Overview

Developer: Blizzard North
LoD official page: http://www.blizzard.com/diablo2exp/

Since our last look...

Our first impressions of Lord of Destruction were rather mixed. While we were pleased with the new additions to the game, the changes to 'classic' Diablo II felt rather unwelcome. On one hand, who could argue with all the new items and item abilities, two new classes, a new act, and a bigger stash and cash vault? On the other hand, seeing high-level characters, optimized for play in Diablo II (meaning they were specialized in one or two abilities) being reduced to whimpering weaklings was most definitely not a pleasant experience.

So has our opinion changed? We'll get to that on the next page - first, let's cover what's new in the expansion pack for those who haven't read any previews or seen the first impressions article.

Level 12, Act II

The perfect weapon to clean up after fights

Big stash = big grins all around

You got your problems, I got my re-hash pipe

The first thing to note about the expansion pack, before you even start a game, is the new 800x600 resolution available to play in. It offers so much more viewable area and improves the appearance of the game so much, that it should be a no-brainer for anyone except those running close to the minimum requirements. The new resolution is especially useful in large battles, making it particularly important for multiplayer games where it's important to keep track of your party.

Upon entering the game, you will be encountered with two new classes to choose from, the Assassin and the Druid - we'll get to those later. If, like myself, you haven't played since around the time of patches 1.03/1.04 in Diablo II, you'll notice quite a few differences. Item drop rates are different - magic items seem far more likely to fall, as are gems. Among these drops you'll spot new magic items like charms, jewels, runes and ethereal items.

Necros have armies of the dead, Druids armies of the living

It's odd to outnumber your enemy

These fights can get really messy

Charms are somewhat like rings or amulets, though generally less powerful. They give small bonuses to resistances, damage and attacks as long as they are in your inventory - no need to equip them. Jewels are like gems in that they can be inserted into socketed items, but they give multiple magical abilities that resemble those of regular magic items. A jewel may give 5-7 fire damage, 12% poison resistance and +58 to attack, for example. Runes are a different beast entirely. A rune works like a gem as well, but is quite a bit more powerful in general, and doesn't have quality levels like chipped, flawed, and perfect. However, you can combine certain runes with certain kinds of items to form rune words. If you spell a rune word, you get all the powers that the runes give, and certain extra magical abilities - it is similar to how sets work.

There are new magical abilities for all the items. Weapons can carry resistances or a chance to unleash a spell if they hit, while defensive items can release a spell if they are hit. Blizzard, in a nod to the original design of Diablo, has also added in abilities based on charges for certain items. You can find a sword which casts a level 4 fire bolt as many as 12 times before you run out of charges.

Then, we have crafted items. These are new recipes for the Horadric Cube. You take a certain kind of item (helmet, bow, amulet), a jewel of any kind, a specific rune and a specific perfect gem, combine them and out comes a crafted item. In general, crafted items are more powerful than the sum of its parts, unless you took a particularly nice jewel and wasted it for the crafting.