Hello everyone.

Me and some friends startet a HC as we are going to play while all three are online, i have startet a WD, and i was wondering if they are any good in HC? WD is the only char. i currently dont have in 60 (Got barb, monk, DH wizz on SC and a lvl 60 barb on HC).

How will my play style be in HC as WD, will i be running around with pets, or is it just nuking skills with spirit walk (Or what it is called:P)

Please inlight me in the HC WD :)


PS.
First post here, so again Hi everyone :)

Welcome to the forums!

WDs are a lot more commonly used on HC versus SC. Between the pets, spirit vessel, and lots of ranged or CC attacks, there's lots of options to stay safe.

Personally, I liked using both dogs and garg. Spirit walk is a must for any build. Unbreakable grasp for slowing anything that gets by the pets. Then I'd either use splinters for single target dps and acid rain for huge AoE, or some combo of leaping spiders/firebomb with dire bats.

I haven't actually tried it HC, but based on my Softcore DH I would say its definitely possible.
As a matter of fact after 1.04 I was very tempted to make a HC DH because I believed it to be very strong.

My SC one has a lot of gear with life/s (2400+- total). With fierce loyalty passive skill you will find that your pets can stand up to most things without even flinching. So I would say pets are the way to go.
My WD DPS output is not so great, but I got a lot of vit, life/s and all-res gear. The pets makes you the best and safest HC tank in my opinion. Especially since you mention that you will be doing this in a group I believe you will do great.

P.s. welcome. I'm also relatively new, and I believe this to be one of the best forums I have stumbled upon yet.

Thanks for the answers :)

I guess ill just have to try and go with it, im abit afraid my dps is too low for my playstyle with pets, as i like speed killing monsters :) But ill see hehe..

Do you have a very stable connection? Pets are one of the best ways to avoid death to lag. Also, there isn't much point to having 3-4 big mana spenders as you only have so much available.

You can view some of the top HC WD players on diabloprogress.com and it looks like most of them use dogs and/or the garg. You can also see that a decent portion of the top HC players overall use WD.

Posted by sabin at 11/27/2012 12:12 AM

Do you have a very stable connection? Pets are one of the best ways to avoid death to lag. Also, there isn't much point to having 3-4 big mana spenders as you only have so much available.

You can view some of the top HC WD players on diabloprogress.com and it looks like most of them use dogs and/or the garg. You can also see that a decent portion of the top HC players overall use WD.

Heehe, it sounds like the ability to stay alive w/ pets in spite of the lag & the fact that a decent portion of top HC players overall use WD reinforces each other; perhaps other classes that don't have the pet option do make it to high levels in HC but then eventually are killed off due to an unfortunate lag spike & their luck running out...?

I think the main reason a lot of top players choose WD is the simplest one - the WD has many "safe" ways to get high DPS with ranged attacks. The pets let you use channeling skills like bears or bats without getting attacked, while a WZ would be a sitting duck using a channeled skill. The fact that they let you stand still can give you a better effective DPS boost than using another skill at times, but this depends on your playstyle.

Then there's the fact that the WD has by far the best automatic "save you from death skill", followed by the monk's NDE, the wiz's UA. The barb/DH don't even have an automatic save (at least the barb can take 50% damage when low on life - the DH really gets screwed for options here IMO).

Yea my connection is pretty stable, haven't d/c for a long time :)

I think the best way to find out if i like the style of a WD or not, is to lvl him to 60, so im just gonna do so =)

Exactly, try out the skills as you earn them, and try not to get upset if you fall at the hands of Lagmodan on your way to 60.

First time starting HC.

Set the MP level to 10 and playing Normal using a WD, a class which I am not familiar with. Now at level 11, on the quest to kill the Skele King.

How far more could I continue with MP10? Obviously I would know the answer by simply continue playing. Just curious if anyone knows good strategy on setting MP levels. I chose 10 since I wanted this challenge and I need those magic items and gold fast. I foresee I may need to resort to some grinding on 10 before bosses. Are there any tips on this? Should I reset MP to zero for boss fight to avoid an early demise of my WD?

@douvinsky After a while, leaving it on MP10 just means you have to play extra safe and visit the AH more often to upgrade your gear. I don't think it's worth the extra gold or exp. For the challenge, yes if that's what you want. If you need gold, a lot of the loot you pick up can probably be sold fairly easily if it has main stat + vit. There's a very good market on these gear on the low level.

My WD killed SK, it was still pretty easy at MP10 with WD. Dogs were fighting the summoned while my WD just need to keep a distance from SK and spit at him beside throwing some area spells. I had more than 700+ HP though thanks to some +vit gears from the merchant. Already at lvl12 after the SK fight due to the bonus XP from the MP levels. I probably will stay with MP10 till NM Act 1.

I heard it is harder for melee classes in HC, I can understand why, since melee classes will be repeatedly getting hit by both melee and range especially at high MP if they can't one shot them. While my WD is still at Act 1 I am going to create a Barb and a Monk to get a feel of melees in MP10.

Any guide as to skills to use while leveling? So far I know poison darts are pest and pets. A litter foggy on the rest. Like now I have haunt,but use the Int bugging spell instead I know at some point haunt will be better to save me, but when?

Thanks.

I actually really like using Grasp of the Dead on my hardcore WD.

Posted by NightCrawler9 at 01/05/2013 12:47 PM

I actually really like using Grasp of the Dead on my hardcore WD.

So far me too. Good dps and great slowing effect to boot!

Posted by zerokewl at 01/05/2013 12:30 PM

Any guide as to skills to use while leveling? So far I know poison darts are pest and pets. A litter foggy on the rest. Like now I have haunt,but use the Int bugging spell instead I know at some point haunt will be better to save me, but when?

Thanks.

For me,

Zombie dogs and Gargantum for tanking.
Spirit Walk as the oh [filtered] button.
Grasp of the dead for slowing effect.
Poison dart for single mob attack.

Then, I use Acid Cloud as mana spender and AoE attack most of the time. In boss fight I revert to Haunt for life regen.

On the passive, I use Jungle Fortitude, (and later add Bad Medicine), to increase my survivability.

Thank you!

Lvl 50 this morning on my 2nd WD. About to do a4 which should fly by. Last wd I was 60 just before ghom on hell. I suspect I will be 60 without grinding before I hit a3 this time.

Really been loving spirit barrage well of souls to go over walkers and Target specific mobs with the initial damage at least.

Already looking towards lvl 60 in ah. Anyone have suggestions for specific legendary items that are well priced? Only have 1.2 mil gold. Looks as though visage is a well priced helm. Socket for xp grind in hell then life in inferno. Decent AR for survival and such. No idea what to do for a weapon though.

Oh yea Spirit Barrage. Now at level 45, I got a Reduced Level by 15 Intel Bow with 826 DPS and +6% to Spirit Barrage, so that would be the skill I use during boss fight. For white mobs, I switched out Grasp of the Dead since I could usually one hit them with Acid Cloud using the 826 DPS bow. I have been testing a few skills, but currently go with the Soul Harvest - Swallow your Soul for the extra kicks and mana regain. I might switch out Zombie dogs too if I see that I do not need them to tank or lifelink...........but this is Hardcore and I better play safer.

I dropped soul harvest as it seemed to encourage me to get closer to mobs than I should he. I'd advise you to drop it as well. Running up to a yep to get stacks can lead to posting in rip thread.

Posted by zerokewl at 01/22/2013 05:25 PM

I dropped soul harvest as it seemed to encourage me to get closer to mobs than I should he. I'd advise you to drop it as well. Running up to a yep to get stacks can lead to posting in rip thread.

Good advice.

I think I will go with Spirit Barrage - Well of Souls for the burst damage when fighting high HP elites. The rune which seek 3 additional target helps here. Will switch to Phlebotomize rune for HP regain when fighting boss. Also this will make good use of my 2H bow with +6% damage. Might try out other skills too for fun.

I do the same, but find most of the best dps ones require close contact ei bears. Read that dire bats can be good as well.

Lvl 54 and scouting lvl 60 gear. Not seeing any good deals so far. Did notice the panys I am wearing are only lvl 23... Haven't found any replacement ones yet for a reasonable amount.

Any thoughts on wd offhand? Should I use mojo or a shield? I know for dps a mojo rules, but shields can have stellar ehp and some decent danger via cc and Int.

How much Nanak regen do I need/want?

No matter what you want a lot of mana regen. If you don't have mana, you'll die. A lot of times when I think "[filtered] run away" it's actually better to just stand there and spam my skills (or just shadow walk...).

About 1 bar away from 60(again) and have been shopping for 60. Picked up zunis mojo with 171 ave damage. Left with a bid on a decent zunis helm. Got a cheap wd dagger with 136 Vit and loh of 400ish. I should with decent ar and 100 Int.

This time regardless of my ability I will not go to inferno without hitting some required survival stats...heck I am not even done with A2 yet as bieal scares me more this time.