Sacred:Timers

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.

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 Battlemage 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 !

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.