I'll try to catch up here on things, but if I've missed anything, please let me know.

• The much coveted Stone of Jordan is apparently only obtainable if you have the other unique rings with you, namely Nagelring and Manald Heal.  Your chances of finding one, then, go up greatly if you keep these two rings in your stash (and explains, as Ondo noted, why GFraizer never found a Stone of Jordan during his long search).  To elucidate further, those two uniques must exist somewhere in a game before a Stone of Jordan can be generated.  If monsters are "set" to drop those rings, then you could gamble successfully for the Stone.  If you have a unique anywhere in a game, it can NEVER be generated.  Two get two Stones of Jordan, you'll have to get rid of the first one or find another with a different character.  I had incorrectly posted info about having two uniques on the 14th.
• Sirian reports in with Chapter Eight of his chronicles of a throwing mastery Barbarian.  He also has all of his chronicles in one spot on his website.
• Jarulf reveals some gambling statistics: you can get items of quality 5 levels below and 4 levels above your character level.  Even more in his post here.  He follows it up with information on Imbuing: you receive magical effects of quality clvl+4, so yes, you do get better items if you imbue at a later level.
• DaShiv has a superb editorial on issues of DR in Diablo II, arguing that the attitude many players put forth that "DR isn't that useful" is far off base.  A very high quality thread to read - do you agree?
• ...for on the other front, Sirian touches off a controversial debate on the "ARx4" issue (read what that is here).  There are many quality responses and counterarguments in the thread which make interesting reading.
• If you like Sirian's reports of the not-so-popular playing style, a throwing-mastery Barbarian, you'll like Faragon's tales of a melee Sorceress.  You can read his saga in parts one, two, and three - it's viable so far in normal difficulty.

While we understand that Diablo II is a very different type of game from Starcraft, the core need to ensure that the game is balanced as originally intended, remains. A look at the ladders will show that the vast majority of high-level characters are Barbarians and Necromancers. This is a direct result of the fact that they both had a skill that was, quite simply, broken.

Finally, it is not our intention to constantly make changes to the skills in Diablo II. We do not foresee having to make further changes to the skills, but we will always consider addressing those that are drastically unbalanced.

On the Lounge forum, those of you members of the DaShiv fan club (who isn't) won't want to miss his tales of a lightning-only Sorceress.  Which skills did he conclude are worthy of pumping?  Static Field, of course, but his other selection might surprise you.

Oh, and...thanks, everyone.

• Yes, everyone's up in arms over the Necromancer Bone Wall bug/exploit.  Diabloii.Net has received some flak for publicizing this, even though it's kind of a minor bug for any char except Hardcores (now they're even calling it "strategy").  God forbid they ever publicize something on the order of the "of Thieves" bug for Diablo 1, or bug exploitation will become standard practice all over Battle.Net.  Thankfully the bug is really only good for raising money.
• Much like the Battle.Net Gateway Selector for the PC, Blizzard has released a selector for the Mac users out there.  Added to the links section.
• Skandranon's account of a Sorceress in Hell difficulty makes for some good reading.
• News to me: thanks to Varaya's inquisitiveness, revelations in Unique items: they can only be dropped when a character in the game does not have that unique in their inventory, in their stash, or in use.  So how can you get, say, two Stones of Jordan?  Gamble.
• If you want to be an expert on how poison damage works, Griselda and Jarulf got together to study poison damages and durations.
• Skandranon points out how potions seem to have a random double-effect bonus where they can heal you twice the standard amount.

• DaShiv writes of his strategies for Paladins and Barbarians.  Screenshots galore.
• WarLocke explains how Poison damage can and can't stack.
• Nothing can stop Jarulf, as he makes a shocking discovery - monsters may actually have Attack Ratings 4 times higher than those listed in the data files.  If you've been feeling that your DR doesn't help you much, this may vindicate your beliefs - read on.  This is pretty big news - will this be fixed, making the game easier, or left standing?  If this isn't changed in the future, the values shown for chance to be hit will continue to be fairly useless.
• A good thread to read on Strafe vs. Multishot strategies is started by Mirandia here.
• The second round of the Lurker Lounge buglist is up.  Help it grow if you know of some bugs.

My sword/shield barbarian completed the solo/Hell run at a mere clvl 36, without using whirlwind or leap attack in Hell difficulty at all, and without dying left and right (looking at the exp bar in the screenshots I'll post shortly will confirm this). But here's the kicker: I found it easier (IMO, YMMV) than doing the same with either my sorceress (clvl 52) or paladin (clvl 49), and this is without the benefit of the barbarian's two best combat skills. And the sad part is, I'm not joking or exaggerating.

As always, his report is a great read for his strategies and tactics in all areas of the game.  Read it!

• As a followup to TFMurphy's price calculation, he's put up a website with his tabulated data on every item type in the game for quick, easy reference.  Check out all of his new info here (I smell a new link coming).
• Interesting news for having a Blizzard forum dedicated to strategy - I'll let you read it and judge for yourself.  *cough*
• Mods are currently out for the game, this early.  There's Úthaur by Ondo, a mod designed for fixing up some known bugs and other improvements the author likes.  Also, the popular mod-makers Varaya and Khan have developed an early test version of a D2 mod which you can download here.  As a mod scene develops in time and quality mods are developed, I'll be sure to keep track of them.
• I find the poll there to your right very interesting - it's dead even at this point over whether or not the Blood Golem + Iron Maiden effect is too cheesy.  If anyone feels like writing a quality editorial on the matter, for either side, it could make good reading. (hint)
• Try to read this without thinking, "impossible."  Ravernoth has taken a level 7 bow-using Amazon and defeated Diablo in Hell/Hell.  He has a full write-up on how he accomplished this (he had stat points left over, too) on the Lounge forum.  Yes, I thought I was a good player, too.  Oh well.  :)

A request: if submitting STSI shots to me, please find a way to compress the size of the photos for the time being, for you'll overload my poor modem.  If you don't know how to compress a game shot, don't worry; I'll get to your submissions in 2 weeks (I'm filtering out larger messages and saving them for later).  Thanks again for all the great screenshots, I try to use as many as I can, but I get far too many to show them all.

• Sirian's throwing Barbarian continues his adventures - read chapters six and seven to see how he fared against Diablo and in nightmare difficulty, along with some good strategy discussion on such a character's viability.
• How exactly does the new life orb work?  Jarulf dug around and decided it's merely a cosmetic change.  Read more here.  Complaints are rolling in over the new "slower drain" life orb which makes it difficult to tell how hurt you are in a battle.
• I should hopefully have all new skill tree data for 1.03, including full formulas for all skills (thanks, Jarulf), this week.
• The first hosted strategy for Diablo II is up on the Lounge, a miscellaneous Quick Tip for Expanding your Inventory Space by .  He goes through a step-by-step process for maximizing the amount of equipment you can carry from game to game for the packrats out there.

Lately all of the talk has been about 1.03 likes and dislikes (Diabloii.Net has put together an analysis on changes in 1.03, a good read), but don't miss this jewel of strategy about the uses of the Barbarian skill Grim Ward by Sirian.

Update: Cyrene has provided a workaround for the ugly Glide colors: it turns out that copying the old d2glide.dll file over the new one will revert the colors back to the old and (IMHO) better scheme.  You can download that here and use at your own risk, of course.  It worked for me.

Major bugs

- Fixed a rare bug that would mark a character as "Unable to join, Bad item." A typical cause of this bug was high lag conditions while two characters simultaneously attempted to use the same item lying on the ground - for example, a Necromancer casting Iron Golem on a sword while another tried to pick it up.
- Fixed a bug where Diablo II would crash when using 64MB video cards.

Minor bugs

- Fixed a loophole that allowed either the Necromancer wearing the complete set of Infernal Tools or the Paladin with the Milabrega set to temporarily boost his skills to very high levels.
- Fixed a bug that caused Amazons wielding a javelin in the right side inventory box and a shield in the left to do no damage with javelin-throwing skills assigned to the right mouse button.
- Fixed a bug in Open games that dropped players with slower machines from the game when they talked to Act III NPCs.
- Fixed 3 rare lock-up bugs with Lord De Seis: 1) killing him as any character, 2) leaping away from him as a Barbarian, and 3) being killed by him while simultaneously drinking a potion.
- If a player tries to create a game when a Realm server is fully occupied, the player is prompted to join a game instead. It no longer reports "Server Down" in this case.
- The "Toggle Belt" hotkey is no longer active when the in-game chat overlay is displayed.

Improvements

- Game creation queue added. Client now informed of game creation position.
- Reduced the average bandwidth required for each player/client. Effects: reduction in lag and a slight modification to the updating of the Life Orb. There may be a period of adjustment for some players and we encourage you to pay closer attention to your Life Orb until you are used to this change.
- Added support for future server performance improvements. Effect: Future reduction in lag and future increase in the number of games per server.
- When a server goes down, the clients will no longer be left in "limbo" for up to 20 seconds, but will exit immediately to Battle.net chat.
- Messages from Battle.net are now yellow.
- In 3dfx/Glide mode, colors are not as washed out and cinematics look better.

• Skandranon reports a bug on items giving characters power even if they're not eligible to use the items.
• Exodus explains how to replicate the "monster-with-0-hit-points-is-invincible" bug people have encountered a few times.
• dta makes a post on the "background" effects of Smite, how using weapons with certain attributes will carry the effects over to your shield.  It initiates a reply by long-time DSF regular Crystalion, legendary for discovering the "of Thieves" and Mana Shield bugs in Diablo 1, among other things.  Good to see him back again.
• Over on the Diabloii.Net forums, Jarulf reveals the mana regeneration rate formula.  One thing of interest in his post: placing a point into Warmth at character level 2 is useless!  Read more on his findings here.
• WarLocke digs up the correct formula for the stats of Poison Dagger.  His guide is coming...
• For the Paladin lovers, DaShiv's report on his Paladin's exploits through hell/hell is, once again, a must read.  How does he rate the Warrior of Light against the other characters?
• Is a melee Sorceress viable?  Hasn't really been tested yet, but Kylearan ponders the possibilities.

In further news, Diabloii.Net has a nifty "Forum-Goers' FAQ" that answers common questions by people seen all the time in Diablo II forums.  A very nice reference for the newbies.  Crystalion's classic post regarding the Mana Shield stun, damage reduction, and recasting bugs has been added to the Lounge, thanks to the help of dta.

And that's all today from the Lurker Lounge, where I never report on silly hacked items people make fake screenshots of to cause controversy.  Ever.

• Jarulf discovers that the starting Stamina of characters isn't entirely based on Vitality.
• Mirajj starts a thread on Penetrate - the debate continues.  Does it work for melee weapons or bows only?
• On the Chaos Sanctuary, Natalya is listed as an Assassin...(thanks, Exodus).
• Don't miss chapter four and chapter five of Sirian's chronicles of a throwing-mastery Barbarian - fun to read and educational.  How did Thrower fair against Mephisto?
• Leshy comes up with an interesting thought - if a Paladin and a Necromancer fight with Thorns and Iron Maiden, what happens?

If you're looking for Diablo II stats and data, take a look at Stephen Van Ham's Plain Guide to Diablo II.  Complete with a "snazzy" background, the website contains raw data and statistics along with a downloadable version.  Something to read on a rainy afternoon when the realms are down.  :)

Again a request for help - if you see new discoveries about the game anywhere on the web, let me know.  Spread the knowledge and help everyone in their quests against the Prime Evils: lag, less than 128 megs of RAM, and computer crashes (just kidding).

• Jarulf believes he's found an error with the random number generator for items, causing equipment and gems to never reach their max value of effect.
• Mirajj touches off a huge thread - will Diablo II have the longevity that the original game had?  The sequel has less randomization and that can kill it in the long run.
• Sirian continues his chronicles of a throwing-mastery Barbarian.  Running into problems yet or smooth sailing?
• Another great writeup of the exploits of an Amazon, this time using both spears and bows to become a Baroness, by Angelstar3.
• WarLocke, data accumulation master, has become bored today and wrote up the entire ARGH! list in one post.  This is a good time to check up on it and add to it if you have anything.  (Thanks, WarLocke!)