So, what is the point?

[belgarathmth]

Hi, I just got my invincible shadow warrior to gold level. He is now up against creatures ten levels above his own. They might as well be made of cardboard.

I defeated the silver level guardians upon consuming about 4 total health potions. I know the order of armor resistances - magic, ice, fire, poison; however, I'm not sure it would have been much challenge even if I'd left my resistance dial in the same place throughout.

I also have a shadow warrior with a two-handed sword with 2.0 percent life leech. I also know about that little "deus ex machina".

Through my silver level victory, I must admit that I got quite a "high" from it all. However, I only could appreciate my "omnipotence" from comparing my "Superman" experience to that of my previous "squishy" characters.

So, I would like to ask, is there a point to taking this Superman all the way to niobium level? Why does one want to be "omnipotent" in a game, exactly? There are a few corners of Ancaria that I have yet to explore - the crystal jungle and the hunters whatever it is.

I could rush my gold level Superman to platinum level. If he had, say, creatures of 15 levels higher than his, would the game then be challenging?

What happens if you beat the game on niobium level?

What is the motivation to continue for a single player? Once the world is explored, and all the sidequests done, it doesn't seem to me like there's any reason to play at all. For that reason, I'm not sure why anybody would want to play through more than once, on silver, and one might as well explore the entire world of Ancaria, and do every side quest, while doing it.

Bragging rights? Oh, and by the way, I'm still not convinced that a level 100 monster on gold or platinum or niobium is any stronger than a level 100 monster on bronze. Which is why I believe that regional level caps are important, and should not be removed.

I think that what matters is character level vs. monster level. I don't believe that "metallic" difficulty has anything to do with your challenge level.

Any insights on this issue? What, exactly, is the reward for beating the game on niobium level?

[Larvi]

The monsters do get much tougher on higher difficulties. They start hitting you with much more elemental damage and DoTs so if you don't have resistances you will die very quicky. Bronze, silver and gold are all fairly easy, the challnge really doesn't start to platinum in this game and niob gets pretty tough. As for the reason to keep going? Some like to try to make a max level character which in this game is 200 and is very time consuming if you don't cheat. Others play for the loot trying to get the ultimate drops. Others try to get all of the achievements and others try out all the classes to see which they like best. And I really find it hard to believe that you've done every quest and explored the entire world by the time you've beaten gold

[imortus]

For me, new loot is the incentive. New shinies, new pretties, complete sets, and even greater carnage as a result.

And honestly, the game does start getting difficult for me once I'm facing opponents +10 levels over my character. I prefer the feeling of being invincible though - I actually enjoy romping through the game like some sort of murderous god. I'll admit that there's not much else to do, however, which is why I keep switching classes. I've only taken one character as far as Niobium and don't feel pressed to repeat the process with the other classes.

[Heinrich6745]

Gold=still easy

from the sound of it you did the astral build for invisible shadow veil which is broken ( can't remember if it was fixed or not ) pretty much you're perma invis and it's a cheat kinda...

game doesn't even start to get harder till plat, i myself am in niob, have had many characters high level and thousands of hours over the years on sacred 1 and 2.

Both single player and multiplayer,

getting max level without cheating takes a really long time because the amount of xp needed even with 350% increased experience gain takes awhile just for 1 level, shopping is fun and time consuming too, always farming for new gear and finding those legendary items which is hard to get without cheating.

Every quest is time consuming and can do those at later difficulties for added play time+rewards.

enemies do get much tougher later on, i myself am fighting enemies 16-35 levels above me and still get hit hard and 2% life stealing you say? i have 318% and still not enough. but that isn't really needed but it helps and since i am dual wielding, they are the best swords i have found at my level. ( lvl 101 currently )

There are plenty of things you can do,
find all the temple of the gods ( i have done this before )
do the empty office chain quest
do the concert quest for fun
do the crop circles quest
get 80% map explored or more ( even possible to get way over 100 fyi )
the more you explore also helps to find better items
try and reach 100% survival bonus
farm all mini bosses in the game ( i can provide a link with all )
try and earn all the achievements?
roll another character while taking a break on your main?

Many other things to do...
but above all, play online with others and co-op even, the more players=more fun and enemies get harder and other things, the real fun imo is at least 5-10 or the max which is 16 but i don't think this will happen because i seen 8 freaking servers each with 2 people in them and all passworded -.-

i just want to slap the hell out of these people lol, i want to play with a full server or at least half full...sooooooooooo fun

I have never gotten bored of my characters in both sacred games and i have taken them to really high levels too...both single and multi player

[belgarathmth]

Thank you for these answers. They are all very insightful and thoughtful. I apologize for the somewhat negative tone of my initial post. I guess I was just feeling a hopefully brief spell of letdown or malaise from having finished the game once again.

I agree that there is still a lot for me to learn about and explore in Ancaria, so thanks for the pep talks. I feel much better now.

As for my shadow warrior build, he's just a regular sword and board fighter using tactics lore, speed lore, sword lore, malevelolent champion focus with a belligerent vault to frenzied rampage combo, toughness, armor lore, concentration, and enhanced perception. He has a two-handed sword with 2.0% life leech that makes bosses easy, and uses lightsabers and the Blind Guardian guitar for variety while fighting trash mobs.

I'm not sure if it's possible to mess up a shadow warrior build. The guy's just really, really tough.

If I want more challenge, I can go back to playing my squishies. I'll probably play some more with my dragon mage eventually, but I guess I'm not quite done playing Superman just yet.

It might be interesting to rush him through to platinum level so I can see what everybody's talking about with the highest two difficulty levels.

EDIT: @Heinrich6745, I just noticed you said you were dual-wielding swords with percent life leech. I thought that affix only occured on two-handed swords, halberds, and shurikens?

[Heinrich6745]

Nope they can be on any weapon pretty much, even rings and amulets too.

[Larvi]

To the best of my knowledge %life leech is only on 2 handers, throwing stars and this unique 1 hander:
http://web.archive.org/web/20101123212719/http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php5/Sacred_2:Kaldur's_Legacy

Unless they changed something in the community patch which I haven't tried yet.

[Heinrich6745]

That is the crappy kind mainly cause it's so hard to get tons of to be useful imo lol, i have seen that on a few different weapons...this is what i was talking about,

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=120194345
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=120194360 ( using 2 of these )
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=120194380

I also have other items i use for shopping which boosts my bargining skill over a ton, have other items for EP also if i want to use that.

[Larvi]

That's life leeched per hit which is different from %life leech. %life leech is much more desirable for taking down bosses especially on higher difficulty levels since it doesn't matter how many hp he has, the %life leech will scale. So for example if you have 5% life leech you can take down any boss in 20 hits or less provided the boss doesn't regenarate lfie.

[Heinrich6745]

Yes i know...which is why i said it is much harder to get a nice amount while sacrificing other stats to get, the items i normally find it on are pointless for me because i do not use them, so LL per hit works perfectly fine....and my game is 3x harder than any of yours so i know what works for me :P

Plus if i am full health and no need to steal life, the additional damage helps too lol.

[belgarathmth]

@Larvi is correct about the affix I was talking about.

@Heinrich6745, you should try %life leeched some time. I think you will be very surprised how effective it is against bosses, although not so much against trash mobs. I use other weapons for general playing and exploration, and then switch to my %life leeched two-hander for bosses.

They all go down in very few hits, including the Nameless Guardians. It's almost funny to watch their health bar going down, down, down, with each hit, including their feeble attempts to regenerate hit points.

Basically, one hit takes about a tenth or so of their hit points (remember, you're getting the percentage of their hit points damage IN ADDITION to your regular damage on the weapon plus your combat arts). The community patch tries to regenerate most of that damage, and you take that TOO, on the same hit! It's quite a wonder to behold.

And you even get healed for the huge amount of hit points you steal, which can easily be in the thousands for big bosses. That's why I was able to defeat all four Nameless Guardians and drink barely any health potions.

Also, you know, we're all friends here talking about a common interest and sharing info and ideas. It's not a competition. I'm not sure why it's so important to you to keep asserting that your games are so much more difficult than everybody else's. But, oh well, as long as you're happy, it's all good.

[Heinrich6745]

I know how it works...i have used it many times, but i can't with my build because the weapons i find it on do not work for me and the overall weapon is garbage.

I know it's not a competition, just saying what i have right now works well for me lol, even with my game much harder than others...but i am crazy and always push my games to an extreme amount...last game i did it to was skyrim which is extremely modded and tweaked out the ass that i did myself, level 103 or so if i remember where i left off, and still a ♥♥♥♥♥.