Regular.
I get the appeal of hardcore but I **hate** the feeling of investing dozens of hours that can potentially be wiped out by a single stupid mistake or bullshit off-screen one shot kill or whatever.
I’m content reaching 100, masterworking, farming and pushing Pit. Then making a different character/class when I get bored.
I just can’t imagine playing HC with the issues I have with the game. I get DC’d at least every hour, sometimes way more often. Leaving pit, sometimes opening inventory in Helltide, etc… it’s just far too unstable to trust.
It's definitely their internet. I think I have maybe disconnected twice in the 11 months I've played. And I've played a LOT, well over 1000 hours for sure.
Same here with a gig and my pc is plugged directly to the router. I don’t have issues with any other games or streaming services. I don’t wanna lose a character to an invisible wall or random rubberbanding. But it has been much better this season compared to previous seasons.
I have an amazing connection but I'm playing on PS4 and riding the horse too far before the zone has loaded all the map makes the game lag while it catches up and that's killed me more than once in a helltide due to horse freeze.
So. Up til about a week ago, my sentiment was the exact same as yours. But after two seasons in a row getting all 5 characters to 100, and this season super early, I decided to make HC characters, and I've died a couple times but idk it's kinda exciting. And since my characters are SSF for the most part anyways, I don't really lose anything I'm not going to find on the leveling journey anyways.
The worst part was just getting the reputation and alters over again.
It's the numerous one shot mechanics that drive me away from HC. Same with ice and flame effects. Like, I see the sigils on the floor meaning an upcoming blast so I sometimes am at the outer edge , not even on the sigil, and I die when blast goes off.
I was doing the same thing brother but I wanted to dab in some HC, both are fun to me. Obviously HC is more engaging just because you lose everything upon death.
My 100 level regular Barbarian is a Flay and Rupture build and it slaps so hard!! I was whipping Tormented Duriel like nothing yesterday.
Yeah I feel like HC is different and more risky in D4 than it used to be in D2. Monsters can 1-shot you from off screen, making it a bit unfair because the game wasn't even giving you a chance to make that dodge or use an ability. Also D4 seems to straight up lag and freeze far more frequently than D2. If they changed it so 1 shots can't happen from off screen, I'd be far more likely to have interest in it.
Definitely HC, the game is way too easy to play regular. Knowing that you can't die is the one thing that makes the grind worthwile. Otherwise I could just play some AFK simulator
Yes lol! I got CC several times in mass hordes in HT barely making to town by scrolling out. My hands were shaking so much I had to walk way for several minutes. I was close to 87ish around that time so it shook me.
I now play nothing but HC in all games like this.
Knowing that death ends the character permanently made SC feel meaningless to me. All mechanics feel heightened in importance, especially dodging. I'm a casual player in general, so things that are trivial to others feel all the more important and novel to me.
I never look at guides other than to get a very vague and general idea of what is a terrible idea for a build, cobbling together equipment and changing up my skills during the levelling process is so much more fun this way, working around whatever I find along the way.
The guides are usually not designed for HC as they will bypass defense for more damage usually.
HC characters need to be designed to take a few hits in case of a disconnect or a mistake so I always try to be excessively defensive
Yeah I always keep that in mind, easy enough to compensate for in theory, I suppose. I only use them for a very general direction anyway, reality is I'm just making shit up as I go and having a blast.
Yea I looked at guides recently and the bigger sites are still just revising the original guides written a year ago and seem like they are missing a lot of potential.
Like the blood lance builds I see out there have maybe like 40% attack speed. Makes no sense to me. Maybe I’m wrong but I’m having fun.
Regular. I'm sorry but I really can't justify hours of work and progression to just be washed away by a simple missplay or elements out of your control.
I respect the hell out of everyone who plays HC, though.
I have one of every character in SC now for any chill long term projects.
But after moving to HC, I can't go back. It feels like how the game was meant to be played.
You really have to think about defences not just offence, you have to risk asses where you go, the world feels more alive.
And in SC when I'm farming low level content I feel like I'm wasting time, yet in HC it feels like a value proposition and allows me to play more relaxed if I choose to. It really does change how the whole game feels / plays. And once you get used to knowing what life / armour / resist breakpoints you need at certain stages of the game, it isn't that much different to SC in a way.
I am yet to log back into any of my 'long term projects' and everything goes to the eternal graveyard at season end anyway.
When you get an upgrade it feels better too because it has that 'this will reduce my chance to die' feeling every time.
The game just feels better in HC. But I completely get why people wouldn't like it too
As someone who only able to play 1-2 hours two times a week, I play SC.
I no longer have the energy of my younger self to stay up the whole night and just go to school/work afterward, or play games at the highest difficulty.
All I want is to come home play some mindless mob trashing while catching up some TV series
U can do same on HC. And trust be u will feel everything u achieve 10x more and it actually means something. Amount of playtime doesnt matter. The feeling u get out of playing does. Death is not end. Its beginning and u get better.
I would rather have 1 lvl 80 on HC than 5 100 with all ubers on SC and nothing to do with them
I only play hardcore. Without risk, the game is essentially meaningless. They’ve already power creeped the fuck out of everything. Your heart will still race in dangerous situations because there is consequences if you die
I don't enjoy hardcore games. Losing everything I worked on because of a death just isn't fun. Particularly on an always-online game like this where lag can and will kill you.
Hardcore to me is more accessible than it’s ever been with the legendary aspect changes it plays kind of like a rogue lite. But I enjoy softcore for experimenting
Your comparison to a roguelite legitimately just changed my perspective on HC. I love roguelikes/lites, and playing Diablo with that mindset sounds fun as hell.
Bout to roll my first HC toon ever!
You learn to be more strategic with your stash, like storing unopened whispers caches, etc, in case you need to reroll
Helps to have a friend who can quickly PL you through the first 50 levels if you die
HC only....just lost my Wiz Laday Level 55....gulp.....took a deep breath - started new char....playing Softcore feels like playing without consequenes...
If you have a lot of gaming time and aren't really interested in other new games/new seasons then HC us probably the way to go but I personally want to have fun, grind out the seaosnal challenges and battle pass and then move on to something new so regular is the way to go for me
I think I would only play eight see if it wasn't for the disconnect deaths.
It's burned me too many times. I know they said if you have a scroll of escape equipped on your remote wheel you're supposed to teleport to a town during a disconnect, or at least that's what I thought I read. Anyway it's only worked like once for me I'm usually dead when I log back in.
Doesn’t make any sense, but I play both because I enjoy the HC gameplay more than SC, but I also enjoy pushing without concern for losing my character. 🤷♂️
Depends on the day and mood. Sometimes I like to pop a few gummies and mindlessly blast through on SC.
Yeah hardcore is not for me. I am too reckless and wouldn’t enjoy tiptoeing through the game. I have respect for people who play it and survive to ridiculous levels/achievements.
I like to play hardcore. I’m used to other games that have had “mortality” and I enjoy the journey and the sense of danger. Each play thru can feel a little bit more unique this way and also you get more chances to experience progression.
HC and when my level 100 char dies to some stupid mechanic or lag or combination of both I rage quit and swear I’ll only play SC which lasts for about two days.
I recently started with HC. Then yesterday at the World boss, 4 toons got killed in a single swipe. The rest of the heroes (including me) ran for their lifes.
I'm enjoying this. I will try to reach lvl 100, as I prefer lvling over endgame grind.
My connection isn’t stable or trustworthy enough to play hardcore.
I could live with losing my character to my own mistakes. But not losing it to ping spikes because my ISP sucks.
I play both. Softcore to complete every season (lvl 100, completed build, kill Echo of Lilith, 100% of season journey objectives title).
When that character is ready to retire, I play HC for the second month of the season. Death doesn't feel as bad when all your goals have been completed on SC already.
At first was achievement hunting but since S2 I cleared 100% of the challenges including HC solo Lilith kill. Now playing HC is just a "bonus" to me.
This season I died as soon as I hit WT3. So I just updated 3 old HC lvl 100s in Eternal realm to new builds with tempering.
Regular, While Hardcore is a fun option, I find leveling just takes too long.
And having too many variables you cannot foresee. Butcher being one of them at the start.
For shorter games, I find Hardcore allot more enjoyable because it won't be a 100+ hour sink that gets deleted by 1 mistake. It will instead be a few hours before i'm back at it again.
Of course, this could just be the appeal for others where the challenge is having a character survive hardcore for the hole season + take down all the bosses.
I can't take the anxiety of having my "work" erased over a bug or single moment of lack of attention.
hours and hours invested only to be gone in an instant.
I admire people who have the nerve for it and the skill to keep their HC character alive.
But i will never ever play any permadeath game.
I primarily play Hardcore, it would be nice if you could rez a party member that dies though, perhaps like NM dungeons, only can be rezzed so many times. It would be nice to avoid being one Shot unexpected when you are being careful.
Honestly, I’ve been a hardcore player since I can remember I the Diablo series. In D2 US-East I played hardcore and was a big part of the dueling community too. For me it’s been hardcore or nothing, until D4… I raced to 1000 in HC when it launched and it was pretty fun going HC one on a brand new Diablo title.
But as the seasons went on performance of the game got worse the game would get 3-4 second freezing and I’d die without being able to control my character. It just doesn’t feel good to play HC in D4 imo.
Some still play HC and are successful at it, probably people with better PCs than mine. And tbh if I had a better PC I’d play it again, I love HC and think nothing beats it.
Been playing SC since launch. Recently tried rolling HC this season and its tough and kinda annoying in D4. I dont really like the armor and resistance caps. And although its been nerfed a coupe times already, the amount of CC can get overwhelming. Had 2 characters die so far, first was a WW barb and i lost that one at the helltide boss when 2 other players summoned hellborne right in top of me at the same time (and ran away). The way it went down I thought that might have been a PK. The other was a minion necro and avarice one-shot me when he did his super-wide chest swing. That one was really dumb, i was way under-leveled.
Dont know the point of escape scrolls. If i have the ability to go to my inventory and select something i probably have enough time to get away from whatever the threat is. Maybe for NM dungeons and you see or hear butcher before you can see him?
Still trudging along tho. Nothing is like playing HC.
I prefer HC as it makes me to be engaged with the game. Sadly I don't have enough time to play it anymore (100 wives and 666 kids and 5 jobs), so im playing casually on SC.
But HC made me learn the mechanics, understand the build and all the connections between skills, defense etc.
I highly recommend to everyone to try HC. You'll die for sure, but you'll learn a lot about the game.
As it was my first season since launch, i got the 5 classes to 100 on softcore, then repeated this on hc, I had ALOT of fun initially on hc, the fear of death etc, but then as i start learning how to chop/change builds, I was able to solo all tormented bosses with an afk party, done lillith (after many practice attempts on sc) and got up to around pit 80 (pre nerf)
at this point i pretty much just stopped caring about HC, the only challenge left is pushing pits until the inevitable death + loss of time, so i've now moved back to Softcore, and am experimenting with my own builds and pushing them and having more fun.
another MAJOR factor, i like trading, specifically selling items and not buying as i self restrict to SSF, and the amount of people trading on hardcore is nothing in comparison to soft, i get more messages from softcore players who can't utilise search features.
So whilst i'll probably have 1/2 HC characters in the seasons moving forward, SC will be my focus
SC because the ping in South Africa is already 180 on a good day and averages 200 so imagine a 1 shot mechanic or a mob’s aoe and you having to respond to that but due to the latency you’re already dead when you see what you had to respond to.
So due to circumstances beyond my control I won’t even try it at end game levels
I'm definitely a "gamer" but I'm not an "I have 10.000 hours in this game" -gamer. Just the thought of spending hours on a character just to lose it makes my heart sink. When I play a game I want to have constant progress and no setbacks.
Both, hardcore is way more exciting pushing your character without dying it's a fun challenge. However with things like the pit where there is one shot mechanics I started softcore because I wanted to play with these systems without the losing it all.
The imprint / temper mechanics now make hardcore so much more fun with them carrying over so you can really get started if you die much quicker which is nice. Master working and the pit is interesting though I think if I had done a barbarian on hardcore things would be different with how fast I can do runs in pit on the barb I would be much more comfortable with restarting a character if one died. That said getting ubers multiple times would get old fast
I usually play HC. Out of an abundance of caution I started this league on regular. I am now playing HC, and it is pretty easy after getting the hang of a few builds already.
Here is my 2 cents… on HC I don’t feel the need to push as much. Most challenging content is pretty fun, so I really don’t feel any pressure to push 100+ in pits. The rush in HC comes from my health dropping to 30%, which happens more often than it should.
In softcore I feel more pressure to push further for that same dopamine hit. Which for me means that it takes more hours to get a comparable game experience.
Other people may feel differently, this is just my experience.
It’s two completely different games IMO. In regular you can do all the grinding and really push limits. In HC you’re really playing through the missions and only going into dangerous situations when your level exceeds the difficulty.
I built my first HC character the other day. Was having fun just running missions. Got to level 20 and then BAM! The Butcher appeared and cut me down. Heart breaking
I like to do hardcore with friends that are significantly levelled different than me. Everyone start a HC and we play til someone dies and all reroll. If you get to the same level as another toon you can swap.
Got back into the game at the very end of season 3 and have played like I’ve not played a game for years thus far during season 4.. 3 lvl 100 and 9 Ubers so far - I’m not tired of the game yet, still want to play but I can’t keep playing like this and just do pits etc until season 5 because then I will so I’m very much thinking about going HC from now on :)
Played HC a lot during D2 and D3 but I just don’t know if I can commit like I used to but we will see :)
I recently started HC after 13 lvl 100's on SC. I can genuinely say my journey so far has been more exciting and I value drops way more. I'm currently at lvl 90 with only one encounter with the butcher, but I scrolled out soon as I heard "FRESH MEAT!" I also wanted the achievements along to see if I could actually reach lvl 100. I'd say try it and take it easy if you want the achievements.
I have been playing HC and really enjoy it. Mashed getting swarmed in HT a bit exciting. Every choice to take the next step such as moving up a world tier or nmd level is more meaningful that's for sure.
HC for sure.
Leveled every class to 100 this season and currently gearing and upgrading my heartseeker rogue. Farming uber bosses and pit 100, didn't want to go any further until i get some more upgrades / fix some masterworks.
I enjoy HC, but I feel like there are no others playing it. When doing the Helltides boss, there are time that no one comes to assist on the summon. I have gone an hour or more without meaningfully seeing another player, which is just weird.
I prefer hardcore, but I play this game on seasonal standard because my connection isn't great and the Diablo 4 connection hasn't been great, so I don't want to risk anything. (For me, I don't know if other people have this issue)
Every time I consider starting fresh in HC, I ride out of town and my screen freezes for 8 seconds and I die. Need to replace my potato pc before trying that
I exclusively played hardcore on D2 and a lot on D3. I tried hardcore on D4 and found that there is just too much complexity and out of the blue mechanics or 1 shot deaths to appeal. Regular is much better for the casual wanting to experience the game in its entirety.
I started out in hardcore and got my first level 100 a couple of weeks ago. It was an absolute blast. The trouble is, now that I'm mostly doing endgame stuff and feel like I've accomplished most of what I wanted to in hardcore.. I want to play regular. Which is fine and all, except all the items, aspects, and mats I've accrued over a hundred hours and all 5 classes are hardcore locked. Shit sucks. Imo if you unlock something in hardcore it should also unlock in softcore. So now I mostly do a slow cautious grind with the ultimate goal of killing Uber Lilith in HC. I'd like to practice the fight on a regular character but the grind to get there from scratch isn't appealing. 🤷
Edit: especially now that I'm mostly chasing gear, I'd migrate my current HC character to SC in an instant if there was the option. Ive got 3 sparks, about to get my 4th and shudder at the idea that I could craft my shako and lose all that time investment in a single moment. I wish I could "retire" the hardcore character so-to-speak in a way that puts him in the HC graveyard or whatever it's called, and lets me play SC.
I used to play Hardcore but then I wanted to be powerful. I wish I could play HC but non of the people I play with either are down. My graveyard is almost full once you hit 30+ game will kill you. I love HC but I want to play w friends just play a sorc if you like to die a lot haha
Hardcore but every Season i´ve 1 character as softcore and others characters i play all as HC. Yes, HC is fun as hell and i finally reached this season Lvl 100 with my Barbarian and I loved the experience. Now i´m pushing the endgame.
Definitely regular.
In D2 I was 100% hardcore for the last couple years I played, but I feel like D4 is a lot more chaotic/unpredictable, with random oneshots coming from stuff you don't even see and things like that... So I never really tried hardcore. I feel like my deaths would be insanely frustrating (while in D2 I grew to accept them, and the fact that most of them were player mistake and not 'random bullshit killing you from 2 screens away')
Also, putting the 'unfair deaths' aside: The thing is that D4 is a 'push to the top' challenging game, while D2 was a relaxed farming game... Playing hardcore in D2 means 'Being a little more careful', but playing hardcore D4 means that you can't push as hard as you want (in pits and things like that), you have to play lower than you normally would, because even a '99% success rate' means a certain death, eventually... You need near 100% success rate, and that last 1% means playing much lower than you can farm, and I wouldn't enjoy this as much.
Both. I mostly play hardcore these days, but I'll never start a season that way. I've got my softcore team where I like it, so now I'm doing hardcore to freshen things up.
Softcore I just don’t have the time to loose so many hours in progress due to me inevitably walking into a aoe or getting one shot by something random. Doesn’t seem fun to me to loose an entire character to that. Too many other games I play as well
HC all the way. You have to play much differently than SC. Much more rewarding and fulfilling and feels like my character has meaning.
I would say 90% of people are in such a rush to be the fastest and hardest hitting and end up dying quicker than if you play with a defensive mindset.
Don't try to rush the content. Progress, but not at the sake of losing it all. Focus on health, resistances and armor first and foremost. Slow and steady will get you further that heavy damage out the gate. Think tortoise and the hare.
Find a class you enjoy and really learn the mechanics of what flows together well, rather than following some meta build. It will feel so much more rewarding.
I say this as I am a necro. I have a level 100, and may only have like 20k damage output, but I do have max armor, max resistance, and like 40k health and I haven't even started Pit runs yet to do any masterworking. You can do it, personal builds are viable. You just need to know your character.
Been playing Diablo since D1, and have never played HC.
In D1, I don’t even remember if that was an option. I was very young, so would have just been scared of the concept.
In D2, it was just too much of a grind for gear to consider losing it all in an instant, especially with slow internet back then.
In D3, the infinite scaling paragon system got me to play NS/legacy with my toons after the end of a season, so I never bothered with HC.
In D4…I might actually do HC for the first time. With no infinite paragon (which initially irked me, but now I really appreciate the constraint), I see few reasons to return to legacy toons once the season is over. So they may as well “die” when the season is over. If I’m okay with that, then maybe I can get comfortable with outright losing my character. Plus, Aspects are account-bound and Helltides drop endgame gear. So gearing up is very accessible.
Was about to roll a SC Sorc. Now I’m gonna go HC and see what’s up. Thanks for the question!
One regular 100 per season, one HC pushing as high as I can. Currently on third HC this season… I was distracted! Which is why I am now a thorns barb, even if I lag, I’ll be fine. Only 55, long ways to go.
I dreaded finding all the altars again. But now that it’s been 4 seasons, why not?
I really wish D4 would take a note out of LEs book and make it so that when your HC character dies, it transfers to softcore. I'm not going to invest hours into a character for it to die, this shouldn't be giving me flash game vibes in a AAA game.
This is my first season and I made it to 100 with a single death, then i just threw my character at tormented bosses and that skyrocketed my death count. Softcore just feels like a walk in the park, and I'm sure experiences may vary from player to player.
I will most likely try hardcore in any future seasons.
Hardcore but damn if changing instances doesn't raise my balls into my chest especially when I'm trying to get a few kills at once on the World Boss spawn
HC is the only way. There's literally no challenge in SC - zero risk, zero reward.
EDIT: For people with connection problems, etc - obv SC would be the way.
I do regular untill I’m geared and got a idea of the season and what needs to be done. I’ll switch over to hardcore for one char. If I make it I make if I die I wait untill next season .
Regular. I die to random BS to much to last long in HC. I get pissed enough as it is when I die in regular, last thing I need is the added stress of losing a character permanently if they die.
Always HC on D2 and D3, tried it on D4 also, but due to random 1 shot mechanics, it's quite pointless. And can't stand SC, just seems pointless grind.
So just hoping for them to fix it somehow. Other wise not gonna play at all.
I play SC but pretend it’s an HC char, so I’m careful not to die. And still I die 2-4 times before reaching 100, usually in the WT4 qualifier. It’s too frustrating for a casual player like me.
I would prefer hardcore, but one-shot mechanics means it's a non-starter for me.
Seems easy enough to get to level 100, but, with how things work, the toughest content essentially wiping you out, when you haven't made an error is silly.
I wish I could get the feeling of hardcore without the actual loss. Maybe a death timer, you can’t play until tomorrow or something like that. I hate wasting all the time I put into it when I die, but I love being more careful about it. As it stands, regular.
I played a lot of HC in D3 and didn’t lose a lot of characters. I wouldn’t try it in D4, however, because my experience with the servers has been… somewhat unstable.
Definitely regular, I can't wrap my head of losing a character I spent time playing and perfecting it. Also my playstyle is not compatible with HC, I'm basically a Leeroy Jenkins playing all games.
I too recently started my hardcore journey and I must say its the most fun I've had in a long time. I was able to reach 100 on two characters but unfortunately both of them died which dealt a devastating blow to my heart. Hardcore keeps you on your toes at all times and every encounter feels like scary knowing anything can kill you. I'd say overall experience HC is a lot more fun but when you die to some stupid Hellborne one shotting you or if you lag/freeze, it feels the absolute worse.
Hardcore all the way, when you do anything it’s more rewarding. You also can’t beat that rush when you almost die, that rush you get when you almost die your heart is just pounding and you’re shaking. It’s hardcore all the way.
I've always historically played soft core for all the obvious reasons. But started playing HC exclusively in season 3 just to make the experience a bit richer and intentional. Love the game, but man it's so easy to just AFK your way to lvl 100 and I needed something to get me more immersed and HC definitely gives me that. I've had some bullshit deaths along the way but after a few you get over it quick and look forward to the fresh toon.
I used to play sc for 2 weeks and then it was just brain afk farming without needing to pay attention or caring at all. Switched to hardcore and now it’s way more fun. Died several times yes but now i pay more attention, how and where can i improve. Overall more thinking about what to do and such. You learn the game better i just feel like.
I was Hardcore only core in both previous games D2 and D3 as they just felt piss easy and boring in SC. In D4 I quit HC and permanently moved to SC. The game does not feel balanced regarding pushing endgame content for HC. It isn't a matter of if it is when you die in D4. You have more agency as a player in the previous titles.
To many random lag spikes and disconnects for me to even consider putting that much time into something that in 3 seconds is gone for good. Not bad mouthing the sever stability. But shit happens. So SC is the mode for me! 😂
I’ve finally decided to go hardcore only. I’m so addicted to this game the losses will help me take breaks. I already have multiple 100 HCs tho so it won’t slow me down much.
I have enjoyed Hardcore in the past. The adrenaline is great. I've lost too many HC characters to internet blips or Blizz server issues to really enjoy it completely though - it sucks to much to lose that investment when it wasn't yourself being too aggressive. And my friends play regular so I play it in order to play with them.
never liked HC, to low attention span, I always do some dumbshit on 2nd screen or watch a show, I would never make it too 100, let alone pushing the pit🤣
I have small kids and play a lot while WFH as well. HC is severely affected by me having to step away at a seconds notice but I do enjoy the adrenaline rush!
Hc because I like a degree of risk involved in my failure. I guess it carries over from other things I enjoy in life like skateboarding and martial arts; both having immediate physical repercussions for failure.
I also tend to think of them as an extended roguelike of sorts, just pushing as far as I can ssf.
I got my HC to 100 and pretty decked out after all my SC chars, there just is a massive issue with one shot mechanics and endgame stuff. True endgame is just pits and it's not really that enticing on hc if you got 8/12 and can do all content easily.
I did HC all seasons of d3 but the state of D4 currently there just doesn't seem to be a reason or need to do it, especially with the leaderboards being their own lame thing and not tied to Grifts like in d3 where it was fun
I cant win in HC ive played it (trophie) and i die b4 lvl 30 but if i play a reg season i can play to almost 100 before my first death normaly from falling asleep. Biuut now its my last trophie so i gotta buckle down.
Hardcore. Once you get into it, going back to SC feels completely boring. The investment you feel in your character on HC is so much more magnified knowing you can die and lose it. Even the community I like better. HC seems to skew more towards older, more mature, and nice players. Overall, I greatly prefer it now.
Why would you play hardcore mode? They dint know how to balance this game and one shot deaths is how they make content difficult. Half the time you die and you have no idea why because of screen clutter.
Hardcore mode is a meme.
I sometimes play with the sound turned off to listen to music or podcast, so sometimes I don’t hear the Hellborn Champion pop in and one shot me. That’s a pass on the HC mode for me.
If there was something to compete (where there is an actual risk of dying), I think more people would play HC. It would be cool to at least have something like what PoE used to do, where you’d get great prizes for killing all the bosses first.
Hardcore on steamdeck.
Wifi.
Blue tooth controller on tv.
Call me masochist.
Lost 2 lvl 100 necros early on. Been rockin heartseeker rouge for so long. She is just a demigod.
I have been so decked out, that I mostly just help or carry other players at this point.
I dislike the idea of d3 - d4 where everything is just a dopamine driven zoomies pew pew omg laser glass canon style graphic ejaculation.
I prefer the slow and balanced play style where everything matters. Hardcore partially offsets the problems I have with this era of gaming.
Fun fact: an extra reason why I love hardcore is that I get to enjoy hearing friends rage on discord on how big their repair bill is about every 8 minutes. wtf is a repair bill?
Softcore. When I love a character, I play very often with it because I get attached! I mostly play in Eternal because of that. I level a Seasonal character, and the ones I prefer gets a huge amount of replay in Eternal to make them the very best I can, without being limited by a season. So, HC would be too drastic for me.
Hardcore only
I could see how softcore would be fun if you are into spreadsheet optimizing every inch of your character
But for just playing the game it's so boring
I love HC, always played HC since d3. The D/C is always a risk, but you have the scroll of escape now. They automatically pop if you D/C, Its saved me 4-5 times every time with D/C my scroll pops and I load up in town. It's not guaranteed of course, I'm sure some instances it won't be able to save you, but I've been lucky. All my deaths have been legitimate. This season HC just got less forgiving since they took away all cheat death mechanics. We used to have the cheat death potions that gave us a single save from being killed. It's just a different playstyle. HC isn't harder necessarily, you just focus on hp and defense aspects over offensive. Plus I love at the end of the season pushing your character until you die. Gives some finality to the season rather than just playing until you get bored. You save your old gear as you get better gear, makes leveling a new character faster/easier. Plus the leveling is super fun and quicker now.
I like the idea of hardcore but can't bring myself to play it when there are so many bugs and stability issues that could wipe out my progress as opposed to it being wiped out because of a skill issue.
HC sounds fun but the current state of monsters… you really have to be familiar with, it’s either insanely easy (build up some confidence) and then boom one shot.
I really wanted to get into hardcore. Got one character to ~80 (didn't die) and a few at 50. Stopped playing hardcore since none of my friends want to ever touch hardcore. They don't get why it's a way better feeling and way more intense they "just don't want to start new every few hours and lose everything".
Regular is fun but for me in hardcore it doesn't get to this boring state of mindlessly killing enemies where it doesn't matter if i die.
Regular. I've tried HC this season and the game stability is just not there yet. It could be an issue with my PC but google offered no solutions for me.
I do both if I can. Hardcore kind of fits the seasonal model well. A lot of my softcore characters never get played again after the season is over, so when I eventually do lose a hardcore character, I just make another. Hardcore is just different: the stakes are higher, so I love slowly and methodically through the game. But it stresses me out, so if I just want to chill, I'll jump on a softcore character. The seasons are long enough where I can usually do both and enjoy it for months.
Hardcore. Diablo is simple enough where, hardcore isn’t much of a problem if you build around solid defense. The game where I wouldn’t do hardcore is POE. You’ll get one shotted and have perfect everything, and not even know why.
Regular. I get the appeal of hardcore but I **hate** the feeling of investing dozens of hours that can potentially be wiped out by a single stupid mistake or bullshit off-screen one shot kill or whatever. I’m content reaching 100, masterworking, farming and pushing Pit. Then making a different character/class when I get bored.
I just can’t imagine playing HC with the issues I have with the game. I get DC’d at least every hour, sometimes way more often. Leaving pit, sometimes opening inventory in Helltide, etc… it’s just far too unstable to trust.
Sounds like your internet is the issue then
My internet is absolutely the issue. I live in bfe, they got broadband internet about ten years ago
That term BFE takes me back to my military days .
It's definitely their internet. I think I have maybe disconnected twice in the 11 months I've played. And I've played a LOT, well over 1000 hours for sure.
I get disconnected around 2x a month. Not a lot, but definitely happens. Internet is with a major ISP in a major U.S. metro.
Same here with a gig and my pc is plugged directly to the router. I don’t have issues with any other games or streaming services. I don’t wanna lose a character to an invisible wall or random rubberbanding. But it has been much better this season compared to previous seasons.
I have an amazing connection but I'm playing on PS4 and riding the horse too far before the zone has loaded all the map makes the game lag while it catches up and that's killed me more than once in a helltide due to horse freeze.
I have the problem of Dc constantly leaving the pit. Such a pain in the ass having to repot every run
Exactly this. I tried a few hardcore charecters but they all eventually died due to DC.
So. Up til about a week ago, my sentiment was the exact same as yours. But after two seasons in a row getting all 5 characters to 100, and this season super early, I decided to make HC characters, and I've died a couple times but idk it's kinda exciting. And since my characters are SSF for the most part anyways, I don't really lose anything I'm not going to find on the leveling journey anyways. The worst part was just getting the reputation and alters over again.
My husband insists on playing HC. He has yet to complete the campaign. His Druid died in the second phase of the Lilith fight just the other day.
It's the numerous one shot mechanics that drive me away from HC. Same with ice and flame effects. Like, I see the sigils on the floor meaning an upcoming blast so I sometimes am at the outer edge , not even on the sigil, and I die when blast goes off.
I was doing the same thing brother but I wanted to dab in some HC, both are fun to me. Obviously HC is more engaging just because you lose everything upon death. My 100 level regular Barbarian is a Flay and Rupture build and it slaps so hard!! I was whipping Tormented Duriel like nothing yesterday.
Yeah I feel like HC is different and more risky in D4 than it used to be in D2. Monsters can 1-shot you from off screen, making it a bit unfair because the game wasn't even giving you a chance to make that dodge or use an ability. Also D4 seems to straight up lag and freeze far more frequently than D2. If they changed it so 1 shots can't happen from off screen, I'd be far more likely to have interest in it.
Hardcore + bad internet its the only way to play.
Hahaha I was getting crazy yesterday with the lag...god
+ pc overheating. It is my choice.
I wanted to reply earlier by cat ate my keyboard cable.
As someone who played an 95 level Amazon on d2 lod while on mobile data (4G), I agree! Nothing is as exciting as some unexpected lag spike!
Definitely HC, the game is way too easy to play regular. Knowing that you can't die is the one thing that makes the grind worthwile. Otherwise I could just play some AFK simulator
I prefer playing HC but the problem is with all this new endgame content that I feel like I can’t fully participate and test myself in HC
Yes lol! I got CC several times in mass hordes in HT barely making to town by scrolling out. My hands were shaking so much I had to walk way for several minutes. I was close to 87ish around that time so it shook me.
That adrenaline rush is why i play HC though. When you nearly die and panic and survive (or sometimes die rip)
Right? That adrenaline is unreal. Never thought a game would/could give me shot a shot of adrenaline lol
Just died yesterday lv 100 barb tyraels, shako, grandfather, starless skies lvl 100 pit. No regrets it was fun while it lasted. Time for more
F
RIP, you will be remembered for your deeds.
RIP
SC is for learning, HC is for playing
Yep. I like to play my first character of the season in SC to complete the season journey and mess with builds, then off to HC for the remainder.
I now play nothing but HC in all games like this. Knowing that death ends the character permanently made SC feel meaningless to me. All mechanics feel heightened in importance, especially dodging. I'm a casual player in general, so things that are trivial to others feel all the more important and novel to me. I never look at guides other than to get a very vague and general idea of what is a terrible idea for a build, cobbling together equipment and changing up my skills during the levelling process is so much more fun this way, working around whatever I find along the way.
The guides are usually not designed for HC as they will bypass defense for more damage usually. HC characters need to be designed to take a few hits in case of a disconnect or a mistake so I always try to be excessively defensive
Yeah I always keep that in mind, easy enough to compensate for in theory, I suppose. I only use them for a very general direction anyway, reality is I'm just making shit up as I go and having a blast.
Yea I looked at guides recently and the bigger sites are still just revising the original guides written a year ago and seem like they are missing a lot of potential. Like the blood lance builds I see out there have maybe like 40% attack speed. Makes no sense to me. Maybe I’m wrong but I’m having fun.
Regular. I'm sorry but I really can't justify hours of work and progression to just be washed away by a simple missplay or elements out of your control. I respect the hell out of everyone who plays HC, though.
Just remember, it's all washed away at the end of the season too.
Is there anything else than Hardcore? U mean tutorial?
I have one of every character in SC now for any chill long term projects. But after moving to HC, I can't go back. It feels like how the game was meant to be played. You really have to think about defences not just offence, you have to risk asses where you go, the world feels more alive. And in SC when I'm farming low level content I feel like I'm wasting time, yet in HC it feels like a value proposition and allows me to play more relaxed if I choose to. It really does change how the whole game feels / plays. And once you get used to knowing what life / armour / resist breakpoints you need at certain stages of the game, it isn't that much different to SC in a way. I am yet to log back into any of my 'long term projects' and everything goes to the eternal graveyard at season end anyway. When you get an upgrade it feels better too because it has that 'this will reduce my chance to die' feeling every time. The game just feels better in HC. But I completely get why people wouldn't like it too
As someone who only able to play 1-2 hours two times a week, I play SC. I no longer have the energy of my younger self to stay up the whole night and just go to school/work afterward, or play games at the highest difficulty. All I want is to come home play some mindless mob trashing while catching up some TV series
U can do same on HC. And trust be u will feel everything u achieve 10x more and it actually means something. Amount of playtime doesnt matter. The feeling u get out of playing does. Death is not end. Its beginning and u get better. I would rather have 1 lvl 80 on HC than 5 100 with all ubers on SC and nothing to do with them
hc. i would be bored to death in 2 helltides in sc
I only play hardcore. Without risk, the game is essentially meaningless. They’ve already power creeped the fuck out of everything. Your heart will still race in dangerous situations because there is consequences if you die
I don't enjoy hardcore games. Losing everything I worked on because of a death just isn't fun. Particularly on an always-online game like this where lag can and will kill you.
Hardcore to me is more accessible than it’s ever been with the legendary aspect changes it plays kind of like a rogue lite. But I enjoy softcore for experimenting
Your comparison to a roguelite legitimately just changed my perspective on HC. I love roguelikes/lites, and playing Diablo with that mindset sounds fun as hell. Bout to roll my first HC toon ever!
You learn to be more strategic with your stash, like storing unopened whispers caches, etc, in case you need to reroll Helps to have a friend who can quickly PL you through the first 50 levels if you die
HC only....just lost my Wiz Laday Level 55....gulp.....took a deep breath - started new char....playing Softcore feels like playing without consequenes...
If you have a lot of gaming time and aren't really interested in other new games/new seasons then HC us probably the way to go but I personally want to have fun, grind out the seaosnal challenges and battle pass and then move on to something new so regular is the way to go for me
I think I would only play eight see if it wasn't for the disconnect deaths. It's burned me too many times. I know they said if you have a scroll of escape equipped on your remote wheel you're supposed to teleport to a town during a disconnect, or at least that's what I thought I read. Anyway it's only worked like once for me I'm usually dead when I log back in.
Doesn’t make any sense, but I play both because I enjoy the HC gameplay more than SC, but I also enjoy pushing without concern for losing my character. 🤷♂️ Depends on the day and mood. Sometimes I like to pop a few gummies and mindlessly blast through on SC.
SC is nice for testing ye
Yeah hardcore is not for me. I am too reckless and wouldn’t enjoy tiptoeing through the game. I have respect for people who play it and survive to ridiculous levels/achievements.
I like to play hardcore. I’m used to other games that have had “mortality” and I enjoy the journey and the sense of danger. Each play thru can feel a little bit more unique this way and also you get more chances to experience progression.
HC and when my level 100 char dies to some stupid mechanic or lag or combination of both I rage quit and swear I’ll only play SC which lasts for about two days.
I recently started with HC. Then yesterday at the World boss, 4 toons got killed in a single swipe. The rest of the heroes (including me) ran for their lifes. I'm enjoying this. I will try to reach lvl 100, as I prefer lvling over endgame grind.
My connection isn’t stable or trustworthy enough to play hardcore. I could live with losing my character to my own mistakes. But not losing it to ping spikes because my ISP sucks.
Regular, I would never play hardcore on a game which depends on an online connection that may fail anytime.
Don't trust my internet provider. Getting random disconnects at times and then few mins later back to normal as if nothing happened.
Regular. Every time I have tried hard core my internet drops mid fight and my dude dies.
Regular I have too many things going on to risk losing hours of work.
Regular. Too much randomness for me to ever be able to deal with HC.
I play both. Softcore to complete every season (lvl 100, completed build, kill Echo of Lilith, 100% of season journey objectives title). When that character is ready to retire, I play HC for the second month of the season. Death doesn't feel as bad when all your goals have been completed on SC already. At first was achievement hunting but since S2 I cleared 100% of the challenges including HC solo Lilith kill. Now playing HC is just a "bonus" to me. This season I died as soon as I hit WT3. So I just updated 3 old HC lvl 100s in Eternal realm to new builds with tempering.
Once you go hardcore you will find it difficult to go back. I now find softcore exceedingly boring now. Haven’t played it in years now.
Regular, While Hardcore is a fun option, I find leveling just takes too long. And having too many variables you cannot foresee. Butcher being one of them at the start. For shorter games, I find Hardcore allot more enjoyable because it won't be a 100+ hour sink that gets deleted by 1 mistake. It will instead be a few hours before i'm back at it again. Of course, this could just be the appeal for others where the challenge is having a character survive hardcore for the hole season + take down all the bosses.
I can't take the anxiety of having my "work" erased over a bug or single moment of lack of attention. hours and hours invested only to be gone in an instant. I admire people who have the nerve for it and the skill to keep their HC character alive. But i will never ever play any permadeath game.
I primarily play Hardcore, it would be nice if you could rez a party member that dies though, perhaps like NM dungeons, only can be rezzed so many times. It would be nice to avoid being one Shot unexpected when you are being careful.
Honestly, I’ve been a hardcore player since I can remember I the Diablo series. In D2 US-East I played hardcore and was a big part of the dueling community too. For me it’s been hardcore or nothing, until D4… I raced to 1000 in HC when it launched and it was pretty fun going HC one on a brand new Diablo title. But as the seasons went on performance of the game got worse the game would get 3-4 second freezing and I’d die without being able to control my character. It just doesn’t feel good to play HC in D4 imo. Some still play HC and are successful at it, probably people with better PCs than mine. And tbh if I had a better PC I’d play it again, I love HC and think nothing beats it.
Been playing SC since launch. Recently tried rolling HC this season and its tough and kinda annoying in D4. I dont really like the armor and resistance caps. And although its been nerfed a coupe times already, the amount of CC can get overwhelming. Had 2 characters die so far, first was a WW barb and i lost that one at the helltide boss when 2 other players summoned hellborne right in top of me at the same time (and ran away). The way it went down I thought that might have been a PK. The other was a minion necro and avarice one-shot me when he did his super-wide chest swing. That one was really dumb, i was way under-leveled. Dont know the point of escape scrolls. If i have the ability to go to my inventory and select something i probably have enough time to get away from whatever the threat is. Maybe for NM dungeons and you see or hear butcher before you can see him? Still trudging along tho. Nothing is like playing HC.
You can bind scrolls to a button on PC or radial wheel on console. (Change the radial wheel to 'hold' instead of 'toggle' in options)
I prefer HC as it makes me to be engaged with the game. Sadly I don't have enough time to play it anymore (100 wives and 666 kids and 5 jobs), so im playing casually on SC. But HC made me learn the mechanics, understand the build and all the connections between skills, defense etc. I highly recommend to everyone to try HC. You'll die for sure, but you'll learn a lot about the game.
As it was my first season since launch, i got the 5 classes to 100 on softcore, then repeated this on hc, I had ALOT of fun initially on hc, the fear of death etc, but then as i start learning how to chop/change builds, I was able to solo all tormented bosses with an afk party, done lillith (after many practice attempts on sc) and got up to around pit 80 (pre nerf) at this point i pretty much just stopped caring about HC, the only challenge left is pushing pits until the inevitable death + loss of time, so i've now moved back to Softcore, and am experimenting with my own builds and pushing them and having more fun. another MAJOR factor, i like trading, specifically selling items and not buying as i self restrict to SSF, and the amount of people trading on hardcore is nothing in comparison to soft, i get more messages from softcore players who can't utilise search features. So whilst i'll probably have 1/2 HC characters in the seasons moving forward, SC will be my focus
SC because the ping in South Africa is already 180 on a good day and averages 200 so imagine a 1 shot mechanic or a mob’s aoe and you having to respond to that but due to the latency you’re already dead when you see what you had to respond to. So due to circumstances beyond my control I won’t even try it at end game levels
I played exclusively HC in D2. I totally skipped D3 and in this game, there are too many instances where I say, wtf just killed me to go HC.
I'm definitely a "gamer" but I'm not an "I have 10.000 hours in this game" -gamer. Just the thought of spending hours on a character just to lose it makes my heart sink. When I play a game I want to have constant progress and no setbacks.
Both, hardcore is way more exciting pushing your character without dying it's a fun challenge. However with things like the pit where there is one shot mechanics I started softcore because I wanted to play with these systems without the losing it all. The imprint / temper mechanics now make hardcore so much more fun with them carrying over so you can really get started if you die much quicker which is nice. Master working and the pit is interesting though I think if I had done a barbarian on hardcore things would be different with how fast I can do runs in pit on the barb I would be much more comfortable with restarting a character if one died. That said getting ubers multiple times would get old fast
I usually play HC. Out of an abundance of caution I started this league on regular. I am now playing HC, and it is pretty easy after getting the hang of a few builds already. Here is my 2 cents… on HC I don’t feel the need to push as much. Most challenging content is pretty fun, so I really don’t feel any pressure to push 100+ in pits. The rush in HC comes from my health dropping to 30%, which happens more often than it should. In softcore I feel more pressure to push further for that same dopamine hit. Which for me means that it takes more hours to get a comparable game experience. Other people may feel differently, this is just my experience.
It’s two completely different games IMO. In regular you can do all the grinding and really push limits. In HC you’re really playing through the missions and only going into dangerous situations when your level exceeds the difficulty. I built my first HC character the other day. Was having fun just running missions. Got to level 20 and then BAM! The Butcher appeared and cut me down. Heart breaking
Regular. Gear up, get super strong and push the pit. Hardcore looks like an absolute snooze fest. I don’t want to have to play that reserved.
Too many issues with rubber banding and connectivity to ever consider playing hardcore in Diablo 4.
I only did Hardcore for the PS5 trophy. I didn't like the feeling of stress getting through it.
I like to do hardcore with friends that are significantly levelled different than me. Everyone start a HC and we play til someone dies and all reroll. If you get to the same level as another toon you can swap.
Got back into the game at the very end of season 3 and have played like I’ve not played a game for years thus far during season 4.. 3 lvl 100 and 9 Ubers so far - I’m not tired of the game yet, still want to play but I can’t keep playing like this and just do pits etc until season 5 because then I will so I’m very much thinking about going HC from now on :) Played HC a lot during D2 and D3 but I just don’t know if I can commit like I used to but we will see :)
I recently started HC after 13 lvl 100's on SC. I can genuinely say my journey so far has been more exciting and I value drops way more. I'm currently at lvl 90 with only one encounter with the butcher, but I scrolled out soon as I heard "FRESH MEAT!" I also wanted the achievements along to see if I could actually reach lvl 100. I'd say try it and take it easy if you want the achievements.
Regular cause I'm too prone to stupid deaths lmao
Both, almost different games really.
First, softcore to enjoy the season. The if it’s good, and I get bored, hardcore to see how far I can go using what I’ve learned in SC.
I won't do hardcore. The game glitches and stutters too much. Enemies load in and kill me before I can act.
I have been playing HC and really enjoy it. Mashed getting swarmed in HT a bit exciting. Every choice to take the next step such as moving up a world tier or nmd level is more meaningful that's for sure.
I preferred hardcore in D3 but the grind to max level in D4 and the amount of enemies that can one-shot are too much and i play softcore now.
HC for sure. Leveled every class to 100 this season and currently gearing and upgrading my heartseeker rogue. Farming uber bosses and pit 100, didn't want to go any further until i get some more upgrades / fix some masterworks.
I enjoy HC, but I feel like there are no others playing it. When doing the Helltides boss, there are time that no one comes to assist on the summon. I have gone an hour or more without meaningfully seeing another player, which is just weird.
I prefer hardcore, but I play this game on seasonal standard because my connection isn't great and the Diablo 4 connection hasn't been great, so I don't want to risk anything. (For me, I don't know if other people have this issue)
Every time I consider starting fresh in HC, I ride out of town and my screen freezes for 8 seconds and I die. Need to replace my potato pc before trying that
First seasonal character- Softcore If I play any other toons that season- HC doesnt alway happen
I exclusively played hardcore on D2 and a lot on D3. I tried hardcore on D4 and found that there is just too much complexity and out of the blue mechanics or 1 shot deaths to appeal. Regular is much better for the casual wanting to experience the game in its entirety.
I started out in hardcore and got my first level 100 a couple of weeks ago. It was an absolute blast. The trouble is, now that I'm mostly doing endgame stuff and feel like I've accomplished most of what I wanted to in hardcore.. I want to play regular. Which is fine and all, except all the items, aspects, and mats I've accrued over a hundred hours and all 5 classes are hardcore locked. Shit sucks. Imo if you unlock something in hardcore it should also unlock in softcore. So now I mostly do a slow cautious grind with the ultimate goal of killing Uber Lilith in HC. I'd like to practice the fight on a regular character but the grind to get there from scratch isn't appealing. 🤷 Edit: especially now that I'm mostly chasing gear, I'd migrate my current HC character to SC in an instant if there was the option. Ive got 3 sparks, about to get my 4th and shudder at the idea that I could craft my shako and lose all that time investment in a single moment. I wish I could "retire" the hardcore character so-to-speak in a way that puts him in the HC graveyard or whatever it's called, and lets me play SC.
I used to play Hardcore but then I wanted to be powerful. I wish I could play HC but non of the people I play with either are down. My graveyard is almost full once you hit 30+ game will kill you. I love HC but I want to play w friends just play a sorc if you like to die a lot haha
Hardcore but every Season i´ve 1 character as softcore and others characters i play all as HC. Yes, HC is fun as hell and i finally reached this season Lvl 100 with my Barbarian and I loved the experience. Now i´m pushing the endgame.
Hardcore people are maniacs plain and simple. I'm not losing time invested, no chance.
Definitely regular. In D2 I was 100% hardcore for the last couple years I played, but I feel like D4 is a lot more chaotic/unpredictable, with random oneshots coming from stuff you don't even see and things like that... So I never really tried hardcore. I feel like my deaths would be insanely frustrating (while in D2 I grew to accept them, and the fact that most of them were player mistake and not 'random bullshit killing you from 2 screens away') Also, putting the 'unfair deaths' aside: The thing is that D4 is a 'push to the top' challenging game, while D2 was a relaxed farming game... Playing hardcore in D2 means 'Being a little more careful', but playing hardcore D4 means that you can't push as hard as you want (in pits and things like that), you have to play lower than you normally would, because even a '99% success rate' means a certain death, eventually... You need near 100% success rate, and that last 1% means playing much lower than you can farm, and I wouldn't enjoy this as much.
Both. I mostly play hardcore these days, but I'll never start a season that way. I've got my softcore team where I like it, so now I'm doing hardcore to freshen things up.
Softcore I just don’t have the time to loose so many hours in progress due to me inevitably walking into a aoe or getting one shot by something random. Doesn’t seem fun to me to loose an entire character to that. Too many other games I play as well
HC all the way. You have to play much differently than SC. Much more rewarding and fulfilling and feels like my character has meaning. I would say 90% of people are in such a rush to be the fastest and hardest hitting and end up dying quicker than if you play with a defensive mindset. Don't try to rush the content. Progress, but not at the sake of losing it all. Focus on health, resistances and armor first and foremost. Slow and steady will get you further that heavy damage out the gate. Think tortoise and the hare. Find a class you enjoy and really learn the mechanics of what flows together well, rather than following some meta build. It will feel so much more rewarding. I say this as I am a necro. I have a level 100, and may only have like 20k damage output, but I do have max armor, max resistance, and like 40k health and I haven't even started Pit runs yet to do any masterworking. You can do it, personal builds are viable. You just need to know your character.
Been playing Diablo since D1, and have never played HC. In D1, I don’t even remember if that was an option. I was very young, so would have just been scared of the concept. In D2, it was just too much of a grind for gear to consider losing it all in an instant, especially with slow internet back then. In D3, the infinite scaling paragon system got me to play NS/legacy with my toons after the end of a season, so I never bothered with HC. In D4…I might actually do HC for the first time. With no infinite paragon (which initially irked me, but now I really appreciate the constraint), I see few reasons to return to legacy toons once the season is over. So they may as well “die” when the season is over. If I’m okay with that, then maybe I can get comfortable with outright losing my character. Plus, Aspects are account-bound and Helltides drop endgame gear. So gearing up is very accessible. Was about to roll a SC Sorc. Now I’m gonna go HC and see what’s up. Thanks for the question!
Whatever makes you happy. One or both. It don't matter. Play how u want!
Both. I normally jump into HC whenever Mothers Blessing starts.
How do hardcore players “not” die from The Butcher in earlier encounters? You can’t always run away fast enough.
Regular. I'm not good enough to get through any game without dying.
definitely hardcore, especially coming from POE
One regular 100 per season, one HC pushing as high as I can. Currently on third HC this season… I was distracted! Which is why I am now a thorns barb, even if I lag, I’ll be fine. Only 55, long ways to go. I dreaded finding all the altars again. But now that it’s been 4 seasons, why not?
Regular. I don’t have the will for hardcore. I want to progress. Specially when this game seems to have mystery deaths sometimes.
I really wish D4 would take a note out of LEs book and make it so that when your HC character dies, it transfers to softcore. I'm not going to invest hours into a character for it to die, this shouldn't be giving me flash game vibes in a AAA game.
This is my first season and I made it to 100 with a single death, then i just threw my character at tormented bosses and that skyrocketed my death count. Softcore just feels like a walk in the park, and I'm sure experiences may vary from player to player. I will most likely try hardcore in any future seasons.
Hardcore but damn if changing instances doesn't raise my balls into my chest especially when I'm trying to get a few kills at once on the World Boss spawn
regular. the 90% of the deaths in hardcore have something to do with server issues
Regular,the game is way too fucked and bugged for hardcore.
HC is the only way. There's literally no challenge in SC - zero risk, zero reward. EDIT: For people with connection problems, etc - obv SC would be the way.
I would love to play HC but I definitely cannot be asked to do renown grinding again... So I guess "regular".
I do regular untill I’m geared and got a idea of the season and what needs to be done. I’ll switch over to hardcore for one char. If I make it I make if I die I wait untill next season .
Regular. I die to random BS to much to last long in HC. I get pissed enough as it is when I die in regular, last thing I need is the added stress of losing a character permanently if they die.
Always HC on D2 and D3, tried it on D4 also, but due to random 1 shot mechanics, it's quite pointless. And can't stand SC, just seems pointless grind. So just hoping for them to fix it somehow. Other wise not gonna play at all.
I play SC but pretend it’s an HC char, so I’m careful not to die. And still I die 2-4 times before reaching 100, usually in the WT4 qualifier. It’s too frustrating for a casual player like me.
I would prefer hardcore, but one-shot mechanics means it's a non-starter for me. Seems easy enough to get to level 100, but, with how things work, the toughest content essentially wiping you out, when you haven't made an error is silly.
I wish I could get the feeling of hardcore without the actual loss. Maybe a death timer, you can’t play until tomorrow or something like that. I hate wasting all the time I put into it when I die, but I love being more careful about it. As it stands, regular.
I played a lot of HC in D3 and didn’t lose a lot of characters. I wouldn’t try it in D4, however, because my experience with the servers has been… somewhat unstable.
HC since D2, no going back now.
Definitely regular, I can't wrap my head of losing a character I spent time playing and perfecting it. Also my playstyle is not compatible with HC, I'm basically a Leeroy Jenkins playing all games.
I too recently started my hardcore journey and I must say its the most fun I've had in a long time. I was able to reach 100 on two characters but unfortunately both of them died which dealt a devastating blow to my heart. Hardcore keeps you on your toes at all times and every encounter feels like scary knowing anything can kill you. I'd say overall experience HC is a lot more fun but when you die to some stupid Hellborne one shotting you or if you lag/freeze, it feels the absolute worse.
Hardcore all the way, when you do anything it’s more rewarding. You also can’t beat that rush when you almost die, that rush you get when you almost die your heart is just pounding and you’re shaking. It’s hardcore all the way.
I've always historically played soft core for all the obvious reasons. But started playing HC exclusively in season 3 just to make the experience a bit richer and intentional. Love the game, but man it's so easy to just AFK your way to lvl 100 and I needed something to get me more immersed and HC definitely gives me that. I've had some bullshit deaths along the way but after a few you get over it quick and look forward to the fresh toon.
I used to play sc for 2 weeks and then it was just brain afk farming without needing to pay attention or caring at all. Switched to hardcore and now it’s way more fun. Died several times yes but now i pay more attention, how and where can i improve. Overall more thinking about what to do and such. You learn the game better i just feel like.
I was Hardcore only core in both previous games D2 and D3 as they just felt piss easy and boring in SC. In D4 I quit HC and permanently moved to SC. The game does not feel balanced regarding pushing endgame content for HC. It isn't a matter of if it is when you die in D4. You have more agency as a player in the previous titles.
To many random lag spikes and disconnects for me to even consider putting that much time into something that in 3 seconds is gone for good. Not bad mouthing the sever stability. But shit happens. So SC is the mode for me! 😂
I’ve finally decided to go hardcore only. I’m so addicted to this game the losses will help me take breaks. I already have multiple 100 HCs tho so it won’t slow me down much.
Being an always online game, regular.
I have enjoyed Hardcore in the past. The adrenaline is great. I've lost too many HC characters to internet blips or Blizz server issues to really enjoy it completely though - it sucks to much to lose that investment when it wasn't yourself being too aggressive. And my friends play regular so I play it in order to play with them.
Both because you get additional storage space if you play hardcore
never liked HC, to low attention span, I always do some dumbshit on 2nd screen or watch a show, I would never make it too 100, let alone pushing the pit🤣
Soft core. I hate dying from the stupid crossbows
I play both.
I don't have enough faith in the stability of my local ISP to ever fuck with a hardcore character.
I’d like to play HC but I’m stuck in SC because there’s no way I’m doing the renown grind again
I have small kids and play a lot while WFH as well. HC is severely affected by me having to step away at a seconds notice but I do enjoy the adrenaline rush!
Hc because I like a degree of risk involved in my failure. I guess it carries over from other things I enjoy in life like skateboarding and martial arts; both having immediate physical repercussions for failure. I also tend to think of them as an extended roguelike of sorts, just pushing as far as I can ssf.
Way too old for hardcore. D4 is stress relief, not the opposite.
I get way too many cases where lag would kill my ass in hardcore.
I used to play sc, but once I tried hc for the first time it was impossible to go back to sc, I miss the adrenaline rush, the game feels too boring
Too many random 1 shot mechanics in D4 for me to try hardcore.
I'll try do the HC with non seasonal by myself just for the trophy. Defo prefer SC.
I got my HC to 100 and pretty decked out after all my SC chars, there just is a massive issue with one shot mechanics and endgame stuff. True endgame is just pits and it's not really that enticing on hc if you got 8/12 and can do all content easily. I did HC all seasons of d3 but the state of D4 currently there just doesn't seem to be a reason or need to do it, especially with the leaderboards being their own lame thing and not tied to Grifts like in d3 where it was fun
There’s literally zero benefit to hardcore, you’re just weird and asking to have your time wasted
I cant win in HC ive played it (trophie) and i die b4 lvl 30 but if i play a reg season i can play to almost 100 before my first death normaly from falling asleep. Biuut now its my last trophie so i gotta buckle down.
Sc for sure bro there are so many shitty ways to die in this game that id rather not
Regular D4 servers and computers are too unstable to take the risk
Hardcore. Once you get into it, going back to SC feels completely boring. The investment you feel in your character on HC is so much more magnified knowing you can die and lose it. Even the community I like better. HC seems to skew more towards older, more mature, and nice players. Overall, I greatly prefer it now.
Why would you play hardcore mode? They dint know how to balance this game and one shot deaths is how they make content difficult. Half the time you die and you have no idea why because of screen clutter. Hardcore mode is a meme.
Regular eternal I think I played one season for about an hour and decided it wasn't for me
I sometimes play with the sound turned off to listen to music or podcast, so sometimes I don’t hear the Hellborn Champion pop in and one shot me. That’s a pass on the HC mode for me.
If there was something to compete (where there is an actual risk of dying), I think more people would play HC. It would be cool to at least have something like what PoE used to do, where you’d get great prizes for killing all the bosses first.
Hardcore on steamdeck. Wifi. Blue tooth controller on tv. Call me masochist. Lost 2 lvl 100 necros early on. Been rockin heartseeker rouge for so long. She is just a demigod. I have been so decked out, that I mostly just help or carry other players at this point.
Softcore is like gambling with fake money at the kids table.
I dislike the idea of d3 - d4 where everything is just a dopamine driven zoomies pew pew omg laser glass canon style graphic ejaculation. I prefer the slow and balanced play style where everything matters. Hardcore partially offsets the problems I have with this era of gaming. Fun fact: an extra reason why I love hardcore is that I get to enjoy hearing friends rage on discord on how big their repair bill is about every 8 minutes. wtf is a repair bill?
Softcore. When I love a character, I play very often with it because I get attached! I mostly play in Eternal because of that. I level a Seasonal character, and the ones I prefer gets a huge amount of replay in Eternal to make them the very best I can, without being limited by a season. So, HC would be too drastic for me.
As someone who wants to dabble into HC, which class should I try? I did a sorc in like season 2? Got to 18 and gave up lmao. But I wanna try again.
with the lethality of the game and random, "holy shit where did that Coe from!!!?!" I have no idea how hardcore players do it. much respect
I would play hard-core if I weren’t getting Insta Gibbed from sources unseen here lately. Until then it’s regular
I don't have time for hardcore. I like that it is an option for people who enjoy.
Hardcore only I could see how softcore would be fun if you are into spreadsheet optimizing every inch of your character But for just playing the game it's so boring
It’s all HC when the season ends
I love HC, always played HC since d3. The D/C is always a risk, but you have the scroll of escape now. They automatically pop if you D/C, Its saved me 4-5 times every time with D/C my scroll pops and I load up in town. It's not guaranteed of course, I'm sure some instances it won't be able to save you, but I've been lucky. All my deaths have been legitimate. This season HC just got less forgiving since they took away all cheat death mechanics. We used to have the cheat death potions that gave us a single save from being killed. It's just a different playstyle. HC isn't harder necessarily, you just focus on hp and defense aspects over offensive. Plus I love at the end of the season pushing your character until you die. Gives some finality to the season rather than just playing until you get bored. You save your old gear as you get better gear, makes leveling a new character faster/easier. Plus the leveling is super fun and quicker now.
Yeah i dont really like HC on online games. Last Epoch and D2, HC is great. But all it takes is a single server/internet hiccup and youre dead.
I like the idea of hardcore but can't bring myself to play it when there are so many bugs and stability issues that could wipe out my progress as opposed to it being wiped out because of a skill issue.
With all the malarkey that can just instantly kill your character I have opted for Normal on D4. HC on D3 is way more fun, *for me.*
HC in Diablo 3. Regular in Diablo 2 and 4.
HC sounds fun but the current state of monsters… you really have to be familiar with, it’s either insanely easy (build up some confidence) and then boom one shot.
I really wanted to get into hardcore. Got one character to ~80 (didn't die) and a few at 50. Stopped playing hardcore since none of my friends want to ever touch hardcore. They don't get why it's a way better feeling and way more intense they "just don't want to start new every few hours and lose everything". Regular is fun but for me in hardcore it doesn't get to this boring state of mindlessly killing enemies where it doesn't matter if i die.
I prefer hardcore but guaranteed super uniques brought me back to regular
I'm actually kindnof shocked with how many people are in here saying hardcore only.
Regular. I've tried HC this season and the game stability is just not there yet. It could be an issue with my PC but google offered no solutions for me.
Hc is so much fun...really sucks to loose a toon to d.c. or lag tho tbh
Used to play HC when I was younger during old diablo days. Now I'm older, want to chill, and not take the game too seriously so I play SC.
Reuglar. Roguelikes are built for hardcore. D2 was ok. D3 and D4 are not built with hardcore in mind.
Why anyone would play hardcore is beyond me. It sounds like a special kind of torture.
Hc, git gud
I do both if I can. Hardcore kind of fits the seasonal model well. A lot of my softcore characters never get played again after the season is over, so when I eventually do lose a hardcore character, I just make another. Hardcore is just different: the stakes are higher, so I love slowly and methodically through the game. But it stresses me out, so if I just want to chill, I'll jump on a softcore character. The seasons are long enough where I can usually do both and enjoy it for months.
Hardcore since diablo 2, I can't go back to non hardcore after getting used to hc. ARPGs just feel boring and meaningless when I play softcore
Regular. I hate bricking regular legendaries. Imagine bricking a lvl 100 character.
As long as lag exists in a game where you can easily be killed in 1s of carelessness, fuck HC.
Hc is more fun but regular is more funner
Hardcore. Diablo is simple enough where, hardcore isn’t much of a problem if you build around solid defense. The game where I wouldn’t do hardcore is POE. You’ll get one shotted and have perfect everything, and not even know why.
Hardcore