I joined Hardcore last December.
I switched back to Softcore once after an ugly DC which killed two of my toons.
I was then back into Hardcore again, and I never look back.

Below is a link to the stories written by 30 Hardcore players. Hopefully it could inspire some of you out there!

Official Bnet HC Forum: What Does Hardcore Mean To You

My Story:

(for those who are already familiar with my story, I apologize for the walls of texts)

This screenshot was taken when I hit level 60 with my main.

I started Hardcore last December. At that time, at Softcore I had a P(70) TR monk with max MF, who is capable of farming 2 - 4 legendaries per hour. I was feeling so bored with all the mindless runs at Softcore. I mean, I just spin to win like a barbarian, although they spin it horizontally and I spin it vertically, and there is no real "win" if I can't really "lose" in softcore.

I decided to give Hardcore a try. I chose WD, a class that I had not played before, and I chose MP10 right away. I chose MP10 because I was intrigued by the concept of dying. I wanted to test my skills and fight every battle so hard that I can die anytime. To my disappointment I actually survived to Hell using MP10 all the way. Darn this overpowered class!

My first WD reached level 56 and was on her way to finish off Butcher at MP10. Then, something disheartening happen. A disconnection happened just when she was crossing the path between Southern and Northern Highlands. First time I tasted death, but with no glory. I was so [filtered]ed. I actually collected myself a few minutes later, and played my another toon at level 20-ish. A disconnection again!! I lost another hardcore toon again! And I lost all the great gears I have on them, including gears a few levels ahead which I put in the bag for convenience. That's it. I rage quit.

I went back to softcore, spinned 2 more paragon levels on my softcore monk. I also spent over 100m in gearing and solo-leveling my two remaining classes out of five, from 1-60. Then, I felt this huge emptiness, again.I was then back to hardcore, I remade a WD with a vengeance. I am prepared for the worst (to me it is disconnection), and for the best i.e. all the funs and excitement I could get from Hardcore. Hardcore to me, is a millions of "I made it" moments. I made it to Nightmare. I made it to Hell. I made it alive fighting 2 nasty elite packs. I made it pass Diablo. I made it to level 60!

As shown in the picture, my WD attained her 60 in Hell VoTA, at MP0. She was basically grinding her last level there, I counted like 1.5 bars of experience per VoTA run. Hell VoTA might seems like an easy content for level 59. But, I took it slow, steady and safe. I have heard too many stories or players rushing their last few levels and lost their toons. I actually fleed from a few battles which I thought were too scary to handle, portalled out then remade the game. I can never be too careful, if I want to live! Just like my WD toon would say from time to time, "Fear is a part of life. You fear, you live".

Now, my WD is P41, and is my main toon for farming. Farming at Hardcore is so much different from farming at Softcore. At softcore when I saw an elite pack I just rushed in and I can't help thinking, "So if I die, so what? I quickly resurrect and kill them again." This is not a game if I can't lose! My spirit vessels have popped a few times for me at Hardcore, and you know those moments are the moments where my heart beats 100 in a second (I never counted, but it seems to be like that!), and sometimes a moment of regret of fighting the battle the wrong way.

The above is what Hardcore meant to me the most, in addition to the great economy (i.e. gear sinks lol) and the great community. I also enjoy reading other Hardcore players' posts of how they die or how they survive a battle. This is not something you would enjoy writing and reading at Softcore.

Lastly good luck and stay safe everyone!

Nice read, mate. Thanks for sharing. =)

So I nearly lost my level 55 DH just now. I came across the Crumbling Vault and having not completed it in under 90 seconds for the achievement I decided to rush the thing, didn't I...

... first elite pack absolutely smashed me in mere seconds down to less tha 5% life, so I frantically vaulted trying to escape them. Being in the Crumbling Vault and not having progressed very far into the level already, I was cornered in 10 seconds. Still waiting for potion cooldown I attempted a teleport, was interrupted by a cleaver to the head and then finally managed enough vaults over top of them to get me out of immediate harm's way and drilled them enough to heal on hits. I can't remember what they were, but they were big and scary.

After all this I realised I wasn't even sitting on my seat no more and my heart felt like I'd just shot up... I'd decided then and there that I didn't care about the achievement anymore, took the next elite pack with caution and got the heck outta there.

Lesson learnt.

A recent uptick in lag and dc's in HC (is it my imagination?) have pushed me back to playing SC. Not a big deal since I enjoy both. HC for the thrill and SC for the OP smashing about. I think I will wait for the next patch and the insane regen buffs to pick up HC. I lost a DH and WD to lag/DC in the past month and its a little disheartening.

Posted by yoyo at 05/01/2013 02:48 PM

A recent uptick in lag and dc's in HC (is it my imagination?) have pushed me back to playing SC. Not a big deal since I enjoy both. HC for the thrill and SC for the OP smashing about. I think I will wait for the next patch and the insane regen buffs to pick up HC. I lost a DH and WD to lag/DC in the past month and its a little disheartening.

You can also OP smashing in HC :P

Either next patch or current, hit me up in game. We should group up whenever we could. I am now beginning to play more co-op instead of solo farming. After experiencing a couple of game freeze and lag, and all the scary DC events happened to fellow RMT members, I want to minimise the risk of playing alone and dead to a bug/ lag/ freeze. Blizzard haven't done anything to this despite the recent long thread on the bnet forum about this this this this kind of unfair server lag.

Last night (my time) I was playing with this monk who I sold my 250m trifecta ring to. It is good that our time zone isn't too off (his is 3 hours ahead, at Downunder and he needs not sleep early!). He often just do MP1 (despite his DPS), same like me. We grouped up for a run and we smashed things away. Most of the time I only have to do the walking, the mobs already melt to his cyclones lol.