Diablo 2

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Diablo II’s new Warlock is a great excuse to revisit a classic game

Blizzard, Diablo, Diablo 2, gaming, warlock / /

Of the Warlock’s three Demonic partner options, I found myself leaning most on the Tainted, which can stay out of harm’s way while harassing slower enemies from afar with fireballs. The other Demon options both had their charms but often got too caught up in massive enemy swarms to be as effective as I wanted, I found. I also didn’t see much point in the skill option that let me teleport my demon into a specific fight or sacrifice itself for some splash damage; their standard, AI-controlled attack patterns were usually sufficient.

Then there’s the Chaos upgrade branch, which is focused mostly on area-of-effect (AoE) spells. My build thus far has ended up pretty reliant on the direct-damage AoE options; the Flame Wave, in particular, is especially good for quickly clearing out long, narrow corridors. I also leaned on the Sigil of Lethargy, which effectively slows down some of the more frenetic enemy swarms and gives you some time to gather your attack plan.

Something borrowed, something blue…

Combining these Chaos skills with the weapon-improving options in the Eldritch branch has made my time with the Diablo II Warlock feel like a bit of a “best of both worlds” situation. The mixture of ranged combat options, area-of-effect magic, and allies-summoning abilities ends up feeling like a weird cross between a Sorceress, Amazon, and Necromancer, without feeling like a carbon copy of any of those classes.

I haven’t yet gotten to the new late-game content in the “Reign of the Warlock” DLC, so I can’t say how well the Warlock holds up in the extreme difficulty of the Terror Zones. I also haven’t experimented with any of the truly broken Warlock builds that some committed high-level min-maxxers have been busy discovering.

As a casual excuse to revisit the world of Diablo II, though, the Warlock class provides just enough of a new twist on some familiar gameplay mechanics to make it worth the trip.

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Diablo II streamer finds 1-in-3-million item drop, instantly sells it for laughs

Blizzard, Diablo, Diablo 2, Diablo II, gaming, speedrun, steamer, twitch / /

Gold digger —

Many players have never even seen a Zod rune drop over decades of play.

–

Mere seconds before an epic livestreamed troll moment.

Enlarge / Mere seconds before an epic livestreamed troll moment.

The Zod rune has a mythical place in Diablo II lore. The incredibly rare socketed item, which can make other in-game gear indestructible, has just a 1 in 2,987,183 chance of dropping from the game’s highest class of enemy, according to one calculation.

To this day, it’s not hard to find dedicated players admitting online that they’ve never seen a legitimate copy of the rune despite years of play (though duplicated versions made using glitches can be less rare).

So when Diablo streamer and speedrunner Kano saw a Zod rune drop during a livestreamed Diablo II: Resurrected run Wednesday (as noticed by GamesRadar), it was something of a legendary moment. And when Kano sold that rune for a relatively unimportant 35,000 in-game gold mere moments later, it was something of a legendary troll.

“Please, for the love of all that is holy…”

“Yo, that’s my highest speedrun rune—here we go,” Kano said calmly on-stream when the rune dropped, projecting a cool detachment that belied the import of the moment. “That’s the first-ever Zod I’ve found, by the way. Like, ever.”

Viewers seeing the moment live on Twitch chat were not nearly so detached. “That’s easily the rarest thing ever dropped in a speed run, lol,” Twitch user R__A__C__E stated, probably accurately. “I just opened the stream WHAT THE F hahahha” Twitch user creatingmadness added.

The chat’s mood changed mere moments later, though, when Kano left the dungeon, walked to an in-game vendor, and quickly sold the incredibly rare item. “Do not vendor that!!! Please for the love of all that is holy,” YouTube viewer Ragnar begged, to no avail. “YOU ASSHOLE,” Twitch user R__A__C__E added in all-caps outrage.

Kano just chuckled a bit to himself at the reactions he was getting from his viewers. “What, dude, it’s 35K, it’s good… it’s good money,” he deadpanned. Later in the same stream, he feigned ignorance over why the sale would even generate controversy. “Why would they be angry at me for selling a Zod, dude? It’s 35K gold. I don’t get it. What’s the problem? I think I should be more angry at people who keep a Zod rune, to be honest.”

Kano’s full stream. The Zod rune drops at around the 8: 15: 30 mark.

Elsewhere in the stream, though, Kano dropped the act and fully appreciated what had just happened. “I can’t believe it, like, that’s so sick,” he said. “Hello, it’s my first ever Zod rune, dude. Now, whenever people ask me the question ‘What’s the highest Rune you’ve ever seen in a speedrun?’ I can finally say it’s a Zod, man.”

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