Which first, D2 or D2-LOD

[kawayanan]

Hello all,
I am pretty new to all of this, a friend got me hooked on Diablo about a month ago. Amazingly, after the amount of time I spent playing, my wife bought me the Diablo Warchest for my birthday. I am still playing D1, but am also going to try D2. My question is, is there any good reason to start with D2 or should I just load LOD and start from there. I don't have any characters yet, so I will start with Act 1 in either case. I seems to me that I should start with LOD since it has some additions to D2 (in addition to the extra act). Would I be missing something by not starting with D2 and converting my characters later?

Kawayanan

[--Pete]

Hi,

And get the latest patches right away. There is nothing to be gained by playing the original D2 as far as I'm concerned.

--Pete

[Taem]

Hi,

And get the latest patches right away.  There is nothing to be gained by playing the original D2 as far as I'm concerned.

--Pete

Hail Pete,

I just had to throw in that I feel the "perfect" patch was somewhere between 1.04 and 1.06 for numerous reasons:

1.) Gambling was very useful because of a good chance of uniques and rares were the best in the game, which leads me to #2...

2.) Rares were actually picked up by EVERYONE and used. It was at this strange time in the patches that all of Diablo’s devices were used and enjoyed ~ i.e. all the "normal" uniques, all the quests, all the rares, EDIT - gems, etc.

3.) Because of the lower end items (i.e. "normal" items), you had to work in groups to take out bosses for the most part. This was really exciting and it seemed that someone died once in at least every three games.

3A) What I liked the best about bosses was that they dropped good the first kill only and then after that dropped like normal monsters with a slightly higher MF rate.

3B) The second thing I liked the most, perhaps even more than 3A actually, is that Chaos Sanctuary was the best place to get experience - and the most dangerous! Many a hardcore player died trying desperately to get to the high 90's. I think my highest leveled character before LoD was high 60's.

4.) The famous "bow bug" during this patch time didn't bother me because I was shooting at 8 FPS anyway with my "godly" ;) rare Double Bow (was it a double bow? I can't remember if that was the normal or exceptional name). I still remember everyone saying, "WOW! were U git Th4t cheet?!!!!1!!11," and I just ignored their uneducated dribble.

6.) I really liked the fact that MSLE's, Stygan Dolls, and Hephisto were one-hit wonders that you dreaded. When you heard hephistos voice ring out, you got a jolt of adrenaline and ran for your life (and I'm a hardcore ONLY player here). When you remove or lessen the power of these truly terrifying monsters, the games "danger" level drops and it becomes somewhat duller.

5.) I could accept Whirl Wind as being godly at the time, and I remember how the Valkeryie and Corpse Explosion were actually very useful and fun. Hammerdin anyone?

EDIT 6.) One of the things I enjoyed most of all was getting a khlams flail (sp?), biggins bonnet, bloodfist, tearhaunch, etc. as start-up gear and tearing through the first 16-20 levels with your friends.

There were so many things I enjoyed about the earlier patches. IMO, that was the "essence" of Diablo, and the experience I most enjoyed. I think if they had kept Diablo 2 like it was in these patches, I would still be playing to this day, but something terrible happened in-between 1.06 to LoD, and I lost interest in the game completely after awhile. I don't want to get into that here, but just reminisce on how much I enjoyed what D2 use to be.

[Crystalion]

I am pretty new to all of this

Attempting to adjust reply, wish me luck ;)

a friend got me hooked on Diablo about a month ago.  Amazingly, after the amount of time I spent playing, my wife bought me the Diablo Warchest for my birthday

Mind boggling.

I am still playing D1, but am also going to try D2.

D2 is considerably more complex than D1 and D1 is very complex, by most people's standards (see Jarulf's guide to Diablo and Hellfire if you wish to persue that). By all means finish at least nightmare (multiplayer solo via ipx option) difficulty in D1 before moving on, in order to get the feel of the genre. You should definitely play the final (v1.09 iirc) patch in D1 (unless you decide to become an expert in such matters, in which case non-Blizzard patches and mods are open for discussion).

As for D2, I'd have to recommend using LoD if only because I think 800x600 screen mode play is a big improvement. YMMV. All of the patches for D2 have flaws (and v1.10, which you may have gathered is still in progress, is no exception, thus far). The key thing is that most people will not be seriously affected by these flaws. If you become expert enough to make such distinctions, you will probably also not need ask such general subjective-answer questions.

D2C and LoD are often quite enjoyable for characters/builds that play only normal and nightmare difficulties "well", so most people really don't need expert advice on how they "must" proceed, lest their character prove to have shortcomings in the (very) long run. Almost everyone, including experts, will "discard" their initial character(s) (albeit with fond rememberance) and move on, attempting to tackle the game anew with newfound knowledge or theories about how to play better.

In other words, just (do whatever comes naturally to you in order to) have fun. You can't make a "mistake"--unless it would be to overplay and so try the forbearance of your unusual spouse.

[BlackLightning]

Yup, I agree with Crystalion on this.

Diablo is an awesome game which I was hooked on straight after I got it in around 2001, along with the battlechest (I was in the same boat). Either way, try to get the full gaming experience out of Diablo before moving onto or while playing Diablo II.

As for the other question of whether or not to install LOD right away, I would have to say yes, since I did the exact same thing, and even though there were times when I wished I hadn't installed it, the overall gaming experience of it was phenomenal.

Cheers.

[--Pete]

Hi,

From the original post:

My question is, is there any good reason to start with D2 or should I just load LOD and start from there.

No mention of D1. No question about D1. Matter of fact, still from the original post: " . . . a friend got me hooked on Diablo about a month ago. Amazingly, after the amount of time I spent playing, . . .. Sounds like the "first" question which you and Crystalion answered wasn't asked and didn't need asking.

--Pete

[Crystalion]

Sounds like the "first" question which you and Crystalion answered wasn't asked and didn't need asking.

From the original post:

I am still playing D1, but am also going to try D2. My question is, is there any good reason to start with D2 or should I just load LOD and start from there.

I would consider this a "segue", and thus:

No mention of D1.

is not my chosen interpretation. As I am doing the poster the courtesy of attempting to helpfully reply to his post, I am commonly allowed a certain latitude in casting my own interpretation on the situation offered for comment. When coupled with his introductory:

I am pretty new to all of this...

one might be able to see how I could easily be lured into over-helpfully answering more than was strictly asked. YMMV.

OTOH, when I am trying to annoy my children, I will give short and very literal (but uninformative) answers to their inadvertently vague questions. It works quite well, but didn't seem requisite in this case.

[ShadowHM]

OTOH, when I am trying to annoy my children, I will give short and very literal (but uninformative) answers to their inadvertently vague questions. It works quite well

What an interesting Dad you must be. ;)

Do they sharpen their knives....err.....wits this way? :P

[Heat Miser]

Yo. Go with LOD. The original DII is like a chick with one leg.... All her other parts are there, but...

And you ain't no Beatle.

-= Heat Miser =-

[--Pete]

Hi,

I wrote an answer to your post that this POS forum ate. I just don't feel like going to that trouble again.

Suffice to say, your post made it pretty clear that you were giving unsolicited advice in addition to answering the question. BlackLightning's post made it sound as if there were two questions, and that he disagreed with me and agreed with you as to the answer of the first. I was simply pointing out his lack of reading comprehension. In addition, though I didn't, I would like to point out his lack of experience in answering the one question that *was* asked: anyone who has only LoD without playing vanilla D2 is incompetent to say whether doing so made them miss any feature of D2 that might have been overwritten by LoD. Think Brood Wars as compared to StarCraft.

OTOH, when I am trying to annoy my children, I will give short and very literal (but uninformative) answers to their inadvertently vague questions. It works quite well, but didn't seem requisite in this case.

You? Giving short answers? Boggles the mind. :)

--Pete

[Archon_Wing]

D2 LOD has more features than classic. There are also cooler items and more characters. The best thing about expansion is the 800x 600 resolution. However, I feel that classic (1.09) is more challenging than LOD. The style of play in signifigantly diffrent.

If you're going to play on the realms, there's one more thing to consider... there are more hacks concerning LOD on these realms.

Edit: The battle chest is $40? I bought classic for $40 (including tax). Never mind. :D

I personally enjoy playing D2 original with D2x cd so I can have the 800 x 600 resolution.

[Occhidiangela]

Play Diablo II, patch 1.06, first, at least through Nightmare Difficulty, with either a Barbarian or an Amazon, and then with a Necromancer. That will provide a nice feel for D II.

Then, play Lord of Destruction, patch 1.09d, and I recommend either a WereBear or a WereWolf, but any old character class will do. It is an easier game once you figure out how to deal with immunities. :)

My two cents.

[Grayloch]

You (kawayanan) didn't mention in your original post whether you are playing on Realms or playing single-player. If you're playing SP, I would go with LoD patch 1.09b, since later patches broke things in SP, most notably all the Chance-to-Cast stuff.

-G.

[kawayanan]

Thanks for all the feedback. I am playing SP and TCP/IP with friends, not going to try Battle.net just yet. I have started with LOD patched to 1.09D. So far, so good.

[Albion Child]

:blink:

Pete, ole buddy ole pal, you make my friggin head hurt. It's nothing near as bad as Nico though.

I would recommend playing a character or 2 before installing LoD. I would also recomend playing (these few characters) without patching. (I am guessing that the Battle Chest contained version 1.03) I recomend this for reasons mentioned above. (gamblin improvements etc.) Also, though D2C (Diablo 2 Classic) is by no means easier than LoD, there is somewhat less to worry about and your inventory size will effectively be increased dramatically because all your room will not be occupied by charms and spare runes.
Once you get a feel for the game, jump right in to LoD. I would recomend starting new characters for the x-pack and keeping your D2C characters around to play if you are attached to them.
This is basically the order in which I became irrevocably addicted to the Diablo series.

Also, since you are new to the game, I have a small piece of advice if you play on Battle.net. Do EVERYTHING Blizzard says you should do when playing B.net. It's much more fun than being a lamer or cheater. :)