Taking another spin at D2

[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 ...

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.

[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.

[Tavrobel]

A Twisted Essence.

[Necronopticous]

These lame items even have lame names.