How/Why Do People Stand Hardcore?

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demon9675 wrote:

And the Class - ahem - League Warfare continues!

I'm a Standard player and have zero interest in Hardcore for a plethora of reasons. However, I worry threads like this will just spawn backlash threads titled (and I'm paraphrasing here): "Only people with less masculinity than me play Standard." I'm tired of HC people crapping on SC just because we want to play the game at our own pace and not check what month it is whenever we log on (I guess that only applies to temp leagues, but whatever), so therefore I'm not gonna engage in the same contempt towards others who choose to enjoy the game differently from me.

But if this is basically just a desync/PoE performance thread, perhaps the title should be changed.

Really?

I honestly don't intend to come from a perspective of attacking HC. I consider myself the kind of player who would play HC under normal circumstances. I'm just trying to understand how people play this game permadeath, because from my perspective I have no idea.

Seriously? Are you guys not bored of discussing the same thing over and over again?

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rockmassif wrote:

Seriously? Are you guys not bored of discussing the same thing over and over again?

Protip: if you don't like a topic, don't bump the thread! :)

You have to look on deaths in a positive way. I play only hc legues and deaths made me try over 100 different builds while some of my friends that play only standard played only a couple of builds. This game takes only a couple of days to come to end game mapping and for me it gets mostly boring after lvl 80 when you can already see the power and potential of a build. So even if i don't die before that, i usually delete my char and start a new build. Of course that's not for everyone but the reason i play this game is the diversity of builds and playstyles.

I don't know man.
my "toaster" PC is the subject of many jokes around the forum, and I get hit hard by frame drops and desync, which often require faster reactions and a great deal of "guessing" what is actually going on, even though I can't see it.

also, loading screen deaths. more frustrating than anything else really, because when my screen freezes "live" or I rubber-band somewhere, I can still spam flasks like crazy and hope I make it out alive.
but when I'm stuck on a loading screen while knowing something is hitting my char server-side, it's a helpless feeling.

even so, I keep coming back to the HC Leagues, even after the most horrible of RIPs.
maybe it's a hopeless addiction, I don't know.
but mostly, it's trying to prove something to myself. setting goals for myself and trying to meet them to test if I'm not too old, yet :)

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Green9090 wrote:

So I'm curious: Hardcore players, how do you deal with it? Do you really just die to nothing every few days and need to start a new character? Do you alt+F4 at the first sign of lag (which would mean hard quitting out of nearly every map at least once)? Maybe I live too far from the server and so my dysync is worse than average? Are there some tricks or builds or skills that give you a better chance against desync somehow? If there is not a solution, why on earth would you play HC?

Just a disclaimer: I'm not a 'HC player', just play HC sometimes...

Now onto answers, I:

1.) Favour survivability & defense first, DPS later

2.) Use /oos macro in situations where you should expect desync. /oos macro is basically another skill for me. eg: ID box, set totem, set traps, open box, move away, hit /oos to verify you indeed moved away, enfeeble, fight

3.) Don't be stupid and brave, brave people die young. Know the limits of your build and when not to fight.

4.) I use logout when suspect catastrophic desync situations. Without regrets. Technically the game is in a bad shape, so I have no moral qualms getting out by logout. This is very rare, tho (and certainly not "once per map").

My connection is actually great, fiber optic, 40-50ms stable latency.. My comp is a mid range desktop, but to smoothly play PoE you need a freaking supercomputer, so I play at low-mid settings.

Out of 6 chars I've brought to 80+ in HC leagues so far, two died, none to desync. Tho I had some nasty desync & freeze related daths at lower levels: Cruel Act3, Merc Act1, Merc Act2

Note that I paly solo. In groups survivability goes up by a factor of 200% to 600%

Just press altf4 hard enough you'll be 100 in no time :^)

to avoid desyc and ensure a long life

play

quad curse aura support
dual totem
trapper
PA
Summoner
Freeze Control

dont play fast attack fast movement builds voila .....nice gameplay
never play direct dmg and you are set played a cycloner once had to give him 4 cwdt setups to keep him alive during all the warping

I almost rolled SC this 1 month, waiting for my garbage DSL to be swapped over to fiber if/when winter ever decides to end. My desynch/straight up lag from ISP is pretty bad, but as others have said you learn ways to play around the issues. I am taking it slow, building solid defenses, and not doing anything that I know will desynch me. It still happens sometimes you just plain mess up or get sloppy. I managed mid 70's on my final character in bloodlines league the last week it was up, so I am feeling good about my chances. If I am not feeling good by week 2 end I will swap to the sc league and deal, but for now I am gonna give it a go.

Why don't you record your gameplay and show us situation you "desync" or "suddenly die out of noewhere". It's likely it's your fault, not the game. As you can see from hc ladder people actually survive to lvl100

Desync is just an illusion, exile