A few tips for new players from a new player

[Incompetent]

Thanks for the advice on the level challenge. At the moment, my level 7 Unholy Paladin is struggling to get through the Halls of the Dead - the corridors fill up with monsters, there's hardly any space to park anything, and beetles and those charging bats are both able to hurt me even if I keep moving. I could get a couple more levels now I suppose, though it probably won't make much difference to the running phase.

On the plus side, I've got 30k in the bank. Aren't the odds of getting a unique by gambling pretty low? Also, the better T1 uniques often require higher strength. Roughly how much base/modified strength should I have by level 10?

[Hauki]

The odds for gambling a unique were 5% in 1.54 - they were recently nerfed to 2.5% with 1.55. Barring extreme bad luck (which I've had - spent 6m trying to gamble a unique Spirit Helm, and that was with a low level character with some -%vendor price gear), you should be able to find at least some of what you would need/want.

The desired base strength really depends on what class/build you're using, and therefore what uniques you're aiming to use.

[enkephalin07]

It may be very difficult to tier up equipment for three reasons:

1. You're replaying early stages for exp
2. You're playing the attribute challenge and don't meet requirements for higher order gear
3. New pieces just don't have the sockets you need, or your runes and jewels don't seem disposable enough to put them in what seems like a downgrade.

Flawed gems are ideal for the early game; you can upgrade the plentiful magic items you don't need to rare, and use the gem chip to turn those into arcane shards, then cube them with your gear to upgrade defense, block rate, attack, mana, etc, every five levels. If you're specializing in poison, that extra +3%/5 lvls seriously amplifies it, and the same goes for lightning, fire, cold.

[Mr Matey]

If I'm like most people trying a new mod, I know I'm going to try every possible challenge. I normally have a bit of a go with each character decide which skills i like and then start a new char.

So trying my first char and trying to do the stat point challenges and the level challenges. One hint I've got is to use the cube recipe to add strength, dexterity and vitality to your items. It does increase the level by 5, but hopefully when you find items requiring higher attributes you can use these recipes.

[pza]

for those people who always asked theirselves what is "spinal tap lives!" on hardmode charm 11:

it's a band and there's a movie, where they explain that they can play louder than others: