As a returning old diablo addict i can see a lot of changes to the game. a few however are just horrible and destroy any hopes for casual players to ever make it on hell diff.
game is designed so every build can defeat baal on nightmare, but to play on hell, only a few builds can. and then you make things even harder with just badly thought through changes like max number of sockets on items based on diff lv.
for instance a shield to make spirit with. ( for non pallies ) first shield that can have 4 sockets is a monarch now ( kite shields use to be able to roll 4 but no more ) so in order to make a lvl 29 runeword that a lot of chars need to survive/have a chance on hell, now only drops on hell diff.
it looks like the entire game is now catering to a small group of players ( the true die hard no lifers ) and the casual players ( about 95% of youre playerbase ) are setup to fail and be disappointed every single time. unless they use 1 of the few sanctioned meta builds that can do hell without uber gear.
i am sorry, as much as i love this game. it has been ruined by bad decisions. sad. just sad.
I am casual and play Sorc, Barb, Pala and Necro in hell act5 - I have not more time than maybe 1 hour a day - but ok - I dont play ladder - HC non ladder. If you start a new char at ladder its maybe not so easy to come up.
from my experience you can play any build as long as you do a couple runs and terror zones on nightmare. character level matters a lot on survivability and hit chance for attackers. for casters the extra points can make a huge difference too. starting on hell as level 75 should make it doable for any class and build. should only take a couple runs and you can be lucky with loot that will make hell more fun. plus once you go through hell, you know the loot wont get better from there. just remember that all side areas, including blood raven and forgotten tower, are much higher level than main path on hell. if you want to go through smoothly you have to avoid these areas. they are for the exp and loot only. but again with the character level, if your char dont match up to area level or monster level, you will get hit more and hit less back, attack rating and defense be damned. the monsters will be more buff and hurt a lot more from their improved area levels. if they have auras those will be more powerful too. character level 80-85 is ideal for every sidetrack area. trying to clear one at around level 70 is roughly like trying to kill monsters in cold plains at level 1 (its sluggish and somewhat dangerous)
Have you consider to make sorc and run hell andy + mephy until you find something good, i know it sounds boring but that way i farmed my self enigma and zaka for my hammerdin. I made some crappy runewords to my sorc when i started the ladder. The game isnt really that hard if you know some things