This change ain’t half as bad as others I have read here. Expanding the areas that are viable for hardcore farmers doesn’t sound bad. The proposition that all the areas should be made lvl85 doesn’t sound right thought, but maybe some areas could be added to the list.
The fact that some areas are better than others make it a gameplay element where some people know the better areas to farm and others don’t. I for instance didn’t know about this lvl85 thing until recently. I always did just Meph and Andy and I was happy with the loot I got there. The people who did know about lvl85 areas had an advantage over me and that’s fine and part of the game.
I would also like to see more level 85 areas, it gets boring to run same areas. I would like to see all the optional areas made to level 85.
Act 1
The Cave level 1-2 in Cold Plains
Crypt in Burial Grounds
The Underground Passage Level 2 in The Underground Passage Level 1
The Hole level 1-2 in Black Marsh
Act 2
Stony Tomb level 1-2 in Rocky Waste
All six fake Tal Rasha’s Tombs in Canyon of the Magi
Act 3
Arachnid Lair in Spider Forest
Great Marsh - Not sure about that area, sometimes you need to pass through it, sometimes you don’t. Maybe change a map layout a little and make it always optional area and level 85.
Swampy Pit level 1-3 in Flayer Jungle
Disused Fane in Kurast Bazaar
Forgotten Reliquary in Upper Kurast
Act 5
Abaddon in Frigid Highlands
Pit of Acheron in Arreat Plateau
Drifter Cavern in Glacial Trail
Infernal Pit in Frozen Tundra
Icy Cellar in Ancients’ Way
That should be all optional under level 85 areas, where there is no quest inside and where you don’t have to go to, to progress in Acts. And one more thing. Would like to see better drop rates for those special chests in the end of the optional areas. I don’t remember when I got anything good from those chests, they mostly drop only little bit of gold, potions, scrolls and some crap magic items.
Are there not enough already?
|Level|Min Boss Packs|Max Boss Packs|
|Mausoleum|4|5|
|Pit Level 1|6|8|
|Pit Level 2|2|3|
|Maggot Lair 3|4|5|
|Ancient Tunnels|6|8|
|Forgotten Temple|2|2|
|Ruined Fane|2|2|
|Disused Reliquary|2|2|
|River of Flame|6|7|
|Chaos Sanctuary|6|7|
|Worldstone Keep 1|6|8|
|Worldstone Keep 2|6|8|
|Worldstone Keep 3|6|8|
|Throneroom|4|5|
ilvl85 does not automatically make an area difficult. The types of mobs in each area are what make it difficult. Souls and Dolls at ilvl85 are deadly.
The reason people farm The Pit and Ancient Tunnels instead of Worldstone Keep is due to the difficulty of the mobs that spawn and their immunities. The Mausoleum is a great place to farm in terms of difficulty, but the minimum number of elites is too low comparativly.
If anything changes, I would prefer new areas added, with no changes to existing areas.
They could call it “Inferno” mode.
If they change some areas to TC85, then it should only be very hard areas that usually don’t get visited at all.
That way it wouldn’t disturb the usual “flow” of the game and give people new options to farm without making the game any easier.
A new difficulty seems to be more of an “expansion thing” that might get added later and be completely separated from the other modes.
Let’s introduce “The Secret Doll Level.” A new level 85 area. By transmuting a P Skull, a tome of TP and Khalim’s Brain in the cube, you open a portal in Hell Act 3 to a nightmarish dungeon with very low visibility.
Here you will be assaulted in the dark by thousands of stygian dolls (non bug fix) with all kinds of crazy immunities and mods like extra fast, extra strong, mana burn, might/fanat/conviction auras, etc. Dying here in Softcore reduces your level by 1 and locks your character to Hell Act 3 until you complete the Secret Doll Level.
Killing every stygian doll in the Secret Doll Level will spawn the Doll King In the place of the next super unique monster you encounter in Act 3. The King is similar mechanically to Uber Duriel, but hits twice as hard, has more health, and has minions. If you kill the Doll King, one of your equipped items breaks permanently, but in return you get the Doll King’s ear, to assert your dominance. There may or may not also be a secret cube recipe associated with the Doll King’s ear to create the Doll King’s Fetish, a legendary weapon that gives +10,000% crit damage, gives the character wings, and unlocks paragon levels.
This makes me giggle because of how lack luster D3 was with “Inferno” Mode but in D2 it could be useful af, specially if you could say only enter Inferno (iLvl 85 areas) after getting to Level 85 your self.
lol dolls, souls, unfixed nith vipers, wailing beasts, and the pit lords in uber immunes to eveyting but physical.
in reality though… no the idea is to make it so we can pick an area where we can farm and play and not deal with specific immunites becuase. removing immunties was one of the only things d3 did correctly. although for obvious reasons could never been even attempted in d2
Sorry but I don’t think this would work without more gloams.
I’d like the caves and “dungeons” to be made ilvl 85. This would give people more farming options and it would open up build diversity as more builds could farm certain areas. Think places like The Ancient Tunnels in A2, it’s a great place for cold based characters to farm. More ilvl 85 areas are awesome in the private D2 modded servers.
I would be cool with them adding this but they would need to put nasty monsters in all the Acts. I also think boss Monster levels would need to be kept the same. This mode would be for farming desired areas not a power creep in boss runs.
Would also be cool if there was some type of penalty involved. Maybe if you die you get locked out until you pay a vendor 100Pgems (can accumulate not all at once). This would make Pgems more valuable and tradable as currency.
I love the idea for an “inferno” difficulty where all areas are alvl 85. Here is how I imagine it:
Monsters are all random everywhere, not area specific, so you never know what to expect. Only the super unique and act bosses are the same.
Every time you create a game in Inferno Difficulty all quest are available to be completed without a quest reward on completion.
You can not advance to the next act until you complete all quests in the current act, you even have to do them in order.
Waypoints are not available, only the town waypoints are present.
If you manage to kill absolutely every monster in all 5 acts and you are 8 people in the game at the moment the last monster dies you get a Diablo Clone spawn.
Have fun 
A full room/level of succubus harem.