Why are u guys playin SC or HC? Immersion of Permadeath!

U don´t know if u´ll fall in love with HC! ;)

Conserning SS or Shaft.....I don´t think DR is THAT usefull........usually one does only die due to phys damage when he´s amped, and in that case DR efficency is almost halfed!

Having read what Pyrotechnician wrote I´d prob go Berserk with Rhyme/Whistans into Singer Respec?

PIs u can kill either with 1 point into Zerk + Mastery or a Lawbringer/Reaper´s merc!
 
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I just wanna beat the game one time in HC untwinked.

Couldn't take it if I lost serious stuff.

@Pyrotechnician how do you kill PIs with a Singer?

Short answer? I don't. I skip them. The effort is not usually worth the reward unless you are going full clear.

Alternatives of course are berserk but you'll sacrifice a lot of skill points that way, or lawbringer has sanctuary which resets physical resistances of undead to zero which should take care of most issues, it also has ctc decrep if all else fails. There are other options, like spellsteel (decrep) or gavel of pain (amp) or gimmershreds for elemental damage if you come across one, but refer back to short answer :).

U don´t know if u´ll fall in love with HC! ;)

Conserning SS or Shaft.....I don´t think DR is THAT usefull........usually one does only die due to phys damage when he´s amped, and in that case DR efficency is almost halfed!

Having read what Pyrotechnician wrote I´d prob go Berserk with Rhyme/Whistans into Singer Respec?

PIs u can kill either with 1 point into Zerk + Mastery or a Lawbringer/Reaper´s merc!

Maybe its not "that" useful. But I like to think of it this way, you have 0 defense, and you are going to be standing right in front of whatever dude you are trying to kill. If you don't have something that kills them in 1 hit, they are going to attack you, you have 75% chance to block. If you get unlucky on those block rolls it might not be that fun, but will probably be less painful with some DR. Also, in the DR% under amp case. If I'm amped and I have 50% damage reduction, I'm only going to take 50% more damage than normal, rather than 100% more damage than normal (basically 50 - 100 = -50 which is better than 0 - 100 = -100).
 
Not sayin SS isn´t the best block shield. But I would go some Warcry + Zerk route.....dunno exactly....mb 10points into Warcry, as Damage should still be way better than conc? Than when I have a good Insight for Merc I´d switch to singer!

€: At Saracen85 I like the idea of overstacking PDR...but he won´t get Storm + Shaft on playthrough! :p
€2: NVM.....didnt know %PR and PDR!
 
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Go PDR.. You already get DR via Battle Cry or Taunt. My War Cry Berserker build has no max block but 70+ PDR. Doesn't really get damaged unless amped.
 
Go PDR.. You already get DR via Battle Cry or Taunt. My War Cry Berserker build has no max block but 70+ PDR. Doesn't really get damaged unless amped.

Not exactly true. I'm going to quote the great SSoG:

Yup. Realistically speaking, there are 4 different ways to reduce physical damage.

EDR%- Enemy Damage Reduction (from the skills Taunt, Battle Cry, Weaken, Decrepify).
ESDR%- From the skill Energy Shield
PDR- Straight damage reduction, from items with the "damage reduced by x" mod.
%DR- Percentage damage reduction, from items with the "damage reduced by x%" mod, as well as from the Fade skill (1% per slvl, counting +skills).

EDR% is capped at 90% (only reachable with slvl 46 Taunt). ESDR% is capped at 95% (slvl 40 Energy Shield). PDR is uncapped. %DR is capped at 50%.

All Damage Reduction happens in that order- EDR%, then ESDR%, then PDR, then DR%. All different types of damage reduction stack with each other (i.e. 50% EDR from Decrep + 50% DR% from gear is better than the 50% of either alone). Realistically speaking, the most potent reduction combos are EDR% (or ESDR%) + PDR (which with a little effort can completely negate incoming damage).

Also, if you've never heard the term "EDR%" or "ESDR%", that's because I made them up... so don't run around talking about how you need to get some more EDR% or people are going to think you're as crazy as I am. :laugh:

Oh, one last note- all of the sources of EDR% are considered curses, and cannot be stacked. So no, you can't cast Decrep and Battle Cry to get crazy values of EDR%- you can cast Decrep and Battle Cry, but they'll overwrite each other. Sorry.

That being said, pdr is an option if you find some decent gear with it or use your available sockets for sol runes.
 
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Well, when I joined the SPF back in 2006 and did a restart I decided to do it in HC, because I started with a single pass HC tournament. And I sooooo loved (and still love!) those kinds of tournaments, so I stuck with HC.

I really think that playing HC made me a better Diablo player. It is slower, for sure, but playing in tournaments with one hand behind your back really teaches you to use those skills you would never have used otherwise: Grim Ward? Conversion? Reanimate charges from Harmony Bow? There are so many strategies to succeed if you take the time to actually play with caution that I would have never discovered if I continued playing SC.

Also, like @Babyhell said, I really do like the planning part about tournaments: Take the In Training tournament for example. How can I best build my character to meet all the restrictions without deeding? I need a character that can
a) fight with a bow
b) make use of elemental damage/use an elemental attack
c) fight with a sword (or make good use of a sword weapon type, so Spirit counts, too)
d) fight with a Spear/Polearm

Then i take the characters one by one and try to piece together a workable build for each class and then decide which one to try (e.g. Holy Fire/Shock Paladin, Fire Claws Druid, Enchantress/Elemental Mastery sorc etc.). I often go for the "best" build to succeed, but I do enjoy whacky builds once in a while, too, that's why I like @Vang's Random Tournaments so much.

Also, losing a tournament character isn't the same as losing your lv 98.4 godly geared HC character...so if someone is more like the "invest everything in one character" type of player, SC is probably the better choice 😂

But! I do also have one (unfinished) SC Druid with whom I inteneded to try PvP back in 2008 or something...never got to the point to actually try it though :) And I do have to play SC in 1.00 in order to start a HC character 😅
 
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I see Diablo 2 as being about acquiring items and doing interesting things with them.

When I joined the SPF, one of the things I enjoyed most was reading the HC challenge stories from InsaneWayne, jiansonz and superdave. They made for great reading then and still do now. But after trying it, I found out that the whole tournament style thing doesn't interest me. I don't find it fun at all, what I do find fun in this game is cool builds and high level item finding, and neither is helped by playing HC.

I just don't find this game to tell a story in the same way of something like FTL or a Nethack type game that has permadeath as part of it. The gearing and leveling in this game feels like a chore instead of an experience.

It's all perception and preference at the end of the day, but for me the fact that my titan Berserker Druid was one of my most interesting builds and, despite being an actual extremely sturdy character, was one I either wouldn't make or wouldn't thoroughly enjoy in HC encapsulates precisely why I play on SC.
 
Do you farm mephisto nightmare for Thundergods vigor @HC-players?

And how can I avoid Nightmarecouncil instagib (I read that this was fixed in hell)

Also, how much life does a 2hand barb need before getting to hell(max resis assumed)
 
I don´t think TG is nessecary on a Barb cause of High Lifepool!

Afaik that got patched?

U don´t need Maxres...... LR and FR max are more than sufficent afaik! And u don´t need those resistances before going to hell...... quite sure u can get away LR50% Rest positiv farming PITs....ofc it´s not a savebet, but doable! Dunno if u want 1Hand so for hell....mb farm PITs for a nice weap? Baranas, Nord´s, Redeemer.....kinda nice ones out there!
 
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I just love TG, it makes souls so much less scary, I would even stack lightresis if I go into possible soul areas because of conviction.

Fanamoonlords are S/E I guess? Or Moonlords in general?

And what about Succubi, do you fight them or just restart the game?

Which shield do you suggest when playing through, 3 PDia Towershield? Or settle for Whistans?
 
Stacking Lightres way more important than CR imho! I would put points into Wacry and therefore Moonlords shouldn´t be that much of an issue! Fana is a different storry! TBH 50% LR with Conv should be enough tho....but yeh....if u drop a TG why not use it!

As I mentioned I usually stop after Anya Hell so not sure about succubi! NefLum + Whistans (PD) would be quite strong. But u wanna start with Ancients Pledge/3D! Most likely I would prefer Rhyme because of CNBF tho! For Singer u want IMHO a elite base for Insight or a Reaper´s or a Lawbringer.... u could go Insight in Mainhand and Lawbringer on Merc tho!
 
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Yes.....under stats it shows how much real resistances u´ve got!

Google sais "lvl 11 conv this means -80res"!
 
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Frenzy is (double) weapon dependent but probably faster than concentrate, and safer than WW.

Berserk I actually like in hardcore, but probably wouldn't choose it for an untwinked run. Its relatively safe when you throw on a storm sheild with the 35% damage reduction and go with max block. This relies on a lucky drop for that SS though, or possibly a shaft stop with a high block shield because I probably wouldn't do it without DR%

If you are using RWM you have to remember that there are other options outside of Botd and grief. For my frenzy barb, I wasn't untwinked, but I played around with both a pair of oath's and an oath/lawbringer setup and both probably would have carried me through the game without much issue and they have at most a bunch of mid level runes so it wouldn't be a huge grind to get them in LK.
[,,,]
You can also put a few points into War Cry for a Frenzy Barb, makes it very safe if you might otherwise get crowded/overwhelmed, especially untwinked.
I would basically never use a shield with a Barb, except for PvP.
Agreed on Oath, Runes are not really hard to get (unless ofc you play single pass), finding a decent base to put it in will be the more difficult part.

Do you farm mephisto nightmare for Thundergods vigor @HC-players?
No.
I would not even consider it.
Trying to farm a specific unique while probably being somewhat underpowered due to untwinked/first character, i.e. with relatively low kill speed, will likely end up a rather frustrating experience unless you get lucky early on.

I just love TG, it makes souls so much less scary, I would even stack lightresis if I go into possible soul areas because of conviction.
Questing through the game souls can be mostly avoided/disarmed, unless you play single pass.
A3 Great Marsh you might just get lucky and get a skip from the Spider Forest to the Flayer Jungle; if not - monster density in the Great Marsh is generally not the greatest, or you might restart the game to get a different monster spawn.
A4 Plains of Despair can be more of an issue, if you're uncomfortable just reset I guess
A5 Anya & Throne can have some pretty bad combinations of Souls though+ x ...

Depending on what you are playing there are some very useful one point skill wonders that help a lot against souls (as well as other mostly ranged monsters): Taunt, Dim Vision, Cloak of Shadows.
 
I mostly play SC now, given that Pyrotechnician got Capellini, my first HC sorc, killed while MPing Baal runs a few years ago.
 
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Well for a barb nightmare meph has interesting items to drop, all at the cost of a 4 PT armor.

IRC he can drop Arreats, Ribcracker, Ravenfrost, TG, Gores(and WTs), Hone Sundan and more.

His council can be skipped or beaten too. I plan to get my hands on a 5s exceptional weapon for 'Honor' in it. So killspeed shouldn't be a problem.

I will start my barb now, going concentrate. I won't do Pitruns, but rather Ancient tunnels for endgame gear, reason for it is I hate Shamans, lol.
 
And how can I avoid Nightmarecouncil instagib (I read that this was fixed in hell)

Drop the players setting when facing the council in NM and you should be good. I still remember losing a HC wind Druid to Flamefinger with good resists as well as cyclone armor. Still not sure why the left the FE bug alone in NM.
 
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