Rogue Self-Healing

[Sovery]

Hi, I'm a relatively experienced player, 1 life away from completionist. However, I've almost no experience of post level 20. I'm now trying to figure out where my final life should be. Rogue is a very strong choice and I'd like to stay pure if possible. I'm having difficulty with one thing - how to heal myself.

Working through lives, I've taken heavy splashes when playing melee characters in order to make them as self-sufficient as possible. All my characters have been able to solo, albeit heroic elite content only. In the past I've tried scroll/potion healing and, to me, they are of limited effectiveness, particularly in the middle of a fight - hard to fight while reading a scroll! I've tried potion healing with 50%+ healing amp but the healing pales in higher content. I've not tried a halfling with healing marks. I have tried elf mark (displacement) which, while effective at reducing damage, did not help me heal myself. Some of you may think that a Rogue should get hit - and I agree to some extent - but it does happen (at least when I play).

As far as I can tell, my options are these:
- A 4 level splash in cleric/favored soul for Amelerating Strike - this goes against wanting to be pure but on paper it looks like it may work.
- A heavier splash in a healer class and use heal spells or enhancements - again, I want to be pure
- Play a halfling with dragonmark Heal. This takes a feat, is a race I'd rather not play (would rather play an Elf for cosmetic reasons), and is 3 Heals going to be enough?
- Use scrolls - either get high UMD or half-elf cleric dilly - but then I'm having to scroll heal during fights
- Use potions - cure serious is low heals; Silver flame potions have stat effects
- Cocoon (which I'll admit I don't really understand as I've not yet played that content)
- Combination of these
- Other....?

My question is which would you suggest, or are none of these good at epic content? I really want to stay pure if at all possible, but in the modern game (at least on heroic) there is a lot of reliance on self healing during fights. Do I need to suck it up and either splash heavily or scroll heal? Is halfling mark healing enough, or is there something I'm missing?

Also, some advice please from more experienced rogues - is this a short term problem? Will I find as I get into epic content that defenses will be high enough as gear improves so I won't get hit as much, or that the reliance on self-healing diminishes, or that there other feats/twists etc that I will access which will heal me?

Thanks in advance.

[Lonnbeimnech]

- Cocoon (which I'll admit I don't really understand as I've not yet played that content)

This is a spell like ability. spell like abilities cannot be interrupted, there is no concentration check, so it's a good choice for in combat healing.
It costs 12 sp, so having an sp item is handy
having the magical training feat, which even a pure rogue can select, is potentially hand because of echos of power, so you will always have enough sp to use cocoon.
It is effected by positive spell power, so getting a weapon with a red slot and putting a ruby of devotion is a cheap way to boost its power.




My question is which would you suggest, or are none of these good at epic content? I really want to stay pure if at all possible, but in the modern game (at least on heroic) there is a lot of reliance on self healing during fights. Do I need to suck it up and either splash heavily or scroll heal? Is halfling mark healing enough, or is there something I'm missing?
cocoon is pretty strong, it is definitely enough for epic hard content, for epic elite...epic elite is a different game, it has more to do with playing smart than just trying to heal through incoming damage. cocoon works fine most of the time.

[Jhaeran]

I went with all 3 - scroll healing, ameliorating strikes and cocoon - then trying for dodge/ghostly for mitigation via dodge and whisperchain armor.

Its working out pretty well, usually not a big effort. Rarely I'll need to back away from battle and scroll heal - usually strikes and cocoon will work. You could probably even ditch the strikes but that 60-100 every 12(?) seconds does add up to prevent a heal.

I ended up a 13rog/5cle/2ftr - https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/442706-Poor-man-s-staff-build-Non-Lawful-Human-8Ftr-7Cle-5Rog

Full traps (at least up to EH), and can survive fine in EE (at least the ones I've done). Its fun. Probably not the 'best' DPS but pretty good and like any melee LD helps and blitz is unreal.

[ReaperAlexEU]

i went just heal scrolls with the enhancement to boost their power (wand+scroll mastery for 75% boost) and the ever useful healing amp (purple dragon knight gauntlets are an easy source of 30% amp plus 10% from ship buffs).

that gives enough of a kick to be worth losing the attack time over. because i had zero build or gear (besides the omnipotent healing amp) to boost cocoon i didn't find it that useful as i worked on that destiny. it's well worth building for cocoon if you want to take that route, trying to crow bar it in after will lead to lack lustre performance.

it's worth noting that my rogue is a mechanic by day, which puts me one step ahead of the melee mobs should i mess up my agro management. this obviously makes my healing easier in EE's of which i've done the easy and medium difficulty ones (so no stormholme on elite but plenty of stormreach and gianthold stuff). you don't mention the type of rogue you play so bear that in mind.

as mentioned above there is no reason why you can't take several sources of healing. while my rogue only uses scrolls for in combat healing (with the free boost wands are nice for cheap top up's outside of combat) my paladin has a whole host of healing abilities. with a torc and conc-opp he can use SP for CSW with a meta-magic feat and a devotion item to boost it (and the awe inspiring healing amp) when the quest is throwing lots of little hits at him. he always has a stack of heal scrolls for backup and naturally has his LoH. having several options to fall back on is great and i assume jhaeran enjoys that on the rogue just as i do on the paladin.

[Linvak]

Obviously cocoon is very strong. But like the post before me, you really can get away with heal scrolls. As a pure rogue, you end up with 100+% on UMD checks, and between boat, gloves, and the 75% scroll power I hit about 250-270 per scroll. I recently TR'd to go human, because there was no reason to be halfling anymore. So I should be able to add at 20% which should make 300+ scroll heals. You just have to be pretty quick and know when to back out. But I did decently in epic elite with just scrolls.

[Miahoo]

Cocoon is great for eh stuff.
For EE I keep myself up with sf pots.

[PsychoBlonde]

I predominately use heal scrolls and the occasional cocoon on my completionist trapper rogue/monk/paladin, and she's 100% self-sufficient in the healing department.

The biggest thing is that you have to look for ways to avoid getting hit as much as possible--and not just passive ways. Crowd Control is your friend. Bluff pulling so you only have to tackle one mob at a time is your friend. (There is NO REASON why a pure rogue should not have a maxxed out bluff, and bluff resistance on mobs is INCREDIBLY low even on eE. You should be able to bluff-pull ANYTHING IN THE GAME.) Trip, stun, any type of "you cannot attack" ability REALLY REALLY HELPS. Make use of this and you won't be stopping to heal yourself very often.

[PsychoBlonde]

And you can always play a Bladeforged and Reconstruct yourself.

[kamimitsu]

You should be able to bluff-pull ANYTHING IN THE GAME.

Good advice, but some red-name monsters are tough to bluff. Vicala Szind in Impossible Demands EE wouldn't budge on a 19 + 67. Though I do recall bluff-pulling Solul in House of Broken Chains EE.

The DC is foe's CR + 10 + Wisdom Mod, so bluff-pulling any EE red-named WIS-based casters may prove tricky.

I think I was level 23 at the time, so perhaps the extra levels may make it more viable.

http://webpages.charter.net/kyuzo/Midler_Farmhouse/ScreenShot00304.jpg

[Arcanegrin]

I would recommend taking what you think is a strong build through epics to try it out. Personally I wouldn't want to do my final life on a build that isn't able to cut it on EE content, and until you try EE it will be hard for you to perfect a final life build.

[nokowi]

Hi, I'm a relatively experienced player, 1 life away from completionist. However, I've almost no experience of post level 20. I'm now trying to figure out where my final life should be. Rogue is a very strong choice and I'd like to stay pure if possible. I'm having difficulty with one thing - how to heal myself.

Working through lives, I've taken heavy splashes when playing melee characters in order to make them as self-sufficient as possible. All my characters have been able to solo, albeit heroic elite content only. In the past I've tried scroll/potion healing and, to me, they are of limited effectiveness, particularly in the middle of a fight - hard to fight while reading a scroll! I've tried potion healing with 50%+ healing amp but the healing pales in higher content. I've not tried a halfling with healing marks. I have tried elf mark (displacement) which, while effective at reducing damage, did not help me heal myself. Some of you may think that a Rogue should get hit - and I agree to some extent - but it does happen (at least when I play).

As far as I can tell, my options are these:
- A 4 level splash in cleric/favored soul for Amelerating Strike - this goes against wanting to be pure but on paper it looks like it may work.
- A heavier splash in a healer class and use heal spells or enhancements - again, I want to be pure
- Play a halfling with dragonmark Heal. This takes a feat, is a race I'd rather not play (would rather play an Elf for cosmetic reasons), and is 3 Heals going to be enough?
- Use scrolls - either get high UMD or half-elf cleric dilly - but then I'm having to scroll heal during fights
- Use potions - cure serious is low heals; Silver flame potions have stat effects
- Cocoon (which I'll admit I don't really understand as I've not yet played that content)
- Combination of these
- Other....?

My question is which would you suggest, or are none of these good at epic content? I really want to stay pure if at all possible, but in the modern game (at least on heroic) there is a lot of reliance on self healing during fights. Do I need to suck it up and either splash heavily or scroll heal? Is halfling mark healing enough, or is there something I'm missing?

Also, some advice please from more experienced rogues - is this a short term problem? Will I find as I get into epic content that defenses will be high enough as gear improves so I won't get hit as much, or that the reliance on self-healing diminishes, or that there other feats/twists etc that I will access which will heal me?

Thanks in advance.


Sneak until someone else has aggro - then join the fray
Get a Dodge of 25%
Get PRR
multiple Perma Blur/Displacement clicky from shroud
Boost your Fort/Will saves as much as you can
Use Uncanny Dodge clicky
Cocoon

Forget scrolls in combat, you have to stop attacking to equip/use them. Make yourself tough enough to survive with just cocoon. Past life epic divine healing is a good option. In an emergency, you might pop a scroll, but this really reduces your damage output.