Sustain when solo

negusanegast

What do you use in place of life steal to sustain yourself besides potions? If you can’t tell I’m a returning player struggling alittle lol

plasticbat

Insignia bonus, lifedrinker, bloodtheft, ...

sandukutupu

negusanegast said:

What do you use in place of life steal to sustain yourself besides potions? If you can’t tell I’m a returning player struggling alittle lol

I don't have a clue what level your character is currently?
High Level with Tons of Health
Before they added the Radiant Health Potions many of my characters carried Stones of Health. These come in two flavors; green pack has 50 uses and the blue pack has 200 uses. Each use instantly heals you to full health. Back when I used these, I waited until my health was below 25% so they were not wasted. These are expensive no matter how you come by them, Zen store, Auction House, and I think the Trade Bar store. The blue pack of 200, Greater Stone of Health is only sold in the Zen store and resold by players in the Auction House.
Lower Level with Less Health
Elixir of Life drops from event based drops or boxes like Gift of the Gods, these are cheap in the AH while events are ongoing. Potion of Rejuvenation heals on the fly, you are suppose to drink it, then jump into combat. Also you can find Iceforge Healing Elixir in the AH. There is a whole list of potions on the wiki.

Boon points earned from campaigns, can be spent to increase the effectiveness of potions by +15% max., increased health +20,000 max., or incoming healing +4% max..

If this seems like too much information for a returning player, I like to cover the topic as much as possible for others.

nic1985

@negusanegast Do let us know which class/path you play.

Capping your Defense (at least 68K) will be useful and what other suggested above. Knows that mobs/boss can crit on you and combat A. when they surround you. So dodge and/or adjust your positioning when possible. Also watch your buffs bar for debuffs/poison attacks, timed the use of your potions when most needed, rather than spamming it.

It is also good to “run away”, I noticed sometime attacking one group of mobs can agro surrounding groups, best to abandon those fights when you know it is too much.

plasticbat

I don't slot health stone. I rely on the insignia bonus and VIP health potion which has 18 sec cool down. Since I play 6 characters in rotation, VIP health potion (being added daily) is more than enough for me. For my DPS toons, big AOE attack means more insignia trigger heal. For my weaker toons, I need to play smart and use the environment if I have to. For example, if I am attacked by a mob which consists of melee and range, I may go behind a wall to fight the melee so that the ranged enemy could not hit me and stay long enough for the health potion cool down to drink another one. Take advantage of combat advantage whenever it is available.

sandukutupu

@plasticbat I also use a lot of terrain advantages. Earlier on when Ravenloft was new, I would climb up on the ruins and shoot down at the undead. This only works for ranged classes, as @nic1985 stated it would be nice to know what class you are playing to best advise you.

negusanegast

I apologize I’m working my way up to lvl 80 in the under mountain as a barbarian

plasticbat

negusanegast said:

I apologize I’m working my way up to lvl 80 in the under mountain as a barbarian

Personally, I consider Barbarian is the easiest. Make sure you have enough ArmPen, Accuracy, Crit. For undermountain, you don't need more than 68K of them. Get some insignia bonus that does heal. When my barbarian was in undermountain, he was about 19K. I don't think he needed to drink health potion in solo content and he was wearing the nerf'ed eLoL set.

sandukutupu

negusanegast said:

I apologize I’m working my way up to lvl 80 in the under mountain as a barbarian

Off Topic: Be sure you grab all 9 relics in those expeditions or they don't give you an epic reward item.

You shouldn't have too much of an issue with barbarian class, my girl Hladgerd Lothbrok, plows through most obstacles. Good companions help, although most are not working at 100%. Lothbrok has the honey badger at rank 40, with 3 rank 9 bonding runestones. I have found the Zhentarim Warlock to be good too. The only issue is getting her ranked up from blue to orange. Good news is, once you hit level 80, you will get free companion tokens from Sybella's weekly quests. No need to spend all that AD on them. The warlock is still an affordable companion in the AH. Many people are recommending augments, but they are no good for meat shields.

Let's talk about gear. A while ago, I got all my characters Seal of the Crown armor from Barovia, item level 770. Yes that was top of the line back on module 14. She still has the "Bladelord's Raid Helm" from that area. I bought her the player made "Cobalt Brigadine of the Warrior +1" and "Cobalt Sabatons of the Warrior +1" from the AH. During the Undermountain I picked up some items in Master Expeditions; "Quark's Rock Gauntlets" and "Prized Sword Knot of the Cult". She still has the "Undermountain Greatsword" given by Lord Neverember.

Her current artifact set is "Electric Collar", "Chained Restraints", and "Trobriand's Ring" these are no longer cheap to buy in the AH. They are a very nice set, if you have the AD to spend.

She is item level 18K if that means anything anymore. I won't go into builds, since module 16 made all that too generic.

rikitaki

For dps barbarian path:
1) Make sure you have insignia bonus: Barbarian revelry.
2) Slot in encounter power Bloodletter while not reversing its healing ability through feat. (that masochistic bonus damage is suitable for dungeons, not for running solo)
3) Bloodheft armour enchantment works always fine (higher ranks don't add anything useful to the base ability)
4) don't stay in red zones
5) kill things fast
6) as you have 3 defensive slots for companions, consider putting there +incoming healing (you will hardly find anything more appropriate for your survival)

zimxero

1) get your Defense to 80,000 or 50%.
2) get your health as high as you can. (for DPS this might be under 300,000 in order to keep 10/15 percent procs working)
3) Use Barkshield armor enchantment
4) Use Barbarians Revelry and Survivors Blessing Insignia bonsus (heals on crit and deflect)
5) Avoid obvious dangerous situations
6) Use a Healing Stone

This alone, will take care of your healing needs most of the time. Additional tactics, when needed:
1) kite/dodge
2) other healing perks, effects, items
3) draw less aggro
4) bring your deflect up
5) last resort... bring a healing companion