Posted by Member Methrin on 8/5/12 03:17 PM
#26
Posts: 163
5.2.02 Areas you will hate
Act 2 has some maps with the potential to spawn horrible monster packs if you’re not careful. Most of my friends and coworkers’ deaths have been in these zones. 5.2.02.01 Caldeum (Royal Audience) & Khasim Outpost Two zones where a bunch of Snakes go invisible & intangible only to appear next to you and hit you for a lot. Need I say more? 5.2.02.02 Sewers/Waterways These are probably the areas I hate the most in hardcore. These areas are narrow which means very little room to avoid danger and makes Desecrator, Plagued, Arcane Enchanted, Fire chains & Waller monsters that much more dangerous. To add insult to injury, the embalmed monsters are not only ridiculously fast when they become champions/rares (you will NOT outrun them) but they also leave a very deadly cloud of gas upon death. If there is one area to avoid in hardcore in Hell & inferno, it’s this one in my humble opinion. 5.2.02.03 Desolate Sands Remember what I said I liked about the Dalghur Oasis? Well, this zone is the complete opposite. You have monsters that hit very hard in melee and in ranged, you have big wide areas with no chokepoints and no place to hide. This is the spot where I’ve lost the most friends. Also of note, you should never continue a quest in the desolate sands because you will almost never have a safe spot to run to. The waypoint at the entrance (ancient passage) can spawn lunatics. Not a fun thing to find out when you’re on the run from a hungry pack of lacunis. |
Methrin's guide to Hardcore.
Posted by Member Nesoah on 8/5/12 03:51 PM
#27
Posts: 2
Wow this is very thought out and will help me a lot! I really like how you are going every area, what do you think about farming treasure goblins if I don't have the gear? This website points out 2 of them in guides but I don't know how save it is to do?
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Posted by Member Methrin on 8/5/12 04:02 PM
#28
Posts: 163
I've never farmed treasure goblins. I'm not sure how feasible it is in hardcore. I mean, farming Hell, nightmare or even normal with a level 60 (Nephalem Valor) in hardcore can earn you a hefty amount of gold for very little effort because low-level gear sells and very good low-level gear sells very well. I usually never have to farm because I find enough goodies when leveling characters but when I do have enough spare AH slots, I make a quick Act 3 Hell run on my Witch Doctor. I've never found anything uber, but I regularly find things that sell for 50-100k gold and the occasional thing that sells for 300k+. I presume Goblins could be worth it because Tome of Secrets sell for alot (5k a pop) so even a gobbo who gives you 4 tomes is giving you 20k but I will let others be the judge. Keep in mind, you could always just farm in softcore and trade softcore gold for hardcore gold. It is easy because there is high demand both ways. I play hardcore for fun but I'd rather have softcore gold for achievements (i.e. buying jewelcrafting patterns nowadays) and as such I trade most of my hardcore gold away. |
Posted by Member Hyui on 8/5/12 04:05 PM
#29
Posts: 1
Act 2 is a deathzone, I am happy in Act 1 for now! Stupid bees. |
Posted by Member Methrin on 8/5/12 07:59 PM
#30
Posts: 163
5.3.0 Act 3
Act 3 is similar to Act 2 in its deadliness, albeit the monsters are at times deadlier, the maps themselves are a bit easier to survive. 5.3.01 Areas you will love Oddly enough, Act 3 seems to hold the most popular area, leveling & power-leveling-wise. 5.3.01.01 Arreat Crater I don't think I need to go at length about this zone. The packs of scorpions (Stygian Crawlers) are partly why the zone is so great for leveling, add to that the fact that the rest of the monsters are fairly tame and you've got a winning combination. Pro-tip: Sometimes you will find towers that trigger when you walk next to them and explode a second later. If you see 3-4 of them together, it means a colossal gholgor will spawn between them. Trigger them asap and they will kill the gholgor for you. 5.1.01.02 Skycrown battlements aka the first map I only mention this zone for one reason, there is a huge cluster of monsters at the beginning. It's a great way to finish a crater run when you're very close to leveling and don't feel like making another run. Otherwise, if you wanna run a zone for easy exp, just do crater. 5.3.02 Areas you will hate Act 3 still scares me because when I reached it on day 1 I was very undergeared and I died a lot when I reached some zones, in hindsight, these zones are indeed deadly but I'm not sure if they're deadlier than Act 2's horrible zones. 5.3.02.01 Fields of slaughter Also known as "that place with the war machines". Horrible zone in my book. The monsters hit hard in melee and the pestilence guys are probably the monsters with the hardest-hitting ranged attack in the game. The main reason I would suggest anyone to avoid this zone is because it's mostly wide open and nowhere else do monsters spot you from so damn far. You can go loot a dead soldier and from the edge of the screen a big pack of Blood clan berserkers will come strolling, it's nuts. And just when you think you've aggroed everything, a bunch of those flying demons swoop down. Not a zone I look forward to when I level. 5.3.02.02 Keep Depths Level 2 Fallen Lunatics. Fallen lunatics behind walls you can't see through. Enough said. 5.3.02.03 Heart of the Damned/Cursed These maps are narrow and feature the lovely Phasebeasts. This is a zone that will test whether you have an escape ability or not. Those Phasebeasts are fast & reflect damage? You'll be surrounded and very very dead in no time. Overall, it's not such a bad map but on later difficulties, arcane enchanted packs really bring the hurt and any combo of Phasebeasts can ruin your day. |
Posted by Member Tautology on 8/5/12 11:35 PM
#31
Posts: 13
My biggest issue with hardcore is the bosses.
It's not that they are tough or anything. It's that they are hard to gauge before attempting them and getting it wrong = death. Bosses like Belial, Ghom and Rakanoth are particularly bad. They have unavoidable damage and an enrage. So it's a balancing act between damage and survivability. My solution has been to outlevel the content before attempting but it's rather boring and it won't work on inferno. Got a better way? |
Posted by Member Methrin on 8/6/12 02:35 PM
#32
Posts: 163
Do you have any difficulties in mind, or just in general? |
Posted by Member Methrin on 8/6/12 06:34 PM
#33
Posts: 163
5.4.0 Act 4
Very little needs to be said about Act 4. It only has 2 zones with 2 levels each and some pretty nasty monsters overall. Act 4 is more of an intermission than anything else, it's that thing you do between Act 3 and the next difficulty and it a pretty good gear check for the next difficulty. Don't spend too much time there (not enough reward for the risks involved) and if you need to grind, go back to Act 3. ------------ This concludes the cartography section. I have also added tip 2.14 |
Posted by Member Methrin on 8/6/12 07:17 PM
#34
Posts: 163
6.0 Bestiary
In the last section we covered various zones of the game, good and bad, now we will tackle monsters and only the bad. "Good" monsters are irrelevant and not worth mentioning, you'll find in good leveling zones and you can't exactly face only them. "Bad" monsters are a lot more relevant because they can ruin your day and will almost always be present, even in good zones. This section might sound silly at first, but if you haven't played the game much or if you were powerleveled by friends, there are things you might not know or have noticed. 6.1 Basics The following list of monsters will be in relative appearance order, broken down by the first act you will find them in, and I will provide a quick summary of why each monster is nasty and if applicable, which affixes are terrible news for said monster. Before we proceed, here are general facts: - If the monster is big, it's usually nasty. The only big monster I don't find nasty is the grotesque. - Champions & rare monsters get a speed boost just for being champions & rares. This is what makes big monsters even nastier than the rest, because they are usually strong and slow, them being fast can turn them into your worst nightmare. - Most of the monsters listed down below are easy to kill, it's when you face them in large packs or as champions/rares in later difficulties that they can ruin your day. - Remember that champions & rares will follow you for hours whereas regular mobs won't, use this to your advantage to separate big packs. 6.2.0 The list 6.2.1 Act 1 *Unburied: Hurts like a brick truck. Only fight them if an exit is nearby or you are sure you can whoop them. *Wood Wraith: Stay away from their bulbs, when they open, the poison hurts. *Spiderlings: Not really a threat normally, except in very large numbers. Very dangerous on later difficulties as champs/rares with several affixes. *Dark Berserkers: They hit hard and they hit extremely hard with their smash ability. If you hear the sound of their smash ability or see heir hammer glow red, get the hell away. They are extremely nasty if you're not careful about their ability OR if they have Jailer/Waller. 6.2.2 Act 2 *Dune Threshers: These guys truly become a problem in later difficulties when they start to get some very nasty melee affixes and you realize you can't kill them at range because they'll just burrow. There is some terrain they can burrow through, take advantage of it if you find some. Otherwise, approach very carefully *Wasps: Avoid the little bees, they hurt a lot, let your follower run into them, or hide behind terrain. *Lacuni (female): I include these guys because their ranged attack hurts a lot if your resists aren't high. Their ranged attack is slow, so stay a moving target. *Lacuni (Male, aka the big ones): Not the nastiest big enemies, but they tend to use big slashing combos that knock you back a bit and prevent you from using skills, this is more annoying than anything else but definitely a threat when mixed with everything else in Act 2. **Bonus tip to fight all of the above: If you find a horrible pack you'd rather not fight, run to the nearest dungeon/cellar (the cultist hideouts work too), make a town portal and take a waypoint** *Accursed: One of the few small monsters I will list. These guys are extremely dangerous for 2 reasons, the poison clouds they leave upon dying which will kill you in an instant on later difficulties but also their speed which is insane when they are champions/rares. You will not outrun them. *Dune Dervish: These guys do nothing, or do their lawnmower attack of doom. They are especially deadly when in packs of Jailer/Waller/Vortex. If you're a ranged class, save your big attacks when they aren't spinning, because their spinning attacks blocks some ranged attacks. *Fallen Overlord: Not a big threat normally. Big threat on later difficulties as champs/rares. I'm especially scared of them as horde after a bad encounter with them. If you're not careful and let them corner/surround you, their big smash attack can keep you stunlocked (unable to move). *Sand Giants: Big and nasty. They have a sand shield spell that reflects some ranged attacks. They are burrowed when you find them and crawl out of their holes to run after your ass. If you run far and fast enough, they might burrow again. If you know where they are burrowed and approach slowly enough, you might only make one or two unburrow at a time, great for packs! |
Posted by Member Methrin on 8/6/12 07:18 PM
#35
Posts: 163
6.2.3 Act 3
*Herald of Pestilence: Move the hell away from their ranged attack, that's all there is to it. *Blood Clan Berserkers: These guys are usually not a big deal. The big problem is when they surround you, especially with champs/rares, the knockback on their attack can keep you stunlocked and kill you very quickly. *Demonic Tremor: The regular ones are not a problem. It's the champions/rares who are the problem, because of how wide they are, you can easily maneuver yourself to fight one or two at a time. *Colossal Golgor: Considering the maps they spawn in, always try to fight them in bottlenecks or narrow areas so that as few of them hit you as possible, ideally with your back against a wall or some such to minimize the impact of knockback. Disregard if they have teleport or vortex. *Hulking Phasebeasts: Not much helps against these, because they teleport and run fairly fast, they will chase you a long time. Try to fight them alone. 6.2.4 Act 4 Almost everything is nasty in act 4. *Abaddon: These guys stun. Very bad news when facing several of them. *Mallet Lords: These guy hit hard, circle them and their attacks become negligible. *Oppressors: Getting surrounded is a quick death if they start using their firebreaths attack. |
Posted by Member Tautology on 8/7/12 12:23 AM
#36
Posts: 13
Just in general.
Bosses are the only thing you can't judge before engaging them and the only thing you can't run away from. So you have to know for certain before you get hit once that you will win. Contrast that with say dark berserkers in Act 1. The first time you fight them on any given difficulty you will not know if you can stand toe to toe with them. But you don't have to stand toe to toe. You won't be 1 shot or anything because you got through everything around them. So you can decide to run away or continue after taking a few hits and learn where you stand. If you decide it's too risky you can go level somewhere else, or hit the AH etc. No such option with bosses. If you decide your poison resist is too low after engaging Ghom, it's already too late. There's nothing before that to give an idea of how good your poison resist is before that point. It's the first poison resist gear check. Rakanoth is another one. It's either a joke or death. There's no in-between. Everything else including the hardest champion packs have an in-between. It's the lack of in-between that worries me before I face bosses. |
Posted by Member Methrin on 8/7/12 04:04 AM
#37
Posts: 163
Well, you only need to worry about those three bosses once.
On normal, you just need to buy a new weapon if your current one isn't up to your level and with the dps increase from a ruby, there's no risk at all. On Nightmare, the risk is somewhat there. On Hell, you can level to 60 before these bosses and do them with level 60 gear, which is much easier. The only boss I truly consider hard is Ghom and that's mostly for melee classes, ranged have it much easier. Eitherway, I intended for the next section of the guide to cover bosses, and I will most likely post it tonight. |
Posted by Member LSOLive on 8/7/12 05:02 PM
#38
Posts: 23
For bosses, I try to get similar stats and gear on a softcore character, and then practice the fight until I can avoid 95% of the attacks and am sure I can win.
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Posted by Member bossk on 8/7/12 06:55 PM
#39
Posts: 1
This is great, thanks for the post!
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Posted by Member Methrin on 8/7/12 08:09 PM
#40
Posts: 163
Today's update will be short, I'm tired and what little spare time I had was mostly spent leveling my hardcore monk, hopefully I will get my 7th level 60 character by the end of the week!
--------------------------- 7.0.0 Classes Blizzard's official introduction are quite good to give you an overview of each class: Link The following sections will assume you've seen them, seen the classes in action or even played them in softcore. Meaning I won't explain everything about the classes but I will try to explain what hardcore implies for them. 7.0.1 Basics You can play an offensive hardcore character, but that is a gamble. Playing defensive while leveling gives you the best odds of reaching 60 on the first try. Some classes are better at playing the defensive game but I honestly think it is more about mindset than anything else since even the most DPS-y classes tend to have a lot of defensive skills/runes. Another reason to play defensive when leveling is that it will help you get a feel of your abilities. Just because you equip your escape skill when starting Hell doesn't mean you'll be adept at using it at maximum efficiency and it won't mean you won't need it before whatever benchmark you can think of. Hency, I say equip your defensive skills before finding your character in a life-or-death situation. I think it also needs to be mentioned that Blizzard did a very good job balancing the classes. No, they are definitely not equal but they are certainly all playable all the way to 60 in hardcore and even in inferno and as such, you don't need to try and play the "best" class, play a class you are comfortable playing or having fun playing and that is all that matters. Nobody was great at any given class from the get-go afterall. |
Posted by Member Methrin on 8/8/12 06:30 PM
#41
Posts: 163
7.1.0 The Witch Doctor
I think I can honestly say the Witch Doctor shines in hardcore, he has several runes that provide healing to a variety of skills and his pets can help him avoid danger and if that wasn't enough he is packing some amazing survival passive skills. The biggest difference from softcore is that realistically speaking you will have only 2 passive skills to pick from (You should always keep spirit vessel once you unlock it) but other than that, most softcore builds transition fairly well to hardcore. One thing to remember though is that a lot of WD spells have a fairly limited range and as such, you usually end up closer to the action than say a wizard or a demon hunter. 7.1.1 DPS Skills Primary *Poison Dart / Splinters: You get it early on (always a plus), it is reliable, free to spam and it is one of your few spells with unlimited range. *Firebomb / Flash Fire: A great skill which is IMHO underused. It shines in hardcore for two reasons, it is essentially a free AOE (each firebomb does (85+70+55+40+25+10)= 285% weapon damage against large packs of monsters) and most of all, because it iis a missile with an arching path, there are several areas in which you can attack monsters that can't hit you back. i.e. there are various walls and similar obstacles which firebomb can be thrown over to devastating effect. *Plague of Toads / Rain of Toads: This spell is a small AoE with a very good damage output. One of its strengths is in how well it procs Life on Hit from your equipment, this is especially true when it hits several enemies. It is a staple of the "Tank Doctor" Build. Keep in mind however that while it isn't the costliest spell, it is more mana-intensive than the first two which are essentially free. Secondary *Fire Bats / Dire Bats: A skill with great range, good damage and incredible damage against packs of enemies in a straight line, since it pierces them. Very expensive mana-wise. *Haunt / Various Runes: The greatest strength of this spell is that it can be cast while on the run, it is a very good spell for kiting builds/playstyles because of this, but also because of its variety of runes which include mana regen, life regen and a snare. *Locust Swarm / Various Runes: Similar to Haunt, albeit more popular, especially with Poison Darts / Splinters builds. No life regen or snare rune. Decay *Zombie Charger / Zombie Bears: The strongest WD spell out there in pure damage output, very popular with Vision Quest builds. Range is limited and it is harder to aim than other spells because of how it can clip terrain. Very expensive mana-wise. *Acid Cloud / Various Runes: A good AoE spell with good range and some very good runes, much better with pets or other ways to keep enemies in the acid pools. Very expensive mana-wise. 7.1.2 Defensive abilities Defensive *Horrify / Various Runes: By making enemies run away in fear, Horrify prevents said monsters from hitting you for however long they run for and however long they take to come back. The Frightening Aspect gives you a substantial boost to armor to help you survive whichever monsters didn't run away. It also benefits from a cooldown reduction from Spirit Vessel. *Hex / Hedge Magic: The little guy helps you two ways, it keeps one monster out of action (great vs champions) and he heals you. Decay *Wall of Zombies / Various runes: It blocks monsters thus preventing some damage or it helps you run away. A sweet deal either way. |
Posted by Member Methrin on 8/8/12 07:03 PM
#42
Posts: 163
7.1.3 Escape Ability
Defensive *Spirit Walk / Various Runes: This is the best escape ability in the whole game. It turns you intangible, allowing you to walk through enemies, it breaks jailer, it gives you a movement speed boost and it comes with some amazing runes. Healing Journey if particularly great, healing 14% of your life when you have 50k HP is akin to a 7K potion you can cast every 15 seconds (13 with spirit vessel). If there is one skill you should not pass up in hardcore, it's this one. 7.1.4 Utility skills Terror *Soul Harvest / Various Runes: An amazing skill, it can drastically increase your dps by giving you a huge intellect boost and give back some life or mana. Also benefits from Spirit Vessel. *Mass confusion / Various runes: A tide-turner. It can even the odds versus big packs of monsters, moreso when you manage to confuse some champions! Mostly useful with a Vision Quest build though. 7.1.5 Pets To be fair, most pets could be classified under Defensive or offensive, but since they are so unique, might as well handle them separately. Defensive *Zombie Dogs: These guys SUCK. I only mention them to drive the point home, you shouldn't need to use them once you get the Gargantuan. They die to anything that looks at them the wrong way on normal mode for crying out loud. Voodoo *Gargantuan: The big guy has a lot going for him, he's big, he's tough enough to be considered on par with your follower and he comes with some sweet runes. Restless Giant is good early on, since it allows him to survive and hurt champions/rares, but later on you should consider Big Stinker. As an AoE poison attack, it procs Bad Medicine (a passive) and it can proc your life on hit a lot vs larger packs of monsters. *Big Bad Voodoo: This skill is hard to classify, not quite DPS, not quite Defensive, not quite a pet. It has two AMAZING runes: Slam Dance which provides a very large dps increase to you, your pets and your friends & Ghost Trance which provides a sickening amount of healing. When it's up you can sit in Desecrator pools and not care. *Fetish Army: These guys are great as protection and as a getaway skill. Protection-wise, they give monsters a lot more targets and they can surround champions/rares, thus preventing them from even entertaining the thought of surrounding you. As a getaway, they make sure monsters have a lot more targets to whack on as you run away. It is one of the rare skills in the game for which I'd say every single rune is great. More fetishes? More targets and/or more dps. Shorter cooldown? Fetishes more often. The Fetish Ambush also gives a sickening amount of burst dps against large monsters. 7.1.6 Passive skills *Jungle Fortitude: A considerable damage reduction, which means increased survivability. Why would you ever drop this? *Blood Ritual: Health regen is always good. *Bad Medicine: Another damage reduction. Works very well with Zombie Bears/Acid Cloud/Rain of Toads/Poison Darts builds, even moreso with a Big Stinker Gargantuan. *Pierce the veil: A good damage boost with no downside if your main spell is Poison Darts or Firebomb. *Spirit Vessel: Any other class would kill for this ability. It could save you a couple of avoidable deaths. *Vision Quest: The only way to make a Zombie bear or Acid Cloud build. *Fierce Loyalty & Zombie Handler: I only mention these because they are staple for pet builds. Fierce Loyalty is especially great with the Healing Journey rune for spirit walk, since it also heals your pet when you have fierce loyalty. |
Posted by Member Methrin on 8/9/12 07:48 PM
#43
Posts: 163
7.1.7 Sample builds
My level 60 Tank Doctor build I use My build was inspired from the discussion here. The build I used while leveling. A big list of inferno builds on the official Blizzard forums. Read the above very carefully, most of these are not necessarily done with hardcore in mind. Example of a Splinters build (used by a friend who got to 60) |
Posted by Member Methrin on 8/9/12 07:51 PM
#44
Posts: 163
I completed the skills section for the WD and tweaked the order and also added a sample builds section.
What do you guys think about the sample builds? Should I include more or keep it short and sweet? |
Posted by Admin Artishir on 8/9/12 08:03 PM
#45
Posts: 182
I've been reading your stuff and i don't mind it being kind of long, it's very helpful when there is a lot of details! Especially for people new to the game. Keep up the good work as well! I look forward to your new posts.
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Posted by Member timmy360 on 8/9/12 09:40 PM
#46
Posts: 5
Fantastic guide, I don't mind reading all of it, but other people might. Great work!
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Posted by Member sabin on 8/10/12 04:07 PM
#47
Posts: 338
Great guide. Regarding gems at lower levels, I wouldn't necessarily go straight for flawless squares if you're trying to save money. If a regular square gem costs 1/5 as much, you'll still get a nice benefit, and you can just re-use the gem as you find better socketed weapons. Also keep in mind that salvaging an item will remove the gem for free, rather than paying a lot of gold to Shen. This is very useful if you don't want to re-use the item and it won't sell for much.
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Posted by Member Methrin on 8/10/12 07:27 PM
#48
Posts: 163
7.2.0 The Monk
The monk has a lot going for him in hardcore, what with his healing skill, his invulnerability skill, mantras and most of all “One with everything”, the skill which can help you reach high amounts of all resist for a fraction of the cost other classes have to pay. If there is downside with the monk, I would say it is his escape abilities which aren’t bad, but could be better compared to the other classes. 7.2.1 DPS Skills Primary The following 3 skills generate spirit *Fists of Thunder / Thunderclap: The bread & butter of many monks. It is very fast, packs a decent punch and the teleport reduces downtime and helps you keep sweeping active easily. *Deadly Reach / Keen eye: Another bread & butter skill. More armor does mean more survivability. *Crippling Wave / Concussion: Reducing enemy damage also helps survivability. The following skills don’t generate spirit *Sweeping Wind / Cyclone: An amazing dps skill for the monk, it gives you AoE damage all the time it’s active and the cyclone rune provides a lot of extra dps if you can get some crit gear. *Seven-sided strike / Various runes: An amazing skill overall. It does good damage and most of all, removes your character from harm’s way while it’s casting. Very useful when you absolutely want to avoid something. 7.2.2 Defensive Abilities Defensive *Blinding Flash / Various runes: Blinding enemies is almost like stunning them, in the sense that while they’re blinded, they are out of commission. It is a great way to interrupt attacks such as the dark bersekrkers’ smash ability. *Breath of Heaven / Blazing Wrath: This is like a free potion and Blazing Wrath gives you a considerable damage boost. *Serenity / Ascension: If there is one skill you cannot live without, it’s this one. It breaks you out of stuns / freezes and makes you invulnerable for 3-4 seconds. What more could you want? 7.2.3 Escape Abilities Technique *Dashing strike /Quicksilver: One of few escape abilities with no cooldown. It is also bery cheap to cast and can be targeted at objects though. The main downside is that it needs a target and it can be hard to pick the right target in the midst of the action. Secondary *Tempest rush / Tailwind: Another escape ability with no cooldown. The main strength of tempest rush lies in the fact it pushes enemies and slows them, add in the 25% movement speed and it can really help you get as far away as possible from a pack that could kill you. Be warned that this skill has some rubberbanding issues, very rarely in my experience, but you still have to keep it in mind. 7.2.4 Utility Skill Focus Mystic ally / Earth ally: A pet that gives you 10% more life and another target for monsters. Enough said. 7.2.5 Mantras Mantras *Mantra of Evasion / Hard target: 15% dodge and 20% armor. If you generate fury fast enough, you can re-cast it every 3 seconds and instead get 30% dodge. Very good for your survivability. *Mantra of Healing / Time of Need: A mantra to make friends happy in inferno. *Mantra of Conviction / Overawe: 24% more damage for you and your friends. 48% if you generate fury fast enough to refresh it every 3 secs. 7.2.6 Passive skills *Resolve: You take less damage, you are less likely to die. Can provide substantial damage reduction when coupled with crippling wave / concussion. *Seize the initiative: More Armor is always good. *The guardian’s path: 15% dodge is nothing to laugh at. 25% more spirit generation with a daibo is laughable. *Beacon of Ytar: Allows you to cast Breath of Heaven/Serenity/Seven-sided strike more often. *One with everything: An amazing skill to help you finish hell and progress through inferno. *Near-Death experience: I absolutely hate how you only get this skill at 58, but once you get it, why not equip it? You’d hate to level another monk... 7.2.7 Sample builds My level 60 build at the time of writing. My earlier build, before those level 50+ runes. I won't include other builds for the time being because all inferno monk builds I've seen are very similar to those two. |
Posted by Member Methrin on 8/10/12 08:36 PM
#49
Posts: 163
That is a very good idea. I've also realized leaving rubies in my lowbie weapons is simpler, I have plenty of rubies and unsocketing them was a waste of time and gold. Also, I did reach my goal, 7th 60, 2nd hardcore one done as of 5 minutes ago! I'll probably do wizard next, seeing how she's 34 and I'm totally not in the mood to do normal right now. |
Posted by Member Methrin on 8/11/12 02:04 PM
#50
Posts: 163
7.3.0 The Wizard
The wizard is a fairly strong player in hardcore. She can be squishy, but since she has a lot of good skills and a wide variety of potent runes, she is probably the class with the most variety in builds (pre-1.04 that is) 7.3.1 DPS Skills Primary aka spells that don't cost you any Arcane Power *Magic Missile: The first rune of this spell makes it a good low-level spell, the last rune is liked by some players since it helps you stay far away while still contributing dps. *Shock Pulse / Piercing Orb: Decent dps and pierces, good against big groups. *Spectral Blade / Deep Cuts: Fairly useless without life on hit. Once you get some life on hit, this skill can heal you for a lot. It's a staple of "Melee wizard" builds. Secondary: *Disintegrate / Chaos Nexus: A very strong skill you can actually channel for a while. The damage is good and with chaos nexus the damage is great, that rune also makes it better versus groups (i.e. it can hit monsters behind you). Force: *Wave of Force / Various runes: This skill packs a good punch AND helps you get away if you get surrounded, not a bad deal. It would be much better if the cooldown was shorter. *Energy Twister / Wicked Wind: Another staple of "Melee Wizard" builds. *Hydra / Venom Hydra: Hydra is good for 2 things, it adds its dps to your own (i.e. it attacks while you do other things) and it's great for kiting. Venom hydra is currently the best option because the pools do so much damage. *Blizzard / Various Runes: Blizzard is mostly used in kiting builds for its slowing properties and damage. 7.3.2 Defensive Abilities Defensive: *Frost Nova / Various runes: Frozen enemies can't hit you nor chase after you. Good as a defensive ability and an escape ability. Good synergy with Cold-Blooded. *Diamond Skin / Crystal Shell: I don't know of a single wizard (softcore or hardcore) who doesn't use this. Conjuration *Ice Armor / Crystallize: More armor and a synergy with Cold-Blooded. *Arcane Armor / Force Armor: A great skill for some builds. If you have a lot of damage mitigation, it loses some of its effectiveness, in which case you can just use some of the other runes. *Mirror image / Various runes: Distractions/additional targets for monsters. 7.3.3 Escape Abilities Defensive *Teleport / Various Runes: This skill can save your ass in a pinch. I personnally prefer Wormhole as the rune because it gives you a split-second to recast once or twice if you clip terrain. If you're in a straight corridor or a big open area you can cover a very long distance. Wave of force (See DPS skills) could also be considered an escape ability since it frees you when surrounded. |