Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction is a video game that consists of 1 release
Recent
Images
News
Videos
Community
Guides
Runes
Runes are a new socketable item. They range from common to rare. Each rune has a unique effect it can add to a piece of gear. They are grey with a design on them. What makes runes unique compared to gems, outside of the different modifiers they add to items, is that if combined properly in specific items in a specific order they can create:
40% Faster Hit Recovery
10-20% Enhanced Damage (varies)
Adds 37-133 Cold Damage 2 sec. Duration (Normal)
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
33% Chance of Open Wounds
150-200% Enhanced Defense (varies)
-20% Slower Stamina Drain
Cold Resist 45%
Lightning Resist 15%
Fire Resist 15%
Poison Resist 15%
Act I: Rogue Scout
Act II: Mercenary
Act III: Ironwolves
Act V: Barbarian
The new 1.13 patch was to hit the Public Testing Realm in July 2009 according to a post made by Bashiok, a community manager for Blizzard. The patch was to include an increase in stash size and other changes as suggested by players on the official Diablo 2 forums.
The patch has still not been released as of October 2009, however, seemingly due to the issues that arose with WarCraft 3. The patch is still slated for release, but no time frame has been given.
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction features a new act and 2 new character classes, the Assassin and the Druid, as well as new items.
Overview
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction picks up where Diablo II left off. Diablo has been slain, but now his brother, Baal, has invaded the ancient barbarian highlands of Mount Arreat and corrupted the World Stone. The expansion adds a slew of new features including 2 new classes, dynamic mercenaries, an entirely new act, class specific items, new socketables, charms, crafted items, new Horadric cube recipes, many new and improved uniques and set items, two new cinematics, and new titles for completing the game on various difficulties.Character Classes
With the expansion, two new classes were added, adding even more depth and replayability to the game. The classes are the Assassin and the Druid, each plays different than the other classes, with little to no overlap amongst other classes.
Concept art for the Druid
Concept art for the Druid
Druid
A hybrid class, capable as a supportive caster or supportive tank. The Druid has a line of offensive elemental spells, from creating fiery boulders or cyclones to rip through hordes of demons, to even commanding volcanoes to erupt and blast enemies within range. He can summon various animals and nature spirits that help fight enemies or give the druid and his allies buffs such as increased life or attack speed. He can also transform into either a bear or wolf in order to get into the fray up close and personal, gaining attack skills such as rabies.
Concept art for the Assassin
Concept art for the Assassin
Assassin
The Assassin uses various Wrist Blades to deal out concentrated melee damage. The Martial Arts skill tree allows for the development of burst damage in the form of charges dealing physical/elemental damage. She also has Shadow Disciplines, where she can increase her damage with Wrist Blade attacks, move faster, and create a duplicate to fight autonomously by her side. Lastly, she can set various traps in the environment to crowd control and destroy the many enemies of the game.Items
Many new items were added in the game's expansion. Beyond just expanding the existing categories of items (which was expanded quite extensively), many new item types were added.Class Specific Items
Each class in the expansion was given a specific item type that only they could use. These could be either armor or weapons depending on the class:- Barbarians get Helms.
- Amazons get Spears and Bows.
- Sorceresses get magical Orbs.
- Paladins get Shields.
- Necromancers get demon heads (Shields).
- Druids get Pelts (Helms).
- Assassins get Wrist Blades.
Runes
The runes.
Runes are a new socketable item. They range from common to rare. Each rune has a unique effect it can add to a piece of gear. They are grey with a design on them. What makes runes unique compared to gems, outside of the different modifiers they add to items, is that if combined properly in specific items in a specific order they can create:
The runes.
Runewords
Runewords come about from specific use of Runes, with numerous examples for weapons, shields, and body armor. Runes must be inserted in a specific order to receive the bonuses for the runeword. For instance, you can form the runeword Duress by combining the runes Shael Um Thul into a 3 socket piece of body armor. Doing so will give the following enhancements:
The runeword 'Duress' in action
40% Faster Hit Recovery
The runeword 'Duress' in action
10-20% Enhanced Damage (varies)
Adds 37-133 Cold Damage 2 sec. Duration (Normal)
15% Chance of Crushing Blow
33% Chance of Open Wounds
150-200% Enhanced Defense (varies)
-20% Slower Stamina Drain
Cold Resist 45%
Lightning Resist 15%
Fire Resist 15%
Poison Resist 15%
Charms come in various shapes and sizes
Charms come in various shapes and sizes
Charms
Charms are items that give you a benefit simply by sitting in your inventory. They come in 3 sizes, Grand (1x3), Large (1x2) and Small (1x1) they also come in 2 varieties, magical and unique. The charms can do many things like increase run/walk speed, add to base stats and health and mana, add elemental damage, increase magic find, and much more.Jewels
Jewels are another new socketable and come in three forms: magical, rare, and unique. Jewels differ from gems and runes because, while gems and runes have the same effect for each individual gem or rune, jewels must be identified and are random. Magical jewels can have up to 2 modifiers and rare ones can have up to 4. Their modifiers are random.Crafted Items
Crafted items are created by combining the right recipes in the Horadric Cube in order to create a predefined, random item. Crafted items have 3-4 predetermined stats with a few random ones mixed in. Everything from rings and armor to weapons, shields and amulets can be crafted and to great effect. There are numerous recipes.Miscellaneous
Along with all of the previously mentioned updates, there were many miscellaneous tweaks and updates introduced by the Lord of Destruction expansion.
Mercenary stat / inventory screen.
Mercenary stat / inventory screen.
Mercenaries
No longer satisfied with being background noise, the mercenary was upgraded and updated with Diablo II's expansion. Mercenaries would now have their own, dynamically changing stats. They could level-up and increase in power. They would do this automatically by fighting by your side. Experience is shared between you and your mercenary - they gain more experience for their own kills. Mercenaries are persistent (unless killed), meaning they will come with you from game to game reguardless of whether you leave the game. If slain, they can be ressurected in any one of the five towns in Diablo II. You can also equip items to the mercenary. Each mercenary can equip a helm, armor and a weapon; their weapons are limited by which mercenary you have working by your side. There are no mercenaries in Act IV.Act I: Rogue Scout
- Ranged Mercenary
- Skills: Flaming Arrow / Inner Sight or Frozen Arrow / Inner Sight
- Weapon: Bows (no crossbows or Amazon specific items)
Act II: Mercenary
- Melee Mercenary
- Skills: All Act II Mercenaries have Jab plus an aura based on whether they are combat/defense/offense and whether you hired them in normal, nightmare or hell difficulty
- Weapon: Spears, Polearms, Javelins
Act III: Ironwolves
- Melee/Caster Mercenary
- Skills: Charged Bolt / Lightning or Inferno / Fireball or Glacial Spike / Ice Blast / Frozen Armor.
- Weapon: Swords and Shields, only mercenary that can equip shields.
Act V: Barbarian
- Melee Mercenary
- Skills: Bash and Stun
- Weapon: Swords, can also equip Barbarian class specific helms.
Today
Currently, Diablo II is slated for a major content patch, patch 1.13. The patch was delayed due to an exploit experienced in Blizzard's sister title, WarCraft 3 in which custom maps can be loaded with malware and distributed via a custom map. The Diablo "legacy" team had to swap out from working on 1.13 and help fix this major exploit. This has caused an uproar in the Diablo II community because a ladder reset was announced for before the 1.13 patch was to be released. Blizzard made the announcement because the patch was "imminent" but they were blind-sided by the WarCraft 3 issue.The new 1.13 patch was to hit the Public Testing Realm in July 2009 according to a post made by Bashiok, a community manager for Blizzard. The patch was to include an increase in stash size and other changes as suggested by players on the official Diablo 2 forums.
The patch has still not been released as of October 2009, however, seemingly due to the issues that arose with WarCraft 3. The patch is still slated for release, but no time frame has been given.
| Game Name | Diablo II: Lord of Destruction |
| Platform(s) | |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Developer(s) | |
| Genres |
|
| Themes | |
| Original US Release |
June 29, 2001
need a fuzzy date? |
| Original US Release |
know the real date? |
| Aliases | D2:LoD, LoD |
| ESRB |
ESRB: M
|
Pile of Shame
a list of 20 items by Kyle
a list of 20 items by Kyle
Games Completed in 2008
a list of 11 items by KnightsofRound
a list of 11 items by KnightsofRound
Games I finished :D
a list of 146 items by Stefan
a list of 146 items by Stefan
