Squishy while levelling

[Aeriwan]

Hi I'm currently at level 36 on force master and I've been loving the damage but I seem to be having major problems with survivability. I have taken every heal skill I can see so far and played around with my spec quite a bit but I seem to be dying to normal mobs faster than any of this can help me. When I can kite the mobs theres no issues but anything with a charge or jump seems to kill me or take me down very low within a couple of hits.

Does anyone have any advice on what I can spec into to make myself less squishy or does it get better as I level up? 

[AkiTomoya]

Main aspect in survivability is Health. And Health is all about your soulshield set, as you get to do the current end game purple dungeons, you will get better soulshields with more health. For lv36, you can try using the soulshield from the exchange merchant at Yehara's Mirage or use Pinchy's soulshield from spinning the wheel with the essence (the scorpion boss just right beside Yehara). You might also consider upgrading your weapon if you haven't because I personally find that from Lv1-45, it's mostly kill or be killed by the mobs. There really isn't much skills or experience as a player needed.

However, health is not everything as I have seen people with only 35k hp doing end game dungeons and clearing with ease. As a fm, you have your Q E and SS for iframe (invulnerable frame where you take no damage), also you have V (if you add the skill points to it) and TAB. 

For kiting, a tip is to circle around the enemy as you hit them. To prevent charge or jump, stay close to the mob as some mobs only does the following action when there's a distance. Also, here is where your iframes are useful. Try using Q E & SS when necessary to evade the damage. The timing to the iframe is the key and it takes some practice. Also I am aware of ping problems, which is all the more you need to get used to the delays you experience on press to activation.

P.S: With enough damage and crits, add skill points to ice F and you can absorb 2x hp. 

These are just some small tips and I hope that it helped you a bit. :)

[spongemike]

Same issue I am having with FM. Currently lvl 33. We are like a glass cannon right now. We can punch hard we also take massive damage. We don't really have much defensive skills as well so is a bit hard. But hey there are very few FM so that makes us unique.

[Careyni]

At that level, the best save I used often was veil.  Specced it for max HP regen and 30% def buff which seemed to greatly reduce the squishy feeling.  Also, when hunting, if you change phantom grip to shadow grasp, you can kind of keep the mobs in place to AoE them down faster.  Otherwise, as AkiTomoya said, your iframes are your best friends :-)

[Lool]

I can understand dying to normal mobs in some dungeons (as a few of them aren't "normal" in the statistical sense). On field, and for regular mooks, there are easy solutions

1. use Q/E/SS when you see an approach skill incoming - prevention is the best
2. crit-activated life drain or instant heal amethyst gem - brilliant square is 80 drain, green pentagonal is 150 instant heal
3. more crit: get Pinchy's soul shield set; or, the level 36 cinderlands set and fuse it with Pinchy 8th wedges (or lesser ones; they all provide decent bonus)
4. take a build based on ice rain (2), since it hits more often giving you more crits over the total amount of damage, increasing passive healing from the gems and chances of being able to heal off F; alternate LMB/2/RMB/2 if you're low on HP
5. alternatively, plan ahead well and just burst everything down (you can at this level) with a fire build - use a focus-regenerating skill (like C) and spam 2, AoE for melee-only groups, beam if you want to snipe down other ranged first
6. 4 (phantom grip) skilled into the 8m AoE pull, and follow with 3 to freeze them in place; optionally also use 1 near the end of freeze duration for more CC and small healing. Make sure to use 4 within 8m range so your 3 isn't wasted, and that can heal as well. Doing this you may be hit by the initial approach, but back off a bit and they will be out of range.

*oh, plus start with an ice skill that inflicts chill, like RMB; some approach skills are blocked if chill is active

[Aeriwan]

Thanks for all the tips, already making a big difference. I should learn to read the ability descriptions properly, I hadn't been using divine veil at all because I thought you had to channel it. 

One more question, what are the main skills I should use for aoe since most people seem to recommend having 2 specced for either ice rain or blazing beam?

[Scyrion]

Try LMB T4F3 for Aoe and lifeleech (10% heal doesn't seem that great as a number but the heal you get from it is in fact really good) and V specced into Meteor Shower ... you'll love it

[spongemike]

Also get an attack power gem. 25 attack power goes for like 20 to 30 slivers on my server(you can get better ones if this is your 2nd  character and you have the gold for it).  Well worth the cost. Also when upgrading always upgrade your weapon first if you don't have the mats to upgrade everything. Weapons gives the biggest boost in damage. 

 

In terms of upgrade sometimes you are require to farm certain world boss for the upgrade. If possible just buy those from the market. Is faster that way.

[Lunakitty]

I hope you didn't mix additional damage diamond to attack power one. On my server AP diamonds are around 20 gold. For FM I can give advice to use divine veil for ranged classes as soon as you can. It will protect you from gunners. Also spec your RMB to freeze so every 3rd hit freezes the enemy. Remember to also move around and try to iframe attacks with your Q, E and SS skils.

[Dlacik]

If you use chill/freeze, watch your distance from the target. Many mobs wants to charge/jump at you if you are more than 8m from them and if they can`t they will reset.

[Losti]

I farmed Tomb of Exiles for Sacrifice Soul Shield (http://bladeandsoul.gamepedia.com/Sacrifice_Soul_Shield) and it doubled my hp:) But I never had much problems.

Was playing with LMB T4F3 (Still do). Also Frost "Alt-Iceblock" gives 30% HP gain instantly for 3 Points in it (2min CD).

And always have your weapons as much maxed out as possible. Mobs die before they reach me :)

Oh, I didn't know that you can enhance soul shield (via fusing) :o

 

[MerlinBG]

To be honest, I don't remember having this problem earlier when I was leveling my FM... generally the class feels quite easy to level and with high survivability - especially compared with other MMORPGs.

Check the abilities' specializations, there are some you can fine-tune for HP return.

[spongemike]

7 hours ago, Lunakitty said:

I hope you didn't mix additional damage diamond to attack power one. On my server AP diamonds are around 20 gold. For FM I can give advice to use divine veil for ranged classes as soon as you can. It will protect you from gunners. Also spec your RMB to freeze so every 3rd hit freezes the enemy. Remember to also move around and try to iframe attacks with your Q, E and SS skils.

Sorry I mean gold..... not enough sleep. Another advice is party up for quest, you will finish faster. If you see someone in the area killing the same stuff you are, send them an invite. Both of you will finish the quest faster. The Exp from killing mobs is so bad it doesn't matter if you kill less of them.

 

I actually try to run with a fire and ice build and I feel like the fire build is better. Just seems to kill things faster = less change of getting hit and level faster.

https://bnstree.com/FM?build=400000025531256413813126533250111063325133249312373241011

 

I use this build so far. Is not for AoE grinding as you can tell but for single target is pretty good. You also get the bubble if you are taking range attack and also in party it helps with your party members. Also with frost armor you get some Hp back and also you get Frost sheath again more for parties

 

Ice build are more safer I guess around regular mobs I guess but in dungeons your damage isn't that great. If you are doing dungeons or any world boss watch your aggro as a fire build. So many times I pull aggro off and is not fun lol.

 

 

Is a weird build but it helps to get hp back with frost furry and with fire furry when it procs is pretty useful to finish off mobs that's coming at you. I should spec into T3F2 with fire palm I guess not sure why I went T3F1........

[AkiTomoya]

I personally felt that ice build is better when you're below lv45. I was using ice build back then and mostly freezing the mobs in place so that they couldn't touch me. Adding 3 points to Force Blast for the most right of the skill tree increases the ice build's damage tremendously.

It is only after I got my HM1 with 6 (correct me if I'm wrong) bonus skill points before I changed into a fire build.

 

[Udunnome]

On 10.04.2016 at 11:25 AM, spongemike said:

Also get an attack power gem. 25 attack power goes for like 20 to 30 slivers on my server(you can get better ones if this is your 2nd  character and you have the gold for it).  Well worth the cost. Also when upgrading always upgrade your weapon first if you don't have the mats to upgrade everything. Weapons gives the biggest boost in damage. 

 

In terms of upgrade sometimes you are require to farm certain world boss for the upgrade. If possible just buy those from the market. Is faster that way.

25 attack power for 30 silvers? Maybe you're confusing with additional damage.

[Tsuchiryu]

8 hours ago, Udunnome said:

25 attack power for 30 silvers? Maybe you're confusing with additional damage.

This. Additional damage Diamonds that cost as little as less than 1g. AP ones goes for 15+ gold, at least in NA.

[spongemike]

4 hours ago, Tsuchiryu said:

This. Additional damage Diamonds that cost as little as less than 1g. AP ones goes for 15+ gold, at least in NA.

 

13 hours ago, Udunnome said:

25 attack power for 30 silvers? Maybe you're confusing with additional damage.

 

On 2016-04-11 at 9:01 AM, spongemike said:

Sorry I mean gold..... not enough sleep. Another advice is party up for quest, you will finish faster. If you see someone in the area killing the same stuff you are, send them an invite. Both of you will finish the quest faster. The Exp from killing mobs is so bad it doesn't matter if you kill less of them.

 

I actually try to run with a fire and ice build and I feel like the fire build is better. Just seems to kill things faster = less change of getting hit and level faster.

https://bnstree.com/FM?build=400000025531256413813126533250111063325133249312373241011

 

I use this build so far. Is not for AoE grinding as you can tell but for single target is pretty good. You also get the bubble if you are taking range attack and also in party it helps with your party members. Also with frost armor you get some Hp back and also you get Frost sheath again more for parties

 

Ice build are more safer I guess around regular mobs I guess but in dungeons your damage isn't that great. If you are doing dungeons or any world boss watch your aggro as a fire build. So many times I pull aggro off and is not fun lol.

 

 

Is a weird build but it helps to get hp back with frost furry and with fire furry when it procs is pretty useful to finish off mobs that's coming at you. I should spec into T3F2 with fire palm I guess not sure why I went T3F1........

Yes I made a typo and corrected in my next post.

[TacticX]

Squishy while leveling ??

Oh, never with mine. Just use combo 3 gem:

Diamond Evasion +400 (dont remember but in lvl 1x it make me have 8x% evasion chance )

Peridot Immune 3s and buff +120 critical 30s (just buff 120 critical, +Amethyst gem this make u allway 100%hp)

Amethyst Instant Recovery 150 (just 1gold lol, cheap like hell)

Even lvl 3x this combo still effect.

Belive me, this is easy mode for training lvl

Cheap, easy :D

[Nutrient]

If you want to buy a cheap diamond, go with Evasion (like @TacticX recommended) or Block or Defense. Additional damage diamond is useless because the red gem gives much more additional damage in comparison. If this was your alt, opting for a +25 AP diamond would help your lower leveled character a lot.

 

Life drain gem too!

[Melodia]

FM is garbage-tier while leveling, good-tier for PvP and god-tier for group-based dungeon. AoE skills are completely useless because 75% of the enemies in this game have ranged attacks, and as with every Korean MMO, ranged attacks from enemies are never dodgeable/blockable no matter how far you are. Trying to group together 5 mobs to AoE them down = suicide because 5 fireballs from enemies and you're dead.

Gems? Yeah good luck affording any good gems while you're actually at the levels you need them. What are the chances a level 30 will have 2G to spare to buy a good life steal gem? By the time you can actually afford gems, you're already at endgame. And endgame is all group-based instances, who gives a crap about lifesteal when all you need to do as a ranged caster is to stay back and spam buttons?

[spongemike]

10 minutes ago, Melodia said:

FM is garbage-tier while leveling, good-tier for PvP and god-tier for group-based dungeon. AoE skills are completely useless because 75% of the enemies in this game have ranged attacks, and as with every Korean MMO, ranged attacks from enemies are never dodgeable/blockable no matter how far you are. Trying to group together 5 mobs to AoE them down = suicide because 5 fireballs from enemies and you're dead.

Gems? Yeah good luck affording any good gems while you're actually at the levels you need them. What are the chances a level 30 will have 2G to spare to buy a good life steal gem? By the time you can actually afford gems, you're already at endgame. And endgame is all group-based instances, who gives a crap about lifesteal when all you need to do as a ranged caster is to stay back and spam buttons?

not really I have over 2g at around 38lish costume drop in Path of exiles and 2 lvl 45's were bidding against each other...........