Hardcore advice/rant

[WebDragon]

Alright, so I feel like ranting a little bit, or maybe not rant, just complain a little, or maybe.. well it's gonna be a long whateveritis, so bear with me.

A while ago I thought I was done with the game. I played less and less and just couldn't be bothered finishing characters or focusing on a new project, whether it be my kooky zealbarb uber killer or my aspirations of being a full time dclone hunter. I'm not the kind of guy that quits/comes back once a month and I knew that if I stopped playing the game now, I would probably never pick it up again. I decided to give it one last stab and play hardcore.

I'd played hardcore just once before, getting a barb up to the 40s till I got bored with empty servers. I decided that if I really wanted to say that I beat the game, I have to do it in hardcore at least once....

I began with a couple of friends of mine, one of which quickly lost interest after dying a few times at low levels. We were going to quest through whole way in private games without skipping any quests. As for myself, I thought it was going to be easier for me than most. After all, I'd decided on a summoner. I've played them before and know how to play it safe. I can spot boss mods a mile away and know which areas are prone to 1-hitters and which ones are cakewalks.

My rude awakening occured quite quickly. I died in normal act 1 den. Killed by Corpsefire! I wish I could blame my buddies or lag or anything else, but it was just plain stupidity from me. I just sat there and let his spectral hit tear me to shreads. No worries. I laughed it off and made a new character and continued...

I breezed my way to the 40s and entered nightmare. A lag spike hit me while I was near Rakanishu. I left the game, but apparently not soon enough. Death number 2. Keep in mind here that my buddy's zon was going strong in nightmare after his starting druid died in act 3 norm.

It took me a few days to get over the death of my necro, but at my buddy's encouragment, I started my 3rd, promising myself that this one must make it to patriarch. He rushed/levelled me through normal and before I knew it, we're questing together again, only a few levels apart, in nightmare. It was too easy with the pure LF zon tearing up the place. We baaled to 73 and moved on to hell.

This is where the summoner shined. With all the lightning immunes in hell, the zon had to constantly hide behind my armies while they went to work. The summoner was doing great. Act 1 is gonna be a breeze.

Now the problem is that I only meet up with my buddy about once or twice on the weekend for questing. I usually mf on my own during the week. Therein lies my problem...

I picked up a teleport ammy and I've been cautiously mfing hell andy. I can take on all the monsters without any trouble. In fact, I can kill Andy and everyone around her with only 1/2 my army up. The monsters are no match for my army... but! They're certainly a match for me! In the 20 or so mf runs that I've done so far, I've had a total of 6 close calls. Each one saved either by a twitch on a juvie line, a risky teleport, or a hasty save & exit. I've dropped as low as single digit health twice!

My dilemma is this. I know that when I get the drive to mf, it means that I'm on the upswing, getting more and more into the game. So I want to mf. But I also know that if I keep mfing even the lowly hell andy, I'll die sooner or later. Even with my high level bone armor, 1k health and maxed resists, those misshapen can kill me with 3 or 4 of their lightning balls if they spawn with a nasty mod, and that happens often.

I'm quite certain that if I lose this necro then that's it for me. Game over.

So... Do I cut my losses? Stop mfing and go questing my way to patriarch as I had intended? Or do I go for it and just hope for the best?

[PhatTrumpet]

In Hardcore it's Guardian. :tongue:

Definitely keep going. Mule everything you find that you're not using right away... everything. Who knows, even if you do die, you may by that time already have found plenty of starter/mid-lvl gear to build another char or two you've been meaning to try out.

It sounds like you need to experiment with AI curses a little more; 6 close calls in 20 runs sounds like a bit much. I don't know what you currently use for tactics, but try spamming Dim Vision as soon as you enter a room until your skellies have engaged. If baddies start to get too close you could even switch to Terror. If you get a little more comfortable mixing up your curses you could even start questing through Act 2 a bit.

Whatever you do, don't stop just because you're afraid to die... doesn't that defeat the purpose? :rolleyes:

[viamede]

As Phat said Dim Vision is your best friend...spam it first...and then you'll have second to spot the mods before deciding what to do next...decrep is probably a better choice then amp for most of hell if you want to play safely.

It sounds like you might be teleporting a bit much. Teleporting is for getting out of bone prison if your usng AOKL, and gettin through jammed doorways and not for speeding down to Andy or some such.

Unless you are key hunting I wouldn't choose Andy to run as a summoner (and why bother with keys as your summoner will never run the ubers anyway). If you want to level and mf now...and I would actually advise that you quest on and level first....you should run the Pits instead just make sure you have a decent level dim vision first as the archer boss packs can be bad but otherwise it is safer than running Andy as you will not get bottled up and your skellies have room to work the crowd.

GL!

[Cleglaw_Himself]

I don't know what you currently use for tactics,


I think he was implying that he is tele'ing around catacombs 2 and 3 blindly.
Dangerous method of mf I think.
Make a sorc for mf with the gear you find with your necro I say!

[RubenusPontius]

Unless you are key hunting I wouldn't choose Andy to run as a summoner (and why bother with keys as your summoner will never run the ubers anyway).

do keys drop from different bosses in HC or are you mistaking? 'cause on SC keys drop from the Countess, Summoner and Nihlathak, not Andy.

[Matt]

There are better places for a summoner to MF than Anderial. For example, the pit in hell, or NM baal runs. Anyplace in hell has some risk of dying, you'll be hard pressed to find anyplace that will never have close calls. Max resists and 1k life is not half bad for a mostly untwinked summoner though, so if you take it slow, and dont get some really bad luck on a nasty boss pack that catches you by surprise, you should be alright.

If I were you, I'd stick with the two mentioned above, NM baals and the pit (tamoe highland). (Watch out for aura+modded archers in the pit though).


-Matt

[viamede]

do keys drop from different bosses in HC or are you mistaking? 'cause on SC keys drop from the Countess, Summoner and Nihlathak, not Andy.

Doh my goof....though sometimes regular keys are the inly useful item Andy does drop...

[WebDragon]

Thanks for the replies...

To give you a bit more insight, I did begin untwinked. However, my buddy and I were very lucky with the drops we've been getting. We scored Lem+Um in nightmare forge, as well as a lightning and pcombat skillers from nightmare act 3. We've translated those to some decent equipment. I myself am wearing a full trang set + aokl, hotspurs, and a dwarf star. My resists are 90,75,75,75. Health is at 1150. Bone armor is at level 8 with 1 point in it and bonewall is maxed as a synergy. RS & SM are at 32. So as far as I'm concerned, my character is already as tough as he will get.

When I teleport to andy, I usually run all the way, teleporting to skip walls only. I also go to the cold plains first and raise my full allotment of skellies (12) as well as gumby and the merc. I have 25 charges on that teleport ammy and never use more than 20 charges to reach andy. Many times I'd teleport into a deathtrap of a room only for my skellies to spread and hold everyone down safely.

My bane, however, are the Misshapen. If I teleport into/near a bunch of those, my bone armor is useless and their lightning attack is lethal. My health, even with maxed resists, can barely take more than 2 or 3 hits. So If I end up near a pack of them that shoot a volley my way, I'm dead meat. If can get killed by these guys when my character is as tough as he'll ever get, how will I get past the various different Souls I'll go through in acts 3-5?

I suppose the sensible thing to do would be to mf where I safely can, namely the pits. The pits are very safe for me to run since there is nowhere to rush to. I have to clear the whole place. So I end up taking it slow and safe. However, I bore of the pits. I prefer runs that have a boss in the end that drops uniques with some regularity. Andy has been quite generous to me in those 20 runs. The highlights being Cats eye, highlords, occy, a few assorted things.

Not really sure what to do...

[xeyloderixed]

i think you chose the wrong character class for mfing.

necs are one of the better ones, as are sins, but these two are only really good when you are mfing areas instead of bosses. pits and flayer jungle are my two favorite areas for necs, because the monsters die fast and the drops are decent.

if you are dead set on your nec, just wait till you get to act 3 before you start mfing bosses. teleing to meff is much safer than teleing to andy, as long as you dont "blind tele".

also a few notes: i like block on trangs shield necs, because the block % on it is naturally high. it helps when you tele blindly. dont think you have block ecause you do have 1k life.

[WebDragon]

You're right about the block. Up until very recently, I had 100 stat points saved up. I put in the strength I needed for trangs and got my vitality up to 240 then stopped there. I contemplated going max block. Eventually I decided against it.

My reasoning was that my bone armor should protect me against physical attacks, block becoming useful only if I negligently left my armor not refreshed. As for elemental attacks, block won't help there, nor will the armor. Only resists and health will see me through. So I eventually upped my vitality to 340.

As for mfing mephy, I tried doing that in nightmare and almost died on the first run. That's when I figured a flaw in teleporting through the durance with my army up. If I teleport into/near a bunch of dolls, my skellies attack them straight away, causing them to pop all around me. Suffice to say, its not a pretty sight.

Last night I spent all the pgems I had saved up and got myself a very low wisp projector. I also plan to swap out my dwarf star for a raven frost. I'm aiming for..

75% lightning resist + wisp
75% cold resist + raven
90% fire resist + (when not mfing) rising sun

Which should make me be able to take a lot of elemental punishment. The rest of my skill points will continue to buff up my bone armor. I'm opening up bone prison right now to keep synergizing. I expect my endgame bone armor to absorb 540 x 3 = 1620 points of damage.

I tried a few andy runs after I put on the wisp and it seems a little safer.