Im still playing Diablo 2 , Icewind dale , Neverwinter nights , Warcraft 3 etc on a retro pc (windows XP) that isn't connected on internet. Its the best thing 😊
I've played countless hours online starting back in the old days of D2 LOD. I thought I enjoyed the game. I still enjoy playing online, don't get me wrong; but I will never forget the experience of getting my first SoJ in an offline account. The high of getting your GG item after hours of planning and grinding, is worth the payoff.
That's awsome :D The dopamine hit is so big when that happens! I remember getting a SoJ in A1 in early ladder once. You generally don't get that in other ARPGs. The excitement of being able to get such high tier items early on makes D2 so much fun. I wish they'd remake 2 and add more content to it. What I mean by remake is update the engine 1:1 with modern fixes, and not go D3-4 route. That'd make long time fans so happy. Worth dreaming? Haha
Without a single player you really don't own the game you paid for. You can't mod it, you can't play it how you want, and when they shutdown servers, you will loose the game you paid for. Single player is the only place where I can feel that I can do what I want with what I paid for.
I mean you arent going to change peoples minds. People are still going to play PvP, rushing, co-op. Terror zones is more fun with 8 players. Trading is fun. And just playing with other people makes it more fun for me. Play solo feels like a empty game.
@@hecatomb1864 I didn't say they cant play PvP and so on. I said Single-Player needs to be option. Option means you can choose it if you want to or not if you don't want to. Right now online mode is not an option - everyone has to choose it. My idea was that those who want to choose single player can choose single player and those who want multiplayer can still choose multiplayer.
Im 39 years old and playing diablo since 1996. im HC Paladin world champion and HC Necromancer Europe 11. For the last 15 years im playing SP HC and i still try to find runes/items while trying to stay alive :). Started to a fresh SP HC in 2024 and i can give it another 24 years :) also thanks for the videos Phil, i still learn new things :)
@@MichaelPohoreski 3 weeks ago found a Tyraels Might (/Players 2, Cow run, BlizzardOrbES L90 Sorc) good luck with yours :) never done holygrail and i think i wont.
I began playing the 1.07 patch this year to obtain certain high quality items you can't obtain anymore. That or some ethereal weapon bases for indestructible and hireling runeword weapons. Also that version of the game is a complete different experience, enemies do so much damage.
@@Patrick_The_Purebuggy 1.07. but the rack farming is rewarding, i got the unique balrog skin and other elite unique items back then. those were the days
You've finally convinced me. After losing my latest hardcore ladder character after three months' work, I've started an offline grail. Up and running this morning with the Infernal Cranium 😁.
Fun little tidbit about Offline Difficulty Scaling, Players 7 is nearly identical to Players 8, which then means if your having too much trouble with the highest, you CAN tone it done a notch without screwing with drop rates.
Or just dumping a character to get runes. I made a character called DrDupe and load up 2 of each runes. Every so often I just make the next level rune. I have been able to mess around with runewards for fun and it has been a lot more fun. Is it cheating... Maybe. Do I feel like doing hundreds of Countess or hours of Act 3? No lol
I started to play D2R in SP too because I asked myself ,why am I playing MP if i hadnt played with other players together for such a long time ^^ I was playing D2R Online but alone...so since then I am enjoying the game in SP mode.
Absolutely agreed! I've been trying online for a week now and the server inconsistency has been so jarring. I'd very much enjoy a tutorial on hero editor so I can recreate some of the characters I lost many computers ago. Keep up the great work!
You make it very appealing to want to play SP for sure! The reason D2 is so great is that there are all these game mode options to fit a person's style. I only play NL. I'm not trying to compete on Ladder and not sleep. I like being able to trade when needed. I like being able to play with the homies when I can. I like being able to hook friends up or giving away items. Down sides: No players count settings, and no ladder only rune words.
Yes smalps! Social fun, give aways, helping new players, making new friends, learning from others! Trading trading trading! Online is defo better imho.
Continue farming hours to get crap items then. Ill roll 3 ctas and 4 hotos today. I also have 4 stashes of unid hell farmed items for only 90 fgs for saleé Only 90 fgs each!@@xzxxx-km4vy
I love SP, but sometimes it is hard giving up trading. With RNG you could have made a HOTO before getting magefists or have an Enigma before finding a Shako.
@@tonybreeden863 No, it's a web page - that's what he means by online. It used to be a program called Jamella you downloaded and ran on your computer to edit save files. Now instead you go to a website, and create then download your character. You can also upload a single player character to edit, then download the edited version.
Been trying to do this myself for the first time on my PS5 copy of D2R cause I have this crazy goal of one day trying to maybe possibly hopefully plat the game. Never had a 99 character period, so this is asking a lot. Went summon necro cause it's what I'm most comfortable with but there's so many things I don't know and the guides I've found are only so helpful. Like what rune words should I be using by what point? What items should I try to get from vendors and when? (Saw that it was supposedly possible to get like a 3 socket helm and tele staff in act 1 but I haven't seen it). Just little things like that to smooth things out and make it quicker would be nice but ugh. Honestly I just want some kinda lazy spelled-out-for-me-guide and I'll just do the work of playing the game itself and following along where applicable.
@@Taima damage reduction is op until hell act 4 tbh. Stack as much as you can and you’ll be golden. Though necro might not have the best damage Also resist must be capped at all times before the end of normal
On diablo if you boot game as administrator. Vs not as administrator you will get a separate offline saved game folder so make sure you stay in same one.
great Vid Phil, well thought out and executed - I have previously played D2 for online and got bored of it and went away from the game for quite some time. Came back recently and now play SP offline exclusively - and am Slayin It! (well sort of, level 89 atm-Dad bod and work long hours.......) anyhow, the game feels much more enjoyable to me as I work to gear my main (NovaSorc) and several alts (Including the XbowSorc you inspired me to try out-level52 atm)......each time I find a piece of BiS gear it is super exciting - I just hit Mephy 2 days ago for my first SP Arachnid Mesh and I ran around the house like a chicken with it head cut off (Wife thinks I am whacked), anyhow moments like that really make me feel like the hours and effort I put into Toons pay off.....thanks as always Phil - YOU ROCK!
Offline is the only way to go really. Leveling new characters is easy, i literally have a separate sorc for each of the boss with perfected maps. Also to mention the unlimited character creation as storage. Offline presents a chalenge of its own and makes the game much more interesting as playing an "iron man" mode.
One thing you didnt include as a single player benefit. There is nothing worse than grinding online and seeing something like a Jah rune drop and someone else in the game beats you to it. I have horrible luck finding stuff to begin with but I have vision issues as well which cause it to take a second before I see stuff like that. Takes a moment for it to register for me before I even start to scroll over and click on it. So I will never win the race to get a top tier item that drops in a groun game. Dont have to worry about that in single player. I can go anyware and clear a whole screen of stuff and then check the drops without any worry about missing something cuz someone else beat me to it.
If you have trouble with vision, in SP you can use the mod that makes those pillars of light from D3 when item drops. By default it's unique items I think, but you can use configuration menu to setup for which item type\quality this happens. Think this will help you a lot.
Yeah but you're complaining about the loot metric. These games were ALWAYS high stakes... Hell, in the original when you died all items on your corpse just fell into the dungeon... If I'm not mistaken they've corrected the rune issue by coloring them orange, a la mousepad, in the remaster... Vision aside what more can you ask for?
@@drwombat Its more of a delay for me to see it, it registers in my brain what it is, and then I try to click and pick it up. So my reaction time is far to low to get anything when playing online. The only downsides to playing offline are not being able to play with friends and having to find everything since you cant trade. Im to the point where I have almost everything I want, except runes. So I have to grind for endless hours just to play the builds I want to play. Id rather just play the game at this point instead of grinding forever to find what I need with builds I dont really want to play at this point
I'm 42, always played online, but even back then I was mostly playing solo. With the new D2R, I have no more time to do all that farming, I tried, have some good characters, but with trading people only want perfects, can't get anything for decent non-perfects. People try to rip you off constantly if you are not an expert at the D2 pricing/values, it is just annoying to deal with. I just started my first offline Sorceress, so I don't have to deal with any of that anymore and I can get more drops with the /players setting and QoL mods that should have been in the game for years already (bigger stash, stackable gems+runes).
Frankly, for someone like me that likes collecting things in games, the very existence of Gomule means I'm playing offline exclusively. The complete lack of any lag, the static maps and the /players x command sure don't hurt either.
I recently started learning how to modify the game to essentially create my own "mod" kind of, and it only works on Single Player naturally, but I don't mind to be honest, usually when I play even if its online I play by myself 99% of the time, so now I'm having a blast in my own modded Single Player game, my mod supports more weapons for the Hirelings, loads of new different item affixes that can spawn, and a complete overhaul of all items to my liking :) Almost all Unique items got either buffed stats and/or completely new and interesting procs and abilities :) and I made all those crappy set item sets much better! I even buffed blue magic Items so that they potentially can roll with some useful stats and skills, completely changed how I play the game 😊
single player is so satisfying, that first Um rune I found made me feel just as much as finding a Ber online, because the *only* way I could get that Um was finding one myself - and stuff like Ohm or Death's Fathom was on a whole other level
Um is a very common rune. You all just fooling yourselves when using the /players x command and using infinite amount of stash tabs. People online are playing the game the real way, most getting the most rare drops on P1 and no infinite stash tabs, you people are just casuals its better to say it that way than saying single player is better. I too play single player but i can admit that only casuals that want an easy mode play single player
@@87539319 Except online is a constant fight for loot, that's another layer of difficulty. I play single player with the /players x but i know that if i was online i would have to do it all on players 1 unless i feel like competing for loot and see who can click faster on that Jah or Ber rune, definitely not for me. And the fact you can't even stack gems and runes online is even more torture. Playing online is much harder
@@ryanzurawskii Playing online forces you to limited stash size, forces you to players 1 loot, forces you to compete for loot if you want to increse the odds, doesnt allow for infinite respecs etc
I really enjoy single player. I tried it a few times over the years but never really got into it. Once D2R came out, Sweet Phil inspired me to try it again, and I fell in love all over(shared stash was huge for that). I doubt I'll ever finish it, but I'm working on that Holy Grail
I am new to diablo 2 so I am playing offline single player in order to learn the ins and outs of everything then I will go online but right now having a blast just playing single player tbh great game so far
The never have to connect back to the internet isn't entirely accurate. I believe Battle net detects when you've been offline for 30 days and requires to see internet again before it will let you launch D2R again. This is also true for the remodded mod.
I already played Diablo 2: LoD for thousands of hours online as a teenager and I even kept up "perming" my characters for years. However, I got tired of doing that eventually and Blizzard just deleted literally all my accounts/characters, so to me, I'd rather play offline now. I had enough PvP experience for a lifetime anyways. If you care enough to amass your fortune and characters online, then you'll probably care when they delete it as well, which will happen eventually, so which one is pointless? At least I can backup my offline characters.
I genuinely had to laugh at this. I've spent days now doing terror zones, trying to find Tal's armor. That's all I need to complete the set, and it won't drop.
@@djinn_tseng its always that one item you really need that wont drop. On my offline I have infinity, grief, hoto, cta, soj's but i cant hit the one item i need - arachs. Guess same is for you with tal's. Got 4 tal's btw >< good luck on yours
Yupp me2.. Got a lvl 98 sin with infinity and enigma plus other stuff.. Took me more then a year to grind thoose stuff but man the highs u get gettin a hr in sp is unbeatable
Make sure to backup your characters every once in a while. I had a power cut & my character file was corrupt & lost everything. It was my first SP character. It was a painful lesson
When do we get an offline or online local Coop Mode. Want to Run around with my Brother, drinking a Beer and talking about Life while slaying... It is Not hard at all. Splitscreen, two in one Screen, whatever...
Could add one more benefit. In single player you can also farm a specific armor stash. For example wayyyy back I found a map where was an armor stash behind Mephisto and it had Lacquered plate everytime and I farmed it till I finally got my first Tals armor from it. Not that its among the rarest of items, but it was nice to have the set put together when they introduced the shiny aura with the sets.
Another online benefit you didn't mention is characters are shared on different devices and platform. If you have been playing in the PC for a while but now you want to play in the couch, just log off, pick your Switch and you will be playing your character where you left it. And a downside to offline is your characters cannot be shared between devices, they are stuck to the device they are created. This is the reason I only play online even if I play by myself 99% of the time.
I have maxed out most of my online characters so i hace been doing offline. It is really hard because i cant reach out to friends foe help or find thibgs as easily. One thing i disagree with it the player change in offline. If i make it players 8 offline its still just me playing. Which is very difficult. However online i actually have 8 players to help slay monsters. So mute point on #2 benefit of being able to change player count. Great work Phil!
You can “trade” offline with a hero editor. Look up online how much something is going for, give yourself the item you want and delete the one you don’t. Trading without the hassle.
@ianbraun271 You are using a 3rd party program to change the game. Make no mistake about it, it's still cheating even if you are just cheating yourself.
I want to get back into D2 but i dont have the time like i used to so I might look into D2R offline + mods... looks like there are mods for boosting drop rates and xp gain so that would be fun
If there's a build you wanna go for but you just can't find that high rune to complete the build and you don't wanna waste years farming it, you can always "make" yourself that rune/item with hero editor.
Great breakdown there was some things that i didnt know. Single player and Multiplayer are awesome together due to you can jump onto another character if you dont like the terror zone from offline to online. tuning the difficulty not just for loot but pure fun of stronger monsters is also a bonus! Its just you against all of hells forces
it's like offline I already have enigma but the saddest thing is online even with like 10+ level 80+ characters I can't find one ber, my highest was a sur lol permanent maps help a lot
I love that all the content creators for Diablo 2 are in at least their mid-30s. These were guys who were playing as teens (or even younger) and are still enjoying the game today.
I started playing online because I was hoping to play with my brother, because I don't have any friends. Unfortunately he doesn't have time to game anymore. I was playing solo online and never checked the lobby browser. I decided to check the lobby browser and seen people giving away free loot and I was amazed at all these cool things they dropped that I could never find back in the day, Titan's Revenge, Oculus, Tal's set, etc. This one cool dude gave me all his hammerdin gear and I had a blast destroying everything.
I'd so much to create a replica of my online characters in offline, but no matter what Editor I use to make a copy, the game simply crashes once I add the save file. I can't even get to the character selection screen.
also added perk of offline, is you can hero edit characters with socket quests so you dont have to constantly relevel a new character every time you need a socket
Those among us who loathe what Blizzard has become, and smart enough to do something about it, have no choice but to play this game offline. Yarr harr.
yo P, have you heard about the D2R Reimagined Mod? It reminds me of PD2 in terms of quality of life features and new items. Currently it is only playable in offline mode and from what I ve heard, the balance seems to be similar to vanilla D2R. Right now I dont see a point anymore in playing offline D2R vanilla, because the quality of life is just a game changer. Ideally they would port PD2 at some point into D2R, that would be an absolute dream, because the graphics is the only thing holding be back from Pd2. but the reimagined mod is such a good start towards this goal, it even brought back the burned out Debrusnki back to D2R. what are your thoughts?
Funny you should mention the struggle for grief offline.. I just found a Lo the other day and then a mal yesterday!! Just looking for my pb now lol.. still kinda getting started as far as offline runes.. been some terrible rng up until now
Hero Editor (an older one that wasnt as nice as this one) is what i used to start my grail. I took my old broke af, poorly geared level 74 ladder sorc and remade her identically in hero editor and ported it over into singleplayer to start my grail. I didnt transfer any of my gold (that was a huge mistake lol) or anything from my merc (kinda stupid) but at the same time it made my start feel more legit because i was on the back foot.
The only flaw that I can think of with D2 resurrected is that check-in DRM that they got implemented in the damn thing. If I could find a reliable way to remove that Check-in DRM permanently then offline D2R would be absolutely perfect.
Does it still force you to log in to battlenet every month under the threat of losing the license? Because I cannot fathom the idea of players tolerating such abuse
I have no will power so when I play online, within like 2 days I have Enigma, Shako, etc etc. I only play offline because everything I have is stuff I got myself, 100%. (And I’m on console so I can’t even HeroEdit.
Played exclusively multiplayer back in the day when D2 was released. Back then, the community was fun. All the lobbies were basically fun chat rooms where people joked around and organized games. Trading games were actually enjoyable, and you could actually get some great gear just trading for a few hours. Bots were rare, almost non-existent. When you grouped up with people to play the game, it was actually a fun adventure, nobody was rushing, we even walked through act 3! As time went on, more and more people just wanted to rush everything, more and more bots started showing up, ruining the game. When D2R released, I also played online, but recently, I've switched to offline/Single player. The online community is kinda dead now. Nobody ever chats in the lobby, games are just rushing games to get you to the next difficulty. Trading sucks, and there's too many bots. It's nearly impossible to get a game of 8 people together to play. Switched to single player, set the difficulty to /Players8 and never looked back. I'm having so much more fun now. Great loot, no bots, no worrying about crappy connection. 10/10.
I have a question. Why i can't put items on my mercenary and i only have 1 option for my armor and weapon on my inventory?? Im playing online ladder mode.. really dont understand. Please help
I 100% agree with the concept of infinite players on SP. I myself am doing a grail and I stash all my finds. If not for that fact I wouldnt be able to. Im ok with not trading and being limited on how long it takes to grind out super end game gg gear.
I'm watching this at work so I may have missed it but I think you left out an important advantage to offline play. You can respec as often as you like.
I tried playing online , and it felt a little laggy , hits werent regustering when i pressed buttons. I went offline and it felt completely different. Maybe different servers on console vs pc. But i play it on ps5 offline only and i have a blast so far. Also, this "here editor' can that work on console? Or is this only pc? really would love to have diablo 2 ress on my pc..maybe one day!
Late to the party, buy terror zones in single player are tied to your pc date and time so you can turn off auto time update and change time to jump to a terror zone you want to farm.
Lag seems the most important reason to choose offline play. I died so many times due to lag or Misshapen's orbs hitting me when I was 10 meters away from them
I never understood why there is an argument about online having a players command. Just do it, Blizzard. It's annoying to split farm with random people since people finish up their parts at different times and people might try to farm the same place. And you can't really farm together, because people take each other's items.
I was able to transfer my plugy characters over! Hadn’t seen them in a few years. Salvaged my 94 sorc. Everything is legit found! Grinded many high runes so I’m decked out. Been playing it again. Miss the good old days playing hardcore ladder with that whole community. Great times
Im an old school d2 player from the time prior of the lod expansion and prior d2r and I always enjoyed the game much more playing offline. The game is perfect for soloing, its more challenging to find the items you want and progress...
one benefit of the Online Chars you forgot is that the Offline Chars dont get transportet cross platform for exemple in holidays you whant to play on the switch at night in the hotel you can play with your online chars but you can not transfer the Offline chars from the PC. and yes overall i played 12 years in Offline only with Ressurected i start Online playing (specialy with girlfrend).
Pre LOD i installed on the computer i had at my moms, no internet. /players 8 and d2 character editor was a blast. I made items that weren't game breaking. Also, this game is better when you cant get rushed to the endgame content in a single day.
Those people who are asking why you don’t play online are the reason why Blizzard got away with making Diablo 4 an MMO. Yes, I am still salty about it and no, I’m never going to stop complaining about it.
Im still playing Diablo 2 , Icewind dale , Neverwinter nights , Warcraft 3 etc on a retro pc
(windows XP) that isn't connected on internet. Its the best thing 😊
Hell yeah, I've been playing alot of oldschool stuff lately. playing Ravenloft : Strahd's Possession atm
wtf this is a nest of virus
@@stevensv4864 He's not connected to the internet
@@Monojoe oh i see
This is what I need wc3 map editor and offline d2 on a xp. Your the man ❤
Online was fun when i had friends lol
This
Lol so true. 😂 I used to wait for friends to log on but after LOD old friends list went bye bye 👋.
Word
100%
Bots and dupes killed online for me. That's why private servers like pd2 are so much fun
Offline multiplayer would be great for those who game with family and friends but also would enjoy the different mods.
you can play online with your friends as well, while being able to sue some additional runewords.
@@danielandrews3878 What additional runewords?
LoD has it, sadly they removed it on D2R
They did this on purpose to ruin local network multiplayer and force online accounts. Better to just play the original with mods.
you can on the original version of diablo 2 LOD
I hate this stupid trend of making every game online. And the whole "games as a service" model.
Not touching PoE or D4 for this exact reason
you forgot the MOST important benefit of single player, NO ASSHOLES WILL STEAL YOUR LOOT!!!!!
Who ever said it is your loot tho? Brainfart dude
@@andersmortensen7415 cause I'm always leading the runs for lower levels ???? Dimwitted piss eater ?
@@andersmortensen7415 cause I'm the one leading the runs, thus killing everything? You dimwitted piss eater?
@@andersmortensen7415 cause I'm the one leading the runs thus killing everything?
@@mhebert350 thats how children would think mate grow up 😂😂
I've played countless hours online starting back in the old days of D2 LOD. I thought I enjoyed the game. I still enjoy playing online, don't get me wrong; but I will never forget the experience of getting my first SoJ in an offline account. The high of getting your GG item after hours of planning and grinding, is worth the payoff.
hell yeah man, soj was my 2nd big project after I did a lot of countess runs, it was so exciting when I finally got it after so many andy runs
That's awsome :D The dopamine hit is so big when that happens!
I remember getting a SoJ in A1 in early ladder once. You generally don't get that in other ARPGs. The excitement of being able to get such high tier items early on makes D2 so much fun. I wish they'd remake 2 and add more content to it. What I mean by remake is update the engine 1:1 with modern fixes, and not go D3-4 route. That'd make long time fans so happy. Worth dreaming? Haha
Just curious, what would the "hours of planning" have been?
@@delorneggmaybe he respecced to a fire sorc and found a good map layout?
Dropped for me while lvling
Without a single player you really don't own the game you paid for. You can't mod it, you can't play it how you want, and when they shutdown servers, you will loose the game you paid for. Single player is the only place where I can feel that I can do what I want with what I paid for.
They should still be making games with LAN support. Support GOG, support dev's that still give you true choice.
Ya just don’t lose your hard drive and you’re good. Switched from ps4 to ps5 and lost my 98% grail progress 😂
Well the original D2 is the best because you can still enjoy multiplayer through LAN. You get the full experience
I mean you arent going to change peoples minds. People are still going to play PvP, rushing, co-op. Terror zones is more fun with 8 players. Trading is fun. And just playing with other people makes it more fun for me. Play solo feels like a empty game.
@@hecatomb1864 I didn't say they cant play PvP and so on. I said Single-Player needs to be option. Option means you can choose it if you want to or not if you don't want to. Right now online mode is not an option - everyone has to choose it. My idea was that those who want to choose single player can choose single player and those who want multiplayer can still choose multiplayer.
Im 39 years old and playing diablo since 1996. im HC Paladin world champion and HC Necromancer Europe 11. For the last 15 years im playing SP HC and i still try to find runes/items while trying to stay alive :). Started to a fresh SP HC in 2024 and i can give it another 24 years :) also thanks for the videos Phil, i still learn new things :)
Preach. Been playing D2 for 24 years and will play it for another 24 as well while I work on my Holy Grail.
@@MichaelPohoreski 3 weeks ago found a Tyraels Might (/Players 2, Cow run, BlizzardOrbES L90 Sorc) good luck with yours :) never done holygrail and i think i wont.
I began playing the 1.07 patch this year to obtain certain high quality items you can't obtain anymore. That or some ethereal weapon bases for indestructible and hireling runeword weapons. Also that version of the game is a complete different experience, enemies do so much damage.
@@Patrick_The_Purebuggy 1.07. but the rack farming is rewarding, i got the unique balrog skin and other elite unique items back then. those were the days
Hey, a fellow d2 player. Do you have a discord?
My main (maybe only) reason i enjoy online is for trading.
You've finally convinced me. After losing my latest hardcore ladder character after three months' work, I've started an offline grail. Up and running this morning with the Infernal Cranium 😁.
Fun little tidbit about Offline Difficulty Scaling, Players 7 is nearly identical to Players 8, which then means if your having too much trouble with the highest, you CAN tone it done a notch without screwing with drop rates.
On PC single player you can save your map for each difficulty by copying the map file into a different folder for your character.
Or just dumping a character to get runes. I made a character called DrDupe and load up 2 of each runes. Every so often I just make the next level rune. I have been able to mess around with runewards for fun and it has been a lot more fun. Is it cheating... Maybe. Do I feel like doing hundreds of Countess or hours of Act 3? No lol
@@jason6569can’t use the online market and doesn’t effect other people’s experience, more power to you bro.
I started to play D2R in SP too because I asked myself ,why am I playing MP if i hadnt played with other players together for such a long time ^^ I was playing D2R Online but alone...so since then I am enjoying the game in SP mode.
The fun for some of us is finding that item so rare its worth 10,000 dollars
I went back to offline… SSF is so much gratifying when something extremely rare drops. I got a PERFECT griffons eye not too long ago, insane
Where did you get it? :D What did you farm? What build did you use?
Now you can't trade it for 30 jah runes:(
Absolutely agreed! I've been trying online for a week now and the server inconsistency has been so jarring. I'd very much enjoy a tutorial on hero editor so I can recreate some of the characters I lost many computers ago. Keep up the great work!
Man, I've been working on a Majesty playthrough, and your avatar definitely threw me for a loop. Didn't expect to see a Warrior of Discord here!
Zonfire99😅
You make it very appealing to want to play SP for sure! The reason D2 is so great is that there are all these game mode options to fit a person's style. I only play NL. I'm not trying to compete on Ladder and not sleep. I like being able to trade when needed. I like being able to play with the homies when I can. I like being able to hook friends up or giving away items. Down sides: No players count settings, and no ladder only rune words.
Yes smalps! Social fun, give aways, helping new players, making new friends, learning from others! Trading trading trading! Online is defo better imho.
the best feeling is buying 10x mal ist ohm runes and roll a 6/6/4 cta to then sell it on JSP for 1k fgs
@@RetroGameThrowdown1 Lol... " jsp " who gives a crap about some cringe little forum and their cringe forum gold lmao.
Continue farming hours to get crap items then. Ill roll 3 ctas and 4 hotos today. I also have 4 stashes of unid hell farmed items for only 90 fgs for saleé Only 90 fgs each!@@xzxxx-km4vy
I love SP, but sometimes it is hard giving up trading. With RNG you could have made a HOTO before getting magefists or have an Enigma before finding a Shako.
Ok I actually love this video. Can I get a suggestion as to what character I should make first? I’m sure a sorceress of some kind?
wild that hero editor is online now lol. I still remember downloading some program that likely gave my computer a virus but it worked
Wait, you can use hero editor on online characters?
@@tonybreeden863 No, it's a web page - that's what he means by online. It used to be a program called Jamella you downloaded and ran on your computer to edit save files. Now instead you go to a website, and create then download your character. You can also upload a single player character to edit, then download the edited version.
@@tonybreeden863 Online hero editor for offline characters.
@@tonybreeden863no I think he means there's an editor on a browser, no need to download and install. Works for offline characters only.
Jamela hero editor was the one back in the day. I just got d2r playing sp hc paladin. Cool to know there is online editor tho. Too bad no open bnet
Offline Hardcore is where it's at
Been trying to do this myself for the first time on my PS5 copy of D2R cause I have this crazy goal of one day trying to maybe possibly hopefully plat the game. Never had a 99 character period, so this is asking a lot. Went summon necro cause it's what I'm most comfortable with but there's so many things I don't know and the guides I've found are only so helpful. Like what rune words should I be using by what point? What items should I try to get from vendors and when? (Saw that it was supposedly possible to get like a 3 socket helm and tele staff in act 1 but I haven't seen it). Just little things like that to smooth things out and make it quicker would be nice but ugh. Honestly I just want some kinda lazy spelled-out-for-me-guide and I'll just do the work of playing the game itself and following along where applicable.
@@Taima damage reduction is op until hell act 4 tbh. Stack as much as you can and you’ll be golden. Though necro might not have the best damage
Also resist must be capped at all times before the end of normal
On diablo if you boot game as administrator. Vs not as administrator you will get a separate offline saved game folder so make sure you stay in same one.
great Vid Phil, well thought out and executed - I have previously played D2 for online and got bored of it and went away from the game for quite some time. Came back recently and now play SP offline exclusively - and am Slayin It! (well sort of, level 89 atm-Dad bod and work long hours.......) anyhow, the game feels much more enjoyable to me as I work to gear my main (NovaSorc) and several alts (Including the XbowSorc you inspired me to try out-level52 atm)......each time I find a piece of BiS gear it is super exciting - I just hit Mephy 2 days ago for my first SP Arachnid Mesh and I ran around the house like a chicken with it head cut off (Wife thinks I am whacked), anyhow moments like that really make me feel like the hours and effort I put into Toons pay off.....thanks as always Phil - YOU ROCK!
Agreed, I have always had a better experience playing single player offline over online.
Offline is the only way to go really. Leveling new characters is easy, i literally have a separate sorc for each of the boss with perfected maps. Also to mention the unlimited character creation as storage. Offline presents a chalenge of its own and makes the game much more interesting as playing an "iron man" mode.
One thing you didnt include as a single player benefit. There is nothing worse than grinding online and seeing something like a Jah rune drop and someone else in the game beats you to it. I have horrible luck finding stuff to begin with but I have vision issues as well which cause it to take a second before I see stuff like that. Takes a moment for it to register for me before I even start to scroll over and click on it. So I will never win the race to get a top tier item that drops in a groun game. Dont have to worry about that in single player. I can go anyware and clear a whole screen of stuff and then check the drops without any worry about missing something cuz someone else beat me to it.
If you have trouble with vision, in SP you can use the mod that makes those pillars of light from D3 when item drops. By default it's unique items I think, but you can use configuration menu to setup for which item type\quality this happens. Think this will help you a lot.
Yeah but you're complaining about the loot metric. These games were ALWAYS high stakes... Hell, in the original when you died all items on your corpse just fell into the dungeon...
If I'm not mistaken they've corrected the rune issue by coloring them orange, a la mousepad, in the remaster... Vision aside what more can you ask for?
@@drwombat Its more of a delay for me to see it, it registers in my brain what it is, and then I try to click and pick it up. So my reaction time is far to low to get anything when playing online. The only downsides to playing offline are not being able to play with friends and having to find everything since you cant trade. Im to the point where I have almost everything I want, except runes. So I have to grind for endless hours just to play the builds I want to play. Id rather just play the game at this point instead of grinding forever to find what I need with builds I dont really want to play at this point
I'm 42, always played online, but even back then I was mostly playing solo.
With the new D2R, I have no more time to do all that farming, I tried, have some good characters, but with trading people only want perfects, can't get anything for decent non-perfects.
People try to rip you off constantly if you are not an expert at the D2 pricing/values, it is just annoying to deal with.
I just started my first offline Sorceress, so I don't have to deal with any of that anymore and I can get more drops with the /players setting and QoL mods that should have been in the game for years already (bigger stash, stackable gems+runes).
6:37 : not true. I just started the game while my internet was out and the game said I had to launch the game once in online mode for verification.
I play D2R mostly on switch and strictly single player. I'm able to play diablo 2 anywhere
I play D2R on my ASUS Rog Ally, which is just like a switch but its a Windows PC. :) But yeah, anywhere. Its top tier.
I wish grim dawn was on switch, but D2R looks amazing
I wish switch allowed to map more skills.
switch? that sounds awful
@ to each their own. I'm having a blast with it
5 weeks in d2r again and still haven’t found tal armor thanks for slapping me virtually 😂
i like the first 1-4 weeks ladder, as everybody starts by 0 its rly fun
Frankly, for someone like me that likes collecting things in games, the very existence of Gomule means I'm playing offline exclusively. The complete lack of any lag, the static maps and the /players x command sure don't hurt either.
I recently started learning how to modify the game to essentially create my own "mod" kind of, and it only works on Single Player naturally, but I don't mind to be honest, usually when I play even if its online I play by myself 99% of the time, so now I'm having a blast in my own modded Single Player game, my mod supports more weapons for the Hirelings, loads of new different item affixes that can spawn, and a complete overhaul of all items to my liking :) Almost all Unique items got either buffed stats and/or completely new and interesting procs and abilities :) and I made all those crappy set item sets much better! I even buffed blue magic Items so that they potentially can roll with some useful stats and skills, completely changed how I play the game 😊
single player is so satisfying, that first Um rune I found made me feel just as much as finding a Ber online, because the *only* way I could get that Um was finding one myself - and stuff like Ohm or Death's Fathom was on a whole other level
Um is a very common rune. You all just fooling yourselves when using the /players x command and using infinite amount of stash tabs. People online are playing the game the real way, most getting the most rare drops on P1 and no infinite stash tabs, you people are just casuals its better to say it that way than saying single player is better. I too play single player but i can admit that only casuals that want an easy mode play single player
@@xzxxx-km4vy I play unmodded, and you can easily find mf games to kill stuff on higher difficulty online
@@87539319 Except online is a constant fight for loot, that's another layer of difficulty. I play single player with the /players x but i know that if i was online i would have to do it all on players 1 unless i feel like competing for loot and see who can click faster on that Jah or Ber rune, definitely not for me. And the fact you can't even stack gems and runes online is even more torture. Playing online is much harder
@@xzxxx-km4vyplaying online literally enables power leveling and rushing yet you call sp easy mode? ok.
@@ryanzurawskii Playing online forces you to limited stash size, forces you to players 1 loot, forces you to compete for loot if you want to increse the odds, doesnt allow for infinite respecs etc
I really enjoy single player. I tried it a few times over the years but never really got into it. Once D2R came out, Sweet Phil inspired me to try it again, and I fell in love all over(shared stash was huge for that). I doubt I'll ever finish it, but I'm working on that Holy Grail
shared stash made offline a breath of fresh air. That's why the plugy mod was so huge for LoD. infinite stash made holy grails easy to do.
I am new to diablo 2 so I am playing offline single player in order to learn the ins and outs of everything then I will go online but right now having a blast just playing single player tbh great game so far
The never have to connect back to the internet isn't entirely accurate. I believe Battle net detects when you've been offline for 30 days and requires to see internet again before it will let you launch D2R again. This is also true for the remodded mod.
Holy shit this has advanced in tech since i last played the OG version
I already played Diablo 2: LoD for thousands of hours online as a teenager and I even kept up "perming" my characters for years. However, I got tired of doing that eventually and Blizzard just deleted literally all my accounts/characters, so to me, I'd rather play offline now. I had enough PvP experience for a lifetime anyways. If you care enough to amass your fortune and characters online, then you'll probably care when they delete it as well, which will happen eventually, so which one is pointless? At least I can backup my offline characters.
Ah yes, best way to get my vitamin L dose is playing D2R outside
I genuinely had to laugh at this. I've spent days now doing terror zones, trying to find Tal's armor. That's all I need to complete the set, and it won't drop.
tal's is hard to chase down! maybe try baal runs? one baal kill is worth 20 kills of tc87 uniques for tal's armor
Hell Meph drops it often 4 me.
i’ve found 3 ber yet no tals ammy
@@djinn_tseng damnnn I've found full tals 3-4 times over but for HRs I've found 3 sur 1 ohm 1 vex, so I'm jealous!
@@djinn_tseng its always that one item you really need that wont drop. On my offline I have infinity, grief, hoto, cta, soj's but i cant hit the one item i need - arachs. Guess same is for you with tal's. Got 4 tal's btw >< good luck on yours
I'm full SP for more than a year and I still enjoy it tremendously. Best gaming fun I had in a long time.
Yupp me2.. Got a lvl 98 sin with infinity and enigma plus other stuff.. Took me more then a year to grind thoose stuff but man the highs u get gettin a hr in sp is unbeatable
Without traiding and multi players games Diablo II will be disaster! No reason even exist. This game is best multi player game ever!
Make sure to backup your characters every once in a while. I had a power cut & my character file was corrupt & lost everything. It was my first SP character. It was a painful lesson
Same here, and I almost had my Enigma at the time
for me there is only 1 benefit to online and it is the chat gem
😆
"Perfect gem activated."
When do we get an offline or online local Coop Mode.
Want to Run around with my Brother, drinking a Beer and talking about Life while slaying...
It is Not hard at all. Splitscreen, two in one Screen, whatever...
Could add one more benefit. In single player you can also farm a specific armor stash. For example wayyyy back I found a map where was an armor stash behind Mephisto and it had Lacquered plate everytime and I farmed it till I finally got my first Tals armor from it. Not that its among the rarest of items, but it was nice to have the set put together when they introduced the shiny aura with the sets.
The real loss of playing offline singleplayer is not being able to activate the gem. I can't believe you didn't mention that.
Another online benefit you didn't mention is characters are shared on different devices and platform. If you have been playing in the PC for a while but now you want to play in the couch, just log off, pick your Switch and you will be playing your character where you left it.
And a downside to offline is your characters cannot be shared between devices, they are stuck to the device they are created. This is the reason I only play online even if I play by myself 99% of the time.
You can backup and restore the files from/to different pcs.
I wish that there was a way to play open battlenet, like back in the days, is there any options for that ?
yep same, my only concern is not being able to play with some real life buddies every now and then
I have maxed out most of my online characters so i hace been doing offline. It is really hard because i cant reach out to friends foe help or find thibgs as easily. One thing i disagree with it the player change in offline. If i make it players 8 offline its still just me playing. Which is very difficult. However online i actually have 8 players to help slay monsters. So mute point on #2 benefit of being able to change player count. Great work Phil!
You can “trade” offline with a hero editor.
Look up online how much something is going for, give yourself the item you want and delete the one you don’t.
Trading without the hassle.
this is nice advice ! i like it.
Moral cheating, I love it. That's a really clever way to go about it.
That was some nice advice! I don't like to use the hero editor, but this way it doesn't feel like "cheating" _/
@@tbl268 Its single player. Not really cheating, just playing the game how you like.
@ianbraun271 You are using a 3rd party program to change the game. Make no mistake about it, it's still cheating even if you are just cheating yourself.
I want to get back into D2 but i dont have the time like i used to so I might look into D2R offline + mods... looks like there are mods for boosting drop rates and xp gain so that would be fun
If there's a build you wanna go for but you just can't find that high rune to complete the build and you don't wanna waste years farming it, you can always "make" yourself that rune/item with hero editor.
Great breakdown there was some things that i didnt know. Single player and Multiplayer are awesome together due to you can jump onto another character if you dont like the terror zone from offline to online. tuning the difficulty not just for loot but pure fun of stronger monsters is also a bonus! Its just you against all of hells forces
it's like offline I already have enigma but the saddest thing is online even with like 10+ level 80+ characters I can't find one ber, my highest was a sur lol permanent maps help a lot
the best selling point : you don't have to grind your ass off making shael io tal runewords, you can do it directly with hero editor xD
But on the other hand, this makes everything pointless
I do a lot of this and play on LAN with people. The social aspect was and is still important to me. Playing solo online is depressing.
I love that all the content creators for Diablo 2 are in at least their mid-30s. These were guys who were playing as teens (or even younger) and are still enjoying the game today.
I started playing online because I was hoping to play with my brother, because I don't have any friends. Unfortunately he doesn't have time to game anymore. I was playing solo online and never checked the lobby browser. I decided to check the lobby browser and seen people giving away free loot and I was amazed at all these cool things they dropped that I could never find back in the day, Titan's Revenge, Oculus, Tal's set, etc. This one cool dude gave me all his hammerdin gear and I had a blast destroying everything.
Whats crazy is how many games now require internet
I'd so much to create a replica of my online characters in offline, but no matter what Editor I use to make a copy, the game simply crashes once I add the save file. I can't even get to the character selection screen.
also added perk of offline, is you can hero edit characters with socket quests so you dont have to constantly relevel a new character every time you need a socket
Those among us who loathe what Blizzard has become, and smart enough to do something about it, have no choice but to play this game offline. Yarr harr.
Offline: you can manipulate the time settings and basically play your favourite terror zone nonstop
yo P, have you heard about the D2R Reimagined Mod? It reminds me of PD2 in terms of quality of life features and new items. Currently it is only playable in offline mode and from what I ve heard, the balance seems to be similar to vanilla D2R. Right now I dont see a point anymore in playing offline D2R vanilla, because the quality of life is just a game changer. Ideally they would port PD2 at some point into D2R, that would be an absolute dream, because the graphics is the only thing holding be back from Pd2. but the reimagined mod is such a good start towards this goal, it even brought back the burned out Debrusnki back to D2R. what are your thoughts?
Funny you should mention the struggle for grief offline.. I just found a Lo the other day and then a mal yesterday!! Just looking for my pb now lol.. still kinda getting started as far as offline runes.. been some terrible rng up until now
Hero Editor (an older one that wasnt as nice as this one) is what i used to start my grail. I took my old broke af, poorly geared level 74 ladder sorc and remade her identically in hero editor and ported it over into singleplayer to start my grail. I didnt transfer any of my gold (that was a huge mistake lol) or anything from my merc (kinda stupid) but at the same time it made my start feel more legit because i was on the back foot.
I still like playing asa group there is something special about that still despite just a difficulty factor
Heck yeah. That's the only way I play D2 now. I do Terror andy runs and got a 1% away from perfect fathom. Was an amazing find.
D2 is my fav game but I’ve only played online and you’ve not convinced me at all 😂
Pre expansion is where it's at. I think runewords ruined the game a bit.
Found a steelclash shield last night and I was smiling for hours....
Smiling for a steelclash?
@@protodg6567 pretty godly shield for my 50 paly
It didn't ruin solo play if you don't use them. Doing a non-runword run right now with Zeal Paladin and I'm having a blast.
1.09 was the best, expansion without runewords
I'm glad you mentioned point 5, loot donations, on your pro-online list
I do this often and have given many a new player an occulus
Thank you! I was just given an occy and shake from a random person my second day back playing, I was so stoked
@@derekisdeadx5083 you have to earn it
The only flaw that I can think of with D2 resurrected is that check-in DRM that they got implemented in the damn thing. If I could find a reliable way to remove that Check-in DRM permanently then offline D2R would be absolutely perfect.
Does it still force you to log in to battlenet every month under the threat of losing the license? Because I cannot fathom the idea of players tolerating such abuse
I really don't know how losing the license after not logging in for a month is legal
I have no will power so when I play online, within like 2 days I have Enigma, Shako, etc etc.
I only play offline because everything I have is stuff I got myself, 100%.
(And I’m on console so I can’t even HeroEdit.
To reset your maps every time without changing difficulties: put -resetofflinemaps command in your d2r shortcut
Played exclusively multiplayer back in the day when D2 was released. Back then, the community was fun. All the lobbies were basically fun chat rooms where people joked around and organized games. Trading games were actually enjoyable, and you could actually get some great gear just trading for a few hours. Bots were rare, almost non-existent. When you grouped up with people to play the game, it was actually a fun adventure, nobody was rushing, we even walked through act 3! As time went on, more and more people just wanted to rush everything, more and more bots started showing up, ruining the game. When D2R released, I also played online, but recently, I've switched to offline/Single player. The online community is kinda dead now. Nobody ever chats in the lobby, games are just rushing games to get you to the next difficulty. Trading sucks, and there's too many bots. It's nearly impossible to get a game of 8 people together to play. Switched to single player, set the difficulty to /Players8 and never looked back. I'm having so much more fun now. Great loot, no bots, no worrying about crappy connection. 10/10.
I have a question. Why i can't put items on my mercenary and i only have 1 option for my armor and weapon on my inventory?? Im playing online ladder mode.. really dont understand. Please help
The disciple is my favorite set. It's so good for for melee builds it's bonkers. Plus you can whatever helmet weapon and or shield that you want.
How you deal with Hell immunities offline? There are a very few build that can damage everything.
Shatter Charms or avoid them
I used to play LoD offline and, occasionally, online with my buddies via TCP/IP. bc they removed that mode, I came back to online play.
I 100% agree with the concept of infinite players on SP. I myself am doing a grail and I stash all my finds. If not for that fact I wouldnt be able to. Im ok with not trading and being limited on how long it takes to grind out super end game gg gear.
I'm watching this at work so I may have missed it but I think you left out an important advantage to offline play. You can respec as often as you like.
I tried playing online , and it felt a little laggy , hits werent regustering when i pressed buttons.
I went offline and it felt completely different.
Maybe different servers on console vs pc.
But i play it on ps5 offline only and i have a blast so far.
Also, this "here editor' can that work on console? Or is this only pc?
really would love to have diablo 2 ress on my pc..maybe one day!
Late to the party, buy terror zones in single player are tied to your pc date and time so you can turn off auto time update and change time to jump to a terror zone you want to farm.
Wish they still kept the character in the cloud for offline. I like to play on steam deck and my PC
Lag seems the most important reason to choose offline play. I died so many times due to lag or Misshapen's orbs hitting me when I was 10 meters away from them
That's definitely best way to play games. I'm not a fan of games that are online-only.
Blizzard doesn't fix the obvious problems because they want to go out of business.
I never understood why there is an argument about online having a players command. Just do it, Blizzard. It's annoying to split farm with random people since people finish up their parts at different times and people might try to farm the same place. And you can't really farm together, because people take each other's items.
open battlenet with hacked gear was such a vibe as a kid
I was able to transfer my plugy characters over! Hadn’t seen them in a few years. Salvaged my 94 sorc. Everything is legit found! Grinded many high runes so I’m decked out. Been playing it again. Miss the good old days playing hardcore ladder with that whole community. Great times
If you are not really a social person and you want to avoid social disgusting just play your own,..
I play alot of it single player. But I still have online guy just cause doing runs with people is fun
Im an old school d2 player from the time prior of the lod expansion and prior d2r and I always enjoyed the game much more playing offline. The game is perfect for soloing, its more challenging to find the items you want and progress...
Hero Editor video guide please😄!
I was gonna take care of my backlog and then i got hooked on this game and cant stop lol
one benefit of the Online Chars you forgot is that the Offline Chars dont get transportet cross platform for exemple in holidays you whant to play on the switch at night in the hotel you can play with your online chars but you can not transfer the Offline chars from the PC. and yes overall i played 12 years in Offline only with Ressurected i start Online playing (specialy with girlfrend).
hi wich version or patch has to have the game for offline terrorized zones?
i think was added in 1.9
Is there a way to transfer my plugy stash to any form of d2r stash?
Pre LOD i installed on the computer i had at my moms, no internet. /players 8 and d2 character editor was a blast. I made items that weren't game breaking. Also, this game is better when you cant get rushed to the endgame content in a single day.
Those people who are asking why you don’t play online are the reason why Blizzard got away with making Diablo 4 an MMO. Yes, I am still salty about it and no, I’m never going to stop complaining about it.
can you use the hero editor on Console? I'm playing on the PS5 but using the PS4 version on offline mode