I've found that once you go hardcore, you can never go back. There is another level of accomplishment that comes with a high lvl hardcore character(especially a variant). Also there's the fact that dupes and hacks are less common. Unfortunatley we have our share of PKers, and while a big nuisance in SC, they can ruin months of work in HC. Also, HC has been going on for as long as SC, so the pubbie games are full of fully twinked lowbies, and fully tweaked PKs.
This might be a good time to get your feet wet in HC, and to consider builds/styles of play, but I would recomend really getting into it when the new patch comes out(as long as hell doesn't freeze over first).
As for Vit, it is the main stat of maybe 90% of all HC characters out there. My characters at least allways have a higher vit than any other stat.
EDIT: Oh yes I forgot, as for PKs: Perhaps you knew what you were getting into, perhaps not. Take it as friendly advice: if someone hostiles you in hardcore, they expect to kill you. In general they will, if you fight them. If a lvl 9 assassin hostiles your lvl 21 barb, don't expect to win unless you have great gear.
I assume the same holds true for SC(though I haven't played Sc for a long time), but it bears mentioning that nearly all HC PKs are tweaked(and twinked) up the wazoo. Generally they have completed all quests in all difficulties(even at lvl 9), for an extra 30% resist, +12 skills, +60 life, and +15 stats. They also carry full inventories of charms, and jeweled equipment with the maximum possible damage for their lvl.
That's not even mentioning the tricks they use to kill you. I saw a lvl 60 necro kill a lvl 73 barb *from town* the other day. He just cast lower resist on him while the barb was in town(the curse affects you even if you are in town if you are in the area), then the necro crossed the border, and cast fire golem over and over again. The splash damage killed him in 3-4 castings. The tricks are many and varied, and if you manage to live long in pubbie games, you will learn them all(at the cost of ~1 character per trick).
This might be a good time to get your feet wet in HC, and to consider builds/styles of play, but I would recomend really getting into it when the new patch comes out(as long as hell doesn't freeze over first).
As for Vit, it is the main stat of maybe 90% of all HC characters out there. My characters at least allways have a higher vit than any other stat.
EDIT: Oh yes I forgot, as for PKs: Perhaps you knew what you were getting into, perhaps not. Take it as friendly advice: if someone hostiles you in hardcore, they expect to kill you. In general they will, if you fight them. If a lvl 9 assassin hostiles your lvl 21 barb, don't expect to win unless you have great gear.
I assume the same holds true for SC(though I haven't played Sc for a long time), but it bears mentioning that nearly all HC PKs are tweaked(and twinked) up the wazoo. Generally they have completed all quests in all difficulties(even at lvl 9), for an extra 30% resist, +12 skills, +60 life, and +15 stats. They also carry full inventories of charms, and jeweled equipment with the maximum possible damage for their lvl.
That's not even mentioning the tricks they use to kill you. I saw a lvl 60 necro kill a lvl 73 barb *from town* the other day. He just cast lower resist on him while the barb was in town(the curse affects you even if you are in town if you are in the area), then the necro crossed the border, and cast fire golem over and over again. The splash damage killed him in 3-4 castings. The tricks are many and varied, and if you manage to live long in pubbie games, you will learn them all(at the cost of ~1 character per trick).