Pointers cause I apparently can't figure it out

[ShivaX]

Any pointers for a relative newbie on surviving past say level 12? I can get to 10 fairly often and then, no matter what I'm doing or playing, I die. Usually by getting one-two shotted by some boss someplace. I seriously cannot get past level 12. Something comes out and instantly kills me and leaves me with no recourse. I'm wandering around, doing good, oh dude cast a spell at me and now I take 35 damage per turn. Forever. Nothing cures it. I die.

Or I'm in some dungeon, there's the boss. He hits me for 100+ damage. Every turn or two. I can't possibly out heal it and die.
Sometimes I just get one shotted from the darkness.

I'm sort of having fun, but I simply cannot progress anymore. I always die at around level 12. I've tried stacking resists, I never have the right ones, or it just doesn't matter. 30% less damage from fire doesn't mean anyting when he hits me for 65 damage from 4 different elements or the like. I feel like I'm missing some fundamental aspect of the game here, hence the posting in Dumb Questions - I feel dumb not being able to figure this out. Makes unlocking new things kind of a pain too since I just turn into a pile of meat or ash long before I can hit the triggers in most cases.

[HousePet]

Firstly, do all the starter dungeons. There are at least 6 of them.
Secondly, focus on defence and disable talents. A good stun will greatly weaken any creature.
Thirdly, go shopping. If you have been killed, look to see if you can get better gear.

[IvenGray]

What class are your characters? And where are they killed?

[The Revanchist]

If possible, who by?

Necromancers get Impending Doom, which deals constant damage until either they die, you die, or ten turns have passed. But it's set to do a lot of damage. About 500 with one point in it, I think.

[ShivaX]

What class are your characters? And where are they killed?

All classes and everywhere.

Usually its in the first Tier 2 dungeon I attempt, I've started doing all the starter areas and so far that's helped a little, basically a couple extra levels and maybe one or two pieces of gear. I have a level 14 Dwarf Berserker atm, the highest I've managed to date who is in the Old Forest and just got to the Lake, where I saved and went to bed. Last time I was in there I died horribly to some trap dropping rare squid. Usually, however, it's the Boss of the first Tier2 area that I run into, though sometimes it's some random rare.

The Horned Horror in the Maze has probably killed me most often, but that's only because randomly spawning rares don't tend to spawn often enough to manage the feat. I die to Rare X and then next time Rare Y gets me, etc.

And I'm playing Roguelike so doing anything after dying isn't an option.

The hitting all the early areas has helped more than I thought it would, but we'll see how it goes in the Lake later. Still any pointers for general survival are welcome. I try to get an escape or two, but honestly phase door is about all you can get early on and that seems to kill you as often as it helps. Right now I think I have 2 wild infusions (one physical/one mental) and two heals based off Strength and I think Con which tend to do pretty well. That said, I could easily see myself melting the instant something starts hitting me for 60+ every turn. I've been focusing more on Con and survival skills since my damage seems pretty good at the moment and that's probably helped as well.

Oh and link to my current dude:
http://te4.org/characters/105291/tome/c ... 56db3a3a8e

I don't usually pop Berserker, but I did run into a Boss/Rare along the way that I couldn't hurt at all until I used it (thankfully it couldn't really hurt me either), so I guess it isn't all bad.

[HousePet]

Maybe play in adventure mode until you learn how to learn how to deal with new challenges?

[The Revanchist]

Playing in adventure mode is a good safety net, at least until you learn the ropes.
Better than Exploration mode, at any rate...

If you don't already, when you run up against a rare/boss, right click to inspect them. It'll probably give you a good indication of whether they're out of depth. Before they instagib you, that is. Which is preferable.

[IvenGray]

Viewed your character sheet, and here are some of my thoughts:

-Your accuracy is not good enough. You would miss frequently when fighting some of the monsters in Tier 2 dungeons. Berserker adds accuracy, that's why it worked for you.

-You learned some advanced talents too early. They are not so helpful by the time, since it's hard to afford and your states are not good enough to support them well. Maybe you should try to focus on some talents that you use the most often at first.

-You need a movement infusion, it enables you to escape when situations are really bad. Otherwise you would be chased to death sometimes.

-Elemental damages starts to hurt at Tier 2 dungeons, so you need to check for resists.

[TheFinn70]

I realized I didn't have to finish any dungeon in a single run. I'd do the first level of each of the tier twos then go back and do the 2nd level of each, etc. It meant I had a couple more levels under my belt before I dealt with the bosses ( I think it also helped me collect a couple alchemist potions earlier).

[IvenGray]

I'd do the first level of each of the tier twos then go back and do the 2nd level of each, etc.

But a drawback is that you will have less exp in total.

[ShivaX]

Viewed your character sheet, and here are some of my thoughts:

-Your accuracy is not good enough. You would miss frequently when fighting some of the monsters in Tier 2 dungeons. Berserker adds accuracy, that's why it worked for you.

-You learned some advanced talents too early. They are not so helpful by the time, since it's hard to afford and your states are not good enough to support them well. Maybe you should try to focus on some talents that you use the most often at first.

-You need a movement infusion, it enables you to escape when situations are really bad. Otherwise you would be chased to death sometimes.

-Elemental damages starts to hurt at Tier 2 dungeons, so you need to check for resists.

Any hints on what accuracy I should be aiming for? As with most of the math issues, it's really hard to tell at a glance what you need. Or at least what you're enemies on average have. So far I haven't had any issues hitting really, other than the one rare, and iirc I was actually hitting, just not doing any damage.

As far as talents, again, exactly the kind of info I'm looking for. I mean mostly I use a few talents and it's hard to say if a whole new thing I can do is better than 20% more damage on my whirlwind thing or not. Movement infusion isn't out there, though I haven't checked all the shops yet, maybe I'll head over to Lost Hope since they tend to have more variety that I've seen. I honestly don't think I've seen many in any of my playthroughs, its always wild infusions, regen, heal and phase door.

Again for resists, what's a good target? I've been trying to get some on as much gear as I can, but it's still a mystery what counts as "good" and the like.

Thanks for the feedback, just trying to narrow down what I should be aiming for in general. It's one thing to say "you need more X" but how much more or what's a good range would be more helpful.

And I really do need to right click more, maybe I should look into a detailed breakdown of what exactly I'm looking at when I do it. I think I get information overload and miss most things past Level, HP and Resists.

[ShivaX]

So I went and got the speed thing and it did... absolutely nothing and I died.

I activated it to try to run, it didn't make me faster, but it went on cooldown. Then I died since I was down a heal and tried to slowly walk away from things while they just bombarded me with spells. Am I missing something here? I seem to recall having this problem every time I've ever tried to use a movement infusion and that's why I stopped even using them.

[HousePet]

Movement infusion will deactivate if you use any other talent.
If you don't think you pressed anything, maybe you have something set to automatic?

[ShivaX]

Movement infusion will deactivate if you use any other talent.
If you don't think you pressed anything, maybe you have something set to automatic?

Hmm... could be, though I don't have anything set that I'm aware of other than sustained stuff, would that kill it?
Which is to say, if I want to use movement infusions do I have to "turn off" everything that's already active and then use the infusion?

I wish the things were a little easier to come by so I could experiment more.

[HousePet]

Sustains and existing effects shouldn't have any effect.