I’m puzzled by the fact that pre-Expansion and Expansion characters are options, but that we don’t get the option to play with the version where Synergies are turned off. (I remember that was an option in original game though)
In my opinion the best ever version of Diablo 2 is the 1.09 patch (admittedly that is from LoD), but basically the version before the Synergies system went in with also the OP runewords.
That is because Synergies severely restrict you in how you can make your builds, and the OP runewords create “Dominant Strategies”: basically, since you can choose which runeword to build, you’ll always build the best ones, and since Runewords are best in class often, this means this is the only strategy. Ideally, uniques should be clearly better than runewords but that is not the case often.
Ideally I would love to play a patch 1.09 LoD Hardcore Ladder, but right now, there is really no way to do this. (That is still possible to play through Plugy etc)
Additionally, I really don’t see the point of playing pre-Expansion in this situation, anyone has any idea why they would play that mode?
Because bots will overtake you anyway, no matter how hardcore you are. well and play without resetting talents? No thanks.
Resetting talents make the game objectively less deep, as it allows you to use degenerate strategies (game design term) to play through the game, basically playing with whatever the most OP build is until beating Hell and then switching to the actual build you wanted to play with.
As a matter of fact, this is one of the things that made D3 a garbage game, and was rightfully criticized into oblivion.
Patch 1.09 is objectively the best Diablo 2 patch ever made. I can also go on into charms for example, which is another example of broken game design.
The only thing I would add from post-1.09 would be the added items, but with the caveat that runewords have to be balanced so that they never become best-in-slot ever (in terms of power), but instead mainly offer alternative gameplay options (like they currently do), for also the added benefit of being a craftable item (hence, you can access them more easily than uniques)
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God, I love these forums sometimes.
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Slight contradictions in what I said, here’s a way to reconciled it in a coherent sentece:
“In my opinion, the objectively best ever version of Diablo 2 is patch 1.09”
He’s poking at the grammatical errors in your statement. Specifically word choice.
“Opinion” and the word “objectively” contradict each other. In other words, “objectively” should be used for factual statements. Not for opinions or how you feel.
I understood what you meant, but he’s just being a jerk.
Classic has no cooldowns and some other cool amenities and is also built to have A4 as the final act so balancing is different. I’m tempted to play classic then upgrade the char to lod later.
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I’m giving classic a shot just for the hell of it. Pretty tough. Not sure I’m having fun lol
Well, D2 basically had 3 eras:
1.06 Vanilla
1.09 LoD
1.10+ LoD 2
Each of them had their merits and given the chance would find a player base. The later eras had more content, which usually is good, but they also brought a lot of balance changes. If you want that Iceblink WW experience, you can’t have that in LoD. Also pvp was very different in Vanilla.
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