Hard Core Mode

Some of you may remember a little game called Diablo II. I remember it fondly. After beating the game you were able to play it again and again on various difficulty modes. One of these modes that always sparked my interest was Hard Core mode.

Each time I start a new toon I always envision myself to be in Hard Core mode and try to see how long I can make it before I die. My record thus far is level 16. Last night my new Blood Elf Paladin Konstahn died for the very first time.

So there I was, questing, killing, skinning, mining…

Levels 1 – 16 had no problems. I may have had one or two close calls but nothing to worry about. I moved on into Ghostlands and was killing Night Elf invaders. I cleansed the area of murlocs, spiders. I was an unstoppable machine.

Next on the chopping block… Gnolls.

I move into their area, they have recently invaded a mine. The Underlight Mine to be exact. I begin to pick and choose my targets as they have shamans with them. Casters are not a paladin’s best friend.

As I already have a 70 paladin I knew full well that I would prefer to pick my fights with casters.

If you have never been into the Underlight Mine area it is annoying at its level. There are lots of pats. The area is littered with little camps of Gnolls, usually 2 to 3 each. One of these is normally a Shaman.

My tactics for taking these guys on was simple.

Step 1 : Target non-caster mob
Step 2 : Hammer of Justice him and charge
Step 3 : Target the shaman on the way in and begin to destroy
Step 4 : Finish off the other 2 mobs

As I mentioned, my tactics were simple.

Did I mention that these mobs run too? They do.

So there I was, doing my thing…

I move into a normal camp, 2 melee mobs and the one shaman. I drop the shaman quick and pick up one of the other two. Then I get a shaman pat respawn, which is a bit of a challenge. Mana is half, health is down to half. Bubble is still good, LoH is still good.

I leave the two mobs alive and charge the fresh shaman. I trust my armor to hold off the melee mobs while I finish off the caster. Caster goes down. Health is down to 90ish now. A moment of indecision occurs. At this point… Do I pot? Do I bubble? Do I run? Do I heal? I decide to try and get the heal off so I can save the cooldowns for a more desperate situation. I figure I can take the small beating and my 90ish health will hold long enough for the heal. I get down to 40ish and the heal is close….

Another Shaman had respawned behind me and I get hit with that lightning bolt dropping me… I had no idea… /sigh

Hard Core mode FAILED!

Maybe next time.