both answer can be found here :
in this sentence :
We wanted to take this opportunity to share that Ladder Only Rune Words, Unique Items, and Horadric Cube Recipes that were once restricted to Ladder rank play will now for the first time be included in non-ladder multiplayer and single player play.
aside from the fresh start , and maybe the difficulty.
There is nothing specific to ladder anymore be it in items , recipes or runesword.
everything is available in NL and singleplayer (singleplayer also has diablo clones (spawnable by seling one soj) and ubers / pandemonium event.)
Also , killing the cow king no longer makes you unable to open cow tp.