Looking for HC viable beginners build

Hello guys,

as the title says, I'm looking for a hardcore viable beginners build (for the current Essence league, if that matters). I've already played PoE about a year ago, didn't make it past act 1 cruel though because I didn't have the time to continue playing (my new job required me to go abroad a lot).

A little bit about my experience with action rpg's: I've played Diablo 2 to death and have quite a lot of playtime with other games too (especially Diablo 3, played about 600 hours this year). So, I'd say I have a good understanding of the genre itself.

I've also watched a lot of videos about PoE in the last few weeks (build guides, general tutorials, Lioneye's Watch podcast etc.) and did quite a lot of reading on the Wiki, so I know about the general mechanics of the game.

I decided I want to play hardcore from the beginning because I like the challenge of having to plan for different encounters and the feeling you get when you barely manage to escape death (I've also played D2 and D3 in hardcore most of the time). I'm fully aware that my characters will die, and especially the first few ones rather sooner than later.

In short, what I'm looking for is:

- A build that's hardcore viable for a new player that knows about the basic mechanics and has experience with similar games
- A build that's cheap (obviously, since I don't have any currency and I also like to play action rpg's selffound if possible [selffound viability is not a requirement – a build that doesn't require five specific uniques would be cool though])
- Preferably something that helps me to learn/understand the more advanced game mechanics as I progress (that's a quite hard to explain – let's say I'd prefer the build to have some varied mechanics it relies on aside from the main attack [be that curses, auras, summons or whatever])

What is absolutely NOT required:

- A build with very high clear speed
- A build that can run any content and/or the most difficult content in the game (I probably won't make it to the Shaper in my first few attempts anyway)

What I don't want:

- Any cheese builds that exploit broken game mechanics and/or are totally wonky (like the stuff ghudda [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6s5lWVlAJXAQ6P3VuEcwpA] does – as fun as that might be I'd prefer a more traditional style of playing)

I have already looked at the following builds in detail:

- Most of LiftingNerdBro's builds (https://www.youtube.com/user/LiftingNerdBro)
- Whaitiri's Crit Arc Witch build (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1147951)
- PewPewPew's Firestorm build (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1460817)
- ProjectPT's Essence Drain/Contagion build (https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1716534)

They all sound cool and quite beginner friendly but I'm not too sure how hardcore viable they are (I know ProjectPT played his ED/C build solo selffound to 90+ in hardcore but he's obviously a far more experienced and superior player than me at this point). So, if anyone has hardcore experience with any of these (or similar builds) I'd love to hear it.

Aside from those, I'm of course looking for additional suggestions. I'm pretty much open to any playstyle as long as a build fits the points above. And if anyone has tips for hardcore in general, I'd love to hear those too (I watched/read quite a bit about do's/don'ts and the general mentality but you can't have enough information).

Oh, and before anyone asks why I don't want to make my own build: I totally plan on doing that once I have more experience (I love theory crafting). For now though, I just want to have something that's "proven to work" because I think hardcore should be challenge enough for a while. :)

Thank you so much for any suggestions/feedback!

Hello fellow solo, self-found D2 player!

Your post is well written and I'm a bit surprised that you haven't gotten any responses yet.

Don't worry about people judging you for not making your own hardcore viable build with no experience. Everyone needs to learn somewhere, and this game is nice and complicated.

I play solo, self-found, but not hardcore. I know it's not the same, but I do have some general survival tips. It sounds like you really have done your research though, and probably just need experience now.

Prepare for my wall of text of good intentions!

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1. Prioritize defense. This means life on gear, move speed on boots, and capping resists, among other things.

* Life on gear - you want this! it's the best stat, assuming you choose a life build. Life is easier to start with than ES, especially self-found due to gear quality. Life helps out in the labyrinth and during combat because healing potions are very powerful. Percent-based life regen (from the tree) is also very good. In this game, to have leech anywhere near as good as in D2 you'd have to build around that.

* Move/attack/cast speed - don't stand in the fire, the boss slam, or the lasers. It's much easier to manually dodge than to survive tanking hits. Your build will probably want to use Multistrike if melee or Spell Echo if caster. Having a higher attack speed/cast speed with these skills will prevent you from being stuck in place while attacking/casting.

* Capping resists - is more important in this game than it was in D2. The damage monsters do is designed around you having max res, so if you don't, you can die easily. Be very careful around things which can do chaos damage; there aren't too many sources of chaos damage but it can be hard to find resist for it also.

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2. Think about which skills you'll want to use. Most every character is going to need a few essentials - a main skill, possibly another skill for single target or aoe, a movement skill, auras, a curse, and anything else that will fit in your gear and improve damage/survival.

* Choose a skill for solo, self-found that will work in a 4-link to save yourself some grief.

* You'll need a movement skill, like Whirling Blades, Leap Slam, Lightning Warp, Blink Arrow, or Flame Dash. Even with decent move speed, sometimes you will have to get out of the way from a boss's attack faster. You can use some movement skills tactically to use terrain in your favor. Labyrinth traps, which are deadly enough in softcore, are a lot easier to deal with if you are more mobile.

* Something to do with all that mana. Even if you are melee, a level 4 Clarity can go a long way towards letting you run a health pot instead of a mana one. There might be a Herald that works with your build, or a curse using Blasphemy. I love Arctic Armour for its extra damage reduction and chilled ground.

* Curses - In hardcore, I imagine Temp Chains and Enfeeble are extra strong. If you play an elemental build, you might want the corresponding elemental curse to lower enemy resistances.

* Any of the Golem summons can be useful as a distraction for enemies. Vaal Summon Skeletons is very nice early on. You could also use a totem.

* A Cast When Damage Taken setup is a good thing to have. I usually put Immortal Call in there. Vortex is pretty sweet in melee for the chilling effect. If you use a shield, Tempest Shield's extra block chance doesn't hurt.

* Endurance Charges are great. It's probably a good idea to have a source for those. Enduring Cry is great. Cursing enemies with Warlord's Mark is quite strong until mid maps and it also gives decent leech.

* If you are melee, get Fortify. You can use Vigilant Strike for bosses early on before you get it.

* If your damage is low and you need something extra for bosses, Culling Strike is amazing in solo, self-found. You can put it on your movement skill to finish off bosses before they finish you off.

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3. Flasks are really, really good. It's important to have one or two with Staunching, one with Warding, and maybe one of Heat (especially good if you like to open strongboxes). At least one of the health flasks should be Bubbling or Seething to get instant recovery. I've heard that it's very important to remove shock in hardcore. I like to also run a Quicksilver, Granite, Sulphur, or elemental resist flask (for reflect if I'm an elemental build). I try to have as many uses on each flask as I can with the Ample or Chemist's mods. Many unique flasks are very good but you can't count on those in solo, self-found.

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4. Carry portal scrolls with you and don't be afraid to use them to return to town to refill flasks.

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5. Armour and shields will slow you down. You might want to dual wield and not wear armour early on. Later, the defensive properties of those pieces will increase and you'll have more move speed on boots to compensate for the speed loss.

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There are builds on this forum in the Class sections. Some of them are budget, some of them say they are hardcore viable. Many things can be made hardcore viable by focusing more on defense.

I'm sure you already knew some of this and that there are many other important tips. Maybe someone who plays more hardcore can help you with that.

Good luck, stay safe.

@OP:

I suggest using Necromancer Summon Raging Spirits. It has high attack power and is fairly safe. You can play as life or ES, either one works.

If you play Life base, you can use Cast When Damage Taken - Enfeeble - Desecrate - Bone Offering. Do note that Bone Offering won't tag the Desecrate that was just used on the Cast When Damage Taken. So, hopefully there are already corpses to offer and that just adds more corpses to offer when the next Cast When Damage Taken triggers.

It also wants you to go auras, since Commander of Darkness is pretty cool with auras.

Dual Ancestral Warchief totems seems fairly cheap and tanky, can be built with substantial armor and endurance charges to take care of the physical damage newer players tend to struggle with in the early part of endgame.
The Chieftain ascendancy makes your totems taunt and leech for you while also providing damage reduction, but choosing a more offensive ascendancy is also possible.

Thank you very much for the suggestions, also a big thank you to SunsetVista for your elaborate post. On a sidenote, I've lost quite a few characters to Iron Maiden in D2 and was a bit sad when they removed it (in 1.13 I think), so I'm looking forward to the reflect mechanics in PoE. :P

I've pretty much decided that I'll go Warchief Totems (as suggested). It seems quite tanky and I can at the same time get a feel for how much damage different mobs/mechanics deal by looking at the life of my totems.

SRS sounds fun too but looking at a some builds quite a few people seem to suggest that it's relatively easy to die when making mistakes (at least on a life based build and as far as I understand it, low life or CI is a lot harder to gear for). I want the challenge of hardcore but something a bit more tanky can't hurt for the first character I think. :)

I'll probably start playing on the weekend, so I'm still open for suggestions if anyone thinks something else than Warchief Totems might be more suitable.

yep stopped playing D2 when they did that. lame