Kali's Top 10 Suggestions for MELEE defensiveness & survival (also useful for Hard Core)

[saekee]

It is true that in assassin threads the OP is running with folks that are CC’ing everything, maybe a tank, and all they need is massive DPS to help out. In PUGs and solo you do not have that luxury. I have found myself tanking Doom Reapers in R10 on my assassin in PUGs, the whole time thinking, ‘WT*** I should be the one over there on the side.’

Kali do you have destiny suggestions? I find 7 DP in Sentinel is huge. Guard Up has been a massive lifesaver, from
boss fighting to dealing with DoTs to the raid party killing floaty skulls in Skeletons too fast. You get access to the Sentinel stance for swapping occasionally for broad absorptions, and renewal as an excellent heal that can tick for over 1K. For melees you get melee power etc unlike in cocoon tree.

As a solo assassin and Pugger I could never do anything without adrenaline + knockdown. That is ofc offensive but huge defensive benefits. Solo assassins can pull a carnage and then drop them easily out of site.

Another trick that others mentioned is using DDO’s wonky mechanics against it. Devs went all out to combat stealth in a sloppy way; I find that I can assassinate then zip away with From the Shadows; mobs go ‘ape’ as we said in the 80s hunting that terrible stealthy guy—lets the rest of the party pick them off or you can hit again after cooldown as they will be scattered.

Another massive life saver and game changer is Legendary Affirmation which IoD made easy to get.

Last suggestion is deep unconscious range. Lots of boosts for this including a sapphire. Mobs sometimes stop attacking you if you are unconscious and the Fury of the Wild tree has an enhancement to quickly buff you when below. This has saved me countless times.

 

[Kalibano]

The main post has been updated to:

> reflect some recent additions to the game (e.g. Legendary HP% augment set)​

> include (particularly in Suggestion 7) several contributions made in this thread (thanks again for everyone's input)​

> number and separate each section more clearly, as well as introduce the concept of 'Top 10 suggestions'​

Hope this is still a useful tool for players seeking strategies to improve survival (including HCL)

N.B. there is more I'd like to add when time allows (e.g. potions remove curse/disease/blindness + poison neutralisation; Deflect arrows clickie, etc.)

 

[Kalibano]

It is true that in assassin threads the OP is running with folks that are CC’ing everything, maybe a tank, and all they need is massive DPS to help out. In PUGs and solo you do not have that luxury. I have found myself tanking Doom Reapers in R10 on my assassin in PUGs, the whole time thinking, ‘WT*** I should be the one over there on the side.’

Hey Saekee, and thanks for the awesome contributions!

Kali do you have destiny suggestions?

It's trickly to make specific suggestions from Epic Destiny trees (or class trees), because it can vary so much from build to build.
My rule of thumb is: rather than take all offensive options from those trees, making balanced choices between defense and offense (as the ones in my build repository) are likely to contribute more effectively towards achieving stronger defensiveness. Sorry if this is too general.

Having said so, I like what you suggested here , thanks for sharing it

I find 7 DP in Sentinel is huge. Guard Up has been a massive lifesaver, from
boss fighting to dealing with DoTs to the raid party killing floaty skulls in Skeletons too fast. You get access to the Sentinel stance for swapping occasionally for broad absorptions, and renewal as an excellent heal that can tick for over 1K. For melees you get melee power etc unlike in cocoon tree.

---

As a solo assassin and Pugger I could never do anything without adrenaline + knockdown. That is ofc offensive but huge defensive benefits.

Nice one: I touch upon this in Suggestion 1, when I recommend investing in crowd control, and how it provides double benefits (as you pointed out).

Another trick that others mentioned is using DDO’s wonky mechanics against it. Devs went all out to combat stealth in a sloppy way; I find that I can assassinate then zip away with From the Shadows; mobs go ‘ape’ as we said in the 80s hunting that terrible stealthy guy—lets the rest of the party pick them off or you can hit again after cooldown as they will be scattered.

hehe nice tip. Not all my alts have stealthy abilities, but I can sometimes achieve a similar result with invisibility scrolls + sneak, or with bluffing attacks (e.g. 'baiting Bite' when available ofc) to lose agro, then invis and move away Dark Discoporation clickies are awesome for stealthy moves like that too.

Another massive life saver and game changer is Legendary Affirmation which IoD made easy to get.

Absolutely, thanks for the reminder! I use this on the vast majority of my melee and hybrid alts that have Dino Weapons, so I fully agree.
I'll make sure I add it to the Suggestion 4 (hit points) section in the near future.

Last suggestion is deep unconscious range. Lots of boosts for this including a sapphire. Mobs sometimes stop attacking you if you are unconscious and the Fury of the Wild tree has an enhancement to quickly buff you when below. This has saved me countless times.

Great suggestion too (especially the augment). Will add to my list too.

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Thanks for taking the time to contribute towards helping others who might come here looking for advice!

 

[saekee]

Hey Saekee, and thanks for the awesome contributions!


It's trickly to make specific suggestions from Epic Destiny trees (or class trees), because it can vary so much from build to build.
My rule of thumb is: rather than take all offensive options from those trees, making balanced choices between defense and offense (as the ones in my build repository) are likely to contribute more effectively towards achieving stronger defensiveness. Sorry if this is too general.

Having said so, I like what you suggested here , thanks for sharing it

---

Nice one: I touch upon this in Suggestion 1, when I recommend investing in crowd control, and how it provides double benefits (as you pointed out).


hehe nice tip. Not all my alts have stealthy abilities, but I can sometimes achieve a similar result with invisibility scrolls + sneak, or with bluffing attacks (e.g. 'baiting Bite' when available ofc) to lose agro, then invis and move away Dark Discoporation clickies are awesome for stealthy moves like that too.


Absolutely, thanks for the reminder! I use this on the vast majority of my melee and hybrid alts that have Dino Weapons, so I fully agree.
I'll make sure I add it to the Suggestion 4 (hit points) section in the near future.


Great suggestion too (especially the augment). Will add to my list too.

---

Thanks for taking the time to contribute towards helping others who might come here looking for advice!

my pleasure!

Another tip which you probably use anyway is a Blood Feast swap item for big temp hp. Even without Barb levels, you can get a rage with one DP within the Fury tree. Melees are all over that tree often anyway. I do one DP for a rage use and one for the enhancement that gives a 1% chance to regenerate it. There is an augment too that adds 3 rage charges.

Blood feast is 5 piece so 20 K sentient xp swap, not too hard to build up. Just have precision openly hotbarred since rage kills it; you have to dismiss rage after the temp hp are eaten and then reactivate it.

Having an occssional burst of 1200 HP is HUGE and has helped me out of a lot of dicey situations. The temporary loss of precision is lousy so must be mitigated.

 

[Kalibano]

my pleasure!

Another tip which you probably use anyway is a Blood Feast swap item for big temp hp. Even without Barb levels, you can get a rage with one DP within the Fury tree. Melees are all over that tree often anyway. I do one DP for a rage use and one for the enhancement that gives a 1% chance to regenerate it. There is an augment too that adds 3 rage charges.

Blood feast is 5 piece so 20 K sentient xp swap, not too hard to build up. Just have precision openly hotbarred since rage kills it; you have to dismiss rage after the temp hp are eaten and then reactivate it.

Having an occssional burst of 1200 HP is HUGE and has helped me out of a lot of dicey situations. The temporary loss of precision is lousy so must be mitigated.

Thanks for sharing this one too

A bit hesitant to add this to the main post for a few reasons:

• this thread is mostly aimed at those who might not yet be very experienced with the game
• I am trying to give very generalised advice (i.e. to work for all builds) and being raged would cause some builds to become unable to cast spells or use some abilitties, so considering some potential lack of experience, I would hate to unintentionally mess up people's builds in any way

• as per your description, you would need to stay raged until the temp HPs fade and/or get depleted in combat (as my understanding is that the Devs 'fixed' the ability to exploit this by using rage, getting the temp HP, and un-raging immediately after, while keeping the HP). This in itself is hihgly likely to cause confusion, as some temp HP could be coming from other sources (e.g. Affirmation, or from Warlocks), so it would be hard to keep track really
• having to turn Precision on every time is v annoying indeed. Likely some people end up going through the entire quest with precision turned off because they either forget it or can't track precisely when the rage HPs are gone

• considering how fast-paced combat is in the current state of the game, and the large number of buttons available to press, it becomes important to be selective (e.g. perhaps casting a displacement scroll prior to combat might be more advantageous on some occasions, if one needs to pick between all the things suggested in this tread alone?)

• All in all, Affirmation procs passively, and a lot (on most builds): imo, it's the 'hassle free' way to go
• If not using a Dino/LGS weapon (e.g. my Pally uses Outburst), there are swappable weapons to proc affirmation. Indeed, it's another swap, but at least with a lot less hassle and no other investment other than acquiring the weapon). The staff from Dryad should be easy enough to acquire, and staves can be used by practically any build.

On a very personal level:

• I hate swaps in general, it really takes the fun away. If it was only one here and there, occasionally, perhaps, but it's one for Prowess, one for extra ability score for the trance, it's just a lot, and it's very annoying, and I don't like recommending annoying things
• this swap for temp HP (combined with the others mentioned in the item above) would potentially require a few maximised sentient gems, and such investment is potentially not within the reach of a large number of players. I personally dislike recommending things that are not within the grasp of large number of players

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Apologies if this sounded negative: happy you shared it here in any case, so people who scroll through will still be able to benefit from your advice if they decide to give it a go.

 

[popejubal]

I’ve seen a lot of players skip Displacement scrolls because they don’t have the UMD for it at lower levels and because they don’t want to bother with something that only lasts 30 seconds.
(Edit: clicked submit too soon. Whoops)
For those folks who don’t like bothering with Displacement clickies, I recommend getting a heroic Greensteel Displacement Quarterstaff clicky. It doesn’t need any Large ingredients, so it’s straightforward to farm up one or two of them and Quarterstaff clickies use your caster level instead of the weapon’s caster level so your Displacement lasts MUCH longer.

 

[Kalibano]

I’ve seen a lot of players skip Displacement scrolls because they don’t have the UMD for it at lower levels and because they don’t want to bother with something that only lasts 30 seconds.
(Edit: clicked submit too soon. Whoops)
For those folks who don’t like bothering with Displacement clickies, I recommend getting a heroic Greensteel Displacement Quarterstaff clicky. It doesn’t need any Large ingredients, so it’s straightforward to farm up one or two of them and Quarterstaff clickies use your caster level instead of the weapon’s caster level so your Displacement lasts MUCH longer.

That's great advice. I'll add it to the main post, next to the item that recommends Displacement scrolls.
Thanks for your contribution

 

[Kalibano]

Main post was further updated to include entries about:

> temporary Hit Points and Legendary Affirmation (in Suggestion 4)​

> Deflect arrows clickie (in Suggestion 6)​

> Dark Discorporation clickie (in Suggestion 6)​

> potions of remove curse/disease/blindness + neutralise poison neutralisation (in Suggestion 7)​

> popejubal's advice ref Displacement clickies (in Suggestion 8)​

> the removal of the reaper self-healing penalty while out of combat​

​

Several images were also added (e.g. Winter set bonus; Legendary Affirmation description; items with clickies)

This is looking great, thanks for everyone's contributions so far, please keep them coming!

Hope the advice is being helpful.

 

[peng]

You recommend Skullduggery Cap as a heroic death ward clicky, which I wholeheartedly endorse. For epic/legendary levels, I use epic or legendary versions of the same. Other mass death ward clickies have caster level 15. The Epic Skullduggery Cap can be used at level 20 and has a caster level of 20, and the legendary version has a cl of 30.

 

[DBZ]

Epic duskhearts 45 mins of dw clickies

 

[PraetorPlato]

Spell absorb!

 

[Kalibano]

Spell absorb!

Thanks for the reminder! Just added it to the Damage Avoidance section, with some images too.

 

[Kalibano]

Damage Avoidance section has been updated to include extra info on Concealment and Incorporeality.
Extra images were added to several sections too.

 

[Rathy]

7. Ensure you have access to the following potions/buffs

Hi! Great list! Thank you very much for putting it together!!

I would add (for heroics I dunno about above level 20 really: Potion of Lesser Restoration (market or trade in prayer beads in harbor).

I have seen people die/go helpless because of repeated stat drain (like shadows or even just mob casters) and noone had a spell to bring them back! So carry pots to stop stat drain before it hits zero!
No more funnels so you can not feed a potion to another person nowadays.

4. Increase your Hit Points

In the Temporary part: WAND OF FALSE LIFE

Again really only for levels 1-20 as those few HP prob don't matter above level 20. But if you can use a shield wand, then you can use a cheapo wand of false life for a few extra HP when trap jumping, pre-combat, etc.!


I would also suggust various cookies as a temp buff (strength, raging, etc.) but those change each year and so probably are not a normal tactic.


Oh and what about escape and movement? I like to move very fast as a melee (so invest points into sprint boosts etc.) and that helps me run from side to side of combats. Like stun a caster crown on right flank, zip over to left. trip some mob, then jump to un-CC'ed mobs and engage! Speed is great and makes me (slightly) harder to kill! This is really just an expansion on your "keep moving while your fighting!" section.

Maybe a Running Away Section? (brave Sir Robin , that is me!)

So teleport options, word of recall, DD's etc. allow a melee to run away to fight another day! (more important on HC I think!)

Anyway, great list and thread! Thanks for taking time to post it!!!

 

[Kalibano]

Hi! Great list! Thank you very much for putting it together!!

I would add (for heroics I dunno about above level 20 really: Potion of Lesser Restoration (market or trade in prayer beads in harbor).

I have seen people die/go helpless because of repeated stat drain (like shadows or even just mob casters) and noone had a spell to bring them back! So carry pots to stop stat drain before it hits zero!
No more funnels so you can not feed a potion to another person nowadays.


In the Temporary part: WAND OF FALSE LIFE

Again really only for levels 1-20 as those few HP prob don't matter above level 20. But if you can use a shield wand, then you can use a cheapo wand of false life for a few extra HP when trap jumping, pre-combat, etc.!


I would also suggust various cookies as a temp buff (strength, raging, etc.) but those change each year and so probably are not a normal tactic.


Oh and what about escape and movement? I like to move very fast as a melee (so invest points into sprint boosts etc.) and that helps me run from side to side of combats. Like stun a caster crown on right flank, zip over to left. trip some mob, then jump to un-CC'ed mobs and engage! Speed is great and makes me (slightly) harder to kill! This is really just an expansion on your "keep moving while your fighting!" section.

Maybe a Running Away Section? (brave Sir Robin , that is me!)

So teleport options, word of recall, DD's etc. allow a melee to run away to fight another day! (more important on HC I think!)

Anyway, great list and thread! Thanks for taking time to post it!!!

Hey there

Great suggestions, will add them to the main post.
Thanks for taking time to contribute too!

 

[Kalibano]

Some images updated in the main thread.

 

[Br4d]

Gear swaps are a tool of the Devil.

Yes, you can do some amazing things with them.

No, for most people the game is not fun when they are sequencing gear swaps in combat. It's not even fun for most of us to swap gear before combat.

One of the things about the nearly freeform power creep that we have going on at this point is that it seems like nobody is in control at this point.

 

[I dont Like gimps]

Or... no. Click your Hood of Unrest, SD Shadow Mastery, it's add +65 uncapped Dodge to your at least 30 ( you already gain it for high reaper, right? ), and with 20% Incorporeality and 20% Concealment in R10 you have only 0.032% chance to be hit for 20 sec... and see how endless surrounding mob hordes melt around you...

"proceeds to get hit twice in a row*

 

[JustHavingFunBro]

What started out as a guide for new or returning players has somehow devolved into an r10 discussion and using 1 charge items that drops once a year. Brilliant.

 

[Br4d]

What started out as a guide for new or returning players has somehow devolved into an r10 discussion and using 1 charge items that drops once a year. Brilliant.

This is not a player issue. It's a DDO issue.

Clock is ticking.