HERALD OF THE ENDNo longer regenerates health. Boss fight is now best attempted solo - NOW THATS more like it !!! This is gonna be pure skill/mechanics based fight without any cheesy slow or
"advanced guerilla tactics" such as Nuking down the boss under 1 min with 2 players or teleporting to town every 2 seconds after hitting him once or twice
...
Town Portal is now an innate skill with a 10 second cooldown. I like that the game is becoming 'modernized' but the cooldown seems REALLY unnecessary I know this because I am one of those guys that carries 200 scrolls of portals with him (equivalent of 2 full town portal tomes) just so I can use this convenient mechanic as much as possible especially when my inventory is full and I left that one item on the ground I couldn't pick up earlier etc or use it as my "checkpoint" in ubers where I just leave it behind me while running forward to see what is ahead! I KNOW this is mainly to stop players from abusing portals to cheese ubers but since they implemented the "no portals allowed in ubers mechanic" this change seems like an old hotfix to the Samael uber that was planned and left as it is! A very frustrating mechanic that a lot of players are gonna hate because how disruptive it is to the usual fast gameplay of median...
Respawning after death now has a 5 second cooldown. This change was made to counteract the removal of gold and experience loss upon death. WHAT?!? again another one of those "modern duuhekeys" ! It is true that a lot of new games have death timers but that is mainly because you ACTUALLY Gain something by going to town and spawning there... like items or a buff or a full heal etc so the timer is there to prevent you from having unfair advantage by coming back stronger and wrecking havoc while the boss or the enemy is still weak since the last fight.... I understand this is to discourage suicide rushing but if most one shots were removed and u cant make portals in ubers anymore I don't see the point of this either its a core game mechanic that has always been there since the dawn of time in Diablo 2 and Median XL is just one of those Mods that gives you this Adrenaline rush in ubers where you just want to get back into the action of hack and slash with super fast paced intense action gameplay BUT... you have to stare at your screen every time now for 5 seconds... if u play for 1 month... and u die a lot of times ingame (and that is probably gonna happen that is like... maybe hours and days of my life wasted staring at 5 seconds death timer screen that is there just to prevent me from playing the game and make progress that is... a lot of time I know its a super weak argument lol but believe me nobody likes this idea!
MOVEMENT SPEED Run/walk toggle has been disabled, so you can no longer accidentally be running - OK.
"Sprint" replaces run:
Lasts about 5 seconds and is significantly faster than old running - A What ??!?!
I am guessing you activate this and it drains your whole Stamina bar until its empty
(or certain percentage of it) in the duration of 5 seconds after that it quickly refills in unknown to me time also plz tell me this effect can be interrupted before full 5 seconds like holding CTRL and letting go of it.
In the future, effects may be added by skills/passives when sprinting - You attack with Mana Pulse and Druid gets a movement blood frenzy rush This excites me for future patches of Sigma even more
Removed stamina gain per level of vitality, removed stamina stats on most items - Do I look like I care xD
Stamina now vs vanilla Diablo 2:
You no longer need to stand still to initiate stamina regen from an empty orb - Nice Quality of life improvement I always wanted in the Den of Evil!
Stamina regeneration rate has been improved significantly - I am guessing this involves the Sprint mechanic
Morphs now have the same walking speed as the character, instead of being slower, and can now run - Finally a
Superbeast that feels like actual Super Beast!
Character base movement speed slightly increased - Yes thank you for being mercyful and making me feel less miserable about the movement speed removal in items
Movement speed (Faster Run/Walk) from most items removed - RIP. Flying Saucer is gonna have much less "flying" now!
Instead, boots can now spawn with innate 15-40% movement speed regardless of rarity. Middle values are weighted to be most common
Skill speeds have been removed, all player skills will now modify item equivalents (adjusted accordingly)
Skill speeds often confused players and caused inordinate character speeds endgame, both of which were undesirable - I feel like going over the speed cap isnt that big of a deal and if "slow" in game worked in a way where it reduces your "speed rates" by a certain percentage(FHR,FBR,FCR,FRW) this would mean veterans would stack extra velocity just so they can conteract that % to be less effective against them so they can have easier time boss fighting! But if that isnt the case Slow should have been reduced in effectiveness for a while now even before throw Barbarians broke the game with skill slow
Monster slow effects reduced by 40%
Velocity slow on armors and shields reduced by 40% - Omg Yes plz! Slowness = Frustration , Speed = Fun and Excitement!
Overall I think This Median version is going to have much more Dynamic gameplay compared to previous versions it might actually feel slow when played compared to the first where you just bum rush everything and finish everything that is there to be done very quickly which I am not sure if its a good thing..People definitely are gonna take a bit of time before getting used to it. This may mean that the super fast gameplay mod we knew is different now with the implementation of more strict progression!
BUT that doesn't mean its has lost the exciting moments I am sure its still gonna be able to keep us in the edge of our seats while playing it and still have fun while playing it!
And if you successfully read my clusterfuck of an "essay" of first impressions and personal opinions you have been very bored like me indeed xD