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4 Smileys - 1 Smiley Poor, 5 Smileys Excellent
Single-Player System Requirements. Requires the Full Version of Diablo II
Multiplayer System Requirements and Options. Requires the Full Version of Diablo II
Optional Mac 3D Acceleration
Platforms: Mac OS, Windows
Forward So, you defeated Andariel, Duriel, Mephisto, Hephasto, and Diablo and you think you're pretty darn tough. Yet there's another prime evil lurking about and he is the Lord of Destruction, otherwise known as Baal. In the expansion to the original Diablo II, you follow Baal to the Barbarian lands of Harrogath to put an end to his quests for power and vengeance for his fallen brothers. Along the way you'll meet two new characters, new monsters, new weapons, new items, and even more changes. If you're curious about whether buying and playing the expansion is worth your money and time, read on to find out.
Assassin, the Mage Slayer
There is a saying that goes something like "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." And this is very true for the many mages that inhabit Diablo. What happens when a mage uses their powers for evil is that an Assassin is sent out to kill him and to that end, she uses several non-magical abilities to avoid corruption herself. Either by use of a claw-like weapon (called a katar) and charge-up/finishing skills, traps that deliver elemental damage, or shadow disciplines that can darken the sky itself or slowly poison the victim. I just finished Normal difficulty with an Assassin that concentrated on the Traps skills and it was the most fun I've had in quite some time. It was almost like playing a sorceress with the ability to create a Shadow Master that followed me around and took most of the damage that was meant for me. I've also been playing an Assassin that uses two katars who goes around using the charge-up and finishing skills. It's easier to explain charge-up skills if I use an example so let's look at Blades of Ice. When you use this skill and hit something, a little globe swirls around you to indicate that you have one charge active. Hit something while the charge is active (it goes away after a few seconds) and you get another charge. Charge 1 of Blades of Ice gives you cold damage, Charge 2 gives you a cold radius, and Charge 3 gives you a freeze duration in seconds. You can also combine up to three charge-up skills (such as combining Blades of Ice and Tiger Strike) before releasing them with either a normal attack or a finishing skill. I thought that charge-up skills would be difficult to use, but after a short time, it was easy to use and became almost second-nature.
Druid, the Elemental Warrior
Druids were once a part of the Barbarian tribes and chose their own way to protect the world by developing a close bond to nature. Because of this they are able to call wild creatures to aid them (ravens, wolves, a bear, vines, and spirits), change the shape of his own body to that of a wolf or bear to gain their powers, or call upon the power of the Earth itself in the form of fire, wind, and ice. I've been playing a summoning Druid and I've been wandering around with three Dire Wolves, a spirit that increases my damage (Heart of Wolverine), and a vine that eats corpses to replenish my life (Carrion Vine), and a Rogue that really likes being safely protected by all those animals. I've read plenty of guides for the other forms that a Druid can take, such as those that transform into werewolves and who summon a bear to assist them or those that use the astonishing power of Armageddon and Hurricane. The Druid is really fun to play and is very versatile.
New Act and New Monsters
The Barbarian lands are a mixture of semiarid and dry in the Bloody Foothills, and snowing and cold on Mount Arreat. When you arrive in Harrogath, the town of Act 5, you learn that all of the elders (except one) sacrificed themselves to construct a magical ward that protects Harrogath from the hordes of Baal that are lurking just outside. Much as with the other places you've been, you need to prove yourself to the town locals before they trust you with their secrets. Your first task is to kill a local boss that's been killing the Barbarians so you head out of town to meet the first of many new monsters. You'll probably first run into grenades of poison, ice, lightning and fire that get hurled from demon catapults which you can thankfully destroy. You have skeletons, called the Reanimated Horde, that get back up after you kill them. Imps that teleport, climb on the back of large beasts and towers to use their inferno powers against you who are really annoying. In addition to destroying catapults, you can also destroy towers and doors that make up the abandoned Barbarian defenses. This is nice but it's not as monumental as Blizzard is making it out to be. The famous Succubi that were first seen in Diablo 1 are back because Baal unleashed his personal harem on Mt. Arreat. Ice Creatures that have an icy breath and who shatter into ice cubes upon death are found in the ice caves. There are a number of other new monsters that shall remain nameless to leave some element of surprise, but suffice it to say that you will not be disappointed.
Some might complain about the endless snow and ice in Act 5, but I think that this charge is unfounded. Although there are quite a few areas that are perpetually snowed in, there are also underground areas that are reminiscent of Act 4 complete with lava, walls with pentagrams, and abandoned wagons. Once you get to the Worldkeep, as is shown in the screenshot to the right, the decor switches to brown brick and tile. Also in the picture are the Succubi (the ones with wings), and Reanimated Horde (the brown guys with swords). There is a lack of large uncluttered area (such as those found in Act 1 and Act 2) but I like that because it means fewer chances to get surrounded and having landscaping is more interesting. I also liked how you got a sense of moving up the mountain by having the snow gradually appear and then being able to look down on the town from a cliff's edge which is probably one of the act's best sites. Overall, the combination of different landscapes and the size (fairly long) make Act 5 to be the most varied and interesting in my opinion.
More Powerful Items
Part of the allure of Diablo II is finding the most powerful items and
so Blizzard put tons of new items to collect and trade. They added an
elite classification of weapons that are more powerful than the normal
and exceptional weapons and with even higher requirements. In addition
to the normal uniques, there are exceptional and elite uniques. Sets have
partial bonuses so you get additional
In addition to items that you wear, Blizzard introduced jewels, runes, and charms. Jewels are like gems but their magical attributes remain the same no matter where you place them. Charms give attributes such as resistances, +life, +mana, +damage but they only work if you place them in your backpack. With three different sized charms, you often have to decide whether it is worth taking up backpack space to keep them. Runes can be used like gems in that they give different magical attributes depending on where you place them. However, their real power lies in making runic items by placing them in the right item and in the right order. Once you do this, the item will transform to one with different magical attributes and which is usually much better than the individual runes. You have to use a normal socketed item, but since class-specific items can come with magical attributes and still be non-magical, you can make a rune word in those items and keep the +skills or +life or +resistances. If this wasn't enough, there are crafted items that you make in the Horadric Cube that use perfect gems, ruins, and jewels to make items with certain known magical attributes and some random ones.
Other Changes
There are a whole bunch of changes to the existing characters with the biggest one being a timer to some skills. The reason for this is to reduce the lowering to the framerate that graphic-intensive skills such as Meteor has. This sounded really bad to me at first, but the damage to these skills were increased dramatically with the upside that you need less mana than before. This means that stat points that you would normally put in Energy can be put in strength or vitality and skill points that you'd put in Warmth can be put in the skills you actually use. This doesn't apply just to the sorceress because every character has been touched in this way. Most skills got an increase in damage and a decrease in mana needed which is a good thing. Other skills got altered so that they had to be used in a different way such as Jab and Whirlwind being modified by weapon speed or Berserk actually reducing a Barbarian's defense to zero. Other skills that were broken were fixed and actually work properly. In many respects, you can throw out most of what you know about your favorite character because of these changes.
Observant viewers may have noticed my trust Rogue, Aliza, in Act 5 and wondered what she was doing there. The answer is that mercenaries are dramatically improved in that they are actually strong companions. Not only can you take them from act to act but you can give them items to use. While they can only use armor, a hat, a weapon, a shield (Iron Wolves only) and are restricted to certain weapons depending on which mercenary you hired (a Rogue can only use a bow while an Iron Wolf can only use a one-handed sword for example). With each level they gain, their strength, dexterity, life and resistances all increase by a set amount which means they can be very powerful indeed. For example, an Amazon that uses a bow can hire a mercenary from Act 2 or Act 5 that can tank the monsters while the Amazon fires at them from relative safety. If they die for any reason, they can be resurrected (for a price) from the townsperson that you normally hire mercenaries from. The improved mercenaries is one of the best additions to the expansion.
Another big change is the addition of the 800x600 resolution to the familiar 640x480 that Blizzard usually uses. For the longest time, Blizzard said that they would not add any other resolution because changing the graphics would be impossible. Instead of doing this, the 800x600 resolution lets you see more of the game area which can be to your advantage. Seeing the monsters from farther away gives you more time to prepare and come up with a workable strategy. You do need a bit more computing power to handle this but if you can, you should definitely switch over to 800x600. Some other odds and ends include increasing the stash size, increasing the amount of gold you can use, making throwing items (including javelins) able to be magical and rare, making throwing potions do more damage but not buyable in stores, replenishing a stack of javelins by simply repairing them, etc.
Conclusion
If you liked Diablo II, get this expansion. If you have never played Diablo II before then this is a good time to start. I think that most of the changes are quite excellent and am only prevented from calling it a whole new game by the fact that Blizzard incorporated several of the expansion changes into the classic Diablo II in the last update. Even so, Act 5 and the two new characters and the improved mercenary system make buying Diablo II: Lord of Destruction an absolute must for everyone who's a fan or wants to be of Diablo II.
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