Casual player needing multiple HC advices

[Archaedas]

Hey!

Me and friends are going to play through Diablo 2 on hardcore this weekend (hopefully - if they dont back out) and we decided that the first noob who dies pays dinner for all the others!

Problem is ive played this game to DEATH, but mostly on singleplayer and never online. So sick of "regular" builds.

Of all the unconventional builds ive read, melee sorc seems the most fun. Is that way to suicidal for hardcore, considering ill have *NO* items to transfer to my sorc allready?

Ive read some guides but they are like "use this item, and this item..." as if they are targeted only for people that have played for years and remember them all in the head, and also can farm them on main characters.

I need advice in general. Preferably to playing a melee sorc, secondary an alternate build.

Also if i survive i want to keep playing my character ofcourse, so the problem is... will runewords and stuff that DOES NOT drop in singleplayer/open multiplayer, wich is critical to survive hell with - be abcent in any of mentioned builds?

Thanks for any advice! I havent been posting alot on these forums, mostly lurking. So im sorry if its abit rude to ask like this without contributing more considering my post count. But my diablo 2 experience isnt as good as i thought and wished it was ;)

[Tai.]

So your goal is to be at least second to die and have some fun?

I'd say a melee Assassin with Death Sentry is the way to go. Fun, nice killing speed and not something too boring (like the Summoners and Trappers the other shall suggest)

Master_Zap has a nice breakdown of kickers around here somewhere, if your party doesn't have a dedicated Necro to blow stuff up I'd say to add Death Sentry to her skeleton in order to better supplement the group

[MrBill]

Well I can tell you that as an untwinked melee Sorc you will only be the second to die, if somebody else is an untwinked melee Necro. :whistling:

If you want to go melee and don't want to be the first to die, I'd suggest (a) a Werebear with maximum Oak Sage (huge life bulb) or (b) a Barbarian with maximum Battle Orders (same thing). Both of these builds should go 1-handed (using your 3 runes from the Normal level "Find the Barbarians" quest for an Ancient's Pledge shield, to reduce the Hell resist penalty to "only" -52%) and both will significantly improve the survivability of the rest of the party.

Throw in a Salvation Paladin and you should cruise through the game, as long as you all stick together and don't take stupid risks. Make sure the Paladin has at least one point in Cleansing and that any time someone gets cursed, he immediately turns on Cleansing to erase the curse, this is especially important in the Chaos Sanctuary, obviously, but it's important anywhere in Hell with high damage monsters.

I'd also suggest at least one Sorceress with a few points in Enchant (for AR in Hell, not for damage). The party should have at least one mercenary with Prayer, one with Defiance and optionally one with either Might or Holy Freeze.

If you have the option of having four player characters, make the last one a Summoner Necro, for Amp Damage and Corpse Explosion, but keep him well-protected, as he will be very fragile in Hell if (as will probably be the case) his resists are on the low side.

Untwinked Diablo with a party of co-operative players that you know and trust (as opposed to a**hole TPPKers) is a really fun experience. I wish you well... and wish I could do it myself, sometime!

Cheers

Mr. Bill