Heaven's Gift

[Rass F.]

Heaven's Gift {LONG POST}

Heaven's Gift is one of the more interesting skills I've had the pleasure of getting in DD. One of the problems I found with it was this, it takes forever to make a mana bars worth of stuff, and my game crashes so often I might make three bars worth of stuff and crash, lost all the time I had invested in making items. Recently I was using a mana drain bat of striking and making lots of mana. I ran into an Orc Wardrummer, and an elite orc. My Survivor had such nice gear that she couldn't be killed by the orc, and since the bat was such a pathetic weapon that she couldn't kill the orc before the Wardrummer healed him. I got to thinking, what do I do with all this mana I am getting *cha-ching* Heaven's Gift. Everytime my mana bar got full I would cast it a few times. Once the orc started getting me down a bit of life I decided why not and cast the restoration spell I had learned from Goemoe. This led to a very interesting discovery... Restoration can be cast VERY quickly. Heaven's Gift cannot. I cast restoration and switched over to Heaven's Gift as they had both been hotkeyed and cast it. I had discovered that Heaven's Gift had taken on Restoration's casting speed. SO, this is not a cheat, but a time efficient Heaven's Gift usage. Get one point of Alchemy, one point of Restoration, and 1-5 points of Heaven's Gift, hotbar Restoration, Heaven's Gift, and a restoration potion. Cast Restoration once or twice, and while still casting switch over to Heaven's Gift A.S.A.P. and cast that until you run out of mana, about the same time you run out of mana hit your restoration POTION hotkey. This is a very nice trick for people who like Heaven's Gift, but hate the casting time drawback. Cast until you are out of potions, pick up the loot, combine health and mana, and begin again.{end of tip}

[fable]

If you face a wardrummer, why not Freeze them? Then take out the elite orc at your leisure. I loathe those wardrummers, and Freeze is the perfect antidote to their healing spells.

Good tip, too.

[Rass F.]

Wardrummer

meh, the bat was just to get the mana, I had a terrific sword with stun 4, fire 4, and strength/agility 8, the claymore you get with the Deathblow hammer. When I got tired of doing that (30ish minutes later) I shocked them both into slimey orc piles.

[fable]

You don't automatically get the fantastic sword with the hammer. In a game that randomizes as much as this one, the most fantastic named sword available at the end of a quest can have next to nothing to offer, while another weapon early in the game without name, found in an ordinary haul, can be superb. For example, take that bat you had: I found a bat early during my second run-through that had a level 3 absorb mana, a level two spirit attack, and a level 4 fire attack...! I used it through the first two-thirds of the game as one of my primary weapons, but you never know what you're going to encounter in any given haul.

My best advice is to save immediately after the conclusion of a battle in a room that has treasure, because the moment you run your mouse over a locked chest or any treasure sitting out in the open, it's fixed. If you save first, you can always go back to that save and look for a better roll on the items you discover.

Or you can just take potluck. In which case, the game can be a real challenge.

[Rass F.]

I agree, save before you examine loot. I also know you don't just automatically get it, I was fortunate enough to get *that* sword on my first time into the cave, because I hadn't been saving. I was stating what it was, and where just in case anyone was curious where they *might* get a good sword.

I am not trying to solve every question to something someone might have before hand, I play this game to play it, not to analyze every little side of it. I screw around sometimes. (hence the wardrummer surviving 30ish minutes in my presence)

However, you seem like the person to ask if I need step by step details on what needs done, so I'll make a note of that to myself and hope that I can make use of your knowledge sometime, you obviously do know what you are talking about.

[fable]

[QUOTE=Rass F.]I agree, save before you examine loot. I also know you don't just automatically get it, I was fortunate enough to get *that* sword on my first time into the cave, because I hadn't been saving. I was stating what it was, and where just in case anyone was curious where they *might* get a good sword.[/quote]

Problem is, they might get a good sword anywhere. DD is good--or bad, depending upon your point of view--like that. So one place is as good as another, unless it's a legendary weapon, in which case you have a better chance of it having good stats. But you can still come up with a wallhanger.

I am not trying to solve every question to something someone might have before hand, I play this game to play it, not to analyze every little side of it...

And this was the case for me, as well. I was merely pointing out that since you seemed interested in high-class weaponry, that was the way to get it.

However, you seem like the person to ask if I need step by step details on what needs done, so I'll make a note of that to myself and hope that I can make use of your knowledge sometime, you obviously do know what you are talking about.

Anybody is welcome to ask questions here, and everybody who's played will help out. Unfortunately, few people have played through DD, among the RPG community. But if you really need a lot of detail, the best place to go is Larian Studios' board. There's an enormous amount of detail, there. I've ignored most of it, however. I prefer to find out things for myself, and I tend to wander a lot in a game: the more non-linear, the better. Which is why a heavily modded Morrowind is perfect for me, too. Or King of Dragon Pass.

[Rass F.]

Yeah, I see what you mean about good/crappy weaponry. Just about the ONLY time I do the save checking is if I believe I may get skill books from it.

*any tips on getting skill books would be nice, still haven't found an -efficient- way of getting them.*

[fable]

[QUOTE=Rass F.]Yeah, I see what you mean about good/crappy weaponry. Just about the ONLY time I do the save checking is if I believe I may get skill books from it.

*any tips on getting skill books would be nice, still haven't found an -efficient- way of getting them.*[/QUOTE]

I hate to suggest this, but...you know the mage up in Riverton? Save before entering his store. The contents of his stock will be somewhat randomized, so everytime you speak to him, you get a chance of a book showing up. The same applies to the merchant to the southwest of him, though it's a lower chance.

[Rass F.]

Something odd... I went to the clearing S-W of rivertown and made about 8 mana bars worth of stuff with the level 3 HB (990 mana per bar is a LOT of stuff) and I decided I didn't want to leave all the stuff I didn't want there and got into a bit of a roleplaying mood, had the smith fix up somethings and identify others, went over to the guy thats trying to help out the city with donations or whatever, tossed all the stuff up I didn't sell to the merchant, balanced it, (he was about 17000 too short) and before I clicked accept I searched his stock, he had a Hell Spikes book, bought that immediately. I did this again, same clearing, about 11 bars worth of stuff, went to smith, went to him again, and he had a book of bless that time... Maybe if you give him soo much stuff he re-loads his inventory? Just hypothesizing, but it's some point of interest anyway.

[fable]

The smith? Never saw a book on him, but he does periodically replenish his stuff. It's as though someone comes in and buys from his stock when you're not around. So if you sell to the smith, for instance, leaving him with no cash, with a day or two his cash reserves will be full, again. And of course, the more you use any merchant, the more friendly they become, and the greater the discount you receive.

[Rass F.]

I gave all the merchants around so much stuff awhile back they are all at 100) admiring, and no, not the smith, the guy doing charity work, he had the books.