Death cafe

[SpiritofAlba]

I'm a long time super casual player, on about my sixth life. Each time I TR, which is very infrequently, I wonder how far I can get before I suffer my first death. It is one thing that keeps me quite interested and entertained through familiar low level content. Now, I know there will be folk who TR in each tea break and only die in legendary reaper 10, but for the rest of us death is actually quite a pain at low levels, before raising becomes available. So, topics for the thread:

- top tips for staying alive in low levels
- what generally or where specifically do YOU die in low levels (you know, that 'oh no, not here again moment...'

[Hobgoblin]

I'm a long time super casual player, on about my sixth life. Each time I TR, which is very infrequently, I wonder how far I can get before I suffer my first death. It is one thing that keeps me quite interested and entertained through familiar low level content. Now, I know there will be folk who TR in each tea break and only die in legendary reaper 10, but for the rest of us death is actually quite a pain at low levels, before raising becomes available. So, topics for the thread:

- top tips for staying alive in low levels
- what generally or where specifically do YOU die in low levels (you know, that 'oh no, not here again moment...'

wands/pots of aid
invul items
cc gear made for your level
work on ac in low levels - it actually helps up to around 10 ish
layer defenses - ie ac, dodge blur etc
Know what your build is - i actually sometimes try to die and i either get the o wow. i shouldnt have pulled the whole dungeon lol or wow. how did i stay alive after pulling the whole dungeon?
sometimes its dps is king. sry i have 3 hp but everything is dying before it gets to me so im good.

umd wands/scrolls of cure wounds at the right levels

where i often die. ogre in ww. ogre in 3bc. trolls in sorrowdusk. ogres in gh.

maybe i should avoid ogres.

traps can kill you if you dont react fast enough

[Selvera]

Tips for staying alive at low levels:

1) Pick up those elemental resist buffs from the cargo hold in your ship.
2) http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Necklace_of_Contemplation
3) Don't try to run a difficulty that's too hard for you
4) http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Bracers_of_Wind_(level_3)
5) Potions of cure serious wounds or a hireling to heal up between fights.
6) http://ddowiki.com/page/Epic_Past_Life_Feats

[Connman]

I die on a fairly regular basis. More so when I am on a new build I am working on as apposed to one of my tried and true TR builds.

I die because I push my toon to the limit. You don't know where the line is until you cross it. I try to die less in groups because I don't want to burden my fellow players.

Triple heroic, working on racial's and still have some epics left to do.

[Amundir]

I mean, if you're doing reaper, deaths just happen.

[SpartanKiller13]

Where I die most:

Kobold Sorcs in Butcher's Path if I forgot to grab Lightning resist.

Every time I swap from my tanky melee main to a squishy lvl 7 Sorc alt and walk facefirst into an enemy.

Tips to help with death:

Cursed Blade of Jack Jibbers get one of these babies and you can undead-ify yourself to travel further to a shrine/rez allies/complete objectives.

Unyielding Sovereignty (Sovereign Host lvl 6 divine ability) cures Death Penalties among other things.

Learn to kite well, it will help you survive far longer than you otherwise should. Small tip, you can juke arrows and many projectile spells.

Learn to jumpcast - also works for scrolls/potions etc. If you are mid-jump when you use these abilities, you mitigate the slow-down effect that normally occurs from casting/drinking. You also avoid most incoming damage so less/easier Concentration checks. I mean you can use Quicken on spells, but this is free and fairly easy to learn.

[CSQ]

It's not really a helpful comment, but I always seem to die when I'm with friends or family. When I'm solo, I can survive an impressive amount of stuff, but when I join a party I drop my stone left and right. Particularly, I seem to have terrible luck with champion spawns when other people are around. So, my advice on not dying that might actually be helpful:

Bring healing hirelings (but don't expect them to work well, their AI is typically garbage). Grab Favored Souls instead of Clerics, if you can, because they cast spells faster and with the derpy AI that can make or break clutch healing.

Bring healing items. Wands, scrolls, potions, clickies, whatever you can get your hands on. If you're a 'forged, go for the Ring of Master Artifice- it gives you a heal a day but also a slight chance to get healed on a hit, which won't keep you alive alone but will certainly help.

Buff your defenses. Get natural armor, deflection, shield, and armor bonuses at low levels, because low level AC tanking is a thing. Later on, move towards blur/displacement, dodge, incorporeality, and the like to avoid incoming hurt. False life is often just a drop in the bucket, but it can be the difference between -19 and -9, so don't count it out. Fortification is critically important because it prevents damage from sneak attacks and critical hits, so don't count it out unless you really trust your luck.

Get ship buffs. If you don't have a guild, find someone who can invite you to a guild, and if you can't get or don't want a guild invite, see if you can't get guild buffs by invitation to a ship. Most every public group, there will be someone willing to invite to a ship if you ask. The exception might be Forgotten Realms content, since it's a royal pain to get to an airship from there, but by then you shouldn't have to worry too much. Guilds take a long time to level, though, so don't expect to start a guild and have all the amenities right away.

Consider level and difficulty. For a first life character, running on normal or hard at the quest's base level is enough challenge and payout to go pretty far. More extreme builds can do fine, but generic and low-power builds may be more vulnerable.

Check your build for obvious mistakes. It might be late for a few of these, but...
Do you have your class's recommended stats? High Constitution is always good if you have your primary and secondary attribute up but have points to spare, since it's more health.
Do your feat selections bolster your play style? Some feats are more valuable than others, and even something that might be viable at one point of the game might be worthless in some situations- any of the skill feats can safely be ignored in favor of random gen/crafted loot.
Are you enhancing your character optimally? Some classes and trees favor broad splashing across multiple trees, while others reward singular focus. If it seems like you're struggling in content, look at the enhancements you haven't tried, assuming your class doesn't favor sinking everything into one tree. Even trees that specialize in something else can give sleeper bonuses, like healing amplification, AC/MRR/PRR, or damage.

Finally, check the wiki for quests. Look for older content if you want to play it safe, especially on higher difficulties- some of the new content has been made more difficult as a response to power creep. Additionally, look for quests that are low in traps if you aren't playing rogue or don't have evasion, and memorize (or check) where traps are to avoid getting demolished unexpectedly.

All of these should help. I'm not the best person to ask because I seem to be cursed by the shrine gods, and ultimately there are things that simply are determined by luck- taking thirty critical hits in ten seconds is devastating to any build, and starting from scratch it can be hard to have "optimal" gear.