Diablo 2 — How to Play
What it is
Diablo II (2000) and its Lord of Destruction expansion are the games that defined the genre for a generation — five acts across Sanctuary, skill trees, runewords, ladder seasons and a player-run economy. This entry is the original release; the modern, remastered way to play it is Diablo II: Resurrected.
Getting the game
- Blizzard no longer sells the original Diablo II directly. If you own an old boxed copy you can still register its CD key to a Battle.net account, but for a fresh purchase the supported path is Diablo II: Resurrected, which contains the same game rebuilt for modern machines.
- The original client still connects to Battle.net, and community realms keep the 2000 engine alive for those who prefer it.
Choosing a class
Seven classes — five from the base game, two from Lord of Destruction:
- Amazon — bow and javelin.
- Barbarian — dual-wield melee and warcries.
- Necromancer — summons and curses.
- Paladin — auras and holy melee.
- Sorceress — elemental spells and Teleport.
- Assassin — traps and martial arts (expansion).
- Druid — storms, shapeshifting and summons (expansion).
Starting out
- Create a character as Classic or Expansion — the two never share realms, and almost everyone plays Expansion.
- Play offline in single-player or online on Battle.net; ladder characters race a fresh, wiped economy each season.
- Work through the acts on Normal, then Nightmare, then Hell — the real game begins at the higher difficulties.
- Watch your resistances, and read up on runewords before you break a rare item for its sockets.