As someone who has played every Diablo game, Wicked feels a lot more like Diablo 1 in terms of foundations than the monstrous looter hack and slash the industry has become. I much prefer it.
As for the thread’s topic… I think difficulty will be a moot point once multiplayer is out. Would be pretty disappointed to see them cave and add difficulty sliders. This game isn’t hard, and people are capable of learning if they stop raging for five seconds on a death and think about why they died.