Butt-saving items for squishy ranged chars

[Tomice]

This is a game that encourages us to create extremely squishy ranged chars usually well-protected behind two tanky melee grunts.

It works well usually if there are no shades around, but we all know those "oh ****" moments wenn we see our back row exposed.

 

Since these occasions are usually rare, it doesn't seem effective to leave a few points in RES or CON just for the sake of better survivability (those few points won't usually save you anyway). But I learned to love "second chance items". It seems that they have enough of a delay to make our former attackers pass on.

 

Any other tips on class-independent items that help you get away in such situations? Consumables?

[Nobear]

This is a game that encourages us to create extremely squishy ranged chars usually well-protected behind two tanky melee grunts.

It works well usually if there are no shades around, but we all know those "oh ****" moments wenn we see our back row exposed.

 

Since these occasions are usually rare, it doesn't seem effective to leave a few points in RES or CON just for the sake of better survivability (those few points won't usually save you anyway). But I learned to love "second chance items". It seems that they have enough of a delay to make our former attackers pass on.

 

Any other tips on class-independent items that help you get away in such situations? Consumables?

 

The most important tip I can give is not an item, but a strategy. CC and focus fire any such enemy that goes past your tanks to attack your back row for whatever reason. This is far better than having a tank run around just to try to tank one more enemy, which will cause him to suffer disengagement attacks and create more of a mess than it cleans up.

 

There are also the rare scrolls that boost deflection for the whole party, there are some great priest spells to temporarily protect/save allies, and paladins can get Reinforcing Exhortation to temporarily boost deflection for an ally (but not themselves).

 

Edit: While it's usually best not to subject your tanks to disengagement attacks, there are summons from figurines that any class can use, which you could use as a temporary tank for one enemy so the party member he's attacking can get away. Your party member will still suffer a disengagement attack (unless the enemy is CCd), but it won't be so bad as a tank running around with several enemies on him.

Edited August 20, 2015 by Nobear

[gkathellar]

Two things:

 

1. Gwisk Glas all day.

2. Don't make your ranged characters so squishy. The difference in DPS really doesn't matter that much most of the time, and it just makes your life easier, theoretical optimization be damned.