Sacred 2:The Temple Guardian is a boss killer

The Temple Guardian is a boss killer By trickyz173 After reading the class forums and studying up on the TG, I decided to play one. I found lost fusion to be lack luster and most of the CA's in Source warden are for support/pulling mobs. So the Primary tree for me was Devout Guardian. Another thing I learned right off the bat was that this class is highly dependant on moding which is fine for me. I feel that the moding aspect of sacred 2 is one of the best parts of the game. My focus was to find out what the TG could do If I focused on damage and very little on defense. Mainly I found that for standard trash mobs the TG absolutely destroys large packs. With T-energy shroud modded for Derogate and Battle Aura moded for Counter strike along with Untouchable Force (at level 75) as standard AOE. Combined with Fiery Ember or Icy Evanescence running the damage really begins to add up. I also enjoy Charged grid due to the fact that it moves with you and has a large range. So this brings me to my final and probably most overlooked CA in the TG arsenal, Deathly spears moded with Jab. Deathly spears is our boss killer, it may seem slow and unworkable at first but ranked up high enough, it alone can kill a boss. The Mod Jab sends out extra waves of spikes at CA level 1 with the jab mod you get 2 waves of spikes at CA level 16 you have 3 waves, at CA level 42 you have 4 waves at CA level 62, 5 waves and so on every 20 CA levels(I have not gone past CA level 82). The best part about DS is that it keeps going off as I switch to Battle Extension and melee down anything that is left over. Most basic trash mobs die in one hit from the spikes, ranked up and boosted with Tactics lore and Combat Discipline. Bosses due to their large size (larger hit box) can get hit by many of the spikes from each wave. During an encounter with a dragon that flew over me, which allowed me to get right under him and hit him with a full burst of DS, it took his health down about 65%. As a Final benefit DS is considered an AOE attack so anything shrouded or shadowed can still be hit by this attack, so watch out SW's. I found that oddly enough DS is considered a spell and not a physical attack if you take a look in the details it will list spell intensity and spell resistance for the CA and damage can be boosted by putting points into Intelligence but it is not worth it. It does however get increases in damage from both Tactics lore and Combat discipline as well as any armor or enchant that adds + dmg%. DS also does mostly elemental damage based off whatever element your main hand is enchanted with. This is also true for shield damage and UF pulses making the TG very versatile in damage output. Well I hope this damage review helps encourage more people to play the TG. I really have enjoyed playing this class. It may not be great at the start but that’s the nice thing about TG it seems that every 2-5 levels I have something new to look forward to. When you first look at TG and the skills that work well with this class, it makes you wish Ascaron had given the TG three extra skill slots. I am going to try to severly narrow down the skills that make TG a boss killer and a trash killer. Hopefully this will give everyone a bit of versatility with this TG build. SKILLS; Devout Gaurdian Focus- This is the must have Skill for this build. It allows you the mod points you need to get your TG going. It also gives you a much needed reduction in CA regen. It also allows you to take Concentration and Combat DIscipline as skills. Concentration- Just as important as DGF this skill gives you the extra buff slot and reduced regens. Tactics lore- A great skill to boost your melee/CA damage by a considerable amount and gives you more needed mod points for the Devout Gaurdian aspect. Combat Discipline- Increases the Damage of all of our CA's, it is a must have for any damage build. I really want to put Sword/hafted and Source Warden Focus/lore up here but the truth is you can do without it and still get by. However they are very close to the top and I would suggest taking them. If you want to go with Bargaining (to make a shopper) I would suggest Armor Lore and Toughness, These skills can make a major impact when you have the right armor/orbs like the Prototype LI 189 chestpiece. Unfortunately you can't always guarantee you are going to get specific pieces and you need to take one other general skill to get bargaining. Armor Lore, Combat reflexes, Constitution, Warding Energy Lore and toughness all make excellent choices for defensive skills. I wish I could fit them all into this build. It really comes down to what your playstyle is. MODS; The following Mod recomendations are for my personal play style I know some like to keep combat alert as a CA and not a buff and if that works for you then do it. Personally I do not want to find myself recasting Combat alert throughout a boss fight also I would hardly even keep it up during trash kills. As a buff its main use for me was to keep my defense up and reflect melee damage. If I was starting a new TG I would mod as follows: Combat Alert 1. Barricade 2. Riposte 3.Permanent T-Energy Shroud 4.Derogate 5.Recharge Deadly Spears 7.Batter 8.Occult/Singe 9.Jab T.Energy Shiled 10. Power Dedicated Blow 11.Bedazed 12.Intent 13.Enforce If you choose to take SWF and/or SWL as a skill my suggestion would be to mod out UF first if you did not make Combat Alert a buff. If you did make Combat alert a buff then you will not be using UF as a buff untill level 75 if you are maxing concentraion. In that case I would mod; Fiery Ember 1.Scald 2.Churn (Scald for bosses) Charged Grid 3.Havoc 4.Unnatural Selection Untouchable Force 5. Field Damage 6. Calm 7.Field damage Primal Mutation 8.Theurgy 9.Helpless 10 Helpless (Primal mutation can provide a very good debuff for boss fights) Fiery Ember 11.Conservation Charged grid 12.Longevity GEAR; If you do not have Bargaining, three pieces of Combat Modules and three pieces of T-energy Modules gives you a great boost to + all skills and has a decent amount of slots. The XTM-2174 is a great set for slots but has a very bad set bonus. If you have bargaining I would suggest two sets of gear one to boost up your bargaining skill and the other for actual combat. If you enjoy using Dedicated Blow or Combat Extension(the CA not the auto attack) then damage rings are the way to go. Damage rings that give, for example, 11-11 damage give the best increase in damage out put for DB and CE as well as the standard melee strike. If you want to focus on increasing the overall damage out put of all your CA's then you want to focus on items that increase damage by x%, make sure it is yellow for physical, as rings with elemental damage will only effect certain CA's. One trick, if you have a character in a higher difficulty or a very high level blacksmith, you can take items with sockets put them in your shared chest then switch over to a high level toon and have a blacksmith put whet in the socket. This will not increase the level of the item and can give your damage a huge boost at low levels. For your three ring slots and one amulet slot I would not suggest using +damage% rings/ammies this will not give you as much increase as "whet". I typically use my ring/ammie slots for + skill or + aspect gear. Also great spots for defensive stats as well. Attempting to video link this boss kill the url is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3OCiiioRJc. Sorry about the audio I had my sound settings switched to my head set. Anyway this is a boss kill in Platinum difficulty against a dragon with 218,531 hp the video is 14 seconds long. 218,531/14 = 15,609 damage per second(dps) definately proves the TG viability against single target bosses. Basically I run in there hit him with a DS wave and melee then I failed to switch back to spikes and hit him with CE but it gives a good idea of how much damage DS can do. Silearth the tg starts out at a disadvantage untill some very important CA's get moded. On the first miniboss, the kobold king, I would suggest using a weapon with "chunk of lava" in it. The fire damage really helps keep down his rapid health regen. [youtube]Q3OCiiioRJc&ap=%2526fmt%3D18[/youtube] Here is a newer video thats a bit better DS is the only attack I use vs a [youtube]tELUl7Gd-n4&ap=%2526fmt%3D18[/youtube] Originally published at DarkMattersfor review and discussion. See Also Temple Guardian Guides Temple Guardian Combat Arts Sacred 2 Player Contributed Guides