Poison Mist Trapper Guide

[Knuckles 904]

Pure Poison Mist Trapper

 

Skills

 

Before you make a new Dark Elf, you should open up your 'settings.cfg' file and change one line. Look for the line "Default Skills: 1" and change the '1' to a '0'. This will allow you to select your 2 starting skills. Otherwise you're stuck with Concentration which is not used in this build.

 

You don't have to select your skills in the exact order I have, but you should have Weapon Lore and Trap Lore selected by level 6.

 

Level 1: Weapon Lore*

Level 1: Trap Lore*

Level 3: Blade or Dual

Level 6: Constitution

Level 12: Armor

Level 20: Ballistics*

Level 30: Agility or Parry (Agility if dual wield and Parry if single wield)

Level 50: Your Choice

 

* Must have skills for Trapper DE

 

Weapon Lore: Increases damage for both traps and melee - max points

 

Trap Lore: Lowers trap regeneration time - max

 

Blade Combat: Select only if going with blade/shield setup. Only need Blade Combat if you really want to equip a set or unique blade - max 6 points

 

Dual Wield: Select only if you really want 2 blades/swords. Other than mods on weapons, DW adds no benefit to a trapper - max 1 point

 

Constitution: Increases Hit Points - 1/2 your character level for points

 

Armor: Increases resistances: 1/2 level

 

Ballistics: Reduces regeneration time and trap animation (animation means how long your DE takes to actually 'cast' the trap) when around level 50-75 towards. Increases trap damage - max

 

Agility: Select if Dual Wielding - 1/2 level

 

Parry: Select if using weapon/shield - 1/2 level

 

Trade: Requires a heavy investment in points but you can really find gear that is far superior to sets. Only take if you plan on doing a lot of shopping. Using Trade to find poison damage rings/amulets can be extremely helpful.

 

When I refer to either max points or 1/2 level it just indicates a general method of how I assigned my points. For instance you may have several +Weapon Lore items equipped and may want to assign points differently. So remember it's just a rough guide to how I assigned points.

 

Attributes

 

Physical Regeneration: Lowers trap regeneration time

 

Dexterity: Increases trap damage

 

Combat Arts

 

Mongoose: Only one rune. Used just for jumping rivers/cliffs.

 

Cobra: *Plus only*Up to level 10. Cobra at level 10 can stun any enemy (including dragons, big spiders). Only drawback is you have to be next to enemy to execute. Haven't fully tested in UW but looks like Cobra will need to be much higher to stun champions/dragons/ Big Spiders etc reliably.

 

Poison Mist: By level 50 (or earlier) this is your main attack. Ideally you want a regeneration time of 1.0 seconds or less. Almost impossible to do while character is under level 30. I will keep it at 2.5-3.0 secs early on and use it to leech/support melee'ing. PM has a max duration of 50 seconds.

 

Testosterone: As high as you can get it, as long as regeneration time is shorter than duration time. Max duration is approximately 9 minutes.

 

Adrenaline: Same as Testosterone. Keep regeneration less than duration. All my DE's do not use Adrenaline. Simply the damage/leech from Poison Mist makes it unnecessary for me. But for those who want extra defense, then Adrenaline is what you want.

 

How do I increase Trap damage?

 

Read/socket runes (only socket runes at lower levels)

Increase Weapon Lore

Increase Ballistics

Increase Dexterity

Use Blacksmith Arts or Dwarf Forging

Look for rings/amulets/equipment with this mod: "poison(or physical) damage +xx%" (it cannot say 'weapon poison/physical damage')

 

Most damage listed on equipment has no affect on Poison Mist damage. The equip must have 'poison damage +xx% or physical damage +xx%'. Poison Mist is both poison and physical damage. But try to concentrate on + Poison damage gear so you can take advantage of Testosterone's poison damage modifier. If socketing rings and amulets, I prefer amulets due to the extra defense found on them.

 

How do I reduce Trap regeneration time?

 

Increase Trap Lore

Increase Ballistics

Equip items with +RSM (Regenerate Special Move)

Increase Physical Resist

 

Should I pump Poison Mist or Testosterone?

 

Try to keep PM regen low and instead pump Test's level. It will allow you to 'spam' PM more effectively. Because enemies move around (and if using split, they will appear directly next to you), so you need to be able to quickly cast PM in order to react to changes in battle. Having a high PM does deal a lot of damage but splitting 5 Frost Giants behind you and a high PM regen means a lot of running around. Pump Test instead and only increase PM when regen is below 1.0-1.5 seconds.

 

As you get higher in level, you'll find it impossible to increase Testosterone to a level where regen exceeds duration. PM will be hard to keep up also as you'll need a lot of runes and +PM gear. Hopefully you have a couple friends that can donate runes or have a character that can find runes quickly. If all else fails, do a lot of quests. Saying a PM trapper is a 'rune hog' would be a vast understatement. With PM and Test maxed-that's at least 510 runes not including any other Combat Arts. And yes, maxing out both is very realistic. My Niobium DE maxed out runes at about level 175 for both PM and Test.

 

Crit/Split/Leech

 

PM will crit, split and leech per second per trap. If you have 12 % leech and 10 traps actively damaging monsters then you get 12% leech x 10. Other mods like 'chance to find gold' will work similarly.

 

 

SIngle or Dual Wield?

 

It really depends on your playing style. If you just have to be waving 2 blades around then go for DW. If you're new to trapping or want to err on the side of caution, then pick weapon/shield. Shield is much better for defensive purposes. Remember you won't be melee'ing at all after level 50 so the extra defense is always good.

 

Horses

 

While on a horse, you can cast PM's even quicker. Plus you'll get the HP bonus from the horse. Horses work great for rounding up mobs like the Sakarras and Orcs in Khorad. That said, you can't use them in caves and don't pick Riding as a skill. You just want a horse with 220 speed and they can be found the earliest in game at Mascarell.

 

In-Game Strategies and Hints

 

First off, this build takes a little while to get going. So you need to be a little patient. This build won't really shine until about level 50. You will be melee'ing quite a bit while under level 20. Resist the temptation to pick skills or use runes that help melee only. The first 20-30 levels might take a bit but as you slowly near level 30 you'll be using PM more and more that by the time you're level 50 you shouldn't be melee'ing at all.

 

It's a good idea if heading for unfamiliar territory or if you know you have a big fight coming up to use the 'Throw-n-Go' technique. This means you throw a PM out ahead of you and then run to it. Then repeat process. It works really well on Cerebropods. Even if they freeze all your Combat Art regen timers, you'll still have a couple traps active which you can lead them to.

 

When fighting mobs you can prepare for battle easily before attacking. Just toss a few PM's in front of you then throw one at the mob. Let them come to you and die at your feet. Another variant also works well when rounding up mobs. I'll use the Sakarra area in the Valley of Tears for an example but works well in the Orc, Golem and Ghost caves and out in the Khorad Desert too. At the entrance to the Sakarra area throw down a bunch of PM's. If you have split, throw the PM's to create a circle (that way when they split you have a trap waiting for them). Then run/ride out and gather them up and head back to the PM's. They'll fall all over themselves dying.

 

Be careful in caves, along boundary edges and even trees/rocks/buildings. If you cast PM too close to an edge, or your DE is too close to one, the trap may not execute properly. You'll still get hit with the regen timer but no PM will be visible. If this happens just either move a bit or cast PM in a different spot.

 

There really isn't one set you should try to complete. While some have a useful piece or two, none of them give any useful bonuses for either a partial or complete set. The one possible exception may be the D'Braes set. There's a full set bonus called 'Soul Damage' which will cause an additional 10% damage that cannot be resisted. While it is nice, you can do much better by mixing and matching or trading. Also a full Ethan Rhys can be useful. You'll get Water Form (invisibility) while not attacking. So all you have to do is throw your PM's (you'll be visible while casting) then sit back and enjoy the show without worrying about defending yourself.

 

If you like fighting Dragons or Big Spiders than Cobra can really help. You can stun them with Cobra and then spam PM's. Cobra at level 10 has a duration of about 20-25 secs, so you might need to use Cobra again depending on how much damage PM is doing. One bit of advice-be careful when using Cobra especially if you're prone to lag or the server has a lot of people in it. By stunning with Cobra and then spamming PM, thus covering up it's life circle, you might not be able to tell if you're lagging. Have lost a couple Trapper DE's this way. Also in order to use Cobra you have to be next to opponent to 'cast'.

 

Doing some quests can be easy using PM. The 'Painting' quest in Mascarell is a great example. Once you talk to the thief and exit the house you're attacked by several soldiers. But if you drop a bunch of PM's outside the house before talking with thief, when you come out all the soldiers will already be taking damage. The 'Heroes' cave on the Pirate Isles is another. Drop a bunch near the grave then open it. Makes the battle incredibly easy.

 

Some monsters are highly resistant to poison. Undead and poison trolls come to mind. Luckily several popular leveling areas are great for a PM Trapper. These include the Ghost Cave, Orc cave, Golem Cave and Sakarra Area.

 

If you're still with me after reading all that, I just want to say this is intended as a guideline. Some parts you may agree or disagree with and maybe I've helped fill in the gaps for others. There really isn't one correct way to build a PM Trapper. Some may want to be a hybrid while others might want to use Bottomless Pit/Explosive Charge/Confusion/Battle Fog etc. to compliment their build. This is just a summation of how I built my PM DE's and can guarantee it will be a killing machine all the way through to level 216. Hopefully I've given you a guideline to start off with and Good Luck if you decide to give a PM Trapper a try

Edited March 31, 2008 by Knuckles

[Totalimmortal 0]

dude you are the man, I never realized so much about my beloved Delf's skills... for instance, weapon lore affects trap damage? hmmm.... I'm pretty close to this build right now with my level 105+ DE... he's good. if you change your poison damage into fire damage and replace poison mist with explosive charge and bottomless pit, you have my beloved DElf. thanks for the advice though, I was actually thinking about my next elf focusing on poison.

 

-Total

[gogoblender 3,306]

I don't play DE but I do like a well written guide. Great setup on this knuckles, especially regarding the reasons for and why you choose attributes. I bet because the damage is so poison-based it just sings in VOT?

 

 

 

gogo

 

[Knuckles 904]

Like a well tuned Amati violin lol

[Bushwhacker2k 0]

I checked my settings.cfg file and can't find any line that says default skills, suggestions?

[tomi 0]

Um...mine loks like this:

ACCEPT_LICENSE : 1

AUTOSAVE : 0

AUTOSAVEDELAY : 180

AUTOTRACKENEMY : 1

CHAT_ALPHA : 0

CHAT_DELAY : 8

CHAT_LINES : 8

COMBINE_SLOTS : 0

COMPAT_VIDEO : 0

DEFAULT_SKILLS : 0

 

 

It's the 10. in my settings. If there isn't anything like that for sure, id say to

make a copy of the file somewhere else. (like on the desktop)

Then write in the settings manual this:

DEFAULT_SKILLS : 0

 

Then take a try.

Edited July 9, 2008 by tomi

[Bushwhacker2k 0]

I tried putting it in, our files must be different, only about 3 lines from yours were even in mine. I tried the skill thing and it didn't do anything, could be it because I don't have underworld?

[tomi 0]

Ahhh could happen!

 

Um, did you plan to get UW, or not...

If no, I think I'll check out wiki. Perhaps I can find there something about this problem.

 

Though I dont think there's any connect between Under World and the first 2 skills.

 

Edit: Check this out. Doesn't say anything about UW though.

 

Sacred Wiki: Default Skills

Edited July 29, 2008 by tomi

[Putrescine 12]

You can only reset the default skills if you have Underworld.

 

It's not possible in neither Sacred nor Sacred Plus

[Sethi22 197]

Well, I just flew past the game with this build. What an absolute joke it was! After suffering with my dwarves and daemons for years, this was a walk in the park, even in Niobium. Poison is by far superior to any other damage type in this game, (and poison mist is far superior to my beloved daemons' poison ring, as you can stack it). Adrenaline, Testosterone and Poison mist is all you ever  need, no need for anything else. (Yeah, 1 Mongoose). I was a happy camper with this build, that's for sure! And if it wasn't OP enough, you get Ethan Rhys set for waterforming your way  through anything you don't feel like fighting... I had no idea, this game could be so easy!

(I took riding last, and didn't regret it, 25 points in it for more than 60% HP bonus is worth it.)

Edited July 11 by Sethi22

[gogoblender 3,306]

5 hours ago, Sethi22 said:

Well, I just flew past the game with this build. What an absolute joke it was! After suffering with my dwarves and daemons for years, this was a walk in the park, even in Niobium. Poison is by far superior to any other damage type in this game, (and poison mist is far superior to my beloved daemons' poison ring, as you can stack it). Adrenaline, Testosterone and Poison mist is all you ever  need, no need for anything else. (Yeah, 1 Mongoose). I was a happy camper with this build, that's for sure! And if it wasn't OP enough, you get Ethan Rhys set for waterforming your way  through anything you don't feel like fighting... I had no idea, this game could be so easy!

(I took riding last, and didn't regret it, 25 points in it for more than 60% HP bonus is worth it.)

poison mist? really? I knew there was a meta going on for a while after the ice shards break through when the game first came out... and it seemed like the world went wild with misty green swirls popping up every time I partied with a dark elf... isnt it technically a DOT? Wouldnt fire damage be quicker as its a blast? 

Underworld was so arcade like...the first thing we noticed when we got Sacred 2 was that.. you couldnt switch ca's in mid flight to gain back that *free energy* and that ...sacred 2 was soooooooo slooooooooooow... 

I remember asking everyone online that it felt like a completely different game, and someone came out with the answer that sacred 2 had all that crazy*protection* from copying that it had slowed down the game... all hail to the crazy speed of underworlds builds... you gotta play it to believe...thanks for the nostalgia hit, Sethi, good seeing you back in form with the game

 

gogo

[Sethi22 197]

In numbers, other damage types can go much higher for sure, my almost maxed out poison mist says something like 150.000 damage in the tooltip, which isn't much, compared to physical-fire skills of my dwarves or my bouncing daemon lady's landing phase.,. But for some reason nobody has high poison resist in this game, and especially noone in the Valley of tears, which is what really matters, as you level up there, It's a complete massacre, they fall much faster than from anything else. (And being able to stack them means most boss fights are a complete joke, Anducar the easiest of them all, as he doesn't attack you until you talk to him. So you stack your traps under him, maybe waterform yourself for complete invisibility and the feeling of utter supremacy (like the shadow warrior in sacred 2 with shadow veil) and then talk to him. It's hilarious! He doesn't even know you're there, doesn't even attack you, just stands in the middle of the traps and perishes. (Fast!)

For example, my tech dwarf's Cannon blast that does full physical damage, had something like 300.000+ damage in the end, and he also had Dwarven steel to lower the physical resist of his foes. But the toughest shadow guards in the Valley took like 3 shots in the face before going down, even with their resist lowered to 5% of the original value. But from my poson mist, it's instant kill,  I don't know if this is intended to be like this or not, but it was way too easy compared to anything else I tried...

(And on top of that, you have obscene amounts of defense, so you're completely safe from harm, even if you choose to be visible. I chose to go one hand-shield, and with a parrying of just 120 in the end, and not concentrating on defense amulets too much, I had 100.000 defense, meaning a Hell golem in Nio had 10% chance to hit me. If I pushed parrying to max, and socketed defense amulets in every socket, I guess my defense would have ended in several hundreds of thousands, But everybody died so fast, I was too lazy to even care about defense... )

 

 

Edited July 12 by Sethi22

[Sethi22 197]

On 7/12/2024 at 2:19 AM, gogoblender said:

 isnt it technically a DOT? Wouldnt fire damage be quicker as its a blast? 

 

Well, I even learned how to record videos and convert them to GIF for this, although I'm afraid the 2 MB file size means it will be very small. (I wish I could make the image larger somehow, but how on earth do I get a bigger picture down to 2 MB?) I did all this purely for educational purposes of course, no showboating here! So here is Niobium Anducar with my level 311 poison mist combo under him. Decide for yourself Gogo, if this is a DOT or not! I think you can leave the OT part out, this is just pure Damage! Instant kill, he didn't even have time to take one step or attack once..

 

 

[SLD 522]

On 7/12/2024 at 2:19 AM, gogoblender said:

isnt it technically a DOT? Wouldnt fire damage be quicker as its a blast? 

It does one "blast" every second for 50 seconds. 

On 7/12/2024 at 2:19 AM, gogoblender said:

the first thing we noticed when we got Sacred 2 was that.. you couldnt switch ca's in mid flight to gain back that *free energy* and that ...sacred 2 was soooooooo slooooooooooow... 

I have no clue what that ca switching part is about, please elaborate I also have no clue why you think sacred 2 would bge slow compared to sacred underworld. I recently played UW and it's so clunky... Did you know you can interrupt a ranged multi-hit with itself? You always have to click once, wait for arrows, then click again. If you click again too early, no arrows at all. In Sacred 2 you just hold down left and right mouse button to run automatically, the moment something ends uo under the curser it gets obliterated and you move on. In Sacred 2 you also get auto pickup and can sell on the way. So much time wasted in UW picking up single items... To me Sacred 2 feels a lot faster and smoother to play.
 

On 7/12/2024 at 9:05 AM, Sethi22 said:

In numbers, other damage types can go much higher for sure, my almost maxed out poison mist says something like 150.000 damage in the tooltip, which isn't much, compared to physical-fire skills of my dwarves or my bouncing daemon lady's landing phase

Well 150k on poison mist is nowhere near "maxed out". With testosterone it is easily possible to do more than 600k. The dwarven "cannon" skills all run against the skill  damage cap that was introduced to prevent an overflow that could once occur. Some capped skills have tooltips that wrap around like bfg others like the dwarf ones claim to do higher damage but they don't. They're all capped at ~65535 per damage type and that is afterwards multiplied with the SB damage bonus so a possible total of around 98k per damage type, the dwarven mortar reaches cap with two and therefore gets to somewhere below 200k. I don't know if poison mist is capped as it usually doesn't reach that high a number on either of its damage types, but what I do know for sure is that the bonus from testosterone does not get capped and thereby poison mist can hit for far more damage in a single hit than basically every other non weapon damage based CA.

for the landing demon we're dealing with a weapon based CA. And I guess with the help of hellpower it should take the throne on maximum single hit damage in the game, otherwise its either Fist of the Gods or a darkelf with testosterone and hard hit. 
The demon however has to get off the ground first which will carry a significant regen time, even with a lvl1 ca in a combo and than do the landing so it takes a lot of time and is not as freely available. The poison mist you compared it to sports a regen time of far below 2 seconds fpr a level 510 CA so it is basically always ready. It also stays around so that if a new one isn't ready you can pull enemies through the old one. Poison mist is also definitely king of damage per CA as you have to multiply its damage by its 50s duration. It's also king in singletarget dps as you can stack more than 30 on top of each other reaching like 20 million dps, not that that would ever matter in this game
 

9 hours ago, Sethi22 said:

Anducar with my level 311 poison mist combo under him

Why the combo? It's barely faster than throwing the 4 poison mists seperately but then it has like an infinite regen time unless you drink a potion, of which you can't fit that many into that tiny inventory.

[Sethi22 197]

Many points there that I didn't know, so thanks for clearing things up! The overflowing numbers part with the single damage type cap is really interesting, that was completely new to me! My Testosterone was level 220ish and Poison mist around the same,, that's why I said close to maxed out. (At least from runes read). But I only used Ethan set, which is of course not the best for poison mist, Just used it for the waterform part. I don't even know if I had anything really damage orientated on, Ethan set's full set bonus gives +% poison damage, I think that was all I had. Lots of +xp and special item finding stuff for quality of life, and way too much life leech, the rest was crappy defense amulets I found. But this damage was more than enough for anything in this game, and playing it through was a breeze. Could have changed suits and pumped the damage much higher of course, but if you already one shot the final boss in the game, why bother with it? I also didn't care about trading, and only used the items I found with him, so the level 311 combo was as far as I got, and I used it because I'm probably one of the laziest people in the world, and pressing a button once feels superior to pressing it four times, or holding it down

About the item collecting part: For me the only annoying part is you have to constantly get off your mount to pick up some items, Other than that, I think it's ok, I use an autohotkey script when playing Sacred 1, so my skills are remapped to buttons I like, and if I want, I can use a small program called "X-mouse button control" for autoclicking. That would solve your problem with the multi hits, more or less. It's really useful! First got it for Diablo 2, as the melee characters there have to click again and again to attack, and it becomes really painful after a while. But with this, you can hold a button on your mouse, (or keyboard) and it autoclicks for you, so you get something similar to Sacred 2. But I agree with Gogo about the speed part: Mounts in Sacred 2 especially feel too slow to me, and as far as I know, riding skill doesn't help that much. (Slowest of them all is that stupid spider! Oh how I hate it!) And when the game came out, it really ate everything my Pc could give, and could get really slow, especially in multiplayer. Now this is all gone of course.  Also leveling up seems faster to me in sacred 1, especially with this guy!

It really took me by suprise how strong he was, My usual mistake with characters was that I used too many skills, so my techdwarf's cannon blast was something like level 140-50 in the end, and it really wasn't enough. Also I usually ended up creating messed up hybrid characters, and this was the first time I really said: No! 3 combat arts, no hybrid thing, and that's it. I maxed out Adrenaline, and the other two were already mentioned, around 220. So this was my first char who really dominated the game properly, and I don't think anything else comes close to poison mist in this game, considering the low poison resist everyone has in the endgame, and the ease of use of course. At least nothing that I tried! (I mean this Anducar guy used to be a threat to me, he killed at least two of my dwarves and I don't even know how many of my daemonesses. even in lower difficulties. (And if they bite the dust, I'm done with them, time for a new char!) I used to feel pumped up before meeting him. "Oh how exciting! it's Anducar!" Used to prepare my Niobium resist suits for him, so somehow I survived his tentacles, used to plan my strategy: where wil I run-fly before unleashing my final combo... It used to be a challenge. And this guy just runs there with his magic find and xp bonus gear and one shots him. I didn't even prepare for the fight in any way. If you can call it a "fight"...)

Edited September 17 by Sethi22