What's the point of non-ladder?

Hi guys, it seems I'm missing something, but I don't see what are the benefits of bnet non-ladder between the ladder and offline single player.

The Ladder gives you additional fancy recipes and the feeling of the community play as well as an ability to try new builds every 4-6 months.
The Offline Single player gives you freedom from the internets, static maps /players command and possibly even editing the game files.

So, why do you play non-ladder, but still online?

Monsters are weaker than ladder, easier to farm (also easier to get niche builds going). You get more time to trade or find gg gear for your chars, also basic stuff is cheaper or you can just get it for free (because people do not need it anymore). New runewords are not that good (none of them is BiS). Non-ladder is just more stable.

Also I do not like leveling new chars from scratch. This is the least fun part of the game for me

I am planning to play s2 ladder though, but if they won't introduce new runewords or features, I'll just make a smiter to grab annis and cold sorc to farm for a week or two until economy goes down. I will switch to ladder completely only if they make

Terror Zones ladder-only

For another example, I started playing as many in September.
But the kid + job + wife that does not play gets me at most 3-4 hours a week to play, no more. My main is now level 90 and should soon... kill hell

Baal. Finally, in a year. Perhaps I will even have an Enigma one day ?

If I play L I'll finish normal when season ends...

When you don't have time to play, 4 months ladder is not enough to get Infinity or Enigma.

Things are event harder to get in on single player because you can't trade.

Editing the game files is not an option because the fun is to get gears by playing.
It is the feeling when you achieving something. Editing game files can't bring that to you.

So, basically non-ladder is chill gameplay, but with trading.

Now I see the point.

Are there more ladder or non-ladder players currently in D2r? Any estimation based on the market state?

aliceandbob wrote: 2 years ago

Are there more ladder or non-ladder players currently in D2r? Any estimation based on the market state?

I saw a poll somewhere, looked like close to 50/50 . Now I think it will be more non-ladder because of character limit and not everyone wants to delete their char and start from scratch.

Yeah, there are lots of players devoted 100% to trading non-ladder that barely even play the game anymore

aliceandbob wrote: 2 years ago

Are there more ladder or non-ladder players currently in D2r? Any estimation based on the market state?

Have a look at the graph here - the yellow line is number of Ladder trades completed per day, and the mint-coloured line is number of all trades completed per day (both Ladder and Non-Ladder). The gap between the two should then give you an idea of the proportion of NL/L trades on the site here, at least in Ladder season 1. I'd say that looked like 90% Ladder, 10% Non-Ladder. Could look different this coming season, and bear in mind also that this only a tiny slice of the D2 playerbase (people who actively trade on 3rd party sites/platforms like this).

I would say to consider this: if you're not actively racing to increase your rank on the leaderboard, what's the point of ladder? I only did it because that's where my friends started out a couple of days into the first season. At that time, I was playing on my friend's wife's account for a day when we decided to get together one weekend and she was busy with the kids. I didn't play D2R again until I bought it for myself in late-May.

If anything, non-ladder is more intriguing now than it ever was in LoD because the

Horadric Cube utility recipes were brought over into non-ladder as well as all the BIS runewords. The new ladder runewords aren't all that great. The only clear advantage ladder has over non-ladder is more frequent and scheduled D-Clone spawns and much cheaper

Annihilus charms for buyers. As an item seller, I'd be better off right now carrying a lot of my goods over to non-ladder because the market for ladder has mostly dried up.

I don't really care about the ladder rankings per se, but since I'm already 96 on one character and I theorycrafted up to 97 in D2Planner, I may as well see how high I can go before the end of the season. 97? Pretty much a given. 98? Unlikely, but I may still try because I can. Wherever I land at though, unlike D3 greater rifts, this accomplishment won't feel as meaningful because it's not as dependent on skill, build quality, or even luck as much as the ability to grind.

Once the ladder season ends, I can play at a more relaxed pace. I've spent too much time on this game over the past few months because if it's not playing, it's reading forums and guides and theorycrafting. I would still like to continue perfecting my characters though because that's what I play for. Resetting and starting from scratch has no appeal to me considering the economy all ends up the same over time anyway. We also have arbitrary max character slot restrictions and I'm not deleting my thoughtfully planned characters.

For me, I like to try new builds but not if I have no gear. I often choose a new build based on what gear I've found. I don't play SP because I have a couple of mates who also play and it's more fun together.

non-ladder is the normal game.
ladder is just an extra to the game usually used to introduce new items and rune words.

the new stuff then gets transferred to the normal game (non-ladder) when each season is over.

the ranking system is just for digital fame and glory as it holds no more benefits than that. you can play ladder at your own pace and have access to all ladder features, no matter if you are at rank 90000 or rank 1.

also, personally, I consider offline useless because you can use an editor and get all items in the game. so personally, I don't see any reason to play the game then.
online this is not possible so for me bnet is the actual way to play the game, the normal game if you will.

For me, it's mostly due to the fact that my work schedule is such that I'll go months without much play time at all, then I'll have a random burst some odd month.

With a schedule like that, there's no point in ladder. I wouldn't be able to generate enough Wealth to get anywhere by the time it was over, and the pennies would all end up non-ladder anyway.

So why not singleplayer offline? I don't always have access to my main desktop, and having to move character files between computers gets annoying after a while.

Necrarch wrote: 2 years ago

For another example, I started playing as many in September.
But the kid + job + wife that does not play gets me at most 3-4 hours a week to play, no more. My main is now level 90 and should soon... kill hell

Baal. Finally, in a year. Perhaps I will even have an Enigma one day ?

If I play L I'll finish normal when season ends...

Enigma's like many things in this game are over hyped. I have an 8% ED AP Enigma and I've used it less than a dozen times, but I do have one.

Necrarch wrote: 2 years ago

For another example, I started playing as many in September.
But the kid + job + wife that does not play gets me at most 3-4 hours a week to play, no more. My main is now level 90 and should soon... kill hell

Baal. Finally, in a year. Perhaps I will even have an Enigma one day ?

If I play L I'll finish normal when season ends...

Hey,bro,maybe I can do a little favor for u.Well,I'm selling my Fury for a

Jah right now.If it's sold,I will give u

Jah,so big part of Enigma can be done.And I hope u have a base for Enigma.Cheers.

trade/fury-t1114446.html

Manowar wrote: 2 years ago

Necrarch wrote: 2 years ago

For another example, I started playing as many in September.
But the kid + job + wife that does not play gets me at most 3-4 hours a week to play, no more. My main is now level 90 and should soon... kill hell

Baal. Finally, in a year. Perhaps I will even have an Enigma one day ?

If I play L I'll finish normal when season ends...

Hey,bro,maybe I can do a little favor for u.Well,I'm selling my Fury for a

Jah right now.If it's sold,I will give u

Jah,so big part of Enigma can be done.And I hope u have a base for Enigma.Cheers.

trade/fury-t1114446.html

Wow ! That is extremely generous of you Manowar ! Already enjoyed talking with you in past trades, but that is... wow !

The

Jah is definitely the missing part for me: have the base (252 non sup

Mage Plate, better for repair costs), got a

Sur from a decent Anni recently, still have an Anni in trade that should get me

Lo,

Ohm in store: the

Ber is very near.

I gladly accept such a generous gift, but if I may, if one day I get a solo

Jah, I'd like to give it back to you. Kind of Pride / a Lannister always pays backs his debts stuff ^^

Thanks again, gl for your sale !

And love the community around here !

louner wrote: 2 years ago

Monsters are weaker than ladder, easier to farm.

Is that true?

SlainByGloam wrote: 2 years ago

louner wrote: 2 years ago

Monsters are weaker than ladder, easier to farm.

Is that true?

Yes, they have 33% more HP and more defense and they have "better AI" That means they will for example attack you sooner when you

Teleport through packs of monsters

http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/ba ... ypes.shtml

Necrarch wrote: 2 years ago

Manowar wrote: 2 years ago

Necrarch wrote: 2 years ago

For another example, I started playing as many in September.
But the kid + job + wife that does not play gets me at most 3-4 hours a week to play, no more. My main is now level 90 and should soon... kill hell

Baal. Finally, in a year. Perhaps I will even have an Enigma one day ?

If I play L I'll finish normal when season ends...

Hey,bro,maybe I can do a little favor for u.Well,I'm selling my Fury for a

Jah right now.If it's sold,I will give u

Jah,so big part of Enigma can be done.And I hope u have a base for Enigma.Cheers.

trade/fury-t1114446.html

Wow ! That is extremely generous of you Manowar ! Already enjoyed talking with you in past trades, but that is... wow !

The

Jah is definitely the missing part for me: have the base (252 non sup

Mage Plate, better for repair costs), got a

Sur from a decent Anni recently, still have an Anni in trade that should get me

Lo,

Ohm in store: the

Ber is very near.

I gladly accept such a generous gift, but if I may, if one day I get a solo

Jah, I'd like to give it back to you. Kind of Pride / a Lannister always pays backs his debts stuff ^^

Thanks again, gl for your sale !

And love the community around here !

I can give you a good base with 450+ def for you. it is ladder, tho. you can have it and get it transferred to non-ladder
do you want it?

Nope, built a low strength necro so need a

Mage Plate.

Thanks !

alright

But many thanks for the offer!
Buying at least a 261 def one now, that would be "my" best base.

Now, maybe the OP wants some answers to their initial question ?

Thanks all.