Best starting HC character is...

[Milty908]

Best starting HC character is...

I would say the Frost Zealot

His aura gives more than adequate damage through NM, and plenty of safety with the slow. You can pump his life alot, and he does not require too much STR or DEX since you won't be trying to equip anything too special anyways. Zeal gives you good killing speed and killing speed = safety. They can't kill you if they're dead, unless they're FEs of course.

I've found this guy to be very good at getting me some low lvl stuff while lvling himself to Hell.

 

[ZounceHC]

For me it's a Summoner Necro.

20 Raise Skellie / Skeleton mastery. 20 Corpse Explosion. 1 in all Curses except for Amp which you may like to pump a bit for better radius/duration.

Played my guy solo thru the game except for some baal runz, norm duriel and hell ancients (which I probably could have done If i'd tried).

He's now lvl 84 and hasn't done a single hell baal run.

Great for mfing the pits and pindle.

Put a tele staff on switch to control your minions and you're all set.

 

[ConnerMacleod]

Cursing Necro. Best overall.

 

[Milty908]

Necros feel soooo slow to play, IMO

 

[cougar]

I've enjoyed the wind druids i've started. And they start to really tear **** up when you get past lvl 30.

 

[Pain]

I've enjoyed the wind druids i've started. And they start to really tear **** up when you get past lvl 30.

All good suggestions....

I've done Wind Druids and had great success.
I currently have a 65 Frost Zealot on the Ladder that's doing really well.

However, for staying alive (especially if it's your first foray in HC), Summoning Necro has to be the #1 choice. Don't forget, though, the golden rule of Necros:

1 point in every curse!!!!!

There is a time and a place for just about every curse in that tree. Sure, you'll use Amp and Decrep more often than anthing else, but DV, LR, and Attract all get huge use by any type of necro.

I hate getting the D-Clone to spawn just to find out that the summoning necro in the party doesn't have LR. Apparently, getting your Bone Spirit to level 8 was more important than invensting in something usefull :rant:

 

[Full_Circle]

javazon

slow to 18... rocks after that with shopped gear, and is a viable hell build.

yes, it's all about the javazon.

 

[Mal]

speaking of curses.... I personally disregard the middle tree and only use amp, dim, attract and decrep on my necros. But I must say overall skellemancers are a good starting build even though they are slow.

 

[Tao_of_Xero]

I usually start with a summoner necro, just because they're easy and can accquire items for me. But my all time faves are paladins. Either the Hammerdin or the frost zealot. Hammerdins can do awesome damage with crap gear, and are by far my favorite for MF'ing.

 

[_OrpheusPrime_]

Iv played fire sorc, blizz sorc, skele nec, hammerdin, javazon, zerk barb all untwinked through most of nightmare at least. All are viable starter characters imo.

 

[ConnerMacleod]

Yep, Pain is smart like me. Cursing necros will get the most repect overall and can do serious damage. If you know what you are doing with them you can neutralize anything in the game.

 

[CreLuSioN]

thats simple a berserk baba (like me)

 

[ZounceHC]

thats simple a berserk baba (like me)

Fun? Sure. But for a first char to build up an item base i'd say a mass killer. Take your pick.

 

[_OrpheusPrime_]

Fun? Sure. But for a first char to build up an item base i'd say a mass killer. Take your pick.

2h zerkers can take out just about any act boss with ease. Howl makes crowd control easy. IMO good meph runner if you have fast boots. Just howl all the baddies on the way down, leap over the mote and smack meph down. He'll get a few hits in sure but nothing a red poition cant countact with ease.

Im not saying a barb is a superior mf char, just dont count him out of the top pics.

 

[DjinnNTawnik]

i'm currently running my first HC char right now he is alive and well on the us west realm. He is a tesla fister. Can quite fist yet, but with one point in zeal, 11 in resist lightning and 1 in holy shock he is survivil quite well so far. Hopefully i can turn him into my first guardian.

 

[ZounceHC]

2h zerkers can take out just about any act boss with ease. Howl makes crowd control easy. IMO good meph runner if you have fast boots. Just howl all the baddies on the way down, leap over the mote and smack meph down. He'll get a few hits in sure but nothing a red poition cant countact with ease.

Im not saying a barb is a superior mf char, just dont count him out of the top pics.

I used to play barb meph runners in 1.09 but ever since they made durance so much bigger it kind of screwed over that idea imo. Although if you don't mind it taking quite a while as Orpheus said they will take down any Act Boss with ease. The other thing is they aren't very good at mfing areas such as the pits, mausoleum or Ancient tunnels. As I said I haven't made a barb mfer since .09 so my opinion is slightly biased towars casters. I wasn't sure if by first hc char he meant first char of season or first hc char ever. If it's the latter I wouldn't recommend a Zerker or any melee for that matter but on the other hand if you're adept at using melee chars on sc you may as well use that to your advantage.

If I was only concerned about getting items there's no way I would make a non-sorc meph runner.