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In Progress Gothic 2 - Returning - WATER Mage!!

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
14,467
Location
Frostfell
Returning for Gothic 2 is a huge epic mod which adds hundreds of hours of gameplay. Also adds interesting factions, like Necromancers, Gurus, Templars and water mages. The game was made in Russian and poorly translated with machine translation to english.

Considering the story events of Gothic 1, is pretty hard to join G2's Water mages. To become a necromancer, all you need is to ask Xardas for apprenticeship, do intellectual stuff like reading books, alchemy, learning languages, etc till you get 30 INT and a bit of mana, them kill a "sheep of Innos" in the initiation. Water mages in other hands, are the unique guild which requires chapter 2 in the game and becoming a NOVICE of water mages require multiple quests and very high persuasion skill to persuade Saturas, also requires 40 INT instead of the usual 30. This is not a blind run, I already played Returning as a necromancer and water mage.

However, at end game, an water mage is quite powerful. See the video bellow.



For this lets play, I'm using bellow optimal graphical settings, because I'm running in Archlinux with WINE, I also don't have a good GPU and since I have no interest in replaying the entire chapter 1, I'm using an old "perfect" save, with most important early game stuff learned. That said, the following water mage spells are :
  • Circle 1 : Ice Arrow / Small lightning
  • Circle 2 : Call snow wolf / ice lance
  • Circle 3 : Lightning ball / Ice block / ice explosion
  • Circle 4 : Lightning strike / Create Ice golem
  • Circle 5 : Waterfirst / Ice wafe(AoE ice block)
  • Circle 6 : Storm / Geyser
And the progression in mages of G2 - RET is :
  • Circle 0 - Novices and non mages
  • Circles 1~3 - Mages
  • Circle 4/5 - High Wizard/high mage
  • Circle 6 - ARCHWIZARD

And there is a HUGE problem with water magic in Returning. By some reason, they decided to remove ice explosion and lightning ball is a pure TRASH spell. And worse, you need that spell fully charged to kill some enemies, as damage resistance in G2 is by flat amount. I already suffered a lot with that spell. A comparative of lightning ball and spear of darkness, the 3rd tier for for necromancers



The devs din't took away the game breaking fire blast from fire mages, but took away a similar spell from water mages by some unknown reason. I searched a lot in rpgrussia for a freaking way to restore such spell but sadly din't found. That said, for this run, I will not waste my time with such awful spell. I will buy lots and lots of scrolls and rush towards chapter 4.

The run :

The first thing is to start as an blacksmith apprentice, pick the piece of ornament in upper city and deliver to water mages. After it, I become a novice of water mages and started to read every book in my inventory and that I can find, then, learn alchemy, ancient languages, buy an magical belt which gives +5 int, pay Saturas to raise my mana till I need to spend 2lp / mana point() need to save

LP) and pay the warrirors to train my HP till about 700. Contrary to normal gothic, you don't passivelly get HP in this returning in hard difficulty, you need to spend LP to raise hp. Then did some quests for the city alchemist and learned his alchemical recipes.

Screenshots said:
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After it, talked to the head Paladin and started the chapter 2.

Contrary to normal Gothic, you NEED to do the DLC part in the beginning of C2. After entering in the expansion area, I finally could become an water mage. So I cleared a bit, returned to Khrorinis to sell my hunted animal stuff, moved back, payed for the extremely important alchemical recipe of intellect, and proceeded to clear the area going towards pirate camp. Din't learned a single tier 2 spell.

With my relative low INT and spell power, in order to damage some enemies, I need to cast small lightning to reduce their spell resistance and then ice arrow. And some of them require scrolls of higher tier magic, I could learn how to cast death to the undead, which costs a high amount of mana, but is a circle 2 spell which deals damage comparable to tier 6 spells but only works against undead. So yes, I will be using circle 1 spell from a long time.

After learning how to mine gold, I bought every high level scroll from the water mages that I could because I will need it. I did everything as normal on the expansion, got the bandit armor after clearing the canyon, visited all temples, freed the slaves in the mine but countrary to the normal game, after you defeat Raven, he don't die, he just teleports and fleed, now is part of the VoM. On VoM is not surprising, you just need to gather reports about how mining operations are there and I also did a quest necessary to melt magical ore and make higher grade runes.

Contrary to normal G2, runes have 3 "tiers", the most basic runes can hold spells of circle 1/2, the "senior" runes, of 3/4 and the higher of 5/6. Is absolute necessary to learn how to do that. You need to find a bone in a cavern, talk to Xardas to interrogate the undead, get information, dig the ore and give the ore package to the a guy who will teach that vital skill for you. Also learned how to shapeshift into a bloodfly in this chapter but din't proceeded with anything, din't learned how to speak the demon's language or anything important for the Keeper's quest.

Screenshots said:

IF you think that C2 was too rushed, C3 was way more rushed.

The first thing that I did was to learn the third circle of water magic from Saturas. Din't learned a single spell of the 3rd circle as I don't need. I have plenty of scrolls to spam fire rain upon the seekers. So I did everything as normal, talked to Xardas, talked to paladin Master, talked to Pyrokar, teleported to "the circle of sun", nuked the seekers with fire rain scrolls, picked the amlet, repaired it freeing the blacksmith, started the dark order quest, started other returning only quests, talked to Vatraz, got his relief talking to Saturas, got the book which Xardas said that would convince him to participate the ritual, watched the 6 minute long debate between Xardas and Pyrokar and ended the chapter 3.

At chapter 4, I just assumed the bloodfly form, got into the DLC area again(in returning you return multiple times there) and finally could learn circle 4 spells and the loved lightning strike. After learning the circle 4 spell, I could finally engage against more powerful enemies with less problems. Also used the remaining fire rain scrolls to farm a bit of XP via orc genocide but saved some to time of need(like clearing the swamp camp which has lots of powerful undeads). Ice golems are quite powerful. They can cast ice spear(2nd circle) and their melee attacks are quire powerful and can stunlock most enemies. IMO on melee, they are a bit better than demons(not archdemons) which necromancers can summon.


Screenshots said:

Now, my objectives are :
  • Grind XP via orc genocide
  • Do all missing quests from previous chapters, I din't even got Ulu Mulu
  • Raise my mana ASAP.
Despite being a circle 4 high mage of water, I don't even have enough mana to wear the high robes of water mages. and with my current mana, I can only cast lightning strike 8 times and ran out of mana. Don't get me wrong, that is enough to kill multiple orcs but is far way from the ideal.

I will rest from returning from a few time and then, update this lets play.

If water mages have the WORST offensive circle 3 spell, they have the BEST circle 4 spell. Lightning strike is quite good as it has a fast projectile speed, casts fast , BYPASS WALLS(ALLOWING YOU TO CHEESE BOSSES) and reduces the enemy magical resistance. Even at end game, you will some times use this spell to cheese some enemies or lower their resistances.
 
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Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
14,467
Location
Frostfell
Changed my name again. Anyway, continuing.

As I've said, my objective now is to raise my maximum mana and get more spellpower and do more returning quests. So, the first thing which I did was to kill orcs and most important. NAMED orcs which gives +LP. And master alchemy as it is essential to make potions that insta heal your health/mana. In normal gothic, potions require a drinking animation but heal instantly. In returning, mana/hp potions regens about 1%/second. The exception is very expensive potions which can be bought in limited quantities per chapter and crafted if you find the recipes and master alchemy.

screens said:

After it, I decided to start the quest to access Adanos valley. I will not complete everything by now, as there are lots of powerful bosses there, including TWO archdemons at the same time who heals constantly if you can't encircle both. The rune which you got in chapter 2, you remove the spell from the rune in a temple and it allows you to summon a guardian which is invulnerable apparently, so you ask Saturas how to defeat him, talk to a specific dragon and get a specific warhammer to damage him.

My 2 handed skills are terrible, so I almost died but killed him in my first attempt.

After that, I had all ingredients needed and proceeded to make Ulu Mulu.


screens said:

Now I have enough LP to learn spells and hence increase my spell power but not the money, so I did some returning + vanilla quests in the gold mine and remember when I said about lightning strike being amazing to cheese bosses? Check the screenshot bellow. Hitting an boss across an wall.

screens said:

After it, I farmed some mobs and mostly notable, trolls and got enough money to buff my spellpower to 11% and raise my mana via donations get Innos karma to 485. Now, I only need more 15 mana to be able to wear the HIGH robes of water mages.

screens said:

IDK what I will do next, IDK if I should do the orc questline or the adanos valley questline. Both are important.
 
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Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
14,467
Location
Frostfell
Doing the Adanos valley questline. Killed the two demons and picked the 4 parts of the tablet required to open the second door of the pyramid. Then killed the twin guardians of the pyramid. This boss is pure BS, you need to fight two high level demons and if one is too far away from the second, their life instantly regens, so I cheesed both bosses using lightning strike behind a pillar.

screens said:

Then since I was almost out of potions, returned to do some quests which I should have done before, like killing this trolls

screens said:

After it, moved back to the valley, shapeshifted into a bloodfly and jumped down. Countined till I found a place hard to jump and since I"m awful at platforming, moved back to Valley of Mines to learn how to shapeshift into a shadowbeast which has a great jumping distance, jumped, accessed the area with the gem that I will need for making an item required for the second half of the full tablet. And obviously pillar cheesed the bosses in the way. I love lightning strike. After it, runned around searching for the "guardians" to attack with the warhammer and get their pieces of the tablet, then reforged the tablet in a smaller pyramid and finally the pyramid is fully open!!!


screens said:

Now is necessary to kill stuff inside the pyramid, climb the top and do the four quests which are :
  1. Offers a gift for Adanos, he would accept a dragon egg
  2. Get Adanos water and put in some vessels around the desert, you find the key to the water well and the well in the valley
  3. Purify the Innos statues, just kill a bunch of trolls, near then, mine the ore and talk to water mages in the DLC area.
  4. Kill a powerful Innos created fire golem which is immune to damage during the day
After doing everything, you can do the last quest of the pyramid. Which is to restore the adanos valley to its former glory. You talk to water mages and they will mention an druid and that maybe Xardas can also help. IF you ask Xardas for help, the potion would be very complicated, if you talk to the druid in valley of mines, the same guy who teaches transformation spells, he would give the potion for free, then kill the guardian and get place the potion, after it, move back to Adanos altar in the pyramid and pray for Adanos, a new area will appear and there, you can find a amazing crown which gives incredible +100 mana(+2.5 lightning strike), potions and other things. With that ice crown eqquiped, Adanos valley undead will only attack you if provoked and with the crown + a hammer, you can defeat previous immortal guardians to farm XP. I recommend to kill everything to get more XP. The awful stance in the screen bellow is cuz I din't invested anything in two handed combat.

screens said:

I will left the guy in Adanos valley who teaches how to make insta regen potions later, for now, I will finally go FINISH RAVEN!!! First, walk, with the valley items equipped, pray in a shrine and continue in the cave killing everything is optional but gives XP. The raven boss fight is relative hard, but thanks to lightning strike cheesing, he was a piece of cake. Before fighting him, is necessary to fight multiple waves of undeads and a final demon wave. After defeating him, you get the claw of beliar, but can't use till more quests are completed. Saturas says that the earthquakes ended and thanks Adanos for everything.

screens said:

After it, I did the "dark web" quest, killing the Paladin's assassin from chapter 3 and got 5000 gold as reward, the quest require some investigation and interrogation and asking Vatraz to make a teleport rune to the place where the enemy lives + payed tuition for the last wo spells. Now I can't increase my spell power further without moving to chapter 5(will take a long time) or completing the Keepers quest and choosing water as my element which will increase my spellpower by 20%. Ideally, at the end game, my 6th circle spells should deal 1500+ damage.

screens said:
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
14,467
Location
Frostfell
NOw I started to do the keepers quest and the chapter 3 missing novices quest, I will not detail everything since I was doing this quests in parallels but screenshots bellow, The first thing to do is to kill the orcs snipers and get Gonzales weapon for the tactical advantage.
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Then I did the assassin valley and only had a bit of trouble after entering in a teleport, where you need to face two assassins at CQB, so I had to use a scroll of the 5th tier "ice wave" and take distance and take one each time. Also used some fire rain scrolls to nuke a part full of assassins to save some time.


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After it, killed the lead assassin, the demon and runned in circle till the corrupted guru killed his summoned demons and then, killed him and got the recipe for insta heal potion. After it, got back into the keepers quest



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In Xardas G1 old tower, got a book to teach the language of orcs and started to do the orc questline in paralel with the keeper's questline. Also picked the sphere in the Sunken tower in the lake near the fire dragon.


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Freed the spirit of water, killed the archdemon in swamp camp as part of the dark ritual and got access to orc's mine
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There I killed the archdemon in the mine and got the last sphere for the last keeper's qust
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And finally got the +20% spell power. Now I will do the merchants quest before killing every dragon and moving to ch 5.
 
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Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
14,467
Location
Frostfell
I wanted to try this, but the machine translation was just too terrible and I don't know enough Russian.

Yep. The translation sucks...

Like arrow of darkness from necromancer is translated into "boom gloom". WTF!?

--------------------------

Anyway, back to the run.

After completing the keepers quest and learning a bit from the Wakon, the keeper of water, I managed to get to 810 damage from my lightning strike, did the merchants questline from ch 3 and killed the first dragon. Also completed the sleeper's temple and yes, I've used the shapeshift trick to bypass some walls cuz I hate puzzles.

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After it, killed the remaign dragons, triggered chapter 5 and FINALLY LEARNED THE 5TH TIER SPELL WATERFIRST AND ICE WAVE



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As you can see, 1084 damage. The greatest problem of this spell is when the enemy has the upper ground. The animation of a heavy water jet hitting like a truck and splashing creating a mini rain around the target is so cool. Ice wave is amazing for CC but doesn't work in every enemy, you can't freeze dragons and archdemons for eg. However, against orcs, it is just amazing. Some screenshots of the spell bellow. Also started the investigation of the undead attacks in the city. The paladin leader send me to Pyrokar and Pyrokar send me to talk with a servant of the dark arts who knows better. Xardas leaved his tower, so I will need to talk to another necromancer and I know how to talk but will gonna do the hromanin quest later. You need to find fragments of the book for the necromancer to be able to find what is causing undead attacks.
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Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
14,467
Location
Frostfell
Now continuing.

Picked the 6 pieces of the book, delivered to the necromancer and he gave me the information that the undead attack sources are corrupted Paladins, so I talked to Pyrokar and visited the 3 tombs of 3 paladins, but the attacks din't stopped, so I slept with Nadja which is extremely important and talked to the Paladin's leader who said that there are a last tomb to visit.


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Visited the last tomb, near Khrorinis and killed him. After it, I talked to Vatraz and Saturas and started the revenge of the ancients quest.
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Next I will do the SHADOW VALLEY quest which is quite hard.
 
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Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
14,467
Location
Frostfell
Started doing the shadow valley quest now. But first, more of the revenge of the ancients questline.
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In nusthell, the same undead problem that plagued Khrorinis is now plaguing jharkendar.
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And the shadowvalley is like a dark twisted version of Khrorinis. Think in the shadowfell from D&D but in Gothic universe. So I proceeded around the shadow valley gathering ingredients for the ritual of shadows to summon a powerful dark dragon, kill him and complete the revenge and the orc questline.
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Cleared the entire upper area and proceeded to enter in a very bugged area of Returning 2.0. The necropolis.
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Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
14,467
Location
Frostfell
Progressing. Entered in the necropolis, an very hard and bugged area, mainly in the last boss with a random "water" effect. There, I proceeded clearing everything and using the shadowbeast form for the platforming parts since I'm awful at it.

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Then got all ingredients, talked to orc shaman, talked to the guys living in the shadowvalley, summoned the shadow dragon and killed him, ending such long quest.

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After it, did something extremely important. Sleep with Nadja.

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And completed the revenge of the ancients quest and finally now I can learn the 6th circle of water magic. Since the water mages teachings are a bit expensive, I talked to the Keeper of water. And now finally can cast 6th tier spells. Also brought the archmage robes from Saturas which costs 20k gold.

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