Diamonds in particular are super twink for early game due to the boost they recently received. I don't object to having them in the game to allow players to skip past the early levels (which I know a lot of people in the community want to do), but you should be aware that +24 pdr/mdr early game is extremely powerful and won't give you much of a challenge.
The reduction in difficulty of normal has been a bit controversial - for those who want to read the original discussion on it though this is a good read. This quote in particular stands out as Soulmancer's rationale for the change:
Soulmancer wrote:
Normal wont be easy, but easier yes. The problem with normal, is its essentially only meaningful after a reset. when people are forced to farm for gear and get together in balanced groups and help each other. The lasts for about a month, once the player base migrates to Hell, Normal becomes deserted and is essentially filled with players being rushed by high lvl characters, or players who can't progress because they have no one to group with. All it is a leeching ground. Hell generally becomes the playing ground a few months in.
I wanted to make normal a bit more casual and fun, Hell on the other hand will not be any easier, it will be harder.
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