Niob Advice

[FrostElfGuard 9]

Advice I've been given to survive Niobium

 

1) Upgrade your armour --weak resists is bad... you ARE going to get hit! And with CAs too.

 

2) Tune your armour to the area you're going to fight in. (High resist for expected damage types)

 

3) You can't count on exploits like the Bear Cave and the Nuk Nuk Chieftains having a 0% chance to hit mounted adventurers.

So: play nice!

 

4) The game puts the brakes on for leveling beyond level 100. That is, after 100, each level is harder and harder to attain.

You need to swap out the gear that has been keeping you alive and swap in +experience gear. Or you'll take forever to level.

 

5) Levels 206 to 216 require you to explore as much of the map as you can. If you keep your exploring to a minimum, your

ability to level up will be severely cut down.

 

6) DE, BM, Vamp, seraphim, Glad and seraphim can all have their CAs/Spells boosted significantly by shopping for armour. Not so the

other classes (Dwarf and Daemon). The first 6 can take advantage of combos to have a powerful level CA/spell x 4.

 

7) New to Niob? Don't go to VoT! Start out in a proven hunting ground. Before going to VoT have a strategy to deal with

Hell Golems (their Magic Melee damage with a Hard Hit can cause HUGE damage), Infernal Daemons (the Plant Cagers that

root you in place) the 'pods (Their CA/Spell stop timers can kill). Have a strategy in place before you meet them. They

now will use their special abilities more frequently, and with higher levels (thus more powerful results).

 

Any other tips from the experts?---What I'm looking to do here is squeeze out of the Niob players the things they no longer think

about. Things that ingrained into them and have dropped from their conscious minds. Things... that would help those of us

who don't know them yet...

[Rotluchs 82]

+4) yeah but next and really big high-level penalty is around 160/180 in niob, as a matter of fact 100-140 in platin can be very fast

 

+5) it gives only a small bonus, hard to notice at all.. if it's even still there.. if, then the threshold is around 20-25% WD

 

+6) sure, unless your dwarf is attack or mh based eg.

 

+7) the max dmg that you can suffer from when hit by a niob golem is ~15-17k afaik. so be prepared and have your HP boosted high enough, when they launch their special CA, you could be hit by 3x of that dmg-output.

very very high Def is the better strategy against them IMHO than very very high magic resistance. best was both ofc

but the most important to survive is as always: you have to be able to take out multiple monsters as fast as possible.

also watch out for life leech gear, and better remove your split-mods from your equip when you're unsure if you could handle that.

if you plan a char that could handle niob VoT easily, getting the benefit of drastically higher experience but you're new to sacred, and planning a new toon, you may want to try first: PM dark elf , BFG seraphim , TB/CoA wood elf , various Daemoness builds.. etc.

 

8) if you either dont want to go VoT or if you can't, good alternative leveling-places are:

GF (ghost forest) , OC (orc cave) , SD (spider desert) , or some of those smaller undead-caves with loads of ghouls eg.

 

9) in every situation, playing 'succesfully' in niob (and other difficulties) depends on how fast you can kill your enemies, and not how high your def/res is... once you deal enough dmg, then you could start on your def/res, but see for your killspeed first

Edited February 5, 2008 by Rotluchs

[FrostElfGuard 9]

10) Invest in a defensive CA. For example, Dread for the Daemon should drastically reduce her chance of being hit. The Dwarf has Dwarven Armour. The Battle mage can negate melee damage with Circle of Fear... Sometimes preventing dangerous situations is the way to go... which follows on 9) above. If the enemy is dead quickly, then they don't get to launch their special attacks.

[DaveO 88]

Having had a Gladiator that is now level 160 in Niobium, here is my minor advice:

 

1. Put some WIDD in your gear, to offset huge damage attacks. WIDD increases damage if you get hit hard, so use that as backup if monsters get thru your defense.

 

2. Defense matters, so get CAs with defense bonuses WAY up there or maxed if you can. You'll be thankful you did.

 

3. Experience items are not really necessary in my opinion, but definitely use your mentor pots more liberally(a fault of mine is to hoard them).

 

4. Damage matters, and special damage matters doubly so. If you have a character using a set with a special damage bonus, this could help you to make things easier.

 

5. Have fun! As a previous poster said, you're going to need to explore more of the map and with the slower leveling I think there is more incentive to explore the map rather than the usual quicker experience areas.

[ganto 0]

Ill share my opinions from my time in sacred HC niob. I dont call myself expert in anyway and are rather new compared to other players but I do have 4 active niob characters and one dead WE that got to level 183.

 

1.) High life leech, key factor in all my builds. I always use 20% as a minimum.

 

2.) Lag kills, I avoid playing when server lags, atleast I stay away from the more dangerous areas.

 

3.) Use potions, I press space often in tight situations - just incase

 

4. ) I avoid party with high lvls, atleast if the players are unknown to me. And if I do party its on equal terms regardless of level, eg I avoid leeching experience.

 

But generally I follow the already given advices here, like upgrade my gear as I find them.

[Knuckles 904]

1) Know your enemies. Know what hurts them and what enemy attacks hurt you

 

2) You should have one main heavy damage attack, not 2-3 mediocre ones

 

3) Invest in damage specific weapons and rings.

 

4) Always put yourself in a position to be able to attack first

 

5) When all else fails, Alt + F4 is your friend

[Schot 407]

Great topic Frosty!

• Maximum movement speed is a MUST
   
  
• A good horse and a very good saddle can go a long way. It can increase your resistances, health and can provide a fast escape. Even if you do not have the Riding Skill
   
  
• Pay close attention to your Attack Rate in Niobium with regards to melee based attacks. In niobium It can be difficult to always hit your enemy
   
  
• Maintain your buffs! If you've built a character that is sometimes dependant on a buff or two it will mean that in Niobium you will need to maintain it ALL the time. For example if you create a build who does not socket Def or resists and sockets only damage then that build must maintain it's buffs always in Niob. You never know what will happen... If you lag even for 5 seconds and your buffs are not on you could die
   
  
• A constant LL is a great thing. Having some kind of constant damage(like a buff that does damage or a type of Area of Effect trap that you set) can really help. Especially in Niobium
   
  
• If the enemies stop moving and won't attack you this could mean you are lagging. If you are lagging get out of the area right away! Don't wait around to see if things will get better. There's a chance that you are being attacked and losing health but you can not see it because you are experiencing a delay/Lag. In this case I will either leave the area or I will find a 100% safe place that is nearby and wait for things to return to normal.
   
  
• Always check the ground for Mentor Potions. I see a lot of people that never pick up Mentor Potions that drop from enemies that they kill. This will of course help you gain levels faster and in Niobium it can become veeery difficult to gain experience fast.
  

[myles 2]

(I posted in the niob poll thread and it seems to fit better in this so I copied the whole thing here. Sorry for duplicating post)

 

Niob seems scary, well its not! (if you don't count the lag )

 

I thought it was difficult at first, but just farm in a start up area and completely change your gear to niob version. Then, it would be just fine. It seems silly to fight in say bellueve (I know I spelled it wrong ), but its not in niob. Those thieves can chop you to Ancaria heaven.

 

And I echo others above, I always jump to a higher difficulty level ASAP. Its a habit, I think, so that I get used to the transition danger and expect it at all times. Niob is the hardest transition, but its not that bad.

 

Oh and set you red flash warning higher helps too. Esp. if your game starts lagging, just drink those potions you know when in doubt. I keep nothing but potion in Niob, and I only pick up gold, set, and unique I might need (or others may want).

 

Rune I only pick up the popular ones. I'm crazy with the rune drop being lower? Its not believe me, its better to just pick up what you need than everything. I limit myself to 5 experience potions, and only use it fighting dragons or sakara demons. I always forget to drink it anyway.

[gial 2]

It seems that no matter how high your defense and resists are, the heavy hitters are going to hit you hard, given a chance.

 

My number one rule is never, ever give an enemy 2 chances to hit me. To this end:

 

A) Fast kill. One hit kills are a must. If you can 1-hit multiples, even better. A high damage CA, high AR and high Critical Hit are important.

 

B) Fast movement. Never stand still. I usually play ranged WE; and usually start moving before my arrows hit their targets. This is critical if you have split! (The new enemies will not spawn right next to you if you are moving away).

 

I have not noticed a bonus for WD, maybe it only kicks in later:) Never been above the low 160's.

 

Trolls seem to give a large xp given their minimal danger and rarely are they in mobs. Z-N (poison) and Lava plains (fire) give pretty good xp. ZN has the Raptors as well.