I'm not sure being a melee int is good late game as you'll be wearing mage armors.. it can be paired with defense but experimentation is meant to be free and not tied up to a certain mastery

It can be done. I did a 60-70% INT (pre-AE) dual-wield Thane and Battlemage using dual elemental affixed sabretooths, with the remainder of the points focused on DEX and minimal STR for gearing reqs. It was a pain to build progressively rather than build it right out of a template toon, but it can be done. It can clear Legendary content no problem with enough RR shred (dmg) and ADCtH (sustain) and this was on xMax.

But let's take a theoretical Runemaster + Storm/Earth using the same concept I stated building a dual wield. It enjoys the same %damage bonuses it's element specific counterpart enjoys, but the  difference in damage output will be clear when those base elemental damages are compared side by side. Since this class no longer needs elemental bonuses from equipment, what's stopping it to equip a Sapros or a melee weapon with Betrayer on one hand and a fluff weapon (gives HP/resists/+skills) that's not damage focused but will still out-damage the first example, since it relies on the conversion?

I don't even have the expansion yet but I can already imagine my end-game setup for a theoretical 60-70% INT Runemaster + Storm/Earth character. From what I'm visualizing it will beat my 60-70% INT dual-wield Thane and Battlemage in mob clear speed, boss killing ability and survivability. Maybe im over-reacting, it's speculation after all. Now I'm more inclined to buy the expansion earlier than I planned to confirm my worries. 

CDR dependent casters are still viable. but you just cant blindly go in now and nuke the s#@% out of everything.

pet pulling and CD management is now actually needed especially in modded games like xmax.

@MedeaFleecestealer :

No need to add; these are re-runs and for the most part just for my own satisfaction. i just wanted to see if i am still able to do them with the new buffed monsters and nerfed cap and res values of AE. Last thing i want to do is clutter LB for newer players; will be doing my own thing for now. Will rejoin the challenge soon enough using other classes I haven't used before or old classes I'm convinced can't finish the challenge using the same concept I used originally.

As for the yellow tagging, sorry just wanted it to match the labelling system of TQ. It does hurt the eyes doesn't it? 

Is it just me or was there a recent change in XP scaling? I know Level cap has been increased for Ragnarok Expansion, but I haven't bought it yet.

All of my lvl 64-65 toons jumped to 69-70 in their next kill. Wth is up with that? Did THQ give into the pressure of making this game less grindy to satisfy the casuals?  ALA Grim Dawn approach...

Can't say I'm a fan of it. Reaching high levels through grind is one of the features of ARPG is one I really enjoy...

Hardcore Run Class: Dreamkiller

When played normally, this class can be a strong melee character that has access to HIGH one-hit kill skill. When used in congruence with a sword or spear combined, with Dream Mastery's defensive options as well as it synergy with Rogue mastery in crowd controlling packs of mobs, this class is no slouch when it comes to Hardcore challenges and is definitely a viable pick. However, I chose to play as a DoT toon, using mainly poison. I was inspired to build this back in TQ:IT, when the general consensus was that poison sucked. Of course, since I was out to prove that everything and anything can work in this game, what better way to prove it than running it Hardcore on xMax.

Build Concept & Source of Damage:
- Poisonmancer, DoT melee w/ CC (lot's of it)
- Lethal Strike, Phantasmal Strike
Personal Class+Build Tier Rating: 2.5 out of 5; viable
Difficulty Rating:
Early Game (1-50): 1 out of 5 Early Game
Late Game (50-65): 4 out of 5 Late Game
Normal to Legendary Finish: 4 days, 8 hours, 51 minutes
Kills: 150,354
Level Finished: 66

Class Notes:

• You are a Crowd Control God. Has very strong kiting tools, allowing for you to minimize incoming threats/damage. In my case, I used this strength to synergize with the fact that my damage is dependent on DoT. CC'ing enemies who have degening life bars.
• Being a Rouge based profession, you can optimize your damage by going Sword or Spear. Thus, you should be looking in 2:1 DEX/STR stat distribution. This benefits you overall by giving you higher OA and DA ratings, as well as increased Pierce and poison damage.
• Like most Dream based professions, you will start out strong and have fast character progression. For the Poisonmancer build I used though, since no points are allocated to INT you will lose speedclear momentum by Act 3. From there you can re-focus to poison based damage and stack it with ToW damage.
• While most people would opt to go for a Brigand when doing a DoT Poisonmancer to stack Bleed and Poison and fully take advantage of the massive DoT bonuses and modifiers, I picked Dream as a supplementary class for the survivability it provides with its defensive passives and crowd control abilities. The class also has a built in RR shred in his skill kit via ToW. Applying this debuff before applying the massive poison damage you have ensures your enemies won't be having a good day.

Personal Challenge Equipment
Aphrodite's Favor
Hale Ring of Supremacy - Monkey Trick w/ DA bonus
Hale Ring of Immortality - Demon's Blood w/ Vitality Resist bonus
Hallowed Any Helm of Legends - Crystal of Erebus w/ Resist All bonus
Armor of the Phantom
Defiled Ismene's Bracer's of the Glade - Boar Hide w/ Bleed Resist bonus
Defiled Gogs of Any - Hermes Sandal w/ DA bonus
Zeno's Third Paradox (2)
Lethal Deathweaver's Legtip of the Betrayer or Sapros the Corruptor (debuff weapon)
Lethal Deathweaver's Legtip of Devouring (main weapon)
Star of Ishtar - w/ Dex bonus

All of your combined gear aims to fulfill the following goals:

• Enhance your total Poison damage output
• Increase your base DEX to the point wherein OA and DA become a non-issue
• Have relatively high CtAP

Since the only difference between you and a normal melee DPS character is the way you do damage. Survivability is a must. This means positive resists, high DA a decent HP and some form of CtAP. Defiled Ismene's Bracers and Gogs are a must. These, not only boost your base stats and resists, but they also increase you overall damage.

Lethal Deathweaver's Legtip SHOULD be your only option as a poison melee. It boasts the highest flat poison base damage weapon in-game available, and is further amplified when you relic it with a Sheng-Nong's for more flat poison damage.

Now that it is possible to get "Betrayer" suffix from AE, you should be should be looking for a Lethal Deathweaver's Legtip of the Betrayer as your primary choice of weapon. A Devouring one is also a good choice for sustain, but best if you have both. So you have a debuff setup and a sustain weapon switch. A Sapros can also be used as a Debuff weapon, but I do not advice to use one. From the setup used, you will most likely end up with only 5.5-6k HP. With the -20+% HP debuff on Sapros, your HP pool will take a massive hit. Something I do not advice on a melee toon on AE xMax.

Biggest Threats/Potential Challenge Enders (Highest to Lowest Threat):

• Dragon Liche [Epic & Legendary] - You are a melee toon that is dependent on Pierce and Poison damage, both of he is highly resistant/immune to. No amount of debuffing can undo his high resistance, which means you will spend a long time whacking it's HP bar away with pitiful damage. This exposes you to the danger of getting caught into one of its freeze attacks, which sets you up to a lethal sync'd Vitality Decay (puke attack) even at maxed Vitality resists. Learn the animations and approach fight with caution. In most cases, I would even suggest swapping to a Bramblewood bow and kiting it one by one.
• Undead Typhon [Legendary] - Same as the previous threat, Undead Typhon is highly resistant/immune to poison and pierce. No amount of debuffing can undo his high resistance, which means you will spend a long time whacking it's HP bar away with pitiful damage. While his attacks are exactly deadly, the problem with this fight is that you are tapped inside an arena, and he can catch you with a trap that will leave you open to sync'd spike attacks. While this should not be lethal, the stacked attacks will chunk your health a lot. This makes planning your attack intervals more difficult.
• Talos [Legendary] - If you haven't noticed from the previous trends, Talos is also highly resistant/immune to poison and pierce. No amount of debuffing can undo his high resistance, which means you will spend a long time whacking it's HP bar away with pitiful damage. Most of his attacks shouldn't dent you. But his electric ground stomp will hit very hard, try not to get sync'd and keep moving at all times. Finish the mobs with him, so the encounter's sustained damage potential is lessened. Less threats to you the better.
• Barmanu [Epic & Legendary] -  While you can literally one shot the guy with Lethal Strike after debuffing him with a couple of auto-attacks, the same can be said for him to you. Since there are 3 Barmanu's you will have to do a Lethal Strike cycle three times. Marduk Tablet will not be available for you to use as your equipment setup was not designed for swaps. It is very important to bait the shout (stun) before engaging. This can be done by moving in a circular pattern around him when he agros on to you. Once they throw out a synced' shout you can perform you LS loop, run back out from aggro range and wait for your first target to degen out. Rinse and repeat. Let me make this clear, you get caught by a shout, and you die... period...

Progression & Recommended Grinding Routes:
[Level 1 - 10] Snowball your way to Sparta. Farm Nessus to develop your Distortion Wave. These 2 damage sources will get you through most things until end of Act 1.
[Level 10-24] tech your way to Trance of Wrath and Distort Reality (respec out of DW) and farm the Gorgons until XP gains start becoming insignificant. By then these 2 skills will be developed and will serve to be your primary wave clear and boss killing skill.
[Level 24-35] By equipping a low level armor from Epic or even Legendary using Captain's Signet(s) and boosting your STR through relics, just steamroll your way to Typhon. Any available equipment slots should be dedicated in boosting your EBD
[Level 35-50] Respec out of ToW/EBD rush to an early melee poisonmancer setup; farm high XP bosses to gain the levels you need to equip your end-game Equipment. Typhon till 40 and Hades from 45-46 till 50.
[Level 50+] Play as intended.

Performance in Ragnarok:
Level Finished: 76
* Ragnarok XP curve boosted it to level 74.
Completed Ragnarok Hardcore: Yes
Difficulty Rating in Legendary: 3 out of 5

Possible Improvements to Existing Build/Setup:
Surprisingly not too many changes are needed for this build to excel in AE:R. With the 11 levels jump, that the class got for the transition we got 33 free skill points in return making this build a lot more flexible. You can make a decent investments into knives that will allow you to have some degree of AoE poison to soften out mobs if not outright kill them. This also means you now have:
- AoE fumble & confuse (knives+mandrake)
- AoE Sleep
- Flashbang
- AoE Stun (Distort Reality)
- Slow (Distortion Wave)

Ther is no way you should be overwhelmed at any given time with all the crowd control you have at your disposal. With Phantom Strike having Invulnerability animations and Aggro reset properties, you can use it as a repositioning tool to put yourself in a more favorable location as long as there's an enemy to teleport to. Majority of the new enemies are "fleshies" and very susceptible to poison, use this to your advantage to clean house.

Specific Equipment Changes:
Bronze Heart of Talos - lose +1 skills, and elemental/poison/pierce resist but get a whooping +40% HP and +20% DA
Guantlets of the Necrolord - replaces the lost +1 skills; Poison Resist and Vitality Resist lost from removing Hallowed Helm and Defiled Equipment are compensated by this switch
Volund's Masterpiece - retains +1 skills, replaces massive loss in Elemental resist
Trollwrestler Greaves - replaces the massive loss in Bleed Resist coming from Ismene's Bracers, and boosts Pierce Resists.
Winds of Asphodel - Drop the Deathweaver's Legtip of the Betrayer; this is now your debuff weapon -50 flat resists with a decent poison bonus. A ranged Sapros that doesn't debuff your max HP. The overall damage input increase now lessens the need for Defiled items. The +33% bonus you get will become insignificant when their target's resists are debuffed to this extent. There is very little need for this item in generic mob cleaning, it just helps you kill bosses a lot much faster.

* With these changes the overall build is no longer dependent on affix-specific MI to be effective. This is not a AE:R specific change, you can simply replace the existing gear with the following and still be able to play this concept effectively. Note that, while Winds of Asphodel now increases your damage output much more, do not expect boss fights against Undead and Constructs to be any easier. Even pre-AE Talos, Undead Typhon & Dragon Lich with Sapros debuffing was horrendous, don't expect it to be any different with Winds.

Threats/Bosses:

• Gladsheim & Vallhol - Imagine the Athenian Warcamps in Act 1, except this time the critter actually produce notable damage to you. The density of projectiles flying in your face is insane. Use your experience in Normal and Epic to get familiar with the map. Do not clean out completely, leave stragglers so you have safety points to phantom strike to in case you need to retreat. Cycle your crowd control and have at least 1 active at any given time, do not chain them unnecessarily. If there is a place in the game where you need CC badly. THIS IS WHERE YOU NEED IT
• Jotun Champions - They are not exactly threatening, but in xMax conditions these Frost Giants appear in packs of 6-7, along with their merry Jotun friends. At melee range, they have the capability of stun locking you to oblivion while the Jotuns pound you to pieces. Since this toon is melee, it is also exposed to that hazard. Make sure to put some investment on Freeze resist,
   freeze lock deaths are a terrible way to go.
• Dark Elves - without demon/magical damage reduction this will might as well be on every toon's list. Since I did not equip a Glorybringer, this toon will have a hard time in Land's End. The only reason why I put them on number two below Gladsheim is because, Land's End is a relatively short segment in the game.

Hardcore Run Class: Diviner

Build Concept & Source of Damage:
Vita-Ternion Spammer w/ CC [caster]
Ternion , Distort Reality, Distortion Wave, Trance of Wrath, Pets, Massive Vita Resist Reduction
Personal Class+Build Tier Rating: 4 out of 5; Very Strong
Difficulty Rating:
Early Game till Late(1-7x): 2.5 out of 5 Early Game
Normal to Legendary Finish: 2 Days, 23 Hours, 41 Minutes
Kills: 150,213
Level Finished: 64

Class Notes:

• I highly advise to reach the minimal INT breakpoint of 800; like the old Ternion+Harrowing Diviner, this class does not require high levels of INT to be effective. The rest of your stat focus should be diverted to upping your DA, HP and resists. Dumping future attribute points into DEX or HP might not be a bad call.
• While most consider caster Diviners as heavily nerfed due to the universal life reduction resist buffs on bosses. It can still function with relative ease using Vita damage staffs  due to it's class's tool kit.
• Early game levelling is still fast due to Dream being very strong. With the right twinking items, you should be able to up your Electric Burn damage to levels when you can walk + one-shot through packs with Trance of Wrath (ToW) on. Nerf on Electric Burn Damage (EBD) starts to kick in around late Normal Act 4, but by then you should be at a level were in your speed clear is no longer dependent on ToW
• There is very little threat to you in exploration, you just need to control the amount of range enemies your are engaging. Since this build abuses the mechanic of ADCtH combo'd with Ternion, he can tank melee packs for days...

Personal Challenge Equipment:
Essence of Styx
Socrates Ring of Immortality - Demon’s Blood w/ Bleed/Stun/Vit resist bonus or Monkey Tricks w/ INT/DA bonus
Star of Elysium
Hallowed any helm of Immortality/Mastery/Divination - Cunning of Odyseus w/ INT bonus
Overlord's Vestment
Battlemage Greaves
Impenetrable/Resistant Witch Doctor's Bracelet of Alacrity - Boar Hide w/ Bleed Resist bonus
Praxidikae or Socrates any vita-dmg staff of the Betrayer - Anubis Wrath w/ Attack Speed bonus / Energy Leech bonus.
Knot of Isis [mob clear]
Marduk's Tablet of Destiny [boss fight]

Hardly anything to explain in terms of gear choice. Staff of choice is Vitality damage based and it's synergy with the class's innate RR shred abilities will carry it throughout the game. Everything else is focused on making the toon sturdy enough to sustain any burst damage and sustain effectively with ADCtH + Ternion.

There is  very little emphasis on Electric Burn Damage as, most of the active skills in the Dream tree in late stages of the game will serve as crowd control rather than actual damage sources.

Biggest Threats/Potential Challenge Enders (Highest to Lowest Threat):

• Minotaur Lord [Legendary] - Facing this caster killer inside the arena leaves you no choice but to rely on Marduk's Tablet of Destiny. But that 10 secs of invulnerability is all you need to spike down all 2 Mino Lords, if not all 3. Using Dark Covenant and Circle of Power to Up your your Ternion damage. At point blank range they will be taking massive damage.
• Barmanu [Legendary] - Do not go in. Use your pet's to agro the Yeti 1 by 1 near the arena's agro-line close you. Since he will most likely burn his ice shower on your pet, you can spike down the Barmanu that is agro'd on to your pet (nightmare; he has CtAP) when he reaches you with relative safety. I personally think Marduk's Tablet of Destiny is not necessary here, but it's good to have as a safety net.

Progression & Recommended Grinding Routes:

• [Level 1 - 10] Snowball your way to Sparta. Farm Nessus to develop your Distortion Wave. These 2 damage sources will get you through most things until end of Act 1.
• [Level 10-24] tech your way to Trance of Wrath and Distort Reality (respec out of DW) and farm the Gorgons until XP gains start becoming insignificant. By then these 2 skills will be developed and will serve to be your primary wave clear and boss killing skill.
• [Level 24-45] By equipping a low level armor from Epic or even Legendary using Captain's Signet(s) and boosting your STR through relics, just steamroll your way to Hade's Palace. Any available equipment slots should be dedicated in boosting your EBD
• [Level 45-50]Farm Normal Hades for XP
• [Level 50+] Start building towards intended Ternion Spam; as this is a Spirit-based class, I would recommend to XP/Kill farm areas with high density of Undead. I would suggest Revnant areas in Act 2 or Lich areas in Wusao Mountain in Act 3. If you're going to farm XP might as well do it in an area where you can get good stuff from.

Performance in Ragnarok:
Level Finished: 76
* Ragnarok XP curve boosted it to level 73.
Completed Ragnarok Hardcore: Yes
Difficulty Rating in Legendary: 2 out of 5 (with Equipment switch), 4 out of 5 (if no changes)

Possible Improvements to Existing Build/Setup:
No significant changes were made to gameplay and tactics. The concept of the build remains the same: spam Ternion until nothing is left standing.
ToC can be dropped in favor of ToW for more RR shred. The new equipment setup makes this possible.

Specific Equipment Changes:
Hallowed any helm of Immortality/Mastery/Divination - Crystal of Erebus w/ +skills bonus
Glykon Acolyte's Robe - gain more EBD, Vita damage, more CtAP (combined with Knot of Isis and Passive = ~60%);

Minor changes were made in the equipment but this transformed the class from Good to Godly; making it a mage steamroller. This class initially had great sustain already. With a respectable DPS, insane HP management (ADCtH + Ternion) and a relatively high mage DA ~1000+; granting it 60% CTAP on top of those stats kills the only weakness the class has: ranged damage, which AE:R has boat-loads of. Simply popping a scroll of Unbroken Fortitude or Arrow Dancer will negate any probability of HP spikes in-game.

Threats/Bosses:
- I don't see any viable threats to a Ternion Diviner in AE:R
- Even challenging areas like Gladsheim and Land's End can become worry free due to how the areas are structured.
- With a competent pet at your disposal you can minimize the risk to you even further, and being that you have one of the best pets in game that doesn't need to be in melee range you can easily pull mobs into choke points; balling them up and setting them up for a Ternion nuke.

Hardcore Run Class: Elementalist

The profession I consider my main alternate. Holds sentimental value to me being the first Squishy toon I managed to complete the challenge with. Also, being the profession considered by many to be low-tier, I was really happy to complete the challenge with this profession.

Build Concept & Source of Damage:
Low Cooldown AoE Mage
Squall, Eruption, Lightning Strike, - resists (flat) sources
Personal Class+Build Tier Rating: 3 out of 5; Average
Difficulty Rating:
Early Game (1-45): 1 out of 5 Early Game
Late Game (45-65): 3.5 out of 5 Late Game
Normal to Legendary Finish: 4 Days, 6 Hours, 27 Minutes
Kills: 174,431
Level Finished: 66

Class Notes:

• The difficulty of the challenge will highly depend on your gear setup: defensive or offensive.
• Optimal Stat distribution is All-in on INT, but some DEX points can be spared for req requirements, if you are having a hard time meeting the gear reqs.
• AE Changes definitely buffed the synergy of this class and improved it from being relatively low tier, to somewhat in the middle.
• Despite being a caster, Elementalist’s tool kit offers so much utility (Stone Form, Soften Metal, Storm Surge) with Debuff Spells mitigating enemies’ damage potential. The class’s survivability shoots up through the roof just by rolling in with a mediocre 900-1,000 DA and positive resists
• 1st thing to note are the changes on the shield buffs Elementalists have. While their duration has been nerfed to 60 seconds, it gains a much stronger property: %damage absorption. With some point enough investment and a +4 to skills to both shields you can roll around with at least 60% damage absorption to Elemental damage and 15% damage resistance (physical). This equates to the possibility of rolling in Legendary with ~ -10% to 10% Elemental resists with very little consequences, provided you micro the buffs to have it on you permanently.
• Ranged damage intake, which is the biggest problem in this challenge is nullified by Squall and with capped CDR, you can literally fill the entire screen with it.
• Early game levelling is hampered from the massive energy degen nerf from Ring of Fire, but with enough +energy regen items to bring it to manageable levels and a steady supply of mana pots. You’ll be levelling much faster compared to most professions.
• Should you choose to be a scumbag like me, boss fights are a joke with this class. Having both Eruption and Squall as cheesing tools, you can easily exploit Boss AI limitations to kill them off with very little risk.
• The real challenge in playing a caster Elementalist on xMax hardcore is traversing the land and exploring. Being careless will result in you being rushed down and surrounded by hordes of angry melee waiting to shred you mediocre DA and low HP pool

Personal Challenge Equipment:
Aphrodite’s Favor
Socrates Ring of Immortality (2) - Demon’s Blood w/ Bleed/Stun/Vit resist bonus or Monkey Tricks w/ INT/DA bonus
Archmage Diadem or Coronal of the Abyss
Archmage Mantle or Battlemage Robe
Archmage Clasp
Archmage Leggings or Battlemage Leggings or Demonskin Walkers
Archmage/Socrates Staff of the Magi of Focus (casting staff)
Any (any staff) of Betrayer (auto-attack debuff)
Glorybringer (greater artifact) [main]
Marduk’s Tablet of Destiny [swap] advisable to use for: Minotaur Lord, Hydra, Yaoguai and Barmanu (if you’re not confident with your kiting)

The hardest task for me was not actually running the character but setting it up. The synergy of the 2 masteries coming from buffs and changes from AE make the gameplay of the Elementalist very interesting. However due to the fact that Boss HPs and resists are buffed overall, high damage-spike glass cannon builds are no longer recommended for Hardcore play. The paper toon that relied on stone form and crawled its way to Challenge completion (my pre-anniversary run) is no longer efficient and practical.

The approach I took went 1 step further. My goal was to reduce as much physical damage taken giving me as much freedom to spam my AoE’s without being to trigger happy with Stoneform. You have 2 options:
Archmage Regalia-way (you gain a massive +30% physical resists from your armor, +15% physical resists from the set bonus, + 15% damage resistance from Heat Shield). Given that you have at least 5-6k HP, you become a walking mini core dweller in your own right.
You can go the mixed-way (AM clasp, BM torso/legs and Coronal of the Abyss) to get your DA to a decent 800-1,000 DA, to decrease the chances of being critted to dangerous levels by random mobs, and have a much more balanced stat sheet.

Given that the focus of the setups used is to let the caster stay alive longer, sacrifices were made on DPS department. Following the setup provided, you will only get ~1,100-1,200 INT and rely solely on your masteries for elemental damage modifiers. A method I found to get around this is to take advantage of AoE, Low Cooldowns and the now accessible Betrayer suffix. Alas, this affix is a shadow of it’s former self in the Vanilla days of the game (- resists no longer guaranteed, a much lower flat value, and lost is “Devouring” aspect). You can definitely use Fingerbone of Boreas as another option (for the guaranteed - 35 resists), but with a green item socketed Sheng Nong, you are looking at a possible -53 flat resists, if you stack these with dual Monkey’s and stacking Squalls and a touch of Eruption, even the most hardy of bosses will fall in Legendary with a measly 1,200 INT.

This essentially trades the “fire and forget” aspect of glass cannon builds for the ability to micro safely to maximize your damage output.

Biggest Threats/Potential Challenge Enders (Highest to Lowest Threat):

• Minotaur Lord [Legendary] - If you were adventurous enough to attempt this fight without Wall Cheesing, then I both commend you bravery and offer my condolences. Entering that enclosed arena with 3 Minotaur Lords is a death sentence for a caster Elementalist. I have tested this run on a separate test character built as an Elementalist caster and I was able to escape alive 2/25 tries. Why?
  
  • The Minotaur Lords have massive physical damage output, that increases progressively as they gain Onslaught charges and apply Hamstring debuff on you. Even a “tanky” defensively built Elementalist with 900-1100 DA with get shredded in 4 seconds after face-tanking a single Mino Lord.
  • The slow effect of their attacks prevent you from kiting effectively.
  • They gain Onslaught charges while hacking at you in Stoneform. The moment your Stoneform expires, you will get one-shotted (it actually looks funny).
  • The recharge of your Spellbreaker cannot keep up with the rate of their Onslaught charge build up. Meaning there is no way for you to perma shutdown their buffs buildup.
• Toxeus, the Murderer (Non-Secret Passage) [Legendary] - without at least 30% or  more damage reduction from Undead, this chance spawn is almost guaranteed to end your hardcore xMax run. The only reason why this monster is not on the top spot is because the chances of you meeting him is actually very slim.Unless you actually intend to farm Labyrinth for Stonebinder gear or Valley of the Kings for Revenant drops. Any caster with no form of undead damage reduction will find themselves tombstoned faster than they can blink.
• Dragonian Mages [Epic & Legendary] - Avoid offscreen nuking when there are dragonian mages. 2 eruptions on their reflect shield can kill you if your Stoneform is on cooldown. Which is very likely considering than they are accompanied by packs of Lancers and Firetalons who will deal large amounts of sustained damage to you.
• Elder Centaurs [Legendary] - Apart from being debuffed by Study Prey 24/7 thanks to the Centaur Archers accompanying this guy, They also have Battle Standard increasing their damage output. If you get Warhorned while surrounded by the whole agro, you can kiss your run goodbye.

NOTE: Why not Barmanu?
Legendary Barmanu may have been a problematic boss for Elementalists pre-AE, which most likely was dealt with by offscreen nuking him for 30-40 minutes to avoid agroing him. However, that is no longer the case with the AE changes. Energy Shield is now a timer based skill (60 second duration) and will not expire upon receiving cold damage. Also, Molten Rock is no longer buggy and does not freeze the player upon expiration of Stone Form. Do you get the picture now?
Equip Marduk’s Tablet of Destiny
Cast Energy Shield on yourself with max +4 Reflection
Agro 3 Barmanus
Cast Stoneform with Molten Rock - 8 Seconds
Stand Still till Artifact Skill is triggered - 10 seconds
Cast Stoneform with Molten Rock - 8 seconds

That’s ~26 seconds of continuous invulnerability, more than enough time for 3 Barmanus to one-shot themselves by casting Ice Shower on the player. If this notion sounds retarded to you, you can always go back to 40 minutes of offscreen nuking.

Progression & Recommended Grinding Routes:

• [Level 1 - Epic] Snowball your way to Ring of Fire (RoF) with Fire Enchantment. Accumulate enough gold to give yourself a steady supply of HP and Energy pots to help your rush. Pump all to INT to help your damage. Once your RoF starts 1 shotting everything you walk into, start developing your Storm Tree to get Squall. It is no longer practical to rush Eruption as enemies are tougher and hit harder now compared to pre-AE. Squall’s safety and Utility will benefit your rush better. Debuffing enemies before you walk them down with RoF offers more progression clear time gain than depending on Eruption Cheese tactics on boss fights. Just do the usual XP rich farms (Gorgons, Typhon & Hades) in Normal to speed up your steamroll.
• [Level 50+] equip yourself with 2 Ritual Relics, a Glorybringer and a Sacrificial Amulet and a lot of HP items/relics to offset the HP debuff.. Farm Tower of Judgement and Hades Palace (High density and high XP). This is probably the fastest and safest way to farm with your HC end-game caster Elementalist. Even Dactyls won’t be able to touch your character while you can safely farm for Alcyoneus’, Machae, Keres and Empusa MIs with relative ease.

Performance in Ragnarok:
Level Finished: 77
* Ragnarok XP curve boosted it to level 75.
Completed Ragnarok Hardcore: Yes
Difficulty Rating in Legendary: 5 out of 5

Possible Improvements to Existing Build/Setup:
The selling point of the existing Elementalist build was that you could get 1,100-1,300 DA, ~25-30 Physical Resist, a row of mostly positive resists, and around 5,000+ HP. While still retaining +4 skills, 1,200 INT breakpoint and max -CDR%, which pretty much makes you a legitimate nuke mage that can sustain well. This worked well for the most part because mobs pretty much had lower levels resulting in less stats and HP, and would go down easy to a couple of Squalls and an Eruption. This made some of my negative resists manageable for the most part and can be ignored except during boss battles.

However, in Ragnarok, critters are around level 80+, while I pretty much capped the damage output I could produce a while back. As the only way I can increase my damage through my INT, this meant prolonged mob clears, which exposes the Elementalist to more dangers. The most probable solution is to go back to a frailer setup to keep every resist on a positive, by sacrificing some DA. This lessens the life degen impact of having negative poison and bleed resists.

Specific Equipment Changes:
Heka Staff - retains some of the recharge properties of our choice staff, but gives damage reduction to Magical Enemies
Freyja's Panapoly (5/6; all except amulet)

Given that majority of the AE:R Legendaries are very well-rounded in their bonuses. Freyja's Panapoly is really made for mages that aims to do Hardcore Runs. Lot's of Caster bonuses. Massive bonuses to Resistances and flat and % DA. With the new Smithing gimmick it's possible to tank up even the frailest of glass cannons. Although I didn't need to resort to that just shows how much AE:R items impacted heavily on the gameplay.

Threats/Bosses:
- Pretty much everything is a threat to you. The new act is pretty balanced, and by that I mean that there is a healthy mix of mage, archers and melee type enemies. They hit harder, they swarm in packs and they die a lot slower compared to the pre-Ragnarok update.
- Giants pack a HEAVY punch, but they are flipping slow. There is no reason why you should be getting hit by them except in rooms and narrow passages. When this is the case, put a squall on top of you to minimize their damage output, followed by an eruption, while you stone form.
- Tread very carefully when you explore. The biggest enemy to Elementalist hardcore gameplay is yourself. One distraction is all it takes to end your run. I play with 1 finger permanently on standby to hit that Stoneform when needed. If you plan to take on the HC challenge with an Elementalist, tanky or not, this is a very good practice have.
- Majority of the Boss Fights are a non-issue. All boss fights are "cheesable." You can render a lot of these bosses harmless by keeping their energy drained with Spellbreaker. While some bosses retain their special attacks even with all of their energy drained, some are rendered helpless and you can face tank them. Last Boss fight (Sutr) is the most anti-climactic fight you'll ever do. 2nd Form becomes a joke with Squall.

Loki Boss Fight
This is possibly the most fun and at the same time most dangerous encounter you will face in the entire act. This is a guaranteed enclosed arena fight. Thankfully, you have a lot of space to work with.

Assuming that my assumptions are correct, Loki's 2 Forms are as a Corsair/Warden and as a Warlock. Since his forms are as a Giant and as a Diety, there will be no  damage reduction sources available. This means you need a decent DA not to get and critted.

Avoid getting hit by his 1st Form's Charge attack. he usually combo's this with an auto attack that chunks you life to half. Getting hit by his charge will guarantee the followup. The worst case scenario is that you get sync'd or chain combo'd in place, which will get you to critical if not kill you outright. Kite him around the arena while leaving Squall on your trail. Don't forget to Spellbreak him form time to time to keep his mana low and his attack options limited. The animations/overall AI of bosses in general become very predictable when their energy is drained. Use this to your advantage.

Once you get Loki to his 2nd form, the fight is pretty much over, with him relying mostly on Ternion and other projectile attacks, you can shut him down with perma Squall while draining his energy to 0. Then from there, it's all routine work.