Healing Amp and Exc. Fort on Casters?

[arminius]

On my melees I am just bonkers for healing amp, exceptional fort, dodge, ghostly, blurry, and displacement, anything to allow the character to survive long enough to have a chance to defeat the enemy.

As part of that, everyone regardless of class has at least the 30% healing amp gloves and 20% somewhere else, and if they are not already Unyielding Sentinel then they twist Brace for Impact at the earliest possible moment and keep it forever. Brace for impact is especially critical because in order for Fort to be kept up on EE it has to be at least, what, 155% or so? And the only way to do that currently is Brace for Impact + a 25% item.

On melees, that is a simple twist choice. There are a few other tempting tier one items (Rej. Coccoon, Healing Spring, Unearthly Reactions, Tunnel Vison if you aren't immune to rage) but overall it is just something that has to be done so you do it.

But on casters, I have a heck of a time fitting in either healing amp items or enhancements or exceptional fort, especially twisting Brace for Impact, which is critical to making exceptional fort worth anything. How critical is this really? For you guys with a lot of experience in epics, how have you done either with or without healing amp and/or exceptional fort on your casters?

[Chette]

What kind of caster?

My pure favoured soul wears leaves of the forest which has exceptional fort on it already, though I wear it for the +3 insightful wisdom and con. She also wears 30% healing amp of superior stability bracers, since saves are her biggest weakness most of the time.

My wizard is in lich form and wears heavy fort, so that's 200% already, no need for exceptional fort. As she doesn't get healed she doesn't wear healing amp.

My sorc is on a warforged life right now and wears heavy fort, so that 25% exceptional. I wear the purple dragon gloves for +2 insightful con and 30% healing amp for when I receive occasional heals.

The only characters I can see this being an issue on would be fleshy sorcs and monk-splahsed divines. Felshy sorcs generally play the "don't get hit" strategy, so while exceptional fort would certainly be nice, it's not necessarily a must have. As for monk-splahsed divines, I don't have one right now, so I'm not sure.

[voodoogroves]

She also wears 30% healing amp of superior stability bracers, since saves are her biggest weakness most of the time.

Was this lootgen? I didn't think you could craft stability on bracers.



For me, I do go for amp on fleshie casters, but not so much the exceptional fort. Amp is good for everyone who expects to be hit with positive-energy-heals.

[Nitesco]

But on casters, I have a heck of a time fitting in either healing amp items or enhancements or exceptional fort, especially twisting Brace for Impact, which is critical to making exceptional fort worth anything. How critical is this really? For you guys with a lot of experience in epics, how have you done either with or without healing amp and/or exceptional fort on your casters?

Do you use Yugoloth potions? I think the idea is that on an arcane caster you are generally mobile with Displacement and fast healing, so you might be able to get away with just 100% fortification in most EE. If you like to tank in AoE + fog while shield blocking, it might be a different story though. I haven't had any issues with getting critted so far on my WF AM with 100% fort (while running Yugo pot). Which particular quests were you considering that might be the most perilous as far as fortification bypass?

[tekkentroop]

wf wizards and pale masters wont need either very urgently (wf might have PDK gloves as swap-in for raid healing situations), but divine casters benefit a lot from healing amp (especially with radiant aura or fvs healing capstone), and should have exceptional fort, or get the twist from unyielding sentinel (40% extra fort, +2 saves) which isnt hard to get for an exalted angel. My caster FVS has 20+30 healing amp from equip and 20 more from human enhancements.

[sirgog]

Amp is only of real value if you have a lot of hitpoints compared to the size of incoming heals. For most casters this isn't the case (although 30% is worth slotting if you scroll Heal on yourself or have passive healing from an Aura, use Renewal on yourself a lot or are often under the effect of your own Druid HOTs). Some builds value amp more (and as always amp has escalating returns - the more of it you have, the more each future amp item helps)

As for exceptional Fortification - it's just an absolute necessity for U16 chain EEs. Even my Pale Master has been one-shot in one of those (200% base fortification, -50% Yugoloth pot = 150%, CR 54 foe bypassing 54% fortification so 96% effective fort, and those mobs hit stupidly hard). You need to achieve 150% or better fortification (ideally 160%) somehow - whether by EE Leaves of the Forest, Brace for Impact or something else is up to you.