Need help deciding skills, and whether it's niob viable

[Frostball 0]

For a while now I've been directed here to darkmatters by google after typing in lots of sacred 2 questions. So finally I decided to register and so here I am. I have a seraphim, level 39 in silver, and I'm having trouble picking my last two skills. I've gotten a few characters as far as platinum, so I kinda know what I'm doing, but I've never seen niob, so I'm really not sure what works at that level and what doesn't. Anyway, here's my skill list so far.

 

Sword Weapons 39

Exalted Warrior Focus 8

Shield Lore 5

Tactics Lore 39

Armor Lore 5

Constitution 18

Enhanced Perception 5

Toughness 5

Empty

Empty

 

So basically I've got a very melee focused sword and shield build. I'm using only exalted warrior aspect, and basically only use PeltIng Strikes, Battle Stance, and Dashing Alacrity. For the most part I'm relying on tactics lore and sword weapons to kill things. I plan on having those two and constitution at 75 first. That's pretty much all I have planned. I'm not sure what my last two skills should be. part of me just wants combat reflexes, speed lore, or combat discipline. but I've also been entertaining the idea of getting warding energy lore and concentration, but would that be effective without revered technology focus? Another idea was just going for celestial magic focus and lore so I can use Hallowed Restoration which I've heard good things about. Finally, I was wondering if sword weapons + tactics lore is enough to kill things in niob with a one-handed weapon. Will it be much slower than dual wielding, or is it viable? Thanks for any help on these questions!

[chattius 2,538]

Damage x-x rings get better in comparation the higher level you are. Just put two +40-40 damage rings in two shield slots and the gap between a one and a twohanded is nearly closed. Add the way better defense (block chance) for the shield build.

[lujate 578]

What can I say, in the English language all roads Sacred lead to DarkMatters.

 

On the consoles, Divine Protection is so OP as to render Warding Energy unnecessary. With Rev Tech Focus and the right mods, Divine Protection becomes chain-castable and virtually impenetrable. That would give you an energy shield and leave one skill free.

[essjayehm 58]

Welcome to our little community, Frostball!

 

The first and foremost thing I have to say is that the most-often repeated "rookie mistake" in this game is underestimating the power of your combat arts. Tactics Lore multiplies base damage, which is where your Combat Arts comes in - a high-level combat art with good damage multipliers is the recommended route for you. Weapon skills (or hafted, etc) do not do any damage by themselves, just allow you to use higher-level weapons without penalty (I suppose indirectly boosting your damage, if you are always using higher-level weapons), and increases your chance to hit (marginally).

 

So, my main point of advice is to abandon sword weapon skill pumping, and move to Exalted Warrior Focus. Higher focus = less regen time, which in turn, allows use of higher-level Combat Arts... and this is the backbone of all toons. It doesn't matter what gear you have at all, without decent levels in your Combat Arts, not very many toons will survive in Niob.

 

You have all the best skills already for a melee toon, so I don't have any suggestion how you want to finish your toon. For the OP Divine Protection, Revered Technology Focus and warding energy lore... Bargaining is the most powerful skill in the game (but it eats a lot of points to be relevant, for a different build IMO)... for the OP healing of Hallowed Restoration, it requires Celestial Magic Focus AND the Celestial Magic Lore skill, and they need decent levels... so that is something for a caster-type, or true hybrid (whereas you are a melee toon). Stay away from Combat Reflexes, Speed Lore and Combat Disclipline, as they are very sub-optimal skills for you.

[Frostball 0]

Welcome to our little community, Frostball!

 

The first and foremost thing I have to say is that the most-often repeated "rookie mistake" in this game is underestimating the power of your combat arts. Tactics Lore multiplies base damage, which is where your Combat Arts comes in - a high-level combat art with good damage multipliers is the recommended route for you. Weapon skills (or hafted, etc) do not do any damage by themselves, just allow you to use higher-level weapons without penalty (I suppose indirectly boosting your damage, if you are always using higher-level weapons), and increases your chance to hit (marginally).

 

So, my main point of advice is to abandon sword weapon skill pumping, and move to Exalted Warrior Focus. Higher focus = less regen time, which in turn, allows use of higher-level Combat Arts... and this is the backbone of all toons. It doesn't matter what gear you have at all, without decent levels in your Combat Arts, not very many toons will survive in Niob.

 

You have all the best skills already for a melee toon, so I don't have any suggestion how you want to finish your toon. For the OP Divine Protection, Revered Technology Focus and warding energy lore... Bargaining is the most powerful skill in the game (but it eats a lot of points to be relevant, for a different build IMO)... for the OP healing of Hallowed Restoration, it requires Celestial Magic Focus AND the Celestial Magic Lore skill, and they need decent levels... so that is something for a caster-type, or true hybrid (whereas you are a melee toon). Stay away from Combat Reflexes, Speed Lore and Combat Disclipline, as they are very sub-optimal skills for you.

I realize that it will be necessary to rely on combat arts at higher levels, but I was thinking I'd be fine until level 75, and I still think so. I was thinking of going even longer before getting Exalted Warrior Focus by going for shield lore next, but you've done well at convincing me that Exalted Warrior Focus should be my 4th skill to 75. Sword Weapons may not increase my damage directly, but I enjoy the attack speed, and I'm also eager to witness the effects of the chance for double hits. I'm loathe to take bargaining as I don't want to spend hours teleporting from city to city checking out items. That seems just awful to me. Do you really think it's too late to take Celestial Magic Focus and Lore? Would that end up working? If divine protection is so good, is revered technology focus and lore a better way to go? Since I only have two slots left, I can't have the lore, focus AND warding energy, is that route not so good? Thanks everybody for your help!

[lujate 578]

Maybe someone can confirm this, but I believe the chance for double hits only applies to regular attacks, not Combat Arts. Assuming that is true, IMHO Pelting Strikes (PS) and RpH are just too good to even bother with regular attacks.

 

For Divine Protection (DP), Rev Tech Focus (RTF) is a must. I thought it worked fine without Warding Energy Lore (WEL). If you want to use both skills for your energy shield, go RTF and WEL.

 

Regarding Celestial, I guess my first question would be what are you wanting to accomplish with it? On the consoles, the only CA that I really liked was Hallowed Restoration (HR), which can give healing over time. A HR/PS combo does wonders for survivability.

[Frostball 0]

Maybe someone can confirm this, but I believe the chance for double hits only applies to regular attacks, not Combat Arts. Assuming that is true, IMHO Pelting Strikes (PS) and RpH are just too good to even bother with regular attacks.

 

For Divine Protection (DP), Rev Tech Focus (RTF) is a must. I thought it worked fine without Warding Energy Lore (WEL). If you want to use both skills for your energy shield, go RTF and WEL.

 

Regarding Celestial, I guess my first question would be what are you wanting to accomplish with it? On the consoles, the only CA that I really liked was Hallowed Restoration (HR), which can give healing over time. A HR/PS combo does wonders for survivability.

I just realized I forgot the fact that I don't have concentration. So if I was going to use the shield I'd need concentration, right? That would leave only one left for RTF or WEL. Seems like it's too late for that option possibly. Hmm I just don't know.

[lujate 578]

Warding Energy is a buff, so you would need Concentration for that. Divine Protection is not a buff, so you would not need Concentration. At first, the duration of DP will be less than the cooldown, but you get to the point where the duration far exceeds the cooldown.

[essjayehm 58]

I realize that it will be necessary to rely on combat arts at higher levels, but I was thinking I'd be fine until level 75, and I still think so. I was thinking of going even longer before getting Exalted Warrior Focus by going for shield lore next, but you've done well at convincing me that Exalted Warrior Focus should be my 4th skill to 75. Sword Weapons may not increase my damage directly, but I enjoy the attack speed, and I'm also eager to witness the effects of the chance for double hits. I'm loathe to take bargaining as I don't want to spend hours teleporting from city to city checking out items. That seems just awful to me. Do you really think it's too late to take Celestial Magic Focus and Lore? Would that end up working? If divine protection is so good, is revered technology focus and lore a better way to go? Since I only have two slots left, I can't have the lore, focus AND warding energy, is that route not so good? Thanks everybody for your help!

 

Heh. Everybody resists at first. The weapon lores are like comfy blankets - offering safe, predictable effects for a melee toon (+attack speed and chance to hit)... but at the end of the game, these effects are very easily replaced with as little as 2 socketables (ie rings/amulets). Replacing an entire skill with 2 sockets is redonkalous... and IMO is necessary to sucessfully run "true" hybrid toons. If I build single-aspect melee toons (like a sword and board seraphim as you are doing)... then I usually grab a weapon skill just because there are extra choices. So you should be fine, but your progress in Platinum will be stunted a little... nothing grinding a few extra levels can't fix, though.

 

I am as sure as Lujate about the double-hit chance on combat arts. Since I have never ever mastered a weapon-skill, I can't say

 

AFAIK, DP is just fine without WEL, yes. Comfy blankets and such, I suppose And, Rev. Tech Lore doesn't do anything for DP, although I'm not 100% on that (maybe one of the modifications is affected).

 

The good news is that you have already chosen all the "good" skills! So, whatever you take from here is pretty much gravy. I never used Celestial Magic, ever, but in my mind, DP >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hallowed Restoration, although having PS+HR combo could be better in the early-levels, before you get enough duration on DP to be chain-castable (end-Gold, or Platinum difficulty).

 

One last thought re: Bargaining. Some people aren't shoppers, for whatever reason. The worst thing about this game, though, is that there is no real predictable way to farm for certian things that are really good... namely the aforementioned socketables. In 100 hours of gaming with a Shadow Warrior, I was able to eke out, at most, 7-10 rings/amulets with the allskills modifier. With bargaining, I can find 10 allskills socketables in 1 hour. It takes a lot of hard skillpoints, and some setup, but you really only ever need to "use" it once, and that toon can amass a chestfull of goodies for your other builds.

[Aegis 256]

I'm also gonna jump on the shopping bandwagon and say that as annoying as it may seem, creating a shopping toon is well worth it in the long run. I had the same issues as well when it came to building a toon and then teleporting from one town to another in search for that odd item or maybe that odd piece of equipment. A friend of mine, however, began building a high elf shopper after I mentioned how others recommended it, and he began finding a whole lot of rings and amulets he wouldn't have found before. I was pretty much sold on seeing it for myself, and am building up my own Seraphim shopper. It does take time, and I've got two general skills in there that I would otherwise love to replace with other, 'better' skills, but I'm already seeing some benefits with her. It's good, because my main toon, the SW, could use some nice stuff.