A question about Warforged survivability

[HerrDave]

Right, so I'm fresh out of korthos and while on the one hand - I have a good chunk of health by my reckoning (71) I am having a touch of trouble regaining it during missions, resting spots only help so much.

I'm a "stalwart defender" Fighter, so I'd say my aptitude for self-repair spells is somewhat lacking, are there any alternatives as healing potions seem to only heal a whopping "+4"?

I've been reading some posts from 2012 and 2013 about how Warforged(/Toasters) melee classes are aweful when it comes to self sufficiency. Is this still the case?

I'd very much like to be a Fighter who doesn't suck quite as terribly as the posts of old would indicate.

[Doug]

Warforged have awesome bonuses and such, but as a rule they're terrible for heals.

You can buy Repair potions. If you're in a guild of high enough level, they're available from the Guild Arcane Potion Vendor in House K. Porbably other places sell'em but idr where. And, of course, they don't scale well into higher levels.

You also can ameliorate the positive healing penalty by taking the Racial Enhancement option that increases the amount you heal from positive energy and get every form of Heal Amp you can find, but you'll still have issues. Mostly WF are used for arcane casters (Sorceror, Wizard, Artificer and to a lesser extent Warlock) who can self-heal with Repair spells because of this. If you run with a group, a dedicated healer will tend to hate you. Arcane casters are not in the habit of watching health bars and healing WF party members. Unless you partner up with a friend and work out tactics to keep you healed, things will only get worse.

[HerrDave]

This seems like a somewhat glaring oversight on the developer's side, if a Warforged can only be "effectively" played as a mage.

By default, I don't think of golem-like hulking blokes as casters. :\

[Running-Target]

multi-class a couple levels as wizard just for the repair spells.

[Taebrythn]

oils of repair is what you want for regular potions instead of cures as they mentioned. repar amplification is another good thing too. i disagree with the wizard levels just for some repair spells. its not worth it if you only do a few because your sp would be limited and you would only be getting some of the basic repairs.

if you invest in the repair skill with your skill points it will help in shrining and getting some hp back too.another option is if you wanted to at some point turn him/her into a bladeforged paladin. this would allow the ability to self repair and heal using repair spells as a paladin. you can do sacred defender route just like a stalwart defender of fighter. of course bladeforged is an iconic class and starts at 15 instead of 1 and is something you would need to buy.

just a couple options to consider for later on.

[Taebrythn]

wf can make great melee as well. i used to play a wf barbarian and had a lot of fun with it. hulking up even as a fighter still works. lots of hp and still able to do dps with vanguard if sword/board. kensai if 2 handed. with ac prr/mrr you still have options as a fighter.

[HerrDave]

Where does one find oils of repair?

Also

Are oils viable late-game?

[Taebrythn]

oils of repair can be bought in house k if you're in a guild or in house p or house j. you will want oils of serious repair. well for heroics it might suck a little. once you hit higher levels you can have alternative ways to heal so not as bad

[Rodfather]

I would increase ur Repair Amp as opposed to Heal Amp but that is just me...this would boost ur healing from the oils (i.e. self-heals)

[Doug]

There's one barbarian version that has self-heal abilities, iirc, but I haven't played a barb in a while so idr for sure.

But, as I said, the oils of repair (which I called repair potions) don't scale well into higher levels, let alone epics. If you have one of the Epic Destinies with healing abilities, your problems might improve some once you hit L20, but none of the comments above should be taken as an indication that you won't have problems throughout your life. And no matter how massive your DPS, if you have to back off from the fight to try to claw back some HP half the time, your effective DPS will suck.

I did forget about Bladeforged Paladins, an Iconic class that gets repair spells (and Reconstruct in their racial tree as well, in case you wanted to multiclass). Then again, the question was about Warforged.. :)

If you take points in the Repair skill (as someone mentioned above), you'll get back more HP when you rest at shrines. If you get Heal Amp on gear, you'll get more effect from positive energy healing; if you get Repair Amp on gear (rarer), you'll get more effect from Repair spells.

And check out the Cannith Challenge gear for the "Ring of Master Artifice".
( http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Ring_of_Master_Artifice ). If you aren't VIP or don't own the pack, you can still pick up a token a day that will allow you to run challenges.

[Doug]

You can also mitigate your healing issue sometimes (when soloing or when party leader allows) with a hireling who can & will cast Repair spells. Here's the list of those:
http://ddowiki.com/page/List_of_Hirelings_with_Repair_spells

Note that not all of these hirelings' descriptions say they cast repair (which might throw you off) and in many cases, they have no button for it, so you can't control when they'll cast it.

[HerrDave]

I had briefly looked at hirelings, but as I am still working out the mechanics, I hadn't taken any.

Would it be optimal to combine a Fighter and an Artificer for reliable self-healing whilst still retaining the heavy armour and melee aspect?

Extra credit to the person who answers this question: How do I deal with spellcasters? Spells appear to auto-path to their targets and I cannot find anything about spell resistance from class and racial passives.

[Taebrythn]

ok so for spell casters the easiest way is they stand out and you normally can tell who they are. if you watch the casters they have tells before they cast. like a dark energy, white, fire etc. some spells are ray effects so you can dodge them if you're far away. once you get closer to them it becomes harder to dodge ray type spells. so one way to do that is to either a keep moving around them instead of staying in front of them. another thing is tripping casters or stunning them with stunning blow feat as well.

my main goals is normally to take out casters first as any class because they can become a huge nuisance or be a threat to you. they also tend to be the weakest defense wise and hp compared to the others.


i can't promise your heals will be that great with arti. it would also require a heavy investment to get promising heals from that. you would need reconstruction spellpower. as someone mentioned the ring of the artfic fits perfectly if you do go that route. so you will have to consider how much or what type of spells you will get access too.

[殺してあげる]

One big thing to note: spell resistance is ONLY TO NON-DAMAGING spells.

You get SR against charms, phantasms, deathmagic, etc. If it does damage, like a fireball or a disintigrate, SR is not involved.

Best way to deal with spells is as Taebrythn said: be fast, be mobile, watch for tells, and trip/stun the buggers. [Monks eat casters, a tactical-inclined fighter can wreck them...rest? Not so much? :P ].

You can also use an intervening object (wall, tree, party member ~ ) to soak the hit if it's single target - just be careful of party members that have ALSO read 'hints on dealing with casters'. My monk has indirectly killed party members trying to hide behind her from disintis /gg

[Doug]

Hirelings are dead stupid. However, you can "plant" them (make them stand their ground) a bit before a fight and simply move close to them when you need heals. That tends to increase their survivability and keep them out of traps.

Caveat, though: They have 3 modes: Active, Defensive, & Passive. In Passive mode, they do nothing without specific orders (aside from follow you around). In theory, the difference between Active and Defensive is that in the former they'll actively engage enemies (even aggroing them first), whereas in Defensive they will only target mobs specifically attacking you or themselves. In practice, however, each hireling has its own AI and how they interpret Active vs Defensive can differ. The difference is especially pronounced when it comes to healing you. Some will only do so when on Active, whereas others will when on Defensive as well. (All of this ignores if they have a button for the repair spell on their shortcut bar. In that event, regardless of their mode, they'll repair you when you click it, if you're targeted.)

Expect your hire to die a lot till you figure out the mechanics. Then expect it to die a lot when you forget about it in the heat of battle. :)

[Doug]

There are two types of spells: Damaging and Non-damaging. Non-damaging spells (things like Hold, Command, various debuffs, etc.) are usually resisted by Will saves. Will saves are melees' Achilles heel. You can get (or craft with Cannith Crafting) Spell Resistance items to help. SR is checked before your will save. Here's some info on SR: http://ddowiki.com/page/Spell_resistance

Damaging spells may be resisted by various saves depending on the spell. My guess is that most are Reflex and fewest are Will, with Fortitude somewhere in the middle. Melees tend to have high Fort saves and poor Reflex (and Will). Your best defenses against damaging spells are as follows:

Elemental Resistances (usual cap is 30) deduct the amount of resistance from the spell damage. At low levels, this often completely avoids damage. Guild ships often have elemental resist buffs in the Cargo Hold.

Elemental Absorptions reduce spell damage by a percentage. At lower levels, they are much less useful than Resists, but as spell damages climb, they become considerably more useful.

MRR (Magic Resistance Rating) is a special case spell damage absorption you will find at the bottom of your character sheet. It reduces all incoming spell damage by a percentage. The MRR number is NOT the %age. If you hover over it, you can see the reduction. This is a diminishing returns stat. Double the MRR provides less than double the bonus. In other words, the first points you put into it have the greatest effect (so it's always useful to have some). There are various sources for MRR, one of which is called "Sheltering" on gear (it also includes PRR, which reduces physical damage just like MRR reduces magical). More info on MRR here: http://ddowiki.com/page/MRR