I usually play no time to grind because i have no time to grind but im thinking of playing with normal maps because there is more shops and monster zoos for the delicious loot. It's mine. ALL MINE! Uhh sorry i get kind of angry when i think about monster zoos. But seriously should i play it? Like from a mathematical standpoint which mode would be better? And you guys have probably noticed i'm new here i would like to say hello and that i have played 160 hours but yet never went to the forums until recently. Hello and i expect to be here very frequently in the future.
If you like gear-independent, skill-reliant characters, NTTG is good. If you like crafting or gear-reliant characters, normal is probably better. I'm a completionist, so I tend to play on regular unless I want to test something specific on NTTG.
NTTG is good if you want to save time, but while it doubles experience and halves the size of the dungeon it doesn't double item drops, so it can be rough on any build, but especially on more gear reliant ones. If you don't have the patience to stomach a full normal run NTTG is the way to go.
I frequently play NTTG. If you want to use it with a crafting build, I'd recommend taking perception as well. Personally, the gear 'issues' don't bother me all that much, and perception (especially with a few points into it) can really compensate. The main issue though is that it doesn't help much until you have those points invested, and it's usually not that high a priority as compared with other skills. Despite that, it is my preferred way to play (hey, I play rogue-likes so masochism is a given).
