Shroud of Obscurity (can I fully die?)

[Xanada]

Hi guys. Playing on HC and thinking about this armor, but can't understand can I die when using it or not? I mean not from enemies, but can this armor take all HP and kill me? Or will it stop on some point?

[NotxEevee]

It drains a portion of your Current Health per second, not of your Maximum Health.
If you have 1 HP, it will drain 0.2.
That affix won't kill you.

[tiamats4esgares]

You can have 1 hp, take damage, and still be alive.

No, it cannot kill you, even if you have 0 hp regen.

[wulfster42]

The shroud and saungicity armor won't kill you and you can stack it with other bonuses (believe it's gloves that can get the bonus as well). There is a secret multiplier as well, that I found once but could never re-find (had saungicity armor with 20% of lost health as ward regen, but somehow as a primalist I got that boosted to 35% without gloves etc...never could replicate it).

Anyway the higher the value the better because you end up with about as much health left anyway even if the % increases, but you get MUCH more ward per second the higher that % is.

Some builds work better than others, having a high int and tons of ward retention makes a big difference as well. As a primalist for instance I would run with the axe that makes int = str and adds 1 to all skills. That actually is the character that had the 35%.....but I don't think it was the +1 skills that gave the boost (really need to test that out and figure it out sometime but it's like 20 characters ago).

Works especially well in combo with builds that already have ward gen and especially alot of ward retention. It also allows you to have "low health" bonuses constantly as well...which is great for necros/mages etc.

Don't be fooled though you STILL want as high max health as you can possibly get, in fact it's even more important that usual. Higher max health means you cap out at a higher health range, but most importantly you gain ward per second = missing health. So 3000 max health for instance where you become stable at 500 health, means you are regenning 2500 ward per second. With high ward retention that can net you ALOT more health/ward combo than other builds, allowing you to take hits that would kill everyone else.

It's one of the few times the experimental equipment you get actually makes sense to use (since you can get % health lost and % of health lost gained as ward on them and it stacks.

You CAN get a freakton of ward generation, especially as a mage, without that piece/gloves, but even so, having that on TOP of your already huge ward generation is just insane (and again there are often bonuses for fighting at low health etc).

I would advise to avoid too much life leach though when using it, as it can cripple your ward generation sometimes and prevent you from getting the low life bonuses as much.

For melee users dual wield + axe that gives int=str and a high strength build nets you a FREAKTON of armor, ward retention, +1 to all skill, decent melee damage added, and leaves you 1 weapon slot to get other interesting bonuses from. Wouldn't suggest doing it with just the axe and a shield personally.

Finally, it's been awhile but if I remember right, your health regen is the primary thing that determines your "stable" health....so more health regen isn't a total waste especially in combo with endurance etc. You will gain less ward per second, but the end result as long as you stay under 35% max (think it's 35% for low life) ends up actually being better.

The few times I used such equipment I focused most of my idols on max health and health %, and alot of passives on max health/health % as well if I could swing it. Some passives (like the primalist one that boosts both damage and damage reduction significanly while on low life) also affects damage you take to your ward...making you MUCH harder to kill (and boosting your damage significantly all the time as well).

Very useful equipment even if it's not needed for most of the builds I have played. High max health with alot of life leach, healing from attacks (especially sentinal builds), and healing spells etc.....can keep you killing and surviving even with high corruption fairly safe, and that saves you 2 equipment slots for other bonuses.

[tiamats4esgares]

Originally posted by wulfster42:

The shroud and saungicity armor won't kill you and you can stack it with other bonuses (believe it's gloves that can get the bonus as well). There is a secret multiplier as well, that I found once but could never re-find (had saungicity armor with 20% of lost health as ward regen, but somehow as a primalist I got that boosted to 35% without gloves etc...never could replicate it).

Anyway the higher the value the better because you end up with about as much health left anyway even if the % increases, but you get MUCH more ward per second the higher that % is.

Some builds work better than others, having a high int and tons of ward retention makes a big difference as well. As a primalist for instance I would run with the axe that makes int = str and adds 1 to all skills. That actually is the character that had the 35%.....but I don't think it was the +1 skills that gave the boost (really need to test that out and figure it out sometime but it's like 20 characters ago).

Works especially well in combo with builds that already have ward gen and especially alot of ward retention. It also allows you to have "low health" bonuses constantly as well...which is great for necros/mages etc.

Don't be fooled though you STILL want as high max health as you can possibly get, in fact it's even more important that usual. Higher max health means you cap out at a higher health range, but most importantly you gain ward per second = missing health. So 3000 max health for instance where you become stable at 500 health, means you are regenning 2500 ward per second. With high ward retention that can net you ALOT more health/ward combo than other builds, allowing you to take hits that would kill everyone else.

It's one of the few times the experimental equipment you get actually makes sense to use (since you can get % health lost and % of health lost gained as ward on them and it stacks.

You CAN get a freakton of ward generation, especially as a mage, without that piece/gloves, but even so, having that on TOP of your already huge ward generation is just insane (and again there are often bonuses for fighting at low health etc).

I would advise to avoid too much life leach though when using it, as it can cripple your ward generation sometimes and prevent you from getting the low life bonuses as much.

For melee users dual wield + axe that gives int=str and a high strength build nets you a FREAKTON of armor, ward retention, +1 to all skill, decent melee damage added, and leaves you 1 weapon slot to get other interesting bonuses from. Wouldn't suggest doing it with just the axe and a shield personally.

Finally, it's been awhile but if I remember right, your health regen is the primary thing that determines your "stable" health....so more health regen isn't a total waste especially in combo with endurance etc. You will gain less ward per second, but the end result as long as you stay under 35% max (think it's 35% for low life) ends up actually being better.

The few times I used such equipment I focused most of my idols on max health and health %, and alot of passives on max health/health % as well if I could swing it. Some passives (like the primalist one that boosts both damage and damage reduction significanly while on low life) also affects damage you take to your ward...making you MUCH harder to kill (and boosting your damage significantly all the time as well).

Very useful equipment even if it's not needed for most of the builds I have played. High max health with alot of life leach, healing from attacks (especially sentinal builds), and healing spells etc.....can keep you killing and surviving even with high corruption fairly safe, and that saves you 2 equipment slots for other bonuses.

ALL forms of healing life regen, healing poitions, etc. are BAD if you are using a build like this. They slow down your ward gain and make you have less ward overall. You want as much healing potion converted to ward as possible and as LOW of life regen as possible and DO NOT do anything else that gives you life, no life leech AT ALL!! There's a lich passive that all acolytes can get that prevents all life leech. There's a necklace that prevents all life regen, if you want, not necessary but I got one at 3 LP and it's pretty nice.

Don't worry about endurance at all, it's not worth with a low health build. If a hit has already got through your ward, you're dead anyway, don't rely on your endurance. Thus don't get life regen. It's more harm than good, just trust me.

Obviously if you don't have the necklace to prevent life regen then endurance is a LITTLE useful (not much) but endurance threshold is 100% useless. With the necklace, endurance is useless too.

And there's also boots that go along with the build called Last Steps of the Living. And a better top, called Exsanguinous, so try to get that ASAP. The affix on the gloves only drops from exiled mages.