Best char and build for going SSF in HC for the first time?

Discuss Median XL!
nobrainnopain
Heretic
405 | 5
Common Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 10.000 views
could also need some hints for skills and stats because its my first try with HC in MXL ;)
B_ATAKY
Sasquatch
60 | 3
1. Pick char you like(for me its assassin). U'll die anyway, but with pleasure.
2. ...
3. PROFIT
Mr_Bill
Designated Troll
84 | 3
Common Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 10.000 views
nobrainnopain wrote:could also need some hints for skills and stats because its my first try with HC in MXL ;)


(1) Pick any character that you don't mind having killed (and thus ejected into Softcore). Doesn't matter what kind, they're all the same.

(2) Play it in Hardcore.

(3) If you are a decent Median player, you should make it as far as Normal Diablo. If you are good, you will make it through Tran Athulua and maybe make it to Nightmare by killing Baal. (Note : If you try melee'ing either Diablo or Baal and you are not very lucky, you WILL die instantly, especially if you are playing on TSW and you get lagged or desynced.)

(4) If you are both very good and / or very lucky, and you know exactly the right tactics to use given your character type (and you let your Mercenary take the dirt nap for you whenever possible), you may make it as far as Nightmare Diablo (if you are melee, you will probably die long before that).

(5) If you are both very good and incredibly lucky, and have perfect, fully-upgraded gear, you MAY be able to kill Nightmare Baal and make it to Hell.

(6) Have fun being 1- or 2-shotted by some random monster in Hell (the Quill Rats near the Cairn Stones are a great place to do this, but what about those Cruciators, eh?). If you are an expert player and are extremely lucky you may make it as far as Hell Andariel, who will kill you (again, especially if you are melee).

(7) Enjoy playing your Softcore player, and ask yourself, "why did I bother playing Hardcore in a game that expects you to die 3 or 4 times, to complete most quests?"
User avatar
Johnny Impak
Daystar
658 | 23
Common Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 10.000 views
Common Love Badge
Earned over 20 cookies
nobrainnopain wrote:could also need some hints for skills and stats because its my first try with HC in MXL ;)


Did you manage to complete everything with one character and feel at ease playing despite it's weaknesses ?

If the answer is no, playing hardcore would be pretty pointless since you will surely die on the way in an unexpected way.

If the answer is yes, then that very build might be a good idea.

Also, general pointer here, avoid melee builds unless you really know what you are doing.
Semigloss
Onyx Knight
600 | 26
Great Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 50.000 views
Common Love Badge
Earned over 20 cookies
Common Guide Badge
Created a complete character guide
Alot of it comes down to knowing "how to survive". Sure, some builds can inherently withstand more damage than others, but pretty much all of them are possible in HC with the right gearing. You have to learn what the flaws of your build are and gear accordingly.

In a nutshell, resistances and a large life pool are essential. Two of the most common HC leveling items are
Lavadome
Lavadome
Helm (4)

Defense: (78 - 89) to (115 - 131)
Required Level: 4
Required Strength: 29
Item Level: 10
+(0 to 1) to All Skills
+(41 to 60)% Enhanced Defense
+15 to Vitality
(3 to 5)% to Vitality
+(81 to 120) to Life
Fire Resist +(11 to 30)%
Socketed (1)
Defense: (300 - 334) to (391 - 435)
Required Level: 22
Required Strength: 57
Item Level: 31
+1 to All Skills
+(71 to 90)% Enhanced Defense
+30 to Vitality
(6 to 10)% to Vitality
+(121 to 160) to Life
Fire Resist +(31 to 50)%
Socketed (3)
Defense: (753 - 825) to (970 - 1062)
Required Level: 39
Required Strength: 201
Item Level: 51
+(1 to 2) to All Skills
+(101 to 120)% Enhanced Defense
+45 to Vitality
(11 to 15)% to Vitality
+(161 to 200) to Life
Fire Resist +(51 to 70)%
Socketed (4)
Defense: (1191 - 1290) to (1519 - 1645)
Required Level: 48
Required Strength: 402
Item Level: 77
+2 to All Skills
+(131 to 150)% Enhanced Defense
+60 to Vitality
(16 to 20)% to Vitality
+(201 to 240) to Life
Fire Resist +(71 to 90)%
Socketed (4)
and
Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune
Large Shield (4)

Defense: 85 to 162
Chance to Block: Class%
Required Level: 4
Required Strength: 27
Required Dexterity: 45
Item Level: 10
+(21 to 30) to Vitality
Maximum Elemental Resists +1%
Elemental Resists +(6 to 10)%
Fire Absorb 1%
Lightning Absorb 1%
Cold Absorb 1%
(4 to 7)% Gold Find
(5 to 10)% Magic Find
Socketed (1)
Defense: 240 to 405
Chance to Block: Class%
Required Level: 21
Required Strength: 53
Required Dexterity: 67
Item Level: 31
+(31 to 40) to Vitality
Maximum Elemental Resists +1%
Elemental Resists +(11 to 20)%
Fire Absorb 2%
Lightning Absorb 2%
Cold Absorb 2%
(9 to 12)% Gold Find
(11 to 20)% Magic Find
Socketed (3)
Defense: 501 to 817
Chance to Block: Class%
Required Level: 39
Required Strength: 184
Required Dexterity: 139
Item Level: 51
+(41 to 50) to Vitality
Maximum Elemental Resists +2%
Elemental Resists +(21 to 30)%
Fire Absorb 2%
Lightning Absorb 2%
Cold Absorb 2%
(14 to 17)% Gold Find
(21 to 30)% Magic Find
Socketed (4)
Defense: 684 to 1113
Chance to Block: Class%
Required Level: 48
Required Strength: 368
Required Dexterity: 288
Item Level: 77
+(51 to 60) to Vitality
Maximum Elemental Resists +2%
Elemental Resists +(31 to 40)%
Fire Absorb 3%
Lightning Absorb 3%
Cold Absorb 3%
(17 to 19)% Gold Find
(31 to 40)% Magic Find
Socketed (4)
. Then, you need to have atleast two of the following: defense, block, dodge, physical resist. Just one is generally not enough for HC, and by endgame the PR is almost mandatory.
User avatar
aahz
Team Member
494 | 287
Great Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 50.000 views
Great Love Badge
Earned over 100 cookies
Common Supporter Badge
Donated 1 time
Common Patron Badge
Patreon Contributor
Legendary Contribution Badge
Median XL Team Member
you can check https://tsw.vn.cz/hc/ to see what char/build are most played/successful
https://tsw.vn.cz - TSW realm stats (& Quests, NotArmory, HC chars)
User avatar
chaostyle
Heretic
428 | 23
Great Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 50.000 views
Common Love Badge
Earned over 20 cookies
Common Guide Badge
Created a complete character guide
Common Auction Badge
Won 50 auctions
Hey nobrainnopain!

If youre into witch i would recommend you to follow the guide that i wrote >> viewtopic.php?f=40&t=59921

SSF HC >> So far i did clear: horror under tristram, invasion, infernal machine, death projector, island of the sunless sea, the binding of baal, horazon's sanctum, akarat, assault on mount arreat, lord aldric jitan,kurast 3000 BA, bull prince rodeo, rathma square, black road, legacy of blood, the veiled prophet, heart of sin, tran athulua, teganze, triune, duncraig, judgment day(upgraded), twin seas, quov tsin, kingdom of shadow, eve of destruction, banisher of light, lord of lies, ghost of old bremmtown, xazaz, toraja, vizjun, fauztinville, the void, nephalem's sacrifice.

Happy to see player joining the HC team!

NB: Always get your resistance cap and play slow!

And remember: DEATH is just a new beginning! BLOOD MOORE TEAM POWERED!
Javalad
Thunder Beetle
57 | 3
Ignore Mr Bill. he seems to be bitter about the fact he didn't sail through HC.

Just check out the HC ladder to see why his comments are nonsense.
Mr_Bill
Designated Troll
84 | 3
Common Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 10.000 views
Javalad wrote:Ignore Mr Bill. he seems to be bitter about the fact he didn't sail through HC.

Just check out the HC ladder to see why his comments are nonsense.


Should I say, "Just ignore 'Javalad', because his comments are nonsense"? (I can repeat ad hominem put-downs just as well as you can.)

For the record, it is ridiculous to claim that either I (or any other half-sane person) is "bitter" about "being able to progress in a video game". If someone gets "bitter" over something of this nature, they need to get a life and spend a little less time in front of the computer. (Which is, incidentally, why I limit the amount of time that I use to play Median.)

What I was asserting (and I will repeat again here), is that Median XL, because it was designed to be "challenging" in the sense of 'players with average ability, luck and gear, will (especially if playing over the Internet, given the possibility of dropped frames, lag and desync, and even more so if you are a casual Median player) likely die several times in attempting to succeed in some of the game's important quests', is thus (inevitably) likely to be very unsatisfying to play in Hardcore, for exactly the same reasons just denominated". I stand on this observation, because it is plainly true.

Proffering up lists like the Hardcore Ladder to negate this plainly obvious set of facts, is like saying, "anybody can play in the NFL... why just look at all the guys who made it on to the Tampa Bay Bucs along with Mr. Brady!". (How many good high school football players never made it past the NFL draft? You are engaging in a classic "Cherry Picking" fallacy here.)

That is, you are using a few very unusual exceptions to what normally goes on in Hardcore, to (weakly) claim, "Hardcore is easily do-able". Note what you cannot provide : "the list of all the dead Hardcore characters who never got anywhere near being on the Hardcore ladder". Unless you can provide an objective estimate of "how many Hardcore characters got killed, per every 1 Hardcore character who made it on to the higher ranks of the Hardcore Ladder" (and thus establish a meaningful ratio of "how 'hard', Hardcore is"), you can't credibly claim that (at least for most players of normal ability), "Hardcore is do-able".

My own guess, for what it's worth, is that for every 10 Hardcore characters that start out in Act 1 Normal of Median XL, probably 5 will get killed before the end of Normal mode, another 4 will fall somewhere in Nightmare (especially if they are melee and are not played ultra-carefully) and the remaining 1 will likely get ganked somewhere in early Hell. But then again... I'm an optimist.

Oh well. It COULD be worse. You could be playing back in 2017 or so and get your Level 12 Hardcore character 1-shotted by a Startled Witch that had parked itself right in the middle of the passage between the Black Marsh and the Tamoe Highlands (been there... done that). Will progress never CEASE?
Istaryu
Harpylisk
1441 | 58
Common Posting Badge
Posted over 1.000 messages
Great Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 50.000 views
Common Love Badge
Earned over 20 cookies
Common Guide Badge
Created a complete character guide
Mr_Bill wrote:
(1) Pick any character that you don't mind having killed (and thus ejected into Softcore). Doesn't matter what kind, they're all the same.

(2) Play it in Hardcore.

(3) If you are a decent Median player, you should make it as far as Normal Diablo. If you are good, you will make it through Tran Athulua and maybe make it to Nightmare by killing Baal. (Note : If you try melee'ing either Diablo or Baal and you are not very lucky, you WILL die instantly, especially if you are playing on TSW and you get lagged or desynced.)

(4) If you are both very good and / or very lucky, and you know exactly the right tactics to use given your character type (and you let your Mercenary take the dirt nap for you whenever possible), you may make it as far as Nightmare Diablo (if you are melee, you will probably die long before that).

(5) If you are both very good and incredibly lucky, and have perfect, fully-upgraded gear, you MAY be able to kill Nightmare Baal and make it to Hell.

(6) Have fun being 1- or 2-shotted by some random monster in Hell (the Quill Rats near the Cairn Stones are a great place to do this, but what about those Cruciators, eh?). If you are an expert player and are extremely lucky you may make it as far as Hell Andariel, who will kill you (again, especially if you are melee).

(7) Enjoy playing your Softcore player, and ask yourself, "why did I bother playing Hardcore in a game that expects you to die 3 or 4 times, to complete most quests?"


I cant even express how stupid this comment is.