First time Diablo player, starting on Hard out the gate?

So yesterday I bought Diablo 3 for 360 while I was near a Gamestop, and remembered I had some credit to throw away. I walked in, grabbed my copy, and went home later to play. I love RPGs, but for some reason never got a chance to go through ANY of the Diablo games, so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect.

Now, I've already put about 5 hours into the game and I'm definitely enjoying it. I was skeptical of all the sparkling reviews the game had received across the board, but I see now how addicting the loot rush can be.

However, I'm in a bit of a tight spot. I continue to die over and over, and I have a few questions for anyone with a bit more experience. I've started out on Hard difficulty. I did some reading online and found that the harder the difficulty the better the loot, and I plan on playing quite a bit and enjoy a bit of a challenge. I am getting that challenge, but I'm wondering if I rushed it just a bit, as I'm dying A LOT. Should I have started on Normal, regardless of my confidence in my ability to play and understand RPG gameplay systems? And if I should have, how would I go about doing so without restarting my fancy new monk. I'm a very low level still (around 8 or so) , and maybe I'm overreacting, but I don't want to get to endgame and have it be near impossible to kill Diablo.

I understand that after hard there are even more difficulties, like Nightmare or Hell or what have you, so I don't want to rush too much and have the later game be completely hopeless.

Thanks, any advice would be helpful.

P.S. Did some research for Monk builds. NIRVANA BABY

@duket: It's best to go through the game once on Normal where you'll find your fair share of rare drops, and then continue to go up the difficulty ladder increasingly accumulating better loot.

I found normal ridiculously easy, in my opinion it's really only good for in you want to just blast through the story and to get some decent loot to set you up for the higher difficulty.
Since you said you liked a challenge I guess you'd be fine on Hard, you should start thinking about your build and how to make your character not suck; if you're not familiar with all the skills yet, you're unsure about the skills. and you wanna just unlock everything first before deciding what you want your character to be like then yeah just go on normal.

I don't know if there are auction houses on the console versions, but you can always just buy gems and socketing them into weapons.

I heard the console versions are easier due to over powered loot so play on hard!

Diablo 3 is stat driven which means you need to get levels and loot to increase power. Normal offers a bunch of loot and levels which you need any way.

I've just now hit my first serious roadblock. Basic combat seemed to be getting much easier after I got a heal and some better gear. Now I'm at the Skeleton King, and he's killing me within 1-2 melee attacks. It would take forever to beat him, so should I go back and replay some quests, and if so is just any old quest worth replaying?

I'd take the hit and start again on Normal. Yeah, it's a cakewalk, but you need that leveling before you take on the other difficulties. It's not impossible, but Act 2 will eat you alive at low level.

Unless they changed something for the console version the higher difficulties are unlocked at certain levels so your gonna have to replay missions later anyway, if you play through normal first you'll be that much closer to 60 when you finish hell so you dont have to grind as much

Just keep in mind that the Diablo games are generally designed to be replayed at increasingly higher difficulties with the same character because you carry over levels and loot with each new game. So it comes down to whether you want to grind out some levels/loot in the higher difficulty level or play through the lower difficulty first.

@duket:Typically the higher difficulties are designed for characters who've levelled up sufficiently and already completed the game on the previous difficulty. These difficulties assume that your character is tough enough to handle much more punishment. if you start a new character on Hard you basically sort of start at a deficit which will only get worse on later difficulties unless you spend some time farming XP.

Quests really aren't where the majority of your XP comes from in D3. If you need to grind out some levels, the best way to do it would be doing XP runs. XP runs are routes through certain areas of the game known to have densely packed monsters. Defeat as many monsters as you can in these areas in the most efficient way possible (up to you really). You'll want to keep an eye out for champion packs (the glowing blue dudes) as they carry a significant XP bounty if you can defeat them.

Here are some current A1 farming routes.

http://zisspire.com/diablo3/content.php/230-New-Act-1-Farming-Routes-for-1-0-8

Keep in mind these routes apply to the PC version, in the PS3 version monster density has been overhauled significantly. Chances are these areas still hold higher densities of monsters than other areas. I would recommend going back and doing a couple of these runs until you get your numbers up.

I don't know what class you've picked but typically farming involves AoE abilities or any abilities that can hit multiple targets. Whirlwind on Barbs is great. Demon Hunters have a bunch of good choices (Elemental arrow, Bola). Wizards typically use Arcane Orb.

Best of luck Nephalem!

Wait, can you pick difficulty when you start characters in the console versions? What happened to hell, nightmare and inferno?

Yeah, what? I'm incredibly confused.

You're suppose to play through each difficulty, that's the proper progression.

Easy/Normal/Hard on console = Monster Power on PC, seperate from Normal/Nightmare/Hell/Inferno.

Easy = Monster Power 0

Medium = Monster Power 2

Hard = Monster Power 4

Master I = Monster Power 6

Master II = Monster Power 7

Master III = Monster Power 8

Master IV = Monster Power 9

Master V = Monster Power 10

Found that list online, not sure how accurate it is, but you get the idea.

@eternalshades: Huh, Wierd. Can you change this anytime like on PC? Do they get the bonuses?

EDIT: Explanation of Monster Power for you new people. https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/7540457/monster-power-more-guts-more-glory-10-11-2012

They probably should have left MP locked until you beat the game once; this is going to lead to a ton of people getting completely rolled out of the gate.

Yeah, play on normal and if it gets to easy just try the next hardest one.

A text I got from a friend of mine who bought Diablo 3 a few days ago for 360 "Highly recommend playing Diablo on Hard and equipping the DLC Helm."

So does the game come with some Free DLC? even for those who did not preorder?

After getting ROLLED by the Skeleton King countless times and getting bored of those XP runs (thanks for the help anyways though, @renegadedoppelganger ) I found I was able to just start from the previous quest, switch to normal, and continue from there. Its working out great, and for now at least, I have just enough of a challenge to keep it interesting but without getting murked by elites, making it through Act 1 and well into 2 without many hiccups.

From what I know from messing with difficulty settings, (for those of you wondering, @forcen@zornack ) on the console version at least, Easy, Normal, and Hard are three separate difficulties from Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno. Each one has a corresponding Monster Power multiplier as the others, however they need to be unlocked at certain levels ( I think it's every 10 the next level unlocks ).

For now I'll stick with default, as I'm enjoying where I am. If it gets a bit too easy, I might crank it up but I doubt that. I'm going to enjoy the campaign my first time through and then hop on some Nightmare, if I'm capable. If not, I'll crank up the MP and grind until I can. Having an absolute BLAST with my monk right now though, and I did not think it would be this much fun on a console.

And @scullinator as far as I know I didn't get any fancy helmet, but I guess I'll check for a code or something in my box.

Too bad its time to go be a productive member of society, working and such. Boo.