Playing hardcore and standard

Hello everyone, I'm new to PoE and I brought 4 friends with me to start.. I made sure we all started on hardcore as we wanted a challenge but up to now it's consisted of getting to level 1-20 and a friend dies so we re-roll, I was the only one to not have a character die till a few hours ago when I got frozen inside a cave to kill that big mammoth just after the second act. Anyway we start again and the same fate occurs with it being at a higher stage than were we got last time or at a lesser stage and I've been told if you die on hardcore and get changed to the standard difficulty you should just delete your character which we have been doing and I just wanted to know everyones opinions on this and a reason behind it, thanks.

kTo.

P.s Any tips are welcome as I'm a newbie to the game but have played and completed Diablo 3 multiple times and I definitely find this game more fun to play, the node tree is just so unique it's brilliant even if I'm a bit clueless haha.

Edit: My main is currently a level 22 Witch Summoner(HC) but it's a pretty boring spec.. I did have a 2h level 18 Marauder but RIP a few hours ago :( I also have a level 17 Fire Witch(HC) which is pretty fun to play.

Id say if youre all new and want to keep playing together, stick with default for now. You dont lose your characters if you die in HC, most players who play HC though will reroll if they die just because they enjoy the added death consequence, which is gone once youre in default.

As a newbie, id recommend you and your friends play through softcore to at least the end of Cruel.

That way you can see which mobs do what, and what you need to avoid. And what resistances you will need to have on going into certain parts.
Things in this game simply murder you if you don't kite, avoid, or know how to deal with them.

Otherwise, yea. Expect to reroll over and over and over getting a little further each time (hopefully).

P.S. Im on the forum right now because I JUST lost my 41 Templar. Flicker mobs murdered him instantly because they were paired with a flicker rare. 1500 health, shield, all health nodes.
Lesson learned? Take a skele totem next time and lead with it in that cave...

Well the idea is that if you die in HC and really like the character you can continue to play on default. From the HC point of view, the character and all the stuff is gone. Also HC isn't more challenging its just more harsh when you die.

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Meglo wrote:

I've been told if you die on hardcore and get changed to the standard difficulty you should just delete your character which we have been doing and I just wanted to know everyones opinions on this and a reason behind it, thanks.

This is merely the opinion of the truly 'hardcore' hardcore players. Since your character is merely shifted to the default league from hardcore when you die, the people who only play hardcore then delete their default league players to free up the player slot. In actuality, you could keep playing with the items/levels you have already achieved on your 'dead' player, with the caveat being that you only bring to default what is on your char/in your inv at the time. Your shared stash is only shared between other chars in that league, so if you find something sweet in default you cannot get it to hardcore or vice versa.

Myself, given the state of the game in open beta with some deaths happening as a result of server instability, I would never play hardcore. Once that gets fixed/mitigated as best it can, I may be more inclined to give it a try.

Yeah I understand were you both are coming from but what's the difference exactly between playing hardcore and playing the standard one like xp items etc.

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CrystalisQualinthi wrote:

Your shared stash is only shared between other chars in that league, so if you find something sweet in default you cannot get it to hardcore or vice versa.

He can always kill a HC char to transfer an item to default :)

AFAIK there isn't a difference on items/xp just because you're in one league or another. You may be able to sell 'good' items for more on HC than you would on default simply because HC players are often willing to pay more to ensure their HC player doesn't die.

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Coaster_Man wrote:

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CrystalisQualinthi wrote:

Your shared stash is only shared between other chars in that league, so if you find something sweet in default you cannot get it to hardcore or vice versa.

He can always kill a HC char to transfer an item to default :)

While true, most players would want to bring a bad-ass item from default to HC to keep their HC player from dying more than they would want t obringa bad-ass item from HC to default. I guess there could always be a HC player who over time decides to go default and dies on purpose to do this though.

@CrystalisQualinthi Thanks for your opinion, I shall tell everyone tomorrow then but don't think they'll be too happy me telling them when they've all been deleting their characters as far as I know anyway haha.

Edit: Hmm I thought the items and exp was different between hardcore and normal, I shall start playing normal then by the sound of it till I complete the game anyway :p