Above & Beyond (Hardcore) ENDED/Note (03/19/15): Double XP right now! The event runs until Monday, March 30th at 23:59 (CEST). The event does not run for players of Diablo III on the Xbox 360. All players diving into the world of Reapers of Souls will receive a 100% bonus on all "Gold Find and EXP".
ENDED/Note (12/27/14): Double XP from now until Monday, December 29th at 11:59 p.m. PST. This XP gain stacks on top of other existing XP bonuses such as those given by items, shrines, Pools of Reflection, and Paragon points.
Since that double Xp has now ended, there is a possibility for more so if your willing to wait, keep your eyes out, If I find any more out I will post it on this solution, if you know before I do, please comment or message me to help others, thanks!
Ok so I just hit 70 in Hardcore, I never died once. If you follow my method you can do the same.
Unless you died with a previous character you must complete the story, which isnt that difficult at all, when I finished story I was at level 40. The safest thing to do is to play on normal difficulty all the way to 70 if you don't want any risks, as for me I went up to Hard mode at the end for the 75% bonus EXP.
The character I went with was the Crusader, he is a strength attribute and is best to make a Tank. Tanking is the way to stay alive, choose the Crusader and choose the following abilites:
Primary attack - Punish (Celerity Rune)
Secondary attack - Sweep attack (trip attack rune)
Defensive - Iron Skin (Steel Skin rune)
Utility - Steed Charge (Nightmare rune)
Laws - Laws of Valor (Frozen in terror rune)
Conviction - Falling sword (Part of the Clouds rune)
Passive 1 - Fervor
Passive 2 - Fanaticism
Passive 3 - Wrathful
The basic idea is to hold A while attacking (punish) and hitting RT (Sweep attack) when you are able to. When you come to a group of enemies use Falling sword to hit a good amount of enemies, and mash the buttons for Iron Skin and Laws of Valor which were X and B for me. If you come into a pickle where you are taking too much damage use Steed Charge to run out of the crowd.
Boss's are the same idea, there is no separate method or set-up for boss's that's why I chose this method because its straightforward and quite basic for anyone to use without any complications.
For your gear I can not give you specific gear, but here is a tip I used, when you pick up a new piece of gear it compares the gear and says if it increases your damage, armor or regeneration, what I did was replace each gear if there were more green arrows then red arrows, don't focus everything on damage or your character will not be able to take hits.
Also don't forget to have the Templar following you with Healing abilities set, he will be an extremely helpful ally and help keep you alive. Keep giving him gear, always give him your 2nd best gear, while your character has the best gear on. Thanks
EllandRoad Dave for reminding me, I should have added him in my solution at the beginning!
Note: If you die you can save your hero, hit your home button, start button while hovering over your game, manage game, and delete your save on the right side (DO NOT DELETE EVERYWHERE ONLY FROM CONSOLE) load the game up and you will get your character back, just sent back a bit. (works in Coop too)
Any questions or concerns? Message me or comment, Good luck and have fun!