D2R Ladder Season 2 Hardcore Guide - 10 Tips To Help You Survive In Diablo 2 Resurrected Hardcore

D2R Ladder Season 2 Hardcore Guide - 10 Tips To Help You Survive In Diablo 2 Resurrected Hardcore

12/23/2022 3:19:06 PM

Have you been playing a lot of hardcore in Diablo 2 Resurrected lately? Are you too worried to play hardcore and struggle to survive? We are here to tell you that surviving isn't that hard as long as you follow our D2R Ladder season 2 hardcore guide, we are sharing 10 tips to survive in hardcore.

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D2R 2.5 Hardcore Guide - 10 Best Tips For Diablo 2 Resurrected Ladder 2 Hardcore

In Diablo 2 Resurrected season 2 hardcore, you only have one life, and dying is game over, making it seem quite different from Softcore. Since hardcore goods are far more costly than softcore ones, many gamers choose to play them despite the greater danger involved. The first rule of any emergency is to stay alive, thus we are bringing you 10 tips that will help keep you alive in hardcore D2R Ladder 2.

Tip 1 - Try to Cap Your Resistance

Early on in normal, this won't be possible and it won't matter that much. But you should still be trying to equip pieces of gear that have resistance on them. You can easily increase your resistances with the ancient pledge runeword that is made with the ral, ort, and tal runes in a shield and it can be equipped at level 21. You can shop for an ancient pledge base in Act 2 from pharaoh and you can farm the runes from a normal Countess. There are also some quests that help with your resistance as well which leads us to our next tip.

Tip 2 - Don't Skip Important Quests

There are a handful of quests that can be particularly useful but there are 3 that you most definitely shouldn't skip over when playing hardcore in Diablo 2 ladder 2.

-The first one is the golden bird quest in Act 3. The very first unique monster you come across in Act 3 will drop a jade figurine. Once picked up, it will start the quest Make sure to finish the entire questline for the potion of life which grants you 20 permanent hit points.

-Next is lam esen’s tome. This quest is very easy to miss and requires a bit of time but rewards you with 5 free attribute points. There are a total of 6 ruined temples scattered throughout the 3 areas of the cross, you need to find the right one and retrieve the tone for alcor. This quest alongside the golden bird quest can amount to quite a lot of hp after doing each of them 3 different times, so don't overlook them.

-The last and most important quest for hardcore is the prison of ice quest in Act 5. You need to find Anya in the frozen river which can be found in the crystalline passage. Once you find her and free or from the ice you'll be rewarded with a scroll that gives you plus 10 to all resistances as well as a rare class-specific D2R item from Anya herself. Obviously, the all-res is the important bit here but the rare item you receive from Anya can actually be very good and shouldn't be overlooked either.

-The same goes for the blade of the old religion quest in Act 3 and while it isn't quite as good as Anya's reward, you still get a rare ring from Ormus on completion which if you're lucky, can roll some useful stats like life and resistances.

Tip 3 - Utilize Charms & Magic Items

We know that your inventory space can feel precious but none of that extra space will matter if you're dead. So use charms when you need them. When it comes to magic items, you can find really good gloves, boots, and belts from vendors like Charsi in Act 1. You should be picking up and iding magic items during your playthrough, especially for item slots where you feel like you could use an upgrade.

Tip 4 - Gamble

There are ideal times to gamble throughout a character's leveling journey. For instance, sometimes in Nightmare usually around level 35 or so is a great time to gamble for boots. This is because the speed affix that rolls 30% faster run walk can start rolling on rare boots at ilevel 37 and all the other useful stats you want on boots like resistances and magic find can roll much earlier. This is valuable to know because the cost of gambling scales with the level of your character so it becomes more expensive at higher levels. Also as your level increases, so does the pool of affixes that can roll on an item which decreases the odds that you'll receive the affixes you're looking for. Gambling is something that will be useful throughout your character's entire lifespan or at least until you get all your best in slot gear. So be sure to gamble whenever you have some extra gold to spare.

Tip 5 - Crafting

Crafting offers you a free chance at creating a good item as long as you have the items to do it. You can craft an item for any item slot on your character but you can only craft with certain base items. For example, if you want to craft a belt with a faster cast rate, then you would need either a magic light belt, a shark skin belt, or a vampire fang belt. So it's a good idea to keep an eye out for the specific bases you need. If you are having trouble finding them, you can always gamble for the base item or check a vendor for one.

Tip 6 - Pay Attention to Enemy Modifiers Auras & Curses

This is probably the most important D2R Ladder season 2 hardcore tip of them all except for keeping your resistances capped of course. There are many auras that can be very deadly to go up against especially if the monsters that have them are buffed by other modifiers. For example, the might aura increases the attack damage of all the monsters under its effects. This might not sound too bad but couple this with an effect like extra speed and it becomes increasingly dangerous. Throw in amplified damage from the curse effect and you just might find yourself fighting for your life. This is just one example of how a situation can go from 0 to 60 really quickly, but there are a plethora of other combinations that are just as if not more dangerous.

The two big auras you want to look out for are fanaticism and conviction. Conviction is by far the scariest aura. Conviction lowers your fire cold and lightning resistance. A pack of spell casters or a lightning-cold or fire-enchanted monster with this aura can be terrifying. So keep an ear and an eye out for conviction. Speaking of fire-cold and lightning-enchanted mobs, there's a unique bug in Nightmare that causes some rippy interactions when an enemy is fire enchanted and either cold or lightning enchanted. A common place to run into this bug is against the council in Act 3.

The bug can cause multiple explosions and or novas to occur that deal high amounts of damage, but only one nova and explosion will ever be seen. Since the explosion from fire-enchanted mobs is partially physical, you need to be very careful to not have amplified damage on you. It might be a good idea to go back to town whenever you have amp damage on you to get it cleansed by the town healer. At least until you can build your character to a point where they won't get deleted because of it. There are lots of combinations of auras and monster mods, it can be scary. Especially if you're lacking some resistance and you have amplified damage on you. So keep an eye on your resistances and try your best to learn as much as you can about auras and monster mods.

Tip 7 - Hire a Mercenary

Hiring a mercenary can be very good both offensively and defensively. The Act 2 defense mercenary Nightmare provides the holy freeze aura which slows the movement and attack speed of all enemies in range. Defensively speaking this is the best mercenary in the game and will make most situations on your end safer. You can also use your mercenaries and meat shield by just kiting monsters away until the enemies aggro him. Just be sure to keep him geared up so he isn't dying on you all the time.

Tip 8 - Invest in Defenses & Utility

Most classes have a form of defense and or utility that they can use to help keep them alive. For barbarians, there's shout, battle orders, natural resistance, and howl. Assassins get fade, weapon block, and shadow master. Necromancers get bone armor curses and summons. But one defense that all classes can make use of if they choose to do so is blocked. Max block will be easier to reach for some classes than it will be for others. But it's a great way to increase your survivability and it might be worth looking into depending on what class and build you're playing.

Tip 9 - Use Rejuvenation Potions

Rejuvenation potions heal a portion of your life and mana instantly. You can also combine 3 rejuvenation potions in your roger cube to create a full rejuvenation potion that instantly restores 100 of your life in mana. Be sure to keep yourself stocked up on these, it can mean the difference between life and death.

Tip 10 - Farming for Upgrades

Diablo 2 isn't about rushing to the end game as quickly as possible. Although it can definitely be like that in softcore. On hardcore especially on a fresh character, you can't be afraid to farm for upgrades. This is usually done by farming Countess in Act 1 for runes and by farming cows or other similar areas for item bases to use said runes. You can obviously farm Act bosses too as long as you feel like you can handle them. The whole point here is to not be afraid to farm or gain some extra levels before continuing your journey.