I’ve played this game. Well since the original Diablo. I used to play hc on D2. Only a little on D3. Mostly due to playing on weak pc’s or weak internet. I finally have a decent pc and, want to try more hc. Not much left in sc. I have 2 of each class and 2 for season. I’ve heard talk of chet death passives and cheat death necks. Are these a thing? I haven’t looked close at barb passives (my fav class) but, I don’t remember one. Are there tips ot6her than not going too high on difficulty until geared?
1 Like
I don’t play Hardcore, because I dislike the idea of losing my character. What I’ve seen is to teleport back to town if you proc your cheat death, keep backups of all your gear, and have fun!
1 Like
You will need a solid internet connection.
2 Likes
Any tips for hardcore?
Only one. Avoid dying.
1 Like
Keep some spare gear in your stash for when you die.
And, yes, it’s a case of when, not if.
6 Likes
Keep your gear current - Remember to respect if you intend to use the cheat death passives (I died because I forgot to change my spec for cheat death)
Remember there is a little difficulty bump at 62ish to 70.
I live in Florida so I watched the weather for massive storms between me and Blizzard, if yes I played SC.
1 Like
As far as your character goes, you don’t lose paragon, anything in your mats tab, or anything in your stash when you die. Use the cheat death passive for your class. No one I know uses the cheat death ammy, it isn’t worth it.
For gear, I keep 3 sets of whatever build I am using. Farming in this game is so stupid easy, I use my back-up gear as soon as I get a decent set. This way if you die, you don’t lose your pushing gear. If you die, get a quick plvl, put on your back-up, back-up gear and you are right back to work. Only use your pushing gear when you are doing higher xp runs or actually pushing.
For gems, I usually have my pushing set, a farming set, then work on augments.
Remember, the RIP lag monster is the most dangerous demon in the game. Using your top gear for farming bounties, rifts, low gr levels is just asking for him to rear his ugly head and send you into a rage quit fit. It is 1000s of times more easy to re-level a character to 70 then to re-farm top gear pieces.
3 Likes
I’ve being playing hc on D2 LoD for 18 years and D3 RoS and PoE since they came out. I have never had a D3 character die. It is a very easy game to play on hardcore mode.
For D3 the key is to make sure, of course, to keep your resistances up, have good defence and most importantly, insanely high life. These three should never be sacrificed for damage. With that you need to not play beyond your character’s abilities. You do so by grind the hell out of easier levels until you’ve leveled enough and geared your character so when you move up to a higher torrent, that torrent is easy as well, but it gives you better experience and gear.
Also learn to run back the way you came, and learn to keep one eye on you life globe, and when you see it getting knocked down by 10-15 % you need to run back a screen of two and then move toward the monsters again, this will help align then in a way that is easier for you to kill and take less damage. Master running away.
By learning all this you’ll not be as fast as hc pros, but you’ll steadily climb higher and higher, and as time goes by you’ll begin to master hc and learn to level faster and be a little more risky with you characters, because you’ll have mastered how to manipulate monsters into doing your bidding while fighting them. They’ll help you kill themselves faster.
2 Likes
Have a leveled gem of ease stuck in your stash once you get going on down the line 
Welcome to Hardcore!!!
Your character will die.
(Usually due to DC)
Keep spare gear. Make a leveling set. Most players wont plvl you if you have wasted your time by not creating one. (Eg >p300)
If you dont die, that means you aren’t pushing your character.
Accept death. “Dont fear the reaper”. Because… your character will die.
(It is a completely different game when you learn to accept death)
more vitality more defense more armor more resistance
more passive defense skills
when monsters explode…be careful
constant internet connection
the storm days don’t play
have a second character, equipped for when you die, you can continue playing
As if nothing had happened
control adrenaline 
control the tension 
play more slowly 
1 Like
Take your time. Don’t rush through it. Be mindful of your life, and your abilities. It’s a LOT more intense as HC as you have so much more to worry about.
1 Like
It’s really not worth it. If you only had the monsters to deal with, that would be fine.
But your worst enemy is the servers D3 runs on. You are prone to lag & disconnects at any time, and the even-worst thing about it is:
Even if you get kicked from the game by the server, your toon REMAINS in the game-world for 10 more seconds and is a sitting duck. Plenty of time to get killed. You log back in, and voila you’re already dead.
It’s REALLY not worth it.
1 Like
Playing HC has really given the game and seasons more life for me.
Depending on playstyle and build, using one of the defensive gems (esoteric, molten, etc) might be a good idea. You will need to utilize some strategy and common sense instead of going full leeroy jenkins in every battle.
Dying to DCs suck but it’s so easy to gear up. Losing leg gems and augmented gear do really suck though. You will eventually die whether it’s your fault or not so just reroll and come back stronger.
1 Like
Dont Die. Use Cheat Death passive
SUMMARISED:
- Each region is different. At the moment Europe seems to have the biggest lag followed by Asia with Nth Americas being the more consistent.
- ALWAYS have a gem of ease leveled up in your chest stash in case of dying.
- Carry next to nothing in your personal stash.
- (EDIT) - Don’t be afraid to use a defenisve gem or Unity ring with you and your follower if you need to. As you know, dead is dead in HC.
- Always have a copy of the set in your main stash.
- Play below the level you can do. As a test, assuming you have the cheat death mandatory HC rune, drop at least five torment levels, find a pack of 2-3 elites and stand in a frozen pool, poison pool, arcane beams etc and do nothing. If your health only fluctuates by no more than 5%, move up one at a time, until you get 50% max damage and do not die from doing nothing. This also means if you get disconnected you will still be alive. This is your default play level until you can take even more damage.
- Only play risky levels when you push GR’s. There is a risk regardless.
- If a scarab activates your cheat death get out of Dodge as quickly as possible.
This is what the die-hard HCer’s taught me and for the greater part, it works.
3 Likes
Nerves of Steel is the passive
1 Like
You might want to peruse the threads in the Hardcore Forum. You might find some useful information there.
Tip: don`t play it til lazyBlizz implement a protection system for internet connection issues like many others AAA titles + til lazyBlizz start to ban all the botters = you should never play it cause lazyBlizz will never do these 2 things due incompetence, laziness and no integrity. End of communication.
Its Awareness for DHs.
1 Like