Official D2 Complain Thread

[Taem]

Feel free to use this thread to write about your NEGATIVE D2 experiences or complaints. I always see threads that are informative or list good experiences, but now it's time for a thread where D2 players can gripe about the things that bug them the most about D2; TPPK seems to pop into mind.

[MY RANT]
For me, I can't help but comment on the realm conditions ATM. After all these years you would have thought Bliz would of figured it out...

USWest is so laggy for the last two hours that there are no stable games that have been up longer than a few minutes. Every time anyone Save and Exits, it says they have dropped due to timeout. Once you get back to town, you cannot click on anything unless you leave the game and come back, at which point most everyone drops. I didn't see any scheduled maintenance for the servers tonight? What I don't understand is after all these years servicing battle.net at times having easily quadruple the amount of users on at once than there is tonight, how can the servers be so unplayable? I suppose it's some type of upgrade they aren't advertising, great, but you'd think they (Blizzard) would know how to seamlessly implement these upgrades by now.
[/RANT]

Well, now I feel better getting that off of my shoulders. My gaming time has been squelched for the evening however.

[NiteFox]

Personally, my biggest gripe at the moment with D2 is complete lack of respeccing. It would be nice if, sometime down a character's life, you could just respec those carelessly-placed skill points and the like, even it cost a fair amount of gold to do so (A la Titan Quest. Or WoW. Or any gamer released in the last four years).

Character regret seeps in fairly quickly if you've goofed up in D2, and there's still something oddly disgusting about having to plan a character's full development from the very first ding. I don't want to go through a slice of the game with a bunch of unspecced points that will be useful when I hit a certain level after struggling with Rank 1 Everything. I'd rather put points in things that would be useful and fun now and, sometime when those earlier choices are no longer viable, respec into something more viable, and have no regret.

And yes, there's an Open mod for this. That's not the point, I'd rather have a first-party support on this.

[Archon_Wing]

Well, I've always thought they've had a bad way of dealing with exploits. For example, if one were to hydra pk, they'd just fix that problem only, instead of disabling all spells when going back to town. Then people would do it with another skill, and they'd only target that skill. That's simply a waste of time. :/

In an ideal situation, I actually am pro-pk, despite the fact I have no interests in hunting other players. However, it's just proven to be a joke here, and there might be a need for a hostility check at game creation. I don't mind with dodging legit hunters, but those hardly exist anymore.

And oh yea, whoever thought it'd be nice for valkyrie to have such a long timer so that you are unable to do another unrelated timer skill (Plague Javelin) should be shot.

More extensive rant later.:P

[Archon_Wing]

Personally, my biggest gripe at the moment with D2 is complete lack of respeccing. It would be nice if, sometime down a character's life, you could just respec those carelessly-placed skill points and the like, even it cost a fair amount of gold to do so (A la Titan Quest. Or WoW. Or any gamer released in the last four years).

Character regret seeps in fairly quickly if you've goofed up in D2, and there's still something oddly disgusting about having to plan a character's full development from the very first ding. I don't want to go through a slice of the game with a bunch of unspecced points that will be useful when I hit a certain level after struggling with Rank 1 Everything. I'd rather put points in things that would be useful and fun now and, sometime when those earlier choices are no longer viable, respec into something more viable, and have no regret.

And yes, there's an Open mod for this. That's not the point, I'd rather have a first-party support on this.

I think it'd be good to add a "Tome of Regret" quest or something that you can undo stat points. It might be best to have it as a quest reward for quest rewards that don't really exist anymore (killing Blood Raven in nightmare and hell) Or to quests with poor rewards like saving the Barbarians too stupid to use a town portal.

[Archon_Wing]

Ahh, where's that feature to change post titles?

I want to talk about the game's difficulty. Honestly, I have very mixed feelings about it, and from what I've read in forums the responses vary from "LOLZ my smiter pwns ubers solo in 3 seconds ez" to "Damn it, why are fallen so hard to kill?" And I am aware that both scenarios happen at the same time. The game is much easier with top of the line gear and much more painful without.

This varies widely between characters. A necromancer needs very little to survive but a melee fighter has a ton of trouble apparently. My barbarian friend wields swords that I would have never dreamed of finding (and still haven't) yet they seem to spin around a lot doing nothing, thanks to the ridiculous monster regeneration. I might have liked it back then when crushing blow and PMH were exotic things that I put on to shock people. Now, it's practically mandatory! It just ruins my coolness factor.:P

And of course, I wonder how many people who say the game is too easy could beat the game in single player or in hc? Certainly not everyone with rare gear is a cheater, but it's all too common on battle.net

My own opinion is that the game's difficulty is extremely uneven. You have waves of monsters (and even bosses) that are pushovers, but then one-hit kills can come out of nowhere, and it can be totally unavoidable. Exactly what is the point of putting aura enchanted packs right at the entrance of a level? To challenge your internet connection? Oh btw, this cheese is another reason why I never play melee characters. Things like instant death stygian dolls (at the entrance obviously), fire enchanted bosses and iron madien seem to break the game for melee fighters. Instant death attacks should only be something act bosses have. Yes, you have weapon switch, but it's absurd that the majority of your skills and your build can be nullfied like that. Blizzard does respond to requests to make them game harder, it's just that it wasn't very well thought out at times. It is quite annoying since I play hardcore, and although I haven't lost a character yet, a lot of my friends have lost their characters to said cheese.

But the worst part is that I'm not even sure if this can even be solved. This game is 8 years old, and some people will just have the game beat since they've been doing it so much. And the difficulty now I still prefer over 1.09. So yes, very mixed feelings indeed.:o

[Thenryb]

[i]It is quite annoying since I play hardcore, and although I haven't lost a character yet, a lot of my friends have lost their characters to said cheese.


What??? Never? :rolleyes:

[Archon_Wing]

[i]It is quite annoying since I play hardcore, and although I haven't lost a character yet, a lot of my friends have lost their characters to said cheese.
What??? Never? :rolleyes:

Yep, and I'd say it's almost 100% luck.;)

[Archon_Wing]

Rant: After a period of finding nothing noteworthy besides potions, I found a elite unique-- Steel Shade. So whose joke was it?

[Taem]

Rant: After a period of finding nothing noteworthy besides potions, I found a elite unique-- Steel Shade. So whose joke was it?

Like most Lurkers - I assume - I don't use MH or anything in my game so boss hunting can take a very long time (15-20 min per run), especially Mephisto in Nightmare where the dungeon layout is enormous! When I finally do kill bosses, the drops are almost always not worth keeping (throw-away normal uniques and sets). The other day, I was randomly killing some monsters in the Bloody Foothills in Nightmare and got a Dwarf Star... Go figure!

[Archon_Wing]

Yea, I usually don't bother Meph much due to the many annoyances. It's probaly a better idea to go hunt the pits/masoleum in act 1 hell as they are level 85 (the highest areas) and is generally less time consuming. Or you can always pick on that poor guy outside the frigid waypoint (beware the spear cats). Andariel isn't too bad either.

If your character is suited to it, hell chaos is great since the layout is mostly the same.

[Munkay]

Yea, I usually don't bother Meph much due to the many annoyances. It's probaly a better idea to go hunt the pits/masoleum in act 1 hell as they are level 85 (the highest areas) and is generally less time consuming. Or you can always pick on that poor guy outside the frigid waypoint (beware the spear cats). Andariel isn't too bad either.

If your character is suited to it, hell chaos is great since the layout is mostly the same.

My last Diablo II revival was in single player, using PlugY to transfer items between characters. Accordingly, I made a number of sorceresses to do mephisto runs (since I was playing HC, I had a few die to Stygs). I learned a lesson from all those runs: you never get what you want. A good 50% of the items I ended up using came from casual play.

Unfortunately Blizzard combated MF runs by making Durance II incredibly big. Which is great if you're a cheater and use Maphack. But for the rest of us here at the LL, meph runs aren't generally worth the hassle. Especially since the loot isn't what its cracked up to be.

Cheers,

Munk

[Greyowolf]

:unsure:

Feel free to use this thread to write about your NEGATIVE D2 experiences or complaints. I always see threads that are informative or list good experiences, but now it's time for a thread where D2 players can gripe about the things that bug them the most about D2; TPPK seems to pop into mind.

[MY RANT]
For me, I can't help but comment on the realm conditions ATM. After all these years you would have thought Bliz would of figured it out...

USWest is so laggy for the last two hours that there are no stable games that have been up longer than a few minutes. Every time anyone Save and Exits, it says they have dropped due to timeout. Once you get back to town, you cannot click on anything unless you leave the game and come back, at which point most everyone drops. I didn't see any scheduled maintenance for the servers tonight? What I don't understand is after all these years servicing battle.net at times having easily quadruple the amount of users on at once than there is tonight, how can the servers be so unplayable? I suppose it's some type of upgrade they aren't advertising, great, but you'd think they (Blizzard) would know how to seamlessly implement these upgrades by now.
[/RANT]

Well, now I feel better getting that off of my shoulders. My gaming time has been squelched for the evening however.

[Greyowolf]

I am a vet at regular D2, but am lost about killing then Diablo Clone. I have an 80 hammerdin and a 81 necro with 14 skellies and I can't even touch him in normal, let alone nightmare/hell.

I have read the readme as Nobbie said, looking for the so called "secret" of beating the Clone, but just cannot find it.

Am I just lame, or what is the deal here? Someone, anyone please tell me what I'm doing or not doing right. Thanks much for any help

[Hammerskjold]

I'm a fan of Nobbie's D2 Mod as well.

I am a vet at regular D2, but am lost about killing then Diablo Clone. I have an 80 hammerdin and a 81 necro with 14 skellies and I can't even touch him in normal, let alone nightmare/hell.

This is just from my own biased, personal experience, YMMV etc etc.

I found a few things can help immensely against DClone in the mod. Things that slows them down, like an item that has the 'slow' effect, or Decrepify CtC. Effects like Crushing Blow, Static Field, and Open Wounds are also helpful.

For most of my Hammerdins, I usually put 1 point in Smite simply because there are situations which Smite can fit better than BHammer. I'm not saying BHammers are not great, but personally in a boss fight like DClone I prefer Smite, or another type of melee range attack. A Cleglaws glove, and a Crescent moon weapon is a good but CMoon can be pricy. Alternatives would be a Strength, Black, or Lawbringer weapon. And a blood crafted glove and belt.

There are players that have no problem casting BHammers vs a boss type, I'm not one of them unfortunately. BHammers are awesome in an open area, but I usually fall back to what I'm comfortable with when it comes down to some boss fights or tight areas. Just smacking them.

For the Skelemancer, if you don't have a point in Decrepify, then hopefully you can find some shrunken heads that has the skill adder. (edit: I forgot to mention that it can appear on necro wands too. ) Or a merc with a Decrepify Chance to Cast weapon. A Necromancer can cast it on command though, vs waiting for the CtC. I found spamming Decrepify so your army and merc can get more hits on DClone to be pretty good. You still might have to refresh your army, but Decrepify can make a noticeable difference.

Again, YMMV.

edited addition:

This is all assuming your resists are good. For the Hammerdin fast cast gear is also obviously, good to have. Again, it can depend on your playstyle as well.

[Hammerskjold]

A blurb from this link http://www.planetdiablo.com/features/inqui...inquirer101905/ sums up my overall feelings on the subject.

Blizzard announces Patch 1.12

After the success of getting the previous patch to work, Blizzard Entertainment is already moving ahead with a new patch. Patch 1.12 will pick up where Patch 1.11 left off and promises something for everyone. A Blizzard VIP told us that, "We want to make it clear that we haven't abandoned—what's the name of that game again? Oh yes, we want to make it clear that we haven't abandoned Diablo. And I believe that already Diablo II is already in the early stages of development. Anyway, this patch should make both realm players and single players happy."

Changes in the new patch for Battle.net players include:

Three new monsters to battle:
Corpsefire's furious cousin
Bishibosh's even more evil twin
Rakcloneishu

Three new keys to collect and cube to reach the new monsters:
The Key of Discontent
The Key of Apathy
The Key of C

The runewords Domination, Victory, Slaughter, Apocalypse, Grandeur, Incredible

Look for a message that reads like:
"1453842326 DwarfStars sold to merchants. Mini-Diablo runs the Earth"
You will have to find and catch Mini-Diablo. He will then drop a figurine of Gheed, which you can trade to Gheed for a Gheed's Fortune charm. Beware! Meshif will steal it from you if he gets the chance.

Changes in the new patch for single players:

Fixes to most of the things screwed up in the last patch

The runewords Envy, Inability, Inadequacy, Mediocrity, Nausea

Collecting and cubing the keys gains the ability to view a 60-minute infomercial on why you should be on Battlenet. Expect a ladder reset a few days after everyone has had a chance to create new characters to play the new patch.

(Editor's note: The Inquirer has heard rumors of a Patch 1.11b being released but we won't be fooled by them again and we urge our readers not to be fooled either. Stick with us.)

And don't even get me started on what happened to the no-twink, melee Barbarian. I raise a toast to my fallen fighter brethren. Oh Barbi boy, the pipes the pipes... are callin'...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU

[Archon_Wing]

Oh yea, how could I forget? The only way to get diablo clone is by people selling SOJs.

[Taem]

Oh yea, how could I forget? The only way to get diablo clone is by people selling SOJs.

Has that been proven? I've never seen the clone before, but I heard he is hard to kill.

[ShadowHM]

Has that been proven? I've never seen the clone before, but I heard he is hard to kill.

The only way to make the Diablo Clone appear is by people selling SoJ's. AFAIK, the way it works is that each server has an internal counter for how many SoJ's are sold. When the number gets close to some pre-determined value, announcements will show up in games on that server, telling how many have been sold. At some value for the number of SoJ's sold, the announcement will be shown that "Diablo Walks the Earth".

As with many things in this game, the difficulty to kill him is dependent on character class, skills and equipment.

[Taem]

The only way to make the Diablo Clone appear is by people selling SoJ's. AFAIK, the way it works is that each server has an internal counter for how many SoJ's are sold. When the number gets close to some pre-determined value, announcements will show up in games on that server, telling how many have been sold. At some value for the number of SoJ's sold, the announcement will be shown that "Diablo Walks the Earth".

So if I actually found an SOJ (yeah right) and had a lot of spare change, I could conceivably "buy" a diablo clone by repeatedly selling then rebuying my SOJ from said vender over and over again? Or do I have to have 1000x duped SOJ's and sell them all to the venders? I don't know, if its the first one, it seems like an alright method to me if your lucky enough to have found an SOJ on the ladder, but if its the latter, then shame on you Blizzard.

[librarian]

Heiho,

back in the time I had played on the realms I've seen sometimes the message of some ROFL amount of SoJs been sold without spawning DClone. IIRC you'd need _vast_ amounts of gold using the sell/buyback method, since it was no fixed count value, but it always displayed a high count. Have seen at least twice the DWTE message while being in lower difficulty grades, never while being in Hell.
I've always doubted a directly technical connection between actual sold SoJs and The Event. When all's said and done technically it would be way easier to implement a fake counter which would
a) sometimes come up with a faked message
b) actually count sold SoJs _within_a_game_ (never had the chance to try this, since I've never found a SoJ, and if so wouldn't ever have sold it)
c) add actual sold SoJs into the fake-message-in-potentia of the actual game

And every now and then, at the mercy of the admin on duty, a lever would be pulled at some random game server to trigger The Event. Even admins wanna have some fun.

This method surely has decreased the heap of duped SoJs immensely anyway, as intended.
Or was it 'increased'?
I always confuse those.