diablo 2 patch changes
Mysterious World-event
Players of Hell difficulty Realm games are hereby warned that a new, challenging world-event has been added to Diablo II version 1.10. Players of Hardcore characters should be even more wary when encountering superunique monsters during an active world event. Be prepared to execute a hasty Save and Exit, if your situation seems too dangerous.
Fundamental architecture changes/improvements
The skill and monster systems are now completely data-driven. Skill balancing is simpler and quicker. Monster control/populating/creation is simpler. Although done for our needs, mod-makers should like these changes, too. A major result is that nearly any skill can be used by any character class.
A skill now may have synergy Bonuses (similar to masteries) applied by putting points into other skills.
The player stats and inventory system has been completely redone to run more efficiently, improving server performance and stability.
The collision detection system has been sped up significantly. Again, improving server performance.
Specific changes/improvements
Increased difficulty for high-level players to reduce future exploitation of the game system.
Made monsters tougher
Beefed up monster difficulty in Act V, Nightmare, and Hell difficulties. This was accomplished by improving monster stats (hp, ac, etc.) and by boosting their AI/behavior in NM and Hell difficulties (that is, by making decisions more often and by simply moving faster). In Nightmare and Hell difficulties monster damages have generally been increased -- dramatically in some cases.
Reduced the effectiveness of Experience runs, power-leveling, and leeching.
Added randomized (especially ranged-attack) monsters to Nightmare and Hell Act V - e.g., Burning Dead, Imps, etc.
Increased the Experience attached to most Act V monsters in Normal, Nightmare, & Hell difficulties.
Reduced the HP of (Act V) Barbarian soldiers in Nightmare and Hell difficulties.
Increased the rate of occurrence of Unique monsters in Hell difficulty.
Reduced the party member Experience sharing to 0 beyond a maximum distance of about 2 screens from the monster death. This prevents low-level characters from joining a party and then staying completely out of harm's way while still getting Experience.
Increased the Experience penalty for Clvl 70+ as follows: Clvl 1 - 69: 100% Experience Clvl 70 - 99: 85% - 0.8% Experience (approximately exponential decaying)
Encouraged players to play in more of the Diablo II areas/locations/levels.
Reduced drops from the most-run SuperUnique monsters, ThreshSocket and Pindleskin.
Cut Experience and reduced drops in the Cow level.
Randomized the monster populations more thoroughly throughout Act V in Nightmare and Hell difficulties, including the addition of 'guest monsters' from other Acts.
Increased the number of Unique monsters in each area and difficulty.
they totally took all the fucking fun of creating characters relatively quick once you have beatne the game and done the shit you wanted to do on your own... the game fucking sucks now.
Players of Hell difficulty Realm games are hereby warned that a new, challenging world-event has been added to Diablo II version 1.10. Players of Hardcore characters should be even more wary when encountering superunique monsters during an active world event. Be prepared to execute a hasty Save and Exit, if your situation seems too dangerous.
Fundamental architecture changes/improvements
The skill and monster systems are now completely data-driven. Skill balancing is simpler and quicker. Monster control/populating/creation is simpler. Although done for our needs, mod-makers should like these changes, too. A major result is that nearly any skill can be used by any character class.
A skill now may have synergy Bonuses (similar to masteries) applied by putting points into other skills.
The player stats and inventory system has been completely redone to run more efficiently, improving server performance and stability.
The collision detection system has been sped up significantly. Again, improving server performance.
Specific changes/improvements
Increased difficulty for high-level players to reduce future exploitation of the game system.
Made monsters tougher
Beefed up monster difficulty in Act V, Nightmare, and Hell difficulties. This was accomplished by improving monster stats (hp, ac, etc.) and by boosting their AI/behavior in NM and Hell difficulties (that is, by making decisions more often and by simply moving faster). In Nightmare and Hell difficulties monster damages have generally been increased -- dramatically in some cases.
Reduced the effectiveness of Experience runs, power-leveling, and leeching.
Added randomized (especially ranged-attack) monsters to Nightmare and Hell Act V - e.g., Burning Dead, Imps, etc.
Increased the Experience attached to most Act V monsters in Normal, Nightmare, & Hell difficulties.
Reduced the HP of (Act V) Barbarian soldiers in Nightmare and Hell difficulties.
Increased the rate of occurrence of Unique monsters in Hell difficulty.
Reduced the party member Experience sharing to 0 beyond a maximum distance of about 2 screens from the monster death. This prevents low-level characters from joining a party and then staying completely out of harm's way while still getting Experience.
Increased the Experience penalty for Clvl 70+ as follows: Clvl 1 - 69: 100% Experience Clvl 70 - 99: 85% - 0.8% Experience (approximately exponential decaying)
Encouraged players to play in more of the Diablo II areas/locations/levels.
Reduced drops from the most-run SuperUnique monsters, ThreshSocket and Pindleskin.
Cut Experience and reduced drops in the Cow level.
Randomized the monster populations more thoroughly throughout Act V in Nightmare and Hell difficulties, including the addition of 'guest monsters' from other Acts.
Increased the number of Unique monsters in each area and difficulty.
they totally took all the fucking fun of creating characters relatively quick once you have beatne the game and done the shit you wanted to do on your own... the game fucking sucks now.