Podgie the Bearbarian

[podgie_bear 185]

PODGIE the BEARBARIAN - The Invisible Mass Killer

 

After reading a request with a new Shadow Warrior build, I decided to resurrect my original Shadow Warrior build and post it to see what you all might think of it. I previously took this build to level 122, and only lost it there because I accidently deleted the save file (it’s a long story). I ask you all to bear in mind that it was my very first attempt at a build, as up to this character I had only ever played other peoples’ posted builds. I have since been concentrating on Inquisitor and High Elf builds, but will always remember this build with great fondness.

 

What I wanted to achieve was a sneaky, deadly killer that placed himself in as little personal danger as possible. For those of you old enough to remember E.E.Doc Smith’s Lensman series (and if you aren’t you have missed a great series) may recall Nadreck of Palain VII, who insisted on placing himself in no personal danger whatsoever, yet performed incredible feats of mass destruction in his own sneaky, underhanded way and felt ashamed of the fact that he had once, due to poor planning, been forced to act ‘bravely’ (shudder). That is what I decided that I wanted to build, another Nadreck! But how to go about it?

 

After looking at the skills and CAs available to all the characters, there was only one possible choice, the Shadow Warrior. No-one else was remotely capable of permanent invisibility and by concentrating on the Skeleton Fortification CA as my main attack, I could cast it while remaining invisible and walk away to watch the mayhem from a safe distance without anyone knowing that I was there. Perfect! Since I intend to stay permanently invisible I decided that the best attribute to pump is Stamina. It helps lower regen times and that will allow me to cast my Skeleton Fortress more often, right so on to picking some skills. I only need 2 skills, Astral Lore and Focus, everything else is optional and I can pick any skills to fill the other slots. Oh boy, this is going to be so easy to build.

 

SKILLS;

2) Astral Lord Lore ………….….To pump damage from Skeleton Fortification

3) Astral Lord Focus……….……To lower regen times for Skeleton Fortification

(after picking these two skills, all the rest are optional)

5) Concentration………………...To lower regen times for Skeleton Fortification even more

8) Blacksmith…………………....…Just to play with socketing and see what I can achieve

12) Enhanced Perception…....Might as well try to improve my drops

18) Ancient Magic……………...…To pump damage from Skeleton Fortification even more

25) Riding……………………......….To see what mastery will do for riding my unique mount

35) Divine Devotion…………....I hear mastery is bugged with this, let’s try and find out

50) Armour Lore……………..……I have to pick something, so this will do

65) Spell Resistance…………...I suppose that this will do as well

 

CAs;

Shadow Veil

Bronze..........Creep.............We want to be as hard as possible to find

Silver.............Fade..............We want to be as hard as possible to find

Gold..............Sinister Pact...We want to be permanently invisible

 

Skeleton Fortification

Bronze..........Focus..............Personal choice, but I prefer a quicker regen to have more towers shooting at the same time

Silver............Ice Shards......Once again it is personal choice, either works well

Gold..............Scatter Shot...The obvious choice since enemies rarely stand in a line ready for shooting

 

Spectral Hand / Rallied Souls / Nether Allegiance

 

Mod these however you like, they are only included as somewhere to put the extra modding points generated by increasing the Astral Lord skills

 

ARMOUR;

Wear whatever you like, it won’t make any difference, because if they can’t see you they are not going to try to hit you!

 

SHIELD;

See armour.

 

WEAPON;

Who cares, you aren’t going to need to use it? So pick whatever you fancy.

 

PLAY STYLE;

Stay permanently invisible (unless you want to appear briefly to gather a mob perhaps) and cast Skeleton Fortress near whatever you want to kill. Mobs, Bosses, Dragons, it is all the same, they are helpless against you. So go forth and commit genocide in the name of the Podgie Bear!

 

Below is a picture taken at Sloeford now that I am ready to begin my campaign of mass destruction. I wandered around doing quests and grinding to collect enough runes to trade and swapped them for 13 Shadow Veil and 1 Skeleton Fortification Runes which I ‘ate’. My Shadow Veil chance to remain invisible is at 75% and I will keep swapping runes to develop this to 100%, then I will concentrate on my Skeleton Fortification.

 

 

You will notice that I have no health potions in my inventory despite playing HC. I have previously taken this build to level 122 and once I started using invisibility and Skeleton Fortification, I never used another potion again, except for Mentors that is and that is purely to increase xp.

 

After some seriously concentrated gaming, my character is now at level 65 and has not used any health pots or even been hit (except when I de-cloaked to gather some mobs) since level 17. I have snapped another picture for you all and look forward to some really serious gaming over the weekend when some mates will park their toons in my LAN server so that I can really wrack up some xp!

 

 

After a weekend of concentrated mayhem my Shadow Warrior has now reached level 151 and I can see no reason why it will have any difficulty going all the way to 200. All mobs have fallen before him, bosses are no problem and even the Nameless Guardians are helpless against him, I breezed through Platinum as easily as I had done through Bronze and even Niobium is not proving to be much of a challenge!

 

I decided to really test the build out this weekend and removed all armour and weapons, playing literally ‘naked’ to see if it would make any difference to this build’s killing ability and after hours of play, even in Niobium level, I can honestly say that it does not. This build is so awesome that the game has lost its challenge and I cannot wait to finish this experiment and start playing other characters and builds that will hopefully find it more of a struggle.

 

Anyway here is the latest picture at level 151.

 

 

I will continue to add screenshots as I progress and hope to document it all the way to level 200 and completing Niobium.

Edited August 2, 2010 by podgie_bear

[Grumpy Old Wizard 0]

Wow, Podgie, no pots and only half your armor slots filled! It looks like you've been spending your money on converting runes to the ones you want. I've never played an Astral Shadow Warrior and look forward to your accounts.

[FrostElfGuard 9]

Re: Little risk.

 

I recently lost my cloaked Shadow Warrior to the Octagolamus. He was 'bravely' striking the nasty beast in the back... while his 'trusty' skellie friends (Nether Allegiance) were bravely hacking at it's front. GandalfGreyhaim's brave attack was Spectral Hand... an attack that has 0% chance of uncloaking him... However, he decided to cast a Skeletal Fortress.

 

Zap! His NA friends were teleported to him (one on each side). Ba-da-bing the Octagolamus turned around and squirted a magic attack at the skellies... and wham! The Shadow Warrior was dead. He had had poison relics active. He hadn't expected the Octagolamus to turn around... and so he died a very quick death at character level 54 in Gold.

 

If you plan on surviving, never fight an opponent that has an Area of Effect while NA is active. Their teleport to your side will get you killed. Their presence too close to you, which occurs during rearrangement of any flying dragon attack, can also get you killed.

 

Leave the boys at home is my advice!

[Flooxim 50]

Great guide about a mass killer. I have I brought to level 37 and was using him to kill bosses back then.

 

However, I have one thing to say about your build : the weapon choice.

 

If you plan to use Skeletal Fortification as your main Combat Art, the Damage of it greatly depends on the weapon you use.

 

I took screenshots of my current Shadow Warrior using 2 different weapons.

My game is in french but you will understand the concepts and the important mods :

 

With a hammer :

 

 

And with a sword that has +%damage on it :

 

 

The sword has does less damage, but with a +%damage on it, Skeletal Fortification does more damage than with the hammer.

Hope this helps you and other people with this build.

 

 

Max

[Stormwing 40]

Nice one, Podgie. ^^

I'll this guy a go, though I'm sure to alter some skills, just to be on the safe side.

But after this and chattius' fort-build I'm really inclined to test that skill out.

[podgie_bear 185]

Thanks for the comments guys.

 

Frosty, I don't have that problem with Area of Effect damage as I have no pets or sidekicks so bosses like the Octagolamus just sit there and wander whats happening, they don't even try attacking me. Eventually this does get a bit boring, which is why I shelved this charcater for a while after level 122.

 

Metal_Max64 yes I agree, but I don't want to go down the road of "this build depends on finding the right equipment". This build works no matter what weapon you use (although certain creatures may take a few extra seconds to die), so find and slot what you want to use. For example if someone fancies roleplaying a sneaky type, walking around with a 25kg sledgehammer on your shoulder just doesn't fit the image does it? If however you socket a small dagger with +%LL for example, might you end up doing more damage than that big hammer?

 

Stormwing, that's the beauty of this character. As long as you pump the first 2 skills, stay invisible and only use Skellie Fort, or even Spectral Hand, everything else is optional. With my original build of this, once I got it working at level 14 right up to level 122 when the save was accidentally deleted, I never used any pots except Mentors and I was NEVER attacked. How much safer a character can you get?

[Stormwing 40]

Indeed. ^^

Well, start is going kinda smooth. I'll be using some skellies to boost the kill speed until I get some decent stuff to beef up the fort.

Also, there'll bound to be some accidental de-cloacks until I get it around 30'ish, or whatnot. But for starters, I really like that "I'm all invisible! Try to find me!"- feeling for a change. After making so many non-stealthly chars.

[podgie_bear 185]

Enjoy mate, but just remember what FrostElfGuard warned about. Using skellies leaves you open to Area of Effect damage that is used on them, so even though you may be invisible it could hit you!

[podgie_bear 185]

I just edited my initial post with another picture, now that I reached level 65.

Edited July 30, 2010 by podgie_bear

[darkvacancy 0]

Nice guide podgie ! I like your style of writing. I have to admit I had a grin on my face almost the entire time reading the guide xD.

I think I'm gonna give this build a try to have some versitality in my game (constantly burning my enemies to death gets boring too )

[essjayehm 58]

Liking your build, Podgie! I smiled when I read the title... Bear-bear-ian is what I originally thought, which was neat because I am building this toon for my brother, named Ian.

 

I took Combat Discipline as another way to increase the Forts' damage... but otherwise I am thinking the exact type toon as you had. I love the "I didn't do it, noone saw me, you can't prove anything" aspect 8)

 

Of course, I got a little different playstyle, using Fort-Frenzied Rampage in a combo for near-instant recharging of the combo (since the animation time of the combo is almost at the cooldown time of Skellie Fort at CA level 30-ish). I really thought out that first modification, but reducing cooldown more with runes eaten is a very, very good thing. Cooldown cannot be reduced any other way, high regen times are easily controlled with RpH.

[podgie_bear 185]

I am still learning my way around Sacred 2 and there is a lot that I don't understand yet or even know how to use yet. for instance about your comment;

"using Fort-Frenzied Rampage in a combo for near-instant recharging of the combo". I have no idea how this works, so didn't even try to figure combos into the build.

[darkvacancy 0]

Hey podgie, I started a shadow warrior following this build

I have a few questions though.

 

1) what is your level in shadow veil and what is your chance of not being detected while casting spells?

2) what is your level in skeletal fortification and what is your regen time ?

 

Cheers,

Tim

[podgie_bear 185]

Hi Tim, at level 75 my Shadow Veil is level 35 (eaten 26 runes) and has been 100% detection free since about level 26 (I over pumped all 26 runes early, or I would not have bother using them all once I reached 100% ). My Skellie Fort is level 36 with a regen of 9.9 secs, which is handy for bosses and mobs as after the first 10 secs of combat I am pounding them with 2 skellie forts at the same time. With the duration at 20 secs, as one expires, the regen is ready to cast the next one. I could have the regen lower, but it is a balancing act between lowering the regen and pumping up the damage output.

Edited July 31, 2010 by podgie_bear

[darkvacancy 0]

Yeah I think shadow veil gets 100% at level 24/25/26. Did you level up astral lord focus up until "highest spell level without penalty" was 24/25/26 ? or did you just ate your way to 24/25/26 before that and "spilled" some runes ?

[podgie_bear 185]

Ate the runes as son as I could, about level 18-19 I think, because It did improve my detection% and I wanted to get it as close to 100% as I could to cut my vulnerability as much as possible. Obviously I kept Astal Lord Focus & Lore at max possible to help matters.

Edited October 15, 2010 by podgie_bear

[podgie_bear 185]

After a weekend of concentrated gaming, I have pushed the build all the way to level 151 in Niobium and have updated the intial post with the latest picture. Now I am off to sleep for a week (I think I need it after that marathon session ) and will then start the home straight to level 200.

 

I think I am getting too old for this. I'm starting to feel the need for sleep every day or two!

Edited August 2, 2010 by podgie_bear

[darkvacancy 0]

Nice your lvling fast, I find this build to be a slow starter (I'm level 14 with 7hrs playtime) or it could just be me

And level 94 skelly fort regen still +- 10 sec ?

 

Cheers,

Tim

[podgie_bear 185]

Skellie Fort regen is 9.8secs (on unique mount) 11.2secs (on foot). It is a bit of a slow starter until you get Shadow Veil to about 75% then you can really hit the mob for xp. Mine is now at 140 hours of concentrated play, more than I have ever put in on any other character.

 

Best of luck with yours mate and enjoy.

[chattius 2,698]

My visible SkelliFort build is at level 168, CA level 122, 4.6s cooldown, 3.2 seconds regeneration time, RpH at 3.5 seconds. I can have 3 towers up permantly and 4 for half the time. Damage is at 22000 per shot.

Character is played for 3 month now. I use my skeletons and undead minions to swarm out and attract far away enemies to run into firing range of my towers.

 

 

Lensmen

I read the lensmen series about 2 decades ago, when having readiness alert at army and you couldn't do much while being forced to sit for 4 hours in your vehicle. I liked the first 5 ones best.

Now my daughters choose the books for me: The town of my parents hold europes biggest library for scifi and fantasy, more than 120000 books. They use return with 20 books when visiting my parents and bring them back 4 weeks later. So the last Fantasy stuff I read was Nix.

 

My favourite space opera of all times: Perry Rhodan

I am too lazy to visit the libray myself, and so I am now 100+ booklets behind reading the epic Perry Rhodan series. I stopped reading the Thoregon cycle which was booklet 1800-2199.

[dreeft 9]

Wow, impressive leveling Podgie. What were you doing to level so quick? Any areas/bosses in particular?

[podgie_bear 185]

Wow, impressive leveling Podgie. What were you doing to level so quick? Any areas/bosses in particular?

 

Multiplayer free play on my LAN network. A few mates kindly came and parked their toons on the network so that I could benefit from the higher xp generated. I concentrated on the Wastelands, running from the port to the complex, then logged out, logged back in and ran it again. (I have done it so many times , I even dream about which bumps are the best to site my towers on for the best range/coverage!)

 

My visible SkelliFort build is at level 168, CA level 122, 4.6s cooldown, 3.2 seconds regeneration time, RpH at 3.5 seconds. I can have 3 towers up permantly and 4 for half the time. Damage is at 22000 per shot.

Character is played for 3 month now. I use my skeletons and undead minions to swarm out and attract far away enemies to run into firing range of my towers.

 

 

Lensmen

I read the lensmen series about 2 decades ago, when having readiness alert at army and you couldn't do much while being forced to sit for 4 hours in your vehicle. I liked the first 5 ones best.

Now my daughters choose the books for me: The town of my parents hold europes biggest library for scifi and fantasy, more than 120000 books. They use return with 20 books when visiting my parents and bring them back 4 weeks later. So the last Fantasy stuff I read was Nix.

 

My favourite space opera of all times: Perry Rhodan

I am too lazy to visit the libray myself, and so I am now 100+ booklets behind reading the epic Perry Rhodan series. I stopped reading the Thoregon cycle which was booklet 1800-2199.

 

You are very lucky! My local library thinks that scifi and fantasy means 'Star Trek', classical scifi and fantasy means 'Star Wars' and since the genre only appeals to 'sad and lonely wierdos' they don't bother to stock more than a shelf or two. If you know exactly what you want, they will make an effort and see if they can order it from elsewhere (very doubltful!). If you want to read it, you have to buy it and build up your own library as I have started to do.

Edited August 2, 2010 by podgie_bear

[darkvacancy 0]

Skellie Fort regen is 9.8secs (on unique mount) 11.2secs (on foot).

 

Your regen is lower when mounted ? Is this because of your riding skill ?

 

For me the slow start is definitely over now I'm level 18 with 76% on shadow veil. Love this build

[podgie_bear 185]

It nay be my riding skill which makes the difference, the skill says;

 

Maximum Combat Arts +226%

Maximum Horse Level +192

Increased Mount Run Speed +15%

 

But I remember that when I bought my unique mount, I chose the mount trained for Astral Lord because although it said +30%(ish) to all CA regen, it also said -50%(ish) to Astral Lord. So perhaps that might be what is making the difference.

 

I'm glad that you have got to the interesting part of the build now, from now on it gets to be really fun. Especially walking up to dragons unveiled, then cast Shadow Veil and kick the poo out of them while they hunt around unable to see you!

Edited August 3, 2010 by podgie_bear

[Arperum 5]

That -50% is -50% and not some lower number because of riding

Just like that 30% is only 30% because of Riding.