Sacred:Timers

Definition

This is THE point. Everything in Sacred is about timers. Well, what is a timer ? Simple enough to define, Hard as hell to manage when playing some class builds.

• Definition of the word timer : Ok, come on, find your way among the mysterious pages of your favorite dictionnary.
• Sacred Definition and use of timers : Find it yourself, i'm feeling a bit lazy tonight. Uh ? Ok ! As said before, timers are the element of Sacred gameplay to be taken into account everytime you need to change even the pointless thing on your char. A badly managed timer can mess up all your build. And breaking balance with timers is really easy.

Types of Timers

Regeneration timer

Special moves and spells use timers to regenerate themselves, and most of the time, you will be using differents techs (Special moves and spells) that share the same timer. The timers come into action each time you use a tech. The first timer defines when the tech will be ready again. And if using more than one tech on the same timer, this one will define when all the tech on the same timer are ready again. So don't expect to chain 2 techs without waiting some time between, except if the first you use is very low regen (0.1 – 0.2 seconds). That's the regeneration timer.

Casting timer / delay

This is another timer that doesn't shows up as a numeric value to the player. This one is not shared between techs. But it is useful to manage it to improve your fighting abilities. To make it simple, it's the time needed between the instant you click on your right mouse button, and the instant the tech is really active. Take the example of a Battle Mage casting Ring of Ice :

1. You click the RMB
2. The toon puts his hands in the air, calling the power of the elements during 2 seconds (casting timer)
3. Ice spikes appears from the ground for 25 seconds, dealing damage and slowing down enemies (duration timer, explained below)

Total time : 27 seconds ! Note that the CA Regen timer is set to 0 only at the moment the spell is active. The Casting timer is not to be taken into account when tweaking your regeneration times.

Duration / Execution timer

The last timer. It's the time your tech needs to be executed, from A to Z, or the time it lasts before having to cast it again. Again, this timer must be taken into consideration when building a tech up. Among the duration spells or special moves, we find 4 types :

• The one time duration combat art : you cast it once, and cannot cast it again until it finishes (Ghost Meadow, Dagger Stare, Call of the Ancestors, Ripping Claws). Yes, Ripping Claws has a duration, calculated from the first to the last hit. So no need to lower its regen to 0.1 second, as it takes 2-3 seconds to perform the complete combination of hits.
• The multi-occurence duration spell : You cast it for a certain duration but can cast it multiple times to get added effect (Hell Sphere, Blazing Disc)
• The one time duration spell with hidden feature : Typical of Underworld. These are the Daemon forms (Poison Daemon --> Ring of poison). These CA are a sort of mix of duration CA and instant CA. But one is only available when the other is on. Hard to write down, but easy to play. It's like casting a buff and using an attack. But you don't have to switch from a CA to another. The counterpart is that your attack CA is down if not buffed, whereas a gladiator for example can still attack his foe with a CA even if Heroic Courage is off.
• The one time duration spell you can break : Underworld and Daemon specialty : Soaring Daemon gives you descent, but Descent breaks Soaring daemon, forcing you to cast Soaring Daemon again for a new deadly dive. Moreover, every casting of a form of the Daemon breaks the previous one. If you cast poison form while in Fire Form, Fire Form stops !

First look at timer management

Further from that, all the techs are not on the same regeneration timer, and that's one cool thing. So, if we take the example of a dwarf, War Cry is on the green timer, Flame Thrower is on the blue timer. Green, blue... colors... YES... colors are there, and they are the visual representation of the timers. We can find many timer colors. And the tech color is the timer color... got it ?... take a look at your character. See the circles right of the compass ? These are your techs... got one in it (I hope so). Ok what color is the background of the tech circle... green, yellow, orange, red... That's it ! Timer Color ! How do techs share timers ? As said above, the only timer techs can share is the regeneration timer. Each time you use a tech, the icon fades to grey, indicating that the tech is regenerating itself and isn't available. But all the techs on the same timer show their icon fade to grey also for the same time as the tech you used needs to regenerate. need coffee ? For example : You are playing a gladiator, using Heroic Courage (with a 30 seconds regeneration time) as your defense buff, and Stomping Jump as your attack tech. Both are on the green timer. Let's assume that Heroic Courage is ready to be casted. Your stomping jump is also up and you know that it needs 5 seconds to regenerate itself. You use Stomping Jump, its icon fades to grey for 5 second, as for Heroic Courage. Both will be ready again in 5 seconds. Now let's reverse the situation. Both are ready. You fire Heroic Courage up. Heroic Courage is down for 30 seconds, but Stomping Jump is down for only 5 seconds. One tech cannot make another tech regeneration timer drop below its max.

Advanced Timer management

Regeneration time : Finding the good value for permanent buff.

Here's just my 2 cents about a sentence we see in every guide : "Keep regen time just below duration". This sentence is right for CAs that last in time. But how low must we keep regen below duration...

Here is a simple but nice formula to get it right

Single Buff Character

Take the duration of the CA. Example : 120 seconds for Heroic Courage. Let's call it : Duration(HC) = 120 Now take a chronometer, and play your toon (here, a glad) for 2 minutes (the duration of HC, i'm sure everybody got it) in the gob valley (silver creek), trying to fight as much as possible. You should say : « Why in the h... should i use a chronometer, as Heroic Courage lasts for 2 minutes, non need to use a chronometer. ». I would answer : « You're planning to pump up this skill to 2 minutes of duration, for now, it does not last for 2 minutes ». And the more the better, to get a good average value, count during 10 minutes and divide by 5. More accurate. During these 2 minutes, count how many times you use each "instant" CAs, like Attack, HH, or even FotG, even if it winds up. In fact, i call "instant" CAs, every CA or spell with a regen time below 2-3 seconds, bread and butter CAs, that is. Ok you manages to count these up without getting smashed to death by a minotaur as you were looking at the clock ? Nice.

Say you used FotG 10 times

Use(FOTG) = 10

You used Attack 30 times

Use(Att) = 30

Fotg regen Time

Regen(FOTG) = 1 sec

Attack regen time

Regen(Att) = 0.5 sec

Summing it up :

Regen(FOTG) = 1

Use(FOTG) = 10

Regen(Att) = 0.5

Use(Att) = 30

Duration(HC) = 120

Regen(HC) = x

now here is the formula :

• (Regen(FOTG) * Use(FOTG)) + (Regen(Att) * Use(Att))
• 1 * 10 + 0.5 * 30
• 10 + 15 = 25

25 seconds of your time where HC regen stops (in fact, its timer drop of 1 seconds in the case of the use of FotG for a duration of 1 sec (time to regen Fotg), so it's like it stopped for 1 second)

So your regen time for HC must be some seconds (i usually take 5) below 95 seconds (120 - 25), that is 90 sec of regen. This way, you're sure you'll never run out of courage, lol.

Final Formula is :

• Regen(HC) = Duration(HC) - (Regen(FOTG) * Use(FOTG)) – (Regen(Att) * Use(Att)) – Margin
• Regen(HC) = 120 – (1 * 10) – (0.5 * 30) – 5
• Regen(HC) = 90

This works for every boosting spell like GM for BM, RBOL for the sera, or CotA for WE if you use it with Thorn Bush for example.

Multi Buff Character

For multi buff chars like BM who play with GM and Flame skin always on. The formula is like the first one.

Let's set the values The longest duration is for example GM with 120 seconds : let's call it Duration(GM)

Duration(GM) = 120

Flame Skin is 60 seconds

Duration(FS) = 60

I use Fireball as main dmg spell

Fireball is 1 sec regen time

Regen(FB) = 1

During 1 GM, i'll have to fire 2 up Flame Skin

first I start calculating FS needed regen time

After calculation (back to the chronometer), i use 30 fireball during 1 FS

Ok, little summary of our variables :

Duration(GM) = 120

Regen(GM)= x

Duration(FS) = 60

Regen(FS) = y

Use(FS) = 2

Use(FB) = 30 for 1 FS and 60 for 1 GM

Regen(FB) = 1

• Regen(FS) = Duration(FS) – (Use(FB) * Regen(FB)) – Margin
• Regen(FS) = 60 – 30 * 1 – 3
• Regen(FS) = 27

so

• Regen(GM) = Duration(GM) – (Use(FS) * Regen(FS)) – (Use(FB) * Regen(FB)) – Margin
• Regen(GM) = 120 – (2 * 27) – (60*1) – 3
• Regen(GM) = 13

Now a timeline analysis :

Time to walk and shop then buff and go kill some monsters ! Hmmm... need some coffee again ??

First cast GM and FS 13 seconds later (time lost by casting GM according to the regen time for GM calculted with the previous formula)

• time = 0 : casting GM
• time = 13 : Casting FS
• time to battle : 30 fireballs
• time = 73 : FS runs out ; Cast it again (60 seconds - 30 FB * 1 second = 30 > 27 seconds of regen, so it's ready again) ; GM has been *:regenerated by : 73 seconds - 30 FB * 1 second - 1 FS * 27 seconds = 16 seconds of regeneration
• time to battle till GM is off, that's 47 seconds and 22 fireballs
• time = 120 : GM runs out : it has been regenerated by : 16 seconds (at time = 73) + 47 seconds of battle - 22 FB * 1 Second = 41 *:seconds !!!!! Great we know the value we're looking for ! Thats quite a good value of regen time but this value is NOT right *:!!!!!

Here comes the real battle, where all the values come into account.

• time to battle : for 13 seconds (before FS runs out) : that's 8 FB
• time = 133 : FS Runs out : cast it again : GM has been regenerated by : 13 seconds of battle - 8 FB * 1 second - 1 * FS * 27 seconds *:= 0
• time to battle : 60 seconds = 30 fireballs
• time = 193 : FS runs out (once again) : cast it again : GM has been regenerated by : 60 seconds of battle - 30 FB * 1 seconds - 1 FS *:* 27 = 3 seconds
• time to battle : 47 seconds = 22 fireballs
• time = 240 : GM runs out, it has been regenerated by : 3 seconds (got it at time = 193) + 47 seconds of battle - 22 FB * 1 seconds = *:28 seconds <== That is THE value

Back to time = 120 and so on

And 28 seconds of regen, apart from having very, very good stuff, that's a weak GM. Just imagine a Glad using Heroic courage and Dagger Stare, not much defense boost

As we can see, between the formula and the time line analysis, we find 15 seconds of difference for GM Regen time. It's due to the fact that there is a delay between the casting of GM and FS.

The formula is well under the reality, but everything in this explanation is theorical. Nothing is better than pratice, but in case of a "one-buff" char, it is worth calculating it.

This formula, for a multi-buff char, allows the player to set a base regen time for the buffs, a theorical one, and then, with practice, will be able to tweak the values « on the battle field » For "multi-buff" chars, a good way to go against this problem is "comboing" the two buffs, using the normal CA to fire up the shortest when it runs out. This way, we can have a solution like this GM Duration = 120 seconds, and regen = whatever you want FS Duration = 60 seconds, and regen = 90 seconds (approx.) cause it has twice its own duration to regenerate.

Timeline

• time = 0 : Cast the buff combo

  GM is on for 120 seconds

  FS is on for 60 seconds

• time = 60 : FS is out, cast it from normal CA slot
• time = 120 : Both are off, cast combo again
• time = 150 : Normal FS CA is ready again
• time = 180 : FS is off, cast it from normal CA slot

And so on

Just think about yellow pots.

Works even better if the 2 or more buffs have the same duration. Just 1 combo is all you need !

Conclusion

• RSM is VERY IMPORTANT as well as Skills that shorten regen time (Meditation, Concentration and class specific skills, like Moon Magic for the WE, Hell Power for the Daemon)
• Instead of eating runes, look for bonus, on items or by socketing
• Instead of pumping up a spell or CA, try to improve your dmg by bonus (+xx% to <element> dmg, lores and so on)
• Look for Critical, WIDD, Pain/Leech Combo
• When damage can't go up, enemy's resistance can go down (Ettol's Bow)

Example :

If you needed a lvl 20 fireball, regenerated in 1 second and fired 30 times to kill the mobs, maybe you only need a lvl 15 fireball with +80% to fire dmg and launch only 25 of them for the same results. That is, you may have save 0.3 seconds of regen for each fireballs and if we make a short calculation 30*1 = 30 seconds lost on the regen of your buffs 25 * 0.7 = 17.5 seconds only.... better GM, better FS, and FS is boosted by your bonus to fire dmg, and as GM is better, FB and FS are shorter to regen, so you earn some seconds, so your GM is better, so ........... ad lib

Overall conclusion

The lower the regen time the better. Simple, isn't it ?