Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset
I'm sure there's more. I consider myself a HC newb, so help me out if you'd like.
Well, the basics are in no particular order:
1) Don't trust anyone, never play in games where there are high level characters. Some of them help, but usually they rush you a couple of acts to gain your trust and then kill you off. So play only with people around your level. If you want to be completely safe, play only with people you know. Try to chat with your team - PK's usually don't chit chat.
2) Avoid public runs (especially baalruns). Most of them have PK'ers running them / joining to games. They may do a couple of runs to gain your trust and then kill you off. Try to make private runs with friends you've gain from questing together or simply do them alone.
3) You can't be too suspicious. If you have any doubt, leave the game immediatly. The hacks are very powerful (basically they click your name and the script autotargets you and you're dead within a second), they can kill you in an instant (less than second to couple seconds depending on the hack). Your stats/gear/resists won't matter. (got PK'ed with my lvl 75 pure vita sorc who had max resists - it was a cold sorc with max cold mastery and ice blast = insane damage countering all resists). Also immediately leave game ALWAYS if you encounter ANY lag. It doesn't matter if you lose your quest - it's better than losing your character. If you encounter some boss pack you can't deal with, leave the game if you can't safely pass them by. Don't noob-die in the maggot lair, just leave the game and join again.
3.5) And really, watch out the PK'ers. If you give them a chance, they will kill you without any regret. There will be a giant ASCII middle finger on your screen while you are trying to figure out what just happened. They will enjoy your misery. The more you whine, the more they laugh. You will be left with a profound sense of humiliation. It is very hurtful. This is precisely why they do it. Don't give 'em a chance. It doesn't matter who you are, how fair you are to other players - they will kill you and kill you again if they can. You are not special, you are just one of the hundreds they've killed. In their eyes you deserved it, because you were stupid enough to let it happen.
4) Always have rejuv potions available. If you don't, cube them or collect them in easier areas.
5) Always max your resists. Every point of life you get is a point further away from death. So go heavy on life and resists, priorize them above damage always. After the first acts, your lightning resist shouldn't ever be below 60%. Ancient's pledge runeword is cheap and will give you plenty of resists.
6) Never tele with your sorc if you don't have very powerful gear and fast max block. The ultimate noob thing to do is to try and tele with crappy equipment in nm and die. Lots and lots of sorcs have died this way. The boss packs will kill you.
7) If you go melee (which nobody does) don't attack anything in areas where you can be cast by iron maiden (especially chaos santuary).
8) Don't advance ahead of your level. If your not comfortable in one area, repeat one before it.
Good rule of thumb is to run baal in normal until you are level 45+ and run baal in nm until you are lvl 75+. You can go earlier (42/72) if you have good enough gear. However, don't go at all if you don't have decent gear - run bosses in private games until you are equipped and leveled for the next difficulty.
9) Always go to town if you need to answer the phone/scratch yourself/talk to somebody/whatever. Basically, never take your hands off of your keyboard and mouse when you play. Don't play too tired or too drunk
(this is optional
)
10) Always drink a potion even if you have lost 5% of life. Always try to have 100% life - don't save potions, use them. Use rejuv if you're below 75% / 50%.
11) Be very, very careful about fire explosive bosses in nm. They aren't properly nerfed. Lots and lots of people die in nm ancients because of the fire explosion upon death. So always check bosses in case if they have fire explosion. If they do, try to leave them alone. If you can't, really be far away from them when they die.
12) Don't use builds who rely on other players. You can't say that "you needed rush / help" whatever and because of that you got killed when you trusted someone. Well, you can say whatever you want, but you're still dead.That's just what you get if you don't make a character capable of soloing the game. And starting over won't change the fact that you're going to get yourself killed again if you make a SC build in HC. It's not a bad idea to make nm andy/meph runner who won't ever enter to Hell difficulty. The first HC char could just get you wealth for the second character, who will be powerful enough to solo Hell.
13) Don't take portals you don't know are safe. Lots and lots of people die in cow levels because of deliberately unsafe portals. People do this, it's the easiest way of killing a character - just leave unsafe portal in cow level / rush area and wait for people to come. They will even have other players in a different part of the area who will tell you the portal is safe. Basically always to try enter an area through WP (though sometimes they have also been trapped) when first entering a game. Wait for someone to take a TP first.
14) Don't EVER do Nithlalak quest. His corpse explosion will kill you and there are some very deadly vipers in the area with bugged poison clouds. Only dedicated nithla runners kill him in HC. Keys found from him are pricey. Typing "wanna do the nithla quest" in HC equals to "I'm a complete noob, please trap a tp for me or kill me otherwise, I don't know how to take care of myself"
Have fun
Someone once said: "the more it hurts to die, the more you want to stay alive. That's the reason to be hardcore".
And don't take it too seriously, sometimes you die even after all the precautions. It's just part of the experience
I enjoy HC because I know it's all me - I have to be independent. If you don't have the patience / you like to rely on other people rushing you, I suggest SC
