Hey!
I “casually” pick up D3 for a month or two every year and I always play HC.
I came upon the EN item today and happily transmuted in in Torment X and hopped in, little did I know the event is sort of designed to kill you? Thinking a boss was going to spawn or something I popped a powerpylon the moment the event started and was surprised to see mobs just exploding around me and the level counter climbing. Having no idea that killing mobs raised the difficulty to infinity, rather expected bigger rewards for more kills, in less than 2 minutes the mobs were powerful as heck and close to oneshotting me. (I had absolutely zero problems up until this point in Torment X, I played very safe) Unexpectantly, I died even though I tried my best to get out of there.
Should the devs at least add a text-box warning people in HC about the nature of the event before going in? I dont look up stuff online or play any PTR’s so I had no idea.
Yes I am malding
5 Likes
EN’s are pretty bad as a season theme. They’re just like most of the Challenge Rifts - an oddity in the game. This is just my opinion.
As for jumping into something new in HC mode, knowing the game has perma-death anywhere, I’d say “well this ones on you”. I don’t think it needs a warning before you pop it open, just like Rifts, GR’s, The Vault or Cow Land don’t have warnings. No hate here fella, just stating my thoughts.
It’s a bummer that you lost your toon. The HC way is grab that mouse n keyboard then get back enjoying the rest of the game.
See you in Hell 
2 Likes
But the only problem is those areas don’t have build in Death. Yes you can die in those areas. But it isn’t nothing like being in nightmare. Blizzard knew that you could have a 100% chance you will die in there.
I’m not sticking up for the OP, but they should have made a special rule for that area for HC. I play HC and that area is one reason I will not play HC this season. Come on they give you a area you can get paragon and rewards at the end. But if you die in HC to bad to sad for your luck.
I have played every season and this season is right up for being the worse season ever. Plus I know all the rules for HC. I have played over 5 season without a death too.
3 Likes
It’s not a 100% chance though. I’ve done 6 of them. I lived through 5. I have the augment gems varied from 95-125.
It is a bad design for HC players and I’ve been on the general forums before posting it’s a dud feature/theme for the HC players but I don’t think it needs a special warning before you enter it. We get a special warning before creating our HC toons. That’ll do.
3 Likes
I have done like 15 of them through my 3 accounts on SC. All almost every one of them every body has die. Yes the warning shouldn’t be there, But that area you will die in a bonus area. That they gave US to help US with augmented gems and Paragon.
So let see here I can get a gem at 110. But at the last second I die. I lose the character and all the stuff from the chest. Plus if you die in HC you lose that gem too it will be on you dead character So I just lost everything. Yes it is a very bad design for HC.
Plus Blizzard doesn’t care too. It is very bad theme for HC. Plus I still say it is a 100% chance you could die in there. They didn’t think this through very Good!!!
3 Likes
I did 7 before i stopped playing. I did them with a Maro DH and did not die one single time. I did not run away. My damage output was just too low above 140+
1 Like
I’ve done eleven of them with a WW barb from 110 to 134. I died on the twelfth one when I became a little careless and tried to get another 125 Augment gem, even though I had proc’d both of my cheat deaths (Follower and mine).
Here’s what I learned using my WW - Rend Barbarian (which is probably one of the worse for EN’s)
I play solo so I can get my follower’s cheat death
I also do not have my best gear on my character when I run EN because I know it’s an eventuality that I will die.
When I first enter, I get the lay out of the map and locate the pylons.
I save the pylons until I get into trouble and can’t kill fast enough.
For me, the Speed pylon nd Conduit go hand in hand. When I reach 90ish and start getting overwhelmed I hit them both and speed through killing stuff.
The hardest part is avoiding all the explosions.
I hit the Power Pylon last and it usually gets me close to 120 -130.
When I proc my first death I start circling the outer part of the map, picking off stragglers, then darting into the center when I see an opportunity, free of explosions.
If I proc my second death, I stay on the outside of the map and run around, avoiding killing anything, waiting for the mob’s to overwhelm me and the EN to stop.
EN is definitely not for HC, but it is rewarding for getting augments. Out of the 12 EN runs, 2 of them I never proc’d my death cheat, 7 of them I proc’d once, 2 of the I proc’d both death cheats and 1 I died.
Hope this helps someone.
5 Likes
Most of what I’ve read about “Echoing Nightmare”, suggests it Kills all hardcore characters.
I came here looking for hardcore players that have survived EN runs. I’m grateful some HC players have managed to survive mission.
The only video I found about hardcore running it, was made by a person who had the shield pylon, which has have removed.
I appreciate being told to avoid explosions and concentrate on using my AoE attacks.
I’m using the Templar’s “guardian” ability, and my own passive for “cheat death”. I’m wearing a Unity ring, and have one on the Templar and the Templar has “Character cannot die” relic, to cut all damage I take by 50%.
Anyone have any specific advice for Wizards?
I had about 20 of the Petrified Screams in HC and finally decided I needed to run some ENs. The key to surviving is STOP KILLING THINGS. Let the Overwhelm mechanic engage and terminate the nightmare. I’ve now run half a dozen of them and haven’t come close to dying. Never even proc’d cheat death on my Sader. I’ve managed to pull some 120+ whispers but I’m happy with the 107 or 111 I got early on. Those are still very good gems for an augment. The key is learning how to use the pylons effectively – every player will find them more or less useful for their build. I really like getting the speed and channel ones near the end. It gives me near infinite use of my Steed charge and with two “shields” (Iron Skin and a Law) I can easily handle it. I’ve been told that wizard shields are quite effective in the nightmare. What I recommend doing before jumping in to an EN in HC is level up a normal toon of the same class/build and try several to get the feel of them. All the maps are small and some have nasty choke points. The Illusory Boots are nice to have cubed since they let you run thru the mobs (and walls!). So while I’m not thrilled with ENs being a permanent feature I no longer fear running them in HC. It’s a learning curve to be sure but 100+ augments early in season is worth it.
4 Likes
Did my first one today after coming back yesterday. I was like hmm I wonder what this does. Read the description and was like “overwhelm”? Does that mean it might kill me? Only one way to really find out!
I had a p200-ish M6 dh with suboptimal ms gear, popped in the weird thingy in the cube and awaaaaay I went. After about 2 minutes I thought I might be in trouble.
I eventually just started running away from stuff and that allowed the “overwhelm” bar to max out. I finished at 109 and ended up with enough xp to take my guy from p200 to p400+.
If the thing has a fault its that it gives way too much rewards. I was surprised at how much I got.
1 Like
so I started a hardcore seasonal witch doctor… I got him to paragon level 220+ I was doing a rift run and I got a legendary key… it told me to use it on kanai’s cube… it opened a portal, it was a sub-quest, to kill enemies until overwhelmed… turns out, it was a suicide mission… when the quest was over, your game is over!! I don’t understand why there would be such a quest in hardcore mode… I feel like I was set up and robbed for my work… I took pride on not getting killed and torment level 7 was easy for the character… they stole him from me for this bugged out quest that should not have been there in my opinion… it’s like stealing! no warnings or anything… just game over
3 Likes
yes, I tried with a WD, and my pets kept attacking the enemies s I couldn’t get overwhelmed, and it killed my toon 
I learned not to go in there with pets!
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I picked up D3 after many years and made a quite powerful HC necromancer to try out the class as I had recently purchased it. So… at some point at paragon 300+ I get this Petrified Scream. It says “transmute in Kanai’s cube”. I say cool; never bothered googling it. I was in Torment VIII or IX at the time. So I go in and start killing the first waves, producing an exponentially increasing flow of mobs. All of them were exploding and I realized this was it. After some point I just ran around avoiding and killing enough mobs in order to get overwhelmed. That was a really close call after 60 hours of play. Now I have 4 of them screams in my chest and I’m not touching them.
2 Likes
I went in one with my gargantuan Witch doctor without thinking it through. My pets kept increasing the level and wouldn’t let me get overwhelmed after I realized this only ends in death. Luckily, I was able to get overwhelmed at 102 with all my life saves activated.
What a fiasco.
2 Likes
you were very skilled to avoid death. I lost a WD the same way - pets kept activating. things, and. I couldn’t get overwhelmed
Signed
This is an instant quit
So this is part of Champion, which is the Torment X tier.
Demon Hunter Marauder
Despite 2x50% damage reduction, still a glass cannon at this point. Any elite hit will kill the hero. But it’s manageable with the knowledge that DH-M is a distance fighter (ref: Set Rift) and the damage is insane, the Sentries alone can clear anything.
And so, this event is automatic fail.
Either you die because creatures look at you, or you die because you activate your defenses and creatures charge you. On top of Molten, Bloated, Ice and Arcane.
Rendering the tier literally impossible.
And also unexpected. Really bad design that you play easy content, a quest and bam, you must restart, haha! So fun.
Mind you, you start this tier with 1x25 leg gem, maybe upgrade to 3x35.
Roughly GRift 40. Ancients? Augments? What are they?
Seriously, does the event designer even play D3?
–
ps.: Okay, I see that I got the achievement. So ultimately, this is a feature that takes a 1-70 every single time you play it. Still very stupid, still won’t do ever, but at least I guess it’s doable on a naked, fresh 70. (I mean, everyone can afford to sacrifice a bit of yellow gear.)
2 Likes
You don’t RiP or lose your Hero in Challenge Rifts.
EN’s are nothing like CR’s.
EN’s are brutal and one has to have a solid GR 110 + build to get to 125 safely.