also i'd avoid a mage as your first character. Especially for HC. Once you find a +100 life robe things might be simpler, still you're gonna have mana issues though.
Mage's are great in softcore as they have higher damage output than the other classes, still a very bad one to choose for a first character even on SC.


decent barb build here: https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=82660445&f=272
Would recommend all points power strike and to ignore retribution till about level 30. No point in multistrike unless you get involved in groups whom will usually kick you as you're playing on a phone (much slower actions) and have no gear.

On your first climb you'll be limited to 2 mobs max (you can disable this with a command but there's no need right now)

seeing you're going the 0 fg route, should just be a case of finding a tier3 weapon asap, tier3 armor (ideally plate/chain) asap
Getting +5 or more strength on a charm would be nice.

At level 5 tier 4s will start dropping, so again you'll want tier 4 weapon and armor. This simply repeats every 5 levels and will continue to get harder. In terms of the charm, the tier does not matter seeing you're not casting with a barb. The only stats which matters is +strength.
Ideally upgrade to weapons/armor with the mod enhanced effect, as this increases the damage of weapon or defense of armors, so a tier 4 club with 20 EE will deal more damage than a tier 4 club without it


once you have a barb finding you items, you could retry the mage.
you're basically looking for:
staff/dagger: 250 life robe/padded robe: 250 mana (or mana wep/life robe) tier 3 charm: 40+ enhanced effect. Then you'd be ready to get started on a HC mage.
transferring items costs nothing, make a second character, go back to first character with items, open marketplace and click transfer, drag item into the box and click transfer item (ignore the gold password box when transferring)

Good to know as I know nothing about the game really. Thanks for the helpful information.

notice you started one, i would recommend against putting points into dex as barbs use 3 types of weapons:
Clubs/axes/swords.

Both clubs and swords have a strength focused str/dex ratio: https://ladderslasher.d2jsp.org/index.php?g=3
Axes are 50/50.

what this really means is.
clubs: for every 10 points 9 of which will increase your damage
Swords: for every 4 points 3 of which will increase your damage
axes: for every 2 points, 1 will increase your damage

it is vice versa for dex, where only 1 time in 10 points will dex increase your damage.

This can be tested with axes, as only the even numbers increase your damage, your damage will never increase if you put 1 point into str or dex when it's already even to make it odd.

seeing both swords/clubs work best with strength and axes don't care, the only 2 stats you need are strength and vitality.

Thanks for the tips I need them.

How do I get points that I see guilds people have?

need to reach level 71 complete the master quest, pass = 2 gp's, fail = 1 gp. This is for first class.
Last class which i use needs level 85 to be able to master quest pass = 100 gp's fail = 1 gp.

you also will need to be in a guild

This post was edited by Bigheaded on May 30 2020 05:34pm

need to click multiple times sometimes on mobile to actually hit the door and go to town
can be a pain at times

I would advise against playing hc on your phone, even a bit of lag can kill you.

This is the funniest thing I have ever read, let us put it in another way.

The only difference is that a Mage starts off with high Intelligence, but less Vitality, ANY class that has the identical amount of intelligence by way of points added and gear used while also using the same EE type charms will do the same amount of damage output. Note: same for melee, stat & gear.

Out of the feeder classes, you can use a Rogue for casting. The intelligence Swords, Daggers, Scales or Leathers are cheaper than staff & robes but more physical defense. Rogue starts with a lot less Intelligence and only an extra 10 vitality. You could say a Rogue has a bonus that it can identify traps and you don't fall in a Trap Door automatically, making your run a bit safer because the Monster difficulty is harder in a trap door.

Since this person is playing HC, you can not compare SC. The difference is simple, HC uses a lot more points into vitality for survival rate.

I would also agree with "Plaguefear", don't play HC on phone due to lag, and if you want to continue playing on phone and HC, then pump vitality.