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Greetings from a new HC player

Hi! I think that I had an introduction thread in the OT forum, but it seems to me that the community seems to completely differ in most subforums... so, chances are, not many of you have seen said intro.

As the title says, I'm new to HC. A friend and I decided that Diablo was losing a little bit of its luster, and that it'd be interesting to play in an environment that was dangerous. And the prospect of only living once certainly fulfilled that need. :laugh: But, being new to things brings on new and exciting challenges! PKers of the most despicable kind, questionable builds, and new terror at the sight of old monster mods. Most of the questions can be answered by browsing around in this forum (and many have!), but there are a couple that I would like to ask now, just in the spirit of "better safe than sorry."

I'm primarily playing a Fishymancer (because they're one of the best PvM builds I've found, and certainly work for my style of play), with some slight differences-- I'm not worrying so much about getting to Lower Resist as I was when I played SC. Instead, I put points into Bone Armor and Synergies that I would usually put into curses earlier on. Just a few in the beginning to get a bit of a headstart and give myself some wiggle room wit health. Is that wise? Is there something that I'm missing? thus far, I've only put points into curses enough to get Amp Damage and Decrepify, the curses that I used most commonly in SC.

A sort of secondary character that I'm toying around with is a Smiter Paladin, not necessarily for UberTrist runs. My main thought here is this: I've heard that Smite ignores defense and has crushing blow (If you could, am I right in understanding how smite works? Also, I've tried using smite in conjunction with things like Holy Fire, etc, but the auras don't seem to add damage... are there auras that add damage to Smite?). So, my plan with this guy is Max Smite, Max Holy shield, 10 Pts Salvation... beyond that I'm not so sure (thought about fanatacism, but I'm not sure if Auras do any good for smiting). Little Help?

Finally, both me and my friend have sorcs (His is his primary character, while mine is secondary). Though he's going primarily cold, I'm going to be going with a lightning sorc for Key runs. But that is neither here nor there. He's going with the typical ES+TK+Insight Merc+ a few points in warmth with the hope that he can just absorb damage and not run out of Mana. He's not worrying about shields and blocking, pouring points into Vit+NRG and leaving Dex at base. I'm doing something similar with the ES+TK+Warmth+Insight, but I'm also putting points into dex and using a shield with Max block at all times. Is this a waste of points for me? I certainly don't think so... I've got a feeling that one pack of Manaburn (2 hits) is all that it will take to kill him, while I've got a 75% chance of surviving the second hit... Thoughts?

Also, thanks for any and all tips and tricks for this. I know that I'm asking quite a few unrelated questions, and don't expect any person to answer all or any of them... this is as much an introduction for you me to say hi as it is to ask these questions.

Don't die!
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