Differences between diablo 2 and 3

[plato13]

I wonder if you even played Diablo 2.
The rotation/button needed difference between D3 and D2 is ridiculous in favor of D3.

When devs think an arpg needs a complex rotation, they reached the point when they should quit their job.

[Dangg]

What diablo 2 can offer compared to diablo 3:

1)TRADING SYSTEM
You can actually trade items in this game unlike Diablo 3, where trading is limited for 2h of items that drop in party.
2)RUNES
There are 33 runes in this game, with different effects and if you put them in specific order in certain weapon you get Runeword (aka unique item) with random roll of stats that vary for an example (Enhanced dmg from 170-200%) and so getting best roll means worth more and better item.
3)ENVIRONMENT
Hey just load Diablo 2 today and see how dark and gothic it looks like compared to cartoony diablo 3 =/
4)PARTY (of more than 4 people)
Yes, party up with more than 4 people and slay monsters!

What Diablo 3 has to offer:
1) Better graphics

Yep that's about it.

A combat system which is slightly more engaging than pressing one button and chain chugging potions.
Not having to do the same create game -> same enviroment/boss run sequence when leveling where actually killing stuff is just a fraction of the time spend.

Yep that's about it.

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When devs think an arpg needs a complex rotation, they reached the point when they should quit their job.

The post I quoted is insisting that D2 is more than a 6 button game isn't it?

[Elenion]

D3 turned into a game about tinkering and manipulating stat number, slot machine, and racing against clock and bar. You're conditioned to care only the system underneath, it's a factory machine disguised as a game.

The game barely feels RPG anymore, it doesn't have a soul I'd say, unlike D2 where core game design made you wanted to level alts and pursue your own goals for entertainment.

In D2, you play it because you were compelled to (maybe you found cool unique/set while leveling another character, maybe you want to try out a new pvp build), not driven by numbers. Even if the game would lack objectively by modern standard, it had a soul of an RPG.

[Dangg]

you must have not played diablo 2 very much.

You would be wrong about that.

Diablo 2 had a level cap that was possible to reach but required alot of grinding

No thanks. I'm not a masochist or bot user.

the perfect gear took alot of trading and rng drops, heaps better than current loot methods.

There was more forum use than actual playing the game involved. Was fun though.

D2 has better atmosphere and is a better trade simulation, I give you that.
D3 is a better dungeon crawler/ARPG.

[Deleted]

Why should I have to explain? It's not on me to educate you on the discussion, if you're interested in the huge array of changes to the game then the information is readily available for you to find for yourself.

Nice cop out.

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A combat system which is slightly more engaging than pressing one button and chain chugging potions.
Not having to do the same create game -> same enviroment/boss run sequence when leveling where actually killing stuff is just a fraction of the time spend.

Except that D2's combat is miles ahead. I already explained why in my previous post. It's much more engaging and intense.

[Bigbazz]

Nice cop out.

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Except that D2's combat is miles ahead. I already explained why in my previous post. It's much more engaging and intense.

No it's not a cop out, you come in here having not clue what you're talking about, its up to you to fix that otherwise you're just talking shit out of your ass, don't ask me or anyone else to educate you.

[Christan]

I see a lot of posts about "Make diablo 4!! to fix the problems with 3 especially the boring endgame!" while at the same time people still circle jerk over Diablo 2. Can someone please explain the difference because while I was admittedly younger I don't remember Diablo 2 endgame to really be much of anything besides killing the same stuff again and again which is not much different than 3 mind you. Is it just the difference in classes? or a case of rose tinted nostalgia goggles.?

well there was lots you could do end game, granted only one thing you could do to get good exp, and getting to lvl 99 was a massive chore, so much so baal games made by bots were(are?) the general rule.

other things you could do countess/nithalak runs for runes (upper kurast as well but putting that in a different part)

max MF kills of the easier bosses (andariel mephisto, people generally ignored a2 boss...can't remember name) as well as the portaled areas in act5 (higher mlvl for higher loot)

also, zero MF runs, for white items, even ethereal whites for ebugging an item, a setup i liked to use

barb with max shouts / goldfind, skill that drops items off previously looted corpses. upper kurast, following behind my Hdin, popping bodies, the goldfind stacked massively with all the chests in the area, zero mf provides tons of whites decent rune drops there as well(comparable to how small of a chance they drop anywhere else
(this is because the swarms dropped gold and no equipment(unless champ/rare swarms) but they could drop runes.
take the millions per run(you end up making multiple trips to town) to gamble with on rings, trying to get SoJ's, or for w/e unique you want.

same as above with a javazon, light maxed, to hell cows, and barb popping bodies, max shouts were amazing to have, buff the hell out of yourself and barb, also enough skillpts left for ww, not all synergies though...
but there you could get the highest runes to drop, up to zod even, they aren't as common drops as upper kurast, but they're good enough, also as high ilvl as the act5 portals (red portal stands randomly strewn in the act past the initial gauntlet where you fought...a siegebreaker(?) basically after first WP

then there was spamming countess runs, fun fun, so fast and she drops up to ist, lots of runes, (people generally did this with a light sorc/javazon with enigma though, countess and usual minions don't immune lightning, also light sorc can do nithalek

without maphacks nithalek was best bet for MF+chances at runes, as the WP on previous floor only has 3 different maps, and small, a few teleports and you know which way to go, countess...took a bit to long without MH

but pickit and MH were way to heavily used...makes people using turbohud such a tiny thing, pickit was relatively obvious when (before rune colors got changed) if mal+ dropped on a baal run, and 4+ of the people in game all teleported perfectly on top of it, where you literally only got to see it's name flash...same for boss loot, 4+ unique items instantly picked up with the last one lasting an entire second before someone without pickit grabbed it fast...

in public games, it became unplayable for me without using those... afaik it is still an issue.
irregardless, only ever played that way when grinding exp in games i join with hammerdin bots, solo i wouldn't even use maphack.
just saying, the relatively static maps in D3 are a blessing compared to some of the areas in D2

bringing all that up because i don't condone third party tools at all, they utterly ruined D2, rose colored glasses aside, D3 is a MUCH better game (you can exp solo or in a group, but generally a group of friends not having to sort through a huge list of baal runs / trade games / cow games.
d2 you could play solo but the huge exp loss compared is nothing compared to d3's bonus system, and there isn't a lobby for all the games people have made.
just the social aspect is amazingly better, actual guilds, inter-game and in game chat channels, hell even voice chat now with Bnet, which d2 isn't connected to.

if they made a completely bot/mh/pickit free D2 by recoding it, and cracked down on hackers weekly, maybe i could agree that D2 is a better game, albeit outdated gfx.
but as it currently stands D2 is trash because the playerbase has ruined it, and D3 is heading towards that, albeit there are bans and leaderboards expunged.

(yes there was like...yearly bans in D2, and ladder got rid of all the bugged / duped items, dust storm program deleting dupes, each item having its own item id (but items before that patch still didn't have, so people kept looking for ways to dupe since an SoJ sold on nonladder, shared same servers as ladder, you could park 50 instances of a game on the same server, sell 100 duped stones of jordan on nl, and....then before ladder there were even hacked items, hex sc's white rings, ladder fixed a TON of these hacked items.

there were/are just so many problems with d2 it ruined the game for me. d3 i haven't felt any need to even use a 'mostly legit' program like turbohud, definitely don't feel any need at all to bot, personal loot means no need for pickit, even joining random games.

it's not just the gfx that are better, the playerbase and how everything works in game is so much better than d2.
and yet i still loved d2, one ladder i managed to buy up to enigma even lol, another ladder i focused on smiter and got exile, mind i've never got to 99, ever. but 90-95 each ladder season while i was still playing, and i'd donate my ladder stuff to people in a random pvp game (i'd purposely pop my body, GZ if anyone gets that reference)

for anyone who doesn't get that reference there was a bug where if your inv was filled up, and you had a body already with all your loot on it, you pick up another item and have it hovering, then die, your initial body explodes with all the equips ya had on to the ground.

it's fun doing that and then dropping all my charms.

d2 had its ups and downs, but the playerbase is the general thing that ruined it.

[epLe]

The main reason why Diablo 3 is failing to sustain players like Diablo 2 is mostly that loot is so common.

It's the same problem that "epic loot" had since vanilla in WoW.

Call it "wellfare" or "instant gratification" but it is the loud voices of the unpatient kids on forums that has driven this direction of development.

[mannenabo]

in diablo 2 you build a character, in diablo 3, you select one, thats the really big diffrence, I think sometime in the near future the tables will turn and we will get more customization in games yet again.

[Dangg]

Except that D2's combat is miles ahead. I already explained why in my previous post. It's much more engaging and intense.

I don't know which build you played, but PVM was literally spamming your main attack and chugging pots.
Maybe you should watch some gameplay videos on youtube to refresh your memory.

[Christan]

I'm sorry, how many active abilities did you have in D2 at any one time?

if i remember right the base was 8 on rightlcick, using mousewheel to scroll up and down
and 1 on left click you could swap depending on which weapon tab you had on.

changing hotkeys i think you could add up to 12 on right click (some things are passive/auras, but to be active they have to be currently equipped)

but, at least 10.

when they added synergies into D2, it cut down a lot on what people would use tbh
hdin would use concentration aura and hammers, maybe have a scroll for vigor(movement speed) or teleport if enigma maybe both, cleansing aura...umm...maybe lower lvl fanat/zeal on weapon swap?

light sorcs got more toys, so did barbs, 3 warcries to buf party, then whirlwind and stomps? maybe the body popping skill....

but people generally used say, 4-6, even if they could keybind more.

The main reason why Diablo 3 is failing to sustain players like Diablo 2 is mostly that loot is so common.

It's the same problem that "epic loot" had since vanilla in WoW.

Call it "wellfare" or "instant gratification" but it is the loud voices of the unpatient kids on forums that has driven this direction of development.

this guy gets it, people who loved D2, enjoyed the grind, actually played the game for the grind, D3 caters more towards millennials who have this (but i want it now, i deserve it! if i'm paying for XYZ set bonus i should be able to get it by doing a few challenges each ladder for free loot)

so to appease their new playerbase, they made uniques drop like candy, even in vanilla d3.

this ofc really annoyed the classic D2 players, who expected a game that took time. no runewords most likely did also..but they weren't brought in d2 until the expansion...d3 expansion...still no runewords, made me sad

but yeah...4 hotkeys...ugh agree there should of been more, even if last 2 were for specifically passive skills.

I don't know which build you played, but PVM was literally spamming your main attack and chugging pots.
Maybe you should watch some gameplay videos on youtube to refresh your memory.

i didn't use many pots in pve tbh, played pala usually, smiter with exile was immortal. hdins killed anything trying to get into melee to fast, and could tele away from projectiles, killed bosses fast as hell also, counter conviction aura with salvation, or higher lvl conviction (think it was 30ish to counter uber mephistos?)

but you could pull the uber bosses 1 by one, easy peasy. mmm i think that was one fight i actually could make use of emergency full rejuvs
high chance of getting spiked by one of the bosses in there...forget though, everything else was amazingly easy and just...died.
even on light sorc, fighting light immunes(snakes in niths lair) my a2 follower would eat em...no d3 beats d2 with difficulty and with end game being randomly generated grifts for exp/gear vs the usual in d2 /baal runs...d3 even has more variety.

i mean, if you are pushing as high grifts as you possibly can,
not doing that would be loading up a lvl 90+ d2 char and playing on nightmare, ofc it wouldn't be challenging in the slightest.

[Demonidze]

people just cant see diablo 2 for what it is through the shroud of nostalgia. thats all..

[Dangg]

i didn't use many pots in pve tbh, played pala usually, smiter with exile was immortal. hdins killed anything trying to get into melee to fast, and could tele away from projectiles, killed bosses fast as hell also, counter conviction aura with salvation, or higher lvl conviction (think it was 30ish to counter uber mephistos?)

I mean while undergeared combat was kinda zerging down bosses. Deal damage a bit of dmg + use pots -> TP home + buy pots -> Repeat

Actually similar to early D3 Classic Inferno Rare Packs.



I take pushing a higher GR on HC over that.

[Deleted]

I don't know which build you played, but PVM was literally spamming your main attack and chugging pots.
Maybe you should watch some gameplay videos on youtube to refresh your memory.

Except I never claimed otherwise and this has nothing to do with what I actually said.

No it's not a cop out, you come in here having not clue what you're talking about, its up to you to fix that otherwise you're just talking shit out of your ass, don't ask me or anyone else to educate you.

Then it should be easy to explain why I was wrong before. Instead of dissmising my points.

[Unclekreepy]

It is the same kinda people who scream for vanilla WoW servers, a loud minority.

I have to disagree with you on that.

I don't run around crying bring back vanilla servers but I did play on Nostalrius before it went down 1 to 60 and it was the most fun leveling i've had in years.


and this is coming from someone that loved Cata and MOP.

[Mamut]

It's funny because it always seems like the D2 discussions end up sounding like people totally forgot that D2 was an ARPG.

"In D3 you just kill mobs but in D2...hooo boy, you don't even know. In D2 we did other stuff. We didn't just kill mobs, no sir, we ran around and...did stuff...with the mobs...but not just kill them...look, it was different, ok?!?!"

In D2 you was killing mobs to get loot. In D3 you killing mobs to beat fuking clock. RIP Diablo.

[Deleted]

almost everything others said here+

- D2 is random ffs.. in D3 everything is so predictable.
- D3 is way to much Action than RPG, that new ARPG is a bullshit idea. I want to play RPG not action, if I want action I play BF4 and I am done.

[Deleted]

See? People forgetting that D2 was an ARPG.

Not at D3 level, sorry..

[Eazy]

Because Diablo 2 was better, had better story, had less "rainbow" atmosphere and more "dark" theme. The classes were actually much cooler and the Acts weren't copy-cats of the acts from the previous parts of the game. It had nice communication room for the battle.net players, the PvP was a thing, it required more brain and it was harder(I don't mean harder by "WE DOUBLE IT", because that's just fucking nonsense, but in terms of getting upgrades/killing bosses etc), it made the game more exciting and rewarding compared to D3.

[HeroZero]

I played Diablo 2 just a few months ago. It's not nostalgia. It's just a good game. D3 I played for 60 something hours, and haven't played any since 2012. Terrible game.

If you haven't played since 2012 you do not know anything about how the game currently plays, you should go pick it back up and experience the improvements and then come back to comment upon it when you are experienced.