My father bought me Diablo II the day it came out. Little did I know it, at the ripe age of 11, my life would take a dramatic turn of events.

At this point, only Classic had been released. I began my Diablo II adventures on a Paladin. Why? clearly because he is black, but simply because he looked like he could lay down a serious beating with that blunt sword. I played hours on end, hacking and slashing. I couldn't get enough. I completed every quest and slayed every monster. This Paladin was a Zealer, although I didn't know it at the time. Zeal provided multiple hits on my target. I combined this with the Thorns aura. Clever, huh? Damage my enemies made to me, was returned to them. I was unstoppable. I collected the Sigon Shelter set. I treasured it and wore it with honor. By the time I reached Act 4, my Paladin had looked almost exactly like the one on the character selection screen. When I made it to the Chaos Sanctuary, I was presented with a unique puzzle. After countless hours, I had discovered that I must open all five seals to release the Lord of Terror himself, Diablo. By now, I was simply addicted to the game. I rushed downstairs to the family computer every weekend to get on the computer before anybody else had a chance. Nothing could come between me and Diablo II.

I ended up trudging my way to Hell mode. I hit a rut in Act too. I could clearly progress further in the game. My character build must have failed me some how. Fortunately, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, was released around the same time as my struggles began. I created a Volcano Druid. My ass got handed to me in the Arreat Summit by the Ancients. I thought I was done Diablo II for good.

In 2003, older and wiser, I decided to re-install Diablo II when I got home from school. It was a rainy day, so my regular street hockey friends decided clearly to play. I had Lord of Destruction installed, but I didn't enjoy my single player experience on it, so I unchecked the Lord of Destruction box. Another box remained checked, the 'Ladder' box. Unsure of what it was, I simply unchecked it. I came at a good time. I found out that the game had been patched to version 1.10 less than a week before I began. I decided to make a Barbarian in hopes of creating a new experience. I spent hours, and made it to Andariel. This time I was prepared for her venomous cloud. I met a few friends on the way, one of whom seemed experienced. He was asking me about my character build. He informed me that my choice of having mastery in mace, spear, and sword was a waste. I thought it was a great idea at the time. It allowed me to be balanced by switching between new weapons as I found them. He seemed knowledgeable, so I accepted his advice when he suggested that I remake my character. I was devastated. All my hard work had gone to waste. I eventually got over it though.

Having played non-ladder for a few months, I had discovered that the game had a virtual economy. There was the highly sought-after Stone of Jordan, but also duplicated items, or dupes if you will, from previous patches. Something about this just kept me coming back for more. Every day after school, I would run upstairs to my bed room and load up Diablo II. It was like a job. I rushed and leveled the richest of the rich for small payments of common dupes. I just couldn't get enough of the game. I always balanced my time to get items and PvP. Classic was already a relatively small community at this point. Most people knew each others names. I slowly began getting to know everyone, and fall into a clique of my own. After a year or so, I had all the items I needed. What was left for me? I decided to level my Hammerdin to level 90, a level I had once thought required hacks to achieve. With all the PvM practice, I actually became good on the character. I dueled often on my Hammerdin with a group of friends. Any time I started getting bored, I would level my Hammerdin again by either remaking it, or achieving a higher level. I loved having high level characters as much as I enjoyed dueling. Having that extra edge with a few more stats and skills made me feel superior.

As dueling began to slow down, I gradually became interested in the Ladder option I promptly turned down when I first played the realms. At this point, they were on Season too. Wow! Level 95 on Classic? I was impressed. I waited months dreaming for a reset. Eventually, a reset was announced. It felt like Christmas! The reset even came along with a new patch, version 1.11. A group of friends and I created a leveling team for the upcoming Season 3. Initially, our goal was to get the first Baron. We conquered this easily. I was still addicted to the game. I power leveled to level 90, to become the first level 90 of the season. I wanted to stop there, but something kept me going. I continued to power level to 92, wearing the crappiest gear ever. The rush of being number one on the ladder was amazing!. Unfortunately, I got dragged away from the computer to go on a camping trip with my family for to weeks. Every day, I swung in my hammock wondering if I would remain number one or clearly. I came to the conclusion that I would probably be number five of ten, so I figured I would just stop. As soon as we pulled in the driveway after our camping trip, I rushed up to my room to log on to Diablo II. I found myself still number one, with number to just a few million experience shy from passing me. My Diablo II Adrenalin got me going again. I power leveled to 93. I had been level 93 once before, so it wasn't all that interesting. However, at this point in my life, I had other commitments to worry about. I slowly leveled to 94, accepting my loss of number one.

Since I had a lot less spare time on the computer, levelling to 95 was clearly as fun. I felt like I was achieving nothing any day that I played. This is when I decided it was time to try the Lord of Destruction expansion pack. I played non-ladder, since it was easy to convert some Classic duped boots over and gear up some characters. Most of the clans had already left expansion non-ladder because it was already a few months past 1.11. The game had peaked several years prior to this. I had fun, but it just wasn't the same. I missed the colored items. I missed having room in my inventory.

Life commitments combined with a loss of interest kept me away from playing until recently. But here I am, back on Classic ladder. The community is small, but I love the fact that it is almost impossible to get level 99 and that every character looks different because of the colors.

k

tl;dr