Diablo II

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. It was released for both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS in 2000 by Blizzard Entertainment. Diablo II was developed by Blizzard North.

By 2001, Diablo II had become one of the most popular online games ever. 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. 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. It has also become the 9th best selling computer game and number one best selling RPG for the PC, selling around four million copies.

An expansion to Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, was released in 2001, and is now at version 1.11b.

Overview

Diablo II is an action-RPG released in July 2000 by Blizzard Entertainment. 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. 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. The game uses an isometric oblique top-down viewpoint.

Diablo II was a runaway success for Blizzard, and still is. While fairly old for today's standards, the game continues to be one of the world's most played online games.

Classic Diablo II allows the player to choose between five different characters; Necromancer, Amazon, Barbarian, Sorceress and Paladin. Each character has different strengths and weaknesses and sets of skills to choose from.

The Diablo II expansion pack, Lord of Destruction, adds two new classes: the Druid and Assassin.

The Diablo II storyline is played through four acts, five with Lord of Destruction. 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. Each act culminates with the destruction of a boss type monster.

In addition to the four/five acts there are also three difficulty levels: Normal, Nightmare and Hell. On the second and third, monsters deal more damage and are generally harder to defeat. 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. However, advanced equipment ("exceptional" and "elite" items) is available only in the higher difficulty levels. Completion of the game on one difficulty level allows progression to the next.

As an added dimension, Diablo II allows players to engage in competitive player vs. player (PvP) combat, rewarding victors with piles of gold and the severed ear of their enemy. PvP play outside the framework of duels (i.e. 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. These players are often called Pkers (Player Killers) by the Battle.Net community.

As the game can be played cooperatively (Players vs. 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.

Story

The story of Diablo II takes place soon after the end of the original Diablo. At the end of Diablo, Diablo, the Lord of Terror, was defeated. 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. However, the hero is rapidly corrupted by Diablo and quickly begins to lose control. Before long, Diablo is more in control than the hero. 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. He is compelled to follow the Wanderer for reasons he himself does not understand. The player plays a character in the wake of the destruction, following the Dark Wanderer, hoping to halt him. The rest of the story is revealed through the four acts, as the player eventually confronts Diablo and his brother Mephisto. The third brother, Baal, is encountered in Act 5, which is added by the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion pack.

Character Classes

Amazon

The Amazon is an "active skill"-oriented fighter. 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. 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).

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. The Amazon is different in that she can also use javelins and spears adeptly.

The Amazon can use skills from the Javelin & Spear, Passive & Magic, and Bow & Crossbow skill trees.

Amazon is one of the more popular classes in Diablo II. 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).

Amazons became popular in the earlier days due to a exploit in the game. 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). When coupled with another skill that automatically seeks out the enemy (similar to a homing/guided missile), it became very deadly. When the arrow penetrates the enemy, it does not disappear but instead goes through its body. 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. So, it turns around 180 degrees and goes through the same enemy again and does this many times, effectively tripling or quadrupling one shot. Extremely useful in PvP but often despised when used.

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.

One of the more popular amazon builds is the bowazon/javazon in the expansion which allows the characters to equip 2 sets of weapons. These builds generally concentrate on passive skills trees that improve preparation and defence. 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.

Barbarian

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. His skills are divided into various weapon masteries, warcries, and combat skills. 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 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. Warcries differ from the auras of the paladin in that they are single-use and impermanent. The barbarian's combat skills are attacks that maximize brute force, his greatest asset.

The Barbarian can cast spells from the Warcries, Combat Masteries, and Combat Skills skill trees.

Barbarian history in Classic DII

This character was the damage powerhouse in the early history of Diablo II. 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. 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.

Barbarian Strategy

Barbarian strategy typically follows only one guideline with small variations. Most Barbarians make use of the skills Iron Skin, Battle Orders, Whirlwind, and Combat Masteries. 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. 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. One also must be careful not to spin into a crowd of monsters, as once a spin is started it can't be stopped. 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. Major changes in the 1.10 patch have made certain low level skills augment higher level skills and vice versa. Thus, a popular build involves a maximum contribution to battle orders and concentration. 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).

Paladin

The Paladin is a warrior fighting for all that is good. To reflect this, the Paladin has combat skills ranging from fanatical attacks to anti-undead spells. His specialty, however, lies in auras that buff himself and his party. 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. 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.

The Paladin is the only character able to use his shield as a weapon in a smite attack. The more powerful the shield, the more damage he can deal with it (also, paladins typically have the best "blocking" rate).

The Paladin can cast spells From the Defensive Auras, Combat Skills, and Offensive Auras skill trees.

Paladin history & Strategy in Classic DII

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 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.

When the game was released, the Conversion + Thorns skill combo was extremely effective. 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. This build cleared the hardest levels with ease, so it came as no surprise that it was weakened in patch 1.03. Unfortunately, nothing else in his skill trees was quite as good, and the class slipped into obscurity.

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. Thus when used, you can do massive elemental damage to your opponent with just one hit.

Then Blessed Hammer was discovered to be useful. Originally a weak and hard to aim magical attack, until it was discovered that the Concentration aura affected Blessed Hammer as well. This resulted in the infamous hammerdin, an odd caster build capable of killing any normal monster in the game in a few hits. If the skill is maxed, each hammer can deal over 10,000 damage (17,000 in 1.11), with enough skill bonuses from items.

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.

Before patch 1.10, a technique known as "flashing" was common. 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. The result would be two simultaneous auras, one augmenting the paladin's abilities and one weakening an enemy's. After 1.10, however, this strategy is no longer viable: auras now either change instantly or with unreliable speed.

Sorceress

The Sorceress focuses on ranged elemental spells in three areas: cold, lightning, and fire. Her cold-based spells have the benefit of chilling affected enemies (slowing them down) or freezing them (stopping them completely). Moreover, any chilled or frozen enemies may shatter instead of leaving a corpse. (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. Fire spells usually have a more consistent damage range, with the most popular skill Fireball doing about 20,000 damage or more.

The strong points of Sorceress are powerful damaging spells and mobility (teleporting quickly), which is valuable in multiplayer games. The weak points are strength and defense. 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 Sorceress can cast spells From the Cold, Lightning, and Fire skill trees.

Sorceress history & strategy in Classic DII

Prior to the expansion pack, the sorceress was fairly weak. 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. 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. 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.

At first, most sorceress builds revolved around getting as many skill level bonus items as possible to increase damage. This was not an effective option, though, and soon the attention shifted to faster cast rate items. 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. 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. Many looked down upon this "strategy" and the players who used it.

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. 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. For more details, see Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.

After synergies were introduced, some Fire and Lightning sorceresses aim to get 200% faster cast rate. 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.

Sorceress are used extensively for 'Mfing', or Magic finding. Magic finding involves using equipment with special mods to increase the chance that random item drops will be top level Rare and Unique equipment. 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.

The Sorceress' teleport is used extensively for getting to a boss quickly. They are used by parties as a location finder, such as waypoints, boss lairs, etc.

Necromancer

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

In party-oriented play, some of the most powerful skills affect the monster AI. For example, the curse "Attract" causes enemies near the target creature to attack it. Curses such as "Terror" cause groups of creatures to flee, allowing Necromancers to herd and manage the flow of hostile creatures attacking the party.

The Necromancer can cast spells From the Summoning, Poison & Bone, and Curses skill trees.

Necromancer history & strategy in Classic DII

The necromancer has always been an unbalanced character, due to its reliance on corpses and percentage damage effects. Prior to 1.03, the Corpse Explosion spell was the best skill in the game. 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. The radius of Corpse Explosion was reduced in 1.03, encouraging necromancers to look at other skill options. 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 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". For more details, see Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.

Players today generally find the Bonemancer to be the easiest build. Bone Wall and Bone Prison proved useful for getting out of hairy spots and trapping unaware players in PvP. 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.

Skelliemancers or "Summoners" can be enjoyable to play due to the character being able to control an army of minions. 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. 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. Generally, Amplify Damage and Decrepify are most used. 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. 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. Theses types of Necros arent as common as the "Bonemancers"

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 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. 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. However, Bonemacers are still one of the best players in PvP.

Priests of Rathma

In Diablo 2, the Priests of Rathma are a segregated group of magi that study the concept of mortality. Living deep underground, these magi have learned how to raise the undead to fight for them. Through their wisdom, these "Necromancers" have learned not to question the threshold of mortality, but to accept it as a part of life. The Necromancer's skill tree is based around summoning creatures and cursing the minions of the undead. This character class sports expertise in wands and daggers.

New Game Concepts

There are several new game concepts introduced in Diablo II absent in its predecessor.

Socketed Items

While Diablo provided for almost no item customization, Diablo II improves in this area considerably. Some weapons can be socketed with gems that convey additional abilities. 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.

Alongside of gems and runes are the infamous jewels, which could create massively powerful items. 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. 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.

Rare Items

These are more rare than the regular magic items, and can contain more magic modifiers but are not necessarily better. Rare item names are displayed in yellow text.

Prior to the expansion, rares were highly desirable due to its many modifiers. In the expansion, Blizzard North reduced the chance of a good rare drop.

Set Items

Set items all form part of a small collection, or set. When some or all of the items in a certain collection are equipped by a certain character they become more powerful. 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 . These bonuses are not available with only one item of a set or a variety of different sets; i.e. the whole of the set is greater than the sum the bonuses of each individual item.

With the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion, there are a total of 15 normal item sets and 15 exceptional/elite item sets. Each set contains from 2 to 6 items.

The Horadric Cube

One interesting new component is the "Horadric Cube". This is an in-game artifact, attained in Act II, that can transmute items into other items. For example, 3 partial rejuvenation potions may be combined to produce a full rejuvenation potion. With Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, the Horadric Cube can endow items with random properties not found on items dropped by monsters.

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. As such, it behaves much like a bag of holding, increasing carrying capacity.

Gems, Jewels, Runes

GEMS: Gems vary in value, ranging from 'Chipped' to 'Perfect'; as the gem value gets higher, its attributes become more powerful. You can upgrade gems by placing three identical gems into the Horadric cube, then transmuting them to get one of the next level.

The following values are for the perfect forms of the gems:

Sapphires:

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

Rubies:

• Weapons: 1-40 Fire damage
• Helms/Armor: 38 to life
• Shields: 40% fire resist

Emeralds:

• Weapons: 100 poison damage over 7 seconds
• Helms/Armor: 10 to dexterity
• Shields: 40% poison resist

Topazes:

• Weapons: 1-40 Lightning damage
• Helms/Armor: 24% to magic find
• Shields: 40% lightning resist

Amethysts:

• Weapons: 150 to attack rating
• Helms/Armor: 10 to strength
• Sheields: 40 to defense

Diamonds:

• Weapons: 68% increased damage to undead
• Helms/Armor: +100 to attack rating
• Shields: 19 to all resistences

Skulls:

• Weapons: 4% life leech, 3% mana leech
• Helms/Armor: Regenerate mana 19%, replenish life +5
• Shields: Attacker takes damage of 20

Jewels Jewels vary in their attributes, and must be identified with scrolls of identify. Found only in LoD.

Runes The most powerful things that can be socketed, runes are found only in LoD. Their attributes can range anywhere from '+75 poison damage over 2 seconds' to 'Knockback' in weapons. Again, the attributes change accordingly to each rune as well as where it is socketed. It is also possible to combine rune combinations into socketable items to create crazily powerful items.

Hirelings (Mercenaries)

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. You can hire mercenaries in Acts II, III, and IV anytime you're there. Unless you are already using a mercenary, you can gain a free Act 1 mercenary from killing Blood Raven.

Diablo II allows the player to hire mercenaries in the towns of Act I, II, III and V. Different mercenaries are available in each encampment. In Act I, a Rogue hireling (as in the original Diablo) is available. In Act II, a spear-wielding mercenary is available. In the Act III, one of three elemental mages can be hired. There are no mercenaries in Act IV, but in Act V you can hire a barbarian with a sword.

In the original Diablo II, mercenaries couldn't be ressurected and did not follow the character from act to act. Luckily, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction improved on this concept. Hirelings persist for as long as they are wanted, and they can be resurrected for a fee that varies with their level. They can be equipped with weapons, healed, and they also become stronger with experience. Moreover, there were many improvements to hirelings in general to make them more viable as actual help. The second act hirelings, for example, previously notorious for dying quickly, have many extra abilities (including auras). 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.

The Pandemonium Quest

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. 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.

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 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.

The body parts must be combined with the Horadric Cube while standing in the Act 5 town (again on Hell difficulty). This opens a portal to "Über Tristram", where there are more powerful versions of the three Prime Evils (Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal). When all three are dead, the last one killed drops a unique large charm , called the Hellfire Torch. This charm grants +3 to skills for a specific character class, and provides other nice bonuses. In addition, a Standard of Heroes is dropped for each player in the level. 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. It has a level 90 requirement. At one point it was believed to prevent the wearer from losing experince points when they die, but that was later disproven.

Diablo II on Battle.net

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. 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. There are generally many more cheats on the open realm because character data can be altered locally.

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). 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. As there are different games for different purposes, there are different channels for players to enter and use to chat. From dueling channels to trading channels, players can meet up with others to talk, arrange duels, trade, etc. Characters can only be played within a game. If a character isn't played for a span of 3 months it gets automatically deleted by Battle.net.

Game Styles

Players can create characters to play in "softcore", "hardcore", "softcore ladder", or "hardcore ladder" modes. 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. Ladder characters are ranked on the ladder, and may not interact with non-ladder characters as of patch 1.10. The ladder is periodically reset, making all characters previously listed on the ladder become non-ladder.

Changes from Diablo I

Many gameplay features were changed from the first Diablo, including:

• 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.
• Removal of many potions, especially skill increase potions
• Removal of almost all spell scrolls, leaving only identify and town portal scrolls
• Removal of 'save anywhere' feature, monsters and ground items reset after saving
• Players now respawn after dying, but with penalties
• 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. Only the owner of the body can reclaim the items stored in the body.
• More types of items and new item slots, such as belts
• The waypoint system to teleport between explored levels and acts
• Overlapping quests were removed, now everyone receives the same quests
• Quest rewards are now randomized, no more set rewards
• Items now cannot be destroyed by losing all durability
• More types of random items, with the prefix-and-suffix system of Diablo extended to groups of attributes in the case of rare items.
• Games can now by replayed after seeing the ending
• Ability to use "Alt" key to list items on ground by marking them with text above them
• Monsters now respawn after saving
• Inclusion of running and stamina system
• Monsters can now be attacked as long as the mouse buttons are held
• Bows and missile weapons now require arrows to fire
• Increases in the average amount of monster, player and item attributes
• Simplified, icon based store system, replacing the text based system
• Stashes in towns to store items, as opposed to leaving items in town's grounds
• Inclusion of monster health and experience indicating meters
• Although Magical damage still exists, it can no longer be resisted with the use of items. It was, somehow, replaced by Cold damage and Poison damage, however several necromancer "bone" skills, paladin and barbarian skills do use Magical attacks.
• In the multi-player version you cannot be randomly "PK"ed (Player Killed) by another user without warning. 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. Players also cannot go hostile/duel with other players below level 9.
• Players now have a specified trading system, instead of just dropping items onto the ground for others.
• Items left on the ground disappear after around 10 minutes, even if a character remains near them.

Easter Eggs

Many of the people, items and places in Diablo II are named after Blizzard employees and their loved ones.

Examples of item names that are anagrams of developer names:

• Nokozan Relic = Karin Colenzo
• (The) Mahim-Oak Curio = Michio Okamura
• Bverrit Keep = Peter Brevik
• Rusthandle = (Mark) Sutherland
• Rixot’s Keen = Erik Sexton
• Skewer (of) Krinitz = Kris Renkewitz

Examples of monster names taken from the development team:

• Colenzo the Annihilator = Karin Colenzo
• Lord de Seis = Rick Seis
• Shenk the Overseer = Phil Shenk

Examples of item names taken from the developer team:

• Civerb's set = surnames of David Brevik and Peter Brevik, spelled backwards (and replacing the 'k' with a 'c')
• Schaefer's Mallet = Erich/Max Schaefer

Examples of locations taken from development team:

• The Halls of Vaught = Fredrick Vaught

Additionally, other items are references to movies or books. 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.

The Secret Cow Level

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. The rumor was a hoax, but the legend was born, and player after player asked Blizzard about how to access the level.

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!"). This added fuel to the fire. 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).

However, there really was a cow level in the sequel, Diablo II. 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. This will open a portal to the secret level.

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.

This changed, somewhat, with the release of patch 1.10, halving the cows' experience rate and item drops. 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. 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.

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. Doing so will result in that character being unable to open future secret cow levels of that difficulty. 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. Killing The Cow King in this fashion would not result in the original player being exempt from opening portals to the cow level.

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. A Lightning enchanted monster in the secret cow level is usually The Cow King.

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". This may or may not be a reply to WoW players (non-seriously) asking for one. 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.

Diablo III Rumors

Rumors of a sequel to Diablo II have been, for the most part, entirely insubstantial. 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]. Listings for various game development positions within the Diablo team were simultaneously listed, as well. Among fans, this has resulted in elevated hopes for a Diablo III release.

Game Credits

Project and Design Leads: David Brevik, Erich Schaefer, Max Schaefer

Executive Producer: Michael Morhaime

Senior Producer: Matthew Householder, Bill Roper

Producer: Mark E. Kern, Kenneth Williams

Technical Producer: Michael Huang

Design: Stieg Hedlund

Lead Programmer: Rick Seis

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

Lead Character Artist: Phil Shenk

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

Background Artists: Alan Ackerman, Ben Boos, David Glenn, Alex Munn, Mark Sutherland, Marc Tattersall, Fredrick Vaught

Music: Matt Uelmen

Sound Design: Scott Peterson, Jonathan Stone, Matt Uelmen

Additional Sound Effects: Joseph Lawrence Futurity

Level Design: Derek McAuley, Stefan Scandizzo, Grant Wilson

Additional Game Design: Eric Sexton

Story and Dialog: Kurt Beaver, Stieg Hedlund, Matthew Householder, Phil Shenk, Robert Vieira

Story Concept and Script Editor: Chris Metzen

Production Manager: Karin Colenzo