So, since a lot of threads end up in a: "D2 did this better", lets have a thread for that. Also things that D3 has better designed than D2, go in this thread.
I begin:
- I like the way D2 let you evolve your skills, adding points on them so you could see how stronger they were getting.
- I like how D3 improved the action of the battles, in a more dynamic and interesting way.
I like how in D2 you had a choice in how your character developed.
A way to do this in D3 would be, whenever you get a rune unlocked, to have the option to choose which one among the runes of your unlocked skills do you want. Having to wait till lvl 56 for mammoth Hydra only to realize it wasn't viable that far into the game was a drag.
- pvp was more open and gave the players more freedom to create their own pvp challenges
- ladders
- epic music
- you can distribute your own stat points. Strengh wizard ? no problem!
- you can switch between acts with the waypoints
D3 does better :
- the game has some difficulty to it ( And you can adjust it ! )
- combat feel is as good ( or even better ) as in D2
- built in trading tool
- D3 takes way longer till you have beaten the hardest difficulty
I liked how I could complete sets by just playing the game, i.e., farming. Even if they weren't great, or were low level, I could deck new characters out with them. It was fun to me.
Yay, 271 cathan seals. Those were all usefull, sure sure. Still have not found a IK chest though in 10 years of d2.
If you wanted a complete set in d2, you also had to trade or spend 100s of hours doing pindle runs. It wasnt the selffound heaven you want it to be.
1) when you complete a set: Omg, I am powerfull.
2) when you finally make runewords: "Father, your son has returned and I bring the destruction of Olympus!!!" (Kratos, 2010)
ii) bosses...and maps (random and replayable) sorry.
D3 did better:
i) Mechanics and battle: its very nice...
ii) Money.
Okay, mentioned above already that I miss runewords.
What I like better in D3 is the flexibility: you can go anywhere (especially after the mob density fix), it's not like in D2 "let's do another Baal run". And depending on where I go and with whom I go I can swap equip/spec accordingly.
Reminds me of another thing D2 had that I miss: weapon swap. I want gear/skill swap.
D3 - the quest system is not entirely bad, the idea behind is to get involved in the history, the problem is, the history is terrible, and instead you want to run away and skip dialogs ASAP.
Diablo 2+LoD: the ability to pursue multiple avenues to get upgrades. You could stand to upgrade charms, or maybe find a better iteration of an item, or maybe finally get that runeword you were after done. Jewels were cool because they added even more functionality to sockets. Sockets weren't a magical affix, and non-magical socketed items were useful. The horadric cube. You could dump gems and items in to re-roll them. Allowed you to periodically get an extra reroll on an item you wanted.
Diablo 3: more fluid combat, the ability to respec without making a new character.
In all, I like the combat experience and ease of accessibility of d3, but miss the complexity and depth of experience from d2. Both, however, lack the ominous environment of d1... I remember working my way through that cathedral down into the depths of hell with the hair on the back of my neck standing up.
D2
Music
Swap gear and skill set (to adapt in combat)
Items were plenty, diverse and had more value
Night and day
Gheed and his friends
Jamella's book
The visual appeal of a skill tree
D3
Fluid combat
Skills are diverse (though not on equal footing)
Better resource and resource management (Monk's got it hard though)
The scoundrel
Lore
Weather
The succubi are naked again!
Belial's 2nd phase
D1
The atmosphere...the obscure lore, the fear of the unknown it generates
Lachdanan
Gharbad
Apocalypse
Succubi screaming
Zhar the Mad
Blood knights dying
I like D3's version of 1-point skills. It's true you got to chose exactly how strong one of your skills were in D2, if it was your main attack and wasn't maxed out, it's worthless.
D3 beats out D2 in combat by about a billion points. D2 actually had good combat, but D3's actually feels epic.
D3 beats D2 in graphics, and tone. D2 was technically 'darker', but they also had a very small color pallet to work with. The tone was nice and bloody, but D3 feels more 'real'.
D2 beats D3 in the dropped-items category. D2 not only had uniques you were looking for, but also charms, jewels, runes, and more gems. Having something other than gear to look out for when farming makes a world of difference.
D3 beats D2 in farming by a mile. Especially after the density update, farming the entire game (more or less) is far > than farming one of a couple bosses, where it wasn't even a journey to get there, instead you or someone else just teleported to them.
D2 beats D3 in my opinion on 'legendaries' being useful. Maybe it was the younger noob in me when playing D2, but I constantly switched between a ton of legendaries (uniques for D2) for the same character. This 'probably' is a side effect of being insanely OP in D2 by the time you where level 85, but either way I hope D3's loot 2.0 brings back that feeling.
D3 beats D2 in crafting, because well there actually IS crafting.
D3 beats D2 on the defensive side of combat. Instead of constantly spamming pots, you actually have to try to balance armor, resists, reductions, pots being on a CD, any life gaining stats and attacks, and your own active defensive skills and passives. D2 had you maxing your resistances, possibly taking a defensive buff skill, and spamming those pots.
D2 beats D3 in the online argument, simply because of public games. That, for whatever unexplainable reason added such a huge layer of depth when interacting with others online. D3's quick-join public game feature is cool, but there's very little communication between players (could be the players fault as well), and D3's AH takes care of any actual player-to-player trading. So D3 has millions playing it, yet feels empty.
Well, for me Diablo 2 will always be better, but perhaps not for the same reasons as others.
I'll make points and compare:
Story: Diablo 2
I felt much more in tune with Diablo 2, even if you almost never spoke. The creativity it provided me over the years is unmatched.
In D3 it kind of feels impersonal, I don't feel part of anything. It's just not right for me.
Gameplay: Diablo 3
While diablo 2 had pretty nice gameplay, Diablo 3 feels smoother and much more polished - but this is to be expected considering the huge time-gap between the games.
Loot: Diablo 2
I feel that D2 had a larger variety and they were a lot harder to come by, when you got a rare you were actually excited instead of going 'crap, crap, crap' just by hovering over the skin of it. I understand D2 was like that also in ways, but it's much more noticable in D3.
Balance: Diablo 2
While Diablo 3 has decent balance, I do consider D2 better for the mere sake that there wasn't any 'insta-invulnerability' skills, or not to the extreme that D3 has. We have so many skills like that in D3 that it tips the scales slightly to unbalanced.
PVP: Diablo 2
There was such a large variety of skills that Diablo 2 just make it better. The match depended on who had better skills and who could manupilate the field better - it had a more realistic feel to it. D3 is flat - if your DPS is much higher than his life and you get the first skill it's *splat* for the opponent. The difference between health and damage when fighting a lower character is ridiculous. This wasn't largely so for D2.
Skill Variety: Diablo 2
Diablo 2 had more skills and more options. In D3 almost every hero ends up with the same skills at higher levels.
Gear Variety: Diablo 2
Same as above, at higher levels everyone is basically wearing the same stuff, just slight variations in stats.
So, hands down Diablo 2 wins.
Diablo 3 feels more like clone wars to me. Everything is the same in the end.
I begin:
- I like the way D2 let you evolve your skills, adding points on them so you could see how stronger they were getting.
- I like how D3 improved the action of the battles, in a more dynamic and interesting way.
Your turn.
As of now, the only thing I miss (but really miss) are runewords.
A way to do this in D3 would be, whenever you get a rune unlocked, to have the option to choose which one among the runes of your unlocked skills do you want. Having to wait till lvl 56 for mammoth Hydra only to realize it wasn't viable that far into the game was a drag.
Also, multiple Hydras.
No, also the other way around of course, I updated the first post.
- pvp was more open and gave the players more freedom to create their own pvp challenges
- ladders
- epic music
- you can distribute your own stat points. Strengh wizard ? no problem!
- you can switch between acts with the waypoints
D3 does better :
- the game has some difficulty to it ( And you can adjust it ! )
- combat feel is as good ( or even better ) as in D2
- built in trading tool
- D3 takes way longer till you have beaten the hardest difficulty
Yay, 271 cathan seals. Those were all usefull, sure sure. Still have not found a IK chest though in 10 years of d2.
If you wanted a complete set in d2, you also had to trade or spend 100s of hours doing pindle runs. It wasnt the selffound heaven you want it to be.
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Twoflower-2131/hero/47336841
I prefer the freedom to experiment with everything my class has (even the dumb Toad of Hugeness) in D3.
i) Items
1) when you complete a set: Omg, I am powerfull.
2) when you finally make runewords: "Father, your son has returned and I bring the destruction of Olympus!!!" (Kratos, 2010)
ii) bosses...and maps (random and replayable) sorry.
D3 did better:
i) Mechanics and battle: its very nice...
ii) Money.
What I like better in D3 is the flexibility: you can go anywhere (especially after the mob density fix), it's not like in D2 "let's do another Baal run". And depending on where I go and with whom I go I can swap equip/spec accordingly.
Reminds me of another thing D2 had that I miss: weapon swap. I want gear/skill swap.
D3 - no immunities on mobs
D3 - the quest system is not entirely bad, the idea behind is to get involved in the history, the problem is, the history is terrible, and instead you want to run away and skip dialogs ASAP.
Diablo 3: more fluid combat, the ability to respec without making a new character.
In all, I like the combat experience and ease of accessibility of d3, but miss the complexity and depth of experience from d2. Both, however, lack the ominous environment of d1... I remember working my way through that cathedral down into the depths of hell with the hair on the back of my neck standing up.
DiabloProgress: http://www.diabloprogress.com/hero/mannequin-1116/Stitches/14628018
I wanna know who'd win in a battle between Jesus and The Predator.
BurningRope#1322 (US~HC) Request an invite to the official (NA) <dfans> Clan
This would be it for me too. D2 felt like an open world where anything could happen. I miss that.
And I miss building characters via skill tree/stats. Being inspired to make new characters and watch them either fail or work.
potion CD
no mana potion
Music
Swap gear and skill set (to adapt in combat)
Items were plenty, diverse and had more value
Night and day
Gheed and his friends
Jamella's book
The visual appeal of a skill tree
D3
Fluid combat
Skills are diverse (though not on equal footing)
Better resource and resource management (Monk's got it hard though)
The scoundrel
Lore
Weather
The succubi are naked again!
Belial's 2nd phase
D1
The atmosphere...the obscure lore, the fear of the unknown it generates
Lachdanan
Gharbad
Apocalypse
Succubi screaming
Zhar the Mad
Blood knights dying
D3 beats out D2 in combat by about a billion points. D2 actually had good combat, but D3's actually feels epic.
D3 beats D2 in graphics, and tone. D2 was technically 'darker', but they also had a very small color pallet to work with. The tone was nice and bloody, but D3 feels more 'real'.
D2 beats D3 in the dropped-items category. D2 not only had uniques you were looking for, but also charms, jewels, runes, and more gems. Having something other than gear to look out for when farming makes a world of difference.
D3 beats D2 in farming by a mile. Especially after the density update, farming the entire game (more or less) is far > than farming one of a couple bosses, where it wasn't even a journey to get there, instead you or someone else just teleported to them.
D2 beats D3 in my opinion on 'legendaries' being useful. Maybe it was the younger noob in me when playing D2, but I constantly switched between a ton of legendaries (uniques for D2) for the same character. This 'probably' is a side effect of being insanely OP in D2 by the time you where level 85, but either way I hope D3's loot 2.0 brings back that feeling.
D3 beats D2 in crafting, because well there actually IS crafting.
D3 beats D2 on the defensive side of combat. Instead of constantly spamming pots, you actually have to try to balance armor, resists, reductions, pots being on a CD, any life gaining stats and attacks, and your own active defensive skills and passives. D2 had you maxing your resistances, possibly taking a defensive buff skill, and spamming those pots.
D2 beats D3 in the online argument, simply because of public games. That, for whatever unexplainable reason added such a huge layer of depth when interacting with others online. D3's quick-join public game feature is cool, but there's very little communication between players (could be the players fault as well), and D3's AH takes care of any actual player-to-player trading. So D3 has millions playing it, yet feels empty.
I'll make points and compare:
Story: Diablo 2
I felt much more in tune with Diablo 2, even if you almost never spoke. The creativity it provided me over the years is unmatched.
In D3 it kind of feels impersonal, I don't feel part of anything. It's just not right for me.
Gameplay: Diablo 3
While diablo 2 had pretty nice gameplay, Diablo 3 feels smoother and much more polished - but this is to be expected considering the huge time-gap between the games.
Loot: Diablo 2
I feel that D2 had a larger variety and they were a lot harder to come by, when you got a rare you were actually excited instead of going 'crap, crap, crap' just by hovering over the skin of it. I understand D2 was like that also in ways, but it's much more noticable in D3.
Balance: Diablo 2
While Diablo 3 has decent balance, I do consider D2 better for the mere sake that there wasn't any 'insta-invulnerability' skills, or not to the extreme that D3 has. We have so many skills like that in D3 that it tips the scales slightly to unbalanced.
PVP: Diablo 2
There was such a large variety of skills that Diablo 2 just make it better. The match depended on who had better skills and who could manupilate the field better - it had a more realistic feel to it. D3 is flat - if your DPS is much higher than his life and you get the first skill it's *splat* for the opponent. The difference between health and damage when fighting a lower character is ridiculous. This wasn't largely so for D2.
Skill Variety: Diablo 2
Diablo 2 had more skills and more options. In D3 almost every hero ends up with the same skills at higher levels.
Gear Variety: Diablo 2
Same as above, at higher levels everyone is basically wearing the same stuff, just slight variations in stats.
So, hands down Diablo 2 wins.
Diablo 3 feels more like clone wars to me. Everything is the same in the end.
I don't have anywhere to go.
BurningRope#1322 (US~HC) Request an invite to the official (NA) <dfans> Clan