Getting One-shot too much

ebriel127 · November 2017

Hey all. I have a kinda fresh 70 DC with item level 10040. I work fine in groups, heroics and epic dungeons (haven’t tried any masters even though I can do all up through Castle Never). But outside a group setting I notice I am getting one-shot by enemies a lot in zones like Wells or IWD. Like I’m stuck on the Cult Prison quest in Wells because the mini-boss is one shoting me with his normal attack. I’m thinking I have probably prioritized my gear wrong, so I’m looking for advice on what to swap around.

My stats are:
Power 16,673
Crit 3,650
AP 1,253
Recovery 5,150
AP gain. 100
Comb Adv 0
Control bonus 50
Defense 6,831
Deflect 1,701
Regen 715
Lf Steal 3,412
LS serv 100
Stam gain 150
Inc heal bonus 506
AoE resist 0
Control resist 0
Movement 1,562

Where did I screw up?

ebriel127 · November 2017

Plus a companion with one lesser bonding and 2,537 power, 527 crit, 973 arm pen, 549 recovery, 110 defense, 264 regen, and 55 life steal & deflect

pitshade · November 2017

It would be most helpful to know how many HP you have and also what type of armor and weapons. Even so, the Cult Prison warden is ridiculously overpowered and not appropriate for fresh level 70's although tanks might manage. This is even factoring in that level 73 mobs take less damage from your attacks (25% less) by virtue of their level. If you are trying to unlock WoD, it helps to try and group up for that.

greywynd · November 2017

Seriously, group for WoD if you're fresh.

ebriel127 · November 2017

Hit points are 89,991 AC is 22. Sorry, forgot those were in another column.

ebriel127 · November 2017

Gear:
Helm. The blackthorn w r9 fey blessing, reinforced +25 power
Armor. Drowcraft surcoat w r7 Azure & Shadowclad
Arm. Company Resto w r7 dark
Main. Burning symbol (still green) w r7 radiant
Off. Elemental fire icon (blue) w r7 silvery
Feet. Leagues resto w r7 dark
Neck. Cloak of emissary of never winter w r7 draconic
Ring of rising power +4 w r7 radiant and cruel
Ostorian ring of hellig w r7 radiant and black ice
Waist. Greater twined rope of dex (blue) w r7 dark
Clothes are both drowcraft w r7 cruel

clericalist · November 2017

That boss in the cult prison is a bit of a nasty solo boss, so it is not unusual to ask for backup for that one. Your stats specifically don't scream out any big warning signs, however I think your life steal is too high and your armour penetration is way too low, you are losing too much damage to their damage resistance, and as a cleric you have lot of healing powers at your disposal so life steal should not be a priority.

I have not done the cult prison with DC with such stats for a while now, but I am putting my head on the block and am going to say that those stats should be enough to do it solo, so I hope the advise I give here is useful... The problem for that boss is not the boss specifically but the mob, so I would go in with sunburst and chains for the crowd control to buy you time with the mob and try save your precious shifts as much as possible for the boss, you can also try slot in prophetic action to increase your odds of surviving the big hits, you might also want to save your dailies as clutches instead of using them as damage boosters, so slot in divine armour or guardian of faith and use them when they are needed. Another approach is to go in with either virtuous or faithful (virtuous might be a bit better for pve) and try tank it with bastion of health and maybe even astral shield, it might be slower but this could be possible way to do it. If it still doesn't work then there is no shame in looking for parties for that one, think of it as an incentive to boost your stats and one day do it solo.

I also need to mention that for my DC the need to change between party and solo play (and for different types of parties and solos), has me slotting in more encounters and features than the rest of my alts, so if you ever want to spend zen then a good investment for your DC is buying power points or another loadout.

ebriel127 · November 2017

I hadn’t really been prioritizing life steal, I think it got to be that high just by accident. I had been prioritizing Power, Recovery, Crit, and Defense (in that order). Thanks for the insight on Armor Pen. I had thought my attacks were bouncing off due to insufficient Power. I just didn’t take armor pen into account.
Thank you all for the feedback. I appreciate the comments, especially learning that the Prison warden is hard for a lot of people at first. I made it to level 70 by soloing the content so it is a little different mindset to need to get help on end game stuff.

kangkeok · November 2017

barkshield helps too even if its lesser.

pitshade · November 2017

Those HP are kind of low for dealing with that boss. Have you tried using Astral Shield? The extra Damage Reduction really helps. Without enough HP to survive a hit or two, grouping up is still probably your best option though.

armadeonx · November 2017

If you're having trouble in the prison you can run an AC build which is more defensive - spam Annointed Army and put Astral Shield on the floor and use Annointed Armor and Annointed Action as your class features - you'll do less damage but you'll also take a lot less.

Use Break The Spirit and Divine Glow as your other encounters and you'll damage the boss at the same time as reducing his damage output and healing yourself.

Use BoB and Lance of Faith as your At Wills.

armadeonx · November 2017

Also, if you find that you are now super-defensive after this (taking very little damage) you can swap out Astral Shield for either Chains or Daunting Light to speed things up.

armadeonx · November 2017

Oh and increase your Stamina gain - you want it as high as you can reasonably get it - as a DC you should be used to constant dodging.

drsmilingdog · November 2017

What type of companion do you have active? You might want to try a defender type to pull some of the aggro off of you.They can be quite helpful for a DC tryin to solo at lower IL...:)

ebriel127 · November 2017

At the moment a lvl 35 cockatrice with a lesser bonding in one of the offensive slots. Eldritch r6 in the defensive and Empowered r6 in the other offensive. It is a Controller. It is my only Epic companion.
I also have a rare phase spider, were rat thief, and dwarves battlerager all strikers; uncommon goat (augment), minstrel (leader), and Renegade illusionist (control); and all the common ones you can buy with gold.
I can look in the auctions for a better defender then a common shield maiden though.

ebriel127 · November 2017

I’ll see what I can do with stamina gain. The glass-cannon partially comes from running a Drow where Con is my lowest stat and while I got a Dex bonus I never put points in it so it kinda sucks too. Blame me going with the fluffy choice of a drow priestess to remind me of one of my favorite characters from Baldurs Gate. Still upset I couldn’t pick Lolth or at least Shar as my patron deity...
Now that I am taking the game more seriously I am saving up AD to convert to Zen and buy the Dragonborn pack. Sadly I was far too short during the sale last week.

pitshade · November 2017

Actually, you get far more HP from gear relative to CON. Upgrading the Drowcraft IL 405 chestpiece with something better would do a lot. Using a Radiant for its Defense slot will help more than an Azure until and unless you get damage reduction much higher.

Racial choice is useful for min maxing but won't hurt you much in the long run. The racial debuff ability is actually rather useful at endgame.

Young Yeti and Frost Mimic are 2 cheaper defender pets, but it is better overall not to rely on them. Unless you get them to epic, they will pull aggro and then die, buying you a couple of seconds at best.

Also, you will need to swap them out in group play or risk causing wipes. My main DC uses a cockatrice and it works fine, though its big selling point is being amusing.

ebriel127 · November 2017

Hmm... I guess I never saw radiant as anything but a power buff. Is it worth getting my deflect up? Not getting hit seems like a better option than just soaking the damage. Or is that a case where I’ll pour a ton of effort into increasing it only for a minimal gain?
Also I have 25 in artificing, 21 in mailcraft, and 18 in jewelcraft so if there is anything I should be building let me know.

pitshade · November 2017

Radiants give HP in defense slots and HP are the best defense for anyone who isn't capable of having high Damage Resistance. As a cleric, you can eventually take advantge of Defense (moreso than a squishy class like Control Wizard) but until you get a lot better gear, stacking Hit Points will save you from getting one shot far better than stacking Defense. HP always helps but Defense only starts to really work after you reach a certain threshold. Better to practice dodging and stacking self healing. But you will occasionally get hit and you need to not die when that happens.

Deflect isnt terribly good for most classes in PVE and clerics don't benefit from it very much at all.

Hit points are always good especially at lower levels of gear.

Defense starts being useful later on. 35% it is ok. 50% you can start getting feeling secure. More than that and you only have to worry about the big hits.

Lifesteal is great but not until you get 10% chance and then mostly for dps and solo builds.

ebriel127 · November 2017

Pit shade, thank you for the explanation. I’ve been looking for a breakdown of the stats for a while now and hadn’t found anything as useful as that one. You are a godsend.

ebriel127 · November 2017

I figured out why my lifesteal was so high, I had my guild boons set wrong. I moved that one to defense instead so now def is around 10.5k and life steal about 1700. I also did the same swap for armor pen over power. I am having a much easier time now. Power went down a lot but damage has over doubled, so thank you all for pointing that out.
I have a group load out and that one will still have power in order to boost the DC power share.

mebengalsfan · December 2017

Good to see you are a DC and not some DPS.

Having played a DC prior to the adjustments I can tell you what to do.

First makes sure you are a DO as you only have one lesser bonding. The DO side of a DC will give you a 20% boost in your damage if you invest four points into Terrifying insight.

Second, your encounters should be Divine Glow, Blazing Chains, and Daunting Light.

When you use your empowered use it on Daunting Light.

Third, do not go into WoD, IWD, STK, Chult, or RD until you cleared all other zones and have 3 bonding at least R9 on your DC.

Forth, if you do not have one of the newer weapons yet pick up the Chult ones from the AH as they can be had for under 60K AD.

Fifth, gear. If you gear stink get the League gear in the AH as it is also fairly cheap and IL 420.

Sixth, for your summoned companions you need one that will help you buff your group such as a Sell Sword, Rebel Merc or Con Artist as your summoned companion. From there, companions that could help your damage such as the Owlbear Cub, Air Archon, Siege Master, etc...One I recommend as DC do use dailies a lot is Lillend as she provides a heal to the group on using a daily.

Seventh, mount insignia and insignia bonus will help you improve your character ability to survive or do more damage. I recommend Shepard Devotion, Artificer Persuasion, Magistrate Patience, Gladiator Guile, Assassin Covenant, or Wanderer Fortune (any 5 of these will do)

Eight, get your artifact gear and artifacts at minimum to epic before venturing into WoD, Chult, STK, or RD - it will make your life easier

Enchantments - since you are a DC all offensive slots should be POWER and defensive I recommend one enchantment that offers HP and two other defensive stats, though I run silvery myself and like the higher deflection rate over higher defense.

This will get you going in the right direction. Hope this helps.

enicegeo · December 2017

And now for something completely different. It's been awhile since my cleric was struggling through WoD and IWD.
When soloing as a cleric you can face tank most PVE enemies, dodging only when necessary.

As mentioned by others put radiants in your defense slots. Get three bonding runestones for your companion. Put defense on any defense slots your companion may have so the bonding will transfer that to you. HP from companions do not transfer unless they're augments.

To take on enemies, it depends on if they're they kind that mob you or the mobile ones, like those bear riders in IWD. You'll need different play style and encounters for mobile types versus mobs. Mobile enemies generally means you have to switch your attacks to anything with DoT and having to do some dodging. For regular mobs you can just face tank and wear them down through attrition.

For mobs just cast Astral Shield down, spam Chains, and drop Divine Glow on yourself. If you still need more than just switch Chains for Sunburst. Use Flaming Strike for AoE attack, but it is also useful to use as an interrupt move on enemies that have a charge move, such as those WoD cultists that grow in size.

For armor enchantment use Thunderhead. The stun effect is useful in giving you some breathing time.

For summoned companion there are three helpful ones to use for soloing while low level:

1. Barbarian Shaman will give you a 25% Temp HP, which buys you time to heal up and to eat damage.

2. Ghost for possessing enemies, which means one less minion to deal with. However she isn't very bright about on who or when to use that ability and can wind up using it on minions that are near death while ignoring another full health one. You also don't want to use her for any quests that require enemy drops or X number of enemies killed as her possessed one won't count and they don't drop anything after she's done with them.

3. Shadow Demon but you may need to upgrade it so the attack it does is stronger. It is a helpful dps pet for soloing.

ebriel127 · December 2017

I appreciate the help, everyone. I’m working on getting my gear up in level. I’m at 10,200 now but still have a ways to go. I’ve been doing a lot of dungeons; salvaging most of it, auctioning some. So far I’ve bought the Tiamat set and got them each up to blue. Same with the Chult weapons.
I’ve got an epic DC Sigil but I’m looking for two more artifacts to round it out. My alt is a SW but that sigil doesn’t seem that helpful long term. Currently I have the free shopkeeper one and the helm from one of the campaigns. I think I’m going to save up for a Thayan Book and then we’ll see.
I got the bloodlord helm from Castle Never and but haven’t updated the rest of the armor. Rings are now rising power +4 and sudden deflect +4. Each w R7 radiant in the offense and defense slots.
I’m fairly certain I’ve been wasting AD upgrading my enchants, most are of the ones I have were progressed up from ~3 to 7s. Instead of spending any more AD on refinement plus upgrade mats plus green wards, I’m just going to wait until I can afford R10s.
Mount bonuses are as MeBengalsFan said (WHODEY! btw). I don’t have the Fortune one but I have the other five.
I didn’t know what I was doing during the last 2x refinement period but I’m saving R5+s along with any green+ refinement stones for the next. With R9 fey blessings I get a fair bit of R5s and just made a dragon hoard from the campaigns so that will hopefully add to the count as well.

That’s the update so far. I burn through a lot of exalted potions but at least I’m not getting one shot as much. I survived all the way to the end of Lostmauth for the first time, though I think that was me getting better at avoiding lava than my build. And I’m usually top heals on Epic Demo with my AC/DC loadout. Castle Never success varies, sometimes the group just can’t hit hard enough to finish Orcus. And sometimes someone aggros all the zombies and demons in the run up and the party keeps wiping just outside his door.

mebengalsfan · December 2017

If you are running a buffing AC/DC you will want two of the following artifacts.

Sigil of the Hunter, Symbol of Air, and Symbol of Fire

These all provide power and recovery which helps with spamming your dailies and building up power for power sharing.

Get the Rings of Helig for Power and Recovery as well.

If you are running AC/DC there is a personal called Anointed Armor. It raises your AC and Deflection chance. You can use that when soloing but when you run group content swap it out for another personal that will boost your stats.

If you are running a DO I would go with the following Artifacts.

Sigil of the Controller, Tiamat Orb, Heart of the Blackdragon (main), Symbol of Fire. Rings should be Dod if you want to add more crit but still get power for the power of light feat.

The personal Forsight on the DO side can help you survive some of those harder hits as well.

One more thing, run eToS for the Silk Spinneret as it has 1.4K recovery and power and when using chains of blaze it can heal you for a small % of your HP and that can help you out when soloing content.

ebriel127 · December 2017

Thanks. Castle Never pops a ton for me but none of the “Epic” ones have queued for me yet. That and the Kessel Run, which is a quick way to get some salvage material.

mebengalsfan · December 2017

Once you have bonding, your companion offensive gear should have Silvery Enchantments equipped for the higher recovery it will offer you.

lordnagy · December 2017

> @mebengalsfan#9264 said:
> Once you have bonding, your companion offensive gear should have Silvery Enchantments equipped for the higher recovery it will offer you.
>
>

Not always, depends on the build. PowerShare AC, I throw Radiants or Demonics/Brutals in comp offensive slots.

DO loadout, definitely Brutals/Demonics

kalina311 · December 2017

1. try drinking combining a few cheap stat potions or food buffs as well
2 . have you tried adding zen ? it should also help with the one shots : D

mebengalsfan · December 2017

lordnagy#1603 said:
> @mebengalsfan#9264 said:

> Once you have bonding, your companion offensive gear should have Silvery Enchantments equipped for the higher recovery it will offer you.

>

>

Not always, depends on the build. PowerShare AC, I throw Radiants or Demonics/Brutals in comp offensive slots.

DO loadout, definitely Brutals/Demonics

You know your companion stat do not share with others. No point in having more Power as it will not share. I go for recovery on my companion for more AP gain towards spamming my dailies and to lower my cooldowns even on my DO build.

The only exception is if my DO build was setup for 100% DPS than I would go with brutals or another enchantment to ensure I have enough RI, and crit chance of 100% to boost my DPS. I realize that I'm a DC and that my character is not there to be top DD. I'm there to buff the group up so they can do more damage, even if I play as a DO I run the same enchantments on my companions. I run DO typically when no DPS has bonding R9 or higher. If one or more of the DPS has R9 I will run my AC build.

Getting One-shot too much

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