Quick question: I recently started playing the game and already finished HC Veteran on 2 characters (which also appeared to be rather early around level 39-40). One of them I lost by getting one shot, the other one I grinded to 46 but am already bored of. So now I wanted to know about HC viable builds that are a) capable of doing Elite/Ultimate and b) combinations of melee ranged skill sets.
I am particularly looking for something similar to [linked in second post because I am unable to post links yet]
but if possible without the requirement of a few dozen, stashed epics. Especially the first one caught my eye because it seems to be a proper melee caster who en- and disengages constantly. Or are these sort of builds generally not considered to be HC viable past Veteran because they fail at utilizing one specific set of skills which results in mediocre performance across the board?
There are quite a few HC viable builds. To address your specfics:
The first build in your list is out of date and the second one just doesn’t look like it’s very good.
The pre-release meta was all about AoE damage. This was when we only had one difficulty level and we weren’t able to go through the whole game. The post-release meta is all about single-target damage and resist reduction.
Witchblades are definitely HC viable. I think you could do a hybrid vitality damage build that would work for you. You could also do it as a Conjurer, I think. You will have to make the build up yourself. The two places to look for ideas are the “Ultimate Vitality Caster” in the build compendium and jajaja’s “Cadence Witchblade” build which is now on the second page of the build forum. You’d want to hit the middle between those somewhere.
Or you could just play the Cadence Witchblade. It plays well with bad gear. His devotion setup is a little odd. And you’d want a more defensive set up for HC. (go shieldmaiden and tree, which means you can’t get Oleron, but Bear is good enough, and anvil instead of falcon).
Cadence witchblade is a really good option. I just fully reworked mine and I can facetank everything without ever worying about death and I still deal decent dps. Jajaja build is more dps focused but the devotions are good. I would say for hardcore though to put judicators signets on. Collosal grasp might also be better glove option for survivability.
Just aim for 2300 DA and around 14-15k hp with capped res and about 800-1k hp regen. It will be much more regen when overguard is up too.
The mentioned Ultimate Vitality Caster was recommended for my first HC char, I can’t speak to it’s efficacy on ultimate yet but it’s fun and feels very safe so far, ripping through elite with garbage gear.
I’d appreciate any further suggestions as I have severe alt-itis, already working on a witchblade.
Jajaja repurposed a different character he already had. He didn’t level it up. As such, he used some devotion procs he already had levelled. The proc on Falcon is not great for a 1H+shield character. Anvil is much better. I also don’t like relying on Dryad for my healing with a HC character. The -15% recovery node on shieldmaiden is too good - you can get 100% recovery easily - with Overguard you are then immortal.
OP is talking about playing with low gear. He’s not going to have Judicator’s signets. What you want is to craft green rings with the difficult to get resists - Consecrated and Incorruptible. One of each is good. It’s great if you can get a useful suffix - preferably something with DA on it.
I just finished playing this Witchblade self-found. I ended up going with Myrmidon set because I didn’t get useful Legendary armor at all. It’s solid and fun to play. Clear speed is slow. Once you get 100% block recovery and maxed Menhir’s Will you can’t really die. (If both Overguard and Menhir’s Will are on cooldown, you back out.) Also max CoF as early as possible (like level 12) because it’s incredible how much damge it adds.