This will be my first time attempting a walk through on hardcore, and I'll be doing it in the fashion that all of you have accustomed me to. I just got back into this game after a while away, and I want a challenge after playing so many ladder seasons just for mfing, if you know what I mean. I opened a topic to ask which character would give me the smoothest path for my first go and this was suggested, and I have experience with this build from mfing. I will probably have lots of questions along the way. So here we go:

Rules:

-single player
-hardcore
-/players8 (except countess re-run)
-normal stash
-ladder runewords enabled
-no mods

Goals:

-kill Baal in hell
-don't die
-have a rewarding experience
-find some cool items!

First time I've clicked through this dialog with Hardcore selected


It begins!

it will take a little getting used to without enigma. be careful with 'cursed' packs. amp hurts alot in p8 in late nm/all through hell
mine died in 1 hit to a blunderbore while i had max block and 1.1k life

This post was edited by Prominence on Oct 19 2014 05:06pm

Good luck.

You can shop wands with 20 %FCR in Act 3 Normal.
You can cube 3 rings into an amulet and vice versa.

Try to aim for a specific breakpoint (75 is a good goal, Stealth + wand + amulet + 2 rings) before switching to BH, start off as some melee variant. 3 Ral axe / sword will get you through most of Normal.

You can gamble gloves and boots with MF (which get potentially better and better as you increase your character level) from Gheed. You can probably manage 3 P Topaz by Act 4, which is a nice chunk of MF from your helmet. As you upgrade your weapon and gloves (Spirit and Magefist) you can incorporate rings and amulets with MF.

Its going to be a learning curve for sure with the run and hammer. I feel good about it, positive attitude.



Awesome tips thanks!

Here's some more:

Proto-shako!


Den complete, the levels are coming fast on p8


Good drop from Bish and the gang

Surprisingly awesome for hdin from Bish in norm


Bloodraven


M'lady Kundri

Rakanishu


Keeper for A2 merc


Treehead

Griswold, tanked for M'lady Kundri


Hey! First unique


A pelta! Using this


This post was edited by Kotz on Oct 19 2014 07:19pm

I actually find a runner hdin pretty fun. Thanks to vigor and charge, he definitely won't need speed. It's one of the few builds I really don't see teleport being necessary with. I use a tele staff on switch to clear obstacles and save the merc, but you don't need tele to stay alive or position your hammers.

Get used to switching between hammers and Vigor (those hotkeys should be right beside one another obviously).

Practice a lot with charge if you plan to use it. It can get you out of binds with a quickness, but one misclick may kill you, and there is the ever lovely charge lock that will leave you a sitting duck. Switching weapons will break charge lock.

Stay the hell away from Pindleskin...

Nice pelta benefits you hard.

Gl on ur walk tracked

Watch for fire enchanted monsters if you have low fire resist. Let your merc get the final hit.