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Toddw
Village Dweller
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 8
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| Played G2 as Merc, doing NotR as Mage! |
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Ok, my first post...
First this game rocks, IMO in the top 4 of all time.. I can't believe this game does not have the hugest fanbase ever. Honestly, I would pay $100 for this game and not bat an eye. Ultima 7 w/expansions, Dues Ex, System Shock 2, and Gothic 2 w/NotR... games like this come so few and far between, you gotta cherish them.
I played Gothic 2 as a Merc mostly because I played Gothic 1 and wanted to join the old gang. It was a blast. Wanted to play again but decided to wait about 6 months first. Well, by that time the rumors of NotR were online and of course who would have guessed we'd have to wait years... but it's here! FINALLY YES!! 
Ok so this time I wanted to change it up so I'm a mage. Ok and I'm a somehwat of a jack of all trades mage too... but it's still doable. Very challenging like peeps have said but I'm one of those players that go everywhere I can and hunt under every rock and kill every critter I can at the time, so if you do that you find ways to gain exp. Pickpocketing and stealth, which I never did before, have paid off - mostly in the XP you gain with every pickpocket; and stealth was only 5 learning points so why not, helps to get in houses easy during the day.
Only thing I haven't raised is strength, which is ok because I found a master sword and it goes off dex and is nice. Plus as a mage you can brew STR and DEX potions so you get +3 for every root instead of eating for only +1.
Unfortunatley I have had to use my dex potions and special items as I go instead of hoarding them, but that's cool because I need the extra help NOW and it seems to help me get just through the next quest/mission every time. Again, making it challenging but that's the best part.
Didint know about the (what I thought useless) dark shrooms but jeezuz that should be told anyway because you need that advantage. Now I know 
Chapter 2 was really quick for me, all I did was mines and back... (again killing all the flies/wolves/etc that I could find and doing all quests I found) but I'm taking my time with Chapter 3 and think I'm also going to try to do the NotR add-on level here too. I can *just* beat Bullco in a swordfight which aint bad for a magic user in early part three.
With playing mage and adding NotR it's like a whole new game, I'm loving it. I got about 35 hours in so far and guessing by the time I'm done with chapter 3 (dont even remember/know what starts 4) I'll be at about 50.
I'm having trouble with the st00pid black mages though I can't kill them I have 30 LP and going to get lightning rune, I hope that helps. Even with master sword I'm toast with even one of these guys. No worries I will find out how to do it, that's why I love this game.
One other thing that is helping is keeping everything in inventory - G2 I sold stuff and never knew to whom, now I have a huge inventory and keep anything if I think there's even a remote chance I'll need it. It pays off in QDQ (quests done quick!)
So.. the point is: If you've played before and you really plan on exploring everything and going everywhere you can. If you are really wanting to soak this game up, yes playing as a mage is great. Again, only if you've played G2 before. It's like a whole new game as a mage and with NotR I'd say 60% of my quests (so far) I either don't remember at all, or they are different because I'm a mage. Strength and sword was fun for the first go, but if you're playing this after years waiting for NotR, want a *doable* challenge, go Fire Mage!
Enjoy! |
Sat Jan 07, 2006 1:38 am |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
Welcome to our forum! 
Yes, the game gains a lot by the hundreds of little improvements. The mage career is very rewarding for people who like to look under every rock.
Jharkendar is easier than the valley of mines. You should have gone there in early chapter 2. Better explore it before you´re too overpowered.
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Webmaster GothicDot |
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Sat Jan 07, 2006 11:13 am |
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Gotit
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 27 Nov 2005
Posts: 183
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The first time I played was mage with NOTR and now I replay NOTR with Mercenary. I played a fighter mage, ie close-combat or summon+close-combat and for few special case long range spell.
My feeling for a non player of Gothic 1 or 2 is that in NOTR mage is much more advised than mercenary for a first play. At least if you don't want go for pure mage with no close-combat. For example :
- For a long time you got the same protection than a mercenary if not a little better sometimes.
- You could not spend many points in mana and still got more than 250 with at most 15LP used, and 250 is more than enough to solve any situation.
- And a soon as you have Circle 5 and eventually Beliar Circle 5 rune then you just get overpowerfull (still a lot of fun to get).
Sure mercenary has weapons the mage can't has and stronger amor later on. But summoning, healing spells and long range spells even with limited mana are powerfull spells.
Otherwise I got many differences between the 2 plays, not always clear when it's class dependent stuff or stuff I have done differently or it's stuf I haven't done the first time ro give up to do the second time. Quite cool, generaly I don't like a lot replay but it is working well, the depth of the close-combat helps also a lot, I think I'll replay up to the end.
Last edited by Gotit on Sat Jan 07, 2006 5:39 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Sat Jan 07, 2006 5:06 pm |
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Gotit
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 27 Nov 2005
Posts: 183
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quote:
Originally posted by Gorath
Welcome to our forum!
Jharkendar is easier than the valley of mines. You should have gone there in early chapter 2. Better explore it before you´re too overpowered.
Valley of mines chapter 2, you have no orcs to kill in mines, not even dragon snappers, nor golems, warg, demons and so on. Sure the dangerous surrounding rise the tension a lot but fights you have to do alone aren't that tough. In Jharkendar, from stone statues, duel with bandits, to troll, demons and orcs even fight in team, that's something else.
I will advice more to mix the both and back to mines chapter 2 if Jharkendar becomes too tough and even finish Jharkendar during chapter 3 if necessary. Both offer nice possibilities of fights in team that could allow rise xp with fun and faster, exploit them when necessary is a big help in both parts. |
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Sat Jan 07, 2006 5:19 pm |
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Toddw
Village Dweller
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 8
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Update:
Man I spent about 7 hours in frustration not being able to kill seekers, until I learned ice block. Now I can freeze them and go whack them... had to run and grab the eye and then run like hell though... but i can take them 1v1 now. Also I am in NotR land now, wow it's cool. I like how they designed the place... so far I got the two books SW, north clearned except for library and orcs, and I'm just getting ready to head east now *with bandit armor*. I found a medium heal which sucks bcause I used LP to learn it, oh well, thats going to happen now and then.
Lol I said I'd hit 50 hours at when start chapt 4... I'm at 48 and counting, now I'm thinking 65. I should be able to clear this area and be done with it before I go back to khorinis, unless the game will requires me to come back. I got 30 unused LP and think I'll get another 20 B4 I'm out of this land. I'm doing good still. No worries about me becoming to powerful I'm still chapter 3 and 97 mana points. |
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Sun Jan 08, 2006 11:52 pm |
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Toddw
Village Dweller
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 8
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Update:
About 60 hours to start chapter 4.
By luck I decided early on to be a dex based mage (mostly bcuz of lockpicking and then pickpocket) and here I am in chapter 4 and it turned out to be a good idea. My bow is 90, 6 LP away from the one that does 110.
Just made 3 huge meat piles of orcs by the ramp, lolz. So far in Valley of Mines chapter 4 I've levelled 4 times and now have 88 LP just sitting there. Dominating with bow and ice block. I'm at about 69 hours, still level 3 mage. I'm considering leaving mines and going back to get my level 4 spells, but I'm too afraid all the orcs will respawn! I really don't want to wade through 60+ orcs again...
Just exploring around before I make my way to the swamp. One thing I found out by luck also, which I don't consider a spoiler at all... the guy in the castle standing at the pedestal, you can talk to him over and over (show me your wares) and he never runs out of arrows. Crucial that.
I can't freaking find Diego's gold and now wonder if I found it my first time in valley and converted it to coins unknowingly... I thought it would be where you start out in Gothic 1 but for the life of me I can't find it. Still searching, haven't given up  |
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Fri Jan 13, 2006 12:28 am |
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Muze
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 26 Mar 2005
Posts: 37
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Just curious, what's your strength set to? I pushed mine up to 40 early because I thought it would be different and more powerful to specialize in crossbow instead of bow this time, but I changed my mind and now will be pushing for a dex based mage. I think the 40 strength will help me however as I allow my other stats to surpass it, and not just be a weakling mage early on.
quote:
I'm considering leaving mines and going back to get my level 4 spells, but I'm too afraid all the orcs will respawn!
Does this happen?
_________________
Mashed Buddha Symphonic and Improvised Electronica |
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Fri Jan 13, 2006 9:02 pm |
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Toddw
Village Dweller
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 8
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Update:
Just started Chapter 5... when can I finally be rid of the damn seekers?!?! 
My strength is like 24, but I never raised it with LP, just with strength stuff I found.
That said, I think crossbows require strength to wear but dex to hit, I think I read that in the cheesy NotR manual on the disc. Makes sense because I have two great dex based sword (Betty & Mastersword) but I do MUCH better with my bow, which is strictly dex based. I think the dex swords require dex to equip but strength for damage, thus if you go for bows you only have to worry about dex and can spend the other LP elsewhere (pickpocket and sneak worked out awesome for me).
No, from what I'm seeing so far most of the baddies diidn't come back for Chapter 4 but they did for Chapter 5. I will let you know that my survival depended on ice block... without that spell, don't think I could complete the game, but that's me and my character.
Also don't read a walkthrough. That said I did have to look up two things so far, and they really didin't help. One was where ENGROM was and the other I still couldn't find. Two things isn't bad, and to be honest it was more to save time than because I *had* to. |
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Sat Jan 14, 2006 12:14 pm |
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Toddw
Village Dweller
Joined: 06 Jan 2006
Posts: 8
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DONE!
About 80+ hours... what a ride! C'mon Gothic 3!
I will admit I killed 99% with bow... other than ice block, I found the spells kind of useless, and never bothered learning a single level 5 or 6 spell. I think NotR added level 7 and 8 spells, but I never found them.
In the end, by the time most enemies got within melee, they were dead or one/two arrows away from it. |
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Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:31 pm |
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Sem
Solid as a Rock
Joined: 01 Mar 2004
Posts: 3386
Location: at the Dot |
quote:
Originally posted by Muze
quote:
I'm considering leaving mines and going back to get my level 4 spells, but I'm too afraid all the orcs will respawn!
Does this happen?
Animals and monster only respawn when you start a new chapter.
quote:
Originally posted by Toddw
I think NotR added level 7 and 8 spells, but I never found them.
Haha, NotR only became tougher, not lighter. Circle 6 is still the highest circle in the game.
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-- Moderator of the RPGDot Shadows --
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Sun Jan 15, 2006 9:11 am |
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Gotit
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 27 Nov 2005
Posts: 183
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quote:
Originally posted by Toddw
DONE!
About 80+ hours... what a ride! C'mon Gothic 3!
I will admit I killed 99% with bow... other than ice block, I found the spells kind of useless, and never bothered learning a single level 5 or 6 spell.
...
In the end, by the time most enemies got within melee, they were dead or one/two arrows away from it.
Even with those pack of shaman/elite orcs and orcs? Or when you get surprised by 3 Shadow Warriors?
What was your stats then? I saw from another post that 100% bow 200 dex is a lot too powerfull so a lot too high, I am playing bow/dex chapter 1 so I' curious to know what was your stats?
Aditionnaly how did you manage the various duels? Dex sword? Or bow? I tried agaisnt Bulco the rapier and it's a crap. |
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Mon Jan 16, 2006 8:19 pm |
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