Hi everyone!
I'm really happy to show you my newest character, Loyal, the 1.09 Classic HC WW Barbarian
I've been trying to complete HC in Classic in the past, without any success. I kept dying in the Durance of Hate level 3, or River of Flame, mostly by bad luck AND a lack of decent gear. Then I revised my playstyle and started Loyal. Basically I told to myself that I should play a lot more patient, isolating monsters out of their packs one by one, if I'm unsure they are safe or not to attack. I also took the habit of always checking the mods of the unique monsters before even touching them, in fear of meeting an MSLE combo, which is deadly in 1.09. From my experience, this is a guaranteed 1 hit Deeds, even with decent resists and life, and since there is no absorb in Classic, I can't rely on that.
Something weird that I want to say about 1.09 is that most people talk about the Aura Enchanted mobs, with Conviction, saying the Aura is such a high level that when a monster has this aura, such as Bremm Sparkfist, makes it very hard to survive because the resists are getting lowered a lot. What is weird, is that whenever I encounter a monster with Conviction, my resists never drop more than 5%, even when I'm not maxed, and even in LoD.
I don't know if it's a bug in my patch files or whatever, but I won't complain! haha. But the Fanaticism and Might packs are pretty tough.
Ok so, here's Loyal the Barbarian:
View attachment 5169
King Loyal, Level 65
Life: 1487 (2631 with BO)
Strength: 69 (for BoneSnap)
Dex: 20 (base)
Vitality: 321
Energy: 10
Skills:
Combat
1 Bash
1 Leap
1 Stun
1 Leap Attack
4 Concentrate
20 Whirlwind
1 Berserk (to deal with PI)
Masteries
20 Mace Mastery
1 Iron Skin
9 Natural Resistances
War Cries
1 Howl
1 Shout
15 Battle Orders
At the beginning, I planned to max Concentrate before putting more points into BO, but I figured that level 4 Concentrate already had enough damage and AR, so I went for more life with BO, which I think was a smart choice since I'm playing HC, and even then I had some close calls.
Equipment
Helm: Sigon's Visor
Weapon: BoneSnap 233%
Armor: IceBlink
Gloves: Bloodfist
Belt: Sigon's Wrap
Boots: Skull Thread (Rare Chain Boots 30% Faster Run/Walk, 14% Cold Resist, 32% Lightning Resist, Half Freeze Duration)
Amulet: Bronze Amulet of the Bat ( 13 AR, 4% Mana Stolen)
Ring 1: Silver Ring of the Leech (76 AR, 4% Life Stolen)
Ring 2: Garnet Ring of the Locust ( 27% Fire Resist, 6% Life Stolen)
-Sigon's helm and Belt for the Set bonus of 10% Life Stolen being very useful + High AR bonus on the Helm
-Bloodfist for the 30% FHR and 40 Life
-Bonesnap because of the low Str requirement and 40% Crushing Blow being REALLY useful, especially on P8. I ran Normal Meph until he dropped this, luckily, it took less than 20 runs.
-IceBlink I found in Hell Tal Rasha's Tomb, though it seems that Freezes target does not work in Hell difficulty? Anyway I needed the 30% Cold resist
-Skull Thread: These boots were my only source of Lightning resist, besides Natural Resistance, and I like the Half Freeze Duration and 30% FRW. The Cold res is a good plus. Dropped by NM Diablo
-My amulet sucks but I've never found anything better and Mana leech was mandatory on at least one piece of equipment. I must say I spent more than 10 million gold Gambling in hopes of getting something better.
-Rings: I wanted Life Leech on both, preferably with high AR, but I didn't have much luck, so I found a Fire Resist which is still very good.
Progression:
Normal
All of Normal was played on P8, with the exception of Meph running which was done on P3. I already had Sigon's Helm and Belt for him, found and transfered by my previous Classic HC Barb retired at level 44 (bad build, but alive!). Loyal wanted to kill Mephisto until he found Bonesnap, and it didn't take too much time, luckily (<20 runs).
I leveled in Chaos Sanctuary until level 40, before continuing to NM.
Nightmare
Again, all of NM was done on P8, but this time, I decided not to run Mephisto because the dolls in Durance of Hate were a real threat. I had a very close call when I attacked a unique stygian doll in Durance of Hate level 2. I had 1484 life (with BO) at this point , and the explosion of the doll left me with ~200 HP left from full life. From then I decided never to attack dolls again.
Act 4 was pretty easy except for Chaos Sanctuary, mainly due to Iron Maiden. I ran River of Flame + Chaos Sanctuary on P8 until level 60. Diablo dropped my boots on the first run, which is nice because I had very low lightning resist.
Hell
All of Act 1 was played on P8, and from this point, I played super carefully. Before attacking a group of monsters, I always checked if there was a unique, and if there was, I always checked his mods before even touching the pack.
I don't know if the Multiple Shot / Lightinng Enchanted would one hit kill me or not, and I don't want to know.
The hardest packs were packs of monsters on which I can't leech that have Mana Burn, mostly skeletons and PI monsters. Most of the time I would skip those.
I met this little guy in the Barracks:
View attachment 5166
Needless to say I didn't touch him
Most of Act 2 was played on P8, except for Arcane sanctuary, as I knew I'd find a lot of Spectres who are PI and can stack on top of each other. I did Tal Rasha's Tomb and Duriel on P8, Tal Rasha's Tomb took quite a bit of time because there were a LOT of Apparitions. Duriel, on the other hand, died in less than 20 seconds.
All of Act 3 and 4 were played on P1, mostly because Act 3 is boring IMO, and also has lots of potential dangers (dolls, council members, huge packs of fetishes, Travincal, etc.)
When I arrived at Travincal, Toorc had the MSLE combo, so I S/E and tried again.
View attachment 5167
I had another close call in Durance of Hate level 3 against Bremm, which had Mana Burn, and managed to swarm me with his minions, I used a few Full juvs and spammed WW to get out. Despite my maxed Fire Resist, his Hydras hurt me a lot. Mephisto as usual, was really easy for a WW Barb.
Then I arrived in Act 4, the Very first pack of monsters in the Outer Steppes was a Unique Doom Caster with Extra Fast, Multiple Shot and Lightning Enchant! I S/E promptly before getting killed. The next time, there was a pack of Champion Doom Casters, which is a lot easier to deal with
Other than that, Act 4 went very well, I feared that Diablo would kill me with his lightining attack, because I have only 34 Lightning Resist, but it turns out I can tank it without any problem. Diablo died less than a minute later, dropped nothing valuable then let me finally see this screen:
View attachment 5168
And by the way, does anybody know why Diablo is so hard to hit, all my attacks seem to miss against him, even if the character screen says I have 60% chance to hit him, it seems like I have less than 10%. Does he have like, 75% chance to Block, but no block animation frames???
I plan on leveling this guy for a while, in River of Flames, not CS as I feel it unsafe and too likely to meet MSLE uniques.
If I ever find Spectral shard and Goldskin, then I will continue my Classic HC Sorc, currently level 25.
I'm really happy to show you my newest character, Loyal, the 1.09 Classic HC WW Barbarian
I've been trying to complete HC in Classic in the past, without any success. I kept dying in the Durance of Hate level 3, or River of Flame, mostly by bad luck AND a lack of decent gear. Then I revised my playstyle and started Loyal. Basically I told to myself that I should play a lot more patient, isolating monsters out of their packs one by one, if I'm unsure they are safe or not to attack. I also took the habit of always checking the mods of the unique monsters before even touching them, in fear of meeting an MSLE combo, which is deadly in 1.09. From my experience, this is a guaranteed 1 hit Deeds, even with decent resists and life, and since there is no absorb in Classic, I can't rely on that.
Something weird that I want to say about 1.09 is that most people talk about the Aura Enchanted mobs, with Conviction, saying the Aura is such a high level that when a monster has this aura, such as Bremm Sparkfist, makes it very hard to survive because the resists are getting lowered a lot. What is weird, is that whenever I encounter a monster with Conviction, my resists never drop more than 5%, even when I'm not maxed, and even in LoD.
I don't know if it's a bug in my patch files or whatever, but I won't complain! haha. But the Fanaticism and Might packs are pretty tough.
Ok so, here's Loyal the Barbarian:
View attachment 5169
King Loyal, Level 65
Life: 1487 (2631 with BO)
Strength: 69 (for BoneSnap)
Dex: 20 (base)
Vitality: 321
Energy: 10
Skills:
Combat
1 Bash
1 Leap
1 Stun
1 Leap Attack
4 Concentrate
20 Whirlwind
1 Berserk (to deal with PI)
Masteries
20 Mace Mastery
1 Iron Skin
9 Natural Resistances
War Cries
1 Howl
1 Shout
15 Battle Orders
At the beginning, I planned to max Concentrate before putting more points into BO, but I figured that level 4 Concentrate already had enough damage and AR, so I went for more life with BO, which I think was a smart choice since I'm playing HC, and even then I had some close calls.
Equipment
Helm: Sigon's Visor
Weapon: BoneSnap 233%
Armor: IceBlink
Gloves: Bloodfist
Belt: Sigon's Wrap
Boots: Skull Thread (Rare Chain Boots 30% Faster Run/Walk, 14% Cold Resist, 32% Lightning Resist, Half Freeze Duration)
Amulet: Bronze Amulet of the Bat ( 13 AR, 4% Mana Stolen)
Ring 1: Silver Ring of the Leech (76 AR, 4% Life Stolen)
Ring 2: Garnet Ring of the Locust ( 27% Fire Resist, 6% Life Stolen)
-Sigon's helm and Belt for the Set bonus of 10% Life Stolen being very useful + High AR bonus on the Helm
-Bloodfist for the 30% FHR and 40 Life
-Bonesnap because of the low Str requirement and 40% Crushing Blow being REALLY useful, especially on P8. I ran Normal Meph until he dropped this, luckily, it took less than 20 runs.
-IceBlink I found in Hell Tal Rasha's Tomb, though it seems that Freezes target does not work in Hell difficulty? Anyway I needed the 30% Cold resist
-Skull Thread: These boots were my only source of Lightning resist, besides Natural Resistance, and I like the Half Freeze Duration and 30% FRW. The Cold res is a good plus. Dropped by NM Diablo
-My amulet sucks but I've never found anything better and Mana leech was mandatory on at least one piece of equipment. I must say I spent more than 10 million gold Gambling in hopes of getting something better.
-Rings: I wanted Life Leech on both, preferably with high AR, but I didn't have much luck, so I found a Fire Resist which is still very good.
Progression:
Normal
All of Normal was played on P8, with the exception of Meph running which was done on P3. I already had Sigon's Helm and Belt for him, found and transfered by my previous Classic HC Barb retired at level 44 (bad build, but alive!). Loyal wanted to kill Mephisto until he found Bonesnap, and it didn't take too much time, luckily (<20 runs).
I leveled in Chaos Sanctuary until level 40, before continuing to NM.
Nightmare
Again, all of NM was done on P8, but this time, I decided not to run Mephisto because the dolls in Durance of Hate were a real threat. I had a very close call when I attacked a unique stygian doll in Durance of Hate level 2. I had 1484 life (with BO) at this point , and the explosion of the doll left me with ~200 HP left from full life. From then I decided never to attack dolls again.
Act 4 was pretty easy except for Chaos Sanctuary, mainly due to Iron Maiden. I ran River of Flame + Chaos Sanctuary on P8 until level 60. Diablo dropped my boots on the first run, which is nice because I had very low lightning resist.
Hell
All of Act 1 was played on P8, and from this point, I played super carefully. Before attacking a group of monsters, I always checked if there was a unique, and if there was, I always checked his mods before even touching the pack.
I don't know if the Multiple Shot / Lightinng Enchanted would one hit kill me or not, and I don't want to know.
The hardest packs were packs of monsters on which I can't leech that have Mana Burn, mostly skeletons and PI monsters. Most of the time I would skip those.
I met this little guy in the Barracks:
View attachment 5166
Needless to say I didn't touch him
Most of Act 2 was played on P8, except for Arcane sanctuary, as I knew I'd find a lot of Spectres who are PI and can stack on top of each other. I did Tal Rasha's Tomb and Duriel on P8, Tal Rasha's Tomb took quite a bit of time because there were a LOT of Apparitions. Duriel, on the other hand, died in less than 20 seconds.
All of Act 3 and 4 were played on P1, mostly because Act 3 is boring IMO, and also has lots of potential dangers (dolls, council members, huge packs of fetishes, Travincal, etc.)
When I arrived at Travincal, Toorc had the MSLE combo, so I S/E and tried again.
View attachment 5167
I had another close call in Durance of Hate level 3 against Bremm, which had Mana Burn, and managed to swarm me with his minions, I used a few Full juvs and spammed WW to get out. Despite my maxed Fire Resist, his Hydras hurt me a lot. Mephisto as usual, was really easy for a WW Barb.
Then I arrived in Act 4, the Very first pack of monsters in the Outer Steppes was a Unique Doom Caster with Extra Fast, Multiple Shot and Lightning Enchant! I S/E promptly before getting killed. The next time, there was a pack of Champion Doom Casters, which is a lot easier to deal with
Other than that, Act 4 went very well, I feared that Diablo would kill me with his lightining attack, because I have only 34 Lightning Resist, but it turns out I can tank it without any problem. Diablo died less than a minute later, dropped nothing valuable then let me finally see this screen:
View attachment 5168
And by the way, does anybody know why Diablo is so hard to hit, all my attacks seem to miss against him, even if the character screen says I have 60% chance to hit him, it seems like I have less than 10%. Does he have like, 75% chance to Block, but no block animation frames???
I plan on leveling this guy for a while, in River of Flames, not CS as I feel it unsafe and too likely to meet MSLE uniques.
If I ever find Spectral shard and Goldskin, then I will continue my Classic HC Sorc, currently level 25.
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