The story of my main character in Enhanced Edition :)

[Daedalus 88]

Greetings Messer's and Messerettes!!

Please do sit in those comfortable (virtual) sofas and let me tell you a story about a cherub who wanted to become an Archangel ... the Seraphim I came to know as .. Ezraelle!

A bit of demon in her name but that's part of my personal belief hehehe (demon/angels ... they're alike, very much the same indeed, good creatures  but that's a story for another time).

And so her story began as her (player) "god" decided to try his hand in the Enhanced Edition of Sacred 2 no less !

Wanting to try all those new good features, especially the new combat arts, our (player) "god" decided to focus first on the "sublime guardian" combat art. And what a marvelously chosen name it is? Isn't our guardian sublime? Anyways, the guardian was modded for full attack speed and damage ... which left the subject for the last mod, at which point, seeing that the conversion combat art was no longer there as such, decided to pick it as a mod for our lovely Ezraelle.

At first, it didn't seem to do much. Strangely though, after a few levels and a couple of additional runes gobbled, our guardian ... sorry sublime and marvelous guardian! started to use the conversion more freely and openly ... quite useful, especially at the early stages of the game as you'll see later ... and sometimes very annoying (ditto for later here).

Still, quite a good start for the build ... unfortunately, it seems that it might have been preferable to boost something else first, but eh! We're to try and learn, isn't it Messer's and Messerettes? ;)

The next thing that was boosted was, of course, the new CA called "Sonic Vortex" ... and with time a few important things were learned about this combat art.

Now, first of all, and I cannot stress this enough: The knockback mod is ... well ... well it turned out later to be an integral part of the build which I now call "Gatling gun mentalist" ... especially the mentalist part eheheh.

Next thing I realized for my now dear cherub and soon to be (I hope) Archangel, was that there no longer any healing combat art for the Seraph. The cleansing brilliance tooltip says that it boost health regeneration but ... nah ... I am not (personally) feeling it. Though said brilliance was ... in a "brilliant move" I might add (hehehe) ... fully added much later on as an integral part of the build (hehehe).

So ... what could be done about that? ... Well ... there's this somewhat not very often used CA (at least by me) named "Divine protection" ... and oh boy did I realize how truly useful it could be later on. What really pushed me into going for this though was the modification in EE ... that is ... longer durations (around 90 seconds at the start) combined with a cooldown that could be shortened close to that (may even beyond but I haven't reached that point yet, I am pretty close, close enough but not yet).

And of course the "Dashing Alacrity" did received the same type of modification which led me to remember that the game STILL has a combo system ... granted I didn't used much before ... I thought it was not that good (yeah, I know, naivety can be so cute sometimes lol ) ... and from that I created the first combo that I use on a VERY regular basis and what a dashing, divine combo it is ... yes dashing alacrity->Divine protection true story (also 89% of seraphim who tried this combo in EE still use it to that day, true story bro, true story :P).

And well, the added casting speed + the protection from the shield really and truly changed the build for the better at this point. The added speed was of particular importance thus the "Gatling gun" part of the build name. Apart from the cooldown reduction and even more added speed, the mod that gives further cooldown reduction turned out to be critical ... and still is to that day. 

Basically, it allows ... more or less (more "less" than "more" but okay), to keep casting times low enough to go with the speed so my Cherub (soon to be archangel) can literally shoot spells left and right.

Also, by that time, I did activate the "superspawn" part of the EE mod ... and, considering my Seraph was near the Red Dragon with his cultists near wargfels, when I first loaded my game after the mod the result was ... ouch!!!! .... "Wait what?!!" ... "is there a big ascaron concert for monster and no one bothered to tell me" ... "Oh damn! The 666 hells of Sacred 2 have sent all their reinforcements at me" ... were some of the things that went into my head at the time .... especially when I saw the gazillions of soldiers and cultists and mages and elementals and whatnot all zeroying in on my poor (and soon to be archangel   ) cherub.

Wow!! Needless to say, I had to adapt, and adapt fast. So, after a tactical retreat into town, I decided to design two other combos:

The first one (quicklinked to slot "1"), is "Sonic Vortex" -> "Flaring Nova" ... the flaring nova was modded with, among other things, added damage, stun (important!) and ... extra range (very important!!). And that's basically the first one I shoot generally in most situation.

The second one (to slot "2") is "Radiant Pillar" -> "Baneful Smite" ... and due to the horde of rampaging monsters that were constantly swarming me I quickly modded the "hypnotize" in the "radiant pillar" ... what a lifesaver it was !!! It helps reduce incoming damage by forcing some of the monster horde to move around the pillars hypnotized while doing nothing (the "mentalist" part) ... while I blast them with lightning speed with spells (the "gatling gun" part).

And soon after, I added yet another combo: "Archangel's wrath"-> "Baneful smite" ... basically it is a much more single target focused combo to finish off the champions/elites after I've dealt with the regular monsters.

Currently sitting on slot "4" ... yep true story.

And one final thing of note before I close this first chapter on my Seraphim (yep there will be more, so much more, I have so much to tell  ), let me tell you that slot "3" is currently occupied and has been for a long while by "assailing sommersault". At the beginning, I discovered that by using "ctrl" you could force the seraphim to jump and "attack" an empty space ... quite useful for tactical retreat ... especially with hordes of monster or when fighting a boss but later on you'll see it has offensive potential as well. ;)

Anyways, I'll stop my first entry here which was mostly about combat art and their new versions in EE. New entry will be more focused on skills, which ones, why, when and some of the mistakes I've made (I am sure they were mistakes) ... and that are still haunting me to that day (why did I not mastered "ancient magic" sooner? Why I have not still mastered by level 108? Why? why:) WHYYY?!!! ;) oh, the horror, of the humanity !!  )

Well, have fun guys, and feel free (yet not compelled) to tell me what you think so far. ;)

 

 

[Daedalus 88]

Greetings again Messer's and Messerettes!! 

And welcome to part two of Ezraelle's adventures (and mine) in the enhanced edition mod of Sacred 2 ( courtesy of the good folks here at dark matters ;) ).

So for today (well this entry at last), let's talk about skill shall we? 

Easiest way to do this is to share a screenshot of my current version of Ezraelle (very freshly taken, I am taking a pause in the monster slaying department ... no Ezraelle, you may be a slayer of monster but you are not THE slayer ... that title is reserved for the blonde gal fighting at the hellmouth ... just saying).

As you probably can see, the initial idea was to go for a pure caster build ... and that's still what's happening ... somehow. hehehe;

And by the way, it's good that I do it through a screenshot because I am suddenly realizing that I only fully implemented the dashingly divine combo later than I first remembered ... but there's reason why it came so late.

So, first four skills ... well ... they were pretty obvious. We want all the casting CA in that one.

Then, I took concentration. The main reason at that initial time was to have access to another aura/buff ... and boy, was there a lot of back and forth on that one. And there's still is back and forth speaking of which, but I digress.

However, in these earlier stage of the game, I mainly focused on using the "combat stance" buff (with the sublime guardian). The main reason was to simply get bonus to def at that time ... and it worked for a while. I intended to switch it to something else (like the "warding energy" buff) until concentration mastery .... but it turned out that the "combat stance" is there to stay ... permanently. It simply gives too many bonuses to defense ... granted not the most impressive thing ever but always there to save your butt when you need it ... or save a few hits here and there which makes your shield last longer ... preferably until the next recasting (speaking of which, I intend to make a full post about that shield because ... well ... that build has a serious weakness which I have or had to constantly work around .... yep ... the time between when the shield goes down and when it goes back up again, more on that later).

You'll also noticed that immediately after concentration, we have two defensive skills taken ... yep ... I felt more than forced to do that at the time ... and I am not sure I did it the right way to be entirely honest. 

And speaking of defensive skills, you'll notice that the last one is "shield" ... don't try this at home kids!! (or rather do but ...) and instead pick constitution instead, makes surviving between shield downtime much easier ... or does it? I am still somewhat split (with myself) on the issue.

Now, why shield and not constitution? Well, it was a bit some kind of haphazard (and probably still wrong) decision. The gist of it was to have things like "block SOMETHING +%" ... boosted by shield skill, again to survive those downtime easier. it also had the noticeable effect of making my shield actually last longer during up-time (thanks to +% block or reflect chance but, also and I did not realized it at first, through additional pure defense combined with "combat stance"). 

Now, why did I felt forced to instantly pick two defense skills for next two ones? Well, there is something in the changelog of EE edition that says "This modification significantly changes the game" ... and several deaths later I was like "Well ... yeah ... no kidding man!!"

What is it I am talking about here? Well, that "simple" change to criticial hits messer's and messeretes. It does significantly more damage and by that I mean MORE DAMAGE ... especially like, say, from champions like those "Death angels" in the dark forests of the southeast corner of ancaria ... OUCH! (yep ... death happened a couple of time there dang!).

But ... when I faced my first boss ... or worse ... when I faced my first dragon ... I was like ... "Change to critical hits massively changing the dynamic of the game? .... well ... NO KIDDING!! "

And of course, some of you might have experienced that : Getting VERY rapidly one or two shot killed by an angry flaming dragon!! (also, don't make the same mistake I did and be SURE to have the proper relics equipped ... 89% of people who got killed by dragons did not ... true story bro, true story).

So ... why no constitution then? Well, it's just that I felt that, even with more life point, I would still get killed too quickly by champ's and boss that I decided to stick with "shield".
And to be completely and perfectly honest, I may have ... well ... tweaked my cherub at some point with a character editor ... hum!!

Mostly because ... well ... there were some thing yours truly did not understand about the game or had forgotten about the game (we'll talk about this in the future post about "shields" ... willpower mod, hum!! willpower mod!!).

Now, let's on with it shall we?

I need to talk to you about the blessing of ... ancient magic!! ... and the current debacle I am having with it .... hehehe.

See,  I sometimes felt that some monsters, boss; champs and normal monsters, had too much of a specific resistance or resistance in general for my taste ... which prevented my spells from doing enough damage. Ancient magic to the rescue!! It helps it really helps!!

why am I talking about a debacle? Well, I, I mean, Ezraelle is level 109 right now (soon to be 110) ... and still hasn't mastered ancient magic yet!! and I don't know about you, but I am feeling a lot of monsters (not the majority though) and bosses can get more than substantially amount of not only armor but, also it seems, damage mitigation!!

Still ... even not mastered, its beneficial effects (for me and Ezraelle not the monsters :P) can be felt.

And that's about it for now ... though it only covers skills SELECTION ... not necessarily skills points ATTRIBUTION. I feel like it deserves its own post and I might need help and counsel there ... because I can feel and see that, while the skill selection works me, the distribution of points could have gone better (I am still thinking ancient magic should be mastered by now).

That's all for now folks!

New post will be about items ... and there's a lot to be said about this here ;)

PS:

Careful ... I had steam somehow not recognize Sacred 2 was installed anymore and I stupidly had it recheck the files ... it re-downloaded them ... sans CM and EE mods ... and of course, without the items that go with it. And I started in the middle of a fight with half my armor vanished ... same for socket-able jewelry ... and a lightsaber or two ...

Well ... long story short, if that happens to you, make SURE you backup your save files first before launching the game. I lost so many good items  

Thankfully, dark matters modding community came to the rescue again  I was able to download mods to reconstruct, as best as I could, my lost items ... more or less to what they were before ... emphasis on the less perhaps but okay.

Another thing, this steam debacle seemed to have happened after it made an update and I forgot to properly shut down Sacred 2 when shutting off my computer ... in case that helps

 

[Daedalus 88]

All right, time to continue my report on my seraph/cherub (hopefully soon to be archangel) adventures!!

Currently standing at gold at level 110 ... I know still a lot of progress to make before becoming a solid niobum but eh ... Rome wasn't built in one day. Also, apart from killing key bosses to get key items (more on that later) I am trying to accelerate my gold run to get into platinum ... it's true that I like to take my time (especially with the hordes of monsters the superspawn mode .... well ... spawn  ).

So ... as promised ... items. 

Well, I am at the point where I still have adjustement to make but here are a few key points I learned:

Early on, apart from the usual blacksmith runes for sockets, it can pay to have some modicum of casting speed/attack speed ... or anything that makes the use of any CA faster really.

The first point is that, early in my toon life, is used the warding energy shield a lot (a lot less now but okay). that buff really helped me deal with archers early on (even though the reflect mod had its limits) but, also, because there was a substantial time between the time my divine dashing combo went down and before I could put it back up. And generally, this is where I did recast  the warding energy ... and this is where attack speed really helps. And one of the best way to do that, for me at least, is to have a shield+weapon combo on another slot socketed with the appropriate jewelry on it to cast those spells faster. 

Unfortunately, I need to rebuild it after losing most of my items in a steam crash but still.

Speaking of different slots for weapon/shield, I started using this a lot for different purposes: 

For example, for a while, I used a lot a slot socketed with plenty of +vision range. It really helps dispelling the "fog of war" and revealing the map.  It also helps to see where big pack of monsters with champions/elites are and to gather them for a big pile of xp ... boosted by a potion of mentor (which is how I use them. I spend less of them and I make tons of xp in the process nice!).

On another one, I am trying to make a +%to find valuable. again, lost it in the crash and I am in the process of rebuilding it.

For set items, I am currently focusing on eidjin artifacts ... but just enough to get the + to combat skills ... remember that my seraph has SEVEN of them! And in general +to combat skills is a great modifier for the same reasons.

The same can be said for + to defense skills for the same reasons ... and though you have only 3 of them, neglecting those can really be fatal against some early champion but, even worse, against some bosses (I am watching you dragons ... with you death ball heat seeking missile of doom and whatnot !! I have been one-two shotted enough by this in the past to take care!!).

For defense, I focus on getting a lot of %mitigation damage all channel. The wings of the set mentioned above helps.

The other set I am focusing is virtues of the seraphim. The gloves also have +% mitigation damage to all channel and some of the set bonuses are really useful.

And it seems that %chance to ignore armor, while not working on most spells, actually seems to work on archangel's wrath!! And it can be quite, quite damaging!!

Which leads me to another item bonus I am looking for (and would like to find more of) and that is %level hit point of enemy for deathblow!! Again, only seems to work on archangel's wrath (and apparently radiant pillar), but, combined with ignore amor and a good amount of critical chance ... yeah ... you have your Sacred 2 equivalent of "fatality" in that combo. Incredibly useful against ... well ... practically anyone really.

To go back on the subject of defense, I put as much damage mitigation as I can (would like more to be honest). The main reason is this:

To survive the cooldown between two dashing divine combo. Also, and I did not knew this, divine protection DOES give damage mitigation to all channel by itself ... and quite a good amount at that. I am currently sitting at something like 35+% which combined with my already existing amount on items + toughness skill ... I think I have slightly more than 50% right now ... under divine protection.

Still on defense, I've noticed that stacking different defense mod modifiers like +% to block *something* and +% to reflect *something and with +% to evade mainly ... well ... it helps, it reallly helps. It seems that it forces so many rolls that "the law of great numbers" kicks in your favor, that is there is a good chance something will work ... and if it doesn't ... well ... that's where a lot of armor and good damage mitigation comes in. Also why I am running with buff like "combat stance" ... despite being a combat caster build ... it helps a ton. And I did took all the mods that gives different defensive bonuses (+%to evade and %to reflect close combat) ... and I sometimes mix it (by switching the guardian angel) with the warding energy buff aura ... it does the same but for ranged and spell attacks.

Damn it, it is difficult to organize this!

Another very useful modifier is +CA damage range ... you know ... the one that increase the area of effect of ... well .. area of effect spells. So, radiant pillar, sonic vortex but, especially, flaring nova. Again, I'd like more, but even with something like just 6-8% while the increase is rather low, the effect on handling the character ... already quite substantial ... especially since I took all the CA mod with increased range, again, especially flaring nova.

That's another reason why I'd like more from the virtue of the seraphim Set, I believe you need to wear 6 of them to get +to CA range ... this should be quite good!

And speaking of that set, it seems vital to have the armor ... or any items really that gives +% to vitality ... not just fixed amount to vitality but % based ... and yeah, I do put more than a modicum of points in vitality with some level increase (though I am at the point where I am feeling I have now enough ... at least for the time being). Again, it really helps survive between two casting of the dashing divine combo.

What else? Oh yes! Lightsabers!!

Of course, since I took the willpower mod on divine protection (it gives a lot more shield point) that also increase damage on archangel's wrath ... yeah ... quite deadly especially with a combo of ignore armor+deadly blow+critical hit ... even more damage and an even more efficient "fatality move". Quite, quite deadly against bosses.

I used to have darth maul mace double lightsaber on account of it starting with deathblow on top of other deathblow bonuses ... and I mainly used it against bosses like the succubus but, also and it was quite a fight!!, against the werewolf boss !!! ... due to its extreme regeneration rate, I had to switch between weapon slots ... one to inflict debuff to reduce max life point, another with darth maul mace for deathblow and another, which also had deathblow but at a lower rate but with a shield for protection ... it was really a though and EPIC fight ... but I did got the Barsteward !!

Another modifier I am heavily seeking is -% penalty from buff ... quite useful at keeping your regen times low while still allowing a modicum of runes to be consumed for your buff.

And finally, another modifier which I found quite useful in EE is the +to Exalted warrior skill ... yep just for a single skill. Ditto for revered tech focus ... in EE, the bonus to single skills (and group of skills) is quite substantially higher ... and having bonuses to focus skills ... especially for dashing alacrity ... it allows you to buff your divine dashing combo A LOT, resulting in more bonuses for the combo but, also, shorter and short downtime between two casting of the combo ... and that REALLLLYYY helps, not only to survive but to stay in "super mode" practically all the time ... all the time that matters.

And that's all for now folks

[Daedalus 88]

Ohhhh I forgot a very important point on the subject of items!!

Make sure you don't go out with your relics equipped !! And the right ones at that !! This seems especially important in EE and especially in regards to EE BOSSES!! 

And again, I do have vivid and painful memories of some dragons nearly one shotting me ... and not just on account of them having a much larger damage+critical hit capabilities, but also because there were instance where, for example, I had magic resistance relics in lieu of fire resistance relics ... against a big huge mother*****G fire breathing dragon!! :O (those "heat seeking missiles" really, really hurt by the way !! Don't go out without relics equipped kiddo!!).

Which leads me to an important point on items, and I only discovered this VERY recently (two days ago in fact).

Killing the elemental lords gives you access to a specific LEGENDARY relic ... and as far as I can tell, they are the only ones giving and dropping those.

And those relics ... man ... they do give a huge amount of resistance ... and an additional item bonus to boot. So far, the two I got (fire and Ice) both give +10% something to magic find .... I Now have both equipped all the time ... and my elemental resitances for those two are coming much closer to my physical resistance.

This was not the case before or, rather, I had to put all the relics in one elements to do that. Now, I have several elements with significant resistances. It really helps. Either by spreading the resistance for a general setting ... or doubling down on a specific one to have HUGE resistance against an element for, like say, those "heat seaking missile" launching dragon of death !!

Again, don't go out without your proper relics equipped kiddos! Especially in EE. 

And that's all for now. ;)

Next entry will finally focus on how that particular serapt, the "gatling gun mentalist" actually handles in really combat situation.

And maybe later, probably not yet for the next post, I'll have a few videos prepared ... it might help showcase you what I am trying to build and, hopefully, having a few pointers from the many Sacred wiz these forums are certainly full of.

 

[Daedalus 88]

Alright, it has been a while since I've updated this. The main reason is this:

First, I did start quite a few new characters in EE and trying different styles. Then, it has been around less than a week since I came back to my "gatling gun mentalist".

And after experimenting with different styles of others builds,  and coming back to Ezraelle, I have learned quite a few things.

The main thing are the multiples mistakes I did when I build the character at the first 75 levels both in skill distribution, where to distribute the skills and when to distribute ... I feel like a few unnecessary deaths could have been avoided like this (also it is a good learning experience when I take this build to hardcore ).

I have also learned quite a lot from item modifiers. And I found out that I am especially found of %chance to ignore armor and deathblow. Combined with critical hits, this can make a very lethal combo ... except that, as far as I can see, I only use those on archangel's wrath which is REALLLLY good don't get me wrong but I feel like I missed a few opportunities.

Also, it seems that ancient magic, while useful, might be far from being optimal here.And there's also the order of the distributions of mods points on combat arts ... well ... mistakes were made. I eventually corrected almost all of them ... but mistakes were made hehehe .

With that in mind, while I will continue Ezraelle now and then until niobum, I decided to stat this build anew and have some changes I have in mind.

First the order of skills: Exalted warrior and Revered technology lore focus ... that's the first two picks, no question about it.After that ... well ... this where things might significantly differ from my original build.First of all, there are other skills I am considering ... which might change the build A LOT!

The main point one I intend to switch for will be  Combat discipline ... and that's not negotiable ;) Ancient magic might go away.Other skills I am considering are : tactic lore and warding energy lore.  And that means up to three skills (if I am not mistaken) might be switched ... but which ones? 

The first option I am considering is this:

All three focus skills+Concentration are there to stay ... it's the main focus of the build after all, to rapidly fire a barrage of spells and combat arts  Combat discipline will definitely be added, I sense that it will help the build too much for that. And will probably be picked in my first five skills.

After that, the main first option is to switch the Revered Lore with tactics lore. I would use the Revered CA for divine protection + eventually the other buff. And sonic vortex and Nova flare will be used with on a combo with those two and radiant pillar added -> this would be my main debuff combo for creating chaos and weakening monsters. Then I'll make two other combos  using the exalted and celestial aspects. Also, this one would have combat discipline replace ancient magic. By switching to a more weapon oriented build (while still keeping good spell damage through celestial aspect), I will have the option to use several different slots with weapons designed to take advantage of the different monsters weaknesses (they all have at least one).

Another option is to keep the original build with just combat discipline switched in lieu of ancient magic. So, the bigger combat might help with cooldown, more damage on what I am using already overall and so on .... and it will open the option of using exalted warrior with mods designed to lower physical armor ... making sonic vortex that much destructive.

A final option is to go completely crazy on all aspects -> take all focus+lore and add concentration+combat discipline and then two defensive skills. Then I have access to everything and this make the build quite, quite versatile which is the main point I am really enjoying in there. 

And depending on which option I take, I will have either two or three defensive skills ... and several good options. First of all, constitution while at first seemed a good idea to survive the downtime between two divine protection I am starting to realize is ... a bit meh.

Toughness seems the way to go here without question. It simply adds too much. Then, do I go for two or three defensive skills? If only two, armor lore is pretty much guaranteed ... but if I go with three I might try the warding energy lore instead of shield ... but it makes the downtime much more dangerous especially at lower levels.

Speaking of survival,I'll end with this: I am developing a healthy respect for the basic blacksmith armor rune. It does seems to give a good amount of defense. Combine with the correct relics (which I did forget early game, and sometimes after .... costing me a few inflicted deaths) .... AND some of those new basic talisman EE gives you access to ... I am noticing it gives a good amount of armor, though I'll still need to experiment there. 

Also, finally, combat discipline might indirectly contributes there. First by lowering cool-down on my divine protection+dashing alacrity combo, allowing more runes to be eaten more early (more protection and less downtime earlier), it might also contribute to allowing longer cool-down while keeping the "Gatling gun" part of the build intact since longer combo can accommodate that, allowing higher runes to be eaten-> better buffs, damage and everything. And at lower levels, it will allow me to use significantly less blacksmith to lower cooldown and put, instead, those that gives +% to all armor.

We'll see.

I have started today and I will report later in the evening to tell you how it goes. Cheers! 

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by Daedalus

[Flix 5,164]

Like you, I can hardly ever resist going triple aspect!    Unless I have a specific novelty/challenge build in mind.

The good thing is, with her Energy Shields, the Seraphim is well-protected even without a huge amount of Defensive Skills.  You could well do this build and be a powerhouse with good combos and gear:

3 Focus/3 Lore

Armor Lore

Ancient Magic

Combat Discipline

Concentration

This is pretty much the "default" build for any triple aspect character, since it covers all the bases and is fairly well balanced, so long as you make use of your defensive combat arts and good protective gear.

[Daedalus 88]

I am still thinking about my future skills for my current build. However, one of the lore skills will most likely be swapped with toughness. I am noticing that, without it, you take quite a significant amount of additional damage, with can be very deadly with super-spawn (and made even worse with the other EE mod, tough I haven't done it yet) but most of all ... bosses! 

And it's not neccesarly just the added flat amount of armor on all channels but, also, the added mitigation damage to all channels.

I am considering several options but, so far, I think I am going with the one with tactic lore swapped with toughness (regarding the list you just gave me). It's the option that's closest to the way I was playing the first version of that build and, also, despite the fact that I am going to use combat art more, I have noticed that you can do respectable amount of damage (though far, far, far from what you can from a dedicated build granted, sure) but still enough to sometimes matter from my original build.

The new one will have combat discipline on top of that ... which will make everything easier, not to mention add more damage to every of my combat art.  I am using the +willpower mod of divine shield so, with lightsabers which add a substantial amount of damage. By the way, I am starting to think that character who have access to +willpower mod on their CA can make some of the best lightsabers build.

Also, as a side note, a lot of lightsabers have powerful modifiers: some of my most favorite are the +to combat skills and, most of all, +to combat art range from windu's mace. Yellow light-sabers also can be good a they frequently have +mitigation damage to all channel, very helpful against bosses again ... or though monsters and champions.

Still, the original verison of the build taught me a lot about many, many thing in the game ... but most especially how to use radiant pillar+sonic vortex+flaring nova to bring chaos and destruction making wrecking enemies SO much easier

I am still trying to get used to Steamlab OBS, I'll try to have a few videos one of these days, maybe we, the people here, can exchange ideas? I am sure there must be quite a lot of sacred 2 gourours who could help me there. ;)

[Daedalus 88]

It's been a while since I've updated this, some reasons being that I saw a new update of my favourite mod was coming along hehehe ... also, took the opportunity to play other games->" I had absolutely NOTHING to do with that guy's death, no sir!! ... By the way, what happened to the poor dude? Crushed by a candelabra? Though luck!! ... and yes, I am not the only with the codebar tattoo on the neck, it's all the rage right now" .... hehehe

Anyways:

While I try starting a new seraph with the aforementioned knowledge, I wasn't able to resist playing Ezraelle again. Gotta prove she's niobum worthy after all ... and it is turning out more and more that she actually is !!! Heck, even the shield skill is actually pulling a LOT of weigh ... certainly far more than I first expected.

Now, some lessons were learned among the way, and the most important is this:

Remember in what of my last post when I talked about using different weapon and trying to leverage them to my advantage? Turned out that I am starting to understand of it might work to do exactly this  So, here's how it's working so far ....

First thing to note is that for a lot of them, it's actually the number of socketable items that is one of the prime thing to look for.

Slot #1: For a good while, I had all the +view range on this. I am now in the process of replacing it with a +%magic find shield+weapons duo ... with the max socketable rings and amulet types of course. This is mostly used when I know the monsters are easy for my char (and it is starting to become more and more the case but I digress ... I especially like some areas to use it, like orcs ones and grunwald ... the drop is quite good there  ).

Slot #2: The "defensive" slot. Basically, a combination of "there is a disturbance in the force" (or a lightsaber with good defensive type properties like +%dmg mitigation all channels) combined with an appropriate shield for the zone I am currently in. By default, if you don't know what to put in sockets, the best is a combination of appropriate armor amulets+ "defense" blacksmith runes ... The combination can increase your defensives capabilities and armor values by A LOT. Switch to this if you expect to take damage.

Slot #3: This is the opposite of slot #2, the "offensive" slot. Currently, it is equipped with "Darth Maul" double lightsaber. Incredibly effective at dealing a ton of damage, especially with Archangel's wrath. Incredibly destructive against many champions but most especially bosses!! The latter are now falling MUCH MORE quickly since I started using this slot. hehehe.

Slot #4: The "basic crow control" slot. I use it as the "default" slot. It uses windu's mace as a weapon for the +to combat skills and+to combat art range among other things. I do like to put "+to weakness chance" as damage modifier socket (same for some of the other slot). it basically help a ton when dealing with a tons of more regular monsters and champions. It allows me to spam those pillars and crowd controls much faster. I am still deciding which sockets are best for this, though something along the lines of more +to all skills and +to casting speed.

slot #5: The "boost CA" slot. I am using this mainly for casting buffs and temporary buff (the "dashing divine shield" combo). A lot of the points in my buffs come from this. It helps a TON ... and seems especially useful to boost my Sublime guardian.

Speaking of buffs, I am now mainly focusing on those 3 -> 6 is sublime guardian (for easier recast when she dies), 7 is for "combat stance" and 8 is for "cleansing brillance" (to slow down the opposition).

Now, to use those slots, it works mainly like this:

When starting the game, use #5 to cast buff quickly including the combo #5 (dashing+divine shield). Switch to #4 when dealing with a lot of monsters. Use #2 when fighting though damage dealers monsters but mostly bosses! (to avoid getting one shotted and massively reduce their damage). When you manage to stun the boss due to either flaring nova or assailing somersault, quickly switch to #3 to wail on the bosses and pile up the archangel's wrath on him. Once he "wakes up" go back to #2.

Use #1 when in zones where you relatively safe to farm items and there you go.

My (future) Archangel's seraphim took a massive boost to her fighting capabilities since I've started using this.

I'll write later today about sets (I am still in the process of determining which to use and switched back and forth but megacarlwen's mutation set is starting to get more and more importance, same for impression of sophia and sopor aethernis);

Ah ... and the other reason I was not so present lately is because I am getting often the visit from an ambassador from a not-so-far country ... gotta go and make her discover my country by the way ... she is sooo cute. So I hope you understand why I prefer spending time with that female hehehe) ... I can't resist posting an image by the way. See you soon ;)

[gogoblender 3,199]

Im here for the ambassador.. absolutely adorable!

enough to tear away the most stead fast from our lovely game anytime

gogo

[Daedalus 88]

That she's more able to do ... she also like to walk ... A LOT !! Since she came to my house a few days ago, I am doing about 20km a day for around 2 thousands calories burned

Anyways, back to the subject at hand ;)

So, for sets, what can I tell you? ... Well, the first thing would be: I am still not sure which set or sets to go for ... but I have tested quite a few of them to be honest, I am not just sure.

The bonuses from the virtues of the seraphim set are quite useful: The biggest ones are the %to ignore armor and %to combat art range (quite useful with flaring nova/radiant pillar/archangel's wrath). The most interesting pieces in the set for me are the shield (3 sockets+loads of block melee), the gloves (good +%mitigation all channels) and the armor (+% to vitality ... lots of additional hitpoints which can save your hide between divine shield cooldown not to mention avoid getting one shotted).The thing is ... there are other interesting sets.
Sopor Aethernis is another one, and you can quickly get +to all combat skills. That will drastically not only increase damage overall, do good stuff to the dashing/divine  shield combo not to mention do  absolute wonders for your CA regen times ... allowing to gobble even more runes for even stronger effects!!

The glove were the initial selling points for me: despite having only a single socket the +%combat art range is quite good enough for a single item ... also the bonus seems big compared to other similar sources. And in general, the set tends to give bonuses to your celestial combat arts-> very good especially for archangel's wrath (though the pillars and baneful smite pack a big punch with it afterwards).

Another set of note (but which I am lacking some of the times that I am looking for) is the impression of sophia-> I mostly have the "sophia's chastity" one but it give +%to willpower. That can mean a significant better energy shield and a few other perks as well for the lightsaber. I know there are other items in the set which give % bonuses to also intelligence and stamina ... yeah, I'd very much like to have them.

Finally, there is a special mention for the megacarlwen's garment of mutation. The number of sockets in all those mutation sets is nothing sort of insane!!! I understand the philosophy behind them, you use it for more customization freedom. But with this build, this approach seems to work true wonders. Even the additional pure runes/blacksmith runes are incredibly useful. And having duplicates of some pieces can actually be very good. With the many sockets compared to other sets you can, among other things, use a spare piece to put +to specific armor and fill the rest with defense blacksmith runes for maximum defense against specific bosses. And since merchants tend to sell those armor amulet relatively easily ... yeah ... that's very useful

For unique, there is a shield which, despite only having one socket, is .... nothing short of stupid useful in slot #2, you know the defensive one. Stalwart safeguard ... and I was ... WHAT?!! WOW!! Oh boy, that thing does give a METRIC TON of armor. Sure, it is spread out over all channel, but the bonus seems big !! Big enough to me ... I manage to go from 30K something to just north of 40K ... in a general protect against everything configuration ... and against specific damage ... yeah ... I can see how that could be useful.

Also of note are the yellow amulet and such giving +% armor to a single channel ... sure it is a single channel, but the bonuses tend to be VERY big. Quite useful from what I can see against, again, some bosses (the one shotting kind).

To finish this current post, let me tell you about my first lightsaber I ever found with this character ... here let me show you:

Now, it might not immediately looks like it at first ... but man ... a real piece of beauty. An extremely good and broad selection of very good bonuses all rolled into one neat package ... safeguarded into many chest for all of eternity

%mitigation damage to all channels, good start, not the best but good start ;) ... chance to bypass armor (and this beauty is the first thing that led me to discover how useful that is) and, of course, .... DEATHBLOW!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! ... yep ... that 'little' lightsaber taught me a lot about my seraphim (soon to be archangel ... she is in niobum right now and kicking ass at level 138 ... and facing something like 18-20 levels above her monsters ;)  ... and soon more to level above since I have a (very, very) good bonus to survival ;) .

That's all for now folks  

[Daedalus 88]

Side note:

I am starting to understand how that OBS thingy works now (granted still not the best resolution or framerate ... but still ... pretty good looking now  ).

Question:

I was on plan to record a few key fights in niobum to illustrate the character. So ... which ones do you think would be best for this? ;)

[Flix 5,164]

1 hour ago, Daedalus said:

 

Something's not right with that item name.  Do you have the Community Patch installed?  It seems like the file that co-opted the obsolete "chain weapons" class and renamed them to lightsabers is not in effect.

[Daedalus 88]

Yes I did, some time ago and before installing the enhanced version 2.3.

I'll double check to make sure tough.

[Daedalus 88]

All right, I've just checked, I have the following version of CM patch-> Sacred 2 Community Patch-16-1-60

it's the only one I have ever installed I think, and that lightsaber is a pretty old one (it was in the rather early stages of my seraphim compared to total hours played, I must have been around 55-60 when I first got it, I do remember suffering from heaving speed penalties at first when using it from what little I can remember).

I am not sure what else to tell you. But if you think about more info for me to check out for you, don't hesitate to ask, and I'll check

[Flix 5,164]

Hmm. ok.  Thanks for checking.  Can you humor me and please check in the game's "locale" folder and open itemnames.csv?  Line 17 is the lightsaber names. it should read as follows:

As you can see CM Patch took over the inactive Chain Weapon names and replaced them with "Lightsaber."  Do you have other random rare lightsaber drops to look at in-game?  If so, do they say "lightsaber" or do they have other names like "nunchaku"?

Sorry to derail the thread; just wondering if something is packaged wrong somewhere or if it's an installer error, or what....

[Daedalus 88]

I think that might be the source of the problem :

NGCLF_CHAINWEAPONMorningStar,1Scourge,1Nunchaku,1

Maybe that helps answer your question .. but the names I see there seems to do just that

For future reference, is it okay next time we discuss things like this that I post my response in the Enhanced Edition thread? For clarity purposes and so you have a single place to look for when trying to see things that needs to be done?

EDIT: I might also need to check my version of community patch since I've installed it quite some time ago, a bit before I did EEdition 3.0, just as a side note and for clarity purposes ;)

 

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Daedalus

[Flix 5,164]

7 hours ago, Daedalus said:

For future reference, is it okay next time we discuss things like this that I post my response in the Enhanced Edition thread? For clarity purposes and so you have a single place to look for when trying to see things that needs to be done?

Not a problem, but at this point, based on your report I'm certain this is not related to EE, since my mod doesn't touch those files.  Whatever it is, it's something specific to your setup.

The only thing I can think is a failed, partial, or very old install of the CM Patch.

[Daedalus 88]

Quote

The only thing I can think is a failed, partial, or very old install of the CM Patch.

Now that you mention it, it's actually quite possible. it was before my crash with sacred 2 where I had to reinstall the whole thing though. Still ... I think it might be a good opportunity to double check my own install ... especially with the Enhanced Edition version 3.0 of a new toon of mine which should be coming soon ;) 

Though, I'd like to, at least, finish niobum with my Seraph first of course

 

[Daedalus 88]

Hey there flix

Remember the issue with my seraphim you found? The one with lightsaber being called a "nunchaku".

I believe I may have found the source of the issue: It's in the orc region with the mission where I think you have to escort the son of an orc leader to "thoughen up". Here is the reward for the quest;

The characteristics for the "nunchaku" are pretty spot on by the way ... practically the same type of bonuses I had on my initial one (the "essence nunchaku").

Hopefully, that helps  (granted it's just a typo issue but I like to contribute ;) ).

 

 

[Flix 5,164]

Thanks for the report. It's definitely nothing to do with EE though, in fact I can tell EE is installed properly because of the bonuses that show in your screenshots. 

That name gets randomly applied to lightsabers of the rare variety.  There's only a single file that controls that, the ItemNames.csv that we looked at earlier, that is definitely not the correct version that comes with CM 1.60.

What language is your game install?  And what's the language within your "locale" folder?  Is it en_UK?

[dimitrius154 614]

1 hour ago, Flix said:

What language is your game install?  And what's the language within your "locale" folder?  Is it en_UK?

The only way the "Nunchaku" name could have surfaced is, if the locale\en_UK\Itemnames.csv  contains an incorrect entry for the NGCLF_CHAINWEAPON. 

[Flix 5,164]

1 hour ago, dimitrius154 said:

The only way the "Nunchaku" name could have surfaced is, if the locale\en_UK\Itemnames.csv  contains an incorrect entry for the NGCLF_CHAINWEAPON. 

Yes that what's we established a few posts up.  He has the wrong itemnames.csv file installed somehow.  I suspect incomplete or failed install of the CM Patch, but it could be something in particular with his locale folder.  I'm moving these posts back to the rest of the discussion.

[Daedalus 88]

thanks for the replies guys

Now, small question:

What would be the best way for me to check the installation of the CM patch? Because apart from that, I have no real bugs to report since installing it. ( Also, I might be bit proud somehow to be one of the few ones to "have a nunchaku". )

[Daedalus 88]

Wow! It has been a while since I've updated this ... but my life has been so hectic these past few months.

And contrarly to what this statement might imply, it was in fact filled with good stuff as I've taken the opportunity of the COVID-19 and the limitations it brought to focus on making more than significant improvements into my life, and it is progressing nicely.

On the other hand, it meant less time spent with Ezraelle and Sacred 2 in general.

But also, it was due to that frustrating episode with the new lightning lord in the latest EE patch.

I have big issues in defeating him ... in the sense that I have yet to be able to do so ... though to be fair, I was already fairly into niobum difficulty by that point and killing him in previous difficulty level would not be representative. The issues I have is that I lack easy access to poison damage, the only way to hurt effectively and this is combined with the fact that the dude deals a metric ton of damage ... despite more than serious defence on part of my seraphim.

I also did try the Diablo 2 mod for some time, and while it is definitely a fun mod ... boy ... can it be difficult at times! I'll definitely come back to it one of these days and try a full 3 aspects sorceress build as per Modimus "Jack' o'lantern" prime (thanks again for the advice for this kind of build ;) ).

But I am starting slowly to be back on that horse ;)

So, latest news, I have hit level 147 on niobum, and, despite the high level of monsters and bosses, I am doing pretty well at the moment ... lord of lightning/magic excepted of course

I did notice something though: 

I have so much bonuses to regeneration times from various sources (skills, stats, items etc ...), that I noticed I can gobble up a good amount of runes for my auras.

This is starting to make a substantial change on my char, especially for battle stance, since this boost both the defensive capabilities of my seraphim as well as among other things. The same can be said about the sublime guardian though to a far lesser extent. I suspect I need more runes and skill points there. 

Speaking of skills, I am going for toughness mastery at the moment and 6-7 levels to go before that. Once done, I am expecting some substantial, significant changes to my seraph even, since it will make that much thougher to kill or simply harm ... and she is starting to be pretty solid.

With a few exceptions, all the mobs and champions I am fighting so far have a lot of trouble denting my defenses. And even for those who can manage that (e.g.: Fen fires or the one eyes in the swamp), I can still soak the damage, dodge with somersault, ... or use sommersault in a "the best defense is a good offense" kind of way, since it allows me to quickly target the most dangerous mobs/champions.

I have to be careful with some of the bosses since those can pierces my defense but even there the potential of the build is starting to show. 

I expect things to improve once I have mastered thoughness and killed the ultimate boss in the swamp (and get a nice legendary reward boosting all my stats as a results ;) )

Thanks for reading this and sorry about the absence ;)

Edited August 9, 2020 by Daedalus

[Androdion 898]

After going several times against all the Elemental Lords in various difficulty levels I can tell you that none is as strong of a contender as the Lightning Lord. I've spoken to Flix about it, and in my mind that boss is clearly OP. The amount of damage he causes, his ability to self-heal and the speed at which he cycles through his spells are things that are very hard to go against. I know I've been playing a handicapped build (no weapons), but I've compared him to the other Lords and no other is that strong. Even with %LL he is still very tough because of his damage output.