What’s weird is how everybody’s argument about things like this boils down to: “once you have the good stuff.”
A significant portion of the game is getting that stuff. And you don’t know what your luck will be like getting the pieces you want (whether solo self found or trading).
Also, if you choose to no-life it like I’m going to do and get all the stuff you want rather quickly, then that is our fault for making that decision. Most people are unable to play like that.
Dont compare a brand new, scorched earth, D2R to the 20 year old D2.
It is going to be a very different experience and a good challenge early on with a brand new economy and what should be 70% less bots.
Because they keep increasing droprates and gear with it.
Adding a single extra difficulty, as a challenge mode, with NO droprate increase, and NO new gear, would be optimal imo.
Just something you can do to test out your finished build.
Also, there should be no quest rewards of course.
Those few weeks at D3 release, was the game at its best. Not good, but better.
The devs should ignore them.
I mean, no they should not, but adding a difficulty that is not meant to be completed by everyone is just fine.
Especially if there are no additional rewards for it, making it completely optional.
Most people also wont play HC.
Yes. I think people misremember how difficult hell can be. For a lot of classes you need good gear to do well in hell difficulty. The only ones that can not only survive but thrive in hell with cheap gear I would say is Sorc and maybe summonancer in a group setting.
The sorc gets enough power just from skill points and cheap + to skills gear that they can kill everything quickly. Summonancer just provides everyone with decent tanks so the group does not take as much damage.
Wanna make enchant sorcs and we can make games like “enchant you for Amn or higher”? lol
I think that was part of the issue. The devs had achievements and rewards tied into that difficulty.
Play naked, it will be harder.
Is there a double meaning there?
All those Amazon threads finally make sense.
Well do it solo. Then do it SSF. Then do it hardcore SSF.
^
And even once you do, softcore vs hardcore is a totally different game. Most will play SC and farm endlessly with not a care in the world but to min/max that farming potential, and to each their own. Not shtting on them.
HC is much slower and I don’t think a lot of people want to deal with permadeath and not having that max dps build you would find in SC.
Hardcore is great fun until you get one shotted by hell ancients after grinding a character for over 30 hours 
I’ll stick to soft core for the most part.
your wrong… its not “too easy”… its “play your own way”.
limit yourself, so you have played the best builds, u played the meta stuff… try something new… try some crazy build, whats the stupid thing u can come up with… make a sorc that uses all 3 elements, make a poision jav… make an MA sin…
take some thing that shouldn’t work and find a way to make it work.
Agreed, that is much of the fun in D2.
That doesn’t mean D2 isn’t easy. Being easy is just also a big part of its strength, by allowing a wide range of build diversity and experimentation.
I hope D4 keeps some of this philosophy too.
However, adding a completely optional extra difficulty, with no droprate increase, and no new items, represents the best of both worlds imo. An extra challenge for those seeking it, but also nothing “required”, allowing the broader build diversity.
You say game is cake in 2-3 weeks because your propably used to bot inflated market and buying enigma for 10 fg from JSP or your used to play 16 hours a day for the first 2-3 weeks to even acquire decent gear (anything but best runewords)
That would fix your boredom haha
Or fanatic archers in the Pits… holy crapola when you blind tele into one of those packs.
Play hardcore? Too easy? Play hardcore without rune words. Still too easy? No sets or uniques allowed.
Generally speaking, nobody will engage in any activity that doesn’t offer some sort of reward, accolade or bonus.
Most people will ignore higher difficulties if they can achieve the exact same thing in a lower difficulty.
But that’s the catch. As in D3, they added like 15 Torment difficulties, and all it does is split up the playerbase, making it harder to get groups together because everyone is now divided up into so many different difficulties.
Most won’t, but it would not be nobody.
Just like people play HC because they like it. Or highest difficulty in all kinds of games with difficulty settings.
HC is relevant even if only 5% plays it.
1<15. And if most people won’t lay it, it won’t split up anything. It would likely mostly be used solo or in friend groups who want challenges. Very few, if any, would do public farm runs.
Heck, the difficulty could not be available in public games if you are afraid of it happening (although imo it should be available).