Staying power in battle is really subject to 3 criteria; defense, health and damage output. While all three have their own special conditions and usefulness, one of the three can almost compensate for the other two. That one is Defense.

Health can be considered to be Hit Points and healing ability. While lots of Hit Points are a nice commodity, indeed the more the merrier, they might as well be a lesser number if your defense allows for massive damage. Additionally, all the healing ability in the world is not going to be worth the bother if you are taking more damage than you can heal. Without good Defense, your staying power is directly proportional to numbers of heals and how fast they recycle. When damage taken overtakes this, you lose.

Damage output is another form of staying power. If you can dish out more than you take, under most conditions you would win....until you miss and your target doesn't. Sure, you can boost your To Hit ability to almost never missing but the fact remains that you WILL miss and your target may not. Without good defense, the time will come when the sun shines on the other dog's backside more than yours, you lose.

Defense in Istaria is best described as a Layered Defense. The first Layer is your ability to avoid being hit at all. This comes from Evasion, Magic Evasion, Dodge, Wards (both techs and spells) and from various abilities like Foresight or Spirit Walk. The second Layer is ability to deflect all damage even though you were technically hit. Block and Parry fit in here. The attack hits but, you Block all damage with your shield or Parry all damage with your weapon. The third Layer is damage mitigation or reduction. This comes from armor and resistance(both tech and spell). Admittedly I do not know exactly the order the engine uses to determines hits and damage, all I know is that all are considered and logically it should in the order I presented. Additionally with a good Layered Defense and the correct set of Wards and Resistances one can stay in the fight for quite a while. With over 1000 Evasion, 2000 armor, block and parry in the +30-50 range or more and the correct wards and resistances in the 200/400 range respectively plus a decent set of heals (I have Instant Heal V, Group Instant Heal II, Improved Revit V and Revit V both teched), 2500+ HP and decent, not spectular, godly, uber or any of the other popular adjectives, but just plain old decent damage output your staying power becomes almost indefinte against all but the most powerful event creatures or very large numbers.

So here you are in a Layered Defense. Good evasion, some dodge, block and parry hopefully and decent armor. The key to pushing the Layers to utmost effeciency lies in Wards and Resistances. The foes one faces in Istaria do a variety of different types of damage to include in no specific order: crush, slash, pierce, primal, nature, spirit, blight, life, flame, energy, ice and mind. Knowing the damage types of the foes BEFORE you get into battle with them can go a long way to optimizing your Layered Defense.

With that in mind I'd like to present a list of all Tier 5 mobs with their damage types. I don't know for sure if damage types run true throughout the tiers, i.e. all Gem Golems do Slash Damage, all undead warriors do Slash damage etc. If someone knows of marked differences in tiers please post them. Perhaps we can get a Compendium of damage types put together.

Gem Golems...Peridot, Emerald, Fire Opal Slash damage with a Bleed ability that does Bleed Damage
Giant Ice Beetles...Ice Damage with abilities that slow your movement plus Harden Shell
Icy Dire Wolves...Slash with Frenzied Attack, Bleed and a Weakness debuff like to run in packs
Fiery Dire Wolves...Slash with Frenzied Attack, Bleed and a Weakness debuff like to run in packs
Giant Flame Beetles...Slash with Immolate and Harden Shell
Giant Fire Beetles...Slash with Immolate and Harden Shell
Mithril and Mithril Boulder Golems...Crush with Overburden
Marble and Marble Boulder Golems...Crush with Overburden
Tempest, Thunder, Lightning and Storm Ogres...Energy and Mind damage with Energy and Mind Based Ogre Cry Stuns
Wind Golems..Primal and they can and do heal themselves
Sapling, Yew and Massive Yew Treants...Crush with Root and they also can heal sometimes found in small groups
Forest Oastic...Pierce with Regrowth
Bloodskulk Spearman...Pierce with several defense debuffs and Bind Weapon Stun
Bloodskulk Bloodmage...Spirit with Life Taps will heal itself and others
Bloodskulk Soothsayer...Nature and Blight with a variety of spells and abilities. Especially fond of Thunder Cloud and Expulse will heal itself and others
Purple Spiders...Slash with a weakening type venom like to run in packs
Bloodshout Gruoks...Pierce with Boar's Rage and Bleed. Boar's Rage can be especially nasty like to run in packs
Dire Wolves...Slash with Frenzied Attack, Bleed and a Weakness debuff like to run in packs

That's the mundane creatures. I only bumped into 2 named creatures compiling this list Ravager and Lorgus. Ravager is the named Fiery Dire Wolf with all the same attacks as a normal one, only a lot nastier. He usually runs with a crew of 2-4 normal Fiery Dire Wolves. Lorgus is the named Giant Fire Beetle. The only damage type I saw was Flame damage, and lots of it. He caught me prepped for Slash damage and gave me all I wanted before he went down. I've only ever seen Lorgus run alone. Must be anti-social.

Now, on the Satyr Islands of Alged, Corvus, Dahibi and Elnath. I did my research on Corvus...

Warning: most, if not all, Satyr Island creatures have Bleed and Seeping Blight(Blight based damage) Damage over Time, not a lot, easily disspellable or detoxed, they stack (I've had 3 Seeping Blights and a Bleed on me at one time). While any 1 or 2 won't be that bad, the damage adds up...Watch your HP

Palsy..The named green wisp look-a-like. Crush damage with a whole host of DoTs, debuffs and roots. Can only be damaged by using a Dance Talisman in a weapon socket
Grey Necroflies...Pierce with some blight based debuffs Pierce is Primary Evolved Flies are lvl 100 nastier versions, faster, more damage output etc
Enduring Fyakki... Crush with Harden Shell Evolved Fyakki are lvl 100 nastier versions basically souped up lesser enduring fyakki
Purple Tarantula...Crush with a weakness venom sometimes found in small packs
Energized Kwellan...Crush primary, energy secondary with a repeating stun often found with blights in tow I've seen up to 8
Veteren Blights(all types)...Energy with stuns and they can heal a little like run in packs
Red and Blue Vexators...Energy with Bleed, Chain Lightning Stun, Synaptic Spasm Stun that really does some damage sometimes found in packs of 3 occassionally more than 3
Veteren Abominations(All types)...Slash with Bleed
Veteren Aegror... Slash and Blight both are used about equally usually in packs of 2 or 3


The Undead... 4 types Mummy, Skeleton, Ghost and Zombie(including Ogre Zombie) in at least 20 different schools. I'm pretty sure I got all of them.

Elf Strider...Nature with a lightning arrow stun
Fiend Sorcerer...Energy, flame, ice and mind in order of frequency of use watch out for Stuns, Daunting Mist and Stinging Cold Seldom uses Fiendish Channeling
Satyr Oracle...Nature think undead druid with this one can heal itself and others and it will
Half-Giant Reaver...Slash, blight maybe some Spirit
Dryad Mage...Flame and energy with mezzes
Satyr Mercenary...Nature plus Satyr Charge Stun
Gnome Wizard...Energy, liberal use of Stuns
Human Zealot...Slash with a Trepidation Mezz
Dwarf Warrior...Slash, hard hitting, typical Warrior debuffs and abilities
Sslik Bloodmage...Spirit if it decides to cast, crush if it decides to melee. Spirit damage is by far of more concern than any crush damage it may inflict. It can heal itself, rarely others
Dryad Conjurers...Crush, flame and ice usually hits with Immolate or Engulf, Binding Crystals closes to melee Thinks its Kwai Chang Cain or somebody, can't hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle in melee yet it will invariably close to melee.
Half Giant Warrior...Slash, usual Warrior abilities, not as bad as Dwarf Warriors
Human Marauder...Slash
Fiend Spiritist...Spirit This one loves Fiendish Channeling
Elf Spearman...Pierce Bind Weapon Stun, some defense debuffs can be very hard to it
Saris Knight of Destruction...Slash, Banish Armor good block 2nd only to Spearman IMO
Dwarf Crossbowman...Pierce Cannon fodder
Gnome Battlemage...Flame, energy and slash may not close to melee IMO 3rd smartest of the undead good tactics
Sslik Shaman...Nature, blight and pierce lots of debuffs, can heal itself, will heal others often heals and aggros IMO 2nd smartest of the undead. Can turn an easy fight into a nightmare in very short order
Saris Diviner...Crush and life heals, heals, heals Think undead healer with this one. Heals itself, heals others, will aggro just from healing others. Will pursue a long way to continue fight or heal others. IMO the smartest of all the undead closest thing to a Captain they have
Wraiths... unsure I think blight and slash but not really sure. I tried going back through my logs to find something but had no luck. Suffice it to say, if you take on a wraith group, the wraith is the least of your concerns. If you can take down all his friends, the wraith is a pushover.
Ogre Zombies...Crush, blight and mind(Ogre Cry) not tough alone, can be a real nuisance in a Wraith Group Considered undead for spawning and respawning purposes, i.e. you kill enough undead out of a spawn and hold you face right(Piethon hasn't figured this part out yet ), you will see Ogre Zombies spawn. Not in great numbers mind you but, generally consistant.

In closing I will say again, staying power in battle requires a good Layered Defense, Hit Points and Healing and decent damage output. All of these combined are essential and a weakness in any one will eventually leave you lying on your back while the creature that killed you stands there and gloats or if we are in a group I finish off the creature and sadly inform you that I cannot ressurect you. It requires only an investment of time, some little study of what gear you want to tech and how and possibly bumming a few buffs from some friends. Or you can do like I did and go hawg wild...I had a pair of mithril health rings, earrings and bracelets made with Armor V and a t5 ward and resist. 10 sets, 6 pieces per set to cover all damage types except pierce and life. Each set gives 96 total ward and 240 total resistance. With abilities and spell buffs I can achieve the 200/400 numbers I spoke of earlier and it does make a difference, a big difference. These numbers I just mentioned here and above reduce damage I take to 50 or less per hit even from named creatures. While my defense numbers may not be within reach of all, the closer you get the greater the protection. I'd even venture to say a Dragon with several sets of scales would approach my numbers although that doesn't take into consideration the storage problems associated with the bulk off all those scales vs the bulk of 60 pieces of jewelry. However, any protection is far better than none.