Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

[wicked_tribe]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

I wonder at what point this is a discussion for the HC forum?

I recognize that noone knows me so I'm just plugging along and keeping a low profile for now. What a blast it is to be playing again, especially with the risk of HC. My bone necro is now 24 and killed duriel just last night. (Wow @ the difference that decrepify and clay golem makes... I ran around getting that last level for decrepify and kept checking the vendor for a wand with clay golem on it.) I'm already to the point where I wouldn't risk losing this character to some random bnet tool in an open game.

I wonder about the (relatively) frequent server pauses... I have the sense that those are thought of as the result of the duping process? It happens so frequently it's hard to seriously consider bailing every time. -Though I suppose it only takes one HC death to really take that to heart, huh?

Thank you, mouseman. Your post is the inspiration for my necro. I was torn between going with a summoner necro or not, which is what I was playing SC recently. I figured that as hard as getting bone started, it'd be more fun if I eventually did find a couple of people to party with. I always enjoyed my necros back in the day, but I feel a kneejerk reaction to how common/easy a summoner would be.

 

[Pismeyer]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

I wonder at what point this is a discussion for the HC forum?

Yeah....Good point, If the mods feel like moving it, then it's ok with me.

And to be honest, I actually never knew there was a HC forum until I read your post :thumbsup:.

P

 

[crawlingdeadman1]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

seems like this is a decent place to discuss HC.

 

[mouseman1]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

I'm glad if I helped some I don't like summoner necromancers for some reason either. I just feel so stupid standing behind my minions "doing nothing" Also, I replied to the guide. It's strange that you forgot those first levels so easily.. However, all builds are just suggestions, I always like to modify them to get something I like

 

[DoomBoy]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

Isn't there like a waiting period during hostile, like in SC? I think it's about 10-15 seconds delay before you can use a wp or something. I tried HC before: tried to run up to outer cloister from town and died at lvl 3.

 

[mouseman1]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

Isn't there like a waiting period during hostile, like in SC? I think it's about 10-15 seconds delay before you can use a wp or something. I tried HC before: tried to run up to outer cloister from town and died at lvl 3.

You have to go hostile in town and because of that you lose your own TP and you can't enter anyone else's TP, because you aren't in the same party with those. This is done to prevent HC killings.

However, the hacks are too powerful and have found their way around this. Basically they just click a character, the script TP them to town, switch hostile, go back, autotarget you and you're dead within a second from their initial (and only) click. It's a total 100% hack (called TPPK) which makes HC largely unplayable, because otherwise you would be warned and could exit the game in time.

The hacks are really crazy. I hope this don't get me banned but I want to share this with you. One of my friend plays a lot D2 on HC and like most players around there, he uses elaborate hacks - because having a hack automatically quits you from game when someone targets you. However, the same hack also has the TPPK system intact. Once I was visiting them and I saw the hack. The whole screen was full of different color arrows, targeting systems and what not. It was a private hack, meaning you can't use it if you don't have permission (some sort of password) from the guy who makes the hack (he is a professional programmer and the hack contains thousands of lines of text).

My friend tells that only a handful of people have the hack. It has all different kinds of bots (including autorush), maphack, chicken script, auto potion drink from inv, auto pickup, auto follow, game search function (I hope blizzard implements this legitly), auto tele (even if you don't have tele on your char..), auto tele on town (they can just leave their char on a mule game and if someone drops like a rune or something they will automatically tele and pick it up from other side of the town) and they were even capable of killing people in town at one time. I didn't understand most of the stuff (like the ability to cause the other players screen go black) being a legit player myself. Some of the stuff they don't use because they aren't sure if it is safe.

Obviously that hack was better than the "free" ones every lamer can download on internet (the ones blizzard ban from time to time). IIRC the hack would kill anyone who tried to kill its user.. Well, suffice to say the elite in the HC are not only competing in the game, but also in the hacking realm of the game. They regard it a part of the game. He also says it takes three days to get the hack working after a patch and that blizzard isn't ever banned a single one of their group or whatever, because the hack is private.

While I certainly don't approve the use of such (or any) hacks, I think it's important for the legit players to know about them. It's like telling kids about STD's. Some people are opposed to it, but ignoring them doesn't mean they don't exist. I obviously don't use any hacks, because IMO it ruins the game. And if I used that hack (which I even couldn't do because the circle is so small) why would I make builds and write long posts about how to avoid PK'ers? This is why I stress not trusting anyone so much, because killing you off is so very easy. It's one click and you're dead, nothing you can do about it. It can be done from out of your screen, so you won't even know that someone is near you.

I just hope blizzard does a better job with DIII. Like one of them said: "Diablo 3 isn't made in the late 90's". So I hope. But seen what I have, I have no hope whatsoever for Diablo 2 ever being hack/dupe free.

 

[Pismeyer]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

mouse,

STD's and D2 hacks are far from being the same however, I understand your analogy :lol2:.

Anyhow, last night I was creeping along through Flayer, kicked open a basket and out popped a blue ammy. Fought off a group of the fast little pigmy ankle biter guys and TP'd back to town to have Cain ID it for me.

It is a Necro +1 to Summon skills ammy. Not sure if I should hang on to it or trade it. I realise it's not that great but I found it in normal and it's a blue magic ammy, I'd love to trade for a +1 to traps for my assasin :thumbsup:

P

 

[DoomBoy]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

@ mouseman - thanks for the info.

So why don't we see this in SC?

 

[mouseman1]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

@ mouseman - thanks for the info.

So why don't we see this in SC?

There are some TPPK lamers in SC also, but it's not really worth it. So you kill somebody, so what? They lose like 10k gold and one run worth of XP.

The "elite" players in HC also consider SC to be like a sandbox for noobs I don't know if there is just enough reason to go all out in SC. I don't think many of the guys who use private hacks play SC and if you download your hack from the internet you risk your account to PK some player who clicks "restart in town" and doesn't really care.

However, you have all the bots and duping going on in SC also. I guess the rampant cheating in SC just isn't as visible to a legit player than in HC (well, it becomes very apparent if you think why we have zillions of HR's circulating around). That don't mean that there are less cheating in SC. I actually think there might be more "corporate botting" going on in SC (most of the idiots who buy D2 stuff on internet are playing SC anyway).

BTW, I would really like it if blizzard would start buying like El runes from the hacking-botting-item-selling-sites and then ban accounts who make the trade in game. Sure, it wouldn't fix the problem, but it would still be fun to see those bastards losing account after account full of botted/duped goods.

 

[Jesuscriss]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

pis if you still have that ammy id gladly pay a p gem for it

 

[Gorny1]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

Please take it to a trade forum, The Community Forum is not the place for trades of any kind, including making offers on items.

 

[crawlingdeadman1]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

There are some TPPK lamers in SC also, but it's not really worth it. So you kill somebody, so what? They lose like 10k gold and one run worth of XP.

despite what the screen says, when you die from another player killing you, you do not lose xp.

 

[Pismeyer]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

Please take it to a trade forum, The Community Forum is not the place for trades of any kind, including making offers on items.

Whoa...Warning shot confirmed. :whistling:

My apologies, it wasn't my intent to trade it here. I was only trying to explain that's been my most worth while non-intentional find for HC.

Back on topic folks!

P

 

[Pismeyer]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

I'm still here. My assasin is now lvl 30 (still in norm). I've had help along the way by jesuscriss (*jetcore), which is appreciated greatly. His necro is a machine!! He helped me with Diablo which, at the time, doubt I could have taken down by myself.

My Assasin is a kick/trap build, mostly traps (lightning sentry & now death sentry) but I'm trying to squeeze a few into dragon flight. Mana regen is becoming a pain, my belt consists mostly mana pots & maybe one row of rejuvs or health pots. I still have my act 1 mercenary and my shadow warrior is becoming a tank.

My gear is not that great, all of it self found with the exception of trading an ammy for a rune I needed. I find myself constantly shopping the vendors for gear and picking up socketable, blues, rares, and of course uniques in hopes of bettering my character or mercenary. She's wearing a 'Nadir' Great Helm and 'Steath' Chain mail, rare boots, gaunts, and hatchet hands, Pelta Luna Buckler, Blue belt, rare and Blue rings with FCR, and a Blue Rainbow Ammy with resists and Mana leech however, I'm not hitting anything for it to work properly. 'Nadir' gives me Cloak of Shadows (which I already have a skill point) and that's about the only plus skills bonus I have. So pretty much, she's naked and playing with her base skills. My resists are decent because of the 'fade' skill assasin's use. I'll be shopping Anya in hopes of finding +trap skills weapons. My merc's gear is pretty basic as well, but she manages to stay alive remarkably well (lvl=28).

I've avoided two quests so far, Nilathak & Baal. Nila's CE has me worried and some of Baal's minions are pretty tough as well. I have taken down just about everything else in game and I'm only missing 7 or so way points. Since the game moves slower in HC, you can actaully stumble across alot of wp's. And of course, having other people in the game always helps with wp's too.

Public games and PK'ers are a weird combination. As mentioned by mouseman, these guys are good. Most will gain your trust, play along with you while using a lower level character, reach a difficult point in the game, go get a higher level character to "help" and then become a nussiance. Most of the time you can see it coming so you end up exiting the game and creating private games to finish something. If I play in a public game, it's just another element that has to be dealt with. So far, most of the PK'ers I've had to deal with have not taken a shot at me. Monsters and lag are my most common problems.

This is where I'm at so far.

P

 

[Spiritspawn]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

Today was the day of death for my Assa.. Duriel defeated me I'm going to start again now, and get my revenge. grr

 

[BRKO1]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

Ive just created a hcl char too. A barb. I must be desperate to go into HC

 

[tmorrow]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

I'm back to D2 after after a long hiatus. I only ever play ladder. While I'm pretty juiced about the possibilities of the imminent 1.13 patch, I don't want to see my game investment dumped to nonladder in less than a month or so. Thus I decided to try out hardcore again.

A couple of years ago I tried my first ever hardcore character - a lightning trapsin. She was doing fine for a while, Normal Baal dropped me my first ever SOJ (not including early patch SOJ's when they were easy to collect). She got owned in late Act5 Nightmare to a lightning immume frenzy pack of Hell Lords. I lost interest in HC after that.

This time around I decided to go for one of the easiest characters of all, the Summoner Necro. I decided to play alone, no public games, not even for trading. Furthermore I was going for all WP's and Quests (even Nihlathak).

I'm delighted to say that after a week my summoner at Lvl82 became Guardian - my first ever! Battlenet servers were well behaved, only lagged out twice, and I was never in major trouble although several times my life did drop below 1/2 and I needed a quick burst of purple to survive.

Usual strategy: Norm to Lvl45, NM to Lvl75, Hell after that. Summoner uses dual spirits.

Items of note found on the journey:

1. 2 Viper Magi's, one almost perfect (Norm Baal Runs)
2. Ko (NM forge)
3. Pul (Hell forge)
4. Um (Found in Hell Maggot Lair)
5. 4 Socket Monarch - made a low spirit (Hell Act 2)
6. GC +11 allres, LC +8 allres, SC +11 cr, SC +11 lr +5fhr (NM+Hell)
7. Saracen's Chance (Hell)

Hardest battles:

1. Normal Diablo. By far the worst, attempted at Lvl30 after getting summon resists for my skellies and despite using Decrepify my skellie's went down again and again. I had to keep going back to Act's 1 and 2 for more summons and Diablo would drop them before they could surround him.

2. Hell Ancients. It took 3 rolls to get them with survivable stats. Decrepify city it was. My army was down to 1/2 after the battle.

3. Anya Quest. Burning Soul bosses. I remember 3 in particular, 2 were cursed (amplify damage) and 1 was running conviction. Nearly aborted that game, it was getting a little too hot.

I'm considering whether to do the Cow Levels now, the Ubers are miles beyond reach and not safe to attempt as a Summoner without godly gear. Not to mention the fact that key collection would be a slow toil with this character.

 

[Pismeyer]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

Cool, Nice looking Necro :nod:

My Trapsin (lv42) will jumping into NM today after a few normal Baal runs. A Pally joined one of my games yesterday and gave me a pair of Bartucs! The +2 skills is a big help.

I haven't created another HC char yet. I almost did yesterday for the sake of muling, but I haven't found anything worth muling yet :whistling:

Edit: I just noticed THIS when I finally get to NM. Four games? Where is everyone?

P :wave:

 

[tmorrow]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

I just noticed THIS when I finally get to NM. Four games? Where is everyone?

I hate to tell you this but that is a good as it gets with public games in Hardcore going off what I've seen on USWest. Although I never join them I often look at the public games list between games, in normal you get about 2 pages or 15-20 games. In Nightmare you will see typically 5 games or so. In Hell you are greeted with an empty screen usually, the most I ever saw was 3 games, 2 of them trade games. Any multiplayer action is clearly being taken to private passworded games, probably due to the threat of TPPK.

Here's the public graveyard I was greeted with when I reached Conqueror status and entered Hell at Lvl75 - http://members.iinet.net.au/~tmorrow/diablo2/hc_public_graveyard.jpg. I think this is a tragic state of affairs, I hope Blizzard do something about it, hardcore players are doing it tough.

 

[MuffinMan]

Re: Switching to HC Ladder till ladder reset

Giving this a shot as well. Lost most of my sleep last night getting started, will probably do the same tonight getting through A2.

Since I got no gear I start with a Death Sentry/Fire trapper (never played one before, so HC seems like a good place to try it)
The name "Alive" was actually not taken... Well it is now :alright:

Not counting on her for endgame result, but will hopefully be alive long enough to make a spirit or two, and maybe used for some general NM farming.

Last night for me:

Started up getting her to lvl6 by doing the den, blood moor, cold plains and the cave. That way I had BoS when going for Blood Raven, making her a pushover.
Strictly singleplay in passworded games since lvl8... TPPK stories and such scares me, even though there seems to be plenty of open games here on Europe.
Act1 was fairly easy. Ran trist untill lvl15, but as soon as I hit 12 and got the WoF everything in act1 died easily (Did not do Q5), except Andy... Though it was very doable as long as you don't mind drinking mana pots or running.
Got her on the first attempt, entered Act2 at lvl17.

I was sure A2 was going to be tough, but lvl1 WoF owns here as well - at least early on. Getting Shadow Warrior at 18 also helps with some trapping since my mana is constantly low...
My mind was set to level up to 18 in the rocky waste before I hit bed, ended up doing the whole act instead (not done q1/6 yet)
Tried to drop down to say hello to Duriel at lvl20 - something that resulted in a save-exit at arround 50 life (she dropped my merc and shadow in a second, i was having a keyboard mashfest to drink rejuvs fast enough. Tanking Duri is obviously not an option for me, need new plan..)

So tonight I'm tombing myself to at least lvl24 and gearing up a bit before next attempt.