Survivability

The art of surviving, there are a lot of things you can do to improve your survival chances both in Heroic quests and Epic quests, so what are these things? I will try to make an extensive list with all the basics you can consider. I made lowest level items cursive.

Tactical
Build related
Equipment

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Tactical
– Always hold shift when you are knocked on the ground, it gives a 2 to 12 damage reduction before shield bonus (Wiki)
– Prioritize enemies, in example, first kill dangerous enemies like casters, dispatch of melee monsters behind a pillar before you bother with archers, try to single out champions.
– Obtain a way to render enemies helpless, trip, stun, hold monster etc. These are usually improved by your classes main stat (IE Str for fighter, Cha for sorcerer, Wis for Monk).
– Practice evading arrows, the moment a monster draws an arrow move left or right, if you do this correct you won’t even see a ‘miss’ message

– Practice evading wolf/lion type of enemies, when they are in straight-line mode you can evade them.
– Limit the amount of enemies that can hit by standing in a corner or in front of a doorway
– play around with your hotbars, mouse sensitivity and character rotation speed, every person has a natural preference for these and it will affect how well you play.
– use potions or scrolls while jumping so the reduced run speed has a minimal effect
– Learn to use item focus, usually ‘U’ or ‘backspace’, you can snatch keys or other quest objectives from a group of enemies while running past them.
– Try to remember monster positions in quests so you can run the same quest more smoothly in the future.
– Kite if you use ranged attacks, kiting is the art of pulling monsters along without getting hit. *note, in teams it might be more efficient and appreciated if you wait untill someone else caught the monsters attention.

Build related
– Hitpoints – It is hard to give a number, but try to keep an average of 20-30HP per character level depending on how melee-intensive your class is. If you start with 14+ con and keep your equipment up to date on constitution and false life gear you should be fine.
– Healing amplification – This will increase how much you get healed, also by potions and scrolls. After U24 your AMP number will add the percentage directly, so if you drink a 30HP potion with 50% Healing amp it will heal 45HP.
—Fortitude save – If you started with 14+ constitution and keep items up to date for your level you should be okay, good constitution is good resistance against disease/poison.
—Reflex save – Aim for 40 reflex, this is enough for 95% chance on almost all heroic traps. You need evasion and light to no armor to receive zero damage when you succesfully roll a reflex save, this helps against traps and many destructive magic spells. (Infused chaos robe with reflex added + Greater Heroism = +14 Reflex for situational use)
—Will save – Though it is important against mind control, you can use a surrogate most of this save by casting Protection from Evil on yourself.
– Skill: Jump – This skill goes up to 40 and defines how high you can jump, this increases survivability because it enables one to jump over enemies or escape to higher ground.
– Skill: Balance – This skill reduces the time you are prone after getting knocked down, so basicly the higher the skill the less total damage when helpless.
– Skill: Diplomacy/Intimidate/Bluff – Social skills aren’t only useful for optional quest objectives, they can also be used on enemies to isolate or reduce damage income.
– Find a way to increase your Physical and Magical Resistance Rating, the shortcoming of AC is that it is very difficult to maintain high enough numbers to block incoming damage where PRR and MRR will always reduce incoming damage by a percentage, this will help from level 1 to 28.
– try to get enough UMD (use magic device) to use healing scrolls, they are generally cheaper then potions and it’s not that hard to unlock at least Cure critical wounds.

Easy-to-get-UMD:

+2 – Ship buff Hidden Library (lv 21+ to get the full +3 bonus)
+1 – Ship buff Old sully’s grog Cellar (+2 charisma)
+1 – Luck bonus – Prayer spell/clickie or if your ship still has it ‘Phiarlan inspiration’ buff
+3 – +6 Charisma item
+3 – Persuasion item (anyone with 45 crafting can make it for you)
+4 – Greater Heroism – Planar gird clickie, found in Xorian Cipher (free to play)
+3 – Skill focus: UMD (Feat)
+11 to +23 – Skill levels gained at level 20, +11 if UMD isn’t a skill related to your class, +23 if it is.
= 28 to 40

28 UMD gives a 85% chance on cure critical wound scrolls and you won’t fail cure serious scrolls, it only gives a 45% chance on heal scrolls
40 UMD gives a no-fail chance on heal scrolls.

Check the wiki for a complete list of UMD options.

Equipment

– Deathblock – protects against spells that would normally instantly kill you
Random loot – Eye of the beholder ring – Bloodplate – Death’s  locket – Shining crest of st. Markus – Sacred helm – Thanatos weave – Silver flame pendant – Death’s door
– Deathward – unlike deathblock this is not permanent and can be dispelled, but it protects against energy drain and other negative spells that would otherwise reduce your survivability
Visor of the flesh render guard (clickie) lv 7
– Negative energy absorption – These items are capable of absorbing spells from particulary beholders that can dispell deathward
Silver flame talisman(1 to 10 charges) – Mournlode breastplate (10 charges) – Death’s door (10 charges) – Eye of the beholder (8 charges) – Pale Lavender ioun stone (50 charges, restores 15/day)
– Heavy fortification – Protects against sneak attacks and critical hits
Random loot – Electric Haze – Ancient band – Embrace of the spider queen – Garments of equilibrium – Leaves of the forest – Livewood core – Full plate of the defender – Purple dragon armor – Docent of defense – White dragon armor – Arrondi – Minos Legens – Nightforge Gorget lv 9 – Cormyrian red dragon armor
– 150% fortification – Some monsters can bypass heavy fortification so it is useful to get fort. higher
Epic minos Legens – Mythic Minos legens – Epic Purging the Pantheon
– Exceptional fortification
Random loot – Greater stalwart trinket 10% lv 4 –  Embrace of the spider queen 10% – Sustaining symbiont 10% – Leaves of the forest 10%/25% – Livewood core 10%/50%  – Omniscience 25% – The disciplinator 10% – Toven’s hammer 10% – Epic scales of surety 50% – Epic emerald guard 50%
Dusk/Blurry, Ghostly, Dodge stack with eachother and reduce the amount of times an enemy will miss you, there is a formula for the actual miss chance generated  explained at the ddowiki
– Dusk – Gives a 10% chance that enemies will miss you
Golden guile – Ring of shadows – Dusk – Dusk heart lv 9
– Blurry – Gives a 20% chance that enemies will miss you
Bracers of twisting shade – Whisperchain – Cloak of Zephyr – Bracers of wind lv 4 – Greater nimble trinket lv 4
– Ghostly  – Gives a 10% chance that enemies will miss you
Treads of falling shadow – Whisperchain – Wretched twilight lv 13 – Epic ring of the stalker – Dream edge – Epic golden guile – Cloak of night
– Dodge – gives a chance enemies will miss you
Chattering ring 6% lv 9 – Epic bracers of wind 6% – Cloak of wolf 4%/8% – Icy rainments 8%  lv 14 – Epic staff of Nat gann 8% – Balizard, protector of the king 8% – Seal of house dun’Robar – Epic duelist leathers 8% – Kobold admirals tiller 10% – Epic belt of thoughtful remembrance 11%

Clickies
Nightshield –  Makes you immune to magic missile, chain missile, force missile
Scrolls 20 UMD – Epic scales of surety – Rainment of the fervent – Docent of claw – Scales of surety – Bastion of fealty – Chain of conviction – Cloth of the faithful – Docent of flames – Docent of shadow lv8 – Robe of shadow lv 8
Protection from evil – Protects you against Dominate Person/Monster, Command and Greater Command (this counts for the clickies, permanent items do not protect against evil mind control)
Scrolls 20 UMD – Fragment of the silver flame – Yogg-ratha plate – Silver flame bracers lv 1 –  Silver flame talisman – Mournlode armor – Nightforge darkhelm
Nyoko’s necklace – Cloak of invisibility lv 9 – Cloak of Zephyr
Displacement – Grants a 50% miss chance
Elocator’s Habiliment lv 18 – Greensteel lv 11
Hirelings and Summons – These can heal you, kill enemies or plainly act as cannon fodder
Most places in stormreach sell Hirelings
Shard of Xoriat – Diabolist docent – Diabolist robe – Totemic staff of Splinterskull – Roderic’s wand – Scorpion staff – Bracers of spiderkind – Shard trinket of summon monster VII – Penny whistle
Invisibility – In case of emergency, with a lot of monsters on your tail run past a corner, use invisibility and stay still a few steps further, or use it in combination with a hire/summon to draw the monsters on those while you run past the enemy or surprise them. *note: Invisibility and Sneak both rely on the skills ‘hide’ and ‘move silently’, without that your movements can still be spotted.
Random loot – Nyoko’s necklace – Cloak of invisibility lv 9 – Cloak of Zephyr