[REQ] Build request for HCL season. Post your strongest build

[drathdragon]

I did an Hardcore season in the past with a pure monk build. simple and effective.

But now, thinking on some troubles i encountered, i need another more efficent build for
the next upcoming season.

I wonder if anyone of you can give me some good advices:

what is the strongest and/or more efficent build ?

post your ideas please.

[RavenStormclaw]

I did an Hardcore season in the past with a pure monk build. simple and effective.

But now, thinking on some troubles i encountered, i need another more efficent build for
the next upcoming season.

I wonder if anyone of you can give me some good advices:

what is the strongest and/or more efficent build ?

post your ideas please.

I've done all the HC seasons so far. Multiple builds. My best build to date was my Fey Soul Tank.

Purple Dragon Knight 1/3/16 Fighter/Paladin/FvS

For Enhancements took Feydark Illuisionist to get Greater Color spray, Paladin Sacred Defender tree for the AC and defesne, and rest into FvS Angel of Vengence

Used Charisma as my main stat. Between Purple dragon knight and FvS used charisma to hit the whole way using Bastard sword. by doing this you get everything ably in one shot. To hit/damage, spell points, and Spell DC all in one.

Feydark Illusionist gives you greater color spray arguably one of the best crowd control spells in the game. i could easily lock down large crowds even into low epic levels. Self healing. Ability to wear heavy armor and tank. I was the main tank for my group and had no problems. Also can solo well due to crowd control abilities as well as damage abilities. It was super fun and very very hard to kill. Never came close even once.

[jskinner937]

I've done all the HC seasons so far. Multiple builds. My best build to date was my Fey Soul Tank.

Purple Dragon Knight 1/3/16 Fighter/Paladin/FvS

For Enhancements took Feydark Illuisionist to get Greater Color spray, Paladin Sacred Defender tree for the AC and defesne, and rest into FvS Angel of Vengence

Used Charisma as my main stat. Between Purple dragon knight and FvS used charisma to hit the whole way using Bastard sword. by doing this you get everything ably in one shot. To hit/damage, spell points, and Spell DC all in one.

Feydark Illusionist gives you greater color spray arguably one of the best crowd control spells in the game. i could easily lock down large crowds even into low epic levels. Self healing. Ability to wear heavy armor and tank. I was the main tank for my group and had no problems. Also can solo well due to crowd control abilities as well as damage abilities. It was super fun and very very hard to kill. Never came close even once.

I would interested in a better write up. Sounds fun. Also I know scaling is bad on the shadow blades, but did you try imbue on a bastard sword from FI?

[drathdragon]

thank you RavenStormclaw for some interesting advices, since i don't have PDK race i could use dwarf instead.. i saw that FVS now has the automatic feat that make you use CHA for both
attack and damage with weapons.

anyway i was expecting more contributions.
If not the strongest build at least some ideas, some good advices of 'how to build your toon for HCL'.

[TartanKane]

thank you RavenStormclaw for some interesting advices, since i don't have PDK race i could use dwarf instead.. i saw that FVS now has the automatic feat that make you use CHA for both
attack and damage with weapons.

anyway i was expecting more contributions.
If not the strongest build at least some ideas, some good advices of 'how to build your toon for HCL'.

Strimtom has lots of detailed builds for previous hardcore leagues. Not sure how they need to change with recent updates.

[Seph1roth5]

I would interested in a better write up. Sounds fun. Also I know scaling is bad on the shadow blades, but did you try imbue on a bastard sword from FI?

The shadow blade imbue just makes your weapon force material, so it won't take damage from oozes/rust monsters (maybe damage in general?).

And builds depend on your playstyle, solo/static group/pug/etc. I tend to PUG and only solo if I can't find a group after a day or 2 and don't want to skip it.

Some builds I've seen that work well:

FvS nuker - take heavy armor proficiency for more ac/prr, throw on a tower shield, say goodbye to swim. FVS are very beefy, lots of HP and defenses. You can get sunbolt as an SLA very early (4) and start blasting. Some people hate the line aoe but if you get the hang of it it's awesome. Close wounds SLA is cheap and can keep a party topped off as well.

Bard spellsinger cc/nuker - Played mine before the spell update, so mine was just CC/box breaker. Spellsinger is probably most helpful party member. Can heal, CC, buff, debuff, and provide continuous hp/sp regen. With the spell pass, their sonic damage gets very high as well. Some people say it tapers off in epics but that all depends on what you're running. I was very impressed with my recent bard life on live.

Arcane Archer ranger - Depending on your playstyle, this can be very useful as long as you're not super concerned about DPS. I ran one a few HC ago and felt super useful because I was paralyzing everything. DPS blew but (aside from undead/constructs/few other things) it was insane CC. All the more useful/important in HC since it meant no one came close to being in danger.

Paladin two-handed KoTC - Just an all around awesome build. Paladin has high saves, high dps, buffs, and enough heals to keep yourself up or save a party member or 2. I like going all charisma and using feydark for charisma to hit/damage. Harder in HC unless you bought a higher tier feywild because you wouldn't be able to unlock it til you ran all of feywild. Can always reincarnate at lv 7 I guess. This and fvs are probably the most solo-friendly ones. But paladin can be great in groups too since they can charge in first.

[Coffey]

Human Animal Cleric Caster Vol

All in on Wisdom and Metamagics

Heavy Armor and Shield with Barovian's Sceptre at level 10.

Animal Domain
Level 2: You gain +1 Spot, +1 Listen, and +1 Reflex saving throws for every 2 Cleric levels.
Your Turn Undead works on Animals.
Upon Turning: When you use Turn Undead your party gains points of Constitution equal to half your Cleric level for 20 seconds
Level 5: You gain 10 hit points per Cleric level. You also add 10 hit points for each epic level you have gained.
Level 9: You gain +15% fortification bypass.
Level 14: You gain the Feral Charge ability. Your character to briefly morphs into a bear and charges forward through foes, attacking all foes in the charge area. The attack does weapon damage based on your equipped weapon with a +3(W) bonus, and enemies must make a Reflex saving throw with a DC of 19 + Wisdom modifier + Trip Bonuses or be knocked down. Cooldown is 15 seconds. This ability can only be used while holding a melee weapon.

Str 10
Dex 10
Con 14
Int 14 (Skills: Heal, Spellcraft, Diplomacy, Jump, 2Pts Tumble 1st level taken from Jump
Wisdom 18+ level ups
Cha 8 Add Cha items for more turns for Burst

1 Max
1 Quicken
3 Empower
6 Mark Passage 25% movement speed and DDoor
9 Enlarge
12 Heighten
15 Empower Heal
18 Evo

Divine Disciple 38 - 2x Cores Light, USP, No crit chance, 100 Spell Points, All the SLAs Searing, , Holy *****, Flame Strike, remove Nimbus of Light at level 12, Wis x2, the Schools Evo x2, full tier 5.

Falconry 8 - 23 AP - 35% Sprint Boost, 6 PRR, 1x Wisdom, 15% Hamp 5% HP,

Radiant - 11 AP Add at level 12 (37 DD 11 RS is what i used) Now since U50 you can use core 2 Cure Moderate Wounds SLA. If not grouping can use Cure Moderate exclusively with Heal Spell when necessary. Cure Moderate heals for the exact same amount single target for 8 SP with all the same Metamagics as Healing Burst.

Human 7 -17 AP - DDoor, 20% - 60% Hamp

So 37 AP in Divine Disciple for the offense and at level 12 take your pick of Sprint Boost from Falc, DDoor and Hamp from Human, or Heals from Radiant. While leveling you cant have them all but you can redistribute AP as needed for particular quests.

I crashed a lot of traps on elite and had well over 500 HP at level 12. A real tank with enough firepower to get it dore. I always try to play methodically and study the quests beforehand to be prepared for the traps and and monsters so i can give my character the best chance of survival with the right gear and tactics.

Offensively it was fairly easy especially after getting Flame Strike at level 12.

I used my DP from my VIP and farmed DP from previous months to buy a +6 Wis Tome and a +4 Con Tome and added at level 6. Level 6 is when i start level 2 Quests on Elite. I ran two characters exactly the same setup minus the tomes on the secondary. I spent the 1st month mostly on my secondary character trying to help my friend i met level back up after he died over and over again. I tried like hell to keep him alive but he is a 15 yr Vet player and his 1st HC so he couldnt adjust to the weakened char state of HC 1st life and always found a new way to die :D (Meso <3)

Got to level 13 and level 9 quests last season and 1600+ Favor solo. Had fun and dont really care if i ever get to 5K. My playtime is limited. Looking forward to another good time in season 5.

Good Luck to everyone in Season 5!

[Dark_Lord_Mary]

My jedi build is solid for HCL

Jedi Knight
Jedi Sentinel (ranger variant) Jedi Sentinel (monk variant)
Jedi Shadow

I've done videos about this stuff on my youtube channel

Best race is warforged due to immunities, next best race is likely tiefling due to natural fear immunity.
Best classes are artificer, paladin, wizard (for undead immunities) (generally)

the go-to best all around is a warforged arti because you can trap, are immune to most things, and can self-heal; also ranged in inquisitive can stay away from whatever special deadly champions pop up. They are not the strongest but best all around.

For non-warforged, non-undead wiz you can get energy drain immunity in the vistani universal tree, or in the paladin KotC cores

Alchemists can get supernatural/magical poison immunity though you still take poison hitpoint damage so you still must watch champions that do poison dots

The new negative energy dots mobs cast are something to plan ahead for because they are new and we cannot just buy death ward potions on HCL.

[fatherpirate]

Well, I would ask what kind of build first.

HCL solo build
HCL PUG build
HCL Reaper build
(assuming reaper is for groups)