Extremely Squishy - Armour Recommendations?

[Tom Diepstraten]

I'm currently starting to explore the first biome past the wall, Azeos' Wilderness, but all game it has felt like I'm extremely squishy, barely surviving conflicts with multiple enemies in the clay and stone biomes as well. I've mostly been using minion/magic armour to supplement my two attack types, currently wearing chieftan armour, but you just get obliterated by a thrown spear or a little sicko with a gun and a bush hat while your minions ineffectually try to kill the threat. Shotgunning health potions isn't very fun, so I was wondering if I'm doing something wrong with my matching the armour bonuses to the damage type I'm dealing. Would it be better just to get decked out in full scarlet armour and have only one minion?

[Terran]

Originally posted by Tom Diepstraten:

I'm currently starting to explore the first biome past the wall, Azeos' Wilderness, but all game it has felt like I'm extremely squishy, barely surviving conflicts with multiple enemies in the clay and stone biomes as well. I've mostly been using minion/magic armour to supplement my two attack types, currently wearing chieftan armour, but you just get obliterated by a thrown spear or a little sicko with a gun and a bush hat while your minions ineffectually try to kill the threat. Shotgunning health potions isn't very fun, so I was wondering if I'm doing something wrong with my matching the armour bonuses to the damage type I'm dealing. Would it be better just to get decked out in full scarlet armour and have only one minion?

Summoner seems to be sort of useless as a class. I'm having similar issues, but I'm in the level 3 witch doctor gear at the same stage (Really unlucky with drops for gear and I don't know where half of it shows up) and on Hard Mode I get one shot by every enemy. I'm still persisting, but, its rough.

Sorry for the unhelpful reply, I'm just suffering too haha.

[NorionV]

Are you playing hard mode? On standard, I'm walking Azeos' Wilderness right now and having little issues as a summoner/caster.

Make sure you're making use of the large range of food buffs. Stuff helps a ton.

[Tom Diepstraten]

I think I'm playing hard mode. The things are stronger one, not the die forever one

[NorionV]

Originally posted by Tom Diepstraten:

I think I'm playing hard mode. The things are stronger one, not the die forever one

Hard mode doubles enemy damage and increases their health by 50%. You're supposed to feel squishy on Hard Mode because the idea is to be getting hit less and being more methodical about your progression.

[Tom Diepstraten]

Cool, good to know, so long as I'm not missing anything I should be doing. Thanks!

[AshaMarie]

If you are using summoner/mage armor, you going to need to get your armor from other sources as soon as possible. The necklace and 2 ring slots can be used to add much needed armor stat, and leveling up the crafting skill will help multiply this armor value further so getting it to 100 by crafting bunch of cheaper stuff for the 50% boost. Getting Running high level so you can get Breaking Barriers for more armor from your moving speed. Food with carrock if I spelled right can also add bit of armor value, which can be multiplied by the boost from leveling crafting or other sources that mentions +% armor. That and healing whenever you get hit, but trying to avoid being hit in first place. I know it can be rough. Lot of people say that summoning is bad, but don't realize that the magic passive tree is the key to awakening your minions full power as well. I'm still building up my magic/summon points at the moment though. I let my bats spam attacks on the armored mushrooms because each attack only does 1 damage to it but that is best way to get summon leveled up that I know of. Long as it doesn't try to dash at me, it will keep its armor. I can throw magic shots at it as well to level up my magic tree as well. It helps if the armored mushroom can't reach me cause of water. Getting these 2 trees to cap is important to getting that beefy magic barrier from tough gang and having large barrier for huge magic damage boost for yourself and to boost minion damage with the best offense and trickle down arcana.

[Ishimuro]

the only thing that helped me at hardmode, is movement speed, dodge and stuff that slows enemys nearby down, maybe some summoner parts could help too as support as each minion adds 75 barrier with the right skilltree iirc

[AshaMarie]

I haven't considered an evasion build, but yes, it would still need lot of health and barrier to deal with those moments you fail to evade then.

[glass zebra]

Grab the barrier skill from the summoning tree atm. With 2 pieces of chieftan + the witch doctor hat you can have 5 minions out and the talent will then grant you 375 barrier. Since you are also playing mage, you can combo that with the 50% barrier to flat damage in the mage tree and also do incredible DPS while the barrier lasts. That combo is pretty OP right now if you have a fast attacking mage weapon.

You best defense is not getting hit though and mage + minions are the best combo for that. You can stay on range with your weapon and if you hit the enemy even once with that, minions will keep firing at them for a while, even if they are offscreen of out of the range where they would even still try to attack you. Off-hands can help a lot too. If you have a wooden shield, you can hunker down behind that on against ranged attackers or dash away with the Swift feather from copper chests and creates or the later the Rift Lens,

Minions also have the capabilities to shoot down most enemy projectiles with their own. If you run away from enemies (even in a straight line), the bats will often position themselves between you and them and often act like a wall if they are not overwhelmed. Chieftain pants for the attack speed + the bonus summon cap helps a ton with that.

Your best defense with that build is still to always keep moving. Enemies are basically incapable of hitting you and enough range if you move sideways. They do not have movement prediction at all.

[NorionV]

Originally posted by glass zebra:

Grab the barrier skill from the summoning tree atm. With 2 pieces of chieftan + the witch doctor hat you can have 5 minions out and the talent will then grant you 375 barrier. Since you are also playing mage, you can combo that with the 50% barrier to flat damage in the mage tree and also do incredible DPS while the barrier lasts. That combo is pretty OP right now if you have a fast attacking mage weapon.

You best defense is not getting hit though and mage + minions are the best combo for that. You can stay on range with your weapon and if you hit the enemy even once with that, minions will keep firing at them for a while, even if they are offscreen of out of the range where they would even still try to attack you. Off-hands can help a lot too. If you have a wooden shield, you can hunker down behind that on against ranged attackers or dash away with the Swift feather from copper chests and creates or the later the Rift Lens,

Minions also have the capabilities to shoot down most enemy projectiles with their own. If you run away from enemies (even in a straight line), the bats will often position themselves between you and them and often act like a wall if they are not overwhelmed. Chieftain pants for the attack speed + the bonus summon cap helps a ton with that.

Your best defense with that build is still to always keep moving. Enemies are basically incapable of hitting you and enough range if you move sideways. They do not have movement prediction at all.

Enemies do actually lead shots now. I've had it happen with spear throwers, caveling shamans, and even Malugaz was doing it. The crossbows are harder to gauge cuz their shots are so fast, so I typically just ensure I'm behind something when they telegraph.

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by NorionV:

Enemies do actually lead shots now. I've had it happen with spear throwers, caveling shamans, and even Malugaz was doing it. The crossbows are harder to gauge cuz their shots are so fast, so I typically just ensure I'm behind something when they telegraph.

I've only played the game since 1.0, so I only know this patch and the one after and started with summoning and mage build. The caveling spears got constantly shot down by my 5 bats. It is still too much to just stand there (especially on shorter range), but the amount of shots they took for me is really good. The bush snipers are a bit trickier though, but the bubble one sin the next biome even easier (including the optional boss).

It is not a 100% protection against all projectiles in the game, but it can be helpful against many still. The best action is still to just not be in the path of the projectile. Either run sideways or as you said: hide behind something. Minions will often stay out of cover and keep shooting at the enemies too. Their DPS is low, but even on hard they can kill things on their own before it rushes your cover.

I Malugaz projectiles and fireballs in general might be immune to being shot down. Not sure about the lead shots, but not all projectiles can be destroyed. Caveling spears and bubbles definitely can be (and especially with the bubbles minions are a blessing). The 3rd minion type is imo pretty much designed as a shield.

[NorionV]

Originally posted by glass zebra:

Originally posted by NorionV:

Enemies do actually lead shots now. I've had it happen with spear throwers, caveling shamans, and even Malugaz was doing it. The crossbows are harder to gauge cuz their shots are so fast, so I typically just ensure I'm behind something when they telegraph.

I've only played the game since 1.0, so I only know this patch and the one after and started with summoning and mage build. The caveling spears got constantly shot down by my 5 bats. It is still too much to just stand there (especially on shorter range), but the amount of shots they took for me is really good. The bush snipers are a bit trickier though, but the bubble one sin the next biome even easier (including the optional boss).

It is not a 100% protection against all projectiles in the game, but it can be helpful against many still. The best action is still to just not be in the path of the projectile. Either run sideways or as you said: hide behind something. Minions will often stay out of cover and keep shooting at the enemies too. Their DPS is low, but even on hard they can kill things on their own before it rushes your cover.

I Malugaz projectiles and fireballs in general might be immune to being shot down. Not sure about the lead shots, but not all projectiles can be destroyed. Caveling spears and bubbles definitely can be (and especially with the bubbles minions are a blessing). The 3rd minion type is imo pretty much designed as a shield.

I'm not talking about the bat chaff strategy. I mean that if you're running sideways, the enemies seem to try and predict your movement about half the time. Or there might be a range condition or something else. It doesn't always happen, but ranged enemies definitely try to lead my movements sometimes when they attack me.

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by NorionV:

Originally posted by glass zebra:

I've only played the game since 1.0, so I only know this patch and the one after and started with summoning and mage build. The caveling spears got constantly shot down by my 5 bats. It is still too much to just stand there (especially on shorter range), but the amount of shots they took for me is really good. The bush snipers are a bit trickier though, but the bubble one sin the next biome even easier (including the optional boss).

It is not a 100% protection against all projectiles in the game, but it can be helpful against many still. The best action is still to just not be in the path of the projectile. Either run sideways or as you said: hide behind something. Minions will often stay out of cover and keep shooting at the enemies too. Their DPS is low, but even on hard they can kill things on their own before it rushes your cover.

I Malugaz projectiles and fireballs in general might be immune to being shot down. Not sure about the lead shots, but not all projectiles can be destroyed. Caveling spears and bubbles definitely can be (and especially with the bubbles minions are a blessing). The 3rd minion type is imo pretty much designed as a shield.

I'm not talking about the bat chaff strategy. I mean that if you're running sideways, the enemies seem to try and predict your movement about half the time. Or there might be a range condition or something else. It doesn't always happen, but ranged enemies definitely try to lead my movements sometimes when they attack me.

Ah "enemies do lead shots" not not meaning "enemy are firing lead slugs in the outer ring, which are too fast too shoot down", but that they are leading the shot with movement prediction; that their shots are "led" (without an "a").

I can not confirm that. I just tested a bush sniper again and they just fired to where I was standing when the the shot started flying while I ran in a completely straight line with no direction change slightly at an angle from them. My guess would be that you were maybe standing too close for the projectile speed. Malguz hits me on like 5m range still, but on 6m I can just run in a circle and never get hit once.

If it feels different than the past (which I did not experience), they might have changed it so they calculate where to shoot when the projectile leaves their model and maybe before that calculated the path when they started the shooting animation, which would mean they are coming much closer to you now even if you are moving quickly. Fast traveling projectiles like the ones from the bush snipers definitely come super close.

[GR4V3 MIST4K3]

On Hard Mode most enemies from late game biomes will either one- or two-shot you. Why? You have a bit above 500HP, you can have about 100 armor. Enemies in late-game biomes hit between 300-500HP. So with 100 armor you survive 1 hit from a single mob. If you get all the collectibles and food buffs you will get to like 1K-1.5K HP. Then you can afford to take a couple hits. But honestly, just go with a dodge build and regular healing potions - 50% dodge will save your life so many times and 90% dodge is a bit unreliable but still very tanky.

For melee it seems the devs want you to abuse movespeed to kite mobs. It doesn't work well until extreme late game weapons.