Taking another spin at D2

[Flying Mullet]

I never really managed to get my Thornadin going last time, so I'm going to take another spin at it.

No laborious grinds, no super-builds, just dinking through the game with a Thornadin. If anyone happens to play and wants to look me up, my account is "flyingmullet" and my Thornadin is "Thorny_Mulley".

I also have a summoner on the side (named "Minion_Mulley") because I never get tired of them. xD

Hi Tav, I knew you couldn't stay away from a D2 thread! :p

[Craig]

i swear last time there was a D2 thread, it was such a success that i dont think i can keep up with u guys

[Flying Mullet]

Just ran with a crew through Act 1 and I just picked up a Prayer merc for now in Act 2 and am level 17.

I'm legendary!

[Skyblade]

Every time I try to play this game, I just set it back down and wonder how I ever enjoyed it. The skill and stat systems both seem broken beyond repair. I tried playing a Bone/Poison Necro last time, and I couldn't. Even something as basic as Teeth cost so much mana I couldn't use it to effectively attack (4 casts, max, before I'm OOM). So I have to wind up hitting everything with my weapons. Which means, all my stat points have to go into my Dex/Strength, or I'll never be able to kill anything. So I wound up meleeing until I gave up on the character. And this happens with basically every character setup I've tried. It works for a couple (Golem Necro, who doesn't need skills, the Barbarian, and the Amazon sometimes), but on the whole, I just can't get into this game anymore.

[Tavrobel]

Screw you.

In the time that you guys were gone, I played Hardcore, made another Lightning Sorceress, and spawned 3 DClones and killed them by myself. I summarily got TPPK'd on all except for my Bowazon and my Barb (which wasn't high enough in the first place to be in Hell).

In the meanwhile, I've been playing Median, and that's all I'm playing, because Battle.net sucks, Blizzard sucks, and they can all go to hell for being bad at their jobs.

[Raistlin]

A few of my friends and I played a group game of D2 last year and it was really fun while it lasted. I got up to Exploding Corpse and blew apart entire rooms of baddies. I probably liked that spell a bit too much. Good times.

That being said, no time for any further distractions now. xD

[Tavrobel]

1.13's major selling point was the stash size. It's gone now.

[Dignified Pauper]

What? They removed the 1.13 stash size?

[Flying Mullet]

Battle.net - English Forums -> Patch 1.13 - Updated 11/18 (http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=21043889914&sid=3000)

[Dignified Pauper]

I see they have fair enough reasons.

[Captain Maxx Power]

I see they have fair enough reasons.

PlugY says hi.

[Flying Mullet]

Does anyone know of a mod or hack which allows you to play single player games with all of the ladder drops and rune words?

[Tavrobel]

I see they have fair enough reasons.

PlugY says hi.

Yeah, but now no one else can say hello.

I know a few that can activate the Ladder runewords, but I've not seen one with the drops.

EDIT: Use the newest version of PlugY.

[Tavrobel]

This is worth the double post.

The beta of the 1.13 patch is up (http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=21730644778).

[Flying Mullet]

My favorites of the update:


- Increased the drop rate of high runes.
- Nightmare/Hell WilloWisps champions/uniques have had their damage greatly reduced.
- Greatly reduced the explosion damage dealt by Fire Enchanted monsters.
- Removed Oblivion Knight's Iron Maiden curse.


Looks like they're trying to make D2 a little more accessible to the casual gamer.


- Respecialization is now possible! Completing the 'Den of Evil' quest will now additionally reward 1 free respec which can be saved. Players who have already completed this quest should receive 1 free respec in Hell difficulty.
I'm guessing this means you can reset all of your skill points and try a different branch?


- Updated two Act 5 mercenary names to Klar and Tryneus.
Odd, I wonder why they did that?



- Support for blit scaling in windowed mode. The game can now be maximized to the largest 4:3 resolution supported (hooray widescreen users).
- Added the windows system buttons to the game window (MIN, MAX, CLOSE).

Looks like a couple of nice graphics/IO improvements are in order too



-Blessed Hammer - No longer ignores resistances of undead and demons.
-Lightning Mastery - Reduced overall effect by 15%.

And what we all knew would come, a little power character (Hammerdin and Lit Sorc) tweakage.


-Corpse Explosion - Increased base damage dealt from 60% - 100% to 70% - 120% of corpses health.
Yay Corpse Explosion!

[Tavrobel]

High rune drop rate was seriously under what it needed to be. If anything, they're catering to the people by getting rid of dupers, rather than make it accessible to the general public. They know new people won't play this game unless they're about to play Diablo III.

Respec means exactly what you think it means: you can now respend your skill points, in case you screwed up or want to change your character type.

Unfortunately, the Paladin is still overpowered against something, like, 2 enemies. As for Lite Sorceresses, bleh.

Also TPPK still not fixed.

Hey, they fixed FE monsters! Now I won't take 1 million damage 10 times from an FE in NM anymore!

They removed Uber leveling from Tristram. Man, the Forum Gold that could be spent on this :bou::bou::bou::bou:...

Sweet, we can mark which public games are which now. Doesn't help, though, since they still didn't fix TPPK which means HC players still aren't going to play publics.

EDIT: I'm playing right now. You need to make a new Account on the test realm. I'm using Tyalieva, making a Summonancer and an Enchantress when I can. Softcore. No point in playing HC on a test run.

[Raistlin]

-Corpse Explosion - Increased base damage dealt from 60% - 100% to 70% - 120% of corpses health.
Yay Corpse Explosion!

Hell yes! My favorite spell. :cool:

[Flying Mullet]

I'm sticking with "flyingmullet" on the beta realm and I'm creating some type of Amazon.

[Necronopticous]

I will be playing tonight.

Very excited.



- Updated two Act 5 mercenary names to Klar and Tryneus.
Odd, I wonder why they did that?
Probably subtle Diablo 3 tie-ins.

[Flying Mullet]

Tav and I ran around for a bit. The level 99 and unlimited gold and all waypoint hacks make it fun to screw around with various characters. :)

[Tavrobel]

OH GOD THE PAIN OF PLAYING A LEVEL NINETY NINE AND NO EQUIPMENT

I wish there were stat respec, too.

EDIT: DISREGARD THAT I SUCK SOCKS THERE'S STAT RESPEC TOO

[Necronopticous]

I'm getting on now. Hit me up (Necronopticous) if you're on.

[Tavrobel]

I guess I missed that.

My impression: it's still the same game, except we're allowed to cheat now. None of the major bugs have been fixed, such as excessive Mana Burning monsters, TPPK, Assassin Kicks, and horribly unbalanced classes. Paladins, despite the "nerf" are still where they were, and so are Druid (which are useless and outclassed).

I'd have to say that the Lightning Sorc nerf was appropriate: after all, no other class could break every immunity with an Infinity, and what's even better is that it couldn't break the Cow King's, which was good. Of course, by that logic, one should expect a Javazon nerf, too.

EDIT: I've found some bugs already. For example, you can't get more than 99 skills from respec. This means that if you do a Den quest, and then use the respec function, you'll lose any bonus skills from Den, Izual, and Radament that you've already gotten.

[Necronopticous]

I was really hoping for some new items or rune words. I'm excited to learn what the new "mystery" content is, but so far I'm pretty disappointed. I expected a lot more after such a lengthy wait.

edit: found this at another forum

The mystery, anyone know for sure what it is?
I found this elsewhere, with multiple people confirming:

"There are four new items to be found:
Twisted Essence of Suffering(Andy/Duriel)
Charged Essense of Hatred(Meph)
Burning Essence of Terror(Diablo)
Festering Essence of Destruction(Baal)

Found at random at the Hell Bosses in the brackets.

Once you have one of each, cube them to get a Token of Absolution

Which allows you to respec both stats and skills on right click."
Hilariously underwhelming and disappointing if this is true.

[eestlinc]

the only correct way to play D2 is solo with a sorceress, and really, a sorceress pre-expansion nerfing. If you don't hear "I need more mana" once a minute every minute of the game, you are a wuss.

[Flying Mullet]

Tav, are you reporting the bugs if they aren't already reported?

EDIT: Ha ha, I haven't seen a queue screen to create your game in years.

[Tavrobel]

Hilariously underwhelming and disappointing if this is true.

It most likely is. Several of the active DII modders have been sneaking through the .txt files in the .mpq, and it appears that this is all that is offered. Laz (Median) said that the cubing effect is also only on the realms; just as Keys are useless in single player, so are these new sigils.


the only correct way to play D2 is solo with a sorceress, and really, a sorceress pre-expansion nerfing. If you don't hear "I need more mana" once a minute every minute of the game, you are a wuss.

Technically, you can also relive that experience on the non-Ladder realms, too. Insight is Ladder only.


Tav, are you reporting the bugs if they aren't already reported?

EDIT: Ha ha, I haven't seen a queue screen to create your game in years.

Most of them have already been reported; as for the ones that I care about, they have yet to be addressed (e.g., TPPK, Artsins), so even if I did report them, it would fall on deaf ears.

[Flying Mullet]

Gambling with unlimited money is fun. :D

[Tavrobel]

A Twisted Essence.

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/8121/screenshot001bn.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/i/screenshot001bn.jpg/)

[Necronopticous]

These lame items even have lame names.

[Tavrobel]

Yeah, I don't think that the Legacy team put much thought into this.

[Flying Mullet]

Yes, it's beginning to look like the initial thought on version 1.13 was "Hey, we need to put out a patch for Diablo II so they think we're still thinking about it. Find out what the easiest fixes/updates are and we can throw a few of those into a patch."

[Chzn8r]

I just installed this again because of the patch news. Frankly, I wasn't expecting anything new - just a ladder reset, hopefully some combativeness against bots/dupers, and some other tweaks (like no minimize on click-away when windowed - that used to bug me like nothing else). Also taking away the resistance ignoring on Blessed Hammer should help reduce their over-powered-ness.

Not sure how much you guys will be using the test realm, but I'll play around in it if you want to. Chzn8r as usual. I just added Tyalieva and flyingmullet to my buddy list.

[Flying Mullet]

I wish they could have done more to combat against bots. I honestly don't expect much in new content as they're focused on D3 now, so strengthening and cleaning up the existing game should be a higher priority than adding new rune words and uniques like some many people are whining about.

[Tavrobel]

I'll be using the test realm exclusively.

But after they release the full version, if they don't fix any of the existing bugs, I won't be playing without my cheat test commands.

They didn't add new runewords, they didn't balance any items, they didn't really balance any of the classes (okay, so the Paladin can't damage THREE enemies now, big whoop), they didn't fix TPPK, they didn't want to rededicate servers to DII, which means no bigger stash, they didn't fix bugged damages (Vipers are definitely bugged, even if Blizzard says anything otherwise). All they did was nominal changes, changes that wouldn't even be necessary to revert if they had actually fixed the underlying problem. Gloam's Lightning skill has a chance to score a critical hit, wtf?

[Chzn8r]

Wow. Well when you put it that way... yeah, I guess I'm hoping for more.

[Tavrobel]

Found a Mal Rune. I don't know what to use it for. I'm thinking Prudence in an ethereal 2Os tier 3 armor. It repairs durability.

DISREGARD THAT COUNTESS SUCKS COCKS DROPPED UM AND AMN FOR ME GONNA MAKE STONE KTHXBAI

EDIT: Mulley, if you respec to Axe Mastery, I have an Ettin Axe that I can give you. Otherwise, you can have this tier 2 unique that I found. I also have 2 Bows for your Amazon.

[Flying Mullet]

Oooh, I would love that Ettin Axe. I have a Leaping Barb using Axes.

[Tavrobel]

Runemaster, 3Os. The ED is also on the really low end of the scale, but it's better than nothing. I got it for free from a random dude. I also cleared the sockets already with a Hel rune.

Also, I have a magic Ogre Maul that can be crafted, if you so wish for it.

[Dignified Pauper]

wait, did they improve the rune drop rate of Countess?

[Flying Mullet]

She used to only drop up to Lo in Hell, and I don't know which runes they're considering high runes.

Also, unlimited gold is gambler's dream. I'm in heaven! xD

[Dignified Pauper]

She could actually drop a Zod, because any hell level unique boss had the ability to drop any rune, however, that was assuming she dropped a rune out of her unique boss tier. As the countess, she could only drop up to lo.

[Tavrobel]

wait, did they improve the rune drop rate of Countess?

I think they improved rune drops across the board, which would affect the Countess' regular rune drops (up to Lo). So far, I've gotten a Pul, an Um, a Mal, and Lem from her, all within 2 days.

High runes, by definition are the runes that cannot drop from Hellforge, which are Vex and higher.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Did they datamine the new drop rates for the higher runes? It'd be laughable if Zod dropped from 0.000012% to 0.000105% or something.

[Tavrobel]

I haven't seen any drop calculators or tables, yet, but it's not like it's very difficult; at the same time, it's not set in stone.

EDIT: No wait, I lied, here's one.
Diablo 3 & Diablo 2 Forums - View Single Post - 1.13 Public Test Realm online! (http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7392174&postcount=123)

Unfortunately, Maxx, your predicted drop rate increase was a massive 8 times larger than the old drop rate.

http://www.reallifecomics.com/comics/2009/20091214_2354.png

[Captain Maxx Power]

Unfortunately, Maxx, your predicted drop rate increase was a massive 8 times larger than the old drop rate.

Ha! So it's gone from an astronomically low chance to drop to a slightly higher astronomically low chance to drop. Nice work Blizzard, maybe I'll see a Zod for myself in a hundred a seventy two years rather than six hundred and eighty eight years.

[Tavrobel]

And that's why there's Median.

[Markus. D]

I donno, Median has kinda lost touch with the newest version, it feels way too casual now... *otherwise, pegging Cryo Lasers with an Assassin is pretty sweet*

[Captain Maxx Power]

I donno, Median has kinda lost touch with the newest version, it feels way too casual now... *otherwise, pegging Cryo Lasers with an Assassin is pretty sweet*

I still find certain areas are still as painful as ever (the fact I have to farm Fauztinville for high-end runes causes me to cry my soul out of my body), but I totally agree. Although to be fair the mod's been heading perpetually in that direction since it's inception. As someone who played it far back in it's initial beta phases, I can tell you it's a MUCH different beast than it used to be. Once upon a time there were no unique items, most buff skills only lasted two or three seconds, all skills were shared and were grossly underpowered compared to your enemies, and it was utterly impossible to play the game without having to go back to earlier acts and farm gold since you'd run up such catastrophically high repair bills. In short, Median once over only appealed to a few select hardcore gamers. Now it's designed primarily as a popularity mod. It even has a dupe recipe. I'll have to see if I can scavange some of the REALLY old versions of Median from my archives, the one's that Laz gets really pissy about whenever I mention to him I still have them. :cool:

[Tavrobel]

I don't care what anyone says about my Median, I love being able to just only have to kill one enemy before everything in the game falls flat at my feet. PEW PEW PEW Danmaku/Helepolis Javazon with all of the ubercharms.

Well, I don't have trophies, yet.

If I want difficult, I'll go solve some Diff EQ problems. Or maybe go solve my Diff EQ Girl problem.

[eestlinc]

I'm pretty sure I have a Mal rune and a Ber rune in my account from back when I still played this game that I would give you, but it was a single player account and not on the realms, and I'd have to dig up the file in a backup drive, install the game on my bootcamp windows partition, and find my d2 and d2x discs to install them again.

[Tavrobel]

Median drops those in droves.

[Flying Mullet]

I had some single player characters with all of the runes from running two computers and dropping all of a character's runes and then restoring their backup files and cubing up. pretty simple but it was fun having a barb with two Last Wishes Frenzying everything in sight at a lower level.

[Tavrobel]

Why two LWs? You'd have a greater DPS output with one offhand LW, and an onhand eDeath, Grief, Beast, or BotD.

[Dignified Pauper]

BotD is near impossible to get, except with duping.

BTW: My sorc is DiggyPaup on the test realms

[Flying Mullet]

Because runes were cheap and I didn't care? I dunno. When you're a low level in Normal and Nightmare it doesn't really matter.

[Tavrobel]

BotD is near impossible to get, except with duping.

BTW: My sorc is DiggyPaup on the test realms

What's your account name?

[Dignified Pauper]

what else than DignifiedPauper

[Flying Mullet]

Does anyone know of a mod or hack which allows you to play single player games with all of the ladder drops and rune words?
The Arreat Summit - Items: Unique Items: Basics (http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/uniquebasics.shtml)

Turns out that only non-ladder battle.net games don't have the ladder drops. Local, single-player games can get all of the ladder drops according to Arreat Summit.

[Chzn8r]

It's here!

Diablo 2 Patch Notes 1.13 Download Released (http://diablo3x.com/diablo-2-patch-1-13-download-released)

Full ladder reset! I will play a bit here and there once I get back to school, then probably a little bit more in the summer once I get out.

Had to make a new account to fit new characters, "Cheezinator". Just keep that one in your record books Tav and Mully as you were the two I played with the most so maybe if I show up we'll run into each other.

[Flying Mullet]

I actually don't have D2 installed on any of my machines anymore. Maybe I'll pick it up again some day, but for now it's a welcome break.

[Tavrobel]

I'm not upgrading to 1.13 until they update PlugY, because it would break my poor Median.

I'm also not playing Diablo II on Battle.net, because I'm an engineer, and therefore, don't have a life.

[Flying Mullet]

The last time I played D2 I ended up playing locally. I enjoyed being able to adjust the number of players in the game. Also, I used Hero Editor to give myself a couple of charms that each had roughly 1300 MF, 100% increased walk speed (I know overkill) and 400% gold. This made the game move a little more quickly. Also, if I wanted to replay a difficulty, I would reset all of the quests, so I could gain more stat points, skill points, imbue and socket quests, etc... And after a while in Hell I gave my merc a level 31 Conviction aura so it would be easier to solo, especially with a Sorceress. It ended up being a lot of fun playing that way.

[demondude]

THIS GAME STILL DOES NOT RUN ON MY COMPUTER MY LIFE SUCKS OMG

[Dignified Pauper]

Oh :bou::bou::bou::bou:. I just realized I can redownload this from B.net because I registered them... and 1.13 was released... I'm doomed.