I just finished for the 2nd time (I'm a bit slow because I play in so-called iron man mode - if I die I start over and don't go to a prior save - I only use prior saves to get around crashes or bugs). This time both characters were casters. I more-or-less did the same things as usual and finished only two levels higher. Needing almost a million XP for level 33.
Facing double the number of most enemies produced a lot more loot so I was richer (although a bug wiped out all my cash near the end - I guess I went over some limit in terms of what the program recognizes). Because each level requires significantly more XP than the prior one the extra experience wasn't worth much in terms of aggregate levels - not at all to my surprise.
I found hardcore mode to be slightly easier than "easier" difficulty levels - much easier at the start since e.g. Fergus is far easier to kill at level 3 (thanks to double the number of rats) than at level 2. With essentially unlimited potions I found facing twice the enemies later on not to be a problem especially since I learned to use the hammer as my primary spell. A hammer can kill 4 enemies as easily as 2 <smile> if they are near each other as they usually are.
I had planned to use lightning storm to wipe out large number of enemies at once and in some spots it worked well (especially the 4th act BG dungeons where it let me kill enemies through walls) but hammer worked better if I could see the foe in most cases. Hammer seemed to do more damage than listed and lightning storm less - maybe because of enemy resistances.
