Thoughts on the new DLC?

I am just a curious cat and wanted to know how everyone feels. I havent gotten to play it, dont have it. Medical bills and such prevent me from getting it. I have watched others reactions on YouTube and they seem to be down the middle. So! Whats yours guy's thoughts? Give me something to read and respond too while I sit here quarantined lmao.

Speaking as someone who has certainly had his doubts about Blizz's ability to do anything in D2:R without breaking the game these days (and has been vocal about that), I feel like most people complaining about this expansion are mainly just doing so because of the price tag involved.

Personally, I'm more on the side of "I don't know a single other game that I still enjoy actively playing after having done so for literal decades so in that light, 25 bucks is nothing".

Now, in terms of the actual additions, for the most part I'm positively surprised actually.
The QoL stuff has been implemented relatively well. Could use some improvements but good enough. And it isn't overly intrusive/distracting from the original D2 feel.
Warlocks are actually quite fun albeit stupidly OP even with little to no gear (no surprise there I guess).
Warlock skill visuals are..quite good in and by themselves though weirdly, they might actually be too good. They largely match the "excessively glowing and animating all over" style of many other, older skills but they do so with what looks like just more polished and somewhat modernized visual effects. So yes, they look good. And yes, the "flashy" matches. But compared to existing stuff they do feel somewhat out of place in that they simply look "too modern/different". Not massively so but a bit.

The new items I'm torn on. Mainly, what they do is take already crazy strong builds and make them even more OP (cuz Hammerdins totally needed access to % magic damage gear! ~~) or they take already fairly obligatory items and make them just completely mandatory (sunders becoming even stronger).

Either way, all in all, I'm very positively surprised by it and by the fact that they managed to add an entire class plus significant QoL and UI changes plus a fair few items and then some, seemingly without dropping D2:R to the modern Blizz levels of disappointment.
I dared them to prove me wrong when I said they'd muck it up if they tried...and they did. Very happy about that and since I can admit when I'm wrong: well done Blizz, you got me.

In short, I love it.

So far I like playing the Warlock and exploring his skillset, although I'm not too far into the game yet. Level 20-something, but enjoying him a lot so far.

I really like the new stash features, stackable runes and gems are just heaven, with their own dedicated tabs. It leaves 5 entire stash tabs you can entirely fill up with gear to mule - low level starting sets for new characters, crafting ingredients, charms, ... I love that. One small UI gripe: when you have a full stack of gems (yes I'm a hoarder) you should be able to CTRL click it into your current open tab, shared or personal.

I adore the Chronicle system, although I am a bit miffed that it doesn't work retroactively and that my pre-existing items are not eligible to be added. But I have found a few eligible items so far, and it is very satisfying to see them added to the tracker.

Being a rather casual SP player, I haven't looked up enough information on the new items yet.

Can just confirm what was posted before.

And for me the endgame farming with the new Herald mechanic is much more fun. Sometimes I get completely drawn into it and have to force myself to stop playing cause I realized that I've gotten quite hungry or things like that

Mattelot wrote: 32 minutes ago

That's what I've seen including on other forums. One guy went on a rant to me about how all the QoL features should have been an update patch and it's horrible to

Charge us. I personally am ok with it. The game is old and doesn't draw in constant money, so I am fine with paying them a nominal fee (again, they could have charged us $60) for some updates to an old game and especially when it gets something like a whole new class added.

Some people... you can give them a bag of

Gold and they'll complain about the bag.

I completely agree, there is an entire new class for god's sake. Not wanting to pay because of one's personal financial situation or other reasons is one thing, but complaining that they should have made it free is entirely ridiculous.

I love it and played the hell out of it yesterday. And I never thought I would say something like this about new stuff coming from Blizzard (we all know who is the truest evil out there, don't we?).

No MTX, no bullshit mechanics or new currencies. Just a wary modernization of the best game of all times. I am more than surprised by this.

The only thing bothering me is the splitting between D2R and RotW playerbase. This is a really bad change in my view. What were they thinking??? Weren't there no other options of having people buy the Expansion than creating another realm?

This put aside, the addon is great. The QoL is legion. Finally, crafting is fun! Everything added is well thought and made with high usability in mind. The terror zone improvements rock. Shorter cycles and better zone arrangement. The Heralds adding tension and surprise, and I am looking forward to play fully terrorized acts with my partner this weekend. They gave us more control and the Chronicle is a beast for all casual players. Now we have an ingame overview of item stats and runewords!

Didn't play the new Warlock tho, I am saving this up for the next ladder start. He seems to be totally op, but this was to be expected.

I just hope they will adress overall class balance now, and push the game to more party play, but I have a good feeling about this, too. Obviously, they have put the right people on it.

Well done, Blizzard. Keep it that way and stay in touch with the players!