Dark Elf build Help.

[Arafinwe 0]

Hello everyone,

 

A while ago I got my hands on a copy of Sacred Gold, I looked at the

characters and first started playing with the Gladiator. And although

he's now level 24 and indeed becoming strong, I some how think he

is becoming boring. Since I do want to continue with him at some point

I guess I have backed up the entire savegame folder.

 

I started looking at the dark elf and he does seem like a realy fun

character to play with and I looked at this DE build:

 

Csaszar's Hybrid Dark Elf

 

It looks like fun indeed, but I'm confused here? I could be reading it

incorrectly but in the skills section it looks like Trap lore and Ballistics

are the level 1 skills? How can that be, IIRC the DE level 1 skills are

Weapon lore and Concentration?

 

Does this mean that you can change the level 1 starting skills? If so

then how can I do that.

 

I realise that it is a personal choice when you take which skill, but

there seem to be more importend factors for building up a good DE

it seems. I'm realy confused about when to take which skill at what

level? (Man even this post looks confused.)

 

Would it make a good character if I indeed aded the skils like in the guide:

 

Level 1: Trap Lore & Ballistics (If that can indeed be done.)

 

Level 3: Constitution

 

Level 6: Armor

 

Level 12: Parrying

 

Level 20: Weapon lore

 

Level 30: Blade Combat

 

Level 50: Concentration

 

I realise that Phys Regen will increase the combat arts aswell, but is taking

concentration so late a good idea? Same thing with Blade Combat, it looks

like a extremly importend Skill for the DE?

[gogoblender 3,070]

First off Arafinwe, welcome to DarkMatters!

 

And... heh, your first question here is regarding a character class I've hardly ever touched... I'm not sure what would be best for your build at this point, I'm sure though that others from the community will show up who have more expertise that I do on this.

 

 

 

gogo

[Arafinwe 0]

First off Arafinwe, welcome to DarkMatters!

 

And... heh, your first question here is regarding a character class I've hardly ever touched... I'm not sure what would be best for your build at this point, I'm sure though that others from the community will show up who have more expertise that I do on this.

 

 

 

gogo

 

Thank you for the welcome gogoblender, I will wait and see what others

can tell me about this.

[Schot 407]

Hey there Arafinwe. Welcome aboard. Love that avatar!

 

 

I'm no expert on DE's but I can help you out with that starting skills question. It is in fact possible to set any future new characters skills to be 0. That way when you enter the game you will have the opportunity to choose the first 2 starting skills. The SacredWiki gives an explanation of this which you can find by the following:

Sacred:Default_Skills

 

That page talks about changing a file in your game installation called settings.cfg. It is allowed officially to alter this file as you deem fit.

 

If you need any further help feel free to ask.

[Arafinwe 0]

Thanks Schot, I found it on a site last year and just Photoshopped it a bit

to this result.

 

As for the default skills, thank you for the link.

[tomi 0]

Hey and welcome to the Dark Matters.

 

Well I had a few de-es, so I'll try to help you.

Well first if you really want to make a hybrid de, then you just need to follow csaszar's build. (csaszar makes really really good de-es)

If you don't want a hybrid, then I can recommend these skills:

 

level 1: weapon lore

level 1: trap lore

level 3: ballistic

level 6: Constitution

level 12: agility

level 20: armor

level 30: Parrying

level 50: you chose, (but trade is not a good idea)

 

These skills you need for the best sacred toon's build. He is very strong, but after some time it will be boring too, if you don't take him into dangerous places. ofc csaszar's builds are far better then mines, but that is the way to make a cool toon.

In my opinion you won't need blade combat, because after niob you will use only weapons with nice xp bonus, and blade combat is not necessary to use them.

To be very strong you need to max the Testosterone combat art, what gives you +poison damage% (max level ~500)

To keep your toon safe need to max adrenaline too.

 

I can help you out with items if you want. Oh and as csaszar said...or didn't...you will need D'brae to get +damage (Soul)

Huron helm can help too.

ofc as a combat art (to damage) the best (in my opinion) is the Poison Mist.

 

Tell me if you have questions or you need something else. (oh and I can help you out with runes too)

(Btw if you haven't found the way to chose the first 2 skills too here it is:

C:\Program Files\Ascaron Entertainment\Sacred Underworld

In the settings file you have to correct it.

 

have fun with your toon and wish all the best!

[gogoblender 3,070]

And, after some digging...lol, I knew we had these around here somewhere....

 

Tadah!

 

The Dark Elf Guides!

 

http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?showforum=270

 

 

gogo

[Schot 407]

It's beautiful work Arafinwe and your welcome.

 

I think you'll be ok to take the skills in the order you've put them. It looks as though the way the quide is written that you'll be relying on Poison Mist during the early levels of your DE. Rest assured that Poison Mist is an exceptionally reliable skill. You'll be just fine with that. If I recall correctly you can in fact choose Trap Lore and Ballistics to start with. These two will help immensly in keeping the regeneration time of Poison Mist down to a manageable time between casting.

 

Of course having the right equipment to start with can make the biggest difference when just getting started.

 

Good luck on the build and have fun with it!

[Arafinwe 0]

Thanks for the help Tomi, and yes thanks to Schot's link I already

changed the line in the settings.cfg.

 

Because of what you wrote I will assume that csaszar's build means

that the skills he/she mentioned are in order of when to take them

as I wrote them in my question in the first post. That will help me

a whole darn lot.

 

But you wrote that you personaly don't think BC is neccesary?

What about weapons that require a certain level of the BC skill?

 

And, after some digging...lol, I knew we had these around here somewhere....

 

Tadah!

 

The Dark Elf Guides!

 

http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?showforum=253

 

 

gogo

 

That's where I found csaszar's build, still thank you for the link.

[Arafinwe 0]

It's beautiful work Arafinwe and your welcome.

 

I think you'll be ok to take the skills in the order you've put them. It looks as though the way the quide is written that you'll be relying on Poison Mist during the early levels of your DE. Rest assured that Poison Mist is an exceptionally reliable skill. You'll be just fine with that. If I recall correctly you can in fact choose Trap Lore and Ballistics to start with. These two will help immensly in keeping the regeneration time of Poison Mist down to a manageable time between casting.

 

Of course having the right equipment to start with can make the biggest difference when just getting started.

 

Good luck on the build and have fun with it!

 

WOW, it can go fast here I see, 2 new messages while I was answering

Tomis post.

 

It seems that I can start my game again tonight, thank you so much everyone.

[Knuckles 904]

Hi and Welcome to the forums... I have played DE's extensively, Playing a hybrid can be a lot of fun and also can be very challenging. And not to step on anyone else's post but if you could tell me what Combat Arts you'd like to use and of those which will be your primary attack. Also which type of weapon you think you'll be using most and I can tell you how I would build it.

 

I don't want to disagree with anyone but taking Concentration on a Hybrid build that late is a big mistake. The melee part will be severely handicapped until level 50 and the only way around it is to make a combo and lug a ton of concentration pots around. If it is going to be a Pure Trapper then of course Concentration isn't necessary. The hardest part of a hybrid is when you select skills. Will you use melee and traps equally? Will you be primarily traps or melee? Some traps take awhile to really shine. Poison Mist is a great example. Early on it's just a support CA used more for leech and some damage. But by level 50 it's killing everything on it's own and melee isn't even needed. On my PM trappers I usually never swing a weapon after level 30.

 

But feel free to experiment. And don't just follow a guide exactly just because someone said so.There's no one correct way to build any type of toon but plenty of ways that it can go wrong. Just let me know and I'll help as much as possible and hopefully you'll build a character that's fun to play

[tomi 0]

Um yes! Actually there are weapons what need min blade combat level like there are the Cordell's Dagger, what give nice bonuses to poison mist (and to other CA-s), but in higher level you won't use that. You will use as many +xp as you can, bcos the lvling will be very vey slow without that.

personally I have a level 216 De and a level 203 and I didn't ever need the blade combat. I think you shouldn't take that skills, but it is your decision.

 

If we will meet in game once I will help you out with items too as well.

[Arafinwe 0]

Hi and Welcome to the forums... I have played DE's extensively, Playing a hybrid can be a lot of fun and also can be very challenging. And not to step on anyone else's post but if you could tell me what Combat Arts you'd like to use and of those which will be your primary attack. Also which type of weapon you think you'll be using most and I can tell you how I would build it.

 

I don't want to disagree with anyone but taking Concentration on a Hybrid build that late is a big mistake. The melee part will be severely handicapped until level 50 and the only way around it is to make a combo and lug a ton of concentration pots around. If it is going to be a Pure Trapper then of course Concentration isn't necessary. The hardest part of a hybrid is when you select skills. Will you use melee and traps equally? Will you be primarily traps or melee? Some traps take awhile to really shine. Poison Mist is a great example. Early on it's just a support CA used more for leech and some damage. But by level 50 it's killing everything on it's own and melee isn't even needed. On my PM trappers I usually never swing a weapon after level 30.

 

But feel free to experiment. And don't just follow a guide exactly just because someone said so.There's no one correct way to build any type of toon but plenty of ways that it can go wrong. Just let me know and I'll help as much as possible and hopefully you'll build a character that's fun to play

 

Thank you very much and that would be realy awesome knuckles.

 

Well I was planning on mainly using the following Combat arts/Traps:

 

* Poison Mist

* Testosteron

* Adrenaline

* Confusion(Seems to be nice.)

* Attack

 

And maybe some levels in Soul catcher, Mongoose and those

2 paks that defend against magic and arrows. I would like to

use both Combat Arts and traps equaly where possible.

 

Now because I found out that I couldn't take Armor at level 6, I

took Weapon lore at level 6. So far my DE now has these Skills:

 

Level 1: Trap Lore & Ballistics

Level 3: Constitution

Level 6: Weapon Lore

 

After seeing your warning here I thought about assigning the

skills like this:

 

Level 12: Concentration

Level 20: Armor

Level 30: Blade Combat(Maybe..Tomi got me thinking so maybe...Agility?)

Level 50: Parrying

 

Maybe I will take BC at 20 and Armor at 30. Also from the

Gladiator I was playing with till today I know I like what parrying

does for a toon, so I would have liked to take it sooner but I think

the other 3 skills are a lot more importend.

 

About the no correct way..well you are right. So any advice on

building a ballanced Hybrid is absolutly welcome here knuckles.

Edited February 29, 2008 by Arafinwe

[Knuckles 904]

To start of with your skill selection and time picked seems good to me.

 

Some notes/thoughts on Combat Arts/traps first

 

Poison Mist - big time killer. Damage starts off low but really kicks after it's level 15-20 (especially using Testosterone)

Testosterone - Great Poison Buff

Adrenaline - Great Defensive Buff especially for melee toons

Confusion - It can be handy in certain situations for tough monsters like Dragons and Big Spiders. Use/level sparingly. Not a big fan of it since it doesn't damage and if only one enemy in sight it won't attack others. If I want to confuse/stun, I use Cobra, it has a better duration and need less runes invested to keep it effective

Attack (or MH or HH) all good melee Combat Arts

Soul Catcher - Not a big fan of this one either. Basically Life Leech in a CA. I recommend saving the runes and finding LL gear/ Also The souls are slow and you end up waiting for them to return to you to get LL.

Mongoose - I wouldn't invest more than one rune into this. Only good for shortcuts (I.e. jumping over rivers)

 

Thoughts on skills

 

Blade Combat isn't necessary. There are good set/unique Blades that require Blade Lore but it's too easy to find good non-req Blades and/or oversocket the Blades that need this skill. I would take Agility if you don't take Blade Combat. You want something to increase your Attack Rating.

 

Thoughts on playing

 

Since you want to use both PM and Attack equally, I'm assuming that PM will be more of a support CA. It will Leech and do moderate damage while Attack takes care of the rest. If this is true then you can consider not using Ballistics and select something else. You won't be pumping it the same as if it was your primary attack.

 

I would try to keep both Attack and PM lvls low and instead increase Test as much as you can. It's just about impossible to have Test's regeneration longer than it's duration. Only increase PM/Attack when regens are low.

 

Been on the look out for gear that had poison damage modifiers. Test will be even more effective.

 

Well that's the basics....just let me know if I missed something or you have any other questions:)

[DaveO 88]

Certain Dark Elf weapons do require points in Blade Combat but you could always oversocket to bypass this. I've played DE a few times, and Agility and Parry get rapidly overshadowed by Testosterone and Adrenaline. The defense of the DE from Adrenaline will help your toon greatly once he gets to level 50. Despite Tomi's advice to not pick Trade I truly feel that all toons that can take it should do so. While Merchants tend to be fickle at best, you can get some very nice stuff with high Trade.

 

Now required skills at minimum should be: Dual Wield, Constitution, Trap Lore, Ballistics, Armor, Weapon Lore. That leaves two choices for skills so the remaining choices are really up to you. I'm a bit surprised that nobody yet mentioned Cobra. It's a fave of mine to bring clueless deaths to enemies. As somebody said in an entirely different thread, "Personal preferences are simply personal preferences".

Edited March 1, 2008 by DaveO

[Knuckles 904]

Trade - you either love it or hate it. If you take it, it requires a heavy investment of points (you want it at least your level and preferably higher). Getting J'Dahn's Helm helps a lot. Even with high trade, you'll spend a lot of time at the merchants looking for the right gear. That said, through high Trading you can find gear tailor made for your toon and usually better than any set or unique.

 

I hesitate calling DW a must have skill. It's more a question of playing style. Any melee toon can do just as well with sword/shield as with DW'ing.

 

I did mention Cobra It's great against the bigger monsters out there. If you use with PM, you need to be careful. Cobra will stun and then PM will cover up it's health circle. It makes it hard to see and sometimes you won't even know you're lagging till it's too late. So if you're prone to lag, have a slow connection and/or in a busy server use PM+Cobra with caution.

 

Even Adrenaline isn't necessary. None of my DE's use it. Again it's just my preference. I usually use PM and Test. Both require a lot of runes. Thus I rarely have enough to spread around to pump Adren to a decent level and instead rely on Armor + Parry and/or Agility

[Totalimmortal 0]

WELCOME!! I play almost exclusively DEs (as I apparently suck with the seraphim and wood elf, and get very very very very bored quickly with all the other toons). that being said, knuckles knows his builds. I personally feel like dual wielding is a good skill to have, but looking back upon it, I'd much rather have taken sword lore (so I can make use of my nice little aarnum's set... but thats beside the point. Blade combat is important, as most DE weapons are blade weapons. get both ballistics and trap lore. explosive charge makes the game sooooooooo much easier... its a dragon killer too. but trading is what I would get level 50. I've never actually found any good items trading yet, but the ability to make lucrative transactions makes it so if you ever get in an item bind, you're in good shape. (every difficulty level I try to start a new 'suit' for my DElf... unless of course I have some nice set or uniques that I can use readily... ice brackets have been a real life saver). if you're thinking of building an explosive charge/bottomless pit DElf, try to go for the hurons set, and invest heavily heavily heavily in the ballistics/trap lore dept, and try to work some magicfind into your suit. I like Deathbringer as my weapon (it's a unique so dont count on getting it by anything but luck), but any weapon that you can work a vampire rune or something that will give you the "draws life from opponent" is a very powerful too. every explosive charge I cast gets me a good chunk of my health bar back.

 

but back to the point. many DEs I have created, one thing stands out in my mind. I've WASTED SOOOOOOO MANY ATTRIBUTE POINTS. I used to always put the attribute points into dexterity. I figured since my elf needed to be lithe and lean, he would be dextrous. no. wrong. bad total. *slaps own wrist*. take phys regen. its a def big help. health is importante. moreover, experiment with a few different types of elves. they're very flexible and fun. I turned my current beast from a dual wielding (deathbringer and longsword of teachers) mongooser into a ethan rhys using/huron using invisible/explosive charge monster. he works well either way, and its very simple to change him around. so basically, the skills that you choose aren't as important as you think they are... sure, make wise choices, but you're not set in stone in the mindset of..."crap I picked dual wielding I guess I have to use it". ya know? well, good luck, and have fun.

 

ps... always try to keep a jhan dnielos suit in your chest, for when you get trading... its not much use as a set, ranged combat +72:) lol but it's helpful trade gear... at least the cool lookin hat is anyways. well, good luck, and happy hunting!

 

-Total

[Arafinwe 0]

Thank you everyone for all tips and advice, I guess I will have a lot

of experimenting to do to see what I like.

 

As for playing online, I do not know...first I think it would be best to

first play the game out in SP to get to know the game. And secondly

(perhaps even more importend then the first. ) I'm not sure if it is a

wise idea to play online with these specs:

 

AMD 1.15Ghz

512 mb Ram

Geforce FX5200

 

Have a cable modem so connection time is no problem.

 

 

Knuckles and DaveO, you both mention that you do not realy

need BC, and that I could solve that by oversocketing. Do you

mean I should find runes/items that give a + to all skils?

[tomi 0]

Hmmm...I hope you soon can see what is a great De like.

About the trade thing. All the toons can take trade skill, yes (exepc the daemon), but it shouldn't.

You make a dwarf example and he can buy great items for all of your other toons also.

The dual: personally I took the dual with all of my de-es, but I still say that like the BC: In higher levels you won't need becouse the best XP items you will need and those are the High Shield of the Dark Elves (maybe) and a 1handed axe (ornate battle axe..not sure the name)

And to use these you won't need BC or dual wield.

About the Paks: IF you go to places like desert or ...so if you don't go to UW very often, then you need the Paks only.

The best xp place is VoT and there are no archers and not even mages.

 

If you are sure that you want to make a hybrid de, only then you need the Attack combat art, the Cobra, the soul catcher (that doesn't work well in VoT and if you have life-leech then it is useless), oh and the confusion.

The confusion is has very bad attributes. When you drop a confusion trap to an enemy, then you can't attack it while it doesnt attack you so you can kill it only hmm about in 5 secs /1 sec. So you drop it and in every 5th sec you can hit it only.

To keep yourself safe the best way is the maxed adrenaline or the battle fog. You can hit them, but they can't see you. Oh and I think none of them works for bosses. (confusion and battle fog)

 

After all you will go only to VoT if you want to level and the only way to do it quick is with the weapon an shield I wrote before, and but poison mist (or explosive charge). After some time you will find out how to overspawn so there you absolutely won't use your hits (with Attack combat art) or the Paks.

 

Oha and take the Concent. skill only if you really want a hybrid. I made some mistakes before when I took the Concent. I never used it and I never gave point for that.

 

Good luck with your Half-God toon

[Arafinwe 0]

If you are sure that you want to make a hybrid de, only then you need the Attack combat art, the Cobra, the soul catcher (that doesn't work well in VoT and if you have life-leech then it is useless), oh and the confusion. The confusion is has very bad attributes. When you drop a confusion trap to an enemy, then you can't attack it while it doesnt attack you so you can kill it only hmm about in 5 secs /1 sec. So you drop it and in every 5th sec you can hit it only. To keep yourself safe the best way is the maxed adrenaline or the battle fog. You can hit them, but they can't see you. Oh and I think none of them works for bosses. (confusion and battle fog)

 

So from what I have read here Soul catcher seems to be slow working and

a lot less usefull if you have life leech, ok that is one less thing to look after.

 

As for confusion, I already noticed that today so I will leave that one at level 1.

And from a few fights against undead and that war bear I already noticed

that PM indeed has the potential of becoming awesome in later levels. I already

placed every attribute point in Phys regen. From what I read it seems that Adrenaline

has a lot more benefits then Battle Fog, so I guess I will go with Adrenaline then.

 

And thanks Tomi.

Edited March 1, 2008 by Arafinwe

[Knuckles 904]

Oversocketing is basically considered an exploit. It it involves changing the Minimum Requirement on equipment to something else.

 

For example. You didn't take Blade Combat but find Cordell's Dagger. You want to use it but it has a min Blade Combat requirement.

Let's just say it has a min req of 6 BC. What we need to do is find a ring that has a higher min req of something you do have. Basicially every DE has Weapon Lore. Find a ring that has a min req of at least 7 WL or higher. (this assumes you meet the WL reg). Socket that ring into the Cordell's Dagger.

 

The Blade Combat min req will disappear and be replaced with a min WL req. You can now equip the blade.

 

On attributes: Going all phys regen is fine. Can't go wrong there. But keep in mind traps benefit from Dex. It will increase their damage.

 

On equip, one thing to keep an eye out for is RSM (regenerate special move). Equip with RSM can dramatically lower your regen on all Combat Arts/traps. It's typically the mod I look for most. After that, + to PM (if that's the trap/ca I'm using), then LL, crit, split if I'm using.

[Arafinwe 0]

On attributes: Going all phys regen is fine. Can't go wrong there. But keep in mind traps benefit from Dex. It will increase their damage.

 

On equip, one thing to keep an eye out for is RSM (regenerate special move). Equip with RSM can dramatically lower your regen on all Combat Arts/traps. It's typically the mod I look for most. After that, + to PM (if that's the trap/ca I'm using), then LL, crit, split if I'm using.

 

That from DEX is good to know, I will put a point in there then

once every few levels.

 

And I already found 2 items with RSM (regenerate special move)

on it, so that will help with the attack CA. I will keep an eye out

on finding items with a + to PM/LL/Crit an split, again thanks for

the tips.

[Knuckles 904]

When I say +PM , Only if you are using it. Look for + xx on equip where xx is the CA you're using. If using several Combat Arts then equipping with "+ to all Combat Arts" is good too. In fact these are great early in the game when regens on Combat Arts are still high.

 

If you decide to use split. Keep it low until you're comfortable on how it works. Having high split with a long regen on PM can make for a hectic battle. All split creatures will appear right next to you.

 

Good Luck on your DE and let us know how it progresses

[tomi 0]

Well all true, but if you took ballistic and trap lore too, then you won't need too many +RSM.

And the Huron helm example gives many to RSM. The other set items give to trap lore and ballistic, what really make your regen low.

The LL will be granted by the D'brae hell steel (bracres).

[Totalimmortal 0]

imo, you can never have too much rsm... my level 100 somethin explosive charge has a regen of 0.6 seconds... clockin in 40000+ damage a hit... it's nice to be able to toss that out as fast as you can click your mouse. the more rsm, the more kills, just my honest opinion

 

-Total