Soloing Hell - Feeling like I'm doing something wrong
- Thread starter Mythmaker
- Start date
Fine tuning gear might help, or might not, there is only so much gear can do and generally your gear seems good enough, although personally I'd like my resists higher, at least fire and lightning should be 75% (or as close as) by Act 5. A half decent all res amulet would sort that out.
Probably all the dying has more to do with your tactics though. Been a while since I played a Hammerdin but for me any character that runs into the middle of packs without GODLY gear is going to be dead. Flying hammers should mean that you don't need to get that close to monsters, if you do need to get close then break the packs up first so you only have to deal with a couple of monsters at a time. With one monster you can probably keep it in hit recovery a fair bit of the time, with lots of monsters then most of them are going to be hitting you and possibly putting you into hit recovery (or the block animation) and then you are on the way to being dead. If you can't break the group up then let them mob your merc. You can then move around the edge of the group making sure only one monster can hit you at a time (and attack that monster). Keep moving to a better position as the monsters move, even if only one more hit would kill your target, move first.
Another idea is to run instead of walking. I find the increase in speed and mobility more than makes up for the reduced block. When you see a monster, stop and assess what is going on and what you are going to do. You can mostly avoid moving when you need to be blocking. And the moment you see those fast boss packs or champs (or a gloam lightning bolt) you RUN like the blazes (walking wont be enough). Once you are well away and safe, then you can think about what they were and what you might want to do about them. Creep back slowly until only one is chasing you, lure it away and kill it, then creep back for the next one, or maybe go around the other way and come up from behind. Whatever works.
Anyway, a good place to get an idea of tactics that work (both general tactics and build specific tactics) is from reading the tourneys. People will often go into some detail on how they overcame difficult monsters and you can get a lot of useful tips.
Probably all the dying has more to do with your tactics though. Been a while since I played a Hammerdin but for me any character that runs into the middle of packs without GODLY gear is going to be dead. Flying hammers should mean that you don't need to get that close to monsters, if you do need to get close then break the packs up first so you only have to deal with a couple of monsters at a time. With one monster you can probably keep it in hit recovery a fair bit of the time, with lots of monsters then most of them are going to be hitting you and possibly putting you into hit recovery (or the block animation) and then you are on the way to being dead. If you can't break the group up then let them mob your merc. You can then move around the edge of the group making sure only one monster can hit you at a time (and attack that monster). Keep moving to a better position as the monsters move, even if only one more hit would kill your target, move first.
Another idea is to run instead of walking. I find the increase in speed and mobility more than makes up for the reduced block. When you see a monster, stop and assess what is going on and what you are going to do. You can mostly avoid moving when you need to be blocking. And the moment you see those fast boss packs or champs (or a gloam lightning bolt) you RUN like the blazes (walking wont be enough). Once you are well away and safe, then you can think about what they were and what you might want to do about them. Creep back slowly until only one is chasing you, lure it away and kill it, then creep back for the next one, or maybe go around the other way and come up from behind. Whatever works.
Anyway, a good place to get an idea of tactics that work (both general tactics and build specific tactics) is from reading the tourneys. People will often go into some detail on how they overcame difficult monsters and you can get a lot of useful tips.
Wow...
View attachment 5180
That is really, really satisfying.
I want to thank everyone for your help. I haven't had a chance to work with my Javazon to try out some of these suggestions, but I plan to soon.
After reading through the responses, I decided to respec my character one last time and change out the equipment. I changed out my helm, amulet, rings, belt and boots (thanks for the suggestion, mir), both to max out my resistances, top off my fcr (thank you FredOfEriK, I'm still kicking myself for not noticing that), and to increase my movement speed. I cut back on vitality in redistributing stat points, and put about 125 into Dex which, with an additional 5 skill points in Holy Shield instead of Blessed Aim, gave me Max block (thank you khuzgan, that seriously did the trick).
I also want to give a shoutout to pharaoh for suggesting I finish the Anya quest, because while the change in gear solved my resistance problem, fighting Gloams on the Frozen River made me realize that it was 10x easier to spam Holy Bolt at them from a distance than to try and kill them up-close with Hammers. It made the Worldstone Keep lvl2 much more manageable, and if not for that, the ColdEnchanted+Conviction Dark Soul I encountered there would have probably been next to impossible. After that, it was actually fairly straightforward.
Looking back, I'm realizing more and more that I was making this a lot harder for myself by being stubborn. I didn't want to "throw away" stat points in Dexterity, so my block chance was pretty awful ( < 30%, even with Holy Shield). And I never bothered to max my resistances because I thought the Magic Damage Reduction would pick up the slack. I forgot that going from 60 to 75 resistance effectively reduced damage by ~37%, which proved a lot more potent than the damage reduction. That, and I liked having all those shiny unique items that weren't actually all that useful for the character.
So yeah, thanks to y'all I actually had some fun and no small amount of satisfaction beating this game. Hard to believe I was about ready to quit, and now I'm thinking about how I'm going to beat the game with my Javazon next.
View attachment 5180
That is really, really satisfying.
I want to thank everyone for your help. I haven't had a chance to work with my Javazon to try out some of these suggestions, but I plan to soon.
After reading through the responses, I decided to respec my character one last time and change out the equipment. I changed out my helm, amulet, rings, belt and boots (thanks for the suggestion, mir), both to max out my resistances, top off my fcr (thank you FredOfEriK, I'm still kicking myself for not noticing that), and to increase my movement speed. I cut back on vitality in redistributing stat points, and put about 125 into Dex which, with an additional 5 skill points in Holy Shield instead of Blessed Aim, gave me Max block (thank you khuzgan, that seriously did the trick).
I also want to give a shoutout to pharaoh for suggesting I finish the Anya quest, because while the change in gear solved my resistance problem, fighting Gloams on the Frozen River made me realize that it was 10x easier to spam Holy Bolt at them from a distance than to try and kill them up-close with Hammers. It made the Worldstone Keep lvl2 much more manageable, and if not for that, the ColdEnchanted+Conviction Dark Soul I encountered there would have probably been next to impossible. After that, it was actually fairly straightforward.
Looking back, I'm realizing more and more that I was making this a lot harder for myself by being stubborn. I didn't want to "throw away" stat points in Dexterity, so my block chance was pretty awful ( < 30%, even with Holy Shield). And I never bothered to max my resistances because I thought the Magic Damage Reduction would pick up the slack. I forgot that going from 60 to 75 resistance effectively reduced damage by ~37%, which proved a lot more potent than the damage reduction. That, and I liked having all those shiny unique items that weren't actually all that useful for the character.
So yeah, thanks to y'all I actually had some fun and no small amount of satisfaction beating this game. Hard to believe I was about ready to quit, and now I'm thinking about how I'm going to beat the game with my Javazon next.
I wouldn't pair the javelin Poison skills with the Lightning ones because Gloams and some snakes are immune to both.
Even a Peasant Crown or a Lore helm would be better than Vampire Gaze on a caster. Give that helm to your merc and get Insight for him.
How did you play all these years without max block?
Whale.
Even a Peasant Crown or a Lore helm would be better than Vampire Gaze on a caster. Give that helm to your merc and get Insight for him.
How did you play all these years without max block?
Drystan said:
Whale.
lol 2 whale
I don't know, I'd argue the DR/mdr on gaze is more useful than 1@ skills from lore. Peasant crown I would probably prefer mostly for the frw tbh.
but ya it would be great on merc!
Wait.. you played pally w/o max block?
Wait.. you played pally w/o max block?
Yes sir...I mean no sir...I mean...it'll never happen again sir!
Yeah...looking back, after having played with max block, not so smart.
I still stand by my recommendation for using poison/lightning skills for an untwinked character. Yes, there are monsters that you still can't kill, but it's the safest and easiest way imo to get the job done. If you feel otherwise, please take an untwinked Javazon and try to Jab down a boss back of LI demon archers. I promise poison is faster and safer.
I got to Nightmare with my super Barbarian but then I started playing D3. I am dissapointed that D3 is SO EASY. Compared to the bosses anyway, D3 is still awesome , but still easier. I got to hell in D3, still playing, and D2 I got to nightmare, still playing though. D2 is hard. But D1 is still harder! lol
This is a good tip. Also, jiansonz's guardian threads often have good tips; if it'll work for untwinked single-pass, it'll work for anything.
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