@arpger did bring up a good point. Have you ever tried Hardcore with self-found loots only? I haven't. But I intended to try this when I am free later (amidst HC farming, leveling up HC 2nd and 3rd toon to 60).

The objective would be to play the game with only self-found gears, and hopefully reach 60, then you are free to do whatever you want with your 60. I am actually very interested to see what level will my character die.........if he or she doesn't die before lvl60, I would be very disappointed.

I suppose I could lay down some strict "Rules" for myself on this:

1) Do not use Auction House (you could sell, but strictly no buying to enhance yourself by using AH)
2) Do not use Trading/ acceptance of gift from other players
3) Do not use Merchants. This include no buying of gears/ weapons/ jewelry, as well as health potions.
4) Do the questlines, clear the whole map, only ONCE i.e. once you finish a quest and, if you want, clear the whole map, you must proceed to the next stage. You are not allowed to grind a quest or an area so that you can gain a few more levels before next fight.
5) Treat this as a "single character" only mission - i.e. you do not use items (including potions, mats) from your other HC characters.
6) Use of Blacksmith/ Jeweller. Note you may already have a lvl 10 Blacksmith, with a few legendary plans. I suppose there are a few options:
a) No use at all
b) free to craft, as long as you have the mats. Mats here is limited to those from which your character have found ONLY. To draw a clear line you might want to keep those mats just in your character's own bag. Craft is also limited to those learned naturally through Blacksmith training, and recipe found on the character (i.e. if you have a legendary plan found on other character and learned, you may not use it unless you have looted the same legendary plan on the character)
c) craft only once, on each item, regardless of how bad the rolls are.

b) seems to be a more sensible approach, but I may just stick with a) for a clear cut simplicity.

7) You may play at any MP difficulty of your choice, and change MP levels throughout the game.

Not sure if I miss anything.

I probably will start with a Barbarian on this, I need to delete one of my toon to make room!

Anyone else wanna play in this fashion? If yes, sign your name here!

These rules look good, thanks for making this thread! I definitely hope to hit 60 in order to take full advantage of the revamped crafting system with all self-found mats.

Sounds fun. I heard someone on the official forums cleared inferno diablo with self found, but unsure how much crafting he did.

I feel like once you hit inferno, all crafting is fair game as long as you're only using self-found mats.

Actually if the character is the first and only character in HC, I believe it is fair to craft whatever quantity using self found mats and from levelling the blacksmith from level one. It is then seems unfair for subsequent new characters to be able to utilise a high level blacksmith, eg start crafting higher level gears before the character reach the required level (such that the character is always up to par at gear level) and before the blacksmith could have learned it if he instead progresses the first time with the limited gold and books picked up.

I made a wiz to attempt this challenge. And after playing a bit I think my rules are gonna involve not using the BS or jeweler at all. But I will return to past areas to grind.

I think if you hit a certain wall in the game, you will be forced to grind unless you don't allow yourself to run away during a death situation. Every time you return to that area in an attempt to clear it, you will be essentially clearing mobs which is like grinding.

Ok, it is fine to grind an area. And maybe bosses. Let's not make it too hard for an already hard game lol.

If you are not using blacksmith and jeweller at all, grinding becomes even more important to gain that few levels and chance at loots.

As I told @razer22 WD will make this mission easy. That was how I began my life at HC at MP10. Not sure about which class is the next easiest...probably range has an advantage early on, just need to kite a lot!

I'm keeping it real safe on MP0 for now. Got my first legendary on my self-found hc barb and it was quite an upgrade!

I think I'm going to join this when I get my new PC (too much game lag to feel safe on current system).

Sounds like fun.

@arpger That is a good find. I just killed SK on my lvl9 wiz. Here's a pic:



I've been enjoying the Shock Pulse: Explosive Bolts skill. The animation is neat.

@razer22

Good progress!
I could see in the picture that you have a few blue weapons. Is your equipped white wand better than them?

@douvinsky Lol yup. That white wand dropped off the skeletons guarding SK's gate and it was better than my fire sword with LS. I too was surprised and thought it was funny that I would be using a white wpn against SK.

Got to Act2 but still using a white wpn (albeit it's one with a 23% dmg increase). I don't think I can handle things above mp0, too much kiting would be involved.

I think it would make sense if we allowed purchases from vendors - most people who play self-found consider vendors fair game. Also, @razer22, you might then be able to purchase a blue weapon upgrade. Just an idea

Posted by arpger at 03/22/2013 11:22 AM

I think it would make sense if we allowed purchases from vendors - most people who play self-found consider vendors fair game. Also, @razer22, you might then be able to purchase a blue weapon upgrade. Just an idea

This is a choice. Personally I dislike this.

This is because the items at the merchants are refreshed everytime you refresh a game. Hence, unless you play the difficulty in one session only, or very discipline in limiting your visits to the merchants, it would be a great temptation to get better rolls from the merchants from creating/ resuming games, whether intentionally or not.

Yeah, that's a good point - I definitely think if people can discipline themselves to not use the auction house, they can use the vendors selectively. I personally like going back to town every so often to clear out my inventory and check up on vendors, but I can also see why it could detract from the self-found gameplay as well.

I want to try literally self-found only so no crafts or vendor. Either way, I don't make any amount of gold on the self-found char so I wouldn't be able to purchase from vendors either. But yeah, if I get a suitable blue wpn drop...the long wait would just make it that much more satisfying.

Posted by razer22 at 03/22/2013 11:17 PM

I want to try literally self-found only so no crafts or vendor. Either way, I don't make any amount of gold on the self-found char so I wouldn't be able to purchase from vendors either. But yeah, if I get a suitable blue wpn drop...the long wait would just make it that much more satisfying.

Thumb up to this!
It would be so exciting to see an upgrade for your weapon lol.

Started a new char with friends for MP10 self-found HC and it's been really entertaining. Had some close calls, but overall things have been going smoothly. Even though we're technically doing self-found, we've been sharing the gear that we find in a group which has been really helpful in MP10.

@arpger Your monk is the new char? Wow, found 2 legendaries already??

Yep, well both were actually found by my groupmates while we were playing. I haven't found any legendaries on my monk yet, but am up to 3 on my barb.

Doing MP10 all the way through makes it so you end up outlevelling mobs pretty quickly, but it helps in managing the increased difficulty while still getting an awesome xp bonus. Unfortunately, though, the items that drop off the mobs are lower level as well - making crafting really important later on.

I done it from 1 to 15, but then decided it'd probably be safer if I get kitted up.

Well, got a massive lag spike on nightmare Ghom and kept rubber banding into the poison cloud - unable to use a potion or do anything for that matter. So my 44 self found warrior had an undramatic death, fortunately still have my 37 monk to play...

@arpger RIP to Sandwichmake.