hey hey

Theres too much changed in annihilus. I would either say that you play the more popular softcore realm (which is hard enough). Or you play at least a softcore character up first and trade/grind some starter gear while playing (the same?) character on hardcore.

If you want to play the whole game with all its endgame areas you will need a clan or friends to play with. hardcore doesnt always come up with such things :P