D3 Hardcore Progression

[Darsithis]

Made it! Level 49, Azmodan Nightmare, and now moving onto Act IV. Can't wait to down Diablo and hit hell mode.

[Flaks]

As far as I understand it the entire point of playing through HC is to make sure you're overgeared for everything before you attempt it.

[Darsithis]

As far as I understand it the entire point of playing through HC is to make sure you're overgeared for everything before you attempt it.

No, not really. I jumped ahead by getting into Act 3 when I was Act 2 geared and level and managed to survive. Just gotta be smart about it.

Oh, and Diablo nightmare is down. Onto Skeleton King hell

[Lysah]

No, not really. I jumped ahead by getting into Act 3 when I was Act 2 geared and level and managed to survive. Just gotta be smart about it.

Oh, and Diablo nightmare is down. Onto Skeleton King hell

Careful, hell is where the game really starts.

[Darsithis]

Careful, hell is where the game really starts.

Yeah I'm seeing that. It feel like a real challenge finally, but so far I have been able to take down every single pack. Some I've had trouble with, but so far it's been great. I switched out Seismic Slam for Rend (*gasp* I know), with the rune that gives 9% of the damage back as life. In large groups I can't be taken down simply because everything bleeds to death insanely fast and heals me.

Right now I'm looking at:

3.07k damage
26.4k health
5.3k armor (67.44%)
17% block for 820-947
133 life per second
163 life on hit

And around 6-10% resists

I think I need to get more on hit life and resists but so far what gear of that type is up is too expensive or just doesn't exist

[Aurinax]

My hardcore career is a comical one.

Wizard, level 33; Died to a meteor on Normal Azmodan. Combination of completely ignoring vitality and not paying attention.

Wizard, level 46; Had leveled from 42-46 in about 55 minutes from running Nightmare Maghda. Was on my way to do another. In Alcarnus, 2 Elite packs generally spawn. The 2 I got had at least Illusionist, Waller, Arcane Enchanted and Frozen between them. A combination of Arcane Sentries, Unit Collision due to the Illusions, and Walling got me down. This was like my freaking 40th run of this too. The death was highly unexpected.

R.I.P.

Currently a level 14 Monk.

[Trotheus]

I remember playing HC in D2, there were VERY frequent lag spikes. If you were in a safe place to wait it out, when they finally ended (and they could last 30+ seconds), you'd see two things: 1) 1 or more people have died 2) Those same 1 or more people have left the game. The trick was to leave as soon as the spike hit, but if you weren't fast enough you died and it would spit out the message after the spike that you had died and left.

Unfortunately Blizzard / Activision seem to have placed the same high priority on profits, and therefore low priority on server hardware, that they did for D2, so I'll be skipping HC in D3. I've experienced a lot of lag, far too much to make me want to bother with HC.

[nightshark]

I started playing HC because end game was terribly boring... I've had 2 chars so far, level 40 wizard (died act 2 nightmare) and I now have a 53 Wizard that is in the Halls just before the butcher on hell mode. I'm doing everything solo but I check out the AH constantly. I have about 5.5k damage after Force Weapon and about 25k health.

My tactic so far was I just played the game 100% "as intended" (just playing the story..) from 1-46, at which point I reached Iskatu NM. I repeated that quest until 50, which took less than an hour. Then I played through act IV and completed it, have been playing the story through "as normal" again since. I think my character will die soon, perhaps I will be pulled into the fire by The Butcher.

The Templar really summed up for me why we play HC... in Act IV NM, just before Diablo he said something like "If this is to be our end, it will be a memorable one". Really made me smile.

Are there any good HC communities for D3? I play from New Zealand so I would be interested to find some regulars to play with.. my RL friends are not interested in HC at all.

[Gande]

I recently moved my computer to get better internet connection (moved from wireless to wired). Unfortunately the socket is linked to the light switch, and unlike most switches, instead of just being wired to the higher socket it seems to be wired to both. Needless to say, my roommate walked in and went "LOL WHY IS THIS ON?!?". My 42 barb then died to a sole wasp, while I was trucking into large groups of mobs and mowing them down no problem.

RIP wafflez

Currently back at 21 again.

[Vespian]

Level 56 Male WD, died in A1 Hell due to lag. 15 minutes of silence for the most fantastic class/character in DIII. Also mostly because I had to keep breathing normally :P J/K.

[Darsithis]

Update:



I even just killed, right after, Azmodan and got No Reinforcements, so it was a good and lucky night. Tomorrow, Diablo dies on hardcore hell.

[ashamel]

Am level 52 WD, only have Diablo left on Nightmare mode. Yeah, I've been dicking around a bit to out-level things, at least by 2-3 levels. My most terror-filled moment so far was a Vortex/Frozen pack of tremors.

[Omega10]

43 Barbarian, farming the start of Act II Nightmare. Have not bought anything from the AH, though my Barb has greased the way for 3 other HC toons in Nightmare Act I (36 Monk, 33 Witchdoctor, 31 Demonhunter) as well as a 26 Wizard in Normal Act III. I am having a blast, and will try to level to 60 with no AH purchases. At that point I may relent.

Note: My Barb has a lot of tough fights. My other toons do things like kill Belial with more damage and HP than my Barb did when he killed Diablo. Melee Wizards FTW ???

[Skullchukka]

55 witch doctor, hell act 2. After getting zombie bears rune, all other damaging spells seem to lose hard against it, especially with Vision Quest up. However, it puts me in a very dangerous situation (aka in the mobs face). Even though I have 35k hp and 300 all resist, makes me somewhat nervous. I don't like that :P

[Darsithis]

Sadly my level 60 barbarian just died to a champion pack in Act1 - at the same time he had 5 stacks of NV

Guess I live and learn. Time to try again!

[Blackdecker]

Hardcore is so much funny, i really didn't know that.
Currently at level 30, wizard, first character on HC. The only time that i almost died happened on Azmodan, just facerolling everything like always and then BOOM meteor on my head : 5% hp.

[Forsedar]

Sadly my level 60 barbarian just died to a champion pack in Act1 - at the same time he had 5 stacks of NV

Guess I live and learn. Time to try again!

I saw your achievements... was that your first 60!?

[Lysah]

Sadly my level 60 barbarian just died to a champion pack in Act1 - at the same time he had 5 stacks of NV

Guess I live and learn. Time to try again!

It gets phenomenally easier every time through. Did all of nightmare on my DH in about five hours /played. Hell slows you down a lot, but hey, we can farm act 3 hell for ilvl 61/62 gear now.

[Yakushi]

Sadly my level 60 barbarian just died to a champion pack in Act1 - at the same time he had 5 stacks of NV

Guess I live and learn. Time to try again!

such a shame did you save any of the gear you replaced while leveling? thats what i usually do since its always gonna be a new monk anyway

my monk is 60 again now and just killed SK inferno for the first time. looks like 3rd time was the charm, onwards to the butcher!

[Deleted]

1st HC char ever: Barb, died in Act 2 Hell at level 59 + 6 bars, only 4 bars remaining to 60 . Got a nightmarish pack that chain feared me in a corner with a stack of void zones under me, it kinda bugged and I didn't run anywhere, just stood there and watched my HP go helplessly.

2n char: Barb, lvl60, Act 1 Inferno, I only got to Tristram, haven't been into D3 in like 3 weeks now.

Needless to say that unlike softcore, both of these were leveled without any exploits and following the appropriate path (lvl29-31 to Nightmare, fresh 50 to Hell).

According to what I saw on the AH, Hardcore must be a shit ton easier now because the AH is literally full of ilvl 61-63 now. You barely saw any of those before.