HC - the dangers?

[Variable_Angel]

i'm new to HC, in fact i haven't even started. I'm thinking of what i should be warned about before i start HC.

Some things i've already noted:

Killing Duriel too early (i think i read like 3 people get with this in the DC forum up there)

Iron Maiden (and i have no idea how i'm supposed to counter it)

PK'ers (and i honestly have never run into one on SC so i have no idea on what techniques they use)

anyone know anyothers i should be susceptible to? or help me out with the ones up there?

thanks!
Roux

[Mert1]

Top 20 monsters that kill hc beginners, in order of appearance:
1. Racanishu (dont laugh, so many died to his pack)
2. Andy (poison etc)
3. Radament (insane poison)
4. Summoner (fire wall)
5. LE (bugs in Canyon and further, dont get sandwitched in Maggots too )
6. Duriel, as you mentioned
7. Multiple flayers
8. Hierophant boss packs (multiple blizz)
9. Sarina (ruined temple)
10. Council, naturally
12. Meph+ council hydra + blood lord fireball
13. Balrogs (nasty inferno, dont get surrounded, they move very fast)
14. Souls (same, plains of despair, 1st come in act3, then act5)
15. CS IM from OKs (never ww in cs, or use fury, zeal etc)
16. CS bosses - watch where you stand, others may like freeing zeal packs on you), Balrog boss especially dangerous
17. Dia fire river (easy kill, avoid -dont run from it, its faster)
18. Frenzytaurs (scary)
19. Stygian furies (deal physical dmg btw)
20. Minions and Baal for sure, but its rare

IM better avoid, not counter. Watch monsters in worldstone, they spawn in 3 types, 1 may be OKs, also watch throne room, 2nd boss can revive an OK, he puts IM and you die. As to counter methodes, need INSANE lifeleech and PDR but never sure it helps. Some switch to another attack when IMed, wolves use hunger, necs help party with life tap, barbs switch to zerk. OKs always will apply decrep if you near, so may try coming close to them when IMed. But anyway IM is all about alertness and player cant always be on alert, weak human nature.

PKing is straightforward:
1. Dont take others tps w/o asking, may be swarmed, same with red in cows. That for accidental tp trapping. So on entering a tp, have exit menu ready. Some intentionally trap tps, never enter tps from strangers. And never come to red if the game is not cows (I always trap red when I cow in Baal games, thats to prevent grabbers). Rule of thumb - took tp w/o asking and died - your fault.
2. Never exit town if someone standing by the gate/trapdoor. Dont fall for "tp for BO" or "Freebies in Blood moor" scam
3. Watch levels: 1st, if someone in game where he shouldnt be because his lvl is higher. 2nd, lvls indicate pks (they usually try to be as low lvl as possible, so their lvl corresponds to items breakpoints (18 for carnage jewels, 25 for assa boots and strength runeword, 24 for bonesnap, 29 and 34 for upgraded snap and steeldriver.) Be on alert with those lvls
4. Watch for bone necs, advise you not to play near, may use tppk
5. When someone hosts, exit to town/from game w/o delay. Never pick fight, that is pker's dream. Dont fall for duelling noobz scam, even if soeone shows you his ubernoob equip, he can hide insane weapon on swap/inventory. Dont take pking as a humiliation, its a hard work and pvm chars are not supposed to counter pks, pking is all about "catching" someone not smart enough to hide in town. Wait patiently till the pk leaves.
6. Pking areas : sewers (sewers and pk = twins, its pking training ground, lots of fun). Watch out for south entrance, pass it VERY quick. Arcane (pker may use wp bug and come at once). Travincal (hard to pk too), Baals with bone necs tppk or telezerkers/hammerdins

Well, thats sure far from all dangers, but if you avoid what I mentioned, you'll prevent 90% hc deaths

[CoonerTheRed]

read the FAQs at the top, they cover most anything you could ever want to know.

but anyway, things to remember:

resists
life
resists
powerful, fast attack
life
block
resists
helpers (minions, mercs, valks, shadows, etc etc... anythign that dies instead of you)
defense/necro defensive curses/barb defensive warcries (anything that keeps bad guys from hurting you)
resists
then absorb, pdr, mdr, leech, etc etc etc
>>>>>> mf

you get the point, i think.

[kurg]

HC - the dangers?

The only real danger is dying.




:D




A not-so obvious danger is not muling those great items you've built up. Then poof, you're dead and don't have any twinking gear to get your next character up and running.

Another not so obvious danger, is forgetting to allocate your saved-up stat points into life. I always strive for 400+ life in normal, 800+ in nightmare, and 1200+ in hell. Different chars are a bit different, naturally.

Whatever you die from, it is ALWAYS unexpected. One minute full health, the next second, wham you're dead! ALWAYS be feeling like your next second is your last -- and you might actually survive.

In normal, I've lost chars to rakanishu, summoner, deseis, frozen hellspawn - mainly due to stupidity/apathy/distractions. In nightmare, you WILL die from a fire-enchanted boss at one point or another. Beware fire-enchants in nightmare and even hell. Never stand next to them when they die, nor when they are emitting lightning bolts. They will one-hit kill you seemingly randomly.

And PK's .... NEVER trust anyone, or if you do, always be prepared for the worst. Beware TPPK bone-spirit necros. Beware the waypoint/hostile exploit. Beware trapped portals.

[CoonerTheRed]

In nightmare, you WILL die from a fire-enchanted boss at one point or another. Beware fire-enchants in nightmare and even hell. Never stand next to them when they die,

Had a close encounter today... my zerker barb with lvl 23 bo, lvl 54 with 1800 life (with bo) zerked one too many times close to a nm FE council member in the trav. WHAM, 200 life. Any other character would have been dead (except maybe a shapeshifted druid with a good sage.) So yeah, watch out for them, mainly in nm as the bug seems to be fixed in hell so that it's not as bad.

[Mert1]

I remember when FE hell bug wasnt fixed, I was solo running act1 bosses hell and decided kill Grizwold
I had 3200 life - bam - max 20 left (empty)
good I had full rej and drank it immidiately before some nasty skeleton would shoot me
the next day a friend of mine did what I couldnt - died to Hell Grizwold with a similar barb but a bit less life
I asked if it was dissapointing to die to grizwold - guess what he answered....

[masakerr]

I loved the top 20 list ... BUT I would have to say that somewhere on your list you should have the catapults in act 5. You don't see any monsters and if you are not paying attention .... oh, well hardcore is tough.

Masa

[Mert1]

further to pking
I was levelling a new pally and a druid comes to "Andy kill" game
Immediately he walks to the entrance and says theres a exp shrine in Blood moor.
I stay in town while a lvl 7 sorc walks to the shrine. The dru then says "c u" and exits
I wonder if he actually killed anybody this way

[irish2]

Something I've always thought is a good idea for hardcore is to have more than one character up and running at once. Nothing sucks more than leveling your only hc char up to the 70's or 80's, having it die, and having to start over all the way from level 1 again with nothing else to play. I like to keep 3 or 4 moving in various places, that way I can have some variety. That is all I would add to the things listed above.

Good luck, enjoy your stay.

Ed

[HAMC8112]

Nevermind your HC chars dieing, you first 50 will die! and then some! Just keep at it, it take's a while to become a good HC player.

[Winona]

bLACK WALL OF dEATH !

[Geralcik]

bLACK WALL OF dEATH !
Ugh ! Everytime you notice you're lagging - you should know the symtoms - just quit immediately ! No matter if there were no monsters around you, what you see on your monitor when lagging and where you truly are may be different places alltogether. Quit even if it means failing to comlete a quest you've been doing in a party. Play it safe.
Good hunting !

[Mert1]

if you notice you lagging s/e wont help, will be exiting for another 10 secs to stare at brand-new robe

[Geralcik]

I may be incorrect, but I suppose hitting a juv and exiting will increase your chance of surviving because these packets might get through to the server... Sorry for desinformation if that's not the case.

[Durin_Death]

One thing I didnt read; beware of sewer runs. I have been hostiled 10000 times while in sewer game by, mostly, palladins. They never succeed caus usually Im far enough away from wp or town entrance when they hostile. So beware in the sewers; get away from the town exit ASAP... And yes, you will die a lot, but nothing beats the kick when you almost die and survive. So HC is worth it.

One more thing; I would advice (feel free to disagree) on starting a non-melee char at first, just to get the hang of it...

[Variable_Angel]

okay so definitely pkers. that list up there is great! i'll be ready to avoid those until i'm ready (wouldn't have thought of raik at all). how do i avoid IM though? i mean i'm gonna have to run there anyways (it affect physical right? so if i use elemental nothing'll happen to me, correct?). Great Info guys!

i'm also thinking about making 2 characters simultaneously in the same act so if one of my chars dies, i'd be able to loot it with that one (unless my friends there).

another thing, can i not trust anyone? i mean besides my friends? that's kinda hardcore in that play as well, not much of a social life there.

thanks!
Roux

[choc0]

please dont tell me you play with a dial-up modem, yes?

[Variable_Angel]

no i have a very reliable dsl!

....thanks

[Palm]

As was said beware of Fire enchanted bosses in normal and nm and stay far far away from high level necros.

[Unholy_VI]

someone mentioned the Balrog seal boss

in CS. I just died to him a couple of days ago. I lost a level 42 to that guy once a few weeks ago now that I think of it. He had max block and fire resist and pretty much was doing CS in normal for the hell of it and the life ball dropped like Carey's poll numbers.

(was mfing andy,meph,diablo,baal over and over.)

After this second death im thinknig there is definitely something fishy about that guy. The Balrog boss in act 5 baal runs is a total pushover but this act IV one really has killed 2 fairly solid chars of mine already.

[Mert1]

Its me who's playing on dial-up...

[tooie1]

Its me who's playing on dial-up...

I played on dial-up (~48k) for years and maybe once lost a char to lag. It all depends on the quality of your connection. Ping of 200-400 isn't bad at all. Those spikes to 3000+ are a different story....

[Enverex]

The PKs normally seem to be Paladins or Assassins, so when people join and have a suspect name, be warey if it is one of those two...

[Silkweed]

When you get to nightmare, be on the lookout for FE/Stoneskin and FE/LE. I was leveling my assassin when Lister blew up leaving me with only about 50 hp from about 800. My frenzy barb has a tough time dealing with FE/LE Bartuc since the fire damage transfers onto the bolts in 1.10.

The moral of the story is to have absorb, high resists and gobs of life. If you are aware of the limitations of your character, you can always be on the lookout for potentially life threatening mods. In my case, if I see FE/Stoneskin on Lister, I don't charge in and kick him to death.

Some good characters to try out in the beginning would be any of the cookie-cutter builds. In order of popularity, cold sorceress, hammerdin, trapsin and summoner. All of them are cheap and effective.

Once you get more of an item base, then you can start making melee characters, but in the meantime I wouldn't suggest it since melee characters are heavily item dependant in 1.10. My frenzy barb is virtually fully decked out at level 76, but he takes a serious beating from the zombies in Act 1 Hell.

Know the game, and know your character and you shouldn't have any problems.

[WNxBeeky]

IMHO the summoner necro is by far the safest build to make. Even with relatively low +skills he can do nm well, and can support well in hell.

Also watch out for the passive tp pk'ers. These are ppl that lure monsters to a teleport, then they tell you its safe. Upon entry you get hit by pretty much every monster instantly, which is often a quick death.

In general i like to wait for someone else to enter a tp first. If they look safe after a few secs then i go in. Never enter a tp in a game with ppl offering free rushes, and especially if they encourage you to put loot on.

I only put loot on with friends, and in a game where i feel the people are reasonably trustworthy. Fortunatly there are some very kind strangers out there, who have saved a lot of my gear (though i lost a highlords to someone - sticky fingers ¬_¬)

Oh and i play with a 56k dialup connection, running at 44,000 bps! :clap: