Diablo II (Resurrected!)
Diablo 2 has been one of my favourite games since it was released. You have no idea how many hours I put into Diablo II and Diablo II Lord of Destruction in high school and college! 😂
In the 2010's, I took an extended break from Diablo II... but this game always sucks me back in eventually.
The event that got me back into D2 was of course the release of Diablo II: Resurrected in 2021. I picked it up for Nintendo Switch—what could be better than portable DII!?—feeling excited to get back into it. A small part of me wondered if it was a waste of money... Maybe I'd play a handful of hours and then forget about it? (That's all that ever happened the couple of times I tried to get into Diablo III, for example.) Fortunately—or unfortunately for my free time and other hobbies—that was not the case and I fell in love with the game all over again.
This page has a list of my favourite builds that I enjoy playing the most in DII:R. Here are a few notes to keep in mind about all of these characters:
- I only play offline single player. No online, no items acquired via trading, no help from other people while questing. It's all me.
- As I play on console, I'm not able to use muling tools or add-ons like GoMule.
- I mostly play softcore, not hardcore; however, I have been dipping my toes more and more into HC lately.
- I generally don't play single pass or untwinked characters. I'm at 41 Partriarchs / Matriarchs and counting in DII:R, and I've found so many good items that it would be a shame to not using them with new characters!
- I don't like and don't use 'Enigma'. I am also mostly anti-'Infinity', but I've made an exception for a certain character to use 'Infinity'.
- I love the addition of Terror Zones in DII:R and I play them a lot! I also make liberal use of the /playersX setting while questing and farming to tailor the difficulty level.
Reign of the Warlock
I had mixed feelings when RotW was announced earlier this year: Does this game really need new content? Will the addition of a new class and various other new mechanics just make it worse? That sort of thing. I stayed on the fence for a while and didn't buy the DLC on release day. After a few weeks I caved, not necessarily out of a strong interest in the Warlock class, but more because I really wanted access to some of the QoL improvements that came with RotW (especially the improved shared stash with gem and rune tabs). I have now Pat'd a couple of Warlocks (SC)—Fire and Summoning—and I am working on an Abyss build currently. I also have an untwinked HC Warlock part-way through Hell difficulty. I've also played around with Echoing Strike as well since it was all the rage during the first ladder season of RotW. It's pretty fun but also pretty busted. Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised by RotW and some of the ideas they had for the Warlock. I think balance improvements need to be made (carefully!), and I'm not sure if that means slightly nerfing the Warlock a bit more than what's already been implemented in patch 3.2, or if the D2R devs should look at making some of the other class's skills a bit stronger.
My go-to builds
Amazon
- Multiple Shot / Strafe / Guided Arrow Bowazon
Assassin
- Blade Fury
- Dragon Claw / Whirlwind ('Chaos')
Barbarian
- Frenzy
Sorceress
- Fire Ball / Hydra / Meteor Sorceress
- Nova / Energy Shield Sorceress
- Demon Machine Enchantress
Warlock
- Fire
- Echoing Strike