Thinking of trying hardcore, but have some questions.

So I'm a firm believer in trying all aspects of a game at least once, so I'm thinking of giving hardcore a go. I just have a few questions though to get an idea of how people tend to play hardcore.

1. I never see any dual wield builds when I watch people play hardcore. Are dual wield builds just too squishy?

2. Same question as above for evasion based builds and life leech builds.

3. Same as above but for CI based builds.

4. While playing softcore chaos resistance hasn't been something I've really bothered much about. I get what I can but I don't make an effort to get any like with the other resistances. In hardcore does chaos resi matter more? Do you try and get some on your gear, or just take what you can as you go?

5. I see a lot of scion/witch/mauader hardcore players but barely any ranger/shadow/duelest. Is there a reason for this?

1) Never tried them but maybe your reason is right.

2) I did some evasion builds. Should take acrobatics and get a lot of life, then it is totally viable.

3) No experience from me. But CI is risky and you need great gear for it. Not so good when you start a league. Later in a league, maybe it's viable.

4) I think most people try to work around it. You may need to sacrifice too much to get chaos resistance up.

5) Indirect damage is safer. Totems, pets, traps, mines... everything that means you can stay away from heavy hitters. So classes that have it easier there will be easier to level up.

1) It is playable. But yes, DW sacrifices a bit of defense and in general you can get to quite good DPS values with a one-handed weapon and a shield. Keep in mind also, that 2.0 strengthened melee somewhat and this will affect which builds become popular.

2) Evasion is definitely viable. Life leech is central in the defensive strategy of most builds for overcoming reflect.

3) There are lots of CI characters out there. You can use it but should get a large ES pool.

4) You can go with -60 chaos resistance if you are careful. But usually I try to get at least to -30.

5) There should be quite a few tornado shot rangers out there. Duelist and Shadow starting areas are often considered less attractive, so they are less commonly played.

1. I just ripped a Tempest/HC dual-claw shadow last night. It was my first try with it...a lot of fun, have to keep up with the weapons otherwise your DPS goes to crap. My shadow was absolutely shredding things, but I had survivability issues as you mentioned. I just dont think evasion is comparable to the other defensive stats...

2. See above.

3. TBH, never made a CI char.

4. I have not made any attempts to get chaos resistance. Although, I have not been insanely deep into HC either(lvl 58 is my highest in HC...I just keep re-rolling and trying to do better).

5. Yeah, I see a lot of marauder, templar, ranger, witch. I dont know...I think shadow hurts because, again, I don't think Evasion is up to snuff for low-budget builds or self-found builds/characters and that is the defensive stat immediately available to a shadow. But, you can go across the tree to armor if you wanted...

Thank you all for your answers. Guess I'll have a browse around at builds and see if I find anything I like the sound of.