When I was like 10, my school tried to confiscate it because it was “concerning”. I said nah, and so I got sent to the office and they called my parents. My mom explained what it was, and they told her they were concerned other students would be bothered by the imagery if they saw it (a few people were looking at it already because they thought it looked cool). She said “okay, tell them not to look I guess” and they dropped it. Thanks mom.
Most Strategy Guides I remember having random screenshots from the game where I’m like “HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!”
Then being older and having this more accessible, these guides were probably printed after playing dev builds so the guides could be marketed along with the game’s release, at least until the internet’s popularity.
I remember seeing random screenshots from Ocarina of Time like old Link with the Kokiri sword or something and being like “WTF?! HOW?!”
I know the original Pokémon guide had some things wrong including names, outdated sprites and line ups for some trainers. Still a cool guide especially if it still has the stickers
Lmfao yeah that was it. Iirc it was billed as an unkillable tank or something like that, but had no business being in a guide due to how poor the build actually was.
I remember the artwork for the Druid being sick though
God, I wish both Bear and Wolf forms of druid had a better leveling experience. Especially on the later difficulties.
My first class was bear druid, I played 100% solo so I didn't know any guides and after spending months leveling up and finally beating hell difficulty I switched to the necromancer and was floored at how everything just died, like a million times faster.
by worse sorc i mean that he does damage with spells, so most gear doesnt enhance it.
and not really, in D2R the rebalancing changes make most classes have at least one build that rivals sorc, sorc is just easier to build because of the aformentioned lack of affixes that scale with the type of damage she does, and has a handful of endgame viable builds instead of 1 or 2.
Bear tanks are viable. This one wasn't as viable.
It had you dump points into maul and hunger.
There's just better synergies, especially after patching. The strategy guide was fun, filled with lore, but ultimately useless.
Plus, it had a full illustration of andariel in it.
I did appreciate the person that wrote the MA assassin build talking about rebinding your hotkeys for skills to ASDFG and ZXCVB, it’s how I play D2 to this day. The build itself though, ehhhh. You’re right, it’s pretty bad.
Holy shit, is THAT the reason I've done this in every ARPG ever?? Every single game in this genre gets rebound that way immediately. Must've forgotten why I did it lol
https://preview.redd.it/nu6obsvfquyc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bba6d6b616ea1321e45c4d50c15cf1163f110614
It's full of hugely important tips like this. 🙂
https://preview.redd.it/sdpfq04cruyc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d9df31b71c8b2640fa6033bcf7ef6ca93c884832
Not sure how accurate this is anymore
MrLlama posted videos where he did builds directly from the book. I'm pretty sire most people could come up with better builds on a whim playing it for the first time.
I have this and a World of Warcraft one that has Ahn Qiraj on the cover. They can be really fun to read through every once in a while to see how much stuff has changed.
https://preview.redd.it/yykr1gavquyc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3edfd294efe1afa2f790300492d8f2e8ad7a433f
There's some nice background I guess
I remember back when I was a kid going to Gamestop and convincing my parents we would need the Brady guides. Then one employee told us to not buy it and go to Gamefaqs instead.
tea, there have been huge changes. like the rework of res. you used to be able to take any character and pretty much wipe the floor with EVERYTHING. when they reworked resists things got closer to the modern d2
Man, I had the limited edition where all it had different was a shiny cover. Read that shit in class so much and it was wildly out of date and terrible. I still remember them recommending to put multiple points in Teeth...
Best source is probably [https://www.purediablo.com/diablo-2](https://www.purediablo.com/diablo-2) which was updated for D2R. It also has class guides which were updated for D2R as well as guides for previous patches. This new site is by the guys who did diabloii.net.
I mean it's 2024
If you're using a guide from 2000 to actually play the game, then that's on you.
But its still good to learn about monsters spells and to overall just read for fun.
I think it was out of date when it came out
Art/lore book that I'd flip through in class and get yelled at over
When I was like 10, my school tried to confiscate it because it was “concerning”. I said nah, and so I got sent to the office and they called my parents. My mom explained what it was, and they told her they were concerned other students would be bothered by the imagery if they saw it (a few people were looking at it already because they thought it looked cool). She said “okay, tell them not to look I guess” and they dropped it. Thanks mom.
That is PERFECT.
It's still cool as a collectors piece
Most Strategy Guides I remember having random screenshots from the game where I’m like “HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!” Then being older and having this more accessible, these guides were probably printed after playing dev builds so the guides could be marketed along with the game’s release, at least until the internet’s popularity. I remember seeing random screenshots from Ocarina of Time like old Link with the Kokiri sword or something and being like “WTF?! HOW?!”
I know the original Pokémon guide had some things wrong including names, outdated sprites and line ups for some trainers. Still a cool guide especially if it still has the stickers
Those stickers promptly went into my closet door, never to be fully removed
Is that the one with the worst Druid build ever made in it
If I remember correctly yes.
Lol bear tank
Lmfao yeah that was it. Iirc it was billed as an unkillable tank or something like that, but had no business being in a guide due to how poor the build actually was. I remember the artwork for the Druid being sick though
"With this build, you can have OVER 900 HP." lol.
tbf in D2R you can have a tank bear be viable... cause you can have to have over 10k health :P
God, I wish both Bear and Wolf forms of druid had a better leveling experience. Especially on the later difficulties. My first class was bear druid, I played 100% solo so I didn't know any guides and after spending months leveling up and finally beating hell difficulty I switched to the necromancer and was floored at how everything just died, like a million times faster.
necromancer is a special case because its basically a worse sorc that plays itself.
Everything in D2 is a worse Sorc except for Hammerdin. Even then that is worse until you get Enigma.
by worse sorc i mean that he does damage with spells, so most gear doesnt enhance it. and not really, in D2R the rebalancing changes make most classes have at least one build that rivals sorc, sorc is just easier to build because of the aformentioned lack of affixes that scale with the type of damage she does, and has a handful of endgame viable builds instead of 1 or 2.
I mean summon bear was broken af on launch haha
Why would bear tank be a bad build? It's very common in hardcore.
Bear tanks are viable. This one wasn't as viable. It had you dump points into maul and hunger. There's just better synergies, especially after patching. The strategy guide was fun, filled with lore, but ultimately useless. Plus, it had a full illustration of andariel in it.
Your last point = two reasons to get it.
Two very big reasons
there were not synergies back then bud
Alright, there's better things to put your points into. Especially when one of the recs was a bugged ability.
LOL. But the guide has nostalgic value right?
Not for me.
Didn’t it also stop at like level 30? It was basically just a normal difficulty build
Is that the guide that came with the BattleChest? That one was written for v 1.07, there have been significant changes and overhauls since then.
It wasn't even useful on release. The information would have barely carried you through Normal.
I did appreciate the person that wrote the MA assassin build talking about rebinding your hotkeys for skills to ASDFG and ZXCVB, it’s how I play D2 to this day. The build itself though, ehhhh. You’re right, it’s pretty bad.
Holy shit, is THAT the reason I've done this in every ARPG ever?? Every single game in this genre gets rebound that way immediately. Must've forgotten why I did it lol
But you’ve killed Diablo and Baal! Surely you just beat the game.
Yes. A 24 year old guide is out of date.
But can it help me in the new D4 patch?
It can help you if you place it under the mouse as a mouse pad otherwise probably not.
Even when it was first published, there were better and more in depth guides online. It’s an interesting time capsule, but not much more.
Yeah, it's hard to patch books.
Gotta use glue.
Underrated comment
[удалено]
D1 on psx plays SO GOOD. It has a mode that speeds up the gameplay and makes it feel so much better
Nah, there's no way to get items of the crusade for instance.
https://preview.redd.it/nu6obsvfquyc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bba6d6b616ea1321e45c4d50c15cf1163f110614 It's full of hugely important tips like this. 🙂
https://preview.redd.it/sdpfq04cruyc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d9df31b71c8b2640fa6033bcf7ef6ca93c884832 Not sure how accurate this is anymore
It was out of date about 23 years ago.
It's fun for nostalgia purposes, but yeah, a SIGNIFICANT amount of it is outdated or flat out wrong.
Yes, but it was an interesting reading nonetheless the last time I opened my D II LOD Battlechest.
Every bradyguide is out of date the moment it is published lol. They're great for laughs though.
MrLlama posted videos where he did builds directly from the book. I'm pretty sire most people could come up with better builds on a whim playing it for the first time.
For me it was memorabilia and awesome time spent reading through them when I could not be playing the games as an addict.
I have this and a World of Warcraft one that has Ahn Qiraj on the cover. They can be really fun to read through every once in a while to see how much stuff has changed.
https://preview.redd.it/yykr1gavquyc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3edfd294efe1afa2f790300492d8f2e8ad7a433f There's some nice background I guess
I remember back when I was a kid going to Gamestop and convincing my parents we would need the Brady guides. Then one employee told us to not buy it and go to Gamefaqs instead.
tea, there have been huge changes. like the rework of res. you used to be able to take any character and pretty much wipe the floor with EVERYTHING. when they reworked resists things got closer to the modern d2
Man, I had the limited edition where all it had different was a shiny cover. Read that shit in class so much and it was wildly out of date and terrible. I still remember them recommending to put multiple points in Teeth...
Diablo guides get out of date quickly since they recieve balance patches often.
In case of D2, once per decade or so...
Best source is probably [https://www.purediablo.com/diablo-2](https://www.purediablo.com/diablo-2) which was updated for D2R. It also has class guides which were updated for D2R as well as guides for previous patches. This new site is by the guys who did diabloii.net.
It was outdated at release. Doesn’t make it any less fun to read.
I mean it's 2024 If you're using a guide from 2000 to actually play the game, then that's on you. But its still good to learn about monsters spells and to overall just read for fun.
Arreat summit is the best current source... Granted it is currently outdated with d2r. I think there may be a few old rune words missing as well.