I JUST GOT THESE GAMES I'VE NEVER HAD THEM BEFORE I AM DOWNLOADING NOW I AM SO EXCITED MY LIFE IS GOING TO BE 9000 X BETTER THAN IT EVER HAS BEEN BEFORE I AM EATING RICE AND BEANS AND SAUSAGE AND DOWNLOADING THE GAME I AM SO EXCITED.

I may not get to run the damn thing until tomorrow. But we'll see.

Enjoy!
And if you're going to play all difficulties, plan your character ahead carefully!! (check builds)

Sounds interesting. What version are you downloading? If it comes pre-patched with v13 (or whatever is present) I'd be iffy, while if it can be patched to 1.09d I'd be quite joyful.

Anyways, first time playing it... Play Vanilla and expansion for a while, but once you're ready for something a little more diverse and fun and challenging, Zy-El is what I'd recommend. Not much planning involved... All the lower skills do minimum skills and put a lot into the upper/final skills which are far more boosted/effective.

fortune_p_dawg, how did you get into misteryo's account?

Boy, are you in for a disappointment. Unless you're from Madagascar.

Not sure if I agree with this. I mean certainly the game is limited and the story is shallow, and the graphics are decent... But it's the main loop of fighting mobs and getting interesting gear that people love to do.

Now Zy-El has a thousand times more complexity with monsters, revamped and balanced skills, max level changes, from 300 recipes to 300 million, posters, poker, unique enemies, upgrade spell scrolls, and the experience of actually being weak at the beginning to really propel you forward.

So comparing Vanilla to Zy-El, yes it's a disappointment. But other than that the game as I recall was good, even in 256 colors for years.

You goggers should really stop referencing that troll\scammer that tried to dox tinyE.

..also, D2 is cool (even if D1 is a great classic).
Don't ruin misteryo's hype. :P

Only Normal and Nightmare are worth playing. Hell loves to throw in too many FU combinations making the game far too much about a perfect build and equipment you couldn't possibly get, trading, or perfect crafting and even then fail.

I am playing whatever just downloaded from Battle.net - I ran it and it started! Hurray!

QUESTIONS:

DO I HAVE TO DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL THE EXPANSION NOW? DOES IT CHANGE THE BASE GAME? OR DO I JUST DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL THE EXPANSION AFTER I'M DONE WITH VANILLA?

What do you mean "you goggers"? What are you, a bowl of soup? Anyway, I was referencing this , not any scammers. I just always found Diablo II boring in the long run. I loved the first act, forced myself through the second, and never got beyond the third one. I can't really put my finger on why, but it just wasn't fun beyond the first act for me.

I liked Hell too, because I enjoyed trying making characters "skilled" at least in 3 types of damages.
It's surely becomes grindy as f**k if you're playing alone.

--

Ah misteryo, also install a stash mod because the available space is way too few (expecially if you like collecting items).
I liked Atma, but now there's probably something else.
(wait, maybe that was an external program).

.
I meant "at least you good goggers", compared to the usual crazy\bad ones.
And I think that snowkatt involuntarily or sarcastically referenced that scammer.

PlugY is also an option, actually built into Zy-El... another reason i love that mod :)

I played vanilla first, but maybe it's better to install the expansion immediately, because it adds new features to all the game.
I'm going by memory, though.

You don't have to install the expansion now, but I strongly advise that you do. It basically adds more everything, and there are more things you can find/make to make your character stronger.

The expansion adds a fifth act, two more classes, and more stuff that can drop.