Hard Core season over

[CherryLaBomb]

For me, hard core season lasted one day. I spent the entire day rolling toons and getting killed by hounds. I never was able to finish any quest in korthos wilderness. 7 toons. 7 hound related deaths. 2 party wipes. Hard core season is over. thank you.

yeah, I know. It is alll my fault, so save it.


Edit: The original post was at the end of day 1. A guildie persuaded me to re-evaluate the HC after the day 2 update. I did and have found the experience to be much nicer. I had spent a couple weeks reading and building test toons for HC survivability. I was very frustrated with the original release. Now I think my studies and practice will make be rewarded with a much better experience.

[Teslana]

I've not even managed to connect to the HC server yet, but that sounds really harsh.

Would a party of ranged characters work? I can't see anything lasting for long against 6 artificers and their clanking metal warrior-dogs.

[Wahnsinnig]

Sounds like this years hardcore league is just as hard as DDO was back at launch then.

Back then noone soloed anything, because everything was too hard for anyone to solo. Even normal.

As it should be, if you ask me

[Uska]

Sounds like this years hardcore league is just as hard as DDO was back at launch then.

Back then noone soloed anything, because everything was too hard for anyone to solo. Even normal.

As it should be, if you ask me

Not quite back then curse and blindness were permanent until removed

[sabella]

Not quite back then curse and blindness were permanent until removed

Yes! We exited dungeons blind several times. That was actually a lot of fun (well lead me out - LOL.) And you could go negative on experience. It was possible to die several times and get in an experience hole SOO deep, you might as well dump the character and start over.

[FengXian]

The challenge is in the +2 level cap.

The hounds are just spice. Spice should not take over the main dish. You want tough bosses to spawn at random? Fine, but do away with the buggable mechanics. Dungeon-wide aura is plain stupid to begin with, sorry.

[Sylvado]

I've not even managed to connect to the HC server yet, but that sounds really harsh.

Would a party of ranged characters work? I can't see anything lasting for long against 6 artificers and their clanking metal warrior-dogs.

I have been doing lvl 1 solo on hard as an arti and have killed about 20 hounds. The last one as my hire and pet hid around the corner

[Nebless]

I have been doing lvl 1 solo on hard as an arti and have killed about 20 hounds. The last one as my hire and pet hid around the corner

I'm running solo on a Tempest Ranger and have killed the one's I've encountered too in normal and hard dungeons. At worst I lost half my hitpoints in one attack.

I'm not going to say it's fun, but it's doable.

[fatherpirate]

am soloing Korthos wilderness just fine with both
my arty and my Inq ranger - with a couple of hirelings

I drop them the moment the show.

as a solo, I do not know how they can take you by surprise since your
the only one there so the blue arrow always tells you they are coming.

also

when they form you have several seconds
while they zone in and do a howl (styling I guess)
It is dead before the howl ends.

so

I have no idea how your dying to these at level 1-2 ?

Not paying attention ?
Making a damage light build that will improve latter ?
(you would never get to later)

If you can not dish out damage quick in HCL,
your dead. Hounds or no hounds.

I guess a lot of vet players (not all)
forgot how to play a low level toon.

If you can't hang, leave.
and stop crying about it.

[Jaxtan]

I have been doing lvl 1 solo on hard as an arti and have killed about 20 hounds. The last one as my hire and pet hid around the corner

This is what I have been doing as well. Only doing hard, and doing it when I am one level over. Doing arty with as many hirelings as possible. Also using a timer to provide a reminder when the hounds may start appearing so I can try to be in a fightable location, buffed and surrounded by hirelings. Gotten to level five taking this safe approach. If (big if) I can get to level 20 and 1750 favor that would be enough for me. I hope the hounds don't get too difficult after level 10.

[Assassination]

This is what I have been doing as well. Only doing hard, and doing it when I am one level over. Doing arty with as many hirelings as possible. Also using a timer to provide a reminder when the hounds may start appearing so I can try to be in a fightable location, buffed and surrounded by hirelings. Gotten to level five taking this safe approach. If (big if) I can get to level 20 and 1750 favor that would be enough for me. I hope the hounds don't get too difficult after level 10.

This is how I've been playing as well. I just decided to do "Death House" on hard. There is a huge bump in power to the hounds at this level. I pulled a hound at the shrines before the end fight. I had frogo, lvl 10 rloft scarecrow,
lvl 9 hire and his summons. Hound killed frogo, summons, hire left with 10 hitpoints and it took me about 3 times as long for me to beat the hound down. I'm a lvl 10 pally with decent gear, rloft greatsword, and 307 hitpoints. I had to lay on hands twice to myself, and at end of fight was at about 150 hitpoints. I don't think I'll continue solo'ing. Probably park my Pally at 11 and see if they make any changes.

I think to make it through, you will probably have to play some sort of self healing caster build with uber nuking powers. Melee just really isn't going to cut it. Just like the normal servers, Hardcore hates on melee's.

[Knightrose]

Cry, cry, cry.

For me the most interesting part is the hounds as I could not care less about another non-combat pet or fairy wings.

[OzmarDDO]

For me, hard core season lasted one day. I spent the entire day rolling toons and getting killed by hounds. I never was able to finish any quest in korthos wilderness. 7 toons. 7 hound related deaths. 2 party wipes. Hard core season is over. thank you.

yeah, I know. It is alll my fault, so save it.

LOL... whaaaaat? the heck?

I've been in two days. Made two characters. Up to level 4 on each. Going slow and carefully. No deaths.

Killed 5 hounds soloing MP at level 4...

I was scared of hounds. Still am, a bit. But I think I've learned how to prepare for them and handle them.

It's hardcore, man. I love it.

-Ozmar the Survivor

[Hirosue]

For me, hard core season lasted one day. I spent the entire day rolling toons and getting killed by hounds. I never was able to finish any quest in korthos wilderness. 7 toons. 7 hound related deaths. 2 party wipes. Hard core season is over. thank you.

yeah, I know. It is alll my fault, so save it.

yup , its sucks, is a dumb idea to bring reaper mechanics into heroic game arena.

Yah same thing happned to me 3 times. so im done also.

2 hits and dead at lowbie levels and you know you will be targetted sooner or later.

So reaper type mechanic in non reaper quests , great idea not.

However it does mean i wont waste more than a few hours on it this year.

I really wonder at the thought process behind it.

" lets make HC more fun this year by having players randomly targeted by mobs which will kill them in two hits, Oh the players are going to really enjoy random deaths."

But its a even stranger thought process to introduce a mechanic that will absolutely stop people playing and loose revenue. AND HC is basically a cash grab .It really doesnt make sence.

To Qualify my last death.

In Misery peak quest at lvl 2 Bard. about 1/3rd in we pull the lever to open the door. archers and Magic missile casters behind it.
,

Cleric 1 - lvl 2 - incapped immediately
FVS 1 -lvl2 - incapped immediatly
Me bard lvl 2- throw cure light wounds on cleric 1 , and circle to avoid arrows, getting ready to CLW on FVS 1

Hound appears

Cleric 1 dies,
FVS 1 Dies

Kinetic hound hits me 2 times with magic missile i die.
Monk dies.
Artificer dies

This is not fun. We were on elite
2-3 hours play wasted X 3 . Bye BYE HC

[boredGamer]

To Qualify my last death.

In Misery peak quest at lvl 2 Bard. about 1/3rd in we pull the lever to open the door. archers and Magic missile casters behind it.
,

Cleric 1 - lvl 2 - incapped immediately
FVS 1 -lvl2 - incapped immediatly
Me bard lvl 2- throw cure light wounds on cleric 1 , and circle to avoid arrows, getting ready to CLW on FVS 1

Hound appears

Cleric 1 dies,
FVS 1 Dies

Kinetic hound hits me 2 times with magic missile i die.
Monk dies.
Artificer dies

This is not fun. We were on elite
2-3 hours play wasted X 3 . Bye BYE HC

Why were ANY characters in a level 2 quest on elite that weren't capped level 4 characters?

It sounds like you were getting wrecked BEFORE the hound even appeared. This is not good hardcore play. If someone in your team goes incapped at any time you should be very, very worried about the group you are in.

[Caver]

Why were ANY characters in a level 2 quest on elite that weren't capped level 4 characters?

It sounds like you were getting wrecked BEFORE the hound even appeared. This is not good hardcore play. If someone in your team goes incapped at any time you should be very, very worried about the group you are in.

Oh I agree. Why were you even there? You had to have skipped most of the Korthos quests or you would be minimum level 3 which still lets you do level 1 quests. People complaining because they're lazy and overconfident and want to speed through low levels like they do on their main server. This is HC.

[Enoach]

When the group I'm running with saw the number of hound deaths as we were gathering and had communication from others we know, we made the decision to run Korthos Village N/H/E. The goal here was to get people to level 3 and earn some low level gear to be prepared for the elite run of the wilderness.

We also came up with a strategy of staying together avoiding any single member from needing to face the hound alone.

It is a nasty mechanic, it will be interesting to see how the hounds progress in higher levels.

[Halciet]

If you have to afk I would recommend using a teleport item to get you safely to a town. Log out sometimes does not complete in a timely manner (I've seen 5+ minutes before), Alt+F4 also might not close your connection properly leaving your character standing around waiting to die. I suppose there is also the chance for the teleport to fail, but it might be the better option.

[adamkatt]

When the group I'm running with saw the number of hound deaths as we were gathering and had communication from others we know, we made the decision to run Korthos Village N/H/E. The goal here was to get people to level 3 and earn some low level gear to be prepared for the elite run of the wilderness.

We also came up with a strategy of staying together avoiding any single member from needing to face the hound alone.

It is a nasty mechanic, it will be interesting to see how the hounds progress in higher levels.

youre not going to get better gear out of korthos.. borderlands gear will help a lot more.

[Wahnsinnig]

yup , its sucks, is a dumb idea to bring reaper mechanics into heroic game arena.

Level 2 characters doing a lvl 3 quest on elite (lvl 5) on Hardcore server?