WF to fleshies (Horc): gear and immunities

[metalworker]

So I've never played a non-WF, I'm currently TR'ing my WF barb into a Horc (He's a TRx3 now). I'm wondering what are good low level gear (armor-wise) that are available for Fleshies and where can they be found? I'm most likely going to run naked with no armor and work on DT armors when I get there.

About immunities. I'm aware that non-WF need poison neutralization pots, what else do they need? How do I minimize energy drain and other things that non-WF get affected where WF are completely immune?

Thanks all! Since I'm TR'ing a barb, I'm most likely going to ignore these and just smash ****, but it'll be good not to die to beholders and lose xp from dying :P

[blitzschlag]

you will suffer on the fleshy side :P

[Sarisa]

Silver Flame Talisman/Pale Lavendar Ioun Stone/Mantle of the World Shaper for level drain, and Disease Immunity on an item for mummies. Smart play around Beholders, some people are skilled enough to dance around them in such a way that they can avoid the antimagic aura. Potions are fine for poison, at least in Dispel light areas. At low levels, a spell resistance item like a Phiarlan Mirror Cloak or (if you can wear it) Infested Armor can help keep the holds away. Later on, Freedom of Movement from a bard or a divine caster. While not necessary, Kundarak Delving Boots are nice to have in dispel heavy areas like the white dragon in Tor (slippery floor) and in Offering of Blood (webs and holds) at level or on epic.

[wolfy42]

As a barb i'd say just grab a robes of invulnerability early on till your nat DR reaches 5. Grab a ring of poison and disease immunity (switching to them for traps etc). For early levels there is the mirror cloak or something (Forget it's name) that gives decent SR (17 I think) along with a hide/ms boost (works even for Barbs so you can often get first hits on monsters and works great with invisibility).

Thats pretty much all you need although snagging the Chrono gloves and maybe the bracers as well would be nice (resist 10 for fire/electricity and nice bonus damage from the gloves...along with +2 str so bulls or a buff from phalen/+4 item etc isn't as important).

Speed boosts are important as well. I think you get the quicksilver robes from sorrowdusk but it's some early quest...do a search for em and you'll get 20% speed boost at level 4 I think it is (low level at least ...might be 6 shrug). Add that in to your nat barb speed increase and use your sprints and you'll fly through the early levels in your sleep.

Pretty much it for important equipment that differs from WF early on. You know all the quests I'm guessing but may have ignored poison traps or enemies that can disease you etc...some things you can't avoid as a non-WF but over all the transistion isn't that bad. It's really weird going from a H-orc back to a WF though...I just did that recently and not having to pay attention to so many things is very relaxing hehe.

Why are you switching to H-orc if I may ask? The damage is a bit higher thats true, but I still think a WF is probably the better over all barbarian long term. Certainly the easier character to play.

[metalworker]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll look up those items in the compendium and see where I can grab them. I'm quite familiar with mobs that I know how to engage them and drop them to the best of my ability.

Horc > WF, there's just no comparison. The reason being, as a barb, you are primarily a hate-dps-tank, i.e. you want to draw all the aggro on yourself while pushing out as much damage as you can.

WF do get nice immunities/more hp, and reconstructable, and it took me a LONG time and a lot of feelings to drop WF (there's a reason my toons are named Metalxxx :P).

The deal is, end-game, you will have all buffs available, making WF immunities not as important, and losing 20hp from -2CON (perhaps a potential 40hp-60hp from enhancements) is still fine on a barb. My previous life had my WF barb with standing 718 hp (1 toughness feat), rage sustained to 968. That was plenty. Horc build I'm expecting about 688 standing (1 toughness feat), rage sustained to about low 900s. It's a little less, but still plenty, the bigger deal is no heal-amp penalty, so heals become much stronger with still a large pool of 900hp.

WF get some tactic lines but Horc basically get exactly the same benefit but better to-hit and damage with the STR bonus. In some sense, AP is tight on Horc, but it is not wasted i.e. your APs do to-hit/DPS/tactics.

Finally, gear-setup for WF barb is currently inferior (Epic marilith chain + Litany IMO is still better than Docent of Defiance + Bloodstone, although the EMC is tough as balls to get so it'll take awhile).

So these are the small reasons, the big reasons are just simply Horcs do more dps than barbs. For a barb, DPS>hate-tanking>HP/survivability>other random **** like UMD etc. And an end-game barb with over 900 rage-sustained hp and close to 700 standing hp is already considered very survivable, on top of good saves, and some DR to boot. At least, I cannot justify myself being geared out but always weaker than a Horc barb, so I TR'd to Horc.