~ SPHC Ladder Part V ~

[Mordalles]

allanon did mostly baal runs today. while doing it, im trying to plan what skills i should max, cause im still not sure. currently im thinking with maxing armageddon (done), molten boulder and volcano (all synergies of each other),
then the rest of the points will probably go into lycanthopy and oak sage. im gonna keep shockwave at lev 5, as i dont need a long stun length, cause you just cast it continuesly and the stun length is then unlimited.

Armageddon is already doing around 1400 damage, and and i now im starting to max the synergies. i found only unique demonhide boots today, however, i equipped allanon with earthshaker (+3 ele.) and +3 elemental skill amulet that xanthia found (my ladder zon)

tomorrow im gonna lev him up some more, and then im going to nightmare.

Destroyer Allanon, lev 50 ShockwaveBear-using-Armageddon.

 

[crazy_bear]

Since last update, Ursa defeated Duriel, sped through the jungle and has now also slain Meph, and reached lvl 62 in the process.

Duriel dropped a ribcracker, but it turned out to be ethereal when I picked it up. :grrr: Oh well.

Got a good map for running Meph, so I'll probably do enough runs to really bore myself.

Ursa pretty much just watches most of the battles, in which the merc and valk actually do all the killing. She launches the occaisional FA in just to keep the monsters from getting away.

Ursa lvl 62 Bowazon entering act IV NM

 

[XorceR1]

I don't have much time to play lately so I can't advance with your speed crazy_bear SniPe_XR is sitting in ActII NM waiting for a Kuko to drop. Anyway she has maxed MA and 19 points in Valk. I'm thinking of maxing Decoy too so I can have an excellent tank ( yes, I'm thinking of Hell Ancients). I also have around 5 points in Critical Strike ( that's enough), 7 in Pierce and I'm putting a few in Penetrate too. I'm using a defiance merc because he's more durable and makes my Valk harder to kill too (anyway she's practically immortal for now ).I've also started a new character. He's also sept and untwinked:
Rage_XR lvl 10 Berserker Act I Nml

Borlag could you please add him to the ladder

 

[SpittingHammers]

I am New to the Whole HC thing. My first day was alot of fun ...basiclly I cleared every screen of the baddies. By this time I was lvl 18 and on to andy. I had some blessed hammers which took her out easy enough. I then moved on to act 2. I did ok considering I dont know anyone to play with on us West. hammers and a merc were all i needed. You should see the horrid items i have lol. They are all blue and rare and not great. I got through ok and jumped a pud to kill the big bug shortly after a lvl 60 came in and Hostiled everyone and i died. Weeeee! thats how the ship floats I guess. So currently i am working on remaking. Im lvl 14 and still playing by myself. Still in act 1 with crappy gear and all that. Anyways if you wish to play sometime I am allways looking for someone to play with. I figure its prolly easyer to find people here then in game sense most people either A. dont talk or B. Talk but its either " your a noob" or " Cuss cuss you Cuss cuss cuss".

 

[Illiana]

Woohoo! I made it: Sarah the Lightning trap assassin is now a Guardian!

The ancients were very, very hard. Two times I have managed to kill both Korlic and Talic, only to see my Shadow master be unable to scratch Madawc. One of those times, I had even managed to keep my merc alive, but that time Madawc had the Stone skin mod, so when combined with his Shout I still couldn't scratch him.

I asked for advice on this forum, and people suggested I change my mercs weapon, armour, and to buy a wand with Lower resist charges. I did all those things, and couldn't seem to keep my merc alive longer than 1 minute... So in the end, when Madawc had pretty good mods (aura enchanted - holy fire and extra strong) I just decided to try it with only the Lower resist charges... And I got him killed. Sure, it took me forever, I had to recast my shadow dozens of times, and I went through heaps of mana potions, but I did it.

After that, the Worldstone keep was pretty easy - no Gloam type thingies, and Baal never gave me any problems (except for the fact that he took forever to kill :lol: ). I have already started a new character, her name is Serena, and she will be a pure lightning javazon. I don't know if I'll actually try to take her through Hell, she might just end up becoming my Nm Baal runner.

Guardian Sarah, level 80 Lightning trap Assassin

 

[AlterEgo]

Welcome to the HC ladder SpittingHammers

Woohoo! I made it: Sarah the Lightning trap assassin is now a Guardian!

Woo Hoo indeed!! Congrats Illiana - all hail Guardian Sarah :clap:
It's nice to see that you made it. The ancients are real pain for trappers (Baal is a pushover in comparison), but you showed that patience & skill prevail!

Best of luck with your new javazon.

 

[tragor]

If you want to Tragor I can donate a Kuko bow to you, have plenty of them.
DX

How did I miss this? :scratch: A tempting offer but she's doing this all alone (well, except for the merc and valk). All self-found.

She has continued to fight the good fight and after a few forays into the Tower, she picked up enough to upgrade her rare boots to sharkskin. Adds 55 defense points and she keeps the 20 FRW and 22% MF. She kills slow but with her current 75% FRW (Zephyr, Stealth, boots and SC) she can get away from trouble fairly easily. Pity the moron can't keep up.

She has now crept to the Outer Cloister where she waits for her next 3 hour session in which she hopes to get to the Jail WP. :lol:


Bullseye_Baby, clvl 51, A1 NM


EDIT: And a big hand for Illiana. I can only hope that one of my guys can do the same. :clap:

 

[Sir Lister of Smeg]

well, I managed to start another character and get it killed. This time an assassin, named Nightthought. All the time I did see it coming, lots of NDE's, in the end it was a lightning enchanted tainted boss that did the job. Maybe it was not a good idea to start using two claws before level 12, she died at level 11.

Next up: a necromancer, but I'll probably continue a bit with my softcore paladin first.

 

[DX-Crawler]

All hail the victorius Sarah.
Great achievement making an Assassin guardian :clap: :clap:
Haven't managed to that myself.

Sorry to hear about your deaths Sir Lister but keep em coming you will soon get the hang of it. If you are making a necromancer I can suggest either Fishy or bonenecro they are real great and don't need much twinking to move forward.
Welcome to the HCladder SpittingHammer
I hope you will enjot your time here

Hmm nothing happened really for my characters haven't played much lately.
My amazon got one WP further but no level. I think nightmare act 1 is one of the most boring places to be in I don't know why it's just boring. Maybe I should play some with my Assassin again, see if she can make a bit further.

Have fun and be careful

DX

 

[crazy_bear]

Congrats Illiana, and welcome to the SPF Spittinghammers!

I don't have much time to play lately so I can't advance with your speed crazy_bear

This is the mixed blessing of lots of time (summer vacation) and no money.

Sir Lister, just remember the HC motto: Run away to fight another day.
I remember how many deaths I had when learning HC. I still haven't got a char to conqueror.

Good luck all.

 

[tragor]

I still haven't got a char to conqueror.

Whew. With all the Guardians running around hear, I was beginning to think I was the only one in this little boat. I'll be rooting for you CB.

 

[Sir Lister of Smeg]

Sorry to hear about your deaths Sir Lister but keep em coming you will soon get the hang of it. If you are making a necromancer I can suggest either Fishy or bonenecro they are real great and don't need much twinking to move forward.

I'll try the fishymancer I think, it's good to hear that no twinking is needed, since I don't have any items to twink them with. Anyway, at the start twinking isn't that necessary with any character.
Speaking about no twinking, what characters can virtually naked proceed through hell while doing total clears? Is there at least a build for every class that can do this? For most, immunes will be a rather big problem I guess. (and no I'm not anywhere near trying that in hardcore, I just want to start with a build that I know of having the chance to become guardian (or (m/p)atriarch in softcore without being dependent on equipment)

Sir Lister, just remember the HC motto: Run away to fight another day.
I remember how many deaths I had when learning HC. I still haven't got a char to conqueror.

I did run away quite a lot, just not enough at the critical moment, the marrowzon was easier because of her using ranged attack, the martial shadowsin as a melee character I didn't play that well, no blocking was really a mistake.
Maybe the song of sir Robin should be the soundtrack for hardcore sessions?
My highest character was the late Slaylover, in act II normal. I still do have some old hardcore characters alive, one of whom, the randomdruid Ehs, I played seriously at the time, but he was (is) still in act I.

 

[DX-Crawler]

I played a bit harsh with my Assassin today. I stood in the Frigid Highlands and got sorounded by a band of those big guys with Imps on there back, and her Fire Resist wasn't so good so she died a bit later, never thought those guys would be a threat to her but she is more fragile than I thought.

Well time to start over a new one, I will change a bit and use a bow instead of traps when I'm getting to act 4 and CS.

I'm also gonna make it a bit more challenging and have some rules with this one.

1. No twinking except runes and gems.
2. Full clears on players8 in normal, 5 in Nightmare, 3 in Hell (if it's possible)
3. No reruns before I have killed the Cow King in that Difficulty. So no mephrun in nightmare before the Cow King in Nightmare is dead.

Well thats about it. Have named this one the same as the last one, Mrs_Ploppy.
She have started quite well and have reached Inner Cloister at level 19, haven't been that high level this early in the game.
The most critical thing with this one is to get some mana leach, saving every ring and ammy to roll them later when I get the cube.

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Mrs_Ploppy MA assassin level 19
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Have fun and be careful

DX

 

[Quicksilver1]

Whew. With all the Guardians running around hear, I was beginning to think I was the only one in this little boat. I'll be rooting for you CB.

Its not that small a boat... I'm in it too :lol:

I've only ever had 1 Patriarch in my whole D2 "career", and my highest rank in HC? Measly Destroyer status :flip:

I'm hoping to change that with my HC Fire Druid, Rhorekith though

 

[crazy_bear]

Whew. With all the Guardians running around hear, I was beginning to think I was the only one in this little boat. I'll be rooting for you CB.

Thanks. Those of us that aren't HC gods like AE need to stick together.

Each char does seem to get a bit easier anyway. My last char made it further than any I had previous until a FE got him, and this one is just a little behind where he was.

This game is trying to make me play a sorc. Ursa has been running NM Meph to try and find a decent bow and had found: 2 of +2 sorc skills orbs with 20%FCR and assorted +skills, Tal Rasha's Ammy (my first! Awesome ammy!), and a Lidless wall. I have found a few useful exceptional uniques too, including another ethereal ribcracker to go with the one Duriel dropped for me. Anyone have a use for an ethereal ribcracker? However, none of the things found were actually useful for the char doing the searching....

If any new sorcs out there would like a +2 skills 20% FCR +2 Blizzard +2 Thunderstorm orb it's free for the taking.

Anyway, after all this Ursa is now lvl 65 and I think it's about time I cleared up the matter of Meph's Soulstone, since I have killed him about 25 times now.

Destroyer Ursa lvl 65 bowazon, act IV NM

 

[steelsixtyIV]

Keep trying everybody, you will get better I promise.

Count_Leviticus is now a Destroyer and in Act I NM looking for Cain. I found the Spectral Shard somewhere in Norm and absolutely love it. 50% FC is sweet! I switched around mercs as well. I wanted to practice new tactics with a Rouge and Bone Prision. Not working as well as my last one (Decrep and Bone Spirit) but we'll see. I am still undecided on which Curse to max.

Arcane_Slayer has been getting lucky in NM with Meph runs.

Recent finds:

Buriza
Tal's Orb
Lycander's Aim
Titian's
Hone Sudan (sweet, now Merc can almost tank NM Meph)
Atlantean

Still looking for:

Tiamat's
Vamp
Shaft
SoE
War Travs

 

[Mordalles]

Allanon killed duriel, mephisto and diablo today, and is now waiting in the ancient's way. Ancients next. i also killed mephisto about 15 times for a bit of exp, and got atleast a magewrath out of it. i also got a Lum rune from hellforge. things went pretty smooth.

i must say that this build is much more powerful than i eventually thought it would be. i just wanted to play something different. but boy, this guy is a killing machine. his armageddon is already doing damage from around 3200 or 3400, cant remember which one. and i just started putting points in the volcano synergy. currently armageddon and molten boulder is maxed. like AE said, molten boulder is great for maggot's lair. my health is now around 1050, and ive still just got 1 point in oak sage. this guy is great in handling groups of monsters at once, but on the other hand sometimes struggle to hit a single monster.

its a very fun play style. I stun everything with shockwave, and then just run around and between them, letting the armageddon do the rest. its also nice having so much health and defense in wearbear form, so that i can actually melee as well. i do around 500-700 melee damage. the holyfreeze merc also helps.

now off to the ancients, just hoping that i dont feel the FE bug.

Destroyer Allanon, lev 64 Shockwavebear-using-Armageddon, Act 5 NM.

edit: congrats, illiana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :drink:

 

[simeonb]

Whew. With all the Guardians running around hear, I was beginning to think I was the only one in this little boat. I'll be rooting for you CB.

Another of the "no Guardians" clan here! The best I've managed is Act III NM where I got my Fishymancer killed by trying to run away from a Flayer boss pack and picking up another two groups of them in the process...

I've also never had a Mat/Pat. However, myself and my RL Elite Unique are currently in Hell with a 1.07 Softcore Druid and Paladin, so I'm hoping that will change soon.

 

[Paradox of Reality]

Had little time to play latetly, and less to post (not that I ever really did much to begin with).

Nebride has advanced to Act II NM and is at level 51. I'm currently trying to decide on which mercenary I want to use. Keep my defiance or use a HF one for tanking, or get might and help my damage out. Hoping I can get some better weapons soon or else things will get very slow, moreso than they already are.

*************************************
Destroyer Nebride - Level 51 Thrower - Act II NM
*************************************

Have also started a trapper assassin, who is now level 20 and in Act II of normal. So Borlag, when you get a chance could you please add:

Futsu-Nushi - Level 20 Trapsin - Act II Normal

 

[tragor]

Bullseye_Baby has set a new personal record. Outer Cloister to Inner Cloister in less than 2 hours. :lol:

The turning points were:
- finding a halfway decent rare cedar bow (minimum damage is nearly up to previous max, though a lot of that is poison)
- a strange lack of serious opposition in the jails. The only interesting fight was Pitspawn (cursed, FE, LE I think).

Well, she's off to see Andy now. Sure wish the new bow was fire damage. Oh well.

Bullseye_Baby, clvl 52, A1 NM