I feel guilty advertising my mod here

[Brother Laz]

And I thought it wasn't worth bumping this dead topic to announce 1.19... then someone posts in it. Either way,
1.19 out!.

Normally I'm leery of mods that propose to raise the bar difficulty-wise in an already-difficult game.

Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction is not a difficult game. It is just full of one-hit kills.

There is nothing 'hard' about getting killed in one unavoidable iron maiden hit in mid-zeal, and if you are built for it (dim vision, shockwave, CoS, mindblast, most minions), you can go through many parts of the game without taking any damage at all. The easily available, endless back to back full heals from rejuvenation potions ensure you won't ever get killed unless it happens in one or two hits, so that's the approach Blizzard took (gloams...).

Out of sheer curiosity I tried this one, and it was a fairly pleasant surprise.

Thanks. :blush:

Only one complaint thus far - the background for the menus and subscreens has got to go.

You're not the first to report this, and it's typically due to the player having his brightness and contrast set to maximum. See the screenshot on the first page: it's not really bright or 'white' to begin with, and not all that much brighter than the default interface, which is actually really dark when you think about it.

[Zingydex]

Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction is not a difficult game. It is just full of one-hit kills.

There is nothing 'hard' about getting killed in one unavoidable hit.

Lovely pair of self-contradicting statements, there. One-hit kills belong in a Mario-style game, not an RPG or adventure offering.

For those of us who lack access to teh ubar gear for whatever reason, and lack godlike skills at whipping a mouse around, it's extremely tough to survive in Hell, let alone beat it. Don't you find it bloody ironic for Blizzard to build a customizeable skill setup into a game where only a handful of strategies will actually work?

[Brother Laz]

Lovely pair of self-contradicting statements, there.  One-hit kills belong in a Mario-style game, not an RPG or adventure offering.

Remember that when Talic explodes. ;) And I never said I liked Blizzard's idea of instant kills. An extra strong might enchanted cursed frozen creeper boss that moves at a speed of about one square per second and kills you in one hit is not hard, unless you are playing a melee character, and even then it's just stupid, not hard in a meaningful way.

For those of us who lack access to teh ubar gear for whatever reason, and lack godlike skills at whipping a mouse around, it's extremely tough to survive in Hell, let alone beat it.

Prior to LoD, you could beat the game using only the items you found along the way. This is now pretty much impossible, and you have to farm certain bosses endlessly to get decent items. There just aren't any 'good' items anymore; it's either overpowered (0.01%) or useless (99.99%). Sadly. :(

In the mod, I try to make monsters more dangerous while also lowering their damage. There is nothing that can kill you in one hit (or even five hits), not counting corpse explosion (which is easy to avoid: just kill the goat priest first) and explosive vomit from corpse spitters (which you shouldn't let happen anyway). It gives you at least a fighting chance.

Don't you find it bloody ironic for Blizzard to build a customizeable skill setup into a game where only a handful of strategies will actually work?

I do. For example, a holy freeze merc with Kelpie Snare makes a mockery out of Baal, but if you are using an Act 3 merc, you've just nerfed yourself. That's not a real choice. Likewise, anyone who abuses the hell out of CoS and mindblast will find that most monsters just stand there looking stupid and only a select few monsters will even move anymore. Good luck making a melee assassin without mindblast, though.

Annoyingly, the best items combined with certain very specific skills turn the game into a joke, and anything else just doesn't work. :(

......

That's why I attempted to give every skill its advantages and disadvantages in the mod. Even something as gawdly as Phantom Shot carries the major drawback that you can't really use it outdoors. This of course causes certain people to whine and sputter about there being 'only useless skills'. :wacko:

By the way, this is also more or less Blizzard's original approach with the paladin and especially the necromancer. The necromancer had the need for skill variety built in, and even the oobar iron maiden didn't work on casters. Then came immunities, it all went down the crapper and everyone just maxed bone spirit.