Yeah idk they both have a story and bosses and a hardcore mode, forgive me for not picking a game up to your standards for a simple example I was trying to make.
Literally just came here to ask how casual people think this was going to be in the later tiers, not be called an elitist and argue with you.
So many optioins available to you. If you wanted to make a comparison why not go with another ARPG? PoE has a hardcore mode. You could have looked up the stats of who has bothered to âbeatâ the game in hardcore mode there and it would have actually been a like for like style comparison.
lol k have a good night dude 
Will do. Most of the day still to go for me though so gotta piss that away first. You have a good night.
It depends on what you mean by beat the game. Finishing the story will happen long before level 100 and would be easy to do on HC if you just play with whatever is the easiest/tanky spec. Iâd say over 90% of players would be capable of doing it if they actually had any interest in trying.
Getting to level 100? A lot fewer people.
Finishing the highest level of sigil/nightmare dungeon? Even fewer people than those making it to 100.
Iâd guess like 5% or less of the total playerbase actually has any interest in ever playing hardcore though, so there wonât be that many people trying in the first place.
Any game with trading has no actual end. So itâs infinite value when measured against casual play. Whether youâre casual or play 24 hours a day, neither will be closer to finishing the game.
If you expect a difficulty level like a Souls game you donât know how Blizz works, this will be very, VERY casual friendly, the bigger the audience, the biggest the profit.
How do you measure beating the story on max difficulty? You canât select max difficulty at level 1.
You have to progress through the capstone dungeons to reach world tier 4. How many people would even bother with the story right away after reaching world tier 4. More likely youâd keep on farming til you over gear the story anyway.
I dont even think you can beat the campaign on highest difficulty. Since Blizzard in their wisdom made the campaign a throw-away thing you do once and then never again.
Anyway, it will be the same as most games. 90%+ of people could do anything and everything in the game. Might not even get 50% who bother to make it past lvl 50 though.
Based on some forum posts here there are going to be people who struggle with some of the bosses but overall I didnât think it was too difficult. I was challenged a few times and then figured out what I was doing wrong. Which is pretty much how I like games to be. Deaths seem to be pretty forgiving in this game and you donât get locked out of bosses after a certain number of attempts. Too easy is boring and too difficult can feel tedious.
Generally my attitude is that if I can beat it anyone can because I donât think I am especially great at games but then I didnât find Elden Ring to be as insanely difficult as some people lead me to believe. There are definitely people out there that just get angry and give up at any sort of challenge.
Most difficulty even in D2 was ultimately a gear check such as having enough resists to survive Hell difficulty for example and ultimately the game provided that gear to survive yet there was still a balance of making the choice to have more damage for faster clears with less survivability and vice versa.
Iâm sure there will be more mechanics for boss fights than previous titles - regardless what difference does it make if they create higher tiers of difficulty that continue to funnel players based on how much effort or time they decide to spend in the game - that is a good thing. Although I would prefer it not to be like D3 where it was essentially âendlessâ - watching GR150 clears Iâd rather watch paint dry on the wall.
As far as finding âelite gearâ. I donât know if theyâre implementing different drop rates for different legendaryâs or just making them all of equal % chances which is what I assume theyâre doing possibly, but supposedly uniques will be fairly rare, more so than legendaryâs, probably on the scale of finding shako in D2 I would bet which isnât that rare.
If we are talking about appealing to players who want chase items or âelite gearâ, that will most likely come from finding mix/max affixes on rares to apply legendary affixes too - I donât think theyâll have specific % drop items on the scale of Jah, Ber, Deathâs Web or Griffons Eye in D2 - they might, although I donât see why not - I donât see why there couldnât be a small amount say 5-10 items that are that rare to come by - because it shouldnât negatively affect casual players to the point where theyâd feel like theyâre missing out as opposed to pulling them into the item chase as well since there are so many legenary affixes in the game to find along the way it shouldnât matter.
Whereas the problem with D2âs item drops was that 95% of items very quickly became pointless to find where the elite elite items were all that mattered - where as in D4 having hundreds of legendary affixes that all can be worth while in any stage of the game should put a different slant on that. It also seems like theyâre just adding tons of legendary affixes in the game anyways as a means of providing chase and replayability to try different combinations of skill altering affixes. So if uniques are on the scale of D2 shako rareness I donât see why it would hurt to just have a handful of items as rare as Jah,Ber, Griffs.
Thatâs an average, I assume. Like all ARPGs the more time you spend playing the better chances you have. But itâs not to worry about. Game is playable without them and some people will never find one if theyâre 2 to 3 hour a week players.
It will be just as casual as every other Diablo game. Very.
based on your desires, it sounds like you want a game that sucks. POE is currently free to play
The most uber elite gear will be top 1% of the playerbase or less in my opinion.
i hope more hardcore than wow.
i always end up hitting walls that are only there to make sure the ultra casual can catch up
not a good formula. not my problem if joe bloe decided to have a life a wife and 6 kids +2 jobs 
Can we trade high level materials, like prisms?
Good Sir, I hear you would like to take a look at our finest prisms for all your gear enchanting needs. Please step this way and enter our 1v1 PvP tournament
Not sure whatâs with all the âthis will be so hardcore!!â Maybe just a few people that post a ton and somehow donât actually understand what Diablo games are
Diablo games have always been incredibly easy. Like not even somewhat challenging
The difficulties are literally just progression rather than actual difficulties.
Itâs just a gear grind simulator with a cool theme.
You grind gear until your strong enough to actually hurt stuff in the next tier then grind gear there until your strong enough for the next over and over forever
99.9%
15-20%, of those likely 15% is my guess
Easy 80%, for those 10% hardcore grinders XD
Source: Just my experience from casually watching of top streamers and history with diablo games, but as this will be live service, I expect dramatic changes to all of these numbers in the future
Everyone is forgetting that Diablo 2 wasnât that easy, especially on Hardcore. I know for a fact the broad masses back in the day sat in trist runs, then cow runs, then Baal runs, and got rushes. The % of players that ACTUALLY beat all difficulties solo, is probably close to the 60% I put in the original post.
edit: hell, I know casual gamers today in 2023 that picked up D2R with me and quit hell out of frustration with immunities and stuff. If youâre a new player and you donât know all your runewords and tricks, it can be tricky to master and most quit
edit2: the % of players that actually farmed and rolled their own CTA, Enigma, Infinity, etc, I would also imagine is close to the 20% I have in my original post