Hardcore

[hoot80]

actually, he's krippi. not kripparian. they are good friends tho and help each other a lot. kripparian (who's been playing barbarian only so far) got his name FROM krippi back when they play darkage of camelot together; kripparian was a fanboy of krippi and emulated his name.

Interesting, I must have gotten confused then. I saw this video linked on MMO Champ and it did say Krippi, but I must have just translated that to Kripparrian.

[carrier]

lost my first HC character last night. a lvl 53 witch doctor.

was being dumb and got caught by a waller champ pack. they proc'ed my "cheat death" passive, but i stuck around anyway and tried to fight them. they caught me in some walls and smoked my dome...

oh well! it was fun! gonna work on a DH next

[hoot80]

Got my barbarian up to level 25 last night. i spent about 50k gold in the AH and ended up with an invincible build for normal Act 3. I am almost one shotting everything I see and that's with a 1h/shield build. Hopefully that doesn't get my confidence too high so I step into nightmare and die in Act 1.

Either way, I am LOVING Charge + Leap + Whirlwind. I wish Earthquake didn't have such a long CD, but the ability is pretty OP...2000% weapon damage for 8 seconds? Yeah, every time I drop it stuff just melts. I killed Belial phase 3 before he even got to the breath attack or the fill the room with exploding crap. It's fun to feel OP again. Thanks Carrier <wink>.

[carrier]

Got my barbarian up to level 25 last night. i spent about 50k gold in the AH and ended up with an invincible build for normal Act 3. I am almost one shotting everything I see and that's with a 1h/shield build. Hopefully that doesn't get my confidence too high so I step into nightmare and die in Act 1.

Either way, I am LOVING Charge + Leap + Whirlwind. I wish Earthquake didn't have such a long CD, but the ability is pretty OP...2000% weapon damage for 8 seconds? Yeah, every time I drop it stuff just melts. I killed Belial phase 3 before he even got to the breath attack or the fill the room with exploding crap. It's fun to feel OP again. Thanks Carrier <wink>.

pop berserk with the +100% dmg rune and THEN hit earthquake. Oh Em Gee!

i have a softcore barb, granted, but i found all the content pretty easy up until about act 3/4 hell. until then i as able to leap+stomp+whirlwind into any situation and live. had a blast

[carrier]

Hell act 1 is now my mortal enemy. lost my 52 DH

this is how you get replay-ability out of the game

[carrier]

so, lesson learned. dont experiment with new builds in hardcore against champ packs.

thus, i think i'm going to work on a softcore DH, experiment, and try again

will probably work on a hardcore barb as well since i have some experience with them already.

[hoot80]

I have done almost zero research on barbarians. I know my build is horrible, but I've made it to level 40 and finished Maghda in Act 2 of nightmare last night. I noticed that I did start to take some damage and actually got down to around 1/3 health against Maghda when she called her minions in the first time. I got trapped into a corner and had to charge through them to get out. Once I got through that somewhat bad situation it was a cakewalk.

Right now the only packs I really don't like are ranged mobs with mortar because they just spread out all around you and you have to chase them down to kill them. Mobs with mortar + wall are horrible (unless they fixed that bug) because they'll throw up a wall and then the minimum distance thing goes out the window and they'll mortar you while you are standing 3 feet away from them.

Either way, I don't see me having too much issue getting through nightmare right now. I buy upgrades every 5 levels to keep my health, armor, and damage high. I won't worry about all resist until hell.

[carrier]

hell is where things actually start getting tough. especially for newly starting HC player w/ a small bank roll. but even then, things aren't THAT bad until act 3 or 4. but i keep getting caught in act 1 lol.

[hoot80]

hell is where things actually start getting tough. especially for newly starting HC player w/ a small bank roll. but even then, things aren't THAT bad until act 3 or 4. but i keep getting caught in act 1 lol.

I'm probably going to go ultra safe. Farm Act 3 nightmare to get enough money to get some good upgrades for hell. And then farm Act 3 hell before I set foot in inferno (assuming I don't die before then). I might actually just farm hell for awhile and then start up a new hardcore toon. I don't have a softcore safety net to test out strategies because my only softcore toon is my demon hunter. So basically I'm relearning every fight as a melee with my barbarian. It's kind of fun and in some cases a little nerve wracking. But barbarians do have a ridiculous number of defensive abilities and passives.

One thing I'm noticing...as I hit level 40 the price on items in the HC AH are getting brutal. Like every rare with strength and vitality is going for 40k or more The same items would be 10-15k on the softcore auction house. I've just been buying blues with str/vit and usually int since it does give a small amount of magic resist.

[carrier]

there is a smaller market on HC. and people know how important it is to have good gear while you level. to be honest, i like the HC market much better than the SC market.

i notice on the SC market lots of people put low level crap up for a low min bid, but no buy out... wtf? who is going to bid on an item, and then wait 24-48 hours before they can even use it?? might as well just level up. makes no sense.

[hoot80]

there is a smaller market on HC. and people know how important it is to have good gear while you level. to be honest, i like the HC market much better than the SC market.

I found a bunch of decent items while leveling and sold them for low prices (didn't feel like scanning the AH to try to squeeze out every penny) and between the time I posted them and the time I came back to the AH after leveling 5 levels every item had sold. Obviously I put them up for too low of a price, but I was just glad to empty my stash. I still only have one tab full and haven't bought the second one so I have to either sell quickly or dump them.

[carrier]

there is a smaller market on HC. and people know how important it is to have good gear while you level. to be honest, i like the HC market much better than the SC market.

I found a bunch of decent items while leveling and sold them for low prices (didn't feel like scanning the AH to try to squeeze out every penny) and between the time I posted them and the time I came back to the AH after leveling 5 levels every item had sold. Obviously I put them up for too low of a price, but I was just glad to empty my stash. I still only have one tab full and haven't bought the second one so I have to either sell quickly or dump them.

i know what you mean! i have all 3 tabs and they are almost all full. my problem is i'm too scared i'll lose my toon and i want the old gear to help relevel them

[hoot80]

i know what you mean! i have all 3 tabs and they are almost all full. my problem is i'm too scared i'll lose my toon and i want the old gear to help relevel them

I don't have that fear just yet, but I haven't lost two 50+ chars either. I figure I'll just try to make enough money in hell (hopefully) that if my dude dies I can just buy my way through the low levels again on a new one. I haven't tried monk, witch doctor or wizard yet so any of those will be my next adventure.

[carrier]

Hoot, you've inspired me to give DH another shot on HC! experience be damned! its an adventure

[hoot80]

That's the way I have to look at it. It's kind of like a choose your own adventure book. If you pick the wrong path, there's no hope of living. But if you make all the right decisions you can emerge victorious...and then die in Inferno as a battle-hardened legend.