Skill selection help

[Varthorne 4]

Ahoy!

 

I started playing this game a few weeks ago, after discovering it back in December (I had to download it from GamersGate, and I didn't have enough bandwidth left after the first download became corrupted). I'm loving it so far, but I need some help with my Seraphim's skill selection. She is currently level 25, and en route to meet Mer-Kill, on Silver difficulty. She cuts through enemies like a flaming sword through butter.

 

I am currently using the melee build found here:

 

http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?/topic/9194-pure-melee-seraphim-tutorial/

 

Couldn't figure out how to create a link.

 

Anyway, I'm looking to replace Celestial Focus with something else, as I have no intention of using Radiant Pillar. I was thinking of taking Sword Weapons instead, as I'm quite fond of swords, regardless of how good other weapon types are. However, I already have Dual Wield, so I'm worried that Sword Weapons would be too redundant.

 

I'm also curious as to how many skills I'll be able to master. I have a level 35-ish High Elf (currently in the swamps), and I noticed that I started getting 4 skill points per level. I just want to get an idea of how high I'll be able to get most of my skills before hitting 200 (assuming I ever actually get there, which I'm not sure I ever will).

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[lujate 575]

Welcome aboard!

 

Sword Weapons and Dual Wield do not stack, which means you do not get both bonuses. Taking them both does allow you to unlock bonuses on weapons that require the Sword Weapons skill. It would also help if you decided to use a 2H sword for bosses (to get the LL%).

 

You might consider keeping Celestial Focus in order to mod Hallowed Restoration. With the proper mods, Hallowed Restoration is a nice HOT.

[wolfie2kX 528]

What Lujate said... Consider it 2nded..

 

Beyond that... In Silver, the odds of mastering anything are slim. You have to be quite dedicated in putting points into the CAs you really, really want to master. You need 75 hard points for mastery and given the way you're going now, you're not likely to see level 75 before you finish on Silver (assuming you're on silver and not Bronze.) You'll be finished LONG before then and onto Gold (provided you want to continue with that character and not start something else.)

 

That said, I've been able to do it once - that was by making sure I invested 1 point every time I leveled up into Bargaining (it was an experiment I was doing that had to do with that skill). It wasn't easy as there were other skills that needed attention - some fairly desperately.

[essjayehm 58]

Welcome to the forums, Varthorne!

 

Level 200 is a goal reached only through extensive replaying with a character. I forget the actual amount of time it takes, but considering a lot of builds can handle the highest difficulty in the low 100's, finishing the game around level 110-120... that leaves a lot of farming for XP (or legendary items, w/e).

 

Of course, it takes 750 points to master all your skills, and IIRC at level 50 you start getting 5 points per level. No problem to master all your skills, if you want; however typical toons go for 4-6 skill masteries for their endgame so it may be better to plan around that.

 

If you have other questions, feel free to ask, it's a complicated game and screwing up a toon but not realizing it until it is too late really sucks, as there is no respec in this game.

 

Happy Hunting!

[Varthorne 4]

Thanks for the responses.

 

I decided to go with Celestial Focus after all, but I'm gonna go with what lujate suggest and go for hallowed restoration. I'm assuming I'll want the modification that increases regeneration. Otherwise, I don't see how it could really be any good.

 

essjayehm, your answer is exactly what I was looking for. Most builds aren't too precise with regards to skill spending; most only bother telling you which ones to master, which ones not to. Thus, I don't how high I should shoot for the ones I won't be mastering.

 

And wolfie, I was definitely planning on moving up in difficulty. I'm moving through the campaign fairly quickly in order to get a sense of the various areas. I'll be taking it slower in subsequent playthroughs. Then again, this Seraphim is probably my 5th or 6th character so far. I've deleted a few whose builds I botched. For example, I've had at least two High Elves, one of which I deleted (she was my first character, put my points all over the place), and the other is now on the backburner, since this Seraphim build is so much more fun.

 

I'm usually a bit of an altaholic, so I'm trying to avoid playing the Dryad and Temple Guardian for now, as they're the only two I haven't tried yet (can't get the expansion to install, so Dragon Mage is out of the question). I always have a hard time sticking to one single character, because I always see a different class do something and I think "Hey, I want to do that too". I can't count how many characters I've created (and later deleted) in Oblivion.

[wolfie2kX 528]

Good deal. As long as you know what's going on..

 

Now then, you say you can't get the Ice and Blood to install..? What seems to be the problem?

[Varthorne 4]

As I mentioned above, I got the game via GamersGate, since Steam didn't have it (though they added it days after I checked). In order to download games from GG, you need to download an installer, one that doesn't like antiviruses. I found out the hard way by downloading Fallen Angel (13GB) only to find out that my files were corrupted.

 

I made sure to download Ice & Blood without my antivirus, but I had to save the temporary files to my computer, since I hadn't fully patched the game. Now, when I try to launch the installer, it tells me that "setup.exe could not be found". I of course tried launching as an administrator and in compatibility mode, but to no avail. A google search didn't reveal anything, as most people experience problems with activation, not installation.

[wolfie2kX 528]

Yeah.. I kinda figured you'd be also having issues with activation... That part WILL get you every time - unless of course, you get the Steam version - which according to reports solves that problem with a complete repackaging of the game - one installer, no patching, just download and install the whole shebang.

 

That would solve a LOT of the problems I had with trying to install Sacred 2 under Vista and Windows 8. I got the basic game installed but I couldn't patch beyond 2.31 as the 2.34 or 2.40 patches both had some sort of file checker baked into the installer and it kept detecting some file(s) or other(s) were changed after which the updater promptly quit and removed a bunch of temp files. Mind you, I hadn't done ANYTHING to the game prior to patching. So I have NO clue as to what it was on about. I had the same experience trying to install on Vista so I was thinking somehow one of the files I got when I installed it on Windows 7 got corrupted somehow and that was the problem. But I digress...

 

At any rate.. did you look for the files for the Ice and Blood expansion?

 

If they didn't get downloaded to whereever the installation program is looking for them, it won't be able to run them as it has NO clue as to where they are.

 

Furthermore, if they got downloaded only as "temporary" files - they could have been deleted as they were only "temporary".

 

Thinking you might have to download before you can install - that is, if you can't find the files yourself.

 

Now, I have NO idea what GamersGate are calling their files, but they are likely the same names used elsewhere... Try looking for something like "Sacred2-IceAndBlood_edsr_e.exe" or "Sacred2-IceAndBlood_edsr_e-1.bin" - there should be 1 EXE and 2 BIN files in the Ice and Blood expansion.

[Varthorne 4]

In this case, "temporary files" is a misnomer: the files are stored in a folder called "GamersGate temporary files", but they are still there. There's only 3 folders, one of which contains what appears to be an Adobe Reader 9 installer, another one contains all of the patches for Fallen Angel (since the base version was 2.0.2, which made an enormous difference when I realized that my game wasn't patched) and is aptly named "patches". The last one is "Autodata" which contains 3 files of different formats none of which I recognize. More importantly, none of those are .exe's.

 

The only application is called "Autorun". Activating it opens a Sacred 2 - Ice & Blood window that gives a few options such as Install, Update, Readme, Adobe Reader, Sacred 2 Homepage and Exit. The background depicts a man in red-ish armour, so presumable the Dragon Mage. Clicking Install gives me the window that tells me that Windows cannot find "setup.exe". There's a similar file in the Fallen Angel folder, and it also opens a launcher-type window for Fallen Angel. The odd thing is, Fallen Angel also comes with a windows installer, which is strangely absent from the Ice & Blood files.

 

There's a chance that perhaps this file is contained in the Fallen Angel files... but that wouldn't make much sense. At this point, the only thing left to try is to re-download the expansion, then have the installation launch directly after the download is complete. I couldn't do it this time because I hadn't patched Fallen Angel at all. However, if I do this, I'll have to wait until the end of this billing month, since we've probably already used more than half of our limit, and there's 2 weeks to go.

[wolfie2kX 528]

Yeah.. That most certainly sounds different from the Sacred 2 Gold package I got from DLGamer which contained no folders, just 2 EXE files and a lot of BIN files. One EXE was for the base game - and the other for Ice and Blood. I had to get patches elsewhere. Fortunately, they were all linked properly on the Sacredwiki...

 

Redish armor..? Could be a dragon mage - or not. The DM has a few different colored sets - one brownish, one greenish, one redish.. I could tell you if I saw it. but it's no big deal.

 

Anywho, yeah... You're probably going to need to download the expansion again. It doesn't sound like it was downloaded correctly. I would definitely attack that problem after you've got the game fully patched to 2.40. You won't really need 2.43 since you're going directly to Ice and Blood afterwards and from my experience, 2.43 caused a few extra problems with the game than it solved. the 2.40 - 2.43 patch isn't all that big, so it's not like you're going to be saving much but hey, every little bit helps.