Anyone still playing Sacred 2? Share your BG-related build ideas here, and, my MMM dragon mage

BelgarathMTH

So, I've been playing Sacred 2 through the holiday season, and still playing.

My favorite class in Sacred 2 is the dragon mage, and, I've just gotten a new one up through platinum level Octogolamus, using a Destroyers/Gust of Wind combo combined with a %life leech shuriken, plus a shield.

I started realizing that the way a shuriken plays for a caster in Sacred 2 is a lot like how a caster in Baldur's Gate plays with Melf's Minute Meteors.

I love to occasionally make a connection with Charname ideas I have for Baldur's Gate with other games I play.

So, I am thinking of maybe starting a fighter-mage in Baldur's Gate who will concentrate on darts, slings, and Melf's Minute Meteors for his primary damage dealers, as well as whatever other arcane damage he can muster up as he levels.

The obvious no-brainer choice for a Sacred 2 "dragon mage" analogue would be the Baldur's Gate "dragon disciple", but, in Sacred 2, my dragon mage is artistically defined by his trademark helmet and shield. Especially since I've included shield lore as part of his build.

So, the fighter-mage wearing helmet and using a shield seems more in line with my idea to carry my Sacred 2 toon into BG.

Comments? Ideas?

If you're a Sacred 2 fan, share your own favorite builds here.

ChorazyGlus

@BelgarathMTH‌ Well, I occasionally still play Sacred 2. I'm not fan of dragon mage though. Made bfg seraphim, pyromancer elf and had fun playing them till gold difficulty. However, for platinum and niob I play mainly temple guardian. Build is jolting touch+deadly spears combo; works almost against everything, and for fun I use some stuff from lost fusion tree. Thing is, not much CRPG's I played had an option to choose robot:)

ChorazyGlus

Gonna make another post, so its not a wall of text. I keep combat alert as a castable buff, not permanent aura; at 200 runes its duration is really long and bonuses are way higher than the aura version; my guardian in general is built around lowest cooldowns possible, I don't even spec in weapons, mainly have tymora's curse equipped. For lols sometimes I equip random lightsabers and watch idle animations:D Also I use T-Energy shield, that is a must have, bcs robot. Tried builds with concentration for more buffs, but T-Energy is enough. Also guardian can do blacksmithing and enhanced perception and bargaining, so thats really fun for building shoppers.

ChorazyGlus

Also, when playing temple guardian I don't have deja-vu feelings like hm this plays similarly to warrior/mage/thief in BG, Diablo, wherever. Thing is, Sacred 2 is still a fantasy game, much like BG, but with guardian it just gets this apocalyptic terminator-fallout-like wibe as a bonus.

BelgarathMTH

@ChorazyGlus, that's interesting. I've never played a temple guardian, perhaps because I prefer to stick to the more classic character classes that I can relate to other rpg's like Baldur's Gate or Might and Magic. I've only ever played shadow warriors (fighters and clerics) and dragon mages (sorcerers, mages). I've tried starting a seraphim (paladin) and a high elf (mage) before, but I have trouble identifying with a female toon, so I didn't play them very long.

I was glad when the dragon mage got added, because it gave me a male sorcerer to play.

ChorazyGlus

@BelgarathMTH‌ Yes, female toons in Sacred 2 are not my style either. Too manga for me in some armor sets, or just not so good model (elf). I liked crystal skin effect though; if it was permanent toggle-able change, that would be awesome.

I tried dragon mage too, but I felt hm they put trees from other classes and made a new one. Mind powers, well Dryad has something similar already and for pure mage experience Inquisitor is much more like mage concept from BG (at least for me).

Also, do you prefer light or shadow campaign, I tried both and I feel like they skirted a shadow one somewhat.

BelgarathMTH

I always play the light campaign. I played an inquisitor or two, and I didn't care for the shadow questline, not because the toon takes over the Great Machine for himself, but because a lot the main quest and the side quests get changed into acts of cruelty that I don't have the stomach for. For example, I don't like to kill the lizard man who helps you defeat the Miasmic Mist when the desert nomads demand it, and the inquisitor does that without hesitation.

Dragon mage has his exploding destroyers, gust of wind, and a tornado in his elemental tree. I like those powers; I think they're cool, and I also like his draconicon mount. (No freaking way am I riding a giant spider! Eww.)

The exploding destroyers look a bit like a meteor storm or an incendiary cloud, but I guess the gust of wind and tornado don't resemble any Baldur's Gate spells. Maelstrom and mind blast are good boss debuffers that resemble miscast magic and breach, because they cause the equivalent of partial spell failure by increasing regeneration time, and the equivalent of breaching stoneskins by lowering armor.

That's especially helpful for an elementalist dragon mage, whose elemental combat arts cause all physical damage.

I'm not playing a mentalist dragon mage right now, but energy blaze resembles chain lightning.

I would say that the inquisitor is like an evil Baldur's Gate mage, and the dragon mage is a good or evil dragon disciple/sorcerer.

The high elf would be a neutral or good mage or sorceress. So there are some good choices for casters, there, in Sacred 2. The shadow warrior can also be played as a conjurer or necromancer if you focus on the astral lord tree.

ChorazyGlus

You have a point with mounts (and almost with everything you wrote;). Myself, I go to the mount isle for the trials xp, but I don't use mounts. Because you can't enter dungeons while mounted, I just said well ok and went movement speed. Also, I never used mounts for a seraphim, bcs if you have right choices in dashing alacrity, it can be nearly permanently on.

As for shadow warriors, I see them as mega tanks/party buffers (i.e. fighter/cleric) It is true they can be played as "mages" but they're not as good at it (meaning you need more micro; f/c way is more casual friendly).

Light campaign all the way here too;) Better and more quests than the dark one.

As for spells, temple guardian has so much BG-like spells...Amplifying Discharge=MMM (though it is cold dmg) Furious Emblazer=burning hands/agnazzar scorcher (well, flamethrower really, but I imagined that too in BG); Deadly Spears=globe of blades; Jolting Touch=shocking grasp/ghoul touch; Archimedes Beam=finger of death/disintegrate. And T-Energy shield, if you build it right and support it with your items, it is practically absolute immunity.

BelgarathMTH

A shadow warrior astral lord does have the one ultimate spell that breaks the game - shadow veil with sinister pact. It amounts to a permanently cast time stop spell. Every enemy in the game, including bosses, will just stand there doing nothing while you kill them with skeletal fortifications and spectral hands, maybe throwing in some summoned skeleton warriors with nether allegiance.

(Although you have to be careful with those, because strong bosses throwing aoe damage at them will hit your shadow warrior. Using the skeletion warriors kind of reduces your effective time stop down to an effective improved invisible or mislead.)

I built an astral lord with a fully modded 100% shadow veil-sinister pact once, and it was the most boring thing I'd ever done. I abandoned the toon as soon as I saw that the whole world was going to just stand there while I killed them with spells. It made the game no fun.

Most veteran players now advise not to use this build if you want to enjoy the game.

ChorazyGlus

From my understanding and visits to darkmatters, I think every class has at least one such build. I admit, I tried some, but it was so boring that I had to stop. Nowadays I'm older and wiser (:D) and I go for a build that is fun first, op ownage second.

ChorazyGlus

Oh and I love famous last words of nearly every enemy in the game, but kobolds are the best. One of the features that make this game so great. This and sooo big a world to explore.

SenseiGabe

I'm currently playing sacred 2 just got the game a couple days ago so I can't download dragon-mage as he isn't on the playstation store anymore but I'm using a SW lazy build I got shadow veil as a off instead or activated and 4 skeletons running a muck destroying everything while I sit back and watch its still fun and if I get bored I jump into the fray and do some damage myself

SenseiGabe

Also as soon as I Max out concentration I plan to add reflective emanation that way all the hits my skeletons take have a chance to bounce back at my enemies making me and my skeletons virtually invincible

BelgarathMTH

@SenseiGabe, just watch out for bosses with damage reflection. If your skeletons damage it, your toon will take the damage reflection, even while under Dark Pact Shadow Veil.

SenseiGabe

That's why I'm leveling up reflective emanation so I can reflect the damage back to him I've got extremely high Hp I figured if I use shadow veil plus skeletons plus that I'll be unstoppable so no need to put anything into strength because 99% of the time I'm not getting hit and when I cast spells I still stay invis so its nice lol but ty for the warning I just now made it to the 2nd area the human area and I'm already level 33 on silver mode of course I skipped bronze completely

SenseiGabe

But also when I run into that boss that reflects damage I'll just turn off shadow veil and skeletons and stand there and let him hit me till he kills himself lmao

SenseiGabe

question where is this or cave for grinding everyone posts about on other sites?

SharGuidesMyHand

I decided to re-install Sacred 2 and give it a much more earnest try than I have in the past. ATM, I'm running around a forest in a miniskirt and stiletto heels, killing wild animals and Cirque du Soleil rejects with a fencing sword.

I must say though, the graphics still stand up as being quite beautiful. And the into video still kicks massive amounts of ass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5bIZafKzM8

SharGuidesMyHand

Ah, good news! My character finally came across some leather "armor."

BelgarathMTH

@SharGuidesMyHand, yeah, sorry about that, Sacred 2 definitely fails the "females in unrealistic armor" test, in the worst way.

I guess I'd forgotten about that because of playing mostly male toons, although the Shadow Warrior fails somewhat by way of the "Men in crazy shoulder pauldrons and spikes weighing 500 pounds" trope. The dragon mage has one set (Pyx) that at least covers him and looks a bit like passable leather armor, but his other armor templates are as bad as the women's. I think he was conceived as some kind of transvestite.

If you can get past the bikini armor, it's a good, fun game. But if you play the seraphim, you'll be wearing a bikini for the whole game - if anything, the outfits get more and more revealing. So, I can understand completely if that's a deal-breaker for you.

The high elf's outfits are a bit more demure - she still gets to sport a bare midriff, and I think she has some bikinis, but she has more outfits that at least have larger pieces to be at least a little less revealing.

The only character that gets even remotely sane clothing is the inquisitor, who wears head-to-toe robes with hoods.

As for those mostly naked seraphim, one can only imagine that their combat protection comes from divine intervention.

SharGuidesMyHand

BelgarathMTH said:

So, I can understand completely if that's a deal-breaker for you.

It's not the skimpy armor that's been a deal-breaker for me in the past, it's the fact that it's so easy to get caught up in aimless wandering-and-killing that you lose sight of whatever purpose your character is supposed to have.

ATM, I'm quite frankly, very lost. I've been spending the last twenty minutes just trying to find my way back to a particular location so that I can report a finished quest, but I just keep wandering even further into the unknown and getting caught up in additional sidequests.

BelgarathMTH

@SharGuidesMyHand , I've been there. The problem is that there are hidden paths into higher elevations in the 3-D terrain. Sometimes you have to work your way around an entire miles-wide mountain or body of water looking for a path in.

I've occasionally abandoned quests like that if I get too frustrated. You can usually just go back to following the main quest. There are hundreds of optional side-quests, but they're just there for level grinding purposes. I've learned over my years of playing which ones to avoid as too much trouble for too little return.

The biggest possible frustrating point in the main quest, as far as getting lost, is the lava caves underneath Seraphim Island. Those caverns wind and twist so much, the quest pointer arrow becomes useless. I always just grit my teeth and get through it, using maze-solving tricks like following walls and bearing in a certain direction.

If that's where you are, there's a central cavern with a dead dragon in it. Try using it for orientation every time you circle back into that cavern. There are passages that go out in the direction of its head, its tail, and both wings. There's also a very hard-to-see key passage near the slave pen, kind of around and behind it.

It wouldn't be so frustrating solving the maze if you didn't get constantly harrassed by a barrage of rock monsters and dragon disciples. The first time you do it on silver level, (never waste your time playing bronze level), the fog of war helps you know where you've been. That advantage is lost on later difficulties, though. Also, the light and evil paths each have their own separate, huge areas to figure out.

If you're playing evil, there's also an orc mountain you have to find a way to. The path up that mountain is near a big lake, and very, very hard to spot.

I'm sorry if these issues ruin the game for you. I liked it enough that I was motivated to learn how to deal with it.