Sacred 2:A Stunning Conclusion: Temple Guardian Build/Guide
A Stunning Conclusion: Temple Guardian Build/GuideBy SolomonGrundy
Intro: This Temple Guardian was my second character and I play on the x360, which does have its own set of problems and benefits. Although he is now fairly solid (got to Niob at level 77), new players who decide to give this a try are going to struggle – not because Temple Guardian is a bad/weak character, but because it does require some play savvy, and understanding of the damage engine (both taking damage and receiving) in order to get the most out of this class. How I named him: I noticed, while browsing the Sacred 2 wiki, that the Temple Guardian had a few Combat Arts which inflicted stun, and hafted weapons were likely to have the stun on them as well. A stunned enemy can’t do anything, which is a “control” type of strategy that is effective no matter what game you play. This Temple Guardian – ASC- slows down melee attacks, stuns enemies, and reduces incoming damage to a trickle, while dealing accurate melee attacks and using Deathly Spears to great (although not maximum) effect. Skills: Like other guides, I’m not only going to give you the skills, and the order you should pick ‘em, but also a snap shot at a few levels so you can think about allocation of your skill points. My personal observation on character building in Sacred 2: Builds work best when you can leave 2 skills at “1” for a long time (first 75 levels), and have a few others that require smaller point investments. This allows you to focus on 3 “core” skills and build them up first, while still getting bonuses from the other skills via + all skills amulets. L2 - Devout Guardian Focus: this is our primary aspect , needs to be mastered by level 75, and a good idea to keep at character level. L3 - Armor Lore: Temple Guardian armor is HEAVY, investing here will help offset this, as well as open up damage mitigation at mastery. I would lobby for this at 75 as well L5 - Hafted Weapons: Leave this at 1. The main benefit here is access to higher level hafted weapon, and their powers like stun, and physical armor reduction. You want this early in order to melee while Deathly Spears is weak L8 - Source Warden Focus: this is for your second buff, and your secondary aspect. When making choices about skill points here, always remember that this IS a secondary aspect. Get 9 skill points into this by level 12 as possible to mod the buff L12 - Concentration: Leave this at 1 as well. Later in the game, ‘+all skills’ rings and amulets will give you enough to make this skill worth it (as if using 2 buffs simultaneously was not enough reason!) L18 - Tactics Lore: One of the ‘lil ’gotchas’ of Sacred2 is that earning ‘mod points’ (used to improve Combat Arts) cost progressively more skill points, and the max # of skill points you can invest is limited by character level. If there are many Combat Arts you want to modify in an Aspect, you *need* both focus and lore. Devout is our Primary Aspect; we want to invest in Tactics Lore. L25 - Enhanced Perception: ***Players may want to wait until later to take this skill.*** Not because it is a bad skill, but because early level survival tends to be more important than finding neat stuff. If you wanted to move this to 35, 50, or 65 it is not a problem. I took it here, figuring that a good piece of gear might save my tail. L35 – Warding Energy Lore: Right around level 35 enemy champions and bosses start to inflict some pretty heavy damage. Our T-energy shield is still weak, and selecting WEL at this time, with a small investment (1-10 points + all skills) can improve the shield by 50% or more, as well as further reduce incoming damage - the skill itself gives a small amount of damage reduction. L50 - Combat Disciple: THIS IS NOT OPTIONAL. In order to make Deathly Spears and Source Warden Combat Arts function, you need this skill. 3rd Skill to Mastery after Armor Lore and Devout Guardian Focus L65 - Toughness: All channel damage mitigation, and all channel armor. “A Stunning Conclusion” is a melee-centric build, which means we are taking hits, and regardless of other defenses, hard hits will slip through. Constitution could be a substitute. Alternates: if you don’t care for it, you can dump Enhanced Perception altogether. Subs include Source Warden Lore (for more damage/mod points), Constitution (for higher survivability), or Riding (The Temple Guardian’s special mount increases HP, defense, and shield regen rate, and is fast fast fast). That being said, this build benefits from a character with bargaining. You can get by without it, but you will have to give up some “fun” powers, and opt for “functional” powers instead. Sadly you cannot just swap Bargaining for EP as bargaining must be ”unlocked” LEVEL CHART Level 25 DGF 25 AL 15 HW 1 SWF 9 CNT 1 TL 25 EP 1 WEL X CD X TGN X Level 50 DGF 50 AL 30 HW 1 SWF 31 CNT 1 TL 37 EP 1 WEL 10 CD 5 TGN X Level 75 DGF 75 AL 75 HW 1 SWF 55 CNT 1 TL 37 EP 1 WEL 10 CD 30
Combat Arts (Combat Arts) The “gotcha” in Sacred 2 I mentioned earlier. All the combat arts may look great, but if you take a closer look at the mod points you earn, you will not be able to mod all the Combat Arts in an aspect until level 100. Do yourself a favor: pick 2 or 3 to mod first, have a 4th one that is useful ‘as-is’ (unmodded) and leave 1 or 2 Combat Arts unused/unmodded. Another strategy is to take a CLOSE look at the mods on the Combat Art. If a gold mod does not look great, then you can leave it until you have mod points to burn. This second strategy will see heavy use in this build. Numbers after a mod indicate the order they should be selected in. Devout Guardian Aspect First off, we are skipping Battle Extension. It is a good combat art, but so is Dedicated Blow, and we do not need both. Dedicated Blow
Eat 1 rune only T-Energy Shroud
Eat runes, by manage your regen times carefully Deathly Spears
Use runes and + all Combat Arts to get Deathly Spears to 16 ASAP Combat Alert
Eat as many runes as you want, up to penalty. Battle Extension Good Combat Art – too bad we won’t be using it. I like passive hits from the other arm, but you won’t get the stun, and we already have a Combat Art to attack enemies with.
Untouchable Force
Eat some runes, but manage your regen penalty Fiery Ember
Eat as many runes as you would like, up to penalty At this point you will find yourself running low on mod points. You are only going to be able to mod 1 or 2 more Combat Arts by level 75, as you have only 2 mod points. Chose wisely. I chose to pair Icy with Charged Grid in a combo to manage regen times, and allow me to get away with fewer mods. Icy Evanescence
Eat runes as you would like, since this Combat Art is coupled with Charged Grid (which has a longer cooldown) Charged Grid This Combat Art affects party members, and people like +life. The damage is a bit half assed anyway (being Magic Damage), compared to your melee Combat Arts, which are our prime focus. This was the last Combat Art I modded, since I could just read runes into it to improve the healing early. If “derogate” and Occult are selected, consider pumping magic damage %
Primal Mutation Another good Combat Art, here are the two reasons we won’t be using it 1) We are out of mod points 2) The helpless mods (which would work well, since we don’t have Lore) require too much investment. If it was available at Bronze, I’d say mod it, and learn to live without the Fiery Ember Gold mod. Combos! Some Bookkeeping: combos use attack speed, not casting speed on x360. This works well for us, since we DO have a weapon lore. Before kicking off any combo, consider the playing environment – are there any threats you need to be careful of? Most Temple Guardian combos have longer animation times than characters you may be used to playing. Combat Alert + Deathly Spears: Resist the urge to add more to this combo, since it’s a little slow to start with. I have had too many close shaves with enemies getting after me from range while I “pump up” Icy Evanescence + Charged Grid: Fire enemy Killer Combo. Sets up HUGE fire damage mitigation, and kicks off healing. Note – do NOT put Fiery Ember in a combo with Charge Grid as well, as the cooldown on CG will prevent you from swapping back and forth until late late (after level 100) game. If you modded Primal Mutation Primal Mutation + Deathly Spears + Dedicated Blow: It is important that Dedicated Blow comes at the END of the combo to take advantage of “regen per hit” as well as maximizing the potential attribute reduction.
Just a quick dialog on this. One of your leading Combat Arts, Deathly Spears, will increase in damage whether Strength OR Intelligence is Increased. As of this writing I have not tested Dexterity, but I strongly suspect Dex, too, improves DS damage. Willpower improves Shield Energy. Level 1-50: 100% Stamina Level 50-100: 75% Stamina, 25% Strength or Willpower or Vitality (your preference) Level 100-200: 50% Stamina, 25% Strength or Willpower or Vitality (your preference) Useful bonuses/Equipment I’ll make this section as Brief as possible. One note; Temple Guardian equips have less slots than other classes seem to have. This means it is essential to be smart about what you slot, and where. Perfect example is deathblow. Yes, we all want a lot of deathblow, but guess what? When you add two deathblow bonus together, the SUM is less than the full amount. Better to get a large single bonus, and live with a slightly lower deathblow %. Access to a Niobium Blacksmith, while not critical, certainly will make your life easier as their Blacksmith Arts are at level 111 minimum. Useful Bonuses: PRIMARY – yeah, no surprises here + All skills + All Combat Arts - Regen time (Blacksmith!) + % Damage + % Damage Mitigation SECONDARY – but still very important + HP – This build has no Constitution, try and find a chest piece or “belt” that has HP tied to Armor Lore + Attack & Defense - Sure, Combat alert will be a % boost, but it needs a large raw value to pump up. % Deathblow – in the Beginning, aim for 25-35%, as you get into Niob, closer to 50% is better. - Enemy chance to evade and Enemy cannot evade – No point in high damage if you do not hit Regen per hit. Get .5/hit ASAP, and move it up as you advance.
+% Experience +% Chance to Find Valuables -% All Damage over Time -% Enemy Physical Resistance +% Knockback + Stamina, Strength, Willpower +% Absorption Energy (Less damage to Temple Guardian vs Shield) +% Total Shield Energy + Damage Absorption +% Run Speed +% Evade +% Attack Speed +% Casting Speed Equipment Each Piece here is selected for slots, or for scalable bonuses, feel free to substitute! HEAD: Head Module of the demiurge, OR 2 slot random helmet. The damage and the scaling willpower bump is nice, but we don’t use Lost Fusion SHOULDERS: Random Damage mitigation is the primary consideration, and look for 2 slots, or 1 slot + a primary bonus TORSO: Evaluating! Currently using Torso MMT, but evaluating a random for all channel damage mitigation OR Plate of the Tormentor OR Reassuring Prayer of Lumen ARM: Random - this piece of tends to have the modes that affect warding energy lore, so random tends to be best BELT: Belts are likely to have +++HP, so look for one with HP, and 2 slots. LEGS: Prototype Combat Art 333 – 3 slots for a Temple Guardian is too good to pass up. Alternate is Greaves of the Demiurge (All channel damage mitigation goodness!) BOOTS: If you can find them, Guardians of the Dark path are excellent for both slots (3) and default powers (scaling attack and defense) BATTERY: I found the class-quest battery, with 2 Gold Slots, and +% XP pretty darn good. Alternate would be a random with decent powers, and 2 slots. The two slots are critical though. You can only wear three rings and one amulet (bummer!) and TGs do not wear gloves, can’t use shields, and so they are virtually crippled for gear. Make every decision count! RINGS + Chance to Find Valuables / regen per hit + Chance to Find Valuables / +% Casting Speed + All Skills / -% enemy chance to evade AMULET + All skills WEAPON Obviously you are using a hafted weapon , and the one and only power you NEED is % chance to stun. This is a common power, but you should also be watching the damage, number of slots, and other powers. Here is what I am using currently +7.2% chance to stun +15 stamina -11% to opponents physical armor 1 silver slot, 1 gold slot Character Progression EARLY LIFE: More than many other characters, Temple Guardian Starts off weak. You’ll notice that in silver difficulty, that enemies start to get too strong for you around level 18 or so if you use the build exactly as I have. That’s ok – once you get to level 50 (combat discipline) you see a big uptick in playability, and by level 65, you’ll be quite well protected, and you’ll be heavily investing in combat discipline. Three ways to improve survivability: 1. Leave your Buffs (T-energy Shroud and Untouchable Force) low, and equip some +Combat Art armor or weapon pieces ONLY while you cast the buffs, then switch to your “adventuring gear” – this will keep your regen quite low, but still give a large bonus to buffs 2. Have a high level shopper slots Niob Blacksmith arts or high level rings and ammies on your . 3. Level in the kobold/earth elemental or other weak enemy/high XP areas until you have enough skill points and gear to progress
75 AND BEYOND: Aim to hit Niobium around level 76. You’ll want a few masteries to take on level 90+ Guardians. Once you get into Niobium, the next focus is to get Deathly Spears to 42 (4 waves of spears), using +All Combat Arts and +Devout Guardian rings/ammies/armor/etc. Epilogue So, thanks for hanging in there, and reading my guide. I thought I’d include some questions that friends and other players asked me while I was getting up to Niob. Question: When will that energy hield be tough enough to stand up to bosses? Answer: It depends – the faster you take down a boss, the more likely your energy shield will stay up. It will probably never get to the point where you can just sit and ignore boss damage Question: When will Deathly Spears start doing real damage Answer: In a roundabout way, I noticed Deathly Spears becoming useful at Combat Art level 16 (the third wave of spikes). Before that it was kinda…meh. Question: Why didn’t you pick XXX mod, it is so much better! Answer: Yeah yeah, there are a couple mods (like derogate) that could have been great. I think all in the build turned out fine, and tweaking builds is ½ the fun Question: You have weird skill point investments at various levels. Why? Answer: Good Question! Mostly because mod points come at specific point investments, and for the first 75 levels, you have so few points, it does not make sense to spend a single point more than needed. It is the sum of a Aspect’s Lore and Focus skill that determines mod points are earned. So for example, If I have Tactics Lore at 37, and Devout Guardian Focus at level 50, I will earn the mod point for 87. After that, I might not need any more mod points so desperately, and so I just leave tactics lore at 37 Question: How helpful is Source Warden Aspect without the focus? Answer: Very helpful. Fire damage mitigation, and Fire resistance reduction make a huge difference in damage. The damage of the Combat Arts on their own is not exactly inspiring, but it does “soften” enemies, allowing Deathly Spears to do the work. Question: Is Temple Guardian a “power-game” Character? Answer: Nah, that would be Shadow Warrior or High Elf. Temple Guardian is just very fun, and a decent support character.
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