Diablo IIs storyline progresses through four chapters or "acts", the
Lord of Destruction expansion adds the fifth chapter Act V which continues the story where Act IV left off. Each act follows a predetermined path, but the wilderness and dungeons between key areas are randomly generated. The player progresses through the story by completing a series of quests within each act (six per act, except for Act IV which only has three quests), compared to the preceding
Diablo which most quests are assigned at random and most are optional.
Diablo II also has optional side dungeons for extra monsters and experience. In contrast to the first
Diablo, whose levels consisted of descending deeper and deeper into a
Gothic-themed dungeon and Hell,
Diablo IIs environments are much more varied. Act I is similar to the original
Diablo; the Rogue Encampment is a simple palisade fort, with plains and
boreal forests making up the wilderness area, and the Monastery resembles the typical medieval fortress. Act II mimics Ancient
Egypt's desert and tombs; Lut Gholein resembles a Middle Eastern city and palace during the Crusades. Act III is supposedly based on the
Central American jungles; Kurast is inspired by the lost
Mayan civilization. Act IV takes place in Hell, modeled on the classical Christian conception with rocks and lava, leading up to a medieval cathedral with demonic features. Added in the expansion, Act V's style is mainly mountainous to showcase the ascending of Mount Arreat by traversing
alpine plateaus and icy tunnels and caverns, though there are portals leading to Hellish side dungeons (similar to Act IV), and at the Arreat Summit is the Worldstone Keep whose architecture is inspired by
Angkor Wat. In addition to the acts, there are three sequential difficulty levels: Normal, Nightmare, and Hell; completing the game (four Acts in the original or five Acts in the expansion) on a difficulty setting will open up the next level. On higher difficulties, monsters are more varied, stronger, and may be resistant or immune to an element or physical damage; experience is penalized on dying, and the player's resistances are handicapped. However, better items are rewarded to players as they go through higher difficulties. A character retains all abilities and items between difficulties and may return to a lower difficulty at any time, albeit it is not possible to replay the quests that are already completed. Players can create a hardcore character. In normal mode, the player can resurrect their character if killed and resume playing, while a hardcore character has only one life. If killed, the character is
permanently dead and unplayable. In addition, all items and equipment on that character will be lost unless another friendly character has the "loot" icon checked. Standard and hardcore characters play on separate online channels; as such a hardcore player can never appear in the same game session as a standard player.
Item system Diablo II uses a system of randomly generated equipment similar to the
original Diablo, but more complicated. Weapons and armor are divided into several quality levels: normal, magical, set, rare, and unique. Normal quality items are base items with a fixed set of basic properties, such as attribute requirements, maximum durability, armor rating (on armor), block chance (on shields), damage, and attack speed (on weapons). Magical quality items have blue names and one or two randomly selected bonuses, such as attributes, skills, or damage, indicated by a prefix or suffix. Rare quality items have randomly generated yellow names and 2 to 6 random properties. Unique items have fixed names in gold text, and instead of randomized properties, they have a set of 3 to 8 preselected properties. Green-named set items have fixed names and preselected properties like unique items, and belong to specifically named sets of 2 to 6 items. Additional properties known as set bonuses are activated by equipping multiple or all items from the same set. These are themed on individuals, like Civerb's cudgel, shield, and amulet, each of which provides individual bonuses which are enhanced if two or more of the items are used to equip a character. It is unusual to encounter more than one item from a set in a single playthrough of the game, so collectors need to play the game many times to accumulate all items from a set or trading for them online with other players who possess them but do not need them. Additionally, items can possess sockets, which can be used to upgrade items by adding gems for various bonuses.
Diablo II includes an item crafting system. An item called the Horadric Cube is used to combine two or more items to create a new item. For example, three identical lower-quality gems can be combined to create a single higher-quality gem, and three small rejuvenation potions can be combined to create a single, more powerful rejuvenation potion.
Character classes Diablo II allows the player to choose between five different character classes: Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian, Sorceress, and Paladin. Each character has different strengths, weaknesses, and sets of skills to choose from, as well as varying beginning attributes. The maximum level that any character can obtain is level 99. •
The Amazon hails from the islands of the Twin Seas, near the border of the Great Ocean. The Amazon is akin to the Rogue of
Diablo: both primarily use bows and both make equal use of strength and magic but the Amazon can also use javelins and spears. As such, her clan is a rival to the Sisters of the Sightless Eye (also known as Rogues). Many of her defensive skills are passive in nature, especially Dodge, Avoid, and Evade. The Amazon is voiced by
Jessica Straus. •
The Necromancer is a versatile death-themed spell caster. Necromancers are the priests of the Cult of Rathma from the Eastern jungles. His Summoning skills allow him to raise skeletons, create golems and resurrect dead monsters to fight alongside him. The Necromancer possesses powerful poison spells, which rapidly drain life from afflicted monsters. He also has "Bone" skills, which directly damage enemies while bypassing most resistances. His Curses also afflict the enemy with debilitating status ailments, sowing confusion and chaos in their ranks. The Necromancer is voiced by
Michael McConnohie. The Barbarian is voiced by
David Thomas. The Sorceress is voiced by Liana Young. The Paladin is voiced by
Larry B. Scott. The player can enlist the help of one hireling (computer-controlled
mercenaries) from a mercenary captain in the town; Rogue Scouts (archers with Amazon abilities), Desert Mercenaries or Town Guards (melee fighters with Paladin auras), Iron Wolves (elemental spellcasters with occasional melee capability), and Barbarians (melee fighters with
many hitpoints), from Acts I, II, III, and V, respectively. In the original release of the game, hirelings would not follow the player through different Acts, nor be revived if killed. The expansion allows players to retain their mercenary throughout the entire game as well as equipping them with armor and weapons, plus hirelings gain experience and attributes like the player although their level cannot surpass that of their master character. Typically, players choose a hireling that provides something missing from their character class; for instance, the melee-focused Paladin may choose an Iron Wolf for ranged magical support. In
Heroes of the Storm (2015), playable characters Cassia and Xul represent the Amazon and the Necromancer classes, respectively.
Multiplayer Diablo II can be played multiplayer on a
local area network (LAN) or the Blizzard's
Battle.net online service. Unlike the original
Diablo,
Diablo II was made specifically with online gaming in mind. Several spells (such as auras or war cries) multiply their effectiveness if they are cast within a party, and although dungeons still exist, they were largely replaced by open spaces. Battle.net is divided into "Open" and "Closed" realms. Single-player characters may be played on open realms; only Battle.net characters that are stored on Blizzard's servers may be played on closed realms as a measure against
cheating, where they must be played at least once every 90 days to avoid expiration. Open games are subject to many abuses as the characters are stored on the players' own hard drives. Many cheats that were used on closed realms do not exist or work any longer. Hacks, bots, and programs which allow the player to run multiple instances of the game at the same time are not allowed by Blizzard. They are rarely used anymore. Blizzard cracked down on spambots which advertise sites selling Diablo II's virtual items for real-world currency. As the game can be played cooperatively (Players vs. Environment, PvE), groups of players with specific sets of complementary skills can finish some of the game's climactic battles in a matter of seconds, providing strong incentives for party-oriented character builds. Up to eight players can be in one game; they can either unite as a single party, play as individuals, or form multiple opposing parties. Experience gained, monsters' hit points and damage, and the number of items dropped are all increased as more players join a game, though not in a strictly proportional manner. Players are allowed to duel each other with all damage being reduced in player vs player (PvP). The bounty for a successful kill in PvP is a portion of the gold and the "ear" of the defeated player (with the previous owner's name and level at the time of the kill). The Ladder System is reset at various intervals by Blizzard to allow for all players to start fresh with new characters on an equal footing. Ladder seasons have lasted from as short as six months to over a year. When a ladder season ends, all ladder characters are transferred to the non-ladder population. Certain rare items are available only within ladder games, although they can be traded for and exchanged on non-ladder after the season has ended. The game has been patched extensively; the precise number of patches is impossible to determine as Battle.net has the capability of making minor server-side patches to address urgent bugs. , the game is in version 1.14d. Through the patch history, several exploits and bugs such as item duplication have been addressed, as well as major revamps to the game's balance (such as the ability to redo skills and attributes). Not all patches have affected
Diablo II directly, as several were designed to address aspects of the expansion to the game and had minimal effects on
Diablo II. ==Plot==