Sacred:Myles' GoW (Gust of Wind) Build

Originally posted at DarkMatters for review and discussion.

Foreward.

Ok, I didn't update the Guild for a while, but as far as I know all the information is still accurate.

First off, it’s not my habit to tell others what to do, so if this guide sucks you can just say it and it will be fine with me. Also, I decided to write this up mainly because the stickied guides are a bit outdated (although many info still apply). And of course, this is an attempt to settle the debate we have on Air mage.

Before I go further, much to my surprise GoW is less powerful than IS. There are a couple main reasons. First, IS will have higher on paper damage than GoW in the long run. IS does both phys and magic damage, both benefit from Magic Lore while GoW does only poison damage. And it is far more difficult to find +poison damage items than +physical and +magical damage items. Second, GoW blows enemies away from you, making fast killing less likely. It is ironic how the exact feature of GoW makes it less powerful. Third, GoW does less actual damage, esp. against boss. It is to my surprise that a majority of monsters have decent or moderate poison resistances in Sacred. And last, BM has so little Charisma

Nonetheless, GoW provides me with the greatest fun thus far.

And off start, let's see the Pro and Con for GoW before you decide if you want to read what I have to say.

Pro: Large size, and achieved such size at spell lv 5 for great crowd control. Blow enemies away and stun them. The only poison damaging spell BM possess. Looks cool, esp. on top of water (skyblue, my favorite color!).

Con: Deal Moderate but not great damage. Plenty of enemies with high poison resistances. Need to maintain investment in level to stun. Constant movement in battle for effective killing. Somewhat party unfriendly to melee players, since you are blowing targets all over the place.

Skill:

General Development Lv1 to Lv100

Magic Lore moderate, stop at 50

Meditation moderate, stop at 50

Air Magic 3/4 of level

Agility stop at 30 ????? (see *)

Constitution max ????? (see *)

Parrying 1/2 of level

Note: I left out a lot of points in my advice, everyone plays different and should/will decide for them.

Magic Lore and Meditation: (base: Moderate investment, but recommend to stop at 50). Magic lore is very important skill early on, but other skills are far more important (with greater return) beyond Lv 50, so you may want to max it until 50. Meditation is not even recommend to max up to level bf 50, because + regen spell items provide much much better return off start anyway. Another reason to stop at 50 is that the skills are very ez to rise by items.

Air Magic: (lv3: 3/4 of level). Obvious choice so I'm not going into it. I will however devote separate sections for combination spells from Fire Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, as well as pure Air Magic later in this guide.

Agility: (lv6: As you can spare, but recommend to stop at 30). Useful, and a BM should take it IMO. But it doesn't worth point beyond lv 30 (unless you decide to involve melee component). +Agility items for BM are also plentiful, so you don’t really need much investment to get the bonus you seek.

Constitution: (lv20: Max, period). Before plat, one may argue that Constitution is not really a good choice as GoW mage blow enemies away anyway. But well a guide should take a character to all difficulty levels, and a BM w/o investment in Constitution will be in constant danger at Plat and Niob.

Parrying: (lv50: 1/2 of level). MUST TAKE, MUST TAKE!!!!! BM cannot take Armor skill, and BM armors are not great at providing resistance to start with(despite the fact that BM wears alot of them ). Parrying with Byleth's Wall is the solid defense for a BM, which I don't think any BM should go without. Well, unless you can't like for an archer build or LHW build.

* : (lv 12 and 30). There is room for varieties here. You can take another spell lore at Lv 12 or 30, if you decide to do so. I personally love trading, but riding is not to be undermined too. Disarming is bugged for now, we shall see if UW will fix it. If you take another spell lore, I also recommend it to be 3/4 of current level.

Development Lv100 and on

At this point, you can make your own decision icon4.gif. While Constitution and Parrying remain useful to pump points into, other skills like the spell lores are suffering great diminishing return. Thus, many players will give attention to Magic Lore and Meditation once again, while some will concentrate on trading instead. There will not be a remarkable different by the variation at this point, so think wisely and enjoy it. 1smile.gif

Attributes:

Lv 1 to 10: All points into physical regen. This makes the early level a bit more bearable.

Lv 11 and onward: 3 points of mental regen/ 2 point of Charisma (*).

* The points invest in Charisma really show a decent different for GoW, but if you take another power spell you may want to put them into physical regen or mental regen instead.

Equipments:

Use the best you can find? Sry.

For sets, my personal favorite combination is Dagowit leg and shoulder bracers, paternus boot and belt, and full byleth set. Of course, all the jewelries from BM sets. Also Lorgar's Bright Amulets (Glad set) are good for the poison damage boost, defense, and constitution. Blackstaff set will be useful for a pure air build.

Weapon I favor Enlightened Iron to a great deal, at least bf I find much better one thru it. The good thing about weapon for BM is that you are looking for the mods and boost to spell, and can totally ignore damage and attack speed penalty.

Rare I tend to favor the ones with +regen spell and +spell, then the ones with +spell damage, then +defense, and then those useless rare!!!!

Uniques are truly hard to find, so I cannot really make a list. But among them the dirk of wood sprite, dirk of pestilence, Osopymok's bright hood, dark amulet of temple servant, Jagged Amulet of Darkness, and so on... I wish somebody really had the time and patience to make a full list of those.

Socketing:

Obviously the unique and set amulets and rings are great candidate for slots at all times.

Lv 1 to lv 50

Life Leech: Keep 25% or more if you can before lv50, and you can gradually decrease it there after. My Niob BMs have about 8% LL in general, and it is more than enough at that point.

Critical: Oh yes, as much as you can. I don't really need to talk about it now do I? socket it if you get some *innocent* .

Experience: Instead of reading some of the runes, socket them. Huron set rings (Dark Elf) also provide good +exp. As for the balance between socketing exp vs. LL, if I must decide I personally go with LL.

+regen spell: Probably not a common find at low lv, but when you do these items are great help.

lv 50 beyond

Defense and Resistance: At Lv 50 and onward, one needs to consider socketing defense and resistance items. First, some people may not want to put all the goodies in slots as they will lose some of them when they unsocket, in this case defense and resistance amulets are fine choices to fill the spaces. Second, enemies do hit harder and faster later on.

Split: Also, split becomes a good candidate when the build becomes solid. More exp, more drops.

Gold saving health: This one is two folds. First, it spends some of the excess gold you have. wink.gif Second it really does help in a battle with a gang of mobs.

The GoW

GoW

GoW initial damage is 15, the size cap at lv 5 and blowing distance cap at lv 8.

Lv1 size 8, distance 70

Lv2 size 11, distance 90

Lv3 size 14, distance 110

Lv4 size 17, distance 130

Lv5 size 20, distance 150

Lv6 size 20, distance 170

Lv7 size 20, distance 190

Lv8 size 20, distance 200

The GoW damage increase by level is roughly ~10 early on, and ~15 at lv50, and ~20 beyond lv100. The increase in damage/level is probably by the mental regen and magic lore, but not the spell level itself.

As in Plus, stun spells need to be 1/5 of enemy level (3/5 for boss character, the readme says it is 4/5 in general but it is not that high for GoW). Also, 1/10 of character level also applies. With the mini patch, GoW now will damage even if it doesn’t stun opponents (like dragons).

Tips in Usage

1. Low regen. Obvious need. Keep it under 3.0 before lv 50 of your character (with Ghost Meadow, +Regen Spell items, and socket GoW rune instead of reading), shoot at under or around 2.0 after Lv 50 of your character.

2. Cast when enemies are in melee range. You get the most hits (even double of the size with enough practice) when enemies are right next to you. You only get three or less at the end of the range. Chase them if you need.

3. Make sure the enemies are in the center of the gust if small in numbers. For large group, aim your mouse at direction for crowd control.

4. Push them onto obstacles (walls, big rock, house, etc). Cornering them will enable you to keep stunning and kill them much faster.

5. If no obstacle, blow them and run farther than their landing point and blow them backward (like playing ping-pong by yourself).

6. For hard and fast hitting mobs (Dark elfs, Ice elfs, etc), blow and run in a large triangular fashion (blow them into the center of the imaginary triangle). Y not stands still and waits? The GoW will scatter them, making you hit less or even miss with the outer enemies. This triangle run will pack them up (like when you cook you spread and gather the food on the pan).

GoW + What? (IMO)

Note: My regen time is recommendation, and it is not at all a requirement for such build, and sometimes it is not even quite possible if you are suffering bad drops.

Note: the "?/?" notation is the spell level/character level. "> stun" refers to higher than required stun level.

Effective Spell Pairs (and recommend spell level)

GoW + Meteor Strike:

Pro: Godlike damage (IMO this is the most powerful build in the game). Stun makes MS aiming a breeze. Crush thru any foe, in any number, within the world of Sacred. No need to consider enemies' resistance type.

Con: ...... I can't really think of one except lag. Lag kills!!!

Spell lv: It is probably best to lv MS as the primary 3/4, and GoW only to "> stun" (MS 3/4 + GoW ">stun"). MS is so good, so I guess the high GoW, low MS pair would still be effective. But I dun see a reason to choose GoW over MS as the primary. And it is perfectly fine for MS to fall behind the recommanded spell level coz of the impressive demages, and in fact some players purposely do that for quick regen.

Regen time: MS < 5.0, GoW < 2.0

Tips: Have fun crushing anything. 1smile.gif You should keep GoW regen as low as possible (but stun), so that you can MS on enemies during the GoW stun time. If not possible, aim at their returning path as they always back back to you on a straight line.

GoW + Fire spiral:

Pro: Possessing Fire, Magic, and Poison damage. Constant damage and LL from the FS in melee range. Solid build with decent damage from early to later difficulty levels.

Con: Moderate rune demand. Problems with high poison resistance runners and flyers like skeleton mage. Hard to fight in wide-open area.

Spell lv: Room for varieties. I tried a 4/4 GoW + 1/4 FS, a 3/4 GoW + 2/4 FS, and a 2/4 GoW + 3/4 FS and all are fine. I didn’t level FS higher than 3/4 because of the regen time, but there was little overall damage different between the pairs (you can cast many FS when its low in spell lv). That said, the second one seems to be adaptable to more environments, while the third one possess highest overall damages. FS has decent demages, so do not worry if you are a little bit short on runes.

Regen time: FS < 6.5, GoW < 3.0

Tips:

1) Fights more at one time. While blowing some enemies on one side, let other enemies to stay besides you in the FS.

2) Or cast a spiral and run away, then blow enemies into the spiral, it isn't that difficult actually.

3) Mass FS for enemies with extreme poison resistance (ex. skeleton mage).

GoW + Ice Shards:

Pro: Looks really cool. Decent damages. Large damage size.

Con: High rune demand. Need low regen time. Constant running in battle (or slow killing). Minor difficulty with high magic resistance flyers, skeleton mage, and dragons.

Spell lv: This pair is a little odd, but nonetheless good. As mentioned, IS has better damage in the long run, so it is better for IS to be primary than GoW (IS 3/4 and above + GoW ">stun" and above). However, the balanced IS 2/4 + GoW ">stun" build is not THAT far behind if rune supply cannot be maintain, just takes longer to kill.

Regen time: IS < 4.0, GoW < 2.0

Tips: High spell lv and low regen for IS, and low regen for GoW to keep spamming. It is more demaging to cast IS first then follow with GoW , but the other way is more safe if your regen time is high for IS.

Questionable Spell Pairs (and recommend spell level)

GoW + Lightning Strike:

Pro: Fun (sole element build).

Con: High rune demand. Difficulty with single monster (ironic isn't it?), esp. the ones with high poison resistance. Annoyance to maintain more than one enemy. Extreme difficulty with dragons. Arguably incapable to kill the demon.

Spell lv: For this pair to be effective, one probably needs LS 3/4 and above + GoW ">stun" and above. Still it would be a constant pain to find more than one enemy to fight. Also, high magic and poison resistance enemies will drive you nuts, and there is a sizeable number of them.

Regen time: No idea sry. :confused:

Tips: Split. The only reason this build is questionable is coz of the split mod. Because the clone will have exact HP as the original, LS will kill them both (other things being equal) instead of leaving one to annoy you.

GoW + Fireball:

Pro. Fire damage (with decent magic damage along). Giant single damages from fireball.

Con. Cannot massively kill. Necessity to have a high lv fireball with low regen. Need a good mouse to aim fireball into the right direction, despite the fact that GoW stun. Having enemies chase after you two screens away later on.

Spell lv: Fireball 3/4 and above + GoW 2/4 and above.

Regen time: Fireball < 3.5, GoW < 2.0

Tips: I could use some tips on this as well. Anyway, one mod would makes this build much more alive, and that would be critical. Fireball has the single most damage, which also mean it produces the most single critical damages, for a BM. A 4x Fireball combo can be an effective boss killer, including dragons. This is the main reason I put this build as questionable.

Note: with practice, a single cast of Fireball can hit two enemies that are pacted side by side (by aiming the middle of the two enemies, much like BFG but BFG produces bigger balls which make one cast hitting two more ez).

Weird Spell Pairs

GoW + Ring of Ice:

Pro. Ultra save. Stun and slow at the save time (I can picture this BM build user casting stoneskin too) .

Con. Low damages. Moderate difficulty with high magic or/and poison resistance enemy. High difficulty with dragon.

Spell lv: No idea.

Regen time: No idea.

Tips: Dun use this build? Tell me if you have a successful char with this build. I guess probably GoW ">stun", and high regen (coz of high spell lv) in RoI for decent damages.

GoW + Purgatory:

Pro. Fire damage.

Con. Slow speed for purgatory, need to keep enemies from moving by tanking. Little area of effect. Unimpressive damages. Purgatory has the stuck issue like Wood elf's Call of the Ancestors (while CotA remained one of the most powerful spell regardless, purgatory simply stuck and suck).

Spell lv: No idea.

Regen time: No idea.

Tips: I was thinking of putting this into questionable, but decided not to because no matter how you look this is a weird build. Purgatory is a weird spell itself, it is supposes to follow enemies but with its speed any movement will prevent damage altogether. Its damages isn't low, but the AOE definitely is small. (It is more ez to aim Fireball to hit two enemies then making purgatory to include more than one enemy.)

GoW + nothing or Petrification or Circle of Fear:

Pro: Stun. Can one hit kill monsters that has low poison resistance.

Con: There aren't much low poison resistance enemies. Among these low poison resistance enemies, little of them are worth fighting (high exp or has good drop rate). It takes forever to kill skeletons, dark elfs, poison trolls, etc that are high in poison resistance. Extreme difficulty with dragon. Arguably incapable in killing the demon.

Spell lv: GoW 4/4 or above, Petrification ">stun", Circle of Fear level one (it is surprisingly not subject to stun spell requirement).

Regen time: No idea.

Tips: I suppose an extremely high spell level in GoW can do ok, but it would be very difficulty and demand extreme amount of runes and +RS items (unless carrying crazy amount of concentration potions and use GoW as combo).

Note: I planned to write more, but let's not. Comment welcome. I hope this is not so bad, both the outlook and the content.