How much health is enough?

Just curious to get responses from various community members. Obviously total HP can vary significantly from build to build... but if you were looking for a minimum acceptable number, what would it be?

Before GGG rebalanced HP and monster damage I tried to (at the end) have:
1k for Normal
2k for Cruel
3k+ for Merciless before mapping

That's maybe 10-15% lower now with the rebalance from a while back.

Depends on if you're ranged or melee and what defenses you have (shield or not, armor or evasion).

I try to start merciless with no less than 2.5k and usually have 3.5k by the time I get to Piety/maps. I also tend to go more on the defensive side for builds up to level 55-60, then grab all my offensive passives. Dps at early levels doesn't matter enough to invest in offensive passives right away.

1k+ by the end of normal.
3k+ by the end of cruel.
5k+ when you start mapping.

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Namcap wrote:

Depends on if you're ranged or melee and what defenses you have (shield or not, armor or evasion).

I try to start merciless with no less than 2.5k and usually have 3.5k by the time I get to Piety/maps. I also tend to go more on the defensive side for builds up to level 55-60, then grab all my offensive passives. Dps at early levels doesn't matter enough to invest in offensive passives right away.

this - as you say hp levels will drastically vary depending on builds.
my build i currently have 3600 hp, am melee, and have for the longest time had 3150 hp and did just fine in all maps etc.

but as namcap says its important to get your defensive passives first and focus on offensive later in the game. you cannot do any dps when you're dead, and the big shots to resistances when starting the new difficulties is daunting at times.
the biggest mistake i see new players make is going waaay too offensive in the passive tree, and obviously getting to a point where they cannot progress because they die too easily and too often.

IMO the passive tree is focused on notable passives, and defenses. the majority of your offenses will come from skill usage and support skill gems.
thats not to say you do not spec anything offensive, but anything you do should be focused secondary. again, except those big notable passives that are key in your build.

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Trapperkeeper wrote:

1k for Normal
2k for Cruel
3k+ for Merciless before mapping

It's also kind of relevant if this is for a SC or HC Character..

1, 2, 3k sounds fine. Having at least 3.5k-4k by the time you're doing Piety runs or doing Maps.

But effective health should also be considered. I like to use Lightning Coil and AA on any build I can squeeze them into, and that adds a huge amount of mitigation, especially against big [Physical] hits that can potentially one shot you.

And generally knowing what can and can't kill you, and watching out for that.

Looking to hit a specific HP value is not really what you want.

You want to have a high Effective Hit Point pool. This is a combination of your damage mitigation combined with whatever your total of ES+Life is. There are a variety of ways to generate mitigation, all of them add to your EHP pool.

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Sheriff_K wrote:

It's also kind of relevant if this is for a SC or HC Character..

I'm coming from a SC perspective... HC I would want probably 50% more. Also not asking so much to get help, I'm more curious to hear what other people's perspectives are.

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Idioticus wrote:

1k+ by the end of normal.
3k+ by the end of cruel.
5k+ when you start mapping.

thoughts on HC^

Thoughts on SC:

600 1600 3500 (ranged)
100 2000 3800 ( close)
can be fine. for softcore