Customer Reviews

Diablo II: Lord of Destruction Official Strategy Guide

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Call me a completist. I've tried to collect everything I can get my hands on related to the Diablo series of games, so I HAD to get this book. If you're looking for in-depth strategies for beating Baal, you might want to look elsewhere. There are a number of fine websites where you can find that. The problem with strategy guides for the Diablo series is the fact that most of the action is generated randomly. Diablo II is not a strictly linear game where every player will experience basically the same thing. That is a large part of the games' appeal. Personally, I like having a book that I can go relax with after spending a few hours going toe-to-toe with the forces of Evil. Try dragging your PC to bed with you! But seriously, the best thing about this book is the nice overview of the new Druid and Assassin character classes, especially their respective skill trees. Also, there are suggestions for leveling up these characters. Vital information, nah...Just a nice extra.

I would have to agree with the other reviewers when it comes to getting statistics and table-style information from this book. It's probably more useful to go to DiabloII.net than anything else. But I still like this strategy guide for other reasons. Here is one of them: The strategy guide gives you useful information for the development of Super-Characters such as "The Tank" - an ultra-powerful Druid that had 900HP by level 30! There is no such information out there on any website and the only way to develope such characters is through the advice of such strategy guides. Developing an exceptional RPG character for such a multi-faceted game such as DIILoD has nearly reached the level of an art or science, and the advice of the Blizzard game-developement experts is one thing I rely on. This is especially true for the Closed Battle.Net characters which cannot be backed-up personally on a 3.5 inch diskette. A small mistake in character development could lead you to a non-pleasurable gaming experience or just scrapping the character and starting all-over again. Single-Player/Open Battle.Net characters can be continually backed up on diskette, so if a mistake is made it can be repaired alot easier. So try it out and see what you think for yourself. Cheers!

Most of this book is just a rehash of the Diablo II guide... did I really need 80 pages on the Diablo 2 classes, which everyone is already familiar with? A pitiful walkthrough as well. How about some ideas on how to beat those annoying demon imps? Nope.

Tons of errors as the other reviewers pointed out. A real waste.

"The Strafe skill now begins with a -40% modifier to damage as opposed to +10%." Or so says the strategy guide. Anyone actually playing an Amazon to level 24 would know this is not the case. And this begins the problems and inherent issues with Bart Farkas' latest travesty.

I was pretty harsh on his Diablo II Strategy Guide, and with good reason. It was pathetic. Mr. Farkas has had A YEAR to make decent additions to the "strategy" section but has not done so. Character building strategies, even though altered from the classic Diablo II (which would give a greater need for these) are simply, once again, not present anywhere in this book, with the exception of some "basic build" ideas for the Druid and Assassin (the 2 new character classes). The character sections list what each skill does, not even including the skill statistics except in a difficult-to-read chart back in the appendix.

Here are the numerous other problems:

1) Set item bonuses are not properly described. The new "hidden" bonuses are displayed as standard bonuses, with no mention of the need to have 2 or more items of the set to attain those bonuses.

2) The "complete" lists of unique items are anything but. Several of the new items are missing.

3) Level, strength, and dexterity requirements for all the equipment is, once again, not present. Mr. Farkas, each of these statistics is VITAL in building a character.

4) About 20 crafted item recipes are included, with no mention that there are nearly 200 such recipes.

5) A few rune word recipes are included, with no mention that there are over 100 such recipes.

6) Strategy blurbs consist of hints from Blizzard employees, and that's the extent of it.

7) Information on the cow level was not seen in this book.

There are more problems, more items that SHOULD be expected in a strategy guide, but I'll not bore you.

I have no idea how much Bart Farkas did or did not play Diablo II classic. I have no idea how much Bart Farkas did or did not participate in the lengthy beta test. But I can assure everyone reading this review that the information gathered in this book could EASILY have been written by somebody WHO HAS NEVER PLAYED THIS GAME.

Think hard on that last paragraph before spending your money.

...Warning! This guide will be of use to those who only want a very general overview of the new Druid and Assassin character classes.... HOWEVER, the rest of the book is hopelesss outdated, seeing as it was written for the 1.07 version of D2 and the game is currently in its 1.09d patch...with promises of another ( 1.10 version ) patch sometime in June/July of 2002. This guide went in the trash when Blizzard released their 1.08 patch a mere three weeks into LoD's public release. Since then everything has changed vastly. Character skills have been altered so the tables are totally wrong. Sets and Uniques....well just about all of them have been changed, some beyond recognition. For example the unique round shield orginally a + skills necro item is now a sorcess skills item with total different mod's. As for the unique Archon staff ( an elite weapon), well it no longer exsists; instead it's name has been assigned to the unique Giant Thresher, which has totally different mod's and is used by a totally diffent kind of character! Most of the Runewords and Crafted items spells ( advertized as new for LoD ) have either been blocked or changed... about 90% of them weren't even in the guide to begin with! Just about everything is changed so completely that this guide would have to be TOTALLY rewritten ( perferably by someone who has actually played the game, not just read the fact sheets Blizzard passed down to them ). Even nearly a year later I see this guide in various stores and have to warn off people who want to get it... Don't get me wrong, LoD is a great game to try ( I play about 20-25 hrs per week on Realms ), but this guide is very outdated. Hopefully, someone will wake up at Brady and rewrite this book so it reflects the true picture of what D2LoD is now like on the Realms. Well, off to kill Diablo and his brothers... *evil chuckle* ...bye...

In the back of the book, you have a guide for all skills and what their characteristics are up to lvl 20, thats worth the price right there.

This means you can guestimate damage and strategize your skill investment and get an idea of what you max out or put 1 point into as well as where skills start to level off. i.e. you can compare the differences in the Sorc's cold shields. The second one has more defense bonus than the first and third. And we all know the "retaliate" thing is useless.

And how many times have you asked the question, which merc does holy freeze? or thorns? The book lists the mercs of act 2 norm, nightmare and hell. How about this question, how much strength does a shako need? Its in the book.

Granted it is not a 1.10 guide, but, if you play a lot like my friends and I, it is great to imagine a new character setup without looking at a website and getting their warped perception of what is an uber character. PLUS, you can look at the book during gameplay, I hate minimizing the screen to look at a website, doing that slows down gameplay.

Anyway, yes, it is old, but it is very good for understanding how some of the spells work and what benefit's they have to others. Pally auras, what are they? Does the radius grow when points are added? Granted 1.10 messed with this too :(

Newbies don't need the book, only old school, but if you've been around awhile, you know some skills go up and up and up and others level off, (like mana shield), it's nice to have the book around for experimenting. It lowers the anxiety of deciding skill point allocation (the most stressful part in the game).

I liked the book, and use it a lot, even though 1.10 kinda made things outdated. Still useful. I bought a second copy, and my brother uses it constantly. So thats 2 for 2 :) Anyway, if your a d2 fan, you'll love the back of the book, its cheaper than the ink you'll waste printing from a website.

I love D2, play a lot and refer to the book, it also makes a nice bathroom reader for those serious gamers.

Think about it, this book costs less than one 290, not that I have ever bought one, its worth it.

There is a person who didn't like the book, so they put like 5 bad reviews of the same review on the website? Whats that? If you play D2, you will pick up some stuff, even outdated a little as it is. Its like 80% accurate.

BART! If you make a 1.10 guide, I'll buy it!

This guide is like any guide to a game, it has information about the 2 new classes and about the classes pros and cons and a lot more of course. It can be very useful in the begging until Bilzzard starts makeing patches. However if you only play single player and dont upgrade your game this guide is fine.

I completely disagree with the review above. Sure you can get it all on internet sites, but this book has everything all together in one neat little book. Its a lot less of a hassle then printing the info out when you wanna look at it. Also even if blizzard changes something, the book is a very good reference point for uniques, sets, charms, etc. It also has good strategies for multiplayer and single player play. If you love Diablo II, then buy it, its worth it.

Most of the things told in the guide is easily found on other free sites. Also, you don't need this to easily figure out where to go and what to do in the game next.

If you play online, as I do, it is crazy to consider purchasing. BattleNet is constantly adding patches to the game to keep the hackers as honest as possible. Most patches occur within the first 2 months of the game's release date. (Which is NOW!) Many things will change or become outdated very quickly.

Wait. There will probably be a second guide release with the new updates. If now, no matter. You REALLY don't need it!

An awesome guide! If you dont have the D2 one, get this one for your expansion pack!