How to survive / sources of healing?

[Irish House Cat]

So, I beat the game on my first two attempts. First one was a life / poison summon build. The second was a blood build - lots of bleeds and healing per bleed. For both builds I just held right click down and won.

Since then I have not had much luck. I tried lightning / martial a few times but lack of healing killed me. I tried martial / blood (Pugilism + Hemokinesis + Blood Bath) but I rarely make it past floor 5.

What sort of combo's / methods are people using to heal and stay alive?

[Draken]

For high defense builds an occasional level up of vitality can be enough.
Gods and items can also provide healing to any kind of build.

But honestly, it really depends on how often you are going to take damage. There are some builds that basically are able to completely kill the whole map before any enemies can react.

Those usually do not need much or all healing.

Other builds just have a good amount of health and lower defenses build around just out-healing everything thrown at them.

There are just a lot of ways to be healthy. Including a lot of point into willpower to strengthen otherwise insufficient healing effects.

[Irish House Cat]

After reading your comment I easily beat the 3rd cycle on my first try. I was definitely undervaluing Willpower

[Amarantamin]

Prayers are a powerful source of healing.
You don't have to stick to 2 skill paths, you can work in healing of a 3rd type. Doesn't mess with prestige classes much, other than getting the one you want a little later.

While some builds can survive without healing, that's usually where they end up & not where they start. Planning how you're going to stay alive is crucial. If your god does not provide healing, you probably need it in your build somewhere, or have a really good idea of what you're building.

I also won first game with a Poison summon build and 2nd game with a Blood self-healer. I won 3rd game with a Lightning dodge build, by picking a god that recharged healing prayer on dodge. The Lightning build wasn't viable until I unlocked Tengu + that dodge god, before that all my Lightning builds died due to no healing.

[slobby]

There's a lot of different combo's in the game so it's sort of hard to narrow it down, that said I agree with Draken's run down.

Personally if purposefully avoiding the healing skills, dodge (on step damage) and summon (on stand still damage) are the easiest ways to go. You generally don't want to go mono a mono, but gods/prayers change the gameplay. As you continue unlocking everything more options will become available.

I will add that if you are not playing the first cycle you are punished more for non synergistic builds.

[CrabNicholson]

Some potential tactics:

-having maxed out speed and praying for healing every now and then when needed.
-having a character who can clear a room and pray for healing after all the enemies are dead.
-having a "chanter" type character who spends every turn praying (You'd need a deity who recharges prayers quickly, such as on enemy death like Humbaba)
-having a passive on-hit or on-kill source of healing (EG. Bruder culture, Fire healing, Poison body, Jackal form, etc.)
-healing with divine intervention (Eg. Apophis deity, Phoenix deity, Apostle class)
-healing on level-up

These are all valid but need to be built around.

[Ashenzarea]

My favorites:

- Emerald Helm: heal 10% of Max HP + Willpower bonus + Skill bonuses per turn = 20-30% heal per turn if you find this. It seems available in the majority of runs before the void.

- Life chant skill: heal much less than the helm, but still a decent amount. Good with self-damage builds that would otherwise slowly chip away your health.

- Gods with a strong healing prayer (e.g., Oros, Dumuzi). Usually it's a couple of huge hits that end my runs (a lucky Firebird, Jawhara). No time to wait a few turns to heal with Life chant with those guys around.

+1: Meat shield summons that draw attention away from me. Other than melee builds, I do not need to be in the thick of combat. Skills and items that summon an ally per turn are great to draw attacks while you smite the monsters.

[Zaqn]

For lightning / martial build is quite interesting way of playing. My build basically to have speed as much as possible, while not in contact with any of the enemies.

[forrestomintero]

Don't underestimate the martial skills that give you raw defenses. The block one in particular can be really powerful since it combines offense and defense. Teleportation effects can also be useful for when you find yourself surrounded. The lightning elemental skill is expensive but if you invest in it and potentially get some extra attacks per turn to proc it more, it can draw a ton of aggro. (You can make them stop being as squishy via the life minion buff. Depends how hard you want to invest)