Ice and Blood Review - After 30 hours of play...

[Dobri 55]

Well, my friend who set me up with the basic S2FA (before I bought it with gogo's help) came through for me again and lent me his pre-ordered copy of Ice and Blood to test it out before I decide whether to buy it or not. So far I can only play LAN and SP, as he is using his cd-key online, but that is good enough for me at this point.

 

Of course, I wanted to try out the Dragon Mage right away. So I made one and set out to read carefully through his skills, abilities, etc. I must admit I was wrong with my original assumption. The DM can be played like the pure caster Inquisitor, as his combat arts from the 3 aspects are easily interchangeable. Still, I'm a fan of the caster chars, so I decided to make a build that will help me try out various options before I decide on an aspect.

 

Familiar and Runes of Protection looked like the obvious buffs for this build, but I was really in the mood to make a 3-buff build, and besides, taking on the focus of the 3 aspects early on would give me an option to try out all 3 trees, which is great for a test char - especially because you will know what to expect on your second playthrough.

What hit me straight away was that all of the trees didn't provide sufficient damage variations. Dragon magic has physical and fire damage Combat Arts. Elemental Magic has Physical damage Combat Arts, but Gust of Wind (GoW, loved it in S1, so I was pre-disposed to this spell) can be modded for poisoning, thus you get physical and poison damage in this aspect. The Mentalism aspect provides physical and magic damage Combat Arts. However, I decided that since there are physical damage Combat Arts, they should work with deathblow. That assumption was completely wrong. Elemental and Mentalism aspects do not work with deathblow. GoW with 60% deathblow was inflicting 102 damage all the time, unless I had a crit. Mind strike was inflicting 500 damage all the time as well, just like Tornado and Energy Blaze. The Dragon Magic aspect was a different story. The transformations use direct attack and that made the difference. In both dragon forms I did see a doubling of the damage with regular attacks (130 max damage went to 336 as some points, through crits I suppose).

 

The dragon mage has some pretty decent combat arts. Energy blaze is something like targeted Flaring nova with DoT like Blazing Tempest and it can cover (almost) the entire screen (just like flaring nova) with the proper mods. Gust of Wind can inflict some considerable damage if targeted properly and it also provides a knockback effect, so the enemies won't be able to get up close and personal. The Familiar is a wicked buff, as it provides everything a caster needs - Intelligence (it's like having Acute Mind all the time), Hit points and Willpower (so no spell resistance skill necessary), and it also stays away from the fight and does not get targeted by the enemies. Runes of protection provide armor, block chance: Combat Arts, missiles (mod), spells (mod), as well as stun effect (based on % chance, can be improved with a mod) whenever some enemy hits the Dragon Mage. Top that with the ability to take the Toughness skill, and this makes your DM very, very hard to kill. The damage mitigation trick is here to stay (in addition to that, I saw items with damage mitigation very early on in the game - armors, shoulders, etc.) and the DM can utilize it fully, and even combine it with some innate abilities.

 

The next thing I really liked is the Expert touch modification when starting a char. It is perfect for people who like to play with a single aspect, as it improves the regen times by drawing energy from the other aspects. So Pyromancer HE will love that, as well as some other classes. The mechanics of that expert touch are a bit unclear to me, but I will do some testing.

 

On a side note, this is my build - it's a test build, based on trying to get as much info on the char in only 1 playthrough:

Concentration

Armor Lore

Mentalism focus

Dragon focus

Elemental focus

Ancient magic

Combat Discipline

Constitution

Toughness

1 free skill to try out the 3 lore skills (since I'm in SP/LAN I can backup a save)

(edit - now at level 78 with this build, so I do have some grounds for testing)

 

I'll check out all of them and see where the game goes. There are many uncertainties - can the dragon transform skills become chain castable? Can Gust of Wind become all-powerful? Is the Protector Buff worth it (the protector casts damage reduction on the caster with a proper mod, which is great, but...)? Can Energy blaze match blazing tempest in utility and damage? I must admit that Energy Blaze is wonderful and can easily take out a serious bunch of enemies in record time (pretty much like Blazing tempest with 360 degree spread).

 

So, in my eyes:

 

Pros:

- interesting char, the dragon incarnate

- ability to mix up the aspects without much trouble (no poor aspect)

- can become extremely tough through damage mitigation

- most of the sets provide + all skills as a first trait (right now I use 3+4 set items from toriks's and pyx's set and both of those provide a nice bonus to all skills)

- has much more defensive skills than most of the pure casters, making him hard-to-kill caster even if he gets swarmed

- energy blaze allows for mass killing

- ancient magic and combat discipline augment any aspect

- 2 very interesting areas - very diverse and filled with new monsters and bosses

- the gameplay is very interesting

 

Cons:

- single aspects provide few diverse damage Combat Arts (phys + fire, phys + poison, phys + magic)

- most of the Combat Arts inflict physical damage, and pretty much every every enemy has a certain physical resistance, which scales with difficulty

- somewhat difficult to balance

- deathblow will not work with the caster aspects (although this con is for every class that utilizes spells)

 

Well, that's it in my eyes.

Edited November 7, 2009 by Dobri

[Chareos Rantras 0]

Nice guide,

may I ask to what level did you brought your test char?

Did you have a chance to test the improved challenging difficulty ?

 

 

Still waiting for my copy here, can't wait till it comes in the stores

 

 

cheers!

Chareos Rantras

[Dobri 55]

Well, he's 78 in a LAN game, as this is the only place I can have free play now - until I make some money and get the game for myself

 

However, gogo is impatient, so I've decided to make some screens of the set items and other stuff I find. Here's the Pyx's full set. The items are somewhat low level, but those are the only ones that I have right now.

 

 

and this

 

 

In-depth:

 

7 or 8 items: Chance to open wounds

6 items: Regen time: Dragon Magic -%

5 items: +Aspect: Dragon magic

3,4 items: + all skills

 

When I manage to complete another full set with my 3 running Dragon mages in the LAN games, I'll add more. I miss only a few items from some of them, so I may have new images soon.

[Chareos Rantras 0]

Nice!

 

Hopefully they'll add it to the Wiki.

Good luck on your scavanger hunt!

 

 

 

cheers!

Chareos Rantras

[gogoblender 3,070]

I was hoping for a nice meaty review like this for a while now. Course, Dobri you stepped up to plate and smacked that ball nicely. Great descriptions of the Combat Arts and I like the way you have summarized and compared the aspects for use.

 

Need I say... great read?

 

And... thank you thank you thank for the set bonuses for Pyx's Power. Wraithking was great enough to have set us up with some armor pix and now your addition of the set bonuses adds great detail.

 

Added here in Sacred Wiki:

 

http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php5/Sacred_2:Pyx%27s_Power

 

Rough for now, but we'll pretty it up later.

 

What from here? We say, clamor and cheer for...

 

more more more!

 

 

gogo

[Dobri 55]

Take it easy, gogo, I'll see if I can get you more by any means necessary

[jimhsu 2]

Just put in the two other "important sets" in the wiki. Enjoy.

 

What is notable is that all the "large sets" for DM have +All Skills as a first bonus. No other character has this. This probably has something to do with the giant +All Skills nerf.

 

Now I'll have to see if I can get the other stuff to drop.

 

I was hoping for a nice meaty review like this for a while now. Course, Dobri you stepped up to plate and smacked that ball nicely. Great descriptions of the Combat Arts and I like the way you have summarized and compared the aspects for use.

 

Need I say... great read?

 

And... thank you thank you thank for the set bonuses for Pyx's Power. Wraithking was great enough to have set us up with some armor pix and now your addition of the set bonuses adds great detail.

 

Added here in Sacred Wiki:

 

http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php5/Sacred_2:Pyx%27s_Power

 

Rough for now, but we'll pretty it up later.

 

What from here? We say, clamor and cheer for...

 

more more more!

 

 

gogo

Edited November 8, 2009 by jimhsu

[jimhsu 2]

Also, was Toughness changed at all? Currently with level 131 toughness, I show damage reduction of -20.0%, while the table here claims that it is -15.0%.

[Chareos Rantras 0]

Just put in the two other "important sets" in the wiki. Enjoy.

 

What is notable is that all the "large sets" for DM have +All Skills as a first bonus. No other character has this. This probably has something to do with the giant +All Skills nerf.

 

Now I'll have to see if I can get the other stuff to drop.

 

Nice! Welcome to the forum mate!

 

 

Good luck finding more goodies!

 

 

cheers!

Chareos Rantras

[Spyrus 0]

Today I will do my test with Ice & Blood before buying it.

But, I expected you Dobri to say about the game-play overall (only mentioned 'Expert touch modification'),

so until then, I am expecting to play the Dragon Mage for one-two weeks and that's it?

 

Is there better items for looting?

Are the new areas interesting?

[Dobri 55]

Better items... I wouldn't say so. The items have undergone a certain balance, got new textures, and there are new item traits. The gameplay is pretty much the same as it is in S2FA - you level up, you gain levels, and the enemies are tougher to kill and attack faster. The new areas have new enemies, new textures - it is a matter of personal preference how people will perceive it. I wonder which is better - the reddish autumn-like design, or the old S2FA design. The skin coloring is moot...unless you want to do a green orc-like Shadow Warrior I guess. The new hairstyles are somewhat better.

 

Generally, it's still the good old Sacred 2 with some new content - pretty much like any expansion.

 

If I have to be completely objective, it's the same old Sacred 2 with a new character class and more content.

Edited November 9, 2009 by Dobri

[Spunky 16]

Just be careful when going to Crystal Region, it's a nasty one hit bug in that area that have been reported by a couple of people including myself.

[locolagarto 15]

Now that we need to be more concerned about Detrimental effects, is Spell Resistance looking like a more desirable skill? Does willpower help with DE?

[Bixel 0]

I'm bulgarian too dude xD

 

nice thoughs didn't read 'em all tho I don't wanna fully spoil my playthrough :>

[Dobri 55]

Well, good luck on that