Diablo II

Production Manager: Karin Colenzo. See body piercing aftercare for more information on the healing process for pierced ears. Story Concept and Script Editor: Chris Metzen. It is worth noting that there has never been a documented case of HIV transmission due to ear/body piercing or tattooing, although there have been instances of the Hepatitis B virus being transmitted through these practices (see CDC Fact Sheet: HIV and Its Transmission). Story and Dialog: Kurt Beaver, Stieg Hedlund, Matthew Householder, Phil Shenk, Robert Vieira. However, modern piercing techniques make this risk extremely small (the risk being greater to the piercer than to the piercee due to the potential splash-back of blood). Additional Game Design: Eric Sexton. As with any invasive procedure, there is always a risk of infection from blood borne pathogens such as hepatitis and HIV.

Level Design: Derek McAuley, Stefan Scandizzo, Grant Wilson. The use of a sterilized hollow piercing needle tends to minimize the trauma to the tissue, and minimize the chances of contracting a bacterial infection during the procedure. Additional Sound Effects: Joseph Lawrence Futurity. There have been several documented cases of people developing severe infections of the upper ear following piercing with an ear piercing instrument, which required courses of antibiotics and/or surgery to clear up. Sound Design: Scott Peterson, Jonathan Stone, Matt Uelmen. Also, because there is substantially less blood flow in ear cartilage than in the earlobe, infection is a much more serious issue. Music: Matt Uelmen. With cartilage piercing, the blunt force of an ear piercing instrument will traumatize the cartilage, and therefore make healing more difficult.

Background Artists: Alan Ackerman, Ben Boos, David Glenn, Alex Munn, Mark Sutherland, Marc Tattersall, Fredrick Vaught. Also, larger gauge jewellery will lessen the chance of the earring being torn out. 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. Earlobe tearing, during the healing period or after healing is complete, can be minimized by not wearing earrings, especially wire-based dangle earrings, during activities in which they are likely to become snagged, such as while playing sports. Lead Character Artist: Phil Shenk. More commonly, the person will develop an allergic reaction to nickel in some jewelry. 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. Earlobes will sometimes develop a minor infection.

Lead Programmer: Rick Seis. The health risks with conventional earlobe piercing tend to be minimal, particularly if proper technique and hygenic procedures are followed. Design: Stieg Hedlund. After healing, earlobe piercings will shrink to smaller gauges in the prolonged absence of earrings, but may never completely disappear. Technical Producer: Michael Huang. Cartilage piercings will usually require more healing time than earlobe piercings, sometimes 2-3 times as long. Kern, Kenneth Williams. Piercing professionals recommend wearing earrings in the newly pierced ears for at least 6 months, and sometimes even a full year.

Producer: Mark E. After that time, earrings can be changed, but if the hole is left unfilled for an extended period of time, there is some danger of the piercing closing. Senior Producer: Matthew Householder, Bill Roper. Initial healing time for an earlobe piercing performed with an ear piercing instrument is typically 6-8 weeks. Executive Producer: Michael Morhaime. In primitive cultures and among some neo-primitive body piercing enthusiasts, the piercing is made using other tools, such as bone spurs. Project and Design Leads: David Brevik, Erich Schaefer, Max Schaefer. This procedure is available at body piercing shops, and often also at tattoo shops that also offer body piercing.

Among fans, this has resulted in elevated hopes for a Diablo III release. This technique is similar to the early sewing needle approach, but when done by a professional body piercer is extremely safe, less painful than an instrument piercing, and produces a piercing with faster healing time. Listings for various game development positions within the Diablo team were simultaneously listed, as well. An alternative and growing practice is to use a hollow piercing needle, as is used for body piercing. 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]. Cartilage piercings tend to be more painful. Rumors of a sequel to Diablo II have been, for the most part, entirely insubstantial. An earlobe piercing performed with an ear piercing instrument is often described as feeling similar to being snapped by a rubber band.

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. Today most people in the Western world have their ears pierced with an ear piercing instrument in specialty jewelry or accessory stores, or at home using disposable ear piercing instruments. This may or may not be a reply to WoW players (non-seriously) asking for one. Ear piercing instruments, sometimes called ear piercing guns, were originally developed for physician use but with modifications became available in retail settings. 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". However, these could slip from their initial placement position, often resulting in more discomfort, and many times would not go all the way through the earlobe without additional pressure being applied. A Lightning enchanted monster in the secret cow level is usually The Cow King. Another method for piercing ears, first made popular in the 1960s, is the use of sharpened spring-loaded earrings known as self-piercers, which gradually push through the earlobe.

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. Alternatively, a gold stud or wire earring may be directly inserted into the fresh piercing as the initial retaining device. Killing The Cow King in this fashion would not result in the original player being exempt from opening portals to the cow level. sewing thread may be drawn through the piercing and tied, as a device for keeping the piercing open during the healing process. 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. A long-standing home method involves using ice as a local anesthetic, a sewing needle as a puncture instrument, a burning match and rubbing alcohol for "sterilization", and a semi-soft object, such as a potato, cork, or rubber eraser, as a push point. Doing so will result in that character being unable to open future secret cow levels of that difficulty. A variety of techniques are used to pierce ears, ranging from "do it yourself" methods using household items to medically sterile methods using specialized equipment.

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. However, these forms of ear piercing are uncommon compared to standard ear piercing. 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. In addition, earlobe stretching, while common in primitive cultures for thousands of years, started to appear in Western civilization in the 1990s, and is now a fairly common sight. 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. These include the tragus piercing, antitragus piercing, rook piercing, industrial piercing, helix piercing, orbital piercing, daith piercing, and conch piercing. This changed, somewhat, with the release of patch 1.10, halving the cows' experience rate and item drops. A variety of specialized cartilage piercings have since become popular.

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. Asymmetric styles with more and more piercings became popular, eventually leading to the cartilage piercing trend. This will open a portal to the secret level. Initially, the trend was for females to wear a second set of earrings in the earlobes, or for males to double-pierce a single earlobe. 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. Multiple piercings in one or both ears first emerged in mainstream America in the 1970s. However, there really was a cow level in the sequel, Diablo II. Since the early 1990s, the concept has largely lost its signficance (bmezine.com).

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). Sometimes, men would pierce a particular side to symbolize their preferred role in a relationship (see hanky code), or for personal style preference. This added fuel to the fire. However, the convention tended to vary from one region to the next, and was not always followed. 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!"). Men with bilateral ear piercings were relatively rare, and were sometimes interpreted as effeminate or bisexual. The rumor was a hoax, but the legend was born, and player after player asked Blizzard about how to access the level. In some circles, it was the left ear, while in others, the right.

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. In the latter part of the 20th century, some Americans and Europeans adopted the convention that when a man pierced just one of his ears, it symbolized his being gay. 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. T was an early example of an American celebrity wearing earrings in both ears, although this trend did not become popular with mainstream American males until the 1990s. Additionally, other items are references to movies or books. The heavily jeweled Mr. Examples of locations taken from development team:. British males started piercing both ears in the 1980s; George Michael of Wham! was a prominent example.

Examples of item names taken from the developer team:. By the 1980s, the trend for male popular music performers to have pierced ears helped establish a fashion trend for men, which was later adopted by many professional athletes. Examples of monster names taken from the development team:. In the late 1970s, amateur piercings - often with safety pins and multiple piercings - became popular in the punk rock community. Examples of item names that are anagrams of developer names:. In the late 1960s, ear piercing began to make inroads into the male population through the hippie and gay communities. Many of the people, items and places in Diablo II are named after Blizzard employees and their loved ones. At these events, a nurse or other trained person would perform the procedure, either pushing a sharpened and sterilized starter earring through the earlobe by hand, or using an ear-piercing instrument modified from the design used by physicians.

Many gameplay features were changed from the first Diablo, including:. Department stores throughout the country would hold ear piercing events, sponsored by earring manufacturers. The ladder is periodically reset, making all characters previously listed on the ladder become non-ladder. By the 1970s, ear piercing was common among many females, thus creating a broader market for the procedure. Ladder characters are ranked on the ladder, and may not interact with non-ladder characters as of patch 1.10. Some of the earliest commercial, non-medical locations for getting an ear piercing appeared in the 1960s at Manhattan jewelry stores, although the overall commercial market was still in its infancy. 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. Ear piercing became commonly available in physician offices.

Players can create characters to play in "softcore", "hardcore", "softcore ladder", or "hardcore ladder" modes. Such an event is depicted in the 1978 motion picture Grease, where Sandy (Olivia Newton-John), the leading lady, is pierced by her friends. If a character isn't played for a span of 3 months it gets automatically deleted by Battle.net. Teenage girls were known to hold ear piercing parties, where they performed the procedure on one another. Characters can only be played within a game. At that time, the practice re-emerged, but since there did not exist a commercial market, most ear piercings were done at home. From dueling channels to trading channels, players can meet up with others to talk, arrange duels, trade, etc. Ear piercing continued to be practiced by Western women of various cultures, e.g., Hispanic, but was less common in Anglo-based cultures until the 1960s.

As there are different games for different purposes, there are different channels for players to enter and use to chat. There was also a long-held belief that puncturing the earlobe was beneficial to increasing the accuity of eyesight (see acupuncture) or of hearing (perhaps through resonance). 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. There continued to be a small male following, however, particularly among sailors, where a pierced earlobe often meant that the wearer had sailed around the world or had crossed the equator. 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). Pierced ears were popular in the United States through the early 1920s, then fell into disfavor among women due to the rising popularity of clip-on earrings. There are generally many more cheats on the open realm because character data can be altered locally. Ear piercing is one of the oldest known forms of body modification, with artistic and written references from cultures around the world dating back to early history.

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. The holes become permanent when a flesh tunnel is created by scar tissue forming around the initial earring. 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 holes may be permanent or temporary. At one point it was believed to prevent the wearer from losing experince points when they die, but that was later disproven. Pierced ears are earlobes or the cartilage portion of the external ears which have had one or more holes created in them for the wearing of earrings. It has a level 90 requirement. Besides permanent installations, locking earrings are occasionally worn by people of both genders, due to their personal symbolism or erotic value.

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. Occasionally, hoop earrings are permanently installed by the use of solder, though this poses some risks due to toxicity of metals used in soldering and the risk of burns from the heat involved. In addition, a Standard of Heroes is dropped for each player in the level. They appear today in the form of larger gauge rings which are difficult or impossible for the wearer to remove without assistance. This charm grants +3 to skills for a specific character class, and provides other nice bonuses. They were once used as a mark of slavery or ownership (e.g., see Ex.21:2-6). When all three are dead, the last one killed drops a unique large charm , called the Hellfire Torch. Whereas most earrings worn in the Western world are designed to be removed fairly easily to be changed at will, earrings can also be permanent (non-removable).

This opens a portal to "Über Tristram", where there are more powerful versions of the three Prime Evils (Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal). Several varieties of non-pierced earrings have been invented over the years, presumably so that the wearers could avoid the discomfort of having their ears pierced. The body parts must be combined with the Horadric Cube while standing in the Act 5 town (again on Hell difficulty). Body piercing jewelry is often used for ear piercings, and is selected for a variety of reasons including the availability of larger gauges, better piercing techniques, and a disdain for mainstream jewelry. 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. Regardless of the type, modern standard pierced earrings have two primary means of attachment: posts and wires. 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). .

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. Although not as common as with females, ear piercing among males has also become popular in North America and Europe. 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. This has become somewhat controversial because of its involuntary nature, similar to, but much less severe than circumcision. 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. In many cultures, it is common to pierce the ears of young girls soon after birth. The second act hirelings, for example, previously notorious for dying quickly, have many extra abilities (including auras). Earrings are worn around the world in most cultures, both currently and historically.

Moreover, there were many improvements to hirelings in general to make them more viable as actual help. People who habitually wear heavy earrings may find that over time, the earlobe and piercing stretch. They can be equipped with weapons, healed, and they also become stronger with experience. Earring size is generally limited by the physical capacity of the earlobe to hold the earring without tearing. Hirelings persist for as long as they are wanted, and they can be resurrected for a fee that varies with their level. Earring designs can range from small loops or studs to large plates or dangling items. Luckily, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction improved on this concept. Earring components can be made out of any number of materials, including metal, glass, precious stones and beads.

In the original Diablo II, mercenaries couldn't be ressurected and did not follow the character from act to act. The simple term "ear piercing" usually refers to an earlobe piercing, whereas piercings in the upper part of the external ear are often referred to as "cartilage piercings." Cartilage piercings are more complex to perform than earlobe piercings, and take longer to heal. There are no mercenaries in Act IV, but in Act V you can hire a barbarian with a sword. Earrings are attached to the ear through a piercing in the earlobe or some other external part of the ear, except in the case of a clip earring, which clips onto the lobe. In the Act III, one of three elemental mages can be hired. Earrings are worn by both genders, although they are generally more commonly worn by women. In Act II, a spear-wielding mercenary is available. Earrings are often made out of metal but can also be made out of bone or similar hard material.

In Act I, a Rogue hireling (as in the original Diablo) is available. An earring is an ornament that is worn in the ear. Different mercenaries are available in each encampment. ISBN 8881189739. Diablo II allows the player to hire mercenaries in the towns of Act I, II, III and V. van Cutsem, Anne, A World of Earrings: Africa, Asia, America, Skira, 2001. Unless you are already using a mercenary, you can gain a free Act 1 mercenary from killing Blood Raven. ISBN 0965046931.

You can hire mercenaries in Acts II, III, and IV anytime you're there. Vale, V., Modern Primitives, RE/Search, 1989. 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. ISBN 0533112370. It is also possible to combine rune combinations into socketable items to create crazily powerful items. Steinbach, Ronald D., The Fashionable Ear: A History of Ear Piercing Trends for Men and Women, Vantage Press, 1995. Again, the attributes change accordingly to each rune as well as where it is socketed. ISBN 0892818093.

Their attributes can range anywhere from '+75 poison damage over 2 seconds' to 'Knockback' in weapons. Mercury, Maureen and Haworth, Steve, Pagan Fleshworks: The Alchemy of Body Modification, Park Street Press, 2000. Runes The most powerful things that can be socketed, runes are found only in LoD. ISBN 0743213041. Found only in LoD. McNab, Nan, Body Bizarre Body Beautiful, Fireside, 2001. Jewels Jewels vary in their attributes, and must be identified with scrolls of identify. ISBN 0500281610.

Skulls:. Mascetti, Daniela and Triossi, Amanda, Earrings: From Antiquity to the Present, Thames and Hudson, 1999. Diamonds:. ISBN 0688038204. Amethysts:. Holmes, Anita, Pierced and Pretty: The Complete Guide to Ear Piercing, Pierced Earrings, and How to Create Your Own, William Morrow and Co., 1988. Topazes:. Spring hoop earrings- spring hoops are almost indistinguishable from standard hoop earrings and stay in place by means of spring force.

Emeralds:. They are considered a novelty item. Rubies:. Stick-on earrings - Stick-on earrings are adhesive-backed items which stick to the skin of the earlobe and simulate the look of a (pierced) stud earring. Sapphires:. Magnetic earrings - Magnetic earrings simulate the look of a (pierced) stud earring by attaching to the earlobe with a magnetic back that hold the earring in place on by magnetic force. The following values are for the perfect forms of the gems:. It stays on by pinching the ear.

You can upgrade gems by placing three identical gems into the Horadric cube, then transmuting them to get one of the next level. Ear cuff - An ear cuff is a curved band of metal that is pressed onto the helix of the ear. GEMS: Gems vary in value, ranging from 'Chipped' to 'Perfect'; as the gem value gets higher, its attributes become more powerful. Once extremely popular with American women, they began to fade with the rising popularity of pierced earrings in the 1960s and 1970s, and are now relatively rare. As such, it behaves much like a bag of holding, increasing carrying capacity. They are designed with a tension clip that attaches them to the body by pinching the earlobe. 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. Clip-on earrings - Clip-on earrings have existed longer than any other variety of non-pierced earrings.

With Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, the Horadric Cube can endow items with random properties not found on items dropped by monsters. Flesh tunnels are most commonly used in larger gauge piercings either because weight is a concern to the wearer or for aesthetic reasons. For example, 3 partial rejuvenation potions may be combined to produce a full rejuvenation potion. Flesh tunnels - Flesh Tunnels, also known as eyelets, are similar to flesh plugs, only they are hollow in the middle. This is an in-game artifact, attained in Act II, that can transmute items into other items. They are usually used in large gauge piercings. One interesting new component is the "Horadric Cube". Some plugs have flared ends to hold them in place, others require small elastic rubber rings ("O-rings") to keep them from falling out.

Each set contains from 2 to 6 items. Flesh plugs - Flesh plugs are short cylinders. With the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion, there are a total of 15 normal item sets and 15 exceptional/elite item sets. This allows for much easier insertion and removal than with ball closure rings, but at the loss of a continuous look. the whole of the set is greater than the sum the bonuses of each individual item. Circular rings - Circular rings are similar to ball closure rings, except that they have a larger gap, and have a permanently attached bead at one end, and a threaded bead at the other, like barbells. These bonuses are not available with only one item of a set or a variety of different sets; i.e. Since the threads on externally threaded barbells tend to irriate the piercing, internal threads have become the most common variety.

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 . The other end is threaded, either externally or tapped with an internal thread, and the other bead is screwed into place after the barbell is inserted through the ear. When some or all of the items in a certain collection are equipped by a certain character they become more powerful. Barbells - Barbells are comprised of a straight piece of metal, with a bead permanently fixed to one end. Set items all form part of a small collection, or set. Larger gauge ball closure rings exhibit considerable tension, and may require ring expanding pliers for insertion and removal of the bead. In the expansion, Blizzard North reduced the chance of a good rare drop. The gap is closed with a small bead that is held in place by the ring's tension.

Prior to the expansion, rares were highly desirable due to its many modifiers. Ball closure rings - Ball closure rings, also known as captive bead rings, or CBRs, are a style of body piercing jewelry that is an almost 360^o ring with a small gap for insertion through the ear. Rare item names are displayed in yellow text. Slave earrings - A rarely seen type of earring is the slave earring, in which a stud is connected by a delicate chain to an ear cuff (see below) or a cartilage pierce worn higher on the ear. These are more rare than the regular magic items, and can contain more magic modifiers but are not necessarily better. Rarely, dangle earrings use the post attachment design. 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. A variation is the French hook design, which merely hangs from the earlobe without closure, although small plastic retainers are sometimes used on ends of French hooks.

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. They are generally attached to the ear by the use of thin wires, which go through the earlobe and connect to themselves in a small hook at the back. Alongside of gems and runes are the infamous jewels, which could create massively powerful items. Dangle earrings - Dangle earrings are designed to flow from the bottoms of the earlobes, and are available in various lengths from a centimeter or two, all the way to brushing the shoulders. 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. Because their small size makes them comfortable, sleepers are sometimes worn at night to keep an ear piercing from closing. Some weapons can be socketed with gems that convey additional abilities. This is a very small continuous piece of (typically) gold wire which essentially hugs the base of the earlobe with the ends connecting in the back.

While Diablo provided for almost no item customization, Diablo II improves in this area considerably. One special type of hoop earring is the sleeper earring. There are several new game concepts introduced in Diablo II absent in its predecessor. The other end is inserted into the tubing or bead, and is held in place by tension. This character class sports expertise in wands and daggers. One of the ends is permanently attached to a small piece of metallic tubing or a hollow metallic bead. The Necromancer's skill tree is based around summoning creatures and cursing the minions of the undead. In this design, the earring is constructed of a continuous piece of solid metal, which penetrates through the ear and can be rotated almost 360^o.

Through their wisdom, these "Necromancers" have learned not to question the threshold of mortality, but to accept it as a part of life. A variation is the continuous hoop earring. Living deep underground, these magi have learned how to raise the undead to fight for them. Other hoop designs do not complete the circle, but penetrate through the ear in a post, using the same attachment techniques that apply to stud earrings. In Diablo 2, the Priests of Rathma are a segregated group of magi that study the concept of mortality. The entire device is held together by tension between the wire and the tube. However, Bonemacers are still one of the best players in PvP. The hollow tubing is permanently attached to the wire at the front of the ear, and slips into the tube at the back.

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. They are often constructed of metal tubing, with a thin wire attachment penetrating the ear. 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. Hoop earrings - hoop earrings are circular or semi-circular in design, and look very similar to a ring. 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. This is useful in preventing the loss of expensive earrings containing precious stones or made of precious metals. Theses types of Necros arent as common as the "Bonemancers". Occasionally, the stud earring is constructed so that the post is threaded, allowing a screw back to securely hold the earring in place.

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. The post is held in place by a removable friction back or clutch. 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. Studs are invariably constructed on the end of a post, which penetrates straight through the ear. Generally, Amplify Damage and Decrepify are most used. Stud earrings - The main characteristic of stud earrings is the appearance of floating on the ear or earlobe without a visible (from the front) point of connection. 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).