How were your beginnings?

Hi there fellow oldfarts.
I am quite sure at least half of you started to play this awesome game around year 2000 same as me. Back then there were no runewords, no charms. Then came LoD, 2 new characters, runewords, charms etc. I had no internet, had no idea about different runewords, about different unique items, about horadric recipes, breakpoints, etc etc. There were not many people around me who played this game too and when someone did he probably knew even less than me. I think I knew only that sometimes when I put 3x some items in the

Horadric Cube, I can get 1 better, like gems, runes and rejuvs, nothing else.

I can quite remember how difficult the game was without propper informations and that this game was quite difficult to beat even on Normal game. My "favorite" boss to looking for loot was

Blood Raven, probably because she was the only one I could kill without dying, or at least not that many times (of course she never dropped anything usefull, but I didn't know what items existed, let alone what

Blood Raven could drop. ). In NM I probably always died somewhere in act 1 so many times that I realized it is not possible to play this game on such difficulty.

Times changed a lot and its very funny now how with propper backache, some D2 knowledge and of course the possibility to trade, its much easier to finish this game on Hell or even beat

Uber Tristram or Summit than back then with my poor Amazon with very random skills and the magic worst rags and bow try to beat the nightmare.

So how were your beginnings? Did you have the access to internet or knowledge how to do this and that, what and where trying to find some good loot or you were on the desperate path same as me?

This is my story from two years ago. You have the topic here: forums/finally-i-made-it-t1498474.html

It all starter in 2009 when I began playing Diablo 2 - Lord of Destruction on my old PC. My first character was a Paladin. It was a pleasant game and seemed quite easy I may say (at least Normal and Nightmare). At that time I hadn't had internet access at home and I was playing offline. I didn't had all the knowledge I have today about the game's mechanics, synergies and point allocation and all good stuff that make the end game items so powerful. I was unaware of runewords and saw the runes quite useless (only some minor improvements over the

Perfect Gems when socketing).

As I said, Normal and Nightmare were easy peasy but when I reached Hell I felt the effect of poorly points allocation on different almost useless spells. I barely finished Act One and then I hit wall at the very beginning of Act Two.
The story was like that: Exit town, merc died instantly at the first pack of Dung Soldier s and I followed him seconds later. Resurrect merc, exit town, died again in seconds, resurrect, died, I went bankrupt and that was the end of the game for the next 15 years. Never played again until last Easter when the Passion reignited. The old PC is at my mother house in the country side and I'm not going there to often or have time to play.

I then bought the D2 Resurrected and played a lot since then, maybe too much (if Battlenet had a time counter like Steam I think I would be worried about that time spent on the game). I managed to level a

Hydra Sorceress to 99 and now I'm on course to reach the same level with her cousin, Paladin, now level 97.

Last week I was visiting my mother and played again continuing my first char's journey that finally got to the end reaching level 84 when killed

Baal. A journey that lasted 15 years and 3 days (5th of June 2009 - 8th of June 2024). At the exact 15 years mark I was at World Stone Keep 2 but took a couple of days break, until June, 8.

At Resurrected I'm right now at 93% of Holy Grail (502 of 539 items found) and after I'll reach level 99 with my Paladin I guess I'll play a Necromancer or Assassin.