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I recently stumbled upon information that a Diablo 2 ladder reset is happening this coming Tuesday, May 27. During a moment of youthful reminiscence, I realized that I have actually not played this game in about 7 years. It's amazing what a person's memories can do. With the sudden jolt of nostalgia and memories of the game, both good and bad, came that "itch."
People who remember playing this game know what I'm talking about. It's a hankering, a longing, a nostalgic desire to recapture the fun. It's an "itch" to play a game that won't go away. There is a phenomenon I've noticed over that years, where roughly once a year people will suddenly want to play Diablo 2 again. Then they (sometimes including me) will play with fervor for 1 week, but gradually everyone will get bored of it again. The phenomenon is that a year later, this repeats. Then the year after that, we're back again. There came a point about 7 years ago, when I had the "itch" but I thought about it and just said no. I was too busy with other things and decided I would just play the next time I got the "itch." That didn't happen for 7 years.
This time I decided instead of saying I don't have time, I would make time for it. And not only that, I would attack the game in a way I've never done before. I'm going to be playing the game as a normal working person for 1 week - setting aside no more than 3 hours a day for 7 days, but on the 7th day, 6 hours instead of 3 which is like playing on a weekend. This adds up to exactly 24 hours of play time. I'm hoping to leverage all the knowledge I still remember about the game and try to do the following with 24 hours:
1) Clear Hell difficulty
2) Defeat Uber Tristram
3) Make my first Enigma
4) Do everything SOLO (no trading, rushes, etc.) and LEGIT (no maphack, dupes, rollbacks, etc.) and w/ only ONE copy of Diablo 2
For objective #1, I feel pretty confident. Barring some disaster, clearing Hell in 24 hours would have been a piece of cake for the 7-years-ago me.
For objective #2, I feel like this one is really borderline. The fastest way to do this is to deck out a summon Necro. The most reliable way to do this is to level up a smiter, but that's going to take a huge chunk of time out of my 24 hours. It may be too much to do in so little time. And decking out a summon Necro is not an option when some of my best items will probably be shopped.
For, objective #3, this seems impossible unless I have a ridiculously good game plan. I'm really going to have to think hard about whether or not I can even do it. Wouldn't it be cool if I do though? I do know of the various ways how Enigmas show up for trade on d2jsp a day after reset, but doing that on my own seems completely out of the ballpark for me, especially since I have rule #4.
For objective #4, this rule may be the death of me. I've never used hacks so playing legit is no problem for me. Having only 1 copy of Diablo 2 will limit my options compared to many ladder reset players. And no trading -- playing the economy has always been the fastest way to progress after a ladder reset, but I've actually always enjoyed not having to trade and building up my chars organically from scratch.
Well, this is going to be a challenge. I'll see how far I can get and I'll make blogs about my progress and where I end up at the end of the final hour. I just wanted a place to compile my thoughts on this undertaking. Thanks for reading this far and I hope to see you on the ladder reset as well!
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I know exactly that itch. I less than a month ago reinstalled D2 and this old ancestral recall mod me and my friends played in high school. Ugh that was the best gaming experience I've had in years. Only reason I stopped was because the mod wasn't compatible in act 5 with the only d2 version I could download.
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TLADT24920 Posts
I know of that itch as well lol. Used to get it for a couple of years with BW and Diablo II but I somehow managed to kick the habit for at least Diablo II though I've been feeling it lately. I came back to BW so I guess I never got cured from that XD
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24 hour enigma is completely impossible with rule number 4, like absurdly ridiculously impossible. Ludicrously absurdly ridiculously impossible.
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I've never seen a jah drop. gl
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24h is not nearly enough time to solo those goals but I'd love to see what comes of the effort. glhf! ;D
d2 is the greatest
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I'm shit at D2, was hard to clear normal and I gave up, and that was like 1-2 y ago, so I'll be looking forward to updates on your quest sensei :D
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Gl, especially on the Enigma. Never seen a rune higher than Lo and that was many years ago before they buffed the rune drops. NM Baal did drop an Ist for me once though.
If I were you I would forget about rule nr. 2 and 3 and instead aim to clear hell legit ofc.........and on HC mode, which is quite easy with an OP build. You could up the challenge by making a bowazon or a werewolf.
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your Country52798 Posts
It took me 24h of playing time just to get a normal lightning sorc to level 55. Not sure how you're going to manage all that.
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On May 24 2014 20:39 DaCruise wrote:
Gl, especially on the Enigma. Never seen a rune higher than Lo and that was many years ago before they buffed the rune drops. NM Baal did drop an Ist for me once though.
If I were you I would forget about rule nr. 2 and 3 and instead aim to clear hell legit ofc.........and on HC mode, which is quite easy with an OP build. You could up the challenge by making a bowazon or a werewolf.
Doing everything w/o trades is damn near impossible. Like you gotta grind for those + skill items.
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It's been so long since I did this with a couple of TLers. :3
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TLADT24920 Posts
On May 25 2014 10:54 r.Evo wrote:
It's been so long since I did this with a couple of TLers. :3
sounds like we should have a Diablo II team :D
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On May 25 2014 11:59 BigFan wrote:Show nested quote +On May 25 2014 10:54 r.Evo wrote:
It's been so long since I did this with a couple of TLers. :3 sounds like we should have a Diablo II team :D
/in
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I'm about to start after getting dinner tonight! Unfortunately I still have to work a lot during the week, so I don't think I'll have time to play every night and will have to spread it out over the next 2 weeks or so. I've been thinking about it the past few days and have a good idea for getting both #1 and #2 done. But not for #3. I did some research and damn, that's going to be ridiculously tough. I'll post update blogs when I have time.
Also, this thread makes me jealous - someone already has Ber and Jah on the new ladder:
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=70795078&f=168
Edit: I almost forgot the say, thank you for all the responses! I hope my updates will be entertaining and I'll try to make you proud.
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your Country52798 Posts
What is your character class going to be? I would think sorceress or hammerdin would be pretty quick.
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I decided I will be playing 3 different characters simultaneously, one of them I will stop leveling in beginning of nightmare, the other 2 will go all the way through hell. I don't want to spoiler too much as I'm making good progress, but they are imo the 3 best characters to start with after a reset. Each shores up the other's weaknesses and all 3 progress through the game much faster I think than the other classes. The biggest problem I have right now is speed. It's really.... really.... slow without decent starting items, especially in the act 2 scavenger hunt quests. God... I can't imagine act 3...
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your Country52798 Posts
On May 28 2014 13:18 Akagi wrote:
I decided I will be playing 3 different characters simultaneously, one of them I will stop leveling in beginning of nightmare, the other 2 will go all the way through hell. I don't want to spoiler too much as I'm making good progress, but they are imo the 3 best characters to start with after a reset. Each shores up the other's weaknesses and all 3 progress through the game much faster I think than the other classes. The biggest problem I have right now is speed. It's really.... really.... slow without decent starting items, especially in the act 2 scavenger hunt quests. God... I can't imagine act 3...
Wait, they'll all be in a multiplayer game? O.o
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EPT
