My first ever HC completion

Come. Hear my story and celebrate with me!

Today was the day I completed Hell (killed

Baal) for the first time ever on Hardcore.

I logged in today, planning to level up my character a little before logging out. I wanted to wait out 90lvl before running the Ancients. However, I got a stupid surround by some champion + elite packs in

Outer Steppes just outside

Pandemonium Fortress. Normally I would

Dragon Flight outside of danger, but something messed up, I panicked, but I somehow managed to Save and Exit. After this, I realized I could die just as easily and it is a long way to go to level 90, so I decided I should go straight to finish the game.

The ancients rolled lightning immune on first try (I am a lightning trap sin), murdered my merc almost immediately and left me at 10% HP before I cast TP to reset them. On the 3rd try they were very easy roll, and I killed them without issue.

In the

Worldstone Keep Level 1, I encountered again another gathering of champion and elite packs, which I dispatched with some minor risk (went down to around 30% hp at one time, but ran away and let merc and shadow tank). And then I saw this first ever in my life drop:
Needless to say, after the

Jah dropped, I was very nervous. For the first time in long time, I felt thrilled and fearful again, because normally I am quite chill even when playing hardcore. Worldstone throne room was full of dolls, so I hid cowardly behind merc and shadow again. I didn't explore, went straight to

Baal's throne room, wasted all my rejuvenations save one on keeping merc alive to fight

Lister the Tormentor. Then I switched to

Charged Bolt Sentry (probably a mistake) and went to kill

Baal.

Baal proved a challenge, murdered my merc and somehow I got stuck at the upper corner of the bridge to the Worldstone, with

Baal in front and corner behind me. Ran out of potions and was looking my health go down slowly. Again, for some reason

Dragon Flight couldn't get me out. Was contemplating Save and Exit again (luckily

Baal is very pathetic at killing you, so you have time to think your life's choices). Then I decided to open TP on top of

Baal's head, managed to click on it somehow (I am in half panicked state, mind you), restocked on health potions, revived merc and went back to finish the job.

End result: The drop was some garbage and

Baranar's Star.

This is a very satisfying end (or is it?) of SharonDenAdel's journey through Sanctuary. Let's take a moment to remember the honorable deaths of those that have

Fallen before her so that she can succeed: Sophie_twin, another trapsin (named after my daughter), whose Lore Sharon was wearing; Stash the Necromancer whose items were lost with him, but still found her Ravenfrost and Bartuc's; and Cathana the Sorceress, who died young in Nightmare, but socketed Sharon's

Duriel Shell.

Build:
Level 86 trapsin (if it counts as a trapsin, because I play hybrid).

Charged Bolt and

Lightning Sentry maxed out.

Charged Bolt used on act bosses, lightning and

Death Sentry for everything else.
one hard point in every single skill of every tree except the

Wake of Inferno. This is to buff

Shadow Master damage.
12 hard points in

Shadow Master.
rest points distributed between

Fire Blast and

Shock Web, to buff the sentries.
constantly man-fighting along shadow and merc with

Cobra Strike and

Dragon Flight, to recover mana used for traps.
Merc is dual-wielding barb with a Treachery.

Items:
Lore in a

Shako
Bartuc's Cutthroat
Spirit in a

Monarch
safety crafted amulet

Laying of Hands
some meh ring
ravenfrost

Thundergod's Vigor

Sandstorm Trek
meh charms, a single shadow skiller

congratulations !
totally recommend HC, moved in season 10 and never went back.

Congrats!
I might try a HC myself but it's scary and challenging to start from scratch. On all my builds I used items found by previous characters but I never played HC before so I have nothing to start with.

And the emotions and and fear not to die will be at high levels.

But again, congrats for your achievement!

Florian_G wrote: 2 months ago

Congrats!
I might try a HC myself but it's scary and challenging to start from scratch. On all my builds I used items found by previous characters but I never played HC before so I have nothing to start with.

And the emotions and and fear not to die will be at high levels.

But again, congrats for your achievement!

Do try. I don't want to go back to softcore again, it feels pointless. Your first character will start fresh, and it is the most thrilling experience. Your first character will die, but you will get over it and make new one. Soem items that you stored from the first character will be useful for your normal/nightmare run, id like to think about it as the legacy of your dead characters lives on.
Another challenge is itemization and market. Items disappear when you die, so they don't pile up on the market. You will not see charms in this website trading for 20

Jah, because noone has 20 Jahs. This makes rare finds really rare, perfect finds exceptional.

At least d2r Hardcore is possible to play without Death to desyncs. Ive not seen desync happen in this game at all, compared to what it was in d2 original, it was enough to push me out of the hardcore side.

Congrats! I started HC in SSF offline a few weeks ago to see how much I enjoy it and I might start online with next season.
I'm in Hell A2 right now. Sorc vita only build.

I would love to start HC ladder with other peeps so if there are others who want to give it a shot, let's give it a shot together.

Congrats! It's a challenging achievement, indeed.

Neat

Jah rune drop!

congrats!
i remember my first HC finish on hell and how nervous i was. its really hard when you start from scratch and completely rely on stuff that drops. even a vipermagi feels like a

Jah then.

but what should i say: i never played softcore again and got my 2nd lvl99 on hardcore a few weeks ago. its addictive..

vued wrote: 2 months ago

Congrats! I started HC in SSF offline a few weeks ago to see how much I enjoy it and I might start online with next season.
I'm in Hell A2 right now. Sorc vita only build.

I would love to start HC ladder with other peeps so if there are others who want to give it a shot, let's give it a shot together.

Maybe we can party up. I am thinking about opening with Necro, 1 it has easy start with summons, 2 the ladder is nit competitive, even now in season 11 there are only 18-19 level 99 necros. Alternatively i have always thought of Pala/ Sorc combination, where Pala is just a tank and maxes

Conviction aura, while the sorc dishes out the damage

ipatrishkov wrote: 2 months ago

vued wrote: 2 months ago

Congrats! I started HC in SSF offline a few weeks ago to see how much I enjoy it and I might start online with next season.
I'm in Hell A2 right now. Sorc vita only build.

I would love to start HC ladder with other peeps so if there are others who want to give it a shot, let's give it a shot together.

Maybe we can party up. I am thinking about opening with Necro, 1 it has easy start with summons, 2 the ladder is nit competitive, even now in season 11 there are only 18-19 level 99 necros. Alternatively i have always thought of Pala/ Sorc combination, where Pala is just a tank and maxes

Conviction aura, while the sorc dishes out the damage

I thought about sorc/Pala combination as well but I'm afraid Pala will be quite boring. I mean, that's basically playing Emilio.

Necro / sorc should work as well. Not as synergetic but the Necro summons can tank, and

Lower Resist curse will help the sorc, too.

Congrats, and with the

Jah being the cherry on the cake

Hardcore is an experience!

Finished HC hell yesterday with my sorc. Got a very close encounter with

Talic's

Whirlwind.

Since it was all SSF and I did not like grinding for gear, my defense was not better than usual, I just had worse offense. The way to stay alive was discipline. Or more precisely: I used

Teleport as a defensive skill, to get to safety, and never to telebomb.

Anyways, I think this decided it for me. Will start online HC next season.

Looking forward to meeting you on the other side.

vued wrote: 2 months ago

Finished HC hell yesterday with my sorc. Got a very close encounter with

Talic's

Whirlwind.

Since it was all SSF and I did not like grinding for gear, my defense was not better than usual, I just had worse offense. The way to stay alive was discipline. Or more precisely: I used

Teleport as a defensive skill, to get to safety, and never to telebomb.

Anyways, I think this decided it for me. Will start online HC next season.

Looking forward to meeting you on the other side.

Alright man. Not dying with a sorceress, that is impressive