Oracle and Conqueror dying often in multiplayer

[Rinnegan]

Me and a friend of mine have been playing TQ: IT together for a couple of days. We just have beaten normal. I am level 42, and my friend is 44.

Act I and Act II weren't hard. But we began dying in Act III. And Act IV was just unfair. The monsters were absurdly strong especially towards the end, we didn't stand a chance. In fact, the Blue Gigante just before Hades killed us more than ten times (single shot). We couldn't kill him, so we had to run past. We were like put into Legendary without warning.

I was following the guide for compendium for Oracle. Everything seemed great until a single crab killed me easily in Act IV. I was like what the hell. Things weren't much better for my friend who is a conqueror. He followed a very nice guide to build his character. I am using a staff and lightly equipped, have high energy regeneration. My friend is heavily equipped and has high health regeneration.

I have Ternion-tree and Storm Nimbus-tree all maxed. Put 2 points in Storm Wisp and maxed Eye of the Storm. 1 point in Liche King because I knew he was useless on normal as opposed to what the guide states. I will invest points to his tree on epic. Lastly, I use squall and it's synergy.

My death count? It is 110. It was just 50 at the beginning of Act IV. I don't think I'm a bad player. I have played this game a lot 2 years ago. And here I wonder why a lot of people are talking like "I am in legendary and just died 2 times including normal and epic", "Oracle is great I am soloing Typhoon." Maybe this applies for single player, but definitely not in multiplayer.

I know that the difficulty increases in multiplayer with each additional player. But I'm worried about epic and legendary. My staff isn't great. So I do 450 damage with Storm Nimbus activated. I couldn't find a better one. We were to every part of the world and even ran Typhoon several times but no luck.

[Violos]

Was that blue knight a Dactyl? Then that is normal.

Crabs killing you as mage is normal too. They have really high DPS. But they can be stunned, and frozen.

As for your conqueror, he should increase his blocking (Quick Recovery + Turtle Shell), resists and dodging/damage absorption rather than regeneration.

Also, I suppose you are playing selffound?
Then dying sometimes is also normal. It shows that the game is still a challenge.

[Rinnegan]

I guess. But none of the blue knights were as strong. And yes, we are playing selffound. The drop rate is somewhat low in multiplayer. I wore the same armor for the last two acts.
Thanks for the conqueror tip. I'll let my friend know about that.
Do you have any suggestions for my mage? I'd like him to be strong and capable of handling incoming attacks without depending on gear.

[Rinnegan]

We have been to itemus since there was no other choice. I feel like cheating but oh well. At least we have decent equipment now.

And by the way, we are breezing through the game much easier with our new builds: Templar & Harbinger. It's maybe because we also relied on resistances (especially pierce) this time, I'm not really sure. And strangely, more unique items drop. Will see how they will do in late Act III and Act IV.

[spectre]

Pierce resistance? Most definitely... Playing through act4 without good pierce resistance is close to suicide (with the wrong enemies in front of you). Crabs deal pierce damage (IIRC) and the machae with their bows as well. In short: Resistances are essential