Ohh… I love this thread.
Once I’ve had the time to at least get to the Monolith in “normal” mode, as a reward I’ll go punish myself and do this HC masochist ssf. 
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I let him have it this time.
Going pretty good atm, found Prism Wraps early on (around lvl 15 and it’s been fucking great if you pardon my french), also the axe that I keep pimping and it didn’t fracture yet (don’t think I could push any harder, though). There was a section where it felt like playing SC with my Erasing Strike, they all went down wih one or two hits. Also concentrated a bit more on damage while not neglecting resistances and other defensive options as you can see in the screenshot. Had a dodge rating of 70% at times, almost nothing hit me, would always concentrate on this instead of blocking (didn’t touch the +1 block chance skill points this time around). Found Close Call shortly before I took the screenshot, not sure if I should keep using it or not. The Chimera has a tell before he does his death screech, he puts his head down instead of raising it up for his signature “chicken” move. Live and learn I tell ya!
It’s unbelievable how much of a difference good gear makes. I didn’t have to grind anywhere.
I avoided those void monsters with these masks in the Lotus Halls, the first one was huge (I don’t even know what these souped up versions are called in this game, champions?) and almost killed me, took me by surprise. The hours before were a breeze, so I didn’t follow my own advice. 2 quick taps on the space bar really saved me there, headed straight to the exit afterwards, ignoring him and all other enemies, and since it was at the start of the level, and it is quite big, has a lot of the same enemies, which all follow you. And your character keeps getting stuck sometimes or suddenly just stops for no reason. So you can imagine the fun I had before I made it to the boss stage… which was a relief, really. Imagine, feeling relief when you enter a boss stage on hc/solo/maso.
He went down pretty easy, just like the last time.So I hope everyone else is also doing great or at least ok, looking forward to read about your experiences.
And I won’t continue his journey this evening.
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Wow good job Colfari! I think you gonna establish a new record . I’m also french 
My best is level 23 sentinel so far
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Made it to lvl34 and finished the level, made it to the next waypoint, but really had a heart attack when I fought another of these Chimera (oh yes, there are more at the end of this level), went in to strike him with vengeance and out of nowhere there were two of them, must have been a souped up version, and the other one immediately started blasting his death screech. I survived, thanks to better stats this time around, but I almost wet my pants. Another one also started his death screech without the tell, was very weird. So be careful everyone.
I’m gonna go out drinking with some friends tonight, I really hope that I will not continue when I’m back home half-drunk.
Edit: it’s a mod on enemies: spawns twin at low health. I really should read more when fighting these.
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My Sentinel number one made it to lvl 4 (lol). Will try Sentinel number two today! 
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Tried mage this time died at level 24 from a void attack 
I was doing the meteor build it was really easy one shotting pack from distance. I dropped Calamity at level 15-17 don’t remember it helps a lot.
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Last weekend, I tried SMHC for the first time–and thankfully I picked Aco. Rip Blood really carries you far. I thought I was a damn legend at level 10, made it to a big void boss and got mortared to death Minions+Rip Blood keeps your ass alive for long enough to be a real threat. It was an absolute blast, and I love the fact that, even though I ripped, I know what I died to
100% recommend as high void res as possible in SMHC. I bet it kills most of our characters haha
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Nice Good to hear people enjoying the challenge. And the frustrations 
I’ve got Primalist, Mage and Sentinel at 13, just got Acolyte to 19. Stopping now, then gonna come back later and try to put some levels on some of the others.
Or may take the safe option and just write up what I’ve learned so far 
it’s mostly about the creative uses of ‘running away’, but which I’m choosing to call “a tactical fighting retreat” 
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Honestly, I think it’s a GREAT idea for everyone to try this mode. I’ve learned sooo much about the game. I never realized just how many enemies use projectile attacks to hit you (all of them, I swear), damage types, etc. It’s a real eye opener. A write up would help a lot of us out there
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I’m back home, not as drunk as I feared, but won’t continue my HSM journey anyways (was a very fun evening so far), and the first thing I want to check is this thread.
I want to thank everyone who participates in this challenge and for sharing his/her experience, this is the most fun I had with a game in a very long time, (so thanks to everyone at EHG, I’m gonna tag @Sarno in case he missed all the joy he and his colleagues have brought us in here) and the most fun I had in a forum since…well AV Club pre-Kinja. Thanks to everyone, and especially thanks to Ula_Fey for creating this thread (I sound like a broken record, but I really mean it). Hopefully we’ll keep this going on, as @Welfur has mentioned. And if anyone is up for some new steam friends, send me a pm, I’d be happy to add anyone of you.
I know I get a bit sentimental and emotional when half-drunk, but I had so much fun this evening, and also in this thread (and this forum in general), that I could not keep this to myself.
And to @Dmillz: hope we’ll see you back again.
Edit: Don’t play this mode with 0.7.0g, there seems to be a bug where you gradually lose hp for no apparent reason, happened in SC with my character, already made a bug report and it was also mentioned in the patch notes thread.
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Eesh, that’s not a bug you want in HSM! I’ve been playing last night without hitting that problem, so I wonder if it’s linked to particular skills? But just for now I think I’m going to play an SC character for a while - I’m getting into areas I’m less familiar with anyway, so I need an immortal toon to go research them before I take the squishies in
Also - @colfari - great restraint there not logging in whilst slightly drunk. I doubt that would have ended well
edited to add from some posts on the discord, it looks like the constant HP loss is linked to some particular attacks, so it may be safe at lower levels. That might be how I got away with it last night. Still not going to risk it till there’s another patch
second edit to add those running from the standalone launcher have a patch which has fixed the ‘low loot drops’ issue. I’ve no idea if it’s fixed anything else (like the constant health drops) though. As with absolutely everything in HSM - use extreme caution
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Patch is on Steam now as well, will play some more SC (Sentinel) to see if I get that health loss bug again.
Just beat Zerrick. Level 40 now.
I don’t know what will happen in the Monoith, scales with my level, not that I was that much over-leveled in the campaign so far, didn’t grind anywhere. Still wear Prism Wraps and still the same weapon, got +%melee damage and +melee fire damage to T5 though. Was lucky this time around.
I got the hp loss bug after beating Zerrick, was playing an hour of SC before and didn’t experience it, that’s why I continued.
Edit: Good night my friend! Was lvl 44 I think.
Didn’t activate Juggernaut, probably should have, was right at the beginng, these Immortal Eyes will become very problematic in these runs, I managed to do about 5-6 Monolith runs. I quit some runs before because of these, and finished another run with +15% damage modification, this one took me by surprise at the start and went down real quick.
Next time I’ll go Forge Guard route, later Paladin skill points lack some oomph for this particular mode.
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Oh No! But also, bloody brilliant!
It’ll be interesting to see whether the early part of your next run goes significantly quicker, given the experience you’ve picked up.
I now have everyone at 19. Going to concentrate on the Primalist for a while now, see if I can push on.
Oh yeah, setting a goal to ‘push on’. That’s not going to end in disaster, is it? I was getting pretty confident with the Mage, as Glacier pretty much destroys everything in one or two casts, but then I had a couple of really close calls to remind me not to get too carried away
Current Mage is also the luckiest of my lot when it comes to drops - he has The Invoker’s Frozen Heart Amulet, Riverbend Gloves (double dodge chance! Nice! Even if the occasional thrown axe goes off in a random direction) The Tome of Elements and just found the Close Call shield. They do make a big difference.
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I already tried my third mage, made it to the Council Chambers just fine (even the Osprix boss was no big deal, I have him figured out I think), but he went down by a fireball by one of these students in the archive, was also a champion (I’m just gonna call 'em that).
I was prepared to go down in the Monolith runs by the way, death was looming tbh, but was the next logical step to try with my character. Grinding would not have made sense since the enemies scale anyways and just playing it safe would have been boring, that’s not what it is all about in this mode. At least I think so. Best of luck to you and your mage, gear sounds good, will hopefully get you far. And congrats on having one of each characters at lvl 19, that’s awesome.
Edit: Jareth the 4th just finished “A Study In Time”. Quite some time ago he discovered the joy of Volcanic Orb. It’s pretty wild. Always have to be moving though, which keeps you sharp.
And yes, it’s all going way quicker, even though it’s another class. Bosses are no problem.
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Argh! Was just enjoying the fact that the patched changes to totems makes them feel a hell of a lot stronger than they were when I was one-shot from full health by a lightning bolt.
I guess I just got hit by an unlucky critical. Frustrating, but never mind - time to start him again
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“Frustrating, but never mind” should be the end of all posts here.
Sorry to hear that you had bad luck, keeping my fingers crossed for you and everyone else.
May I ask if that’s your first experience with this mode or did you play hc (in combination with a higher difficulty setting) in other ARPGs as well? Will I ever get tired of this, is what I am asking.
Edit: Jareth, the fourth died at lvl 40, by an Immortal Eye, well the “mini-boss” in Maj’Elka, which somehow can drain your life now, the ones before too. Even when your in End of time! Or is it bleeding damage? It couldn’t be without hitting me with anything before. Didn’t read again as you can see, but bleeding would not make sense and you see this blood trail/thread from my character to the Immortal Eye, so I guess it leeches somehow (even when your about 2 screens away from it). It would not stop anyways. Opened up a town portal before I went into the fight, he did his life leech before I could hardly see him, lost life quickly, went back to the town portal, transported to End of Time, hit Escape and quit game, was dead before it went to the main menue, that’s why I don’t have a screenshot. Should have alt+f4 and he would still be alive. And is it cheating if I would do that? Anyways, in case you couldn’t already tell, I call fucking bullshit on this. Had absolutely no problems before, but these things throwing Soul Bolts and also leeching life from almost out of screen? Don’t think I’ll continue to be honest.
Edit2: It’s Void Drain. The thing that killed me, don’t know if it’s supposed to be still leeching your life when in End of Time! My guess is no.
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Argh, that does sound like BS. I had a similar feeling after the last death - I’ve put it down to an unlucky crit, but at the time I just thought “wtf?”
Beta is beta, of course, it’s probably not the best time to be trying a mode that rewards you with a more challenging gameplay, but then punishes you more for each death - because you’ve got more time/energy/emotion invested in the challenge - because it takes so much more time to get to a lower level of ‘achievement’.
Every death feels like being punched in the junk. If it’s a player error you can accept that. If it feels like a bugged mob ability - or even just one with a questionable design basis - then it’s worse, because it negates/invalidates all the care and attention to detail that went into getting to that level.
Time for you to go play normal modes for a while, maybe? That is the beauty of EHG having provided the options, it lets us put some tuning on how the game feels to play.
I suspect I’ll keep running the HSM for a while, but once I start feeling fatigued with it I’ll jump back into SC to enjoy a more ‘normal’ ARPG experience for a while, especially as we get new content introduced through the beta.
(also - files away open town portal before starting fight that’s an excellent tip )
Anyway - in summary - will you ever get tired of this? Well, certainly the frustration will overcome the enjoyment, at times. But if you’ve enjoyed the mode - which you clearly have been - then it’ll probably always be something you come back to, although it’s sensible to keep it in parallel to playing in the usual modes, just to avoid early permanent burnout There are only so many punches to the junk you can take
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I really would like to continue with this mode to be honest (I was just really pissed last night), I played SC in between, already put over 130 hours into this game since its Steam launch ( I was at home sick for a week and played a lot), and about the same with the alpha before, but SC is really missing the challenge right now. Can’t be bothered to play longer than half an hour in SC.
I died quite a lot before in this mode, and I am generally fine with it, but that was really frustrating experience, maybe it was the hp loss bug which caused this even in End of Time, I don’t know. But even if it was and I was just unlucky, I don’t see where I can go on with this knowing that Immortal Eyes are now leeching your life from off-screen, that is definitely new, I have never seen them doing that before this particular run in HSM. And around that level in HSM, there really isn’t anything you could do against it. Had I played a melee character, he would have died before even reaching that mini-boss in Maj’Elka. So be warned everyone.
But thanks for your reply, as always. I’m german, so not a native speaker, and you always find the right words and are much more eloquent then I could ever be. I’d still like to know if alt+f4 is considered cheating btw since you make the rules.
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I actually started out playing HCSM but quit after dying to some boss around level 20 and went to just hardcore.Im pretty bored with game now after topping leaderboards for waves and this post had me laughing so hard im back for the punishment. I am level 13 and proud of surviving those dam double charging purple void things that always have immunity to freeze.I went with sorcerer cause im sick of playing lich and necro.Bed time for tonight looking forward to the punishment that is sure to come tom when I get to cocky.I have the same name on steam if yall wanna add me
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