First up, big thumbs up to the developers for this awesome game and the community for sharing the collective wisdom.
While I am relatively experienced with the Diablo franchise and hardcore mode, there is just so much to absorb all at once that I just want some guidance on what are the big things to watch out for such as dangerous bosses. I have already read a lot of the build guides but there is no dedicated HC sub-forum so it is hard to gather all the information.
I have started with a Physical 2H Soldier and have got to level 32 so far with Kraken, and will eventually convert him into a Commando. BTW, I am playing solo self-found hardcore mode (“Iron Man”). Unfortunately I cannot link my build with Grim Tools as this is my first post. I have 2 spare devotion points and am thinking of working on Falcon next? Also any tips on how to increase cast rate?
Questiion is do you have just the base game or do you have the Ashes of Malmouth expansion as well? There are plenty of build ideas in the compendiums, but we need to know what game you have to link to the right compendium.
dont rush to 100/dont rush difficulties. you will only encounter more problems
there are some items/skills/devotions which will save you from death (turtle is good for leveling but most builds will respec from it later on).
Some items: Mark of Divinity, Fiendflesh Mantle/Boots, Reaper of the Accursed etc
Factions items will help you alot so level their reputation and check their inventories at checkpoints. Homestead has defensive potions (yellow ones).
Id stay stay away from most nemesis, crucible glad 150+ for a while and farm alot the dungeons (find 1-2 you like and repeat) till you get alot of recipes/items
this depends on you but its ok to close the game while you have little hp left. Don t listen to trolls saying “why even play HC if you quit”. I wonder if they make a mistep IRL and a bus is going to hit them… will they move or stay there because HC btw?
PS: most of the builds in the forum are min maxed/with Best in Slots items. The good guides have alternate items as suggestions.
And explore EVERYWHERE. There are lots of things tucked away, including some quests, that you’ll miss if you don’t. Also some caves/hero monsters have several random spawn points so won’t always be found in the same place every time you play.
Thanks, I’ll look into that in the various build compendiums. I’ve been gradually building up my resistances to about 40 so far and working on getting DA up too. Haven’t really had any scares yet but I’m only at Prospector’s Trail so far.
Also, I just want run the main storyline and hopefully defeat it on Ultimate eventually- no plans to use Crucible for this character even though I do own it.
And thanks for the links to the streamers- I will definitely check them out.
As you have the expansion you might want to look at adding Necromancer to make a Death Knight. That seems to be quite popular at the moment.
Faction-wise it’ll probably depend on what you choose for your second mastery. Demolitiionist and Inquisitor both have elemental damage so Kymon’s would probably be the best choice, while if you take Necromaner you’d have to go with the Order since Kymon’s absolutely hate your guts and won’t accept you.
In case you want to use Forcewave as your main skill, you can specc out of markovian’s advantage and spend those points elsewhere. MA doesn’t work with forcewave, because forcewave is no “default weapon attack”. I’d also recommend the transmuter in that case.
Prepare to die a lot.
If you start on HC without knowing which enemies or other hazards are lethal, every big learning moment will probably be a death.
If you’re in the 30s now, you’re probably close to the Bastion of Chaos.
The shrine in there tends to spawn two Chthonian Unravelers at the same time. These don’t really get talked about much but they are one of the most dangerous enemies in the game because of:
Spectral Vortex
40 Reduced target’s Resistances for 5 Seconds
I’m sure almost everyone has at some point tried to facetank the enemies spawned by this shrine and died instantly, the above is why.
They should really be mentioned in any HC guide, they are that dangerous.
If you want to live, take that shrine slowly and watch out for their resist reduction abilities.
This is just an example, there are a bunch of enemies with dangerous abilities like that. If you don’t know about them you should take it really slow and “test the waters” before committing deeply.
And if you’re playing Forcewave, reflect will be a big problem at some point and kill you almost instantly if you don’t watch out for the enemy reflective auras.
Thank you for your excellent post. This is exactly the things that I was looking out for. What does the reflective aura look like as I don’t think I’ve come across an enemy with it yet.
BTW, I was nearly caught out by a secret area in the Rotting Croplands last night. There is a long narrow passage that leads to a dead end that had about 5 or 6 wasp elites and enemy bees suddenly spawned in the passage effectively blocking the exit. That was a rush of adrenaline when things suddenly became dangerous when you least expected it.
Your mastery bar (and thus hit points, among other stats) is very low for your level. The rule of thumb is two points to the mastery bar, one point to a skill. A related rule of thumb is that hit points should be at least 100*level; for comparison my Conjurer had nearly 4000hp at your level (that was my most recent character in the 30s).
Menhir’s Will doesn’t need more than 4-6 points. If you’re triggering it so often that the extra six seconds of recharge speed matter, you’re doing something wrong anyway.
One point in Blitz is nice for quality of life.
Your helm boosts War Cry, so a point to take advantage of that would be good.
I’d think a HC character would be better served with a Cadence sword & shield setup than a two-handed Forcewave setup. Overguard plus Markovian’s Defense is excellent for survivability. But if you like Forcewave, by all means carry on and enjoy yourself. I’ve heard it’s good too.
I always put a Scavenged Plating on my belts, since it’s an easy way to boost armor in every slot by 15.
Otherwise excellent points, but I do not know what you are smoking here (but I might be interested in trying some… :p). Level 32 means arriving at Homestead, maybe heading into Tyrant’s Hold. Nowhere near BoC - that’s level 47ish in my experience.
It’s sort of a glowing circle around them with spokes pointing inwards. It’s easiest to see just from the hero’s name, “Somebody - Reflective”. Don’t hit them when they have the glowy circle around them, do try to burst them down once they look like any normal mob.
Edit - “transmuter” = one of the one point side-branch nodes on the skill tree. Tremor in the case of Forcewave. Makes it a spammable attack at the cost of reduced damage and no stun.
A transmuter is a modifier to a skill, wich changes it’s mechanics. Or in simple descriptive terms: the blue circles beneath some skills, wich are not in the same straight line as the other modifiers, are transmuters . In case of Forcewave “Tremor” is the transmuter for 2H weapons. It removes the cooldown, but reduces the per hit dmg to even things out. Still a net dps gain in most cases and imo it simply feels a lot better. (You might need to popp a manapot once in a while though, until you get some manaleech. Nothing excessive, Forcewave is reasonably cheap.)
It is worth noting, that transmuted Forcewave scales with cast speed, not with attackspeed. (The rule of thumb is, that a skill, wich doesn’t hit with the physical weapon in your hand or at least a projectile but with a “magical” animation of some sort, scales with castspeed. just a rule of thumb though )
To add to the topic, when I lose HC chars early it’s usually because of:
Stacking DoTs (avoid many stacked pools or debuffs on you)
Shotgun type abilities (avoid standing point blank next to boss when you see a wind-up)
Resist reduction (learn the most common debuff icons on the right side of the UI)
Burst damage from multiple charging or ranged foes at once (don’t engage too many foes at once)
Or a combination of the above.
If you’re new, the best you can do is take it slow in every fight, and to make a sturdy build that allows for mistakes.
. In case of Forcewave “Tremor” is the transmuter for 2H weapons. It removes the cooldown, but reduces the per hit dmg to even things out. Still a net dps gain in most cases and imo it simply feels a lot better. (You might need to popp a manapot once in a while though, until you get some manaleech. Nothing excessive, Forcewave is reasonably cheap.)
)