How do you survive in HC?

[FinalFantasyFreak]

How do you survive in HC?

As the title says, how does a paladin survive in HC?

I was wondering in particular - how do you survive the exploding dolls if you have no maxed ranged attack or similar things?
And also how do you survive fire enchanted bosses, lister for example? If they explode you're pretty much dead I guess, so how does a melee paladin deal with such things in HC?

And also, how do you survive the fire belching demons that spawn when you activate one of the seals at diablo? I have seen paladins die within less than a second when they got surrounded by those demons and they started belching fire? How do you actually survive something like that exactly? I am aware that mods such as "magic damage reduced by X" help, and fire resistance too, but is there something else that protects even better against it that I don't know of?

I was just wondering this a day ago since i play a sorceress and rarely engage in melee (though I am making a melee/caster hybrid sorceress right now), and I can't really see how you survive those things without excessive amounts of HP, resistances, abosrbs, DR etc?

 

[MrKaxe]

Strategy my friend, developed by years of ducking n weaving :grin:

With the Dolls, i back away half a screen or less n stand still (sounds crazy i know but read on...) and let my merc advance towards the rush...any that avoid him and go for me i back up a bit and they will either divert their attention back to the merc or follow...if he follows i finish him off, chug a healer to counter the one explosion (which should be easily dealt with by your lifepool) switch to Holy Bolt and start helping my merc by either healing him or sniping the lil buggers :tongue:

FE bosses i wail on with my merc until they have a sliver of life left then get a safe distance and if necessary use HB on merc as described above but usually even a naff-equipped merc can take em down!

In regards to the Balrogs then yes, you are right, it's always good to have full resistances, especially on a Paladin as it is sooo easy to get...unless you are a Ranger! If you are a Zealot, zeal away! If you are an Avenger, try to break up the pack by hitting the seal, flick Vigor then run away fast which draws away half of the pack after you which is easier to deal with. If you can, get a wand with Weaken, Terror or the traditional Life Tap or Lower Resist for crowd control. If you're a Cheezadin, then there should be no problems standing there spamming hammers even at low level if you follow the excellent guide in the stickies for maximum damage hammers @ low lvl...the Balrogs don't even have time to belch flame...

Hope my ramblings help dude!

dk

 

[viable]

max fire and lightning resists, %DR and MDR, at least %70 blocking, at least 1200 life with gear and at least %20 life leech (or life tap if possible)

at low levels i use smite against exp.dolls and leave them to my merc

fire enchanted bosses are nothing to worry about with max fire res and %DR

for the demons of the seal, you need max fire res, life leech and high damage, kill them quickly

the most dangerous enemies are the O.Knights, there're lots of ways to kill them safely, read Lanceor's guide

and... good luck

 

[FinalFantasyFreak]

Strategy my friend, developed by years of ducking n weaving :grin:

With the Dolls, i back away half a screen or less n stand still (sounds crazy i know but read on...) and let my merc advance towards the rush...any that avoid him and go for me i back up a bit and they will either divert their attention back to the merc or follow...if he follows i finish him off, chug a healer to counter the one explosion (which should be easily dealt with by your lifepool) switch to Holy Bolt and start helping my merc by either healing him or sniping the lil buggers :tongue:

FE bosses i wail on with my merc until they have a sliver of life left then get a safe distance and if necessary use HB on merc as described above but usually even a naff-equipped merc can take em down!

In regards to the Balrogs then yes, you are right, it's always good to have full resistances, especially on a Paladin as it is sooo easy to get...unless you are a Ranger! If you are a Zealot, zeal away! If you are an Avenger, try to break up the pack by hitting the seal, flick Vigor then run away fast which draws away half of the pack after you which is easier to deal with. If you can, get a wand with Weaken, Terror or the traditional Life Tap or Lower Resist for crowd control. If you're a Cheezadin, then there should be no problems standing there spamming hammers even at low level if you follow the excellent guide in the stickies for maximum damage hammers @ low lvl...the Balrogs don't even have time to belch flame...

Hope my ramblings help dude!

dk

Ah yes i see, i thought you used a merc for that ^^ it's just that I don't like to be dependent on a mercenary so I never ever use one, I like to work alone, so to say. So I am really wondering how to kill the dolls safely without a merc ^^

I guess getting max fire resistance isn't hard, so I see now you can still survive a boss like that. As for the balrogs that belch fire, yeah, they're nasty, really nasty, and they move really fast too. I've found them to be the worst opponents so far.

Thanks a lot for the startegy and advice there, it helped me out a lot, thank you

 

[FinalFantasyFreak]

max fire and lightning resists, %DR and MDR, at least %70 blocking, at least 1200 life with gear and at least %20 life leech (or life tap if possible)

at low levels i use smite against exp.dolls and leave them to my merc

fire enchanted bosses are nothing to worry about with max fire res and %DR

for the demons of the seal, you need max fire res, life leech and high damage, kill them quickly

the most dangerous enemies are the O.Knights, there're lots of ways to kill them safely, read Lanceor's guide

and... good luck

Hmmm oblivion knights? Why is that, what makes them so dangerous for a paladin actually? Curses? Or focused elemental fire - though that's probably not it since it can be avoided?

Thanks for the advice, I'll make sure I read that guide, I am quite curious as to how to survive the most dangerous situations, being a melee class overall.

 

[viable]

Hmmm oblivion knights? Why is that, what makes them so dangerous for a paladin actually? Curses? Or focused elemental fire - though that's probably not it since it can be avoided?

iron maiden curse makes them the most dangerous enemies for melee builds.

Thanks for the advice, I'll make sure I read that guide, I am quite curious as to how to survive the most dangerous situations, being a melee class overall.

use your skills and auras properly, zeal-smite-charge-sacrifice all of them have their own pros and cons. 1pt salvation and 1pt cleansing is always good, try to get them.

max your fire/lightning res, at least %30-35 DR, 20-30 MDR and life leech/tap; your life bulb will be full most of the dangerous situations. just beware OKnights :wink3:

 

[FinalFantasyFreak]

Ah yes iron maiden, I thought it was the curse just didn't know which curse it was, thanks ^^

I see, smite is pretty nice to keep dolls away from entering close combat since it knocks them back. I was thinking, if I use a polearm (since it can kill from further away, without letting the enemy get close to you), can I avoid the damage from the exploding dolls, and fire enchanted bosses, if I kill them with a polearm? Or should I just get myself a bow or something, if I don't have any ranged skills? ^^

Good advice there thanks

 

[viable]

Ah yes iron maiden, I thought it was the curse just didn't know which curse it was, thanks ^^

I see, smite is pretty nice to keep dolls away from entering close combat since it knocks them back. I was thinking, if I use a polearm (since it can kill from further away, without letting the enemy get close to you), can I avoid the damage from the exploding dolls, and fire enchanted bosses, if I kill them with a polearm? Or should I just get myself a bow or something, if I don't have any ranged skills? ^^

Good advice there thanks

when they surround you, you can't kill them from further away. i don't think a polearm or another long ranged melee weapon will help. i suggested smite because smite stuns them, then

1. you can RUN AWAY :grin:
2. you can kill them one by one :evil:

iirc, exp.dolls and fire enchanted monsters do %50 fire and %50 physical damage, so i think a shield can help a lot, because its res, damage reduce and blocking

 

[FinalFantasyFreak]

when they surround you, you can't kill them from further away. i don't think a polearm or another long ranged melee weapon will help. i suggested smite because smite stuns them, then

1. you can RUN AWAY :grin:
2. you can kill them one by one :evil:

iirc, exp.dolls and fire enchanted monsters do %50 fire and %50 physical damage, so i think a shield can help a lot, because its res, damage reduce and blocking

Aaah right I see, so I guess I can block the explosion partly? Or, if you block it, is all damage prevented?

I was thinking kill them one by one, use a shield to smite one, switch to a polearm and then kill it from a distance so the explosion doesn't reach you. Use sacrifice to kill them of course, and to leech some life as well (if you have more than 8% life leech, or at least 8% to cancel out the damage sacrifice does to you) ^^ Could this work?

 

[viable]

you can block the physical part of the explosion but not always. you'll take fire damage too. i'm not sure about the distance, the explosion may reach you. my strategy against dolls,

1. i stun them with smite and leave them to my merc
2. if they surround me at a corner, i stun some of them with smite, and kill them one by one with NORMAL ATTACK.

sacrifice is too risky for this kind of fight. your total life leech will decrease because of sacrifice and this means less life will return to you.

this is not very complicated fight and i don't think you have to switch weapons to kill them. just be careful to not to kill 2 or 3 dolls at a time, don't use zeal if they surround you, kill them one by one.

 

[FinalFantasyFreak]

Ah yes I see, I guess FR will help against the partial fire damage, and max block ill most likely save me from the partial physical damage then.

If a polearm can kill them from a distance then just maybe I could kill them one by one without the explosion affecting me. I actually believe it can be done this way, though I am not entirely sure. I guess I'll have to try it out ^^

Thanks for the tips and help, I got a good idea on how to survive all that carnage now

 

[viable]

trying is the best strategy

Good Luck At The Festival

 

[FinalFantasyFreak]

trying is the best strategy

Good Luck At The Festival

Indeed!

Experience is the best teacher, but not a kind one ^^