Could use some advice on survivability

General Discussion General Discussion
#1

I rolled up a musket/rapier toon and I’m not really liking it. I’m pretty much PVE only and mobs at my level are slicing me up. I like the musket, but not as much as I thought I would.

So, survivability for soloing. Sword and board? Are some of the 2H options ok for survivability?

Any other recommendations? Is there anything I can do for range if I go S/B or 2H?

I’ll respec as I’d rather not roll up another toon. I’m only 29 but I don’t play often and I level sloooooow.

Still learning the game as I go :slight_smile:
Thanks

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#2

the sword and shield is most survivable in the world imo(dunno about dungeons I dont really do them). Lots of defensive stuff that isn’t based on how many mobs are around you. The warhammer defensives seem to be mostly about get bonus defense if 3 mobs+ are around you. They sound good for dungeons, but not so much if you are just rolling through 1 or 2 mobs in world questing.

As for the musket/rapier. ITs a crap shoot. You should be able to simply off single mobs without them ever getting close to you.

Take trap(I also usually take rend talent as well but not necessary) Then its up to you. The “easiest” imo is burning shot/power shot and all the added damage bonus(barrelt sight one bonus to regular musket damage etc.).

So you throw a trap. shoot your burning shot. Shoot a power shot. And then it should only be 1 or 2 shots to kill the mob and they wont touch you.

You alternatively can take shooting stance instead of power shot. The 5 shots is usually enough assuming you hit them to kill them or close enough you’ll be fine. Burning shot is crucial imo its really good. In theory you could not take burning shot but i did not find any advantages. In pvp the first set up is better. shooting stance is not good in pvp.

The problem will always be as you level up small spaces and multiple mobs. Taking a mob out in 3-4 shots is fun. But thats ALL you can do well. And since all the quests are to go find loot boxes which are always in houses. its difficult to deal with.

Because you HAVE to PUMP dex 100%. I tried to do a dex/con mix but you lose too much damage. So I tried to get dex/con gear as a trade off.

good luck!

#3

really easy, heavy armor and hatchet as secondary

#4

I’m going Sword and Board but full Dps and loving it so far. The best part of Sword is both trees synergize well with each other. You can take several passives where you block you get buffs from both trees. So when I block I get Fortify and Empower. Damage and Damage reduction.

I take Shield Rush for the knockback and slow you can then take opportunist where 10% more damage to slowed enemies and put in a malachite gem in for another 10% on slowed enemies.

So Sword offers the Dps and Defensives and loving the play style and leveled with it from 1-60.

I’m not totally sold on my second weapon yet have hatchet for the sustain healing, run speed, cc immunity. So it’s great but there might be better options I haven’t found yet. Most of my damage I do is with Sword equipped.

Heavy armor of course and Diamonds for gems where you can fit them in for dmg reduction.

#5

i play mainly solo, despite the weight i carry:

ranged is bow- cheaper and easier to make ammo, has mobility when drawn, excellent range (always aim above, higher the further away you are), faster reload, and more damage… headshots are insane.
melee is usually the spear- fastest 2h, blocks, can be thrown just compensate like with the bow, does excellent damage and you can off-tank/dps with it
sword and board- because sometimes they are the best option against multiples
i do carry the GA sometimes, it’s seriously OP, but… slower as in your commiting more time to your attacks, it’s seriously deadly and good against multiples.
hatchet- is just plain fun, you can xcountry run faster using its abilities, it’s definitely a great dps weapon.

overall though, spear and bow i find great for soloing with the sword and board as backup.

#6

If you wanted to keep the Musket, consider a Spear as your second weapon. It has a lot of crowd control and hits like a truck.
Also, consider heavy Armour for survivability.

But the biggest difference to survivability is being able to block and dodge. I can go through most PVE combat without taking any damage because I’m good at dodging and blocking.

But if you really want to go strength then I would suggest Axe and hatchet with heavy armour, you don’t need a sword and shield unless you are going to tank. Axe is great, and the hatchet is also great, with self healing.

Make health potions and cooking too, always good to get your health up and pretty easy to make loads, more than you will ever need. Food is not just a buff, it also heals you.

Edit: Just to add to this, whatever stat you choose, learn all the weapons for it. There is no reason to stick to just the two. So if your dexterity then Musket, Rapier, Spear and Bow.

#7

How did you spend attribute points?
try bow it seems less clunky than musket

Weak healing potions heal 25% ish of your maximum health and are basically free

Do you use medium or light armor?

#8

I am Musket/Rapier main (original Musket/Spear but switched)

For survival there are few vital parts:

  • Musket trap heal - This is pretty much a solid solution. Keep in mind the trap heal is not limited to musket attack, you can even switch weapon too. Combine with rapier fast attack and burst damage. you can easily heal full health with this combo.
  • Rapier - riposte. This is one of the main survival skill for you. it give you a full immune block on one attack. time it right you can make yourself untouchable (at least PvE). Also keep in mind in this game damage break stun.

Your basic opener should be like powder shot that burn your enemy. and keep shooting them. When they get close switch to rapier and use riposte to stun them.

If you are full HP, then go backstab or anything that just damage them down
If you are not full HP, switch to musket throw down a trap on them, switch back to rapier and burst damage them

#9

You can go Spear with sweep, cyclone and perforate to get some CC for defensiv gameplay. Get slow and cooldown reduction for light hits.
Cyclone could be dropped for skewer for additional bleed.

#10

This, The heal that you get from berserk passive is nice. 30% of your health over the duration of berserk. Heavy armor will help with damage mitigation. I run Hatchet/bow and have no issues. at level 35 I can 3-4 shot things before they even reach me. If I get multiple mobs on me, I pull out the hatchet and AOE everything with the fast attack speed of it.

#11

S+B, heavy armor + life staff, or hatchet for survivability.

Great axe also has a few self-heals but they aren’t enough until you get deeper into the tree.

#12

I’m bow/Rapier and it rocks! I’m one-shotting from a great distance and “most of the time” the mob never gets to me. If it does, it’s like one or two hits and done! Do you have both types of heals? ( Instant heal with 20 second cool down potion AND heal over 20 seconds meal )

The rapier is fast DPS and the Bow is hard hitting ( with practice ). Head shots always crit.

If you prefer a more casual weapon, the sword and board is good.

#13

with hatchet you can get 15% fortify which is 15% dmg mitigation if you land 3 light attacks and you can get 10% dmg increase for each enemy around you and you can reset cooldowns

Hatchet is stupid OP for PVM

#14

Survivability?

If you’re looking for something that isn’t the meta, some of the most fun I’ve had in the game is building a weapon combo/play style that survives by simply…not getting hit!

I know it sounds weird. Most will say get the heaviest armor you can get and you can survive a beating. Spec into a healing build, and you can heal for whatever you get hit for. Face roll your keyboard with a great axe or hatchet while doing your nails and things die (yawn!). Me? I avoid getting hit.

“But War…how do you do this? You’re saying I can stop taking damage that brings my health to critically low levels?” Yes indeed.

First, remember that the build you ultimately decide upon has to be one that you enjoy playing. This isn’t Lord of the Rings with One Build to rule them all, One Build to find them, One Build to bring them all… If it makes you smile and get closer to the screen with some finger cramping on the mouse and kb, then it’s working. You have to find one that makes you look forward to logging in :innocent:

Second, no combo is going to be great at everything. You specified pve, so let’s stick to that. You won’t be chasing down targets that try to disengage. You’re not going to optimize for big wars and hordes of players humping a cap point. You’re wanting to kill stuff effectively while solo and grouped, while additionally not experiencing the thrills of repeated respawns.

Enemies that can’t hit you won’t hurt you. Main weapon → Spear. Nothing else keeps things on their back or stunned with all the cool down reduction passives to continue doing this. You’ll also be a group’s best friend with the highest rend debuff in the game; effectively giving the entire group a +30% damage bonus that can be applied infinitely.

Secondary → chill out for awhile with Ice Gauntlet. You’ll love ice storm’s dot and slow, combined with ice shower’s wall that stops things that get to the edge of your storm and lets them stand there and think about life choices. Down in your passives you’ll also see your heavy attacks repeatedly freeze targets in their tracks for even more immobilization. Big pull? No worries! Drop an Ice storm where you’re at, eat a little lunch and enjoy a little 'time in ze coolah" with your entomb. Health and mana fills up fast doing that, and then you have a nifty knockback/damage and defense bonus when you break out of it to do what? Yep, repeat ice storm/shower while you skate away.

Try it! You’ll like it! Coolest combo in the game that never let’s you down. Just knocks them down, without breaking a sweat! (See what I’ve done here!? Lol!)

o7

~War~

edit – Oh, and for extra thrills and chills (doh! Did it again!), put tons into intelligence and get a lightning or arcane damage gem for your spear.

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#15

I was doing really well with Rapier | Life staff. Just have to tune your life staff to a certain damage type like amber or diamond, there are also gems you can slot so your damage scales with focus. I think a lot of peeps miss this about healing attributes and how they apply to damage.

Think the most important thing is to look @ synergy of the weapons you select and if they can be gem modded to scale with your main stat. I really feel if people understood this, they would be better players.

#16

Well, you have to learn to use roll dodge and moving while fighting when using musket. I can solo mobs roughly 10 levels higher with my musket/life staff combo…and I only use lifestaff to heal after battle to shorten down time.

I’ll try to record a video of it and post it. Haven’t done that in a long while.

Overall though, if you going melee as a light armor class you’re in for pain. Even rapier suffers badly when taking one hit and since rapier essentially roots you while it does its animations or lunges you forward (as most melee do either) it means the mobs will land hits on you during that animation…and just one hit will hurt if you mis-time it.

You CAN do sword/shield with musket by focusing on shield skills… just headshot target with powder burn then power shot it in the head if you can as it runs in…then switch to shield and just BLOCK until target dies of the DOT or DOT ceases and you just put in the last few hits to kill it.

Musket by itself though has traps… and with 2x traps you can kill almost anything by snaring them twice as it gives you easy headshots. Combine this with sword and shields and you basically set for 1vs1 PVE.

#17

Look as a rapier user…bring food. LOTS OF FOOD LOL and health potions.

#18

Omfg I literally had Mtn. Dew coming out of my nose reading this post! Hilarious!

I like that synergy too → I found mine with rapier/musket with powder burn, shooters stance and some traps. Rapier is intensely fun to play; I almost want them to live through my shooting so I can fleche’ through them for that 80% cooldown reduction when that skill kills them. Fun for travel too if you can find turkeys and bunnies to use :grinning:

#19

We’ll see how the ‘just don’t get hit’ advice fairs at LV 60. In both solo pve and expeditions.
Good luck.

#20

If you have a decent tank in expeditions, you shouldn’t be getting hit anyway.

Case in point. Last boss in the Amerine Excavation. I never got hit (until I get into melee range).