I am going to play Grim League this season and I am also going to try my very first HC character, but I am horrid at building characters here and I love following guides.
A few questions if someone in the know might be able to answer:
I would love to play either a pet class, a Death Knight, or a class that is pure cold based, and the fewer the button presses the better for me. Yes, I know those are all drastically different classes, but I have never really tried any of them and would love to try something new.
Out of those 3 classes, anyone know of any good beginner build + high end builds that shows gear as well as skill path? I really have no idea what gear or where to farm or buy so this is huge for me.
How quickly do you keep progressing in HC? Do you stop to farm new gear often or just keep moving forward to open up the main path? Do you stop to do any side areas like Ancient Grove, or is that to risky for awhile?
i can’t answer for league, and would probably ask in their discord instead, since they add so many tweaks to the game vanilla knowledge probably wont be sufficient.
anyways, for vanilla,
“few buttons” would probably not be pets, unless you dont’ count re-summoning multiple pets button presses. Least button pressy would be something like briar/blightfiend “chonk” pets that rarely die; skeletons, wraiths, primal spirit you will summon frequently. - and on Occultist you’ll use BoD too
Likewise if you go bleed, vit or elemental pets you will be using debuffs (wind devils/swarm, curse of frailty)
Death Knight you can easily make into a 1-2-3 button build. Necro side can be entirely passive with your main skill being in Soldier, which you can then add in more or less depending on preference or dmg type (war cry for physical). Cadence/forcewave/blade arc with(or without) Blitz, + war cry for DR/phys RR.
Cold, idono, brainfart/going blank rn, Cold Callidor druid maybe? or cold drain essence maybe
unsure how great cold melee AA would be for a first HC attempt. Cold SS reaper/AA dervish/trickster is an option,
Cold caster infil would quickly become a lot of buttons (seal, WoR, PB, rune, filler)
where to look for beginner guides:
protoss’ channel also has a bunch of HC levelling guides for XY class and general levelling tip/strats based on mastery
then you can use RektByProtoss’ hc top builds/comments for solid end stuff - still keeping in mind GrimLeague is different than vanilla so ask for what applies/doesn’t still there
how to level/progress will depend from person to person and what the desire is. Some only care about speed/getting to end asap so anything will be optimized for that.
For myself, i play regularly like i do on SC(with a few tweaks), i clear all of vet, all quests all bosses all dungeons, progressing through Vet campaign skipping elite into Ultimate once entirety of first campaign in cleared.
Main difference will be i evaluate my stats before XY encounter more, ie i wont be as brave at jumping into SoT or Ancient Grove “early” or blind, and review that my stats my actually support it (instead of just jumping in without checking like on SC).
Items wise i definitely refarm more than i do SC, not so much to get specific affixes, but to get atleast decently useable affixes. So like on SC i might farm a Gollus ring once or twice then move on, on HC my threshold is like 10 refarms before giving up/moving on.
Not so much to get the best out of 10 specifically, more like if i’m in need of certain stats i’ll then just give it more effort to obtain that stat than on SC, but i’m still moving on regardless if i got that stat or not after the 10 tries. It’s just that on SC i don’t give a flying fart, so 1-2 tries is fine, on HC i care/is worried enough to refarm that bit more than on SC.
*and yes 10 is a totally arbitrary number, pick your own comfort, just that without a limit you can/could spend hours refarming something, which you could still fix elsewhere like on comps/aug swaps/faction items.
If playing SSF i’d definitely also spend a few more “minutes” obtaining basic stuff like crystals, blueprints etc at certain intervals/stages of the char’s progression. Don’t have a blueprint at X point but know it’s available try to get it, farm the brains/eyes/seals necessary for it etc.
Same goes for component/faction respected or honoured rewards, so i’m not running around missing a resist comp rovers sells me etc.
*again this is all “slow” stuff that makes time to progress to 100/end take longer, so is purely about personal comfort and preference (or enjoyment), if your aim is to speed through then it’s less optimal
Max out skills in this order: Familiar, Mogdrogen’s Pact, Raging Tempest, Lightning Strike, Blood of Dreeg.
For gear, you just want rare jewellery “of the Untamed”, and maybe some “Taskmaster’s” armor pieces. Dual wielding Salazar’s daggers is also an option.
Progression wise, just walk through the campaign. You want to reach Malmouth and hit Honored with Black Legion. Then you can farm Storm Heralds and start using Doom Bolt.
It’s really hard to say which build would be best for a first Hardcore character in GrimLeague. Each season is different, with many adjustments to the mod, new items, mechanics, and general improvements.
As Gnomish_Inquisition already mentioned, creating a one-button build (or anything with fewer than three active buttons) for a summoner is quite challenging. If this is your first season in the League, it might be wiser to start in Softcore to learn the new mechanics, bosses, heroes, and areas instead of jumping in blind. Also, picking a character that’s strong enough to at least complete the campaign would be a good idea before diving into SR or other added events—especially if you’re only planning to play offline without the ladder.
It’s also a good idea to join the League Discord, as people there are more focused on the new builds and items specific to the League and could provide better support than you might find here in the forums.