Anything Goes D2 Lounge!

Honestly, feels ridiculous to say, but I haven't even played d2r. Don't even know how the terror zones work. When it was supposed to just be a reskin of 1.14d, I was really into the idea, but when they actually started changing skills and end game leveling and not totally offline etc, I lost interest. Killed a lot of my interest in 1.14d too since the patch I liked was getting left behind. I liked playing d2 a lot and not new games partly because it was a totally closed system that I could master and learn everything about. But hey, sounds fun to play right now anyways! I'll get these essences farmed then probably pick back up some of my 1k many ways runs and participate in MFO!

@drmalawi do my eyes deceive me? Great to see you around again. I missed ya when you killed your discord server with me and @ResTTe . Anyways hope you're doing well!

Now I just need to get art_vandelay back into the game and it'll be like good ole times. :coffee:
 
D2R has it's pluses and minuses. It's what brought me back to the game. I bought it before it came out, but waited a couple of months to see that the bugs were worked out. Then when I loaded and tried to play I found out that my Windows 10 desktop didn't support the game. After dithering around trying to decided on upgrading a 6 year old computer or buying a new laptop I spent the bucks on a laptop in November 2022 and haven't looked back.
TZ have changed taking a character to level 99 as your no longer tied to running WSK, CS or Nihlathak. And then there is Andy! She can now be level 99 and drop anything. So far I'm not a big fan of the Sunder charms.
 
@Luhkoh Welcome back! I play D2R these days but I've kept my D2LoD characters and stashes intact for when I want to go back. Who knows if Blizzard will ever shut off access to D2R, but D2LoD will always be around. Understandable if you want to stick with 1.14d. It's still competitive in tournaments!
 
I have no idea about terror zones either. Don't even know if they are online only or whether they also work offline. Not seen them on my games but i am only using offline charaters so assume it's a online thing.
 
They are offline as well. You have to beat Baal on the difficulty you are currently playing on for them to show though.

So you won't see them while questing, but will see them if you level up or look for stuff after beating the game.
 
@LouB I know in theory that this is no different than the crazy people who say enigma ruined the game by making things too easy, but I kinda liked 99 being a ridiculous grind (that being said, I can't imagine doing it with a druid like a couple of these guys did). Did TZs also decrease the time investment required?

@Nano heyo! Great to hear from you and see you're still around. Makes sense to me. I don't need to worry about being competitive in tourneys these days, as my available playtime makes that unattainable :LOL:. But sounds great, I'll keep on keepin on with 1.14d.

@ziambe Nope, I had him on discord too and messaged him casually once every 6mo or so on there. But he deleted that account too like a year ago. Must have wanted to make a clean break. But I do hate to see when stuff is deleted.
 
@Luhkoh I took my Wolfbarb to 99, but he was heavily twinked. Since I was also creating and playing other characters it's a little difficult to say how long it actually took. I did create a thread on his journey (ARGH's quest for 99). I pated him in Jun 22 (level88) and in Jan 23 I had reached level 93. I reached level 95.5 on February 14 when TZ hit single player.

It then took me 2 weeks to go from 96 to 97 and another month to reach 98 in April 23. I finally reached 99 seven month later. However in that time I patted 5 other character. I did record that it took me about 30 hours to go from 98.6 to 98.75 running TZ at players 3 during the MFO.

All TZs are not created equal. I'd look to see what was terrorized (someone created a web page .d2emu) and only run the good ones. The WSK is still one of the best to run when terrorized, but Baal himself doesn't give you any more experience since he was already level 99.

When I decided to go for 99 I also decided to start a level 99 grail since I would primarily be running Baal and Nihlathak. I figured it would take me 10 years, but thanks to TZ Andy I now have 80% of the Grail as level 99 items.
 
I see some stuff online saying 10-15 hours for 98-99 for maxed out builds. Lol yeah that takes a lot of the grind out of it. Though I guess it would be cool to have a lvl 99 sept (<10% as cool as phineas's though). That being said it also gives people like @LouB the option to up the grind by 99ing a wolf barb. That's insane man congrats! I can't imagine grinding exp on a single target character.
 
What would you all recommend for a hc single pass paladin spec? I know hdin and frost zealot are good choices, but I've played a lot of both of those. Is an avenger too slow? Is a charger too mana intensive? Are they both too dangerous? Smite? Thanks!
 
Luhkoh said:
What would you all recommend for a hc single pass paladin spec? I know hdin and frost zealot are good choices, but I've played a lot of both of those. Is an avenger too slow? Is a charger too mana intensive? Are they both too dangerous? Smite? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Disclaimer: I am not a HC player.

If on D2R have you considered Foh?

If melee is preferred I would probably pick Avenger as no immunes is great. On the other hand if an attack-one-enemy-at-time build like avenger is fine then perhaps a Martyr could work even though hurting oneself on every attack seems silly on HC. Has ridiculous amount of ED so a crappy weapon will do. Just grab a lifetap wand for trickier situations. Use sanctuary aura against undead mitigating any physical resist and enabling life leach.
 
What? @maxicek is inactive for a month? Time to break the rules!

Luhkoh said:
How's everyone doing? Long time no see! I'm playing a bit of d2 despite
1. no time with new job and kids (ages 3 and 1)
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I have one of those too! Only 6 months though :D

Luhkoh said:
I liked playing d2 a lot and not new games partly because it was a totally closed system that I could master and learn everything about.

Now I just need to get art_vandelay back into the game and it'll be like good ole times.
Click to expand...
But you know it can never be like that again. For all intents and purposes we know everything there is to know about the game (= closed system) and all that is left is the grind.
  • Want more runes? Do 100 hours of Travincal with optimized characters. No guarantee of success.
  • Want to complete the grail? Do 100 hours of Pits with optimized characters. No guarantee of success.
  • Want to get a great amulet craft? Just farm LK, Cows and Travincal for 10 million hours with optimized characters. No guarantee of success.
  • Want to gamble a useful rare Diadem? Just farm Travincal until the next ice age with optimized characters. No guarantee of success.
You get the idea.

Most things we do here are already 95-99% optimal and most events (drops, crafts, gambles) we want to happen are extremely unlikely if not astronomical. You could do everything correctly and spend your entire life running something and not get anything you wanted or needed. (And if you get it it probably is a 0.0001% increase to efficiency/dps/GF/MF/...)

The real fun was in the study of D2 and the grinding only felt fun as long as you made progress. I assume this is why @PhineasB is still doing UT 99ers while we don't run anymore. Experience is hard progress while drops are ethereal. You can look back at a UT 99er and clearly see what you achieved. But you probably don't remember what you got just a month ago in the Pits. It is honestly depressing.

I recently stumbled upon this video:

It talks about slot machines (amongst other "games of skill") and it is uncanny how relatable it is. The same person made a Diablo 4 review incoorporating those ideas:

I already know who won't be allowed to play D5 in 13,5 years. :D

Luhkoh said:
@ziambe Nope, I had him on discord too and messaged him casually once every 6mo or so on there. But he deleted that account too like a year ago. Must have wanted to make a clean break. But I do hate to see when stuff is deleted.
Click to expand...
Turns out discord deletes your account if you are inactive for two years because storing a few MB of chat logs is a huge burden on the server. Oh well, at least I did delete all my D2 stuff by choice. ;)


@ziambe Congratulations on the gold rush in 1.08 :p
I remember Fruit showing me the wisp pentagram but I don't know if he found it in the code and what version his video was in. Guess I could check in our discord log ... oh wait


EDIT:
Gripphon - Last seen Jun 3, 2022
WoRG - Last seen Jun 11, 2022
Pb_pal - Last seen Aug 15, 2022
D2DC - Last seen Mar 15, 2024
maxicek - Last seen Aug 12, 2024

all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain
 
Last edited:
art_vandelay said:
What? @maxicek is inactive for a month? Time to break the rules!


I have one of those too! Only 6 months though :D


But you know it can never be like that again. For all intents and purposes we know everything there is to know about the game (= closed system) and all that is left is the grind.
  • Want more runes? Do 100 hours of Travincal with optimized characters. No guarantee of success.
  • Want to complete the grail? Do 100 hours of Pits with optimized characters. No guarantee of success.
  • Want to get a great amulet craft? Just farm LK, Cows and Travincal for 10 million hours with optimized characters. No guarantee of success.
  • Want to gamble a useful rare Diadem? Just farm Travincal until the next ice age with optimized characters. No guarantee of success.
You get the idea.

Most things we do here are already 95-99% optimal and most events (drops, crafts, gambles) we want to happen are extremely unlikely if not astronomical. You could do everything correctly and spend your entire life running something and not get anything you wanted or needed. (And if you get it it probably is a 0.0001% increase to efficiency/dps/GF/MF/...)

The real fun was in the study of D2 and the grinding only felt fun as long as you made progress. I assume this is why @PhineasB is still doing UT 99ers while we don't run anymore. Experience is hard progress while drops are ethereal. You can look back at a UT 99er and clearly see what you achieved. But you probably don't remember what you got just a month ago in the Pits. It is honestly depressing.

I recently stumbled upon this video:

It talks about slot machines (amongst other "games of skill") and it is uncanny how relatable it is. The same person made a Diablo 4 review incoorporating those ideas:

I already know who won't be allowed to play D5 in 13,5 years. :D


Turns out discord deletes your account if you are inactive for two years because storing a few MB of chat logs is a huge burden on the server. Oh well, at least I did delete all my D2 stuff by choice. ;)


@ziambe Congratulations on the gold rush in 1.08 :p
I remember Fruit showing me the wisp pentagram but I don't know if he found it in the code and what version his video was in. Guess I could check in our discord log ... oh wait


EDIT:
Gripphon - Last seen Jun 3, 2022
WoRG - Last seen Jun 11, 2022
Pb_pal - Last seen Aug 15, 2022
D2DC - Last seen Mar 15, 2024
maxicek - Last seen Aug 12, 2024

all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain
Click to expand...
And the award for worst pep talk ever goes to…:LOL:. But really man great to hear from you! Get back on discord, I want to hear how life is going. Huge congrats on the baby! Changes everything.

I disagree with you comments on the closed system. To my tastes it’s what makes optimization cool. D2r is a big part of what killed my motivation by changing the meta and making most of the few years of theory crafting and progress feel superseded. But yeah I felt like we were taking off on new tech. Fizz sorc, ffs's at barb, pitzerker best gear, new hall of records records, learning to optimize for combined rf/mf tourneys etc. That being said ofc d2 is mega addictive and I made a lot of real life progress when I wasn't playing. I cant decided if I want to:
  1. Quit and never play again
  2. Try to get to grail -1
  3. Start over in hc and get rich again 😅
Also just whining, but man this site is unusable on mobile.
 
SirName said:
The save the mercs movement recommends not hiring one. Also just let Blood Raven be.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that is actually a preferable choice many times... They are good to have against stair traps of dolls but the beefed up guest monsters and ancients of act 5 just tear them apart.

Blood Raven would be infinetly more fun to be able to recruit, though you can kill her if you just avoid talking to Kashya afterwards - she is not very kind to newcomers anyway so no big loss.
 
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