When Diablo II: Resurrected was announced, I didn’t hear about it at all. At the time I didn’t have a gaming device to play it on, and honestly I wasn’t playing games much anymore. I think I only discovered D2R’s existence after getting a Steam Deck and starting to think about playing Diablo II on it again.
Old Diablo II and LoD
I played Diablo II and the Lord of Destruction expansion around the time they originally came out. My dad played it heavily, and I would watch him and wait for my turn. I played a Barbarian before the expansion released, and later started a Druid. It was great fun until I faced Duriel. I always thought Duriel was female for some reason. She completely destroyed my character. My build just wasn’t right for that fight.
Back then there was no way to reset your skills or stats, so I had to abandon that character and start over with another Barbarian. Eventually I defeated Duriel and continued through the rest of the game. That was actually the only time I finished all the acts.
For years, Diablo II stayed mostly as nostalgia for me — not counting Diablo III, which my wife and I finished together even though I never really liked that one.
D2R: Infernal Edition
Anyway, a few weeks ago Diablo II: Resurrected came to Steam, along with a new character update. I got incredibly excited. I had been testing D2R on the Deck (ahoy!), and the timing felt perfect. I purchased it without thinking twice and started playing immediately. The Warlock is a really fun character to play. Hopefully he won’t get nerfed too much, because right now he feels incredibly strong.
About a week ago my wife saw me playing and became curious. At first she thought Diablo II looked a little small or too zoomed out on the screen, probably because it’s an older game, but she got used to the updated graphics quickly. She wanted to try it herself, so we started an Amazon for her — and she took off.
She’s been playing almost every day since then and has already passed my Warlock in levels. She has also effectively taken over the Steam Deck while doing so. But honestly it’s been great fun watching her play and occasionally helping out. We spend about an hour every night like that.
Last night she faced Duriel.
The Newbie Killer
I wasn’t there at the time, but she texted me saying how difficult the fight was. She died multiple times and lost her items. She was nervous about going back in.
So we started looking up builds and strategies for that fight. Luckily she managed to recover some of her gear. Today we played together for a while to get her Amazon ready to face what might be the game’s most difficult boss.
One of the cool improvements in Diablo II: Resurrected is the ability to reset skills. Our research gave us a much better idea of how to distribute them, so we reset her build and invested heavily in Charged Strike, turning her into a proper Javazon. She felt much stronger, but we still hesitated to fight Duriel right away. Instead, we decided to comb the desert for a bit more power and glory.
Once we finally decided it was time, we stocked up on potions — including Thawing Potions. We also gave some to the mercenary before heading into the tomb of Tal Rasha.
The fight actually went surprisingly smoothly. Duriel focused on the mercenary, who somehow stayed alive long enough while the Amazon destroyed her with Charged Strike.
Unfortunately my wife had stepped away right before the fight started. She was a bit too anxious to face Duriel again, so I went in expecting to die almost immediately. I didn’t think much of it.
But the moment she came back and looked at the screen, Duriel exploded.
It was such a shock and a relief at the same time.
Now she’s cruising through the jungles of Act III. Meanwhile, I still need to face Duriel again with my Warlock. But with the knowledge we have now, I’m pretty sure Duriel’s defeat is on the horizon.