Amateur about to go hardcore

[rajwhitehall]

Hi folks. I'm not new to diablo but I suck at it. I mean, not one character I've built has lived up to expectations or finished the game in Hell. I had an unusual (non cookie cutter) barb (er, used Leap Attack *and* Berserk as his main attacks) that i played with and got up to level 84 until 1.10 hit me like a ton of bricks and buried Tarnagoth's ambitions of becoming a patriarch. I hear nowadays he's pushing a plow somewhere near Tristram.

Got bored fast with a javazon Tarnagotha. Really liked my Overlord Necro Mortelazarus whose 60ish, but I don't have the heart to try him out now that my dozens of skeleton warriors have been maxed at 8. And more recently I created an Hunter Druid Blue_Stryker that can't handle anything beyond NM Slayer Marshes (but he's a blast in that level).

Those were all softcore.

I'm about to venture into (gulp) hardcore and want to use a Paladin following Cyrus's Avenger guide. It looks pretty fun. Especially the ability to tank lightning damage and deal massive elemental damage. But I've learned the hard way, fun builds don't cut it. It has to be effective. Survivable.

What's the concensus on the Avenger build for Hardcore? Can it really get me to coveted Patriarch status? Should I modify the guide's description? This is strictly PvM, usually solo.

Also a general question, is it true some items drop only in hardcore?

Thanks,
raj

[rajwhitehall]

Should add that I hardly ever trade because I don't play enough to find anything worth trading. So, my character will probably only be using whatever equipment I happen to find. My build has to work with any old gear.

[ZounceHC]

Soloing an Avenger as your first hardcore character will be a challenge. I haven't read the guide and can't be bothered so i'm not sure if you need to change anything to compensate for hardcore. You'll probably want to focus a bit more on resists / life. Personallly I wouldn't make an Avenger as my first char but if you like a challenge, by all means, have a go. To make it easier i'd start off with a Skelliemancer and make an avenger second once I had a few basic items to help him along. It's also good to get a feel for hardcore with a caster before making a melee character.

No there aren't hardcore only items only ladder only items.

[g1mpy]

also we're Guardians round here ^_^. Like ZounceHC was saying, casters are easier to make as a first char, as you can get farther with less items easy. Vengence palars drain too much mana for my tasted, would be a challenge tho. Enjoy HC.

[Mcsaladshaker]

Welcome to Hc

[annr]

patriarch is puss status

[STINGER]

Avenger relys too much on weapon damage. With poor weapons in Norm and NM you will even stuggle some in late Norm, especially in that mana area. No there are many ways to work on mana, but there are few ways to get taht big hitting one hander.

If you like the Summoner/Skellymancer then go taht way for your first HC exp. Buid him max life minimal Stra, no dex, and no energy.

Dont let the smaller numbers of skellies scare ya, those little buggers can one hit kill in NM at lvl 15/15, and one you get a might merc NM is pretty simple as long as you dont play like a fool.

The Skellymancer can go anywhere and kill anything. It may take him longer to get to Meph but he will get there and he will kill, same goes for any other boss. Necros can also be very strong runners of the Pit in Act 1 which is lvl 85 and drops the Godly items. If you want to go this route do a search for skellymancers, it has been posted several times...........if you cant find it I will be happy to write it again, but I garuntee if you put 15 mins into looking you shoudl find it easy.

Avenger..........save him for when you at least find say a Butchers Pupil or somethign liek that..........that could be a solid NM weapon.

[xeyloderixed]

and also, i can attest that a lvl 20/1 raise skeleton/mastery build works good enough for nightmare, as long as you take it slow.

lots of buils can solo hell safely, it just depends on your patience. any char that can deal 3 kinds of damage (or 2+ a form of lowering monster resistances) can get the job done. safest prolly is a nec, with either of the famous hybrid builds viable (even naked). some builds require either powerful tanks and an lr wand on switch (sin/zon) or have some sort of tool to convert physical damage to elemental/magic (zerk barbs, "insert a name here"-dins). only the builds that cant do these really fail in hell (pure physical melee builds).

anyway, welcome to hc and may you reach guardian status before your 100th death

[stevethatsmyname]

a nice alternative to avenger would be a frostzealot or tesladin. These use the skills holy shock or holy freeze to do damage. Thus your damage is not limited by your weapon, only how much skills you have on your auras. And at level 20 you should be able to kick some butt. Plus if you find a good weapon you will be able to kill lit immunes also.

I havent tried these builds but ive seen them work! And ive heard they are pretty fun also.

[VaN_haMMerSteIn]

Welcome to Hardcore. Good luck. Have fun. Don't die.
You should start off with a caster by the way. Keep away fromt he monsters. :winner:

[viamede]

Frosty is a safer untwinked build. Go with Kit's guide which is pretty much writte for hardcore. You just have to pick up some crushing blow before you can venture into hell if you want to make it anywhere with all the cold immunes.

Good luck..if your on East I would gladly toss some stuff your way...if you like.

[skunkbelly]

I'm playing my first tesladin right now, and he's fun and effective. HF as a back-up skill. The nice thing about shock is that unlike vengeance, you can use a super-low-damage weapon and still be effective... like, say, a gull dagger or ali baba. Unless you're fighting lightning immunes, of course...

[HAMC8112]

Welcome to HC, where victory is to survive and death is defeat!

[Baroni]

Amateur about to go hardcore

Does that mean that the rest of us are professionals??!! I would like to retain my amateur status in case D2 playing ever gets taken on as an Olympic sport.

[NeoSolidSnake]

Pretty neat name, especially on the browser, if someone passes by and sees the, "Amateur about to go Hardcore", they may get some ideas :P

And welcome, and enjoy your stay. Better run off with Cy before Barry catches you ;)

[Aerath]

Welcome to hardcore, where one will finish the game... or die trying !

:scratch:

:howdy:

[baalos]

<----- doesn't know crap about Pallys, but to answer your question about drops, there is no difference from HC to SC. You get the same ratios, items, etc. The only difference is when you die, they die. So learn to mule often.

[laughingtiger]

Welcome to HC... I agree with the recommendations given previously. Start out with a caster. Maybe a sorc that you can use to mf and build your items base with unless you like to go totally untwinked.

As someone said in another post, don't let your life bulb go to zero. :)

Seriously though, keep a good eye on your life bulb. Hit the pots often and don't let it go under half, most especially if you're in a crowd of baddies. Hone your quick exiting skills and tp casting skills for when things get dicey or, if you play pubbies, for when that hostile sound goes off. HC is about survival. There's no shame in running away from difficult situations and being able to fight again. It will more likely be the norm than the exception specially when you hit the harder difficulties.

Another thing you might want to do is to develop a good rapport and relationships with people that you can trust and play in private games relatively safely.

What realm do you play in?

[Stimm]

Does that mean that the rest of us are professionals??!! I would like to retain my amateur status in case D2 playing ever gets taken on as an Olympic sport.

Pros play in the Olympics now so no worries

[UK-Jangofett-uk]

Pretty neat name, especially on the browser, if someone passes by and sees the, "Amateur about to go Hardcore", they may get some ideas :P


Lol, was thinking the exact same thing. Must be the lack of sleep :p

[dreamingsolace]

Welcome to HC!
Watch out for those nasty tppk'ers, and be prepared to lose a few good chars.

I just god rid of my avenger pally in sc. He couldn't handle anything in hell past act 1. Avenger pallys are, as said above, heavily reliant upon good weapons and those aren't easy to find right away in hc. They are, however, a fun char to play with/mess around with :)
If you get decent leech gear (like a manald) you don't have to worry about mana much with them. The only problems I had were with undead monsters :grrr:

Pick a char you're familiar with/comfortable with for your first char. It's not advisable to experiment while first starting out, hc has a different feel to it than sc, and you'll lose a lot of chars in the beginning. so, start with what you know. :)

good luck!

[Mcsaladshaker]

My suggestion is

Make a sorc

[Baroni]

Pros play in the Olympics now so no worries

Not in the boxing and that is the sport I would most liken Diablo 2 to.

[Mcsaladshaker]

Not in the boxing and that is the sport I would most liken Diablo 2 to.

I say track and field

You got the javelin throw
You got long jump (leap)
You got running
You can even set up a relay if you wanted to!

[Stimm]

Not in the boxing and that is the sport I would most liken Diablo 2 to.

Im not sure if its policy that boxers dont compete or there is just no money in it. 15 million$ payday vs gold medal , i might be wrong but who knows.

[Geralcik]

Welcome to HC, where victory is to survive and death is defeat!
Classy!
Seasons in the Pit... erm... Abyss :D

[MalVeauX]

First HC builds that are most effective and less item dependant:

Lightning trap assassin with Fade and Shadow Master, Holyfreeze merc.
You need abosolutely nothing. You can be naked forever if you wanted a challenge. But it would still work. One of the safest builds you can get. Definately go max block or clawblock if you use her (damn pks!).

Holyfreeze zealer Paladin. Slow to start levleing, but once you're in the 20's you're golden. Very powerful even with junk gear (steal flail works best (tir+el in a flail!). Junk shield with some diamonds... armour with rubies... whatever you pick up.

As for cool builds to start with that actually are effective, the avenger can be made with some tweaks. He's slow to start, but since normal is easy its no big deal. If you plan something along the lines of this, you can have a solid character:

lvl 10 Resist Cold
lvl 10 Resist Fire
lvl 10 Resist Lightning
lvl 15 Conviction
lvl 1 Vengeance

This is completed by the end of Act5 normal, doing baal runs. With some good res's, you'll be maxed res and deal a good amount of damage. Throw in some holyshield later on for survivability. Save up gems and trade them for items, its easy to obtain good exceptional cruels or uniques for perfect gems (aldurs mace is great for starters).