Diablo III – Hardcore Survival Primer [Guide]

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• Stack vitality
• Use a shield
• Pick defense-oriented skills
• Don't take risks
• Play regular mode first
• Put mindset on safety
• Be nice and helpful to your party

Playing Diablo III for the first time is an exhilarating experience. But once you’ve run through the four acts over and over again to level up your character to 60, then it starts to feel like a chore soon enough. Fortunately, there is a feature in the game that puts the adrenaline back into the battle against evil. Creating a hardcore character is like opening a door to a darkened room — you’d never know what you’ll find in there.

Whenever you find people who have found the courage to step from the ordinary D3 experience into the hardcore, you’ll find them either fearful of the regret in losing their character or never able to go back to playing the game in the regular modes due to the sheer thrill. Hardcore mode is much more exciting since you will lose your character once you die. With that fear of loss within you, the game would then be played more differently than in the regular modes.

Surviving hardcore mode is quite a challenge, such that even the hardiest of veteran gamers tend to stumble hard along the way. This guide shall list down some of the fundamental principles in surviving the sheer brutality and lack of remorse that you’ll find in Diablo III’s hardcore mode.

Stack vitality

Perhaps the most important thing of all is to get items that add a lot of vitality, no matter what class you use. Losing even a sliver of health in hardcore is a cause for alarm, so you better have lots of health beforehand to not have to worry as much. Even a balanced build is undesireable if it sacrifices even a bit of vitality. Offense is great since dead enemies can’t hurt you, but remember that defense comes first in hardcore mode. Therefore, buy the meatiest of vitality items in order to survive and thrive in this mode.

Use a shield

Similar to the previous tip, you have to use a shield even if it’s not normal for your class to do so. That extra armor is crucial in surviving against the enemy’s onslaught. Armor is another thing that you should put on top of your priority list since that dictates how much damage you take whenever you do get hit. Not getting hit by anything is always the ideal, but you’d want to not be hurt at all when an enemy attack does connect since that is inevitable anyway.

Pick defense-oriented skills

The good thing about Diablo III is that the skills are explained as concisely as they can ever be. With that said, list down the ones that put emphasis on defense or lets you gain back your health. Your build should be focused on survival while still being able to do damage to the enemy. Crowd control like stuns and knockbacks are also good for hardcore characters.

Don’t take risks

Whether it’s totally unnecessary or borderline necessary, risk is risk. You can never be certain that you can survive encounters that may require you to make a gamble. Don’t engage when the opposition has even just the slightest bit of advantage.

Play regular mode first

Hardcore mode is great, but it’s better to finish regular at least once to know what you’ll be facing. Knowing the areas and the enemies that await you are crucial in hardcore mode so that you don’t walk into compromising situations. If you’re not sure with what you’re getting yourself into in a certain area, like a boss fight or as simple as opening a door to a room that you’re not sure about, you can switch to your regular character and scout before you get into that mess in hardcore.

Put mindset on safety

Remember that when playing a hardcore character, you can never be too safe. With that said, you have to run at a moment’s notice, even when you lose just a tiny bit of health. Keep in mind that your ideal situation is to stay at 100% health at all times. If it drops, you better find a way to either get it back or keep it from dropping even more. Take note that even with this, you still have to kill the enemies.

If you think that you’ve had enough excitement for one sitting, then you should stop playing for that time being. The thing about hardcore mode is that you will try to limit your playing time with that character to minimize mistakes. Take the advice of professional gamblers and quit while you’re ahead.

Be nice and helpful to your party

When you play hardcore mode, it is best to be with other people doing the same thing. The difference between players that play regular and hardcore is that the latter tend to be more helpful since cooperation and teamwork are much more crucial in hardcore mode than in regular mode. You will depend on each other to survive encounters and even share items that may increase your chances of survival. If the characters create a good synergy with their skills, then that’s even better. Learning to work together will ensure that no one leaves the game heartbroken due to character death.