Made it to L50 HardCore before I went into Tier 3. That's when I realized that I didn't have the ability to make Elixirs of Death Evasion this season
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Apparently, the developers didn't consider them "Hardcore" enough anymore
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Stepped out of town, basically still one hit Death Blowing everything in site, when I accidentially clicking on the "Map" button, panicked, and died trying to get the map off screen and get back to the game
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In a way, it was kind of a blessing in disguise. Now that I was more familiar with the new changes to the game, I applied "Elemental Surge" tempering to all my weapons. It only took me maybe 3 hours to get back to Level 50 and back into Tier 3.
Leveling up is so fast now I think Softcore mode is even more pointless now than before. Especially since you don't lose your "non-base level" Aspects when you die now. Restarting a new character lets you carry over so much stuff that your post-death "Level 1" guy will just steamroll over everything.