Staying Alive in Light Armor

Discussion in 'Skills and Combat' started by Cora Cuz'avich, Aug 2, 2018.

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  1. Cora Cuz'avich

    Cora Cuz'avich Avatar

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    Should I just give up? I've leveled up my archery pretty decently (120 base, 100-110 in the rest of the tree) and my damage is decent now, but the fact is, I can't stay alive long enough to damage against bosses I've seen melee and magic take out at my (AL95) level. To be fair, I am lousy at keeping my buffs up in the middle of a battle. But even when I do what I think is a fairly good job at it (Dodge, Fortify defenses, Evasion, Elysian Illumination, Soothing Rain, Death Shield, the other heal over time I can't recall ATM, water elemental, sprint, the dex buff) I still don't last very long against anything tougher than a Reaper if it has a ranged attack or is fast enough to catch me. In bronze bone armor, it usually takes one or two good crits in succession to do me in. I can kill Torc, because I can kite him (though I haven't tried since the speed nerf) but when it comes to Vrul, or the weaker dragons, or pretty much every other boss, it feels like a lost cause.

    Is there something I'm missing? Or have high level players pretty much abandoned light armor as an option? Heavy just seems to have so many more useful benefits to lower incoming damage, plus help with stuns/knockdowns. Light has evasion and dodge, and some speed to help you avoid getting hit in the first place (sprint and the movement speed innate) but when you do get hit, you get hit so hard it doesn't make up for getting hit slightly less often. It might work well in a group, where others are tanking, but it's starting to feel like light armor isn't meant for solo play at higher levels.
     
  2. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

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    I'm in much the same boat... but without all the magic :p

    Try adding Defensive Stance in the mix before you use Fortify Defenses, that should give you a point or two in extra avoidance.

    Other than that... I am adv lvl 90, and get stomped by most bosses, and can only take Corpus out, and get one other cabalist (Dolus?) to about 30% hp without having potions on me.
     
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  3. Cora Cuz'avich

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    Whoops, forgot that one in my list. I already use it.

    The only cabalists I have trouble with are the ones that use confusion. (I can do them if there's only one cabalist, but maybe 30% of the time the confusion botches me up enough that I get killed.) Wolf Speed and Sprint can keep you away from most of them, if you've leveled sprint and the movement speed innate high. Even Temna- if you move around enough, he spends more time repositioning than shooting. Cabalists, trolls, and reapers I can deal with pretty well. Everything else is pretty pointless to even try.

    Part of it also is that if the fight lasts longer than most of my buffs (so, around 30 seconds) I have a lot of trouble keeping the buffs up, moving, and attacking at the same time; especially if the boss has an attack that is countered by timing a jump.
     
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  4. Lord Tachys al`Fahn

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    Yeah, I hear ya... I have also noted some stealth tweaks to ranges on some attacks, specifically the trolls, where I used to be out of range after tagging them with a disabling shot and backing off while they wind up. Now I can have sprint up and still get hit (haven't tried with a wolf speed on).
     
  5. Cryodacry

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    No High level players have not abandoned Light armor.... The reality is you are trying to use Ranged to kill something that has 12,000 hp. That means you are going to get hit. Heavy is just better at mitigating damage than light. On the inverse Light is surprisingly better at dealing damage. If you don't believe me try using Flurry with Light armor Spec. Honestly speaking i to this day have been debating about going Light armor Spec with Shield.
     
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  6. Cora Cuz'avich

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    Something discussed in another thread- I'd love to see a reduction in the combat speed nerf for being in light armor, and an innate that grants extra DR/DA while you're moving.
     
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  7. Cora Cuz'avich

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    So, I'm back to archery being the wrong choice, not light armor? Well, crap. Given the choice, I'd rather dump the armor than ranged- I just can't get into the melee play style. I've never foundit fun.
     
  8. 2112Starman

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    Well, Im lvl 111 now with GM's in both light and heavy armor.

    At this point, I really dont see any difference between chain armor and leather armor. Honestly, I think they just completley offset each other. I dont even run fancy gear any longer, just +8ish stuff I make myself. Sometimes I just use the store gear.

    I think the key here is to make sure you raise ALL of the stat, defense skills, Buffs a defense passives and use them. I find to many people in this game raising their wep skills up to 140 and do nothing with their defense which makes them glass cannons.

    It also really helps to have very high life and always use the life heal. Even throw in there the others like soothing rain.

    This makes you char extremely sustainable.
     
  9. Cryodacry

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    It's not about archery being the wrong choice. It's about setting your self up for what your wanting to do. Archery is a perfectly valid option. You just need to balance the defense that is appropriate to the encounter. Now this is going to really depend on what you are wanting to kill. Now if your trying to solo bosses at Adv 95 either your char is built for soloing that boss and you are missing skills everywhere else or you have un-realistic expectations. Soloing bosses require player skill and high enough character skills. There is also practice involved to get to the point you can solo a boss. A prime example would be back when i used to solo the Steam dragon boss ... Took me a while to learn all of his tells. Just like i suck at killing daemons because i haven't learned all of their tells. But i can kill dragons while sleeping almost.

    The game is far from being binary to the point where heavy armor + archery = win .... far from it.
     
  10. Anpu

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    What are your defensive skill levels?
     
  11. Cora Cuz'avich

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    I didn't mean to imply it was. I think my initial post got a little ranty. What I was going for, was "what am I missing to make ranged/light armor work?" Or is the answer just that melee/heavy is better, so you're always going to have to see where they are and add 10-15 adventurer levels to do the same thing?

    And it is also very possible that I am just bad at games; something gear and stats will not compensate for.
     
  12. Cora Cuz'avich

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    All are between 80 and 100.
     
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  13. Barugon

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    Yeah, and they keep making it so that the higher level mobs can outrun you no matter what. Really makes light armor skills worthless.
     
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  14. Magnus Zarwaddim

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    FWIW: I run a Death/Air mage build. I have Light Armor. These are the following I have (only the ones I think you might look into):

    Light Armor:
    -Dodge: 100
    -Evasion: 100
    -Acrobatics: 100

    Tactics:
    -Healthy: 100
    -Train Strength: 100 (resistance to immobilizing effects, chance to parry or dodge an attack)
    -Defensive Stance: 100
    -Fortify Defenses: 100 (40 each on the other requirements)

    Subterfuge:
    -Train Dexterity: 100 (chance to dodge)

    Life:
    -Healing Touch: 80 (planning on 100)

    Sun:
    -Elysian Illumination: 100 (not working at the moment, other than the self heal)

    Water:
    -Soothing Rain: 100

    I also took Breaker in the Bludgeon skill - it increases strength (this is not for you, just pointing out I went that little "extra").

    I have Defense Stance locked on one of my slots. I have 2 glyphs each of Dodge, Evasion and Fortify Defenses in another slot. I always try to have Defense Stance up, and usually keep up the dynamic slot with the other three going as needed.

    I find that with this I am able to take some damage and evade/dodge and otherwise minimize other damage with higher end mobs (cabalists in sieges) - but this is also likely due to the fact that I use Death magic when I can, and potions/heal spells when I cannot.
     
  15. Talimar

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    I just keep smashing things in light armor.... seems to work.

    I don't use any of the light armor skill actives; but the passives, along with the earth tree. If I start to loose hp, then I pop a HoT or 3... and if that doesn't work, I might smash harder.
     
  16. the Lacedaemonian

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    One aspect of light armor relative heavy armor that does not strike me as balanced is the observation that light armor needs to be able to at least keep pace with the fastest moving mobs. If I push my movement speed buffs so high that I can cross maps in seriously short amounts of time, WHY can a skeleton elite run me down in combat mode (I can get away out of combat).

    One solution for archers would be to fold multishot lateral width of effect into disabling shot. Multishot itself could become a new attractive AOE DOT that had it's effectiveness increased by total points invested in the entire Range circle, ala attunement for combat.
     
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  17. the Lacedaemonian

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    Please feel free to share your thoughts. I'd really like archers to see this idea and voice support if it seems attractive.
     
  18. Toadster

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    They just need to finish the light armor tree soon. I am about to give up on it also and move to heavy.
    It needs another passive and 2 more actives to equal what they have in heavy.
    I’d like a dex booster passive at least.
     
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  19. Barugon

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    They should just adjust what's there to be more effective. A dex boost passive would be nice though.
     
  20. Nelzie

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    I've been digging on Light Armor for many months now.

    I still need to push everything up over 70 points though. Not much is above 70 in my Light Armor skills.
     
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