Am I still Squishy?

[hityawithastick]

Fellow wizards,

I put to you a question. I recently LR'd my drow wizard (my first toon ever: 128 hp at level 13). I put max points in Intelligence, and then into Constitution. I picked up Toughness and two tiers of the racial Toughness enhancement. My question is; now, with 23 Con and ~260 hp at level 15, is my toon relatively tough? Still squishy? Rambo?

Thanks in advance,

--Torlist--

[tripwire11]

not bad for a caster, your doing the right stuff, do you have heavy fort yet? Its a good un-squishy thing to get. Not enough for end game, but your not there yet

[kernal42]

I wouldn't call you tough, but you're out of the squishy danger zone for sure.

5 more levels, another +1 con (only +5 item or +1 tome so far?), Agents favor, and a Shroud hp item should bring you right about to 400, which is a comfortable starting place for an arcane at cap.

Cheers,
Kernal

[Truga]

The real question is "Am I still a fleshy?"

[Pallol_One-Eye]

The real question is "Am I still a fleshy?"

^^ This, nuff said.

[Renvar]

Your HP at 15th level won't get much above 280-290 on a drow build at that level on a newer toon. If you were a difference race or a TR, you would be able to get more at that level, but not that much more.

Remember to stay blurred, displaced, stoneskinned, and have elemental resists and protects on and you should be fine.

[cdemeritt]

Well, if you are a drow caster then yes you will always be squishy. However, it sounds like you are well on your way to being far less squishy than most. Just keep adding hitpoints where you can. good items to aquire are a minos legens helm from Necrop tapestry turn ins (+20hp and heavy fort, ml 11), and once you get your GS SP item done and cleansed, a GS hp item (various options for how to make it, but +45hp) both the Minos and GS Hp's stack with GFL.

However, smarter gameplay can over squishy. A good measure of how squishy you are is how often do you die. If you die at least once in almost every quest, even if you have 1000hp (not possible on a drow caster AFAIK) you are still squishy.

[ddoer]

Well, if you are a drow caster then yes you will always be squishy.

...

However, smarter gameplay can over squishy. A good measure of how squishy you are is how often do you die. If you die at least once in almost every quest, even if you have 1000hp (not possible on a drow caster AFAIK) you are still squishy.

my drow pale master consistently have 547 self-buff HP, is it too squishy? The number is not the max possible HP and can be further improved with better gear.

Recently, I mainly solo epic quests a lot and like to pull 15-20 epic mobs together to kill, usually got killed for at least once. is it squishy?

When my drow had 400 hp only, I don't feel it is squishy. When she had 300 hp only, there were no epic quests and I don't feel it's squishy either.

Survivability is all about you have good enough HP (that depends on the quest and difficulty), *and* you must be able to self-heal reliably.

Drow caster is NOT always squishy. period.

[hityawithastick]

Thanks, all, this helps a lot.

I did go necro-specced (/cringe), so that I could imitate the awesome self-healing of a WF without having to unlock the race. And I throw on a form whenever I start a quest, which gives me heavy fort and some dandy immunities.
It's good to hear someone confirm my suspicions, too--that poor hit points can be mitigated by good playing.

[Llewndyn]

I have a halfling monk /wizard, and at level 14 have 190 HP because I had to throw hefty pointage into Strength, Dex, Intelligence and Wisdom to not be COMPLETELy useless. I thought I was awesome until I read your post, and now I am sad deep down in my trousers.

/Edit: and I DON'T die once every quest, not until I hit Vale did I start getting dominated in a most unwholesome way.

[hityawithastick]

I have a halfling monk /wizard, and at level 14 have 190 HP because I had to throw hefty pointage into Strength, Dex, Intelligence and Wisdom to not be COMPLETELy useless. I thought I was awesome until I read your post, and now I am sad deep down in my trousers.

Putting aside the interesting way in which you described your emotions... Don't worry. I had 128 hp at level 13 before I LR'd this dude. And I rarely died. It's only a problem if you start dying in every single quest.

[DaSawks]

You are not too squishy. With spells like Resist, Blur, Displacement, Protections, Haste, Jump (Yes I said JUMP), stoneskin, Rage, Greater Heroism, Fire/Ice shield, you can avoid tons of damage. Now consider that you can also Crowd Control with things like Web, Charm, Hold, Flesh to Stone, Sunburst (Blind 'em all) you can decide who get near you. Hitpoints are nice and add to survivability but let us not forget what we are. Casters. Amen.

[Silverr]

My caster has about 350 HP when buffed, but I don't die at all unless the game lags out, or I decide I want to stop using mana pots.

[hityawithastick]

You are not too squishy. With spells like Resist, Blur, Displacement, Protections, Haste, Jump (Yes I said JUMP), stoneskin, Rage, Greater Heroism, Fire/Ice shield, you can avoid tons of damage. Now consider that you can also Crowd Control with things like Web, Charm, Hold, Flesh to Stone, Sunburst (Blind 'em all) you can decide who get near you. Hitpoints are nice and add to survivability but let us not forget what we are. Casters. Amen.

Amen to that! Jump is my favorite buff ever--I'd rather have it on than almost anything else.

Plus, of course, there's usually a Half Orc handy to throw into the fray. The game is so clogged with them.

[Delolith]

WF without having to unlock the race

That is not the case. The problem is how to LOCK them in a big big metal box together with some wood-loving "rust"monsters throw them in the ninth layer of Hell and make this world a better place (aka a bit more similar to Forgotten Realms)

Anyway towards your question...get over 400 unbuffed hps and you shouldn't have any problem even on epic quests. Once you are past that area and with your self heals you should be confident doing whatever. Quickened Negative Blast also helps.