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[PuMa]

So who else is eagerly awaiting some kind of solution to the GameStop preorder carrier imp problem?

Definitely one of the most exciting preorder bonuses for a game as far as I'm concerned.

I was sort of excited about before I got the game, but now that I've been playing, I've realized that I really don't need it.

 

[Amneisac]

Yeah, I know what you mean, since you can just scrap stuff, but it seems like with the cost of blacksmithing as the game progresses every little bit helps.

 

[bjaelke]

Yeah, I know what you mean, since you can just scrap stuff, but it seems like with the cost of blacksmithing as the game progresses every little bit helps.

Have a low level character forge the weapon/armor for you. This makes the cost much smaller

 

[Tobor]

Yup, even if I'm really close to an enemy to use the melee weapon, it'll still shoot and SOMETIMES actually use the melee weapon. I'm about to lose my mind because I don't want to use this stupid laser pew pew anymore.

Are you a Temple Guardian? If so, use one of the melée combat arts like Dedicated Blow or Battle extension. That will transform the laser arm into a mace or predator claw. No more pew pew's.

 

[Macattk15]

Hopefully this isn't a dumb question...

I've been using skill points to increase my Death Warrior Focus and Malevolent Champion Focus (Shadow Warrior). Right now for both, it says "Highest Spell Level without Penalty" of 9. Does this mean I can memorize additional runes, and level up my Combat Arts to level 9, and still be okay as far as the casting time goes?

Anyone know the answer to this? I would like to know as well.

 

[Community Forum]

Anyone know the answer to this? I would like to know as well.

Yah I am still wondering this.

Also, what does the % mean that is on the bottom of the inventory screen? Right now I am at 110%. Is it better to be higher or lower?

 

[Cornballer]

Hopefully this isn't a dumb question...

I've been using skill points to increase my Death Warrior Focus and Malevolent Champion Focus (Shadow Warrior). Right now for both, it says "Highest Spell Level without Penalty" of 9. Does this mean I can memorize additional runes, and level up my Combat Arts to level 9, and still be okay as far as the casting time goes?

Pulled this off of the Sacred forum

I have noticed that at my level of EWF it says that "Highest Spell Level without Penalty" = level 18 - is that a free pass to increase otherCA's to L18?

No, not exactly. "Level without penalty" is just the max level you gain full efficiency of eating runes/adding levels from items.
Say your max spell lvl without penalty is 18. You can eat 18 runes (note these are by no means "free", your CA regen would still skyrocket), and your CA lvl would read as 18 with 18 runes read. However, should you eat 20, you would see something like "runes read: 20" and CA lvl 18,8. If your focus skill is low, you would need progressively more and more runes (or +CA items) to get a full CA level increase.

You still get regen penalties for eating runes even if your "highest spell level without penalty" is high.

 

[Kauza]

Yah I am still wondering this.

Also, what does the % mean that is on the bottom of the inventory screen? Right now I am at 110%. Is it better to be higher or lower?

Beaten on the combat arts stuff!

As for the %, you want a higher rate of health regeneration, as that's calculated as how many points of health you regenerate per second. However, you want a lower value for combat arts, as that's calculated based on the time that will elapse between the time that you use the skill and the point at which it is available again.

Hopefully that answers everything!

 

[Community Forum]

Thank you so much guys, Kauza and Cornballer. I bookmarked the Sacred forums for future reference. They sure don't make it easy to figure everything out in the game, do they? I wish I could just click on a stat and it would tell me what it is and what it does. I guess that's part of the draw to these types of games though, right? One day you figure everything out, and it is like being able to speak a different language.

 

[Tobor]

Pulled this off of the Sacred forumYou still get regen penalties for eating runes even if your "highest spell level without penalty" is high.

That makes no fucking sense. If it says "no penalty", there should me no penalty! I've been memorizing runes under that assumption. Fuck!

 

[Kauza]

Thank you so much guys, Kauza and Cornballer. I bookmarked the Sacred forums for future reference. They sure don't make it easy to figure everything out in the game, do they? I wish I could just click on a stat and it would tell me what it is and what it does. I guess that's part of the draw to these types of games though, right? One day you figure everything out, and it is like being able to speak a different language.

You know, it's amazing how often I feel like I don't really understand everything that's going on in the game in terms of mechanics. Luckily, I feel like the basics are easy enough to get a hold of. In some ways, I think I still prefer how a game like Titan Quest handles skill progression just in terms of sheer simplicity, but at the same time, I appreciate what Sacred 2 is doing, and it's certainly unique.

I've still yet to screw up a skill by adding too many runes to it, so I think, for the most part, if you stay under the threshold of the "level without penalty," you won't totally kill regen times. That is, I've yet to add a rune and immediately think my regen times have changed considerably.

That makes no fucking sense. If it says "no penalty", there should me no penalty! I've been memorizing runes under that assumption. Fuck!

I think what they're going for at this point is that just adding a rune isn't a penalty--it's a basic progression of the combat art that is meant to "keep up with" the character's progression through levels. So, just as a spell in other games would cost more mana at higher levels, you're going to see a slight increase in the casting time at higher levels.

The penalty seems to be to prevent people from going crazy with a skill at a low level. It makes sense based on the mechanics--higher levels of a spell in other similar games would be locked at a character's lower level. This is Sacred 2's way of keeping your combat arts in check.

 

[Anerythristic]

I am reading this entire exchange about the rune eating. I tend to just do it very, very slowly.

I wll go to the combat arts page, check regen time and power benefit, then eat a rune, I will actually then cast the spell to feel out the regen time in combat, if it's acceptable, I will again go to the CA screen check the skill gauge regen time to benefit gained and eat another rune. I find attack spells with a regen of about 2 seconds or below is fine.

I am very happy with my character leveling slowly does anybody else do it that carefully?

 

[Cahill]

You know, it's amazing how often I feel like I don't really understand everything that's going on in the game in terms of mechanics. Luckily, I feel like the basics are easy enough to get a hold of. In some ways, I think I still prefer how a game like Titan Quest handles skill progression just in terms of sheer simplicity, but at the same time, I appreciate what Sacred 2 is doing, and it's certainly unique.

I've still yet to screw up a skill by adding too many runes to it, so I think, for the most part, if you stay under the threshold of the "level without penalty," you won't totally kill regen times. That is, I've yet to add a rune and immediately think my regen times have changed considerably.

I did a little test last night with my High Elf. Was chowing Arrant Pyromancer (Fire) runes like tasty little Jalapeno morsels until my regen times were pretty much outta control. Few levels later all points went to Lore and Concentration and I was able to shoot my Gold Level Fireballs rapid-fire once again. Doesn't seem to take long to be able to recoup if you take a few too many.

 

[Cornballer]

I am reading this entire exchange about the rune eating. I tend to just do it very, very slowly.

I am very happy with my character leveling slowly does anybody else do it that carefully?

Yup, that's how I've been going about it. There are too many intricacies to the leveling that I don't understand, so I've been taking a cautious approach. I just figured out the "highest spell level without penalty" thing right now after looking it up for SHOTEH FOCK OP. Better to save the skill points/runes/modifications and make sure you know what they do before you use them. That being said, it's hard to irrevocably screw up a build in this game - there's almost always a way around it, but you might handicap yourself for a while.

 

[Anerythristic]

That makes no fucking sense. If it says "no penalty", there should me no penalty! I've been memorizing runes under that assumption. Fuck!

Just putting 2 or 3 points into the particular CA focus should fix you right up.

 

[Tobor]

You know, it's amazing how often I feel like I don't really understand everything that's going on in the game in terms of mechanics. Luckily, I feel like the basics are easy enough to get a hold of. In some ways, I think I still prefer how a game like Titan Quest handles skill progression just in terms of sheer simplicity, but at the same time, I appreciate what Sacred 2 is doing, and it's certainly unique.

I've still yet to screw up a skill by adding too many runes to it, so I think, for the most part, if you stay under the threshold of the "level without penalty," you won't totally kill regen times. That is, I've yet to add a rune and immediately think my regen times have changed considerably.



I think what they're going for at this point is that just adding a rune isn't a penalty--it's a basic progression of the combat art that is meant to "keep up with" the character's progression through levels. So, just as a spell in other games would cost more mana at higher levels, you're going to see a slight increase in the casting time at higher levels.

The penalty seems to be to prevent people from going crazy with a skill at a low level. It makes sense based on the mechanics--higher levels of a spell in other similar games would be locked at a character's lower level. This is Sacred 2's way of keeping your combat arts in check.

So the regen rates increase normally, but with a penalty would increase even higher? If so, I'm fine with that. It's still a bad description, though.

Just putting 2 or 3 points into the particular CA focus should fix you right up.

That's what I'm doing anyway, I just want to be fully aware of what I'm doing.

 

[Flachmatuch]

Yup, that's how I've been going about it. There are too many intricacies to the leveling that I don't understand, so I've been taking a cautious approach. I just figured out the "highest spell level without penalty" thing right now after looking it up for SHOTEH FOCK OP. Better to save the skill points/runes/modifications and make sure you know what they do before you use them. That being said, it's hard to irrevocably screw up a build in this game - there's almost always a way around it, but you might handicap yourself for a while.

I'm doing the same, keeping recharge time to a few seconds. Being able to spam is much more important than, say, slightly higher damage for example.

I'm kind of regretting getting both the sword and the dual wield skills though, because their bonuses don't stack, but at least i'm getting the skill dependent bonuses on swords now, hope it'll be worth it later...thinking about a new character because of this tbh :-/

 

[Kinitari]

Me and my girlfriend had our first difficult encounter with that... goblin chieftan thingy at the top of the fortress. Holy shit whats with his regen? Anyway we eventually downed him, but he was a bitch. Makes me feel good though that there are some harder encounters, we haven't ran into anything we need to run away from, but we've only uncovered about 4% of the map and are both 17 right now. So I can only assume shit hits the fan when we get to the first real boss - or least I hope so. How are boss drops/chest anyway? Is it ridiculous like... 20 items? Or is it just one or two really good items? My gear is starting to really fall behind my girlfriends on account of her bargaining + gear with 12% to rare drops, and its showing I can't let her win.

 

[Kauza]

So the regen rates increase normally, but with a penalty would increase even higher? If so, I'm fine with that. It's still a bad description, though.

That's what I'm doing anyway, I just want to be fully aware of what I'm doing.

I think what's meant to happen is that those minor increases in reger times will be mostly offset as you gain levels as you begin to put more points into your lore/focus (whichever is the one that decreases regen times), putting points into stamina, and getting armor with regen decrease times. So I think what Anerythristic, Cornballer and others have been doing makes a lot of sense. It might even be worth it to only add to your combat arts after you gain a level. That way, if you're careful, you can plan everything out and not see any increases in regen times.

Then again, it seems to work well enough if you just stay under your penalty level, but that may depend a lot on your own build.

 

[Tobor]

I think what's meant to happen is that those minor increases in reger times will be mostly offset as you gain levels as you begin to put more points into your lore/focus (whichever is the one that decreases regen times), putting points into stamina, and getting armor with regen decrease times. So I think what Anerythristic, Cornballer and others have been doing makes a lot of sense. It might even be worth it to only add to your combat arts after you gain a level. That way, if you're careful, you can plan everything out and not see any increases in regen times.

Then again, it seems to work well enough if you just stay under your penalty level, but that may depend a lot on your own build.

I'm still way under the penalty, the penalty right now is 9, and I don't have any CA's above 6 runes. Crisis averted, I just need to be careful.

 

[bjaelke]

Me and my girlfriend had our first difficult encounter with that... goblin chieftan thingy at the top of the fortress. Holy shit whats with his regen? Anyway we eventually downed him, but he was a bitch. Makes me feel good though that there are some harder encounters, we haven't ran into anything we need to run away from, but we've only uncovered about 4% of the map and are both 17 right now. So I can only assume shit hits the fan when we get to the first real boss - or least I hope so. How are boss drops/chest anyway? Is it ridiculous like... 20 items? Or is it just one or two really good items? My gear is starting to really fall behind my girlfriends on account of her bargaining + gear with 12% to rare drops, and its showing I can't let her win.

The bosses drop a fair amount of loot (~8 items including runes) + gold and exp. I'm at the third boss with one of my characters, but after getting raped 8 times in a row I put that character on hold and started a new one :lol A pyro specced HE against a fire dragon is just as unfair as it gets.

Edit: And for those who can't take down the Kobold Chieftain - POISON.

 

[CronosBlade]

Ah yes, the Kobold Chieftain. Wife and I ran away during our first encounter at level 6.

At level 13 (her Dryad, my Inquisitor) it was a 5 on 1 fight lol. She had her ghost from the dryad buff, I had my inquisitor doppleganger and a ghost of one of the slain kobolds. Her bow poisoned him, my inquisitor skills slowed him and caused open wounds.

That bastard's HP dropped fast.

 

[PuMa]

I really don't think the rune eating stuff is as confusing as some people are making it out to be. The description at the combat arts screen pretty much spells it out. Think of it this way. When you eat a rune, it bumps up your CA level. Each increase in CA level increases the performance of that CA but also increases the regen. time as well. It even shows you the next level's new stats right there.

It's not a "penalty" per se. It's the progression of the CA. As some people have already mentioned, the penalty comes into play when your CA level is higher than what your skill allows. That's where the "level without penalty" comes into play. And even that I wouldn't even really call a penalty because all it does is reduce the progression you get from increasing your CA level. For example, I eat as many Grand Invigoration runes as I can get my hands on. My "level without penalty" is like 20 or something. Since I've eaten more than 20 runes, my actual level for GI shows up as 20.4 or something like that.

Hope that helps clear it up a bit for some people.

 

[Cornballer]

Have any of you been doing a lot of forging/blacksmithing so far? (Either paying for it or doing it yourself.) The only thing I've done so far is adding a magic pearl to my primary weapon to convert some of the damage into magic. Seems to work nicely as a lot of enemies have physical damage resistance. Just curious what people are finding useful - adding defensive resistances? socketing runes? Using enhance/anneal/whet?

 

[traynuvthawt]

Alright so I rerolled this morning, chose Inquisitor, and I'm level 5 now.

I have NOT spent any time in the attributes menu whatsoever, haven't spent any points, nothing.

Can anyone offer a place where I can get information on good ways to spec my character, or would I be better off to just read through this entire thread?

 

[Cornballer]

Can anyone offer a place where I can get information on good ways to spec my character, or would I be better off to just read through this entire thread?

You can check here and here for a few ideas. My advice would be to go slowly and see what works for you personally. You can take the first level CA of everything without a penalty to see how they work.

 

[Kauza]

Have any of you been doing a lot of forging/blacksmithing so far? (Either paying for it or doing it yourself.) The only thing I've done so far is adding a magic pearl to my primary weapon to convert some of the damage into magic. Seems to work nicely as a lot of enemies have physical damage resistance. Just curious what people are finding useful - adding defensive resistances? socketing runes? Using enhance/anneal/whet?

I fill every available slot with enhance. It's extremely expensive to do so, but nearly all of my slotted equipment now has at least a -10 to combat arts regen, and it's a huge help to my character class (high elf).

If a slot can't take enhance, I usually go with a magic pearl.

 

[PuMa]

Just wanted to add...I've been progressing in the main quest so I can start Gold difficulty, and I made it to the Carnach Fire Demon boss last night.

My High Elf strolls into the boss chamber, and I hear her say "I don't think my fire spells are going to help me here". I was thinking, "oh shit" to myself since I'm pretty much 100% pyro based. I went ahead anyways.

Tried my fireball, which is pretty powerful btw...nada. Blazing Tempest...nope. I should add that this guy has regen too. Finally gave him some of my Incendiary Shower....bingo. I saw it dent his lifebar so I started spamming it on him. Took me a few minutes but he finally went down.

Love this game.

 

[Xevren]

If you like we can do some runnin' around bud. Im usually on 8-11PM or so Eastern time.

Got disconnected from a friend (his game) a couple times last night. Really not happy with the fact that you lose your loot and level XP when it happens. I'm sure it was to stop duping or whatever, but it really sucks if you're just running along fighting mobs and get DC'd *big thumbs down*

Can we even play though? I know you play an Inquisitor and my HE is on the light path, so can we even play on co-op if we're diffferent alignments? Got level 35 last night woo woo!

 

[bjaelke]

I fill every available slot with enhance. It's extremely expensive to do so, but nearly all of my slotted equipment now has at least a -10 to combat arts regen, and it's a huge help to my character class (high elf).

If a slot can't take enhance, I usually go with a magic pearl.

Let your alts pay for it. I paid 9k for enhanced upgrade last time. My main would have paid 100k for the same forge.

 

[Drinky Crow]

it tells you what the penalty for the next level is in the "tooltip" for the ca! TRUST IT.

 

[Kauza]

Let your alts pay for it. I paid 9k for enhanced upgrade last time. My main would have paid 100k for the same forge.

You mean by using the hero chest? I had never thought of that! Of course, my main has something like 2.5 million gold, so I'm not strapped for cash at this point. But I'll definitely have to remember this, because I could see it getting to a point where it does become somewhat unaffordable.

 

[Cahill]

Can we even play though? I know you play an Inquisitor and my HE is on the light path, so can we even play on co-op if we're diffferent alignments? Got level 35 last night woo woo!

Free world we can if I'm using my Inquisitor. I have two characters though. 29 Inq and 17 High Elf... so we can play either way - if you stop leveling the HE (or I start lvling mine ) that is

 

[bjaelke]

You mean by using the hero chest?

Yes. You can even transfer money to your alt character.

 

[Amneisac]

Yes. You can even transfer money to your alt character.

Ooof. Wish I knew that before I deleted all of my level 15 characters. I moved all the gear, but none of the money.

 

[bjaelke]

Ooof. Wish I knew that before I deleted all of my level 15 characters. I moved all the gear, but none of the money.

I might have to rephrase that. You can transfer money to your other characters by transfering items/weapons and let them sell it for you. If your alt picks bargaining as his first skill then you can transfer money by buying a lot of crap and let your alt sell it without a severe loss.

 

[Cornballer]

I fill every available slot with enhance. It's extremely expensive to do so, but nearly all of my slotted equipment now has at least a -10 to combat arts regen, and it's a huge help to my character class (high elf).

Cool. Sounds like the critical hit % increase would be useful to my dryad, too.

I might have to rephrase that. You can transfer money to you other character by transfering items/weapons and let them sell it for you. If your alt picks bargaining as his first skill then you can transfer money by buying a lot of crap and let your alt sell it without a severe loss.

Oh, that's how it works. I was trying to figure out how one would transfer money to an alt. Guess I'll give this a shot tonight if the blacksmithing prices are too high for me.

 

[Amneisac]

Not to derail the thread, but:

I just saw the Gametrailers review. They usually do a really good job reviewing games, but I have to say they really missed the boat on this one.

 

[Cahill]

I might have to rephrase that. You can transfer money to your other characters by transfering items/weapons and let them sell it for you. If your alt picks bargaining as his first skill then you can transfer money by buying a lot of crap and let your alt sell it without a severe loss.

I've seen this mentioned several times. Do the order you pick skills really matter or is it simply because it will allow you to pump more points into it since you'll have it longer than if you waited to pick it?

 

[bjaelke]

I've seen this mentioned several times. Do the order you pick skills really matter or is it simply because it will allow you to pump more points into it since you'll have it longer than if you waited to pick it?

It lets you pump in more points and thereby securing a steady cash flow from the beginning. I have 800,000 with my level 15 character :lol

 

[Cahill]

Not to derail the thread, but:

I just saw the Gametrailers review. They usually do a really good job reviewing games, but I have to say they really missed the boat on this one.

The highest level I think I saw in the review was like 8... and they actually complain about moving without a mount? You can get a horse like an hour into the game...

The game's not a 9 or anything (especially with some of the annoying choices and bugs) but a 5? Really?

 

[Amneisac]

I've seen this mentioned several times. Do the order you pick skills really matter or is it simply because it will allow you to pump more points into it since you'll have it longer than if you waited to pick it?

I think in this particular case he just means bargaining will help you keep most of the money when you sell them to a vendor using an alt who's first priority is selling your loot to get a headstart on money.
(edit)
The only benefit to the order in which you pick skills is how useful they are at low levels. At least as far I know. In other words, a percentage based skill won't be as effective with the lower values you'd have as a level 2 character or whatever.

 

[Cahill]

I think in this particular case he just means bargaining will help you keep most of the money when you sell them to a vendor using an alt who's first priority is selling your loot to get a headstart on money.
(edit)
The only benefit to the order in which you pick skills is how useful they are at low levels. At least as far I know. In other words, a percentage based skill won't be as effective with the lower values you'd have as a level 2 character or whatever.

Thanks. Gotta ask these seemingly silly Q's... just to be sure.

 

[Artadius]

Much like in Diablo II, it will benefit you in the extremely long run to plan a character out early on who will be your 'Magic Find Expert'. This should be a character who is durable enough to succeed at the highest levels of the game... but more importantly focuses on skills which maximizes their chances at finding the best gear possible.

Skills that meet this approach would be:

• Enhanced Perception (for obvious reasons)
• Bargaining (for obvious reasons)
• Speed Lore And/Or Riding (to get to bosses / great farm locations as quickly as possible)
• Combat skills necessary to maximize killing speed... especially for large groups of creatures (for example, HE Pyromancer Lore/Focus for AOE fire attacks)

This type of character can then focus on skills that maximize their item find/bargaining abilities while still hopefully raising combat abilities high enough that they can mow large groups of enemies down quickly (and scoop up the loot). Bosses can be run over and over again in free mode and there's bound to be areas of the world where large numbers of fairly easy to kill (aoe) creatures reside for mass item farming.

 

[GDJustin]

The "penalty" just means the next time you eat a rune to increase the level of a CA, it won't go up a full level. Instead of going from level 9 to 10, you might go from 9 to 9.8. You still incur the exact same increase in regen times.

But that being said...

I did a little test last night with my High Elf. Was chowing Arrant Pyromancer (Fire) runes like tasty little Jalapeno morsels until my regen times were pretty much outta control. Few levels later all points went to Lore and Concentration and I was able to shoot my Gold Level Fireballs rapid-fire once again. Doesn't seem to take long to be able to recoup if you take a few too many.

I have found this to be very very true. People are stressing about their regens way too much. If it gets high, just put your attribute points exclusively into regen-lowering for a few levels and you'll be fine.

 

[Aurora]

I'm kind of regretting getting both the sword and the dual wield skills though, because their bonuses don't stack, but at least i'm getting the skill dependent bonuses on swords now, hope it'll be worth it later...thinking about a new character because of this tbh :-/

It definitely pays off in the end IMO. There are many great bonuses on the uniques and legendary swords that require Sword Weapons to unlock. If you're focusing on a sword build then this is a great choice. If you want to mix it up and use other weapons then maybe I can understand why it's not so worth it. What skill would you have chosen instead anyway?

 

[traynuvthawt]

You can check here and here for a few ideas. My advice would be to go slowly and see what works for you personally. You can take the first level CA of everything without a penalty to see how they work.

Thanks a bunch, i'm using the first link quite a bit.

Man I just played online with my buddy for about an hour, what a blast.

I feel like i'm liking this a lot more now that I have put a few hours into it and understand it a bit more. This game is fun as hell.

 

[Union Carbine]

I was on vacation last week when my copy was delivered from Amazon. I'm looking forward to playing over the long weekend. I've fallen way behind in this thread: how's the online working out (PS3)?

 

[BobFromPikeCreek]

With Ancient Bark, my Dryad regens 170+ hit points a second, and has 1,400+ defense.

Bulletproof.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

Last night I went back and tried the PC version again. Outside of visuals and working with inventory, the reviews were completely right, the combat and magic use are 10x as satisfying on controller. Quite odd to say on a port, but I enjoy it more.