Hard Core for Consoles challenge

[keyser soze 0]

ive decided to take the challenge. starting it tonight with a summoner Shadow Warrior or a BFG seraphim not sure yet. Wondering anybody out their wana start it with me or am I soloing the good fight?

 

WOW... not sure if its my lack of knowledge of the game or perhaps the lack of superior items but I am finding that the trip through NIOB will be far harder then getting there if we are going to keep our death count at ZERO. Mind you I play with my wife who does not play video games (outside of this one) so she turns OFF her buffs semi-regularly on accident simply by hitting the wrong buttons..... I REALLY don't want either of us to die so I have the feeling that we might not be completing Niob for weeks and weeks....

[essjayehm 58]

ive decided to take the challenge. starting it tonight with a summoner Shadow Warrior or a BFG seraphim not sure yet. Wondering anybody out their wana start it with me or am I soloing the good fight?

 

WOW... not sure if its my lack of knowledge of the game or perhaps the lack of superior items but I am finding that the trip through NIOB will be far harder then getting there if we are going to keep our death count at ZERO. Mind you I play with my wife who does not play video games (outside of this one) so she turns OFF her buffs semi-regularly on accident simply by hitting the wrong buttons..... I REALLY don't want either of us to die so I have the feeling that we might not be completing Niob for weeks and weeks....

 

Sounds correct! I've turned off BFG during boss fights in my early days (because I kept BFG on the "neutral" buttons, and with it on my L2 setup.) Extremely dangerous, for sure, when battling tough enemies. Which buttons do you/she have the buffs on. I prefer having the buffs and the weapons equipped on my L2 trigger set. Mini-buffs (like DP or Dashing, for individual use) and not-often used Combat Art's on my R2 set. This leaves the "neutral" set open for the Combat Art's you use most. Unsure how easy it is to accidentally press the triggers on XBOX, but with non-gamers, I know all buttons get pressed at some point in the heat of a good battle! (from watching my "nephews" play...) so maybe a technique you could use (although annoying....) is to assign the buffs to buttons, turn them on, then unassign them so no accidents happen. You'd have to do this every time you start up/join game, and forgetting sucks.

 

Survival in Niob really does take quite a bit of knowledge / experience with Sacred 2. Even with Divine Prot. active, riding a tiger, 3 skeletons surrounded me and killed my tiger in about 3 seconds. Was quite suprised they downed DP so easily, but I do not have the "proper" 3rd modification, as I took reflect projectiles instead of "blocking" spell damage (game says the gold mod "reflects spell damage", but it really only blocks it). I fully suspect it was a combat art(s) that did the 10K or more damage to kill the mount, plus the 6K DP shield... so 16K of damage in 3 seconds. I believe that if I had the spell block mod, that wouldn't have happened. Anyone please correct me if that's wrong!

 

That was the point where I decided to dedicate at least 10 hours of shopping to upgrade my equipment. (Part of that was making a new bargaining suit). Now surviving just fine without DP up 24/7 (used when champs appear, though!). So to answer your question, yes it could be your lack of superior equipiment, but MOSTLY it is the difficulty of Niob. At your level, I think the main issue is that the enemies are minimum level 111, about 20 levels above yours? Makes their chance to hit very good against you, notwithstanding the damage dealt! I feel that I got the best defensive "upgrades" from raising my evasion stat, which the seraphim has some on her set pieces, the rest I got from jewelery. I brought it to 150% evasion, and the enemies CtH (Chance to Hit) went from 75% to 50% (round numbers). Currently going back to Plat. to hunt down some mini-bosses, open map, and possibly doing Something Wonderful.

[locolagarto 15]

ive decided to take the challenge. starting it tonight with a summoner Shadow Warrior or a BFG seraphim not sure yet. Wondering anybody out their wana start it with me or am I soloing the good fight?

 

WOW... not sure if its my lack of knowledge of the game or perhaps the lack of superior items but I am finding that the trip through NIOB will be far harder then getting there if we are going to keep our death count at ZERO. Mind you I play with my wife who does not play video games (outside of this one) so she turns OFF her buffs semi-regularly on accident simply by hitting the wrong buttons..... I REALLY don't want either of us to die so I have the feeling that we might not be completing Niob for weeks and weeks....

 

Sounds correct! I've turned off BFG during boss fights in my early days (because I kept BFG on the "neutral" buttons, and with it on my L2 setup.) Extremely dangerous, for sure, when battling tough enemies. Which buttons do you/she have the buffs on. I prefer having the buffs and the weapons equipped on my L2 trigger set. Mini-buffs (like DP or Dashing, for individual use) and not-often used Combat Art's on my R2 set. This leaves the "neutral" set open for the Combat Art's you use most. Unsure how easy it is to accidentally press the triggers on XBOX, but with non-gamers, I know all buttons get pressed at some point in the heat of a good battle! (from watching my "nephews" play...) so maybe a technique you could use (although annoying....) is to assign the buffs to buttons, turn them on, then unassign them so no accidents happen. You'd have to do this every time you start up/join game, and forgetting sucks.

 

Survival in Niob really does take quite a bit of knowledge / experience with Sacred 2. Even with Divine Prot. active, riding a tiger, 3 skeletons surrounded me and killed my tiger in about 3 seconds. Was quite suprised they downed DP so easily, but I do not have the "proper" 3rd modification, as I took reflect projectiles instead of "blocking" spell damage (game says the gold mod "reflects spell damage", but it really only blocks it). I fully suspect it was a combat art(s) that did the 10K or more damage to kill the mount, plus the 6K DP shield... so 16K of damage in 3 seconds. I believe that if I had the spell block mod, that wouldn't have happened. Anyone please correct me if that's wrong!

 

That was the point where I decided to dedicate at least 10 hours of shopping to upgrade my equipment. (Part of that was making a new bargaining suit). Now surviving just fine without DP up 24/7 (used when champs appear, though!). So to answer your question, yes it could be your lack of superior equipiment, but MOSTLY it is the difficulty of Niob. At your level, I think the main issue is that the enemies are minimum level 111, about 20 levels above yours? Makes their chance to hit very good against you, notwithstanding the damage dealt! I feel that I got the best defensive "upgrades" from raising my evasion stat, which the seraphim has some on her set pieces, the rest I got from jewelery. I brought it to 150% evasion, and the enemies CtH (Chance to Hit) went from 75% to 50% (round numbers). Currently going back to Plat. to hunt down some mini-bosses, open map, and possibly doing Something Wonderful.

 

I did the same with my XBOX set-ups. and I set all char with the basic same set-up so I could switch character and B was alway the melee for example. with buff on L2 and Weapons on R2 and neutral was my Combat Arts.

 

for survival in Niob Mitigation on a seraphim is huge. with the majority of monsters doing Physical. I used Battle Stance runes socketed into Gear for Better Battle Stance Combat Art and The phys Mitigation bonus stacks nicely.

[keyser soze 0]

Thanks for all the input. The issue with the SEPH is that if she turns on the DP it turns BOTH shields OFF when it runs out.... this makes it so that I have to have both of them on her "neutral" buttons because when she is pulling on triggers EVERYTHING goes wrong. Heck, she has already hit the START button in the heat of battle.... I do my best to not shout at her when this happens but got to say its hard not to get excited when the controller is shaking all over and the screen is flashing RED.

 

One thing I HATE about this game is when I teleport to a way point and it decides that instead of just spawning us next to the way point it spawns us up to 2 screens apart and we can't move.... that is RIDICULOUS and I am shocked that made it to the final release. I am pretty sure that WILL KILL us in NIOB.

 

Question of the day: I want to make a sword/shield for each of us when we turn ON our buffs. From me understanding of the game, the best thing to have on those is +skills so that it beefs our FOCUS + LORE up for the buff turning on which will stick even when we switch weapons out.... is that correct? Just slap as much +SKILLS as I can get on there or is there something else I should have in there?

[sam6555 1]

Thanks for all the input. The issue with the SEPH is that if she turns on the DP it turns BOTH shields OFF when it runs out.... this makes it so that I have to have both of them on her "neutral" buttons because when she is pulling on triggers EVERYTHING goes wrong. Heck, she has already hit the START button in the heat of battle.... I do my best to not shout at her when this happens but got to say its hard not to get excited when the controller is shaking all over and the screen is flashing RED.

 

One thing I HATE about this game is when I teleport to a way point and it decides that instead of just spawning us next to the way point it spawns us up to 2 screens apart and we can't move.... that is RIDICULOUS and I am shocked that made it to the final release. I am pretty sure that WILL KILL us in NIOB.

 

Question of the day: I want to make a sword/shield for each of us when we turn ON our buffs. From me understanding of the game, the best thing to have on those is +skills so that it beefs our FOCUS + LORE up for the buff turning on which will stick even when we switch weapons out.... is that correct? Just slap as much +SKILLS as I can get on there or is there something else I should have in there?

 

I thought it was all +combat arts aswell as a full set with as much +combat arts so that it boosts the level of your buffs.

[locolagarto 15]

Thanks for all the input. The issue with the SEPH is that if she turns on the DP it turns BOTH shields OFF when it runs out.... this makes it so that I have to have both of them on her "neutral" buttons because when she is pulling on triggers EVERYTHING goes wrong. Heck, she has already hit the START button in the heat of battle.... I do my best to not shout at her when this happens but got to say its hard not to get excited when the controller is shaking all over and the screen is flashing RED.

 

One thing I HATE about this game is when I teleport to a way point and it decides that instead of just spawning us next to the way point it spawns us up to 2 screens apart and we can't move.... that is RIDICULOUS and I am shocked that made it to the final release. I am pretty sure that WILL KILL us in NIOB.

 

Question of the day: I want to make a sword/shield for each of us when we turn ON our buffs. From me understanding of the game, the best thing to have on those is +skills so that it beefs our FOCUS + LORE up for the buff turning on which will stick even when we switch weapons out.... is that correct? Just slap as much +SKILLS as I can get on there or is there something else I should have in there?

 

I thought it was all +combat arts aswell as a full set with as much +combat arts so that it boosts the level of your buffs.

 

Ah could be both. depends on if you are at focus level with the buffs or not. if your buffs are over the focus level. + all skills will raise them higher than +combat arts will because after penalty level it takes +10 combat arts to equal +1 to all skills. below focus level + combat arts will raise the Buff 1 for 1.

[sam6555 1]

Ahh yea, didn't think of that. Just depends whether or not your buff levels are at the penalty or not.

[keyser soze 0]

Thanks for all the input. The issue with the SEPH is that if she turns on the DP it turns BOTH shields OFF when it runs out.... this makes it so that I have to have both of them on her "neutral" buttons because when she is pulling on triggers EVERYTHING goes wrong. Heck, she has already hit the START button in the heat of battle.... I do my best to not shout at her when this happens but got to say its hard not to get excited when the controller is shaking all over and the screen is flashing RED.

 

One thing I HATE about this game is when I teleport to a way point and it decides that instead of just spawning us next to the way point it spawns us up to 2 screens apart and we can't move.... that is RIDICULOUS and I am shocked that made it to the final release. I am pretty sure that WILL KILL us in NIOB.

 

Question of the day: I want to make a sword/shield for each of us when we turn ON our buffs. From me understanding of the game, the best thing to have on those is +skills so that it beefs our FOCUS + LORE up for the buff turning on which will stick even when we switch weapons out.... is that correct? Just slap as much +SKILLS as I can get on there or is there something else I should have in there?

 

I thought it was all +combat arts aswell as a full set with as much +combat arts so that it boosts the level of your buffs.

 

Ah could be both. depends on if you are at focus level with the buffs or not. if your buffs are over the focus level. + all skills will raise them higher than +combat arts will because after penalty level it takes +10 combat arts to equal +1 to all skills. below focus level + combat arts will raise the Buff 1 for 1.

 

Right, I keep all buffed maxed out whether that is good or not. So I will try to pop as many + skills as I can muster into those nice golden sockets.

[keyser soze 0]

After getting my shopper caught up to level 95+ I spent a couple of hours shopping in Niob to load up my sockets on both my Dryad and my wife's Seph and WOW, all of a sudden NIOB went from CRAZY insane difficult to semi-easy at least in the early stages. We are trying to run around and uncover dark map areas in the first couple of sections still so we are yet to make it very far but man, my wife is doing so much damage that most things don't even make it to us to hit us.... Since tweaking out her outfit (we are level 95) she is landing some 60K + hits on guys! Of course this is probably Deathblow + Crit + Coup de Grace but still... its AWESOME to see that kind of numbers next to my 3 to 10K numbers. LOL

 

So having said that, I do think we could progress along Niob if we wanted to. However she wants to take our time, do all the silver quests (which I promised her we could do on Niob and now I have to hold that promise) so it will probably take a long time regardless.

 

So just a suggestion to anyone who plays the game for the first time into Niob..... stop, take some time to get Niob equipment because it does make a difference.

[keyser soze 0]

After getting my shopper caught up to level 95+ I spent a couple of hours shopping in Niob to load up my sockets on both my Dryad and my wife's Seph and WOW, all of a sudden NIOB went from CRAZY insane difficult to semi-easy at least in the early stages. We are trying to run around and uncover dark map areas in the first couple of sections still so we are yet to make it very far but man, my wife is doing so much damage that most things don't even make it to us to hit us.... Since tweaking out her outfit (we are level 95) she is landing some 60K + hits on guys! Of course this is probably Deathblow + Crit + Coup de Grace but still... its AWESOME to see that kind of numbers next to my 3 to 10K numbers. LOL

 

So having said that, I do think we could progress along Niob if we wanted to. However she wants to take our time, do all the silver quests (which I promised her we could do on Niob and now I have to hold that promise) so it will probably take a long time regardless.

 

So just a suggestion to anyone who plays the game for the first time into Niob..... stop, take some time to get Niob equipment because it does make a difference.

 

has anyone completed this challenge yet or does my wife and I have a chance to be the first 2 to do it? we are still at the very beginning of Niob mind you. we have been kicking it and killing in platinum (mainly bosses) for fun/relax because I don't believe we can die in platinum any longer.

[essjayehm 58]

ive decided to take the challenge. starting it tonight with a summoner Shadow Warrior or a BFG seraphim not sure yet. Wondering anybody out their wana start it with me or am I soloing the good fight?

 

 

I'm in. Had enough of of spending as much time shopping / smithing as playing with my characters.

 

Started a Temple Guardian over the weekend, up to level 42, finished Jungle region in Silver. Tough stuff..., me likey!

 

Bigfoot, Galei... have you any updates for your Hardcore 4 Console characters?

 

Keyser... I've considered the rules in post #1 when making my character as a "HC" on console. The biggest / baddest item on the list is that you cannot take anything out of the player chest! I definitely would consider your characters to be HC, since they are your first toons, and built with only the advice of strangers; however somebody else may point out that you are using shoppers for your Niob girls. I actually feel that particular rule is quite unfair, as HC on PC do have a chest to use ( don't know for sure, but I assume...) but it would only contain items put into it with the one character.

 

Maybe we should take a look at those rules and come up with something emulating HC on PC, if possible? Even if just eliminating the no chest rule, as my character is now carrying 120/169 in "essential equipment".

 

I've also put additional restraints on myself (but holding only myself to them) to ramp the difficulty a little more. (for the curious... no free world farming, no co-op "help" - either on my game or on my buddies'.)

[locolagarto 15]

ive decided to take the challenge. starting it tonight with a summoner Shadow Warrior or a BFG seraphim not sure yet. Wondering anybody out their wana start it with me or am I soloing the good fight?

 

 

I'm in. Had enough of of spending as much time shopping / smithing as playing with my characters.

 

Started a Temple Guardian over the weekend, up to level 42, finished Jungle region in Silver. Tough stuff..., me likey!

 

Bigfoot, Galei... have you any updates for your Hardcore 4 Console characters?

 

Keyser... I've considered the rules in post #1 when making my character as a "HC" on console. The biggest / baddest item on the list is that you cannot take anything out of the player chest! I definitely would consider your characters to be HC, since they are your first toons, and built with only the advice of strangers; however somebody else may point out that you are using shoppers for your Niob girls. I actually feel that particular rule is quite unfair, as HC on PC do have a chest to use (? don't know for sure, but I assume...) but it would only contain items put into it with the one character.

 

Maybe we should take a look at those rules and come up with something emulating HC on PC, if possible? Even if just eliminating the no chest rule, as my character is now carrying 120/169 in "essential equipment".

 

I've also put additional restraints on myself (but holding only myself to them) to ramp the difficulty a little more. (for the curious... no free world farming, no co-op "help" - either on my game or on my buddies'.)

 

 

Its funny you mention the rules on post #1 as I wrote them just before purchasing the PC version and going true HC. a couple of PC challenges. you can't socket high level items into low level gear. that would make the chest fair game if you only used it to store items at your level. I don't mind that you are shopping for your tune. as long as its the same level gear. I had a level 126 seraphim that bought all my +10 All skills on XBOX that I would start socketing into level 15 set items. that I got away from. for the Challenge.

 

I have just recently got a character to Niob on PC but I have to admit I used gear that was traded with friends and Blacksmith arts from a Niob smith. however the balancing on Ice and Blood is something that no amount of high level smith arts can mitigate. on PC I had to go with a Shadow Warrior Astral Ghost. the Shadow Veil was my one and only defense against monsters and bosses 35 levels above me to kill the Guardians on Platinum at level 60 solo.

 

Let me take a look at those rules as some are definitely tougher than the PC world

[essjayehm 58]

Its funny you mention the rules on post #1 as I wrote them just before purchasing the PC version and going true HC. a couple of PC challenges. you can't socket high level items into low level gear. that would make the chest fair game if you only used it to store items at your level. I don't mind that you are shopping for your tune. as long as its the same level gear. I had a level 126 seraphim that bought all my +10 All skills on XBOX that I would start socketing into level 15 set items. that I got away from. for the Challenge.

 

I have just recently got a character to Niob on PC but I have to admit I used gear that was traded with friends and Blacksmith arts from a Niob smith. however the balancing on Ice and Blood is something that no amount of high level smith arts can mitigate. on PC I had to go with a Shadow Warrior Astral Ghost. the Shadow Veil was my one and only defense against monsters and bosses 35 levels above me to kill the Guardians on Platinum at level 60 solo.

 

Let me take a look at those rules as some are definitely tougher than the PC world

 

Yeah... but that looked like the fun part of it! :sarcasm: Ok... maybe not. I've been thinking about it over the weekend, and I guess we should solicit community input, since there are a couple of exploits that should be addressed:

 

 

 

Console re-set upon death - should not be allowed. If you are AFK (or whatever) and die, I guess you should've turned it off / returned to title screen. I'm lenient on this, though. (I like to push my builds, and die quite often as a result)

 

Shopping in Niob with your HC toon- Definitely should not be allowed. Keeps it fair for those who have not gotten there yet and want to participate in this challenge.

 

Trading online / leveling a shopper for your HC toon - My opinion is a "no". Definitely needs discussion.

 

Co-operative play (online or off) - This could be a hot topic. I am OK with it as long as level differences are less than .... 5? I dunno. But you can't bring a level 200 in to finish bosses for you!

 

NO HIGH-LEVEL SOCKETING - 'nuff said. Way too powerful for those that have the items/access to items.

 

 

Oh, BTW, congrats for Niob level on PC!... Harcore, I assume Level 60? How do you do enough damage to kill the guardians?

[locolagarto 15]

Its funny you mention the rules on post #1 as I wrote them just before purchasing the PC version and going true HC. a couple of PC challenges. you can't socket high level items into low level gear. that would make the chest fair game if you only used it to store items at your level. I don't mind that you are shopping for your tune. as long as its the same level gear. I had a level 126 seraphim that bought all my +10 All skills on XBOX that I would start socketing into level 15 set items. that I got away from. for the Challenge.

 

I have just recently got a character to Niob on PC but I have to admit I used gear that was traded with friends and Blacksmith arts from a Niob smith. however the balancing on Ice and Blood is something that no amount of high level smith arts can mitigate. on PC I had to go with a Shadow Warrior Astral Ghost. the Shadow Veil was my one and only defense against monsters and bosses 35 levels above me to kill the Guardians on Platinum at level 60 solo.

 

Let me take a look at those rules as some are definitely tougher than the PC world

 

Yeah... but that looked like the fun part of it! :sarcasm: Ok... maybe not. I've been thinking about it over the weekend, and I guess we should solicit community input, since there are a couple of exploits that should be addressed:

 

 

 

Console re-set upon death - should not be allowed. If you are AFK (or whatever) and die, I guess you should've turned it off / returned to title screen. I'm lenient on this, though. (I like to push my builds, and die quite often as a result)

 

Shopping in Niob with your HC toon- Definitely should not be allowed. Keeps it fair for those who have not gotten there yet and want to participate in this challenge.

 

Trading online / leveling a shopper for your HC toon - My opinion is a "no". Definitely needs discussion.

 

Co-operative play (online or off) - This could be a hot topic. I am OK with it as long as level differences are less than .... 5? I dunno. But you can't bring a level 200 in to finish bosses for you!

 

NO HIGH-LEVEL SOCKETING - 'nuff said. Way too powerful for those that have the items/access to items.

 

 

Oh, BTW, congrats for Niob level on PC!... Harcore, I assume Level 60? How do you do enough damage to kill the guardians?

 

No- resets on death. HC means you start over from scratch.

 

Shopping and trading is allowed as long as it is same level.

 

Coop play doesn't bother me.

 

2.2 %LL on a two hand sword. And like I said I was using Niob Smith arts (about 600% worth) to augment my damage. as this was more of a "Dang it, I am so tired of killing off Chars before they get anywhere" kind of build that ended up being a Campaign monster. He can only fight solo. if somebody ever jumped into a fight with me and aggro-ed the boss I would RIP instantly. very specialized build

[keyser soze 0]

I have read a number of times about "resetting consoles on death". Does this mean you can turn your console OFF immediately after death and it won't count? If so that is lame IMO. I will never tell my wife that if that is the case since fear of death drives how we play. IMO playing HC is the ONLY way to go. Its all I played in Diablo 2 and its the only way I will play here. I love the SB bonus for just that reason. My wife and I are under the impression that if either of us die, we will likely use that as an opportunity to start new characters from scratch.

[essjayehm 58]

2.2 %LL on a two hand sword. And like I said I was using Niob Smith arts (about 600% worth) to augment my damage. as this was more of a "Dang it, I am so tired of killing off Chars before they get anywhere" kind of build that ended up being a Campaign monster. He can only fight solo. if somebody ever jumped into a fight with me and aggro-ed the boss I would RIP instantly. very specialized build

 

Ah. I had assumed that even with Veil as buff, you would aggro enemies if you hit them. If anyone has noticed, I have mastery level in assumption. 75 hard points, baby!

 

I have been thinking about that style of Shadow Warrior for a while now... maybe for my next toon... time will tell.

[locolagarto 15]

I have read a number of times about "resetting consoles on death". Does this mean you can turn your console OFF immediately after death and it won't count? If so that is lame IMO. I will never tell my wife that if that is the case since fear of death drives how we play. IMO playing HC is the ONLY way to go. Its all I played in Diablo 2 and its the only way I will play here. I love the SB bonus for just that reason. My wife and I are under the impression that if either of us die, we will likely use that as an opportunity to start new characters from scratch.

 

And doing so( turning off game mid save) can put you at serious risk for a corrupted data file. meaning start from scratch anyway.

 

Ah. I had assumed that even with Veil as buff, you would aggro enemies if you hit them. If anyone has noticed, I have mastery level in assumption. 75 hard points, baby!

 

Only if you left click( weapon only) it will de-cloak. assuming you have the Veil Combat Art level high enough for 100 chance to not be detected, and enough stealth that they dont sniff you out. you can right click( Combat Art only) all day long. not sure how this works in Console since the 2 are linked to the Combat Art button.

[essjayehm 58]

I have read a number of times about "resetting consoles on death". Does this mean you can turn your console OFF immediately after death and it won't count? If so that is lame IMO. I will never tell my wife that if that is the case since fear of death drives how we play. IMO playing HC is the ONLY way to go. Its all I played in Diablo 2 and its the only way I will play here. I love the SB bonus for just that reason. My wife and I are under the impression that if either of us die, we will likely use that as an opportunity to start new characters from scratch.

 

Yes. Turning the console off after death can save your Survival Bonus (which I cared about in the past), and # of times died, (which I have never cared about... this game is TOUGH). Since the SB builds very quickly for the first 80% or so, I am not so worried about it anymore. Sometimes, it's nice to have weaker enemies when trying strange stuff.

 

The major downside to that, is if you're too late, and the game is in the process of saving when you click the power button, it will corrupt your save file. NO MORE CHARACTER AT ALL! Possibly an entire profile can be affected by this, I think. (NO MORE CHEST)

On PS3, there is no danger of that, because we can hold the PS button, and "quit game" and it will take us to the PS menu. If you're too late, the save completes before the console quits the game, and you'll have a death, 0 SB, etc. But I have never had a corrupted game file using that technique (50 times, at least). It got addictive, especially when trying to rush into Niob.

 

NEVER would I consider my toon to be HC if I did that, though. Like post #1 (and Loco's affirmation two posts back), if you die, you start over.

 

 

I have read a number of times about "resetting consoles on death". Does this mean you can turn your console OFF immediately after death and it won't count? If so that is lame IMO. I will never tell my wife that if that is the case since fear of death drives how we play. IMO playing HC is the ONLY way to go. Its all I played in Diablo 2 and its the only way I will play here. I love the SB bonus for just that reason. My wife and I are under the impression that if either of us die, we will likely use that as an opportunity to start new characters from scratch.

 

And doing so( turning off game mid save) can put you at serious risk for a corrupted data file. meaning start from scratch anyway.

 

Ah. I had assumed that even with Veil as buff, you would aggro enemies if you hit them. If anyone has noticed, I have mastery level in assumption. 75 hard points, baby!

 

Only if you left click( weapon only) it will de-cloak. assuming you have the Veil Combat Art level high enough for 100 chance to not be detected, and enough stealth that they dont sniff you out. you can right click( Combat Art only) all day long. not sure how this works in Console since the 2 are linked to the Combat Art button.

 

On console, you have to be really careful of your timer, which should be no biggie if you're invisible, and not taking damage. I had thought that a weapon-based Combat Art would be considered an "attack". I would have to test to be sure, though.

 

 

 

 

Oh... while I'm here, I may as well give y'all a quick update on my Temple Guardian. @ level 42, the build was in shambles, and I was seriously thinking of restarting anyway, so I pushed to the end of silver, only stopping to fight large mobs. Somewhere halfway thru level 43, I swithced ring setups and it all fell back into place! Breezed thru wasteland, no prob. A couple of champ. Temple Guardian's managed to get me to use a health pot, but no biggie. Finished at level 44, only using 8 potions for the final guardian (still hitting me for 1/2 to 3/4 of total life, though!). So onwards with Gold!

Edited January 28, 2010 by essjayehm

[keyser soze 0]

I have read a number of times about "resetting consoles on death". Does this mean you can turn your console OFF immediately after death and it won't count? If so that is lame IMO. I will never tell my wife that if that is the case since fear of death drives how we play. IMO playing HC is the ONLY way to go. Its all I played in Diablo 2 and its the only way I will play here. I love the SB bonus for just that reason. My wife and I are under the impression that if either of us die, we will likely use that as an opportunity to start new characters from scratch.

 

Yes. Turning the console off after death can save your Survival Bonus (which I cared about in the past), and # of times died, (which I have never cared about... this game is TOUGH). Since the SB builds very quickly for the first 80% or so, I am not so worried about it anymore. Sometimes, it's nice to have weaker enemies when trying strange stuff.

 

The major downside to that, is if you're too late, and the game is in the process of saving when you click the power button, it will corrupt your save file. NO MORE CHARACTER AT ALL! Possibly an entire profile can be affected by this, I think. (NO MORE CHEST)

On PS3, there is no danger of that, because we can hold the PS button, and "quit game" and it will take us to the PS menu. If you're too late, the save completes before the console quits the game, and you'll have a death, 0 SB, etc. But I have never had a corrupted game file using that technique (50 times, at least). It got addictive, especially when trying to rush into Niob.

 

NEVER would I consider my toon to be HC if I did that, though. Like post #1 (and Loco's affirmation two posts back), if you die, you start over.

 

Hmmmm, well I can attest to anyone who plays with their wife/friend/son/etc... take the Dryad + SEPH if you can make a shopper and you will NOT come close to dieing EXCEPT when you do something very rash or super miss click... I am amazed at how powerful the 2 of us are at clearing out full screens of bad guys. For the longest time I did not think my character would ever compare to her BFG Seph but man, was I wrong. I can now kill mobs much faster then she can because I get 4 INSTANT hits to her 1 with the blow gun plus DA with REGEN/HIT. Pretty freaking FUN with a little life leech to produce the streamers. By the way, I am PERFECTLY willing to "waste" a socket for the streamers even if it was only leeching 1 HP per shot. Its so cool to watch the firework show go off when I am surrounded and how fast everything dies and the pile of green rolls up the screen.

 

Now when it comes to bosses or mini-bosses the SEPH is in a damage class of her own. I have seen her gun do 77K damage now... its fun, we both love it. They are the perfect team when you add in my dust devils (versus machines) and vines that I use to hold all bosses at bay while we simply put them down from a distance. Sometimes we kill the monster so fast from so far away that we never even see the life bar. Heck, on our first trip to Griswald Dragon I never saw the dragon alive!

[locolagarto 15]

Hmmmm, well I can attest to anyone who plays with their wife/friend/son/etc... take the Dryad + SEPH if you can make a shopper and you will NOT come close to dieing EXCEPT when you do something very rash or super miss click... I am amazed at how powerful the 2 of us are at clearing out full screens of bad guys. For the longest time I did not think my character would ever compare to her BFG Seph but man, was I wrong. I can now kill mobs much faster then she can because I get 4 INSTANT hits to her 1 with the blow gun plus DA with REGEN/HIT. Pretty freaking FUN with a little life leech to produce the streamers. By the way, I am PERFECTLY willing to "waste" a socket for the streamers even if it was only leeching 1 HP per shot. Its so cool to watch the firework show go off when I am surrounded and how fast everything dies and the pile of green rolls up the screen.

 

Now when it comes to bosses or mini-bosses the SEPH is in a damage class of her own. I have seen her gun do 77K damage now... its fun, we both love it. They are the perfect team when you add in my dust devils (versus machines) and vines that I use to hold all bosses at bay while we simply put them down from a distance. Sometimes we kill the monster so fast from so far away that we never even see the life bar. Heck, on our first trip to Griswald Dragon I never saw the dragon alive!

 

And on PC we get blue tracers for RPH very cool.

[locolagarto 15]

Oh... while I'm here, I may as well give y'all a quick update on my Temple Guardian. @ level 42, the build was in shambles, and I was seriously thinking of restarting anyway, so I pushed to the end of silver, only stopping to fight large mobs. Somewhere halfway thru level 43, I swithced ring setups and it all fell back into place! Breezed thru wasteland, no prob. A couple of champ. Temple Guardian's managed to get me to use a health pot, but no biggie. Finished at level 44, only using 8 potions for the final guardian (still hitting me for 1/2 to 3/4 of total life, though!). So onwards with Gold!

 

Temple Guardian's have a weird way of Maturing slowly but when they do, holy cow. I had a ranged Devout Guardian that would spam Spears non stop and used a shurken with LL% and full CC10 set with LL%. took Warding Lore early and pumped it so I had a lot of shield. was rocking to level 77 in Platinum and the seraphim Tunnel dragon took my shield with his Area of Effect(On Ice and Blood Dragons have some serious teeth) and I didn't retreat to let it recharge. next thing BOOM! he crit'd me and HC death number.... I have lost count, probably the 4th one about level 65. Many others lower level than that.

[Scrappy McSlap 6]

I've just recently decided to take you folks up on this challenge... I'm in. Just started a High Elf. Probably going to try going with ranged weapons, Pyromancer and Ice aspects... :-) Should be fun!

[essjayehm 58]

Oh... while I'm here, I may as well give y'all a quick update on my Temple Guardian. @ level 42, the build was in shambles, and I was seriously thinking of restarting anyway, so I pushed to the end of silver, only stopping to fight large mobs. Somewhere halfway thru level 43, I swithced ring setups and it all fell back into place! Breezed thru wasteland, no prob. A couple of champ. Temple Guardian's managed to get me to use a health pot, but no biggie. Finished at level 44, only using 8 potions for the final guardian (still hitting me for 1/2 to 3/4 of total life, though!). So onwards with Gold!

 

Temple Guardian's have a weird way of Maturing slowly but when they do, holy cow. I had a ranged Devout Guardian that would spam Spears non stop and used a shurken with LL% and full CC10 set with LL%. took Warding Lore early and pumped it so I had a lot of shield. was rocking to level 77 in Platinum and the seraphim Tunnel dragon took my shield with his Area of Effect(On Ice and Blood Dragons have some serious teeth) and I didn't retreat to let it recharge. next thing BOOM! he crit'd me and HC death number.... I have lost count, probably the 4th one about level 65. Many others lower level than that.

 

Ranged weapons not working so well on PS3. Quite annoying, actually. The concept seemed brilliant, but notsomuch in excecution. Devout Combat Art's don't seem to like the pistols / shurikens with the console setup. Since I'm trying a devout-"only" Temple Guardian (for the challenge) I had to go with melee weapons. Sporting a dagger atm, working very nicely with RpH, getting multiple spears going at the same time. CARNAGE! Pushed up to Atamark, and found good challenge with the werewolves/spiders/whisperwood area. Will grind out here until I get more RpH with good secondary abilities. Will wait until I get to level 50 before trying the Colossus. Not anticipating getting a set put together anytime soon. By the time I manage to find 3 from the same set, at least one of the pieces is not good enough to be using anymore. I do maintain 3 t-enegy pieces for my bargaining suit!

 

Temple Guardian is a tough character to play as, no doubt. I've teeter-tottered between powerful and underpowered with the switch of just 3 rings!

[keyser soze 0]

Wife and I ran around the desert for the first time in Niob...... WOW, those scorpions can pack a MEAN bite FAST! First time I have seen 4K+ damage on one hit! Don't think we will let too many of these guys swarm us before taking them OUT!

 

Sure wish I had those Detheya's greaves! LOL

[Crosis 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.

 

 

 

can we start a new profile and use that, so that way its a new empty chest.

 

im gona be a Shadow Warrior,using shadow veil,frenzy rampage w/telsa annilator. now u c me now u (BLAST BLAST BLAST)