Hey, to continue what I started here:
I would like to explain strategy and show demonstration how to beat Mephisto normal on Hardcore and survive to help some players who are new to world of Diablo 2 or trying hardcore for the first time or on attempt number XX 
If you by any chance read previous topic or watched video there, I am playing Cold sorceress. I have cleared whole ACT III so resources you see me use are all from my run or from vendors. If you are for example missing gems i use, you can go to Lower Kurast zone and keep clicking objects which grants pretty good chance to drop some gems. But others usefull things like charms also. This should be preferably done either in public games with more players or offline under /players 7 setting.
So who is mephisto and what he can do:
Mephisto is quite capable spell caster and his spells can deal poison, cold, lighting and physical damage. He is using charged bolts and lighting spells quite frequently and occasinaly fill space between these two with Ice Ball which does cold but also physical damage. It is interesting that Iceball can be blocked by block chance from shields. If you get close to him, he has of course pretty strong melee attack and sometimes cast Frost Nova or Poison Cloud. He can also cast blizzard but i have never saw him do that on normal difficulty.
He can be found in Durance of Hate 3 and whole level is quite dangerous place as it is home to Blood lords who have very strong fire skills so fire resistance also helps here greatly. Try to avoid their Meteor skill at all cost, you will always see fire circle animation below your feet before it hits so go away from impact zone.
There is also few Council members. You already saw them in Travincal, but the one unique Member here is most dangerous. He is Lighting enchanted and Aura enchanted so sometimes he can have Holy shock or Conviction aura making his lighting attacks even stronger. Try to kill him from far away preferably. He is usualy with another two minions standing in middle section right after you leave first room. There are also other two unique council members in side rooms, but they are not that dangerous as Bremm Sparkfist.
You can see me in video clearing level before i fought mephisto so you can check it to see what to expect. But now to Mephisto. So what helps against him? Have bait in form of mercenary and high resistances and enough Life. I will describe below whole proces how to prepare for fight with him and in video after that you can see demonstration how I did it following the steps.
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- Clear the Durance of Hate 2 from enemies.
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- Use helm with rubies (you should have one from fight with duriel).
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- Buy or use 3 socket Breast plate(fara ACT II sells them) and place more rubies in it to increase your life even more. If you dont have enough, try to add something usefull, maybe resist jewel you found or something like that.
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- Buy 3 socket Large shield from Fara (ACT II), and place Diamonds there. They will increase all your resistances at once. I didnt have enough so I used two Diamonds and one topaz for lightning resistance which was also maybe even better as diamond adds +all resist but not that high number as topaz and you need lighting resist the most against mephisto as there ar eno potions to increase it like cold resistance. If you found some good shield with resistances on it you can of course use that. I for example found Unique large shield with lighting resist and also good block chance but I used gemmed shield in video just to show how it looks like if you didnt find anything like that.
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- Buy and drink up multiple Antidotes and Thawing potions to increase Poison and Cold resistance, restock mana and health potions and some rejuvenation potions.
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- Go and prebuff yourself with some shrine, I used Skill shrine in ACT I.
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- Now you are ready to fight mephisto, you should have enough Life to survive his attacks and also high enough resistances against his spells. His physical damage from Ice ball will go to your Life and cannot be really resisted so blocks helps here, but resistances are honestly more important against him.
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- Prepare Static Field on right side and your main attack no left and go to Mephisto. Let him focus your merc and use static field on him until he has low health. If merc is losing health, use potions on him, rejuvenations preferable. Then just finish Mephisto with main attack.
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- Do not go afk in Mephisto area and dont stand there with low life, there is invisible entity who can randomly reveal itself and strike you with attack even after Mephisto is dead.
That all Sounds easy but I have seen plenty of people die to him on normal over the years. His spells can do a lot of damage with low resistances. Enjoy the video demonstration:
I would also like to mention one trick people use to kill Mephisto very safely. Your spells will not be strong enough most likely to do the trick now, but you can use the trick at NM or Hell. If you lure Mephisto to pools of blood or small platform close to red portal, he can be killed across from other side with certain spells with long range. I made picture so you can see where you can do it. Mephisto will be blocked there as he cannot go further and you can kill him without problems and he wont even touch you.
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