Diablo 2 Classic or Lord of Destruction?

Dive into the differences between Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction Expansion Set and the Classic Version

diablo 2 lod
Fan Art by Grosnez

As Diablo 2 is not a new game, there are many newcomers that haven’t experience the difference between Diablo 2 Classic and Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction.

Diablo II Classic was released in June 2000, including 5 different playable classes and 4 acts. It was the most popular RPG of its time due to its gameplay and the ability for online multiplayer games. Also, it introduced many fundamental elements that many RPG games follow even today!

A year later, Blizzard North released its expansion, Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. It added many new features to the game, two new playable classes, and an improved gameplay for solo and especially multiplayer mode.

Difference between Classic and Expansion

Why should you play Lord of Destruction instead of Classic Diablo 2? Because it’s offering all these features below:

  • 2 new classes: the Druid and the Assassin.
  • A fifth Act and an additional Act Boss, Baal.
  • Many new items, including new pieces of armor and new weapons
  • 33 different Runes that you can place into sockets and gain new bonuses from gems.
    • Runewords, which are specific runes which allow a specific set for additional bonuses when you socket them into the proper item.
  • Hundreds of new Horadric Cube recipes.
    • Crafted items are similar to rare quality items. However, you can’t find them in chests as loot from monsters. You can create them with the Horadric Cube though with the required ingredients.
  • Jewels can gain the same random bonuses that other items can. The Unique jewels are Rainbow Facets that grant bonuses depending on the element.
  • Ethereal items. They are often more powerful than their normal counterparts. However, they have less durability and you can’t repair them. If you equip your mercenary with them, they don’t lose durability though.
  • Charms that you can keep in your inventory for passive bonuses.
  • Class-specific weapons and items such as spears for Amazons.
  • More set and unique items, including sets specific to a class.
  • An expanded stash for storing items—two times the size of the original stash.
  • An alternate setup for your weapon, shield and spell setup. You can switch them using a hotkey.
  • Mercenaries that are following you through all the Acts of the game. In addition, you can equip them with armor and a weapon, heal them with potions and resurrect them when they die. Also, they have their own experience bar. In contrast with the classic game.
  • You can play the game to 800×600 resolution. Before the expansion, only the 640×480 resolution was available.

Furthermore, the addition of new armors, sets and weapons allowed new viable builds for the existing classes as well.  As a result, the vast majority of the players are already in Lord of Destruction. In the case you have your character in the Classic game, you can easily transfer it to the expansion set, as long as you have it installed, but not the opposite.

If you want to discover the variety of the new items that the Diablo 2 expansion has to offer, why don’t you have a look in the store? You can also read more informative posts on our blog regarding the new ladder reset and much more!