Burgfräulein, Paladin build in v12, discuss nerf in v13

[chattius 2,622]

Diary of a Burgfräulein

Massive passive area damage build, self sufficient
Character was played by my non english speaking daughter in the French version. Played on a fresh installed machine. General chest was empty, no help from other character, no editing, ...

The first 11 levels in easy
Rescuing the kids at sloeford for runes, using Zeal and Holy Shield. Taking Concentration (to 1), then Blessed Defense Focus (to 9) then Devout Offense Focus (9).
Modifying Prayer (cleansing, Preseverance, Insight) and Holy Fire (Red Hot, Explosive, Flames)
The Idea is to have Prayer modded for intelligence and willpower. So the Holy Shield has lots of energy because of willpower and the unmodded Fist of Heaven and staff shooting get a real boost from intelligence. After reading a single rune in each combat art (to know what they do) we transform all runes into Prayer, Holy Fire, Holy Shield.  After level 75 we add Conviction to the list. All stat points go into vitality.

Levels 12-19 in easy
Taking a staff with fire damage and using Zeal to shoot. Close enemies will die on Holy Fire (yet?).
This is a build for girls. You will cry, because we take Riding (to 5) and Bargaining (to 19). We do the Special Mount Quest in campaign mode so we have this beautiful white cat which lowers Devout Offense regeneration. We love riding and could spend a whole life on a horseback, or make this the back of a sabretooth.
We add Devout Offense Lore (to 1) to our list of skills.

Levels 20-40 in normal
We socket a charm with + fire damage and + chance to burn in our staff. Griffon, Boar and Poison Lord runs for equipment and experience. No more weapon fighting enemies die on Holy Fire and Fist of Heavens. We add Energy Shield Lore and Blacksmith to our skills.
We modify Holy Shield(Dampen, Barricade, Boost) and Conviction(Singe, Weaken, Assurance).
Concentration 18, Blessed Defense Focus 31, Devout Offense Focus 31, Riding 5, Bargaining 40, Devout Offense Lore 1, Energy Shield Lore 1, Blacksmith 1, Damage Lore -, Ancient Magic -

Levels 41-54 in normal
First items with +Combat Art range. Doing the campaign. We notice enemies dying on burn damage while we just ride till the next waypoint. We want to do this better and take Damage Lore. We boost Bargaining and buy +x to all Skills gear. Note to ourself: Stay allways on your mount and retreat when you know your shield is short of vanishing.
Concentration 54, Blessed Defense Focus 31, Devout Offense Focus 31, Riding 5, Bargaining 54, Devout Offense Lore 1, Energy Shield Lore 1, Blacksmith 1, Damage Lore 12, Ancient Magic -

Levels 55-75 in hard
Boss runs and campaign. Poison Lord drops allways orange Magic Find relics, nice. We want level 75 for the 4 bosses at the machine. With level 75 we have 3 Buffs and add Conviction as an passive damage boost. Our Targets will be weakened, robbed of resistances and so Holy Fire can do full damage. And all willl burn, with the burn damage higher than the original damage - you know enemy has no resists. We add Ancient Magic to our list for even more reducing of enemy resists.
Concentration 75, Blessed Defense Focus 31, Devout Offense Focus 31, Riding 5, Bargaining 75, Devout Offense Lore 1, Energy Shield Lore 1, Blacksmith 1, Damage Lore 75, Ancient Magic 1

Levels 76-86 in nightmare
We modify Fist of Heavens for debuffing. It is mainly a big search for more and more +to all Skills. Boss runs.
Concentration 75, Blessed Defense Focus 37, Devout Offense Focus 75, Riding 5, Bargaining 75, Devout Offense Lore 1, Energy Shield Lore 1, Blacksmith 1, Damage Lore 75, Ancient Magic 1
 
Levels 87-108 in nightmare
Campaign and clearing the maps on the way. Ancient Magic at mastery gives a nice boost. Fun Fun Fun
Concentration 75, Blessed Defense Focus 75, Devout Offense Focus 75, Riding 8, Bargaining 75, Devout Offense Lore 1, Energy Shield Lore 1, Blacksmith 1, Damage Lore 75, Ancient Magic 75

Levels 109... HELL!
Riding at mastery. Decided to do some quests. Riding mastery speeds up solving quests a lot. Quests give nice experience and bargaining mastery should give me better rewards. Next on my list is mastering Devout Offense lore, Blacksmithing and Energy shield lore
Level 126

Killing the Guardian at the 'On the trail' Quest. He allways drops a shield with +combat art range.

Concentration 75, Blessed Defense Focus 75, Devout Offense Focus 75, Riding 55, Bargaining 75, Devout Offense Lore 25, Energy Shield Lore 1, Blacksmith 1, Damage Lore 75, Ancient Magic 75

 

Savefile at level 126 is added. Rename the 'paladin' into a number not used by your characters.

heropaladin.sacred2save

[ameaeth 54]

Very nice build! And I love the explanation of mechanics in it.

I am playiing kind of a similar build I call 'Cheezy Paladin' with Sublime Combat Focus added,  going with Charge modded for Vigor+Resist+Resist for a very high damage mitigation.

I noticed you did not list Armor Lore in your build. I'd be really interested for your perspective on Armor Lore and it's usefulness, when you need it and when it's okay to leave it.

Edited October 21, 2019 by ameaeth

[chattius 2,622]

The character walks really slow. But in most mods you can ride mounts in caves. So the slow walking is less of a problem. A mount is like an amulet of lifesaving. You have around 2 second when your mount dies to teleport. So this leaves armour for damage mitigation. My daughter did just cover basic resists to prevent high damage peak values when close to 0 armour. But the most damage is catched by the energy shield. But you have to be careful with it. Never fight when it is down.

Don't be a sitting duck, the build doesn't need to stand for aiming. The aura does the damage, so the character can active avoids shots and spells by moving and still does damage.

The character wasn't planed from beginning to go withour armour. Armour Lore was at level 25 or 35. But at the level armour lore would be taken the holy shield was preventing nearly all damage. Mount died three time because of unknown bosses in normal difficulty. After this energy shield was very powerful and the range of Holy Fire was bigger than the ones of most enemies spells. So a tactic was to ride a circle around a tough enemy. The radius of the circle so that the enemy receives damage but can't hit itself.

So yes, in this build you can live without armour lore. But it is rare that you can do this with a build.

 

[Flix 5,164]

It is very fulfilling to see builds posted for the mod. I know from the stats that thousands of people download the mod but very few ever report back how they're playing it unless there's a bug.  Much respect to your daughter for putting together a powerful Paladin.

I wonder what bosses killed her mount?  She's so powerful, were there any noteworthy fights that were challenging?

[chattius 2,622]

I think it was when she first encountered Baal. Holy shield was nearly down and lasted not long enough. Number two and three go to this inquisitor before the big machine. The one you have to kill twice. Once knowing about boss places she always waited for a fresh shield before fighting.

And there is one strange thing: Sometimes holy fire does no damage. Moving and attacking again often fixes this.

Tried the attached savefile?

[Androdion 898]

How is the XP gain with the Diablo mod? Faster than vanilla, closer to EE, even faster?

I'm afraid of setting this mod up because I think I'll stop sleeping at night again, ha ha.

[chattius 2,622]

You can activate superspawn and inferno patch when playing the Burgfräulein (daughter of a castle lord) build. It doesn't matter if there are 10 or 100 enemies in Holy Fire range. So the experience rate is faster in my opinion.

I think you can sleep at the keyboard or in bed if you are at the right area. Healing 2000hp/sec and killing a normal mob in 3 seconds, respawning while away from keyboard isn't that bad if you know where to go afk.

But activ playing has a way higher experience-rate.

[Androdion 898]

Thanks for the input. My real issue with installing the mod is that I'll want to get a hold of all of it, which will result in many long nights at the PC. 

[Flix 5,164]

3 hours ago, Androdion said:

How is the XP gain with the Diablo mod? Faster than vanilla, closer to EE, even faster?

XP progression between D2F and EE is identical. Same goes for Superspawn - same spawn multiplier is applied.

D2F leveling could be marginally slower since enemy respawn rate is slightly lower. But then again player movement speed is much faster so you can always continue on to new areas more quickly so it probably evens out.

[Androdion 898]

I've reread the guide with the Wiki opened on the Paladin page and man, those buffs combined look splendid just by reading them! The synergy between them is really something.

Some questions though. Why leave Energy Shield Lore at 1 when Holy Shield is such an active part of the gameplay, and furthermore when there's no other defensive skill in the build? And why choose Blacksmith to have it at level 1 too? Or do you socket that many +All Skills jewellery that it just doesn't matter?

@Flix: Holy Fire's page in the Wiki has a line that says "This is a Spell Damage Based Combat Art.", which I assume is why Ancient Magic has an effect on it. Is that behaviour the same in vanilla Sacred 2 sans the Diablo mod or was this something you changed for the mod?

[Flix 5,164]

1 hour ago, Androdion said:

Holy Fire's page in the Wiki has a line that says "This is a Spell Damage Based Combat Art.", which I assume is why Ancient Magic has an effect on it. Is that behaviour the same in vanilla Sacred 2 sans the Diablo mod or was this something you changed for the mod?

I'm not sure I follow. Holy Fire isn't in the base game. Its closest equivalent is High Elf's Incandescent Skin and it follows all the same damage mechanics as that skill.

[Androdion 898]

That's exactly what I asked. 

So Incandescent Skin's damage is also affected by Ancient Magic (as all others buffs that cause damage). Thanks.

[Flix 5,164]

2 hours ago, Androdion said:

That's exactly what I asked. 

So Incandescent Skin's damage is also affected by Ancient Magic (as all others buffs that cause damage). Thanks.

Yes sir.  All damage is classed as either weapon or spell.  All spell damage will be boosted by Ancient Magic.

[chattius 2,622]

7 hours ago, Androdion said:

I've reread the guide with the Wiki opened on the Paladin page and man, those buffs combined look splendid just by reading them! The synergy between them is really something.

Some questions though. Why leave Energy Shield Lore at 1 when Holy Shield is such an active part of the gameplay, and furthermore when there's no other defensive skill in the build? And why choose Blacksmith to have it at level 1 too? Or do you socket that many +All Skills jewellery that it just doesn't matter?

@Flix: Holy Fire's page in the Wiki has a line that says "This is a Spell Damage Based Combat Art.", which I assume is why Ancient Magic has an effect on it. Is that behaviour the same in vanilla Sacred 2 sans the Diablo mod or was this something you changed for the mod?

It isn't really a guide. It is more a diary. The character developed while playing it. She hadn't played Diablo or the Diablo mod before. But she wrote down what she was thinking when choosing skills. She has chosen French instead English for her second foreign language. So she can't discuss here :(  The :( is not for not choosing English, it is for not being able to discuss. But we have way more French contacts than English. However our this year AuPair is from NewZealand. So there should be some english learning even without classes at school.

Back to the guide diary:

Energy Shield Lore only 1 point. It is mainly for unlocking modifiers on items. And yes, with every socket filled with +allSkills the 1 point is enough for now. It is planed to have it mastered around level 150 because items will need mastery for unlocking modifiers.

Same for Blacksmith - unsocketing is rare. It may change when the experience curve gets flatter so more time per level is needed. But as now, the bronze slots alone give like 28 +allSkills, not bad for a single point.

[Androdion 898]

Your diaries always read more as guides, as I believe you and your own put more thought into planning than most players.

Thanks for the explanations. If this itch I'm feeling keeps going on I may need to try this triple buff aura killer mage staff pseudo ranged blaster on my own. And I say that with the best intention possible!

[ameaeth 54]

On 10/23/2019 at 1:09 AM, Androdion said:

those buffs combined look splendid just by reading them

When I am running Holy Fire and Prayer the fire's smoke causes some flickering with the Prayer light. Would it be possible to remove the smoke effect from Holy Fire?

[chattius 2,622]

The new Paladin started with the equipment the old one put in the shared chest while playing. Modding Fanatism in the first 5 levels greatly boosts the start. Then Prayer is modded to have better stats for staff shooting and Holy Shield. Then Charge (stun, 2*damage mitigation) was chosen because it is a spell and gets the boost from intelligence. You have to get used to Charge. What proved to be a good option is to use the keyboard (w,s,a,d) for running. Charge stops if the mouse moves over an enemy, planed or by accident. So moving with the keyboard keeps the speed and damage mitigation from charge alive. 

I don't know if D2F has the cap on run speed of 150%? If yes it is completly senseless to choose the better run mod. Would be better to have the mod to raise the cap of run speed by 0,1 or 0,2 per level. Don't know if raising the run speed cap is possible. Would be nice if.

Rest is quite the same to the diary. Hard dicciculty was finished at level 64.

At 75:

Sublime Combat Focus -22

Concentration- 75

Blessed Defense Focus-75

Combat Discipline-1

Armour Lore-1

Devout Offense Focus-44

Devout Offense Lore-1

Energy Shield Lore-1

Damage Lore-75

Ancient Magic-1

[Flix 5,164]

On 10/24/2019 at 2:29 PM, ameaeth said:

When I am running Holy Fire and Prayer the fire's smoke causes some flickering with the Prayer light. Would it be possible to remove the smoke effect from Holy Fire?

I'm not able to do that myself. Sadly the only fix I know of is to disable buff display in the main options menu.  If you really wanted to see the buffs but also remove the flickering you could try swapping out the fx in spells.txt.  The spell is called: "se_cm_heilen"

Find the line that says, fxTypeSpell = "FX_SKELETON_FIRESHIELD",

and change it to: fxTypeSpell = "FX_HE_FEUERHAUT",

[gogoblender 3,199]

On 10/23/2019 at 6:49 AM, Androdion said:

Your diaries always read more as guides, as I believe you and your own put more thought into planning than most players.

 

Yes... this is Chattius's specialty!

gogo

[chattius 2,622]

A strange behaviour at energy shield playing hell level 142. Suddenly the full energy shield drops at first hit it seems.

Clicking the holy shield icon it says the shield has 800140 points when new.

Clicking the blue ring it says 2537333 points.

When being getting damage 200+% of it are directed to the shield.

The funny thing is: wearing equipment with less good modifiers the energy shield keeps up when fighting the same monsters.

 

I fear an overflow bug, but the numbers are nowhere close to 2^15, 2^16, 2^31 or 2^32.

 

 

[Flix 5,164]

10 hours ago, chattius said:

A strange behaviour at energy shield playing hell level 142. Suddenly the full energy shield drops at first hit it seems.

Clicking the holy shield icon it says the shield has 800140 points when new.

Clicking the blue ring it says 2537333 points.

When being getting damage 200+% of it are directed to the shield.

The funny thing is: wearing equipment with less good modifiers the energy shield keeps up when fighting the same monsters.

 

I fear an overflow bug, but the numbers are nowhere close to 2^15, 2^16, 2^31 or 2^32.

 

 

I've never seen or heard of this happening.  I'll compare it with Divine Protection and see if something's different that may be causing it.

[Androdion 898]

I know the Boost gold mod on Holy Shield is pretty much mandatory for you to be able to run shielded at all time, but since the Ward gold mod blocks direct magic damage isn't it a viable choice as well? Dare I say a more interesting choice if you're mounted and can easily run off to breathe for 15 seconds? Since it's basically an Expulse Magic I think it'll be much more interesting for boss fights than the other option. Would you say that Tactics Lore would fit this build better if you were to keep using the mage staff with Zeal? It allows for modifications on it, including double damage, and adds an active damage source. Having Zeal for a ranged approach and Fist of Heavens for short range crowd control seems like a slightly different but more active way to play this build, at least to me. Also what do you feel about a more conservative approach with Toughness to stack damage mitigation with the bronze mod from Holy Shield? Is it necessary at all?

What do you think of all of this?

[chattius 2,622]

Holy shield can be modded to block CA, but not to debuff as expulse magic is doing. I think Fist of Heavens is needed for the debuffing in a paladin build.

I remember block CA to only block targeted CA's. Two Burgfräulein's fighting each other wouldn't be able to block the damage from their fire auras for example.

Correct me if I am wrong.

The original build has riding, bargaining and blacksmith. So you have 2 skills to play with (without riding armour lore should be choosen).

I like my charge build, mainly because I played too much melee characters allready. At boss fights you can charge at point blank every third of a second it seems. So doing the charge damage extra to your aura. Also damage mitigation and stun is nearly constant. But probably you could do a charge build with tactic lore too.

[Androdion 898]

It just won't block DOT. I remember playing with the High Elf and when using Expulse Magic it negates meteor shower CAs on dragons in the Carnach Caves, for instance, so Area of Effect CAs are covered. Hence my question because if a boss fight takes more than 45 seconds then you might be in more serious problems than with its CAs being (mostly) blocked. For mobs you can just run off for those 15 seconds and get back, and if the build is made sturdier with added defensive skills then it's easier to leave out alive I guess.

I'll confess to have reinstalled the game and the D2F mod. I've had my first long night due to that, having started a Paladin and playing it by ear without planning it to the inch. It's refreshing to actually play a build without planning every aspect of it. Sure your diary gave me the main idea for it, but I'm choosing the skills and modifications on the go without having them written on a Notepad file like I always did.  It's feeling good right now. Love the new mobs I've encountered so far, the Putrid Defilers were such a surprise to me! I've installed the music pack and I'm playing D2F+SS+IM in Easy and so far I've found it very manageable with Holy Fire+Prayer, but it's really like playing a new game. Sure the game world is the same as always but it does feel different, so job well done! I've been concentrating on modifying my CAs since I use so little of them but eventually I'll have to turn into Normal difficulty and start doing more than running around killing mobs.

I've noticed an incongruity between Holy Shield in-game and on the Wiki page. The tooltip for the Boost mode in-game says the reduction is 20% but the Wiki states 25%, so I guess the tooltip is wrong?!

[Flix 5,164]

3 hours ago, Androdion said:

I remember playing with the High Elf and when using Expulse Magic it negates meteor shower CAs on dragons in the Carnach Caves, for instance, so Area of Effect CAs are covered.

Block Chance: Spells modifier is not the same as what Expulse Magic is doing though.  Expulse Magic is its own thing.  It literally banishes/negates all magic within its sphere of influence.  You could always take Philios' Divine Gift Redemption if you want to achieve this effect in D2F. 

 

3 hours ago, Androdion said:

It's feeling good right now. Love the new mobs I've encountered so far, the Putrid Defilers were such a surprise to me! I've installed the music pack and I'm playing D2F+SS+IM in Easy and so far I've found it very manageable with Holy Fire+Prayer, but it's really like playing a new game. Sure the game world is the same as always but it does feel different, so job well done! I've been concentrating on modifying my CAs since I use so little of them but eventually I'll have to turn into Normal difficulty and start doing more than running around killing mobs.

Thanks. I knew we'd get you eventually.  Interested to see how your playthrough pans out.

 

3 hours ago, Androdion said:

I've noticed an incongruity between Holy Shield in-game and on the Wiki page. The tooltip for the Boost mode in-game says the reduction is 20% but the Wiki states 25%, so I guess the tooltip is wrong?!

In-game tooltip is correct, I need to update the Wiki.