A Guide to Untwinked, single-pass HC play, V0.2

[Docturnal]

I have a small question: You say that p3 ensures the highest number of drops from act bosses, isnt the player settings halved for drops in single player? (as in p5 giving the highest drops)

[DeathMaster]

Here are mine:
(I have never been outside this)

A1: 20 - 21
A2: 28 - 29
A3: 32
A4: 35
A5: 48-49

Regarding Radament: the safest way in HC (on all difficulties) is to draw out all the undead well outside his 'awareness range' and kill them there. With nothing to resurrect around, there is no rush and he is pretty harmless unless you do something stupid.

I'm sure single pass to reach 33 and 36 at the end of A3 / A4 is possible. I have done once reaching 36, and couple of times 33. Otherwise, if I only reached 32/32 at the end of A3, I normally end with hair away to 36 after kill diablo. a few times so close the first kill in A5 bring the level up. If I clean the jungle a few times as I stated (not true single pass anymore), I could reach 35 at the end of A3. It seems Jungle area is the fast leveling area in A3.

Anyway, nice tip for Radament, I usually rush to kill him before he can resurrect too many around again. Doesn't he (she?? it is hard to tell) simply raise new skelly if there is nothing around? I must also do something stupid,because I still found heavy poison based boss super annoying if not deadly. Pre-feed potions somehow doesn't work very well for me.

[Cupcakesnbeer]

Very nice guide HC Gunter. Very well written
I'll be using this and all the tips for my current and future characters.

I had the same question about Act Boss drops as Docturnal above^

Thanks again!

Cheers

[DeathMaster]

I think P3 is good for "most". P5 is the max for any act boss if you are lazy like me. However, I strongly suggest do act boss @P8. It is not difficult, but you get more exp.

[HC Gunther]

I have a small question: You say that p3 ensures the highest number of drops from act bosses, isnt the player settings halved for drops in single player? (as in p5 giving the highest drops)

The most items a monster can drop is 6. At /p3, it will be very rare for an act boss to drop less than 6. Cranking up the difficulty to /p8 therefore won't increase the number of drops. /p8 will increase the experience you get, but will lengthen the battle and increase the chance of your character dying.

Here are mine:
(I have never been outside this)

A1: 20 - 21
A2: 28 - 29
A3: 32
A4: 35
A5: 48-49

As I said in my post, I am writing the guide as I play and I have gotten just one character to Act 3. I got my information from posting a question on the Questions thread, but I will use yours instead in the next version.

It is possible to make these, but you have to make the socketed item yourself (which is costly, considering the runes you need to use). Spirit in shields can only be done in ilvl 25+ Paladin-specific shields, since the only other 4s max shields (three types) are Elite.

Are you talking about using the Ral + Amn + Perfect Amethyst + Normal Weapon and Tal + Thul + Perfect Topaz + Normal Armor cube recipes? I hadn't thought of that. The number of sockets is 1-6 for weapons and 1-4 for armor, so it will probably take multiple rolls to get the right number of sockets. Yikes!

BTW, Nadir is a runeword not to be overlooked when you reach the survival part of the challenge. High-level Cloak of Shadows can save your butt in some areas.

I will keep that in mind, but the guide is only for Normal.

Regarding Radament: the safest way in HC (on all difficulties) is to draw out all the undead well outside his 'awareness range' and kill them there. With nothing to resurrect around, there is no rush and he is pretty harmless unless you do something stupid.

I will add that to the next version of the guide.

@Merlin The Wizzrd: lots of good stuff that I will incorporate into the next version.

Pit level 2 was OK the 8 times I cleared it at /p8 as long as I hugged the left wall. I haven't gotten to the Swampy Pit yet.

Except for the act bosses, I don't worry about resistances in Normal. That may be why my characters died so often before....

As for not crafting, what does crafting have to do with getting PTopazes? I don't think any of the craft recipes I listed use PTopazes.

[muzzz]

Andy and duriel cap out at /p5 or /p7 (too lazy to do the calculations at the moment). Meppy, D and Baal hit 0 NoDrop at /p5. But the increase from /p3 isn't really worth it. IIRC, Meppy chance to drop less than 6 items on /p3 is ~0.02%.

[Merlin The Wizzard]

Crafting requires PGems, and it takes me to about Act V before I get PGems other then topazzes... Other then that, I guess there's nothing wrong with crafting. I'd stick with some good rares though. Those PGems can also be used to reroll GC's for the appropriate skillers....

[Insane Wayne]

Anyway, nice tip for Radament, I usually rush to kill him before he can resurrect too many around again. Doesn't he (she?? it is hard to tell) simply raise new skelly if there is nothing around?

No. Radament can resurrect, but he can't summon skellies out of thin air. Ideally I use some form of corpse disposal to get rid of the bodies, but some classes can't acquire that in Act 2 Normal. I'll lure them far away from Radament, but only as a last resort. Usually in Normal I can smash through his troops and kill him quickly enough without worrying about it. (Keep several reds/antidotes handy.) Often there are a few helpful "shrine intersections" in that area; keep an eye out for Poison resistance, Attack, or Mana regen shrines, which can all be beneficial against him.

[DeathMaster]

No. Radament can resurrect, but he can't summon skellies out of thin air. Ideally I use some form of corpse disposal to get rid of the bodies, but some classes can't acquire that in Act 2 Normal.

Thanks. I was under impression that he can summon new one like those great mummy type. At least in Hell, I usually find he resurrect too fast, that normal corpse disposal skills cannot keep up, unless it is CE like skills.

Does anyone know how far is his/her resurrection range? The usual tactic I use is to lure most of those undead away, and then rush to kill him/her. Sometimes even there are nothing around, I still could get "new" skelly from back. they must be resurrected from far away. How far do I have to lure to ensure resurrection is not possible?

Also, why everyone refers Radament as "he"? Is there any way to tell the sex of mummy? I think more likely Radament is "she" (same as other mummy types).

[Fabian]

Having just started my first untwinked full clear single pass p8 guardian, this has definitely been a huge help so far, along with jjscud's guide of course. Thanks for taking the time to write it!