How do you do it? Without buying gear. I'll copy pasta a posta made-a in another thread-a. I play a hardcore, even on softie this is hard.

"It's not that easy... the ubers n their areas are hard.... even as a smiter, you have to bash your way through the areas to find them... need good gear just to surive..... then uber meph is hard as sh1t... i've done it once, i think i died once or twice, he hits hard. Even with dracul's grasp, yes you leech good, but two-three hard hits and it's game over. And when you're done, it's a 1/7 chance to get a torch... hunting the keys is very time consuming as well ... i have to grind diablo like 50-100 times to find 9 keys, if i'm that lucky, and then trade 6 for 3 each of the others.... and then that's just a 1/7 chance ..... naah, it's not that easy sir ... it's difficult. And as stated, lilith is one of the hardest bosses in the game. I see many complain, even with top gear."

We dont need to hear that you play hardcore for the 1 millionth time

Get life tap and proc fade for extra res with junk res scs for stack

Well you know it's like, when i make a thread, i feel it's relevant to post the needed information for people to make the propper assessments and analysis. So if i need to include something, i must include something. I can't not do that.

Life tap wand is a good idea actually, but fade ain't easy to get that quick n early, n junk res sc's they don't stack hard enough. I think there is some inflated information here...

But MAYBE ........ just maybe, if you have a dedicated group of 8 people farming n exping n leveling together, then it can be possible. I.e. they pool theyr stuff. So then i can get it.

you could probably get lem and ko to drop from all the countess runs needed to get 3 terror keys to make treachery to have fade. You can take an antidote potion and thawing potion to increase psn and cold res. Stack any life/res charms you can find. Would be significantly more difficult to do with any class besides smiter. As long as you have res and life, you should be able to slowly smite your way through it. Certainly a challenge to grind it out on hardcore without buying gear from others on jsp. If you're looking for a challenge in a 25 year old game, you have your work cut out for you. You just need to get some crushing blow and get lucky with drops.

Now as you mention it, i've actually found crushflange quite early in my last ladder reset runs xD And that is a prime candidate for those kind of things..... i get it.

SUPER BUDGET RESET TORCH MOVES


I play hc and like to key/torch farm. Some thing from here might be useful:

Don’t RIP


Smiter gears:
Kiras guardian socketed w/ ort or thul
Or
Hearth helmet for can’t be frozen (if no raven/ Kira’s)
Black runeword weapon
Or
Heavens light
Duress armor
Goblin toes or even marrowalks (no weapon switching simplifies hugely!)
4x p diamond elite pally shield

If you can get your light res and cold res to 300 (270?) you won’t need to run the res aura. You can just send it w/ fanat on.

Don’t use dracs imo. Craft some 20ias blood gloves. Shop a lifetap wand from a2 or w/e. Pre cast life tap before you go in on the bosses

And it really helps if you have some roll dawgs that are as crazy as you are (and are NOT playing smiter). It makes finding Lilith in the matrons den and finding Izzy in furnace of pain sooooooo much easier. Witches and doom knights can clap you instantly. If you don’t have help pre-cast lifetap on those packs too.

Have a barb BO you!! And if you get a homie to come into trist with you make sure they enter the game and trist AFTER you. And have them stand far away from you. All the skellies that meph summons will go on them, and it’ll allow you to fight meph 1v1.

My friend dual boxes a barb for bo and a hammerdin while i smite. He bos us, i use life tap wand, and he takes minion aggro while I smite. We did torches at the end of day 1 in hardcore and didn't really have any close calls. For lilith he clears it out for me ahead of time, and the other 2 organ bosses aren't an issue.

My dear friend.

This may not be super budget. It's cool that you are able to do that with that gear... but i must beg to differ, it is not super budget. From intense farming for weeks the last ladders, i've found just 1 or maybe 2 kira guardians. They are no easy droppings.

And i'm not playing d2r, but you had no way of knowing that, so that's okay. Good that you throw in options.

Some decent budget options i do see, some farming necessary.

Shopping wand over dracul's good tip, they are also hard to get to drop.

Roll dawgs ^^ That's a funny expression.. i'm keeping that ^^ But i get the point, but if being hardcore, definitely is often a one-way trip, saving and exiting is of course possible, but as you mention yourself, those monsters are tough and even with 1000 hp semi-decent gear, can end up in a middle of a pack and = KO. Sad ending.

BUT! there is a but here. I've done 1 char sorc and rushed to hell once, in aim of farming andy quest bugged. The way i went through the labyrinths was this: You follow right or left wall, whichever you think is most beneficial, surely a strategy to it, i don't know though. But when you teleport to the next room, you teleport over, and instantly, or as fast as your cast rate allows you, obviously the more the better, teleport back. This way, you identify any dangers and, chances willing, you don't end up in the middle of a pack, you get back to safety. I think i got to do about 50 runs before i took a break from the season. It got a bit demotivating to play so inefficiently, and also i got unlicky with the drops, and that can be a motiavtion killer.

Either way, teleporting in that style can help save one's life. Kind of sucks if one faces impossible dilemmas, i.e. opening key portal and getting stuck with too impossible monsters. But, one can at least identify where the clearest path is. I.e. least possible monsters.

Barb bo is of course ok, but not everyone has a team, i play solo. I think most prefer that. But still, if possible, of course a good risk lowerer.

Good tips though. It goes to show there are ways to do it. And instead of kira's guardian, one can actually gamble circlets, and if lucky, or if gambling a magic 20-30% all resist circlet, and if not mechanic's too, use larzuk and hope for 2 sockets, then use resist runes or jewels in it. Can be done, i've done it. It's cool.

Self found gear? How did you do that? Must be incredibly lucky with drops, otherwise, i must call a bit of a stretched story there. Or perhaps if 24 hour pure grinding, but then it's like racing a formula 1 car, pedal to the metal, and one slight little mistake and it's KO. Many people play like that of course .... but i don't. I like more to be like a tank or something. Slow, but safe. I like to know what i'm facing, calculate all the odds. Though i can play fast, but taking huge risks all the time = KO sooner or later .... usually sooner. Heh.

It’s not that hard. Usually on the smiter you just run a good base shield with 4x ptopaz and cheap crushing blow and ias gear like goblin toes and laying of hands and fill out most of the other gear with resists/life. Hammerdin mostly just needs max fire res and double spirit for his job.