Diablo II 1.10 Beta Test begins

[ChromaticOnion]

Well, I've benn having much fun playing the beta as a necro.
Here are the major changes that I noticed:
Skeletons are actually WORTH it! As you put points into summon skeleton you get more life, AR, DR and (on some slvls) damage(!). After getting three skeletons at slvl 3 you don't get another untill slvl 6! Interesting.
Ditto with skeleton mages.
Skeleton mastery remains unchanged as far as I can tell, but it is improving skeletons that are NOT a total waste of pionts!
All the golems get synergy. Clay golem adds more AR to your other golems, blood golem adds life, iron golem adds DR and fire golem adds damage.
No synergies in the curses tree and no notable changes there either :(
The poison and bone tree is interesting. Poison dagger, explosion and nova all get synergies from each other. Teeth, bone spear and sprit all get synergies from each other and from bone wall and cage. Bone armor wall and cage all benifit each other.

A few annoyences:
Unique monster drops SUCK! I know we've all heard this before but it is really annoying because the packs are so much harder. More work, less payoff. <_<
Shamans have rather annoying range. It's just a wee bit much to have them raising fallen, carvers, etc. form a screen or so away. (Unique shamans don't get minions to raise though)
Hirelings. The "experience zone" seems quite small and my rouge isn't in it a lot of the time (I'm back from the battle and my rouge is even further) Normally my hirelings lvl keeps up with mine, more or less. Now, however I am lvl 16 and my rouge is only lvl 9! :angry:
Also, I would really like it if I could leave her in town if I fight a particularly hard boss, or at least say something like "DON'T STAND NEXT TO THE LEB YOU MORON!!!"

Regardless of the few annoyances I'm having a lot of fun now that I can actually use a mob of skeletons and not get creamed. :)
Having lots of fun, see you all on the ladder!