Hardcore Discussion

[aurik]

This one:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...XQO!Xfb!aZbaZZ

It looks fine to me. I haven't actually used Venom Hydra yet but I can imagine it would be great with Blizzard/Frozen Solid. I'm not a huge fan of Galvanizing Ward, but I guess you're probably taking more hits than I am as I run Frost Nova/Diamondskin, which provides about 8 seconds of defence in a pinch. It's hard to decide what to put in its place. If you had a big AP sink, I'd think about grabbing power hungry to fuel your destructions (if you partner with a melee class who is going to be grabbing them this is an awesome passive).

I don't like Magic Missile versus Electrocute, but that's another personal choice. Electrocute/Chain Lightning has a big advantage in that it is instant and piercing, so you can hit enemies like the wasps and fallen shaman much easier. Also I'm not sure how the damage works on Electrocute jumps but if it's an additional 80% per target then the base damage is 240%, versus MM's 143%--and even higher if you get maximum linkage. I know that when I'm funnelling enemies and I'm chain casting CL onto 4+ targets I am doing a LOT of damage. The downside is that the single-target damage is definitely lower, but single-target is often when danger is at its lowest so I don't mind being a bit slow at killing then.

[Oxyminus]

That's the one Aurik, thanks for the feedback.

Venom hydra + blizzard/frozen solid work really well together. I've stood right in the middle of large packs of mobs and they melt away. I agree the lack of a major AP sink is the oddball of the build, and it doesn't allow any major bursts of damage I've been used to on wizard. The upshot to that is I've been able to drop a hydra, and then chain blizzards right as they end. And the 3 total defensive skills are because sometimes it takes a while for things to die.

Not sure what I'd swap out for galvanizing ward. Most obvious choice to me is blur, but I like regen any way I can get it.

See, I always like electrocute better than MM, but feared I should be looking for something with higher damage. But, I'll see how it works with electrocute instead. Sure makes since the whole build is AOE focused. I'll try electrocute when I get home.

Maybe respec'ing my gear is something to look into. 25k HP pool is nice, but I think I can afford to shave off some to bump my damage.

Thanks again! I'll let
You know how it goes!

[Roranora]

Here's my Wizard at 48: (With Force Armor +5% crit and Magic Weapon up)



Last thing I did was beat Siegebreaker. I feel confident in Cydaea / Azmodan without changing anything.

just noticed space potion ;o

neat

[Oxyminus]

Also one of the first times I've seen a wizard use a shield. I'd consider it myself, but I'm in love with my offhand. Dropped I A3 normal, and have yet to see anything better via drop.

[Roranora]

Eury has a shield usually ~

check out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itZ94...eature=g-all-u

for a good non-skip of 4 gross affixes. it's right at the start

[aurik]

Shield adds a ton of armor. 336 on my Wiz shield, and that's a level 33 shield. It takes my armor from 1871 (43.81%)->2475 (50.77%) with energy armor; that's a 12% reduction in damage taken, and also it gives a 19% chance to block ~225 damage on top of that. Offhands sources are nice for their DPS gains especially in normal where you can just stack vit for survivability, but I really like shields after that.

My WD uses an offhand mojo, but mainly because I don't get hit too often anyway (minions + snares + spiritwalk/vessel & RTFA if anything comes near) but also because I just haven't found a nice shield.

[Oxyminus]

I'm gonna look into using shields. That's a big impact in your defensive stats.

Though, at this point, I feel like I need to retool to get a bit more damage out of my gear.

[Plow]

there's only a few fights where you would really even consider focusing on dps over survivability on hardcore, and survivability is almost never going to make a fight impossible (I mean you're not exactly going to want to go into inferno butcher before you're prepared to do the dps with plenty of survivability), shields for everyone pretty much seems like almost a no brainer most of the time

[euph]

Hey guys! I'm still alive

Progress: 42 Barb, 52 Monk and 54 wizard! Taking another stab at hell. It feels a lot more controlled now. Thinking this time we'll have it! maybeh! haha

[aurik]

[Oxyminus]

Grats Aurik!

I switched to a shield last night. Fortunately I had a 40 vit/40 int socket laying around, so while I lost some of the fancy effects of my source, the crucial stats remained close to what they were. And now with energy armor I have something around 53% damage reduction.

Tinkered with my build, swapped in Electrocute for Magic Missle, re-socketed my gear, and found a very nice wand for cheap on the AH. dinged 50 and 51 last night, sitting at 26k HP and 2.1k DPS. When I get home from work I'm going after Cydea and Azmo!

[Ratatapa]

grats aurik first one on BG ?

[Kaeko]

Congrats Aurik! What do you guys think about the 1.03 concept changes in terms of hardcore btw? I'm afraid they'll nerf inferno difficulty too much to make HC a real accomplishment

[Roranora]

Possibly, but I know much more is to come to measure our heroes with beyond Inferno Diablo or Whimsyshire or whatever spawn you get thrown at you, like.. Invulnerable Minions / Fast / Vampiric / Reflects Damage / Illusionist / Horde / Nightmarish / Frozen / Plagued Mallet Lords vs barb

I think some 1.0.3 changes sound good; a flat out legendary buff won't hurt HC. Gem reduction will make all inventories prettier more easily. I personally welcome boosts to blacksmith too; Too bad ISP d/c death, and I (foolishly) had 600+/250+ NM mats and 200+/~20 Hell mats in my inventory.

Since I know checkpoint / waypoint farming of any kind is not ahead of me, this is good. I'm a super achievement whore, and I can only grind out Bashiok / Development Hell hunts maybe 10 games at a time or so.

What other changes incoming?
Edit: Oh I see the post o.o;

aggregate rates are aggregate, but I think that looks good. I like the 0% ilvl 63 for end Hell diff, for example

also like a verrrrrrryyyy subtle step back on 5stk NV for bosses, and a nice boost for rolling 5stk perpetually into more elites. Elitist Few, here we come (20k elite kills)

omg yay CO-OP BOOST. i already prefer co-op, but I haven't had Inferno Shatterbone hit me in a 4man game pre-1.0.3

[Kaeko]

I also read that in a solo game, if you're about to die you can hit ESC to pause, then log on from another computer to safely bail out. Kind of mad reading it but I'm not sure if it's because I think it's cheating or because I wish I had done to same to my dead 60 Wiz

[aurik]

It's cheating for sure, be glad you didn't use it on your wiz or you'd always feel a bit tainted.

I hope they fix goblin farming. Encourage people to play the game.

[Oxyminus]

What are the changes? I haven't seen anything.

Edit - found it. Browsing on phone.

[Ratatapa]

Can i get the resume of HC changes can't access atm

[aurik]

They're removing the per-player damage increases across the board. Good change imo, it's a sad state of affairs that I was averse to do progression with more than 2 people in hell.
They're rebalancing the item drops in Inferno/A4H so that you have a small but advancing chance of getting ilvl 61/62/63 drops in earlier difficulty.
Gem upgrade costs up to Flawless Square are nerfed. Now 2 gems per combine and a trivial amount of gold, but pages/tomes remain the same.
Finally, the big one, they're going to be nerfing the dmg and health of monsters in A2I and beyond.

I don't really see a problem with the changes. Currently, the lethality of monsters in A2I+ are such that bad-monster-roll luck kills are going to be very prevalent especially in games with multiple people, regardless of how well geared/skilled the players. Even now lots of people are dying in later NM and early Hell. The game seems to be in a good place at least through that point.

I think the biggest 2 issues they need to address for HC (aside from that logout exploit, which is a clear exploit that they will fix) is spamming certain quests/events for easy XP, and treasure goblins.

For example, they should make it so that you can't gain quest xp for quests in zones more than 3-4 levels below you so that ZK runs aren't the fastest way to go 59-60. To a larger extent I think the leveling curve beyond normal should be tweaked so that you don't get any XP at all for things more than 5 levels below you, so as to eliminated the incentive to repeatedly grind something way below your level. Because right now the easiest way to progress is to outlevel the content and then AH up some over-level gear rather than use your own wits and reflexes.

Similarly, spamming games to find easy goblins with zero risk isn't the way Blizz intended for rare gears to be acquired. Blizz should take some more steps to encourage people to progress by playing the game, not by gaming some mechanic for zero-risk advancement. Not to say they haven't done a decent job already, but there is more to be done.

[Siralin]

Killed Belial nightmare the other day and I'm just getting back to HC wizard act 3 today. Just the first area of mobs seems to be stronger than I remember them being on my SC characters. I'm 1/8 into 43 with 12k hp, 985 armor, 1350 dps...I shouldnt really be having issues, should I? I had no problems with Belial, but this seems like a bit more than I can handle if a few little things go wrong.