Diablo vs. Diablo II

[Father Beast]

I have the diablo II shareware (just barbarian, early game, other constraints) and my family played it for the first couple of weeks after we downloaded it, then went back to their other stuff.

The sims displaced Diablo at our place, but I revvved it back up again the other day, and I'm addicted again. I find it's still very cool.

There's a lot of things to admire about Diablo II. the instant transition between areas, the skill trees, graphics which customize your look, all sorts of neat things.

but I think it's almost crippled by the save system. I don't mind going and retrieving my corpse when I screw up. Really I don't. in fact I used to play a bit of diablo on multiplayer just so I would have to do that. added a little spice.
But when I got back to Diablo, I took great pleasure in hunting down all the creatures on a level, and making sure I learned all its secrets. that was something I missed in Diablo II.
In Diablo II, I stopped caring if I'd cleaned things out. it's not a pleasure, it's a chore. so I started just plowing though all those attackers to get where I was headed to. not as fun.

So what do all of you think.

[The Mad Monk]

There is a 'trading game' aspect to Diablo II that I don't see mentioned very often, even though it's blatently obvious to anyone on B-net. It's certainly one of the things that keeps me coming back.

[Dis]

ahh my favourite subject

diablo2 kicks all ass.

hmm that post makes me look like the typical 14 year old wanker on battle.net. but I really am 27.

About the only thing I miss in Diablo1 was my rogue being able to cast firewall. That spell kicked all ass in the first one. But it made it more realistic (perhaps not the best word to use) to have specialized skill trees. and much more interesting.

After about a 6 month lapse in D2- I was hoping Battle.net would get better, but apparantly not; I have started playing D2 again. The characters kick ass. I even stared a necromancer because I want to beat the game on normal level with all 5 characters. The necro is hard for my playing style. I really suck with him. I had trouble clearing the unique monsters in the cave on the first act!

the only downside is what the game has turned into. Perhaps I'm on the diabloiinet forums too much. All they care about is the perfect character. No one parties anymore because they want to solo to get more exp. And there is so much selfishnes because everyone wants to get the 'perfect' items. I hate it when barbs take good items my amazon could use because they want to sell or trade it. The quest for perfect character has led to massive selfishness.

Like I said I want to have fun and have a challenge. I plan on winning the game with a sorceress (I am more a melee character). While I don't want to waste skill points, I don't want to be like all the other sorceress' out there. I want to use the fire and lightning tree more. chain lightning is an unbelievable cheap skill. you could use that indefinately with no mana drain basically. but it is very slow and can't be speeded up by faster cast . But I will use the fire,lightining, and ice trees equally. Because having fun is better than some 'perfect' character.

another downside is nightmare and hell. But I think it was designed this way. I realize these were meant only for serious power gamers. But I hate having to clear the same area over and over again just to level up. It is extremely hard to level up in nightmare. If I don't I will be way underpowered and cannot hit the monsters. I have cleared the dry hills like 7 time in order to level up. I will never be able to get through the rest of act2 nightmare if I don't get up to at least level 35. It is more work than fun.

so you can call me a wussie for playing mostly on normal level. I prefer to have fun with the game. Not working at clearing the same area again and again just to level up.
[This message has been edited by Dissident (edited March 06, 2001).]

[ravagon]

Wrt the levelling up bit (I'm assuming you're still in single-player here), have you tried the multi-player simulators. At ~6x the xp for everything you take out it takes care of the levelling up thing quite nicely even in normal mode.

Link: www.phrozenkeep.com

[Dis]

well my old players are on single player (open). But I'm currently just playing with my battle.net characters right now. I have my amazon at level 30. I'll get my other 4 characters up to level 30, and then I'll decide if I want to hassle buidling them up higher. I probably won't get past 35 though. By then, the expansion will probably be coming out and I'll have 2 new characters to play.

[Father Beast]

I am back to playing Diablo again!

My character (single player) is a level 36 warrior playing on hell difficulty. his stats were golded out since around level 32, so only items can improve him now. down on level 14, those beasties are difficult on hell difficulty.

I keep huge amounts of gold around, plating the area by the cows, in case wirt or griswold comes up with something useful. I also have a stash of magic increasing items next to the portal area, I just put them on to read books. right now I can only get my magic up to 182

when playing the D2 demo, I put a point into find potion so to have something to use mana on. it became a hassle, since I was selecting corpses more often than attacking enemies.

and the stash in D2 is too small.

[Dis]

I've been thinking about playing Diablo again. Yeah the stash in 1 was great- you had the whole town . I used to have so much junk it was hard to walk without clicking on something.

I never played the sorcerer all the way through. I had trouble with the butcher and never played him after that. the sorceress in D2 is challenging, but I'm doing quite well with her. getting through act1 with little mana was the hard part.

and I never played the warrior all the way through either. I just liked the rogue because she had more mana and could still use griswolds' edge against diablo. she could cast firewalls everywhere.

[Dis]

what were some of the other cool spells in D!? all i remember is firewall and chain lightening. I had a rogue, so I probably didn't have access to all the higher spells. plus I never played nightmare and hell (I didn't even know they had one- I never had an instruction manual).

chain lightening was great, and you got it early in the game. in d2 it comes later, and it isn't as effective (they should boost up damage- since no one uses the lightening tree much except for static field)

[Par4]

Energy shield is badass!

But what u do is get a staff with it instead of investing into it

[The Mad Monk]

I've tried that, and discovered (much to my chagrin) that sooner or later, you'll come across a staff/scepter/wand that is superior to yours in every way, except one--it dosen't have the spell you need but didn't invest in.

Skill points are dear at higher levels, but a few in skills you don't use in order to get the critical one you need really isn't too high a price.

[Father Beast]

Dissident: Diablo single player doesn't allow you to choose Nightmare or hell directly, but there is a workaround. start a multiplayer game on the higher difficulty, then start a new game in single player without exiting diablo, and the game will be on the higher difficulty. be careful, since if you choose to load one of your weaker characters, it will be on the higher diff. and they'll get slaughtered. of course you have to have a high level multiplayer character, but there's always bobafett....

if you have hellfire, you can just start a game on the new difficulty.

I have been trying to give D2 a chance, I went back to the demo, and started a new character and put every skill point into bash. I don't have the trouble of all those corpses getting in my way while I'm trying to hit somebody. still, it seems like it's not as fun, somehow.

Dissident, again: I aquired so much junk sometimes that I discovered the limit amount to dropping stuff in town. once you have a certain amount, you can't drop any more, even in open space. this messed me up once when doing the black mushroom quest. the max amount of stuff was on the ground when I went to see pepin with the demon brain. with no room on the ground, he couldn't drop the spectral elixer. I had no way of getting it. he did SAY he was giving it to me, though.
I tried counting, and I think the limit is around 120 items on the ground. flexibility way, way beyond D2.

[The Mad Monk]

Is the barb the only char available in the demo?

[Dis]

I must say the barb in D2 is overpowered. But I'm not complaining . I just cleared the arcane sanctuarary like it was nothing. I was level 30 and had 20 points in sword mastery . If you max out the mastery of your choice it is cake. Put 2 in str, 2 in Dex, and 1 in Vit every level. Forget about energy. With iron skin, a shield, and natural resistance the character is invincible.

I really have to go back to D1. I remember it can be a pain finding the spells you want sometimes. Sometimes I look for what seems like hours just to get a good spell book. There are so many spells I have not tried, I would like to play again.

[Father Beast]

Mad monk: the barb is the only character available in the demo.
Other restrictions:
only 2 quests, den of evil and blood raven.
only a few areas available: rogue encampment, blood moor, den of evil, cold plains (the only other waypoint available), cave levels 1 and 2 (from cold plains), burial grounds, and crypt and mausoleum (from burial grounds).
barb skill tree is resticted, so none of the 2nd layer skills are available. what you have are bash, find potion, howl, and sword, club and axe masteries.

dissident, get back into Diablo and tell me if you think it's better. If you have a bit of patience, you can keep reloading in front of adria. she resets her inventory every time you reload. so eventually she'll be selling your spellbook.

and by the way, people. my enjoyment of this game has just been as a warrior. My rogue hasn't yet finished a game, And I've yet to start a sorcerer. replayability? absolutely!

and another gripe about D2, I just spent some time gathering up all my stuff on the ground and selling it, just to buy the thing wirt's selling that I lust for. only to find myself 1,000 short and go down to the caverns (on hell) and risk my life while short on healing potions to get the last bit of gold. in D2 I never have yet have that lust for equipment rush.