Non Ladder, HC ladder

[Astruxys]

Can someone explain to me how I become non ladder or hc ladder? What is the purpose and what is the difference of being one of them?

[Garfunk]

Ladder means seasonal. Only seasonal characters can compete in ladder.

You can't switch from seasonal to non-seasonal or vice-versa, it's a choice you make when creating the toon.
At the end of a season, seasonal characters are switched to non-season automatically, their Hlvl XP is added to your non-season XP, same for gold and rubies.

HC is just hardcore, it means your toon can't be played if you die. It has no implication with seasonal/non seasonal. You can play hardcore seasonal, non-hardcore non-seasonal, hardcore non-seasonal, and so on.

Hardcore and non-hardcore have separate leaderboards (because playing hardcore is kinda more difficult, of course).