Rolled several characters to play offline, including the first character I ever played when I was a teenager, before LoD came out: a Necromancer.
Pre-LoD Classic D2 features a tiny stash without sharing, no runes or charms 
, mercenaries that cannot be equipped or healed, and a smaller item pool and vastly reduced crafting system…and yet, I am having a blast! There is something very satisfying about it, but I’m not sure what…I think it’s having to make do with less? Feeling genuinely excited when a gem drops?
Just wondering if anyone else enjoys Classic D2, and why? What’s your favorite class there? 
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It’s not pre lod d2 as it was patched after lod was released. It’s called classic and I stopped playing it after 1.10, except for rush sorcs
I loved pre-LoD D2. Had an absolute blast. I liked how the best items were rare and magic, rather than runewords or uniques.
Admittedly, I haven’t played it since LoD was released, basically because all my friends play LoD, but I’d be open to playing it if I had a bigger crew to play with.
Classic is fine but in terms of difficulty, it’s harder than lod. We have to deal with all the mob changes that happened LoD, but with limitations that LoD doesn’t have. I still enjoy it though. I don’t have a favorite class, but I have leveled every class except a barb.
Yesterday I started to convert all the characters that have completed hell to expansion than just mule their gear and delete them so I have character slots 
I play online. Since there’s no ability to transfer items between characters single player, I dropped it until they do a shared stash.
I am taking a ski trip this winter with my wife and kids. Since I expect internet to be spotty at most hotels I am at my plan is to play Classic on either my laptop or Switch during that 6 weeks =)
I wish they would return it to 1.04ish itemization, but fix the bugs that existed back then They would of course have to prevent characters from being converted to LOD characters though. It is still fun and I do play it occasionally. It definitely feels like a harder game than LOD…I just wish it was truly the classic pre-LOD I remember. Especially since they did not give pre-expansion the same D2R QoL improvements.
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I loved classic, but I can’t take a tiny stash again! Rares being top was the best. Every time a rare executioner sword, lance, ornate plate, amulet, ring, battle hammer…hell…every time a rare dropped it was such a rush, it could be an epic combo of mods. I get a rush finding ultra rare drops in LoD but, it’s not quite the same.
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There is a shared stash for LoD characters offline, just not Classic characters. That was what I found when I checked, anyway.
I feel like classic is best pre-LOD. Seems pretty brutal to me in modern times, although I haven’t tried it. Compared to its heyday, I think item affixes are nerfed and monsters greatly buffed. So I get the impression it’s a bit of a slog and an afterthought. It would be cool if D2R tried to recreate that pre-LOD original experience, because that’s how most people remember it.
Yeah man there was an entire community that felt this way. HCCL. Hardcore classic Ladder. We all referred to xpac as Noobpac. I’m saying it tongue in cheek, we were teenagers lol. Anyway, yes there were thousands of people laddering on classic long after xpac. The reasons you mentioned were just a few of the dozens of reasons we all preferred Classic and never quite did assimilate LOD’s balancing. Enewbma, cookie-cutter, and EZ-Mode were a few of the most commonplace phrases. The gear system is completely saturated. Additions to it needed to be done modestly and carefully. I’m not out to start some argument because there’s a ton of things that stood to be improved upon in classic. But once the commercial potential was realized, the Diablo franchise became just another game to please the masses. That is why classic is what it is. It was what Diablo was before the Diablo franchise was commercialized. LOD is still fun but in my opinion only because of the platform in which it is built upon. If the game designers were acting to passionately create a work of art, instead of a formulaic success, I think the same scarcity and novelty of classic would have been maintained. I think in light of the success the non-conforming Souls series has had, they need to re-evaluate what it is they think the masses will buy. But they don’t want to make the next Diablo they want the next fortnite. A game all the kids will buy into and micro-trans their way into adulthood.
Everyone’s preferences are different but I would pose to those who want a challenge and to actually accomplish something, play Hardcore pre-expansion ladder. In my opinion the most fun experience D2 has to offer. I am betting once ladder comes about, it revives. Not to the level it was in 2001 when myself and some others played HCCL but I still bet a few of the other old heads come back for some HCCL ladder glory. I was #1 on HCCL for a while in '01 on USEast and maintained spot #2 for quite some time. King Moron was my Pally’s name, we called them Pallys. My build Re-defined the HC Hammerdin. Because if you found some godly piece of gear, you could do that on classic! It could open up an entirely different approach to a build. Anyway HCCL is my favorite way to play, I think always will be. The people have egos, but they are still awesome to play with because we all know what we are doing. Get to 9x on hardcore classic. If you have the time to spend on it. Take your time and be careful. Once level 90+ you’ll feel like a certified badass.
I was never able to go back to Classic once LoD was released.
And it’s all about the druid. That class just resonated with me so much more than any of the Classic classes, and since you can’t play a druid in Classic, I don’t feel any pull to return.
I am for seeing some changes, not toomany but some.
the breakpoints arent possible to reach, getting to level 99 is impossible because its just not that busy anymore, they can maybe make a classic character that is not moveable to lod and let it level up faster.
the stash is just sad, 10 chaos runs and im full of items and dont know what to do.