Sense this thread is in regards to hardcore play...
I found it interesting that some old lvl 1 characters I made in the past (couple of years ago) began with more gold: 1250 gold where as a newly made character receives 250 gold. Does anyone have old lvl 1 toons in account(s) that you check if this was the case for yourselves? If this is true broadly speaking why would sts change this ? I know this is not really important in the long picture of the game but for new players it could be the deciding factor of making it through the beginning maps, most importantly for new hardcore players, having gold at the start is vitally important to be able to buy pots to spam health and mana and stay alive: 25 mana pots 300 gold and 25 health pots 400 gold.