Hard Core for Consoles challenge

[locolagarto 15]

With all the discussion lately about the differences between PC and Console I got to thinking about doing a special build and thought I'd post a bit of a challenge for anyone interested in participating.

 

Idea:

 

A hardcore build that is completely from scratch with no player chest. Serious business here, completely self reliant with no chest! Only what you can pick up, or buy and carry. No trading, No high level smithing and no access to hand me downs from previous builds. Build it and take to 100% completion on Niob.

 

Rules:

 

1. Gentlemen's Rules. Your honor is your guide. And as Gogo says "pictures or it didn't happen"

 

2. No trading! No chest! Only exception is that you can put items into your chest for use with other chars. (Like that awesome chest piece you found for another class character that you just can't bring yourself to sell). But absolutely nothing comes out of the chest.

 

3. HC rules. If you die, you start over. A picture of your overview window should show 0 deaths.

 

4. Not a speed contest, no points for first place, just good fun and a challenging build.

 

5. You are incouraged to post your progress, questions, victories and defeats on this thread for all to share and discuss.

 

Now what would you build? bargaining or EP seem to be a must or are they? something with high survivability, low +all skill requirments? hmmm!

 

I've had Seraphims, Inqs, Dryad all go to noib. But never with 0 deaths yet. (Dryad would have but I had a very unfortunate "Away from Console" moment on Gold when I got called to the kitchen and left her unattended in the Orc lands. whoops!

 

 

I'll go get started and let you know how it goes. love to see what you come up with.

[Furian67 15]

I'm up for that! Been a long time since had a build like this. Kinda like the challenge of the "Mage that couldn't concentrate"

[Furian67 15]

Ya know after thinking about this, it just might be better for us to start our builds out this way to find the sticky spots to fix unstead of having to wait till niob to find weak spots. By then it's much harder to fix than if we find them at low levels

[locolagarto 15]

Ya know after thinking about this, it just might be better for us to start our builds out this way to find the sticky spots to fix unstead of having to wait till niob to find weak spots. By then it's much harder to fix than if we find them at low levels

 

 

So what would you build?

with no runes, potions, or gear to start with?

[moo_moo45 0]

This is a good idea

I wish who ever trys this good luck lol, its going to be a tough challenge.

[locolagarto 15]

This is a good idea

I wish who ever trys this good luck lol, its going to be a tough challenge.

 

I thought we had a participant there for a moment. Come on give it a try. It will be like that very first time you put the disk in the console. Except this time you know so much more about the game.

 

 

I'm thinking about trying it with a Shadow Warrior or Seraphim. although a pure caster would just throw the difficulty through the roof. might be fun!

Edited October 25, 2009 by locolagarto

[ka243 3]

My level 88 high elf niob shopper was built in this way since it was my first real character. I'll post the build I'm using later and what I would have done differently.

[Blokeymon 0]

My January Sales Seraphim was started on Silver, is currently on level 71, in the desert region, and a few weeks ago I did a campaign speed run with her on Bronze and beat it in 5 hours, have only used weapons and armour I've bought/found....

 

Zero deaths so far, and given the build I made, I have yet to fall below half health, even in boss fights.

 

Will keep pushing her, let you know how I go.

[locolagarto 15]

Cool, I started a Shadow Warrior last night going well. Hard to resist the temptation of going to that chest for goodies though. Keep us updated.

[locolagarto 15]

Cool, I started a Shadow Warrior last night going well. Hard to resist the temptation of going to that chest for goodies though. Keep us updated.

 

Scrapped the Shadow Warrior. Went with the wrong sequence of skills. Started with Armor and focuses then concentration and tactics. Starting over in reverse order.

[x Zeus x 0]

Cool, I started a Shadow Warrior last night going well. Hard to resist the temptation of going to that chest for goodies though. Keep us updated.

 

Scrapped the Shadow Warrior. Went with the wrong sequence of skills. Started with Armor and focuses then concentration and tactics. Starting over in reverse order.

 

Been here and am doing it right now.

 

level 117 Summoner Shadow Warrior (Tomb Raider) -No deaths only gear I have found which is alot maxed EP running Orc Cave. Doing about 200 xp per kill should finish Niob shortly just need to max Ancient Magic which should make it a done deal up to Orc Land as we speak.

 

If I were going to do it a again but not Shadow Warrior then it would have to be BFG Seraphim with Bargining and EP.

[ka243 3]

Freaking spammers.

Yeah, if I make a melee character I always take tactic lore + weapon skill first. Shadow Warrior doesn't need a lot of defense early on due to grim resilience. I run with just that buff at beginning. Regen per hit is an awesome thing on melee characters. If you find a piece of equip with this keep it.

[Numerii 1]

Why is there no trading allowed? I'm not familiar with all the rules to PC hardcore but I thought they could play online together and therefore trade between theirselves. So all these guilds on PC are playing softcore together or something? If so then that sucks, hardcore would be awesome online.

[locolagarto 15]

Why is there no trading allowed? I'm not familiar with all the rules to PC hardcore but I thought they could play online together and therefore trade between theirselves. So all these guilds on PC are playing softcore together or something? If so then that sucks, hardcore would be awesome online.

 

no they trade on pc hc. just through that in as an extra challenge.

[Numerii 1]

Ok thanks. I've never played multiplayer yet anyway. I'll probably take up this challenge in the future. I've got a Shadow Warrior build here:

 

http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=13069

 

So far I've taken it to 76 and to the orc lands in Plat campaign so far. I'm interested if the build is still as good starting with nothing. I leveled up a shopper alongside this character to 44 then stopped leveling the shopper so I had the benefit of +skills jewelry up to that point.

 

Either that or I'll try ScoobyDouche's Easy Rider build but switch out Riding for EP. Bargaining and EP would make this challenge so much easier and leveling up some exotic caster build without either is perhaps too much of a challenge.

 

Edit: Went with Dobri's High Elf build here:

 

http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?sh...c=9395&st=0

 

Level 13 so far, first 8 levels were a bit rough but it was refreshing not spending hours just shopping before actually playing a new character.

Edited November 5, 2009 by Numerii

[locolagarto 15]

Ok thanks. I've never played multiplayer yet anyway. I'll probably take up this challenge in the future. I've got a Shadow Warrior build here:

 

http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=13069

 

So far I've taken it to 76 and to the orc lands in Plat campaign so far. I'm interested if the build is still as good starting with nothing. I leveled up a shopper alongside this character to 44 then stopped leveling the shopper so I had the benefit of +skills jewelry up to that point.

 

Either that or I'll try ScoobyDouche's Easy Rider build but switch out Riding for EP. Bargaining and EP would make this challenge so much easier and leveling up some exotic caster build without either is perhaps too much of a challenge.

 

Edit: Went with Dobri's High Elf build here:

 

http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?sh...c=9395&st=0

 

Level 13 so far, first 8 levels were a bit rough but it was refreshing not spending hours just shopping before actually playing a new character.

 

 

Good luck to ya!. I just recently made the move to PC and started my first few characters on HC with nothing in my chest to start with of course. Very challenging and I think PC is harder than Console. at least slower. first 2 character were HE icecoup with bargaining as first skill. and a Dryad with EP and Bargaining as 1st and 3rd skills. got the first few killed by trying to run through silver too quickly. now doing will with a dryad at level 26 on silver. just got to griffenborough.

[Numerii 1]

Good luck to ya!. I just recently made the move to PC and started my first few characters on HC with nothing in my chest to start with of course. Very challenging and I think PC is harder than Console. at least slower. first 2 character were HE icecoup with bargaining as first skill. and a Dryad with EP and Bargaining as 1st and 3rd skills. got the first few killed by trying to run through silver too quickly. now doing will with a dryad at level 26 on silver. just got to griffenborough.

 

Yeah console is kinda jacked up in a lot of ways since no one is patching it, but at least we get to keep +all skills and deathblow so it kind of makes up for it. Besides after playing WoW(where they seem to change something about every class each patch) it's nice having a game that simply won't change.

 

As far as the characters go, I started out in Bronze til level 5 and got lucky with some rune drops so by the time I finished the runemaster's quest in Silver I had most of the runes I needed. HE has some crazy good AE, not too happy with her single target yet but I'm sure it'll get better once I can throw some mods on IS and AF. Was able to shop +1 to all skills at 15 so I'm broke with her now but she's got some nice +skills in some crappy gear atm lol.

[Popcicle 0]

Ok I might be up for this when I get more time.

 

Level 13 so far, first 8 levels were a bit rough but it was refreshing not spending hours just shopping before actually playing a new character.

 

 

I don't get why everyone shops so much?

Do you go directly to Orc Land at level 1 or what? lol

 

For me the drops has been good enough for me to kick ass...

I check for rings every time I'm in town selling stuff but thats it. I've got level 50 on my Pyromancer HE with some decent gear, loads of sets, rares and uniques..

[Lewisw9012 0]

people could cheat this build btw.. cause my m8 discovered that if you reset your console as soon as you die it doesnt save and it doesnt say you died in your overview and you also keep your survivabilty bonus lol

[locolagarto 15]

This challenge is gentleman's honor. If you choose to undertake it. It's for the challenge and difficulty of not having the chest full of high level gear.

 

Unfortunately there are cheaters no matter what u do, only those with honor will deserve the satisfaction of completing the challange.

[genmei 0]

This challenge is gentleman's honor. If you choose to undertake it. It's for the challenge and difficulty of not having the chest full of high level gear.

 

Unfortunately there are cheaters no matter what u do, only those with honor will deserve the satisfaction of completing the challange.

 

 

true dat m8

[Numerii 1]

I don't get why everyone shops so much?

Do you go directly to Orc Land at level 1 or what? lol

 

For me the drops has been good enough for me to kick ass...

I check for rings every time I'm in town selling stuff but thats it. I've got level 50 on my Pyromancer HE with some decent gear, loads of sets, rares and uniques..

 

Starting out at level 1 with a full set of gear socketed with enhance runes is basically the only way to enjoy most caster builds without slogging though 15-20 levels dealing with 5-8 second regens on your only form of real damage. I've already dealt with that before so nowadays when I'm sitting around watching TV I jump on my shoppers and mindlessly go about Khorum "fishing" for gear.

 

I have a level 2 Inquisitor that I ran all the way down there and I slapped some +skills on his gear, took Bargaining at level 2. He can shop level 2 gear with two sockets so I just buy anything for any class that has two sockets and throw it in the chest. At level 12 I sell all of that gear to a merchant then buy it back so I can resocket the entire set with +skills. So from level 2 on, I'm actually enjoying my characters instead of waiting for that magical level that they finally become fun.

 

people could cheat this build btw.. cause my m8 discovered that if you reset your console as soon as you die it doesnt save and it doesnt say you died in your overview and you also keep your survivabilty bonus lol

 

I believe this is what caused(causes still even?) all those reports of "corrupted" files where people lost their characters. I mean they put a warning screen up for you when you start the game that says do not reset it while it is saving. I've yet to have a corrupt file so I'm hoping this is what was causing it for these people and if so, serves them right.

[locolagarto 15]

Sorry for this rant but I got a thought in my head I couldn't stop until I got it out!.

 

You know every one of use has at some point been curious about a trick or "cheat" that we've heard of. And those that want to experiment on SP are welcome to do so. That said, the online environment is no place for cheaters. I won't play with them. If they want to play that way they can go play with the 13 year olds. When I realized that socketing high level rings and amu's on low level gear for low level character was a glitch that hadn't gotten patched for consoles I decided to try this challenge and see if I had learned enough and honed my skills enough to build a toon from scratch without exploiting this "feature". I I have to say it's hard to play from scratch without it. I'm on PC know and have only tried HC on ClosedNet. It's very challenging and as I understand Ice and Blood will make it even more so. I look forward to it. the challenge is what keeps me form going to Gamestop for my next game.

[Numerii 1]

Sorry for this rant but I got a thought in my head I couldn't stop until I got it out!.

 

You know every one of use has at some point been curious about a trick or "cheat" that we've heard of. And those that want to experiment on SP are welcome to do so. That said, the online environment is no place for cheaters. I won't play with them. If they want to play that way they can go play with the 13 year olds. When I realized that socketing high level rings and amu's on low level gear for low level character was a glitch that hadn't gotten patched for consoles I decided to try this challenge and see if I had learned enough and honed my skills enough to build a toon from scratch without exploiting this "feature". I I have to say it's hard to play from scratch without it. I'm on PC know and have only tried HC on ClosedNet. It's very challenging and as I understand Ice and Blood will make it even more so. I look forward to it. the challenge is what keeps me form going to Gamestop for my next game.

 

I once read a good blog and for the life of me I can't find it now through a search engine but the discussion was about true min/maxers who do basically anything the game will allow to progress/empower their characters as opposed to the majority of us who set these sort of personal limits on what we ourselves will do within the given rules of the game to progress/empower our own characters.

 

This particular subject instantly made me think of this blog because simply put, no one is really cheating by doing something the game allows. Yes we know that in the PC version Ascaron has taken away the ability to do some of the things still capable on console. Then again, Blacksmithing doesn't work on consoles so one could easily say that the entire PC population is "cheating" by putting amulets into silver sockets or rings in bronze sockets. Sure we all know that the console version is just broken but in a weird way these two situations are somewhat similar in that at the heart of it, you're simply playing within the rules set forth by the game so by definition it's not cheating at all.

 

We all have that imaginary line we draw in situations like this on what we will allow ourselves to do or not to do but we can't judge someone else a cheater simply because their line extends much higher than our own, so long as that line does not cross over into actual cheating.

[locolagarto 15]

I agree with you completely! And my rant about cheating had more to do with the post about turning off the console mid save so as not to incur the penalties that come with dying. This is clearly not an unintentional " feature of the game". And by all means the practice of slotting high level jewels into low level equipment is not an obscure "cheat" available to a lucky few. I'm referring more to those that purposely use these cheats to make an unfair advantage over others in online games.

 

My decision to start this challenge or to convert to PC was not a morale one. But merely a desire to find that challenge that keeps the game fresh. after all, throwing on +200 all skill to your level 1 character and getting to noib by level 65 starts to not be much fun after a while