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

[Ilandalar]

Here's my HC story since I only started a short while ago as well. Maybe my experience will help

For this playtrough I wanted an awesome HC barb (ended up with a druid but it does not matter). It was painfully slow to play untinked barbs and ultimately they ended up dead and I will never consider making melee/strafer characters without at least having some decent equipment waiting for them. Next was a frost zealot (still wanted something melee but weapon independent this time) that was doing well but he ended up dead as well because I neglected his resistances.

After two wannabe pit-barbs and the frost zealot I decided to make what I enjoyed to play the most, a sorc. I knew they're fragile and whatnot but they can KILL and they have the extra-safe A3 loot pinata (meph) to farm. The first sorc died because I went like 'pff /p8 nightmare is easy' and the extra damage got me when I was teleporting around. For the second one (first guardian) I did nightmare at /p1 and as expect it was much safer. I got to farm NM meph and built up a nice stash of backup items before ultimately moving to hell meph.

The journey in hell was very very silly. It took me only a few minutes to get to Meph. For A1 I just held the teleport button pressed till I got to Andy. For A2/A3 it was the same, chugging purples like mad whenever I got hit. I remember a friend of mine was watching at the time and even though he doesn't play D2 he couldn't stand the pressure)

Anyway in hell I just did meph runs and had a decent stash going in no time.

In the end I lost 9 characters on HC, the two barbs, the frost zealot, three sorcs (one level 88), a fishyzon (76), a fishymancer(86) and a hammerdin (93) and the worst thing for me is not losing the characters themselves but the items that make life easier. I was bummed when I lost my last Insight, my decent Fishyzon gear, my last Shako and so on. Now my stashes are much bigger but I still will not want to lose the CtA or HotO or the SoJ (nor wearing this one though so it's safe).

So I guess my general advice for HC would be 'pick a sorc and safely build a fortune before moving on to other characters'

[crawlingdeadman]

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.

*cough* recast *cough*

[One nOOb to rule them all]

lol thanks for making me feel like a n00b. I can't believe I have never thought of that.

[pharphis]

I was wondering about that too lol. They have a cast delay of a few seconds though, right?

[One nOOb to rule them all]

No delay for decoy, valk has a long one at least 5 seconds though. You might be thinking that.

[FredOfErik]

Nice, safe HC builds:

Singer barb: one of my favourite builds ever. Get dual spirits+some more FCR to reach the 105 BP. After that just leap into pack and stun everything. I like having a bit of FHR on him aswell. Has so much crowd control with taunt/WC/BC. And a lot of life. Mana can be a problem though. Potions + nice rolled insight on merc is the solution.

Any zon with lightning: not the most defensive build. But you kill everything instantly and pretty much don't need any gear. I did one with poison as a back-up. Other options could be FA, Strafe, etc. And Valk. Valk is awesome.

Bone/explosion necro: kill first monster with bone spear and then blow everything up. With some very tough bone prisons and -walls and some curses he's really safe.

[Bato]

Update:

Well, I did it. Andariel is no more! I took all of your advice and guzzled four antidotes before the battle. I was sincerely nervous when I popped those doors! It was such a good feeling...something I haven't experienced since my first ever play-through.

The battle itself was some keystone cops style ridiculousness. My skellies died as fast as I could summon them. I ran around like a panicky ***** searching for fresh corpses while trying to avoid her giant clouds of poison. To tell the truth, I barely focused on Andariel herself, and I was pretty well convinced I'd need to tp out and regroup. During a brief lull in the insanity, I hovered over her and saw she had but a sliver of health remaining. Two remaining skellies and my surprisingly resilient merc delivered the final blow. She dropped a pile of honest to god crap, but man did it ever feel good.

Now, here's a question. My catacombs map is pretty nice, with both sets of stairs close to the wp/stairs. I quest bugged her by talking to Warriv and rolling out. Should I run her a few times for xp/gear, or soldier on in act 2?

[crawlingdeadman]

Rerunning this early in the game is asking to be killed. Rerun easy stuff like countess for runes.

Edit: This is normal Andy we're talking about, right?

[One nOOb to rule them all]

I am assuming it is normal, but if it is not disregard my suggestions. What to do depends on your level and what P settings you are playing. If you play through on P8 your level will almost always be within the range of the monster levels. Then the only reason to rerun something is for items. If you are doing P1 rerunning for exp is a good idea sometimes. With having as much trouble with Andariel as you described I would think rerunning her would be risky. Running countess as CDM suggests for runes is a safe alternative though not much exp to be gained there. Bone Ash in the cathedral should be better for exp and would be a much faster run, though it will most likely be less rewarding item wise. Also running Radamant can be useful I think he has the highest TC available at that point in the game, and if you have CE you should be able to pwn his skellies fast. He is also next to a chest which is a plus.

[Bato]

Yeah, normal Andy on p8.

To tell the truth, my necro was never in any real danger. It was more the threat of imminent danger that caused my discomfort. I knew if all my skellies and my merc bit it I'd have two tons of pissed off saggy-breasted demon dropping bombs on my head. I think I lost only 10hp during the entire battle. I thought maybe making some runs on her with p3 might be a nice way to get items. If not, I'll hit the sewers. Thanks guys.

Also, toying with the idea of starting a HC sorc, but they are absurdly fragile for the first 10 levels. Any suggestions on how to get her over the hump? Also, thinking about a cold/light sorc, since I've never played one.