Echoing Nightmare in HC

PTR Feedback
9

The problem here is not necessarily about having to survive until the bar gets filled up. Rather, that you can rank up way too fast.

I did some testing with a basic GoD build with all level 25 gems. 500k dps. I managed to hit rank 125. In Season 24 though, I barely cleared a GR125, and that was with vastly more dps along with ethereals.

So, I ran another test, and leveled up to rank 70, then tried running away. It took roughly 4 minutes of not engaging before I finally got overwhelmed. That 1 minute got extended tremendously, probably because of thorns and monsters I had weakened before I stopped fighting.

Normally, it takes that character about 1 minute to hit rank 100, at which point everything is one shotting me. And the higher the rank, the more monsters are on the screen.

10

Meanwhile i just did 142 tier, and simply just got overwhelmed. If you go into this with a DPS build, you should expect to die.

I’m sticking to my original opinion based on my own experience.

3 Likes
11

They really need to make Echoing Nightmare like challenge rifts or set dungeons (where HC characters death is not permanent), or almost nobody will play HC in season 26…

12

Yeah, what the hell? Why can’t they make it like Set Dungeons? You do not lose a HC character in a Set Dungeon if you fail it.

13

I play both SC and HC every season, and no way in hell will I play HC this season, with a theme that is designed around pushing until you die. Unless, death does not count in Echoing Nightmares.

And contrary to Slothics belief that we should all have to play a certain build, and run around trying to dodge attacks until were overwhelmed, I feel that any build should be able to participate in the Nightmares, and not be punished outright.

There shouldn’t be any gatekeeping on the season gimmick.

10 Likes
14

I 100% agree…maybe not ALL builds in the game should be viable, but the Echoing Nightmare should definitely serve a wide audience and plenty of builds.

4 Likes
15

Normally i am opposed to poofing around with hardcore rules but a prerequisite for a season theme is open assessability.

3 Likes
16

LOL just run away untill u get overwhelmend

2 Likes
17

It’s not as easy as just running away. As I mentioned earlier, I tried getting to 70, and just running, and it took roughly 4 minutes for me before I finally got overwhelmed. The shield pylon lasts for 1 minute.

I was using a GoD build. It doesn’t have a movement skill that avoids combat. So, if I use strafe to escape, I end up lowering the bar, which only extends the time limit.

Plus, as you end up going in tiers, the monsters get faster.

And I was not using a DPS build. I was using my typical HC build, which was designed for survivability. But I quickly rank way past my tier that I could survive in HC, meaning more monsters and faster monsters. (They move far faster than what you’d see in a greater rift).

Blizzard stated, to test what you’d normally focus on. And that’s a problem with many streamers, and just the PTR in general. You get gear way beyond what you’d normally get in a season at that point in the season. With many streamers, that’s where you see “I did such and such with no paragon”, yet they’re running fully augmented ancient gear, giving sometimes 2-3x as much dps & defense as you’d have at that point in the season. I try to do my attempts with as realistic stats as I’d have in the season.

So no, I’m not going to have a build at that point in time which can survive multiple GR150 hits. And within a minute, I escalated to the point where they could one shot proc me. So, in order to survive, I need to use strafe, which then escalates the rift roughly 20 levels higher than I could possibly clear in a Greater Rift. So being one shot is still being one shot. So now, I have 3 minutes of being in one shot territory, to make sure I can survive long enough to pop on a shield pylon to let me survive the last minute.

As I mentioned previously, it’s not the fact that I don’t want to run away. It’s that the Echoing Nightmare scales up far too quickly, way beyond what I’d be capable of playing with my build.

EDIT

One last thing. Greater Rifts also scale health far faster than they scale enemy damage. This could also explain how people are able to get overpowered at higher greater rift levels. That is, if you can make it to 140+, you should be fine and hit the overpowered state. But if you’re at a point where you can only make it to 110, such as what I was at, you’re at far more risk at dying.

5 Likes
18

If you get overwhelmed you die in HC

19

so dont die, it’s that easy…

1 Like
20

I decided to try this out myself. Here are the results.

Leveling from 1 to 60 in Hardcore using Echoing Nightmare

As you can see it is working as intended. You can run Echoing nightmare without dying. The video shows me leveling from 1 to 60 in normal gear and no paragons. Nothing in the cube either. I have ran several 150is tiers in softcore without dying either. Just need to know how to kite mobs and hit the right pylons at the right time. Not just stand there and let them kill you.

3 Likes
21

Here’s how to do it right. :slight_smile: Echoing Nightmare 1-70 Levelling Diablo 3 Season 26 PTR Hardcore - YouTube

2 Likes
22

Not necessarily, you can get overwhelmed by timeout. (i.e. no mobs killed in around 1min:10s.)

2 Likes
23

It’s a “dream” mode. What happens in the Nightmare should stay in the Nightmare.

7 Likes
24

Or maybe hardcore players will find something else to play. Most hardcore players cannot envision “dropping down to softcore” for a season.

I’m hoping that the devs actually intended Echoing Nightmare to be a separate death event from the main game, but put it up first as a normal death just to gauge player feedback (to be sure they make the right decision) or possibly there’s a technical glitch preventing the separate death event on PTR at the moment.

But whetever the devs’ reason, I can’t imagine they’d go live with hardcore deaths in the Echoing Nightmare feature counting against the player in the main game!

3 Likes
25

They just need to set it so that when you TP in the EN, it just ends the event at the end of the TP cycle and you can collect your rewards. This keeps it HC as death is permanent, but if you are afraid of dieing, it would be the same as trying to tp to town in a bad GR or open world scenario.

There still needs to be some sort of risk/reward or else it isn’t HC.

26

Really, the key to this is to know when to stop killing mobs and start using the pylons. Once you see that the mobs are not dying fast enough and the overwhelm bar is filling up you should start your exit strategy by letting the bar fill up to about 3/4 without hitting the shield pylon. Then hit the pylon and sit still until the bar fills up. If you time everything right and are good a avoiding the trash mobs you will be golden.

27

But what if one plays with a EN noob in their team who just keeps killing?

Unless one can TP out, I say just make this like CR’s and set dungeons where death does not matter in HC.

28

Yeah… not going to lie, I do not play HC with others. Not worth the risk. Split bounties but I never go into a boss fight with others. Pretty much solo HC for me. But to answer your question, it would not make a difference anyways. At a certain point they will not be able to kill the mobs and then you just need to avoid the mobs and wait for the bar to fill. If the noob keeps attacking then he will make it that much easier for you… just remember you don’t have to run faster than the bear… just faster than your companions.

1 Like