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.
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 😂
“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
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@megamastah I'm 1 year late, but here's my experience: I play single player (never played online actually) and my first character was a tornado druid. Then I wanted to have a torch and anni so I made my paladin to make a budget smiter and leveled with hammers. Now I'm lvl 99 with only 4 items left on the grail and still enjoying the hammerdin. The thing is, you gotta challenge yourself and pay attention for it to be fun. For example, I hardly ever do anything other than players 7, I constantly try to push a bit higher on the mf % sacrificing dmg or tankyness, etc
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.😊
One crazy thing about the itemization in diablo 2 coming from a 20 year player is that playing ladder and getting into trading makes finding you uniques blues rarest and normal /eth peices skill items with sockets can just be so incredibly valuable in the game! The more you play and learn the more you can actually find value in your loot! I love the video and love his takes on these topics and his point actually makes alot of sense but that is one of my thoughts.
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.
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'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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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 also think nightmare is the easiest difficulty for a lot of characters but for good reasons. Your character gets MUCH stronger when they get access to their more powerful skills as well as gain access to some really powerful runewords like spirit. I think it's fine if an RPG gets easier as your character gets stronger, I like thinking of nightmare as a preparation for hell. For physical damage characters like barb, I had a harder time for sure but for pally, sorc, ele druid, trap etc. It's a cakewalk.
Physical character that won’t have as bad of a time is a blade sin
Рік тому+2
When he says he only died 5 times I was thinking "nah.. impossible" and after watching die a hundred times in normal duriel I was ok that's more than expected lmao...
For the difficulty because he is new he probably thought normal was harder because he is learning everything for the first time, even with a guide if you’re not versed in arpgs or specifically Diablo 2 normal might be more difficult to learn making it feel like normal is harder than hell (while using a guide). When we started back in the day I didn’t have guides didn’t even min max my Sorc builds until almost LoD and learned a lot from real life friends so Hells learning curve for me was really hard in comparison.
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.
players just dont have the resilience or patience that we did gaming back in the day. theyre spoiled by how easy it is to be doing something completely different in a few clicks. 5 deaths is so soon to just give up lol. although he says he enjoyed it i think this video still proves d2 really doesnt click with modern mentalities sadly
@@Ronbotnikthat's because 'bACK IN tHE daYS' there were no other games. Not the case nowdays anymore there are so many great arpg to spend time on than d2r.
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
You wanna know what makes goot combat? Giving the player fair chalanges. NOT making enemies run away from you, (succubus) be able to freeze you from off screen, force you to hug them to deal damage (suppressor)- and then stacking this buff with insta freeze auto attacks, fire explosion, and explosion on death. Everytime I enter a NM in d4, even a low tier one, I feel like it could be bricked due to bs enemies.
As a blizzard sorc I pray that the devs ignore the cc complaints as that will nerf my build. It's a skill issue if you get cc locked AND don't have your skill to get out of it.
@@brandonvoice8941 haha nice "skill issue" bud. as most players on this platform are pathological liars, I assume you only beat t10 dungeon and are now talking out of your ass. a dungeon can spawn 3 elites in a pack and two damage reduction aura mobs. If all 3 elites have suppressor, one has fire pulse and explode on death, another has freeze and wind, and the third ALSO has frozen, than that means you HAVE to be in range of all 3 of them to actually deal damage. And im not even counting fear, freeze circles, which can be equally as devestating to your character. And thats also not counting boss mobs, and other aura mobs like the inquyisitors which buff the enemies around them. most characters only have 2-3 natural- inbuilt unstoppabl.
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)
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
my first playthrough as a 10 year old me, not speaking English. I think I had a scythe as Necro, and i put in 1 point in every skill not knowing i could do more than 1 points. I remember mephisto was hella hard.
I had a similar experience around release. I was like 9 or 10 and I made a necro with a bunch of different skills but relied on corpse explosion a lot. I ended up not being able to beat diablo without corpses to explode him. He would break through my bone prison instantly and laser me. Haha.
i actually just got through nightmare for the first time last week and my sorc rn is around lvl 67 i think. d2 is an alright game so far but i think my biggest roadblock mentally is that i started my arpg journey with PoE then tried d3 then tried d4 then tried d2 (if you wanna get really technical about it i have even more hours on borderlands 1 and 2 from back on the 360 and ps3 days). being ok with the combat style took a very long time to deal with. also duriel the first time i got to him made me unbelievably angry.
I'm glad that as someone who played D2 when it was current content, that new players decades later can still share that frustration with Duriel. I just wish you could experience a Frozen Orb Sorc with full cast speed build before they added a cooldown to the spell.
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!
@@kristopherleslie8343 what is then lmao? Its the inly build that has no struggles, its the most op stuff in d2 you can imagine. Hanmerdin with spirits is arguably way better than most characters with endgame gear
@@lkajdklajscklj2112 i think honestly your view point changes upon better understanding and mastery of the game, mechanics and quirks. In simplistic terms, as far as a build (not just a skill) a javazon is unquestionably the best mass density clearing build. It’s also the best solo / elite sniper build. As far as short and medium range density clearing if it’s not 1 then it’s 2, only behind the assassin. Hammerdin as a build is powerful, but OP, no. It’s middle ground among the best builds.
@@kristopherleslie8343 no its not. many builds are faster when you have bis gear, but paladin doesnt need those. You reach extremely high life, max block, max resistance, unabsorbable damage, high movement speed with barely any gear while javazon needs to find really good stuff hit its fcr frames to be a contender. Spirit paladin can clear p8 hell chaos sanctuary in 5 min, try doing that with any other character with starter gear and lets see how it goes. Bis hammerdin is slower than java, sorc, hell even barb can clear p8 in similar times but those build are extremely costly.
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?
Did you watch Sload's first couple videos? I joined the stream a out the 3rd video. I had a ton of nostalgia watching him trying to figure out things. Brought me back to 2002😂
he sucked in normal because he followed and end game build for his hdin. he literally just looked up in google "what is most OP d2 character build" and went with the most mentioned which is the hdin... need to do few more play through before a legit review
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!
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.
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.
I can remember when I was first exposed to the Diablo. I was at some mutual friends' house. He was a teenager, and I was about 11. He logged on and let me watch him play for a little bit. He was a little worried that I was too young for that sort of game, but I loved watching him play and would always try to get away from playing with Legos and see if he'd let me play. We kind of stopped hanging out when he got into high school, and I had forgotten about it for a while. That is until one of my friends just so happened to introduce me to Diablo 2 shortly after it got released. He was running around in act 1 when Hasarus's shield dropped. My friend explained how sets and itemization worked and I was hooked on that alone. I thought it was such a cool idea at the time and wanted to do it myself. I wish I could have warned myself about how addictive it would become. Memorizing stats, dueling, character designing, trading, crafting... It's the sole game that got me invested in Blizzard. I had played SC and can still hear the probe sound while typing this, but d2 was the game that got me. I wish I could have experienced 1.08 and online play for pre-lod. (I wish we had good rares and crafted items like pod etc) It's been a long time, but I still cherish those memories of this classic and if I had to compile a list of must play games, it would definitely be at the top for a late 90s game. tl,dr: I never forgot what it was like playing D2 for the first time.
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.
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?
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
I agree with the RW thing and I've said it for ages. But I also see where Coooley is coming from with how they saved the end game and balance. There's a reason they made a lot of them (SPIRIT!) ladder-only. I think it was a way to have something really good and usable easily for quick playthroughs to reduce the impact of RNG on competitive ladder outcomes. Keeping them on ladder meant that the 'base game' experience wasn't 'tainted' by spirit>everything, no need to farm or pick up interesting rares etc... It's kind of a shame that classic isn't more popular online...
i remember back in classic diablo 2. i had a sorceress with nova and no synergies.. and we did cow all day.. sorc with stormshield, arkaines valor, shako etc. and barbs used grandfather and amas windforce and 160/60 armor. those days were perfect for diablo 2 imo
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.
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.
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! 💚
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.
I recently just played the game and the most fun I've had was with a fully-decked out Javazon. I'm itching to play it again actually. But my first playthrough of of D2R was with my go-to Jammerdin and the moments that stick to me were Act 2 Normal with the stacked charged bolts that can one-shot you. You leave Lut Gholein and you think you're some bigshot only to run back into town with your confidence shattered, and rethinking everything. Also Act 1 Hell is a mindfk when you can't even deal with two or three imps at the same time and you go, what in the holy mf-shit is going on!?
Regarding runewords, I think back in the day developers wanted players to discover them by themselves. But it's true that it could be overwhelming for new players.
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.
He only died 5 times in hell but im curious how many bugs d2r has removed. Are there still invisible multi element charged bolts that one shot you? Because stuff like that is a big factor.
I've reinstalled Diablo 2 on the PS5 after getting bored and discouraged that Diablo 4 didn't end up being a very fun game (in my opinion) and am having fun again. It's nice to have these classic games that are always fun to come back to over all these years. I really wished 4 would have been as good or better than 2, but I guess there's so much to have to nail to get magic like Diablo 2 to happen again.
Without a guide doesn't mean chat didn't tell them things. I watched someone play dark souls for example without a guide doing a "blind" playthrough...but between the chat and the messages left behind on online mode they were basically told everything they needed to know were warned of every ambush found every hidden door ect.
Nah, he just read the names of a few runes and likely came up with the idea that two Spirit on Pally and Insight on Merc is the way to go, it's pretty obvious. Oh and let's not forget the commonsensical use of Teleport staff for Maggot Lair. New players are smart these days.
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.
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.
@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.
@26:54 "I think Diablo 4 is really the act, to me that is interesting." Obviously corrected in the following sentence but it still made me chuckle when I heard it.
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.
I played D2 for the first time in 2008. I had heard people say it was "good" but knew nothing else beyond that. I went in totally blind. I fell in love. I had no idea you could kill bosses more than once. I had no idea what rune words were. I never even beat act 4 on normal. But I loved it. When D3 was released, I got the collector's edition that came with the Diablo head and soul stone flash drive that has D2 + xp installed on it. I installed it on ever computer I got my hands on. I thought runes were just what they were at face value. It wasn't until I saw Mr. Llama play D2 during a GDQ event when I saw him create Stealth with Tal Eth. It was like a necro casting corpse explosion on my brain. I then introduced myself to rune words, lol. And that was my introduction to D2 and d2r. Note, that I never played online with others, and still haven't.
![The Complete Story of Destiny! From origins to Shadowkeep [Timeline and Lore explained]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9mbDXvDNqTU/mqdefault.jpg)
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.
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 😂
“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
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 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.
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.
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.
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!
How to beat Chaos Sanctuary with pure cold sorc?
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.
@@megamastah I'm 1 year late, but here's my experience: I play single player (never played online actually) and my first character was a tornado druid. Then I wanted to have a torch and anni so I made my paladin to make a budget smiter and leveled with hammers. Now I'm lvl 99 with only 4 items left on the grail and still enjoying the hammerdin. The thing is, you gotta challenge yourself and pay attention for it to be fun. For example, I hardly ever do anything other than players 7, I constantly try to push a bit higher on the mf % sacrificing dmg or tankyness, etc
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
I had so many problems with Duriel my first time I still get nervous before jumping into that damn hole.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Absolutely, in Started Valley you have these kind of "hints" in a matter of finding "notes" that help you give an idea of next events
RE: Rune words, IIRC there was an official Diablo 2:LOD website run by Blizzard North that had guides for runewords and other mechanics
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.😊
Chugging and managing potions was the hardest part for me when I was a new player
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.
One crazy thing about the itemization in diablo 2 coming from a 20 year player is that playing ladder and getting into trading makes finding you uniques blues rarest and normal /eth peices skill items with sockets can just be so incredibly valuable in the game! The more you play and learn the more you can actually find value in your loot! I love the video and love his takes on these topics and his point actually makes alot of sense but that is one of my thoughts.
I remember having a giant hammer with my necromancer and skeletons wandering through the flyer jungle getting demolished lol
Yea like a runeword guide that you get from deckard, but you have to go farm monsters to unlock the recipe
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.
Same
When I first started, I remember equpping bolts to my barbarian and punching quill rats.
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'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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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 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
When I first started, I played a necromancer armed with a trident. Somehow I made it to the Duriel fight... that's when the reality really hit
We need to petition for MrLlama to always say Hammerdeen from now on! 😁
very impressed by his analysis. i don't think i could explain what makes me like or dislike a game so eloquently
I also think nightmare is the easiest difficulty for a lot of characters but for good reasons. Your character gets MUCH stronger when they get access to their more powerful skills as well as gain access to some really powerful runewords like spirit. I think it's fine if an RPG gets easier as your character gets stronger, I like thinking of nightmare as a preparation for hell.
For physical damage characters like barb, I had a harder time for sure but for pally, sorc, ele druid, trap etc. It's a cakewalk.
Physical character that won’t have as bad of a time is a blade sin
When he says he only died 5 times I was thinking "nah.. impossible" and after watching die a hundred times in normal duriel I was ok that's more than expected lmao...
For the difficulty because he is new he probably thought normal was harder because he is learning everything for the first time, even with a guide if you’re not versed in arpgs or specifically Diablo 2 normal might be more difficult to learn making it feel like normal is harder than hell (while using a guide). When we started back in the day I didn’t have guides didn’t even min max my Sorc builds until almost LoD and learned a lot from real life friends so Hells learning curve for me was really hard in comparison.
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.
He went back and played through act 5, he died 5 more times in act 5 alone. He dropped it after. Sadly.
players just dont have the resilience or patience that we did gaming back in the day. theyre spoiled by how easy it is to be doing something completely different in a few clicks. 5 deaths is so soon to just give up lol. although he says he enjoyed it i think this video still proves d2 really doesnt click with modern mentalities sadly
@@Ronbotnik ok boomer
@@ambridge6645 Glad youre in the minority considering how good the game actually is.
@@Ronbotnikthat's because 'bACK IN tHE daYS' there were no other games. Not the case nowdays anymore there are so many great arpg to spend time on than d2r.
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
You wanna know what makes goot combat? Giving the player fair chalanges. NOT making enemies run away from you, (succubus) be able to freeze you from off screen, force you to hug them to deal damage (suppressor)- and then stacking this buff with insta freeze auto attacks, fire explosion, and explosion on death.
Everytime I enter a NM in d4, even a low tier one, I feel like it could be bricked due to bs enemies.
Yeah, you really need CC immunity.
As a blizzard sorc I pray that the devs ignore the cc complaints as that will nerf my build.
It's a skill issue if you get cc locked AND don't have your skill to get out of it.
They need some sort of CC reduction affix on items. Or “cannot be frozen” “cannot be stunned” something like that
@@lNTERESTlNG cannot be frozen was one of my most have in d2
@@brandonvoice8941 haha nice "skill issue" bud. as most players on this platform are pathological liars, I assume you only beat t10 dungeon and are now talking out of your ass.
a dungeon can spawn 3 elites in a pack and two damage reduction aura mobs. If all 3 elites have suppressor, one has fire pulse and explode on death, another has freeze and wind, and the third ALSO has frozen, than that means you HAVE to be in range of all 3 of them to actually deal damage. And im not even counting fear, freeze circles, which can be equally as devestating to your character. And thats also not counting boss mobs, and other aura mobs like the inquyisitors which buff the enemies around them.
most characters only have 2-3 natural- inbuilt unstoppabl.
There's something magical about not having the bosses describe their lives for hours before I kill them
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)
@@SporkRevolution whether sc or hc doesn’t matter
@@SporkRevolution it depends on yourself and your understanding of how to play and twitch skills. People can beat this game with 0 equipment so
@@SporkRevolution I never touched hc so I cant give you advice on that.
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
my first playthrough as a 10 year old me, not speaking English. I think I had a scythe as Necro, and i put in 1 point in every skill not knowing i could do more than 1 points. I remember mephisto was hella hard.
I had a similar experience around release. I was like 9 or 10 and I made a necro with a bunch of different skills but relied on corpse explosion a lot.
I ended up not being able to beat diablo without corpses to explode him. He would break through my bone prison instantly and laser me. Haha.
That's hilarious!
Where did Llama get that dope ass shirt??
i actually just got through nightmare for the first time last week and my sorc rn is around lvl 67 i think. d2 is an alright game so far but i think my biggest roadblock mentally is that i started my arpg journey with PoE then tried d3 then tried d4 then tried d2 (if you wanna get really technical about it i have even more hours on borderlands 1 and 2 from back on the 360 and ps3 days). being ok with the combat style took a very long time to deal with. also duriel the first time i got to him made me unbelievably angry.
I'm glad that as someone who played D2 when it was current content, that new players decades later can still share that frustration with Duriel. I just wish you could experience a Frozen Orb Sorc with full cast speed build before they added a cooldown to the spell.
Duriel she is only a problem when your not prepared
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!
drives me crazy listening to him talk about how easy the game is when he played the most over powered build
yea. hammerdin in nightmare is insanely over powered compared to other builds. plus theres like no immunes to magic
It’s actually not over powered
@@kristopherleslie8343 what is then lmao? Its the inly build that has no struggles, its the most op stuff in d2 you can imagine. Hanmerdin with spirits is arguably way better than most characters with endgame gear
@@lkajdklajscklj2112 i think honestly your view point changes upon better understanding and mastery of the game, mechanics and quirks.
In simplistic terms, as far as a build (not just a skill) a javazon is unquestionably the best mass density clearing build. It’s also the best solo / elite sniper build. As far as short and medium range density clearing if it’s not 1 then it’s 2, only behind the assassin.
Hammerdin as a build is powerful, but OP, no. It’s middle ground among the best builds.
@@kristopherleslie8343 no its not. many builds are faster when you have bis gear, but paladin doesnt need those. You reach extremely high life, max block, max resistance, unabsorbable damage, high movement speed with barely any gear while javazon needs to find really good stuff hit its fcr frames to be a contender. Spirit paladin can clear p8 hell chaos sanctuary in 5 min, try doing that with any other character with starter gear and lets see how it goes. Bis hammerdin is slower than java, sorc, hell even barb can clear p8 in similar times but those build are extremely costly.
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?
Hammer-dean! 😂😂😂 that's what I'm calling it from now on.
love these reacts llamasc hope to see more
Giving Llama the content! Glad you watched this dude. 💜
Did you watch Sload's first couple videos? I joined the stream a out the 3rd video. I had a ton of nostalgia watching him trying to figure out things. Brought me back to 2002😂
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 😊
he sucked in normal because he followed and end game build for his hdin. he literally just looked up in google "what is most OP d2 character build" and went with the most mentioned which is the hdin... need to do few more play through before a legit review
preach
L take
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!
There is no cow level
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.
Ok THIS MOFO needs to start a new game now with barbarian and then tell me nightmares easy! Pfff YOU ARE AAAA HAMERDIN!!! FFS
yup
Actually he was a HammerDEEN.
@@lNTERESTlNGlol ya hahahaha
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.
😂😂 The game play in d2 has an umph?? You're a fan boy... You're biased!!
People like what they like. Why do you care?
i agreed with him immediately when i heard this tho. can you extrapolate? bias is true, but the gameplay definitely has more "umph" than most imo
Have you done a non LoD run in a while? Might be fun to play an old school run with no runes.
there was a game guide? i had no internet and no guide lol
I can remember when I was first exposed to the Diablo. I was at some mutual friends' house. He was a teenager, and I was about 11. He logged on and let me watch him play for a little bit. He was a little worried that I was too young for that sort of game, but I loved watching him play and would always try to get away from playing with Legos and see if he'd let me play. We kind of stopped hanging out when he got into high school, and I had forgotten about it for a while. That is until one of my friends just so happened to introduce me to Diablo 2 shortly after it got released. He was running around in act 1 when Hasarus's shield dropped. My friend explained how sets and itemization worked and I was hooked on that alone. I thought it was such a cool idea at the time and wanted to do it myself. I wish I could have warned myself about how addictive it would become. Memorizing stats, dueling, character designing, trading, crafting... It's the sole game that got me invested in Blizzard. I had played SC and can still hear the probe sound while typing this, but d2 was the game that got me. I wish I could have experienced 1.08 and online play for pre-lod. (I wish we had good rares and crafted items like pod etc) It's been a long time, but I still cherish those memories of this classic and if I had to compile a list of must play games, it would definitely be at the top for a late 90s game.
tl,dr: I never forgot what it was like playing D2 for the first time.
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.
Do you think a small change like adding a UNIQUE tag to runeword would fix the runeword problem? So a character can only run one Runeword at a time
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?
Have they actually changed much with this newer version?
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
I agree with the RW thing and I've said it for ages. But I also see where Coooley is coming from with how they saved the end game and balance. There's a reason they made a lot of them (SPIRIT!) ladder-only. I think it was a way to have something really good and usable easily for quick playthroughs to reduce the impact of RNG on competitive ladder outcomes.
Keeping them on ladder meant that the 'base game' experience wasn't 'tainted' by spirit>everything, no need to farm or pick up interesting rares etc...
It's kind of a shame that classic isn't more popular online...
Everyone should have a classic character to farm tri res gear
i remember back in classic diablo 2. i had a sorceress with nova and no synergies.. and we did cow all day.. sorc with stormshield, arkaines valor, shako etc. and barbs used grandfather and amas windforce and 160/60 armor. those days were perfect for diablo 2 imo
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.
Axe paladin meta. How much to run that one, Mr. Llama?
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.
what sucks about d2 is the potion system and constantly have to pick them up and fix them in your belt.
Shift+Click will auto assign them into your belt, but can still be a little tedious.
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! 💚
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.
I recently just played the game and the most fun I've had was with a fully-decked out Javazon. I'm itching to play it again actually.
But my first playthrough of of D2R was with my go-to Jammerdin and the moments that stick to me were Act 2 Normal with the stacked charged bolts that can one-shot you. You leave Lut Gholein and you think you're some bigshot only to run back into town with your confidence shattered, and rethinking everything. Also Act 1 Hell is a mindfk when you can't even deal with two or three imps at the same time and you go, what in the holy mf-shit is going on!?
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.
Regarding runewords, I think back in the day developers wanted players to discover them by themselves. But it's true that it could be overwhelming for new players.
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
He only died 5 times in hell but im curious how many bugs d2r has removed. Are there still invisible multi element charged bolts that one shot you?
Because stuff like that is a big factor.
I've reinstalled Diablo 2 on the PS5 after getting bored and discouraged that Diablo 4 didn't end up being a very fun game (in my opinion) and am having fun again. It's nice to have these classic games that are always fun to come back to over all these years. I really wished 4 would have been as good or better than 2, but I guess there's so much to have to nail to get magic like Diablo 2 to happen again.
I love that he mentioned not liking runes! It was the same for me way back when- I always play on classic now 😅
Without a guide doesn't mean chat didn't tell them things.
I watched someone play dark souls for example without a guide doing a "blind" playthrough...but between the chat and the messages left behind on online mode they were basically told everything they needed to know were warned of every ambush found every hidden door ect.
Nah, he just read the names of a few runes and likely came up with the idea that two Spirit on Pally and Insight on Merc is the way to go, it's pretty obvious. Oh and let's not forget the commonsensical use of Teleport staff for Maggot Lair. New players are smart these days.
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.
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.
@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.
So refreshing to watch content like that.
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
@26:54 "I think Diablo 4 is really the act, to me that is interesting."
Obviously corrected in the following sentence but it still made me chuckle when I heard it.
Lmao the Freudian slip at 16:08. I love him too, Llama. He validates how I feel about D2.
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.
I played D2 for the first time in 2008. I had heard people say it was "good" but knew nothing else beyond that. I went in totally blind. I fell in love.
I had no idea you could kill bosses more than once. I had no idea what rune words were. I never even beat act 4 on normal. But I loved it. When D3 was released, I got the collector's edition that came with the Diablo head and soul stone flash drive that has D2 + xp installed on it. I installed it on ever computer I got my hands on.
I thought runes were just what they were at face value. It wasn't until I saw Mr. Llama play D2 during a GDQ event when I saw him create Stealth with Tal Eth. It was like a necro casting corpse explosion on my brain. I then introduced myself to rune words, lol.
And that was my introduction to D2 and d2r.
Note, that I never played online with others, and still haven't.