Epic + legendary

[.Esík]

Do i have to continue with my old character in epic and legendary after i first time finish normal difficulty, or i can make new character for epic, and third for legendary?

[Lobo de hielo]

You can start new characters as "accomplished" in Normal difficulty, this starts you off in Ragnarok thus bypassing Acts 1 to 4. You start with x amount of money and will have to buy equipment. It is worthwhile having a "mule" or TQVault (if you have collected some decent gear) to gift gear to your character.
None of the waypoints prior are open.

You can start new characters as Legendary, This starts you off at EE expansion, but at very first merchant/ caravan trader, you will find 2 portals. 1 is if you want to play all the way through from Helos, the other takes you to Corinth and the start of the Ragnarok Dlc.
Plenty of choices.

[MedeaFleecestealer]

Note that these are only possible if you have a) the Ragnarok expansion for the Accomplished Hero option and b) the Eternal Embers expansion for the Legendary Hero options.

Otherwise, no, if you don't select one of these two options then each new character has to start in Normal and work their way through all the difficulties.

[WIKI]

for your first question: yes
u cant unlock epic/legendary difficulty globally for every character u have with playing only 1 char
for each character u must complete normal diffculty seperatly for unlocking epic/legendary
but as others mentioned there is some ways to time saving (ragnarok dlc and eternal embers dlc needed)