I did it!

[Wapptor]

So I got bored, I also got the flu... Enough free time, and enough losing to ITH duelers stopped the cycle of cookie cutter public dueling. I wanted something new, different, challenging and without the pressure to win every duel. Translation? I needed mortality. Henceforth, Wapptor the softcore becomes wapptor the hardcore.

WhiteWolf_WD was born and made a fun dash through the first few quests of act 1. My friend GoD-Paladin acompanied me through the romp along with a barbarian with a shady personality. To give him a fake but reasonable name, as to hide his true identity, we will call him PK-YouSoon. He was a most trustworthy and helpful friend. However level 9 saw his downfall as this trustworthy friend slaughtered GoD-Paladin. As I unsheathed my equally powerful (or not so powerful) sword and charged to meet my friend's murdered head on...Your deeds of valor will be remembered <_<

...So things didnt go quite as planned, first HC death already, but I decided to keep going. GreyWolf_WD, another paladin was born and still lives at lvl 13 in the beginnings of act 2. Hardcore is very rewarding, killing my first LEB was definitely much more gratifiying than if I had done it in SC. After a bit of play, I am trying to decide whether or not it would be worth it to make the full switch. I think that more time and experience should tell. However, I am fairly new to HC, I dont have much experience with how things are done (are builds different generally). I know that vitality is a big investment. Not having any items has also bothered me greatly...but i'm getting used to it. If you have a lot of experience, or just like hardcore, post here!

-Wapptor

[Baajikiil]

I've found that once you go hardcore, you can never go back. There is another level of accomplishment that comes with a high lvl hardcore character(especially a variant). Also there's the fact that dupes and hacks are less common. Unfortunatley we have our share of PKers, and while a big nuisance in SC, they can ruin months of work in HC. Also, HC has been going on for as long as SC, so the pubbie games are full of fully twinked lowbies, and fully tweaked PKs.

This might be a good time to get your feet wet in HC, and to consider builds/styles of play, but I would recomend really getting into it when the new patch comes out(as long as hell doesn't freeze over first).

As for Vit, it is the main stat of maybe 90% of all HC characters out there. My characters at least allways have a higher vit than any other stat.

EDIT: Oh yes I forgot, as for PKs: Perhaps you knew what you were getting into, perhaps not. Take it as friendly advice: if someone hostiles you in hardcore, they expect to kill you. In general they will, if you fight them. If a lvl 9 assassin hostiles your lvl 21 barb, don't expect to win unless you have great gear.

I assume the same holds true for SC(though I haven't played Sc for a long time), but it bears mentioning that nearly all HC PKs are tweaked(and twinked) up the wazoo. Generally they have completed all quests in all difficulties(even at lvl 9), for an extra 30% resist, +12 skills, +60 life, and +15 stats. They also carry full inventories of charms, and jeweled equipment with the maximum possible damage for their lvl.

That's not even mentioning the tricks they use to kill you. I saw a lvl 60 necro kill a lvl 73 barb *from town* the other day. He just cast lower resist on him while the barb was in town(the curse affects you even if you are in town if you are in the area), then the necro crossed the border, and cast fire golem over and over again. The splash damage killed him in 3-4 castings. The tricks are many and varied, and if you manage to live long in pubbie games, you will learn them all(at the cost of ~1 character per trick).

[--Pete]

Hi,

I've found that once you go hardcore, you can never go back.

I once said much the same thing. Since then I've changed my mind. I can handle the monsters, I can avoid the PKs. But there's squat I can do about the joke that is b.net. After I lost all but one of my HC characters in less than a month to various b.net crashes, I said screw it. If I want to play a character restricted to one death, I can do that in D2 like I did it in D1.

Sirian was right.

--Pete

[Jeunemaitre]

I've never been pulled into the hardcore arena. As said in one of my other recent posts, the world of Sanctuary is where I go to NOT worry about how to feed and arm my companions (why bother when I can resurrect them). I'm not interested in consequences when I play D2, I'm looking for a chance to get my mind off consequences.

I'm also not the greatest killer on the map, so it takes me a couple of times to figure out what to do with a particularly tricky setting. I had a great time using taunt to seperate two packs of cantors, one leader was HF mana burn, the second was fanatacism LEB. With the fact that they heal each other, this was a hugely anoying group to deal with, but I needed three chances to get the strategy right. If I'd been playing hardcore, I never would have learned my lesson.

[Occhidiangela]

I will be slightly editing it and then submitting it to Bolty once 1.10 comes out and we all get a feel of the new concepts.


http://www.ale-pub.com/guides/hcpage1.html

In any case, Vitality needs at least one point per level up, depending on class. As you get into NM and Hell, whole level ups need all five points put into Vitality.

My paladins usually, by level 70, have 200 plus in Vitality, or have quite a bit of Vit from items and Vit in the 160-180 range.

Druids and Barbs, due to Warcries, Were Shape, and Spirits can probably get away with 100-150 Vitality. Depends on the build.

Resists are critical in items, or a great connection and lots of movement as a tactical imperative.

Anyway, my last Paladin, who recently died in a rather nasy lag spike/disconnect moment, grrrrr, was a mostly a Zealot, however, my favorite Paladin was an EEP. Avenging EEP is on West, replacing one who I lost due to bad tactics.

That build is sort of like this:

1-5 points in Zeal, up to you how far you rely on items for boosts.
Max Vengeance.
Conviction 10 to Max, you choose
Max Holy Shock(Before you Max Vengeance, which is needed in Hell.)
Primary Weapon: Fast, and hope for something with lots of AR or ITD.
Dexterity more than Strength.
Holy Shield: Ample investment.
Second Weapon is either a Bow, or a Jav Shield combo using Holy shock as primary skill.
The usual point in Sanctuary. :)
Mercs: I am torn between Holy Freeze and a Rogue. If you go Rogue, pump VItality a bit higher since you are the tank.
Goal of shield is a four socketed Paladin shield that starts with some resista all, I preferred Crown and Royal, with four Perfect Diamonds. Reason? That takes care of almost all of your resists up to Hell, and allows huge flexibility in Equipment without having to have resists on every bloody thing in Hell.

Conc or Fanaticism to taste, if you care to spend points in that.

I always put a point in Smite for clearing doorways or for the occasional boss, one hit wonder, who I just want to keep stunned while my merc kills him.

YMMV

[Baajikiil]

>I once said much the same thing. Since then I've changed my mind. I can handle the monsters, I can avoid the PKs. But there's squat I can do >about the joke that is b.net. After I lost all but one of my HC characters in less than a month to various b.net crashes, I said screw it. If I want to >play a character restricted to one death, I can do that in D2 like I did it in D1.

Well it does take a certain gluttony for punishment to stay in b.net (pubbie makes it worse)hardcore. Perhaps I'm lucky, but I've only lost (IIRC) 2 high lvl characters to lag spikes, out of a few dozen.

[Myself]

I've been playing almost exclusively hardcore for a while now. I can't really give much of any advice that hasn't already been given. Stay out of really dangerous areas (Nihlathak, anyone?) unless you want to take the risk. Try to play with some care; then again, I don't follow this advice all that much myself... by this time, I've died enough that I actually count on death as part of my playing routine: get a char up to 50 or so, die, rinse, repeat. Keeps things interesting for me, but YMMV.

As for lag, it gets irritating, but I've learned to live with it. Many lag deaths are caused as much by something else as they are by lag. The only death I've had involving lag (level 51 phoenix strike assassin, a couple days ago) could have been prevented if I was more careful (I really didn't realize NM Zealots hit that hard).

Anyway, even with my constant deaths, HC has been much more fun for me than SC ever was. Hope it is for you too.