Sacred:Possible preparations before starting a new char - Guide

Published at DarkMatters for review and discussion

Possible preparations before starting a new char

Sacred and especially Sacred UW Hardcore have a very nice feature most other games do not have (at least not to this extent): the really friendly gaming community.

That means there are a lot of friendly peeps who are willing to go to great lengths to help others starting and managing their chars.

A few runes to start, some money and some items can do wonders to a brand new char who is about to explore the fantastic world of Ancaria.

If you sacrifice some time to organize what help can you get for your new toon you will find playing at the first few levels a totally different experience - a way of playing you never experienced before.

We will try now to gather some things you could receive or give help to others.

But first :

Smellybeard was tired and exhausted when he reached the famous island of the adventurers. After his plane crashed into the forest near the human settlement Bellevue he spent a half day to salvage as much as possible. In spite of his hard work all he was able to gather were a few coins and a rusty hammer - when night came he realized he wouldn't be able to save his last intact keg of beer. Luckily his hammer and the anger he felt about that keg was enough to help him through the hosts of goblins and wolves he encountered during the night.

When he finally entered the human village he received the exact coordinates of his goal: the Bellevue portal which would take him to the island he wanted to reach. When he reached a bridge just before the Bellevue garrison he noticed three shady figures stepping out from the shadows and heard a cold voice: "Your money or your life". The poor robbers realized too late that they picked the wrong dwarf. Although Smellybeard felt no pain in the heat of the battle after the quick fight he needed to drink his last healing potion. Muttering curses under his beard he ran past quickly the guards stationed around the garrison and entered the portal.

Finally he reached the island. Now his anger gone all he felt was great fatigue. Not sure what to do now he entered the shop located on the island. He quickly noticed two things, there was no beer in the shop and he couldn't afford to buy anything. He realized when his plane crashed his dreams were burned along with the goods stored aboard. Then suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder and heard a deep voice, "Hello matey! Its always a pleasure to see new faces around!" When he turned to face the newcomer he saw a fellow dwarf right behind him and some others slowly gathering around a large stash in the center of the island.

Sensing his discomfort the other dwarf kindly asked "Anything I can help with, dude?". Smellybeard quickly told about his "accident" in the forest and in great discomfort muttered some words about his low financial state. His new noisy companion just laughed: "Hehe you have met the right Dwarf at the right place! Would five million gold help you out?" Smellybeard wanted to lift his hammer to smash the skull of the boasting Dwarf but what he saw quickly paralised him. The funny dwarf in golden armor started to drop gold around him. Smellybeard used his special dwarven ability "count money on the fly" only to raise his surpise. He counted 2 no 3 err no 10 million gold lying on the floor. Still stunned by the sudden turn of events he was confronted with a tall lady dressed in shining knight armor followed by a huge red wolf. "Hey Shorty - said the women - "I found these last night. Maybe you can use some of these." Smellybeard was shocked really when the women handed to him a large number of the legendary and rare combat art runes he heard a lot about. While he tried to gather some strength to say at least some nice words to thank the two foreigners another figure came close. This time a flaming women (with wings) came close. "Wanna try these useless stuff?" - She asked. Among his kind Smellybeard was rated as a calm and sincere guy but now he could resist to scream: "By Grabthar's Hammer! Thoose are the equipment of the legendary hero Rideg Stumel!!! "Whatever you say dear." - Answered the women while she handed some guns, armor and other equipment to the speechless Smellybeard.

Still unable to move he heard a violent cry nearby: "Thank thee for your quick death!" When he turned around he saw a young man in blue clothes with a staff twice as big than an ordinary dwarf. The Battle Mage standing near to a portal at the northern edge of the island and it seemed he was practicing his professional adventurer approach. "Hello good dwarf" - he said. "If you would like you can accompany me and I will show you around the important places!". Smellybeard gladly accepted and they left shortly through the portal to explore Ancaria.

There are a lot of things you can do when starting a new char.

Luckily many people start and maintain chars solely to the purpose of helping new toons. Such chars as low level traders*, low to mid lvl mules**, runehunters***, forger dwarfs**** and bank characters. Of course you could start some of these chars for yourself too and help others and your own new toons.

Some ideas to maximize the efficiency the time spent on preparing stuff for a new char.

Bonus All CA and Bonus All Spell ammys

These amulets could be used very efficiently. Even a few of them are a great help but amassing 10 or 20 of these jewels could turn your very new char an unstoppable force. Lets gather equipment with the most sockets available and socket these jewels into them. Its really easy to have +10-15 (for example) all CA to your char this way. If the regen times are too high make Combos of your main CAs buy a lot of yellow potions. Of course chars with useful duration CAs/spells can get the most bonus of this but every other toon can benefit from it. After getting a few lvls and the appropriate skill the regen times will quickly drop and you will be able to use them without Combos. Every char has some CA that can be boosted that much that it would help you through the first lvls with ease.

There are a lot of variations so I will list only a few of them for an example:

War Cry for Dwarves will provide you with nice AR and def while your melee CAs are slow recharging but absolutely devastating. That works for Gladiators to with Heroic Courage and Dagger Stare (a lvl 20 DS is absolutely powerful for a new toon). Vampires would love the longer time spent in vamp form and the high lvl Wolf. Wood Elves would enjoy their unstoppable Exploding Arrows. Mages would benefit from Ghost meadow and spells like RoI.

Leech rings/ammys.

Its pretty easy to find 3 or 4% leech rings (or ammys - personally I prefer rings) with a low lvl trader. Wear four rings with 4% leech and you have enough for a pretty long time.

Bonus xp, crit, RSM, Spell regen stuff

When starting a new toon the above mentioned mods could prove very useful. Always prefer all CA or leech but if you have a free socket (or two) don't hesitate to use these mods.

Runes

Muling runes to a starter char is always a good idea. The amount is what you can spare or find with your other chars. Best thing is to raise duration CAs (or spells) with them to as high lvl as you could. You don't really need to worry about the regen timer because you can always make a combo of that CA

Now lets cover really quickly the main helper types:

* Dwarven Trader (there are other viable trader chars but here I will discuss the dwarf)

Dwarven traders can pick the trade skill at lvl 1. Thats a big bonus because the lower the char lvl and the higher the trade skill the better stuff you would find in shops. With a lvl1 trader you can reach easily 30-36 (or even higher) trade with the right equipment. Search for armor and weapon, shield, gloves, helm, cannon and such stuff with lots of sockets and preferably with bonus all skills mod. With a lvl 2 trader you will be able to wear all the equipment parts (boots and belt included) so you will have a little higher skill value. At Bravemart this guy will do wonders... really.

** Mules

Its always good to have some mules in your char bank.

lvl 60 Bronze/Silver/Gold difficulty lvl 100 Silver/Gold/Platinum difficulty lvl 140 Gold/Platinum/Niobium difficulty

This way you can cover all the difficulty lvls and able to help at all transfers.

*** Runehunters

Runehunters are famous for their insane rune drop. Its really not hard to make a good runefinder, especially at lower lvls. There are nice runehunter guides posted everywhere so I am confident that you will manage this nicely

**** Forger Dwarf

Now he is one of the most useful helper. With the right equipment he is able at lvl 60 to do max forge. That means he can give you +20 mf and lots of resists into a socket. Sacrifice 2-5 sockets for Dwarven MF forge and you will have nice MF and a very good bonus to all resists.

The forger would need lvl 180 forge lore to reach max MF forge. That seems hard but it can be reached. Mainly with Thar Eross equipment parts (armor, cannon, ring give nice bonus to forge) and Kabelrinte shoulder guards (bonus to all skills) and +1 all skill rings. Pick trade lore too and you have a nice trader char at this lvl.

Of course all above mentioned stuff are not REQUIRED to start a new char and at the long run it wont really effect you. But if you have already a lot of lowbys or you need to get a char quickly to silver or gold the ideas here could be helpful.

I have both a forger dwarf and a trader one and some mules too. If you see me online don't hesitate to ask for help if you need it - Like most Sacred HC players, I would be glad to help you .

Csaszar