Hardcore/Permadeath

I have been playing City of Heroes in the Hardcore style that Diablo II offers as an option. Essentially what it means is that if your toon is defeated then it is dead and can not come back. No awakens…no hospitals...nothing.

My goal isn’t necessarily to make it to 50 without dying. What I am trying to accomplish is to challenge myself in game that has not been especially challenging for a while now. To achieve that goal I set up some parameters to make the game increasingly more challenging as the hero went up in level.

At 5th level I set the mission difficulty to allow fighting bosses when solo. At 10th level I set the mission difficulty to +1 level. At 15th level I set the mission difficulty to equivalent of 2 heroes. At 20th level I set the difficulty to +2 levels…and died shortly after that. I have not achieved 25th level but when I do I will up the difficulty to equivalent of 3 heroes.

I have played 10 toons to date with varied success.

Here are the toons and how they did:

Ad Infinitum – Tanker – Willpower/Stone Melee – 8th Level
Azure Icicle – Blaster – Ice Blast/Devices – 18th Level
Grey Ghost – Controller – Illusion Control/Kinetics – 8th Level
Broken Arrow – Defender – Radiation Emission/Archery – 10th Level
Voltaic Blade – Scrapper – Dual Blades/Electric Armor – 10th Level
Axe Man – Tanker – Shield Defense/War Mace – 6th Level
Incendiary Mind – Blaster – Fire Blast/Mental Manipulation – 11th Level
Inertia – Controller – Gravity Control/Trick Arrow – 15th Level
Thunderstorm – Defender – Storm Summoning/Electrical Blast – 17th Level
Ebon Fist – Scrapper – Dark Melee/Shield Defense – 20th Level

I was very pleased to make 20th level. Prior to embarking on the hardcore play I think the highest any of my guys made without dying was around 8th level. Starting at around 15th level the missions become very challenging. At that point missions are set at +1 level and 2 hero equivalent. Almost every mob had a lieutenant and there are often multiple bosses in the missions. Missions sometimes take me 1-2 hours as I have to break up the mobs by pulling and running…waiting until they stop chasing me and turn to go back to where they were stationed…then shooting one in the back as they walk away which often results in only that one guy coming after me. I also have to leave the missions multiple times for inspirations…usually all greens and break frees.

I know it doesn’t appeal to most of you, but I would love to have others join the “ladder” to provide competition, and it would also be fun to form teams of people playing as cautiously as I have to when plying this style.

It’s BIG FAT FUN!

My global is EricVK if anyone would like to give it a try with me.

Just to let you know there is a group doing this on Justice. It's actually the second go around they did it last year as well it was fun when i tried it.


http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...43#post3044743

Thanks! I will go check them out.