Median XL News, May 2025

[Nugwa]

Will oskills be given some love?

That's roughly 70% of my focus rn. If you're in the discord I'm avail for feedback.

The capybara morph oskill is missing

[berry117]

My biggest issues in Median as a casual player are:

Regardless of whether or not you like ssf, it exists as a proof of concept that a lot of the content can be cleared without trading for absurdly rare chase items. We have plenty of players who regularly beat most of the content ssf. I personally would like to see the amount of guides for builds that are ssf viable increase, as I think there's a really big misconception about tg being a requirement to play the game. TG exists to use carry-over success to bypass gearing walls. Where tg really becomes unhealthy is when whales can simply outbid newer players for items, or bulk buy things for corruptions. I dislike auctions for that reason.

There are some valid points in this thread about the downsides, and I personally would be interested in the option to participate in a fresh start league, however tg is a really hard thing to walk back in a way that's fair to all of the people who bought some to support the mod or had a few really successful patches and made bank.

the "ty" thing in the trade section pisses me off too, but in my few years of playing I haven't really had any issues with finding out relative value on items (save for that time sky murder was brand new and I way over-paid for the first one on the realm ) theres also a big discord community who can help identify if someone's trying to price gouge, if you cba to actually learn what items are worth. That skill takes a while.

Hopefully we can implement a better solution to the current trading system some day, but for now you kinda have to interact with the community if you need help with making tg/or you're playing builds that cant farm fast enough without buying an item.

There's a really good guide about tg.
How to stop fearing it.

There are pros and cons to it.

The easiest argument against it, wha wha wha whales bidding higher than a noob on something actually is good for noob who want to actually partake in the system instead of whine about it.

Play the game get item whale eat it.

Noob drop good ssu in Dunc.
Two whales fight, good profit for noob.

You can simply farm nihlathak in almost any difficulty and make tg too.

Sigs are valuable early, everyone needs* 400.

Actually taking the time to set up a mule account for sets and su ssu etc nets big tg, people are just fucking lazy and its easier to type a few sentances on why tg is bad and needs nerf and why its oppressing them in their every waking moment rather than joining the system like everyone else who has ever used tg.

You used to be able to farm jewels, and sell them in bulk for tg, when jewelcrafting would lower the ilevel of the jewel.
People would spend tg on items you just grabbed a bunch of in vizjun.

Arcane crystals, anyone can farm them, and early and all throughout they sell easily.

There's many, many ways to make it, its a grind in a 20 something year old grind simulator.

I think the game becomes muddy when just uninformed people or overzealous hand me everything people assume that they should just be able to access whatever content they want easily, there's a huge sense of entitlement when it comes to what players think they're entitled to in terms of content clearing, or where the "endgame" is.

My endgame is 140-144 on a bowzon every season comfortable clearing scos.

I cant into labs, I cant kill the last handful of giga boss.
I dont want that shit changed so I can not adapt or try different things to accomplish it, its not a goal of mine and idc.

[Giu]

My biggest issues in Median as a casual player are:

Regardless of whether or not you like ssf, it exists as a proof of concept that a lot of the content can be cleared without trading for absurdly rare chase items. We have plenty of players who regularly beat most of the content ssf. I personally would like to see the amount of guides for builds that are ssf viable increase, as I think there's a really big misconception about tg being a requirement to play the game. TG exists to use carry-over success to bypass gearing walls. Where tg really becomes unhealthy is when whales can simply outbid newer players for items, or bulk buy things for corruptions. I dislike auctions for that reason.

There are some valid points in this thread about the downsides, and I personally would be interested in the option to participate in a fresh start league, however tg is a really hard thing to walk back in a way that's fair to all of the people who bought some to support the mod or had a few really successful patches and made bank.

the "ty" thing in the trade section pisses me off too, but in my few years of playing I haven't really had any issues with finding out relative value on items (save for that time sky murder was brand new and I way over-paid for the first one on the realm ) theres also a big discord community who can help identify if someone's trying to price gouge, if you cba to actually learn what items are worth. That skill takes a while.

Hopefully we can implement a better solution to the current trading system some day, but for now you kinda have to interact with the community if you need help with making tg/or you're playing builds that cant farm fast enough without buying an item.

There's a really good guide about tg.
How to stop fearing it.

There are pros and cons to it.

The easiest argument against it, wha wha wha whales bidding higher than a noob on something actually is good for noob who want to actually partake in the system instead of whine about it.

Play the game get item whale eat it.

Noob drop good ssu in Dunc.
Two whales fight, good profit for noob.

You can simply farm nihlathak in almost any difficulty and make tg too.

Sigs are valuable early, everyone needs* 400.

Actually taking the time to set up a mule account for sets and su ssu etc nets big tg, people are just fucking lazy and its easier to type a few sentances on why tg is bad and needs nerf and why its oppressing them in their every waking moment rather than joining the system like everyone else who has ever used tg.

You used to be able to farm jewels, and sell them in bulk for tg, when jewelcrafting would lower the ilevel of the jewel.
People would spend tg on items you just grabbed a bunch of in vizjun.

Arcane crystals, anyone can farm them, and early and all throughout they sell easily.

There's many, many ways to make it, its a grind in a 20 something year old grind simulator.

I think the game becomes muddy when just uninformed people or overzealous hand me everything people assume that they should just be able to access whatever content they want easily, there's a huge sense of entitlement when it comes to what players think they're entitled to in terms of content clearing, or where the "endgame" is.

My endgame is 140-144 on a bowzon every season comfortable clearing scos.

I cant into labs, I cant kill the last handful of giga boss.
I dont want that shit changed so I can not adapt or try different things to accomplish it, its not a goal of mine and idc.

The only problem is that it lasts between seasons, fix is easy, make new tg only last for the season its bought on, old tg can stay until its moved between accs then it enters this new system.

[berry117]

No reason to play then

The same cool guys who cry about tg, are the same ones with 0 balance, and 25+ times donated badge.

The whole "i was outbid by someone one time on the first sbs of the season that every phys char wants" argument for tg being unhealthy imo is just a shit argument that is used a lot.

If it resets every season, people who were gonna donate anyway. Are still donating and now have some imaginary upper hand because of their financial situation in a mod of a 20 something year old game.

Or maybe they dont donate at all, because their number that means nothing is gonna go away.

Idk, I like my imaginary number and I like making it get bigger, the already lack of interest in playing would only grow if there wasn't something I was able to achieve or grow over multiple seasons.

[Taem]

The same cool guys who cry about tg, are the same ones with 0 balance, and 25+ times donated badge.

I'm not quite understanding the reference here, though I'm certain there's a solid point you're trying to convey. From my perspective, I am in the ballpark of a casual player who buys TG to get items late in the season. I don't care about earning TG, and the cost isn't that important to me so long as I am able to support the mod. I don't buy items until end game when I'm just not interested in farming 1000-hr when I only play a few hours a week. So I match all your criteria... And I don't complain about TG at all. I think the system is fine as is and I don't really understand why some people are complaining TBH.

[Maidstone]

Is there any chance for new RW paladin spear or existing paladin spears rework? Also

Barghest's Howl

Barghest's Howl
Hundsgugel (Sacred)
Defense: 5327 to 5684
(Paladin Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 500
Item Level: 105
Level 1 Wolf Stance
28% Attack Speed
40% Movement Speed
28% Hit Recovery
10% Crushing Blow
10% Weapon Physical Damage
5% Chance to cast level 23 Bloodlust on Melee Attack
(15 to 20)% Life stolen per Hit
Hit Causes Monster to Flee +1%
Slow Target 5%
+200% Enhanced Defense
+2000 Defense
+50 to Strength
+100 Life Regenerated per Second
3% Reanimate as: Random Monster
-2 to Light Radius
Socketed (4)

looks not so good and

Cinadide's Bellows

Cinadide's Bellows
Hundsgugel (Sacred)
Defense: (2661 - 2994) to (2947 - 3315)
(Paladin Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Strength: 500
Item Level: 1
40% Attack Speed
20% Hit Recovery
Adds 25-50 Damage
Adds 50-100 Fire Damage
Weapon Physical Damage +(19 to 30)%
+(140 to 170)% Enhanced Defense
+(41 to 60) to Strength
Socketed (4)

Cinadide's Craft
(Paladin Honor Set)

is better than SU with huge flat physical damage. Maybe

The Ritualist

The Ritualist
Gambeson (Sacred)
Defense: (5583 - 6345) to (5951 - 6762)
(Sorceress Only)
Required Level: 100
Required Dexterity: 486
Item Level: 105
+(3 to 5) to Sorceress Skill Levels
+50 Spell Focus
Firedance Cooldown Reduced by 6 seconds
+20% to Fire Spell Damage
-20% to Enemy Fire Resistance
+(120 to 150)% Enhanced Defense
+3000 Defense vs. Missile
Fire Absorb 5%
+(30 to 50) Life after each Kill
Socketed (6)

item deserve reword as well something like +1% Mr instead of 10% PR and 300-375 maximum damage + 1 Great Hunt Projectile or Great hunt radius increased + 50% no one those spears will be cool every item to be useful not only for arcane shards.

[Giu]

The same cool guys who cry about tg, are the same ones with 0 balance, and 25+ times donated badge.

I'm not quite understanding the reference here, though I'm certain there's a solid point you're trying to convey. From my perspective, I am in the ballpark of a casual player who buys TG to get items late in the season. I don't care about earning TG, and the cost isn't that important to me so long as I am able to support the mod. I don't buy items until end game when I'm just not interested in farming 1000-hr when I only play a few hours a week. So I match all your criteria... And I don't complain about TG at all. I think the system is fine as is and I don't really understand why some people are complaining TBH.

The reason (afaik) people complain is that theres no real "fresh start" with tg staying between seasons which is the main attraction of d2.

The only difference it would make is that people would only grind enough trading power to get the gear to do x content instead of grinding to raise wealth for future season projects.

[Taem]

Okay, I get it now. Basically ladder purists want a "fair shot" at being #1. Makes sense. Not my play style, but I get it. I doubt there is a solution for this however.

[Doupadoupa]

Okay, I get it now. Basically ladder purists want a "fair shot" at being #1. Makes sense. Not my play style, but I get it. I doubt there is a solution for this however.

There is solution for this, called SSF

Otherwise, the attempts are done only for 10-20 players that care about being #1 and grind tones of hours on ladder start, they are gone after 2 weeks.
Majority of players do not care about #1, TG just enables them to spend less time/have more fun, so making TG changes towards few players is nonsense
(like idea of TG not being transfered for next season)

I'd rather see more advertisement on streamers/media but i'd quess it's planned for 3.0 release (right? RIGHT?)

[Nugwa]

TG is a good system for filthy casuals and ease of trading alike, paired with a SSF ladder and viable builds that are SSF it makes sense.

I am 110% for more SSF ladders and content like this and am super happy to see the focus on it.

It is also fun to have crazy rare OP chase items that are for the lulz. The current problem is the "whales" are dudes who have accumulated bezos levels of TG wealth over the course of many years.

People forget that the vast majority (95%+) of TG was literally purchased. The price to "buy in" to the TG system has become insane just because of the sheer amount of TG in circulation and the fact that there are people with many thousands of dollars worth of it who have never donated.

A pure system would see TG not purchasable. It would be acquired only through trades or be given to verified accounts at an accumulated rate for hours played (earn TG even while playing SSF). Or through another system that requires you to play (boss drops /achievements etc) I understand that would introduce a whole level of corruption but believe it or not MXL is relatively free of RMT and botting compared to other games.


The only thing I can see being done out of fairness to the majority of people, is to do a decimal move on the current TG holdings. 10,000 tg holders would have 1,000. It would mean any item previously worth 100 is now worth 10, but that 100TG item wouldn't cost 2 hours of wages for the average person (yes the global average wage is 50 TG/5USD an hour) instead it would cost a 1 dollar donation. In this way no one with a lot of work honestly farming/trading and saving TG over the years would be screwed out of their trading power, and people who cant afford to donate 25-100 dollars to buy in would do so. Aside from " WTF MY BIG NUMBER NOW SMALL NUMBER " factor there are really no downsides to that option (aside from the technical implementation of it).

FG and TG were always partly a way to bring in donations to support the servers. That solution would likely serve to boost the amount of donations as well.

Don't come at me with that pull yourself up by your bootstraps shit either. It takes serious work or luck to accumulate TG in a respectable amount with out donating (almost all of the people who say this have 100+ hours in 1 week of ladder start). You will spend dozens of hours AC farming to be able to sell enough for 25-100 TG and its really only doable the first week of a season before the prices of everything literally drop off of a cliff. The argument I am making here is not about if its possible to spend an inordinate amount of time to acquire TG, it is that donating for TG is no longer as viable. Which again is why im glad to see a focus to SSF and hope to see more balance around that gameplay loop.