Ric's Ranged Shadow Warrior for Enhanced Edition Mod

[ric7202 119]

Bugs!!! Crawling creeping crusty creatures of holy crapola thats a big bug! And what are the odds that it'd drop 2 of the exact same set armor piece? Well... in this case I'd say 1:1   Ohh and this was on MP. I forgot to make a video of him doing it in SP with 2 of them big bugs and 4 smaller scorpions. He did fine there too. 

 

Edited October 24 by ric7202

[gogoblender 3,338]

On 10/24/2024 at 12:10 PM, ric7202 said:

Bugs!!! Crawling creeping crusty creatures of holy crapola thats a big bug! And what are the odds that it'd drop 2 of the exact same set armor piece? Well... in this case I'd say 1:1   Ohh and this was on MP. I forgot to make a video of him doing it in SP with 2 of them big bugs and 4 smaller scorpions. He did fine there too. 

 

yah, he did good!

Happy to see you still acing at 69,,, u ALWAYS hated the scorpion.  Its menacing and with it comes memories of a lot of players loosing lives to it early when the game was released...I remember  breathing haggardly the first time I took my left click SW build up against it ( No CA build) all it used was poles left click *Thocks!* and Alchemy...and the scorpion melted, much like your video spectacle.  I ADORE seeing the Guidon go up.. its a swoon worthy animation , do you ever open your toon while in battle just to see the stats go up when its in use

Great share... keep goooooooooooooooooooing!!

gogo

[SLD 523]

On 10/26/2024 at 3:44 PM, gogoblender said:

do you ever open your toon while in battle just to see the stats go up when its in use

just place it on the starting island and you can drool safely

[gogoblender 3,338]

On 10/27/2024 at 10:02 AM, SLD said:

just place it on the starting island and you can drool safely

Noooooo...!!

You want to go up against something that terrifies you

THEN activate the Guidon then check out your befores and afters

... so that its increase in numbers offers you a kind of confidence and soothing 

The Guidon and Alchemy were an integral part of my left click Shadow Warrior...until he...until he... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah....

w ... w.. w... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.... 15 years later, ... tragic 
 

gogo

 

ps Ric... how goes your adventures!

[ric7202 119]

Well, it moves forward. I felt that the dryad island and the wastelands was a tougher challenge, but that was to be expected. They killed my mount a few times. I had a slight problem with too low regen-per-hit so there was a small, but deadly, delay between CA executions. And I got stunned from time to time, which also is a very bad thing when fighting the Nameless Guardians. Even at level 74 fighting 8 guardians proved to be too much so I had to back down on the Challenge and Superspawn mods for that fight. 4 regular guardians in Silver... no problem at all  

Going into Gold now and it's a walk in the park. Griffin and the Kobold Chieftain went down in seconds. I'm currently doing Final Concert quest, and no mob here is posing any threat even though they are about 7-8 levels above me. I did a few runs on the Griffin, but as I'm without Enhanced Perception or MF-gear, I get quite lousy drops. Better to just move along. I start to wonder if it would be possible to do this but with EP on again. I really miss the volume of good drops I had with Bob. Maybe if I concentrate on Armor, Spell Resistance and such, it will go better, because now that's what hurts the most. I picked those quite late and they feel underdeveloped atm. The fay in the upper part of dryad island were really bad on me. Even with all ice-relics, every hit took a great chunk out of my life bar.  And those leaping plants... at a distance they are easy pickings, but if they jump and land a melee hit.. ouch!!! 

I still haven't decided which kind of attribute that will serve this build the most. Vitality, Dexterity, Stamina or Willpower. They all have their advantages. 

[SLD 523]

1 hour ago, ric7202 said:

so I had to back down on the Challenge and Superspawn mods for that fight. 4 regular guardians in Silver... no problem at all  

Going into Gold now and it's a walk in the park. Griffin and the Kobold Chieftain went down in seconds.

Are you sure you turned the challenge mode back on?

[ric7202 119]

58 minutes ago, SLD said:

Are you sure you turned the challenge mode back on?

Just superspawn. Had to feel a little confident for a while, for my sanity. And now it goes back on   who needs sanity anyway

 

[SLD 523]

4 hours ago, ric7202 said:

Just superspawn. Had to feel a little confident for a while, for my sanity. And now it goes back on   who needs sanity anyway

You're talking to that insane guy, who decided to make a smith for the community, with no prior gear, purely on challenge mode

[gogoblender 3,338]

On 10/30/2024 at 2:37 AM, ric7202 said:

Well, it moves forward. I felt that the dryad island and the wastelands was a tougher challenge, but that was to be expected. They killed my mount a few times. I had a slight problem with too low regen-per-hit so there was a small, but deadly, delay between CA executions. And I got stunned from time to time, which also is a very bad thing when fighting the Nameless Guardians. Even at level 74 fighting 8 guardians proved to be too much so I had to back down on the Challenge and Superspawn mods for that fight. 4 regular guardians in Silver... no problem at all  

Going into Gold now and it's a walk in the park. Griffin and the Kobold Chieftain went down in seconds. I'm currently doing Final Concert quest, and no mob here is posing any threat even though they are about 7-8 levels above me. I did a few runs on the Griffin, but as I'm without Enhanced Perception or MF-gear, I get quite lousy drops. Better to just move along. I start to wonder if it would be possible to do this but with EP on again. I really miss the volume of good drops I had with Bob. Maybe if I concentrate on Armor, Spell Resistance and such, it will go better, because now that's what hurts the most. I picked those quite late and they feel underdeveloped atm. The fay in the upper part of dryad island were really bad on me. Even with all ice-relics, every hit took a great chunk out of my life bar.  And those leaping plants... at a distance they are easy pickings, but if they jump and land a melee hit.. ouch!!! 

I still haven't decided which kind of attribute that will serve this build the most. Vitality, Dexterity, Stamina or Willpower. They all have their advantages. 

Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! I hope you're not discouraged fellow Ancarian!!  I've had my mount killed a number of times in hard core... that sinking, lurching feeling...and then hobbling away afterwards on a limp, hoping that they keep eating away at your mounts carcass instead of seeing you as a target   And I hear you about drops going dry... I remember when I was running a SW ... all the calculations I had to make, I wanted every socket to count, and trader network helped go forward with a zero utility build and bring everything to "funness" which was, for that build just trying to get to Platinum on a horse with left clicks.. without getting those drops, it felt like the game had changed, and become a small chore...but I like how you're comparing it to the feeling of how you felt with Bob.. (Good ole Bob! ) .. I love the way your build looks...and for me, thats probably the best part of playing, making sure we love how it looks, *feel" and ultimately levels... scaling damage to niobium means being able to get through the horrible nasties that monster can throw at us... and being paralyzed...omgod THE WORST...     (lots of mixed feelings there...terror, stomach lurch, trepidation... gosh, surely this must be haloween season  ) 

And dryad island.. an emotionally crippling area and high BPM moments. But its also where i got some uniques...but I wouldnt level there, the exp / time is difficult

Keep going friend sir, keeeeeeeeeeeeeep going!! 

gogo

[ric7202 119]

I am currently trying out a new toon. It's practically the same as the old Bob, but with some changes in the order I took skills, putting more points in spell resistance and armor lore early on. His name is Wet Noodle, and that is exactly what he is. A glass cannon so to speak. He is atm lvl 34 and facing the Garganthropod next. He easily kills any mob here, but the same goes for them, they easily kill me if they get in a few punches. To his defence (pun intended), I have not yet taken concentration so I have only 1 buff, and still no Focus, so regens are not as low as could be. On the other hand, he is starting to find good stuff now, for mid-level Bronze anyway. Half a lvl to go to 35 and then I can at least have 2 buffs, that should help a bit. And to be honest... I'm awfully tempted to take Bargain as well, I'm just not sure what to sacrifice in that case. Would having one more defensive skill outweigh getting the good stuff Bargain can bring? Ohh decisions, decisions...

Of course, I could go Silver right away, but I'd like to test him on the Guardians also. 

Edit1: Had to take Focus before Concentration, so it'll be a while before I can get 2 buffs. I managed to kill the Khrals, but not without gulping a couple of healingpots. This trip really keeps one on ones toes, with superspawn and Challenge mode and all. Fun fun fun

Edited November 6 by ric7202

[ric7202 119]

Why the heck can't one dual wield pistols? Or other 1-hand ranged weapons for that matter? It's annoying. 

[SLD 523]

9 hours ago, ric7202 said:

His name is Wet Noodle

Phew! You almost destroyed my secret build plans there. So I will reveal them now.
While I'm stuck on my blacksmith project, all I really wanted to build in EE was "The Wet Poodle". You came awfully close to ruining that plan
Sadly I still can't get started on him, as the blacksmith just barely reached platinum yet...

[ric7202 119]

On 11/6/2024 at 3:07 AM, SLD said:

Phew! You almost destroyed my secret build plans there. So I will reveal them now.
While I'm stuck on my blacksmith project, all I really wanted to build in EE was "The Wet Poodle". You came awfully close to ruining that plan
Sadly I still can't get started on him, as the blacksmith just barely reached platinum yet...

If you don't tell anyone it will still be a secret  The Poodle is all yours, by all means. If there's one thing I'd change in this build, it would be to take Concentration earlier to have two buffs sooner. Right now, I'm at lvl 44 and Griffin on silver and all the kobolds there are hurting my toon very bad. Spell resistance is very much needed here, and lots of vitality. And Armor. My current armor is a full Denderans, but very low lvl, so the %LL is just about 1%. I have no great rings and amus to put into it, so it hardly protects my shivering noodles here. 

[SLD 523]

21 minutes ago, ric7202 said:

Spell resistance is very much needed here, and lots of vitality.

Nah, I would never take spell resistance or vitality
 

23 minutes ago, ric7202 said:

My current armor is a full Denderans, but very low lvl, so the %LL is just about 1%.

The level of the set items doesn't effect the set bonus at all. Only character level and difficulty.

[ric7202 119]

1 minute ago, SLD said:

Nah, I would never take spell resistance or vitality
 

The level of the set items doesn't effect the set bonus at all. Only character level and difficulty.

but it sure does effect slots and protection points. My lvl 15 set gives very little protection against phys dmg. The Griff (in Silver) almost one-hits me, even with the banner up and everything.  And spells too. Kobold fireballs cuts me in half, and so does Griffs spells. So how do you counter spells, if not with spell resistance? The buff with spell evation or reflection is way too low yet to provide reliable protection. The %LL is too low to fill up the lifepool fast enough. And if not putting points in Vitality, where? I feel that the Wet Noodle is a work in steep uphill right now. Maybe it's better to retire him and try a different skill setup. 

[SLD 523]

1 hour ago, ric7202 said:

but it sure does effect slots

If by "slots" you mean the number of sockets, there is only one thing effecting socket numbers on set items and that is the difficulty they are from. More precisely, there are a few sets that have less sockets on them when acquired in bronze. Those are afaik the vanilla game ones that start at lvl 15, but it might be more, or less. At least for the SW denderan, armantin and lucreti are all crap in bronze. That is one of the reasons why I would never play bronze.
 

1 hour ago, ric7202 said:

The Griff (in Silver) almost one-hits me, even with the banner up and everything

The banner has no mod that reduces damage.
 

1 hour ago, ric7202 said:

And spells too. Kobold fireballs cuts me in half

I don't think there are kobolds with fireballs. Afaik the shamans have some kind of poison spell, but what really made these guys significantly more dangerous is that the cm patch made their staves shoot projectiles. They have a high firing rate and do quite some damage in the early game. When they choose to shoot at least, which they luckily don't do most of the time.
 

1 hour ago, ric7202 said:

So how do you counter spells, if not with spell resistance?

Spell resistance can only ever win you the "spell resist check". When you do that you take 70% instead of full damage in the base game. Might be a bit better in EE, I don't know. But the point is, you are usually not guaranteed to win that and when you do it's still not really worth it.

Against Spells that do "hit" damage, like a meteor shower or the spell projectile from a kobold, you can have armor of the correct armor type and mitigation of the correct damage type.

Against Spells that do "damage over time" like the ppoison plant versions or the spitting spiders, mitigation works the same, armor does nothing, but here you can also use "-% damage over time" mods on gear.

All of those defensive options are better than spell resistance, as they are reliable. They always work, though I know that depending on the game version, it might not be as easy to get enough of them at early points in the game. I know that EE challenge mode is challenging as I'm currently playing my blacksmith under those rules, I will see what "the wet poodle" can do when my blacksmith is ready. But that will be far in the future as I at least want to reach niobium with the smith first. I don't have low level set items flying around after all, so the poodle will still have a harder time than your characters...
 

1 hour ago, ric7202 said:

And if not putting points in Vitality, where?

There are still the options of stamina and dexterity. I would go with one of those.
 

1 hour ago, ric7202 said:

I feel that the Wet Noodle is a work in steep uphill right now. Maybe it's better to retire him and try a different skill setup. 

should you do that, remember that you promised:

2 hours ago, ric7202 said:

The Poodle is all yours, by all means.

the wet poodle is mine

[ric7202 119]

1 hour ago, SLD said:

If by "slots" you mean the number of sockets, there is only one thing effecting socket numbers on set items and that is the difficulty they are from. More precisely, there are a few sets that have less sockets on them when acquired in bronze. Those are afaik the vanilla game ones that start at lvl 15, but it might be more, or less. At least for the SW denderan, armantin and lucreti are all crap in bronze. That is one of the reasons why I would never play bronze.
 

The banner has no mod that reduces damage.
 

I don't think there are kobolds with fireballs. Afaik the shamans have some kind of poison spell, but what really made these guys significantly more dangerous is that the cm patch made their staves shoot projectiles. They have a high firing rate and do quite some damage in the early game. When they choose to shoot at least, which they luckily don't do most of the time.
 

Spell resistance can only ever win you the "spell resist check". When you do that you take 70% instead of full damage in the base game. Might be a bit better in EE, I don't know. But the point is, you are usually not guaranteed to win that and when you do it's still not really worth it.

Against Spells that do "hit" damage, like a meteor shower or the spell projectile from a kobold, you can have armor of the correct armor type and mitigation of the correct damage type.

Against Spells that do "damage over time" like the ppoison plant versions or the spitting spiders, mitigation works the same, armor does nothing, but here you can also use "-% damage over time" mods on gear.

All of those defensive options are better than spell resistance, as they are reliable. They always work, though I know that depending on the game version, it might not be as easy to get enough of them at early points in the game. I know that EE challenge mode is challenging as I'm currently playing my blacksmith under those rules, I will see what "the wet poodle" can do when my blacksmith is ready. But that will be far in the future as I at least want to reach niobium with the smith first. I don't have low level set items flying around after all, so the poodle will still have a harder time than your characters...
 

There are still the options of stamina and dexterity. I would go with one of those.
 

should you do that, remember that you promised:

the wet poodle is mine

Correct, I meant the staff shooting. Not any fireball spell. 

The banner can increase your defense, which = less dmg taken, if I'm not all mistaken. Not by much, looking at the stats, but the banner also increases some other stats. right? But, technically you're correct, it doesn't reduce the damage handed out per se. 

That was news to me about the spell check thing. Indeed that makes the skill a lot less desired. 

What about Willpower? Is the spell resistance working the same way there, because in the wiki it says "spell resistance +XXX". If that is the case, then that attribute is just as useless. Dang it.. 

Sigh... no wonder he struggles. that's it... time for a revamp.

Edited November 7 by ric7202

[SLD 523]

2 hours ago, ric7202 said:

The banner can increase your defense, which = less dmg taken, if I'm not all mistaken.

Defense is the stat that is compared to the enemies attack rating, to determine their chance to hit you with an attack. It has no effect on the actual damage you take when you do get hit.

3 hours ago, ric7202 said:

But, technically you're correct, it doesn't reduce the damage handed out per se. 

exactly that.

3 hours ago, ric7202 said:

That was news to me about the spell check thing. Indeed that makes the skill a lot less desired. 

There is one debatable thing about the spell resistance skill, it's mastery bonus. That one might be useful under certain circumstances. I have never really tried incorporating that one into a build though and it would certainly not be taken to reduce damage, more like a utility thing...
I also just checked, in EE with challenge mode winning the spell resist check still lowers the damage of that spell by 30%.
 

3 hours ago, ric7202 said:

What about Willpower? Is the spell resistance working the same way there, because in the wiki it says "spell resistance +XXX". If that is the case, then that attribute is just as useless. Dang it.. 

Yes. The spell resistance from willpower is a base value for the same thing that the spell resistance skill increases by a %. This spell resistance is somehow compared to the attackers "spell intensity"(provided by their Intelligence etc.) whenever you are hit by a spell to determine wether the 30% damage reduction happens or not.
 

3 hours ago, ric7202 said:

Sigh... no wonder he struggles.

Actually, I think he struggles because he's playing EE with challenge mode
My Blacksmith at level 101 struggles his way through platin right now...

[ric7202 119]

So it is clear to me now that Mr Noodle was not so well planned. The idea was allright, but skills were taken in a less than optimal order. Just for the fun of it I made a new toon "Squishy" who has gone the Bargain route rather than EP, and it has made a big difference in killing speed and survival rate. He is lvl 18 now and is making his way through the start of Silver. Still fragile, but has more lifeleech and regen-per-hit and better stuff to put in sockets. 

With Squishy I have re-discovered some of the joy and amazement I found at the start of this adventure. He is much more offensive than Noodle, Bob and the others I tried out, much thanks to regen-per-hit that allows Frenzied to run 100% of the time. The double-mousebutton-attack-style suits this toon very well. The absence of EP and magic find makes for fewer uniques and sets dropping, but the stuff you can buy easily makes up for it. 

EE with Challenge mode and Superspawn suddenly feels fun again, not just a struggle.   

[Flix 5,196]

Really though, Challenge Mode is meant to spice up endgame when your high level character wants a tougher challenge. Same for Inferno in D2F.  It's not meant for new characters unless you're just especially masochistic.

[Sethi22 220]

Hi Ric, I read almost all of the post as it emerged, I just didn't want to stick my nose into an EE thread, because I have nothing to tell yet. But since I ended up posting in another one somehow, I might as well post here too. And the only thing I can tell you is: keep going! Not everyone is a genius here, there are noobs who really need these threads to learn the basic stuff, like me for example. You have to poke those wizards to get all the answers you want sometimes, that's how it goes. They are quite helpful, luckily. You're doing a great job!

Edited November 9 by Sethi22

[ric7202 119]

1 hour ago, Flix said:

Really though, Challenge Mode is meant to spice up endgame when your high level character wants a tougher challenge. Same for Inferno in D2F.  It's not meant for new characters unless you're just especially masochistic.

It seems I do have a tendency for masochism  But then again, isn't that almost a required trait for anyone who wants to play the game all the way through all the difficulties? And also get all the achievments on the list? That and a fierce stubborness. But don't get me wrong, I love the challenge even though I might complain about it when things go slow. 

[ric7202 119]

1 hour ago, Sethi22 said:

Hi Ric, I read almost all of the post as it emerged, I just didn't want to stick my nose into an EE thread, because I have nothing to tell. But since I ended up posting in another one somehow, I might as well post here too. And the only thing I can tell you is: keep going! Not everyone is a genious here, there are noobs who really need these threads to learn the basic stuff, like me for example. You have to poke those wizards to get all the answers you want sometimes, that's how it goes. They are quite helpful, luckily. You're doing a great job!

Hi and thx for the kind words  It's amazing how one can play a game like this for years and years and still find that there is more to learn, and even that things you've taken for granted proves to be quite wrong. This jouney has proven to be fun, enlightening, tricky, sometimes humiliating, but always worth the effort. The EE brought a new dimension to the game and with it some new challenges and opportunities to discover new aspects of the good old builds from the vanilla game.  

[Sethi22 220]

Well, this game is complicated. I'm more used to the simple approach of Sacred1. (And even there I have some questions I would love to ask, but don't dare to do so, because I would surely be laughed at for not knowing them...) I don't even know how I got here really. Gogo summoned me once to a Sacred 2 thread for some reason, I think? Now I'm in an EE thread I haven't even tried yet. Great! I'm way out of my comfort zone, to say the least! Even Vanilla is too complicated and hard for me in the endgame, after all these years. For example this attack, defense, opponent's chance to evade, chance that opponent's can't evade nonsense... Where Maneus gave his numbers and formulas, SLD translated it into words, and tried to teach me the whole thing... But what's the use of all this? Why do we have all this instead of just attack and defense? This game is made for geniuses, I will always remain a casual in it, and the original game is way easier than these mods, so... I still need some time there to learn things before getting to EE. But I will! And these sort of threads are the ones that make an old newbie like me interested, wanting to try out the mod!

On 11/7/2024 at 11:31 PM, ric7202 said:

It seems I do have a tendency for masochism  But then again, isn't that almost a required trait for anyone who wants to play the game all the way through all the difficulties? And also get all the achievments on the list? That and a fierce stubborness.

Yes!!! It sure is. Stubborness and masochism all the way!   Squishy will hopefully get there!

 

Edited November 9 by Sethi22

[gogoblender 3,338]

On 11/7/2024 at 2:41 PM, ric7202 said:

So it is clear to me now that Mr Noodle was not so well planned. The idea was allright, but skills were taken in a less than optimal order. Just for the fun of it I made a new toon "Squishy" who has gone the Bargain route rather than EP, and it has made a big difference in killing speed and survival rate. He is lvl 18 now and is making his way through the start of Silver. Still fragile, but has more lifeleech and regen-per-hit and better stuff to put in sockets. 

With Squishy I have re-discovered some of the joy and amazement I found at the start of this adventure. He is much more offensive than Noodle, Bob and the others I tried out, much thanks to regen-per-hit that allows Frenzied to run 100% of the time. The double-mousebutton-attack-style suits this toon very well. The absence of EP and magic find makes for fewer uniques and sets dropping, but the stuff you can buy easily makes up for it. 

EE with Challenge mode and Superspawn suddenly feels fun again, not just a struggle.   

The absolute best part of a build...  fun!!

Builds are complicated things... they dont stand alone, a collection of data that jumps to attention.

They are reverently connected to an infinite numbers of read, situation  and emotions of people reading it and looking for a personally satisfying experience.

I couldn't have summed up what you revealed about your thrilling journey through EE here better

gogo