Please help me understand why I am so squishy..

Yehn

...I first started noticing this around level 50+... it got worst at 60+, really bad at 70+... and well, things still really haven't improved.

Then and now, the only answers I seem to get are along the lines of... "I did it 20 levels lowers than you and without all the stuff you're using and didn't have a problem"... which isn't really helpful...

Basically I tend to go squish really easy, sometimes even when 20 levels above what the hunting guides suggest for an area. Things I'm using:

• Health platters
• Veteran
• Turquoise
• Amethyst
• Health aura
• Mercy/Perfection/Beauty
• Forged shield
• Forged armor
• Basically all the cosmic and ritual defenses (Cloak, Draconis, etc)

...but no matter what, I just seem to squish in any sort of PvE really really easy. Everything just hits like a freight train if its even remotely close to my level...

What am I missing?

Is Trill/Institute (alone or in combination...) just really terribad for PvE combat..? Is there some game changing buff or something I'm missing..?

Allyrianne

What level are you? Where are you trying to hunt now? What percentage are you sipping at?

Also I notice you don't mention a Kingdom enchantment. Are you using a kingdom enchantment? If not, you really want to get one, as that will dramatically reduce the amount of bleeding you do.

Twytch

Institute should be very good for PvE, especially if your tert is Healing. It's possible, with the Overhaul, that some sorts of damage have become wildly more damaging, though.

CyndarinAscends

Need more information. "Hits like a freight train," is a little too vague. 

Copypaste BODYSCAN VITALS and BODYSCAN RESISTANCES

Do you use sparkle and healing scroll? What percentages do you have your healing thresholds set to?

Where are you hunting and what level are you? Are you actually dying a lot or do things just do a lot of damage? Show us a log of something that you are hunting.

Enyalida

The big thing is to be using sparkleberry and healing scroll, not necessarily to rack up health buffs/armor. For the most part, in PvE you're not really looking to soak damage, but rather to restore health. 

Twytch

Or to murder things fast enough before they murder you.

Rancoura

Twytch said:

Or to murder things fast enough before they murder you.

Regarding this, try using kirigami and that special food (forget what it's properly called... search shops for "food" at the Aetherplex and look for croissants and enchiladas along with a couple other things) that will help you get more critical hits. This will help your prey go down faster. The increased crit runes and DamageShift in Discipline will also help with this.

CyndarinAscends

Enyalida said:

The big thing is to be using sparkleberry and healing scroll, not necessarily to rack up health buffs/armor. For the most part, in PvE you're not really looking to soak damage, but rather to restore health. 

EHHHH.  No. Sparkles are not newbie/lowbie friendly cost wise. The cost/benefit of using them at low levels when gold isn't abundant is dubious. 

Either way, do both. You don't have to choose between resistance and recovery. Especially if you can buff your health vital, as all healing is percentage based. The more health you have, the more health you heal. 

Enyalida

Point being, you should hunt places where your health doesn't trend dangerously negative, this applies if you have 10k health or 2k health - the object isn't to have lots of vitals, but to get to the point where curing will outpace damage sufficiently to kill your target first. Basically what you said: More info is needed, because the number of defenses (which is what was listed) really isn't the most important consideration. 

Sparkleberry alternatives are usually an option, and by the time you're level 70 you should be able to clear the grey moors without much trouble, and that sets you up with enough gold to purchase a lot of cures. 

Falaeron

Yehn is a demigod. She should be using sparkleberries.

Steingrim

I often find it is not using scrolls of healing. the 10ish cost per use is slight enough that by midlevels you really should be using it. If cost is a problem and you can influence, influence and sell esteem to make up the difference. use a shield and if you can get beast bodyguard.

If you can be bothered with it, use sparkle alternative when you can.

Alik

There's another health buff in discipline called Endurance.

Also.. have you tried turning it off and turning it back on?

Yehn

Allyrianne said:

Also I notice you don't mention a Kingdom enchantment. Are you using a kingdom enchantment? If not, you really want to get one, as that will dramatically reduce the amount of bleeding you do.

Didn't know about Kingdom x.x I'll pick that up. Sip percentages... usually I set those somewhere around 80~88%

CyndarinAscends said:

Need more information. "Hits like a freight train," is a little too vague. 

Copypaste BODYSCAN VITALS and BODYSCAN RESISTANCES

Do you use sparkle and healing scroll? What percentages do you have your healing thresholds set to?

Where are you hunting and what level are you? Are you actually dying a lot or do things just do a lot of damage? Show us a log of something that you are hunting.

Enyalida said:

The big thing is to be using sparkleberry and healing scroll, not necessarily to rack up health buffs/armor. For the most part, in PvE you're not really looking to soak damage, but rather to restore health. 

Wasn't using sparkle, and actually dying (or running away just in the nick of time).

Easier to list the things that did work than didn't...

About the only things that worked were Arthar'rt Observatory and unlinked Astral mobs. Grey moors was OK when 70+. From about there on I pretty much just influenced, but around... 80 or 85? I tried Gorgogs and same result x.x

I'll try sparkle and stuff and come back with detailed info/logs if I'm still having trouble..

Twytch said:

Or to murder things fast enough before they murder you.

Well... if I get annihilating crits I don't have problems >.> <.<

Rancoura said:

Twytch said:

Or to murder things fast enough before they murder you.

Regarding this, try using kirigami and that special food (forget what it's properly called... search shops for "food" at the Aetherplex and look for croissants and enchiladas along with a couple other things) that will help you get more critical hits. This will help your prey go down faster. The increased crit runes and DamageShift in Discipline will also help with this.

Do food effects stack..?

Enyalida said:

Point being, you should hunt places where your health doesn't trend dangerously negative, this applies if you have 10k health or 2k health - the object isn't to have lots of vitals, but to get to the point where curing will outpace damage sufficiently to kill your target first. Basically what you said: More info is needed, because the number of defenses (which is what was listed) really isn't the most important consideration. 

Sparkleberry alternatives are usually an option, and by the time you're level 70 you should be able to clear the grey moors without much trouble, and that sets you up with enough gold to purchase a lot of cures. 

My problem is my health trends dangerously negative in places where I'm 20 levels above the suggested level to hunt... even at level 100 x.x

What are "sparkleberry alternatives"..?

Steingrim said:

I often find it is not using scrolls of healing. the 10ish cost per use is slight enough that by midlevels you really should be using it. If cost is a problem and you can influence, influence and sell esteem to make up the difference. use a shield and if you can get beast bodyguard.

If you can be bothered with it, use sparkle alternative when you can.

Cost isn't really an issue... 50gp per sparkleberry could make a bigger dent if I'll have to spam it though x.x But if there's a cheaper alternative... I should be more than fine. What are the alternatives..?

bodyguard... that's a 28% or so DPS reduction, isn't it? I've been working towards it... 28% would solve all my problems and then some. But that's really high up in beastmastery, it will be a little bit yet...

Rancoura

IIRC, the critical food works like stacked blessings (eating one will give you Level 1 Crit Blessing, eating another will give you Level 2, etc), but I'm not sure how far they go up. Level 3, maybe? Perhaps someone more familiar with it can provide some insight?

They should stack on top of kirigami, crit runes and Lucky Clover Blessings from the Wheel, though.

Rancoura

Also I would personally suggest raising your sip percentages a bit higher. I was bashing linked Astral in the mid-80's, and setting my health sipping around 90%, scroll around 70% and sparkle around 60% probably helped a lot.

Yehn

Rancoura said:

Also I would personally suggest raising your sip percentages a bit higher. I was bashing linked Astral in the mid-80's, and setting my health sipping around 90%, scroll around 70% and sparkle around 60% probably helped a lot.

Ok, I'll try those, thanks for the suggestions

Twytch said:

It's possible, with the Overhaul, that some sorts of damage have become wildly more damaging, though.

Hmm. Rawari hit me for over 3k, regular garuls for up to around 2k... does that seem overly high?

Yehn

CyndarinAscends said:

Copypaste BODYSCAN VITALS and BODYSCAN RESISTANCES

with platter & kirigami up...

Falaeron

Crit food stacks to level 5.

Do DOMOTH STATUS and check if Nature is at Crown. If it is the blessing will give that herb the effect of sparkleberry as well. Sparkleberries are expensive and I only eat them when I need to (when this is depends on what I'm doing) but I also have a RoA and bodyguard with forcefield at 10.3k max ego.

Remember that healing in general is based on max vitals so the more health buffs you can get the more effective your healing will also be.

Yehn

Falmiis said:

 I also have a RoA and bodyguard with forcefield at 10.3k max ego.

That does make me pretty jealous! What is RoA..?

Falmiis said:

Remember that healing in general is based on max vitals so the more health buffs you can get the more effective your healing will also be.

Are there any other health buffs I am overlooking? It would be really nice to break above the 6k health range...

Tarkenton

RoA = Rune of Absorption. 500 credits iirc, pretty good chance of blocking a physical attack. Though affs that accompany it still go through.

As for health, need a BODYSCAN VITALS FULL.

Buffs you should consider: fruit pizzazz (+ health), argleblaster (+damage buff/resist), life karma blessing, throne of Urclach/Tosha monastery.

Yarith

Your resistances are fine. You seem to be missing your cloud from the construct which is an extra 1 universal but your page looks just like mine, argle aside.

Lerad

There're probably one or two more universal resistances you can get. If you have the ability to trans environment for attunement, that's great for bashing.

There're also a few health buffs out there that can give you a leg up. All of these things are small and incremental, but they stack up.

Get a beast if you can, for beast bodyguard. It is a cheaper credit investment than ROA, and is actually more effective (blocks non physical attacks at times too). You can then also teach it to heal health to add to your survivability, and teach it aggressive to break shields too.

Aeldra

@Yehn remember that you are a healer. That means:
- put aura's up equivalent to your your enemies. If you e. g. fight gorgogs, make sure to 'mmkeep temperature'.
- remember you can 'heal me' at any time to exchange ego for health (make sure you have 'radiate vitality' or don't push your ego below zero.)
- Actually, I feel like your resistances are preeetty low. same with your health buffs.
- I suggest  getting health platters at least. A throne for the ego buff to set off your ego buffer for healing yourself.
- get blunt/cutting resistance tattoos if you don't have them. They may help a little.
- resilience helps a little too (though probably not worth it)
- I would actually regularly get life karma blessing for bashing too.

probably is more things  Ican't tell from work right now.

Yehn

Yarith said:

You seem to be missing your cloud from the construct which is an extra 1 universal.

Can you explain this a bit more..?

Lerad said:

There're probably one or two more universal resistances you can get. If you have the ability to trans environment for attunement, that's great for bashing.

There're also a few health buffs out there that can give you a leg up. All of these things are small and incremental, but they stack up.

Get a beast if you can, for beast bodyguard. It is a cheaper credit investment than ROA, and is actually more effective (blocks non physical attacks at times too). You can then also teach it to heal health to add to your survivability, and teach it aggressive to break shields too.

I'm working on training up a beast... If next month brings a dingbat/goop promotion, maybe I'll see if I can knock out that and a nose at once... Bodyguard really does seem like it would be huge... Trans environment is probably going to be pretty far off, though, and I can't throw around 10p buffs too casually...

Argleblasters and pizzazz seem to be the two easy to get ones, though between those and sparkleberries any hunting venture's going to be pretty costly (but that's probably OK since I don't do it very often...). Life will be easy. Quests... a bit time consuming, maybe...

Falaeron

Do CITY CONSTRUCTS to see what constructs we have built. Cloud of Contemplation is one of the buffs we can get which gives 1/7 universal resist, among other things. Ask on CT to see if there is anyone who can take you there. People with bubblixes and protectors/security can get there fairly easily.

You can also buy really cheap blessings in the form of candies. I'm not exactly sure which vital each candy buffs since I never use them but that's something you can consider too.

Rancoura

Also, for further health buff, if you are in an Order with a Godrealm you might be able to influence the denizens in the Godrealm for blessings (at least, that's what Nocht's do... alternating health/mana/ego blessing for every 5 or so denizens influenced).

CyndarinAscends

Your resistances seem really, really low. I think this is your biggest problem. 

So short term goals are cheap and easily maintained buffs. 

Health:

Con platters (from the aetherplex)

Life karma blessing (if you bash a lot, it's super easy to maintain)

Healing scroll with a cube 

Resistances:

Full set of resistance tattoos (You can't get every damage type so focus on prominent ones. Blunt, cutting, fire, frost, etc. You can skip ones like divinus/excoro unless you pvp. Skip asphyxiation. )

Fire, frost, and galvanism potions.

Amberbeer (Doesn't last long but it's cheap and universal. Get your alcohol resistance up before you use this!)

City construct item (universal resistance)

Long term goals:

Attune

Beast bodyguard

RoA

Trans skills

Don't worry about argle/fruitpizzazz/whaever. Those things are expensive as hell.  

I also don't suggest Rancoura's thresholds. Sipping at 90% wastes a lot of the sip. I use healing scroll at around 90% to keep me topped off, with, I don't sip until 70 or so. For you, 80 to 85 is perfect. 

Do you use m&m? If so, you can do DEF and it'll show you every defense available which is a nice way to make sure you are maximizing your class skills. I'm not sure what all the institute class specific defenses are otherwise I'd help you there. 

Rancoura

Hmm. Comparing potion refill to cube recharge prices, using healing scroll instead of healing potion works out to be more expensive, no?

Or by wasting sips do you mean wasting sip balance because scrolls heal less than potion?

CyndarinAscends

I mean that a sip recovers more than 10% of your health, so if you are trying to optimize your survivability, you want your sip to always heal for its full value. So if you are sipping at 90%, you are wasting part of that sip. 

Not a big deal for PVE if you can survive what you are bashing, but in terms of optimizing your healing, pvp, and finding ways to increase your survivability in general, it'll help. 

Edit: It's everyone's natural inclination to stay topped off, all the time, but it's not necessary. You can sustain better (and survive bursts better) if you let your curatives do their full value while allowing regen to keep you topped off. For reference, I don't usually sip until 75-80% depending on the vital. 

Tarkenton

60-70% is my magic number for sipping in pvp mode. Sparkles at 75 usually, scrolls at 80-85. In pve, I'll pop health sips to 80% or so.

Rancoura

CyndarinAscends said:

I mean that a sip recovers more than 10% of your health, so if you are trying to optimize your survivability, you want your sip to always heal for its full value. So if you are sipping at 90%, you are wasting part of that sip. 

Not a big deal for PVE if you can survive what you are bashing, but in terms of optimizing your healing, pvp, and finding ways to increase your survivability in general, it'll help. 

Edit: It's everyone's natural inclination to stay topped off, all the time, but it's not necessary. You can sustain better (and survive bursts better) if you let your curatives do their full value while allowing regen to keep you topped off. For reference, I don't usually sip until 75-80% depending on the vital. 

Well, I myself learned something today! Thanks, Cynd. And hope this helps, Yehn.