Speed Lore instead of Weapon Focus?

[claudius 104]

I was planning on using swords with my temple guardian (level 6 moving to silver at 7). But then I found a unique laser pistol. If the skills of temple guardian all applied to range combat I would just take range lore and go pistols...But some spells only affect melee apparently I guess? (not sure)

 

But I want to use the laser pistol until I find a good sword (I couldn't dent the kobold chief).. I know I could just delay taking a weapon lore until later so that is an option too.

 

But what if I just took speed lore to raise my attack numbers? Is speed lore a bottom of the barrel skill? Or is it just not viable in niobium or whatever...

 

Like I say I really don't care what happens in platinum. For my sacred experience I just want to roll every class through silver and then switch to multiplayer with more optimized builds. While I don't want to get stuck in silver unable to complete it or something my style of gaming isn't to always take the better skill etc. For example if the flamethrower skill looks cool to me I will use it unless it is an actual broken skill that does really nothing like ruinous onslaught.. If I like the build I might play gold, but probably I would want to start over in multiplayer with a powerbuild rather than do the campaign over again in gold.

 

Thanks!

 

Edit: What seems apparent to from reading another forum (official one) is that the Temple Guardian has one useless aspect = source warden and then they nerfed fusion lore... Since Devout Guardian doesn't work too well with range I may have to change things around a bit..

Edited January 25, 2009 by claudius

[Dobri 55]

The Temple Guardian is a very delicate character. First, I'd have to say watch out with him

 

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But I want to use the laser pistol until I find a good sword

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You can compensate the lack of mastery skill in different ways. For example, you got a unique or rare pistol with nice attributes. Switch to dedicated blow or battle extension (if you don't have the runes, trade for them). Your pistol will be your ranged weapon now. Try to buy as much items with sockets and start slapping Whef runes (the ones that increase damage and attack values) and a few anneal runes (the ones that increase defense). This should make you sturdy enough to beat the crap out of almost anything, even without a mastery for about 15 levels. Afterwards that tactic seems to gradually decline in terms of usefulness.

 

So, use the gun and still pick you preferred weapon lore (say, sword).

 

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But what if I just took speed lore to raise my attack numbers? Is speed lore a bottom of the barrel skill? Or is it just not viable in niobium or whatever...

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Well, although it's nice to run around and have slightly improved values, it just isn't good enough in my opinion. I'd rather take the riding skill than speed lore. Speed lore improves speed, attack and def values. Riding nets you a unique mount that gives you HP, defense and speed, as well as reducing the cooldown of chosen aspect Combat Arts - that equals increased survivability. You just need to do a simple quest and that is it

 

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While I don't want to get stuck in silver unable to complete it or something my style of gaming isn't to always take the better skill etc.

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If it's just for silver, I doubt you'll have any problems. Bronze and silver can be beaten with even the crappiest builds. It's actually in platinum and niobium where the build starts to actually count.

 

 

If you're looking for a build, I can offer you this one. It's been working for my TG for over 40 levels now, and he kicks ass without any problems (keeping in mind he was my first char in S2FA). I did not take concentration, because I discovered that the only buff I need is well-modded T-Energy shroud.

 

1st pick: Tactics Lore

2nd pick: Sword Lore

3rd pick: Devout Guardian (the skills in this tree are very powerful and you can still shoot and mod T-Energy Shroud)

4th pick: Armor Lore

5th pick: Enhanced Perception (I always underestimated this skill - no more!)

6th pick: Toughness

7th pick: Combat reflexes

8th pick: Combat Discipline (this, combined with Devout Focus will force the TG to use skills almost non-stop, and dedicated blow is indeed an awesome skill)

9th pick: Warding energy lore (to improve your shield even more)

10th pick: Bargaining (if you have no other char with this skill) or Spell Resistance or Riding (if you want to use the mobiculum, but I'd say TG is better on foot)

Edited January 25, 2009 by Dobri

[claudius 104]

hmmm....

 

I looked at my character and noticed I already had the following skills:

 

1 Armor Lore

2 Tactics Lore

3 Forgotten Fusion Lore (ouch)

 

For the next pick I took concentration to get the other buff..

 

4 Concentration

 

I am playing a squadron of characters though so I think I will be ok...I already have a blacksmith (shadow warrior), perception (dryad), and bargainer (inquisitor)...so at least I can get more items fed to me and so forth..

 

I think I am going to take fusion lore up to 9 at least and use the flamethrower modded as the only spell from that group.. then I'll take

 

5 Sword Lore (I already found a sword better than my pistol)

6 Devout Guardian (reduce recharges/penalties on buff)

7 Combat Reflex or Constitution?

8 Toughness

9 Warding Energy

10 the 3rd aspect Focus to mod its buff and reduce the recharge penalty on the buff (maybe take earlier?)

 

Might work in Silver?

[Dobri 55]

It most definitely will. However, I just don't like spreading myself between too many skills - and devout guardian will boost your primary attack Combat Arts, so it should be maxed. Warding energy boosts defense, so max again.

 

However, you may be able to do what I wanted to in another TG build. I was considering taking Devout + Fusion to give the TG more attack options.

 

I would really advise you to refrain from spreading yourself through 3 aspects, but since you want to play only through silver, I doubt this will be much of a problem. However if it's just for the test - go Single Player, mod the XP from quests in balance.txt in the scripts/server folder of your S2FA and see how the TG will fare. Since it's a test, it's not cheating - it's better to save yourself some time and play for a day or two for a test, than waste a month to realize this is not what you wanted.

Edited January 25, 2009 by Dobri

[sirpennywise 0]

I kind of went a diff route.. I went for melee.. not worrying about regen times or whatnot ..

I ate as many runes as I could for - Combat Alert... specced with the Defense.. Regen<healing is crazy> & Permanent mods..so that this bad boy is on all the time.. and that right there made me godly..I went with Constitution for the additional buff.. Add in T-shroud with a good bit of mods added to that, and you could roll over some mobs with not worrying about having to watch your health...

I stood toe to toe with the kobold cheif and he couldnt hurt me, I could have went afk and sat there for 2 hours with no fear of dying .. at higher you would want to work on boosting evasion and stuff to avoid taking damage, I heard something about some bosses being able to 1 shot you, but ive taken on a few different ones <level 40 now> and nothing even dents my health at all ..

 

Then just spec for whatever weapons you want to use to make killing times faster, I found a amazing Hafted axe, so I went with hafted weapons, my main damage consists of Hafted weapon focus + weapon lore.. whatever that adds.. etc.. I kill most things in 1-2 shots easily, and for bosses I just stand toe to toe with them and wack away their health

[Llama8 8]

Speed Lore gives a +% bonus to attack & defence (the tooltip is wrong, though the figure is correct, +7 = +7%), so initially it's probably less useful than the weapon-specific lores, more so when you take into account Combat Alert/Battle Aura. Another thing you can do with Combat Alert/Battle Aura is take the attack mod, which gives 25% +5% per level (double that for Combat Alert) to attack for any/all weapons.

[Dobri 55]

Your analysis is making me think about concentration now... I still have 2 picks on my TG, 1 will be warding lore, the other may well be concentration for the battle aura. However, it is a tough call - which is better - to slap dedicated blows every few seconds (it usually connects for me and is 1-hit kill in 90% of the chances vs. normal mobs) or have some extra attack capabilities or, of course, try to combine both. Now this will take some testing...

[claudius 104]

Thanks for the information and suggestions... I will probably keep playing. Muddling my way through. Thats a good point to test the character, but I don't really care because nothing is lost if I become unhappy with the character. I will play the character until that point! "the destination is the journey" and all...

 

Aside: you mention the kobold chief.... I have met him in bronze so far and I could just pot him to death. Is he harder in bronze? I did have trouble with the TG against him in bronze, but the other 5 classes did much better (or just I speced them better or items).. Are you talking about niobium kobold chief or something?

 

Its funny my first reaction to every class is to somehow combine all three aspects lol! I am just considering how to make a nature weaver, hunter, voodoo dryad too.. Oh well. There is something to be said for using all aspects at low level once you get 3 CA slots because each aspect is on a different timer so you can cycle them.

[Dobri 55]

Well... Cycling is all too good, but you need 5 skill picks just to cover them. Then you need concentration for buffs, it's 6. You need Armor lore, that's 7. This leaves only 3 skill picks for other skills. If you play close combat char, that's just not enough

[Llama8 8]

Your analysis is making me think about concentration now... I still have 2 picks on my TG, 1 will be warding lore, the other may well be concentration for the battle aura. However, it is a tough call - which is better - to slap dedicated blows every few seconds (it usually connects for me and is 1-hit kill in 90% of the chances vs. normal mobs) or have some extra attack capabilities or, of course, try to combine both. Now this will take some testing...

 

Personally I'd go for Concentration to use Battle Aura as well. IMO, it's one of the best CAs that the TG can get, if you're not having problems with hitting monsters, you can mod it for defence (which will double the defence bonus it gives), it can also be modded for either health regen or melee damage reflection & then either as a party CA or a buff. My level 81 TG is getting ~560 health regen per sec just from Battle Aura (not sure what level, possibly ~50-60 & my DB regen is ~3-4 seconds, I think).

[claudius 104]

Llama, Do you mean combat alert? So if you take a gold mod it turns into a buff right? What is the reason for four buff slots in the UI? Even with 75 concentration you may only have 3 buffs. To my dismay I found you can't just store inactive buffs and toggle between them (not in the middle of battle....just say you approach casters switch on grim resilience (increases will) and you approach melee switch on reflective emmanations (reflect damage).

 

Llama, Do you mean combat alert? So if you take a gold mod it turns into a buff right? What is the reason for four buff slots in the UI? Even with 75 concentration you may only have 3 buffs. To my dismay I found you can't just store inactive buffs and toggle between them (not in the middle of battle....just say you approach casters switch on grim resilience (increases will) and you approach melee switch on reflective emmanations (reflect damage).

[Dobri 55]

There are no 4 buff slots I thought the same at first, but there are actually only 3 - and the 4th buff slot is for your mount. After analyzing with a powerleveled TG I deleted afterwards, it is indeed better to take concentration and use T-Shroud and Combat Alert/Battle aura buff after you transform it with the gold mo, as Llama8 pointed out. It indeed gives you an edge in the battles.

[Von Bek 0]

Quick question here, guys. He asked about using ranged weapons; I'm making a build based on this, and I've found that Battle Extension just doesn't work. . . at all, with a ranged weapon. Anyone else find this? Even the double hit chance doesn't work. I think the passive ability for Dedicated blow is the same way, only activated power DOES work for Dedicated blow. . . Makes me sad

[Llama8 8]

Quick question here, guys. He asked about using ranged weapons; I'm making a build based on this, and I've found that Battle Extension just doesn't work. . . at all, with a ranged weapon. Anyone else find this? Even the double hit chance doesn't work. I think the passive ability for Dedicated blow is the same way, only activated power DOES work for Dedicated blow. . . Makes me sad

 

I had a "discussion" with the devs over Battle Extension's effect with ranged weapons. BE is supposed to give a high damage hit (which it does seem to, with the possible exception of when you're in melee range of the target, though I've not tested that enough) with ranged weapons, not ~3 hits, and no, the passives don't work either.