Blizzards asks for your Diablo II Suggestions/Concerns

[Merlinios]

What I do mind is the newer runewords (Insight-Spirit etc) that can help out solo\sp players, are designated online Ladder only.

Fair enough. Add them to SP. Or better yet, take them away from Ladder.

? So, Convict paladins are not welcomed in multiplayer? Or just Convict on a Stick?

Brain fart. That should have been "Infinity."

What I want or my logic doesn't really matter in the long run of how others choose to play in B.net though, does it? But if you're curious, yes I have seen that type of thing online. Yes, it can be very annoying at times. However if that player has acquired all that gear and level legitimately, so what? Where does it say that you -have- to party up? Oh yes Bliz certainly encourage you to do so, but where does it say you or anyone else should follow everything bliz suggests in terms of gameplay style? (We'll leave out the obvious case of cheating online etc, because we both know this isn't what we're discussing.)

I have no beef with people partying, not partying, or playing however (non-cheating) they want to. The issue here is that one (similarly leveled) character can join the game I created to, for example, co-op through a quest with friends, and have a single person blow through it and take all of the experience, potentially the drops, all with greater kill speed than my entire party combined.

As for legitimately acquiring the equipment, I believe that's a rather grey area. I don't believe I know anyone who has found two Bers in the same ladder season. Trading for items that rare is a near certainty of getting duplicates.

To 'distort' it we have to agree on which version it was distorted from. How far back does that go, the original 1.00 D2 classic, or 1.09?

Howsabout this: the most prominent skill on just about any given character now no longer comes from that character, but from an (overpowered) item. Solo mono-elemental Sorceress, Amazons are not much without their Conviction (most blatant offender). Blessed Hammer paladins lose much without their various goodies, and while they are still viable, they are not the killing machines we all know them as without everything else. You can make a case for Teleport--it is used mainly as a movement utility, but Conviction? Do most of those builds even work without it? The game has been distorted when the "best sorceress skill" is a Paladin skill, AND is equippable, either on oneself or on a mercenary.

To say the x-skills runewords changed\distort the game can be true to a degree, but the same could be said by many other patch changes.

Perhaps it's not balanced the same way, but at the core, a 1.01 Sorceress is a Sorceress. A 1.08 Sorceress is a Sorceress. A 1.10 Sorceress is at least half Paladin.

I thought bots were the bigger problem. John Henry type racing aside, I thought Ladder was a ranking for players, not bots.

Bots are the problem, but not only would they be (at the very least) much less widespread without Enigma to teleport the paladins in question to their killing zone, but they would be raceable. Even if possible, do you know how long it would take, how many potions/town trips it would take, etc., for a bot Paladin without teleport to kill with Blessed Hammer? Yes, there are other offenders, but none even close to this severe in terms of the ladder raceway.

Look this is basically what it comes down to, keeping in mind my own bias caveat emptor etc. I'm not trying to take away anything from online-multi players. I also don't want the biggest and bestest goodies for only SP. What I'd like to see is less to no difference between the 2 modes. The biggest problem I have is most of the changes bliz makes even if its targeted for multi-ladder, does effect other modes, more often than not negatively.

I suppose Single Player is probably more desirable, but I occasionally need interaction, and Battle.net makes that a hell of a lot easier. Diablo II was originally a challenge, what with the 133 MHz processor and dial-up. From there it progressed to a treasure hunt. Now I'm not sure what it is anymore. Addictive, maybe. Fun, not really. It's a time waster. And it's not even that good at that. I can run the ladder, but as soon as that first hammer-bot hits his teleport/indestructible with Holy Shield setup, game over. Treasure hunting (in multiplayer) is about down the tubes. I found a Zod a few weeks ago. When the immediate elation died down, I realized that on multiplayer, this means absolutely nothing anymore. People have entire accounts full of runes duplicated. And while I'm all for taking pride in my personal finds, it's ridiculous now. I could go out and get a handful of Zods in under a day via trading intelligently.

So here's what I want from the new patch: I want a reason to play again. I want a goal to achieve, be it equipment that I can trade for and have no fear of contamination, be it a competitive goal that is actually achievable because I play against more than machines, or whatever Blizzard can come up with. Because right now, the game as I know it is essentially dead.

I should've wrote that clearer. Things like Fend bugs do affect my gameplay. Unless by the mythical next patch they're calling it a feature. NDelay bugs affects my gameplay, unless again, by the next patch they're fully declaring it a feature.

Apologies. I misunderstood this one. I'm all for getting those things fixed, but if sacrificing them to the time/money gods would allow Blizzard to impose some semblance of balance toward any ONE of the aspects of the game I enjoy, I would gladly do so.

But as enjoyable as this debate is, I think bliz will do whatever it feels it needs or wants to do. Including not doing anything, outside of maintenance\compatibility update patches.

It is well to remember that Blizzard is a corporation whose primary goal is profit. The main purpose of Diablo II is, at this point, to serve as a good-faith gesture to the players. Blizzard will do what they feel will make the majority of them happy (or possibly what the majority of them SAY they want). Unfortunately, judging by the vast amounts of maphack account bannings, multiple CD-key usings, and all of the other crap that goes on, I'd say this likely leaves me and my balance in the minority. People want to have the game played for them, seemingly, so they can be "ub3r". And if Blizzard caters to this any more, I hope that even my long-standing addiction can't bring me back to the hell the game will become.

--me