Damn nice man, you are definitely in the top D2 players.
That would be f***ing sick.
That’s why I think it would be cool to see people showcase their class skill in an SSF ladder environment.
That VikTV guy was #1 HC Barb last ladder season, but the thing is he was only a support in a team comp using BO and Warcry for CC while holding an Onalds staff. I would actually like to see an authentic Barbarian build make it to #1 in an SSF HC ladder.
Hell yeah, that actually sounds fun as hell! I’m assuming youre using the leap attack?
I’ve been playing D2 on the regular for a long time, most of what I do in game is muscle memory. I don’t play as much as I use to though, I’m no longer excited when elite items and hrs drop, so not much dopamine to motivate me. 10/15 years ago it was easy to play 18 hours a day when I had time, but today it’s hard to play for 2 hours without thinking about other things away from my rig that would be more fun.
What I’d really like to do, if I were to do anything significant in this game again, is make good quality educational videos on the most effective ways to build a barbarian and use all his skills in every situation. Then maybe someone would take my barbarian play style and become 10x better than I ever was. The right person could take my whirlwind build and crush the barbarian speedrunning record, tossing the singer barb out the speedrunning window for good. Actually, come to think of it, if I actually did it, every barbarian speedrunner would switch to my build instantly.
It would be so easy. If I was able to play for long hours again, the only streamer I know of that could keep up with me is DarkHumility. I need to get that video made for you using your maul so you can see how well I play the barbarian.
This is me clearing Hell Chaos naked except a weapon.
I rarely ever use leap attack, but when I do it’s to cross water or fire and when I need to close the gap on mummies in the normal Tal Rasha tombs.
50 million copies of D2 and 50 million copies of Lord of Destruction over 20 years isn’t a reach. The game had at least 2 major revitalizations (v1.10 and 1.13). The Battlechest was among the top selling games in 2010, plus the boom it had when D3 was announced. 4 million copies of D2 were sold before the release of LoD. 2 million copies of LoD were shipped in 2001.
in 2013 14.5 million unique players played D3, 30 million copies of D3 were sold by 2015 - I’d bet the farm 90% of all people who had played D3 in 2015 had played D2. In 2008 there were 11 million people playing on bnet 1.0, and D2 always had more players than War3 and SC combined.
When Blizzard banned the use of loaders, it forced botters to use multiple rigs and sandbox, which lead to them buying massive quantities of the game. Once a year blizzard would do a ban wave, forcing botters buy more copies.
There was a patch around 2015 that prevented 16-digit cd keys from working due to a Chinese website selling loads of stolen cd keys for $5, which forced everyone who used them to buy 26-digit digital keys.
When D2R was announced D2 had a massive influx of new players to the ladder reset. More D2 sales.
Poland alone had approx. 25 million gamers in 2015. I find it easy to imagine at least 10% of those gamers played D2, then times that by every other country where pc video games are played by a vast majority of the population. Think about it, do the math:
Canada
USA
Mexico
South America
Europe (40+ countries)
Japan
China
Korea
Taiwan
Vietnam
Australia
New Zealand
More than half the worlds population (4 billion) play video games today, and you can’t see how D2 could sell 100 million copies in 20 years?
I alone purchased the original game in 2002, then LoD a week later. Then over the next 10 years I purchased 6 Battlechests. I then purchased 4 digital copies when they were made available. In Dec of 2017 I purchased 5 more digital copies - and I’ve never botted or used hacks.
I mean sure, when a single person buys 100 keys for whatever reason, go for it. But at the end of the day, it’s just 1 player.
Also, I don’t understand how you assume people would still buy tons of Diablo 2 keys over the span of 20 years. Usually it’s like sales for cinema, the first week is huge, then it drastically goes downwards over the next weeks.
Only Blizzard knows how many copies were sold and since they aren’t bragging about the numbers, I have my doubts.
Something that came to mind when I was near the end of the D4 campaign - where in the hell are the oblivion knights and their brethren??! Those guys were legit terrifying in D1 if they got the jump on you from the darkness, and even in D2 they had a pretty iconic role, especially in the earlier days - just ask any HC barb why they weren’t WW-ing in the Chaos Sanctuary. As that thread points out, there’s way too much focus on generic wildlife in D4 and way too little (none) on actual Diablo monsters, probably so that they could copy-paste those monsters all over the map without thinking about their suitability for those locations. I remember a cellar with hordes of Arctic Bears and skeletons and snakes chilling - just… what? Did anyone in the dev team even play a druid?
The guys that made D3 and D4 basically made a hell-themed WoW and not Diablo games
100% they are very distinct in Diablo 1 to the point where I had to ask myself a couple days ago, are these knights in Act 4 the same ones from Diablo 1? I guess it’s the death animation and sound change that confused me.
True, I actually think that maggot creature with the human head is a complete waste of a monster. It feels like some love-craft abomination you would see in Diablo Hellfire. And apparently in that thread, that thing is travelling with human enemies .
Diablo 2’s Act 1 starting zone is actually a great starting zone. The Rogue monastery with corrupted Rogues is a unique setting, so you get to fight non-generic monsters pretty quickly. And then we move into the Act 2 desert which is a great change of scenery.
Diablo 4 seems to have no thought put into this stuff, which is why I always say the devs never played Diablo before, because if they did they would have put more effort into these things. You’re right the wild life just isn’t exciting enough.
Ye it’s infinitely more statisfying to just grind in d2r than it is in d4 and honestly I don’t even know why. Maybe it’s because you have specific goals in mind, like certain items you want to work yourself toward. With how itemization works in d4 that isn’t really the case there. You just pick up yellows and slap on the power you want, it’s not exciting imo.
The itemization is literally everything. Just watched a yt’er do an in depth video on why D2 is still relatively popular after all these years, and he basically broke it down to that. Itemization.
The game is unsalvagable if Blizzard couldn’t figure that out on their own. All they’re going to do now is taint Diablo 2 by bringing in the secret cow level and other iconic items like SoJ into that abomination.
Okay, I will.
Diablo 4 is a bad end-game.
Its a good story, but an atrocious ARPG. Its loot system sucks, from the core. There’s not really any amount of UI and QoL fixes that can make it good. It needs to be reworked from the ground up. A few ideas for thought;
Resistances should stack additively, not whatever convoluted formula for DR they have now. Cap it at 75, have world tiers do minus effects, -50 WT3, -100 WT4. Who knew that D2R had the better resistance system? Uh, I did.
Anything and everything that works as a damage multiplier, by percentage, needs to be re-thought. The game is all about getting crits, as a chance on it, to deal a percentage more damage. Crits should matter, sure, but shouldn’t the be the keystone of any build. Improving the crit strike chance should be removed, and every ability needs to have its own coefficient to crit. Instead of crit damage being a stat, “on crit” effects should be considered instead. Like on crit - restore resource, life, boost toughness, resistances, cast other effects, etc. Overpower being just a better crit is lame, make it do crushing blow damage, and treat it the same as crit chance - every ability has its own chance to overpower (its ok for most to be none.)
Legendary powers need to exist entirely in the codex, and if they want to insist on them having roll ranges, then the power you extract it at is the power you can imbue at forever. Finding a perfectly rolled legendary for extraction isn’t fun or engaging.
Customizing gear to have the stats you want needs to be a thing. Ever since D3 introduced the enchantress I’ve joked that there’s one guy who is on every Blizzard team. His responsibility is to take whatever clever ideas other people come up with and find a way to arbitrarily make it annoying, frustrating, or at least irrelevant. Enchanting only one stat? Requiring time-gated forgotten souls? Can only wear one crafted primal ancient with the dust stuff? Yeah, plenty of examples of him showing he’s really good at his job. Its just stupid. It sucks fun out of the game and there’s no good, “Why?” Who cares if someone pursued power in the game?
I’m currently playing SSF on D2 LoD’s hc ladder to 99 within the next 5.5 months. I know the exact build I want and gear I need. I’m two weeks in and I know the next several months is farming areas for both gear and experience at the same time. It’s not boring or monotonous because of these goals. The hard part is finding 4 Ber, a Jah, a Zod, an eth thunder maul and an eth Andies.
Oh that’s convenient. A time when not even 50% of households even had computers or internet access vs. 2023’s entire gaming market including consoles. People are so disingenuous man. Not to mention, a lot of D3’s “sales” were padded numbers and free to wow players who got 6 month subs or whatever.
Yeah, I don’t even know what I’m supposed to want to find in this game, feasibly. They seem to think stat sticking uniques is the only way to make them interesting. Meanwhile we have sorcs turning into bears. You can make an array of uniques that open up meme builds or lateral builds that play just as well a meta builds. These are fun to go after because they’re unique and not often built. Like a tesladin. It’s a cool goal to have in a ladder. And getting it put together doesn’t mean you’re now the god of all content. It’s just a cool and unique build that’s hard to get. They could have tons of that in D4, but they don’t get it. All they know is stat sticking, and crappy, uninteresting unique making.
I don’t see this getting better. They should be hiring a lead items designer, not a lead dungeon designer like they were advertising.
It’s crazy how good D2 is. Even things that don’t seem to be done intentionally, like an end-game Sorceress holding onto a Scythe as if she’s a sorceress of pure destruction. It’s just so good. We will never see something like that in a modern Blizzard game.
Another one that annoys me is “iTs juSt nOstalGia” lol.
I understand it’s hard to play a game that you missed out on, which is why Asmongold can’t jump onto D2, and it’s the same way I can’t jump onto WC3 remastered. WC3 is an excellent game, but I also missed out on it’s glory days in the early 00s. If they made a WC4 and it was a true successor to WC3, I would 1000% buy it at launch.
I’m sick of these people talking down to D2 as if it’s a bad game. Anything iconic to Diablo 3 and 4 came from Diablo 1 and 2.
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well said, that’s so true.