From the "really different stuff" department and my ongoing effort to find interesting things comes a beta report. What's so special about this one? Well, it's...old. Three and a half years old, to be more precise. Credit goes to Rastlin Twelve of the Alt.Games.Diablo newsgroup for digging up this ancient beta report from the days of the Diablo 1 beta. If you can get past the...interesting site layout, you'll get a chuckle over some of the material there, including talk of spells which didn't make the final and early Battle.Net issues. You never know what you'll find out there on the web; give it a read.
D-Bay
Diablo II News
Written by Bolty
Sunday, 11 June 2000
I went Diablo II websurfing today and stumbled across D2Auctions.com. What an idea! A site dedicated to the auctioning of Diablo II items between realm characters. There's even some activity there now for Stress Test items, with various set items and gems up for auction; but, as you can expect, there won't be too much to look at until the game's final release. It might be something you want to bookmark if you're a real item hoarder and you'll want cash for your stash (virtual cash, that is).
Meditating on the Monk
Diablo News
Written by Bolty
Saturday, 10 June 2000
A good read on the DSF today is FoxBat's guide to the Monk. The Hellfire class which is a true hybrid warrior can be tricky to play well, and FoxBat details equipment setups, playing styles, and strategies to maximize the Monk's strengths. Check it out here.
Stress Test, Fourth Wave!
Diablo II News
Written by Bolty
Friday, 09 June 2000
That was fast. Wave four of the Stress Test emails has been sent off only two days after the third. This wave includes Asia and Europe since the worldwide servers have been going online. Check your mail, hopefuls!
Stress Test, Third Wave
Diablo II News
Written by Bolty
Wednesday, 07 June 2000
The third wave of Stress Test emails has gone out today. Hope those of you not in yet got one! Blizzard made a request to all Stress Testers today via e-mail:
Even though the game has gone gold, the stress test will continue throughout the next couple of weeks. The optimization of servers is completely independent from the game going gold, so you will continue to see network improvement up until launch...We encourage you to continue playing over the next few weeks to help us test the servers as much as possible before the game ships.
Diablo II Gone Gold
Diablo II News
Written by Bolty
Wednesday, 07 June 2000
Diablo II has gone gold! Read Blizzard's press release if you're into that sort of thing here. According to Blizzard, they already have over 1.5 million preorders. It's payday for them, no?
Gem FAQ
Diablo II News
Written by Bolty
Tuesday, 06 June 2000
Some good reading on the Beta Buzz Forum is GFrazier's Gem FAQ. Nothing on the chat interface gem, of course, but various information on using gems, finding gems, upgrading gems, and whether higher level monsters can drop better gems.
HowGozIt?
Diablo News
Written by Bolty
Monday, 05 June 2000
HowGozIt's character backup and maintenance guide, "Care and Keeping of Diablo (and Variant) Characters," now has another home here at the Lounge to fill the void left by the death of Roland's Newbie Guide website. A great reference tool about keeping those valued Diablo characters of yours safe from system crashes, viruses, or other nasty computer problems which could wipe out months of work in a flash is always needed. Thanks,
!
Fallen Down
Diablo II News
Written by Bolty
Sunday, 04 June 2000
Scorch of Darkness has an excellent strategy article published on dealing with the nasty packs of Fallens you encounter in the Stress Test and Act 1 of Diablo II in general. He describes in detail how the Fallen and their Shamans operate, along with strategies on how to take on groups in camps, closed-in areas, attacking and retreating.
Gemini
Diablo II News
Written by Bolty
Sunday, 04 June 2000
Gems remain a hot topic of discussion in Diablo II and some resources have popped up to help you decide on good gem combinations for weapons, shields, and helms. Check out Goll's Guide to Gems, especially its Socketer resource, a hands-on Javascript application for making your own gem combos. Another great gem database is Jarulf's Gem Guide in pdf format (you'll need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it). Hmm, good to see the words Jarulf and Guide in a sentence about Diablo II. *grin*
The point of the Stress Test is to Stress the servers. Servers will be going down, Servers will be coming up. This is expected. This is what it's like to be a part of a Beta. I remember for the betas of some games we would sit in IRC/Kali all day long asking "is it up yet? is it up yet?"
Please be patient and understand that by being a Stress Test Beta User, it is your job to put up with such things =)
Amen.
Necromancer: Master of the Undead, or Guy Who Just Can't Get a Date?
Diablo II News
Written by Bolty
Monday, 29 May 2000
Spirit's third beta report focuses on the Necromancer, summoner of the the dead. A small snippet of Spirit's savory summoning secrets:
I loved playing the Necromancer! Killing things, while always amusing, takes on new irony as you raise your former enemies to serve your needs. Death is your only true ally with this character class. Kill a creature, then cast Corpse Explosion to eliminate his friends. Or better yet, raise it to fight as a skeleton for YOUR cause. The Necromancer is just full of nasty tricks that will keep us dark-hearted adventurers occupied for months!
Read Spirit's thoughts on this most interesting Diablo II character class in his report!
The Blizzard forums have returned to action yesterday.
Lord of the Mods
Diablo News
Written by Bolty
Monday, 29 May 2000
Varaya and Khan have released a new Middle Earth mod with gameplay balance features and some other neat addons, such as drop-on-floor highlighting and level 16 monster randomization. Grab the new version as always from Diablomods. Dybrar gets a big thanks for the heads up.
That Annoying Little Gem
Diablo II News
Written by Bolty
Saturday, 27 May 2000
Huge kudos to Diabloii.Net for digging up something really wild with the Diablo II chat interface gem. For those who haven't had a chance to see it yet or don't know what it is, there's a little gem in the lower middle part of the chat interface which you can click on. Clicking on it causes a message to appear in the chat box reading "Gem Activated" and "Gem Deactivated," and Blizzard refuses to say what it means. Well, a clue to the puzzle came to light today. Seems that clicking on it enough times causes something special to happen, which you can see here (in case you'd rather not know, I won't mention it in this news bit). Okay, this isn't exactly Diablo strategy news, but this gem fascinates me. *click click*
Blizzard Forums in Trouble Again
Diablo II News
Written by Bolty
Saturday, 27 May 2000
Just like last weekend, the Blizzard forums are down again. No need to post "is this forum working?" messages, everyone. :)
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