Diablo II Expansion: What We Know So Far...
Jason M. Howe
Destruction and we've all been busily talking about it, I thought we might
collect all the information we have into one post and discuss from there.
First, we have the new classes.
Two of them, the Druid (who, as it happens, is from Scosglen as I had
posted earlier) and the Assassin. Each character has 30 skills, 10 on each
of their 3 trees. The Assassin has Martial Arts, Shadow Disciplines, and
Traps. The Druid has Elemental, Shape Shifting, and Summoning.
Second, there's the new act.
Act V where we get to romp around in the Barbarian Highlands trying to
hunt down and kill Baal, who's out to corrupt the Worldstone and release
Hell on Earth. There's also the talk of getting a new title for killing
Baal, but who knows if that'll make it into the final release. Act V is
supposed to be around the size of Act I or II, not as large as III and not
as small as IV. It will have 6 quests, which will be odd after having only
3 in Act IV.
Act V will have many new foes. There'll be Catapults and Siege Towers
scattered across the land, the new act will have the feel of battle. Then
monsters like Overseers that keep their Minions in line with whip-lashes
that do various things to them, from heal to make them suicidal. There will
be a carry-over from Diablo II: the Yeti will get a new type that will
populate Act V, which only makes sense considering the frozen nature of the
northern lands. There's also a new type of Undead creature called
Reanimated Hordes which will need to be killed a few times because of their
habit of resurrecting themselves. There's other types like Putrid Terrors
which are floating clouds of death, Death Maulers which look rather big and
ugly, Demon Imps which I have a feeling will replace the Fetishes as most
annoying monster due to them firing Blood Stars at you, Frozen Horrors which
look like ice demons from Hell (kind of too hot in Hell for ice demons don't
you think?), Siege Beasts that look like nasty living troop carriers,
Minotaur Demons that will be a pain to fight due to their size and
dual-wield, and Baal's Minions which looks to be the most gruesome of all
the new monsters introduced in the Expansion. Then there's ones I'm really
happy about, a carryover from Diablo I: the Succubi are back in Diablo II
with the Expansion.
Third, there's all the changes made to the game from Diablo II to Diablo II:
Expansion.
There's all the overhaul they've done to hired help. You'll be able to
drop potions on them to heal them, you'll most likely be able to equip them
with weapons and armor making them more useful and more like a real
sidekick; they won't be canon fodder anymore. Of course they'll still be
restricted to the act you hired them in, but it'll be more likely that
you'll use one hired hand through an act instead of all of them. Act V will
have you able to hire Barbarians.
There's also supposed to be weapons tabs so you can have two layouts
ready to choose from; one can be a two-handed maul, the other a sword and
shield, and switching is just a tab-click away.
Then there's the addition of a Repair All feature. There's also the
addition of new shrines, one of which will instantly repair all armor.
Blizzard is trying to save us some cash, which brings us to the doubling of
stash space and a supposed increase in gold you can hold in your stash...
maybe 1000000 now? The Horadric Cube will get new recipes, there will be
tons of new prefixes and suffixes, meaning thousands of new combinations to
find.
There may also be minor modifications to the chat interface to make it
more useful, and I've heard there may be additions to the NumPad sayings: #7
"Run away!". Blizzard appear to be Monty Python fans, but I'm sure we all
expected this.
Fourth, there's the new items.
We have Elite items which can only be found in Hell difficulty, a
logical inclusion into the world of Diablo II. We already had Standard
items in Normal difficulty and Exceptional items in Nightmare difficulty, I
think a lot of us were disappointed when all we found in Hell were more
Exceptional items.
We have Class Specific items that will only be usable by one class:
Amazons will have various weapons, Assassins will have their Katars,
Barbarians will have a new type of helm, Druids will have animal pelts that
they will wear as helms, Necromancers will have various Totems they can use
in place of shields, Paladins will have all new shields, and Sorceresses
will have Orbs which will be like one-handed staves so they can use a shield
(something my Open lv37 General Sorc will love). These items will have
Exceptional and Elite counterparts.
We have Ethereal items which are an interesting new inclusion, items not
completely grounded in the Mortal Realm hence their semi-transparent look.
They will have higher damage, defense, and will just generally be better
than their counterpart normal items, but they will not be able to be
repaired... when they hit 0 durability you're out of luck.
Then we have Set items that have been tweaked. I'm under the impression
no major changes will be made with the Set items already in place in Diablo
II, but the new sets introduced will be better, perhaps giving you bonuses
for having two of four items. There will be some that will be Socketed,
some of them will include Exceptional and Elite items as part of their Sets,
though it's unsure if there will be completely Exceptional or Elite Sets.
There's also Socketed items that have changed slightly. Items with sockets
will get more sockets, items that didn't have sockets before such as boots
will now have the option of sockets. Magic, Rare, and Unique items will
even have the option of sockets. There will be Unique items, many more of
them. There will be Exceptional and perhaps even Elite versions of some
Unique items, though not all. There will also finally be Magical and Rare
Throwing Weapons.
Fifth, there are new gem types.
Charms, Jewels, and Runes to be exact. Charms are rather interesting,
you find them and keeping them in your inventory will boost attributes.
Jewels apparently work like Gems, though they'll add random magical
properties instead. Runes are another interesting addition to the gem type,
they have to be inserted into sockets in certain sequences to get the right
effects.
Sixth, there are the characters.
As we all know you must convert your Diablo II characters to Diablo II
Expansion characters and it's a one-way trip, once converted they can't go
back. Only those with the Expansion can play Expansion games, and can only
play with others who have the Expansion. Those without the Expansion will
only be able to play with others who don't have it. In Battle.net,
Assassain and Druid characters will supposedly show up as basic sprites with
no armor, like the Warrior is used for Diablo I.
There will also be a new Ladder for Expansion characters, and I'm to
understand converted characters will not show up on this ladder. You will
need to make a new character of any class after you install the Expansion,
then and only then will they appear on the Expansion Ladder.
One final note.
The gem in the Battle.net chat will be enhanced to maximize its
potential.
* Information gathered from various websites. I've tried to be
comprehensive, but I'm sure I may have missed something here or there, but I
think this will give plenty of discussion material. I hope it's
appreciated, it took me hours to write this all out (when I wasn't
distracted watching The Prince of Egypt).
--
sapp...@earthlink.net
ICQ: 1720476
OPEN
Lady ToniDumas - Ama 38 (Bow)
Lady Emeraldus - Sor 37 (General)
USEAST
Dame Yumitokagami - Ama 20
Dame Yarigami - Ama 20
Higami - Sor 20
Korigami - Sor 16
Inazumagami - Sor 7
Dave Caspermeyer
And they better playtest sets this time(it's obvious this was not the case with
the initial release). Thanks though for putting what may or may not be in the
final release(if more than 25% of those things mentioned actually do make it,
I'd be surprised).
AstroNerdBoy
--
-Earl "Needs More Traffic" Commander
Da Smeg Head sez, "Click on the URL below!"
http://www.astronerdboy.com/comic-strips
In article <_2Gh6.621$kG2....@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net>,
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M Judkins
Blizzard isn't even sure on that one.
"Jason M. Howe" <sapp...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:_2Gh6.621$kG2....@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
Arnulf Guenther Jr.
Well done, Jason. Thanks for the all-in-one info.
> [...] Then there's ones I'm really
> happy about, a carryover from Diablo I: the Succubi are back in Diablo II
> with the Expansion. ^^^^^^^!!!
What?!? I want the BLOOD KNIGHT back! Let's sign a petition and
force Blizzard to include the BLOOD/STEEL Knights from D1!
-Arnulf
Sigfried
i loved them
baron dungeonsiege, paladin, closed europe
Arnulf Guenther Jr. <arn...@gmx.net> schrieb in im Newsbeitrag:
wkn1brp...@ROADSTER.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-shoot-me...
Dave Kennedy
I also liked the blood knights, well I liked the way they died
with a scream and a spin that was cool but succubi (spelling?) got cute buns
how can you choose they both got to be included when someone gets the
petition going I will put my name to it Dave.
--
Resistance is futile you will be assimilated
Arnulf Guenther Jr. wrote in message ...
Jason M. Howe
"Arnulf Guenther Jr." <arn...@gmx.net> wrote in message
news:wkn1brp...@ROADSTER.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-shoot-me..
.
I'm all for Knights in D2X. I've been playing D1 alot lately, trying to
level a Rogue, and I love to just hunt things down in Hell and watch their
kill counts rise. How come D2 never gave you a monster kill count? I love
that thing, after clearing out the Hell levels I'd killed about 300+ Knights
one time. But have you taken a look at Baal's Minions? They'd make a
Knight run scared!
http://www.diabloii.net/expansion/monsters/spiky-demon.shtml
> -Arnulf