Character classes

Amazon
Main article: Amazon

The Amazon is an active skill-oriented fighter. Her skills are oriented around personal protective
abilities, the use of a bow and arrow, as well as the spear and javelin.
The Amazon is most similar to the Rogue of Diablo: both are primarily associated with bows, and
both make equal use of strength and magic. The Amazon is different in that she can also use
javelins and spears adeptly. The class is loosely based on the Amazons of mythology.
Barbarian
Main article: Barbarian (Diablo II)

The Barbarian is a powerful melee-oriented character in Diablo 2, and the only character capable of
dual-wielding. His skills are divided into various weapon masteries, war cries, and combat skills. The
masteries are purely passive and allow the Barbarian to specialize in different types of weapons and
to gain natural speed and resistances. His war cries can enhance his and his party's abilities in
combat, reduce the enemy's abilities, frighten the enemy into fleeing and even cause considerable
damage to them. The Barbarian's combat skills are attacks that maximize brute force, his greatest
asset.
The Barbarians, in Diablo 2, originated from the Northern Highlands, which is where Act 5 of
the expansion takes place, and can also be hired as mercenaries in that Act.
A different Barbarian was planned for Hellfire, the unofficial Diablo "expansion" released by Sierra
Entertainment. Though not included in the final version, the character was available as a hidden
class in Patch 1.01 for Hellfire. The character had the same appearance and speech as
the Warrior but had altered statistics and different abilities.

The Barbarian, despite being a strict melee character, can be very effective. In Hell mode, the
natural resistance for all characters drop and the Barbarian is the only class that can passively
increase his resistance through a skill.

Sorceress
Main article: Sorceress (Diablo II)

The Sorceress focuses on ranged elemental spells in three areas: ice, lightning and fire. Her ice
spells can chill or even completely freeze affected enemies, but do less damage than lightning or
fire. Lightning spells can do both very high and very low damage, whereas fire spells deal more
consistent damage.
The spell Teleport essentially defines the Sorceress, allowing much faster mobility than any other
character. The strong point of the Sorceress is powerful damaging spells and casting speed; her
weakness is her relatively low hit points and defence, demanding that the player pay close attention
to keep her out of the fray.

Sorceresses are, according to the storyline, rebellious women who have wrested the secrets of
magic use from the male-dominated magus clans of the East..

Necromancer
Main article: Necromancer (Diablo II)

The Necromancer is a spell-caster who relies on summoning spirits of the dead to aid him in his
work. His skills are split into curses, summoning, poison and bone spells. The summoning skills
allow him to revive various skeletons, golems and any monster killed (Including Diablo). However, it
is to be noted that with the exception of golems, all of the necromancer's summons require existing
monster corpses. Poison and bone skills are the necromancer's actual means of straight out
damage. Bone skills also hold means for creating obstacles and such, making for great PVP
support. Curse skills form an integral part of a necromancer's arsenal ability to produce curses and
hexes in both PVP and PVE. These powers greatly alter gameplay for both the caster as well as the
target.
Paladin
Main article: Paladin

The Paladin is a religious warrior fighting for all that is good. To reflect this, the zealous Paladin's
combat skills range from fanatical attacks to heavenly thunderbolts. His skills are split into combat
skills, defensive auras, and offensive auras, of which, the latter two can enhance personal abilities,
lower the amount of damage dealt by enemies, or facilitate health recovery. These auras are helpful
in a multi-player game as many of them can be used to upgrade all of the party's stats. Most auras
require no mana which makes a Paladin a very economic character as he needs to spend little to
nothing on mana recovery. Paladins are highly proficient in the use of a shield, and they may even
use their shield as a weapon. He is the best with defensive skills and is also the best choice if the
player wishes to weaken enemies without hitting them or casting any spells. Paladin skills are
extremely efficient at eliminating the undead.
Multi-player
Unlike the original Diablo, Diablo II was made specifically with online gaming in mind. Several spells
multiply their effectiveness if they are cast within a party, and dungeons, although they still exist,
were largely replaced by open spaces.
Multi-player is achieved through Blizzard's Battle.net free online service, or via a LAN. Battle.net is
divided into "Open" and "Closed" realms. Players may play their single-player characters on open
realms; characters in closed realms are stored on Blizzard's servers, as a measure against cheating,
where they must be played every ninety days to avoid expiration. Online play is otherwise nearly
identical to single-player play. The most notable difference is that online maps are generated
randomly, with a new map for every game a player enters. Offline, single-player maps are retained in
computer memory.
As the game can be played cooperatively, groups of players with specific sets of complementary
skills can finish some of the game's climactic battles in a matter of seconds, providing strong
incentives for party-oriented character builds. Up to eight players can be in one game; they can
either unite as a single party, play as individuals, or form multiple opposing parties. Experience,
monsters' hit points, and the number of items dropped are increased as more players join a game.

Players are allowed to duel each other with all damage being reduced in player versus player. The
bounty for a successful kill is a portion of the gold and the ear of the defeated player's character.

Patch 1.10 included the option of playing with a ladder character. The ladder system can be reset at
various intervals to allow for all players to start fresh with new characters on an equal footing. Ladder
seasons have lasted from as short as nine months to over a year. When a ladder season ends the
ladder population is transferred to the non-ladder population with all items that the player is holding.
Certain rare items and rune words are available only within ladder games, although they can be
traded for and exchanged on non-ladder after the season has ended.

Up to twenty-three patches have been released for Diablo II. Through the patch history, several
exploits and issues have been addressed, as well as major revamps to the game's balance. Not all
patches have affected Diablo II directly, as several were designed to address issues in the
expansion to the game and had minimal effects on Diablo II. The game is currently in version 1.14.
The exact number of patches is impossible to determine as Battle.net has the capability of making
minor server-side patches to address