We did it

We did it

The "You don't play hardcore!??? LOL! You noob - softcore is for lamers"-attitude has made me quite irritated, so me and my brother finally decided to find out what's so special about it. We didn't play the "real" hardcore, as we make the character for playing some pvp when we're finished. Instead we decided to play through the whole game without dying one single time, and without being too defensive (no blood- or baalruns that is). And well, we did it. But I had my doubts when the two druids entered hell as level 56.

I always hear from people that "hardcore is a totally different game", but I can't really see the big difference between softcore and hardcore. You can't die more than once and there's a loot-button, but apart from that..? I may upset some hardcore players by saying this, but I see no "huge difference" and hardcore ladder isn't any harder than softcore ladder, right? (I mean: no more monster hp or damage, or monster speed). My point here isn't "hardcore sucks", I don't just get the point.

My brother played a rabies druid called Jycken and I played a wind druid named Blowjob_Johnny. And we played them the way we always do. We had some really hard times (Moonlord bosspacks and the likes) and therefore a lot of fun times. I had to do much of the job in hell, as rabies isn't really that effective in that difficulty. It still works though.

My point with this post? You should try this out! We had a lot of fun. Another good thing: you don't need any godly gear. Shako was the "godliest" item I used. I had a Stormshield as well, but it really wasn't necessary.

Of course there are lots of other combinations of builds which increase the challenge a lot. Wind druids are actually very good and can do some serious killing. So, going through the game with this dynamic duo is nothing to brag about. On the other hand: this wasn't the easiest way of going through the game either, so I can feel a little pride at least

What I learned during the trip: Twister may do low damage, but it's a very useful skill because of the stun. I don't think we could have taken out the moon lords, hell lords and death lords as relatively fast as we did without it. Very nice when approaching big packs of ranged attackers as well (we had no problems at all with gloams thanks to it and cyclone armor).

 

I just tried the wind guy in chaos sanctuary. He did great! The only problem was the guy at the seal to the right (never remember his name). Diablo himself died very fast and because of cyclone armor he did no damage at all (I simply recasted it every time he had attacked). As Chaos sanctuary is just like The pit - you can find anything - I will definitely keep doing this. It was lots of fun.

 

The special thing with hardcore, that you missed completely by not actually playing hardcore, is the potential of actually dying. It adds great excitement to the game. I see no point whatsoever in playing softcore because there literarily is no challenge. You can't loose. I remember in my old newbie days of sc when i'd die 20 or so times trying to kill some bosses. It doesnt really feel like a victory then.. and even if you don't die you walk around with the knowledge that IF you do it doesnt matter for 2 seconds.
Many a time have i gotten big *** adrenaline rushes in HC upon near-death experiences. Try playing a barb untwinked in HC. It's hard but great fun!

 

Same thing happened to me. Sat around for years with people constantly pushing their, "ur not as kewl as us cuz u r sc." So, when I joined the "Basin" I was challenged to start a HC character, take him to Gaurdian and level 85. One chance only. First try.

Happy to say, I have a level 85 Necro, retired, and I am back to softcore.

 

I agree with Origin. I went back to softcore once, but I ended up deleting the character myself once I had died the first time.

 

I've played Softcore for a year and HC for 2 years. This is what I know.

Softcore: No risk, lose some exp? So what?
Softcore: AN INSANE AMMOUNT of rude people ( And Koreans ( Was back in Classic ))
Softcore: You have to remove half your screen because you constantly see "blah blah was slain by something"

Hardcore: More "knowledgable" people. I've rarely seen anyone beg for items or asking which item is better in Hell mode which I did ALOT in SC.
Hardcore: You die once, you're out. Many Softcore people die with their starter characters at Rakanishu ;/ I've saw it 2 times in HC ( Yes I do play Normal til level 20 )
Hardcore: The cream of the geeks play here. The elite per random people ratio is extremely much higher than SC.
Hardcore: Items are more valuable since people die away stuff.
Hardcore: <3

Only time HC was hard was in the start of Classic when everyone were newbies. I miss it -_-

Also the fact that PvP has NO FRIGGIN MEANING in SC... WOOPDEDOO no adrenaline, no risk, no gain, just back to town when you die = no fun.
In HC PvP is soo much fun it's insane. I get all worked up and shaky when I duel in HC ( As does everyone with a good character ). PvP is solely a reason to play HC.

I missed out hundreds of things but I'm newly awoke so don't feel like writing properly nor typing an essay.

 

I don't play hardcore and this will sound stupid, but if you die in a duel in HC, are you done for good? I almost sure you do, but I want to make sure.

 

Rubbish! If you die in SC, you won't get squat when the boss dies!</Sarcasm>

Seriously, it's like the stuff barely hits the floor sometimes. XD And I don't mean due to things like pickit. Personally my connection is why I don't HC. I lag like a harlot.

 

I played Hardcore once, back at the end of 1.09 days. I had a sweet wearbear druid i was making from scratch mostly with my little brother's new character he was building from scratch as well. lots of fun and there were some harry moments. It was my first real hardcore character and I was in late nightmare and doing very well and could handle myself. My little brother played on his own and died, i don't remember how, but that left me on my own. So I decided to play a little in public games while i was waiting for him to catch back up. The second or third game i played we were in a party of people that was going well, and all of a sudden this zon in our game trigger hacks and kills us all. And that was it. The end of my first hc character. I did nothing wrong. People had attempted to pk me before, but I got away/ survived w/o too much trouble... i'm not without my skill. But this was just instant death. If I would have died by my own stupidity, I'd probably still be playing hardcore. But Aholes on bnet are bad enough in sc where they can only just piss you off, or try and steal your stuff. But I just don't want to deal with them having the power to hack and ruin my (for me months b/c i don't play that much) of work. I don't know if trigger hack has ever been fixed, and frankly I don't really care. The point is that I like to play public games on occasion, I don't have many real friends who play and I don't play consistantly enough to join groups.... I know there are going to be jerks and cheaters out there, and there's not much i can do about it.

 

I am amazed that in all my time I've never met a trigger PK... I once met a BH Pala who threw hammers, TP then hostile. He was too slow so no one died, but that's the only instance of illegitimate PK'ing I've faced ( Well I died to Hydra PK once with my super-beloved Classic Lance Barb, still hurts... )

 

The only reason I would never play Hardcore, is that I know that my characters mean so much to me that a high level char that I like dies, my computer is likely to be thrown out the window.. at someone passing by. I also know that my neighbors will not be safe from me as I make a nuclear bomb and attempt to send it off to Blizzard North locations worldwide. I would also spend the rest of my days crying like a baby and cursing everybody who disturbes me -- in a mental hospital. :hanky:

Trust me -- I remember how upset I was when I forgot that I was in HC and died with a level 7 pally to a LEB.

 

The first few deaths in HC are always horrible. But if you manage to keep going anyway youre in for a hell of a ride
The important thing is to always have multiple characters going at the same time so if someone dies you're not back at square one (and can later make a new one to replace the dead character when youre more in the mood for that). If you do end up at square one, that's where its easy to stop HC. That is of course if the HC devil hasn't gotten hold of you yet and made you addicted. I personally wouldn't play sc even if i got paid for it (well, unless we're talking alot of money ^_^).

 

Your sounding like "no death = no fun" applies to more than just D2..

 

Ahh.. one of my favorite laments:

"This is why I don't play HC"

Y'see.. I have a habit of doing this stupid thing when I get REALLY tired. I don't go to bed. My body and my brain are working (or malfunctioning, more precisely) on two completely different wavelengths.

"10 life? Psh.. I can run the worldstone no problem.. pots be damned!"

*die*

D'oh.

It's the fact that I'm a stubborn fool who just doesn't know when to quit.. and the last thing I need is to perm. die when I'm amped up on sleep dep. at 4 in the morning. heh.

 

I played hc for about an year. Unfortunately that was the time when trigger/drop hacks ran wild so i mostly played by myself, joining pubby only to solo leveling.

My first death was lvl 62, died to hell durry, lossing my razorswitch, dwarfstar... etc. For several days i thought i'd never touch hc again but then, i recupped and finally make my second sorc, and then my druid (for deal with durry). After extensive nm mep runs i finally manage to get enough trading power to get my druid a bstar + tiamat (very common setup in sc), and a t-god (absolute life saver vs those msle for melees) and finally he bested durry... and eventually hell ancient... Then after that, it's massive mindless cowing and mfing which isn't worth mentioning.

So yes, in terms of pvm, hc is much more fun.

However, i am also a fairly dedicated pvp person, and unfortunately i personally feel pvp is pointless in hc. You can't actually practice your duels. When you duel against your friends, for example, do you really want to see days of his work going down the drain? As for no excitement in sc duels, in a tourney, you really think there's no excitement when your honor is at stake?

 

HC is for the arrogant snobs.

 

I played HC back in .09 after SC just got boring to me. Im not the most patient person in the world and would rush through acts without lvling enough. Not use pots when i should and just be stubborn when someone hostiled me. That is why i probably lost about 7-8 characters. Plus the times that you would be running a long killing things and all of a sudden you notice that none of the monsters around you are moving....you then save and exit and find that you died in a massive bout of lag. I havent played hc in .10 yet but im sure i will when i finish my sc characters and get tired of just mfing for hours.

 

IRT Inu...

I don't play gunbound, but I came across this humorous comic... Thank you very much. :thumbsup:

 

Pvp in hardcore? No, I really don't have that much time (making a new character after every loss=goodbye university results ). And, as I mentioned, I avoid hc since I've got a bad taste for it because of the "I'm 1337"-morality. But I guess I will move over some time anyway...
I'm the kind of guy who stops listening to a good band if too many people like it, if you know what I mean. So I guess I have to stop loath the 1337 hc-folks first.

 

You don't know the "HC leet lewt" kiddies until you try doing Hell Baal runs. It's unbelievable what they'll try to do to kill you. For what reason? I don't know, I never set loot. If I die, my Arachnids/Wisp Projector/Um'd Homunc, goes with me.

Ok look, it's Inu. <3 *fight ensues*