muckus said:
But it turned into power-leveling, rushing, and baal runs and not actually "playing" the game. Admittedly, I died out of stupidity, but I feel good about that, because I was actually facing danger rather than playing like a sissy, which is what I feel most of the HC ladder is, IMHO.
Softcore is not very different, just that you are confronted with even more annoying people who are extremely unskilled at playing in an organized manner. Sure, you have those in HC, too, but at least you don't have to deal with individuals who trigger all monsters in the area, die, say "LOL", run to their corpse, die again, say "ROFL", and so on. Quite a while ago when my first high level HC character died, I went back to softcore. I came back to HC after two hours of painful suffering. I doubt the situation has improved since. In fact, I know it hasn't, since whenever I set foot in a public channel, I see low levels asking if anyone can kill Hell Diablo for them.
As for playing like a sissy: That's a decision you make. My first HC Guardian was a base energy nova sorceress. I had just lost my pussyfooting Meteor sorceress at 75, so I was a bit in a "srcew this!" mood, and well, I played her fast, teleported into the middle of large groups, herded critters in the Chaos Sanctuary, hopped on top of Oblivion Knights, and so on. She never died, despite playing her in risky fashion. I believe that's the key to HC success anyway: You need to stop clinging to your character's life and just play. If you die, you die. The game gets boring after 85 anyway, so what's the big deal of rebuilding a character a few times? You learn something new as a result of every death. The alternative is ending up with fifty thousand SC characters that you are totally bored with.
If it's about losing stuff, well, yeah, it hurts. But playing HC taught me to "make do" with crappy equipment. Every item can be replaced, yes, even Tal's armour. I find that people (not you, just speaking in general here) are too hung up on high-end uniques anyway. Sure, they're nice, I like finding and having them, but they are not required to have fun.
Getting your first HC character to seventy is a good achievemet. Pat yourself on the back, you did well. Now start a new HC character and try to get to seventy-one, and show the dang game who owns it!
Okay, okay, I shouldn't try to change your mind. If you prefer softcore, that's all right -- it's about fun, and if you have more fun in SC, then that's the mode for you. Just pointing out that HC doesn't have to be slow and eventless.
Too bad, though, because if the ladder wasn't so chock full of power-gamers I would have liked to compete for a top spot by actually playing the game.
Ladder is for people who really don't have any responsibilities. I usually try to be among the first 50 of my class by level 75, and then I stop pushing for a ladder position. Did that both times and ended up on #16 and #27. After that point it just gets too tedious. (And I have a job, friends and a woman.)
P.S. And don't get me started on MH. What's the point of playing HC if you are going to depend on a hack to save you?
I don't really want to defend MH here, because I do believe that it disfigured the game (both SC and HC) and turned it into a travesty, but it does offer some protection against TPPK and friends, which sadly Blizzard seems to continue to ignore. It also offers protection against those who put their own gaming experience over those of others, the so-called "legit PKers". Not a popular opinion, but I find PKing cheesy in any game that doesn't have serious penalties for PKs -- if a D2 PK would be labled as such and could be attacked anywhere without having to be hostiled, I'd have much more respect (any respect, that is) for PKs of any kind. Anyway, controversial topic, and most will disagree.
