dummies (about 30 in the last week). >.<

[Big Jimmy 0]

It's an odd choice that you've decided to create a dual wield toon around daggers, but running around with two drumsticks would be cool

 

All toons, without exception, should have Armor Lore and it should be high priority to be mastered. Your toon is missing defensive skills so I would go for toughness or constitution as the second option as well.

 

As the damage on sword weapons and dual wield doesn't stack, you may wish to pick one or the other. I think picking sword weapons just for hidden attributes is a bit of a waste.

[nugmanagogo 0]

I guess maybe I'm confused how the pure BFG build isn't rocking gold. I rocked through plat at level 56. I'm def took my time before tackling niob, but still when I hit 75 I started niob. It is a little hard, have to be careful, cause I don't have to much mastered yet. This build seems a little short on a lot of stuff, "jack of all trades...". Rock it and tell us how it worked though.

[Sarcolemming 8]

Thanks for the replies guys, actually I wanted it to lack defense, an intentional weakness is for more easily corrected than one that isn't. The more offense the better though. I seem to pierce alot and when I line up monsters with the BFG I get a pure green screen of experience rolling in. Especially with the fully modded BFG. Really the daggers are there for, both slots, and of course when I'm tired of blowing smoking craters into the ground. You could get away with not using them at all, but then IMHO you'd be using a basic BFG build without any spice.

 

x = bad guy

o = you

> = BFG shots

 

o ---x-x-x-x-x-x-->-> kapow~

run away and repeat, they line up every time. So easy, especially in later modes. They seem to make 3 pretty straight forward(nearly uniform) lines or columns every time without fault. Easy pickins at that point. Possible AI bug maybe? the lines really are straight columns with only a few stragglers at all.

 

It's not that it doesn't rock solo, its just that honestly I feel like I have Toon-ADD and can't ever seem to focus on one singular aspect without becoming totally bored of it. So I come up with crazy ideas and try them out to see if they work. Hence I adore my TG because it does everything at once and uses all aspects pretty equally. Same goes for my Inqy which is a melee built NN that uses dual wield, not sure if I wanna specialize for the bonus or not yet.

 

On that note, I picked up sword because A) ignoring armor does crazy damage on BFG and the bonus does seem to carry over for some reason, I've noticed a huge improvement in damage with my latest daggers(combined they add +35% magic damage on one, and +14% chance to ignore armor total). and B) when I do use the daggers themselves they're only made completely better with the sword skills. If you don't want daggers though go ahead and drop sword skill for something else. It's really there for piercing ability, while it may seem wasteful it's not a competitive build, more a concept really, so the only waste comes from haste. Or should I say haste makes waste?

 

The armor thing, recharges seem to not even be an issue at all here, my recharge times are comparatively low without even a single point in Armor lore, sure I'd have more defense, but what's the challenge if I can't die? God mode is only fun for about 10 minutes, then becomes seriously boring IMO. As for stronger armors this is a for fun build so it's not like I will ever get it to 200, though the possibility for the future is there. Also I find for some reason a lot of negative recharge mods on armors, is this a bug or an EP thing? Things like -.03% recharge penalty, and it does reduce them. I have several decent armor pieces on atm that while well below my level they still work fairly well, and with shields up I'm hardly ever hit(I run around like a chicken with my head cut off, most of the time laughing all the while), when I am hit though I potion spam like a fiend. Though to be truthful not everyone has about 12,000 light hp potions sitting needlessly in their hero chests...

[gogoblender 3,070]

Andrew, how did this build go? I can read a lot of confidence in what it can do. Did you finally get it up in levels? I ask because we're beginning to reference builds into the wiki.

 

 

 

gogo