Diablo 2 and LOD

The wait was worth it: three and a half years after Part 1, Blizzard released the most ingenious PC game of the decade,
if not a whole aera. Alone or with friends sabotage at Diablo 2
infernal family reunion - the prince of terror wants to unite with his brothers.

Hundreds of thousands of brave heroes have been wrong: Hell Lord Diablo breathed his last breath deep beneath the fantasy city of Tristram,
but not his existence. Since the beginning of 1997, Blizzard's Battlenet servers have been testing tens of thousands every day
to do the really last trick against evil.
But already the furious finale of Diablo gave a clear indication that all these efforts must be fruitless.

The lonely wanderer

After months of horror, a rescuer had come to besieged Tristram, struggling through 16 subterranean floors to reach Diablo.
But at the moment of victory, the brave fighter realized that he could not permanently destroy the fiend.
So he banished him to a soul stone, which he rammed into his own forehead. Then the hero moved east to find salvation.
He crossed the nearby mountains and struggled through the desert to the port city of Lud Gholein.
He struggled desperately with the mind of Diablo, who threatened to break his will.

Wherever he went, evil followed him. It drove the guardians of the mountain pass from their monastery fortress,
from then on the terrible Andariel prevailed. And when the wanderer set sail from Lud Gholein,
Even the dark hordes have already hit the city walls. Now he should be stuck in the jungle near the settlement Kurast.
Soon Diablo will have completely subjugated his host, and then unite with his brothers:
the prince of hatred, Mephisto, and the death lord Baal.

Hero at the right time

What happens when the three infernal brothers strike together, any Apocalypse fan can easily imagine.
Fortunately one morning in the refugee camp of the Huntresses, a naive hero appears,
which carries in the best RPG tradition little more than a leather underpants and a kitchen knife.
But with each defeated monster having some experience, a little gold or a weapon, it will soon be stronger.

Jumping attacks

At the beginning of Diablo 2, you choose one of five heroes, each one offering more variety than all three in Part 1 together.
The Barbarian surprises his opponents with jump attacks and two weapons at the same time.
The Amazon relies on agility and ranged combat, the Paladin combines sword skills with protective auras.
The Necromancer curses his opponents and turns Undead into followers. The sorceress lets lightning, fire and ice patter on her opponents.

Your choice clearly influences the further procedure:

As a barbarian you can storm into the fray without much thought, a summoner should send his skeletons and golems ahead.

Specialists and masters

Each hero has 30 special abilities (spells, curses, auras, combat techniques).
You can increase one level by level for each level - leaving plenty of room for specialization.

As an Amazon you should choose between bow and javelin: Do you prefer multiple arrow salvos?
Or do you rely on spears that do three times the damage with the right skill at the expense of durability?
Not to forget the »passive skills« like the automatic evasion. And then the question still remains:
Prefer a lot of skills a bit, or a few masterfully?
With enough upgrades, a flimsy 2 volt light beam turns into a glistening chain lightning bolt,
who knocked over several bosses.
And a suitably specialized paladin maniacally stabbed ten enemies at the same time with a single click.

As complex as the skills, so simple the character values:
Strength and skill determine the hardness and accuracy of your blows.
Vitality affects life energy and stamina (necessary for the race), and
Energy is consumed by spells and active skills. For each promotion you increase the score by a total of five points.

Four acts, four bosses

They follow the Lonely Wanderer through four acts to the proverbial hell.
In each world, you start in a safe haven, along with traders who give you four times the purchase price of weapons,
Turn on potions and many other items. You can also hire a mercenary there.

Soon you will explore the surrounding regions. In temples or caves, a well-filled treasure chest is always waiting in the far corner.
Residents will soon be the first of the 21 (often multi-part) quests.
So you should turn off the badger-corrupted hunter Blood Rage, travel through a stone gate to Tristram or clean an ancient tower.
Later it is time to break a siege or even end a solar eclipse.

At the end of every world, a boss gets involved in particularly nasty tricks -
this way, one shorthand closes your city portals, through which you could teleport to safety.
Anyone who has defeated Diablo at the end will restart the game in Nightmare Mode and try to solve it on the difficulty level "Hell".

Magic the Gathering

The main attraction of Diablo 2 is the constant improvement of your alter ego - including more and more chic equipment.
Lately, every hero can use any object as long as he has the correct level, enough power, or sufficient skill.
Some devices give a hero types exclusive bonuses.
Each weapon and armor exists in five quality levels.
You will also find "socketed" objects that can be upgraded with up to three gems (again in five levels).
Next come the magical items that indicate their abilities through 108 prefixes and 93 suffixes -
as an example, the "Brutal Giant Ax of Hurtigkeit" called. Have we already mentioned the "rare" objects or the sets?
The latter consist of three to four pieces and give a special bonus in combination. But the highlight is the 95 "special items" (unique items),
which in closed Battlenet on each of the four servers worldwide should actually only be found once. You can already see:
Blizzard has built something like a giant trading card game in Diablo 2.

Monster killing made easy

But what good is the three-blessed war club with magical Megadeath Turbo, if you can not try it?

In addition to about 40 special opponents, 50 monster classes roam around, mostly divided into five types.

So a "saber cat" is more suitable for Whiskas commercials,
while the graphically very similar "hellcat" itself consumes Siegfried and Roy for breakfast.
Some enemies have special attacks on them - they cast spells, bring fallen peers to life, lay eggs or spit mini-monsters.
Often the antagonists appear in unhealthy combinations: from a distance magicians freeze you as slow melee racers stomp up.
But pinching does not apply; a click on the opponent, you're already knocking.

Kindly, you can freely assign attacking techniques or spells to the left and right mouse buttons.
The Alt key brings all the surrounding objects as clickable texts on the screen. And while holding down the left mouse button, the current opponent is attacked again and again.
Inventories include folios (take portal and idenfication scrolls) and belts that hold up to 16 healing and mana potions.

Multiplayer for connoisseurs

Diablo 2 convinced us both in solo and multiplayer mode. Although only in solo play the explored levels are saved on exit.
But also in the LAN or Internet, gaming comfort prevails, thanks to the quest log, teleport points and city portals.
Up to eight players fit in one game and can leave them (except for the host) at will.

If you like, make a party to share experience points and gold pieces fairly - as long as the level difference is not too big.
Neutral and friendly heroes do not get a "friendly fire", so to your heart's content with flames walls,
Handling meteorite hail and arrow salvos. The situation is different when you explain hostility to a player.
This is only from one city, and only if the opponent has at least level 9. Who does not want the fight,
Flee now in a place, in another act or out of the game. Or he gets involved in the duel,
where there is some gold and experience, but above all a labeled "ear"
(Name of the vanquished, hero type, level) as a trophy to win there.

Life after death in Diablo

The screen death proves not too bad:
You lose a maximum of 20 percent of your gold depending on your level and you have to search for your body.
If you do not feel like it, she automatically shows up next to you at the next game start -
However, then all the dough that you carried with you when you die is also missing. But who is a tough guy,
Tick ​​the "Professional" box when selecting his hero. From then on, a simple rule applies: once dead, always dead.
Whoever manages to land high in the global Battlenet leagues in this hardcore mode can be proud of himself.
Apropos: Only the "closed Battlenet" is the true - there are all character data tamper-resistant stored on the server.
In the local network or "open battlenet" you can also use solo mode heroes,
which can be manipulated relatively easily (eg by copying the score).

Playful hui, technically ...

The graphics are good despite outdated 640x480 resolution - this is ensured by beautiful wall textures, nice lighting and screen-spewing spells.
The characters are well animated and show at a glance how armed they are. Nice also the day-night change and sporadically occurring rains.
In addition, we noticed no bugs during the test phase. But the game obviously has problems with the RAM management, even on faster computers, there are short jerky phases.
The engine looks outdated, it does not deceive the atmospheric sound.
The first cream, on the other hand, are the five long reward films - they beat pretty much everything that has ever been cutscenes.

Addon firmly planned

Blizzard has already planned an extension CD. Therein it will go against the most powerful of the three hell-brothers:
Baal. You will only be able to play the addon after defeating Diablo. Then you can sail north from the jungle town of Kurast,
where a fifth, big act with new monsters and probably two additional film sequences is waiting.

LORD OF DESTURCTION

In 2001 it finally appeared and brings fresh hellwind into the world of monster dead-clickers.
The fifth act, two new characters (druid and murderer) with their own skills and a variety of big and small changes are sleeping on the CD.
Alone the increased resolution of 800 by 600 pixels should be reason enough for many fans.

The way to Harrogath

All the changes work immediately. But to enjoy the fifth act, you need a character who has already defeated Diablo.
Only then does Archangel Tyrael open the gate to Harrogath. If you do not want to start with a fresh hero anyway, there's a hard decision to make:
For Lord of Destruction the character has to be converted. That not only makes them useless for "normal" Diablo 2 games,
but sometimes brings serious changes in skills with it. So now some spells are locked for a few seconds after use.
As a result, the sorcerer's fireball loses some of its punch. The whirlwind of the Barbarian now also counts the speed of the used weapon.
Therefore, the days of the lance-wielding warriors are likely to be numbered. Players who have spent many hours developing these skills are certainly not happy about it.
However, the latest patch 1.08 for Diablo 2 in the main program has the same effect on many skills.
Unfortunately there are no pre-made characters on the CD, such as the Blizzard-Allstars of the developers, with which one could start directly in Act 5.
Most buyers of the addon will probably fall on the two new characters, the killer and the druid, anyway.

Harder than LARA CROFT

The killer plays like a mixture of paladin and sorceress. Occupationally, she masters all kinds of nasty skills.
In the martial arts category there are ten punches and kicks to choose from. These differ in charging and finishing moves.
With three normal attacks, the killer magically loads, then finish with a finishing move the punch combination.
These attacks are too strong. Only very resistant monsters survive a combination of cobra strike and dragon tail kick.
The traps skills are also too powerful. Well placed fire waves or even carcass explosions triggering death guards clean up the demons very effectively.
If you are still on the move with a mercenary or shadow warrior (fighting image of the killer), you can watch the fights from afar.

I would not be surprised if Blizzard patched the skills soon after Lord of Destruction's release.
Finally, the shadow disciplines, which are more defensive, appear more balanced.
A highlight is the thought: he harms enemies and confuses them, so they attack their comrades.

Magic tamer

If you liked the nephew of Diablo 2, you will find the ideal character in the Druid. In addition to the summoning of creatures, metamorphosis and transformation are his métier.
The spell repertoire offers moderately strong fire and ice spells. Only the Armageddon spell delivers enough bucks from character level 30 for a meaningful mission.
For close combat, the druid resorts to his shapeshifting skills; he grows much firmer in werewolf or bear form.
Some spells of this category, such as rabies or fire claws, are only available in animal form. As a zoo director he tries his hand at the summons:
Ravens, wolves, bears, nature spirits and magical tendrils fight at his side.

A druid with full entourage usually does not need to bother with the actual fighting - even in the two higher difficulty levels.
While bear or wolf fight for him, the Araranke delivers new life force from the bodies of the opponents. Again, Blizzard is likely to improve.

Barbaric ESCORT SERVICE

Hiring Hunter, Guard or Iron Wolf played little role in Diablo 2. The mercenaries were weak on the chest and stayed behind at the latest when switching to the next act.
On the other hand, in Lord of Destruction, Companions become indispensable support, as they fight far more effectively and stay with the whole game at their side.
In a separate mini-inventory, you equip your newly recoverable protégé with helmet, armor and of course weapons.
He benefits from magic bonuses as well as the main character. He also accumulates experience points in his own account and rises in the level.
If character and mercenaries are on the same level, all experience points will be awarded to the leader.
Only after a level rise of the employer, the companion again accumulates a credit on his own account, until he can catch up again (which is very fast, since he needs fewer points).

In combat you heal the subordinates with potions that you simply drop onto his portrait. Due to these changes, Lord of Destruction is almost too easy at the moment, at least in the normal difficulty level.
A hired Barbarian does almost all the work, the main character is only responsible for healing and spells.
In the levels of difficulty Nightmare and Hell, the monsters are stronger, but the Haudrauf is really required only by champions and Uniqe monsters.

Spit and shrunken head

Blizzard kept his word and built in Lord of Destruction a lot of new items. For each character type, there are now specific, often very good items.
While the Amazon enjoys sharp spears, the Necromancer wears magic shrunken head totems instead of a shield.
The killer can only use some of her skills with special claw weapons. Almost all of the equipment found in the test was usable or at least a respectable price at the time of sale.

In addition to previously unknown unique and magical items, you will occasionally find a set item on the battlefields that promises magic bonuses in conjunction with the rest of the set items.
In contrast to the main program, it also makes sense in the addon to only wear gloves and helmet from the same stable. Then you benefit at least a bit from the effect of the set.
Professional players are looking for the new class of extremely good elite items that can only be found in the highest of the three difficulty levels.

AT the end Versions 1.13 and 1.14 finished up the complete Season of Diablo 2 one of the maybe most played games in this AERA.....

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DIABLO 3 is still actual running in a new season and some tongues are talking about DIABLO 4 will be announced at the BLIZZCON..... im really excited so we will see what happens in 2020 damn im an old man...

Next Thursday evening at 9pm CEST again Diablo 2 - Stream on

https://vimm.tv/@bembelmaniac

I am looking forward to greeting you ....

STAY A WHILE AND LISTEN !!!