I personally have not played HC in this game. But I used to play HC only in diablo 2. The reason I stopped there, and the reason I wont play HC in any game ever again, is because of lag. If I died because I made a mistake or wasn't prepared I'd be ok with that. Of course I wasn't exactly happy that I died, but I would make restart and work my may up again and again eventually becoming a far better player. Then I started taking into account lag can kill me, so I even tried to play around the lag. Sometimes thats just not possible tho. Dying to lag isn't fun. I can imagine a lot of people feel this way.

that's pretty much why I don't play hardcore.

I gave it a go a while ago but for starters the gear just got so goddamn expensive - i was looking at 150fg for something that'd cost me less than 20 on SC. and i simply wasn't prepared to invest so much of my fg and time into that when all it takes is one of the frequent lag spikes that LS gets to sweep all that down the drain.

This post was edited by Cloudfire on Jan 18 2010 10:43pm

If you build your character correctly and play safe you shouldn't die of lag spikes in my opinion. D/c and server crashes are other things though...

In my experience if you use EE armors, don't go below 50% life and always put first 10 points into vitality there is no real reason you should die before you hit monk or something.

You just like need to train your brain to insta run away at less then 50% life no matter hp on monster. I've run away a lot of times where monster probably only had 1-2 hits left because my life was getting low.

This post was edited by arxyn on Jan 18 2010 10:46pm

Hardcore is the only core I can play

however being such an old school player on LS I can't even bare to play anymore... the updates have destroyed this game

Just to clear it up, when I refered to lag what I really meant is lag server side, lag provider side, computer errors(damn you blue screen of death, damn you) or anything that is absolutely out of control to an average person no matter how good you are at a game or how much gear you have.

hardcore is the only core. theres no point in playing a game without risk.

basically... anyone can play sc, but are you good enough to play hc?

LS hardly has skill.

It's still clicking. just on HC you run earlier and have a chance to lose everything due to a server spaz.

Hardcore never died.
Less people are interested in hc because of the updates that destroyed the markets that were way too lucrative.
I'd estimate that the amount of dedicated players today is about the same as pre-proficiency days. The exploiters left. The exploiters cried. (exploiters being those just playing to make fg)
New players do have a disadvantage. Especially starting with 0 fg (I started w/ <100fg from d2 but I quickly made friends.)
Most all of the best gear is hoarded in guild vaults. But that's only natural, they are hoarded by players that are die hard dedicated. Dummies from softcore come over to hardcore to make a quick buck and rip with such gear.
I've never died, I don't look forward to the day I do. Over 30 mq's, I guess I shouldn't brag too much. And I never would have mq'ed once without multiplayer update. I hate arena.
The safeguards in place for the inevitable server crash make it bearable.
Wow what a pointless ramble... Oh well, that's my story I'm sticking to it.

I wouldn't consider myself an exploiter. A lot of very high quality HC slashers have taken a break recently. I think it's very unfair to automatically put everyone who quit/took a break on HC as people who *are only in it for the fg*.

And besides as far as I can tell in HC ls people normally invest a lot more then they make.

very few have come out with more fg then they put in id say ppl who started early did...