I played a soldier/inquisitor(Tactician?) through the main stories of the base game, Ashes of Malmouth, and Forgotten Gods before 1.2 dropped, how long I am not sure, but within the past few years.
When I was finished with all this I was somewhere around level 80, if not level 80, on Normal(Veteran) difficulty.
I played around a bit in elite before I put the game down for a while.
Shortly after 1.2 was announced I picked the game back up and after just plain mowing down stuff in Elite I decided to go kill the Loghorrean on Veteran to unlock Ultimate difficulty as per the 1.2.0.0 post here:
Defeating the Loghorrean on Normal/Veteran difficulty now unlocks Elite and Ultimate difficulty for that character (note: this difficulty unlock is not retroactive). Players can proceed to the difficulty they feel most ready for.
Sadly the unlock did not occur and I still cannot proceed to Ultimate Difficulty.