LoL. Bad luck confuses bad players
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100% agree. And to be fair, it can be said that Diablo II has several “layers” of beating it.
- I just killed Hell Baal on my SSF Necro today (taking my sweet time since launch). That’s “layer 1” of beating the game. If Diablo II was any regular story game, at this point I could uninstall and move on…
- … But instead I can still hunt for my BiS setup (that Vex rune for Hoto, Shako, War Travs, etc.). I’m lucky, I already have my Monarch Spirit and a 4os Flail waiting in my stash. Once I have everything I guess I can move on…
- … Wait, maybe I might as well level to 99 while item hunting. Once that’s done I could uninstall and move on…
- … But then there’s also Uber Tristram and Diablo Clone to hunt! That’s another layer. After that I guess I’m done…
- But then there’s other characters to level, gear and beat Hell with.
That’s why you can spend 20 years playing DII. It’s a really simple game, but you can squeeze a lot out of it, in large part thanks to the item hunt.
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You can socket them yourself.
Get 0 MF, do cows runs, it’s not that hard. Any MF at all is a bad idea because you will get 99% absolute crap magic items, no thank you, I’d rather take the White Bases and then at least I have a chance to put a runeword in.
I have a selection of Partisans, Halberds, Bec de Corbins and a Grim Scythe plus many more socketed and white polearms. I have selection of swords, axes and knouts ready to be socketed if needed.
As an example at level 27+ I hit a choke point with my Bowazon. She was using an “Edge” Stag Bow but I needed something better. Due to the STR/DEX requirements I decided the optimal bow would be a 3 socket Short Siege Bow to make a new Edge. I then ran many NM Cow runs with my high level Barb, and got a few Gothic Bows (impossible to use, too high requirements), and Cedar Bows and Rune Bows, but not one Short Siege and with 3 OS. Eventually I looted a 3 OS Rune Bow and managed to use it, even though it left very few points to vitality. A couple of weeks later, again running NM Cows hoping for a white Bec de Corbin to make Insight, I looted a 3 OS Short Siege Bow!! But no need anymore as I already had respecced to use the Rune Bow. Looted 3 white Bec de Corbin , socketed two of them, hoping for 4 sockets, got 6 instead…
NM Cows will drop all the exceptional swords.
PS: NM Cows is level 64.
Area levels are here:
https://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Area_Level
Exceptional Swords are here:
http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/exceptional/swords.shtml
highest exceptional sword level is 54.
Well said OP, you nailed it.
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But but but… they are required.
By me.
I’m also just stubborn enough that I farm on a 47% MF Zon 
great post. agree 100%. i have so much fun after such a long waiting time.
and the game runs perfect for me atm. <3
+1, fully agree with the OP.
And I must say, after playing PoE for close to 10 years now, I absolutely love the loot drops in d2r. Farming is a joy, not a necessary task.
As to “but then you need to play one of the less gear dependent chars”: Yes, maybe your first one or two chars need to be of the more forgiving variety. But as there are quite a few of those, I think gearing in d2r is in a good spot.
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yeah and i can beat Dark souls without ever getting hit
just becouse you can do X dosnt mean you should / Thats the normal way of playing the f-in game or such
So … you completely missed the point over-all on why ppl dislike the item hunt.
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Maybe you are new to RPGs and loot tables. There’s a little something called Random Number Generation (RNG). There’s plenty of information out there regarding that topic so I’m not going to explain it.
A large part of the loot system in D2 and other RPGs is RNG and luck. Yes, Hell Meph CAN drop some of the best gear in the game. But when you are using an example of 500 Mephisto runs to make a claim, your sample size is too small. Even the quest drop rate for some items is 1/4000+. That means you have a single chance that this item will drop in 4000+ runs on a quest drop. Non-quest drop it is over 8000. Magic find simply increases the chances that the items that are dropped are magical and above vs non-magical.
As an example, I personally had never seen a Lo rune actually drop for me. The best I’d ever had to drop was a Lem. I finally got a Lo to drop from Hell cows the other day. In all the time that I have spent in D2 over the years and now in D2R, that is the first time I’ve ever gotten a Lo rune to drop.
As the OP described, D2 was not designed to give you the best gear within a few hours or even a few days. It is your job to make the best of what you can find and progress forward. Finding loot IS the “endgame” for Diablo 2. There are no Grifts like D3. Progressing toward the “godly gear” is the endgame. It’s about the journey, not about the destination.
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If they don’t like it, there’s plenty other games that offer all they like. Stop trying to change a 20 year old game. I mean seriously, wow, what an idea… 81234890871586 other video games, but nope… not good enough “change this one to my desirez”.
And to think… people go on and on about ‘white knights’… gawd , i think the ‘cater to me’ crowd is the worst of 'em all. Welcome to the new gen of gaming, where games have everything for everyone, except actual enjoyable substance. Subjective ofc.
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So you completely missed the hundreds of other RPGs that you can play? If you don’t like one, go play another. The item hunt is a part of Diablo 2. It’s not “Oh I’m geared and doing lvl 100+ GRs in a week or less” like D3. And that is EXACTLY why a lot of people love this game. I’m sorry that you and others do not like it. That is a you thing. That’s not a game thing. If you don’t like it, don’t play it. It’s quite simple actually. This game is 20 years old and it is exactly what it has been for 20 years.
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yeah i love how this is aparently the arguement white knights tend to make when there low level in arguement skills
basicly your saying
‘Yup this games item hunt is trash go play another game!’
thanks for proving my point in that the OP didnt get the point that this games item hunt is indeed pretty bad
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Every time I play I’m hoping to find this items specifically 
Don’t think shako or war trav is that rare
To me, anything with drop rate better than 1:1000 at 300mf, p1 setting (basically solo online) is already considered good chance to get
Of course you´re right.
But that doesn´t count for every class/build.
Playing as a poisonmancer for example, destroys everything in a quick manor except for bosses no matter which difficulty setting.
Then take the physical bowazon.
I don´t know but it seems like no matter what kind of bow, gear etc.
She is freakin weak and barely able to get through act 2 on hell.
She also may be a bit quicker killing bosses but in the end there seems to be nothing equally bad than her.
I´ve allready finished the game entirely and there is not much else to do than farming gear and maybe try to farm the uber keys or trying to find better gear for my bowazon.
My favorite is people thinking they NEED enigma to play hammerdin, or that they NEED infinity to play a lightning build.
Is it massively better? Yeah. Is it unplayable without those? Nope.
My first character in d2r was a phys bowzon. You can do alright with high valkyrie and guided shot with a few points in multi/strafe. Then max the masteries except for pierce.
It’s such a shame she does so little damage though… My ww barb was doing higher dps than phys bowzon at 30 levels lower with cheaper gear.
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At the same time, the inability to trade in d3, i feel is why its such a loot piñata. You might never get geared in d3, if it had d2 drops. I remember before d3 change to class-specific drops, it took me 6 months playing hours a day, just to replace a single item, and hardly get any upgrade out of it. Sure don’t have that kind of time no more.
100% agreed most that u see having the rarest items they usually have bought them. so ill just be running IK until i find goodies.
Yeah. I’m over here struggling to trade up to a zod rune for barbs Ebotd when folks just be buying their op gear.