Your ultimate multiplayer "hardcore" party/group?

[Nomad_Soul]

Let's assume you were thinking about playing with a group of players - maybe in the range of four to six players total. All playing "hardcore" characters. One death and a given character is gone forever, forced to re-roll.

What mix of classes and hybrids would maximize the survival chances for the entire group over the long run? Would you try a "typical" rpg party, with tanks, healers, and ranged damage dealers?

Or maybe try something less standard. For example, possibly focus the party more on summoning/raising dead to use as meatshields, then emphasize ranged offensive power and healing from there. Perhaps something else entirely?

What would be your ultimate party class mix and strategy?

[DeathKnight1728]

Honestly, i would play more if people played online a lot more. But this is how i see it.

You need someone in the know that can sneak around and get to lower levels of the dungeon and point out what is there while everyone else just fights the heavy guys on the early levels. By the time the game is over, the trickster hybrid will meet up with the other characters. A hunter/trickster is the best at this but a magician/trickster can be very good too as they can getaway from big skirmishes through blind flash. Almost any stealthy character with trickster as hybrid does well at this.

Then come the fighting classes. It doesnt matter how you do it, if you can hit and take hits then you should do well at destroying monsters and bosses. Any brute fighter is good at this, but a defensive slayer would be good too.

Mages are good at assisting with fighters. As fighters are fighting and taking the attention, mages are not only killing and lowering their health, they are killing everything else that takes out the warriors flanks.

Thats just my setup. Ultimately, the trickster build and fighters are almost necessary. However, a decent summoner can easily replace the fighters in roles.

[Nomad_Soul]

Good point on the trickster, definitely. It's quite an advantage to be able to move through the levels quickly and hopefully locate and activate the gates for the rest of the party to use. In this way, troublesome bosses (Overlords and warmongers especially) and machines could be taken down efficiently.

[Antigrav]

I'm still hoping to play online soon...

That said, it's easy to see how the archetypes would work together well. Trap disarming, scouting, and the ability to gimp single opponents would make a full rogue character very useful, besides being wickedly murderous. The warrior would really be a big help to a group (see gladiator's Enrage ability), but maybe a demon hunter would be even better? After that, I'm sure most any hybrid mix would contribute just fine. Ideally, I'd propose an archer and someone who could cast group heal spells and buffs, with less emphasis on spamming heal spells on the tank, because it seems that food and potions work better for the health of any single character and aren't interruptable.

Mage, schmage.

[DeathKnight1728]

If there was a 100 wave invasion mode on, the demon hunter would be ideal. Each person gets a side of the map, (4 people) throw on a ward or circle and your set to go.

[spacehog]

I'd throw a shaman somewhere in the mix to give everyone hardiness. If you're playing hardcore extra vitality is always welcome. This hardcore party sounds like a good time. Maybe several of us can coordinate a night in the near future? My schedule is about to be quite open for a couple weeks as I quit my job.

[DeathKnight1728]

I'd be down for that in the future. Right now im enjoying the 1st geneforge from spiderweb software and i am on a mission to conquer that.