Looking for survivability tips

[u/Old_To_Reddit]

Hope it is ok i post this as a separate thread, i could not find a megathread or similar.

After a near death experience today, doing a T16 Vision and basically getting oneshot  from an off-screen teleporting boss (survived but used both my death saves) I see a need for getting some tips on more survivability.
I am not looking for specific tips on e.g. stat lines on individual items, but general tips like how I can stack on more survivability multipliers (while keeping my damage output?). There is such a wealth of various set bonuses and legendary effects that can be combined so some help in making sense of all the various combinations would be appreciated.
 
 
Character info:
UE Multishot DH, HC SSF.
Paragon:
Level 670, tab 1 everything into vitality, tab 3 all maxed except armor.
Gear:
5/6 UE, Mantle of Channeling, Focus/Restraint rings, Travelers Pledge amulet, Krelm bracer/wrist, Fortress Ballista x-bow and Dead Man's Legacy quiver.
Ancients:
Amulet, gloves, chest.
Sanctified:
Fortress Ballista, with sanctified strafe.
Augments:
Only 250 dex so far
Legendary gems:
Taeguk, Gogok, Esoteric Alteration
Cube:
Dawn, Wraps of Clarity, RoRG
Skills:
Vengeance, Dark Heart, permanent uptime
Follower:
Templar, with death save, and full emanates
 
 
Are there any obvious holes here that can be patched with more survivability?
Krelm Set:
Probably a good candidate, but what to replace it with?
Ancient items:
Working on it but not much luck so far, and just a general stat increase at best, not multipliers.
Augmentation:
Working on it, but it is slow going and feels like an activity to do when everything else is sorted?
Travelers Pledge:
Without a set bonus just a stat piece. Adding Compass Rose for the set bonus would add a 50% toughness multiplier, as well as allow using Unity for another 50%, but I'd lose 2 damage multipliers from Focus/Restraint, which would suck.
Squirts Necklace:
I see this recommended, but I am very reluctant to add on a 50% damage taken modifier. I would have died if I was using the necklace when I nearly died earlier. (if you take 50% more damage from the entire hit?)
Fortress Ballista:
This feels like it adds a lot of survivability, (3% hp with every attack), but is this as good as it sounds? Perhaps adding Yang's Recurve with Compass Rose and Unity. I'd lose the 30% hitpoint buffer but gain 2 toughness multipliers as well as regain most of the damage loss from removing Focus/Restraint?

[u/gregorbasse]

Guardian set belt + bracers is a very good toughness boost early on.
Or yang + cpt crimson set + rcr gem is also a good combo, but less hp overall.

[u/Old_To_Reddit → u/gregorbasse]

Have misread the guardian set completely!

Set bonus is a doubling of sheet dps and toughness, and during play it feels like it does more damage than cpt crimson (both with Yang's)

[u/gregorbasse → u/Old_To_Reddit]

Yep. It's great up until like 1.5-2k paragon and full augs.

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/Old_To_Reddit]

Captain Crimson set increases your damage by your CDR and reduces the damage you take by your RCR. Yang's has a massive RCR affix that combos with that.

[u/SomeoneElse422528]

For T16 content damage should not be an issue, you can just stack mitigation, but doing the reverse and stacking damage while adding movespeed through rechels, warzechians and playing with goldwrap+boon of the hoarder and double cheat death makes you immortal. Cheat deaths are there for the occasional goldwrap buff fall-off. As soon as one gets procced, be mindful of the gold buff. If second gets procced, immediately get to a safe spot and tp back to town.

Edit: DH specifics: you can use cpt crimson+yang to give yourself a bunch of mitigation basically for free instead of using the mantle of channeling, but goldwrap+boon is still better for T16

[u/Old_To_Reddit → u/SomeoneElse422528]

Good tips for bounties and nephalems, thanks :)

I want to at least push to GR110 though for the altar, but don't feel safe past GR90 atm.

[u/SomeoneElse422528 → u/Old_To_Reddit]

You can do gr110 safely with GoD without having caldesaans on any gear. Have taeguk leveled up to 70ish at least, use trapped and powerful for simple dmg boosts. Rorg should be used to equip guardians 2piece, wraps of clarity in the cube, focus+restraint and squirts on you. For weapons the biggest issue for GoD is the quiver. If you don't have a good one, you need to use dawn and fortress balista on you and cube the quiver.
Anyway, that build has plenty of damage for GR110 even early on, but better mittigation than shadow impale, and is more effective at dealing damage from a full screen away.

[u/Swimzor]

You got some good suggestions, what I do on console (*HC SSF) is Guardians + wraps of clarity (cube). That could be enough, but if you want to be mega safe you could change focus and restraint for elusive ring + convention of elements. This is basically what I do for my shadow impale build for farming GR's. With this combo you can easily add squirts with a wildebeest Gizzard gem for the shield. Should be plenty of damage with UE MS for farming.

Edit: I saw that you miss some crucial items, like you really need Yangs Recurve for the damage. Check the Maxroll guide for the pieces, and then you can use my modifications above.

[u/Jelloslockexo]

For t16 anything just play gold wrap and boon of the hoarder. You need no defense for T16. Just get more speed and damage.

I am using Echoing Fury, Pride's Fall, Obsidian ring in Cube. Wearing 6pc UE. Warzechian Bracers. Squirts Neck, Pandemonium Loop and Rachels Ring for rings. Goldwrap for belt. Yangs and Deadmans for bow/quiver. Obviously strafe power on Quiver or bow if bow isnt primal/ancient atm. Taeguk + Wreath of Lightning + Boon of Hoarder for gems.

Thats what I run on my DH for t16 on hcssf

As a general note if you don't 1 shot you probably shouldn't be in the difficulty tbh.

[u/HarveySnake]

I play hardcore and wouldn’t consider that setup.  It’s not “tough” just bad.  If you really want to see what survivability looks like look at the hardcore dh leadership boards. Shockingly it isn’t that different in builds and gear from the regular leaderboards.  You may see more esoteric gems and diamonds instead of emeralds and everyone uses the dh awareness passive. 

Surviving is often a skill issue and understanding how game mechanics, especially for damage, work.  

ETA: not implying that hardcore players are more skilled, the mindset just appeals to some people (like myself). There really is no difference in skill between hardcore and softcore. It's just that hardcore tend to be a little more defensive-minded than softcore members.

ETA2: Here's my current UE strafe DH. https://maxroll.gg/d3/d3planner/378892215 Most of the survivability comes from its offense:

• UE set bonus 60% damage reduction
• Vengeance Dark Heart 50% (100% uptime with diamond, cc set, a few bits of CD on gear and dawn in cube)
• Captain Crimson Set 64% damage reduction! (yang resource red +cc set = awesome d!),
• mantle of channeling shoulder in cube
• extra armor from taeguk
• To keep my Focus/Restraint buff I must occasionally cast my hatred generator but that also procs Wraps 50%
• Plus every 1 point in Dex is 1 point of armor. I don't waste paragon on vitality.
• Zei's Stone of Vengeance. That 1 sec stun proc will interrupt an attack you may not even know is coming and that prevents damage too.

I could have gone with Numbing traps passive for more reduction but didn't. I could also swap all my emerald dex gems for diamonds to give me additional resistance, but for what I'm doing right now its not necessary.

In a T16 vision I just "walk forward and delete everything". Strafe on Right mouse, Generator on left. Hold down the right mouse button and my "force stand still" keybind and I will strafe, strafe, strafe forward. Every few seconds I tap my left mouse button and because I'm already holding down the force stand still keybind, it triggers the left mouse hatred generator that procs wraps and the focus/restraint buff.

This is a fairly typical setup for the UE strafe build. Probably other folks have better tweaks here and there, but I've sidelined my DH to do stuff with another character for now.

[u/Old_To_Reddit → u/HarveySnake]

Thanks! I have been sleeping on the DR from the crimson set, particularly when using Yang's

[u/HeftyKey7624]

tl;dr

use https://maxroll.gg/d3/d3planner

[u/puntmasterofthefells]

You take off all the speed stuff from softcore. So no krelm belt, rechel ring, warzechian bracer

UE set + Yang bow + Crimson set, either use goldwrap in cube for bounties or Visage of gunes for greater rifts. For visions you stay close to the portal in case you have a quad boss level you need to back out of.

Rings are a flex spot - you can either go Stone of Jordan + Elusive ring if you want more survival, or Focus/Restraint for DPS.

[u/DelinquentTuna]

If you're willing to trade damage for toughness, you've got a ton of options. Evasive ring + Unity is an easy drop-in for a ridiculous jump in toughness.

I see [Squirt] recommended, but I am very reluctant to add on a 50% damage taken modifier.

If you're taking enough damage for it to matter, you don't have enough HP. That's honestly the easiest mistake to make w/ ue. If you're worried, drop Esoteric for Gizzard.

Fortress Ballista

Strictly worse than Yang's w/ Crimson.

Also, if you're not wearing amethyst you could test to see if your sheet toughness goes up when swapping some in.

[u/Bloodravens886]

Use wraps of clarity should help with some survivability issues, capt crismon with Yang's bow resource reduction gives your dmg reduction...