[L] looking for HC beginner friendly builds

[Krupa]

hi ppl.

i recently started playing hardcore, but since i´m a many years sc-player, my chars usually died around lvl 30.
my plan is to play untwinked in passworded games alone or with two friends in.

my frist tries have been a zealer, which died with lvl 28 at normal meppl while mfing, and a bone necro, which made it to lvl 25 somewhere in act 3.

i´m looking for some beginner friendly character builds, that don´t need special equip.

any help is apreciated.

greetz
krupa

[peanut]

You'll get the same anwsers if you take 2 minutes to check the other posts.

Trapsin
Javazon
Meteorber
Hammerdin
Fishymancer

Basically everything that doesnt demand a godly melee or ranged weapon, since that is hard to come by, and you often need it to succeed in hell. Magic builds of all sorts work fine.

[Krupa]

thx for the answer.
just found the hardcore faq and started reading it.

ur suggestions are basically the same as in that thread. i know it´s stupid to ask for suggestions and then ignore them :) i´ll do that anyway

i played all this builds dozen of times and i´m looking for a new challenge in hardcore with chars i´m not that used to, which would be above mentioned light sorc and bowie.

so i was hoping for a barb or druid build, maybe a kicksin.

[ZappaFan]

If you have two computers or can figure out the fast switching thing, I would never play HC without a 2nd char in the game to give youself loot for those times your friends aren't available to play. And if you can do that, the first character I'd make is a Singer barb so you can give youself a nice BO buff. Pretty easy to make a Singer combo with a useful killing skill as well. Mine is a Singer/Frenzier hybrid. Equip him with a Dwarf Star a Raven Frost & dual Light Sabres socketed with Amn - and you have yourself a pretty darn safe build with just about any other gear.

You mention playing untwinked but it doesn't take a lot of perfect gems to get the gear I've mentioned above.

[Krupa]

thx for the input.
unfortunately i don´t have a second pc and my friends play lod sc like 99% of the time. that´s why i lost two 12+@ GC´s when my zealer died :)
i found some nice singer guides and i think that´s the build i´ll go for.
anyone maybe know if a singer works in classic aswell? i checked the classic forum but coudn´t find any mentioning of that build there.

untwinked is a must for me till hell. if i should ever get there without dieing, i might have managed to get the gems to buy some items.

thx again

greetz
krupa

[BoD Trader]

I'd say if u died early on that you need to practice HC death avoidal tactics, such as the "quick save n exit" (my personal fave and one im very good at), "the Juvi and run//save n exit", and when u absoluletly soil urself "the alt f4". practice being able to save and exit in lesss than half a second.

A singer does work well in HC but when ur in baals throne room don't do anything! my 92 singer died from the phenominon that is the LE bug and he lost his 6k life with 75 light res in less than half a second. I couldnt believe it and neither could my mates!

[LaZeR]

If you have two computers or can figure out the fast switching thing, I would never play HC without a 2nd char in the game to give youself loot for those times your friends aren't available to play. And if you can do that, the first character I'd make is a Singer barb so you can give youself a nice BO buff. Pretty easy to make a Singer combo with a useful killing skill as well. Mine is a Singer/Frenzier hybrid. Equip him with a Dwarf Star a Raven Frost & dual Light Sabres socketed with Amn - and you have yourself a pretty darn safe build with just about any other gear.

You mention playing untwinked but it doesn't take a lot of perfect gems to get the gear I've mentioned above.

Sorry for the thread-rob but a Singer sounds cool. Three questions though-

1. Playing untwinked with no trading and little chances to get Lightsabres, Dwarves or Ravens- Is this still viable?
2. If I'm playing with a Meteorber- Should I keep the killing skill or go all Singer?
3. And if I go all Singer- Should I max War Cry so I'll do some damage or should I max synergies only cause I'm not doing the main damage anyway and that way the mana cost will remain minimal?

Thanks:crazyeyes:

[MrBill]

As I have said in many other posts on these Forums (in order of "how easy is it to get all the way through the game, as a solo untwinked player with absolutely no starter gear, in Hardcore"):

(1.) Death Sentry Trapper Assassin. (Max DS, LS, Shadow Master, enough points in Fade and Cloak of Shadows to get them both up to ~Level 10 to 14 or so with skill adders, also a few points in Wake of Inferno or Fire Blast to help get that first kill for DS, and a couple of points in Mind Blast to stun those Champion Frenzytaur packs before they eat your SM and merc and come looking for you.) :surprise:

An Act 2 Holy Freeze merc works nicely for this build since it covers an elemental attack (cold) that you aren't going to have natively. Give him an Insight stick in an elite ethereal polearm if you can, second choice is an Insight in almost any four socket polearm, third choice would be the Strength, Malice or Honor Runewords, failing all of that, get him any high damage spear or polearm.

One interesting thing about this build is that it's one of the few that can successfully do Hell with mercenaries that are rarely otherwise picked: I have done it both with Act 3 Cold Mages (you have to be a bit more careful with these guys as you have only the Shadow Master between you and the monsters, and she tends to Teleport off from time to time; however they can freeze some monsters stone cold dead, even in Hell) and Act 5 Barbarians (these guys are surprisingly effective if you give them a nice big ethereal sword and good gear, the trick is to keep the monsters always under Cloak of Shadows so that they're just standing around looking stupid as the Barbarian charges up and relieves them of their heads with the satisfying sounding "thwack!" of his Bash skill <LOL>).

Gear is whatever you can find or shop for; check out every yellow claw that drops and shop for "+3 to Shadow Disciplines" gear in the Hell vendors so you can pre-buff your Shadow Master to Level 26 or higher. Don't forget that the Lore Runeword is a highly effective, cheap one for a hat that can get you all the way through Hell.

(2.) Lightening Fury / Plague Javelin Amazon. (Max LF, PJ, Valkyrie, try to eventually max at least one of the synergies for these two skills, at least some points in Critical Strike, Pierce and the "dodge" skills, don't forget to use Slow Missiles when there are ranged attackers, it's a very under-rated PvM skill and just cripples those Horror Archers and electro beetles.)

Many players prefer an Act 2 Might merc for this build but I still would vote for the Holy Freeze variety to cover off on the cold damage. Weapon comments are same as for the Trapper build.

Gear is whatever you can find or shop for (make sure you have a shield that gets your resistances up to a reasonable level for Hell), check out every yellow set of javelins that drop along the way and farm the vendors for "+3 to Passive and Magic Skills" gear to pre-buff your Valkyrie with.

(3.) Summoner Necromancer. [Max Skeleton Mastery, Raise Skeleton, Skeleton Mage (just for the extra meat shield effect and a little elemental damage), enough points into Dim Vision to shut down ranged attackers in Hell for a reasonable number of seconds, enough points into Amplify Damage and Corpse Explosion to deal with the Hell Frenzytaurs before they deal with you, at least some points into Clay Golem and Golem Mastery (so that Gumby has some survivability in Hell). You will need Revives and can either pour hard points into this skill but I prefer just to shop a blue wand with "+{x} to Revive" so you save on the pre-requisites, I find having more than 6 to 7 Revives is hard to keep track of anyway.]

An Act 2 Might merc (same comments for weapon as for Trapper build) is almost mandatory for this setup, but I have also had quite good results with an Act 1 Fire Arrow merc if she has an elite bow made into the Edge Runeword, as the combination of Level 15 Thorns and Amplify Damage kills things very nicely even in Hell... not as quickly as for Might, perhaps, but it matters little when the Corpse Explosions get going.

For gear, you can either make the Spirit Runeword in a 4 socket Crystal Sword once you get to Nightmare (the Vitality from this item is very useful), or shop for a nice "+3 to Summoning Skills (+{whatever} to {whatever}) wand. Other gear is whatever you can find; some items that add to your mana pool are always good.

Resistances are critical for this build in Hell since you will have so few life points -- make sure that all your resists are at least non-negative, I personally would not do the higher acts without at least 50 in all categories. The Rhyme Runeword in a two socket Necro-specific shrunken head with built-in adders to specific Necro skills is a cheap and effective one for this build, provided that the +25 to all resists is enough for you in Hell.

For all of these builds, you use Mr. Bill's magic stat point formula, every level until you reach the Strength and Dexterity that you figure you need for your end-game gear (such as it may be) : one point into Strength, one into Dexterity, three into Vitality, none into Energy. Be prepared to suck back those blue potions, it will pay off in the end.

I personally would not try any other type of character, particularly not a melee Paladin, as a starting untwinked character trying to make it all the way through Hell. If you have friends to help you along, of course, you can do it with almost any type of build, as long as you don't play or equip stupidly. (Foremost in the category of "play stupidly" is, "play in any Hardcore game on the Realms, past Level 9, with players who you don't know" -- you have a 100% eventual chance of being wasted by the a**hole prick cheaters using the illegal TPPK hack, sooner or later.)

YMMV, good luck!

Cheers

Mr. Bill

[dyolf]

How can this be, the best ;) build is missing in all the above posts: The Socialism Orb/Tk (see his guide in this forum)!

What you get is a pure orb sorc with extremely high survivability. You can run hell andy and meph very fast, giving you excellent drops. I still use my orb/tk from the beginning of the season for an mf run every now and then, and for teleing baal runs. Of course, as a pure cold build, she can't handle cold immunes (don't know if something like firewall would help as a backup skill, but i doubt it). But what she does, she does very well and safely! Highly recommended.

[Gigga]

(1.) Death Sentry Trapper Assassin. (Max DS, LS, Shadow Master, enough points in Fade and Cloak of Shadows to get them both up to ~Level 10 to 14 or so with skill adders, also a few points in Wake of Inferno or Fire Blast to help get that first kill for DS, and a couple of points in Mind Blast to stun those Champion Frenzytaur packs before they eat your SM and merc and come looking for you.)

An Act 2 Holy Freeze merc works nicely for this build since it covers an elemental attack (cold) that you aren't going to have natively. Give him an Insight stick in an elite ethereal polearm if you can, second choice is an Insight in almost any four socket polearm, third choice would be the Strength, Malice or Honor Runewords, failing all of that, get him any high damage spear or polearm.

One interesting thing about this build is that it's one of the few that can successfully do Hell with mercenaries that are rarely otherwise picked: I have done it both with Act 3 Cold Mages (you have to be a bit more careful with these guys as you have only the Shadow Master between you and the monsters, and she tends to Teleport off from time to time; however they can freeze some monsters stone cold dead, even in Hell) and Act 5 Barbarians (these guys are surprisingly effective if you give them a nice big ethereal sword and good gear, the trick is to keep the monsters always under Cloak of Shadows so that they're just standing around looking stupid as the Barbarian charges up and relieves them of their heads with the satisfying sounding "thwack!" of his Bash skill <LOL>).

i have never tryed any of these talentbuilds on a assasin before. maybe it is better for a untwinked, but on my asassin i have maxed fire blast, shockweb, bolt sentry, light sentry, and death sentry, and only upgraded one talent on each of the nesessary skills in shadow diciplines such as shadow master, cloak of shadows, mindblast, weaponblock and fade. i use 4x ls and 1x ds, and when they are hurting the monsters, i spam fireblast on them too:D(cloak of shadows make you able to spam fireblast without getting hit by the monsters). (shock web if i they are fire imune) light imunes are no problem to kill when i use fireblast. the fireblast kills very fast. speasially if you have high atackspeed. this talent build would ofcourse be best with some skills from items to skill up the shadow talents, since almost all of the talents goes in traps.
my character have 5k fireblast atm and very fast atack speed.

anyway.. if you want to make a trapasassin, i would recommend this=)
i have had one like this before my the twinked i got now, who reached 85 solo. i bought a kira's,torch,spirit monarch and some 3 trap claws, so i could use burst of speed instead of fade and get some more damage, she died because of a bug, so i think it could work almost untwinked=P

-vegard/gigga

[Krupa]

thx guys for more input on this. specially bot-trader. i think u found my problem :)
never even thought bout those strategies, since i´m used to dying cuz of sc playing

dyolf & mrbill i played those builds a lot. now i´m looking for something else. specially i don´t intend to make mf runs or something like that to equip other chars with better items. i just want to play the game once in a while how it was intended to, without high end items, which are sadly floating all over the bnet.

just started with ThisIsBruges, my singer/frenzy barb. so let´s see how old he´s gonna get...

greetz
*thisis

[Nogan]

I just want to forwarn you that not even a quick S&E can save you from certain uncontrollable things like lag. I thought everything was avoidable with S&E and learned the hard way that this isn't the case. I moved to HC SP afterwards.

[Krupa]

if anyones intrested i just started nightmare count runs and found my first ever soj :D
all i need to find now is an amn rune to complete my first spirit

edit: just died on lvl 40 :hang: