Hello everyone !

After reading some of your adventures in hardcore solo player, it seemed a lot of fun and I decided to give it a try.

I've been playing D2 / D2R since 2002, mostly online softcore, and never really tried hardcore until now.

After a first attempt in solo player 8 with a bone lance necro (died at Durance lvl 3 nightmare, level 62...), I went for a safer build :

Paladin Fist of Heaven


Introducing Lord Business :





He is here to take care of business.


Classic FOH Build :

- 20 pts Holy bolt
- 20 pts Fist of Heavens
- 20 pts Holy Shock
- 20 pts Conviction
- pts to Holy Shield, Vigor, Fanaticism (really helps with the merco)
- Rest to resist lighting

- No STR
- 156 Dex (to 75% block)
- 350 Vita
- No NRG

Levelling until 91 was pretty uneventful, pretty safe, I just had a really hard time managing mana when I shifted from the Holy Fire aura build to my main FOH build around level 35 - really should have waited for my insight


My Current stuff :



Shield : Spirit Sacred Targe / +45 @ res / +35% FCR got pretty lucky on that early drop in the pits, my first best in slot
Weapon : Spirit Crystal Sword /+35% FCR
Helm : Rare Tiara +26 STR / +38 life / +19 @ res
Amulet : +1 pala / +15 STR / +8 DEX : +36% CR
Armor : Stealth Wyrmhide (+5%ed)
Gloves : Rare Heavy Bracers +12 STR / +1 DEX / +8% FR / +19% MF
Ring 1 : Nagelring +21% MF
Ring 2 : Rare Ring +10% CR / +30% FR / +9% FR
Belt : Rare Plated Belt +24% FHR / +22 Life / +24% FR
Boots : Natalya's Soul (+40% FRW / +17%CR / +21% FR)

Inventory :

GC : +13 @ res
LC : +25 life / +13% PR
LR : +34 Life / +5% MF
LC : +5 STR / +26 mana
SC : 2x +7% MF
SC : +7% MF / +11% FR
SC : single life or single res small charms

Mercenary:

Weapon : Insight in non-eth Colossus Voulge (+14 med aura)
Armor : Treachery in eth Ancient Armor (330 def)
Helm : non eth Crown of Thieves +12% LL / +94% EG socketed with a perf Amethyst

This post was edited by BarristanFR on Dec 6 2023 03:09am

My objectives :

I'm running in Hardcore, 100% player 8 (never shifted).

1) Kill Baal in Hell difficulty
2) Kill Ubers to get a torch
3) Holy Grail (eth or non eth, Unics, Sets and possibly runes)
4) Possibly reach level 99

Current Holy Grail status (I'm using the app Diablo 2 Holy Grail) :



Notable drops so far :

- SUR rune
- Spirit Targe +45 @ resist base


My dream drops :

- VEX to craft my HOTO
- ETH CV or ETH Thresher for my merc
- LO rune to get a Fortitude for my Merc (already have pretty nice eth bases)
- SUR, JAH, BER to get my ENIGMA
- Griffon
- Arachnid mesh
- +2 pala / 10% FC / stats rare amulet or craft


I'll try to post from time to time results from my runs, currently running Countess and Pits, I do Chaos from time to time but my DPS is still a bit low and the runs take me ~20/25 min each.

Let me know your thoughts !

Cheers

This post was edited by BarristanFR on Dec 6 2023 03:11am

Have you considered running LK to kickoff your holy grail?

I did a couple, but there are a lot of light res imunes, and no xp to be gained, I'm enjoying myself more running Pits at the moment

But every now and then I run a dozen but so far nothing

Yeah you dont need to kill a thing, and you need to measure the runs in hundreds not in couples hehe

But you could get your rune wishlist in 2 days basically

I've found a nice map on the third attempt, I'll tryhard the zone for a couple of day and see what comes out

you should have two fireplace, not one

nvm doublepost

This post was edited by Vismajor on Dec 6 2023 05:35am

OK thanks for the tip, I'm new to this route and didn't know this specific...

After some runs I've found a map, it's not perfect but'll do :

Nah this one is great, have fun! People say that LK is boring but i think its fascinating to always wait for the good drop which always COMES.