Tips for a first HC Character

Hello everyone,

after playing GD for some time, I’d like to start with a Hardcore-Character. It would be my first HC char in any Hack n Slash ever. I want to keep the potential sources for frustration as low as possible, so I have some questions before I start:

  1. Which mastery combination fits HC the best?
  2. Which are the the Star constellations HC chars usually go for?
  3. Do you have any general leveling tips for HC chars?
  4. Is there any special gear I should look out for?

Thank you :slight_smile:

  1. You look for S&B or 2H soldier that uses Will of Menhir, Avatar of Mercy ammy, Mark of Divinity medal and highly overcapped resistances. Second mastery can be necro, occultist or inquisitor - they are all very tanky and hard to kill.
  2. This defensive setup of devotions is classic for S&B soldier.
  3. For this example: Blitz -> Will of Menhir -> Blindside -> Cadence+Deadly Momentum -> others
  4. It depends. Edit: Avatar of Mercy ammy and Mark of Divinity medal are absolutely necessary.

I recently (3weeks or so) started hc too. After few deaths i got 2 100 guys farming roguelikes and nemesis without taking big risks. My general advice is : You can take any mastery combination you fancy just be sure to reach decent amounts of : Armor, armor absorption, da, few res overcap when possible . Even my magehunter luminari set gunslinger is totally safe most of the times. Just arrange devotions a bit (not too much) defensively and use the right components. Don’t go overdefensive ( don’t know why ppl think that hc = shield). Ancient armor plate is something i always use (2of em on low armor guys) , 3% hp augment from barrowhelm too.

I’ve been playing HC in GD for more than two years.

  1. Depends. Contrary to common belief HC players don’t only play retaliation warders :rolleyes:
    Overall my first HC char in vanilla was chaos sword and board witchblade and my first serious hc char after I did a reset after AoM release was pierce sword and board tactician.

The extra tankiness of shield builds comes mostly from Overguard though so when it’s down you are probably only slightly more durable than many other builds. It costed me both of aforementioned characters to understand this.

Other than that my main playstyle so far is melee 2H and I find 2H builds pretty suitable for HC. More damage than shield and reasonable defense that doesn’t give one a fake feeling of safety like shield does.

Recently I’ve been trying to switch into melee DW playstyle and found that DW is more frail on average. Lost a few characters already but feel like I’m getting more adapted with each lost char :rolleyes:
It’s a skill-based thing I guess.

  1. Literally no difference from SC. Usually my devotion setup is very offensive.

  2. Pay attention to your armor rating. Not updating your arnor rating to match your level is the number one cause of RIPs while levelling.

  3. Definitely, but HC twinking to make levelling both faster and safer would take a dedicated thread. I’m nit ready for that :rolleyes:

My first HC char i made a month or so ago was a pet cabalist. A week or so later i was doing glad 150 farming runs on him. He was based off on sigatrevs blight fiend/familiar cabalist. I did luck out and find the blueprint for mythical circle of the great serpent helm, which was the main item that enabled me to do glad 150 runs. Before that i managed challenger 150 runs for my legendary and blueprint farming. But it was smooth sailing through the entire campaign with that build. So make what you will of that

That’s not possible playing HC. When you inevitably lose that awesome lvl 100 toon, you’re going to throw your mouse through a wall.

Stick with SC. HC is for masochists.

Thank you everybody, your tips help a lot :slight_smile:

I see your point but I see it as a new challenge to take on in GD. If I die, I die. My SC chars are more important anyway. HC will surely teach me to play less reckless. :smiley: