I am farming alnost nonstop 4 days and didnt drop aby coa griffon or ber. In fact highest rune i found was Pul. No good elite uniques really.
Edit: ah you used it as example. I though you are saying its easier to find it 
Lvl 99 was never something special. It was no life boring grindto have something most player base didnt care about.
Now its achievable, still grind but less human bot project like.
Do you even D2? I mean, first Ladder ended in 8 days. Once in a lifetime that takes 8 days only.
Big time this. I only ever got to level 97 I think and it was a one time, when I enjoyed playing my Javazon.
It’s the same with overly grinding for items, when you don’t exploit or use “trading currency” website. Just a no-life bot grind.
Ladder didnt end, just grind to 99. Yesterday was actualy first time when i looked at ladder places lol. Season was never about leveing to 99 fior me, just like it never was for most player base.
I know that, level 99 “race” is a dumb human robot project. You know what I mean.
But don’t get me wrong, having to grind your life if you are not using exploits/ “trading currency” website is equally dumb. That’s why if we get cheaper but worse Runewords for like Teleport to make more builds playable (and allow Shapeshifters to Teleport) I would be happy. I hate how most classes are gate-kept behind no-life grind items, in a 4 month Ladder. 
That’s your personal opinion. But there are still lots of people that only play for that 99 grind.
So why make 99 more achieveable if nobody cares about it? By that logic we should make rare items like HR, Griffon, CoA, Tyraels and co drop in every game. Because people don’t care to farm 1000s of hours.
You play to find items. Others play to level to 99. Some only play for PvP. There are different kind of players and only because you don’t care about 1 part, doesn’t mean that everyone has the same opinion.
So I guess you already have 20 lvl 99 chars? Just stop trolling.
Ive never had a 99 in 17 years of playing!
It is true that while i would be happy to be level 99, it would be the end of that character for me.
I normally die between 87-93 to a PK, although i do die in game also. Thats part of it, but when i get to 99 i want it to be meaningful.
If the London marathon is 25 miles now, would it lose any appeal if it was 4 miles long next year? yes.
When people get better at something, they likely want to challenge themselves further.
Games are made for D3 brainlets now anyways.
Blizzard golden age is long gone.
Not once have I ever been impressed by someone that had a level 99 character in Diablo 2.
I tended to question their sanity/health for doing that stupid grind for no reward other than being able to say “I did it!”
Yep it’s just sad. With Terror Zones and hopefully they also increment exp level 95+ then I might just bother.
I love the new zones. Now i dont have to quit my job or go on unemployment to make 99. On hardcore non ladder it took me 6 months from 96 to 97 as its mostly single or 2 player games. I almost stopped because doing endless baal runs is so tedious and boring. Also you must be talking about hardcore. 99 softcore isnt really am achievement other than having the massive hours to play it through.
I think the changes are great. If you think you are suddenly just going to shoot up in levels, you obviously haven’t tried the new zones at the higher levels, the bars barely move.
The ultra players that were stream racing have 7 people perma p8ing their games and feeding them gear, grinding day and night. Normal people are going to be going at this for months and months, most not capping at all either due to real lives or getting bored with the repetition. But now at least there are options beyond Diabaaals.
the bars barely move? LOL. people are almost 99. they should make it tomorow or the next day, and is actually insane.
You’re speaking of a time when people were actually social and played together. Most Baal/Chaos/Cow runs were full of real people and you got to know each other and keep track of each other’s progress and had friends to help you when you needed something.
Now all these online games might as well be single-player cookie clickers because that’s all the average anti-social gamer cares about. They all wandered into one of the most active and social online games of all time and were like “WTF is this garbage? Change it plz I don’t have time to acknowledge other people”
The bars barely move? I watched llama hit 98 and then fill 1/4 of a bar to 99 in like 15 minutes last night.
TZs give way too much xp.
Tell me why it needs to be so difficult to get to.
TELL ME WHHHHY! Ain’t nothin’ but a heartbreak!
In seriousness, it’s what has defined D2 for so long. It was long and grueling, but if you ever obtained it (legitly) it felt great. Now, it becomes like D3 where you can reach max level in a couple of days if you really wanted to.
It’s ridiculous that this was something that just had to change… for literally no reason. You don’t need to reach level 99 on a character for it to be god-tier, it was just a goal set for truly determined players.
There was nothing skillful or interesting about killing Diablo, Baal and Nihlathak for months. It just showed that you were able to repeat the same thing over and over again. This grind is more interesting. Should it be harder? Maybe. But this is better by far.
It’s not about skill, it’s about patience and determination.
Not everything has to be a test of skill.
I think the better question is, why was it necessary to remove this challenge? For people who love the challenge, all it did was remove that joy.
Sorry but those of us with full time jobs don’t have the “patience” or “determination” for that. It may have worked back then but today is a different age. People are worked harder and have less free time than back then. This change is for the better. It was never a challenge in the first place.