Sacred 2:The Shield Maiden -a Valkyrie From the Land of Fire and Ice, Archer, Gladiatrix, Ice-Elf and more in a single build

The Shield Maiden - A Valkyrie from the land of Fire and Ice By chattius Edit 16.03.2010: This character was created on PC patch 2.40. Console and AddOn players should consider to use regeneration per hit to recharge combinations with successful weapon hits. Edit 27.04.2010: Added a link to the build in attack value of Magic Coup, a link how to use an Artamark's Star, both from the new 'Lady in Black'-Character. The history: This character was custom made for my 11 year old daughter in may 2009 when she started playing sacred2. So it came with a (german) fantasy story and it was planed that the character would be good to try out some different elves: being able to play melee, archer and caster styles. So no time would be wasted if she noticed that a certain playstyle was nothing for her. The character is giving away higher possible damage for more defensive and more flexibility. It includes an archer, an ice elf, a melee elf... The build had no bargaining, because my daughter had access to a chain of bargainers and a niob smith. She is around level 140 in niob now. She did both new AddOn Bosses with the character. Playing was mainly in 2-3 people LAN. The idea: After playing melee elves for 9 months, I know that a weapon skill is not really needed for a melee elf: Double hits from mastery have no affect for magic coup. Weapon speed for magic coup is arcane lore. Magic coup has a modifier for sure hits and has a buildin not shown attack value climbing with its level. Most unique one hand weapons have nothing unlocked from a weapon skill. We will have equally hit chance with all weapons, so we can use a bow for distance, sword and shield for close combat, or shuriken for intermediate... . If we miss too much a few jewels with 'enemy can't evade' will be easy to get. So we won't take a weapon skill and we won't take bargaining. Let's see if we can attach a full melee elf to an ice elf. There is more about the buildin hit chance of Magic Coup in this thread. Looking at Pyromancer and ice mages I saw that many of them did both: arcane lore and arcane focus for better hp regeneration and modifying the arcane spells for better defense. Ice (and to a lesser degree Pyromancer) mages suffer from the fact that it needs some time to get quick and powerful attack spells, so the first levels are hard. A melee elf starts a bit easier: GI hp regeneration helps a lot in beginning. So why not change the priorities: Not starting with ice and working on arcane later, but to start with arcane and work out the ice tree at high levels when you have way better regeneration and a good defense already. The Attributes Every point till level 75 is put in vitality. Life leech from magic coup and hp regeneration from GI, our 2 main defense won't have any effect if we are dead because of too low hitpoints. If you decide to go ice do a mix of stamina and vitality later on, for melee continue vitality. Skills Level 2 Delphic Arcane Lore (75) [4] Level 3 Armor Lore (75) [9] Level 5 Delphic Arcane Focus (125) [3] Level 8 Concentration (75) [10] Level 12 Mystic Stormite Focus (100) [1] Level 18 Mystic Stormite Lore (100) [2] Level 25 Shield Lore (75) [6] Level 35 Constitution (75) [8] Level 50 Arrant Pyromancer Focus (75) [7] Level 65 Ancient Magic (75) [5] That are 850 points, at level 200 61 would be left free for distributing them. The distributing of the first skill points 5 points in arcane lore to unlock arcane focus 5 points in armour to unlock shield 26 points in arcane focus to modify GI-regeneration buff and magic coup 1 point in concentration to get a second buff ice focus + ice lore: after having done all the other skills as described here, all free points move here till we reach 100 1 point in shield to unlock shield modifiers 1 point in constitution, let +allSkills do the rest till reaching mid/end game 5 points in fire focus to modify fire skin for melee reflect 1 point in ancient magic, we need it later when we perhaps fight fully with spells After this is done you can bring the skills to mastery following roughly the order in the [] brackets. Modifying the main Combat Arts Grand Invigoration-Buff: ice[1], life regeneration[2], ?[9]- my daughter has speed for an easier start Magic Coup: hit chance[3], life leech[4], stray damage[5] Raging Nimbus: hurricane[6], roar[7], extended nimbus[8] Glacial Thorns: fussillade[10], pierce[11], fussillade[12] Crystal Skin: mirror[13], focalize[14](works on arcane spells too and we don't focus in intelligence), frosty breeze[15] Incandescent Skin: arrow block[16], melee reflect[17] [] order in which modifiers were done. This character was made to test out different styles in a single character. So there are no hard rules which modifiers for a combat art are best for this character, it depends on your playstyle. Glacial Thorns are modified to kill big groups, but still powerful enough for bosses. Raging Nimbus is modified to assist a hybrid style with a bit more defensive orientation. Without lore the Pyromancer spells are chosen for defense. Playstyle The early playstyle [] are the modifiers from above. [0]-[5] Without runes it is best to start with a bow and shoot from a distance. Once we have thr needed runes: Mainly melee with magic coup and GI as buff. At level 8 take crystal skin as a second buff. [6]-[9] Hybrid style: Slow and damage close enemies with nimbus and finish them up with magic coup. With speed from [9] collect the enemies first and use your speed advantage over the slowed enemies to dictate the combat. [10]-[15] You can start to train using glacial thorns and you still have melee as a backup if you fail. [16]-[x] You should now be able to play as a pure ice elf [17]-[x] You should now be able to play as a melee elf Boss Fights X% life leech weapons, meteor stuns, expulse magic, raging nimbus, cacading shroud, teleport, mastery in ancient magic, 2 different skins... . Just choose what you need, depending on the defenses of your enemy: The boss reflects melee: life leech shurikens, spells The boss reflects ranged: life leech shaft weapons(1 unique), spells The boss reflect spells: life leech weapons..... Block his Combat Art's with expulse magic, keep him stunned with meteors, slowed with nimbus, ..... The equipment She has a chest, she is a girl and so she spends a lot of time choosing the optimal dress for the day. The easiest is to have a caster and a melee equipment and equip yourself for the playstyle you like for today. In the AddOn there is the chest carrying imp you can call, so you can redress mid on the battlefield. Alternativly you can design a more general equipment and can do some tuning with the weapon slots: Putting all hit chance jewels in the weapons and shields you use for melee and ranged, leaving general damage jewels for your bodywear. And use caster weapon slots for power slot buff doing or combat art range and something like this. There is one amulet which should be taken if you have it: The Artamark's Star. Why Pyromancer focus? Fire skin because of its melee reflect is better for close combat. With 75 points for mastery it will be enough to modify the Pyromancer spells which don't profit much from the lore: fire skin, meteor for stun(not damage) and the fire demon very late in game (level 180+). In the AddOn crystal skin with reflecting combat arts ( = spells) is very good at these nasty life leechers. So by not doing bargaining and taking the focus of a third aspect the character is better able to adapt to changes because of an AddOn or a patch. Pro and Contra of this build: The disadvantages are no bargaining and with not having combat discipline you lack some damage. The advantages: you have an ice elf which has very good melee protection if needed at the price of lower damage, you have meteor showers (modified for optimal stun, duration and numbers) to help you at bosses, you can play melee or hybrid, .... This was a quick transformation from an answer I put in the general discussion of elves. I may not always hit the correct english terms for modifiers and skills - if I have some spare time I will work this out a bit more. I have the german version with the AddOn already, and the character is still playable there. Originally published at DarkMattersfor review and discussion. See Also High Elf Guides High Elf Combat Arts Sacred 2 Player Contributed Guides