PoE 3.18 and hard mode, the patch that made me play Diablo 2 again

So with the poor state of the 3.18, i decided to play Diablo 2 again.
You know, that game that PoE intended to be the successor of...

And few things stroke me while playing :

I will pass on the clunkyness of Diablo 2 in 2022, because it sure needs a lot of QoL stuff that PoE does relatively well.

Diablo 2 is still a hard game, but a fair one at it.
There is no one shots done by white, magic or rare mobs.
Bosses can one shot you if you're not prepared enough or don't have the good resistances.

This game is very slow compared to PoE because you often need to change your stuff if you want to prepare for an Act boss (like Poison resist for Andariel or Cold resist for Duriel).

I found it more enjoyable to play D2R than PoE.

I don't know what Chris and GGG wants to do with PoE's hard mode that is in the making, but let me say this :

If hard mode is intended to be what diablo 2 is, then you have to :

- Rebalance all monsters
- Rebalance all loot
- Rebalance all modifiers
- Rebalance all skills and support gems...

So in a nutsell, you have to rebalance the whole game.

Saying that PoE 2 will solve everything is a bold statement when you have to overhaul and redo everything in the game.
When does PoE 2 comes out ?

I'll remind you that Diablo 4 is on the corner...

I hope they are aware of it.

POE 2 will not only feature a second campaign but requires a complete rebalance on all fronts.

One thing that already pops my mind that it is much easier to craft good gear than to find it. Actually with the implementation of fossils and harvest, they made it *easy* for crafters (who have all the finances and where all the money pours in) to flood the market with high-end gear. Every day there is a mirror shop popping out of the ground like a mushroom. I don't think this was intentional?

The top layer of the players aqcuire these items, which in turn causes GGG to make the game even rippier. Balancing is entirely done around the most optimized meta builds wearing the most insane crafted gear.

In all honesty, PoE reminded me of the hard overhaul mod for Diablo 2 called median XL.
No idea if its even playable as per date today, but heck that mod was a lot of fun. Insane mobs, insane items... An absolute gem for old school Diablo 2 mods. Maybe they have been mistaking this mod for vanilla Diablo 2 ;-)

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1869Flame wrote:

In all honesty, PoE reminded me of the hard overhaul mod for Diablo 2 called median XL.
No idea if its even playable as per date today, but heck that mod was a lot of fun. Insane mobs, insane items... An absolute gem for old school Diablo 2 mods. Maybe they have been mistaking this mod for vanilla Diablo 2 ;-)

One key difference : MedianXL gives you the power to compete with said mobs. GGG took us that moons ago...

And yes, MedianXL is still playable, just not with D2R...

New season of Project Diablo 2 starts on the 24th.

Epic.

How was diablo 2 a hard game?

The devs can only do so much when PoE has been stacking mechanics on top of mechanics for years, getting the balance just right is almost impossible. AN mods are not nearly as bad as people make them out to be.

All these "feedback" posts seem much more like a childish fit of people trying the exact same strategy on a new content and then get frustrated beyond what any reasonable person should ever be when it fails. You CAN change what you play to adapt for new content. If only builds with grace + determination + defiance are "viable" now, you can play it for a league.

I had a HUGE struggle with steel-infused mobs. As I'm Playing the worst "legit" archetype in the game, which is fast hitting impale melee. But you can work around those weaknesses eventually, you can also just walk away from the mob or the game.

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itsLiak wrote:

How was diablo 2 a hard game?

The devs can only do so much when PoE has been stacking mechanics on top of mechanics for years, getting the balance just right is almost impossible. AN mods are not nearly as bad as people make them out to be.

All these "feedback" posts seem much more like a childish fit of people trying the exact same strategy on a new content and then get frustrated beyond what any reasonable person should ever be when it fails. You CAN change what you play to adapt for new content. If only builds with grace + determination + defiance are "viable" now, you can play it for a league.

I had a HUGE struggle with steel-infused mobs. As I'm Playing the worst "legit" archetype in the game, which is fast hitting impale melee. But you can work around those weaknesses eventually, you can also just walk away from the mob or the game.

you're right. people are stubborn and refuse to adapt.

the best way to play 2 hand heavy strike in poe is to simply not play 2hand heavy strike.

learn to adapt. many skills are bad. the best thing to do is not use them

Don't care about Diablo 3, Immortal or Diablo 4.

However, I will always hold a nostalgic and deep love for Diablo 1's darkness and Diablo 2's endless single player grind. Like some people who switched over to PoE, we've dropped thousands and thousands of hours into Diablo.

Diablo 2 isn't even difficult or hard in my opinion, it's just a gear check just like PoE. You can easily reach high 90's, but you still need the correct gear if you want to make farming easier and easier in Diablo.

I only mained a Zealot and a Frozen Orb Sorceress though, and unless I had an infinity wielding mercenary and a dream helmet, I avoided physical immunes like the plague on my Zealot. Same thing with my cold Sorceress, anything immune to cold which is mainly impossible to break even with an infinity, you just teleport away and keep farming the next group of monsters.

Bless the person who created PlugY <3.

Stroggly disagree. For pros to keep atracting cazual llyers we need mordse itemization and intresting 'close yourds eye' actuly mtx, becahuse pepople have so that theirs overcupped defeces and PoE has best trade. Diabloii was all abuoht tradeing.

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SleepyHeadedSkeleton wrote:

Don't care about Diablo 3, Immortal or Diablo 4.

However, I will always hold a nostalgic and deep love for Diablo 1's darkness and Diablo 2's endless single player grind. Like some people who switched over to PoE, we've dropped thousands and thousands of hours into Diablo.

Diablo 2 isn't even difficult or hard in my opinion, it's just a gear check just like PoE. You can easily reach high 90's, but you still need the correct gear if you want to make farming easier and easier in Diablo.

I only mained a Zealot and a Frozen Orb Sorceress though, and unless I had an infinity wielding mercenary and a dream helmet, I avoided physical immunes like the plague on my Zealot. Same thing with my cold Sorceress, anything immune to cold which is mainly impossible to break even with an infinity, you just teleport away and keep farming the next group of monsters.

Bless the person who created PlugY <3.

Avoiding immunes was shit in D2 and its shit in POE too, even though they are not really immune in POE, they are way more dangerous in POE so the end result is the same, you have to walk away.

D2 was still a better game though, as it didnt try to deny you every walkable inch of terrain with "random bullshit GO!!!!" under your ass.