There seems to be groups building, hostility towards the old or new guard among lots of nonsense which doesn’t contribute to a healthy discussion.
My observation so far showed that there is a huge lack of understanding of the game from the newer generation. Is it their fault though? When veterans started to play the game they had ample opportunity and resources to learn everything about every corner of the game. What the new generation has got are some youtube streamers and websites looking for clicks by offering strange builds which cost a lot of high runes to begin with. You can’t fault them for looking for youtubers for info, some of them are game veterans but of course if you follow a person or two only and not a community you’re going to look at everything from the skewed perspective of the said person because there’s no feedback for improvement. Then the veterans themselves (me included) should stop pretending we had a perfect game with d2 lod. The game was abandoned. To make it better, we need the influx of new players, new game mechanics and overall QOL changes.
That said having a power creep game isn’t going to help anyone to improve or to enjoy the game more. So, I’ve got a proposition for veteran players to look for dialog with the new gen instead of complaining about them. A good start would be to show, demonstrate them existing effective budget builds which can clear hell with their favourite class. The platforms new gen is most comfortable with are youtube, instagram etc. I’d concentrate on youtube so we don’t divide the efforts.
Start in your class specific forum a showcase thread, post a gameplay video with gear and stats required to be functional in hell. They don’t have to be full fledged guides but just instructions how to get going. I’m almost 100% sure all of the nonsese threads will disappear in time. New gen might contribute to improve builds or make new ones, too, who knows. I’ll be doing this for barb and amazon so be on a lookout.
Many people who are playing D2r have now come to know the series through D3. If they knew some nonsense that is in your requests to try to make D2 like D3 (things like ploot, for example), they wouldn’t ask.
This is what generates the discussion because beginners insist on wanting to leave D2’s gameplay like D3’s and these youtubers contribute a lot to that. They think they should kick down the door and go melting monsters. When they see that this is not so, they come to the forums to want changes
I don’t remember the name, but the only youtuber I follow is the guy who starts the videos with “hello guys and gals” something like that. I can’t log into youtube because I’m at work, but it does analysis of items and sets and not these “D3like” videos using enigma everywhere. I agree with some changes for the game not to be stagnant, the problem is that they want to change the MECHANICS of the game. Discussion is inevitable
I’ll be doing the showcases with real budget gear, also will tell a little bit how those builds work.
Yeah, D3 has got the least amount of followers due to the power creep. D2 isn’t an instant gratification game, hard to grasp for a gen which can order anything instantly. There are games being released from S.Korea which get lots of praise and are compared to D2R but deep down they’re pay to win. D2R is actually the best what the arpg hack n slay has to offer to this day.
I’ll be doing specifically bowazon content of course 
Just for fun, I’ll do a cow run with a 5 Shael GMB for the “bowazons are crap” crowd.
I think its about stubborn people who are afraid of change vs people with open mind understanding game need changes.
Then there are some new players who have some demands but they lack any understanding of game because it takes years to learn a lot about D2 to understand what to balance and how.
I am actualy working on something similar, MF guide combine with character guide for every class
We can all post in the same thread to prevent dispearsing unless you make a full fledged guide then you need your own thread.
Lots of people complain about the barb damage. I want to make a WW-Horker-Goldfind barb, a war cry horker travi barb and a frenzy barb with uniques only and an oath as highest runeword used. A two hand zerker/concentrate will follow later, probably with bonesnap. If you do any of these builds then I am not going to do the same, saves time.
With Ama, I’m going to show case a CS MF bowazon who uses a goldstrike arch and loh only for 9 fpa. No expensive ias gear needed. Then she is going to wear a 3 p topaz helmet and a 4 p topaz armor 
For people struggling through nightmare, I am going to make a frost maiden who doesn’t rely so much on physical dmg bow side. A pity I can’t use insight with strafe because that bow offers 260ed (arrives in 2.4). 260ed in a good base is good enough for strafe but I can still use a harmony later on. I might come back with other builds.
I do feel like a lot of things need to be updated; but if you change too much you’ll lose the core of what made Diablo 2 so great. But like most things, I feel like compromise solutions would be nice.
These are just some spitball examples:
PLOOT
Communal spawn items still happen.
However, bosses, elites, and special chests now spawn 1-2 personal loot items in community games. 1 item is guaranteed (no guaranteed quality, it could be normal, socketed, magic, rune, unique, etc.). The 2nd items chance has about a 20% chance of occurring in 2 player, and about 5% increase in chance per player beyond the first. Magic find impacts this chance slightly (about 5% of your magic find).
Players8 on Bnet
When playing solo on battle.net, players can now use up to players4. However, another person entering the game will immediately override the players command. However, because of personal loot players will receive the added magic find boost.
Nerf Enigma
Maybe instead, make a cheaper item that gives +1 Teleport. Maybe a helmet. Something like Shael+Hel+Lum.
Enigma ruins Teleport
Add synergies to teleport. Also, maybe give teleport a base cast rate bonus based on its level. So a sorc having 1 point in it plus their skill level bonus provides a boost.
Give teleport a 3 yard radius and a chance to do the following depending on the level of the synergy:
Fire Mastery: Teleport now has a chance at knockback. (mastery increases chance)
Lightning Mastery: Teleport now has a chance to stun for 0.1 seconds (mastery increases chance)
Cold Mastery: Teleport now chills for x seconds (mastery increases seconds).
Hammerdins need to be nerfed
I know Hammerdin is Diablo II on easy mode and I think this needs to be rectified somehow. I think we should maybe give elites and act bosses a little more magic resistance (not a ton; but enough to make this not the easiest build in the game).
Then, to counterbalance a little, we can add another loop to the hammerspin’s radius. Not further outward, but one that starts basically on top of the paladin that has about as much radius as whirlwind. This would make the hammerdin have a much, much easier time in tunnel areas.
Thanks for reading,
Floopay
Biggest issue with barb is the playthrough, it take considerably more hours and a lot more game knowledge to improve your situation on mid phase of the game. If you are unlucky with a good weapon, you will struggle. I know it i have made multiple barb runs offline.
Biggest issue is that your dmg comes mainly from weapon.
Yeah, but lvling a barb takes a full fledged guide. I’m not going to go that deep into a showcase. You need runewords like honor or butcher’s pupil/bloodletter to get him through nm. I’ll be taking care of hell viability because most of the criticism is directed at the end game.
I think the problem is that newer players tried the game and instantly started screaming for changes because they didn’t want to take the time to learn, which is understandable because there is a lot to learn.
Older players spent months if not years figuring out the intricacies of the game and don’t want that changed now that they have spent so much time, and similarly don’t want to take the time to learn new things.
People need to start being more willing to learn new things. New patches that help balance the game are needed and long overdue imo.
That being said, I still don’t like the idea of adding new things every time we get a new ladder. This will convolute the game too much within a year game will be far more confusing than it is now. There are plenty of games that work this way already I think the main argument is why change this game into ANYTHING that even resembles another game. D2 is unique and needs to stay unique. That’s my 2 cents.
p.s. I’ve got a melee sorc build guide in the sorceress section check it out 
[Zeal/Bear Sorc, life build, with maxroll - Sorceress - Diablo 2 Resurrected Forums (blizzard.com)](https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d2r/t/zealbear-sorc-life-build-with-maxroll/2649/43)
I dont think so tho, i think most barb criticism is about that phase before you are high level. Before you have stuff like Raven Frost, good weapon, arreat face, grief… Stuff like that.
But i am interesting in your guide
I work on my MF /char guide for weeks mostly when i have spare time. Its definitely for own topic but its still long way to finish it. I am not native english speaker so its complicated for me. Idk if it will ve good but i am putting all my D2 knowledge into it and i will definitely share it here also when i will be done.
Consider honor runeword one handed and 2 handed honor or insight for the switch for berserk. Those are good enough to get through nightmare.
Steel deserves an honorable mention. A good steel can get you through normal.
And King’s Grace is probably one of the most underrated runewords you could easily get before the end of normal. You could easily get through nightmare and partway to hell with a good King’s Grace. If you don’t wanna do swords you’ll have to respec later though.
Thanks for reading,
Floopay
Honor is nice but finding good 5 socketed base for it might be complicating.
I have been experimenting with playthroughs and so far double swing start focused on maces seems to be the best. Scepters melt everything in first act then you continue with flails, making strength runeword in them. Next step is to gamble knout and craft it. That should get you thru nightmare if you dont find abything better. Also RW Black is good option for bosses. Hell? Honestly howl+leap to pindle skin, then farm pindle until you have better stuff.
AMN doesn’t drop at normal countess. You can get up to ral from countess. Other sources aren’t reliable.
5os knouts aren’t that hard to find. Them and 5os crystal swords start to drop after nm act1. For bosses or farming, I use 1 point concentrate or berserk with a very heavy hitting two handers on switch. You can one shot pindle in nm with an insight polearnm.
I agree with you here. But we must also remember that there is the other side of the coin called purists. There are two extremes on each side, which seems like a left–right political spectrum discussion.
One side insists that the game should not be changed in any way, ie keep it stagnant. The other side says there must be severe changes that are clearly based on your D3 experience.
The problem is not only in the new generation but the old guard is also contributing to all this discussion to happen.
I didnt say it does but you usualy find one or more early nm or late act 5 normal.
I did multiple playthroughs and didnt find any and i was killing all monsters in all locations.
I think double weapons and leech is better for survival. Or shield + weapon. Monsters will wreck you on hell if you use zerk without decent block.
But anyway. Point i was making is that playthrough as barb is considerably slower and harder than caster classes.
I wasn’t talking about hell, my point was about nightmare. You don’t jump with an insight on pindle in hell difficulty
I was very specific about nightmare. You can also use crystal sword or dimensional blades instead of knouts for honor.
The aim of your guide should be to get any kind of eth oath by running act1 hell countess.
For my D2R starting character I did DS maces through Normal, then did Insight Partizan WW build through NM/mid Act1 Hell. At that point damage wasn’t as much of an issue as survivability and the rest of my gear sucked, but Insight Partizan was workable for a while into Hell. Either way I second the DS maces through Norm part. If I had better drops/options I might have been able to keep that spec through more of NM, but it didn’t work out. I’m raising a new DS/Frenzy sword barb now, but he’ll be a little twinked (but far from full gear waiting for him), so I’ll be interested to see how that goes.