Not sure where to post this – since it's specifically about new characters in the current Hardcore league.

I'm just curious: What builds are you guys rocking, and what’s proven to be viable in HC so far?

I recently lost my level 66 DoT Lich — but honestly, I still find it to be a very strong build with solid damage and great survivability for Hardcore. It’s also a fairly low-budget build, which makes it a great choice for early progression. I'm now considering rerolling into a Storm Mage Lich. Not sure what is overall stronger, especially for endgame.

Is anyone here playing something like Lightning Javazon or maybe any less common build and willing to share their experience?

Would be great to get a bit of a discussion going – especially to help newer Hardcore players figure out what’s a safe and fun starting point.

I think best build is the one You are the most familliar with.
Good character feeling, knowledge about movement and skill usage is most important to survive

Marauder Smith of Kitava ascendancy worked for me to break into the late game.

Coal Stoker is pretty amazing when you have no gear to buy (IE: everything good is expensive)

30% fire resist in the tree, and another 10% from the campaign will give you 40/30/30 resist before you put on any gear. And then you can keep slamming into Fire resist to get all your resist up. Ruby Rings with high resist could be another +60/30/30 respectively. (100/60/60 with 2 white rings)

Before fighting the Utzaal snake boss, buy a bunch of chaos resist to get to 60%+ and you won't need help against her.

Other than that High Armor Chest to break 60% physical resistance, and as much life as you can and your pretty much unkillable in the campaign

I was doing some spear/shield build with tornadoes, because I was able to do some damage with those skills.

This post was edited by Zerogame on Apr 14 2025 04:06pm

Too bad…RIP

warrior was pretty good, i was able to facetank the silver gorilla boss that does that big 1shot attack just with random gear i was able to self find easily. Theres a perk that recoups life based on how much dmg reduction you have from armor