As a person who likes to build up characters over time to powerful gear/levels, I have never understood why people play hardcore. Why play a mode where, through no action of your own (lag, internet problems, server restart, ninja nerf, etc) you can lose dozens if not hundreds of hours of progress?

I feel the same way. I don't see the point of spending so many hours on something you could easily lose at any time if you're not careful

I certainly agree that for inferno difficulty it sucks as it takes a lot of time to progress through and deaths are often due to lag, however while leveling the rush you get from challenging and dangerous situations is great.

I only started playing with a friend when we became completely jaded with softcore and the game, HC was a great way to get some excitement again, not to mention the economy is much more stable. This was in 1.0.3 however and I have barely played since the patch. I've yet to lose a hardcore character however *knock on wood*

In SC, the goal typically is to continue improving your character for as long as you play. In HC, the goal is more about seeing how far you can go. If you don't expect your character to die eventually, you're going to be very disappointed.

I've leveled 5 classes to 60 in SC, and in HC I currently have a monk and barb in inferno (and a DH dead at lvl 42). In my experience HC is a much more thrilling experience. Fights in A2-A3 HC NM have gotten my heart pumping as fast as A4 SC INF. Any time you get CC'd there's a panic of "am I about to die" versus "oh well, a few grand repair cost."

When my DH died (rubber banded into a freeze, didn't have SS) I didn't feel that I lost progress. I immediately created a new DH wondering how far I could get this time. I'd compare it to an old school arcade or NES game, where game over meant you were starting from scratch. There's plenty of games like that which were challenging and fun.

@methrin belongs in this thread.

Posted by nando at 09/15/2012 05:41 PM

As a person who likes to build up characters over time to powerful gear/levels, I have never understood why people play hardcore. Why play a mode where, through no action of your own (lag, internet problems, server restart, ninja nerf, etc) you can lose dozens if not hundreds of hours of progress?

The thrill. The challenge.

You can have the same argument over dozens of things.

Why have unprotected sex? Why go skydiving? Why play russian roulette? Ok those examples are a little bit more extreme than playing hardcore but the fact remains that you can't really knock it until you try it!

Posted by Methrin at 09/18/2012 02:17 PM

Posted by nando at 09/15/2012 05:41 PM

As a person who likes to build up characters over time to powerful gear/levels, I have never understood why people play hardcore. Why play a mode where, through no action of your own (lag, internet problems, server restart, ninja nerf, etc) you can lose dozens if not hundreds of hours of progress?

The thrill. The challenge.

You can have the same argument over dozens of things.

Why have unprotected sex? Why go skydiving? Why play russian roulette? Ok those examples are a little bit more extreme than playing hardcore but the fact remains that you can't really knock it until you try it!

This. Although I wish there was some sort of incentive for playing hardcore other than stupid banner sigils. The risk is pretty significant and while I agree that you should play it for its own sake, I think it needs to give you stuff that softcore can't. Like some cool graphic on your character or a unique emblem on your top level profile. Especially for beating Inferno HC, the accomplishment is significant and it needs to be rewarded more significantly.

Simple, if u cannot handle death of your char, stick to SC

HC is way more fun to play

I enjoyed HC. For me it gave item drops meaning again after months where anything that's not a good legendary is barely worth picking up.

I lost a DH on 60, another on 59, and then finally finished HC Inferno with my Monk.
The adrenaline rush you get going into any boss or elite fight is just awesome.

1. Gold is worth at least 3 times more when traded with SC gold
2. Item Sells if they are decent, At SC mid-market is already dead....
3. U will get high in some fight against Boss and Elite and u'll enjoy it (at least i did)

These are the 3 main reason i play HC and still playing D3

And there is only 1 rule in HC:

no, it is not "don't die", the rule is u'll die sooner or later. Learn from your death & become a better player

And be humble, at least til u got your 1st hellfire ring :)

PS: As of today, jus imagine a Flawless Square Amethyst drop, it is worthless in SC but it is 15k HC gold multiply current exchange rate of 4.5x into SC = 60k gold!

I play HC to try and get the Achievement of getting to level 60 in HC. So far I have gotten to level 52 before biting it. I immediately chose another class and started over, back to level 12 ... only 48 more levels to go.

But you will die eventually and I realize that (as have my multiple HC characters in the drive for the achievement). The excitement level is always more in HC than in SC because with one mistake you can end up restarting. I keep a second HC character just to make sure I keep my stash and gold when the HC main dies (and the extra storage). My SC main is a brute whom I've spent loads of gold on throughout the hundreds of hours, I wouldn't even consider spending over a million gold on any one HC character unless they actually make it to inferno and are doing well. Then they would still have to earn that much to blow on themselves.

I love the market since hc has what sc lacks...I item/gold dump aka death. It is interesting to look up a common bis legendary item and saw no more than 3-5 pages of them where as in sc there are 100s of pages.

Posted by zerokewl at 01/23/2013 01:36 PM

I love the market since hc has what sc lacks...I item/gold dump aka death. It is interesting to look up a common bis legendary item and saw no more than 3-5 pages of them where as in sc there are 100s of pages.

I love to play Auction House, apart from the actual 'game play'.

My auction dealings each day is usually more than one page, and I derive great pleasure from shopping, buying and selling.

The auction house is a big aspect of the enjoyment of playing Hardcore. I am currently running Act 3 MP0 and get at least one good (sellable) rare per run and a legendary about every 5 runs (although some aren't worth anything).

I will be trying MP1 soon as I don't have close calls unless I run into fast demonic tremors or hulking phase beasts with bad mods.

I go back to my SC character that does 3 times the damage and don't really enjoy it. He has been sitting on 60(27) for 4 months...

DC deaths are very disappointing, but an aspect of the game... My last was in the middle of a reflect damage pack with turrets going to town... I didn't have enough leach or health on that character, but I learned from my error!

I get owned at mp1. Amazing difference in difficultly.

This recent thread from the official bnet, contains a few reasons why players like hardcore.

How is Hardcore?

Also, a single fight can be so interesting. E.g. a 3m EHP Barb die in 5 second fighting KW at MP2? If you die in softcore fighting KW, there is nothing great about it. At Hardcore, it opens up interesting discussion about the balance of EHP & DPS, which skill is best at which situation, and how the player can do better next time. 3m EHP fie in 5 second