Incline Diablo 2 - a write-up

[ciox]

Real niggaz remember when Lord de Seis had the Thieving mod and would make you drop potions at random AND he had Conviction aura.

This is why I want to play 1.0 eventually, Thieving, more unique monsters, etc.

 

[octavius]

Nah, Diablo 2: LoD got progressively easier with each patch as they nerfed enemies and added new more ridiculously OP runewords.

After 1.10 you mean? Or do you think 1.09 is harder than 1.10?
Also the most OP Runewords are Ladder only, I think.

Real niggaz remember when Lord de Seis had the Thieving mod and would make you drop potions at random AND he had Conviction aura.

This is why I want to play 1.0 eventually, Thieving, more unique monsters, etc.

And no Runewords, making Rares more valuable. And no Charms means less time spent on inventory management.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Nah, Diablo 2: LoD got progressively easier with each patch as they nerfed enemies and added new more ridiculously OP runewords.

After 1.10 you mean? Or do you think 1.09 is harder than 1.10?
Also the most OP Runewords are Ladder only, I think.

1.09 was way harder than 1.10 and upward. I only play Ladder so I'm not sure which runewords are exclusive to it. I don't even use mercs in post 1.10 D2 and if I did it would be exponentially easier.

 

[octavius]

1.09 was way harder than 1.10 and upward. I only play Ladder so I'm not sure which runewords are exclusive to it. I don't even use mercs in post 1.10 D2 and if I did it would be exponentially easier.

Hmm...that doesn't seem to be the prevailing opinion from what I've read. I haven't played enough of 1.10+ to make my own judgement, though.

As for the 24 Ladder exclusive RWs, the most OP one if probably Insight.

 

[Multidirectional]

Haven't played this for years, but I did play the shit out of it back in the day, multiple build runs with all classes through all three difficulties. Nowadays I sometimes get an itch to reinstall. I never tried any mods though. What I used to do back in the day for single player was use a software for storing more valuable items to use across different chars, because fuck that limited in game storage. This thread has gotten me interested in trying that Median XL thing. Am I to assume the best version to use is the latest one of "Ultimative"?

 

[janior]

mods lmao XDDD

 

[Lilura]

This thread has gotten me interested in trying that Median XL thing. Am I to assume the best version to use is the latest one of "Ultimative"?

The more recent you go with MXL, the more faggotry you get. Like Giftboxes, god-tiered itemization and other casual shit. I personally play MXL 2012 005 because I've invested the most time in it (have every set, every rune; basically it's a database) for experimentation and hitting maximums. Also because I can mod out the faggotry and still get a good balance of features. Later versions of MXL encrypted moddable code into *.bins to enforce modder's vision and make cheating harder. It's possible to decrpyt the *.bins but it's not something the average user could do.

 

[octavius]

Lilura, what's your authorative optinion on the official patches? 1.09 vs 1.10+.
Which is harder for SP?

 

[Lilura]

Lilura, what's your authorative optinion on the official patches? 1.09 vs 1.10+.
Which is harder for SP?

I know it's hard to believe, but I'm actually not qualified to speak authoritatively on this matter. I'm mostly a 1.12/1.13 player because of mod compatibility and other things.

 

[Multidirectional]

I'm mostly a 1.12/1.13 player because of mod compatibility and other things.

Can you get widescreen resolutions with 1.13 nowadays? Last patch I used was 1.12 because Multires mod wouldn't work with 1.13.

 

[Sykar]

Nah, Diablo 2: LoD got progressively easier with each patch as they nerfed enemies and added new more ridiculously OP runewords.

After 1.10 you mean? Or do you think 1.09 is harder than 1.10?
Also the most OP Runewords are Ladder only, I think.

1.09 was way harder than 1.10 and upward. I only play Ladder so I'm not sure which runewords are exclusive to it. I don't even use mercs in post 1.10 D2 and if I did it would be exponentially easier.

Yeah the lack of shit like Dupenigma and Infinyderp makes 1.09 harder at endgame because you just cannot reach the ridiculous amount of damage you can in 1.10+. You could say that 1.10+ is a bit harder in normal until early hell if you play ssf, but once you include trading and the like 1.10+ becomes easier due to stupid amounts of damage from gear and synergies which are so shitty that I play 1.09d ONLY, though rarely, these days and refuse to use B.Net.

 

[DeepOcean]

octavius how familiar with D1 are you, and if familiar how do you compare the D2 experience vs D1? I realize this is very much an apples vs oranges situation but I’m curious.

D2’s runewords and crafting felt very Skinner box to me, while missing the dark gothic art and freeform character development of D1 (ie warriors who can cast apocalypse and no class-gated gear).

I’ve played a decent amount of D2 SP, although not completed it to my recollection, and it felt pure garbage as compared to D1. I saw the spark when playing D2 in MP but it was a temporary thing, it became a grind after a bit with uninspired itemization and class-gated gear.

You are right, it is a skinner box designed for multiplayer and not an atmospheric game like Diablo 1 at all, Diablo died with the death of Blizzard North.I is the last Diablo game before the SJW weaboo cucks took over the Blizzard writing department and turned all their games stories into animu for retarded people, so it is worthy to play to see how the story of the first one ends if you are going to solo it but if you plan to toy with the builds, I recomend multiplayer. Playing alone, without trading, if you really dont LOVE the gameplay is a recipe for frustration.

Playing with other players and trading duplicate items is a blast, if you find some people to play with you, you can level up way faster. If you wanna solo it, go with mods like Median XL, sure, they change the base game ALOT but make it more fun.

 

[Gregz]

*snip*

This is also why Median XL exists: to make Diablo 2 more SP friendly, to focus more on skill and knowledge rather than luck and grind.

It's the single best mod I've ever seen in 40 years of gaming.

 

[Divine Blessing]

attaching the words "skill" and "knowlegde" to Diablo without any negative affix really is... autistic. what a wondercolourful world this Codex is

 

[Jason Liang]

Merciless Codexian RPG of Skills of the Whale of Trolls

 

[octavius]

I'm mostly a 1.12/1.13 player because of mod compatibility and other things.

Can you get widescreen resolutions with 1.13 nowadays? Last patch I used was 1.12 because Multires mod wouldn't work with 1.13.

One of the later official patches introduced support for widescreen.

 

[Multidirectional]

One of the later official patches introduced support for widescreen.

From what I remember I could not set resolution I wanted on 1.13. Was there another patch that enabled all resolutions?

 

[octavius]

Yeah the lack of shit like Dupenigma and Infinyderp makes 1.09 harder at endgame because you just cannot reach the ridiculous amount of damage you can in 1.10+. You could say that 1.10+ is a bit harder in normal until early hell if you play ssf, but once you include trading and the like 1.10+ becomes easier due to stupid amounts of damage from gear and synergies which are so shitty that I play 1.09d ONLY, though rarely, these days and refuse to use B.Net.

What about the bugs in 1.09? In addition to the ones I mentioned earlier, there's supposedly a bug with SuperUnique bosses. If you TP out and return they will use the loot table of lower level Rakanishu instead of their own. Although I got the Embossed Plate unique from the Hell version of Ancient Kaa the Soulless and I'm pretty sure Embossed Plate doesn't drop in Act I where you encounter Rakanishu, so it may have been fixed in 1.09D.

One of the later official patches introduced support for widescreen.

From what I remember I could not set resolution I wanted on 1.13. Was there another patch that enabled all resolutions?

Must have been 1.14 then.

Playing alone, without trading, if you really dont LOVE the gameplay is a recipe for frustration.

Playing with other players and trading duplicate items is a blast,

Using PlugY for the shared storage, several characters of your own, and legit items worked swimmingly for me.

 

[Lilura]

PlugY has its limitations. When you start getting srs, you'll have to employ GoMule as well or you'll never be able to find anything.

I run 1.12 with PlugY, MapHack, MultiRes and MXL + my own custom mods of MXL (because even MXL on Destruction difficulty + /players8 gets ho-hum after a while); it's insanely epic.

 

[Grimlorn]

Playing vanilla without multiplayer or mods isn't very satisfying, as you mentioned, it puts you at the mercy of an RNG setting that's tuned for multiplayer.

There are so many build opportunities lost when you can't trade with other players, or craft/farm your own gear.

That's why I always recommend mods like Median XL, or playing LoD online after you've capped your level.

Speaking of median, 1.40 patch notes were released today:

https://www.median-xl.com/changelog.php

Elementalist sorceress getting a late (but well deserved) xmas present!

Sigma is still garbage. They refuse to implement any kind of shared stash in order to trade between characters. Marco is a narcissistic megalomaniac who seems determined to destroy Laz's work. Thankfully the older versions are still available:

http://modsbylaz.vn.cz/

http://modianhelp.anhei3.net/MXLU_vXVc_Doc_v2.94/log.html#

What's the difference between Sigma and the older mods? I've only played Sigma recently on single player and it was kind of fine at first, but I'm at a point where I know I'm probably going to have to grind a lot to get good gear and that doesn't appeal to me. Maybe I should have played online, it sounds like you could trade between players there. But single player the drop rate of great runes, essences, etc is so low. I'll be 150 before I'm properly geared, maybe not even then. Everything also seems a bit balanced between runewords and sacred uniques, making it unclear what to shoot for in a build and unrewarding in general.

 

[Lilura]

But single player the drop rate of great runes, essences, etc is so low.

You have to farm GR areas to find GRs. They drop pretty easily in certain uber-zones.

I'll be 150 before I'm properly geared, maybe not even then.

Get gud?

Everything also seems a bit balanced between runewords and sacred uniques, making it unclear what to shoot for in a build and unrewarding in general.

Half the fun is working it out.

 

[Grimlorn]

But single player the drop rate of great runes, essences, etc is so low.

You have to farm GR areas to find GRs. They drop pretty easily in certain uber-zones.

I'll be 150 before I'm properly geared, maybe not even then.

Get gud?

Everything also seems a bit balanced between runewords and sacred uniques, making it unclear what to shoot for in a build and unrewarding in general.

Half the fun is working it out.

No they don't drop easily. You'd know this if you've played Sigma. You'll go through Faust which can take about an hour to get 1 great rune and you don't get 1 every time. I also ran Toraja 5 times before I got a single great rune. I get 1 maybe every 3 runs now. There's no /players command to increase drops anymore.

I don't like grinding and being overleveled for content due to being undergeared. And I've looked over the gear, unless you're really familiar with procs and the effects they have, it isn't very clear which tradeoffs are superior to others because it is balanced in a way there is little to aim for. Even crafted seems superior to some of the endgame gear if you can get good rolls. That doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[Gregz]

What's the difference between Sigma and the older mods? I've only played Sigma recently on single player and it was kind of fine at first, but I'm at a point where I know I'm probably going to have to grind a lot to get good gear and that doesn't appeal to me.

Right, so that's one of many problems. Median XL was designed to be single player friendly, Sigma is not.

There's no /players command to increase drops anymore.

And there you have it (but there are many other design decisions made by the core sigma team that are a major decline from Laz's original versions of Median XL).

"For many people the version 1.F9 is to date the best version."

https://forum.median-xl.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=34509&p=279536#p279536

 

[Lilura]

You'd know this if you've played Sigma.

Not interested in playing anything other than MXL. But yeah, you were talking about Sigma. I guess most people think the latest version of something will be the best.

Gregz Have you played Eastern Sun?

 

[Gregz]

Gregz Have you played Eastern Sun?

I have looked at LP videos on no less than 4 separate occasions, but what I read/saw never appealed to me enough to try it. I know of fans of MXL who are fond of it however.