Suggestions for first HC

[DarkDexter]

I have been playing Diablo II for a long time and i finally got enought courage to go into HC. However, alot of builds i have tried keep dying. The problems i have vary from character to character but I keep regretting dying. I have made a Skelliemancer like three time and all of them died with my highest being 57 (rest around the low 20's). Anyone have any suggestions for a fisrt time, untwinked HC MF character? Skelliemancers were really good but i keep dying for dumb reasons. My friend tells me i solo too much. Is it better to party in HC? I am a big noob to HC and would love any advice. Thank You in advance.

[xeyloderixed]

no, skellimancers are not bad, and soloing isnt as bad as your friend says. when i did my untwinked necro, i did it in 8player mule games. finished norm at around 45. he has enough firepower to kill in norm 8p games.

in nm and hell though, its a good idea to either solo or to find help (max of 2, any more and your kill power drops tremendously). not such a big prob, only real threat in nm are the gloams. just remember to position your golem properly and you should be fine.

and welcome to hc. enjoy your stay.

[The big "T"]

I have been playing Diablo II for a long time and i finally got enought courage to go into HC. However, alot of builds i have tried keep dying. The problems i have vary from character to character but I keep regretting dying.

I croaked myself at least a couple dozen times when I transitioned from SC to HC (came over with 1.10). The reasons for my deaths followed a pattern. First, I didn't give them nearly enough life. Second, I was reckless while questing (what do u mean I can't go get my body and gear - oh yeah HC). Third, needed to adjust to 1.10 (ie FE bug in Norm and NM) monster difficulty and challenges. Fourth, learn what to look for in Pkers. Once you overcome these challenges you are likely to stay alive quite a long time (though occasionly bad things happen).

[Will]

Personally every time I have ever quit D2 for a long period of time, only to return and find my chars all expired, I just make a mfer. But, if you absolutely have to start leveling a non-mfer right now, I'd say a zoo keeper is one of the few characters that can get by untwinked.

[DarkDexter]

I am starting to see that my deaths are just something to get used to... I am also starting to see that skelliemancers are a good first time untwinked build for MF??? :scratch: Is there any other good untwinked MF builds. Thank you everyone who has helped so far. :thumbsup:

[Unholy_VI]

I am starting to see that my deaths are just something to get used to... I am also starting to see that skelliemancers are a good first time untwinked build for MF??? :scratch: Is there any other good untwinked MF builds. Thank you everyone who has helped so far. :thumbsup:

The thing to look for is chars that are mostly skill dependant and don't need leet items to be effective.

If you are good at it sorcs can be a good chocie since a sorc from any tree has some very damaging options and can gernerally get by without super gear. But if you are liek me you could have perfect gear and your sorc would still die every time :rant:

A paladin with maxed holy freeze/res cold or holy shock/res lightning and 4 points in zeal is a very nice char that can deal huge damage with a fast low damage weapon (just maxing holy shock/resist lightning will give a 500+ point per pulse aura and over 3k lightning damage per zeal hit). also holy shield later lets them have a lot of flexability in what shield to use. These chars can keep a throwning weapon on the switch for dealnig with things that you wouldn't want to melee like fire enchanted council members.

The summon necros are cool and if you build it right it can solo its way through normal and nightmare easily. It bogs down in the maggot lair and to me isnt a very interesting char to play. I had one level 79 and it died the other night. I was almost happy. I don't plan to remake him. :lol:

Hammer paladins... if you don't mind the fact that its about the least manly looking skill and the hammers have a very annoying pattern can do some very high damage without great gear. I have a level 26 one and I hate him more than I hated my necro. I have a feeling he's due for an accident pretty soon.

I'm having a lot of fun right now with an untwinked trappersin. so far at level 40 she has level 15 lighning sentry, max shadow master for her level, a point in death sentry 3 in shockweb and 5 in claw block. The reason I mention the build is that for solo questing the level 15 LS with only 5 points total in synergies is doing 300 per pulse and that more than enough so far to kill quickly in Normal and NM in single player games and the shadow master just owns all.

that's mostly what I've had experience with. There are some druid builds (like fireclaws) that might be fun to try untwinked later.

One other piece of advice:

Mule early and often. Putting aside some leather armor and a cap with chipped rubies and a 3-socket long or short bow with chipped topaz and emeralds can make restarting go a lot quicker. Same with a few items stuffed with tir runes since in early play mana per kill is more valuable than % mana leech since nothing has very much hitpoints.

The idea is to be in a better position after your char dies than you were in before you made him pretty much.

Welcome to hardcore

[DarkDexter]

If you are good at it sorcs can be a good chocie since a sorc from any tree has some very damaging options and can gernerally get by without super gear. But if you are liek me you could have perfect gear and your sorc would still die every timeOh man am i like you. I have a 80 metor/orb in SC and she dies all the time even with godly items. :lol:



A paladin with maxed holy freeze/res cold or holy shock/res lightning and 4 points in zeal is a very nice char that can deal huge damage with a fast low damage weapon (just maxing holy shock/resist lightning will give a 500+ point per pulse aura and over 3k lightning damage per zeal hit). also holy shield later lets them have a lot of flexability in what shield to use. These chars can keep a throwning weapon on the switch for dealnig with things that you wouldn't want to melee like fire enchanted council members.Never tried these guys before but i am getting curious about their power. I might try this too.



The summon necros are cool and if you build it right it can solo its way through normal and nightmare easily. It bogs down in the maggot lair and to me isnt a very interesting char to play. I had one level 79 and it died the other night. I was almost happy. I don't plan to remake him.I'll give this guy another go, hopefully he doesn't die with the Arm of king Leoric and the Homoculus again (doh....):rant:



Hammer paladins... if you don't mind the fact that its about the least manly looking skill and the hammers have a very annoying pattern can do some very high damage without great gear. I have a level 26 one and I hate him more than I hated my necro. I have a feeling he's due for an accident pretty soon.I have a 85 hammer pally SC and they are super powerful, but the pattern thing does suck and they really dependet on whether or not u have enemiga for MF cause due to their pattern it is hard as hell the kill in the worldstone keep (small hallways).



I'm having a lot of fun right now with an untwinked trappersin. so far at level 40 she has level 15 lighning sentry, max shadow master for her level, a point in death sentry 3 in shockweb and 5 in claw block. The reason I mention the build is that for solo questing the level 15 LS with only 5 points total in synergies is doing 300 per pulse and that more than enough so far to kill quickly in Normal and NM in single player games and the shadow master just owns all.This has been an idea of mine for a while now. You seem to like it alot, so i will defently try it.


One other piece of advice:
Mule early and often. Putting aside some leather armor and a cap with chipped rubies and a 3-socket long or short bow with chipped topaz and emeralds can make restarting go a lot quicker. Same with a few items stuffed with tir runes since in early play mana per kill is more valuable than % mana leech since nothing has very much hitpoints.I never thought of this. This has to be one of the best ideas for starting new characters! Thank you very much, this will help alot!:worship:


Thanks alot, this is very helpful and encourageing.

[minion]

I started out 1.10 with 2 chars both used for MF'ing:

Holy Freeze pally:

This guy worked amazingly well for NM eldritch runs, which is where I found most of my starter gear. The nice thing is that it takes no mana to use holy freeze, so you can just run around a monster or group of monsters and let it kill them.

Summoner Nec:

This guy was very easy to equip (P topaz gear and some magics/rares)
I used him all the way up to level 92, he mf'ed hell eld and shenk and found all the gear I used to make my main mfer (a sorc)

Trapsin is what I am going to use when the ladder resets (yea.. right)
they do amazing against nm / hell eld even with horrible resists / gear. I have one right now at level 90 and she does eld sometimes, although I have another mfer so I don't use her often.

[DarkDexter]

Well it seems to me that I have a good idea of what characters I am thinking of playing.

Summoner Nercomnacer -For early MF and Pit running.
Trap Assassin if Necro idea sucks.
Twinked MF Sorc from Necro found items.
From there it goes into regular PvP or PvM monsters.
Is this a good idea? I seems to be what most ppl are getting at. Also what is a good Sorc build for HC. My friend has 1 point in energy sheild and he seems godly, but in the strategy compdium it says to max energy sheild and telekensis. If i follow that model i wil be invincible but suck at killing anything. Any ideas here?

BTW, thank you all for input!

[xxsteelxx]

noone has mentioned a light fury zon yet. They dont need any good gear and they kill packs faster then most chars in the game. Combine that with charged strike u will kill bosses faster then most chars in the game. Get a valk to 17..get a might merc and plague jav and u will kill lightning immunes fast.

[minion]

Telekensis adds a passive bonus to energy shield, in that it reduces the mana taken per damage

at the beginning of e shield (i believe) 1 damage = 2 mana

so if you get hit for 50 damage and your e shield absorbs 50% of damage, thats 25 damage to e shield so you would lose 50 mana and 25 health.

telekensis reduces this so that you can get down to a 1:1 scale.

so say you get hit for 100 damage and your e shield absorbs 75% of damage, you will lose 25 life and 75 mana

needless to say, this GREATLY improves e shields effectivness.

Most people add only one point to e shield and let + skills boost it, this works for most but for untwinked or low-end gear you should maybe add a few here (probably not more than 10, although I only ever put 5 base in this)

hope this helps


more e shield info:
http://forums.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=140182

[DarkDexter]

I was looking at some guides and a lighting fury zon sounds good too. My friend cleared one of his muels and gave my two titians :flip: so i might go with that. I don't know how safe it is, but from what i have seen playing they do well. As far as energy sheild goes I understand the math but not the concept. Sure if u max telekensis and energy sheild is takes a way alot of dmg, but still arent u technically still losing a little health. My freind recommended just putting one point in energy sheild, he told me that is what he did. Is that a good idea? I was looking into maxing it but the kill speed seems like it would be really slow and it would still lose a little health with every hit. Also should i invest into bone armor in a summon necro. I keep gettting one hit killed, would that help a little? Should I max Bone wall, bone armor, or none to get good defense from it (I have marrowalks so i could use the bone prison bug). Thanks for all your advise! :wave: