I'm not entirely certain which is going to be my first HC character. Either WD or Monk. It depends on whether or not they allow HC right off the bat, or if you have to clock the game before you can make an HC character.
WD will definitely be my first character, though. After all the whining when he was first announced, I feel it's only appropriate. So, if HC isn't allowed from the get-go, I'll likely make a HC Monk.
You need to finish a normal playthrough before you can make a hardcore character, confirmed by blizzard.
After playing the beta I'm leaning towards Monk, the monk has awesome survivability and his passive seem to be tailored for HC players.
Monk Passive:
Near Death Experience: When receiving fatal damage, you are instead restored to 35% of maximum Life and 35%Spirit.
This is the ultimate HC skill imo.
One With Everything: Your resistance to all elements is equal to your highest elemental resistance.
Max out 1 resistance type and get all of them maxed out
Seize the Intitiative: Your armor is increased by 100% of your dex.
So with dex we will not only get higher dodge we will also get a nice amount of armor to reduce the damage that comes through:)
This combined with the monks ability to heal makes him the perfect HC character in my opinion.
For ranged i like the demon hunter the most so far in the beta.
I'm still undecided, i plan on playing barb through my normal playthrough, i will pick my first HC depending on how difficult the game seems to be after my first normal playthrough.
At the moment I'm leaning toward Witch Doctor with focus on pets, probably the safest class to level to accumulate some starter gear for the next character i make after i die the first time.
Monk seems to have quite a good defensive arsenal but since there is so little info beyond a small part of act 1 its very hard to say how the classes will pan out through normal difficulty and beyond.
Monk Passive:
Near Death Experience: When receiving fatal damage, you are instead restored to 35% of maximum Life and 35% Spirit.
This is the ultimate HC skill imo.
One With Everything: Your resistance to all elements is equal to your highest elemental resistance.
Max out 1 resistance type and get all of them maxed out
Seize the Intitiative: Your armor is increased by 100% of your dex.
So with dex we will not only get higher dodge we will also get a nice amount of armor to reduce the damage that comes through:)
This combined with the monks ability to heal makes him the perfect HC character in my opinion.
For ranged i like the demon hunter the most so far in the beta.
At the moment I'm leaning toward Witch Doctor with focus on pets, probably the safest class to level to accumulate some starter gear for the next character i make after i die the first time.
Monk seems to have quite a good defensive arsenal but since there is so little info beyond a small part of act 1 its very hard to say how the classes will pan out through normal difficulty and beyond.