What is the difference in game modes?
Ok, no act 5. So if you upgrade at hell level from classic to LOD? What happens with Normal, Nightmare act fives?
And whats the difference in gameplay? I read somewhere there are no synergies and so on… but the synergies are there.
From memory LoD added:
Druid
Assassin
Runes (and Runewords)
Charms
Jewels
Elite weapon tier
Many exceptional and elite tier set and unique items
Class specific items like Claws and Pelts are obvious b/c of Assassin and Druid are new, but Pally specific shields, necro heads, Barbarian specific helms, Amazon specific bows, and Sorc specific orbs were also added.
A fair amount of HCube recipes
Crafted items (May be 1.10 + LoD combo specifically?)
Stash space was also significantly smaller than legacy LoD and the D2R version kept that, so you don’t get the increased stash size or shared tabs that D2R LoD mode gives you.
You mentioned Synergies, I believe they were added in patch 1.10 for both LoD and Classic, but the focus was on LoD at that point, so I’m not sure they really “worked” for Classic, similar to a lot of the 1.10 changes. I think immunities were similar, but honestly I didn’t spend much time in Classic once I got LoD, so I could be off there.
Off the top of my head:
No act 5 or any of its features
No Assassin/Druid
No jewels
No charms
No elite items
No exceptional uniques or sets
Some other sets are also missing
No Runes/Runewords
No gambling exceptional items
Tiny stash and no shared stash
No class specific items
Any cube recipe that involves runes and the 3 perfect/chipped gem roll recipe do not work
You cannot equip mercs
Mercs and summons cannot leave the act they were created/hired
The limit of static field for nm and hell does not exist
WW is always max speed
No weapon swap
Concentration gives 100% damage benefit to blessed hammer, I believe expansion does 50%?
-20 res in nightmare, -50 res in hell instead
Area levels in Expansion in general are higher than classic once you leave normal
No terror zones
As for synergies, they were added to the game in 1.10. Pre 1.10 both expansion and classic had no synergies. Classic has its own appeal over expansion. You focus more on rares rather than runes and runewords. The power level in general is lower though. I enjoy it quite a bit.
So is there even one pro to play it?
You can get to Hell faster in Classic than in LoD because you don’t have to play act 5. People will start in classic, get to hell then switch to LoD.
It was better balanced and the rare = best itemisation was far superior to LoD.
Unfortunately 1.10 trashed the balance so I can’t recommend it over LoD anymore
A small but not insignificant group of people disliked the additions from LoD (especially runewords, charms, etc) and prefer the core gameplay loop of classic, the itemization, the way skills work, and so on. One of the most enthusiastic communities I ever met in Diablo 2 was the HCCL (hardcore classic) community. They don’t play classic with the intention to upgrade to a LoD character, they actually prefer to play classic period.
In the end, it’s an option that is offered for people with such prefereces, which I think it’s pretty nice and even a bit rare these days.
The one thing classic really has going for it, is that these trash devs haven’t messed with it. So lucky.
Tbh, I still prefer using the 2000 client to play classic. I feel like the few people who still prefer that mode are not playing D2R, at least I encounter less of them in D2R
There’s real classic which is patch 1.06b and prior. This was before any of the expansion changes were introduced into classic as expansion was 1.07 and onward. For a real “classic” experience install off of old cds and patch it to 1.06b which is the most stable and bug fixed version and last version before expansion came out. You’ll see it’s a much different game.
Well the problem with the game since 1.10 are the power of the runewords far outweighed the difficulty of the content, but not necessarily meaning classic is superior for itemization.
Classic has been the more balanced game and just felt more rounded and better.
But that’s true of the pre-Syngeria era.
Since the synergies are currently also in Classic, it’s no longer really successful. The synergies in the abilities are incredibly annoying and have totally ruined the Classic experience for me, so I only play D2R with LoD.
I just greatly prefer the itemization and gameplay of classic. Pre 1.10 is much better of course but I still really have no desire to play expansion.
I tried to play classic on D2R. The shortcut keys for skills does`t work. I was done in 3 minutes of gameplay.
Miss playing a speeder lance barb on classic…
That’s extremely odd. I only play classic on D2R and I have no issues with shortcut keys for skills.