Sacred:R00sters Gladiator Guide...The Gr00 Guide

Originally posted at DarkMatters for review and discussion.

This guide is dedicated to my gladiator Gr00, as he taught me all I know.

Foreword:

This guide is intended to help make the most powerful gladiators. It is not intended for power-levelers, experience sockets, or magic find. This guide is also not for players wanting to use only one weapon as it is not an optimal method of play. Switching weapons is easy and effective. If you don’t like hitting keys, video games may not be for you. This guide will require you to play. It is also not intended to tell you exactly what to do. I will not be giving you exact math such as keeping armor skill at exactly half your characters level. This guide is for people wanting to maximize. Get the most damage, highest resistances, most power etc.

Pre Planning

You are a gladiator. Take a few moments before you embark to plan your characters course. Think of skills, weapons, and tactics. Knowing a little of what you what beforehand will ensure you waste no runes, weapons or armors. This guide will follow these skills;

• Weapon Lore

• Concentration

• Constitution

• Dual Wielding

• Agility

• Armor

• Parry

• Trade

The first 2 skills are there, no explanation needed. Constitution should be the first skill you choose, as you will take it eventually, may as well take it at level 3. Next is Dual-Wielding. This guide is for those that wish to dual wield and maximize its potential. Agility raises attack and defense ratings. These will factor into Heroic Courage as well, as a larger base makes a larger buff. Armor is for when you get hit. This guide will deal a large amount with resistances, and yours should be stellar. Parry is more defenses. I will not go into the argument of taking a second weapon lore, as dual wield over rides it, and a larger base defense makes a higher rating with courage on. Trade is essential. You will need many items, weapons and armors throughout your characters life, make sure you are able to buy them.

Skills

So, going with dual wielding these combat arts will be of most use to you.

Attack is the combat art you will use most often, and is priority number one in learning first.

Hard Hit This is good for singles, and generally fast movers. Mages hate Hard Hit.

Heroic Courage both of your hands has weapons. This is your shield. It is also necessary; as it makes sure you hit things.

Fist of the Gods regeneration does not matter. Neither does the wind up. Pay no attention to the nay-Sayers, as you will smash anything in 1 hit. The regeneration wont matter, as whatever it was is dead, and you have courage while you wind up.

Awe This will save your ***. It stuns mobs and drives them back. The animation is under .5 of a second, and regeneration is super fast.

Combat Jump Lets you jump around. Nothing useful besides this, but will help you reach areas faster.

The rest should be left grey, as it will increase your rune drop rate.

Get an Attack rune as soon as possible, and get courage to 255 (eventually)

Attributes

There is only one you will boost, STRENGTH. There is the argument that high level combat arts will over-ride boosting this attribute. This is true; however the weapons and jewelry we will be using will use percents of strength to damage types, resistances, and later on will pass having an extra level in attack by far. Have faith, you will thank me later.

Choosing a Main Damage Type

There are four elements of damage, Physical, Fire, Magic, and Poison. It is imperative that you choose one to specialize in. I will be using poison for this guide. This will be your highest damage type, but will not be the only one that you use. This guide emphasizes you use ALL damage elements. As well we will be specializing in vs. “enemy” damage. Using the correct damage type vs. an enemy that is weak to it is superior to even critical strike. Poison kills orcs faster than using fire weapons with 100% critical. Yes, I’m serious, and yes I have proof. I have 2 Paternus’ Arguments with 90% critical dual wielded. It takes 2-3 hits vs. an orc with them, yer my poison axes take 1 hit.

Sets

Some say sets are a waste, and do not compare to other armors and unique gear. This can be true to some extent, but sets do one thing that will make the main damage type a lot more damage. They give you an attribute boost. I.e. strength + 50 then use a % of the attribute boosted, to one damage type, and each piece will be likewise. Using a full set is not needed, as we are dual wielding, and lorgars set uses a 2 handed sword. However, this guide will use Lorgar's Healer as the example set.

Setting up your Gladiator

Accumulate gold as fast as you can, as maximizing the dual wield build is going to be expensive. You will be given 5 slots for weapons. USE them. Have element damage in each slot. Physical in 5, Poison in 4, Fire in 3, Undead in 2, and Magic in 1. Your armor should work with your main damage type. Lorgars gives all poison damage and is another plus to using a set. Or Dalmars Masterful set if you have chosen your main as Physical damage. You get the idea.

Sockets

Make sure in one piece of kit that you stack amulets with high defense ratings. I use my breastplate, as I can stack 3 amulets. This will make the boost from courage so much more. Of course socket leech, but keep in mind, the more damage you deal the less leech you will need. Leeching 3% of a 5000k hit will give you more than hitting for 50k with 50 leech. We will be dealing a lot of damage, and tons of leech is not needed. Around 9% is plenty. In the other slots socket resistance, maybe one or two attack speed amulets, a resistance with a high attack rating, but generally protective gear. Lorgars amulets are always nice, as they give more charisma, more %’s of that attribute to poison damage, resistance, and regen special move. Get as many as you can. Also anything with regen special move and good res is welcome. Also, no damage rings in armor. Keep those in the weapons, and keep them mono elemental. Do not put anything but fire dmg rings in your fire weapons set. This rule also applies to armor vs. weapons. Dmg rings in things that do damage. Resistance in things that resist. It is far easier to manage your damage, as you want to keep it as mono elemental as possible from weapon set to weapon set, besides your main damage type of course.

This is enough to worry about till about platinum level. By the 100 mark, you should have all element weapons, great resistances, full attack speed, courage should be very high, attack ca should be high with a regen of around 2.5-3 seconds. Hard hit should be near 1 second, and fotg should kill all lesser enemies in a single blow. Your main damage type should be firmly established, yet you should know when to use other damage elements. You know all enemy resistances, and pick the right weapon slot before you even warp.

MAXIMIZING

This is where your gladiator will come to life. He will take no damage, and give more than anything ever wanted. This is for through platinum to niobium levels, and is where we specialize.

Uniques

These are the uniques you should get. Lonidra's Enlightened Belt of Might, Foul Feet, and King of the Swallows. All armors, and give you more sockets than most other gears.

Bahamut's Amulet of the Dead. Gives a + to strength, and also has a mod, +232% of strength to physical damage vs. undead. This is where boosting strength all this time will start to pay off.

At least 5 Lorgar's Bright Amulets. These at high levels will give amazing resistances (+58% of strength to physical resistance. Another plus to boosting strength), great regen special move, super poison damage boosts, defense rating, and constitution. These are the best socketable item in the game for gladiators in my opinion.

Dark Amulet of the Temple Servant. +100 Physical regen, physical and poison resistance, physical damage + 34% strength (gee, another strength +) dexterity to attack rating, and 9% leech. Good stuff.

Glimmering Amulet of Luck. These babies are rare. But with due cause. Armor, endurance, constitution, attack rating, attack speed, magic find, arguably the best amulet in the game. Try to get one.

An amulet with +34% to all resistances. These can be bought with trade skill. Will up your res a lot. Especially if you put it in lonidras belt, with 2 other slots.

Anything with endurance. It raises your resistances, and by a fair amount too. Use as much as you can.

Jagged Amulet of Darkness. It has physical +%, to all combat arts, regen move, + a lot of strength, another must have.

Unique Weapons or high powered rares. These are extremely important. These are the conduit of your growing power. Here are some great choices you should seek;

Physical Jasons machetes, or Dwarf Splitter Axe of Fear. Another great choice is the Gladiator Battle Hammer, as not only is it physical, it makes killing any gobliniod creature simple.

Poison Raisor's Bloodsucker. +65% of strength to poison damage. That’s a hell of a lot by now. Telcontar's Legacy is another excellent choice, as the poison dmg is lower, but you get +40 to courage.

Fire Barbarian Axe. Lottsa fire. On par with Thain's almost, and these have critical, + to awe and dagger stare. Another is Infestor's Diplomat, +str to fire dmg, and fire dmg +103%. Undead It is good to have undead weapons, as many undead creatures pack some serious power, but you can use any vs. my favorite enemy type weapons. Great choices for undead are Paternus' Argument. 48% critical, + str to fire dmg vs undead. Feac's Hammer, Drauglur's War Mace, Braggi's Battle Hammer, Hera's Warhammer of Satisfaction, and Mace of Malediction are other notables. Magic I use Ornate Axe of Resting, as they also have high physical damage properties, but another good choice is magic blade of rage, as again it uses a % of strength to magic dmg.

These are just suggestions for weps, but best use the ones with +%’s of strength to damage. By now a % of your strength is a very high factor. Also, none of these uniques require axe lore, for those thinking that.

Dual Wielding IS Duality!

Get 2 of each weapon. Whatever you decide to use, get 2 of them. It will double the properties. Take the machetes for example; that’s a lot of physical damage exactly the same. Slot these weapons with the same rings and it’s like doubling the bonuses all around. It is much more effective than using one of this, and one of those.

Pain

You must realize the make up of a gladiator to benefit from using advanced mods. Pain is like a % of hp to damage. You are a gladiator, with all strength boosted, lots of constitution etc, you have a lot of hp. So using around 10% pain is a lot of added dmg.

More Lorgars!

Late in the development, remove the defense amulets and replace them with Lorgars Amulets. This will increase resistance, Poison damage, Constitution, and regen you moves a fair bit faster. Its also why I wear lorgars, as every glad sockets the amulet, so why not use them to their fullest having poison as main damage.

Another Look at why We Boosted Strength

I have noticed, that any truly amazing unique, rare, anything that is of value to a gladiator uses + strength to damage. Gr00 has over 1500 points in strength. Anything that uses a % of it is going to get a lump sum.

Evaluation

You should be able to slaughter anything with your main damage type. Poison trolls should fall in 2-3 hits from the attack ca sequence, with poison weapons on. Using proper element damage, almost anything should fall in 1 hit from attack. A mob of dark elves should each die in 1 hit of attack with fire weapons on. Spiders should take 1-2 fotg’s. orc mobs should die from poison weapons in 1 hit, etc, etc. Your attack ca should kill mobs as fast as multi hit with a 2 handed axe. Hard hit should kill all lesser creatures in a blink of an eye. Courage should be at 255 read. Awe should be enough to let you run. Resistance should be over 80k. Magic find, xp, and power leveling are fun, but it also usually leaves you weak, unadventurous, and often creating new characters out of boredom. Do not use these things unless the items have other more important benefits. Consider them a luxury on gear. Gear you would use without the mf and xp. Dual Wielding enlightened irons is NOT the way to deal big damage.

I have enclosed full screenshots from Gr00. This is your goal, and reference. All weapons, armor, slots are available for study. This is by far my most powerful character, not in level alone. Following these tips, I take no damage, I deal insane amounts, barely get hit even. Meteor does maybe 300 per stone from an orc shaman, skeleton mages fireballs hit for 5k, even the vaunted dark elf kicks hit for only 12-14k. Boss raptors are a joke; hit me for 1000 dmg, while fotg can do in excess of 10 million to them. In a quote from Gr00 himself, “the world is my oyster.” I wish you good luck in getting the best and having fun from your gladiators as I do. Also, please leave me able to edit this as I find more useful tips.