D2R Current State Feedback

General Discussion
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WARNING – Long post. This post brings up a number a topics I’ve seen in the past from others and some ideas on how certain things could potentially be implemented, as well as pro’s and con’s.

Regarding ME:

This is going to come up for several of my points, so I’ll state it here at the top. I think this is one of, if not the greatest arpg of all time. I care about keeping the integrity of the game just like you do if you’re reading this post. Every item has at least some meaning, from grey items up to unique as well as jewels, gems, etc. More than that, a lot of items are incredibly hard to get which I think is a GOOD thing. It means FINDING an amazing ring, High Rune, or super rare unique is a huge deal. For me personally, FINDING – is the key word.

This is where I’ll lose some of you but to me, I have no interest in trading. Zero. The fact that there’s bots, JSP, sites to literally just buy items, etc. kills it for me. The fun is in the search. If I can just go interact with some players or third party site, and trade X gems for a griffons eye….well then what am I actually LOOKING for in the game? I mean it’s not totally dead I guess but if you have 8 griefs, all characters have enigma, etc. I don’t have a big reason to farm for anything. I know for some people the trading side IS the game. That’s cool, run your auction house empire.

Please keep in mind, this is my opinion. I realize there’s a TON of people who also love this game and this will generate some negative feedback as well. If you have a differing opinion, simply state it and why. I’m genuinely curious if I’m missing something that would ruin the game for YOU as well. There’s no reason for an opinion-based post to resort to childish name-calling.

TOPICS:

SSF – this is one of more common requests I’ve seen lately, and I genuinely can’t see how this would affect the community in a major way other than a slippery slope argument.

“If they add SSF why not just add a ladder for vegetarians?”

I certainly don’t want to detract from streamers, team play, etc but if the top 50 people in the ladder are just given torches, enigma’s, etc….that doesn’t exactly feel like a real competition.

Implementation could be done in a few different ways, but one option would be something like “account-binding” every item. As soon as any character picks it up, it’s account bound to them. This would also go for non-SSF characters as well. Literally every single item once picked up, – “account bound”. The only way to transfer that item to another character would be through a trade window. This would also stop item drop scams as well (that still a thing? lol), as you wouldn’t be able to pick up items that don’t belong to your account. Then just make the trade window inaccessible for SSF characters. This way you could still have SSF players that play with friends, or even non SSF in the same game. Items still have to be “found” even if that’s in a P8 game with other SSF or non SSF characters. Whoever picks it up gets it (which is it’s own problem but not a topic for today)

Heralds and Sunders– This has been gone over by others but I agree the system needs to be thought through some more. I actually hate the fact that sunder charms exist as to me it negates a reason to play other classes. If you have a single character that wipes every zone freely, there’s at least slightly less incentive to go try a Hork Barb, Nova Sorc. Etc. Want to clear cows – javazon. Want to clear ancient tunnels, blizz sorc. Even the hammerdin, as broken as they are is still not “perfect” until after you get enigma (which is true of most classes). I don’t know how you handle Magic damage immunity but there’s like 2 spots in the game that are “bothersome”…for hammerdin. That brings us to….

Warlock – Again, I’m a SSF player already. I’ve never traded for anything playing this game since it first launched. Warlock is too good guys. Other classes need to have a niche as described above. Now, is the warlock FUN? – yes. I thoroughly enjoyed my playthrough with a warlock. There seemed to be a good bit a build diversity, skills seem to be thought through, etc but again, I’m not rocking enigma, or infinity….or honestly anything that great and he just wrecks. I could farm pretty much anything in the game and had very little concern about dying. My blizz sorc runs into cold immunes in a lot of zones. My lightning java is good at cows but nowhere near as efficient as my hammerdin in chaos.

Online P8 and High Runes –

I’m combining this topic for a reason, and this one is arguably going to be the most controversial. Truth be told, I’m not even sure I agree with myself lol. I selfishly look at this as someone who plays mostly by themselves and occasionally a friend or two will jump in games with me. I have 3 kids and simply put, it’s hard to find time between work and life to play as much as I’d like. That being said, I do think this could and should “arguably” only be available to SSF characters but having the ability to bump a game to p8 makes sense to me.

“But internet guy!” you surely say, doesn’t this discourage people playing in groups? Probably, and again selfishly, I don’t like playing in groups. Farming runs in D2 are so short, that joining a game only for Baal to be killed 12 seconds later and the whole group leaving is incredibly annoying. Joining a game and going to Trav “oh, they’re dead, I’ll go kill Andy (teleport, teleport, teleport)…oh…she’s dead…” is the real reason I don’t want to play with groups.

So, here is the major controversy:

RUNES – These are awesome for a reason. They unlock some of the most powerful (being generous) items in the game. They should not be easy to find. Finding a Ber should make your whole week or more farming worth it. That said, I’ve NEVER found one. I have probably 7/8 classes at least around level 90. To some of you, I’m a casual. “Does this guy even game” you say? Again, not as much as I’d like but the fact remains, what level of grind SHOULD these be locked behind; mostly speaking from either a SSF perspective (never trading) or a “P1” games only perspective.

I’m taking this Icy Veins drop table at face value but it shows Ghosts – which are the highest possible chance to drop a:

Ber at 1 in 356,143.

Zod at 1 in 1,248,427

For those of you who don’t probability take a 1 in 2 chance and flip a coin and see if you get tails twice in a row. That 356,143 number is ballpark average, a Ber for some people might be 800,000 or ….never

My annoying vote would be:

a) Allow SSF characters to bump player count to accommodate for these abysmal drop rates

b) Increase the abysmal drop rates for SSF characters, even if it’s only slightly

For those of you who will respond with “bro….stop trying to make our game so EASY, stop trying to make it RAIN runes you just need to farm” — Here is my genuine question.

How many of you have legitimately played for X number of years and have personally found (Not traded to get) one of each of these runes:

1 “Ber”

1 “Jah”

AND 1 “Zod”

All three of these runes have dropped for you at least one time at some point across your whole account. Preferably ONLINE but hell even in single player this should be incredibly difficult even running p8. That’s not even all the high runes. My highest ever drop has been a “Sur” rune. I’ve found 1 and I was pretty stoked. I can’t make anything I want to make with it but in another 25 years I might find that “Jah” and oh what a fiesta I will have in my retirement home.

Again, in regards to runes, I don’t want to ruin (pun intended) the game either. I don’t want them to drop like candy, or feel personally entitled that I should ever really get an enigma and an infinity. Hell I think it’s great that they’re so rare that you should have to CHOOSE:

“Which high end rune word should I really make…A grief would be really nice to try on my barb, but that enigma would be better for all my characters…. I might not find another Jah for a year”…..

There’s a lot I could go on about, but this post is way too long as is. Much love to an amazing community (even though I don’t play with you….it’s not personal lol)

Just wanted to put my 2cents in as a longtime fan

Peace out guys,

Happy Farming

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I’ve played for 25 years and not a single ber or jah has dropped for me its insane

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I’m genuinely curious how many people have actually had all 3 drop. I cannot imagine it being even a 3 digit figure out of the hundreds of thousands of people that still play. The odds are so incredibly low that a single person getting all 3 is insane

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I am playing SP solely. It can be a dread without trading, I never saw a Death’s web or Fathom drop, but I’ve seen all HR’s drop a few times. RNG is RNG. Rune droprate is fine. Currently the most lingering issues are some of the spells of the Warlock, not only his power, but also range, costs, etc. Heralds are the biggest issue, through. D2 gameplay/farming is meant to repect youir time, you either do it in short burst or do long tints and RNGesus decides the rolls. Heralds take way too much time, etc. However, in SP its much easier to finetune the herald spawn, though. I am still toying with it on a proper balance.

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Dude, that’s killer that you’ve actually managed to see all the HR’s drop. And I def get it man, it’s all personal preference. To me, trading for items just isn’t the same as seeing the drop for myself. Thus - I don’t trade. I know a lot of people are going to read this and say, this dude should just play single player. It’s honestly not a bad answer and to a degree they’re right. It sucks though when friends do want to play and besides that I just think it does hit different on an online account where items can’t be edited. In the same way that people say “instead of having a hardcore character mode, just delete your SC toon when he dies”. Sure, you can. Not the same though IMHO. I think you’re right on Warlock and Haralds both though. Haralds don’t feel like D2 runs to me.

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I’ve always played SSF. Initially, when I bought D1, I’m not sure it was playable over the internet. I think multiplayer was played on local networks. I’m not sure which Windows I used to start playing Diablo, but I do remember upgrading Windows to 3.1 after I got Diablo.

It was simple for me; I didn’t have an internet connection. When I bought D2, I also didn’t have an internet connection. I started playing online with D3.

I see comments from SSF players complaining about rune drop rates. For me, the gear and rune drop rates are fantastically high. For years, I played a D2 version that predated the patch that increased drop rates.

I’ve been playing D2R WOW for less than two weeks and the power creep I see is unbelievable compared to early D2.

I like playing Pals, Sorcs and Amazons. Both the Pal and Amazon I have started offline in D2R Wow are significantly more powerful than the ones I played in D2. My Sorc is still stuck in Act 2 but that was true in D2 as well. Part of the power comes from the shared stash. I can save gear for other toons which vastly speeds their development. I very much like playing the Warlock and the majority of my playtime has been there as I am playing two different Warlock builds, one echoing and one miasma.

Overall, I’m very happy with D2R WOW.

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TLDR not a real diablo 2 player.

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plenty of them self-found..prob would have a stacks of 20+ of Jah and Bers if i didn’t take a break for last 3 years

i got an easier time getting HR than getting a solid base….mfing in TZ in baal runs were juicy for drops..unfortunetly..there competition for TZ…..tp group to throne…..then off to tz farm while they clear throne….b4 that 3 years break i think 5 jah, 4 ber….dont remember seeing a Zod though XD……that rune so rare :S

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John,

Don’t disagree at all about the power creep. The shared stash is funky because ya, I don’t disagree but it’s also one of my favorite quality of life and encourages me to start a new toon. I find a sweet barb weapon and throw it in my stash and now I’m motivated to go give the new weapon a shot on my existing barb (or level a new fury barb to try it out). I do think it’s less “fun” at least for me to throw the same “stealth”, “lore”, and “spirit” rune word items on every single new character. A natural playthrough using just personal stash feels better but I get both sides.

And ya, Diablo 1 is a core childhood memory for me. I still remember when battle.net was introduced and people were spawning firewalls all over tristram. Soon as you’d spawn in….”AHHHHH” lol

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People can play however they want. D2jsp is bad and ruins the game. Trading is neccessary to get what u need, most chars suck without the high end gear, which u wont find on ur own in a ladder season. Pub games r fun. Im not even getting the expansion cuz its looks much more d3 or d4 ish than d2, although ive never even played those games ever. Just d2. Maybe thats how i know the expansion isnt d2-esque. The uber ancients or watever look way too ez, they shud be like 50x harder than uber trist. The facet gem things u get look pretty stupid. The new sunders look pretty stupid. They messed up the stash if u dont have the expansion, u dont get the stackable stash, extra tabs or anything.

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I didn’t buy d2r until patch 2.4 was around, so May or even June 2022. And this is the third ladder I’m not playing. Plus I’m super casual, some play sessions end before I can get to the next waypoint becasue of RL. Sometimes I didn’t play for a few days in a row.
And even I managed to find a CHAM which was followed by a JAH. No Ber, no Zod.
Found one Spiderweb and one or two Mang Songs.
No clue what I had found 20 years ago before I quit LoD.
Pal of mine has found 2 Jahs already this ladder.

So it is a matter of time and dedication, kill speed and game knowledge.

GL!

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I’ve had Jah drop (I even took a photo w/ my phone - it was in Arcane Sanctuary a couple of years ago). Only times I’ve seen Ber drop was in Baal runs (full party) and if I had blinked I might have missed it as someone snatched it up in <1 sec.

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Found a Ber the other day with my Sorceress while farming keys.

Only Cham and Zod I haven’t found on D2R yet, multiple of everything else though.

Did 7 uber runs and managed to score a Warlock torch, not great stats, so after I’ve leveled up my Warlock, it’ll be back to farming keys.

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me

I found all runes accept for a zod

online

in p1

during seasons

in d2r

so not like 20 years ago.. like pretty recently in the grand scheme of things,it basically took me 12 seaons bc I started d2r at the end of s1

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SumHunGie, I think I bought Diablo in early 1997 when I was in my late 40s. Probably bought, D2 in 2001. Wish either one was a childhood memory; then I’d be a lot younger.

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