TOPIC: Gear levels for puzzle/combat/grind?

Third year here so I can definitely answer the first one. You can play normal-puzzle with your starter booster pack. Heck, you could probably do it naked.

But how would you sketch out the requirements for the other types of games, and at other levels? Let's factor player skill out completely and assume everyone can pass all skill checks and can always slide a 16.

(If that's too broad, my selfish personal question is what can I play with a Wizard with +3 spell damage, +13 hp, and hat of intellect or a Barbarian with +1 2H Iron War Club, +1 strength, and +6 damage.)

Always sliding a 16 is pretty decent, although teamwork can matter more than sliding or skill tests and that's harder to quantify.

I'm guessing your current builds and skill level should be adequate for a Hardcore run in the dungeon, either puzzle or combat. I'd like to know your to-hit bonus for your Barbarian build to tell you for sure. That's assuming you get on a good team with similar skill, experience, and equipment.

Let me know your ACs and your Barbarian's to-hit bonus and I'll answer about Grind. Probably your build will need to be upgraded a bit to have a chance of surviving even a Normal-difficulty Grind. The good news is we will have more Grinds this year so hopefully you can try it out!

Here are some general stats for monsters / threats:

All values approximate.

Monster AC range:

Normal: 15-22
Hardcore: 18-25
Nightmare: 20-28

Monster to-hit bonus:

Normal: +8
Hardcore: +12
Nightmare: +16

Threat DC for saves:

Normal: 18
Hardcore: 20
Nightmare: 22



So - if you can slide a 16 and want that to be a hit, then you'd need your own to-hit bonus to be:

Normal: 0-6
Hardcore: 2-9
Nightmare: 4-12

You can see for Normal you'll be fine with your starting token 10-packs, as even with basic gear classes have to-hit bonuses in the +0 to +4 range, and can get +1 from Bardsong, and another +2 from Cleric Prayer.

For Hardcore you'll want an optimized Rare build at least, to get another ~+3 to-hit from things like Shirt of Brawn, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, a +1 weapon, Belt of Ogre Power, Fiendish Charm, Wicked Charm, RIng of the Hallowed.


If you want monsters to miss you on 1/2 of their melee attacks, your AC should be:

Normal: 18
Hardcore: 22
Nightmare: 26


If you want to save 1/2 the time, your save modifiers should be:

Normal: +8
Hardcore: +10
Nightmare: +12

^^

This is a Very Good Post and should be in its own thread - possibly pinned to make it easier to find.

Because this is exactly what we want to point people at, when they ask "Am I geared for Nightmare?" or "Could I survive Hardcore with my Build?"