should i be dying to balrons semi-regularly on a sampire?

[North_LS]

I'm new to playing a sampire, but have read a *lot* about the template and how to build and use it - i feel like i must be doing something really wrong, because I've been going to balrons in blackthorns to practice against a high-damage target and they're killing me pretty regularly. I'll get streaks where i mow down 20-30, then i'll get a chain of whiffs against one and end up seeing black and white.

my hp and stam is 123/190, but i take a stam hit sometimes as i have a few leather pieces making it up. running 45hci, dci is on the lower end though (~20 iirc) and my bush and parry arent perfect yet either (102 and 57, goal is 120 and 60), but weapon skill is 120. current resists are 70/63/70/70/70. Still waiting for my swamp dragon to bond, so i'll have a little more damage reduction once that happens.

weapon has demon slayer and all three leeches, dealing out plenty of damage to keep all meters full when i connect.

 

[TaldarinZPhoenix]

Do any of your items have “Hit Lower Defense?” This makes a huge difference in reducing the number of misses.
Also, Bushido’s confidence “spell” can restore quite a bit of HP if you have a chain of misses.

 

[North_LS]

yep, running blackthorn plate version of mace and shield. i'll keep confidence in mind, thanks!

 

[TaldarinZPhoenix]

Balrons also deal fire damage and cast flamespells often enough. Improve your fire resist, get your swampie and youll likely be just fine

 

[BeaIank]

If you get a chain of misses and get hit a lot, don't pop confidence. Cast divine fury to refresh your stamina to increase your swing speed back up.
You are dying because your stamina got too low and you started to swing really slow and won't hit him back soon enough to refresh it.

Only casts confidence to heal if you disengage them first.
Also, their lowest resist is energy, so make sure your weapon is 100% energy. 100% cold will do fine if you can't get a 100% energy double axe. Onslaught them and double strike them for better results.
And get that fire resist back up to 70 ASAP! They hit with 50% fire damage. You are taking more damage thanks to that 63 fire resist.

 

[North_LS]

got it, thanks Bea! Running a 100% cold bladed staff using AI and onslaught, i'll switch up to a double axe and find an extra 7% fire resist somewhere and retest. Havent had much luck with the reforge gods on creating a 100% energy weapon as yet. Had a feeling it was stamina related, thanks for the advice on divine fury. hopefully i can scrounge another metal piece or two for my suit to mitigate the stam loss in the first place.

 

[Tabin]

Still waiting for my swamp dragon to bond

Definitely this. You need the armored swamp dragon.

Besides that, here is what you should work on next:
1) that fire resist. One day, you'll want to get it to 75. Consider Jumu's sacred hide, fire resist quiver, and fire resist earrings.
2) HP should be 140-150 ideally. I run 149 without potions. Note: Try to get +23-25 HP on gear. Crimson cincture gives 10. Crafted pieces give 5 each. Shroud of Condemned gives 3hp.

Some additional things:
1) Make sure you have 30%HLD helm
2) You can also use HLA on weapon. I typically prefer this over HLL
3) Have a stamina buffer. 180 stam + 20% SSI means any hit will put your dbl axe swing speed at 1.5s per swing. That's why I prefer 35%SSI with 180 stam, it gives me a 30 stam buffer to keep swinging at 1.25s.
4) Make sure you swing at 1.25s even if you get debuffed with clumsy. Drink a Gagility if you need to.
5) Try to have 5 pieces made up of plate for stam protection. Studded/bone works too. One really insane leather armor legendary is perfectly fine since the stam protection calculates the heaviest 5 of 6 armor pieces

 

[Yadd of Legends]

This discussion is quite helpful and reminds me how disappointed I was when I finally made a sampire - they aren’t nearly as godlike as you always hear about without a lot of tweaking and precision A lot of good points in this thread

 

[Max Blackoak]

This discussion is quite helpful and reminds me how disappointed I was when I finally made a sampire - they aren’t nearly as godlike as you always hear about without a lot of tweaking and precision

in my experience really knowing the template and how to play it (memorizing every single key etc) played a bigger role when soloing high end content. The items per se didn't matter as much since I play on Siege Perilous where you have to compromise because every time you die you potentially loose your entire suit, so you have to keep it somewhat replaceable.

@North_LS : what the previous posters said - get fire resist to 70, replace bladed staff with a 100% energy double axe, replace life leech with lower attack (or hld if you're not running the mace&shield helm) and you shouldn't have too much trouble staying alive.

 

[Zalan]

I lean more towards Sampires that parry than 60 split.

With a Swampy and 120 Bushido/ 120 Parry, 70 Resist, 45 DCI / 45 HCI. 100 DI and a Demon slaying Bladed staff you should be able to slay Paragon Balrons. Many people forget how good evasion is.

 

[kaio]

You need to use a demon slayer weapon, i usually use a demon slayer bladed staff.And i dont have any issues at all

 

[Yadd of Legends]

I lean more towards Sampires that parry than 60 split.

With a Swampy and 120 Bushido/ 120 Parry, 70 Resist, 45 DCI / 45 HCI. 100 DI and a Demon slaying Bladed staff you should be able to slay Paragon Balrons. Many people forget how good evasion is.

Is your resist instead of anatomy?

 

[Zalan]

I use anatomy not resist. More damage the more you leech back. I believe that parry, evasion, and counter attack make it possible. The new challenge is Paragon Greater Dragon. Not been able to kill one yet solo.

 

[Yadd of Legends]

I use anatomy not resist. More damage the more you leech back. I believe that parry, evasion, and counter attack make it possible. The new challenge is Paragon Greater Dragon. Not been able to kill one yet solo.

Your previous post mentioned your template has 70 resist (?)

 

[Zalan]

I meant Resist as resist types, not resist spells.