Sacred 2:R00sters Road to Immortality, Strategies for making 'immortal' toons

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r00sters Road to Immortality, Strategies for making 'immortal' toons

By r00ster


Hello all,

Been a long time since I've done a guide, so hopefully it all goes well.

This guide is firstmost for players that play Hardcore. It's the mode where death counts, and gives purpose to these strategies. This guide is secondmost, for every person who loves Sacred. It's been a long time since 2002-3 when I first discovered the world of Ancaria, and it's been my favorite series/game ever.

Thanks to Ascaron too (sob).

I was going to write a bunch of individual guides, but decided to merge them all into one big mess. Apologies.

Also, it should be stated I am a pure min/max type player in a sense (lol) and put character defense in these types of games over everything else. Feel free to take your toons to YOUR desired level of 'immortality'

Okay, lets begin.

NOTE* All modifiers that do not boost defenses, offenses, or character power in anyway, are omitted. Things like +xp, magic find etc are not part of these equations.

NOTE* These builds for the most, are gear independant. That means, you can smith in whatever you like. Immortality comes down the most to two things;

Combat Arts and proper modifications. Skill Selections.

Attaining Immortality

Lets have a look at some characters.

Seraphim

Seraphim is overall the 'most' immortal of the characters, so best to start with it.

It is relatively easy to attain godhood with seraphim, but it unfortunately comes at the price of all your skill choices (for full immortality. It can truly have all damge thrown at it even bugged demon mages be made irrelevant).

Combat Arts needed: 3

Skills needed: 10

Combat Arts: Battle Stance, Hallowed Restoration, Warding Energy. (divine protection as well, but is totally overkill. With this logic, it is almost impossible to damage in divine)

Mods

Battle Stance: Bronze = irrelevant. Silver = Flexibility. Gold = Retaliation.

Hallowed Restoration: Bronze = Recuperation. Silver = irrelevant. Gold = Antidote.

Warding Energy: Bronze = Projectile Reflection. Silver = Magic Mirror. Gold = Block.

Skills:

Tactics Lore

Exalted Focus

Celestial Lore

Celestial Focus

Revered Tech Focus

Concentration

Armor Lore

Constitution

Combat Discipline

Warding Energy Lore

Combos

Lightning > Hallowed > Assailing > Pelting

Lightning > Radiant > Hallowed > Pelting

Lightning > Hallowed > Soul > Pelting

Lightning CA is a massive debuff. It stacks.

Using the third combo vs a boss renders it useless (unless it can reflect magic, then trouble.. debuffs reflect too). It cannot hit you, almost ever. With Hallowed modded, it will pretty much instantly remove any detremental effect cast on you immediately. In combos like shown, hallowed restoration will 'chain cast' (without needing to remember anything) itself, giving a health regen that nothing but one shots will stop.

NOTE* Halloweds intended healing others first in a combo was fixed in the expansion. I submitted this bug 10x until they probably finally got sick of it, so it will always heal you first now.

With shields, even without any shield mods, like absorption etc, you are pretty much immortal here. Using these combos renders all damage insignificant and irrelevant. Where the shields shine, is they prevent the infamous 'one shot' from demon mages. You MUST have constitution for that. They still hurt, but only the leech %. By Niob, without constitution (even going all vitality) you will NOT have enough health otherwise.

Lighting should be modded to debuff. Slow, lose attack rating (120%!), and always weaken.

Radiant Pillar should be modded to lose attack rating (important to make sure normal mobs never hit) and Area of Effect size. Duration becomes irrelevant later in character life, last mod is free choice.

Misc.

Celestial Lore and Focus are non negotiable. Hallowed was reduced in the expansion, and will not provide its previous amounts without the lore. Focus is self explanitory.

You do not 'need' Combat Discipline, but it makes life oh so much easier. As long as hallowed is the first move in a 2 move combo, your good.

With only having Warding focus, bring it to mastery and leave it. This will allow three Combat Arts to be fully modified. Aside the buff, divine protection should be a choice and Flaring nova modded to slow, stun and reduce attack rating are the best choices. BFG and Archangel's Wrath are omitted.

High Elf

High Elf is another character that is relatively simple to make immortal.

Combat Arts needed: 2 + either buff, Incandescent or Crystal skin and Grand Invigoration Skills Needed: 6

Combat Arts: Expulse Magic, Shadow Step

Mods

Expulse Magic: Without Delphic Lore, the mod 'Strength' is a must for bronze. Silver = Pentagram.

Gold = Protection.

Shadow Step: Bronze = Phase shift. Silver = Vanish. Gold = Mend


Skills

Pyro/Ice Lore + Focus

Delphic Focus

Combat Discipline

Shield Lore

Constitution

Combos

Depending on whether you are fire or ice, you can do these as you see fit, aside the stated Combat Arts. I.e. Expulse > Frost Flare > Raging Nimbus > Glacial Thorns (a personal fav)


Expulse > Spell 1 > Spell 2 > Spell 3

Shadow Step > Spell 1 > Spell 2 > Spell 3

Expulse Magic:

Is one of the best defensive Combat Arts in the game. Spells stack. So with a few high level castings of this spell, the elf is immune to combat arts and detremental effects. It also stacks fear chance, so the player can literally sit inside their circle of immortality.

Shadow Step:

Is used to heal and kite faster than you can move, as well maintain a constant 'invisible' status. In a four move combo, with good regens (expert touch) the combo will be ready to cast just as you become visible again.

Shield Lore: It is necessary to gain a shield with 'block close combat +x%'

This with high all skills, and shield lores master will prevent immunity to non combat art melee damage.

Crystal skin will nullify ranged attacks, the burn arrow mod on incandescent at high ca levels the same.

CD is a must in this case, as the cooldown on shadow step with phase shift mod is just under a 4 move combo (with all skills/Combat Arts, no read runes into 'fighting' Combat Arts. Only buffs). This allows the elf a pseudo shadow viel.

Dryad

A while ago, gogo said he was having some survival troubles with dryad. This section is dedicated to you gogo. You prompted me to explore this class as well as look at even more means of immortality. Thanks.

Combat Arts needed: 1

Skills needed: 3

CA: Golden Glade Touch

Mods: Bronze = Flow. Silver = Persevere. Gold = Dilligence.

Skills

Constitution

Nature Weaver Lore

Nature Weaver Focus


Combos:

Golden Glade > Anything

Grasping Vines > Edaphic Lances

  • With CD: Grasping Vines > Black Curse > Edaphic Lances

This is much easier to do with a magic based dryad than a ranger, as ranger skills regenerate to fast for Golden Glade.

Much like the seraphim, simply slap Golen Glade modified as stated in a combo and you can absorb any amount of damage dealt to you.

This spell gets to even such absurd levels, you might regen more hp than you have. On a test character, it was giving 47000 hp/s when the character had 48000 hp.

With the persevere mod, again, spells stack. The same test character had over 10000 willpower in 2 casts. That's more than shadow warrior gets with Grim Resilience. CA was level 130.

Of course the Ancient Bark buff rocks.

Mod it for rugged, which is the same as armor lore skill, a % addition to ALL armor values, so having hundreds of thousands of resistance is a definite possibility. Defense will get high enough on it's own to have a less than 20% chance to be hit without any modding of gear. The silver mod should be the reflect melee, lastly increase healing is the option I choose at gold (with const. mastery about 2500 natural hp/s regen) though either is fine.

Modding Acute Mind to also lower detremental effects is another great choice.

The second combo is just a 'boss killer' it will prevent any boss from doing anything, can be chain cast over and over. A boss will simply sit there and wait to die.

Constitution: Is a MUST. Without it, know that there are things that can one shot a dryad in late game, mostly niob. This class has almost no Combat art protection and spell protection.

I.e. A DoT from the Garganthropods tail attack in niob did 18000 points of damage per tick to the dryad (no -dots smithed, etc). Without Constitution that could result in a KO.

The Gar Collosus' stone throw did 23000 points of damage. This is with 70000+ physical resistance, Combat Reflexes was tested, Spell Resistance was somewhat helpful. You want to survive this hit in niob, you need constitution. You cannot depend on dust devils ~50% chance to reflect Combat Arts when the other 50% could be a one shot.

Shadow Warrior

Okay, this shouldn't really be that hard to figure out lol.

Combat Arts Needed: 1

Skills Needed: 1

Gee, what could this be...

CA: Shadow Veil

Mods: Bronze = Creep (without Astral Lore. With astral lore, the other is better, -detremental effects). Silver = Fade. Gold = Sinister Pact.

Get this to level 25 for 100% combat art invisibility. NOTE* This does NOT mean enemies can't see you. You can just do combat arts without losing the buff if they don't.

By endgame, a stealth value of 2000 or greater is immunity. The only way to achive this WITHOUT Astral Lore is the 'creep' mod.

With Astral lore, avoidance is much better. The only stray damage that will hit the player are spells like traps etc, and certain detremental effects.

Never left click, the end.


MISC NOTES

On Constitution:

Some say const is not needed for a build. I strive for defense. Even with all the defenses in the world, your last is your health pool. Know that if you don't take this, there are attacks that can kill players outright, if they ever get passed said defenses, usually in the forms of one shots.

Vitality with all points from level 1-200 will yield about 10000 hp without any survival bonus. Constitution around skill level 350-400 yields in the 20000 range. With a lot of +all skills we can see 30000+

Constitution raised on it's own to high levels will allow any class to survive at least ONE of any hits anything can throw at you, except the bugged demon mages.

Note though, that a Shadow Warrior with over 90000 hp (const, vitality points, grim res) can actually survive their hits, with only a sliver left.

In my book, this skill is essential. I will never make a build without it. This is your last line of defense and without it, you don't have one.

Just because your shield has 20000000 points, and the nameless guardians have 'never' hit you doesn't mean they can't.

In tests, they have hit characters level 200 for over 20000 damage. Some weaker defensive characters (by game design) like highelf I have received over 30000 points of damage, even when wearing the correct relics. Without constitution, that means death.


On Combat Reflexes and Spell Resistance:

Many people say these are bugged. They are not. They are a second chance that is not listed in the sigma, because their stats are absolute. I.e. If combat reflex says you have 60% evade, then that's what it has. it's not like socketable evade where there can be addition %'s to a base, etc that 'grows' as the player does.

Both of their main uses are critical avoidance. Again, if the plan is late game, the threat is from critical attacks.

Spell resistances mastery is also incredible. Most dots will never tick more than once.

Shield Lore:

Shield lore is great. The mods on rare shields make it godly. However, again shield lores mastery is absolute. If it says 20% block close combat, its a 'true' 20%. This is not the case with blocks found on items. 100% block close combat from a shield is NOT a true 100% block and immunity. You will still be hit. There is much confusion about this, so I felt it needed to be said. Same applies to Projectiles, and combat arts. If one were to consider immunity via those stats, it's probably around 1000%, of which only the High Elfs Expulse Magic stacking can attain with Combat Arts.

On Gear:

What to socket? I've tried to make these examples as gear independant as possible to allow freedom. however, some things are paramount;

+all skills. Even in its nuetered state, it's still the best mod in the game. There is no other mod that gives this kind of 'bang for the buck'.

+all combat arts. Self explanitory.

+max hp. Again, your health pool is your last line of defense. The larger it is, the bigger that defensive line. There is NO such thing as too much with health. It may not be essential, but it's never not useful. Even if nothing touches you, ever! eventually something will. This will allow you to survive it.

-detremental effects. For characters like dryad, which have very few options otherwise.

-damage over time again, not needed if you have spell resistance skill and a massive hp pool with const mastery, or leech. Or, are using hallowed restoration/golden glade or equivalent.

Anything defensive.

The aspect sets are much improved in the expansion, to the point where I actually use them now. Some sets are incredible, for their bonuses. LL% being the obvious on things like dethyas or revelation of the celestial.

STACKING

Okay, so how to get immunity, without using slots on gear, or gear at all?

Skills and CA stacking.

I.e.

Taking combat reflexes alone will make 90% of hits miss once you have it high level however you attain it.. *Cough*allskills*cough* however, eventually somethign will roll the other 10%, and you could get smacked hard. So, what do we do? stack protections for a near impenetrable defense on dice rolls.

I.e. High base defense (from a skill like battle stance) > Evade (the kind found on gear) > Combat Reflex > Shield Lore > Reflect Close Combat (on a buff)

Gives a good example of stacking. With each of these at high values, like 60%+, the chance to be hit is MUCH lower than stated in the menus.

The reason? each is a seperate roll. This is why combat reflex/spell resistance ROCK. They are seperate chances, independant values, thus allow stacking just by choosing them. They also grant another roll on criticals.

If any enemy attacks a player with a setup like this, it would have to roll that proverbial 10% on each factor, thus massively decreasing it's odds. So much so, that the player is basically immune to said attack types.

This is probably one if not the most important considerations to making immortal characters.

Unfortunately, the ONLY character as far as I know that can stack the most important one, combat arts, is high elf with expulse.

On Offensive Combat Arts:

I find it better with the games mechanics to choose mods that debuff etc over duration or cooldown effects.

The reason is simple; they stack. So an inquisitor stacking the lowering of enemy attributes via disloged spirit with mods to enhance said lowerings, will always favor better in actual gameplay.

It may often be tempting to choose a regen mod, or damage mod (in the disloged spirit case choosing silver mod 'torture' over mod 'deprivation') over the debuffs as they grant their bonuses at the 'here and now' but they usually dimish or become irrelevant later.

A good example is the stun mod on elfs meteors. At high CA levels, its totally possible to 'stun lock' enemies and bosses, but the damage mod its against offers MUCH higher damage.

However, I would totally rather stun lock an enemy, as then damage becomes irrelevant. The enemy WILL go down, without any threat. It's just a matter of time.

On Skills,

Defensive skills aside Constitution are not 'must haves' yet they do provide exceptional defenses. If the player can attain immortality without them (I.e. in the case of seraphim) then all the better.

It's better for example to take Celestial Lore/Focus for Hallowed Restoration than it is to take armor lore, toughness, combat reflexes, spell resistance, warding lore combined.

A never ending regen pool of 10000hp/s beats em all. Especially with constitution, as that much more hp. When you put these in combos, so that they are 'always on' and you needn't worry about casting them when they wear off etc, you are pretty much impervious to damage. The only thing you need is a larger hp pool.

Same for Dryad, no defensive skill will ever stack up to golden glade with constitution.

Lastly, with all this said, the real 'killers' are combat arts.

Again in a test case, the Garganthropods Tail attack gave my Dryad 18000 DoT's, combined with the 18000ish dmg the tail attack itself did.

That would mean instant KO for a character without constitution, or some massive hp increasing effects. As the DoT happened immediately after the hit, without any visible effect.

The Nameless can also OHKO a toon easy in niob, as their hits are massive. Their Combat Arts don't have a high hit chance until the late game, mostly niob, so they are also very underrated. However, again in tests (just to see damages that can be done, standing there letting them pound characters of various defense) they can whack a toon anywhere from 20000-30000+ in late niob with their Combat Arts. Normal hits are in the 10000 range.

I nearly fell out of my chair when the Gar' Collosus hit the dryad for 23000 in niob. I never thought he could unleash a hit like that.

Others are similar, The Carnach, hits around 10000 but many at once, etc. The Octagolomus, insanely high hits (elf in expulse is completely immune if you stack it enough. Makes the player think its 'missing' or soemthing is wrong, yet just let expulse drop....)

Yet most of the time, if not almost always players neglect these sorts of things, because a buff or something has never made them witness these hits yet. I can assure you, they do exist.

I'll add to this if I discover anymore truly relevant data, or come with more 'easy to make immortal' builds.

Hopefully this helps everyone avoid posting in 'Dead Character' threads.

Thanks to everyone for playing Sacred, and all the cool people over the years I've met because of it.

Cheers,

Lastly, I would very much like to hear infos from everyone on what they do or think makes certain classes immortal. Can someone post an immortal TG? or DM? it would be great to hear from the players with a lot of high level experience as well, players who play a lot in plat+ too to hear what you think works etc.

Cheers again,



Originally published at DarkMattersfor review and discussion.

See Also