Median XL - HC tips

Generally not a very dangerous area, but fresh 115 in there, monsters can hurt. Specially if you get swarmed by hawks, they hurt. The lightning spell from the towers can also hurt if u have no res whatsoever. So just don't get cocky, and clear stuff from a distance as much as possible. If you are melee, don't rambo in without gear and clear as you walk up

This area is one of the first scary places to die if you don't know what to expect. Monsters are invisible and they will swarm you quickly. You need good physical resistances or summons and good aoe clear. The minibosses can hit hard too, so definetely do not try to facetank them unless you know what you are doing. IF you dont have summons, play around with act 2 shapeshifter mercenary, he will tank for you. Generally just pre-shoot ur skills / attacks as much as you can, (with ground attacks from this patch) it should be a bit easier to kill them before they swarm, just remember they are invisibile and swam you easily.

90 fire+ poi res, lot of plr( astro charm is a must here), 50 pr ofc. Then u need decent life, melee dev is welcomed. My spear with 16-18k hp can tank 3 nuke b4 dying.

You can use Mystic Orbs on set pieces - check your breakpoints and add FCR+FHR MO as needed.

Ascendent Riftwalker has 4 attacks :

• Retaliate : there's a cold animation above him and he get immortal shortly before, avoided by staying close
• Fire aura : there's a fire animation above him and a cold circle and a shambler appear at the same time somewhere around, shortly after the animation change and most of the arena get hit by big fire damage / sec, unless you stay inside the cold circle. There's a few places on the edge of the maps that work as well but they're very small and unreliable.
  He can spam them so stay alert
• Lightning swirl : See which direction he's facing to know where he'll throw it
• Rift storm : some happens randomly without him doing anything, and I think it depend on your position a little bit, but he can cast lots of them in one go.

The common strategy is max lightning resist to not care about the swirl, and stay close most of the time, only moving to get in the cold circle. You can attack him anytime

(Tips by Lynderika)

Farming

• Meteors from Temple Spires are the most dangerous here - best to have max fire res and as much life as you can (15K) and dont tank them ofc
• Cold beam from Kraken guards can also be dangerous with low cold res - aim for 82-85% cold res and it also chills you (bad if you sustain - LoMA - relies on fast attack)

Boss

• Check Istaryu's Guide to Triune boss fight
• If Lucion keeps attacking you after charming him either quickly TP to town or go to melee range with him.

There's a Dominate oskill on Druid Helms (craft/rare/magic) which is much better for charming Lucion because it has fixed 20s duration and short cooldown.

Destroy just the first 2 pillars and the last 2, ignore the rest.
If you attack has big AoE stay in the bottom corner during the fight to avoid accidently destroying more pillars.
Phys res is the most important there, also have poison at least 84%

Useful links

• Hardcore And High Survivabilty Softcore Scosglen/Lab Builds guide by midknight
• Solfege's Melee sorceress guide has valuable information about every uber/boss.

Don't stand in the blood ritual circle, otherwise you will get 200% res penalty (red eye status nears mana pool), and easily get one shot. Instead, just stand close by the circle, while baiting for inarius to be inside it, and deal dmg when he's vulnerable. If you're close by the circle and still get red eye status, just move outside a little bit to removing it, or abandon the turn to be safer

This uber is dangerous with melee build, especially trap rat, they will melt you quickly, try to get PR first and come back later.

Summon or melee merc shouldn't be here as they will draw out the barrels from >1 screen and these barrels are usually invisible. For assur, make sure to have 320-360 fire res (320 can be OK, but try to get 360), because he has pierce

Recommended resists while leveling:

• A1 normal: 10% - 20% fire, poison
• A3 normal: 50% all res, light/cold higher if possible
• A4 normal: 75% fire res
• A5 normal - 105: 75% elemental res
• 105+: >75% elemental res depends on ubers

1. Life 16k - 20k, no more, no less (exception is pal)
2. Need high avoid/defense/claw block, normal block is not recommended on HC (the lower the better)
3. Max breakpoints: 3-4 fpa fhr/fbr (fbr if having block, even a little), 5-6 fpa attack/cast
4. Slow target 25% to slow laz, 10%-30% Magic res
5. Melee devotion is a must
6. Pick a route that doesnt depend on teleport (if having normal block, even a little)
7. For each laz pounce, either hit ONE normal atk to slow or cast purify (first time can be both)
8. After done 7, run for 0.3-0.5s to avoid tremor from totems, then walk and stand constantly to reset purify cooldown, as well as avoid deathstrike
9. Pick one long straight section of the map to out run laz and go around clear groupies/totems, to reset
10. laz will pounce if he loses his sight on you, either far distance (1 screen) or block by obstacle, use this for 9 and kite laz around the map
11. No proc, no reanimate (from gear, charm, skill,...)
12. Only single target attack allowed (no aoe skill, no aoe weapon,...) for slow
13. Must have Cannot be frozen
14. The higher life regen, the better, and better if regen to %hp
15. Do not purify laz when standing far from him

Basically, need to achieve 15% cth from mobs by having def 200k+ (or lower if having block/avoid, still the more the better). Be aware to invest FBR if having block. FHR/FBR should be 5fpa or lower. Lastly, some life sustain will be a big help

Try to get some physical resistance. Watch out for the Amazon defender’s arrow spam.

A1 jail levels: be careful, try to cap resistance. Especially cold is useful.

When you get to 3rd act and kill mephisto - feel free to farm uniques from him till you craft all the uniques you need.