What is going to kill me (offline HC)

I got bored of playing online, and decided to finally try hardcore.

Made a Pally (coz it's powerful and quite tanky), decided to go Zealot (coz I wanted to try something new, even if it's not the best choice). So far, so good - got through Normal on p7, almost got to the end of Nightmare on p3 (just done

Nihlathak, but still before the Ancients).

So, the question is - what/when is most likely to kill me in Hell? What could I do to mitigate the risk? Besides the obvious, like, watch out for dolls/gloams/blood lords/packs with auras/corpse explosions, stack on resistances, life charms and full rejuvs, play sober, don't rush, know when to run and don't forget to change to /players1 when switching difficulties. I know the basics, but I'm worried that something may blindside me that's not a major concern in softcore, or with non-physical build.

Gear-wise I think I'm doing pretty good for mid-game - Bulwark helmet,

Natalya's Soul and

Magnus' Skin, Spirit sword, Stealth armor, Rhyme shield,

Blood Belt,

The Mahim-Oak Curio and some random rings with resistances. However, is there anything that's an obvious upgrade that I can farm in, let's say, Nightmare Andy or Hell Countess (runeword-wise)?

Nihlathak, wading thru his minions w/o

Teleport....

zealing a mob not seeing dolls.....

burning soul pack w

Conviction...

I always bet on lags and connectivity issues with either your side or Blizzard's. :S

And the other option is one's current state of mind (tired / angry / drunk / too confident / disturbed by kids...). Many HC deaths directly or indirectly result from these too.

Treehead Woodfist

Rakanishu with 2x nearby surprise packs of Dark Rangers.

Stygian Doll explosions
and huge packs of Gloam

And skip the Holiday Event days with things like -100 to all resist

Offline you still gotta be careful with some of the waypoints. For me it was the

Bloody Foothills, loaded to a dead screen once. Seems to load longer when coming from another act, so if i want to be careful I’ll go to horogath before taking the waypoint to shenk

Sometimes I die at

Nihlathak with my

Hydra Sorc when farm for keys. He throws some spell at the distance and wipes down half of life.

Florian_G wrote: 2 months ago

Sometimes I die at

Nihlathak with my

Hydra Sorc when farm for keys. He throws some spell at the distance and wipes down half of life.

That's probably his

Corpse Explosion. Just keep your distance from the dead adds and you're perfectly safe.

Are we making wagers? That sounds fun.

I’d say it depends on where you’re planning on hanging out most. Just like most car accidents occur within 5 miles of where the individual lives (assuming the rando “fact” I head from 15 years ago is true). If you are going full cold bad ass and plan on doing everything and running all tzs then probably amp damage, mid

Zeal extra fast doll

Swarm.

Another group I didnt see mentioned are those immune to phys

Frenzy beasts. I think they are in the act 5 red portals and

Crystalline Passage. Extra fast, strong, amp and might. While another super pack throws amp damage on you. Your fingers will not be fast enough to chug full rejuvs, or you’ll use all 16 just before your deeds of heroism are immortalized lol

Where are you going to hang out? I want to bet

Schnorki wrote: 2 months ago

Florian_G wrote: 2 months ago

Sometimes I die at

Nihlathak with my

Hydra Sorc when farm for keys. He throws some spell at the distance and wipes down half of life.

That's probably his

Corpse Explosion. Just keep your distance from the dead adds and you're perfectly safe.

Maybe that, but I'm not sure what killed me plenty of times, sometimes in one shot, before I got Call To Arms to boost my life pool.
I see

Nihlathak making some gesture with his arms and then my life goes down by half. No minion is near me at that time to explode and hurt me.
In the early levels I didn't know what killed me. I was cautious at long distance, nobody near me and instant killed. After I leveled enough to have sufficient life I saw what was killing me.

Florian_G wrote: 1 month ago

[..]
No minion is near me at that time to explode and hurt me.
[..]

The active minions don't need to be near you. He doesn't blow those up, he blows up the corpses. Not just of "his" minions but also the other mobs that used to be in the area. The range is a good bit on that CE as well so you don't exactly have to stand right on top of a corpse to still be hit by it.

Rik wrote: 2 months ago

Are we making wagers? That sounds fun.

I’d say it depends on where you’re planning on hanging out most. Just like most car accidents occur within 5 miles of where the individual lives (assuming the rando “fact” I head from 15 years ago is true). If you are going full cold bad ass and plan on doing everything and running all tzs then probably amp damage, mid

Zeal extra fast doll

Swarm.

Another group I didnt see mentioned are those immune to phys

Frenzy beasts. I think they are in the act 5 red portals and

Crystalline Passage. Extra fast, strong, amp and might. While another super pack throws amp damage on you. Your fingers will not be fast enough to chug full rejuvs, or you’ll use all 16 just before your deeds of heroism are immortalized lol

Where are you going to hang out? I want to bet

For now I just wanna finish the game, then maybe try to get Anni and Torch.

So far started Hell, got out of Rouge's Camp, bumped into unique

Fallen with 2 auras that got me to 1/10th of my health in two hits. I've run straight back to Nightmare to farm the hell out of

Terror Zones until I and my merc get better gear (Treachery?) and level up some more (currently about 72, aiming at somewhere about 80 before I try again).

Schnorki wrote: 1 month ago

Florian_G wrote: 1 month ago

[..]
No minion is near me at that time to explode and hurt me.
[..]

The active minions don't need to be near you. He doesn't blow those up, he blows up the corpses. Not just of "his" minions but also the other mobs that used to be in the area. The range is a good bit on that CE as well so you don't exactly have to stand right on top of a corpse to still be hit by it.

And,

Nihlathak doesn't even have to be on your screen to explode a corpse near you - so just steer clear of any mobs and corpses.

With my Blizz sorc I tend to

Teleport straight past him into one of the far corners of the room, spam Blizzard on his ass and

Teleport to other free spot when his minions get to me (so my merc doesn't kill them). Mercs also can trigger him to use

Corpse Explosion as well, so at times I'll let mine fight around and tank through corpses, while keeping safe distance.

sewcioj wrote: 1 month ago

Schnorki wrote: 1 month ago

Florian_G wrote: 1 month ago

[..]
No minion is near me at that time to explode and hurt me.
[..]

The active minions don't need to be near you. He doesn't blow those up, he blows up the corpses. Not just of "his" minions but also the other mobs that used to be in the area. The range is a good bit on that CE as well so you don't exactly have to stand right on top of a corpse to still be hit by it.

[..]
And,

Nihlathak doesn't even have to be on your screen to explode a corpse near you - so just steer clear of any mobs and corpses.
[..]

That makes sense, thank you for clarifying this.

Death or Steel lords with Might / Fana aura = GG.

Yes tank those..pray they don't hit you once & get frenzied.

Kids or nieces / nephews all have extra strong, fana, conv, hfreeze aura, and spectral attack.

Instant Death for hardcore characters.

sewcioj wrote: 1 month ago

Rik wrote: 2 months ago

Are we making wagers? That sounds fun.

I’d say it depends on where you’re planning on hanging out most. Just like most car accidents occur within 5 miles of where the individual lives (assuming the rando “fact” I head from 15 years ago is true). If you are going full cold bad ass and plan on doing everything and running all tzs then probably amp damage, mid

Zeal extra fast doll

Swarm.

Another group I didnt see mentioned are those immune to phys

Frenzy beasts. I think they are in the act 5 red portals and

Crystalline Passage. Extra fast, strong, amp and might. While another super pack throws amp damage on you. Your fingers will not be fast enough to chug full rejuvs, or you’ll use all 16 just before your deeds of heroism are immortalized lol

Where are you going to hang out? I want to bet

For now I just wanna finish the game, then maybe try to get Anni and Torch.

So far started Hell, got out of Rouge's Camp, bumped into unique

Fallen with 2 auras that got me to 1/10th of my health in two hits. I've run straight back to Nightmare to farm the hell out of

Terror Zones until I and my merc get better gear (Treachery?) and level up some more (currently about 72, aiming at somewhere about 80 before I try again).

This discussion is making me want to play hardcore again.

Ultimately it’s usually the threat you don’t expect or prepare for, aka, element of surprise while your guard is down that kills you. With maxed resists I think the main threat is physical. Even as one of the tankiest characters in the game, there are certain enemies you won’t be able to go toe to toe with. If you’re planning on playing it safe this play through, take care in all areas with dolls, gloams or

Frenzy beasts. Never let down your guard. As you’ve experienced, even the pathetic little

Fallen can get synergistic characteristics to knock you out before you even see their mods. Consider an act 2

Holy Freeze merc. Or some other cc merc. Lawbringer merc might be feasible on your run. I imagine he would proc constantly with

Fanaticism. You could probably manage a decent Honor in his offhand and he’d probably tear *#%^ up.

So skill allocation is

Zeal,

Sacrifice, fanatic and

Holy Shield? I suppose there is room for points into lightning resist for increased max resist. I’d say probably it’s more beneficial over

Holy Shield after diminishing returns on

Holy Shield block chance. That could alleviate gloam threat. The damage difference from 75 vs 80 lightning resist is 20 percent. That’s easily the difference between life and Death.

I’m not sure if it’s mentioned here, but get a good

Life Tap

Wand on weapon swap along with a high block shield and lead with it during risky battles. Aka, prime evils, trav, ancients.

Most importantly, get used to running. Choose battles carefully. Get a bad roll on monster type in a rough area? Bad trav mods, gnarly ancients, gloams in fro river? Reroll it.

While I’d like to be creative about my guess as to how you’ll perish, probability is Death by dolls. Final answer. Good luck!

I think I will end up having a heart attack if I play hardcore .... imagine lost everything in a blink of an eye because of the server slowdown, because the dog pee at the wrong place or because I miss clicked a Skill

Key instead of a potion

Key

fredkid wrote: 1 month ago

I think I will end up having a heart attack if I play hardcore .... imagine lost everything in a blink of an eye because of the server slowdown, because the dog pee at the wrong place or because I miss clicked a Skill

Key instead of a potion

Key

I recommend it at least once. The hardcore experience is like the taking the usual emotions you experience from the game but then casting amp damage on yourself. Only cast under Death’s looming shadow can one know the meaning of life.