Some quick questions regarding combat arts, runes and levels.

[ChaosPriest 0]

first off...

 

combat arts

 

so each rune you read gets you either a new art or an extra level in one you already know.

a higher level combat art has better effects but regenerates at a slower pace.

so the question...

 

Is there some sort of golden rule to follow when it comes to leveling runes? also how do bonuses on combat arts work (like when you slot a rune) you get the level 2 Combat Art but how does it influence the regen time?

 

second

 

difficulty level

 

there's bronze and silver available...right from the start. now..I've read in various guides that people start of for a few levels in bronze and then switch to silver before even reaching the second town.

 

Why should one go to silver early? Why not simply start at silver. Is there a recommended level.

Since I'm planning on getting sacred 2 as well I'd like to hear the answer for both games.

 

third

 

combos

 

Could someone gimme a quick overview on how this works..couse I don't get it...I know how to make em but..what are the benefits of making combos...I've seen characterbuilds that make use of a single combat art combo how is that better than simply using the art itself?

 

fourth are there certain things I should be aware of as a new player, ideas, things that newbies get problems with etc.

 

any help'd be welcome

 

The Giant

[Barristan 14]

Heya!

 

I can only really help you with answers regarding Sacred 2. Some of that is largely the same for S1, but I'll leave that up to the experts.

 

Rune reading

It used to be good to keep regen down alot. After getting a desired regen time, you could start increasing the Combat Art. (desired being, excecution time exceeds casting time in most cases) With the latest patch, RpH (Regen per Hit) was introduced/fixed. Now, you can read up to 200 runes easily, as long as you have enough RpH.

 

Silver/Bronze

Start in Silver... I dont set foot in Softcore ehrm... bronze I mean

 

Combos

Main reason is increased damage and reduced regen through combat discipline.

 

Fourth, when you buy Sacred 2, be sure to play HC EU lobby, cuz that is where we be!

 

Hope this helps

 

Greetz

Edited January 15, 2010 by Barristan

[gial 2]

Runes: As you say, regeneration slows. For most attacks, I usually read just one, and boost CA levels with equipment and/or socketing. For CAs with duration -- say Multiple Shot for the wood elf, keep the regeneration time smaller than the effective time, whenever possible.

 

Bronze v Silver: I always start in Silver. But it is somewhat more difficult. If you find you continue to die regularly, consider bronze until you get a better feel for your character.

 

Combos: I almost always play a wood elf using explosive arrow. Once I've progressed far enough (say around level 60 or so), I create a "combo suit" that maximizes the level of my EA. I then create 2 combos - 1x EA and 4x EA. The level of the CA remains in the combo even after I remove the suit -- these combos are on a different timer than my regular CA, so allow extra attack capability against large bosses and dragons, for example. But with extremely long regen times, they are not for frequent use. Yellow potions of concentration regenerate combos virtually instantaneously, for those that wish to use them as their primary attack.

 

Ideas/concepts: You could peruse the guides at the sacred wiki to get some ideas. Play around, experiment. Do what is fun. The last is the key -- FUN.

 

Sorry I did not see this sooner.

[podgie_bear 184]

It also helps once you work out which Combat Arts work most efficiently for which characters. For example, if a Dwarf uses the Assault CA he not only strikes multple times, but the enemy is stunned and unable to attack while it is being hit. If you are using Unarmed combat, this results in 8 rapid hits without being struck in return, so if you keep using this attack you can beat a larger monster to death without being hit back (provided that your regeneration time is less than the actual use time of the CA).

For the Wood Elf, 'spamming' Thornbush is an killer CA. Not only does it do damage on contact, it keeps stacking poison damage and if the thornbush is hit by a missile it explodes and does extra damage (great for those archers that hang back to shoot at you).

 

Whatever you choose to do, it is often better to do several 'smaller' hits quickly than one or two 'big' hits slowly. You can die while waiting for that super powerful attack to regenerate!

[Rotluchs 82]

unfortunately I was still @ work earlier, so couldnt take the time for a short brain-storming:

 

concentrating on S1UW 2.28:

 

1. Combat Arts/Runes:
   
   • reading a rune - increases it's level by 1 - boosting it's effects - but also increases its regen-time
     
   • socketing/forging the same rune - grants you a the special effect shown when hovering over a rune in your inv - increases CA level by 1 - boosting it's effects the same way than reading
      
     BUT: socketing increases regen-penalty only half of the amount (50%) of what reading in the same rune would do..
      
     example, lets say:
     1x Attack rune read in - penalty for lvlup +1second (before 2seconds - 3 seconds regen after)
     1x Attack rune socketed - penalty for lvlup +0,5second (before 2seconds - 2,5sec regen after)
      
     ALSO: if you read in too many runes, there's a threshold drastically limiting the amount of runes you'll find in combat!
     you almost wont find any runes anymore, until your charlvl is inreased high enough again to let your CA level fall back below the threshold
      
     that limit is only bound to hard-CA lvls,
     meaning the number of runes read in per CA
      
     (somewhere near half your charlvl the rate of found runes starts decreasing noticeable iirc..
     and if it is equal to or even significantly higher than charlvl, its no good for farming further runes> almost no runes at all anymore,
     so save unused ones for later and stash them in your chest)
     
   • my personal strategy:
     
     • never reading in more runes than half the character's level for a CA I frequently use for my main attacks most of the times.. sometimes I even stick with level 1 and leave it there
       
     • I prefer to increase a Combat Arts level by socketing yewellry boosting that corresponding CA, as it will half the regen-penalty -often on unique yewellry, set-items and bargained amulets@traders
       
     • I like to massively boost buffs using runes, those are the one Combat Arts any spare runes go in first if I have too many, and if it won't increase regen too much.
       
     • you can time it pretty well for some of them that have nearly unlimited increase for their duration on lvlup, so with the corresponding skills that lower regen times, you can always keep regen under duration pretty soon (look out for - xx % CA regen time item modifiers as well.. the blue one)
       

 

[*]Difficulty Levels:

 

unlike Sacred 2, in S1 difficulties are strictly bound to a predetermined level range for most MP modes..

in SP/campaign mode, you can unlock difficulties by playing-thru 'til the end of campaign..

general level caps - iirc:

• bronze: 1-60
  
• silver: 1-100
  
• gold: 60-140
  
• platin: 100-180(some patch-versions to max level)
  
• niob: 140-216(max)
  

 

personally I start each difficulty as soon as possible, and if I have some gear from previous chars to to pass on to new ones, I directly start in silver @ level 1

(more experience - better stats on gear you'll find - better challenge - not so boring -faster)

 

characers+build I know already, I also start on silver..

for experimental fun-builds, or for certain other reasons to test stuff, sometimes I stay in bronze a few lvls, like until level 20

 

just change to next higher difficulty whenever you feel fit for it (as monsters will be tougher/higher in level each time you change)

 

bronze might be interesting in MP if you start your very first char there directly and you havent played much already or know the game from SP..

however even in closed hc there were always nice people willing to share goodies with lower people.. set-items + gold were of some sort of inflationary character,

 

people who had advanced to higher difficulties often dumped their lower 'trash' on the starting isle,

these overwhelming and cluttering spamming of 'item-drops' was legendary in the old days

I myself spent the most of the time in niob, as in the final days I had more than 15 level 216 chars on different accounts..

did extensive shopping+MF runs with my dwarfs or vampires, once inv was full I always jumped to a lower difficulty server where more people were, and caused some serious mess on the isle.. so did many others.

 

NOTE: if you're too high for a certain region/difficulty, you'll start seeing a lot of 'grey' monsters instead yellow/orange ones = too easy, and they wont drop all the quality gear anymore (at least unlikely)

 

 

[*]Combos:

 

there are (almost) no ways of lowering the Combo regentime other than the built in rules according to invisible game-mechanics, and recharge-times usually are incredibly high..

 

to balance this and make any use of it anyway, they have some advantages:

 

• you can 'freeze' any combat-art's level:
   
  just equip gear with tons of +CA modifiers on it - dump that level in a Combo-
  equip your normal gear again for use @ combat or traders for instance - and voila: the Combat Arts lvls of your Combo will stay @ the level it had when you created it
  
  • =>(useful for boss-fighting, speed-leveling, power-play etc)
    

  [*]Combos are executed very 'fast' / immediately

   

  ..meaning no timeout/regen times inbetween each single CA packed into that Combo

  however, execution speed will be fixed to 'default' speed, iirc..*

  (*there was something about execution speed+time out of single Combat Arts compared to Combos, dont remember what exactly it was and if it was SUW or Sacred 2)

   

  • => ideal for starting a boss-fight, quickly jump into aggro range, launch a series of deadly Combat Arts, and run out of their sight again/pary...
    
  • => for quickly helping out your fellow team-members that got into trouble
    
  • => for building a vampiress able to stay in vamp-form permanently
    
  • => for casting all your buffs at once almost simultaneosly, saving up Combat Art - Slots (in UW however u can also use the function keys to quickly toggle between skills in addittion to normal CA-Slot hotkeys)
    

   

  Make sure to carry enough regen potions in your inv, for an immediate&fully recharge of all Combos !

 

I for one never made extensive use of Combos at all ,

 

• except for perma-vamps (always in V-Form.. V-Form transformation in a combo is unique, combo recharge-time stays lower than its orginial regen. no pots needed)
  
• speed-leveling (maxing Combat Arts @ level 1-60.. reading in hundreds of collected runes in one big flash.. Combos used, until regen drops below cooldown of buffs again)
  
• and fighting end-game/region-bosses/dragons at a very low clvl
  
• or On-Hit Kill/Max Dmg contest experiments (over entire clvl range 1-200)
  

for general every-day gameplay, I found using Combos unecessary and too circuitous, you can survive and kill easily even without them..

also having to carry around many inventory-blocking regen-pots sucks, imho. space for loot is limited already.

 

 

I'm a bit over-worked right now, also have quite a headache and feel a bit nauseous..

 

will take a nap and maybe I remember more when I'm back.

 

 

for example, there are quite some interesting and detailed rune farming/socketing guides around somewhere,

make sure you read them all, they cover most of your questions as well.

Edited June 30, 2010 by Rotluchs

[Warfran 0]

Just a quick thanks for the tips here Rotluchs!

 

Just picked this game (Sacred 1 Gold) up on Steam and having a blast with it and getting the basics down can always be a bit of a learning curve, so this helps.

 

Also want to say that this whole site (DarkMatters) is very very helpful.

 

Thanks again.

Edited August 8, 2010 by Warfran

[rnarchlord 0]

Another good site for tons of info on Sacred 1, Underworld and Gold included, is Wolfe's Lair. http://pctalk.info/Games/Sacred2/Wolfes.Lair/