Greetings

[wsimian]

I'm new here, and new to hardcore as well.

I was a bit upset when my favorite build, my freeze zealot, reached 87 in softcore. So I decided to try him out in hardcore. My friends, so far, are not ready to join me so I'm soloing and making due with what I can find. Which is ok by me ...... I'm trying to teach myself to be a better player.

I've read the FAQ, and the PK thing has me a little frazzled, but I'm not out for godly weapons so if I die, I learn, rebuild, and see how far I can take the character. I'm definitely learning not to throw caution to the wind.

My pally is a level 16 now going into act 2. So far, so good. (knock on wood)

Just wanted to say hello, and say thanks for the advice I see on the numerous threads. Cheers!

[Dangerous Old Man]

Welcome to the wonderful world of hardcore. I want to toss the following warning out to you - you'll never go back to softcore once you get going here. With the attitude of your post, I'm guessing you'll do just fine. I play on east - and I'd be more than happy to help you out if you do as well. Good luck to you!


Dangerous Old Man

[decoy_sJ]

i can only agree with D.O.M...i started HC bout a week back and i dun see the point in SC anymore..true all my Hoto and HoZ and everything is gone :hanky: but then it is so much more fun..the guys here are a great bunch too...hope u enjoy HC as much as i do :thumbsup:

[Jamez]

hey welcome im also new but heck once you get that frostadin up it gets easy killing things...no need for a great weapon hehe
btw what realm u play one i could help ya out ^^

[tomatoman]

dont put too much worrying in pk. just dont duel ANYONE. even if they are level 9. many people build specefic chars in hc at low levels so poeple new to hardcore wil fight them and die. and if you get hostiled just tp to town or if you are near a waypoint, leave the game. that should keep you safe until you get into hell games where pk hacks sometimes occur.

[irish2]

Welcome to hc, as stated earlier, you likely won't be going back to sc. :)

I'm on East, squeak2k2, I'd be glad to help out with what I have if you want any.

Ed

[evils]

welcome to hardcore.. watch out for the regular hostile lowlevel with a shining red weapon(enchant anyone?) and BtK tagged chars(i promise, we arent out to get your ear ;))

//Johnny

[ZappaFan]

Welcome to the zany world of hardcore.

[The big "T"]

"Welcome to the zany world of hardcore."

Zany it is, but worth every second.

If you are on West, drop me a line and I will lend a hand (*tjwright)

[wsimian]

Thanks so much for the warm welcome everyone.

I can definitely see what you mean by not going back to softcore. The game has now taken on an entirely new element. (many new elements, actually) I'm joining group games just to watch how people interact at first. My first pub game I joined with another pally and a druid to rescue deckard. While back at town a low level barb went hostile ... but no one acknowledged him and he never said a word. An 87 sorc entered the game and opened a cow level. Someone else who joined ... went into cows and died, allowing looting.
Not one person moved to go loot. LOL Not one person even went into the cow level at all besides that one person who died.

It all seemed pretty strange :uhhuh: since no one in the game was a high enough level to kill even one cow. Was my instinct correct thinking something nefarious was going on? Or am I super paranoid?

Being PvM, and still basically new to the game overall ... I haven't yet learned the fine art of dueling. No amount of harrassment can or will call me out. I have no ego. :lol:

Thanks again for your tips. I'm on the East .. account name *wildsimian. I still have a lot to learn. Please be gentle. :scared: (grin)

[kridebbent]

Monsters to be really careful of in Hardcore:

- Anything Fire Enchanted, especially in Nightmare where there is a bug that causes FE uniques to do huge damage
- Dolls, especially in Hell (death explosions)
- Fanaticism or Might archers/quill rats
- Oblivion Knights (can appear in Act 4 Chaos Sanctuary and Act 5 Worldstone Keep) -- use melee attacks only with EXTREME caution when these guys are present, they can curse you from offscreen and you can easily one-hit kill yourself if IM'd
- Gloams (shudder)

In softcore, killing speed is the main concern... in hardcore, SAFETY IS JOB ONE! :) Keep that in mind and you'll do fine! Welcome to HC!

[Winona]

Thanks so much for the warm welcome everyone.

I can definitely see what you mean by not going back to softcore. The game has now taken on an entirely new element. (many new elements, actually) I'm joining group games just to watch how people interact at first. My first pub game I joined with another pally and a druid to rescue deckard. While back at town a low level barb went hostile ... but no one acknowledged him and he never said a word. An 87 sorc entered the game and opened a cow level. Someone else who joined ... went into cows and died, allowing looting.
Not one person moved to go loot. LOL Not one person even went into the cow level at all besides that one person who died.

It all seemed pretty strange :uhhuh: since no one in the game was a high enough level to kill even one cow. Was my instinct correct thinking something nefarious was going on? Or am I super paranoid?

Being PvM, and still basically new to the game overall ... I haven't yet learned the fine art of dueling. No amount of harrassment can or will call me out. I have no ego. :lol:

Thanks again for your tips. I'm on the East .. account name *wildsimian. I still have a lot to learn. Please be gentle. :scared: (grin)


There were like a zillion things in that game that were potentionaly dangerous.

A PKer
A high level sorc that could kill by TPPK or give baba a high level enchant.
A trapped cow portal
A loot/death scenario PK trick

I would seek safety in town.


About cow level, normal cows is still great for leveling chars between clvl 21-27. It goes very fast.

Just get a 40-50:is char in there and star whacking cows, all the lil leechers will be very happy.

[wsimian]

Ok ... thanks Winona. It's good to know my instincts were on track. (thanks to much of the warnings posted on this forum)

I do have a question though. I noticed many HC player have a different title (Guardian?) than softcore. I'm honestly not sure what this is called (title? rank?) ... or I would look it up. The answer if probably in the most obvious place and I've just overlooked it.

-------------

Kride ... thanks for some more useful info. I'll keep my guard up.

One question about IM though. In softcore I focused more on gloams, since they are huge in abundance and I trained myelf to deal with them. Is there any safe way to take the IM's down? Softcore I've seen people switching to low damage weapons, or even fists to take them out. Is that viable in hardcore, or are you still taking too much of a chance?

[chinaman1472]

Yea..
Destroyer, Conquerer, and Guardian are the titles given.

Realm? If you're on West, I could lend a helpin hand :)

[wsimian]

Ok thanks for the title info.

SKIP the IM portion of my post. My answer is in a thread just a few posts down. Sorry.

I'm on USEast. Account name *wildsimian. I'll be plundering around with my Nadir and my Steel Mace, letting my merc kill those beetles because I'll be damned if I die to one of them. Especially in normal. LOL

[Matt]

Welcome to hardcore! I would bet after a while of playing pvm and gathering some wealth, you will become a pker/dueler yourself ;)
Grrrr.. why is it that frostadins are getting so much more common... I had decided I wanted to make one JUST before all this with the guide and whatnot, oh well, its still original to ME!

-Matt

[wsimian]

There's really not that many all-around, at least from what I've seen in softcore. I've seen hammerdins using holy freeze, but not many zealots. The zeal combo really is a lot of fun.

[Matt]

yes, it sure is :) If you wanna play together sometime, let me know, *trickytrout

[wsimian]

Ok! (have mercy .. please don't kill me. Scare me if you wanna though) :lol:

I'll be offline for the next few days visiting family, but I'll be back.