Cattle

Many oxen are still in use worldwide, especially in developing nations. Production Manager: Karin Colenzo. Though not as fast as horses, they are less prone to injury because they are more sure-footed and do not try to jerk the load. Story Concept and Script Editor: Chris Metzen. This is one of the reasons that teams were dragging logs from forests long after horses had taken over most other draught uses in Europe and the New World. Story and Dialog: Kurt Beaver, Stieg Hedlund, Matthew Householder, Phil Shenk, Robert Vieira. Oxen can pull harder and longer than horses, particularly on obstinate or almost un-movable loads. Additional Game Design: Eric Sexton.

Ox teams are steered by commands or noise (whip cracks) and many teamsters were known for their voices and language. Level Design: Derek McAuley, Stefan Scandizzo, Grant Wilson. Their teamster must make or buy as many as a dozen yokes of different sizes as the animals grow. Additional Sound Effects: Joseph Lawrence Futurity. Oxen must be painstakingly trained from a young age. Sound Design: Scott Peterson, Jonathan Stone, Matt Uelmen. Yoked oxen cannot slow a load like harnessed horses can, the load has to be controlled downhill by other means. Music: Matt Uelmen.

Oxen are chosen, from calves, with horns since the horns hold the yoke in place when the oxen lower their heads, back up or slow down (particularly with a wheeled vehicle going downhill). Background Artists: Alan Ackerman, Ben Boos, David Glenn, Alex Munn, Mark Sutherland, Marc Tattersall, Fredrick Vaught. A wooden yoke is fastened about the neck of each pair so that the force of draft is distributed across their shoulders. Character Artists: John Kubasco, Cheeming Boey, Evan Carroll, Michael Dashow, Ben Haas, Kelly Johnson, Michio Okamura, Kris Renkewitz, Anthony Rivero, Christopher Root, Eric Sexton, Robert Steele, Patrick Tougas. In past days some teams were about fourteen, and even over twenty for logging. Lead Character Artist: Phil Shenk. Oxen are most often used in teams of two, paired, for light work such as carting. Programmers: Theodore Bisson, Peter Brevik, Doron Gartner, Peter Hu, Peter Kemmer, Doug McCreary, Jesse McReynolds, Jon Morin, Divo Palinkas, Jason Regier, Michael Scandizzo, Jonathan Stone, Tyler Thompson, Steven Woo.

Also, the gait of the ox is often important to ox trainers, since the speed the animal walks should roughly match the gait of the ox driver who must work with it. Lead Programmer: Rick Seis. American ox trainers favored larger breeds for their ability to do more work in addition to their intelligence (the ability to learn); for the same reason, the typical ox is the male of a breed, rather than the smaller female. Design: Stieg Hedlund. The education consists of the animal's learning to respond appropriately to the teamster's (ox driver's) commands: in North America such as (1) get up, (2) whoa, (3) back up, (4) gee (turn to the right) and (5) haw (turn to the left). Technical Producer: Michael Huang. An ox is nothing more than a mature bovine with an "education". Kern, Kenneth Williams.

Contrary to popular American lore, an "ox" is not a unique breed of bovine, nor have any "blue" oxen lived outside the folk tales surrounding Paul Bunyan, the mythical American logger. Producer: Mark E. Oxen were commonly used to skid logs, and sometimes are still in low-impact select-cut logging, in forests. Senior Producer: Matthew Householder, Bill Roper. Oxen are used for plowing, transport, hauling cargo, grain-grinding by trampling or by powering machines, irrigation by powering pumps, and wagon drawing. Executive Producer: Michael Morhaime. Usually an ox is over four years old due to the need for training and for time to grow to full size. Project and Design Leads: David Brevik, Erich Schaefer, Max Schaefer.

Often they are adult, castrated males. Among fans, this has resulted in elevated hopes for a Diablo III release. Oxen (plural of ox) are cattle trained as draft animals. Listings for various game development positions within the Diablo team were simultaneously listed, as well. The outbreaks of mad cow disease have reduced or prevented some traditional uses of cattle for food, for example the eating of brains or spinal cords. However, in early 2006, Blizzard posted a job opportunity on its website, stating: "The team behind Diablo I and II is looking for a talented, motivated, and experienced Art Director to help lead our art team in developing beautiful, cohesive game worlds for an unannounced PC Project and future projects." [1]. Other sports like Bull riding are seen as part of a Rodeo, especially in North America. Rumors of a sequel to Diablo II have been, for the most part, entirely insubstantial.

In Portugal, Spain and some Latin American countries, bulls are used in the sport of bullfighting while a similar sport Jallikattu is seen in South India; in many other countries this is illegal. Also, there exists a special item set called "Cow King's Leathers", consisting of studded leather, a war hat, and heavy boots, that can only be found on the Secret Cow Level. In Latin America, Australia and the western North America cattle are grazed on large tracts of rangeland called ranchos, ranches or Stations (Australia). This may or may not be a reply to WoW players (non-seriously) asking for one. It is common to see loose cattle walking the streets, because the holiness it holds in India and other countries that practice Hinduism. A small reference to the cow level has been spotted in World of Warcraft, in the form of a loading screen tip saying "there is no cow level". In fact a divine cow named Kamadhenu is considered to be the mother of all Hindu Gods. A Lightning enchanted monster in the secret cow level is usually The Cow King.

[2] The importance of the cow is highlighted by the fact that a regional holiday called Mattu Pongal (literally Cow Pongal in Tamil) exists which is akin to a bovine thanksgiving day. The most popular way to spot The Cow King in a game is to look out for a cow that creates 'charged bolts' (Lightning Enchanted) when attacked. The bull is my sire.". Killing The Cow King in this fashion would not result in the original player being exempt from opening portals to the cow level. In Hinduism, the cow is said to be holy (and thus should not be eaten); "The cow is my mother. A loophole in this event was for players to open the cow level with one character, and then exit the game and enter with another character to kill the cows. Their ability to provide meat, dairy and draft while reproducing themselves and eating nothing but grass has furthered human interests dramatically through the millennia. Doing so will result in that character being unable to open future secret cow levels of that difficulty.

Some consider them the oldest form of wealth. It is important to note that the character who opened the portal to the secret cow level must be careful not to kill The Cow King. Cattle occupy a unique role in human history. However, Blizzard has now programmed the game to only give experience to characters near to where monsters are killed, and the Mlvl(monster level) and Clvl(character level) must now be closer together or a very minimal amount of experience is awarded per kill. The red color is merely traditional, as the movement of the cape is the attractant. Characters were previously able to stand near the portal to a Cow Level from a very low level and rocket up in levels very quickly as cows were killed. This rumour derives from bullfighting, where Matadors traditionally use red-coloured capes to provoke bulls into attacking. This changed, somewhat, with the release of patch 1.10, halving the cows' experience rate and item drops.

This is incorrect, as cattle are mostly colour-blind. The cow level granted so many experience points and cows dropped so many unique and rare items, that soon Battle.net was filled with endless "cow" games, especially because it was very easy for characters such as Amazons, Barbarians and particulary Sorceresses to complete it quickly. A popular misconception about cattle (primarily bulls) is that they are enraged by the colour red. This will open a portal to the secret level. Breeders have attempted to recreate the original gene pool of the aurochs by careful crossing of commercial breeds, creating the Heck cattle breed. To access the level, one must kill Diablo (or, in Lord of Destruction, kill Baal), return to Rogue Encampment in Act I within the same difficulty level, and then combine Wirt's Leg with a Tome of Town Portal in the Horadric Cube. In historical times, their range was restricted to Europe, and the last animals were killed by poachers in Masovia, Poland, in 1627. However, there really was a cow level in the sequel, Diablo II.

The aurochs was originally spread throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. To quell the rumor, Blizzard included a cheat (that automatically won the game) in StarCraft that read "There is no cow level" (implying no secret cow levels in Diablo). The omasum is known as the "Many Plies." The abomasum is most like the human stomach; this is why it is known as the "True Stomach.". This added fuel to the fire. The reticulum is known as the "Honeycomb." The omasum's main function is to absorb water and nutrients from the digestible feed. In Diablo: Hellfire, the only official expansion to the original Diablo, it was possible to change a parameter in a specific .ini file so that the farmer who gives out the "rune bomb" quest was dressed in a cow suit, with appropriate new dialogue ("Moo." "I said Moo!"). Cattle sometimes consume metal objects which are deposited in the reticulum, and this is where hardware disease occurs. The rumor was a hoax, but the legend was born, and player after player asked Blizzard about how to access the level.

The rumen is the largest compartment and the reticulum is the smallest compartment. The "Secret Cow Level" is the result of a running joke from the original Diablo that spawned from an internet rumor about a cow which, if you clicked on it a certain number of times, was reported to open a portal to a secret level. They are the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum. A good example here is a small dagger, or Dirk, called The Diggler, which is based on the main character of the movie Boogie Nights called Dirk Diggler. Cattle have one stomach, with four compartments. Additionally, other items are references to movies or books. These features allow them to thrive on grasses and other vegetation. Examples of locations taken from development team:.

The microbes that live inside of the rumen are also able to synthesize amino acids from non-protein nitrogenous sources such as urea and ammonia. Examples of item names taken from the developer team:. These microbes are primarily responsible for generating the volatile fatty acids (VGAs) that cattle use as their primary metabolic fuel. Examples of monster names taken from the development team:. Cattle are ruminants, meaning that they have a unique digestive system that allows them to digest otherwise unpalatable foods by repeatedly regurgitating and rechewing them as "cud." The cud is then reswallowed and further digested by specialized bacterial, protozoal and fungal microbes that live in the rumen. Examples of item names that are anagrams of developer names:. The word "heifer" is sometimes used in a similar fashion, the implication being that the target of the term is overweight. Many of the people, items and places in Diablo II are named after Blizzard employees and their loved ones.

In some countries, such as the UK, this slur is used exclusively for women whereas in others it may be used for both genders. Many gameplay features were changed from the first Diablo, including:. The word "cow" can also be used derogatively, when describing a person, whom one expresses a dislike for. The ladder is periodically reset, making all characters previously listed on the ladder become non-ladder. Cows of certain breeds that are kept for the milk they give are called dairy cows. Ladder characters are ranked on the ladder, and may not interact with non-ladder characters as of patch 1.10. Within the beef cattle industry in parts of the United States, the older term beef (plural beeves) is still used to refer to an animal of either gender. Softcore characters can be resurrected when killed, while hardcore characters become unplayable upon their first death making them a very risky proposition for even the most experienced players.

Cattle raised for human consumption are called beef cattle. Players can create characters to play in "softcore", "hardcore", "softcore ladder", or "hardcore ladder" modes. Obsolete terms for cattle include "neat" (horned oxen, from which "neatsfoot oil" is derived), "beef" (young ox) and "beefing" (young animal fit for slaughtering). If a character isn't played for a span of 3 months it gets automatically deleted by Battle.net. Some Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and Scottish farmers use the term "cattlebeast". Characters can only be played within a game. To refer to a specific number of these animals without specifying their gender, it must be stated as (for example) "ten head of cattle.". From dueling channels to trading channels, players can meet up with others to talk, arrange duels, trade, etc.

Today "cow" is probably the closest to being gender-neutral, although it is usually understood to mean female (females of other animals, such as whales or elephants, are also called cows). As there are different games for different purposes, there are different channels for players to enter and use to chat. But "ox" is no longer used in this general sense, being restricted to the sense given above. Up to eight players are allowed in each "game", each of which is basically identical to single-player Diablo 2 worlds, except that other players may join. That this was once the standard name for domestic bovines is shown in placenames such as Oxford. Players can create unlimited accounts with a maximum of eight characters per account, though only one character can be played at a time (if a CD-key is registered and in use by one player it cannot be used simultaneously by someone else). Strictly speaking, the singular noun for the domestic bovine is ox: a bull is a male ox and a cow is a female ox. There are generally many more cheats on the open realm because character data can be altered locally.

There is no singular equivalent in modern English to cattle other than the various gender and age-specific terms (though "catron" is occasionally seen as a half-serious proposal). Each realm is comprised of several servers, and allows for two different methods of connecting: there is the closed realm, where all character data is stored on the Battle.net servers, and there is the open realm where all player data is stored on the player's computer. Thus one may refer to some cattle, but not three cattle. The Diablo II section of Battle.net consists of a global online community made up of tens of thousands of people who connect to six primary realms across the globe: two in the United States (East and West), one in Europe, and three in Asia. The term cattle itself is not a plural, but a mass noun. At one point it was believed to prevent the wearer from losing experince points when they die, but that was later disproven. The adjective applying to cattle is bovine. It has a level 90 requirement.

An adult female over two years of age (approximately) is called a cow. This item doesn't actually do anything;, it may have been put in confuse a Pickit Hack, or to prevent greedy players from grabing the Torch immediatey. An intact male is called a bull. In addition, a Standard of Heroes is dropped for each player in the level. If castrated as an adult, it is called a stag. This charm grants +3 to skills for a specific character class, and provides other nice bonuses. The castrated male is then called a bullock or steer, unless kept for draft purposes, in which case it is called an ox (plural oxen), not to be confused with the related wild musk ox. When all three are dead, the last one killed drops a unique large charm , called the Hellfire Torch.

Male cattle bred for meat are castrated unless needed for breeding. This opens a portal to "Über Tristram", where there are more powerful versions of the three Prime Evils (Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal). A young male is called a bull-calf; a young female before she has calved is called a heifer (pronounced "heffer"). The body parts must be combined with the Horadric Cube while standing in the Act 5 town (again on Hell difficulty). Young cattle are called calves. When killed the Mini-Übers each drop a body part Izual drops Mephisto's Brain, Duriel drops Baal's Eye and Lilith drops Diablo's horn. This article refers to the common modern meaning of "cattle", the European domestic bovine. Combining all three keys in the Horadric Cube while in the act 5 town (Hell difficulty) will open one of three portals where the player must fight one of three "Mini-Übers", Über Izual, Über Duriel or Lilith (Über Andariel).

Additionally other species of the genus Bos are often called cattle or wild cattle. When killing the Countess in the bottom of the Tower in the Black Marsh of Act 1, The Summoner in the Arcane Sanctuary of Act 2, and Nihlathak in the Halls of Vaught in Act 5, there is a chance (approximately 1 in 30) that they will drop "Keys", the Key of Terror, the Key of Hate, and the Key of Destruction. Older English sources like King James Version of the Bible refer to livestock in general as cattle, or sometimes the archaic kine (which comes from the same English stem as cow). Added in the 1.11 patch for Diablo II released on August 1, 2005, the Pandemonium Quest is a late-game Battle.net-only quest possibly intended to break the monotony of never-ending Baal runs on Hell difficulty, which is where most play took place in 1.10. The word is closely related to "chattel" (a unit of property) and to "capital" in the sense of "property.". In addition, the fifth act offers hireable barbarians that can use Barbarian-specific gear, although they can only use the skills Stun and Bash from the Barbarian's skill tree. It derives from the Latin caput, head, and thus originally meant "unit of livestock" or "one head". The second act hirelings, for example, previously notorious for dying quickly, have many extra abilities (including auras).

The word "cattle" did not originate as a name for bovine animals. Moreover, there were many improvements to hirelings in general to make them more viable as actual help. . They can be equipped with weapons, healed, and they also become stronger with experience. (See aurochs for the history of domestication, and zebu for peculiarities of that group.). Hirelings persist for as long as they are wanted, and they can be resurrected for a fee that varies with their level. Cattle cannot successfully be bred with water buffalo or African buffalo. Luckily, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction improved on this concept.

For example, genetic testing of the Dwarf Lulu breed, the only humpless "Bos taurus-type" cattle in Nepal, found them to be a mix of European cattle, zebu and yak. In the original Diablo II, mercenaries couldn't be ressurected and did not follow the character from act to act. Hybrid individuals and even breeds exist, not only between European cattle and zebu but also with yaks, banteng, gaur, and bison, a cross-genera hybrid. There are no mercenaries in Act IV, but in Act V you can hire a barbarian with a sword. Complicating the matter is the ability of cattle to interbreed with other closely related species. In the Act III, one of three elemental mages can be hired. More recently these three have increasingly been grouped as one species, sometimes using the names Bos primigenius taurus, Bos primigenius indicus and Bos primigenius primigenius. In Act II, a spear-wielding mercenary is available.

The aurochs is ancestral to both zebu and European cattle. In Act I, a Rogue hireling (as in the original Diablo) is available. These were Bos taurus, the European cattle, including similar types from Africa and Asia; Bos indicus, the zebu; and the extinct Bos primigenius, the aurochs. Different mercenaries are available in each encampment. Cattle were originally identified by Carolus Linnaeus as three separate species. Diablo II allows the player to hire mercenaries in the towns of Act I, II, III and V. It is estimated that there are 1.3 billion head of cattle in the world today [1]. Unless you are already using a mercenary, you can gain a free Act 1 mercenary from killing Blood Raven.

In some countries, such as India, they are subject to religious ceremonies and respect. You can hire mercenaries in Acts II, III, and IV anytime you're there. They are raised as livestock for meat (called beef and veal), dairy products (milk), leather and as draught animals (pulling carts, plows and the like). To be able to hire a mercenary in Act 1, you must kill Blood Raven after receiving the quest from 'Kashya' in the Rogue Encampment, or have reached level 8. Cattle (called cows in vernacular usage) are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. It is also possible to combine rune combinations into socketable items to create crazily powerful items. The cow is a photograph that the animators manipulate in such a way as to suggest that the cow is performing all kinds of unusual feats when obviously, it is just a photograph being moved around. Again, the attributes change accordingly to each rune as well as where it is socketed.

The Drawn Together episode "A Tale of Two Cows" features a character called Live Action Cow. Their attributes can range anywhere from '+75 poison damage over 2 seconds' to 'Knockback' in weapons. Later the cow is mangled and run over several times by a semi truck and some bikers while the man begs for Shiva's forgivness. Runes The most powerful things that can be socketed, runes are found only in LoD. In the movie Bubble Boy an Indian ice cream man is threatened by the Indian god Shiva because he accidentally ran over a cow. Found only in LoD. The popular nursery rhyme 'Hey, diddle-diddle' features a cow jumping over the moon. Jewels Jewels vary in their attributes, and must be identified with scrolls of identify.

A Texas Longhorn with burnt orange coloring named Bevo is the mascot of the sports teams at the University of Texas at Austin. Skulls:. In Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, a famous scene parodying The Matrix bullet time scene involves a 3D animated cow being fought by the hero. Diamonds:. In the Computer Game Starcraft and Starcraft:Broodwar the cheat code "there is no cow level" will immediately take the player to the next level. Amethysts:. In the Computer Game Diablo II there is an area called the "Secret Cow Level" in which players can gain experience more quickly than usual by fighting an army of bipedal cows. Topazes:.

In a Grape-Nuts television commercial and in the movie Kingpin with Woody Harrelson, in which he pretends to be Amish, there are scenes of men "milking" a bull, thinking it is a cow. Emeralds:. These cows will sometimes say "Moo, I say!". Rubies:. In the game Fallout and Fallout 2, cows mutate into Brahman. Sapphires:. In the movie Twister, cows are flung about, mooing, by tornadoes. The following values are for the perfect forms of the gems:.

In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the French shoot cows out of catapults. You can upgrade gems by placing three identical gems into the Horadric cube, then transmuting them to get one of the next level. The sound a cow makes is often used to create comedic effect. GEMS: Gems vary in value, ranging from 'Chipped' to 'Perfect'; as the gem value gets higher, its attributes become more powerful. Since 1995, advertisements for Chick-fil-A restaurants have featured cows encouraging people to "Eat Mor Chikin.". As such, it behaves much like a bag of holding, increasing carrying capacity. The lilac-colored "Milka Cow" is a well-known symbol of the Milka brand of chocolate. The Cube occupies four units of inventory space in a 2×2 configuration, but it can to hold 12 units of items in a space measuring three units wide by four units tall.

Gary Larson's famous comic strip The Far Side frequently included cows in humorous situations. With Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, the Horadric Cube can endow items with random properties not found on items dropped by monsters. (Kane, 5). For example, 3 partial rejuvenation potions may be combined to produce a full rejuvenation potion. It said that all cattle and pigs have to have a registered brand or earmark by May 1, 1644. This is an in-game artifact, attained in Act II, that can transmute items into other items. The first known law requiring branding in North America was enacted on February 5, 1644 by Connecticut. One interesting new component is the "Horadric Cube".

The joke is apparent to anyone knowing that a cow possesses no such teeth. Each set contains from 2 to 6 items. A humourous anecdote among farmers suggests that instant death will come to anyone bitten by a cattle's upper front teeth. With the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion, there are a total of 15 normal item sets and 15 exceptional/elite item sets. On February 18, 1930 Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in an airplane and also the first cow to be milked in an airplane. the whole of the set is greater than the sum the bonuses of each individual item. Bulls in particular are seen as a symbolic emblem of duty and religion. These bonuses are not available with only one item of a set or a variety of different sets; i.e.

They appear in numerous stories from the Purana's and Veda's, for example the deity Sri Krishna takes birth in a family of cowherders and Lord Shiva is said to ride on the back of a Bull. For example, a character wearing all the items in "Milabrega's Set", will be rewarded with bonuses in addition to those provided by each of the items . Cows are venerated within the Hindu religion of India: According to Vedic scripture they are to be treated with the same respect 'as one's mother' because of the milk they provide. When some or all of the items in a certain collection are equipped by a certain character they become more powerful. In the popular kids show The Fairly Odd Parents A cow tips over a kerosene lamp and the town mascott, a goat named "Chompy", saves the day by pushing the cow on to the fire, hence putting it out. Set items all form part of a small collection, or set. Michael Ahern, the reporter who created the cow story, admitted in 1893 that he had made it up because he thought it would make colorful copy. In the expansion, Blizzard North reduced the chance of a good rare drop.

An apocryphal story has it that a cow started the Great Chicago Fire by kicking over a kerosene lamp. Prior to the expansion, rares were highly desirable due to its many modifiers. The constellation Taurus represents a bull. Rare item names are displayed in yellow text. See: Ox (Zodiac). These are more rare than the regular magic items, and can contain more magic modifiers but are not necessarily better. The ox is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. People were known to spend hours on end hunting for perfectly maximized jewels, until several new runewords appeared that made that whole process semi-obsolete.

For the mythology and lore connected with the bull, see Bull (mythology). While all gems of a certain type would do the same thing in any item, (for example, putting a ruby into a weapon always grants fire damage) jewels granted randomly-spawned enchantments, sometimes as many as 6 effects to a single slot. Alongside of gems and runes are the infamous jewels, which could create massively powerful items. In Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, runes are introduced to further improve in this area, allowing players to create pseudo-unique items by arranging the runes to form "runewords", usually with massive benefits. Some weapons can be socketed with gems that convey additional abilities.

While Diablo provided for almost no item customization, Diablo II improves in this area considerably. There are several new game concepts introduced in Diablo II absent in its predecessor. This character class sports expertise in wands and daggers. The Necromancer's skill tree is based around summoning creatures and cursing the minions of the undead.

Through their wisdom, these "Necromancers" have learned not to question the threshold of mortality, but to accept it as a part of life. Living deep underground, these magi have learned how to raise the undead to fight for them. In Diablo 2, the Priests of Rathma are a segregated group of magi that study the concept of mortality. However, Bonemacers are still one of the best players in PvP.

After the release of the 1.11 patch this build was extremely hindered, as the items would no longer give you the synergy from the charges. This was due to an exploit that caused the player to have level 33 bone prison synergy while having the boots Marrowwalk equipped on your character. During the 1.10 patch the strongest of the necromancers would be "Bonemancers", which were a common build that utilized Bonespear and Bonespirit as its main attack while adding 0 points to the synergy known as bone prison. Theses types of Necros arent as common as the "Bonemancers".

Also, make extensive use of golems as well as Skeleton Mastery; being commander of a couple elite skeletons is better than a lot of weak ones. Using a Skelliemancer or "Summoner" can get extremely frustrating in certain areas: the close quarters of the Maggot Lair in Act II makes minions fall behind fairly quickly; the only way to counter this is to use lots of Skeleton-mages and moving slowly. Generally, Amplify Damage and Decrepify are most used. To prevent one's self from being the commander of a heap of bones, Skelliemancers or "Summoners" have to make use of the Curse tree.

However, the fun element of these Necromancers is watered down when hard bosses are encountered, such as the Council in Act III that can destroy skeletons and golems fairly easily. Skelliemancers or "Summoners" can be enjoyable to play due to the character being able to control an army of minions. However, the element of a Bonemancer that makes playing fun is the penetrating element of Bone spear as well as the homing ability of Bone Spirit, both of which can do considerable damage. Bone Wall and Bone Prison proved useful for getting out of hairy spots and trapping unaware players in PvP.

Players today generally find the Bonemancer to be the easiest build. For more details, see Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. The arrival of the expansion pack heralded a dark age for the necromancer, and while the class is very powerful in the later patches, this power boost went mainly towards one specific build, the Skelliemancer Or "Summoner". Revive, which raises a dead monster to fight for you, and Iron Maiden, a damage-reflecting curse, were a powerful combo similar to the Conversion + Thorns paladin build, and the life stealing Blood Golem interacted with Iron Maiden, causing it to gain life when it was attacked and rendering it essentially immune to normal attacks.

The radius of Corpse Explosion was reduced in 1.03, encouraging necromancers to look at other skill options. When one monster went down, all one had to do was cast Amplify Damage on the pack and blow up the corpse, killing all other monsters in one blast. Prior to 1.03, the Corpse Explosion spell was the best skill in the game. The necromancer has always been an unbalanced character, due to its reliance on corpses and percentage damage effects.

The Necromancer can cast spells From the Summoning, Poison & Bone, and Curses skill trees. Curses such as "Terror" cause groups of creatures to flee, allowing Necromancers to herd and manage the flow of hostile creatures attacking the party. For example, the curse "Attract" causes enemies near the target creature to attack it. In party-oriented play, some of the most powerful skills affect the monster AI.

His summoning abilities allow the necromancer to raise skeletons, a variety of golems, and even former enemies. Also rather than being cast on the character, they are cast on a limited number of enemies. His curses are similar to a paladin's enemy-affecting auras, but they are more powerful and limited in duration, range, and effect. He does possess direct damage in the form of poison and bone-based spells, but his most specialized abilities are curses and summons.

Whereas the sorceress relies on elemental damage, the necromancer is more subtle. The necromancer is a magician like the sorceress, but in a different way. They are used by parties as a location finder, such as waypoints, boss lairs, etc. The Sorceress' teleport is used extensively for getting to a boss quickly.

Magic find equipment generally doesn't have the best attributes (apart from the magic-find %), which is fine for the Sorceress which teleports out of harm's way quickly and attacks from range. Magic finding involves using equipment with special mods to increase the chance that random item drops will be top level Rare and Unique equipment. Sorceress are used extensively for 'Mfing', or Magic finding. Since the main fire and lightning spells do not have a delay timer, it allows them to cast their spells at an incredible rate, in excess of 3 times a second, while teleporting out of danger at amazing speeds.

After synergies were introduced, some Fire and Lightning sorceresses aim to get 200% faster cast rate. For more details, see Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Focusing on faster cast rate equipment to cast spells as fast as possible was no longer feasible, and the players started to gravitate towards +to skills items to increase their spell damage instead. Patch 1.07 and the expansion changed sorceress gameplay immensely, due to the newly implemented skill timers and reduced mana costs on the more expensive spells.

Many looked down upon this "strategy" and the players who used it. The most common build repeatedly cast Static Field to quickly reduce the health of nearby enemies to a sliver, then used the Frozen Orb spell, which spins out a globe that showers the area with ice shards, to deliver the death blow. The "tweaker" sorceress build, using as many FCR items as possible, could cast three or more spells per second, backed by high-level Warmth and a large mana pool. This was not an effective option, though, and soon the attention shifted to faster cast rate items.

At first, most sorceress builds revolved around getting as many skill level bonus items as possible to increase damage. Their one saving grace was the spell Static Field, which causes 25% of the enemy's hit points in damage to all enemies within its radius and was considered overpowered by even sorceress players themselves. Most sorceress builds had serious mana issues, prompting them to maximize Warmth to increase their mana regeneration rate, which took valuable skill points away from their direct damage skills. Her spells were lacking in damage, due to the fact that once they were at maximum skill level, not much else could be done to increase their damage.

Prior to the expansion pack, the sorceress was fairly weak. The Sorceress can cast spells From the Cold, Lightning, and Fire skill trees. One large benefit is the fact that the sorceress's cold spells make it easier for everyone to stay alive, by immobilizing their foes. The weak points are strength and defense.

The strong points of Sorceress are powerful damaging spells and mobility (teleporting quickly), which is valuable in multiplayer games. Fire spells usually have a more consistent damage range, with the most popular skill Fireball doing about 20,000 damage or more. (A corpse can be used by some enemies as an attack or can be revived by other enemies to fight again.) The main lightning spells have huge damage ranges, doing anywhere from 1 to 25,000 or even 1 to 50,000 damage. Moreover, any chilled or frozen enemies may shatter instead of leaving a corpse.

Her cold-based spells have the benefit of chilling affected enemies (slowing them down) or freezing them (stopping them completely). The Sorceress focuses on ranged elemental spells in three areas: cold, lightning, and fire. After 1.10, however, this strategy is no longer viable: auras now either change instantly or with unreliable speed. The result would be two simultaneous auras, one augmenting the paladin's abilities and one weakening an enemy's.

Because the effect of an aura on allies (and enemies) is slightly delayed and because it persists for a few seconds even if switched immediately, a paladin could switch on an enemy-affecting aura, wait for it to "stick" onto the enemies, and then quickly "flash" to a personal aura. Before patch 1.10, a technique known as "flashing" was common. Thanks to the "synergy" boosts added to skills (including Blessed Hammer) in patch 1.10, the Hammerdin is still widely considered the strongest all-around character type in the game today, able to do up to 8,000 damage once all the synergies are maxed with concentration and great items. If the skill is maxed, each hammer can deal over 10,000 damage (17,000 in 1.11), with enough skill bonuses from items.

This resulted in the infamous hammerdin, an odd caster build capable of killing any normal monster in the game in a few hits. Originally a weak and hard to aim magical attack, until it was discovered that the Concentration aura affected Blessed Hammer as well. Then Blessed Hammer was discovered to be useful. Thus when used, you can do massive elemental damage to your opponent with just one hit.

Another great strategy is "Vengeance", which adds fire, lightning and cold damage to your attacks , and the aura, "Conviction", which reduces your enemies elemental resistances and defence. Unfortunately, nothing else in his skill trees was quite as good, and the class slipped into obscurity. This build cleared the hardest levels with ease, so it came as no surprise that it was weakened in patch 1.03. Conversion is a normal melee attack that has a chance to convert the target to fight for you, and Thorns is an aura that causes anyone who attacks a party member to take a large amount of damage in return.

When the game was released, the Conversion + Thorns skill combo was extremely effective. The class has a staggering number of useless auras, and the anti-undead idea did not work in practice due to the lack of actual undead in the harder areas. The paladin was usually seen as one of the weaker characters, with too much emphasis on boosting his allies and too little damage to fend for himself. The Paladin can cast spells From the Defensive Auras, Combat Skills, and Offensive Auras skill trees.

The more powerful the shield, the more damage he can deal with it (also, paladins typically have the best "blocking" rate). The Paladin is the only character able to use his shield as a weapon in a smite attack. The Paladin also has access to great strength and health and, because the auras do not generally require mana to activate, is not heavily restricted by heavy mana consumption. These passive auras, which can enhance personal abilities, lower the amount of damage dealt by enemies or recover health and can add considerable complexity to the class because only one aura can be active at a time.

His specialty, however, lies in auras that buff himself and his party. To reflect this, the Paladin has combat skills ranging from fanatical attacks to anti-undead spells. The Paladin is a warrior fighting for all that is good. With the 1.11 patch, a Frenzy-based barbarian became very popular after an in-game clan showed with several successful Uber-Tristram runs that the build is second only to the Smiter (paladin).

Thus, a popular build involves a maximum contribution to battle orders and concentration. Major changes in the 1.10 patch have made certain low level skills augment higher level skills and vice versa. The Achilles' Heel of this strategy is that some monsters (and Necromancer player characters) can cast a curse that returns damage back to the barbarian equals to several times the amount he deals, most certainly killing him if he spins into a large crowd and delivers massive amounts. One also must be careful not to spin into a crowd of monsters, as once a spin is started it can't be stopped.

Whirlwind requires skill to control, and one can take down hard bosses by making circles around the perimeter of the boss so all his hits land on the boss. Whirlwind has many uses: It allows the player to spin through a crowd of enemies, damaging each greatly, or it can carve a path out of a crowd if the character is surrounded. Most Barbarians make use of the skills Iron Skin, Battle Orders, Whirlwind, and Combat Masteries. Barbarian strategy typically follows only one guideline with small variations.

With damage to spare, very high natural life and the life and mana-increasing Battle Orders spell, a well-built barbarian in 1.00 to 1.06 was almost indestructible and was the main "power-leveling" character. The Whirlwind skill, a mad spinning charge, was highly overpowered in the first release of the game, and was reduced in damage in patch 1.03, made dependent on weapon speed in the expansion and it is still one of the best melee skills in the game. This character was the damage powerhouse in the early history of Diablo II. The Barbarian can cast spells from the Warcries, Combat Masteries, and Combat Skills skill trees.

The barbarian's combat skills are attacks that maximize brute force, his greatest asset. Warcries differ from the auras of the paladin in that they are single-use and impermanent. His warcries are essentially radial skills (skills which are only effective within a certain radius of the player) that enhance his and his party's ability in combat, or reduce the ability of the enemy. The masteries are purely passive and allow the Barbarian to specialize in different types of melee weapons and to gain natural speed and resistances.

His skills are divided into various weapon masteries, warcries, and combat skills. The Barbarian is by far the most powerful melee fighting character on a pound-per-pound basis and apparently the only one in the original Diablo II (not Lord Of Destruction), who is able to dual-wield one-handed weapons. In the other 2 skill trees, points are spent on the most popular/effect skills such as lightning strike, multiple shot, etc., bypassing all other skills by donating 1 skill point to each prerequisite. These builds generally concentrate on passive skills trees that improve preparation and defence.

One of the more popular amazon builds is the bowazon/javazon in the expansion which allows the characters to equip 2 sets of weapons. Amazons have fairly effective crowd control skills, mostly stemming from the "Multiple Shot" skill, which splits a single arrow or bolt show into multiple, all heading in the same direction. Extremely useful in PvP but often despised when used. So, it turns around 180 degrees and goes through the same enemy again and does this many times, effectively tripling or quadrupling one shot.

Under normal circumstances the arrow will continue forward in its path, but because of the auto-seeking nature of this skill, it targets the nearest enemy - which is the one it has just penetrated. When the arrow penetrates the enemy, it does not disappear but instead goes through its body. When coupled with another skill that automatically seeks out the enemy (similar to a homing/guided missile), it became very deadly. A passive skill in her skill tree allows her a percentage chance to fire arrows straight through their targets (higher the skill, higher the percentage; tops near 35 percent).

Amazons became popular in the earlier days due to a exploit in the game. The most popular weapons for this character are: Windforce (a legendary, ultra-elite, ultra-rare item once considered to be the most expensive item in the game, Lord Of Destruction only), Buriza Ballista (A crossbow; though an elite item, it is very easy to find or obtain with some trading) and Titan's Revenge (main weapon for amazons, this is because an amazon skill allows it to deal massive damage). Amazon is one of the more popular classes in Diablo II. The Amazon can use skills from the Javelin & Spear, Passive & Magic, and Bow & Crossbow skill trees.

The Amazon is different in that she can also use javelins and spears adeptly. The Amazon is most similar to the Rogue of Diablo: both are primarily associated with bows and crossbows, and both are middle points between pure strength and pure magic. Her skills are oriented around personal (generally passive) protective abilities, the use of a bow and arrow (whose abilities are linked with the elements of fire and ice), as well as the spear and javelin (whose abilities are linked with the elements of lightning and poison). While the Barbarian relies on brute strength and weapon skills, and the Paladin on auras and other special abilities, many of the Amazon's abilities require far more attention.

The Amazon is an "active skill"-oriented fighter. The third brother, Baal, is encountered in Act 5, which is added by the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion pack. The rest of the story is revealed through the four acts, as the player eventually confronts Diablo and his brother Mephisto. The player plays a character in the wake of the destruction, following the Dark Wanderer, hoping to halt him.

He is compelled to follow the Wanderer for reasons he himself does not understand. In the opening scene of Diablo II, Marius, the narrator of the story, witnesses the hero (known as the Dark Wanderer) totally lose control, unleashing the demons of hell upon a tavern. Before long, Diablo is more in control than the hero. However, the hero is rapidly corrupted by Diablo and quickly begins to lose control.

The hero then takes Diablo's soulstone (a device that is used to bind the soul of any demon or angel) and puts it into his own body, hoping to contain his soul for all eternity. At the end of Diablo, Diablo, the Lord of Terror, was defeated. The story of Diablo II takes place soon after the end of the original Diablo. Monsters, PvM), groups of players with specific sets of complementary skills can finish some of the game's climactic battles in a matter of seconds, providing strong incentives for party-oriented character builds.

As the game can be played cooperatively (Players vs. These players are often called Pkers (Player Killers) by the Battle.Net community. random assaults of other players) led to a community of certain PvPers finding ways to interfere with other high-level parties, or repetitively wipe out low-level players. PvP play outside the framework of duels (i.e.

player (PvP) combat, rewarding victors with piles of gold and the severed ear of their enemy. As an added dimension, Diablo II allows players to engage in competitive player vs. Completion of the game on one difficulty level allows progression to the next. However, advanced equipment ("exceptional" and "elite" items) is available only in the higher difficulty levels.

For example, in the Hell level of difficulty, every monster encountered is immune to one or more elements, and therefore unaffected by a certain type of damage such as cold, fire, lightning, poison, physical or magical damage. On the second and third, monsters deal more damage and are generally harder to defeat. In addition to the four/five acts there are also three difficulty levels: Normal, Nightmare and Hell. Each act culminates with the destruction of a boss type monster.

Each act follows a predetermined path with preselected quests, although most of the maps themselves are randomly generated, in single player mode, the map is randomly generated but sticks to the setting thereafter, in multiplayer mode, it resets each time you restart. The Diablo II storyline is played through four acts, five with Lord of Destruction. The Diablo II expansion pack, Lord of Destruction, adds two new classes: the Druid and Assassin. Each character has different strengths and weaknesses and sets of skills to choose from.

Classic Diablo II allows the player to choose between five different characters; Necromancer, Amazon, Barbarian, Sorceress and Paladin. While fairly old for today's standards, the game continues to be one of the world's most played online games. Diablo II was a runaway success for Blizzard, and still is. The game uses an isometric oblique top-down viewpoint.

The differences between Diablo II and a regular RPG is the greater emphasis on combat in Diablo II and the large amount of randomness in monster properties, level layouts and item drops. Players pick one of five heroes (seven with the Lord of Destruction expansion pack) and fight monsters to level up their character and gain better items. Diablo II is an action-RPG released in July 2000 by Blizzard Entertainment. .

An expansion to Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, was released in 2001, and is now at version 1.11b. It has also become the 9th best selling computer game and number one best selling RPG for the PC, selling around four million copies. Diablo II may be played as a single player game, multi-player via a LAN or serverless TCP/IP, or multi-player via Battle.net, with the latter being the most popular. Major factors that contributed to Diablo II's success include what fans found to be addictive hack and slash gameplay and free access to Battle.net.

By 2001, Diablo II had become one of the most popular online games ever. Diablo II was developed by Blizzard North. It was released for both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS in 2000 by Blizzard Entertainment. Diablo II, sequel to the popular Diablo, is an action-oriented adventure with role-playing game elements in a hack and slash or "Dungeon Roaming" style.

The Halls of Vaught = Fredrick Vaught. Schaefer's Mallet = Erich/Max Schaefer. Civerb's set = surnames of David Brevik and Peter Brevik, spelled backwards (and replacing the 'k' with a 'c'). Shenk the Overseer = Phil Shenk.

Lord de Seis = Rick Seis. Colenzo the Annihilator = Karin Colenzo. Skewer (of) Krinitz = Kris Renkewitz. Rixot’s Keen = Erik Sexton.

Rusthandle = (Mark) Sutherland. Bverrit Keep = Peter Brevik. (The) Mahim-Oak Curio = Michio Okamura. Nokozan Relic = Karin Colenzo.

Items left on the ground disappear after around 10 minutes, even if a character remains near them. Players now have a specified trading system, instead of just dropping items onto the ground for others. Players also cannot go hostile/duel with other players below level 9. If a user turns hostile toward you, or makes him/herself able to attack you instead of enemies, they MUST be in town and you will be made aware.

In the multi-player version you cannot be randomly "PK"ed (Player Killed) by another user without warning. It was, somehow, replaced by Cold damage and Poison damage, however several necromancer "bone" skills, paladin and barbarian skills do use Magical attacks. Although Magical damage still exists, it can no longer be resisted with the use of items. Inclusion of monster health and experience indicating meters.

Stashes in towns to store items, as opposed to leaving items in town's grounds. Simplified, icon based store system, replacing the text based system. Increases in the average amount of monster, player and item attributes. Bows and missile weapons now require arrows to fire.

Monsters can now be attacked as long as the mouse buttons are held. Inclusion of running and stamina system. Monsters now respawn after saving. Ability to use "Alt" key to list items on ground by marking them with text above them.

Games can now by replayed after seeing the ending. More types of random items, with the prefix-and-suffix system of Diablo extended to groups of attributes in the case of rare items. Items now cannot be destroyed by losing all durability. Quest rewards are now randomized, no more set rewards.

Overlapping quests were removed, now everyone receives the same quests. The waypoint system to teleport between explored levels and acts. More types of items and new item slots, such as belts. Only the owner of the body can reclaim the items stored in the body.

When a character dies, all items being worn that will not fit into that characters inventory at the time of death, is stored in a body. Players now respawn after dying, but with penalties. Removal of 'save anywhere' feature, monsters and ground items reset after saving. Removal of almost all spell scrolls, leaving only identify and town portal scrolls.

Removal of many potions, especially skill increase potions. Removal of spell books and ability to learn spells, replaced by skills tree, an innovation from designer Hedlund that has become part of the language of the genre. Shields: Attacker takes damage of 20. Helms/Armor: Regenerate mana 19%, replenish life +5.

Weapons: 4% life leech, 3% mana leech. Shields: 19 to all resistences. Helms/Armor: +100 to attack rating. Weapons: 68% increased damage to undead.

Sheields: 40 to defense. Helms/Armor: 10 to strength. Weapons: 150 to attack rating. Shields: 40% lightning resist.

Helms/Armor: 24% to magic find. Weapons: 1-40 Lightning damage. Shields: 40% poison resist. Helms/Armor: 10 to dexterity.

Weapons: 100 poison damage over 7 seconds. Shields: 40% fire resist. Helms/Armor: 38 to life. Weapons: 1-40 Fire damage.

Shields: 40% cold resist. Helms/Armor: 38 to mana. Weapons: 1-40 Cold damage (slows enemies).