Hell Level. Oh my.

[eppie]

I started  Hell Level  the other day (1.10) with my level 73 Sorceress.

After a dozen deaths (mostly Quill Rat Bosses), I finally beat the Den of Evil.

It is golly-gosh-darn tough.  It seems like I'll never be able to hold on to the Bazillion experience points I need to advance to level 74.

Should I just play the game with the hope of Set Items, Gold, and Runes ?

What do y'all out there do ??  Keep visting the Throne of Destruction in Nightmare like 20 times ?

Thanks for the info and feedback.........  -= Heat Miser =-

I have (single player1.10) two hell characters at the moment (and actually these are the only two I have ever had) A barb (berserk) and an amazon (freezing arrow). The difference in difficulty between act5 NM and act 1 hell, is indeed very big.
I have been doing some experience runs in NM to gain a few levels (my barb started at 65 in hell. But at the moment there is no problem anymore (both are in act 4 and 5 now both level 80).
And I consider myself not at all a very good player. Items are important though. I use only things I find in that game and don't pass on items from other characters (except for the grandfather my amazon found (which is not even so much better than nord tenderizer my barb was using before).

As said before: sometimes levelling up one or two levels makes a difference. (e.g. my amazon had difficulties using freezing arrow, after a few point in strafe everything went oke).
Items are important, and a good mercenary can help a lot, but you have to have enough "skills" yourself to keep him alive. (if you have to resurrect it every three minutes it's not working of course). And don' t forget runewords and crafting, if you don't find uniques you like "make" them yourself, crafted items are often very good.
As last I can say.....go very slow in act1 hell, take the monsters out one at a time....as soon as you get surrounded, forget it.