Sacred 2:High Damage Ice Elf Build

High Damage Ice Elf Build By gogoblender and Schot A good choice of skills and modifiers can transform this mild mannered waif into the deadliest of all classes. After the huge nerfs to +all skills and deathblow, the challenge, after the release of Ice and Blood, was to create a purely magical build with no weapon lores or weapon combat arts that would be able to hammer down guardians while weathering their devastating assaults. I had been looking for published guides with tested builds to come out at DarkMatters ever since the release of Ice and Blood. The challenge was there, and surely people by now must have come up with ways to work around the changes. I had seen many guides in our guides section for all the early versions of game...but dang, Ice and Blood is tough... who knows how a guide that has more than 100 skills in it coming from plus all skills jewelry can be created anymore ...and, as well, with the huge nerf to buffs... The question became... could players now create with all the re-balancing, builds just as powerful if not more powerful than before, along pure magic lines? No Weapon Lores. No weapon Combat Arts. No Tactics Lore ...just a plain old Purely Magical build. I'd never played a High Elf before, was always so into Dryad builds, but just lately the attraction of a pure magic build, along with it's challenge became so compelling, it was even beginning to look like a welcome distraction from RPH, and CTH ^^ And after about a month of playing, re-playing, and meeting up with some great peeps on the servers who's support and advice regarding ice elf builds (Thank you Claudius and Cheese!) , the build is now at level 122 and the tale is ready to be told. Me and Schot just cranked out this video very late last night and just finished some of his special touches on it. I think, more than anything, this video shows just how much of a pounder an ice elf is. With speakers set to high, I really hope we've done a good job of capturing for you the genius and sheer exhilaration of this game. Secret Agent Ice Elf HC Closed Net EU - Level 1-130 P L A Y L O U D Brought up and raised in the HC EU servers amongst the company of friends and clan. Mighty Schot, who has his own every unique HE build was there always, as great advisor to bequeath me with the wisdom of his many months of HE building, only necessitating for me to do the rebuild of this High Elf a mere six times, with only one reaching level 60 before an error in her mods was discovered. ^^ The build has been tested till level 122, is simple, makes sense and only uses one er...trick :P. I only ever play in Platinum now against Guardians because I can still kill faster than in Niobium, and I am certain this accounts for the larger number of drops I get which, I believe, tells me I have a better chance of getting Legendaries...for now :P If I'm grinding, I usually do it in Niobium now, which I find myself doing less and less now because the thrill of Guardians farming is too much for me to turn away from. (Spunky... argh!) Who is the Secret Agent Build for? It's easy on mechanics, has natural synergy with the choices outlined...all you do is basically socket damage and defense...and yer on your way to Guardians land. This is for players who want that shot at getting Legendaries, which is what it was originally built for...here's your chance! Where does the Secret Agent hunt? So far I use it mostly in the jungle, swamp (olms and spiders) , turtles on Dryad island...just about anywhere. The secret agent build is very robust, it masters Constitution as it's fourth skill and that's where it's real strength in being able to attract mobs and make them melt away begins to show. Until the Constitution was mastered for me, I always had the feeling that it was a bit squishy and so never let too many things get too close to me. Constitution mastery changed all that and gave me some confidence at an early stage, whereas usually, with past builds, Constitution was always the last thing I sought to master. How does the Secret Agent destroy mobs? It's funny. I had thought that shards was going to be the way to do it...but pressing that button over and over gets tiring very fast. I had set up a combo of thorns and frost flare, and it seemed...okay... All of a sudden a good two thirds into the build where I am now with it, Nimbus started to look good...if only to save my fingers from some soreness. I began casting Nimbus before casting frost flare. Nimbus is very cool. It's damage scales up faster and is more powerful than flare. It's an Area of Effect while Frost Flare is a Multi Hit. That means that with Flare, the CA is actively looking to target enemies...while with Nimbus it only targets an area...which means that anything that is in or passes through to get to you...no matter where you are or where are running get hit and begin to melt from the storm's damage. About two thirds of the way into the build I began using a nice combo that works wonderfully. Nimbus, Flare and Thorns. Raging Nimbus Frost Flare Glacial Thorns The first two actually stack... the storm creates, if I need it to, a barrier that puts the dot on invading enemies and just a split second later, my flare stacks on top of the nimbus, usually criticals, with my thorns going off as the third part, then quickly picking off everything in the crowd. All of this happening in 0.7 seconds... and yes...the entire combo can stack. Sometimes I just bring in as many enemies as I can gather and then sit in one place clicking over and over again while this wonderful, mini storm roils across my screen, enemies all running into it and dying. Satisfying. How does the secret agent take out The Guardians? The cool part... what it's all about ... The Guardians. If you saw the movie ( Schot is the master there...his tech wizardry knows no bounds...and in a matter of just a night, his fingers tapping nimbly over the keyboard, the marriage tween video and music was done. ) The Combat Arts against the Guardians as you can see is all Thorns... Thorns was modded very precisely so that it was primarily ONLY Boss killer...but don't worry, Thorns damage is so huge, you will have plenty left over for mobbing. I had to redo this build twice just for that alone to make sure the mods were correct, with Schot being responsible for the first one :whip: Focus for that CA is kind of tough, even a bit hairy if you get nervous, but when hit sweet, there is just nothing like it in the game. Here's how you mod it: Frost, devastation, fusillade I am sure that many will have their own versions and for different reasons. But I had just wanted to make the most powerful blast powerful, and had tried out two variations with this one winning... it follows what I believe to the the Ascaron Dev's basic gaming philosophy...always build in variety... and that's why I think my hand was "guided" into not taking any of the thorn mods twice. The first three guardians are push overs. They have a lot of health points...it's just that fourth one that's the hassle. His Hp are HUGE. And he hits hard. I found that after I had taken out the first three easy, having to sock it out with him head to head got to be pretty creepy at times (He's the poison one). Answer? Cascading Shroud (Hence the name Secret Agent ^^) It's got to be one of the most powerful Combat Arts in the game. What other CA turns you invisible and lets you perform attacks at the same time undetected? That's the CA you saw in action in the video where the toon is running through the halls. It's also that blue shimmer that goes on just before the last guardian is brought down. Here's how you mod it: Faint, inconspicuous, steam Cast it and you get about thirty seconds of basically being invulnerable. For me, the strategy was to build as strong a build as possible to basically weather a few hits from the less stronger 3 guardians only while my firepower chopped them up... this doesn't work too well on the last guardian though, so that's when I cast Cascade...and problem solved, I could then just sit back and lazily take time with him...as long as it took less then thirty seconds :P Is this a bug.. is it supposed to be like this ? I don't know... but... no more updates to the game from Ascaron anymore! wheeeeeeeeeee As well..there is always an ambush waiting for you when you teleport in to the monolith. Make sure your finger is vigorously tapping the button that turns on Cascading so that as you arrive it is turning on. No more ambushes. What does the Secret Agent socket for damage? I will, later this week, take pix of my equipment, but here's a rough run down: + All Combat Arts Ice Damage ( the element) + All Skills + Mystic Stormite Aspect Whet (From Smiths) Any combination of all of the above... + All Skill and Ice Damage together are lovely Make sure you don't use too much of one kind of one damage. It's important to always keep experimenting by switching up your damage to make sure you have the best mix. Sacred does not reward too much of one kind of anything in anyone's build. Take care, when you find something that you think could be interesting to try it out in your armor to see if you can get a better yield. At points in my build.. +All Combat Arts is great, then at other times, Whet, at other times, Ice Damage. As your build changes with skills and new armor pieces so will your damage have to reflect that. It's tiring, but this is the game :P What does the Secret Agent use for Armor? lol, another long answer.. I will post more during the week, or to questions if peeps ask...it's mostly the Faladels set ( which I think is horrible by the way :blink:) I switch out the chest for the vestments of innocence ...three sockets, extraordinary resistances plus nice mh ^^ As well, after meeting up with Spunky one night I was playing in Niobium with him with this build when she was at level 116. I changed my plan against those Guardians' huge hitting damage...switched my faladels' helmet to the Age of Innocence helmet... again another three sockets...but this time with a lot of hard defense levels. The hard defense levels, combined with the hard resistance offered by the age of Innocence chest with the helm socketed with three armor/defense smith runes which act as multipliers against the chest and helm are extraordinary...I can put on close to 25000 extra armor, most of it coming from physical which help buffer niobium guardians nicely now...but...at the cost of all the damage coming from the faladels' helm ^^ Secret Agent Specs Attribute choices: 100 % Intelligence Skills: Mystic Stormite Focus Mystic Stormite Lore Concentration Delphic Arcania Focus Constitution Delphic Arcania Lore Combat Discipline Armor Lore Ancient Magic Spell Resistance I kept Mystic Lore and Focus and Delphic Focus leveling together.... by level 75 mastery was upon teh three of them. The next mastery for me was Constitution. The next mastery, Armor Lore, the next Ancient Magic (Damage just zoomed when that one came in! :bounce:) I'm now on the way to mastering Delphic Arcania Lore ( all that hp regen from different sources all stacking and getting faster!), then will master Combat Discipline and finally Spell Resistance. Concentration - Just one point For the buffs: Grand Invigoration Mystic Stormite Expertise, Life Energy, Resilience Crystal Skin Glacial Mirror, Feel cold, Frosty Breeze There is good synergy tween feel cold and frosty breeze...this also has synergy with the frost from thorns... HUGE damage increase. I always cast my buffs from a +All Skills suit. I am currently using (because I'm lazy and don't feel like putting together an entire suit :P) only three pieces as my "suit" ... Helm, chest and greaves from Adornments of the Ancestors set... Around gold level I could get a boost of about 15 levels using this trick. Make sure you don't miss out on this. It's a free boost and every bit counts when taking out Guardians. gogo p.s. After a few hours writing, I've come to realize that I've forgotten how long it takes to write builds! :4rofl: I also realize, that it's not just the stats, but the meta of builds that we all crave. And that that is also the part of the build that takes the longest to write. :lol: I will add some more tomorrow , as it arrives... this is the autobiography of a small life. One in Ancaria, the secret Agent. Her tale is not yet finished :) Originally published at DarkMattersfor review and discussion. See Also High Elf Guides High Elf Combat Arts Sacred 2 Player Contributed Guides