Diablo 2 Expansion gone gold (1 Viewer)

[MikeAlletto]

It will be in stores on June 29th for around $35.
Hmmm...anyone else think thats a little expensive for an expansion pack? I wish they'd release the updated pieces as a download and if you want the expansion pack (new characters, items, act) release that separatly for $20-25...
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Michael Alletto
Mike's DVD List

 

[Corey Hancock]

Yeah, I think that $35 is a little steep. But I paid $35 for Throne of Bhaal. So I won't complain. Man, I am never going to get any sleep with these games coming.
Corey

 

[Tim Markley]

$35 is definitely too much for an expansion pack. I've been waiting for this one but after buying a PS2 with Red Faction, SSX, Onimusha, Twisted Metal:Black and NBA Street this week I'm gonna have to wait.

 

[MikeAlletto]

Ok, I gave in and bought this. Mainly because the guys I play with all decided to buy it on friday so I HAD to go get it so I could play along this weekend
Anyways...we are working our way from the beginning. The new characters are pretty cool. We are just about ready to start the new act, probably tonight or sometime this week.
It is rather buggy though, but this never surprises me anymore with PC games. It has crashed multiple times on my machine when running with direct 3d so i switched down to use 2d instead and it hasn't crashed. This is the same problems I had with Diablo 2 with its version 1. You'd think blizzard would have some sort of regression testing?
Anyways...very addictive as usual.
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Michael Alletto
Mike's DVD List

 

[Alex Spindler]

Got it on Friday as well. Then I set myself down to plan out the career for my new Assassin character.
The expansion came right as I was feeling the game was a little stale, so I have renewed interest.
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Bombardment Society - Member

 

[Kenneth]

I picked mine up this weekend. I am still playing Throne of Bhaal but I should finish that towards the end of the week (depending on how much quality gaming I get on the 4th). I would expect to try the Diablo II expansion by the weekend. I hear a Druid calling my name
Kenneth

 

[Tim Markley]

I picked this up over the weekend as well. I got in about an hour or so in between games of Red Faction, TMB and NBA Street. It's been so long since I stopped playing D2 that I almost forgot how to play! I had some initial problems with video drivers but after grabbing the latest driver for my card (ATI Radeon LE) and installing the latest DirectX drivers, everything worked great. I transferred my existing character from D2 and have started on Act V. So far it looks pretty good. Lots of new stuff! I created an Assassin but don't feel like starting over at the moment. Looks like a cool character though. Too many games, not enough time!

 

[Wolf Jenkins]

I think I'm gonna boot up a new Assassin tonight. I've got my Necromancer halfway through Act 2 as a Nightmare level character, so I figure if I'm gonna beat it again, might as well be with a new character...
Any strategies for an assassin?

 

[Joe D]

That's sweet. 35 dollars is too expensive though, I feel that 25 to 30 dollars is a good price for an expansion set. Ohh well. Now I just need a bigger hard drive or find somestuff to delete.
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Joe Dahlen
"Take hold of the flame, you've got nothing to lose, but everything to gain."

 

[MikeAlletto]

I still haven't found any really awesome weapons for the assassin, but use the trap skills. I got the fire one and dumped about 5 points in it. With that you are really unstoppable. Just last night I got the shadow mastery and death sentry and those are awesome. The shadow is a duplicate of yourself. She fights and has access to ALL skills (even ones you don't have) and will cast stuff at will. The death sentry lays lightening traps that also explodes corpses. The 5th act I think is absolutely crazy...its like one big non-stop fight. I'm at level 32 as an amazon now. It only took my friends and I 2 days to get through the first 4 acts. We started 5 last night and did the first 3 quests. Good fun.
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Michael Alletto
Mike's DVD List

 

[Alex Spindler]

Wolf,
My assessment of the Assassin possibilities (gained by studying the skills, listening on the assassin forums, and my meager experience with the ASN so far), I think some successful versions are as follows :
Venassin (Venom assassin)
Heavy venom skill, usually several socketed emeralds in a weapon, some poison items as well.
Some even use a poison bow for ranged attacks.
Trapassin (Trap specific)
Seem to heavily favor the Wake of and Death Sentries for most of the killing. Using Mind Blast to keep them at bay also seems to be a favorite. Maybe use Cobra Strike to recover mana, or some other leech, and pick and choose the weak enemies to refill your mana. I have yet to see proponents of the blade portion, but there may be some potential to the crafty user.
Martial Artist
This one basically ignores the trap section entirely. They basically throw a lot of points into Tiger, Phoenix (or Ice or Lightning), and Claw Mastery. If you choose dual claw, versus claw/shield, about 10 points in weapon block is recommended.
Oh, and by all indications, either Shadow is a must have. There is some debate about which is more appropriate, but the AI for the SMaster is supposed to be very impressive (using useful skills at the right times).
*Edit - Oh yeah, I think I'm going to try both venom and traps. Heavy venom, heavy death sentry, either Ice or Lightning charges (two lvl 30 skills is enough to maintain without Phoenix). I can't decide if the freezing aspect of Ice is enough to balance doing one third of the damage of lightning (which is not consistent in damage because it starts at one point all the way up to 700 with one lvl 20 attack). Ah.... choices, choices
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Bombardment Society - Member

 

[Van Patton]

Last time I played Diablo II was back in Januarary. I quit playing because some jackass somehow found a way to hack into and steal all my level 35 Paladin armor and weapons. Talk about being pissed off.
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[Wolf Jenkins]

I've got my assassin going now. Thanks for the tips. After a few minutes of playing, I think I'm going to go the double claw route & martial artist route. For the first act, I think i'll use thrown potions to get me through the hard parts - the weapon switch thing is pretty sweet.
Traps seem kind of lame to me - require a little too much tact - not my Diablo style
I'm going to work on Claw Mastery and double claw. don't really know the finishing move & charging move thing too well yet. gotta get the hang of that.

 

[Kenneth]

I finished Throne of Bhaal and gave myself a day off yesterday but now I finally got to try my Lord of Destruction. After seeing everyone talk about the Assassin I decided to try her out first. Wow, too cool. I took down Blood Raven with 4 hits (3 tiger claw charges and 1 finishing move). My Necromancer was running all over the place when he tried and Natasha just jumped right in. It looks like she will be reminiscent of my Barbarian. I love the new 800x600 resolution. It is too bad they couldn't take it up to 1024x768 but this is excellent. Definitely helps the field of view. I am looking forward to logging some serious hours this weekend
Kenneth

 

[Wolf Jenkins]

The assassin rocks. I've played w/ a Paladin & necromancer before (both are in the 30 levels) and I enjoyed them. Druids seemed a little like the Necromancer - minion city - so I went back to something a little more action oriented.
got a hang of the finishing move thing - trying to figure out my skill allocation. I'm at level 16 - got 2 points saved up and in the beginning of act 2. I must say that my assassin did the best of job of taking out Andarial (sp?) - the Necromancer had tons of problems as I didn't really have a lot of good damage at that point (I had CE, but not enough people died near her...)
a side comment - but I'm glad to post here at HTF - I've been reading some D2 forums and people are freakin' hostile to one another! You ask a newbie question (sure, you should read other posts first, but...) anyway - people flame the newbies on all those forums! oy...

 

[Alex Spindler]

Yeah... this is a much safer forum, even if it gets little traffic.
My Assassin is going the Martial Arts/Traps angle. I love the traps, but I have been saving all of my points until I know which ones to invest in. By lvl 24, I should be able to check out Wake of Inferno and see if it is more worthy than Wake of Fire (which rocks, even at level 1). Nothing like popping them inside a door of a crypt and waiting till the screams die down The other point of contention I've got it whether to go with Blades of Ice or Claws of Thunder. I;ve decided against Phoenix becuase I already plan on going full steam with two lvl 30s (Death Sentry and Venom), so I have no points to spend on Phoenix to make it any good.
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Bombardment Society - Member

 

[Wolf Jenkins]

I don't think I'm gonna do venom - I'm now level 19 or so and am saving points for shadow master. I think Shadow Master will really rock. Heck, my NPC really kicks b*tt. I just kepy a rogue, gave her a rare bow w/ some ethereal ring mail and helmet (NPC do NOT lose durability of ethereal goods!) so she's got a much higher armor class than I do and the bow does extra damage against undead. Since I'm a melee kind of specialist, this really kicks butt.
So far though, Ithink my claws are kinda weak, but I think the Assassin makes up for it in speed & finishing moves.
I've got dual sets of Foul Claws - kinda wimpy I think. What's everyone else got?

 

[Kenneth]

I am still in Act 1 (I saved after I hit the Jail Level 1 waypoint) but the play balance seems to have shifted in favor of the player (at least with the Assassin). Maybe I will change my mind once I work my way down to Andariel tomorrow but so far the monsters seem to go down way easier and I seem to get a lot more stuff (particularly gems) than in the original version. Am I just starting to get better at the game or is the Normal level a lot easier than before? Just curious what some of the others think.
BTW, my character is now level 13 and my NPC is about level 10 or 11 (with a gemmed bow and Etherial Armor, her normal attack is the cold arrow). I am sporting dual claws and am focusing on the shadow and martial arts disciplines. I don't have any points in traps and don't plan to put my skill points there at this time.
Cheers,
Kenneth

 

[Aaron Copeland]

I am still in Act 1 (I saved after I hit the Jail Level 1 waypoint) but the play balance seems to have shifted in favor of the player (at least with the Assassin). Maybe I will change my mind once I work my way down to Andariel tomorrow but so far the monsters seem to go down way easier and I seem to get a lot more stuff (particularly gems) than in the original version. Am I just starting to get better at the game or is the Normal level a lot easier than before? Just curious what some of the others think

I have made the exact same observations. I'm just starting Act V with a Druid...and so far, I've breezed through all the other acts. I've also picked so many gems I just don't even to pick them up anymore.
Aaron

 

[MikeAlletto]

I'm a level 41 assassin on act 2 of nightmare difficulty. At least nightmare is as annoying as I remembered it. You die quick, inflict little damage and hardly get any experience. My friends and I went through all 5 acts of normal in 3 days. It took me 2 days to get through just act 1 of nightmare.
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Michael Alletto
Mike's DVD List