Diablo 2/3 as compared to WoW

So, I'm considering buying Diablo 2 and/or waiting to buy Diablo 3, and I honestly don't know much about the game. I played WoW for 3.5 years and am now happily retired. That being said, I don't want to buy Diablo and essentially fall into another one of Blizzard's traps.

My main question is basically: what exactly do you do in Diablo?

It seems to me that it's a loose form of single-player instances, in WoW terms. My hope is that the game is fun, playable, and beatable without getting too involved with other players online (i.e. single-player only). I can guess that if I start 'raiding' or grouping with others, I'll end up getting sucked in like I did with WoW, but as I know VERY little about the game, I figured I'd ask more about it here.

So, is Diablo worth getting to just play by yourself? Do you have to interact online to get better items or can you do it all yourself? Throughout my WoW days, I was always wishing they would create single-player instances where I could go in and get all the items I wanted all by myself. Is Diablo anything like that or am I totally off the map?

Thanks.

 

the setup for single player and multi player is exactly the same for diablo 2, the only difference is the monsters get harder as more people join and you can go through the game faster in multiplayer. there's five different "acts" each with quests you have to complete in order to move onto the next act. after you beat all five acts, you can move up a difficulty, where monsters are harder to kill and become resistant or immune to certain magics. you can do everything yourself, but interacting w/ others you can trade items, they can rush you so you can finish the game and get to the harder difficulties faster, etc. if you don't want to play with others you can just play single player mode.

 

If I play by myself, can I still get good items and have a beastly character? Or do I HAVE to trade with others to get the better items?

And I enjoyed WoW for a while but started to hate it for taking over my life lol. I was super involved... Merciless Gladiator title in Arena in Season 2, 25th best guild in the U.S... My playtime was way too high so I finally got rid of my account and stopped playing for good.

 

Diablo games are very cool . Especially if you played it from the original Diablo 1 . The game has an awesome atmosphere , music and , whats is the most important , story .

I played D1 on Bnet for a while , it was fun . After i got D2+D2:LoD ( expansion pack ) . In D2 the story continues and it keeps you interested up until the very end .

Now about gameplay . D2 is fun in both SP and MP . What makes MP better is , of course , live people you play with . If you play alone it get get repetitive pretty fast . Yes , you have to trade for better items for your character or go on magic find runs ( equivalent of doing instances over and over to get a specific piece of loot in WoW ) .

So if you are not only looking for a game with exciting gameplay ( crysis , gow etc.. ) but for a good story as well give D1 , D2 , D2:LoD a shot . If you are familiar with Blizzard games , chances are you will like Diablo series .

 

Why, hello.

Looking to get a "beastly" character? Well, apart from playing a Werewolf/Werebear Druid (... sorry, just couldn't resist) you'll probably have to invest quite a bit of time. Levelling is relatively easy, even by yourself. Getting the right equipment, however, is not. As the others have mentioned, you pretty much have just a few options. Trade for items, grind and grind and grind til you get the loot you want, or... buy it off of one of the numerous shady online D2 item stores.

Sounds a little like WoW, actually.

 

If I can just keep doing instances over and over to get the items I want, and do it all by myself, then I'm set.

 

Yeah you can just play solo the whole time. The only time i ever multiplayer'd was when me and some friends just wanted to hand out and have a lan party. Other than that i have never went multiplayer in Diablo.

 

Killing all act 1 through 5 bosses+rare named mobs ( equivalent of rare mobs in wow ) in D2 can be quite fun . It is going to take quite some time too . Sorceress is the best choice for a beginner , since she can teleport ( like mages Blink spell in WoW but without cooldown ) , which is a great way of transportation . You could use other classes but it might take longer to get to a specific boss .

 

I played a Warlock and eventually Death Knight in WoW. I was considering a Necromancer.

 

Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find.



Trade for some gear.



Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find.


Make a new character, load em up with shiny gear.


Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find, Magic Find.




That pretty much defined my D2 gaming days

 

I concur with the above post.

D2 is like running 1 instance a million times to get 1x good item (that most likely isn't even useful for your character), and then you trade that 1 item for currency or an item that is useful for your character.

It will be pretty hard to get a "beastly" character playing by yourself because 9/10 you'll find good gear for other classes, and not the one you're currently playing.

There are plenty of single player RPGs that were designed to be played by yourself. They were tailored that way, have a better story and character design, and will give a better overall playing experience than D2 single player. I don't think I would have made it past Act 1 in Normal if it wasn't for the D2 online community.

 

i concur with what he concurs with

 

I enjoyed magic finding.

 

There are 3rd party utilities that allow transfer of items between characters stored locally on your HDD, having these makes it easier to actually use decent gear for the different classes. However without some hard-core time investment it's unlikely most people will ever see even half of the best items available in the game and which are two a penny online thanks to the larger player base and unauthorised methods for gathering equipment.

 

Thats why its still doable single player. Diablo has to be the easiest hackable games in the history of gaming. So play and when you think you deserve a good drop... give yourself one.

I'm not saying playing stupid easy with god level gear, but if you've played through Hell levels a few times its perfectly acceptable in my mind to kit out your character a bit everytime you run through it

 

It's actually more likely that this game will become a time sinkhole if you play it by yourself (and actually get hooked) than if you play online because of the above said reason. If you play online the game moves faster, you level faster, and you get good items faster. So theoretically you'd actually be saving time/your life by playing online instead of single player.

And honestly the community, at least when I played, wasn't very tight so you didn't get sucked into the whole guild "you have to be on at least 12 hours a day" thing. It's just a "show up and play whenever" kind of attitude.

 

If you want to play D2 singleplayer, then look up ATMA which allows you to transfer items between characters in SP. There is also quite a vibrant SP D2 community so look them up too.

Also know this, if you don't like to MF and grind, don't expect to beat Hell or get a beastly character. I once invested a TON of time into the SP community and to give you a sense of the time I spent MFing, I have literally watched the first 19 seasons of the Simpsons, 11 seasons of Stargate SG1, 3 seasons of Stargate Atlantis, and 5 seasons of Andromeda Ascendant to help me pass the time while grinding.

Edit:

If you want your first pass through to be as optimal as possible in regards to character building, I can help you alot there. Most people have to end up scrapping the very first character that they beat Hell with since it is often horrendously inefficient and can be much better once one gets a better concept of endgame Diablo 2 knowledge.

 

I've been playing the game on and off over the past 7 years (started playing again since I picked up a new mouse) and there's always a sense of satisfaction in finishing the game on Hard mode and picking up decent items on your own without "help" from online or 3rd party utilities.

I suppose a lot of WoW's allure stems from the Diablo experience in some ways. I have no idea if the 3rd iteration will be as compelling as the 2nd.

 

I had 4000mf bot

 

Haha. Spot on! I mean, hey, surely Barbarians should need lots and lots of strength... RIGHT? And these caster heroes should pump their Energy stat?

Go home, try again! Sure, it's slightly counterintuitive that even pure casters should ideally leave Energy at base, but oh well.

 

Do you want to play Diablo 3 now without actually waiting for Diablo 3?

• Re-sub to WoW.
• "Roll" up a fighter, magic-user, or thief.
• Hang out in Duskwood for 40 levels or so.

Done.

 

The scenario above would probably explain why WoW would seem so familiar to me despite having never played the game.

 

O shako N Diablo 3