This game might be a bit unfriendly to Hardcore. Some Feedback

PC General Discussion
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Some thoughts on HC. There are a couple things that are simply just out of our control when it comes to losing our characters.

I played all three classes to 25, “100%” the zone and lost many characters to Ashava.

There might be some minor spoilers below depending on what you view as a spoiler. But here are my thoughts:

At level 15, you get a quest to go do a thing and gain a class unlock. The barbarian, and maybe Druid and Necro, have to leave the first zone and go to zones with a higher min level. For hardcore this is pretty risky, so the choice is to risk it and go or just be less powerful and wait.

The butcher appearing randomly and out of nowhere and being so aggro killed one of my characters at level 18. I tried to run right away being warned by one of my friends, and still could not get out before he killed me.

Health Pools can be traps. With no way of distinguishing them from safe ones. As a hardcore player, if im ever scrambling for my characters life, I don’t want something that is meant to be safe resource to potentially put me in a worse situation. It would be different if there was some way to tell. The gameplay of having to take the time to make sure its safe or not by searching for the distinction would be intense enough.

The last one ill mention has the caveat. That being, its a new game and I was still learning the game mechanics, how defenses work, damage etc. But Ashava world boss is incredibly over tuned to tackle on hard core. I have no doubt there are some HC players who managed to kill it, though I have not heard of any. Youd have to have ranged classes. I lost 3 characters to it. The last attempt I had 65% poison resistant, 450 HP, many legendary passives dedicated to keeping me alive (Bubble when going below healthy, Barrier when damaging an elite, etc) and I still got one shot.

Im sure that with time, you can learn the boss’ tells and patterns and avoid damage, but that’s a big ask for HC.

All in all I love the game. I loved the difficulty of Barb being seeminly under powered. I did everything on world tier 2. I just don’t like some of the random aspects that are out of our control to be less so.

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Hardcore mode should not exist in online-only games that gamble your character’s survival on unpredictable and unreliable server latency and other server-side things that are out of player control. You will always, sooner or later, unfairly die and lose characters due to lag and disconnects, even if you are a skilled player and can survive everything else.

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Well I don’t know what the deal is with Hardcore. I kept away from it since I’m not a very good player plus distractions. I don’t know what you get out of it. A sense of achievement, unique cosmetics? Anyway, point is, if they up the hardcore in Hardcore then maybe you should be focusing on asking for appropriate rewards for the risk invovled.

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Imagine thinking you’re “hardcore” and then complaining that the game is too hard.

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The server issues have always been an issue for HC players. I just enjoy the thrill. Ladder play in D2, seasonal play in D3, PoE leagues, are all online only. It sucks to RIP to something like a server hiccup or disconnect, but its an extremely low % of my deaths.

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i dont even think its possible to 100% the zone, wasnt one of the dungeons blocked.

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I never complained that the game was too hard. Not once. I like the challenge of the Barb. The Sorc was a breeze and would like that to be harder.

There was a suggestion of adding a HP drain to the event where to gain mastery you have to sit on the circles. Ideas like this are awesome. They add difficulty, and choice. Risk the degen for mastery and extra reward or just do it normally. That choice is great for HC.

There is no choice in RNG death like butcher spawning and instantly killing you. That’s not difficult. There is a reason why he leaves if your character dies. The devs did an interview and said “We don’t want him camping your body, so he leaves after a while or if he kills you” - Not verbatim but thats the jist of it.

Thats not a friendly mechanic to have for HC. I would not say I would remove it though. That encounter was the most memorable in the beta. But maybe some adjustments or maybe we just have better tools to deal with it at higher level and its not an issue.

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I almost RIP’d my barb to one of those cursed health shrines but I believe the cursed ones are ‘bubbling’ and have a black smoke coming from them. I alt f4’d out luckily I was still alive but it was scary. The monsters were overwhelming.

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Just wait till world tier 3 and 4.
The jump in difficulty is unreal.
I recommend staying in tier 1 till at least 30 or 40, and not going to tier 3 till 60+ on hardcore, if you want to keep your toon.

Of course this’ll depend on your gear class and spec quite a lot. I lost pretty much every hardcore character to the butcher between 8 and 20 on hardcore tier 1, and he’s a walk in the park until you find him at 40+ in tier 3.

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Nothing really like that. I would not want to get extra rewards, or more drops or something like that. Really its just more fun for me, which is what I get out of it. Playing D3 and PoE for years on HC I don’t know if I can go back to softcore. The adrenaline you get when you in a dire situation is awesome, and there is a sense of achievement when you accomplish something. This season of D3 I cleared my first ever Greater Rift 150 and placed top 10 on the ladder (im sure I have dropped since, I haven’t logged in after clearing) and it felt so good. Great way to send off D3.

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In d4 there is no load in time forgiveness for entering/leaving dungeons and mobs can gather around them. You could die before you even gain control of your character.

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Oh really? If they are bubbling or smoking or something that is perfect. I will have to keep an eye out for that in the Open beta.

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Yeah I’m almost 100% positive they are, cause I remember something being off when I was walking up to it but I clicked it anyway not knowing. But I remember some kind of black smoke that differed it from the normal ones.

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I will have to keep an eye on that. I never experienced anything like that in the Closed beta. But I never got to play the end game beta, so maybe the density is such that its a problem at end game?

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health pool shrines can be cursed in dungeons?! ive never run into one, but then again i never use potions or shrines or have to worry about recovering HP lol…

Aside from my crazy barrier generation, I gain something like 45 HP/s when I have 5 enemies nearby (9.2? per enemy, aspect) 12 hp/s (armor mod) if not hit recently and 26 life on kill (upgraded skulls in mh/oh). I also have 600 HP base!

Aside from my one intentional ‘im going to quit playing now and watch you guys flounder at the world boss’ death, I had zero deaths. Very much not afraid of hardcore in D4. As long as I keep playing, I won’t die vs a boss. I can stand in most trash all day long and not care. In fact that is exactly what I do for those dungeon checkpoints or others where you have to simply survive for X seconds and th mobs drop no loot/no reward. Stand there and wait it out. I can’t die with my current gear vs current content. Even The Butcher wasn’t scary, but I only ran into him the first time when I was fully prepared.

I suspect if I was ever truly questioning my life, D2 instincts would kick and and Alt-F4 would be pressed quicker than closing your web browser as a teen when mom walked in!

In D2 and PoE, playing hardcore gets the adrenaline going. Both games could be extremly RIPpy, you are trucking along at 150 mph nonstop with no contest then SPLAT you made one mistake and got cc’d or whatever, 1-shot, DONE. Hardcore/difficulty seems trivial in D4 so far.

D4 has multiple layers of failsafe built in. One being that if you become ‘injured’ (35%)while cc’d you gain unstoppable for 4s aspect. Another, if you take damage below ‘healthy’ (80%) status, you pop a bubble of invulnerablity for 5 seconds! And a third ‘oh sh!t’ button baked into the class in the form of Deep Freeze. Then theres the 700 hp barrier for 10s once every 30s upon damaging an elite (includes bosses, players, rares, etc). Not sure what other classes get if any outs at all, never got a chance to explore them fully.

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So you’ll die without even getting to witness your characters final moments?

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Yeah that’s the question, do you leave the game instantly like in D2? hah

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It’s an mmo, you don’t get to quit instantly. Enjoy the always online experience.

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Do you know this for a fact or just basing it off previous mmo experience?

It’s something I wanted to test with a friend in discord to watch/verify what happens after logout.

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The game has a logout timer, if you force quit your character is just going to sit there until that timer runs out.