First Guardian! YAY!

So finally... May I present to you: Guardian DONOTDIE

This is also my first Mat/Pat/Guardian thread so sorry if it comes out a bit messy

DONOTDIE was my first try in HC. I was getting bored in SC and started my new bone-/explosionmancer. After a NDE in Act 1 NM I got scared and didn't play him for a while. However, SC continued to bore me and after participating in handorman's random tourney I decided to give HC another try.

The Build:

I chose the Bone-/Explosionmancer after suggestions from kestegs and crawlingdeadman. I guess most of you are familiar with the build but here is the guide that crawlingdeadman linked me to. It was basically your everyday bonemancer that just relied on max CE as main killing skill.

LCS

BS damage: 1492-1583

Resists: 75, 17, 74, 43

Life: 962

Mana: 342

Skill distribution

Curses:

No skill points spent (more on that in the gear and playstyle sections)

Poison & Bone Skills:

Teeth: 1 (6)

Bone Armor: 1 (9)

CE: 20 (25)

Bone Spear: 20 (29)

Bone Wall: 20 (25)

Bone Prison: 20 (25)

Bone Spirit: 6 (11)

I chose to focus on safety and max Bone Wall as a synergy to BA instead of maxing Bone Spirit. I definitely could have used Bone Spirit when dealing with bosses etc. but I didn't really find it necessary.

Summoning Skills

Clay Golem: 1 (3)

Golem Mastery: 1 (3)

Summon Resist: 1 (3)

I was skeptical about CG in the beginning. He died a lot even in mid NM, but once I got used to recasting him in strategical areas he proved to be a true life safer.

Stat point distribution

Strength: Enough for upped Goldwrap

Dex: 0

Vitality: Rest

Energy: 0

The combination of my moron, CG, decrep and Bone Prison meant that I almost never got swarmed or even hit by melee attacks. This, and the fact that I never found a proper shield, meant that I went all vita.

Gear

Inventory

DONOTDIE was my first HC char, and therefore he went mostly untwinked. The exception was a bunch of mf stuff that nulio gave to me and runes and bases for insight provided by Arkado. Thanks!

The gear:

Helm: "Lore" Circlet

Weapon: "White" in a +1 decrep wand.

Belt: upped Goldwrap (upped for extra slots)

Ring 1: 9 FR, 25 CR rare

Ring 2: 7 LR, 23 MF magic

Amulet: Saracens chance @22

Shield: +2 Bone Spear, +mana, +10 FHR, 10 FR rare necro head

Gloves: 25 FR, 21 MF rare

Boots: 39 FR, 15 PR, 17 MF, 10 FHR rare

And my most precious item:

Armor: @32 Skin of the Vipermagi socketed with Ptopaz

Not much to say. Truly horrible shield. Not enough FCR - I used Wall of the Eyeless for a great period of the game, and also spent all Hell looking for even a white monarch for Spirit. But I had no luck. The Vipermagi in act 4 Hell and was a HUGE upgrade from my "Stealth" Ring Mail. This also allowed me to change my belt, gloves and boots to get more MF. The wand allowed me to save points on the Curse skill tree.

Readouts:


Code:

Number of Items : 10

1: White
Grim Wand
'DolIo'
One-Hand Damage: 5 to 11
Durability: 15 of 15
Required Level: 35
Staff Class - Normal Attack Speed
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 68
Fingerprint: 0x298c27e8
+10 to Vitality
+13 to Mana
Magic Damage Reduced by 4
20% Faster Cast Rate
+1 to Decrepify (Necromancer Only)
+2 to Bone Spear (Necromancer Only)
+3 to Bone Armor (Necromancer Only)
+4 to Skeleton Mastery (Necromancer Only)
Hit Causes Monster to Flee 25%
150% Damage to Undead
+3 to Poison and Bone Skills (Necromancer Only)
Socketed (2: 2 used)

Dol Rune
Inserted into a Grim Wand

Hit Causes Monster to Flee 25%

Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Io Rune
Inserted into a Grim Wand

+10 to Vitality

Required Level: 35
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

2: Skin of the Vipermagi
Serpentskin Armor
Defense: 279
Durability: 21 of 24
Required Strength: 43
Required Level: 29
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 87
Fingerprint: 0x20d16f2c
+120% Enhanced Defense
Magic Damage Reduced by 10
All Resistances +32
24% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
30% Faster Cast Rate
+1 to All Skill Levels
Socketed (1: 1 used)

Perfect Topaz
Inserted into a Serpentskin Armor

24% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Required Level: 18
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

3: Lore
Circlet
'OrtSol'
Defense: 24
Durability: 34 of 35
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 33
Fingerprint: 0xcf86a3c8
+10 to Energy
Damage Reduced by 7
Lightning Resist +30%
+2 to Light Radius
+1 to All Skill Levels
+2 to Mana After Each Kill
Socketed (2: 2 used)

Ort Rune
Inserted into a Circlet

Lightning Resist +30%

Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

Sol Rune
Inserted into a Circlet

Damage Reduced by 7

Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion

4: Storm Mark
Demon Head
Defense: 24
Chance to Block:  32%
Smite Damage: 0 to 0
Durability: 18 of 20
(Necromancer Only)
Required Strength: 25
Required Level: 18
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 23
Fingerprint: 0xf22c78a
+8 to Mana
+18% Enhanced Defense
Fire Resist +10%
Adds 2-7 poison damage over 3 seconds
Attacker Takes Damage of 1
10% Faster Hit Recovery
+2 to Bone Spear (Necromancer Only)

5: Wraith Touch
Heavy Gloves
Defense: 6
Durability: 14 of 14
Required Level: 27
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0x38f697f7
+2 to Strength
+12 to Mana
Fire Resist +25%
21% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
10% Increased Attack Speed

6: Bitter Coil
Ring
Required Level: 21
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 35
Fingerprint: 0x2e44322e
Fire Resist +9%
Cold Resist +25%
2% Mana stolen per hit
Level 2 Fire Bolt (25/25 Charges)

7: Saracen's Chance
Amulet
Required Level: 47
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 61
Fingerprint: 0xdb84ac5a
+12 to Strength
+12 to Energy
+12 to Dexterity
+12 to Vitality
All Resistances +22
10% Chance to cast Level 2 Iron Maiden when struck

8: Goldwrap
Battle Belt
Defense: 83
Durability: 14 of 18
Required Strength: 88
Required Level: 32
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 59
Fingerprint: 0xde3ff9e9
+55% Enhanced Defense
+25 Defense
65% Extra Gold from Monsters
30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
+2 to Light Radius
Required Level +5
10% Increased Attack Speed

9: Doom Track
Chain Boots
Defense: 9
Durability: 14 of 16
Kick Damage: 6 to 12
Required Strength: 30
Required Level: 18
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 49
Fingerprint: 0x96e0d0b6
Fire Resist +39%
Poison Resist +15%
17% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
10% Faster Hit Recovery
10% Chance to cast Level 3 Nova when struck

10: Tangerine Ring of Fortune
Required Level: 31
Item Version: 1.10+ Expansion
Item Level: 43
Fingerprint: 0xf1ac3192
Lightning Resist +7%
23% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Mercenary

I chose a prayer merc. Reason: didn't know what else to do. This allowed me to focus less on PR - and life is always awesome

His gear:

"Insight" Tresher

Sparkling Mail, Chain Mail

Undead Crown

Again huge thanks to Arkado for providing the insight. This guy is a real mana burner, and without this stick I would have been extremely addicted to blue potions.

Playing style/Game progression

When I started out my SC habbits really shined through. I played extremely aggresive and this wasn't a problem through normal which I cruised through.

I started using teeth as my main offensive skill and pumped this. I later respecced to get strentgh enough to wear my upped Goldwrap and on this occasion I didn't spend more than 1 point in teeth.

When he reached NM I was forced to realize that I had to play way more defensively. I had several VERY NDE's in act 1 and after this I changed my playstyle completely. I used my merc and CG as scouts and meat shields rather than back-up attacks and this really kept me safe through out NM. I played on P8 until NM RoF when I got sick of Bone Spear and wanted to use CE. I lowered to P3 and this made a huge impact on my killing speed.

I have never been patient enough to do NM Ball runs so I entered hell at lvl 67 or 68. Here I encountered very big resist problems. Every ranged elemental attacker, especially the fire ones, were threatening to kill me and most off act 1 was slow - that was until a very nice monster dropped this. This actually turned out to be a truly invaluable drop as my single closest NDE was only a couple of minutes later when I got jumped by a boss pack of skeleton fire mages. If I hadn't had my LoH I would have been dead for sure.

Act 2 was fast, and so was Act 3. The only thing worth mentioning here was the Council. My merc quickly died (and I couldn't afford to ressurect him) and killing the darn demons took ages. By singleing them out and imprisoning them I got the job done in 20 or so minutes. I almost got killed by a blizzard (-22 CR) but that was the only really dangerous moment.

This was also the act where I made myfinal "White" staff (used a magic +3 BS until then). The +1 decrep wand made me decide, that I, from then, would use decrepify as my only curse. I could have used blind when dealing with ranged attackers, but again I didn't find this important enough as I could easily deal with them by being careful enough.

Act 4 was quick. Hellforge was a Mal, CS was easy and so was Big D.

Act 5 also started out good. A lot of Slingers spawned and their spears almost got me a lot of times but it all turned out good. I ran Shenk and Eldtrich for a while - the Explosionmancer is build for this! The first real problems I encountered in the glacial trail. I got swarmed by a fanatic boss back of those huge minotaurs and only just made it out alive. Ancients got improsened and went down pretty fast. The next real problems occured in the WSKs. The Hell Temptresses and Gloams killed my merc over 9,000 times and it took forever to get to the throne room. The minions where easily dealt with by using Bone Prison (best skill ever). Ball was Ball. Decrep + CG made him harmless, but it still took forever to kill him. The drop isn't worth mentioning.

Drops:

I had a few drops worth menitioning.

Laying of Hans + Um in the hell barracks.

Skin of the Vipermagi in the City of the Damned Hell. Best drop ever.

Jalal's Mane in NM Crystalline Passage.

Mal Hell Helforge quest.

Lightsabre from some icy place in act 5 hell.

Now:

MORE HC CHARS!

I'm definitely not going back to SC. Who knows maybe this will be my first step towards a sept?

And finally:

Thanks to Kestegs and crawlingdeadman for suggesting the build, thanks to nulio and Arkado for their giebz, and thanks to the SPF for being awesome |||Congrats on the Guardian! Looking to follow suit with a cookie-cutter Meteorb within the next week (A5 Hell). What are your next plans for the Necro/next project?|||Thanks a lot!

Just updated the thread - accidentally pressed "submit" instead of "preview" while writing it

I think DONOTDIE will to some spontaneus Mfing in the pits and Act 5 (shenk, eldtrich, pindle). I'm definetly going to make new HC chars. A sorc for Mfing purposes is probably coming soon. The Jalal's I found will maybe go on a future bear/wolf druid. I've also heard a lot of positive stuff about Singers and this is definitely an option as well.|||congratulations!

i just re-tooled my guy again, you're not missing anything by not using bone spirit. i tried it as a boss killer since it has higher top end damage. sure it does more damage, but it also sucks away mana even faster than casting spear.|||Congrats! The first guardian is always a very special one.

I'm impressed. My first guardian was far better equipped than yours and I was so scared anyway.|||Thanks!

cdm: Didn't know about the mana issues but in general I was more focused on making Guardian than finding nice items. I was never in danger when fighting bosses so focusing on safety seemed like the best choice. I have thought of respeccing for MF purposes but don't think I'm gonna. CE is just made for area running

baltha: Thanks - this guy really is special to me as I've been playing him quite a long time. And even though he didn't have top end gear, it is quite a safe build as he normally just stands back to help the merc get the first kill and then just blow up the entire screen with CE he very rarely got hit. But when he did, it hurt.|||That's a nice achievement. Congrats.

I wouldn't last long in HC. I run out of patience very quickly after too much safe play |||Nice Fred! Way to push it through!|||Congrats FoE!

Good job on getting your first attempt through. I agree that spirit is not really needed, I never missed it on my recent one. I think pits would be a pretty good place to mf with him, there's nothing that bone prison can't stop down there, which was always my scariest moments. Like snakes, gloams, ghosts, etc. If you don't get in too big of a rush it should be pretty safe.|||Thanks kestegs.

And yeah, gloams, ghosts etc. freak me out big time! I have done a couple of pit runs and it is very safe and fairly quick (not in comparison to a twinked out sorc of course). However, I still really like shenk and eldtrich too. Not so much Pindle as the thought of him 1 hit KOing me scares me. When I'm more experienced with this guy, I don't think it will be a problem though.