Game Strategy
Don’t be afraid to lower your skill level before fighting a boss. Changing your setup before a boss fight might give you a much needed advantage. I’d rather be a live wimp at Normal level than starting over a Master level hero who died. I can resume Master level. Hero damage and toughness grow linearly, monster damage and toughness grows at a mathematical progression. At about level 60 monsters are noticeably and dangerously stronger while you are more likely to die.
Always gem diamonds in chest and pants. Helm can be diamond or amethyst or ruby, and weapons use emeralds. You need all the resistance for extra survival on HC, no matter what your class is.
Over-level, over-gear, over-farm. This is probably one of the biggest and best advantages you can give yourself in HC.
Defense over offense is the rule of thumb for HC. Stack resistance, armor, dodge, block, and health. Use a shield instead of a two-handed or offhand item.
Using a healing potion should be something that you’re always ready to do, but should try to save as a last line of healing. Leave health globes on the ground so you can use them as you strategically retreat later. Consider having to use your carried healing potion the last step to dying. If the fight has you freaked enough to use it, the next few blows won’t have that luxury and you’ll die. Survival strategy in descending order is
- Retreat,
- Use left behind healing globes,
- Use your super movement (vault, steel charge, transport, etc.),
- Use your carried healing potion, and
- Finally have your cheat death passive ready.
Pay attention to the “cheat death” skills, how they work and when you can first use them. They are a final savior only. Don’t rely or count on using it. As soon as you do you’ll realize it’s not enough to keep playing - Just get the hell out of there ASAP and run until your potion returns to use.
The ideal battles situation is to one- or two-shot kill most everything with no real health loss AND when you get several bosses at once, be able to winnow them down while staying above 50% health most of the battle. Use your movement, skills, gear, buffs, etc. to stay in control. If you aren’t strong enough to beat them outright, flee, start a new game, and level/gear up until you can.
At the end of every battle, stop and check your resources. Make sure they’re at 100% before moving on. The next pack may need everything you’ve got.
At the end of each Act, before you move on, stop. Go to the biggest mob area in the act and work on massacre bonuses. The next level will be harder and regardless of what you think, you’ll not be ready. Set a goal to advance at least 3 levels doing this before moving on. You’ll be surprised how fast it will be with massacre bonuses. The lift to your ego as you methodically gather and kill lots of bad guys can’t be ignored either. I usually do two maps and advance 3 to 4 levels in about 15 minutes.
I don’t care if half the room is filled with rares: secure the area FIRST, then loot, then go back to town before identifying/comparing. Even checking an area map can be dangerous. With a strong hero at level 51 I stopped to check the area map for something. Suddenly I was dead.
NEVER go afk(away from keyboard) or check gear or skills out in the field. If you need to do something like that, return to town.
Using stairs, caves, waypoints, or exits BACK to town, or any other level transition is a good way to escape from a dangerous situation. Securing these exits and knowing where they are on the map is probably a good idea as well.
Whenever you come to a cave entrance, go inside and clear anything that’s an immediate threat, just in case you need it as an emergency escape later.
Save shrines. Don’t bother skipping XP or Fortune shrines, but if you see a champion pack up ahead, you’ll be glad you can backtrack to the last Protection or Frenzied shrine for the buff.
Activating your defensive cooldowns before entering a new area or zone transition might give you a slight edge if there are enemies waiting on the other side. If you do this and there isn’t a threat, wait for your CDs to reset before continuing.
Don’t underestimate the value of movement speed on items.
Explore areas from the bottom up. You can see MUCH farther exploring upwards than downwards due to the camera angle.
Try using tap-clicking just ahead of your character (rather than having a wide drag-move) and listening for monster sounds ahead. If you hear something or see something blue or gold you just stop clicking instead of clicking behind you. It’s no slower, just safer.
You can also inch forward click-by-click in dangerous areas. If you’re exploring bottom-up, you won’t aggravate the pack, either. You can then pick and choose where and how to engage, lay traps, buff up, etc. You’ll find that long range attack skills can cause damage while the enemy has no idea where you are shooting from.
Save the environment traps. Much like shrines, make a mental note of where chandeliers and such are. There is an achievement for killing a high number of monsters with chandeliers. As you restart over and over again, consider this an interesting personal side quest in Act I.
Make a habit of clearing maps from the edges inward, so that you have two, or in some cases only one, direction from which mobs will attack you. Avoid charging at top speed straight down the middle of a map.
Choke points are your friend and they’re frequently available, once you start looking for them.
Finally, EVEN IF YOU ARE GEARED DON’T GET COCKY!! Diablo gods don’t approve of cocky players.