Diablo II: Resurrected
Diablo Franchise Timeline
Diablo (1996)
Diablo: Hellfire (1997)
Diablo II (2000)
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (2001)
Diablo III (2012) (Fail)
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (2014) (Fail)
Diablo III: Rise of the Necromancer (2017) (Fail)
Diablo II: Resurrected (2021) (Some improvements from D2:LOD)
Diablo Immortal (2022) (Fail)
Diablo IV (Fail)
Source
It took Blizzard 20 years to make another game that was an actual successor to D2:LOD, which was just a remastered version called D2:R. No actual new content for D2 veterans :( ..just upgraded pixels lol.. an actual game that continued off the D2 gameplay style with continued content updates would be Path of Exiles. The PoE development team GGG, also listens to their fan base, unlike Blizzard who just follows money trends. GGG has actually stayed true to the gameplay and further developed PoE, hats off to them! Blizzard has yet to make an actual D2:LOD adaptation, D3 and D4 is still not a correct continuation of the gameplay everyone loves about D2.
For now, at least we can enjoy D2:LOD with upgraded graphics and a bigger stash in D2:R.
Actual Improvements with D2:R
Bigger Stash + Account Usable - You can now transfer items between stashes, no more dropping your items in a game and hoping it's still there.
Stat Display - You will notice a new stat window if you press the "Advanced Stats" button on your stat page. It is still INCOMPLETE though...
Pixel upgrade - You can now play D2:LOD on full screen on higher resolutions and with customizable graphics settings.
Terror Zones - Every hour, a new zone becomes terrorized. Increasing all monster levels in that zone.
Still Not Implemented/Fixed.
To see how many sockets an item has before picking it up.
A complete table of stats, Mercenary auras and your own weapon stats do not get added to the current stat table.
Item Quality number listed on items, the only way to tell you have a high-level item is with a hack or you noticed what level your zone is.
Gear/Weapons to only take 1 inventory space, instead of currently taking multiple depending on the item. Example chest armor is 6 boxes of space.
Runes, Jewels, charms, Gems to have their own menu and not take up inventory space.
More Content OR an expansion/new diablo game that continued/carried over the actual gameplay of D2.
IP Address added to in-game User Interface. Hunting Diablo Clone requires IP Address checking, currently you have to ping yourself in command prompt.
Game crashes randomly, mostly on council mobs casting many hydras or Shenk explosions.
Introduction:
Diablo2:LOD is the best ARPG or Action Role Playing Game in my personal opinion. (Although repetitive, testing your builds or increasing your powers/survivability is why you play)
Consisting of 5 parts in the world Sanctuary, these areas are called "Acts". You then have roughly 10+ zones in each act (except Act 4) to try and survive past or kill everything you want... if your strong enough. Each Act grants you waypoints in all 5 zones to reach certain areas quicker, when combined gives you 39 waypoints and it is the same in each difficulty. You then make games killing the same areas over and over, however that is repetitive and can be very boring. The actual reason people love D2 is because of the quick response time needed to play, you could die in an instant and you can dodge attacks by moving out of the way. This becomes the fun factor and the content becomes irrelevant, you just start testing your characters and getting as strong as possible...
You can create a Town Portal in any Act to reach safety if needed. However, once all the creatures are dead in your game, you will need to create another one.
It is based on a great idea to obtain the maximum level and strive for perfect various stats on an item/gear combination. It started its popularity with Diablo 2, then Diablo 2 Expansion (Lord of Destruction or LOD). After 2 decades or 20 years later, D2:R came in and upgraded the graphics and resolution. You can now play the classic game with a customizable graphics setting and up to 4k resolution. Before, D2 used to be limited to a smaller resolution and if you had more than a 1080p Resolution it would not fit your entire screen. You had to play in windowed mode for best performance back then.
Helpful Websites:
You will benefit greatly by having tabs on your browser open, with these open while you play. Tabbing back and forth between playing, to see if your item identified or rolled perfect stats and if you have the correct crafting materials for a recipe. Also, interacting with the D2jsp community to help with the repetitive nature of the game, due to Blizzard not creating new content for the game. Content is not the reason to play this game, it is the trade community and min/maxing your gear for various builds you create.
D2jsp - Guides/Info, Trading/Community Help/Helping. Uses a currency throughout its entire gaming forums, called FG or Forum Gold. Diablo was its original game on the website, now they have many other games and subject categories. (D2jsp uses words like "Bin" and "Res" in trading. Bin is short for "Buy it now", meaning you will purchase at the specified price. Res means that you will reserve the item for the specified price and a specified countdown will begin, however anyone can still bin the item during this countdown.)
D2:R Item Database - An updated database for Creating or Looking up all item stats etc...
D2 Item Database - The first Database for Diablo, Creating or Looking up all item stats etc...
D2:R Skill Calculator - In order to save time and resources, you can plan/overview your skill combinations here.
Before Playing
It is customary to think of or do some planning on what stats you want. For Example, having enough damage and survivability depends on your build overall.
These are Key Factors for each build, some have Breakpoints (Bp)
Max Block 75% Cap, easiest to reach on paladin class with Holy Shield.
High Defense Rating 12000-20000+, Defiance Aura.
Mana Regen Insight Aura or gear/skill based.
Mana Increase Flat or Percentage.
Mana Steal %
Life Regen Prayer, Cleanse Aura or gear/skill based.
Life Increase Flat or Percentage.
Life Steal %
Physical Damage Reduction %
Damage Reduced by #
All Resists -100 in Hell Difficulty > Lightning, Fire, Cold, Poison.
Max Resists is 75 on all difficulties, unless altered.
Resist Limit Increase 75-90 > 90 is cap for Lightning, Fire, Cold, Poison res limit.
Fire, Lite, or Cold Absorb Usually on rings and runeword gear.
Faster hit recovery Less Stun time so you can move again.
Faster Cast Rate Shorten Cast Time.
Faster Run/Walk % Increases Run Speed.
Sunder Grand Charm / Immunity Breaker Physical, Magic Dmg, Lite, Fire, Cold, Poison.
Mercenary Choice Act 1 Bow, Act 2 Spear+Aura, Act 3 Caster, Act 5 Barbarian.
Magic Find % 150-400 is a good goal.
Gold Find % Can be up to 1000%.
Cannot be Frozen Your character will no longer turn blue and be slowed by cold spells. Merc needs it to also apply to them.
Runes
Perfect Gems
Faster Cast Rate Bp's
Paladin 9 / 18 / 30 / 48 / 75 / 125
Sorc 9 / 20 / 37 / 63 / 105 / 200
Nec 9 / 18 / 30 / 48 / 75 / 125
Barb 9 / 20 / 37 / 63 / 105 / 200
Druid 4 / 10 / 19 / 30 / 46 / 68 / 99 / 163
Zon 7 / 14 / 22 / 32 / 48 / 68 / 99 / 152
Assassin 8 / 16 / 27 / 42 / 65 / 102 / 174
Faster Hit Recovery Bp's
Paladin 7 / 15 / 27 / 48 / 86 / 200
Sorc 5 / 9 / 14 / 20 / 30 / 42 / 60 / 86 / 142 /280
Nec 5 / 10 / 16 / 26 / 39 / 56 / 86 / 152
Barb 7 / 15 / 27 / 48 / 86 / 200
Druid 3 / 7 / 13 / 19 / 29 / 42 / 63 / 99 / 174
Zon 6 / 13 / 20 / 32 / 53 / 86 / 174
Assassin 7 / 15 / 27 / 48 / 86 / 200
Upgrading Runes
3 Thul Runes + 1 Chipped Topaz = Amn Rune
3 Amn Runes + 1 Chipped Amethyst = Sol Rune
3 Sol Runes + 1 Chipped Sapphire = Shael Rune
3 Shael Runes + 1 Chipped Ruby = Dol Rune
3 Dol Runes + 1 Chipped Emerald = Hel Rune
3 Hel Runes + 1 Chipped Diamond = Io Rune
3 Io Runes + 1 Flawed Topaz = Lum Rune
3 Lum Runes + 1 Flawed Amethyst = Ko Rune
3 Ko Runes + 1 Flawed Sapphire = Fal Rune
3 Fal Runes + 1 Flawed Ruby = Lem Rune
3 Lem Runes + 1 Flawed Emerald = Pul Rune
2 Pul Runes + 1 Flawed Diamond = Um Rune
2 Um Runes + 1 Topaz = Mal Rune
2 Mal Runes + 1 Amethyst = Ist Rune
2 Ist Runes + 1 Sapphire = Gul Rune
2 Gul Runes + 1 Ruby = Vex Rune
2 Vex Runes + 1 Emerald = Ohm Rune
2 Ohm Runes + 1 Diamond = Lo Rune
2 Lo Runes + 1 Flawless Topaz = Sur Rune
2 Sur Runes + 1 Flawless Amethyst = Ber Rune
2 Ber Runes + 1 Flawless Sapphire = Jah Rune
2 Jah Runes + 1 Flawless Ruby = Cham Rune
2 Cham Runes + 1 Flawless Emerald = Zod Rune
Unique/Rare Base Upgrading Recipes
Item bases have 3 types.
Check to make sure you have the stats required before upgrading!
Normal Base - Usually the lowest Strength/Dex Req's.
Exceptional Base - Mid Stat Req's.
Elite Base - Highest Stat Req's, Higher Weapon Damage or Defense rating for gear.
Unique Weapons
Normal to Exceptional - Ral + Sol + P emerald
Exceptional to Elite - Lum + Pul + P emerald
Unique Armors
Normal to Exceptional - Tal + Shael + P diamond
Exceptional Elite - Ko + Lem + P diamond
Rare Weapons
Exceptional Rare Weapon
1 Ort Rune + 1 Amn Rune + 1 P Sapphire
Elite Rare Weapon
1 Fal Rune + 1 Um Rune + 1 P Sapphire
Rare Armors
Exceptional Rare Armor
1 Ral Rune + 1 Thul Rune + 1 P Amethyst
Elite Rare Armor
1 Ko Rune + 1 Pul Rune + 1 P Amethyst
Socketing Recipes
What used to be called Ebugging, is now just normal socketing. Each recipe rolls the number of sockets an item will have. You might not get the number of sockets you want, so just be prepared. This one is for making non-max socket items, like an Ethereal 4 socket thresher, which is most used merc weapon base. It has 5 max sockets, so you MUST use this gamble recipe to get 4 sockets (if not found with 4 sockets).
Non-Superior Weapons/Gear Socket Gamble
Weapon - Ral + Amn + P amethyst
Helm - Ral + Thul + P sapphire
Shield - Tal + Amn + P ruby
Armor - Tal + Thul + P topaz
All Items to get Max Sockets 100%
Example: Phase Blade has 6 sockets max, so this quest will give 6 sockets
Place item inside Larzuk's Quest Reward Menu
Location - Act 5 Quest 1 of all difficulties.
3 per character.
1 Socket to Rare Items
Just use the Larzuk Quest Reward to save the Soj!
3 Perfect Skull + 1 Stone of Jordan + Rare Item
Remove all Runes, Gem, Jewel from Item
Do this only when you want to place something else inside the sockets.
Hel Rune + Town Portal + Any Item
Classes
Sorceress
The ability to teleport without Enigma runeword armor and do heavy elemental damage.
Build / Skills
ES is short for Energy Shield, if selected you have to max telekinesis for it to be useful (40 skill points alone) and may use with any build, although it takes a lot of skill points to become useful. This makes it so you drain mana (blue pool), instead of hp points when you take damage. This can essentially be immortal, with a 17 med insight merc... that is until you meet a mana burn monster. Since this takes away useful skill points to increase synergy damage, if you choose to use it. You might have weaker skill damage while using ES. Common build with ES is Nova and Blizzard. It is also weak against mana burn, no matter how much mana you have you will lose your entire mana pool in 1 hit. Majority of the time you will be fine, I just get tired of almost dying from mana burn monsters haha.
Vitality is using hp (red pool) as normal, which decreases when you take damage. You can consider to reaching Max Block 75%, High Defense or just high HP. My personal build just has high HP and Faster Hit Recovery.
Frozen Orb - 1 Synergy + Cold Mastery.
Blizzard - 3 Synergies + Cold Mastery.
Fire Ball - 2 Synergies + Fire Mastery.
Chantress - 1 Synergy + Fire Mastery.
Meteor - 3 Synergies + Fire Mastery.
Firewall - 1 Synergy + Fire Mastery.
Lightning - 3 Synergies + Lightning Mastery.
Nova - 1 Synergy + Lightning Mastery.
ES+Lite Mastery+Chant+Zeal - Max ES, Telekinesis, Lightning Mastery, Enchant. Based on the runeword Passion, you max lightning mastery and anything else you want. In this case Enchant to add more fire damage and attack rating.
Personal Current build
Vitality + 26k Lightning (Boss) / 10k Chain Lightning (Packs), high survivability and ranged damage.
Builds Personally Tested
ES+Nova, Firewall+Enchant, ES+Frozen Orb, ES+Blizzard, Vitality+Nova (hard fail)
Vitality + Lightning/Chain
Diablo Clone Kill: 5/13/2023
Ubers Kill: TBD
Current Level: 94
Softcore Non-Ladder
Skills 102 (lvl 93)
20 Lightning
20 Lightning Mastery
20 Charged Bolt
20 Chain Lightning
18 Nova (20 at level 95)
1 Teleport, 1 Warmth, 1 Thunder Storm (Pre-Buff), 1 Frozen Armor (Pre-Buff)
Reason for the build... I wanted to build a sorceress that could solo everything quickly, for making FG on D2jsp from selling Grushes. Nova did this, except nova has survivability issues in 8 player games and I would die from mana burn mobs here and there. This build is set for survival and deals great damage in combination on 8 player games, while maintaining decent magic find / gold find... All in one character.
Playstyle is simple, infinity merc tank while your pew pewing behind him. Teleport with a little distance between you and the monster, your merc will walk towards it and auto-attack. This forces him to tank for you and stops the mob from reaching melee range on you. Your high damage will kill everything PvE like a sniper, even if your merc is taking heavy damage. Lightning for high hp mobs and chain lightning for crowd/group killing. This setup that I created has proven to be unkillable in PvE, which is my main goal. I want to sell Grushes and I can now solo full player games in Hell difficulty. Travincal council is the main problem with ES Nova builds since they don't die quick enough and often have mana burn. Normally you are safe with ES Nova, however travincal proved to be a problem since they just quickly heal themselves. On top of healing themselves, they often have mana burn and when hit by their melee also casts Amplify damage curse. So, not only are they healing quickly, but they drain your ES and cast 100% melee damage curse on you. So, I got tired of that and went Vitality. With this build I can send in my merc and hit them with 25k Lightning damage from a range. Ultimately clearing fast and never getting into risky melee range, which the goal is to clear fast and never die. Usually, Grushes are done by Hammerdin's since they have the most survivability in the game, now I have successfully created a sorceress build that can do it.
Helmet - 69 All Resists Kiras + Perfect topaz
Chest - 33 All resists + 30 lite resist jewel in upgraded Viper Magi 1005 def.
Belt - Arach
Glove - 40 mf Chancie's, double upp'd
Weapon 1 - Hoto
Shield 1 - 35 Faster cast rate Spirit Monarch
Weapon 2 - 6 Battle Orders CTA Pre-Buff
Shield 2 - Random Spirit Monarch Pre-Buff
Boots - 45 mf Travs
x2 Rings - x2 Stone of jordan
Amulet - 30 Resists Maras
Inventory - 13/11 Torch, 15/20/10 Anni, -75 Lite Sunder, Life sc's, Resists sc's, 6 str + Mana GC, lite skiller w/22 life, 39 mf gheeds, cube.
Breakpoints/Utility - Ability to teleport and solo everything quickly, in 8 player games.
2.2k HP, 1.1k Mana (6 bo CTA)
125 FCR = 118 lightning Bp, 105 Bp all other skills.
90 FHR = 86 FHR Bp.
307% Extra Gold from monsters.
Maxed All Resists. +246-268
184% Magic find. P Topaz in helmet, 39 Gheeds, 45 War travs, x5 5-7mf sc, 40 Chancies.
+51 Life Regen. With Prayer Merc, Act 2
Cannot be frozen. Kiras Helmet
Mercenary - Act 2 Prayer Aura
Weapon - Infinity Eth Mancatcher for Conviction Aura.
Chest - Eth Chains of honor for +2 aura skills, All Resists and life leech.
Helmet - Eth Ral'd Andys for IAS, +2 Aura skills, Increased Poison resistance.
Barbarian
Ability to wield two 2-hand weapons or one 2-hand weapon with shield.
Builds and Info
Whirlwind, Frenzy, Warcry, Battle Orders, Find Item
Paladin
Ability to easily achieve max block, max resists, highest survivability.
Builds and Info
Smite Info, Zealot, Double Dream, Hammerdin
Necromancer
Ability to Summon skeletons, golems, dead monsters, use poison and bone skills, Cast various curses.
Builds and Info
Summoner, Bone Spear, Bone Spirit, Poison Nova
Assassin
Builds and Info
Druid
Builds and Info
Amazon
Builds and Info
Trading on D2JSP
3.26.2023 Given 30fg for selling bumper service.
4.14.2023 Given 539fg for doing 50 hell baal runs for player.
4.16.2023 self-rolled Perfect skill 6/6/4 CTA Sold for 820fg.
4.28.2023 Put self-rolled 100% Perfect Faith Great Bow for sale.
5.09.2023 Given 135fg for Grush, after paying bumper 50fg.
5.10.2023 Paid 80fg for a -45 scythe Infinity.
5.08.2023 Traded a 40 Hoto dropped in a free game for Enigma.
5.08.2023 Paid 35fg for 30 Maras and 37 Hoto.
5.15.2023 Sold Perfect -70 Fire Sunder for 25fg.
5.23.2023 Sold 100% Perfect Faith Great Bow for 850fg.
5.23.2023 Sold Imperfect 15ed Enigma Wyrmhide 750 roll for 285fg.
The Reason D2:R is fun:
Once you have a strong character, you can be very useful to lower leveled and weaker characters. Killing strong players or monsters for others.
You can create and run a chain of different games. A game doing both Diablo and Baal kill in the same game are called Cbaals for example. Diablo kill games have Chaos in the title. Baal kill games will just have baal in the title.
You can find free games in the normal difficulty, sometimes nightmare and hell too... and kind people or those quitting will drop free items on the ground.
By finding or making perfect items and selling them on D2jsp, you can start attaining a lot of JSP currency called FG (Forum gold) to get all the items you need... for your own character/s. Or you could keep them and build a perfect item character and then sell the perfect items together for a particular class/build, this is called a full toon or full character buy.
You could get lucky on D2jsp and someone is heavily discounting a good item, if you have enough currency, you can be the first one to bin it.
The movement speed and Teleport speed is based on your gear, once its high enough the gameplay is very fast pace and personally is the only reason It never gets old to me. I love the fast game play style.
Max level 99 will take time to obtain.
You can solo magic find or play with others; Terror zones are now a new thing in D2:R. The best zones to look for during a terror hour is Chaos Sanctuary and Worldstone Keep, since they are already the top leveling zones it is a fun hour for everyone. Other act bosses are also fun when terrorized, however Diablo and Baal are the best leveling zones.
Once you are geared enough, you can perform Grushes (Help others get a new character to hell difficulty) , Kill Ubers or Dclone (Hardest Bosses in the game) , Give away free items to others.
Why I don't Play Diablo 3 or Diablo 4:
Diablo 3 and 4 do not stay true to what makes D2 and D2:R gameplay style fun. I didn't even bother with D3 and kept playing D2 with the low graphics and resolution, it's just the lack of content that keeps players from really staying entertained on D2. D3 looked like a World of Warcraft adaptation, not a d2 improvement. They removed the fast-paced game style, which what made D2 fun in the first place. Why take away what made the game fun?
Being able to teleport all over the place, very quickly and keep you watching every millisecond of the fight is why the game play is so fun. Diablo 3 took that main concept away, left you with slow running the entire game. An improvement to a game is supposed to keep the main reasons the original game is fun, that being fast paced.
You really can't beat what D2 has accomplished with its decades-old D2jsp trading community and fast game play style. A bonus is reaching a perfect item and being able to keep it or sell at a high value.
Helpful Tips:
If you give someone Halls of Pain WayPoint before doing Anya quest, Anya will be bugged and you will need to make a new game to complete.
Grush: Selling or doing a free service to get new characters for others from normal to hell act 5. This may or may not include Skill (Act 2 Radament, Act 4 Izual), stat (Act 3 book), Anya (+10 Resist all scroll), Shenk (Act 5 Sockets) quests.
If you are not very geared and you find or make a perfect item that is highly needed by others, you can sell it on D2jsp for forum gold and trade that for items you need to finish your characters.
Bugs/Glitches:
Random Disconnecting from games. Ongoing. Usually in high pixel demanding scenes like Shenk death, however other random times as well that are not pixel demanding so that's why its random.
Random Chat bug. You can type using the chat bar in a game; however, nothing will display on the chat bar for all players in the game. Sometimes it will randomly start working during the game. So, if you're wondering why nobody is chatting, check to see if your game is chat bugged. Ongoing.