I'm curious as to how people plan on playing Hardcore. I basically intend to play slow and steady, stocking up on items, never having one character have all my top of the line items (until Inferno maybe) trying to keep all my characters about the same level so they can share gear and crafted supplies, etc.
How do other people plan on trying to get through Hardcore?
I'll be playing a single character as far as fast as I can (ideally to the end of Inferno). Not necessarily slowly, but cautiously, especially when first venturing into unknown areas (Which will be the entire first difficult and the start of NM, Hell and Inferno).
I plan on leaving a very clear escape route and focusing heavily on defense (Armor, HP and Resistances) while carefully testing the damage output of everything new. If it feels safe I'll continue progressing, if it's iffy I'll clear in as a controlled manner as possible, if it seems over my head I'll back up a few areas and farm/level before I re-check the previously unsafe area.
Basically I'll go as fast as I feel safe doing so.
I will overlevel a bit here and there, there is no reason to rush through HC, unless its as easy as HC is at the moment in Diablo 2.
Take away your cheats and twinked/purchased gear and NM/Hell in D2 isn't easy to rush. In fact rushing into Hell is pretty much guaranteed to get you killed
I want to say Ill play balanced like sc but I dont even remember what is playing sc like so... Anyway dont plan to be over cautious and slow, sure I wont rush like a madman, but I wont stay in same zone forever.
I play HC for the rush when for example your life drop suddenly to 5% and you actually feel the fear, and I accept that it might kill me D2 HC is the only game that made me feel like this. Hope for the same thing in D3 HC.
I will overlevel a bit here and there, there is no reason to rush through HC, unless its as easy as HC is at the moment in Diablo 2.
Take away your cheats and twinked/purchased gear and NM/Hell in D2 isn't easy to rush. In fact rushing into Hell is pretty much guaranteed to get you killed
cheats?
Diablo 2 HC was hard when it was new, pre expansion, it is not hard now compared to those days.
I start diablo 2 HC from scratch at ladder resets from time to time and its not challenging at all anymore, Act 5 ruined the challenge in HC in my opinion, doesn't take many hours to grind act 5 for quite a few levels which makes the next difficulty much easier then it was in the "old days".
The expansion and the features/items it added along with act 5 made the game and HC in general less challenging in my opinion.
Diablo 2 HC was hard when it was new, pre expansion, it is not hard now compared to those days.
I start diablo 2 HC from scratch at ladder resets from time to time and its not challenging at all anymore.
Define challenging. Diablo 2 character power is based on gear (just like D3 will be). I suppose you could argue having or not having adequate gear to progress isn't a matter of skill, it's simply a matter of preparation. It's also not challenging to know what to collect or spend the time actually collecting said gear. That being said it applies equally to pre-expansion days, vanilla was no more challenging in that regard than the current state of D2 because character power was still based purely on gear which wasn't difficult to collect. The biggest thing the expansion did (and not even really the expansion, the 1.10 runewords) was increase the character power cap which by extention made the game easier overall.
Also having meat shields significantly reduces the gear level you need to progress providing you have the damage to progress (Which is by far the easiest way to progress from scratch in D2).
By challenging I meant starting from scratch and running through the game. If you pick most classes and get to hell you aren't going to be able to get very far without dying, but that's due to a gear limitation, not game difficulty or player skill.
I'll be exploring every nook and cranny the first few times out at least, as I've never touched the Beta before. As such, I can't avoid going slow and steady.
How do other people plan on trying to get through Hardcore?
I plan on leaving a very clear escape route and focusing heavily on defense (Armor, HP and Resistances) while carefully testing the damage output of everything new. If it feels safe I'll continue progressing, if it's iffy I'll clear in as a controlled manner as possible, if it seems over my head I'll back up a few areas and farm/level before I re-check the previously unsafe area.
Basically I'll go as fast as I feel safe doing so.
Take away your cheats and twinked/purchased gear and NM/Hell in D2 isn't easy to rush. In fact rushing into Hell is pretty much guaranteed to get you killed
I play HC for the rush when for example your life drop suddenly to 5% and you actually feel the fear, and I accept that it might kill me
Diablo 2 HC was hard when it was new, pre expansion, it is not hard now compared to those days.
I start diablo 2 HC from scratch at ladder resets from time to time and its not challenging at all anymore, Act 5 ruined the challenge in HC in my opinion, doesn't take many hours to grind act 5 for quite a few levels which makes the next difficulty much easier then it was in the "old days".
The expansion and the features/items it added along with act 5 made the game and HC in general less challenging in my opinion.
Define challenging. Diablo 2 character power is based on gear (just like D3 will be). I suppose you could argue having or not having adequate gear to progress isn't a matter of skill, it's simply a matter of preparation. It's also not challenging to know what to collect or spend the time actually collecting said gear. That being said it applies equally to pre-expansion days, vanilla was no more challenging in that regard than the current state of D2 because character power was still based purely on gear which wasn't difficult to collect. The biggest thing the expansion did (and not even really the expansion, the 1.10 runewords) was increase the character power cap which by extention made the game easier overall.
Also having meat shields significantly reduces the gear level you need to progress providing you have the damage to progress (Which is by far the easiest way to progress from scratch in D2).
By challenging I meant starting from scratch and running through the game. If you pick most classes and get to hell you aren't going to be able to get very far without dying, but that's due to a gear limitation, not game difficulty or player skill.
Man, will May 15 EVER get here?