Diablo - 20 years later

[Sykar]

Try a torrent.

 

[The Nameless Pun]

Try a torrent.

Yeah, I mean other than that.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Pretty sure they sell it online these days through battle.net or whatever their website is called.

 

[Atlantico]

Pretty sure they sell it online these days through battle.net or whatever their website is called.

Diablo II is sold on Battle.net (and Starcraft and Warcraft 3)

Diablo, Hellfire expansion, Warcraft and Warcraft II are not available for sale there. Authentic copies of those games are only available on Ebay or such.

 

[karfhud]

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023469/Classic-Game-Postmortem

Don't think it's been posted here before. I've read/watched a bunch of postmortems, but this one just beats them all.

 

[DraQ]

So how do you beat The Butcher with a Sorceror?
I retreated to a room with bars, closed the door and spent all my mana, mana potions, rejuv potions and spammed him with Firebolt (only damage spell I've got so far), but to no avail. As a last resort I tried the Reflect spell while gulping Healing Potions like mad, but still no dice.
I assume I've got to get some better spells fire, like Holy Bolt?

Firewall, obviously.

Bar him from the door with a firewall, then roast him with another two.

Warrior, OTOH, kind of got short end of the stick with The Butcher (OTOH it's the only class that can hope to make actual use of the cleaver).

 

[Average Manatee]

Butcher actually has a pretty low To-Hit. He basically can't touch warriors who have reached Catacombs.

 

[UglyBastard]

You can also trap the Butcher in a downward stairway and shoot him without him moving around. Even a warrior can do that pretty easily, you can stand right next to him (better To Hit).

Meleeing him down after cleaning dlvl 2 is not that hard as well, just bring some potions and stat your char correctly (dump almost everything in dexterity for better block). Doing it with a newly made char also helps (+20% hidden block bonus until you leave your first game).

 

[agris]

+20% hidden block bonus until you leave your first game

What is this?

 

[UglyBastard]

+20% hidden block bonus until you leave your first game

What is this?

It's basically what I said.

Your blockchance is calcalated through your dexterity/charlevel (having a higher level actually lowers your block %) and you get a one-time +20% block bonus on top of that during the first game of a newly created character. At least in multiplayer, don't know how it's in singleplayer (probably as well, until you reload at least but I'm not sure).

This is used in Ironman runs. Usually the warrior dumps everything in dex and then blocks almost everything until catacombs at least (using the innate fast block attribute of the warrior, fast block on shields actually does nothing for him because he already has the least block frames).

There is also another little known fact that is abused for this: Monsters prioritize the player who joined the game first if they can choose between attacking two adjacent characters. So if you go Ironman, your party always has the warrior create the game because he is the tank and will get aggro priority over everyone else. This can be used to employ a "shotgun" technique where the warrior and rogue/mage are standing next to each other in a doorway and funnel the monsters through. The rogue has free reign because the warry gets aggro priority and blocks almost everything with low level/dex priority/20% starter bonus.

Diablo is an excellent game for Ironman runs and has some really obscure mechanics that can be abused to great effect.

If you are interested in Diablo mechanics I can recommend you "Jarulfs guide", it's the bible of the game with extremely in-depth analysis of all the things that work in the background.

http://www.lurkerlounge.com/diablo/jarulf/jarulf162.pdf

 

[Ninjerk]

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023469/Classic-Game-Postmortem

Don't think it's been posted here before. I've read/watched a bunch of postmortems, but this one just beats them all.

Spector and Smith's Deus Ex postmortem (and Tim Cain's FO post mortem, I think from another GDC) still take the cake.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1023469/Classic-Game-Postmortem

Don't think it's been posted here before. I've read/watched a bunch of postmortems, but this one just beats them all.

Interesting bit about the real-time/turn-based controversy. Geeky creators wanted turn based, suity founders wanted real time (colour me surprised)... suits had their way (colour me surprised again) and YEAH.... as Brevik puts it : ARPG was born !

 

[Severian Silk]

I played the Diablo demo version. It had a huge impact on me, so much so that I bought a used copy of Diablo 2 at Goodwill that was missing a disc so I could never actually install and play it.

My life was forever changed.

 

[blamzooie]

+20% hidden block bonus until you leave your first game

What is this?

It's basically what I said.

Your blockchance is calcalated through your dexterity/charlevel (having a higher level actually lowers your block %) and you get a one-time +20% block bonus on top of that during the first game of a newly created character. At least in multiplayer, don't know how it's in singleplayer (probably as well, until you reload at least but I'm not sure).

This is used in Ironman runs. Usually the warrior dumps everything in dex and then blocks almost everything until catacombs at least (using the innate fast block attribute of the warrior, fast block on shields actually does nothing for him because he already has the least block frames).

There is also another little known fact that is abused for this: Monsters prioritize the player who joined the game first if they can choose between attacking two adjacent characters. So if you go Ironman, your party always has the warrior create the game because he is the tank and will get aggro priority over everyone else. This can be used to employ a "shotgun" technique where the warrior and rogue/mage are standing next to each other in a doorway and funnel the monsters through. The rogue has free reign because the warry gets aggro priority and blocks almost everything with low level/dex priority/20% starter bonus.

Diablo is an excellent game for Ironman runs and has some really obscure mechanics that can be abused to great effect.

If you are interested in Diablo mechanics I can recommend you "Jarulfs guide", it's the bible of the game with extremely in-depth analysis of all the things that work in the background.

http://www.lurkerlounge.com/diablo/jarulf/jarulf162.pdf

Serious nostalgia from seeing Jarulf's name.

 

[Cyberarmy]

You just need 1-2 fire-lightning wall scrolls for The Butcher while drinking potions like mad.

Man, we had great time with Diablo back then. The atmosphere, soundtrack, enemy design, LAN parties, same mouse&keyboard multi parties.
But for me the best part was when I was trying its demo at some computer store in Paris. I nearly played for 2 hours non stop, pissed my pants at first butcher contact and thrown out by store workers politely.

 

[DraQ]

You just need 1-2 fire-lightning wall scrolls for The Butcher while drinking potions like mad.

You don't need to drink potions.
Butcher won't willingly enter *walls.
One wall won't necessarily kill him, though, so you need three - one for stopping him and two stacked for proper roasting.