Sage Build Help

[lnzane]

K, so first off i want to start off by saying i don't have TQ:IT....only after finishing titans quest that is will i go back to install it (TBH, except for the dream class, will it make that much of a difference?). For now, I will playing the game for a second time on normal mode (the first time I played it, I rushed to the end of the game as a 'messed up' slayer, and uninstalled it for no reason);

Since I come from a FPS type of gameplay, I thought of hunting as my primary class, since it suits my usual gaming style of play (as in ranged attacks); the second mastery was an unfortunate guess....and you guessed it right from reading the title; I tried looking for some info on the forums bout this class , and the only true info I could find is that its one of the hardest classes to master....I guess you could say GL?!

well, for starters I'm currently lvl 14 (closing in on level 15) build looks something like this atm:
http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...r1=7&master2=8
yes, its look messed up atm, I wasn't really thinking

What I expect my class to look like around level 40:
http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...r1=7&master2=8

some constructive criticism could help?
btw, is squall > study prey?

P.S: 1)Since this is my first ever post on any forum, please excuse me for the grammar mistakes you see along the way, thnx
2) I'm mostly going to be using the bow as my primary weapon; secondary is sword/shield (might change it to spear later on, what you guys think?); don't think I'll be using much of my storm powers, though I would like to increase the damage my bow inflicts (like energy reserved powers)
3) I'm usually to mostly defensive on my approach (hit and run); stacking up with the best 'enchanted' armor around is also my way to success
4) Current attribute points: My Strength atm is around 135, intelligence around 80-89 (I'm not sure lol, not on personal comp. atm, and Dexterity is also somewhere around 105-112)

[ASYLUM101]

For IT, dream is not the only new feature. You have an ENTIRE new act, which arguably has the deepest story, most intriguing quests and monsters, whose difficulty and diversity is more so than the rest of the game. Also, you get access to artifacts and a bunch of new weapons/armors/rings, etc.

Onto the build....
errr, you put the wrong links for your titancalc.

Now, I've been playing a very interesting play on the Sage and I've managed to get her up to level 55 with little trouble. I've racked up about 20 deaths, only because I've been playing hardcore mods like Massbosses which spawn something like 9 bosses rather than the single boss. However, I haven't played it like a normal hunter build. You can search the forums for other hunter builds, all will say to grab around 400 dex and then max str, maybe putting a few points in energy. I went another route. Since Sage utilizes the storm mastery, it gets huge elemental damage buffs, which means intelligence will greatly boost your spell damage as well as your bow damage, provided you're using storm nimbus, and an enchanted bow. (zeus' lightning on a green bow with a lightning affix will grant you NICE damage boosts, same thing for cold damages if you want that instead)

Item Wise, you wanna focus on elemental damage percent boosts, or boosts of your chosen element. Don't go with lightning AND cold (notice how you have two separate synergies in the storm tree, one for cold boost and one for lightning), just choose one and go with it. Lightning is probably your best choice because SQUALL is a legendary skill and can get your through normal on its own. Also, look for intelligence boosting gear. More intelligence = more elemental damage. (of each element, not of the damage type "elemental") Don't focus ONLY on intelligence though. It's better to mix boosts with the sage than to devote yourself to ONLY intelligence, or ONLY elemental (though elemental/lightning add lots of DPS), or only piercing, or only physical.

Here is my suggested build for your level14/15)
http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...-0-0-0-0-0-0-0


Now, my build at 55 is:
http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...-0-1-1-5-8-0-0

Spellbreaker: extremely useful spell. Seemingly useless? Maybe. But it's actually very helpful. This spell will disable all onslaught users, numbing down their damage. It will destroy caster bosses on normal in a few shots, and it will really rip bosses a new one by removing their mana supply and dealing a massive amount of damage to them. On epic and legendary, you'll have to debuff mobs and bosses first before using it though. A few monkey king relics or shen-dong's relics or even a bramblewood will help debuff them. (if you don't know what those are, use the search feature.)

Wisp, has an awesome buff that increases your elemental damage by a TON. Definitely worth maxing for obvious reasons.

Monster Lure: protects you from monsters by taking all the aggro. I maxed it cause the range of it's aggro pulling increases with each level. At max level, it can lure mobs offscreen and hold them for a while.

Lightning Blast : deals a NICE amount of damage, and stuns guys for a while. Pretty useful spell.

Marksmanship Tree: Top skill, scatter shot, doesn't deal the lightning damage like the normal bow shots or puncture shot, but it does have nice damage and a nice area of effect, so it's very useful for that. Puncture shot is great because it carries all damage effects that you deal in a straight line and goes through every target in your path. (i believe every target, provided it triggers on the first guy.)

Squall : Early on, you'll use this for dps, cause it's a MONSTER, and deals incredible damage early on, and the damage scales nicely, especially with your buffs and intelligence. Also, it severely hinders the accuracy of enemy hunters and casters, making it extremely useful against those enemies. Later, you'll use it for debuffing.



Any more assistance? Stats wise, you want to get about 400 or so, maybe more. For Strength, you want around 170 or more. The rest of your points will go into intelligence. You don't really need intelligence because storm adds a HUGE amount, and your gear will be caster based(if you follow this build), and most of that adds energy too. HP would be useful, but I wouldn't waste skill points for that.

Now, this is a build for a bow-based sage. Spear based would be a bit different, you'd need a bit more strength and less intelligence because shields and spears need more strength to use than bows. ALOT more.

Can't... really think of anything else to say.

[Violos]

Don't focus ONLY on intelligence though. It's better to mix boosts with the sage than to devote yourself to ONLY intelligence, or ONLY elemental (though elemental/lightning add lots of DPS), or only piercing, or only physical.

As far as stats go... why not?

Naturally, any char will mix arrow damage and aura-boosted scatter shot shrapnel. But since the latter are basically a spell, independent of str/int/dex, you do have the usual choice between strength or int+element for the arrows themselves.
And being that element damage and scatters work well on any bow, as long as it's fast...

[lnzane]

hey, thnx for the advices guys and lol, srry about the link i'll try to insert link again below; yea TQ:IT looks awesome with more quests, definitely worth trying
My current Lvl 14 char: http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Future Build: http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...-0-1-0-0-1-0-0

- yea, what I'm looking at with this future build is a more hunting based char than the other one. since I'm a hit and run dude, I could use some movement speed, and obviously some bow damage with some energy reserved powers (you might say then that a caster could also suit my style, but for some reason in RPG games, I don't like the whole magic stuff lol); Is it too late to try your advice ASYLUM101?
-I was wondering which of these three is more beneficial: study prey, squall spell breaker (or all three?!)
they kinda achieve the same thing, but through differnt ways right?
- About the herbal remedy...other than the poison resistance, isn't it just better to pump a health portion instead?

Also, since I might just play only the normal difficuilty mode, I don't even think I'll reach level 35, let alone 40+; though I was wondering if I were to play TQ:IT on the same computer; could I use the chr from original TQ?

[Violos]

I was wondering which of these three is more beneficial: study prey, squall spell breaker (or all three?!) they kinda achieve the same thing, but through differnt ways right?

If you mean killing enemies, yeah, that's kinda the same. But they are quite different.

Study Prey or Flush Out make enemies susceptible to the damage of your choice. Squall does that too (to a lesser degree) but primarily serves to keep ranged enemies from shooting you. Spellbreaker otoh prevents them from using special abilities, and kills mages and bosses (!) who have more mana than health.

I'd start with Squall for its damage, rush to Scatters, then add SP for even more damage.

[ASYLUM101]

As far as stats go... why not?

Naturally, any char will mix arrow damage and aura-boosted scatter shot shrapnel. But since the latter are basically a spell, independent of str/int/dex, you do have the usual choice between strength or int+element for the arrows themselves.
And being that element damage and scatters work well on any bow, as long as it's fast...

If you find a helm that provides + 100% piercing damage(you know which one I'm talking about), and another that provides 40% intelligence and you already have 1000 intelligence, the boost in DPS isn't as great if you take the INT. I've tried this several times before with LOADS of different gear setups for my sage. Turns out, max intelligence is NOT as powerful as loads of elemental damage. However, having a hefty sum of intelligence (700-1000+) and a hefty sum of elemental %s(in addition to static charge and eye of the storm) your DPS will be much higher, and your spell damage as well.

http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Future Build: http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.a...-0-1-0-0-1-0-0

Ehhhhh. Do you really want my opinion? lol

Storm Nimbus isn't really that great, it works on a chance base, and I think the chance is low, like 15-30%. So it doesn't really add a considerable amount of trustworthy damage.

The initial skill marksmanship is "ok" at best, but it's synergies are more worth maxing than itself.

Trail blazing, lol. Only needs one point because you can easily get runspeed from gear, but if you like running fast, *shrug*.

My only suggestion for that build is to look at the one I posted, lol.

- yea, what I'm looking at with this future build is a more hunting based char than the other one. since I'm a hit and run dude, I could use some movement speed, and obviously some bow damage with some energy reserved powers (you might say then that a caster could also suit my style, but for some reason in RPG games, I don't like the whole magic stuff lol); Is it too late to try your advice ASYLUM101?

Nah it's not too late, you can always respec easily. Level 14 is nothing haha.

- About the herbal remedy...other than the poison resistance, isn't it just better to pump a health portion instead?

Poison resistance is your best friend. Try fighting a poison based boss without poison resistances, you might last 2 seconds.

Also, since I might just play only the normal difficuilty mode, I don't even think I'll reach level 35, let alone 40+; though I was wondering if I were to play TQ:IT on the same computer; could I use the chr from original TQ?

Yep, you can import your old chars.

-I was wondering which of these three is more beneficial: study prey, squall spell breaker (or all three?!)
they kinda achieve the same thing, but through differnt ways right?

I'd start with Squall for its damage, rush to Scatters, then add SP for even more damage.

Yep. Squall > Scattershot imo. More practical and deals more damage early on, not to mention WAY easier to get. (34 skill points for scattershot, 10 for squall iirc)

I personally would skip SP, squall will dominate everything in normal if you follow the setup I posted. Even on epic and legendary it's not necessary for this build.

[lnzane]

Poison resistance is your best friend. Try fighting a poison based boss without poison resistances, you might last 2 seconds.

even at normal difficuilty?? dang

Yep, you can import your old chars.

sweet, thnx

Storm Nimbus isn't really that great, it works on a chance base, and I think the chance is low, like 15-30%. So it doesn't really add a considerable amount of trustworthy damage.

well I guess, but atm I'm using this bow that, with Storm Nimbus, would give me an avergae DPS of 64, and without it, is somewhere around 41-44...it even feels like its giving me a 1 shit kill almost all the time in the early going; Nonetheless, I'll try what you suggested

The initial skill marksmanship is "ok" at best, but it's synergies are more worth maxing than itself.

mhm..some 'hunting builds' based threads I've read through suggest maxing the Marksmanship skill; As a pure sage , your right

Trail blazing, lol. Only needs one point because you can easily get runspeed from gear, but if you like running fast, *shrug*.

one point, check

Yep. Squall > Scattershot imo. More practical and deals more damage early on, not to mention WAY easier to get. (34 skill points for scattershot, 10 for squall iirc)
I personally would skip SP, squall will dominate everything in normal if you follow the setup I posted. Even on epic and legendary it's not necessary for this build.

cool

again, thnx for the advices; I'll come back again if more problems approach

[Violos]

If you find a helm that provides + 100% piercing damage(you know which one I'm talking about), and another that provides 40% intelligence and you already have 1000 intelligence, the boost in DPS isn't as great if you take the INT.

Sure, no doubt you need to care for both piercing and your element. To me it just sounded like you were recommending to side into physical/str as well.

[lnzane]

Hey wassup its me again; this is kind of of an opinion based question, which I should have stated earlier: Why is Sage considered one of the hardest class out there?

Is it because you have to place attribute points in strength, intelligence and dexterity equally?

[ASYLUM101]

Pretty much. It requires a bit of thinking and planning around the build. It's a hybrid class, not a dedicated caster or hunter, so it's not easy to setup right away. Sage, battlemage, thane, etc are all very tough classes because of this. Sure, they can focus on strength, but then they lose alot of damage by skipping int and elemental boosts. Other classes like conqueror and templar, are IMPOSSIBLE to mess up. lol

IMO, sage is probably my favorite hunter because of the diversity in their skills, the immense mana pool, which makes using marksmanship less of a task than say, a brigand would.(brigand has a huge energy reserved pool and only 300 base mana.)

Sure, no doubt you need to care for both piercing and your element. To me it just sounded like you were recommending to side into physical/str as well.

Not at all. Physical damage is GOOD, Strength for a sage is almost useless unless you go spears, even then it's not required because of captains signet and other -requirement gear. However, elemental/piercing will come before physical because they're so much easier to come by. My sage topped off her str at 170 so she could equip astrapi. She has a bit more now with gear (Plato's Ring of Might x2 =+80ish str) but it's really not needed.