• Diablo 2 Patch 1.14 Download
• Diablo 2 Patch 1.14d Changes

Diablo II
Developer(s)	Blizzard North
Publisher(s)	Blizzard Entertainment
Director(s)	David Brevik Erich Schaefer Max Schaefer
Producer(s)	Mark Kern Kenneth Williams
Designer(s)	David Brevik Erich Schaefer Max Schaefer
Programmer(s)	Rick Seis
Artist(s)	Phil Shenk
Writer(s)	Kurt Beaver Stieg Hedlund Matthew Householder Phil Shenk Robert Vieira
Composer(s)	Matt Uelmen
Series	Diablo
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, macOS
Release	Microsoft Windows NA: June 29, 2000[1][2] EU: June 30, 2000 Classic Mac OS macOS WW: March 11, 2016[3]
Genre(s)	Action role-playing, hack and slash[4]
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Patch 1.14d Game Diablo II Diablo II: Lord of Destruction Release date June 7, 2016 Patch 1.14d was released on the 7th of June, 2016. Specific Changes. Diablo II: 1.14 supported! The patched files to revert 1.14 patch are out! Players who downloaded the game using blizzard's installer may now follow the join instructions to effectively roll back to 1.13c. This will also help the players who want to use tools like PlugY in single player. Re: Diablo 2 patch 1.14d Post by Craig@Invincea » Sat Jun 18, 2016 8:59 pm If it worked before the Blizzard patch, then that's probably the result of Blizzard.

Diablo II is an action role-playinghack-and-slashcomputervideo game developed by Blizzard North and published by Blizzard Entertainment in 2000 for Microsoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, and macOS. The game, with its dark fantasy and horror themes, was conceptualized and designed by David Brevik and Erich Schaefer, who, with Max Schaefer, acted as project leads on the game. The producers were Matthew Householder and Bill Roper.

Building on the success of its predecessor, Diablo (1996), Diablo II was one of the most popular games of 2000^[5] and has been cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Major factors that contributed to the game's success include: its continuation of popular fantasy themes from the previous game, and its access to Blizzard's free online play service, Battle.net.^[6] An expansion to the game, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, was released in 2001.^[7] Another sequel in the series, Diablo III, was announced in 2008 and released on May 15, 2012. Diablo Immortal, the fourth installment in the series, was announced during Blizzcon 2018 and is set after Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.^[8]

• 1Gameplay
• 3History
• 5Reception

Gameplay[edit]

Diablo II's storyline progresses through four chapters or 'Acts'. Each act follows a predetermined path, but the wilderness areas and dungeons between key cities are randomly generated. The player progresses through the story by completing a series of quests within each act, while there are also 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 II's environments are much more varied. Act I is similar to the original Diablo; the Rogue Encampment is a simple palisade fort, while plains and forests making up the wilderness area, and the Monastery resembles the typical Middle Ages 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 Maya civilization. Act IV takes place in Hell and is the shortest, with just three quests compared to the other Acts that have six.

The Lord of Destruction expansion adds the fifth chapter Act V which continues the story where Act IV left off. Act V's style is mainly mountainous as the player ascends Mount Arreat, with alpine plateaus and icy tunnels and caverns. Occasional portals can take the player to dungeons in Hell (seen in Act IV) for extra monsters and experience. After reaching the summit of Arreat, the player gains access to the Worldstone Keep (whose architecture may be reminiscent of Angkor Wat and other Hindu temples).^[9]

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 re-play 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[edit]

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 bonuses 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 specific 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 provide 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 purchase them online from 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.^[10]

Diablo II includes an item crafting system. An item known as the Horadric Cube is used to combine two or more items to create a new item. For example, 3 identical lower quality gems can be combined to create a single higher quality gem, and 3 small rejuvenation potions can be combined to create a single, more powerful rejuvenation potion.^[11]

Character classes[edit]

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, and her clan is a rival to the Sisters of the Sightless Eye (known as Rogues). The Amazon is akin to the Rogue of Diablo: both primarily use bows, and both make equal use of strength and magic, however the Amazon can also use javelins and spears. Many of her defensive skills are passive in nature, especially Dodge, Avoid, and Evade.^[12] The Amazon is voiced by Jessica Straus.^[13]
• 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.^[14] The Necromancer is voiced by Michael McConnohie.^[13]
• The Barbarian is a powerful melee fighter from the steppes of Mount Arreat. He is an expert at frontline combat, able to absorb great punishment, and is the only class capable of dual wielding weapons. His Combat Masteries allow him to specialize in different types of weapons, and also passively increase his resistance, speed, and defense. His Warcries dramatically increase the combat effectiveness of him and his party, as well as afflicting status ailments on enemies. He has a variety of Combat Skills at his command, most of which focus on delivering great force upon a single foe, while some also give him considerable athleticism allowing him to leap over chasms and rivers.^[15] The Barbarian is voiced by David Thomas.^[13]
• The Sorceress hails from a rebellious coven of female witches who have wrested the secrets of magic use from the male-dominated mage clans of the East. She can cast ice, lightning and fire spells. Nearly all of these skills are offensive in nature, besieging the enemy with elemental calamity. Her Cold Skills can freeze enemies solid and bypass resistances, but do less damage than lightning or fire. The Sorceress's Teleport spell allows her to instantly travel to a new destination, making her very difficult to hit. The strong point of the Sorceress is her damaging spells and casting speed; her weakness is her relatively low hit points and defense.^[16] The Sorceress is voiced by Liana Young.^[13]
• The Paladin is a crusader from the Church of Zakarum, fighting for the glory of the Light. He is part of the forces that defeated King Leoric's army in the first Diablo, although his Order is eventually corrupted by Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred. To reflect his holy nature, the zealous Paladin's combat skills range from fanatical attacks to heavenly thunderbolts. His skills are split into Combat Skills, Defensive Auras, and Offensive Auras. His auras have a range of abilities, such as increasing damage, resisting magic attacks, or boosting defense. Most auras either affect all party members and allies, or all enemies within the area of effect. The Paladin is highly proficient in the use of a shield, and is the only character that can use it as a weapon. The Paladin also has specialized skills for eliminating the undead.^[17] The Paladin is voiced by Larry B. Scott.^[13]

Two additional character classes, the Druid and Assassin, were added in the expansion.

• The Druid is a shapeshifter with the ability to transform into a bear or werewolf form, summon various creatures such as ravens and wolves, and attack with nature-based elemental magic like lightning or poisonous vines. The Druid offers a wide versatility of skills and can be built in several different playstyles. The Druid is voiced by Michael Bell.

• The Assassin is a martial arts based class from the Viz-Jaq'taar clan who fights with claw blades and supplements her attacks with the use of shadow magic skills and fire or lightning elemental traps, which remain stationary and affect groups of enemies. The Assassin is voiced by Carrie Gordon.

The player can enlist the help of one hireling (computer-controlled mercenaries) from a mercenary captain in the town; the Rogue Scouts, Desert Mercenaries, Ironwolves, and Barbarians, from Acts I, II, III, and V (expansion only). The expansion allows players to retain their mercenary throughout the entire game as well as equipping them with armor and weapons. Hirelings gain experience and attributes like the player, although their level cannot surpass that of their master character.^[18] Typically players choose a hireling that provides something missing from their character class; for instance the melee-focused Barbarian may choose an Ironwolf for ranged magical support.

Multiplayer[edit]

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.^[19] 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.^[20] Players may play their single-player characters on open realms; characters in closed realms are stored on Blizzard's servers, as a measure against cheating, where they must be played every 90 days to avoid expiration. Originally, these closed realms served their purpose of preventing cheating, as open games were subject to many abuses as the characters were stored on players' own hard drives. Within the last few years, however, many cheats are used on these closed realms.^[21] Hacks, bots, and programs which allow the player to run multiple instances of the game at the same time are not allowed by Blizzard but are very commonly used. Spambots (programs which advertise sites selling Diablo II's virtual items for real-world currency) run rampant on the service and a player hosting a public game can expect a visit from one every few minutes.^[22] Due to the surplus of virtual items provided by the automated bots, which repeatedly kill bosses to obtain items, supply is well in excess of demand, and items which used to trade well are now often given away for nothing.^[23]

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 can be reset at various intervals 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.^[24]

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 immediate issues. As of July 2016, the game is in version 1.14d.^[25] Through the patch history, several exploits and issues have been addressed (such as illegal item duplication, though it still exists), 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 issues in the expansion to the game and had minimal effects on Diablo II.^[26]

Plot[edit]

Diablo II takes place after the end of the previous game, Diablo, in the world of Sanctuary. In Diablo, an unnamed warrior defeated Diablo and attempted to contain the Lord of Terror's essence within his own body. Since then, the hero has become corrupted by the demon's spirit, causing demons to enter the world around him and wreak havoc.

A band of adventurers who pass through the Rogue Encampment hear these stories of destruction and attempt to find out the cause of the evil, starting with this corrupted 'Dark Wanderer.' As the story develops, the truth behind this corruption is revealed: the soulstones were originally intended to imprison the Prime Evils after they were banished to the mortal realm by the Lesser Evils. With the corruption of Diablo's soulstone, the demon is able to control the Dark Wanderer and is attempting to free his two brothers Mephisto, and Baal. Baal, united with the mage Tal-Rasha, is imprisoned in a tomb near Lut Gholein. Mephisto is imprisoned in the eastern temple city of Kurast.

As the story progresses, cut scenes show the Dark Wanderer's journey as a drifter named Marius follows him. The player realizes that the Dark Wanderer's mission is to reunite with the other prime evils, Baal and Mephisto. The story is divided up into four acts:

Act I - The adventurers rescue Cain, who is imprisoned in Tristram, and then begin following the Dark Wanderer. The Dark Wanderer has one of the lesser evils, Andariel, corrupt the Sisters of the Sightless Eye (Rogues) and take over their Monastery. The adventurers overcome Andariel and then follow the Wanderer east.

Act II - While the adventurers search the eastern desert for Tal-Rasha's tomb, the Dark Wanderer gets there first. Marius is tricked into removing Baal's soulstone from Tal-Rasha and the Archangel Tyrael charges Marius with taking the soulstone to Hell to destroy it. The Dark Wanderer and Baal join with Mephisto, open a portal to Hell, and the Dark Wanderer sheds his human form and becomes the demon Diablo.

Act III - The adventurers find the seat of the Zakarum religion at the Temple of Kurast, where the portal to Hell is located. They defeat Mephisto, who was left guarding the entrance, and take his soulstone.

Act IV - The adventurers slay Diablo in Hell and destroy the soulstones of Mephisto and Diablo on the Hellforge, preventing their return.

In the epilogue, Marius, speaking in a prison cell, indicates he was too weak to enter Hell, and that he fears the stone's effects on him. He gives the soulstone to his visitor. The visitor reveals himself to be Baal, the last surviving Prime Evil now in possession of his own soulstone. He then kills Marius and sets the prison cell on fire.

The story continues in the expansion Diablo II: Lord of Destruction where Baal attempts to corrupt the mythical Worldstone on Mount Arreat. Upon returning to the Pandemonium Fortress after defeating Diablo, Tyrael opens a portal to send the adventurers to Arreat.

Parasite in city full save. If you don't want to face him again, then go to the main lobby (there's a door to the lobby just to the south of the T-Rex display.) and save at the flashing phone. After a few more hits, the T-Rex will be history! After you go down the hall from defeating the mutated rat there is a double door at the end of the hallway. To avoid this, run around the area and keep distance between you and the t-Rex.

History[edit]

Development[edit]

The game was originally to be released in 1999, after being shown off at E3 1998.^{[citation needed]} According to designer and project lead Erich Schaefer, 'Diablo II never had an official, complete design document.. for the most part we just started making up new stuff.'^[27] The game was slated to have two years of development work, but it had taken Blizzard North over three years to finish. Diablo II, despite having less than one percent of the original code from Diablo I and having much of its content and internal coding done from scratch, was seen by the testers as 'more of the same.' The game was meant to be released simultaneously both in North America and internationally. This allowed the marketing and PR department for Blizzard North to focus their efforts in building up excitement in players worldwide for the first week of sales, contributing to the game's success.^[27]

Music development[edit]

The score was composed by Matt Uelmen and integrates creepy ambience with melodic pieces. The style of the score is ambient industrial and experimental.^[28] It was recorded in Redwood City, Oakland, and San Mateo, California, from April 1997 to March 2000.

Some tracks were created by reusing the tracks from the original game, while others by rearranging tracks that were out-takes. Other scores are combinations of parts that were created more than a year after the first game's release. A single track usually integrates recorded samples from sound libraries, live recorded instrument interpretation samples specially meant for the game (guitar, flute, oriental percussion), and electronic instruments also, making the tracks difficult for later live interpretations.

While the player visits the town, the game recreates the peaceful atmosphere from the first Diablo game, so for that the theme from Act I called 'Rogue' comes back with the same chords of the original piece, reproducing only a part of the original Diablo town theme. For Act II Mustafa Waiz, a percussionist, and Scott Petersen, the game's sound designer, worked on the drum samples. Waiz played on the dumbek, djembe, and finger cymbals which gave Matt Uelmen a base upon which to build tracks around.

The town theme from Act II, 'Toru', makes strong statement of departure from the world of Act I while also maintaining a thematic connection to what had come before. It is the first time in the series to be used some radically different elements than the guitars and choral sounds that dominate both the original Diablo and the opening quarter of Diablo II. The foundation of the 'Toru' piece is found in exciting dynamics of a Chinese wind gong. The instrument radically changes color from a steady mysterious drone to a harsh, fearsome noise, that gives exotic feeling and at the same time the pacing of the second town. Sinhala joke mp3 songs. In all sequences of Act II with deserts and valleys, Arabic percussion sounds dominate.

The composer was impressed by two of the Spectrasonics music libraries, Symphony of Voices and Heart of Asia. He used samples from Heart of Asia in the Harem piece from Act II. The 'Crypt' track uses a sample from Symphony of Voices; the choral phrase Miserere. Voice samples from Heart of Asia, Heart of Africa, and Symphony of Voices by Spectrasonics.The 'Harem' track samples from Heart of Asia the Sanskrit Female 1 samples.^[29]

Release[edit]

The game was released in Collector's Edition format, containing bonus collector's material, a copy of the DiabloDungeons & Dragons pen-and-paper campaign setting, and promotional movies for other Blizzard games. In 2000, the Diablo II: Exclusive Gift Set similarly contained exclusive collector's material and promotional videos, as well as a copy of the official strategy guide. The 2000 released Diablo Gift Pack contained copies of Diablo and Diablo II, but no expansions. The 2001 Diablo: Battle Chest version contained copies of Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, the official strategy guide, and the original Diablo. Recently however^[when?], the Battle Chest edition no longer contains the original Diablo.

Support and legacy[edit]

Blizzard continues to provide limited support for Diablo II, including occasional patches. Although the original CD retail release worked on Windows 95/98/Me/NT4SP5,^[30] the current version downloadable from Battle.net requires at least Windows 2000/XP.^[31]

Around 2008, the announcement of Diablo III renewed the interest in its predecessor and brought more attention to the many mods available for the game.^[32]

In 2015 an unofficial port for the ARM architecture based Pandora handheld became available by static recompilation and reverse engineering of the original x86 version.^[33][34]

On March 11, 2016 Blizzard released the 1.14a Patch, which added support for Windows 7 and newer, a macOS installer and support for OS X 10.10 and 10.11, although there is currently no support for macOS 10.13.^[3][35]

Commercial performance[edit]

In its debut day on shelves, Diablo II sold 184,000 units.^[36] The game's global sales reached 1 million copies after two weeks,^[37] and 2 million after one and a half months.^[38] It was awarded a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records 2000 edition for being the fastest selling computer game ever sold, with more than 1 million units sold in the first two weeks of availability.^[39] Its sales during 2000 alone reached 2.75 million globally;^[40] 33% of these copies were sold outside the United States, with South Korea making up the largest international market.^[41]Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and Diablo III have since surpassed Diablo II's record to become fastest-selling computer games ever at their times of release, according to Blizzard.^[42][43]

In the United States, PC Data tracked 308,923 sales for Diablo II during the June 25–July 1 period, including sales of its Collector's Edition. This drew revenues of $17.2 million.^[44] Domestic sales reached 790,285 units ($41.05 million) by the end of October 2000, according to PC Data. Another $4.47 million were earned in the region by that date via sales of the Collector's Edition.^[45]Diablo II finished 2000 with 970,131 sales in the United States, for a gross of $48.2 million.^[46]

Diablo II's success continued in 2001: from February to the first week of November, it totaled sales of 306,422 units in the United States.^[47] It was ultimately the country's eighth-best-selling computer title of 2001,^[48] with sales of 517,037 units and revenues of $19.3 million.^[49] Its lifetime domestic sales climbed to 1.7 million units, for $67.1 million in revenue, by August 2006. At this time, this led Edge to declare it the United States' second-largest computer game hit released since January 2000.^[50] It received a 'Gold' sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),^[51] indicating sales of at least 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom.^[52]

Diablo II became a major hit in the German market, and debuted at #1 on Media Control's computer game sales chart for June 2000. Speaking with Havas Interactive's public relations director, PC Player's Udo Hoffman noted that the representative 'had to make an effort on the phone to avoid singing and jubilating' over the game's commercial performance.^[53] The Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD) presented Diablo II with a 'Gold' award after three weeks of availability,^[54] indicating sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.^[55] It maintained first place for July and rose to 'Platinum' status (200,000 sales) by the end of the month.^[53][55][56] The game proceeded to place in Media Control's top 10 through October, peaking at #2 in August,^[53] and in the top 30 through December.^[57][58] By the end of 2000, roughly 350,000 units had been sold in the German market.^[53]Diablo II continued to chart in January 2001, with a placement of 24th,^[58] and its Limited Edition debuted in second place for February.^[59] That April, the VUD presented the game with a 'Double-Platinum' certification, for 400,000 sales. This made it one of the region's best-selling computer games ever at that time.^[60]

As of June 29, 2001, Diablo II has sold 4 million copies worldwide.^[61] Copies of Diablo: Battle Chest continue to be sold in retail stores, appearing on the NPD Group's top 10 PC games sales list as recently as 2010.^[62] Even more remarkably, the Diablo: Battle Chest was the 19th best selling PC game of 2008^[63] – a full seven years after the game's initial release – and 11 million users still played Diablo II and StarCraft over Battle.net in 2010.^[64]

Reception[edit]

Critical reviews[edit]

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 89%[65] Metacritic 88/100[66] Review scores Publication Score GameSpot 8.5/10.0[67] GameSpy 86/100[5] IGN 8.3/10.0[68]
Awards Publication Award Guinness Book of World Records Fastest Selling Computer Game Ever Sold (2000)[39] Interactive Achievement Awards Computer Game of the Year (2001)[69] Interactive Achievement Awards Computer Role Playing Game of the Year (2001)[69] Interactive Achievement Awards Game of the Year (2001)[69] PC Gamer #16 '50 Best Games of All Time' (2005)[70] PC Gamer #82 'Top 100 Games' (2007)[71] Computer and Video Games #25 'The 101 Best PC Games Ever' (2005)[72] GamePro #11 'The 32 Best PC Games' (2008)[73] Destructoid #7 'Top Video Games of the Decade' (2009)[74] IGN #6 'Top 10 RPGs of All Time' (2012)[75]

Diablo 2 Patch 1.14 Download

Diablo II has a positive reception. The PC version of the game achieves an overall score of 88/100 on Metacritic and 89% at GameRankings.^[65][66]GameSpy awarded the game an 86 out of 100,^[5]IGN awarded the game an 8.3 out of 10,^[68] and GameSpot awarded the game an 8.5 out of 10.^[76]

Awards[edit]

Diablo II earned GameSpot's 2000 runner-up Reader's Choice Award for role-playing game of the year.^[67] The game has received the 'Computer Game of the Year', 'Computer Role Playing Game of the Year', and 'Game of the Year' awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences at the 2001 Interactive Achievement Awards.^[69] In August 2016, Diablo II placed 21st on Time's The 50 Best Video Games of All Time list.^[77] It was placed at No. 8 on Game Informer's 'Top 100 RPGs Of All Time' list.^[78]

Secret Cow Level[edit]

The 'Secret Cow Level' is the result of a running joke from the original Diablo that spawned from an Internet rumor about the cows that appear in the game, seemingly without purpose. Supposedly, if the cow was clicked a certain number of times, a portal to a secret level would open. The rumor turned out to be a hoax, but the legend was born, and player after player asked Blizzard about how to access the level.

In Diablo: Hellfire, an add-on for Diablo created by third-party developer Synergistic Software, it was possible to change a parameter in a specific text file, so that the farmer was dressed in a cow suit, with appropriate new dialogue ('Moo.' 'I said Moo!'). To stop the rumors, Blizzard included a cheat in StarCraft that read 'There is no cow level', adding to the official denial of the cow level.^[79] On April 1, 1999, a Diablo II Screenshot of the Week featured cows fighting. People wondered if the screenshot was an April Fool's joke or if there really was a Secret Cow Level planned for Diablo II, which turned out to be true.^[79] The 'Secret Cow Level' is considered one of gaming's top ten Easter eggs according to IGN.^[80]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

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2. ^'Diablo II'. 1Up.com. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved February 4, 2012.
3. ^ ^abYears Later, Blizzard Releases a New Diablo II PatchArchived April 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine by Brian Ashcraft on kotaku.com (3/11/16)
4. ^'Inside Mac Games News: Diablo III: Timeline, Expanded RPG Elements, iTunes D3 Music'. Insidemacgames.com. Archived from the original on June 7, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
5. ^ ^abcMadigan, Jamie. 'GameSpy.com – Reviews'Archived May 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, GameSpy. Retrieved August 14, 2008.
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12. ^'Amazon History'. Arreat Summit. Archived from the original on March 17, 2010. Retrieved November 24, 2009.
13. ^ ^abcde'Diablo II: Credits'. GameFAQs. Archived from the original on November 25, 2009. Retrieved November 24, 2009.
14. ^'Necromancer History'. Arreat Summit. Archived from the original on March 10, 2010. Retrieved November 24, 2009.
15. ^'Barbarian History'. Arreat Summit. Archived from the original on March 17, 2010. Retrieved November 24, 2009.
16. ^'Sorceress History'. Arreat Summit. Archived from the original on March 27, 2010. Retrieved November 24, 2009.
17. ^'Paladin History'. Arreat Summit. Archived from the original on March 17, 2010. Retrieved November 24, 2009.
18. ^'The Arreat Summit - Basics: Hirelings'. Classic.battle.net. Archived from the original on July 15, 2013. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
19. ^'The Arreat Summit – F.A.Q.: Multiplayer'. Classic.battle.net. Archived from the original on August 26, 2010. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
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External links[edit]

Changes Seen in the 1.14 Patch

For those of you interested in playing (or never stopped playing) Diablo 2, you may have noticed there was both a Ladder Reset (on May 17th) and some new Patches (up to 1.14 now). Although I did not personally have any issues with these Updates, some people have, as can be seen if you browse the Support Forum for Diablo II (under 'Classic Games' at BattleNet). Here though, I want to get into the changes that I noticed with these Patches, how the game worked in Windows 10 for me personally, and how Windows seems to handle the game files themselves now.
For example, the Save Games for Diablo2 are no longer kept within the Installation Directory (the folder where the game is installed to) - as of Patch 1.14 they are now located at:
C:Users< YOUR USER NAME >Saved GamesDiablo II


The above location is now where your '.D2S' and '.MAP' files are kept (your Character's save game information) - and where we'll be going to get Ladder-Only Runewords working in Single Player mode in a bit. The above location assumes that C: is your main Windows drive/partition (where Windows is installed to, which is created and used automatically, by Default) and it should also be noted that your User Name or Login Name goes where it says '< YOUR USER NAME >' [obvious to some, I know, but not everyone knows these things at first].
While I am not a developer for Blizzard, looking at the effects this will have with Windows, I assume this was done to create a maintainable save game system for people upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, as upgrading [or needing to reinstall the game itself] will now not affect your save games in any way and they can then still be found afterward by Diablo 2 (Single Player, etc) [by using this directory setup].
I have to give Kudos to Blizzard for coming back and Updating a 10+ year old game, to address Compatibility issues and 'streamline' how the game works with Windows (updating the installation files to do the things above - not to mention another fun ladder reset)!

Initially, I was running D2 directly from my 'old' location (from a previous Windows install) which was something like P:/ProgramFiles, etc and just clicking on the .EXE from there. I wanted to test out the Downloadable Installer from the BattleNet site [to do a Digital Installation, as opposed to a Disc Installation], to test how well it worked with Windows 10 and found that the Launcher didn't work at all for me.. It showed 'Play Diablo' and a button for 'Uninstall', but clicking on these buttons did nothing..

At the time, these buttons did not work at all..

I looked around the BattleNet forii, but nothing was being said - at least about problems with the Installer doing this - so I did some Troubleshooting of my own and found that Diablo2 wasn't listed in the Programs and Features section ('Uninstall or Change a Program') of the Windows Control Panel. This was understandable, since I was running it from an old installation folder - one that Windows 10 didn't automatically 'know about', since installing 10 as a Dual-Boot with Windows 8.1 [on this system] - I hadn't gone through the Diablo2 Installation Process with Windows 10, at this point.
I assumed that the Installer was a little confused about things, as it was also using [it had created] the 'new Saved Games location' talked about above, but it didn't know where D2 was actually installed to. So, I went to the Battle.Net site and downloaded the latest version of the Installer for Diablo II - which can be obtained by logging in at the site and going to 'Manage My Games (Account Management)' and then D2 can be found under 'Classic Games', at the bottom of the game list.

Blizzard has it set up as a small file that you download a 'launcher' which will then run and actually retrieve the rest of the game (the 'installer'). After downloading the Launcher file and running it, it will do a longer download of the installation files (you tell it where to save them). Then, it will automatically run the Installer of the game itself [it did for me].
Now, after the game installer finishes, once you run the game proper, it will retrieve the latest Patch to install; but while attempting the upgrade, it may run into an issue where it will say:
Patching cannot be completed because the patch archive is corrupt.
and may state in detail later

ERROR: unable to open archive 'D2DV_IX86_1xx_114d.mpq'





At least, this was the error message for me - where it would not continue the installation of the game (this was in Windows 10). I downloaded the installer a second time (just in case there was some corruption of the files during the download) and the message came up yet again. A quick trip to the Battle.Net Support Forum and a Search yielded no results ('your search has no matches'), so I did more Troubleshooting..
During this time, another issue that I ran into was a pop-up message (in Windows 10) saying:
WINDOWS PROTECTED YOUR PC
Windows SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk.
Now, although a very helpful and protective feature in Windows 10, I had just downloaded this installer directly from the BattleNet website, so I knew [well, was 99% sure] that the installer was 'ok', so I just clicked 'Run Anyway'..


The reason why I mention these Messages, is because these types of errors can usually be solved by doing one thing: running the application (in this case, the Downloader/Installer) in Administrator Mode (by Right-Clicking the .EXE that starts the program and choosing 'Run as administrator').

This is because the first error message above suggests a 'file access' problem (it couldn't alter the file it needed to change, which is usually a Permissions issue) and the second message was a protective, warning measure (which may appear anyway, regardless of running it in Administrator Mode).

The Diablo II Downloader 'doing it's thing' ..downloading

This means that for most, when the Downloader (which has a mostly Blue menu interface, shown just above) is finished retrieving the Installation files, it will then try to run the Installer itself (which has a mostly Red menu interface, shown just below) - and if neither of these are running in Administrator Mode (to allow full access permission to files it needs to work with), it may not be able to alter/change the files it needs to - and these messages may come up and you may not be able to continue installing the game.

The Diablo II Installer interface

One way around this issue (for example, with the 'unable to open archive' message), is to interrupt this automated process, after the Downloader retrieves the installation files it needs. This means, that when the Downloader is finished (the 'mostly blue menu' will turn into a 'mostly red menu'), Exit the installer for now. Then, go to where you saved the installation files and find the file 'Installer.exe', Right-Click it and choose 'Run as administrator' to allow it Full Permissions to the files it needs to acess [the file may be just called 'Installer' if you have the Default 'Hide extensions for known file types' checkbox 'checked' in the View tab of the Folder Options of Windows, something which I personally prefer off, but it's fine to leave on].
Doing the above, both the Downloading and the actual Installation processes should now complete and D2 is now installed in your system again, ready to play - woot!
A few last points I would like to note:

• There is no longer a need to run 'D2VidTest.exe' anymore, as noted by Blizzard here.

[Although I have heard of people having issues with specific hardware and needing to run it (threads of this can be seen in the Official Support Forum), I personally did not have to run it and did not have issues with installing and running the game in Windows 10 - therefore, my first Suggestion to those having problems, would be to re-download the newest version of the Installer from BattleNet - because it was with a very recent re-download of that (which has included recent Updates, etc) and running of the installer (with Administrator Permissions) that I had no issues arise.. Hopefully this will be the same for you too]

• World Drops seem to have been increased

I have made a few Ladder Characters already, and while playing through the world, I feel that the 'world drops' [as opposed to 'Boss Drops'] are improved.. I have been seeing more Uniques, Gems, Runes and especially Set Pieces than I remember in earlier game versions. After playing through the game a few times (with newly-created characters through 'Normal' mode), I already have Full Pieces of a few Low-Level Sets.
I may be wrong, but I think I remember Blizzard saying something to the effect that they were going to do this a while back, to decrease the need to 'run bosses' - to increase the enjoyment of 'intended' gameplay - but also to discourage botting..

• There are still bots (although less of them, it seems) and Spammers (advertising their websites) cluttering up screen after screen in public games.

One great command to run in the game, given by a helpful fellow player online [I wish I could remember your name, I did not get a Screenshot of it but I thank you wholeheartedly!] is the command:
/filtermsg TEXT
Using this command in the Chat of D2, when a bot comes in and spams your public game with their ads, simply pick a word and put it in the place of the TEXT in the above line. For example, in one instance, I chose the word 'sale', so I typed the following command:
/filtermsg sale
Which had the result that, if ANYONE after that point said the word 'sale' in their line of text, the game would simply not display that line of words to me. I chose this word at one point because I felt it was safe to assume that most 'normal/human' players running alongside me online would not say something with the word 'sale' in it very often.
Repeating this process a few times, with various chosen words from the spam/ads, I now very rarely see any at all - with no need to 'Squelch' anyone manually - and playing again recently has become a lot more enjoyable without all the text hiding up to half the screen!

I wish there were more advertising bots on BattleNet, sometimes I can see way too much of my screen..

Ladder-Only Runewords in Single Player

With the 1.14 Patch (which still has Subversions coming out to this day) your Saved Games will no longer be located in the folder that D2 was installed to, they will be under your Username/Login area, as stated near the top of this article. Just to reiterate it, your character information and saves are now located here:
C:Users< YOUR USER NAME >Saved GamesDiablo II


The above location assumes that C: is your main Windows drive/partition (where Windows is installed to, which is created and used automatically, by Default) and your Username/Login goes where it states <YOUR USER NAME>.

Diablo 2 Patch 1.14d Changes

I mention it one more time because this is where we will be going to create some SubFolders (directories within directories) to get Ladder-Only Runewords working with Single Player mode!
I wrote an article last year about how do it right here at the blog, but that was in regards to previous versions of Diablo2. In 1.14, to get Ladder-Only Runewords working in Single Player, the same folders need to be created in the same way, just in a different location.
Here is how the working sub-folder structure will look within the new (1.14) Diablo II directory location noted above:
.. Diablo II/Data/Global/Excel/Runes.txt
The steps to create the above folder structure are:

• in the Diablo II directory, create a New Folder called Data
  (by navigating to the Diablo II folder and clicking the New Folder at the top, in the Ribbon, or Right-Clicking in the blank area of the folder and going New>Folder)
• in the newly-created Data folder, create a New Folder called Global
• in the newly-created Global folder, create a New Folder called Excel
• in the newly-created folder called Excel, place the Text file from my PasteBin here:
  http://pastebin.com/xGLWhmZ1
  I also uploaded my own Runes.txt file to DropBox, which can be Viewed and/or Downloaded directly from here:
  https://www.dropbox.com/s/6lnamqkf00vxety/Runes.txt?dl=0
  (If you do not feel comfortable Downloading anything at all for this procedure, simply copy and paste the text from that website and paste it into a text file, one that you create in the Excel folder, within the Diablo II directory structure you just created via the above - be sure to name the text file Runes.txt)
  [†† Edit: Just in case some of you don't feel comfortable going to an 'unknown site', I will list all of the text needed to copy/paste into this new Runes text file that we will create, at the bottom of this article - so it will all be available right in one spot!]
  
• lastly, add '-direct' and '-txt' to the Shortcut Properties for the 'Diablo II.exe' file shortcut that starts up the game (the icon on the desktop background). The quotation marks aren't added, only the commands, such that the Target line in the Shortcut should then look like this:
  'C:Program Files (x86)Diablo IIDiablo II.exe' -direct -txt
  (the above line assumes that it is installed into the C: drive of the system. If you installed Diablo2 into a different drive/partition, the first letter would be whatever your drive letter is of where D2 is installed - the main part to match is the end portions, the '-direct -txt' added to the end, which allows usage of the Text file used in this process, by the game)

This 'Ladder-Only Runeword' 'Insight' was created Offline in Single Player mode, via the instructions and the file locations above, in June of 2016

[†† Edit: For those who do not want to download anything or go to any unknown/other site to create a Runes.txt file for allowing use of Ladder-Only Runewords in Single Player - here is the full text that simply needs to be copy-pasted into an empty Runes.txt file, which you can create with Notepad by opening Notepad and pasting this text into it, saving it as a file named Runes.txt - don't forget to put it into the location described above!:

I have since re-tested the above 'code' and re-downloaded my own Pastebin source (to check that) and tested the steps for the Game Installation location - and it now works once again for Patch 1.14D [tested July 3rd, 2016] - thanks again Commenter below, for bringing this up to re-check it - and just to mention it in summary once more, there is no need to use the Windows Installation Username location, the Subfolders and Runes.txt file only need to be created within the Game Installation folder (wherever that may be). Enjoy!




Short Tutorial: How To Show File Name Extensions (if needed)
A helpful Anonymous person mentioned an issue they had with showing the File Name Extensions (the '.txt' talked about throughout this post) - and I did not even think of this when I was writing, to mention it! So, here is a Short Tutorial on how to show the File Name Extensions (shown in Windows 10) if it is needed:

• To show the File Name Extensions (the three letters at the end of a file name), open Windows Explorer (now called File Explorer in Windows 10) by pressing WIN+E (Windows Key and E at the same time) or click on the small File Folder icon in the Taskbar (bottom bar on the Desktop screen).
• If the Ribbon isn't showing (a bunch of options and settings for File Explorer), click on the downward-facing triangle mark (chevron) at the right edge of the File Explorer window. This will expand the Ribbon and show many options for Windows Explorer (shown below).
  
• Next, click on the word VIEW to go to the View Tab of the Ribbon and put a checkmark in the checkbox labelled 'File name extensions' (shown below).
  

  Final steps in showing File Name Extensions (shown in Windows 10 File Explorer) Click to see Full Size

That's it!
Now you should see some letters at the end of most common files, like .TXT for text files, .JPG or .PNG for some image/graphic files, and so on. A helpful Anonymous commentor on this post mentioned that if the Runes.txt file is not working for you properly, you may need to do this (turn on the File Name Extensions and see if the file is 'Runes.txt' or 'Runes.txt.txt', in which case, simply remove/delete/erase the last '.txt' and then Windows should be able to use the file as described herein). Thanks, Anonymous helper!