Diablo 2: Resurrected remaster

[Average Manatee]

I agree, but many casuals find the game quite challenging already on normal.

You know, it's almost like we solved this problem before in gaming. It's called being able to select a difficulty level before you start a game. But no, the entire genre is forever bound to ape the Diablo cult on this issue.

And even experienced players can die here and there on normal difficulty. I died once in Act 3 with my Frenzy Barb I'm playing right now (a few other closed calls too). And I know how the game functions and always act careful even on softcore. In Act 4 now, btw.

Also, while playing in HC mode, the game requires that you pay FULL attention at all times already on normal.

Not... really? There's plenty of overpowered as fuck caster builds that have basically zero risk for normal and most of Nightmare so long as you keep on the lookout for decent equipment (i.e. resistances and Fast R/W and recovery) and have decent knowledge of what monsters to take care with. The fact that Blizzard added full respecs in one of the patchs really made the early game easier since there's no reason to bank point for a "finished" build and instead you can pick something strong for normal in normal and so on. Not that it's a great idea that people would be saving 20+ levels worth of skill points before just to be stronger at level 80, it was a sign of just how pathetically easy normal and nightmare was.

 

[Lacrymas]

Diablo 2 was significantly harder on release than it is now. They kept buffing the classes and added runewords and shit, but didn't buff the mobs to compensate, so most of Diablo 2's content is a joke at this point.

 

[Sykar]

It was an up and down. Easiest is considered by many probably around patch 1.09. Hardest was probably 1.07. Though depends on what you liked to play as well.

 

[Average Manatee]

Release had no buyable mana pots, much lower item drop rate and lower xp rate, but generally lower monster stats as well IIRC. I'm not sure but I think melee might have actually been "balanced" with caster builds back then, as opposed to now where any build that relies on skills is ezmode and any build that relies on equipment and to-hit requires tons of grinding. It certainly made the energy stat actually useful rather than a joke investment that only newbies make.

Might actually be something I try playing again next time I get a Diablo itch.

EDIT: Although you also killed yourself instantly on the guys with damage reflection in Act 4. Hilarious but not something you'd ever want to play in HC.

 

[Dadd]

Project Diablo 2 is good if you want more content that is congruent with LoD. Reworked uniques and runewords so there are more viable options rather than obvious best in slot gear. New ubers, new skills, new uniques, runewords, some quality of life additions like detailed character stats, quickcast, etc. New season will be starting soon.

They will be adding an option to reduce monster density in maps while increasing monster health this coming season, which will help characters with high single target damage and low aoe clear areas more effectively.

I acknowledge PD2 has so much stuff that would make me want to play it over D2:R- just the fact that it has maps at the end game and stacking items kinda sells me on it.

But the last time I tried it the little QOL stuff that D2:R added that was missing from PD2 made me drop it pretty quickly. Things like seeing items on the ground being a toggle instead of having to hold the button down, and being able to select which key was mapped to 'show all items', auto-gold pickup, stuff like that. Maybe it does have those features and I was just too tarded to find where they were.

If I'm remembering right, auto-gold pickup is enabled by default in PD2 now. You can map "show items on the ground" key in the controls menu. PD2 now has quick-cast, where you can use skills by pressing the keys they are assigned to without having to click the mouse.

If you're looking for lots of endgame content, older versions of the Median XL mod has a wide range of varied endgame areas, much deeper itemization and crafting than LoD, new items, and new skills and skill trees for each class. The versions I played are 1.F9b, 1.F9c, and 2012 v005. Versions up to and including 2012 v005 were made by the original modder, before the mod was taken over by another (less tasteful) modder, so anything between and including 1.F9b and 2012 v005 should be what the original modder intended.

 

[Atlantico]

I play Diablo II for the nostalgia, so "better graphics" in a remaster are completely pointless to me. Ruin the one thing I play the game for. Late 90s graphics.

 

[Spike]

It being reduced won't fix the very substantial problem it has. Namely that once you've gone through the game on normal, you've seen 95% of what it has to offer.

Completely false. Your build doesn't start until Normal ends, and you have seen practically none of your character's potential. I understand how you can think this, but it's just simply wrong. Nightmare and Hell require so much more of you and engage you so much more. You do not even get to see your build in action until Nightmare. It's not for everyone though but I urge you to try again.

I have been having a blast playing a paly, zon, sorc, and barb on bnet like it's 2006 again.

"builds" are a cancer on the genre and playing the game twice to start getting challenged is awful. I say this as someone who has finished probably around 15 games on D2 in my adult like (i.e. not in to 00s), many of them finishing nightmare or hell.

Only 15? I get you but to me Diablo has always been an exception for this since the builds are just that strong and addicting. I also have done ubers like once maybe with a smiter so I still need to see that content more or less. Playing the "fun" builds is amazing. Once you know what to look for, you don't really need to look up builds online. There's so much to experiment with. And the atmosphere in this game makes the endless replaying for muh builds fun. It is the only game of this type to accomplish this. I also love Median XL/Sigma and am excited to play the other total conversion mods. There's just so much to go through, and maybe try Median if you want a truly long ass game. The end-game content is MMO-tier and the most I've ever seen from a mod, far as I am aware.

 

[Dramart]

Can someone explain to me why this takes 68k gold to repair? Is it because of the charged ability?

I'm still on Normal difficulty.

0:37

 

[Lacrymas]

RE: Builds - once they introduced synergies, all builds started revolving around 1 or 2 skills max, so just running around spamming a single skill that destroys entire screens of enemies isn't my idea of engaging gameplay.

 

[Perkel]

RE: Builds - once they introduced synergies, all builds started revolving around 1 or 2 skills max, so just running around spamming a single skill that destroys entire screens of enemies isn't my idea of engaging gameplay.

Another great shit change were runewords. I spend shitload of time at release D2 and it was glorious. With runewords everything changed into "let me find x y z runes to make x runeword and skip 90% of game" so instead of playing and having fun you operate in "game will get good 50-100-150h when i get to end game"

Also there is a mod for D2R which can bring you to X patch version. So you can go back to game before runewords and synergies.

 

[luj1]

Regarding that I think D2 Classic is way way closer to the Diablo 1 experience

No runes, no synergies, way less stat inflation and slower gameplay.

 

[ArchAngel]

RE: Builds - once they introduced synergies, all builds started revolving around 1 or 2 skills max, so just running around spamming a single skill that destroys entire screens of enemies isn't my idea of engaging gameplay.

Considering you usually max out at least 3 skills for the synergy thing there is nothing forcing you from always only using one of those 3-4 skills. Only thing that was made different with synergy is less points for defensive abilities.
Before you maxed out two lvl 24 or 30 skills of two different elements and then put rest into different defensive skills.
Also leveling up was putting one point into one skill and using it until you unlock next level of skills and then you put 1 lvl into that skill and use it and struggle like that until you reached the one lvl 24 or 30 skill that you actually wanted to max out.. that was cancer gameplay. I remember well D2 before synergies and it was not fun.

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

She's a redhead. I bet calling her firecrotch pisses her off. Well, more than usual.

That'd be confusing to me, as I've kept thinking of Leah as firecroth. I think that name is best reserved for her (and not Andariel), as she plays a more central role. It also synergizes with her ultimate fate (in regards to Diablo).

 

[luj1]

RE: Builds - once they introduced synergies, all builds started revolving around 1 or 2 skills max, so just running around spamming a single skill that destroys entire screens of enemies isn't my idea of engaging gameplay.

Considering you usually max out at least 3 skills for the synergy thing there is nothing forcing you from always only using one of those 3-4 skills. Only thing that was made different with synergy is less points for defensive abilities.
Before you maxed out two lvl 24 or 30 skills of two different elements and then put rest into different defensive skills.
Also leveling up was putting one point into one skill and using it until you unlock next level of skills and then you put 1 lvl into that skill and use it and struggle like that until you reached the one lvl 24 or 30 skill that you actually wanted to max out.. that was cancer gameplay. I remember well D2 before synergies and it was not fun.

have to agree

unpopular opinion but I liked synergies

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

It's tough for me to make up my mind on synergies. They restrict builds, but they also make earlier skills worth a damn. I loved being able to have skills across all trees as a caster before synergies, but they work really well for the Paladin and Assassin. It was also obnoxious hording your points as a caster to save them for later skills that you actually wanted to use. Playing the first two acts completely gimped was a chore. Synergies really helped with that.

I never liked the skill trees to begin with. I still don't. Not in any game really. I prefer D1's method. D2 should have been similar, with generic skill books being random drops like items, or a purchasable gold sink.

 

[Cael]

Synergy is a good addition. I recall the days of 1 skill point in every pre-requisite skill and then a full 20-30 levels in the endgame skill instantly on unlock to avoid wasting points. Synergy allowed you to spend skill points on early game stuff that won't be wasted at higher levels.

Runewords would be OK if they didn't make them uber. They should be used as a crutch for people who have bad luck with drops, not as end game items everyone is aiming for.

 

[ArchAngel]

Synergy is a good addition. I recall the days of 1 skill point in every pre-requisite skill and then a full 20-30 levels in the endgame skill instantly on unlock to avoid wasting points. Synergy allowed you to spend skill points on early game stuff that won't be wasted at higher levels.

Runewords would be OK if they didn't make them uber. They should be used as a crutch for people who have bad luck with drops, not as end game items everyone is aiming for.

From reading a bunch of builds, for most characters they only are used for 2-3 body slots, rest are usually uniques.
Also I do not see how they are any worse than uniques.

 

[Perkel]

Synergy is a good addition. I recall the days of 1 skill point in every pre-requisite skill and then a full 20-30 levels in the endgame skill instantly on unlock to avoid wasting points. Synergy allowed you to spend skill points on early game stuff that won't be wasted at higher levels.

Runewords would be OK if they didn't make them uber. They should be used as a crutch for people who have bad luck with drops, not as end game items everyone is aiming for.

At the same time you lost diversity because going outside of synergy is mostly wasted point. For example you can't go with fire and ice sorc anymore. If you do barbarian then you naturally try to bunch up skills in synergy etc. etc. etc.

It is the system that was supposed to fix issue of spending points on useless skills at start and it did fix it but at the same time it created even bigger one.

 

[Cael]

Synergy is a good addition. I recall the days of 1 skill point in every pre-requisite skill and then a full 20-30 levels in the endgame skill instantly on unlock to avoid wasting points. Synergy allowed you to spend skill points on early game stuff that won't be wasted at higher levels.

Runewords would be OK if they didn't make them uber. They should be used as a crutch for people who have bad luck with drops, not as end game items everyone is aiming for.

At the same time you lost diversity because going outside of synergy is mostly wasted point. For example you can't go with fire and ice sorc anymore. If you do barbarian then you naturally try to bunch up skills in synergy etc. etc. etc.

It is the system that was supposed to fix issue of spending points on useless skills at start and it did fix it but at the same time it created even bigger one.

Diablo 2 was supposed to be co-op. Encouraging specialisation into a damage type is not necessarily a bad thing, if you want to encourage multiplayer.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Got this on sale for around 10 USD and been having a blast leveling as a Holy Fire paladin. I haven't decided if I'm going zeal or hammer yet.

This is a quality production and very respectful of the original game, and from what I played, shits on Diablo 4 from a great height, including in technical aspects like graphics and optimization.

Of course it wasn't made internally by Blizzard.

 

[Average Manatee]

Synergy is a good addition. I recall the days of 1 skill point in every pre-requisite skill and then a full 20-30 levels in the endgame skill instantly on unlock to avoid wasting points. Synergy allowed you to spend skill points on early game stuff that won't be wasted at higher levels.

Runewords would be OK if they didn't make them uber. They should be used as a crutch for people who have bad luck with drops, not as end game items everyone is aiming for.

At the same time you lost diversity because going outside of synergy is mostly wasted point. For example you can't go with fire and ice sorc anymore. If you do barbarian then you naturally try to bunch up skills in synergy etc. etc. etc.

It is the system that was supposed to fix issue of spending points on useless skills at start and it did fix it but at the same time it created even bigger one.

Skill trees just weren't a great system in the first place no matter how you do it. If you want a good system you'd want something like Guild Wars, which is what a bunch of Diablo 2 devs made after leaving Blizzard. Have a more restricted power level and all skills scaling from start of the game to max level.

 

[Hobo Elf]

You got more builds and diversity with synergies because shit skills suddenly became usable due to better damage scaling.

 

[Perkel]

Skill trees just weren't a great system in the first place no matter how you do it. If you want a good system you'd want something like Guild Wars, which is what a bunch of Diablo 2 devs made after leaving Blizzard. Have a more restricted power level and all skills scaling from start of the game to max level.

I agree that point system skill tree in D2 in general isn't really great system. By far it is the loot and it's shennenigans that take that system to level which skill tree alone wouldn't.

To be honest there doesn't seem to be arpg which actually has great skill system. They are all broken in one way or another

 

[Average Manatee]

You got more builds and diversity with synergies because shit skills suddenly became usable due to better damage scaling.

They could have just made the shit skills non-shit though. All a synergy does is mean that a skill actually takes 40 points to max rather than 20.

 

[Lacrymas]

To be honest there doesn't seem to be arpg which actually has great skill system. They are all broken in one way or another

What's wrong with Grim Dawn's skill system? Or Titan Quest's for that matter.