Had my first death yesterday, a level 26 WD...brutally killed by Belial. I don't know about anyone else but sort of got attached to the funky little doctor. Was a bit of a gut buster when he met his maker. Guess this is going to be what makes hardcore unique, that feeling of attachment rather than the oh yeah I died, meh, you get in SC. Or am I just weird lol
Also, how much HP did you have?
Did you bring a companion?
At lvl 26 I had about 2.6k HP, and had absolutely no problems when fighting Belial.
And dont go solo (or public). If you dont got friends doing hc, then take a companion.