Diablo 2: Resurrected

oh sometimes im harsh....but really ultrawide support in a rts?

i bought it...have yet to try it

 

This is the way.
I also pick random skills or what sounds fun, later to see some fancy build videos on Youtube/whatever and be lie "wait, you can be that powerful in the game?!?"

 

This'll take a sec...

The way they use skill synergies defines predictable paths. It isn't an accident, they were finding it impossible to play balance and purposefully patched the synergies in back when the game was still in active development. They also fundamentally changed the economy in the same patch and it relates because the economy is item based and the item changes supported those synergy paths.

Even a first time player would notice there are skills synergies and likely act upon them when choosing skills. As they played they would also probably mount gear they found that supported their play along the paths the synergies laid before them and that gear exists in the game for that reason; like the synergies it had not been there before but was added to funnel players.

That's why I was asking; it's possible your completely freelancing but most Assassin's will be going into traps or martial in general and then grabbing shadow skills that support one or the other.

 

So here's a random question which has many correct answers.

Which is the most fun/OP/solo build for character (for a complete playthrough, hell included)?

Back in the days I remember having fun with Blizzard/Firewall Sorceress and I've messed with the Palladin a lot but never did a complete build. I keep reading about this "hammerdin" thing.

 

Ugh, blizzard couldn't even be bothered to properly optimize the settings. They really were just greedy/lazy and slapped on pretty graphics...

If your laptop/computer turns into a vacuum cleaner when firing up D2R, check the framerate limit settings in the menu. Mine was set to unlimited and as soon as the game loaded, the fans went crazy and CPU/GPU usage to almost 100%.

I set the limit to 90 fps, I also set this from Nvidia control panel but not sure if needed. Also enable v-sync. Restart the game and the fans are all behaving now. Still running a bit more toasty than needed, after all there's not much going on and it's a 2080.

It looks very pretty, I think I'll have fun with a complete playthrough.

By the way: /players 8 still works. woohoo

 

No character is as versatile as the hammerdin and none can cover the ground as well overall. It isn't without reason that every Baal bot was a hammerdin back in the day. For full effectiveness you'll need an enigma for telly but you won't be able to get the runes which in the old days were generated by dupes. Unless of course they changed the drop rate or are going to allow all the same shenanigans as before. In any event there are going to be a ton of build guides if you want to search.

As a starting character where farming is important an ice sorc is probably best for mf as you have telly and good AOE even without strong gear. You use it to find the gear for your hammerdin if you see yourself going in for the long haul. Once you have a hammerdin with enigma that will become your farm machine and you use it to farm the rest of the gear for all your characters. That's only if you see yourself going the distance though; the typical sorc builds can take you to the end of the campaigns. Like all characters you have to remember to make multiple damage types available or you'll suffer the lack when coming up against immunes in hell.

With both the sorc and hammerdin you'd want to pay attention to the budget builds; you will not be able to make the meta without cheats.

Necs... Slow but effective describes a summoner; these can take you into the end game with found gear; among the cheapest and easiest to make. Some don't like the gameplay style.

Assassin's can be a struggle in hell and on end game content without strong gear. In the case of trappers you have to go into both light and fire to deal with immunes unless you have an infinity on your Merc but you won't be making one of those unless the cheat machine is allowed to run. Martial can work and a lot of people go Phoenix to be able to vary the damage type to counter immunes. Can take you to the end but it's weak on that content. Kickers are extremely powerful in single target attack and can solo Uber but require crushing blow and lots of it which can be found, but not easily; really grinds against mobs.

Elemental druids are subject to the same problems as most character types, getting multiple damage types on the character tends to nerf it. Best as a supporting character unless you have high end stuff. The druid really doesn't have a solid solo choice that can run in the end game without great gear. Best to save him for after you've got some twinks for him.

Amazon's are the same as druids in terms of shining with good gear but being a better second character.

To go back to the paladin they've more viable solo builds than any other character and they can all do end game content; some can solo uber with godly gear. The zealer, avenger, tesladin, icedin, are probably the most common but there are others. If you do want to go melee instead of the hammerdin the icedin is the easiest to build and gear with multiple damage types as it's derivative of a zealer and you can do that until holy freeze becomes available. The tesladin is the same thing going into light but requires more gear.

Realistically if you just want to take something to the end of hell and complete the campaigns you can do that with most character types from any class so kind as you don't get too crazy with skills and pay attention to the skill synergies. If you want to play the end game you get fewer options; you need to do it "right" or you'll struggle hard.

Mana burn is a real issue with some characters as you get into nightmare and beyond. For any starting character the meditation runeword is your friend: You can get the runes in nightmare countess runs and just need to find a 4 socket polearm.

 

I'm basically just feeling it out as I go, right now I'm just using tiger strike and the finishing moves, I may switch up to traps later but I stopped putting points into them to go the one-two route since it was kind of fun. I'm just playing on normal so not really taking it very seriously just having fun with a char class I haven't played yet. (I suppose it's obvious that I've never played MP and only played through it a few times in SP to see the everything) I think there's at least 3 of the classes I've never played...

I recall the first time I played back when it released I tried a necro and stumbled upon whatever combo it was where you could apply Iron Maiden to the flesh golem I think it was. I recall one of the first bosses basically killed itself in 2 hits hitting my golem. Laughed for a while on that one. I was having a hard time killing that boss until I stumbled on that.

 

Iron Maiden was nerfed on both sides of the coin towards the end of the first go around. It was hilarious and quite fun to do what you describe but melee players were one-shotting themselves when making Diablo runs over and over and it was hugely unpopular. I can remember dying 30 or more times trying to get through that level and never revisiting it with my melee characters. A sorc, hammerdin, and other casters, could farm there with impunity and it was a popular and profitable run for them.

Blizzard stuck to their guns quite a while before the nerf saying that they wanted the game to be a struggle at some points for every class. Didn't really work out that way as they never mastered the play balancing. They finally figured out many players were refusing to play a melee character at all just to avoid Iron Maiden and nerfed it toward the end in an effort to get more build variety playing online.

I don't want to taint your experience one way or another with your build. For some reason I had it in my head you had a lot of hours in D2 which would mean you knew all the build lore.

 

I think I'll stick to the Sorceress. Most likely I don't need a proper META build as I'm sure I won't take this too seriously, but I do plan on getting through hell.

How do you guys feel about /players 8 for solo runs? I don't consider it a cheat but it does allow much faster leveling up. On the other hand, it adds a lot to the challenge. For starters I had quite a tough time even defeating Blood Raven with level 4 ice bolt... Maybe I need to try a lower player count? I don't want to switch back to 1 for bosses as it defeats the purpose.

 

I started a Paladin destined for Hammerdin 2.0 and tried to wing it and play freely and not go meta like I did back during the original launch; made it to level 12 and hated my skill distribution so went back and started a new one with proper meta distribution before respec @ 30 for Hammerdin. It makes leveling so much easier and fun. Plus I found a scepter with HF +3 so that definitely sped up the "all things in my immediate vicinity you may now die almost immediately" factor.

I think what I'm liking the most is having played it for almost 5yrs straight after launch till switching to WoW then playing D3 since launch till late last year and never really touching it again till now is linking the scenery and lore between the two. Almost a there and back again Tolkien style love fest.

 

I don't generally think of making the game harder being a cheat. Irregardless, in single player your fun factor is the only real criteria for gameplay.

 

Dammit! I caved. Downloading now...

 

I still refuse to buy it, though at times it gets hard to do so.

 

I think BG/BG2/P:ST still hold the record by far for how many times I've re-purchased games. Though if you count at release then again on bnet I think I've bought D1 3 times and D2 3 times.

 

I come from a more simpler background - all I had was some 2 disc counterfeit version of D2 + LOD I borrowed from a buddy of my. I legitimately never saw any of D2 cinematics as they were cut from that 2 CD repack. Playing D2R open beta was the first time I have seen them...
Games were legitimately expensive back then in my neck of the woods. I would need to save like six months of school lunch money just to buy D2 + LOD...
Also that same buddy who lent me his 2 CD game version then bought the OG thing. It was magnificent. That box... Back then game boxes were a part of gaming experience...

 

Ahh.. I was already working at my 3rd job by the time D1 came out. Actually 4th I had two jobs at the same time during summer between high school and college. That was fun, one day shift one night shift.. stocked away a buffer tho..

 

So it turns out you need to check in with the mother ship at least once every 30 days to play and I hadn't done my initial authentication which meant I had to wait for those servers to come back up even for single player. Having now taken it for a spin... WOW!

 

I know I am a dying breed, but that is the main reason why I wont likely play another diablo ever again. I loved Diablo 3 but the lack of offline play killed it for me.

I prefer to own my games outright to play however or whenever I want, or at the very least, not have to be online all the time for single player. Seems as though many have accepted it or just don't care about effectively renting their games. The reason I left console gaming was due to being linked to one system which could fail or stop being supported at some point so even the games you paid for could no longer be played.

 

Yeah! I'm up to Kurast and every now and again I switch back and forth between legacy and resurrected and the difference is STARK. Just like the ambient animations like the ship, so many small details that you can see were there but now they are super detailed.

 

Lack of true single with TCP/IP was why I was not going to buy so I understand and agree with your stance. I caved; what can I say? We played the crap out of this game back in the day and all my kids and a couple of my grandkids have it now which pretty much doomed me. In any event I'm very glad I bought it: The change is overwhelming; I had in no way expected it to amaze me but it did just that. Sometimes you manage to pull a win despite your best efforts to fail or it could be a rationalization if you prefer, but... I'm quite smitten with it. I would venture to say the effect might be much less impressive to someone who didn't play previously? However you slice it I applaud your stance, I was weak, I admit it.

@hfm I had thought the switching back and forth would be a gimmick I did a few times and seldom revisited, but I found myself doing it regularly when getting into new environments or encountering new mobs. I imagine the novelty will wear off but I was wrong about it being a gimmick, it's a rather fun little mechanic to access.

 

Yeah, and at $39.99 it's not THAT crazy. I think they should have went $29.99 or $34.99, but I think they know it's going to sell a LOT of copies. I mean they probably could have charged $44.99 or something .. good on them I guess. I probably would have still bought it.

 

They needed a win and they got it. I think they made a mistake not enabling cross-platform play but that's the only real major blunder I notice at first glance. I do feel they should have made some additional minor changes like gem and rune stacking but that's more my opinion than anything else; I'm sure the purist would disagree. To go back to the cross-platform I think that would have paid off in extra sales but in fairness no one has accused me of being a game developer and they probably made a bean count on it and couldn't see the ROI.

 

I feel the same way. They haven't made any gameplay improvements. You're essentially paying $40 for a texture pack.

It does make the game look nice but to be honest, the "wow" factor is very short lived. Our brains are used to current level of graphics and after playing it for a little while, it just registers as the good old D2 game. Worth $40? Absolutely not IMO.

 

Noice.
I think I was at like third of fourth grade when D2 LOD came out. I know, I know, excuses...

I'm 50/50 on this. Agree that it's good of them they don't charge full 60 Euros for D2R, as I believe Blizzard/Activision could definitely do that, and it would still sell and there would be plenty of people defending this. It's also good of them to offer a D2R + D3 bundle at 60 Euros for people who want to play D3. But 40 Euros for the amount of work they did and then shoving the rest of the issues to "it's old game, too much work to fix" is not justifiable.

AoE2 was a better remake and cheaper. Mafia was a better remake at the same price.
But these are of course shining examples, as there are also worse release than D2R...

 

AoE2 was better? I didn't notice anything other than upgraded graphics but I haven't played it since it's release so I probably missed a lot of the upgrades.

D2 has a lot of grognards, afficianados, fanboys, nutcases, purists, and other names less, ah, nice. You wouldn't believe the fit they had over adding more storage space, gem stacking, and similar QOL changes. They complained so hard about auto pickup for gold that Blizzard ended up adjusted it so you almost have to run over the exact pixel to get the pickup. I find myself clicking the stupid gold anyways a lot of the time, it's crazy. I don't necessarily disagree with you though; I'm sure they didn't mind saving a lot of money by fingering the nutcases for the lack of QOL work and other changes a lot of people wanted.

 

A lot of that is just silly gatekeeping of.. yeah the words you didn't use.. since you can actually turn off those options if you don't want to use them.

 

It also had a lot of QoL updates

 

The honeymoon is over. This is not to say I'm not enjoying it, I am. At first all the old annoyances went unnoticed as I enjoyed the graphics and the way it changed from being cartoonish to a place where evil really does dwell. I suppose the initial glow had to end, and I am certainly noticing those annoyances now.

Back to the likes; I do like the job they did with the spell effects: It's a little uneven but I think they did a great job with sprucing them up while not going overboard when considered as a whole. Every little critter seems to have seen some love and they all look pretty good to my eye. Those damn QoL issues though; why couldn't they have fixed some of them and had a toggle as hfm suggests? I don't get that one. And why even have gold pickup in if you're going to nerf it so badly and still have a toggle? I mean you have a toggle, so, why can't we just have an actual gold pickup function that works? Oops, digressing again...

 

I've now ventured online with my kids. Those server issues they're talking about? They are no joke, it's a bundle of disconnections, queues that can time out, messages that don't go through, etc. It's messy enough it can be seriously problematic primarily because of the way you farm in D2. Let's say you're just starting out and you've rescued Cain. You can go back to tristram over and over and pick off that elevated experience and grab items until it starts slowing down. Then you'll move on and probably farm the Countess at which point your level will be up enough the runes she drops can be farmed for low level runewords. That sort of thing is how D2 is played online and requires you to make one game after another as you do a run and start over to reset it. That brings you straight into those queues, disconnects, and so on.

Anyone who was thinking of buying in and would be playing online may want to consider holding off a little until they sort it out.

 

I feel weird maybe i am weird...but this game is of 0 interest to me...looks dated and un fun...ironically i play aoe 3 DE....i know sometimes games like this can be a blast....just dont like supporting satan lol


devil worshipers....cough devil worshipers...lol joking around

 

We all have games that gamers are supposed to like but we dont; I never took a shine to the GTA games for example. I haven't liked deathmatch in shooters since bunny hopping was invented, in fact any shooter that allows 14 year old boys to speak while online is not going to be good for me. I could go on but you get the idea: takes all kinds to make a world.

 

What? What are you talking about? That's some wild consipracy BS, take a step back and just roll with the convo. It's a niche site with not that many regular posters, it makes sense once in a while that there would be a time span convergence where no one posts for a bit. If you want 24/7 posts hit up reddit.

 

Made it to hell. My (lack of) resistances are killing me; literally. That quickly reminded me of something I don't like from the old days: The toast that says, "you have lost experience."

I've made an Insight now and I'm finally able to spam my skills which is a game altering upgrade. Looking for a 4 socket shield to make a Spirit runeword in now. The runes can be had early but there is no 4 socket shield that drops before hell unless your a paladin; some of their class specific shields can drop with 4 in nightmare.

Progress...

 

Now I've got a hammerdin into hell along with the sorc; an assassin remains in nightmare as I'm pushing my farming builds ahead first.

At this point I've plenty of time in and my original assessments about the game hold true: There were quality of life issues that needed to be addressed back in the day and still have not been addressed now. Time has only served to increase the level of irritation as games have been doing it better for more than a decade. The play balancing is every bit as I remember with some characters vastly more capable than others.

On the plus side I find the click-fest is no less addictive than it was in it's day. They did something very right there that has never been equaled by the, ahem, homages, that followed.

Outside of the first days this had never been my main game but it serves well as the kind of game you can pick up, play a little, and drop, until the next time.

 

Ladder will be starting with a new patch that is bringing new runewords and the first balancing since the old days.

Not liking what I'm reading about the new runewords not being available to non-ladder; I hate ladders so on non-ladder I'm likely to see changes that leverage gear I'm never going to have in my inventory. I expect disappointment.

 

I've been playing this on my Switch and have been having a really good time with it.

 

Still isn't my primary game but it's been a good time filler; grind a little and put it away. Easy to jump in and out of for a quickie.

 

That's exactly how I've been playing it, and the Switch is the most convenient way for me to do so.

 

From Blizz...
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/dia...-resurrected-patch-2-4-highlights-coming-soon

A few of the new runewords...

1. Plague
   The Plague runeword is a high level weapon runeword planned for the upcoming 2.4 patch. It is one of the runewords that were in the original game files, but were disabled. Blizzard had announced 10 new runewords for patch 1.11, but only 7 made it in the final release (excluding Plague).
   
   The stats are still subject to change. The information we have right now is based on the original game files, but the developers mentioned that these runewords will still be tweaked.
   
   This runeword opens up opportunities for weapon types that currently don't have viable runeword options. Since it can be made in any weapon, it would be possible to make it in a Sorceress Orb or Assassin Claws, which don't have many options currently.
   
   With its current stats, it would be a well balanced runeword, and a particularly good mid-game option for Poison Necromancers, until they can obtain a Death's Web. It also provides much needed use to the underutilized Cham runes, which is currently only used in 3 runewords.
   
   Notable attributes
   • 25% Chance to Cast Level 15 Poison Nova On Striking
   • 20% Chance to Cast Level 12 Lower Resist When Struck
   • Level 13-17 Cleansing Aura When Equipped (varies)
   • +1-2 All Skills
   • +260-380% Damage to Demons (varies)
   • -23% To Enemy Poison Resistance
   • 0.3% (0-29.7) Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
   • Adds 5-30 Fire Damage
   • 25% Chance of Open Wounds
   • Freezes Target +3
   • +10 to Strength
2. Pattern
   The Pattern runeword is a low level claws runeword planned for the upcoming 2.4 patch. It is one of the runewords that were in the original game files, but were disabled. Blizzard had announced 10 new runewords for patch 1.11, but only 7 made it in the final release (excluding Pattern).
   
   The stats are still subject to change. The information we have right now is based on the original game files, but the developers mentioned that these runewords will still be tweaked.
   
   The strange thing about the original stats is that it doesn't include the +75 Poison damage over 5 seconds from the Tal rune.
   
   Notable attributes
   • 10% Bonus to Attack Rating
   • +40-80% Enhanced damage
   • 17-62 Added Fire Damage
   • +15% Resist All
   • +6 to Strength
   • +6 to Dexterity
   • +30% chance to block
   • +2 to mana after each kill
   • Adds 1-50 Lightning Damage

 

I also want to say how great it is that the tradition of me receiving insane item drops for every character class except the one I’m playing is alive and well in this remake.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Lol My personal experience is that I'll get useful and valuable items for every class but my own. Right now I've found no valuable items that are class specific. I did find a Mara's, pretty happy about that one but it remains my only good find to date. I've made multiple runewords; mostly Insight and Spirit with a few low level armors tossed in that I used in the early game. I've made a HOTO but it was a poor roll. Despite that it's the most valuable item I've attained so far.

Bottom line: I can't claim to have knocked em dead in the luck department.

 

More clarity on runewords...

https://www.wowhead.com/news/new-runewords-in-diablo-ii-resurrected-patch-2-4-and-beyond-325369

 

The other thing that has made a triumphant return is having an attack rating that gives a 95% chance of hitting a creature then swinging at said creature and missing it five times in a row. If my math is correct, the odds of that happening are 1 in 3.2 million. Would that I be so fortunate when picking lottery numbers.

 

Lol, what build are you running?

 

Paladin, best I can describe is a mix between hammer and zealot. Perhaps not the best or most efficient, but it's worked well so far in this game and the legacy character I made 20 years ago.

Speaking of characters, do ones you create for online play carry over across platforms? Like if I start one on my desktop, can I pick it up on my laptop and vice versa?

 

Yeah, you can install on multiple PC's and the online characters will be there but you can only log one account in at a time. In the old days the offline characters were machine specific and may also be so now, I haven't looked into it.

 

I made an Enigma for my hammerdin which means the character is now fully capable although not up to godly standards. The mobility with the Enigma has greatly increased my find rate and I've started multiple toons to throw gear on as I find it rather than trading (all of) the decent finds to fund the hammerdin. I think the next goal is to get the kicker I started up to snuff so I can solo Ubers. Quite the treadmill but it's fun in small doses and still fills my quick in and out gaming sessions.

 

I can play my online character on the Switch, which is freaking fantastic. I also found my old level 77 Pally that I made 20 years ago and got it loaded. It was trippy seeing him troll the jungles of Kurast again. It's too bad you can't use your old characters in online play.

 

Would be cool for sure but I have to agree about excluding characters that can be edited offline. People were talking about having a TCP/IP connection and playing with friends that way. It can be fun for some things and it's a bummer they didn't include it.