Remove the Party Experience Bonus!

[Rataxes]

If that were true, there would not have been new runewords, there would not have been new uniques, there would not have been unique charms for certain. There would not have been synergies.

All of those changes made characters more powerful, which can negate a lot of the harder monsters (I've been doing some testing with this). I don't see how any of those changes point to Blizzard trying to make it feel more like classic. I would like to see how they do.

I already listed the, to this topic most relevant v1.10 changes in my first post, I think you'll find that none of the changes I mentioned had anything to do with the power balance. These new runewords, new uniques, new charms and other insanely powerful items - they will really make little difference since so many other things have been changed in v1.10 to outbalance them. D2 has really never changed whenever new and more powerful items have been introduced, because they have always been outbalanced by other things. Yes there are some relevant item-related differences between Classic and LoD, but none concerning the power balance.

I see your point that your play style was mostly shafted, but I don't think Blizzard ever intended for that play style to happen. Considering just about every patch seemed to try and get away from that style of play. I don't see this patch turning that trend at all.

I don't see how any of the first six patches tried to diminish the competitive side of the game, and all patches that have been released so far post LoD, have actually tried to limit the "collector style", though they failed completely. LoD, and LoD alone, ruined competitive play in D2, and I doubt this was ever Blizzards intention.

It's a new evolution entirely, it is feel that the game has never had before. I think they were aiming for this, something new, not something old. (Actually 1.10 feels like a single Blizzard programmers mod, but since he worked for Blizzard he got to make his mod official, or at least parts of it)

Most big changes (read, changes that will actually have a significant impact on gameplay) were definitely made with the past in mind. I've already listed the changes that will bring v1.10 closer to it's roots, so I'm not going to do it again.

Now they give you new candy. 1.10 to me points to Blizzard wanting to provide more candy for players, it makes me think they are aiming even more at the collector type player

They eliminated Boss MF farming, or so they say they will at least, I've heard reports that state Hell Mephisto drops just as good items as before, even with a few hundred repeated runs. If they were trying to please the collector players more with this patch, this sure was a very funny way of doing it. Collectors have by far been the most vocal and whiny group when it comes to v1.10 criticisms.

just think you vastly overestimate the number of players who like your play style. Though I can't really produce hard evidence for it any better than you can produce evidence that the environment existed because people enjoyed it and not as a by product of other factors that people didn't enjoy, but had to live with to play for the goal they.

Competition is overall one of the most important ingredients to any game. It's no coincidence that it's a general rule of life that a little bit of competition always "spices things up a bit". It's no coincidence that just about every popular game in the world, computer or real, are competitive games, or games where challenge is an important aspect.

I can't believe I'm sitting here, explaining the elementary importance of the aspect of competition and challenge in games. I would've thought it obvious. It flows through almost all games. To say that I, as one who liked the competitive aspects of D2, was in a minority is simply ludicrous. Even in games that contain no competitive elements of it's own, one of the few ways an interest strong enough to form a community can be created, is by competition. What is the one change that is always on top of reader polls when D2 sites are asking what they're looking forward to the most in v1.10? The Ladder. What is the Ladder? It's the revival of the competitive aspect of D2, which has been missing since the day LoD was released. It's the chance for everyone to once again start with the same conditions, on equal terms. No cheats, no hacks, no pre-created lvl 99 characters or imported items - one of the basic requirements of a competitive environment, that everyone start out with equal conditions. There are obviously people who see the Ladder as the best change for other reasons, but it is really the one major v1.10 improvement that will reinstate the competitive side of this game. It's not a coincidence that it is also the most wanted change of them all.