Okay, so Diablo 3 is coming out soon.  As is typical of Blizzard they won't release it until it's a polished, playable, fun game with little in the way of glitches and bugs.  It's probably the only PC game I'm even vaguely interested about at the moment.  I remember waiting for Diablo 2 - it took sooooooooo much longer than expected to be released, but what a fantastic game!
 
I decided to revisit Diablo 2 due to the fourth coming release of Diablo 3 and have a think about where they could improve things.
 
Unfortunately the issue became apparent immediately.  As soon as I tried to log on to my expired Patriarch Gorbad level 86, I get the dreaded 'Player Not Found'.  Now the last time I played him might have been 6 months ago or more if you mean play properly – after beating Hell and starting to collect Pandemonium keys, I decided to have a break.

Now Guildwars, if you buy a copy of the game you get X character slots and they are yours permenantly that’s it – drop the game and come back in a year – your character is still there.  In Diablo 2 this isn’t the case.  Luckily I have a realm level 33 Slayer, who has all Gorbad’s hand me downs, unfotrunately not his 2 x ‘Breath of the Dying’ Executioner Swords though  or Immortal King Armour…

I really wanted to much about with the one final part of D2 that I never got around to – the Pandemonium Quest.  Or Uber Tristram as it’s often called.  Now – first of all, I don’t have any realm characters even remotely decent enough to attempt this… I don’t have time to level up my old mule to level 85….

So?  I decided to venture in an area of Diablo 2 where I’ve never ventured before – the mod zone!

First mod is tool called hero editor, you have to make sure you have the right version, but once you do it’s powerful and easy to use.  You can edit stats of your character, and even create your own items.  Obviously it won’t work on Realm so I used a single player character I had knocking about.

First of all, I made him some Cruel Ancient armour of the Vampire with a runeword and maxed out magical enhancements, then some swords, and charms and all sorts, with things like absorb on all damage times, insane, never normally possible bonuses to attack rating and damage, and lots of  items with All Skills +7, All Barbarian Skills +7.

On initial  load I found the item, despite my requirements and level requirements reductions still needed a level 75 character to wield it.  So back into the editor, and in seconds I have a level 75 character with hugs stat increases and every skill.

Back into the game, and sure enough I have an unstoppable killing machines with all skills at level 99, damage of 40,000 in each hand and over 4 million defence when Battle Orders is cast, in fact he is so pumped, the mana and health can’t display properly….

I quickly beat normal, nightmare and hell… But – now the Pandemonium quest is Realm only?  Well it should be – but back on the internet and I soon downloaded PlugY an excellent mod which does loads of useful things, like increase your stash to be infinite… And allow Uber Tristram in single player.

Back in the game, having created the organs to transmute and I enter Uber Tirstram.  First reaction is…. ‘Hmmm, nothing here…’ There are no minions to deal with whatsoever!  After wandering the map aimless for a while I spot Uber Diablo, Mephisto and Baal… Great!  Now I wade in Whirlwinding away…

After a few minutes they are dead… Although I have to say – in the main game everything, I mean everything was dying from one touch – including Hell Diablo and all of  Baal’s minions – the only thing that took more than a touch was Baal…

The Ubers, actually took a significantly long time to kill and could actually hurt my god-like modded character!

I suspect that killing these on a Realm, solo is impossible, and doing it in group requires a well organised, well thought out group of warriors with perhaps a little luck.

Other conclusions to the game, and issues they need to sort with part 3?  Well first of all – your realm characters expiring.  It just isn’t good enough in this day and age, and it shouldn’t happen.  Realm is much more fun, and interesting – playing Hardcore is like playing a different game again!  But you can’t risk leaving the game for 6 months or you lose your character.

Seriously annoying!

The next point is the stash size, normally the stash is woefully small, and you end up having to sell, which is more or less akin to destroying good items, simply because you don’t have room for them.  Now back on the realm, I had a mule account and about a dozen mules at one stage, and I would go to great pains to transfer items from one character to another to keep them.  Doing this was a complete pain and wasted hours of playtime.

I think it’s part of the mechanics that make Diablo 2 Realm addictive though.  Good items are hard to find, and hours and hours of magic runs are the only ways to get them without purchasing.  Runes are super rare, and if you want a specific item – you are probably going to have to buy it.  Getting your man well equipped is a pain in the butt.   They really need to do what PlugY does, give you a massive stash shared between all characters.  Having to essentially delete Uniques because you have no room for them is just stupid.

The next issue is the ability to re-spec.  There is no mechanism in Diablo 2 to re-assign skills, so if you make a sword WW barb, and you decide you want a Spear, Singing Barb – you have to create it from scratch.  If you are playing casually and aren’t bothered about finishing Hell and the Pandemonium Quest – then it doesn’t matter so much.  Due to the diminishing returns of increasing skills you get a lot of powerful options by spreading your skill points around.

The trouble is – if you want to beat Hell and be useful in a Pandemonium group – you won’t be powerful enough if you follow this method.  You have to specialise, and one or two skill points placed in the wrong box can really upset a build.

There’s always the whisper in Diablo 2, that soon your man is going to be really powerful, the next level gained, the next skill unlocked, the next item in Immortal King set… It’s always kept just out of your reach.  Finding out you have to re-start your build at level 60 because swords work better for your chosen build and you put all your mastery in axes… Discovering you forgot to renew a level 96 character and it’s been deleted…

Diablo 2 with it’s expansion should have been called ‘Diablo 2 : Lord of Frustration’ it’s a great game, good socially to play, and brilliantly made… But it’s addictive in the way that Horse Racing is – there’s so much promised, that when you do get returns you get drawn into it.  When you don’t – you kow you just have to work a bit harder, a few more magic runs, two more levels, one more skill !

I’ve probably had it with Diablo 2 now, I might muck about with another character for a laugh – but I’m not going through the heart ache and hassle of  realm again – trying to keep a character active when you’re not playing is a chore and I have enough chores to do without adding one…

I just hope Diablo 3 strives to be more than this…