Thank you for watching my video MrLlama! It was awesome hearing your thoughts as a Diablo 2 expert and I appreciate the shout out. I loved D2 and I will definitely try out a different character/build soon :)
I haven't been able to watch any of your new D4 streams. In short, what are your thoughts on D4 compared to the previous games? Do you intend on spending most of your time in the world of Sanctuary within D4 or do you want to go back and spend much more time in D2?
Very good analysis, even considering you only did a single run thru the game, you picked up on most of the key points good and bad and articulated them well. Would love to see you do the same thing with Diablo 1 sometime.
@@brightenblack207 Personally, I am still having a lot of fun with D4 but fully intend to go back to D2 eventually and play some more. I think I'd like to continue playing both games going forward
You kind of robbed yourself of the games itemization. If you had gone into the game blind you wouldn’t have had any idea runewords were even a thing and every item would have felt more important on your journey.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the game…” Mr Llama: okay this guy is going places “Yea I’d give it a 7.5 out of 10” Mr llama: okay FUCK YOU buddy p.s. Hammerdeen OP
When I first played Diablo 2, internet at home was out of the question. My best character was a frozen orb sorceress that I got to Hell Act 3, but then I got stuck. LOD wasn`t even out. Respec meant creating a new character. There was an Internet Cafe in town and we gathered there to discuss characters and stuff. The whole internet cafe was running on 2 or 3 dial up connections. I remember copying my character on a floppy to get it to the iCafe to play with others. When I first saw the LOD intro my jaw dropped.
Ahh the good all days. I remember bragging to my friend in 7th grade about gold skin dropping. Also remember having to get my brother to go buy it for me at a circuit city. Man I miss those days.
Yeah, lol, I remember printing out websites so that I'd be able to look at them while playing the game. My father did have internet connection at his house, but since being online made it impossible to make or recieve phone calls it had to be used sparingly and only during very specific times.
There’s such a romance to the initial release of Diablo 2… it must have been so immersive and engaging to have no solid guides and no respec… I played the original d2 when I was like 12, didn’t know about guides or anything, and I remember finding it extremely difficult and frustrating 😂
To be fair, that is what A LOOOOOT of guides suggest. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely terrible advice that I've been fighting against for a very long time, but it is something people tell others anyway.
@@Mizer1822think of games that require you to hit a monster and have hit checks, back when this game originally came out Final Fight, streets of rage, golden axe etc all performed the same functions (also built off a simplistic version of d&d) and these are the kinds of attacks you want then only a few skills give you that feel if physical. Obviously all magic doesn’t have to worry so much. If you wanna relive that style of play you need a skill that can hit check (that can hit always provided your close enough) then smite and other skills is your thing
I think the combat in D2 feels more satisfying and impactful, and therefore is more fun is because of the superb sound design and the death animations. Just the fact that a lowly Fallen when killed does this little flying spin while leaving a curved trail of blood or the dark hunters bodies being lifted from the corrupted souls leaving their bodies makes killing something so basic feel fun everytime. Enemies just ragdolling or exploding into a Mortal Kombat 3 fatality for me is a huge nosedive in quality and "soul and feel" for a videogame. Like the developers for later entries didn't bother to add (or don't know how to add) personality to their game
Although D2 is my favorite Diablo game....I'd have to say the fighting mechanics are extremely boring. Especially when it comes to boss fights. It's just stand there and attack...everything else in the game makes up for it I believe
@@mattie.f00 sry but it is far not true. It is the most rare case when you can afford to just stand and attack. You barely can build such a tank character in D2.
I watched this guys vods back when he was playing D2. He really went through it with Duriel. He started with a scuffed paladin build, and he wasted his respec. But eventually he found his way to blessed hammer. He got to experience the whole journey of Diablo 2.
Well, proof that he was not able to play the game without someone taking him by the hand (a guide obviously). Kinda sad he had no interest in finding out the stuff by himself
@@RiceLow I mean, there's multiple ways to enjoy playing a game. One of the things we rely on in order to get better at a game quickly is the community. It's part of the excitement of a new game launching. The entire community comes together and tries things out. They gather data, they share data, and they find what works and doesn't work.
@@TheSeeker225 He's not wrong, but also not right in this case. X to doubt D2 LoD guide came with a hammerdin build setup. lol. Especially since hammerdin wasn't even good till a much later patch. Guides in general were pretty trash for Arpg's back in the day, cause they only explained abilities, and somewhat mechanics. You'd never get a full build.
Hallo MrLlamaSC, I completed my first Holy Grail Yesterday (15/07/23). I am playing for almost 3 years now but lost all my items at the end of last year (2022 - Long story...), but restarted and started all over and finally got them all. I used an Blizzard Sorc and sadly my last item was the Death's Fathom. I was very luck to find 2 Tyrael's might in the progress. I stopped playing D2R when D4 started but I was so close to the end that I had to finish what I started. I love Diablo 2 and my plan now is to cheep playing D2R and not D4 because D2R is the better game and a lot more fun and casual. My fist Diablo game I played was Diablo 1 (Demo - Act 1 -2) and after that I played all other Diablo games besides Diablo Immortal .I have my own business (Plumbing) so my time to play is very limited so when I do have the time to relax Diablo 2 is the best. Thank you MrLlamaSC for all the time and effort you put in with Diablo 2 and the community because the passion what I see in you give me more motivation to cheep playing this great game (Diablo 2). Love from South Africa. Greetings, Wilco.
Ive played d2 for the last 12 years on and off again, and back in the day, i learned everything through strangers. Not a lot of wikis back then. And when d2r came out i played singleplayer seriously for the first time. Singleplayer is a completely different beast. I love it.
@@Nazylexx i'm starting my new single-player playthrough on d2r right now! Gonna try necromancer with nothing and see where I go from there. Probably gonna farm a lot of cows lol. I played a lot of single-player on PlugY diablo 2 and i had a blast. I definitely shared my items between my characters. Of course, you should play however you want to play. And i like single-player because you dont really have to play sorc because the maps are static. So you just try to get a good map for mephisto runs (for example), and you can farm him on any character without missing infinite teleporting from the sorc.
Mr Llama! That’s a great idea. I think you should watch some of these blind playthroughs and give your commentary. I’ve watched a lot of them, including this video, because I also can’t imagine my life without this game and I’m curious how unfamiliar people feel about it. And I get second hand excitement from experiencing it for the first time.
Normally I don't care about the reaction videos, but am happy I've watched this one. This guy is smart, and his take on D2R was spot on, especially for a newcomer. I only blame his chat for making him go with the lamest build of all time, hammerdin ;)
You say lamest, i say best. Why wouldn't someone use the very best class/build in the game? As a hammerdin player you have the possibility to eventually do all content in the game, including ubers.
His chat basically spoiled the game for him. The fun was in discovering the skills, trying new combinations, trying new characters. It's like playing Elden ring in god mode just to see the story.
16:50 to me this is the main thing that sets D2 apart from every other game: somehow every single play through feels fresh. Even on the fifth wolf druid and the seventh lightning sorc, it just feels fresh and exciting. Somehow no other game gives me this
Definitely agree on the things are not explained part. I would love to have like a compendium in the game where stuff that you come across gets added while you progress through the game. Imagine something like: you killed a spectre, than that spectre gets added to the book and you can check his resistances, attacks etc. Or you could only see his fire res if u hit him with fire at least once and killed him, something like this i feel could be interesting instead of just going to the wiki and check everything.
I'm a big fan of both in-game bestiaries and the kind of 'experience-based knowledge' that allows you to make more educated decisions in the game. I think it's a delicate balance to strike though; you don't want to give away everything about how to meta-game every aspect of the game right away but you don't want it to feel like you have to grind out what could be 'basic information' either. I actually really like the idea that in order to find out whether a creature is resistant or weak to a type of damage, you need to use that kind of damage against those creatures enough. I think that, in order for that to feel rewarding to the player, it needs to be something that pays dividends into the future and not just relevant at that specific stage of the game though. Something like enemy types that all share those kinds of features, such that you get more information about ALL demons by killing any kind of demon, meaning that if you know you're coming up against a new type of demon, you can still make some educated guesses about how you'll do against them. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting the benefit of that discovery for one small portion of a single act and it just doesn't matter again until you're on a second playthrough.
If runewords weren't available until hell mode, I think it would ease some of the pain. You play through the campaign twice with none, then you unlock hell mode, and a whole new world of amazing gear opens up to you.
They would have to severely change the drop rate of melee weapon uniques to adjust for the lack of early game rune words. Rune words such as stealth were intended to be early leveling words to help some of the classes that struggled before LoD came out
I think an easier approach would be to change the runes for the extremely overpowered runewords. For example, change spirit to require a mid rune(s) or high rune(s). Buffing crafted shields would also help to give players a choice in between crafting or making a runeword.
As other people said, melee would be even harder and there are some gaps in itemization that runewords like stealth fill. Just taking them out would make the game just cumbersome.
Went to Sloads channel and he seems super wholesome and eloquent in his descriptions. Hope you do more “colab”, it’s really fun to get a newcomers perspective.😊
The one thing that MrLlama teached me is what to look on those blue items in a playthrough. It's insane how many good items I found either on monsters or on Charsi.
I like the idea about the cube recipe book or finding runeword recipes in the world when killing ennemies, as long as finding the runeword or cube recipes are NOT a prerequisite.
Hypnosload is a good dude and his play-through is highly satisfying…would love to see more first time D2R player reacts content as well as more Uniques and Sets only play throughs.
one thing d2 always did right was giving you rewards for quests that aren't just experience or items. lots of quests give you a skill point, stats or resistances. helps you build your character along the way. you can ignore liam's tome quest BUT you'll be running around whit -15 stats in hell. items FEELS right and i often check white or blue items as i playthrough. the formula was perfected whit diablo 2 but was completely forgotten in diablo 3 and 4.
I mean to be fair, quests give renown in D4 which give inventory expansions and skill points. While not quite quest = stat/skills, its not quite correct to say its completely forgotten in D4.
nice, good on you for checking this guy out. I came across his first video in his "playing D2 for the first time' series and was immediately hell bent on helping him thru the game. I started watching his Twitch streams regularly (I'm cheezeypotatoes on there) and there was a small group of us guiding him thru the game and his hammerdin build. I'm still tuning in to him to watch him play D4 as I'm playing and help him out when he has questions.
34:52 this is such an interesting point to me. When Asmongold played Dark Souls 1 for the first time he got stuck and he wanted to stop the game and quit it. Then the chat helped him and he got through Sen's Fortress and completed the game and it is one of the best game he ever played. So it is so important to overcome this barrier and when you do it can become the best game you ever played.
I'm new to this game as well. Just started about 2 weeks ago. Although, I have quite a bit of ARPG experience under my belt. The amount of tabs I have open, guides I've watched, and even what my friend has told me, this game has a lot of stuff to take in. Definitely has been a huge sense of reward learning everything as I've been going.
i didn't realize runes were added after some point. when i was young and struggling with hell, i didn't know much but i also didn't have runes as an option. good review, good video here.
My first build was a frenzy barbarian and even though I struggled massively and died a lot I persevered learned the build and now 20 years later it's one my favorite builds in the game along with summon necro.
31:50 Blade assasin... (lighting trap sin goes into same spot as hammer, but blade sin is a different flauvour - it's a bit like bowzon...) or summon necro :D although most new players going for summoner necro change character after meeting with Duriel.... soo.. bone necro, who switches into summons once getting to nightmare?
Hey MrLlama, you bring up a great point about runewords. That said, if you've not done so yet, I think a playthrough not using runes or runewords, with a character that's a little more difficult for you than the rest, would be an awesome stream/playthrough!
Blame the internet bruh everyone trashy low skill person does this in every game even d4 and d3 becuase some people are just stupid you need to undsratand this are actually retards so they have to have someone spell out everything for them
It is almost unplayable if you don’t look up any guides as a new player. Very few skills are actually viable at all the game is dated especially for new players. Your take is cringe. Who doesn’t look up guides? You enjoy wasting your time? Or is all you play is Diablo 2?
@@ambridge6645 Considering the amount of dramatically scuffed characters I see when I inspect random people in D4, I'd say there's plenty of people who go in completely blind with no preconception of what to do. 😅
He played a scuffed build, and even wasted a respec, all through normal. He insisted he didn't want help for the first run through so chat obliged. When he discovered how NM and Hell worked, and said he wanted to finish Hell, that's when chat started offering some tips and hidden info (d2 has SO many things you need to know but the game never tells you...) It was a legit first-time experience, don't worry.
Back in my erarly 2000s, my first playthrough was using a Bash barb, where all my points went towards a bash and a big pointy sword with random runes such as El and Eth for their specific attributes. Also remember not having respecs on NM, so my rear will be handed to me there.
I actually just started d2r this week. Not new to the genre since i played a lot of poe back in the day. I bought d2r on switch so basically I'm playing on single player. Kinda hard but i love the experience since i played poe mostly on ssf.
Sharing my experience with a friend: I played D2 9 years ago for the first time and I'm not playing it constantly. Me and a friend were looking for something we can play together and I thought I should introduce him to this game. That was around when d2r came out so we picked it up. He felt very much like hypno about most of it and we had fun going through it all. The bit I want to shed more light on is that he felt the same about doing the last act at the very end. Act 4 is tough and dry - There's a difficulty spike that you have to slog though (he wanted a zeal pal and he didn't investigate too much into building it, I don't know much about it because I'm always playing sorc) which lasts all the way to the end sequence with soul forge-seal bosses and diablo himself. After doing that 3 times the change of pace during a short, intense and hard act take a lot of wind out of a new players' sail and starting another, longer act which meshes game designs against the player is something difficult to will yourself into. And by that point he was feeling pretty bad about his melee pal. Me playing sorc helped a lot with teleporting and making shortcuts, but I couldn't help but feel for my friend. I'm a grinder and I know I'd accept the hurdles but I also know that this type of experience isn't for everyone.
The thing about a rune word or cube recipe book is back in those days the mystery was part of the fun. Now that we have wikis for everything there's no point in trying to keep things mysterious and so our perceptions have changed. But having to search for that information was it's own meta game back then.
I remember playing Necro with 2-h Maul. It was a summoning build, it was around the version 1.02. Also, everything was in English and I had no internet.
Great video. I disagree with his thoughts on runewords, as I think they're critical to the success and fun of D2. The solution to that problem is to buff more uniques and set items, not to remove and/or nerf runewords. That's always been an issue for sure, and a lot of big D2 content creators agree with that sentiment. Runewords give D2 tons of replayability. They also give an incentive to take part in the trading economy to work your way up and obtain rarer runes and runeword bases. Runewords also give you an incentive to get to know people and cooperate with friends to craft rare items by pooling your resources together. Nothing like that exists in D3 and D4, at least as of me making this post. Runewords also allow you to specifically target a finite ultimate item, and that feels really satisfying to achieve. To this day, I have still never made many of the top-end runewords. The ones that I did make felt incredibly rewarding, much more than anything I did in D3 and D4 up to this point.
It would be interesting if full rune words could drop. Like if tyreals might has a 0.00004% chance to drop, can an ap nigma have the same chance to drop?
You picked a cool dude to give a shout-out to Mrllama. Love your videos! Been watching for a long time. Sload is a bit newer but his streams are a blast to be a part of. Him playing through for the first time. A lot of his viewers bit their tongues like crazy avoiding helping him very much. Sload wanted to experience it blind for awhile and even after beating nornal he didnt want help anywhere except advise till he beat hell baal. Fortis
I agree his first run thru as a hammerdan skews his experience, it would have been interesting to see what he would have thought if he had started with say a sorceress. I my mains are usually a FOH or trapsin, but I do enjoy playing some of the other classes that have a harder grind just because you have to adapt to their own play style and to me that makes it a more exciting game. I was lucky years ago when I started playing D2R I had to friends who had years of experience playing to I had 2 live guides to help my first couple times thru to the end.
when I first played the game back when it was new and I was young, I cleared the full map of every area. This led to much frustration in Hell as I was playing a sorc and respecs were not a thing yet and I had no concept of running past immune mobs. I literally never beat hell difficulty without cheats until watching your let's play walkthroughs.
Great video. Very interesting to see a new player's experience after 20 yrs. I remember when I was new player, I thought D2 was super-hard. I was talking to a friend about it and was complaining that the resistance penalty in Hell made survival too hard. And he said, "Get a 3 OS shield and put three perfect diamonds in it." I replied, "How do you even get perfect diamonds? I've only found 2 flawless so far?" He said, "Kill the Travincal Council. I usually get one regular gem each time I fight them." It was a mind expanding epiphany for me--I didn't even realize you could replay a part you'd played before. It had never occurred to me that you might want to target attack a certain area just to get loot, not to complete a quest. "Farm" wasn't even in my vocabulary back then. Oh how far I have come since then! LOL
when I first played this game i had to figure stuff on my own as I progressed I didn't have any guides. that's truly a different experience and much harder and much funner
The first Diablo game I ever played was the og Diablo thanks to my cousin (RIP big bro ❤), and ever since then I always had the interest in trying later entries. I remember we tried to get the og D2 running but couldn't (OS trouble I think), and here I am, like 10 years later and I decided to try out D2R. I've been hooked and if it wasn't because of uni my game time would be waaaaaaay higher. I got to beat Normal mode on SP (have done a bit of Nightmare) and I'm replaying it but on MP this time (trying Zealadin now, incredibly fun!) and I wanna thank content creators like you Llama, for keeping the community of such an incredible game like this in such a great state. I'm enjoying the experience like when I was a kid playing D1, and now I just have this rush to finish Normal mode as soon as possible to go straight into Nightmare with my Zealadin haha Blessings bro, keep it up with the great content! 💚
What if they add a check box for no rune words at the start? I mean I know there's classic but if you still want to play the expansion characters then you can. Seems like a simple add. Unless it's a whole different server/ladder then I understand PvP might not work well.
In point to the damages and elemental damage to spells it would make sense he would assume it would add to his damage because it does in d3 and in d4. They changed the mechanic.
couple of funny memories as a full noob from over a decade ago: - not understanding what auras on mobs do = going kamikadze straight into a pack with fana/might/conv and die instantly.. and then obviously screaming "wtf!!! was that a bug or what?! from max to 0 life in one shot?" - not knowing that resists and dr/block matter + carring only about life and defense = instant death in case of souls, mobs with lightning bolts when struck, dolls, death lords, and basically the whole 4a and late 5a :D - wtf are synergies?:D just maxing skills and scratching my head when they do shitty dmg in nm and hell :D - following others builds by mimicking just their main gear (most visible items) = ww barb with 2 gfs, leviatan, arreat, but with complete disregard for things like laying of hands, ravenfrost, gores, hlord, string of years = low ar, no cbf, no ds/cb, low or no leeching, low ias = suuuper bad char - thinking that sets are the ultimate gear for characters = failing sooo bad as an aldur dudu and trang nec - scratching my head after dumping 20 points into the cold mastery but still I see "immune to cold" ("wtf i got -180 res!" how do I get thru hell?) - being convinced that +skills gear matters the most = all +skill hammerdin with 0 fcr ;DDDDDDDDDDDDD (additionally cooompletely not knowing and understanding the mechanics of fcr/fhr/ias breakpoints). - setting a password exactly the same as the account name and loosing all your shit - aaaand maaany more sillyness for months until someone slaps you in the head and yell "wtf r u doin dumb kid!!! dont u know that u get locked when u have 0fhr?" etc etc Diablo 2 is I think least forgivable game ever when it comes to skill/gear choice and not knowing the mechanics. Most builds have literally NO CHANCE in hell and late nightmare if not done correctly with maintaing certrain crucial points in their build. But once you get the strong basics building a proper character is actually entertaining AF cuz u feel like u r hacking the matrix ;O
Thanks to the relative short game, smooth progression, and variety of tile sets and gear: this game has always felt almost like a roguelite without the stakes (unless playing hardcore) infinitely replayable and fun
Multiplayer with trading and playing all the classes and knowing different builds for all of them makes many of the item drops interesting again. I look at probably 60% of the items that drop, it's usually trash but sometimes there's amazing things. So exciting to see certain blue things drop ...
I bought D2 from nostalgia and for me it's very different game. What I remember, talents didn't affect other talents, that came later which was great, also back then without internet so not much of help. Some older guy at school told me about rune words (I never used them) and cow lvl. After finishing normal I was farming that lvl whole day (which is possible only once now I think) then I went in nightmare with lvl 70 talent boosted and couldn't die easily, that was really fun. Hoarding all resistance was really fun too. But I also remember that I couldn't hit monsters, all normal attacks were missing, so my stats were like 200str for plate armor and 300dex just to hit monsters, 10 vit, 200mana. I must have been doing something wrong. Then I started playing sorcerer, she never missed, since then I am always some kind of mage in any game. Back then my sorc build was some amazing barb armor 300str, 10dex, 10vit and 400mana. Somehow I was immortal with lighting talents, reducing everyone's hp with that lvl 6 talent, then couple bolts and everyone dead, if there were immune, just skip or reload :). Several hundred hours well spent. I quite enjoyed 100h D3 with the barb, the class I couldn't hit any monster in D2 xD Now D4 50h with barb again. I like the story, I also understand it now. Otherwise it's not that great game for me, but I haven't finished it yet. So far the most I enjoyed boss fights, red mark on the map, because it's open.
Pretty good takes overall, and props to him for acknowledging that he's had an unfair advantage, playing pretty much the most broken build in the game. I hope he can continue playing the game with different builds so he can get a better overall view. And besides, the most appealing part of this game for me is that, even after 20+ years I can find out new things and enjoy different play styles. This season I found an Arreat's Face and 2x Bloodletters while playing with my sorc, so I decided to play a melee barb for the first time ever, and it's been a total blast. I learned so much about melee combat and how to keep up the attack rating, and even found cool stuff like Bladebuckle, Gore Rider, War Traveler which added even more excitement. I'm now looking forward to the next season so I can play a summon necro for the first time.
RE best beginner class: I finished Hell in LoD, without runes, and unpatched (didn't have internet back then) with a Bowazon. I had lots in Fire and Ice arrows to work around immunes, and lots in guided arrow + penetration with 3xPoision gem arrows to kite the ancients. Sadly not my first choice of class.
About the runewords, what if we only got access to runewords from like Hell on. Maybe min l45/50 (or add 20 lvl req?). Maybe still it'd be a bit low but it'd make it more of an end-game thing, grinding runes etc creating your runewords, and have you going through normal/nm on rares/set/uniques much more. just a thought I had while watching
If I want to beat the game on HC is Hammerdin the easiest way to get there? I have played D2 for 15 years, but not all that much. You know maybe 5-15 hours a month. With some stints of 6 months without playing. I've only ever managed to beat it on HC once with a Froz orb sorc. She's a glass cannon, but I managed to do it once... maybe 4 years ago. I would love to beat the game on HC with all classes, but I have 98% playtime on sorc. Only ever completed the game with sorc and once with Amazon (not HC)
brings me back to my first playthrough in 2000. still remember the first night i played this game- made a necro because of the cool pose he made when you selected him. i picked up a 2 os bardiche because it looked sweet... put a couple sapphires in it thinking i'd be adding cold damage. discovering that game for the first time was the best- even finding everything out the hard way was fun. d2 actually taught me so much about life and how to never trust anyone lol.
Got to level 71 and doing some NM dungeons in Diablo 4. I don't play games much anymore, but Diablo 4 was interesting to play though and grind a bit. Kept getting pulled more and more out of D4 the higher level I got and ended up playing Halls of Torment more than D4. Today I decided to hop back into D2 again, thinking maybe I'd be rewarded with a Death's Fathom or another grailer for coming back. Happy to say that hasn't happened yet. :D I think this guy was pretty fair, D2's got some warts, but I really think it holds up well.
i just started playing diablo 2 but couldnt afford resurrected so ive been enjoying the original lod watching ur vids its been way too fun im playing a barb in nightmare so far and basically used no abilities until whirlwind lmao just click enemy through all normal
Hey man I pretty much done same. When D2R came out I wanted to play it so much but had only played D1 as a kid. And thought hang on... I should try LOD D2 first, and got it done a couple play throughs and was so damn hooked! Then got plugY version and I’m playing like 4-5 hours a day now. I don’t really think I need D2R I like single player anyway (the newer runewords would be nice to have tho)
Oh btw.. in a year I have found every single rune Zod being 2nd to last and Ber being last. That’s quite fast really right?? What’s your thoughts. I’ve seen you tubers that have played the game for 20 years and still haven’t found zod! Dayamn that’s crazy to me. P.s i never thought I’d find a ber rune.. and omfg I found it in the weirdest place imo. Found it after I beat Lilith with my smite paladin in a random chest on my way out of the dungeon!🎉😂
I was late to D2 as well. I played it for the first time last year and I had a similar experience with the rune words. They were great but they seemed very out of balance compared to other items. I don't think they should be removed or nerfed but I do think other items could be buffed up so they are more on par with rune words which would make itemization more interesting. It might also make sense to limit the number of rune word items you could equip at once? Maybe set the limit at 2 or something? I dunno.
@36:00 The best thing to do is to make a digital manual and make it a sort of book you can click at any time to look at the basic explanation, the rest should be done through trial and error, because that is part of the game, you learn on the job.
The technology was a struggle in itself back then. Dial up internet and slow computer speeds. If I was stuck or had a question I had to sign off, walk down the street, and ask a friend, took less time then asking friggin Jeeves. I spent countless hours on this game, played every character, then got expansion and repeated, made solid friendships, ignored countless bring frees n free for me's and I have a lot of appreciation for this game. So many mechanics flew over my head the first few runs, and new conveniences refreshed the enjoyment. It's hands down my favorite game. Recently got back into it on Switch and I'm totally back into it. Runewords have been alot to take in but it's fun to learn. Shout out to my friends and online people I met back then! I would follow theyr evil genius through Hell anyday!
What I kinda dont like from his point is that he clearly played using a guide. Cos his build is doing well, he seem to have his merk have insight and generally good items cos merk is not dying. And my point is you cant 100% give and honest opinion on a game if you didnt played it yourself on your own at least once. And nowadays guides is so good and optimized and give you all the info you need (like oh dude you get act 2, you get to level 17, go to drognan and reset his shop searching only red wands of lvlreq 18 until you get white bonewand or wand with 2 sockets and +3 to desired skill then do a White runeword and you have god mode item) I didnt knew that i can do something like this until i played through D2 on so many classes so many times, even runewords. Realizing that there is thing like this back in the day after a few playthroughs was so exciting. And if you play using a guide you cant feel what the game actually is for a full degree, cos you dont experience those problems of not knowing things, doing mistakes and discovering stuff.. Also yeah, he got a bingo playing hammerdin and not getting destroyed by immunities. But his review is great in terms of structure and what points he actually made on game overall.
I was thinking earlier how much cooler d4 would have been if each zone you had to actually specifically build resistances and skills for and had unique items or reasons to be there.
i'm pretty decent at videogames, but as a kid playing through this game entirely on my own as a sorc was very difficult. i didn't know anything about runewords and got halfway through act 1 hell with a terrible fire/cold/lightning build before i gave up. i think this is a pretty common story...the immunities in hell make it so tough on a sorc who is just playing on their own and doesn't understand that you can skip things and reload the zones to change certain mob types and immunities. i recently played D2 as a sorc again and finally completed it armed with a lot more knowledge. one thing i love about d2 that i felt immediately is how much influence you feel like you have over your character and the game. of course gear is crucial to your power, but there is a big skill ceiling and with good play you can complete content even if you are under geared and under leveled. there really aren't many unavoidable attacks that you just need to meet a numbers threshold to continue. most attacks can be dodged and with no cooldown or limit to potions it just feels like you have so much control over your own survival. it just has a very oldschool feel that i love and is why i love games like starcraft 1 and super smash melee far more than their sequels where the developer trend is to bring down that skill ceiling to close the gap between the low skilled and high skilled players and cater to a more broad audience.
His chat basically spoiled the game for him. The fun was in discovering the skills, trying new combinations, struggling, trying new characters. It's like playing Elden ring in godmode just to see the story :/ I still remember my first run back in 2002 without internet . It was a necro I played melee lol (I had a Trident then replaced with a Maul). My skill points were all over the place. I was pumping str and dex to be stronger. I would clean EVERY SINGLE AREA. Struggled a lot to beat normal. Then I started reading guides (they sucked back then btw). I put countless hours in many characters , trashed many of them (no respec back then) but never finished actV Hell. Then at uni I gave it a break. When I discovered MrLlama's guides it motivated me to jump back. Now i enjoy late game content. I think he needed to try different characters to see how the experience changes.
I also very much liked where he stated that when he slipped up, it was his fault, and he knew why he died. That is definitely true in this game. It's nice seeing a newer player understanding that, rather than just complaining and blaming the game.
My first character was a fire sorceress 20+ years ago and I really enjoyed the challenge of NM and Hell difficulties, After getting to hell I decided to change by build to a fire/cold hybrid so I could better deal with fire immune monsters an not have to rely on the merc to kill the majority of enemies in act 1 of Hell and that was a lot of fun for me as changing the build also made me make changes to how i played the game with that character but overall it was a fun time. I will say however the rarity of unique and set items made sense up till LoD patch 1.09 as the addition of runes and runewords made a lot of the popular unique and set items drop out of the limelight and that also added a lot of set and unique items that did not really see much use due to runewords being so powerful Even I would only give diablo 2 a rating of 8.5 as it is a great game but my main issue with this game is the artificial difficulty scaling (difficulty being scaled based on the number of players in the game) however this could be fixed with an option to enable dynamic scaling for the players that enjoy the scaling in Diablo 4. This option would not affect drop rates or mp exp bonuses those would stay the way they currently are but you would be gaining more xp due to monsters being a higher level than your character and monster stats would be increased realistically based on the monsters levels and not based on player count
Just got back into D2 after 20 years. And I was impressed how the combat held up. D3 was a lot of fun, but it didn't have that realistic dangerous feeling d2 always had.
I think there’s a magic and satisfaction to looking up information about a game you want to get better at. It adds that much more to the “challenge” of an ARPG. Been playing D2R since it released and it’s crazy to me how much stuff I’m still figuring out. It’s even comparable to the new Pokémon games. We all know Gen 1-3 were the best because of the challenge of finally beating the elite 4. Don’t get that satisfaction anymore.
The melee issue is wiffing an attack and it feels like a glitch because your character gets locked in place for the animation and it feels like you always miss if they are passing you
I'm a bit confused. This was his first playthrough, but he's leaving uniques on the floor that we as experienced players know are trash, but he wouldn't know that? I remember starting out. Any unique drop was hugely exciting, but he's just leaving them? It's like he has some prior knowledge?
Been married 18 years. I almost didn't go on that first date, though, because of my deep love affair with Diablo 2. " You can try calling him, but he'll probably not answer... It's Friday night, trust me, he's playing this game..." That's how much I played Diablo. D2R is a beautiful love letter to someone like me, as well as many people all over the world, I'm sure. When asked what a sequel to Diablo 2 should be like, I was known for saying, "Just update the graphics and otherwise change nothing." Incredibly, amazingly, that wish was actually granted. More or less. But, peel back the history, the nostalgia, the player base created elements ( gold is the actual currency in this game?) and decades later you discover that, much like what was once magical in childhood, as an adult you can clearly see the animatronics and mirrors that make the illusion work. Diablo 2 creates the illusion of boundless adventure and loot. The truth is, you tell me what class you're playing and I'll tell you what your stats look like and what gear you're wearing. Or what gear you want to be wearing. Build diversity is counted by the handful, really, and the pool of "endgame" items is just as limited. 20 skill points spent on a skill you aren't going to even use to boost one you will use? Surely there's criticism to be found there. What Diablo 2 does best is disguise it's shortcomings and distract you from them to such a degree that you don't remember there being any until you go back years later with fresh eyes. That in itself is a truly special feat. Star Wars, original trilogy, is very dated. But fans like myself never remember that. Never pay attention to it. It's always welcome. It's always magical. That is hard to replicate. Damn hard. The formula in Diablo 2 that keeps me coming back, honestly, is that there's always something to find. It might only be stacking pgems, it might only be a really great socketed base, it might be a Mara's ( sorry, nope that's a Saracens....again...) But there's always stuff worth gathering. Stuff to accumulate. But a lot of that comes down to the existence of a player driven economy. If any game that follows, D4 included, can't provide the raw materials with which we can feel like we may not have found something useful to me but it's certainly valuable to you, well, then, I don't think it will stand the test of time like our beloved Diablo 2.
My first d2 play through 20 years ago was brutal so I think sload’s analysis was pretty spot on. My first character was a paladin pre runeword patch. I had no idea what I was doing. I randomly picked fist of the heavens to be my go to skill. Back then, FOTH had no synergies and did like 300 damage fully maxed. So I was running around the cow level trying to kill thousands of cows with FOTH doing 300-400 damage per cast. It didn’t go well as y’all can imagine. D2 is very unforgiving for new players. But once you learn more about the mechanics and how everything works it’s a very rewarding experience. I’ve put in hundreds of hours in d2r online and offline single player.
great video. the first reviewer was mostly spot on, but i think he missed the fact that non-socketed items can be uograded in the horadric cube. sure, most non-socketed items are trash but if you find something like an archon plate with no sockets you can add sockets to it and make Fortitude, etc.
The only issue with runewords is that to much builds do not rely on gear itself but rather they rely on skills so the runewords that highly increases the skill levels and casting speed are the main issue as they often are way to low level to use. All great melee runewords for example are high level runewords and to grind for high level runes you want great gear beforehand. Thats why all non caster specific builds will not farm for runes until they really reach high levels as there is no benefit for them and instead they heavily rely on good uniques, rares and crafted gear. This is also true for niche builds like a flamebow sorceres which needs uniques to even be able to build arround it properly and while they surely want a dragon runeword it is basically one of those best in place items you would actually grind for in the longrun. On the other hand we have sets that are nice as well and you will see people use those sets or parts of it for how great their benefits may be. My revenge Paladin for example uses a rare sword while in hell because there are only a handfull better weapon choices than a 398% ed rare for this build that gets the most damage out of high pjhysical damage weapons. The biggest issue that both uniques and rares have is that they often do not fit the circumstances of higher difficultys. I do not need an elite version weapon that only deals fire damage when all builds only ramp up physical damage except some melee sorceress builds and if I find mid level rares that allready outdamage those elite version weapons I am not excited to look for them either. So in total you have barely 10 useful weapons in the unique section for each class of which the majority is only level up gear. On the other hand you have 5 to 6 high level runewords that fit the bill so instead of searching for thise few lucky drops you focus on the runes instead as they also allow you to upgrade them. On the way to those runes you will eventually find fitting rares and uniques however. And ask an amazon what they are looking for in the first place I do not think they will say I look for runes primarly but if they come across those nasty to find high runes for their beloved bow runeword they will considder it as well. So in a nutshell: Casters are primarly rune focused and as those runewords are to easy to make they get imbalanced easely. Melee and bow characters might look for specific endgame runewords as best in slot but the way to obtain those are covered by unique and rare or crafted gear. In fact even mid runes are sometimes hard to obtain for a melee character. Lastly we have the issue of drops when needed. My frenzy barbarian suffered up to Diablo to find even one unique double handed sword of which at least 5 were perfect fits for at least 2 acts in a row on the other hand he also had not much luck with rares either so up to level 30 you change weapons over and over and over and over again simply because the ones you really need do not drop and by the time they drop you do not need them anymore (beside a few actually were a good choice for an upgrade via horadrim cube) Did I use any form of runewords ? Of course I did twice to be even fair for about 1-2 levels a simple steel runeword helped me to replace awfully bad rares but like mentioned this was not because the runeword was strong but because I didn't get anything useful for my build. In fact up to level 50 runewords and uniques are at least equal or mostly Uniques even the stronger options between level 50 and 70 you barely have interest in the uniques anymore as they except some best in place items do not have good use anymore compared to good rare rolls or high level runewords. Over level 70 you basically look for best in place options of which accessoires are mostly uniques or crafted items and rarely set items. Weapons are mostly runewords or upgraded mid tier uniques that fit the bill or in some cases of course set items and the rest of the gear can actually be surprisingly different based on what class you play. I myself love a Guardian Angel more than any other unique or runeword for example and feel it is the best choice even for a hammerdin If you do not want to play risky with some other high runewords.
Игры
Thank you for watching my video MrLlama! It was awesome hearing your thoughts as a Diablo 2 expert and I appreciate the shout out. I loved D2 and I will definitely try out a different character/build soon :)
I haven't been able to watch any of your new D4 streams. In short, what are your thoughts on D4 compared to the previous games? Do you intend on spending most of your time in the world of Sanctuary within D4 or do you want to go back and spend much more time in D2?
Very good analysis, even considering you only did a single run thru the game, you picked up on most of the key points good and bad and articulated them well. Would love to see you do the same thing with Diablo 1 sometime.
@@brightenblack207 Personally, I am still having a lot of fun with D4 but fully intend to go back to D2 eventually and play some more. I think I'd like to continue playing both games going forward
Great analysis dude and welcome to the community! Sometimes we just got to eat shit and die to learn though! xD enjoy!
You kind of robbed yourself of the games itemization. If you had gone into the game blind you wouldn’t have had any idea runewords were even a thing and every item would have felt more important on your journey.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the game…”
Mr Llama: okay this guy is going places
“Yea I’d give it a 7.5 out of 10”
Mr llama: okay FUCK YOU buddy
p.s. Hammerdeen OP
🤣
Next video:
"I give Diablo 4 an 8 out 10"
It's really 7.5/9 though XD
😂
fr though...... only a 7.5?!? thats blasphemy lmfao
When I first played Diablo 2, internet at home was out of the question. My best character was a frozen orb sorceress that I got to Hell Act 3, but then I got stuck. LOD wasn`t even out. Respec meant creating a new character. There was an Internet Cafe in town and we gathered there to discuss characters and stuff. The whole internet cafe was running on 2 or 3 dial up connections. I remember copying my character on a floppy to get it to the iCafe to play with others. When I first saw the LOD intro my jaw dropped.
Ahh the good all days. I remember bragging to my friend in 7th grade about gold skin dropping. Also remember having to get my brother to go buy it for me at a circuit city. Man I miss those days.
Yeah, lol, I remember printing out websites so that I'd be able to look at them while playing the game. My father did have internet connection at his house, but since being online made it impossible to make or recieve phone calls it had to be used sparingly and only during very specific times.
There’s such a romance to the initial release of Diablo 2… it must have been so immersive and engaging to have no solid guides and no respec… I played the original d2 when I was like 12, didn’t know about guides or anything, and I remember finding it extremely difficult and frustrating 😂
Ah. I remember when I was a youngin' beginner. I used to think that investing a single point into every skill was how you make a good character.
Blame blizzard on poor ux and ui
If you were a barbarian, that's actually not too bad.
@@Mizer1822 yea bad idea then and now
To be fair, that is what A LOOOOOT of guides suggest. Don't get me wrong, it's absolutely terrible advice that I've been fighting against for a very long time, but it is something people tell others anyway.
@@Mizer1822think of games that require you to hit a monster and have hit checks, back when this game originally came out Final Fight, streets of rage, golden axe etc all performed the same functions (also built off a simplistic version of d&d) and these are the kinds of attacks you want then only a few skills give you that feel if physical. Obviously all magic doesn’t have to worry so much.
If you wanna relive that style of play you need a skill that can hit check (that can hit always provided your close enough) then smite and other skills is your thing
I think the combat in D2 feels more satisfying and impactful, and therefore is more fun is because of the superb sound design and the death animations. Just the fact that a lowly Fallen when killed does this little flying spin while leaving a curved trail of blood or the dark hunters bodies being lifted from the corrupted souls leaving their bodies makes killing something so basic feel fun everytime. Enemies just ragdolling or exploding into a Mortal Kombat 3 fatality for me is a huge nosedive in quality and "soul and feel" for a videogame. Like the developers for later entries didn't bother to add (or don't know how to add) personality to their game
Well said brother
Yeah, they really nailed the sounds and animations in D2!
Totally
Although D2 is my favorite Diablo game....I'd have to say the fighting mechanics are extremely boring. Especially when it comes to boss fights. It's just stand there and attack...everything else in the game makes up for it I believe
@@mattie.f00 sry but it is far not true. It is the most rare case when you can afford to just stand and attack. You barely can build such a tank character in D2.
I watched this guys vods back when he was playing D2. He really went through it with Duriel. He started with a scuffed paladin build, and he wasted his respec. But eventually he found his way to blessed hammer. He got to experience the whole journey of Diablo 2.
Well, proof that he was not able to play the game without someone taking him by the hand (a guide obviously). Kinda sad he had no interest in finding out the stuff by himself
@@RiceLow I mean, there's multiple ways to enjoy playing a game. One of the things we rely on in order to get better at a game quickly is the community.
It's part of the excitement of a new game launching. The entire community comes together and tries things out. They gather data, they share data, and they find what works and doesn't work.
He said in the video that he thought every game came with a guide back when D2 came out so I guess that's why he used one lol.
@@RiceLow you would do that too if you were in his boots lil bro
@@TheSeeker225 He's not wrong, but also not right in this case. X to doubt D2 LoD guide came with a hammerdin build setup. lol.
Especially since hammerdin wasn't even good till a much later patch. Guides in general were pretty trash for Arpg's back in the day, cause they only explained abilities, and somewhat mechanics. You'd never get a full build.
Hallo MrLlamaSC,
I completed my first Holy Grail Yesterday (15/07/23). I am playing for almost 3 years now but lost all my items at the end of last year (2022 - Long story...), but restarted and started all over and finally got them all. I used an Blizzard Sorc and sadly my last item was the Death's Fathom. I was very luck to find 2 Tyrael's might in the progress. I stopped playing D2R when D4 started but I was so close to the end that I had to finish what I started. I love Diablo 2 and my plan now is to cheep playing D2R and not D4 because D2R is the better game and a lot more fun and casual. My fist Diablo game I played was Diablo 1 (Demo - Act 1 -2) and after that I played all other Diablo games besides Diablo Immortal .I have my own business (Plumbing) so my time to play is very limited so when I do have the time to relax Diablo 2 is the best.
Thank you MrLlamaSC for all the time and effort you put in with Diablo 2 and the community because the passion what I see in you give me more motivation to cheep playing this great game (Diablo 2).
Love from South Africa.
Greetings,
Wilco.
When the biggest, baddest boss to shut you down isn't Duriel but Eskom. Congrats on all the kieff drops!
Ive played d2 for the last 12 years on and off again, and back in the day, i learned everything through strangers. Not a lot of wikis back then. And when d2r came out i played singleplayer seriously for the first time. Singleplayer is a completely different beast. I love it.
Actually there was always wiki like websites and forums
Glad you love single player it’s sexy
Do you guys play specific build on SP? Do you play always 100% fresh? (No items in stash for new characters)
@@Nazylexx i'm starting my new single-player playthrough on d2r right now! Gonna try necromancer with nothing and see where I go from there. Probably gonna farm a lot of cows lol. I played a lot of single-player on PlugY diablo 2 and i had a blast. I definitely shared my items between my characters. Of course, you should play however you want to play.
And i like single-player because you dont really have to play sorc because the maps are static. So you just try to get a good map for mephisto runs (for example), and you can farm him on any character without missing infinite teleporting from the sorc.
guy has that boss are not reused but uber is reused boss models lol
Mr Llama! That’s a great idea. I think you should watch some of these blind playthroughs and give your commentary. I’ve watched a lot of them, including this video, because I also can’t imagine my life without this game and I’m curious how unfamiliar people feel about it. And I get second hand excitement from experiencing it for the first time.
Normally I don't care about the reaction videos, but am happy I've watched this one. This guy is smart, and his take on D2R was spot on, especially for a newcomer. I only blame his chat for making him go with the lamest build of all time, hammerdin ;)
You say lamest, i say best.
Why wouldn't someone use the very best class/build in the game?
As a hammerdin player you have the possibility to eventually do all content in the game, including ubers.
@@Boris82 Why? Because it's utterly boring, mainstream, OP, no challenge whatsoever. Cool if you are 15.
@@megamastah
I absolutely enjoyed it.
I did a LOT of pvp as well.
I played it many years ago though.
His chat basically spoiled the game for him. The fun was in discovering the skills, trying new combinations, trying new characters. It's like playing Elden ring in god mode just to see the story.
16:50 to me this is the main thing that sets D2 apart from every other game: somehow every single play through feels fresh. Even on the fifth wolf druid and the seventh lightning sorc, it just feels fresh and exciting.
Somehow no other game gives me this
Definitely agree on the things are not explained part. I would love to have like a compendium in the game where stuff that you come across gets added while you progress through the game. Imagine something like: you killed a spectre, than that spectre gets added to the book and you can check his resistances, attacks etc. Or you could only see his fire res if u hit him with fire at least once and killed him, something like this i feel could be interesting instead of just going to the wiki and check everything.
I'm a big fan of both in-game bestiaries and the kind of 'experience-based knowledge' that allows you to make more educated decisions in the game. I think it's a delicate balance to strike though; you don't want to give away everything about how to meta-game every aspect of the game right away but you don't want it to feel like you have to grind out what could be 'basic information' either.
I actually really like the idea that in order to find out whether a creature is resistant or weak to a type of damage, you need to use that kind of damage against those creatures enough. I think that, in order for that to feel rewarding to the player, it needs to be something that pays dividends into the future and not just relevant at that specific stage of the game though. Something like enemy types that all share those kinds of features, such that you get more information about ALL demons by killing any kind of demon, meaning that if you know you're coming up against a new type of demon, you can still make some educated guesses about how you'll do against them. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting the benefit of that discovery for one small portion of a single act and it just doesn't matter again until you're on a second playthrough.
If runewords weren't available until hell mode, I think it would ease some of the pain. You play through the campaign twice with none, then you unlock hell mode, and a whole new world of amazing gear opens up to you.
Melee would be unplayable
They would have to severely change the drop rate of melee weapon uniques to adjust for the lack of early game rune words.
Rune words such as stealth were intended to be early leveling words to help some of the classes that struggled before LoD came out
I think an easier approach would be to change the runes for the extremely overpowered runewords. For example, change spirit to require a mid rune(s) or high rune(s). Buffing crafted shields would also help to give players a choice in between crafting or making a runeword.
As other people said, melee would be even harder and there are some gaps in itemization that runewords like stealth fill. Just taking them out would make the game just cumbersome.
Went to Sloads channel and he seems super wholesome and eloquent in his descriptions. Hope you do more “colab”, it’s really fun to get a newcomers perspective.😊
The one thing that MrLlama teached me is what to look on those blue items in a playthrough. It's insane how many good items I found either on monsters or on Charsi.
Hey Llama! I was having a trying day at work but listening to your reactions while at the office made me laugh and lightened the mood. Thanks.
What do you think about lightning spear zon as a build for him? Seems like perfect mix of not being too easy or hard with a million options for gear.
I like the idea about the cube recipe book or finding runeword recipes in the world when killing ennemies, as long as finding the runeword or cube recipes are NOT a prerequisite.
Hypnosload is a good dude and his play-through is highly satisfying…would love to see more first time D2R player reacts content as well as more Uniques and Sets only play throughs.
I had so many problems with Duriel my first time I still get nervous before jumping into that damn hole.
one thing d2 always did right was giving you rewards for quests that aren't just experience or items. lots of quests give you a skill point, stats or resistances. helps you build your character along the way. you can ignore liam's tome quest BUT you'll be running around whit -15 stats in hell. items FEELS right and i often check white or blue items as i playthrough.
the formula was perfected whit diablo 2 but was completely forgotten in diablo 3 and 4.
I mean to be fair, quests give renown in D4 which give inventory expansions and skill points. While not quite quest = stat/skills, its not quite correct to say its completely forgotten in D4.
nice, good on you for checking this guy out. I came across his first video in his "playing D2 for the first time' series and was immediately hell bent on helping him thru the game. I started watching his Twitch streams regularly (I'm cheezeypotatoes on there) and there was a small group of us guiding him thru the game and his hammerdin build. I'm still tuning in to him to watch him play D4 as I'm playing and help him out when he has questions.
love these reacts llamasc hope to see more
34:52 this is such an interesting point to me. When Asmongold played Dark Souls 1 for the first time he got stuck and he wanted to stop the game and quit it. Then the chat helped him and he got through Sen's Fortress and completed the game and it is one of the best game he ever played. So it is so important to overcome this barrier and when you do it can become the best game you ever played.
You'll need a mouse if you play a sorc
Asmondgold is a greasy, unshowered nasty.
I'm new to this game as well. Just started about 2 weeks ago. Although, I have quite a bit of ARPG experience under my belt. The amount of tabs I have open, guides I've watched, and even what my friend has told me, this game has a lot of stuff to take in. Definitely has been a huge sense of reward learning everything as I've been going.
He just happened to pick hammerdin, just happened to see that concentration juices it up...yeah he was coached
His chat told him everything and he played the strongest build. Shame shame shame
so true. played the strongest class and took the easiest route
Like to see him play a physical bowazon or a zealot.
i didn't realize runes were added after some point. when i was young and struggling with hell, i didn't know much but i also didn't have runes as an option. good review, good video here.
It was an expansion pack feature iirc. Always been a thing since lord of destruction.
My first build was a frenzy barbarian and even though I struggled massively and died a lot I persevered learned the build and now 20 years later it's one my favorite builds in the game along with summon necro.
Barb and Necro are my childhood characters ! They are so iconic for me
This was cool to watch! Rare to see someone completely new to the game and genre, and your commentary adds a lot of perspective and insight 😊
31:50 Blade assasin... (lighting trap sin goes into same spot as hammer, but blade sin is a different flauvour - it's a bit like bowzon...) or summon necro :D although most new players going for summoner necro change character after meeting with Duriel.... soo.. bone necro, who switches into summons once getting to nightmare?
very impressed by his analysis. i don't think i could explain what makes me like or dislike a game so eloquently
Hey MrLlama, you bring up a great point about runewords. That said, if you've not done so yet, I think a playthrough not using runes or runewords, with a character that's a little more difficult for you than the rest, would be an awesome stream/playthrough!
I always cringe a bit when ppl use a guide to min max their first character then claim a game is easy.
yeah, although he was respectful with it, i feel this is a good way to ruin/spoil a game really fast
Blame the internet bruh everyone trashy low skill person does this in every game even d4 and d3 becuase some people are just stupid you need to undsratand this are actually retards so they have to have someone spell out everything for them
It is almost unplayable if you don’t look up any guides as a new player. Very few skills are actually viable at all the game is dated especially for new players. Your take is cringe. Who doesn’t look up guides? You enjoy wasting your time? Or is all you play is Diablo 2?
@@ambridge6645 Considering the amount of dramatically scuffed characters I see when I inspect random people in D4, I'd say there's plenty of people who go in completely blind with no preconception of what to do. 😅
He played a scuffed build, and even wasted a respec, all through normal. He insisted he didn't want help for the first run through so chat obliged.
When he discovered how NM and Hell worked, and said he wanted to finish Hell, that's when chat started offering some tips and hidden info (d2 has SO many things you need to know but the game never tells you...)
It was a legit first-time experience, don't worry.
Back in my erarly 2000s, my first playthrough was using a Bash barb, where all my points went towards a bash and a big pointy sword with random runes such as El and Eth for their specific attributes. Also remember not having respecs on NM, so my rear will be handed to me there.
I remember having a giant hammer with my necromancer and skeletons wandering through the flyer jungle getting demolished lol
I actually just started d2r this week. Not new to the genre since i played a lot of poe back in the day. I bought d2r on switch so basically I'm playing on single player. Kinda hard but i love the experience since i played poe mostly on ssf.
Sharing my experience with a friend:
I played D2 9 years ago for the first time and I'm not playing it constantly. Me and a friend were looking for something we can play together and I thought I should introduce him to this game. That was around when d2r came out so we picked it up. He felt very much like hypno about most of it and we had fun going through it all. The bit I want to shed more light on is that he felt the same about doing the last act at the very end. Act 4 is tough and dry - There's a difficulty spike that you have to slog though (he wanted a zeal pal and he didn't investigate too much into building it, I don't know much about it because I'm always playing sorc) which lasts all the way to the end sequence with soul forge-seal bosses and diablo himself. After doing that 3 times the change of pace during a short, intense and hard act take a lot of wind out of a new players' sail and starting another, longer act which meshes game designs against the player is something difficult to will yourself into. And by that point he was feeling pretty bad about his melee pal. Me playing sorc helped a lot with teleporting and making shortcuts, but I couldn't help but feel for my friend.
I'm a grinder and I know I'd accept the hurdles but I also know that this type of experience isn't for everyone.
The thing about a rune word or cube recipe book is back in those days the mystery was part of the fun. Now that we have wikis for everything there's no point in trying to keep things mysterious and so our perceptions have changed. But having to search for that information was it's own meta game back then.
there was a game guide? i had no internet and no guide lol
I remember playing Necro with 2-h Maul. It was a summoning build, it was around the version 1.02. Also, everything was in English and I had no internet.
Great video. I disagree with his thoughts on runewords, as I think they're critical to the success and fun of D2. The solution to that problem is to buff more uniques and set items, not to remove and/or nerf runewords. That's always been an issue for sure, and a lot of big D2 content creators agree with that sentiment. Runewords give D2 tons of replayability. They also give an incentive to take part in the trading economy to work your way up and obtain rarer runes and runeword bases. Runewords also give you an incentive to get to know people and cooperate with friends to craft rare items by pooling your resources together. Nothing like that exists in D3 and D4, at least as of me making this post. Runewords also allow you to specifically target a finite ultimate item, and that feels really satisfying to achieve. To this day, I have still never made many of the top-end runewords. The ones that I did make felt incredibly rewarding, much more than anything I did in D3 and D4 up to this point.
It would be interesting if full rune words could drop. Like if tyreals might has a 0.00004% chance to drop, can an ap nigma have the same chance to drop?
You picked a cool dude to give a shout-out to Mrllama. Love your videos! Been watching for a long time. Sload is a bit newer but his streams are a blast to be a part of. Him playing through for the first time. A lot of his viewers bit their tongues like crazy avoiding helping him very much. Sload wanted to experience it blind for awhile and even after beating nornal he didnt want help anywhere except advise till he beat hell baal.
Fortis
I agree his first run thru as a hammerdan skews his experience, it would have been interesting to see what he would have thought if he had started with say a sorceress. I my mains are usually a FOH or trapsin, but I do enjoy playing some of the other classes that have a harder grind just because you have to adapt to their own play style and to me that makes it a more exciting game. I was lucky years ago when I started playing D2R I had to friends who had years of experience playing to I had 2 live guides to help my first couple times thru to the end.
when I first played the game back when it was new and I was young, I cleared the full map of every area. This led to much frustration in Hell as I was playing a sorc and respecs were not a thing yet and I had no concept of running past immune mobs. I literally never beat hell difficulty without cheats until watching your let's play walkthroughs.
Great video. Very interesting to see a new player's experience after 20 yrs. I remember when I was new player, I thought D2 was super-hard. I was talking to a friend about it and was complaining that the resistance penalty in Hell made survival too hard. And he said, "Get a 3 OS shield and put three perfect diamonds in it." I replied, "How do you even get perfect diamonds? I've only found 2 flawless so far?" He said, "Kill the Travincal Council. I usually get one regular gem each time I fight them." It was a mind expanding epiphany for me--I didn't even realize you could replay a part you'd played before. It had never occurred to me that you might want to target attack a certain area just to get loot, not to complete a quest. "Farm" wasn't even in my vocabulary back then. Oh how far I have come since then! LOL
So refreshing to watch content like that.
when I first played this game i had to figure stuff on my own as I progressed I didn't have any guides. that's truly a different experience and much harder and much funner
his perception is way skewed by playing hammerdin lol
clearly using a guide too
HammerDEEN*
@Showerofjyzz chat was doing alot of heavy lifting, I watched his playthrough
The first Diablo game I ever played was the og Diablo thanks to my cousin (RIP big bro ❤), and ever since then I always had the interest in trying later entries. I remember we tried to get the og D2 running but couldn't (OS trouble I think), and here I am, like 10 years later and I decided to try out D2R. I've been hooked and if it wasn't because of uni my game time would be waaaaaaay higher.
I got to beat Normal mode on SP (have done a bit of Nightmare) and I'm replaying it but on MP this time (trying Zealadin now, incredibly fun!) and I wanna thank content creators like you Llama, for keeping the community of such an incredible game like this in such a great state. I'm enjoying the experience like when I was a kid playing D1, and now I just have this rush to finish Normal mode as soon as possible to go straight into Nightmare with my Zealadin haha
Blessings bro, keep it up with the great content! 💚
What if they add a check box for no rune words at the start? I mean I know there's classic but if you still want to play the expansion characters then you can. Seems like a simple add.
Unless it's a whole different server/ladder then I understand PvP might not work well.
When D2 was first released, we learned about mechanics, bosses, builds, and hidden content by talking to friends at school.
and the book that came with the game
There is no cow level
But did he make a melee Sorc with 1 point into every skill & even distribution of stats
We need to petition for MrLlama to always say Hammerdeen from now on! 😁
In point to the damages and elemental damage to spells it would make sense he would assume it would add to his damage because it does in d3 and in d4. They changed the mechanic.
couple of funny memories as a full noob from over a decade ago:
- not understanding what auras on mobs do = going kamikadze straight into a pack with fana/might/conv and die instantly.. and then obviously screaming "wtf!!! was that a bug or what?! from max to 0 life in one shot?"
- not knowing that resists and dr/block matter + carring only about life and defense = instant death in case of souls, mobs with lightning bolts when struck, dolls, death lords, and basically the whole 4a and late 5a :D
- wtf are synergies?:D just maxing skills and scratching my head when they do shitty dmg in nm and hell :D
- following others builds by mimicking just their main gear (most visible items) = ww barb with 2 gfs, leviatan, arreat, but with complete disregard for things like laying of hands, ravenfrost, gores, hlord, string of years = low ar, no cbf, no ds/cb, low or no leeching, low ias = suuuper bad char
- thinking that sets are the ultimate gear for characters = failing sooo bad as an aldur dudu and trang nec
- scratching my head after dumping 20 points into the cold mastery but still I see "immune to cold" ("wtf i got -180 res!" how do I get thru hell?)
- being convinced that +skills gear matters the most = all +skill hammerdin with 0 fcr ;DDDDDDDDDDDDD (additionally cooompletely not knowing and understanding the mechanics of fcr/fhr/ias breakpoints).
- setting a password exactly the same as the account name and loosing all your shit
- aaaand maaany more sillyness for months until someone slaps you in the head and yell "wtf r u doin dumb kid!!! dont u know that u get locked when u have 0fhr?" etc etc
Diablo 2 is I think least forgivable game ever when it comes to skill/gear choice and not knowing the mechanics. Most builds have literally NO CHANCE in hell and late nightmare if not done correctly with maintaing certrain crucial points in their build. But once you get the strong basics building a proper character is actually entertaining AF cuz u feel like u r hacking the matrix ;O
About the runewords. Maybe they can limit the amount you can wear at one time. You can even add items that allow you to wear more at once.
I bought the Battle Chest when I was in middle school, so I at least had the book that came with it, which I thought was pretty badass at the time.
Thanks to the relative short game, smooth progression, and variety of tile sets and gear: this game has always felt almost like a roguelite without the stakes (unless playing hardcore) infinitely replayable and fun
When I first started, I remember equpping bolts to my barbarian and punching quill rats.
Where did Llama get that dope ass shirt??
Multiplayer with trading and playing all the classes and knowing different builds for all of them makes many of the item drops interesting again. I look at probably 60% of the items that drop, it's usually trash but sometimes there's amazing things. So exciting to see certain blue things drop ...
I bought D2 from nostalgia and for me it's very different game. What I remember, talents didn't affect other talents, that came later which was great, also back then without internet so not much of help. Some older guy at school told me about rune words (I never used them) and cow lvl. After finishing normal I was farming that lvl whole day (which is possible only once now I think) then I went in nightmare with lvl 70 talent boosted and couldn't die easily, that was really fun. Hoarding all resistance was really fun too. But I also remember that I couldn't hit monsters, all normal attacks were missing, so my stats were like 200str for plate armor and 300dex just to hit monsters, 10 vit, 200mana. I must have been doing something wrong. Then I started playing sorcerer, she never missed, since then I am always some kind of mage in any game. Back then my sorc build was some amazing barb armor 300str, 10dex, 10vit and 400mana. Somehow I was immortal with lighting talents, reducing everyone's hp with that lvl 6 talent, then couple bolts and everyone dead, if there were immune, just skip or reload :). Several hundred hours well spent.
I quite enjoyed 100h D3 with the barb, the class I couldn't hit any monster in D2 xD
Now D4 50h with barb again. I like the story, I also understand it now. Otherwise it's not that great game for me, but I haven't finished it yet. So far the most I enjoyed boss fights, red mark on the map, because it's open.
Pretty good takes overall, and props to him for acknowledging that he's had an unfair advantage, playing pretty much the most broken build in the game. I hope he can continue playing the game with different builds so he can get a better overall view. And besides, the most appealing part of this game for me is that, even after 20+ years I can find out new things and enjoy different play styles.
This season I found an Arreat's Face and 2x Bloodletters while playing with my sorc, so I decided to play a melee barb for the first time ever, and it's been a total blast. I learned so much about melee combat and how to keep up the attack rating, and even found cool stuff like Bladebuckle, Gore Rider, War Traveler which added even more excitement. I'm now looking forward to the next season so I can play a summon necro for the first time.
Yea like a runeword guide that you get from deckard, but you have to go farm monsters to unlock the recipe
RE best beginner class: I finished Hell in LoD, without runes, and unpatched (didn't have internet back then) with a Bowazon. I had lots in Fire and Ice arrows to work around immunes, and lots in guided arrow + penetration with 3xPoision gem arrows to kite the ancients.
Sadly not my first choice of class.
About the runewords, what if we only got access to runewords from like Hell on. Maybe min l45/50 (or add 20 lvl req?). Maybe still it'd be a bit low but it'd make it more of an end-game thing, grinding runes etc creating your runewords, and have you going through normal/nm on rares/set/uniques much more. just a thought I had while watching
Yeah ok playing hammerdin isnt the greatest challenge because there are nearly no immunes. He should do it again in another class
Play it without synergies :)
If I want to beat the game on HC is Hammerdin the easiest way to get there? I have played D2 for 15 years, but not all that much. You know maybe 5-15 hours a month. With some stints of 6 months without playing. I've only ever managed to beat it on HC once with a Froz orb sorc. She's a glass cannon, but I managed to do it once... maybe 4 years ago.
I would love to beat the game on HC with all classes, but I have 98% playtime on sorc. Only ever completed the game with sorc and once with Amazon (not HC)
@@Mozdk1 whether sc or hc doesn’t matter
@@Mozdk1 it depends on yourself and your understanding of how to play and twitch skills. People can beat this game with 0 equipment so
@@Mozdk1 I never touched hc so I cant give you advice on that.
my bro was 8 when he started playing d2 and he figured it out just fine
brings me back to my first playthrough in 2000. still remember the first night i played this game- made a necro because of the cool pose he made when you selected him. i picked up a 2 os bardiche because it looked sweet... put a couple sapphires in it thinking i'd be adding cold damage. discovering that game for the first time was the best- even finding everything out the hard way was fun. d2 actually taught me so much about life and how to never trust anyone lol.
Damn this took a grim turn so suddenly hahaha
Got to level 71 and doing some NM dungeons in Diablo 4. I don't play games much anymore, but Diablo 4 was interesting to play though and grind a bit. Kept getting pulled more and more out of D4 the higher level I got and ended up playing Halls of Torment more than D4. Today I decided to hop back into D2 again, thinking maybe I'd be rewarded with a Death's Fathom or another grailer for coming back. Happy to say that hasn't happened yet. :D I think this guy was pretty fair, D2's got some warts, but I really think it holds up well.
It's always fun to see new person come play your favorite 20 year old game
i just started playing diablo 2 but couldnt afford resurrected so ive been enjoying the original lod watching ur vids its been way too fun
im playing a barb in nightmare so far and basically used no abilities until whirlwind lmao just click enemy through all normal
Hey man I pretty much done same. When D2R came out I wanted to play it so much but had only played D1 as a kid. And thought hang on... I should try LOD D2 first, and got it done a couple play throughs and was so damn hooked! Then got plugY version and I’m playing like 4-5 hours a day now. I don’t really think I need D2R I like single player anyway (the newer runewords would be nice to have tho)
Oh btw.. in a year I have found every single rune Zod being 2nd to last and Ber being last.
That’s quite fast really right?? What’s your thoughts. I’ve seen you tubers that have played the game for 20 years and still haven’t found zod! Dayamn that’s crazy to me.
P.s i never thought I’d find a ber rune.. and omfg I found it in the weirdest place imo. Found it after I beat Lilith with my smite paladin in a random chest on my way out of the dungeon!🎉😂
@@mrfarq6654 yeah plugy makes the base game feel so good to play idk if id be able to play the remake lmao
@@slof69 true yep
I was late to D2 as well. I played it for the first time last year and I had a similar experience with the rune words. They were great but they seemed very out of balance compared to other items. I don't think they should be removed or nerfed but I do think other items could be buffed up so they are more on par with rune words which would make itemization more interesting. It might also make sense to limit the number of rune word items you could equip at once? Maybe set the limit at 2 or something? I dunno.
@36:00 The best thing to do is to make a digital manual and make it a sort of book you can click at any time to look at the basic explanation, the rest should be done through trial and error, because that is part of the game, you learn on the job.
There's something magical about not having the bosses describe their lives for hours before I kill them
The technology was a struggle in itself back then. Dial up internet and slow computer speeds. If I was stuck or had a question I had to sign off, walk down the street, and ask a friend, took less time then asking friggin Jeeves.
I spent countless hours on this game, played every character, then got expansion and repeated, made solid friendships, ignored countless bring frees n free for me's and I have a lot of appreciation for this game. So many mechanics flew over my head the first few runs, and new conveniences refreshed the enjoyment. It's hands down my favorite game. Recently got back into it on Switch and I'm totally back into it. Runewords have been alot to take in but it's fun to learn. Shout out to my friends and online people I met back then! I would follow theyr evil genius through Hell anyday!
What I kinda dont like from his point is that he clearly played using a guide. Cos his build is doing well, he seem to have his merk have insight and generally good items cos merk is not dying. And my point is you cant 100% give and honest opinion on a game if you didnt played it yourself on your own at least once. And nowadays guides is so good and optimized and give you all the info you need (like oh dude you get act 2, you get to level 17, go to drognan and reset his shop searching only red wands of lvlreq 18 until you get white bonewand or wand with 2 sockets and +3 to desired skill then do a White runeword and you have god mode item) I didnt knew that i can do something like this until i played through D2 on so many classes so many times, even runewords. Realizing that there is thing like this back in the day after a few playthroughs was so exciting. And if you play using a guide you cant feel what the game actually is for a full degree, cos you dont experience those problems of not knowing things, doing mistakes and discovering stuff.. Also yeah, he got a bingo playing hammerdin and not getting destroyed by immunities. But his review is great in terms of structure and what points he actually made on game overall.
I was thinking earlier how much cooler d4 would have been if each zone you had to actually specifically build resistances and skills for and had unique items or reasons to be there.
i'm pretty decent at videogames, but as a kid playing through this game entirely on my own as a sorc was very difficult. i didn't know anything about runewords and got halfway through act 1 hell with a terrible fire/cold/lightning build before i gave up. i think this is a pretty common story...the immunities in hell make it so tough on a sorc who is just playing on their own and doesn't understand that you can skip things and reload the zones to change certain mob types and immunities.
i recently played D2 as a sorc again and finally completed it armed with a lot more knowledge. one thing i love about d2 that i felt immediately is how much influence you feel like you have over your character and the game. of course gear is crucial to your power, but there is a big skill ceiling and with good play you can complete content even if you are under geared and under leveled. there really aren't many unavoidable attacks that you just need to meet a numbers threshold to continue. most attacks can be dodged and with no cooldown or limit to potions it just feels like you have so much control over your own survival. it just has a very oldschool feel that i love and is why i love games like starcraft 1 and super smash melee far more than their sequels where the developer trend is to bring down that skill ceiling to close the gap between the low skilled and high skilled players and cater to a more broad audience.
His chat basically spoiled the game for him. The fun was in discovering the skills, trying new combinations, struggling, trying new characters. It's like playing Elden ring in godmode just to see the story :/
I still remember my first run back in 2002 without internet . It was a necro I played melee lol (I had a Trident then replaced with a Maul). My skill points were all over the place. I was pumping str and dex to be stronger. I would clean EVERY SINGLE AREA. Struggled a lot to beat normal. Then I started reading guides (they sucked back then btw). I put countless hours in many characters , trashed many of them (no respec back then) but never finished actV Hell. Then at uni I gave it a break. When I discovered MrLlama's guides it motivated me to jump back. Now i enjoy late game content.
I think he needed to try different characters to see how the experience changes.
I also very much liked where he stated that when he slipped up, it was his fault, and he knew why he died. That is definitely true in this game. It's nice seeing a newer player understanding that, rather than just complaining and blaming the game.
Lmao the Freudian slip at 16:08. I love him too, Llama. He validates how I feel about D2.
My first character was a fire sorceress 20+ years ago and I really enjoyed the challenge of NM and Hell difficulties, After getting to hell I decided to change by build to a fire/cold hybrid so I could better deal with fire immune monsters an not have to rely on the merc to kill the majority of enemies in act 1 of Hell and that was a lot of fun for me as changing the build also made me make changes to how i played the game with that character but overall it was a fun time. I will say however the rarity of unique and set items made sense up till LoD patch 1.09 as the addition of runes and runewords made a lot of the popular unique and set items drop out of the limelight and that also added a lot of set and unique items that did not really see much use due to runewords being so powerful
Even I would only give diablo 2 a rating of 8.5 as it is a great game but my main issue with this game is the artificial difficulty scaling (difficulty being scaled based on the number of players in the game) however this could be fixed with an option to enable dynamic scaling for the players that enjoy the scaling in Diablo 4. This option would not affect drop rates or mp exp bonuses those would stay the way they currently are but you would be gaining more xp due to monsters being a higher level than your character and monster stats would be increased realistically based on the monsters levels and not based on player count
I wonder if the combat being fun has anything to do with the ammount of enemies having on death effects.
Just got back into D2 after 20 years. And I was impressed how the combat held up. D3 was a lot of fun, but it didn't have that realistic dangerous feeling d2 always had.
I think there’s a magic and satisfaction to looking up information about a game you want to get better at. It adds that much more to the “challenge” of an ARPG. Been playing D2R since it released and it’s crazy to me how much stuff I’m still figuring out. It’s even comparable to the new Pokémon games. We all know Gen 1-3 were the best because of the challenge of finally beating the elite 4. Don’t get that satisfaction anymore.
The melee issue is wiffing an attack and it feels like a glitch because your character gets locked in place for the animation and it feels like you always miss if they are passing you
I will say, Instead of Nerfing Runes, I'd enjoy a buff to Unique Items.
Sets need a reworking as well. Few of them are useful to use as full sets when you can have runewords in half the slots which have six+ affixes each.
@@RinostarGames Absolutely Agreed!
I wonder If spirit was Thal Thul Ort Um it would be hard enough to make such that it wouldn’t be a problem anymore.
I'm a bit confused. This was his first playthrough, but he's leaving uniques on the floor that we as experienced players know are trash, but he wouldn't know that? I remember starting out. Any unique drop was hugely exciting, but he's just leaving them? It's like he has some prior knowledge?
Been married 18 years.
I almost didn't go on that first date, though, because of my deep love affair with Diablo 2.
" You can try calling him, but he'll probably not answer... It's Friday night, trust me, he's playing this game..."
That's how much I played Diablo.
D2R is a beautiful love letter to someone like me, as well as many people all over the world, I'm sure. When asked what a sequel to Diablo 2 should be like, I was known for saying, "Just update the graphics and otherwise change nothing." Incredibly, amazingly, that wish was actually granted.
More or less.
But, peel back the history, the nostalgia, the player base created elements ( gold is the actual currency in this game?)
and decades later you discover that, much like what was once magical in childhood, as an adult you can clearly see the animatronics and mirrors that make the illusion work.
Diablo 2 creates the illusion of boundless adventure and loot.
The truth is, you tell me what class you're playing and I'll tell you what your stats look like and what gear you're wearing. Or what gear you want to be wearing.
Build diversity is counted by the handful, really, and the pool of "endgame" items is just as limited.
20 skill points spent on a skill you aren't going to even use to boost one you will use?
Surely there's criticism to be found there.
What Diablo 2 does best is disguise it's shortcomings and distract you from them to such a degree that you don't remember there being any until you go back years later with fresh eyes.
That in itself is a truly special feat.
Star Wars, original trilogy, is very dated. But fans like myself never remember that. Never pay attention to it. It's always welcome. It's always magical.
That is hard to replicate. Damn hard.
The formula in Diablo 2 that keeps me coming back, honestly, is that there's always something to find. It might only be stacking pgems, it might only be a really great socketed base, it might be a Mara's ( sorry, nope that's a Saracens....again...)
But there's always stuff worth gathering. Stuff to accumulate.
But a lot of that comes down to the existence of a player driven economy.
If any game that follows, D4 included, can't provide the raw materials with which we can feel like we may not have found something useful to me but it's certainly valuable to you, well, then, I don't think it will stand the test of time like our beloved Diablo 2.
My first d2 play through 20 years ago was brutal so I think sload’s analysis was pretty spot on. My first character was a paladin pre runeword patch. I had no idea what I was doing. I randomly picked fist of the heavens to be my go to skill. Back then, FOTH had no synergies and did like 300 damage fully maxed. So I was running around the cow level trying to kill thousands of cows with FOTH doing 300-400 damage per cast. It didn’t go well as y’all can imagine.
D2 is very unforgiving for new players. But once you learn more about the mechanics and how everything works it’s a very rewarding experience. I’ve put in hundreds of hours in d2r online and offline single player.
great video. the first reviewer was mostly spot on, but i think he missed the fact that non-socketed items can be uograded in the horadric cube. sure, most non-socketed items are trash but if you find something like an archon plate with no sockets you can add sockets to it and make Fortitude, etc.
The only issue with runewords is that to much builds do not rely on gear itself but rather they rely on skills so the runewords that highly increases the skill levels and casting speed are the main issue as they often are way to low level to use.
All great melee runewords for example are high level runewords and to grind for high level runes you want great gear beforehand.
Thats why all non caster specific builds will not farm for runes until they really reach high levels as there is no benefit for them and instead they heavily rely on good uniques, rares and crafted gear.
This is also true for niche builds like a flamebow sorceres which needs uniques to even be able to build arround it properly and while they surely want a dragon runeword it is basically one of those best in place items you would actually grind for in the longrun.
On the other hand we have sets that are nice as well and you will see people use those sets or parts of it for how great their benefits may be.
My revenge Paladin for example uses a rare sword while in hell because there are only a handfull better weapon choices than a 398% ed rare for this build that gets the most damage out of high pjhysical damage weapons.
The biggest issue that both uniques and rares have is that they often do not fit the circumstances of higher difficultys. I do not need an elite version weapon that only deals fire damage when all builds only ramp up physical damage except some melee sorceress builds and if I find mid level rares that allready outdamage those elite version weapons I am not excited to look for them either. So in total you have barely 10 useful weapons in the unique section for each class of which the majority is only level up gear. On the other hand you have 5 to 6 high level runewords that fit the bill so instead of searching for thise few lucky drops you focus on the runes instead as they also allow you to upgrade them. On the way to those runes you will eventually find fitting rares and uniques however.
And ask an amazon what they are looking for in the first place I do not think they will say I look for runes primarly but if they come across those nasty to find high runes for their beloved bow runeword they will considder it as well.
So in a nutshell: Casters are primarly rune focused and as those runewords are to easy to make they get imbalanced easely. Melee and bow characters might look for specific endgame runewords as best in slot but the way to obtain those are covered by unique and rare or crafted gear. In fact even mid runes are sometimes hard to obtain for a melee character.
Lastly we have the issue of drops when needed. My frenzy barbarian suffered up to Diablo to find even one unique double handed sword of which at least 5 were perfect fits for at least 2 acts in a row on the other hand he also had not much luck with rares either so up to level 30 you change weapons over and over and over and over again simply because the ones you really need do not drop and by the time they drop you do not need them anymore (beside a few actually were a good choice for an upgrade via horadrim cube) Did I use any form of runewords ? Of course I did twice to be even fair for about 1-2 levels a simple steel runeword helped me to replace awfully bad rares but like mentioned this was not because the runeword was strong but because I didn't get anything useful for my build.
In fact up to level 50 runewords and uniques are at least equal or mostly Uniques even the stronger options between level 50 and 70 you barely have interest in the uniques anymore as they except some best in place items do not have good use anymore compared to good rare rolls or high level runewords. Over level 70 you basically look for best in place options of which accessoires are mostly uniques or crafted items and rarely set items. Weapons are mostly runewords or upgraded mid tier uniques that fit the bill or in some cases of course set items and the rest of the gear can actually be surprisingly different based on what class you play. I myself love a Guardian Angel more than any other unique or runeword for example and feel it is the best choice even for a hammerdin If you do not want to play risky with some other high runewords.
:D he played it quite a bit since he has a past tab, aka past season transition.
I played the original for about 11 years! Awesome game! Perhaps I need to start again!
Hammer-dean! 😂😂😂 that's what I'm calling it from now on.
Chugging and managing potions was the hardest part for me when I was a new player