The D1 legit community was nice and happy... then D2 came and it just kinda disbanded =/ I saw it coming tho~ I remember sitting there in the DSF forum thinking "This will all end with D2 comes out" and sure enough it did.
The best part of D1 was it was so easy.. provided you knew what you where doing that is...
What i mean to say is, if you knew how to deal with the certain monster types you could just breeze through it... Thats why it was fun tho...
No, not because you 'could' play through hell/hell like nothing... but because it allowed... or forced... you to get creative.
Variants where what made d1 so fun ^^
From the not so hard but still cool LAW (low ac warrior, relies totaly on blocking and proper movement to kinda 'dance' around the mobs.. d1 had 100% blocking=P But because of block animation if you got swarmed you died... the thing is the higher level the warrior got the less ac it needed to get good armor protection too... so verry high level warriors where kinda automaticly LAW, which is why i dont consider it a true variant)
To the BNM (beyond naked mage.. cursed items only... the more they hurt your character the better they where=P) ... To the.. gopher 0_0 *play only zoomed in=P*
Also, playing dark was fun. In d1 your light radious was not only for you to see, but also for things to see you. If you got enough negative light radius gear the screen would be totaly black... but use a nifty infravision scroll and bam! You can see everything but they cant see you ^^. Ofcorse you also couldnt see where you where going... but thats where townportal came in=p It light up the dungeon floor with out giving you away~
Also, the focus on magic items over uniques was good. People always used to complain that uniques sucked too much, that was a lie tho.. there where uses for the royal circlet, helm of sprites(or wasit spirits.. people always used to say one and get corrected... i cant remember which was the correction) gotterdammerung, gibbous moon, the uh.. 75% all resist ring.. Dont forget windforce and eaglehorn=p The bloodslayer axe and civerbs cudgel where also verry usefull. As was najis(?) lightplate and the thinking cap.
But it was magic items that really counted. A kings bastard sword of haste was one of the the best weapons. How did you get it? You picked up every single blue bastard sword and identified it... drooling over the possibilities! You didint automaticly know what you got when it dropped.
D1 was a much better game than D2, d2 is just newer and people where getting tired of d1.
Most of the community that surrounded d1 has just dissapeared, d2 killed it. They either just got absorbed by b.net or left long ago.
Did i mention you could kill diablo with holy bolts? =d
I miss d1 =/ Everyone would just drop their items in town by the fountain that they didint need. THey wouldnt sell them like people on d2 do.
Also playing ironman.. where you start out from town and just keep going down, no returning.
Or even living off the land which is kinda like iron man but you dont have to do it in one go and can trade with other people doing the same as you.
Even the crappy hellfire expansion was worth some laughs =P
Everything at the first few level drop like flies after that. I got bored soon, and quit afterward. Moral of this story, don't pick up hacked item.