Hard Mode Newbie

I got a character from each campaign to finish their respective campaigns, and 2 of them also finished EoTN.
I'm now trying my hand at Hard Mode, and it's... hard


Any general advice on how to approach HM? My "I win" builds for NM get ripped apart in HM.

I'm currently spending most of my time on my Dervish, but my other HM enabled characters are an Ele and a Necro.

First make sure you understand what is different from NM to HM. Things like enemy levels are obvious, but don't forget about things like they have more armor and health as well. They also move and attack fast, cast faster, and their skills recharge faster. This means something like interrupting a 1 second spell in NM will be easy, but as a 1/2 second cast in HM, you may have trouble hitting that interrupt. And skills like Empathy and Spiteful Spirit will do more damage because they are attacking faster.

AI changes some too. So spells like Firestorm may cause scatter after it has done damage for 5 seconds, but in HM, they scatter faster and won't take as much damage from it. And since they have increased armor, skills that are doing damage based on the enemy armor will be significantly reduced.

If you haven't learned it yet, learn how to pull and hold aggro. Taking on 2-3 groups may not be a problem in NM, but in HM you will rarely want to handle more than 1 group at a time.

when you are in game type /wiki HM for general advices.
you need max armors and runes+insignias, be more carefull whn you engage, etc...

apart that, post your builds here or in apporpriate forums, yours and heroes' ones to get feedback on what might be completely inefficient in HM.

Protection.

spirit bond/prot spirit/soa/...

Minions.

minions with death nova. so this is what happens.
lvl 12~ minions run in with death nova -> monster smash minions (and not you) -> minions go boom -> monster is diseased + takes 100~ dmg

Prot sprit is a MUST in HM. The AP chain with Discord heros or Sabway and good pulling can make HM easy.

The last two post summed pretty much everything up, master your heroes build so that is suits HM (I personally love Discordway) and learn the mechanics of HM and Hard Mode will become Horrible Mode cause it's so easy.
(Most of the time anyways)

The key is in understanding. It will change everything.

This. Let me elaborate some:

Protting is so much more important in HM than it is in NM. You'll come up against ele bosses who'll one shot half your party without pre protting. Partywide defense such as aegis chains and paragons are not just important, but essential.

MM's are always useful, but more so in HM since meatshields are invaluable against foes that could hit for 300+ against your party members. Bombing them is pretty useful; use discord heroes.

HM really isnt that hard if you run the right builds. A good place to start is with a triple necro setup. Use Sabway if your running a physical character (assassin,warrior,dervish~possibly ranger~) and discordway with the Assassins promise, You move like a dwarf, Finish Him and ebon vanguard assassin or pain inverter chain if ur a caster (mes,rit,monk,ele,necro etc)
OR
you can have the best of both worlds, grab a pair of ritualists and set them up to spam for you. this way, ur practically invincible, as well as dealing massive dmg.

Thanks, good advice.
I played around a bit with Minion bomber hero and Me/Rit utility Hero (interrupts, Splinter weapons, rez, ...) and a protter Monk. I'm thinking about changing the mezzmer to an Air Ele/Rit or an SS or order Necro.

Discordway looks intersting, so I'll have to go "shopping" for the few skills I'm missing.

Getting ready for Ruins of Surmia with Heroes. My current D/E Build is OgaikysMJfhM0DKuFgxc9dVeBA and seems to deal well with the heavy condition spamming. unfortunately my ISP decided to reset my DSL modem for maintenance when I was halfway through the mission

Ruins of Surmia is a 4-man mission. In normal mode the first missions are easier than the last missions. In hard mode, however, this is not always true, since the monster levels in hard mode are the same in the first missions and in the last missions. Therefore, you should probably practise hard mode missions where you can make a party of 8. Henchmen level up in hard mode to level 20 too by the way. A party of 8 can handle an aggro mistake much better than a party of 4. Multiple healers and all that.

Agree with the prot spirit and spirit bond; I always take this on Vekk.

The best way to make it all go down fast and easy is to not spend too much time on your heals/prots. Only 2 of them, for example. The rest should synergise with your build. Also taking armour ignoring damage is great, and AoE armour ignoring is even better- try and pack some if you can.

There is the easy road of Discordway, but try and be a little more creative/balanced with your builds.

Good luck in Hard Mode, Rookie.