Going to Hell: A beginner's journey into the world of HC playder=0>

[Bato]

I've been MFing like a beast these days, and I needed a few side projects to keep me busy. I've explored most of the cookie cutter builds in SC, so I've taken the advice of a few forum members here and started a HC fishymancer. He's currently level 15 in the Black Marsh on normal and MAN am I ever hooked. Going back to untwinked is exciting, and going back with only one shot at doing everything correctly is double exciting.

So far, I haven't had a near death experience, although Cold Crow managed to make me sweat a little. I chug a health potion every time I lose ANY hp. It's really slow going, but just as I expected, I am terrified at the thought of losing this fool.

My gear is pretty shoddy. I'm posting from work, so I can't give you a text dump, but I have:

A 2 soc cap with 2 chipped topazes
A 2 soc quilted armor with 2 chipped topazes
Wand with +3 to RS, +1 to Bone Armor, +1 to Amp DMG
2 soc Necro head with +3 to SM, +1 to a few random stats. Might make a Rhyme when I find the shael.
A bunch of other garbage barely worth mentioning

I've gone with a little MF in the hopes of finding some low level uniques/rares to see me through normal.

I hope to update this thread with my progress, and open it up to general advice from HC addicts. Any hints or tips you have to see me through this early leveling process would be appreciated. I'm already dreading Andariel...which is kind of cool since I mostly blow past everything on my way to hell Baal in SC. Already I can see the fun of HC. Every action and reaction has a greater sense of gravity this way.

[FredOfErik]

Ooh, you did it nice!

Your feelings about it sounds exactly like my own back when I started HC. It really is a new game now that you can actually lose.

When it comes to the advice about early lvls:
Give your merc a 3 soc Hunter's Bow (can be shopped from charsi IIRC) with rubies in it. Pretty efficient against andy. Also bring a nice portion of antidotes for that fight - and chug a couple before the fight as it raises your poison res.
Lvl to 24 before taking on duriel and get decrepify. Then drink some thawing pots and take her on. Make sure to throw up a TP as soon as you enter her lair so that you can escape if your army dies.
Your hardest fight will probably be Big D. He sucks with fishies on normal. I usually use gumpy and decrep to slow him down as much as possible and then hope for the best and try dodging his lightning. A point in summon resist before the fight can help some.
Edit: and savage polearm or yor a2 merc! any staff+any light belt+any diamond+any kris = big nice hurty stick. Everything except for the diamond (just use a chippie) can be shopped.

General HC advice:
Don't be afraid to drink potions and always keep at least one row of full purples in the belt.
Generally don't rush too fast into battles. If there's a nasty monster you can die in an instant. With necros I have often used gumpy to scout ahead for me. Every time you clear the screen and move on just cast him whereever you wanna go. This can of course also be done with other classes (hydras for sorcs, bear for druid, traps for sins, etc, etc.)
Don't die

[Drystan]

I really hope that I'm not spoilering too much for you, so if you don't want too much over-help, I wouldn't read my threads. If however, you don't mind seeing that Necros are a very safe character, and just how safe they can be, I'd recommend having a look at Blessed_One and Yu.

Just for the record, ALL bosses can kill themselves using Iron Maiden and Clay Golem (Baal is hardest with this tactic, but easiest with Decrepify/Slows Target [Clay Golem] mods.) I have shown this with Guardian Blessed_One (Dim Vision, Corpse Explosion, Golem Mastery,) who relied almost completely on his mercenary. It is also the best of my necros to show the power and value of Dim Vision. I made him, in part, to specifically show the power of that skill.
He also showed that between the Savage Polearm recipe (and later Insight) and Dim Vision, the Act 2 mercenary could take care of Normal /players8.

Yu was a previous character made for the Peasant's Tournament. He was basically a Jack-of-all-trades build. He didn't have any solid damage, nor did he rely on one thing. He was effectively a MojoBoneMancer, who also completed the game with a heavy reliance on Dim Vision for safety.

As a summonmancer/fishymancer, you'll have far less skillpoints to distribute the way I did. But the standard is 20 Skele, 20 Mastery, 20 Corpse Explosion usually, and one point wonders of golem/mastery/curses. That generally leaves 10 points or so free, which can be sunk into anything. Some strongly advocate the golem, others bone armour, others Dim Vision.
All are fine, as the properly played fishymancer doesn't require any. But for someone who may not have the experience or confidence in HardCore and fishymancer/necro builds, I offer the two previous threads to show the power of a high level Dim Vision.

But mainly, have fun, play a couple HC chars at the same time, so if one dies, you can take a break, look at the deeds from hindsight, and after the break continue on, and play so that you enjoy the build.
The most succinct advice going around these forums is: Don't die.

Good luck, and feel free to ask any questions, post any thoughts, and definitely keep us updated! Would love to see how you go on your first HC char!

[pharphis]

I'm interested too! I'm a big fan of clay golem, but I've never actually tried dim vision, so keep that in mind. Also I'm looking at it from my experience with a poisonmancer, since I've never played a fishy too far into the game.

That said, I totally agree with Drystan that you should have a few characters going at once. One benefit of this (or is this bad?) is that you're not extremely versed in only one character, so each time you switch the game is somewhat more fresh. You could think of this as a bad thing, too, but obviously you should be cautious no matter what, so it shouldn't result in a deeds. Also, having a few characters at once gives you a nice spectrum of different monster mobs, so that should help a bit, too
For the times where I've almost died, or the times that i did die in softcore, it was 90% of the time because I was cocky and would try not to use potions. I blame loving Fanazealots and life steal for this habit, but it is breaking. So definitely no matter what use your potions!

Also, I don't know if you're a grailer sort of person or generally keep S/Us, but that's another good thing to do, so you an twink new characters a bit as you see fit.

Oh! And if you're okay with that then you'll likely be okay with using stuff you find on one character and moving it over to the other(s) that you're using. This will make you much better equipped for hell when you get there.

Good luck!

[djmbbandie]

Dim Vision is Very Important for ranged enemies such as archers, gloams, balrogs, fetish shamen.

Andariel shouldn't be too hard as long as you have an army of skeletons and constantly recast clay golem. The slow way is to curse her with Iron Maiden and watch her whack your golem.

[Bato]

The slow way is to curse her with Iron Maiden and watch her whack your golem.

Is this a euphemism for something?

This is all really good advice guys, much appreciated. I never bothered with a lot of the defensive oriented skills like Dim Vision on SC because you can basically SPAAAAARTAAAA! your way to victory in almost every situation. Definitely dropping a point in there ASAP.

What's another relatively safe HC build for a newb like me to sink his teeth into? Sorcs and zons seem pretty fragile, and those were my two favorites in SC.

[djmbbandie]

Trap assassin?

With traps and fade in place, she's pretty safe throughout most of it.

[Kitteh]

Don't play like a *****. A lot of people resort to running away all the time, this fails for three reasons;

1. If you're not paying attention, you'll run into another group of monsters...
2. A lot of enemies will still damage you, which means you're taking damage, but not reducing the amount of monsters available to damage you.
3. I'll rip your face off for tarnishing the SPF hardcore communities legendary status, as most awesome Kittehs in teh worldz!

[pharphis]

^lol at 3.

I assume strafers are somewhat safe. I think singers are pretty safe I'm nearing guardianing mine for the S&S tournament, and it's been a blast. Stunning everything around you, and lowering the damage of enemies and their defense by 50 and 100 percent, respectively is really something special. 3k life easily, and the insight/prayer combo works wonders with this. Also find item is amazing, and if you want you can have an mf switch for item find, or a kill switch for bosses (CB and slow target work well, and easy to get) because battle cry makes it so you can hit anything any time regardless of your AR :P
Using shout and taunt effectively makes things even better, and you will find it actually necessary at some points.

[One nOOb to rule them all]

Zon with a valk is safe IMO. Opinions vary on whether a valk is needed or not, but I will take a minion that can tank a unique monster with a might aura while being amp'd any day for 20 skill points. With an insight you can spam decoy for scouting ahead as well, great for seeing whats around corners. Inner sight works for finding monsters in next rooms or behind closed doors. If you are using a bow strafe also works for scouting open areas. Decoys also make a great wall in doorways or in maggot lair that you can shoot through but they can't, unfortunately decoys can't be walked through like mercs and valks so it is possible to trap yourself in a room or hallway until the decoy poofs.