Azmodan, the New Rush

[Roland]

Spending a couple of days leveling back is a pretty harsh penalty. In addition, the biggest thing is that you lose all of your best gear and gems. Remember, D3 is about gear, not your level.

Again, though, doesn't that defeat the purpose of HC? The idea is the challenge of it, knowing that ANY mistake will permanently cost you your character. All that time you put into it gone in an instant, and you have to start over from scratch. Rushing a HC character defeats the very tenet of the gameplay. It brings it more in line with SC play, except you lose your gear (like in Diablo). HC started as a player-designed restriction in the original Diablo, and was added to the game proper for Diablo II. There was no way to "rush" a character in the original; that only started in Diablo II, and continues here in Diablo III (even easier, with quest XP).

Personally I don't care what people do. The more rushed characters out there, the more high-end gear disappears from the HC AH however, especially once they eventually die again. That's going to strain the HC AH economy (whereas SC has the opposite problem, i.e. everything is worthless unless it's pretty close to top-end). To each their own, though.

IMO rushing HC characters takes away from the achievement of getting a HC character to 60. It's cheese, plain and simple. If people want to do it, so be it - that is their right. However, it takes away all credibility they have with regards to the achievement of getting a HC character into Hell.