How do you play Diablo 2?

General Discussion
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TLDR question is at the bottom because i know you’re all lazy…

we all know LOD is a masterpiece that has survived 20 years, even with all its flaws.

but from my time playing POE and d3 and POD. i have noticed people enjoy games for different reasons.

some people enjoy finding a way to “survive”… and they enjoy much more “infinite scaling” d3/POE 1 shot the enemy or get one shot, glass cannon type games.

where you basically just 1 shot everything, but one slip up and your dead.

this is a very “hardcore” playstyle

i however on the otherhand enjoy a more “tank” type gameplay

a longer fight where you have to overcome some challenge, but aren’t at great risk of dying instantly with 1 wrong move.

in MMO’s i play Tanks, i like melee and aoe, damage over time things like Coldsnap vortex in poe, or ray of frost sleet storm and sweeping wind in d3

in d2 i play Fury/Feral werewolf as my favorite build.

i think d3 was completly ruined once they made greater rifts and sets, forcing you to use specific skills.

i like it when you can’t kill the enemies quickly, becuase it gives time for any members who are lagging behind to catch up and stay with the party
when u have people “one-shotting” stuff then they just run ahead to the next mob and your left just following them and not even ever attacking or playing the game

this is where i belive D3 POE and even POD now utteraly fail

becuase early on you get to “fight” the enemies… but later on it just becuase " 1 shot or get 1 shot" which imo ruins any fun.

my biggest fear is that they will turn d2:R into such a thing, where they limit the game to the best builds and everything just gets 1 shot.

as opposed to the “play your way” style we have now in LOD.
where “hell” is the hardest and any build that can clear hell ( and have space to pick up items) is viable… and not just the most op or fastest stuff like “paladin”

its also why i hate uber mephies conviction aura, as it limits builds.

and why dclone is the best fight in the game… sure u can cheese it… but if u DONT then it truly is the "long fight where the challenge is to try to find a way to kill him. and not to “not die”

and why im pissed the didnt change the spawnb method… becuase i could care less about anni, i just want to fight dclone over and over

so I’m curious… because i utterly despise “infinite scaling” glass cannon type games

how many people out there like that type, as opposed to the more " play your way" tanky type

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I like the sets functionality in D3 a lot personally. I think sets should be bis for all characters. I wish D2 sets were better than using uniques/rune words. I really don’t like rune words.

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The way I like to play is solo with players x but tried online with the release of d2r. It’s ok but much more slow going and it makes it kind of pointless to make new characters because you just get rushed without asking then carried they exp games.

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see i HATE the sets in d3, because they force you into specific play styles

and if u don’t like that play style… then your just screwed

they also just started doing completely stupid stuff like "dashing strike does 2000% extra damage… the last time i checked it was raised to 20,000%… i dont even care to ask what its at now.

i would love to play a sweeping wind monk, or a ray of frost sleet storm wizard… but can i? nope… not possible. because SETS are " you’re force to play thier way" rather than your own.

d3/POE and now POD aftser his change to from t1-4 maps is “glass cannon” type endgame… for literally everything… its rush down the rift following the other character one shotting stuff… that’s not fun.

a monster that takes a max build 10 seconds to kill in a solo 8 player game with an endgame build… means your group is always going to have each player casting spells. and not just one person running ahead one-shotting everything while you just follow

2 Likes
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D2 is no better in that regard. More than half the skills are useless so you get one or two builds per class. Sure you can use other builds and be way less powerful, but at least in D3 you have many different sets per class so you actually have more variety in builds in D3.

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this is actually completely false, yes u wont be able to make a large portion of them work without endgame gear gathered by another character, and yes even more of them require you to fill up your inventory with charms making it impossible for that character to pick up anything other than with cube.

but you CAN make a bunch fo crazy build that really shouldn’t work in hell, and make them clear… sure it work be as fast or effective and the builds we all know… but they certainly can… and its not a “don’t get 1 shot” type thing.

i played firewall sorc WAY before d2:R, i killed dclone with it (back in the days when u could get him to spawn XD)

it a more pain to get them made, its its incredibly inefficient price wise… but you CAN do it.

in d3… you CAN’T… in poe… you CANT… in POD after he changes maps… you CAN’T

i would rather play a game where i have to jump through a bunch of hoops to be able to play something fun, than play a game where i cant do it at all.

and even then , there are a bunch of fun runewords u can use that most people dont becuase they flat out arnt as good as much cheaper runewords, but they are stuff FUN and they still work… they just aren’t AS good.

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You can clear high gr’s with any set in D3. There’s more build diversity and better balance in D3. I don’t like the one shot mechanics either but as far as builds that can push high content D3 has far more options than D2. Also I’m not trying to make this a D2 vs D3 thread. Just pointing out I like the sets mechanic in D3 and wish sets meant more in D2. Sets should be more powerful than uniques and runewords.

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yes… you can. but you can’t do it with your OWN build… none of the sets support sweeping wind or ray of frost.

and even “legacy of nightmares” forces you to waste both ring slots and then jump through hoops for ancient versions of gear.

sets shouldn’t be rarer or stronger than uniques… you should be able to mix and match to create your own build, and not have those builds given to you and forced down your throat by blizzard

early on in d3… when i BOUGHT the game… this wasn’t the case… there were uniques i could use to “get more stacks of sweeping wind”, items i could use to increase spirit generator damage… item that would make ray of frost pierce. and i could clear t4 and t6 with them (t6 was the max at the time)

i had a fun build with sweeping wing and the teleport fist move and crippling wave.
i could be tanky and clear t6, and it was MY build, i had unique ray of frost wizard that was MY build

none of that mattered a few patches later, they just made sets so damn good that you were FORCED to use them to clear to even get other players to play with.

i tried to come back when legacy of nightmares was released and make a aoe fire bell monk, but even that, while kinda fun, wasn’t really what i wanted and it quickly got thrown to the sidelines as they buffed sets yet again

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See that’s where I disagree with you. Sets should be stronger than any unique or rune word in the game. How you feel about sets is how I feel about runewords. Runewords should be mid tier items to get you through till you can complete your set. Then the set is your end game gear. A runeword should never be on any bis list.

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Don’t mind either but I think people should always have the choice. If they want to sacrifice survivability for damage I mean.

Sometimes its fun to stand there as the damage comes pouring in and just absorb it then brush one shoulder insultingly

Sometimes its fun to scream around destroying everything never more than one slip from dead yourself.

I am lazy but I did read your whole post btw. :wink:

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usually on a computer but sometimes on a console now.