Quite frankly ever since runewords came out it took a big crap all over the legendary old school godly high level uniques like The grandfather, The cranium basher, Arkaines valor, Windforce, etc etc etc. These items were in D1 and meant to be the best and highly unobtainable. Now theyre a joke.
These items barely had a chance to shine before their fame was squashed out by boring, uninspired, overpowered runewords.
Its not as fun when everyone is rolling a pally and wearing the same enigma…it really took away from the game in my opinion.
I don’t like how runewords are best in slot in so many scenarios.
I like the idea behind runewords, I think it’s a very cool addition and increases the depth of the game.
But the fact that you look for some crap item with a few sockets in it, put some stones in and boooom it makes every unique for that item slot trash, that’s kinda weird.
In addition to that, everyone is running around with the same runewords - and the same build in most cases, because the balancing is so bad.
Edit: Oh man look it’s you Razor! We finally agree on something!
I had that same feeling when LOD launched. You can’t blame them for trying though.
It’s easy for us to sit in hindsight and see how things turned out. New players aren’t even getting the real D2 experience they are getting LOD. The original D2 experience is was the best. LOD was underwhelming and brought the rune word system. Anyone playing back then remembers that the dupes were everywhere and everyone was using duped rares. So its not hard to figure out why the rune words became a thing.
I think they should make even more powerful runewords but make the rune rarity 100x more rare than zod. Make it so if someone actually gets it, it’s a big deal.
But, before the good runewords, everyone was running around with the same unique items. And in D2 Classic (before LOD), everyone was running around with the same duped rings, boots, belts, gloves, lances and gothic bows…lol
Haha yes we agree fully dude. I feel the exact same way.
I can imagine how the creators felt when they put a sword like the Grandfather in the game…it was meant to be the absolute best for those that could be lucky enough to find it…now every joeblow has the most powerful runewords .
Runewords are fine, but I dont get why they had to be so much more powerful than the already ultra rare very powerful uniques.
Again, Enigma…like what were they thinking lol?
Edit: A lot of these items were NERFED heavily, like the grandfather or valor for example…why nerf them so bad if you’re going to just add even more powerful items in right after?
Nobody has the most powerful runewords what you on about!!! You have enigma? Grief? Fortitude? Heart of the oak? How about a dream sheild and helm with a crescent moon phase blade?? How about that faith in a +3 grand matron bow!!!1
Exactly, I think a better approach would be if the runewords were an alternative to the uniques, just for a different build or playstyle - but as another person here already mentioned, it’s easy to look back at a game design from 20 years ago.
I wouldn’t exactly count a top rolled Archon Plate worthy of an Enigma as a “crap item”… I know some psychopaths will stick it in the first Breast Plate they run across but that’s, like, heresy.
It is an impossible task in the first place. A popular game will always attract a lot of players. More players means faster discovery of the most efficient way to play (like cold + telekinesis sorc pre 1.09). To re-balance the game, you either have to downgrade the existing item/char, or add more powerful stuff.
Basically, what you are asking for is a society which is fun to live within AND no inflation. It doesn’t exist in the real world, and it doesn’t in the virtual world either.
Defense literally does nothing unless you are standing still, and even then, it is a non viable scenario where it would matter and do anything because of the level math vs monsters. Breast plate is light armor so there is no movement penalty. There’s no reason not to use a breast plate.
blame blizzard north, that was the controversial 1.10 update. After that they were disbanded. Then after that was only minor things like iron maiden from oblivion, countess drops fixed, rune drop rate increased but not major balance patches as blizzard north was gone by then. They did know pally and sorc was op and was ready to nerf those 2 before dissolving.
Do you think they would have toned down some runewords had they still been around? I think yes imo.
And yeah, they nerfed almost everyone else into oblivion like the barb or zon and it just made the pally and sorc way overpowered
I think it was mostly because they realized teleport in general was way too good so they added enigma…but what they should have done is nerf teleport instead.
They did it because exclusivity and gate keeping suck.
Runewords are powerful because there’s reliable ways to farm runes, of any level.
Countess and hellforge quest reward. I’ve made every runeword in the game now.
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