Bestiary how many are playing HC?

I Know there can be some lag but im wondering how many people are actually playing hc? Mostly curious about trading availability. I just started playing on xb1 and online traders seem few and far. But that is probably due to league end.

HC in this game is black magic, how do you survive without dying on Kitava ? Even the slightest build error can result in death, I cant ever see me playing HC in this game. I am curious though how you guys do it.

I play SSF HC when I play in leagues

While I dont usually get alot of time to Play PoE I can still get a fair distance without dying

Currently lv83 in BHC. And to answer the question about Kitava, over geared and about 5 lvls or more over the rec. Pretty easy if you know the fights. I honestly have harder times with Avarius.

There's no such thing as using too many town portals on hard bosses....:D

I play HC exclusively and it can be tough but rewarding!

The worst part is leveling and not being able to group like on the PC for those super hard boss fights etc

I also play HC exclusively.

I too, play HC exclusively.

But, this league I have died three times after only reaching ACT 6 and its driving me bonkers!

The worst one was in the Menagerie: after killing all the beasts the blood alter completed but there were still loads of extra mobs spawned by the red beast. And as I was using whirling blades on (A) to move, I landed on the blood alter, went to whirl away and ended up opening the blood alter... dead.

I've also noticed a few "stalls" after this recent patch, where I'm stuck in place but can still target mobs around me... my attacks still go through, but I don't know what is happening for about 3-4 seconds until the game speeds up all the actions and snaps me back on the right timeline. This happens just walking around.

Does anyone know if pressing Start and (Y) to exit will save you fast enough from the above encounters?

start y is your best friend on hardcore its a totaly different game than core.

Not many play it. A friend of mine was top two when he died today at 91. I imagine trade is pretty bad, and he said it was pretty scarce. I personally play softcore league with friends and when solo I ssf in league HC.