meh it depends on your goals I guess.

I'd rather set my goal at "getting as insanely strong as possible and stomp my friends and strangers" than "ill try to slowly survive until im maxed level then if I survive maybe try inferno"

Is durability only damaged from deaths? I figured they just removed the durability function out of the beta or something.

Also, as mentioned before, I might even just be repeating myself, but d3 hc will be very different than d2 and I expect a lot of former d2 hc players to not like d3 hc (because you actually die! And you won't be able to leech exp from chaos & baal runs!). There is a real chance that d3 hc is TOO hardcore, and almost no one ends up playing it and they have to make it easier.

Also crafting seems to be rather expensive (I don't mean upgrading, but the actual crafting) so I think that will serve as the main gold sink. You can craft rares and legendaries so I doubt people will be rushing to sell their gold in the auction house.

The penalty doesn't have to be anything too severe, but there does need to be a penalty. A game doesn't "play well" when people dont' give a crap about dying.

In D2 people actively avoided death pretty well, and the only penalty was gold (which was meaningless) and exp, which hurt more but still was just a time investment. I liked the whole fetching your body mechanic to recoup a portion of the penalty, too bad that's not still in.

The way its implemented now in beta and from what the devs have said I would have to think that gold vastly goes down in value after you get a character to 60. People may not realize that once you buy the stash and artisan upgrades they stay with your account (not character) forever. Then its just being able to afford to craft items which right now isn't a huge sink.

I've been playing a little HC in beta the last couple days and its been somewhat intense. There was a time in a 4 player pub where I was alone and turned a corner and a pack of champ archers in cat 4 all fired at me at once and I was like "oh ****" And soloing the SK with a level 9 barb was not a cakewalk at all heh. I did have the "unpleasant" discovery of finding out that town portal doesn't work once you enter the SK's chamber while he's alive (but leaving the game still does..). This essentially means bosses are either kill or be killed unless you can avoid getting hit for 10 seconds some how. Which is great for "real" HC but frankly sort of overkill and will foster an extremely cautious playstyle. Which is OK I guess for me as I'm a fan of not concentrating on 1 character and enjoy building others on the side etc. But others may be pissed aka QQ

^ The value in gold doesn't only come from its utility in-game, though. If players are willing to accept it as a currency (I assume Blizzard learned from their mistakes in D2), gold will still have value for trades, even if there's nothing past the occasional repair to spend it on.

You have it backwards though. It can only work as currency if it has in-game value. People aren't just going to accept rocks as currency if there is nothing to back it up.

I lost my favorite character, 92lvl sorc in cow level. That was a bit devastating for a moment, as it takes so much time from 80-90.
Other than that many were lost in duels and due to bad gear with bots.
You get used to it, you don't really care anymore when you can gear the next guy within minutes, and 80lvl is done in a day or so.

I've been away for a while and I'm totally out of the loop with everything, would someone mind telling me if Blizzard has commented on a potential release date or if anything has leaked regarding one?

release date seems 99% to be announced within 2 weeks. Rumors say that its either the 12th or 19th.

a tweet from @Bashiok
@llspadgell We have a press event this week but all the info will be dropping the 19th."

And this is why I think playing hardcore in D2 was GROSSLY overrated and ridiculous.

Potion spam made death extremely rare.

Chicken scripts made death due to potion spam failure even MORE rare.

When you did manage to die somehow, you could just hitch a ride in Baal runs to get level 80 in a couple hours and you're back where you started.

The people ITT who played single player only in Hardcore mode are the exception to the rule.

I hope they tweak D3 so that level 60 hardcore characters are a somewhat meaningful achievement.

I don't get your beef with hardcore.

It's there, and it is what you make it. D2 would be poorer for not having it. If you want to be a potion spamming/chicken running "hardcore" player, you can. If you want it to actually enhance your playing experience, you can.

In the end, to each his own. If some hc players are claimng superiority, just ignore them cause they're dumb. And end the haterade plz.

i haven't even bothered to try dying in the beta yet, what happens

same as d2? you have to go retrieve your corpse while naked? do you pop if inventory is full?

you reappear alive to last "checkpoint"

i think...

only died once on purpose lol.

Also apparently if youre in a group your teammate can revive you with a casting time if he doesnt get hit, like a town portal.

sweet, everyone autorolls priest/shaman