SoulToTheHighestBidder - A death poll for the 3 month hardcore league (circa v1.3)

Level 38, Dominus (normal), death by screen lag!

Level 73
Map 69
Lightning thorn

Bloodline packs ...
Bloodline packs don't have as much of an impact on gameplay as Beyond spawns or Invader bosses. I find them to be a breath of fresh air, at least so far. The challenge level is higher than in vanilla hardcore, which is welcome. But, game difficulty in the early going doesn't take a huge leap upward when encountering a league-specific spawn, the way it did for the Beyond and Invasion leagues.

My guess is that bloodline spawns will catch some players unawares while leveling, but will really start to have an impact on difficulty in maps; many players tend to roll maps to increase pack size and magic spawns, to find more maps.

Act 1 Bosses
Brutus fell fairly quickly to zombies and a steady barrage of raging spirits. Decoy totem (a very lucky find, for the early game) helped to keep him pointed away from SttHB.

Merveil took more time than Brutus. But, with cold res of 75% (two sapphire rings, cold res here and there on gear), SttHB was never in serious difficulty. Tactics were to keep circling around Merveil, in both of her forms, avoid damage when possible, and keep summoning a steady stream of spirits. During her first phase, I repeatedly got close to Merveil to drop off spirits, which would then focus on her until their time limit expired. She telegraphs swinging her sword early enough that it's usually possible to side-step her attacks while running by her. In Merveil's second phase, spirits chipped away at her health as I kept circling around her, dropping off spirits whenever I got SttHB close. Spirits also took down many of her adds, which allowed me to keep summoning zombies from corpses that were located close to Merveil. The zombies summoned close to her distracted her from trying to damage SttHB and also sped up the fight quite a bit through the damage they did to her.

Masters ...
So far Haku and Elrion are both up to level 2. Their missions have been uneventful, so far.

Life = 367; ES = 92; Mana = 252

level 59
Merciless Tidal Island
Hailrake because you just switched to CI and forgot how damn big his cascade was.

Level 64
Merc Warehouse Sewer
Undying Dischargers + Shared Boon Bloodline

The journey through Act 2 normal was mostly smooth, with the only somewhat hairy moments coming when surprised by a "shared boon" bloodline pack that stacked up charges very quickly and when a Tora mission featured 100% bloodline magic packs.

Phylactery link packs may have a bug. I've twice run into packs for which I would kill the mob with the aura, but the aura wouldn't transfer to any remaining member(s) of the pack, leaving all remaining pack members invulnerable forever. I think it happened because the one I killed was too far away from others when it died, from the perspective of the game engine, and so efforts to switch the “vulnerable to damage” aura to a survivor didn't work.

Masters ...
I've got three masters at level 2, so no Hideout just yet.

Life = 556
ES = 250
Mana = 338
Armour = 245 (27%)
Evasion = 181 (23%)
Resistances = 34/59/40/0 (fire/cold/lite/chaos)

https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMAGyVLrukC34pr230YbRnZWyyc7IpTUkWdmuDr7riTzfp8gxEt-eiCxyj60_sNfFfJ2t2nCEVHMtGIQFqRqH1JsdfP-TfviJMntAzquv6zvYJXK5AzpqxqrKcrNbkRUBzc-oAqmNkLFVAdT35Zf8YnqfIev5fJPY9Gw21ca4RI99eboU25EJdEBMy8Xyp0VayYVmMV14auLL_BxarEhWAdFPrSjHa3McAaZp4qU2KVsnA=]

Finding multistrike, immortal call, added fire damage, decoy totem, and purity of fire so early in the game was very fortunate (especially multistrike).

The last weapon listed is kept “on switch”, to level up immortal call (IC). Later on, I'll want to match IC up with enduring cry, cast when damage taken, and (perhaps) increased duration.

Adventuring time was limited through most of this week. But, playtime here and there eventually added up to finishing Normal difficulty and moving on to Cruel.

The most noteworthy battles were all against Bloodline packs. I initially underestimated how much they can affect gameplay. They can clearly be very nasty, particularly when they're matched up with a rare that has an aura which improves the speed or damage of its allies.

Large phylacteral link (PL) bloodline packs are (for now) the most bothersome when taking on large groups because minions will keep mindlessly bashing away at mobs that are temporarily invulnerable, instead of switching to a mob that can be damaged. I find it easiest to move SttHB next to the PL pack member with the “kill me” aura and cast convocation. It's still a slow process, though, and doing that will get riskier later in the game.

Masters ...
Elrion finally reached level 3, and so I've got him and Catarina in a hideout.

Catarina offered an item rarity gem, a convocation gem, and a purity of lightning gem as her first sale offerings, after she reached level 3. I bought all of those gems and put them into sockets right away.

Life = 887
ES = 443
Mana = 484
Armour = 239 (15%)
Evasion = 204 (16%)
Resistances = 52/51/38/-20 (fire/cold/lite/chaos)

https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMAGyVLrukC34pr230YbRnZWyyc7IpTUkWdmuDr7riTzfp8gxEt-eiCxyj60_sNfFfJ2t2nCEVHMtGIQFqRqH1JsdfP-TfviJMntAzquv6zvYJXK5AzpqxqrKcrNbkRUA==

SttHB started to have quite a bit of difficulty with mana, leading to slower summoning, and so the mana / mana regen cluster near the witch starting point was taken, just ahead of fighting Dominus.

The last two weapons are kept on switch, to level up gems for the future.

I had terrible luck with finding good resists on gear right up until SttHB was in Sceptre of God, at level 39. Then a lucky rare shield find and a found piece of jewelry finally pushed her resists up close enough to maximum that I felt comfortable taking on Dominus.

I also used a transmute orb and some alts to create a staunching flask, just ahead of fighting Dominus. It probably wasn't needed for normal difficulty. But, it wasn't expensive and having a staunching flask is never a bad precaution to take when fighting him.

I would very much like to get a jade flask, as SttHB has a low life pool and -20 chaos resistance, which can be dangerous.