hehe, i played last ladder season but right when the ladder reset i got wow...
but when i played D2 i was damn good. i played hardcore, as in if you die you lose all your gear [unless your corpse is looted by a friend] and you have to remake your character. i also played non-expansion. the difference between classic D2 and expansion is huge. the gear you wear is totally different and you don't have a crazy damage dealing mercenary to help you. it requires more skill imho. the gear that's good in classic would get laughed at by someone who's only played expansion. rares are the best items in classic, not runeword uniques can be easily duped. a good rare is indeed rare and is so much more unique than any gold-named unique. since good rare items look different than other good rare items, there's more variety in the way people's characters look, which is kinda nice.
anyway, i played as a paladin for my main leveling character. got to level 92, had 11k hammers 4k life, rare 2+ 17/30/20 shield socketed with a diamond for 38 all resistences, rare 2+ amulet with dexterity and resistence to all, one of the best mageplates socketed with a ruby etc. i was 16th on the ladder when it reset. that's the last spot on the front page of the overall rankings
i got tired of all the hacks and little kids, so once i got wow it was a welcome change.
PS - you talk about 'worlds' but there are no worlds in Diablo II. there are acts. finish act 1-4 in classic or 1-5 in expansion and you can then play in nightmare difficulty. go through acts 1-4/1-5 in nightmare then you can play in hell difficulty, which is where all the endgame type stuff is done; high level duels, chaos sancuary runs, baal runs, magic finding, trade games etc. saying what act your in doesn't matter as much as saying what difficulty you're in. i try to get to hell as fast as possible. i think i had a hardcore level 35 leaching xp in hell chaos sanctuary at one point. just gotta make sure you have friends to take you through runs and you know how to save and exit if you get surrounded by monsters

(Last edited by mr. burns; Nov 14, 2005 at 11:08 AM.
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