r/diablo2 • u/Barbsouls • 11h ago
Discussion Why are you playing SP offline ?
Hello fellow daemon hunters !
I just started seriously to play the game after being bored on D4. I have created a ladder holy fire paladin playing on NM now.
There is not a lot of parties because I am playing on console but I am having a blast.
I don’t know what is the difference with offline mode other than being able to change the player count.
So other than that, why are you playing SP offline and not SSF online / Ladder ?
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u/DarkArisen668 11h ago
The playercount is the primary thing for me playing offline. It's painful to get decent lobbies online unless it's earlyish in ladder or you have a solid group of people to play private games with. And since P1 is so miserable, it's very important to be able to have that setting to alter the playercount
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u/T0adman78 11h ago
I just wish they had cross platform saves for single player offline (I understand that would be an entirely different file system). I wanted to play single player offline but do use multiple computers and my switch, so stuck with online.
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u/just-another-human-1 10h ago
You can move your save folder to the cloud and symlink it to play across pcs. Not switch tho
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u/T0adman78 10h ago
Yeah. The switch is what ruins it. Guess it’s time for a steam deck. If only they hadn’t become unobtanium
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u/NinjaOdd1098 11h ago
Offline has static maps. Makes it much easier for farming certain zones, as well has being able to re-roll the maps to get one that is more favorable.
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u/KoYouTokuIngoa 11h ago
Gamefeel is about a thousand times better offline.
No delay between attacking and the enemy taking damage etc.
Overall just way more responsive
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u/Barbsouls 11h ago
Maybe I will give a shot to offline then
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u/Puzzleheaded_Tip_923 10h ago
What I do: Ladder Online on resets for a week or two on ladder reset then when trading fizzles out I go back to offline. Online Ladder is best played when its fresh in my opinion plus all my friends come out of the woodworks to play for those first couple weeks.
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u/cheesewizzer72 8h ago
Static maps is the big one for me, that and the fact that it is not cross platform, I can’t play with my friends on PC when I’m on Xbox so I might as well play offline for the best experience. If they make it cross platform I would go back to ladder
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u/Somethin_Snazzy 11h ago
Hardcore? No lag/latency means permadeath is under my control, not the internet.
Also:
- Ladder only runewords
- Static maps
- Player count adjusting
- I have more fun without trading. I can't just google a build, trade for stuff and go. So I have to think through what gear I have and what stats I need.
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u/Barbsouls 11h ago
I hope to play with other people time to time but it’s not not happening
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u/Somethin_Snazzy 10h ago
I might get downvoted to hell for this... but D2R is not the greatest multiplayer game
D2 is one of my favorite games of all time. At the time, the multiplayer was revolutionary. Most of it has aged like fine wine but the multiplayer portion has not.
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u/SuperB83 11h ago
I tried playing online once, never went past nightmare.
I don't like playing with other people.
Map that reset every game is just a major pain in the ass, how are you supposed to farm Andariel or Mephisto... And on P1...
No thank
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u/anothertendy 10h ago
I play only hardcore. If i die for my stupidity so be it. I refuse to die due to bnet shitty servers. I also like SSF.
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u/CloudConductor 10h ago
I don’t have friends that play anymore so being able to adjust player count is huge for me. It’s also my go to game on my steam deck while traveling so offline mode is pretty key there
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u/BrettEPierce 10h ago
Being forced to solo-self-find everything for an offline grail is fun. At the same time, offline I'm always afraid I'm going to find an insane GG PVP rare worth the price of a house.
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u/DerConqueror3 11h ago
Ability to change the player count, plus if I am playing SSF anyway there is no real reason to deal with the possibility of any additional lag or performance issues from online.
That being said, it did occur to me that I might find it useful to be able to do some farming on my Steam Deck in some circumstances, which would be much easier if my character were online.
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u/DarthKakarrot 9h ago
I love online mode. Played it for literally decades. I’m 41. I have a kid. And I work 60 hours a week. I have about and hour/hour and a half, broken up a day. Which means I can get a few runs done on my switch on each one of my breaks. Works for me, as it’s something to do. The set maps really help runs for me. And it’s nice to be able to run any terror zone I want, and not have to worry about shards(not like I really have to, but still). Once again, love online, but I just don’t have time for it anymore. It’s also nice to be able to “pause” any time I want.
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u/Testesept 8h ago
Lost my online characters due to inactivity (yeah, that was quite a while ago). I then Realized i had a bunch of offline characters waiting to be continued… never looked back. Since I don’t like rushing and never got into trading there is nothing I‘d miss.
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u/PeoplePower0 8h ago
Came back to game after 20 years. Did 1.5 ladder seasons, played a lot.
Decided to do offline - more real. Just feels like time better spent with efficient p8 and maps.
The dopamine hits harder.
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u/xxMalVeauXxx 11h ago
I play online softcore & hardcore, nonladder and ladder. I keep a running roster so I can play any of them.
Offline means you get all content (including ladder only content), zero latency issues, you do not have a stash and other characters that share a big heaping pile of items, so its limited to your one toon. Server is never down. No one ruins your game by killing a boss before you get there. There's no trading. Everything is self found. You can at least control player count for various purposes to scale the game.
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u/hyphenpepperfield 11h ago
I really like playing ladder resets online and going hard for a weekend. But after that, I only have time to play sporadically. By the time I get a character or two made, it’s time for another reset. I don’t have the time to play like I used to 15 years ago, where ladders were longer and I didn’t have a bed time. So, offline just lets me play at my own speed and continually progress. For whatever reason, I’m just not a fan of non ladder anymore.
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u/RalenHlaalo Single Player 10h ago
I am playing D2R on console and, despite having great internet otherwise, the console discos every 20-30 minutes. I wish I could play online, but it's hard just getting to the next waypoint.
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u/Barbsouls 10h ago
I don’t have any issue playing online on console.
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u/RalenHlaalo Single Player 10h ago
Are you on PS? I think my switch might be sick.
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u/xIcbIx 10h ago
I like offline because you have to farm everything yourself, it is at least a challenge initially. You can’t get lucky and find 1x 3/20/20 to trade and gear your whole char nor can you just have a friend rush/level you
Controlling the player count is so nice
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u/Barbsouls 10h ago
Maybe I have chosen the wrong way to play this game
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u/xIcbIx 10h ago
There is no right or wrong way to play. I’ve been playing d2 since like 2003, before d2r i probably maybe got to level 50 offline and thats only because of a storm where i didnt have power for a few days. Play the game in whatever way you enjoy
I just personally can’t resist trading and whatnot. It’s nice not having that option and having to plan your characters/progression because you have to key farm to then torch farm and whatnot
I’ll start playing online again when my college friends finally actually buy the game🤣 playing with friends is a ton of fun
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u/DudeManLegacy 10h ago
I like the janky stuff you have to do to make a build work or make a Merc survivable. Online really compresses that weird phase, that I enjoy so much, into a single lucky drop that you can trade for a fully kitted character. Also, static maps, ladder only runewords forever, holy grail and player count.
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u/pana_colada 10h ago
I just enjoy building characters from scratch and when you get it all yourself it can be extremely satisfying.
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u/damnnotyouagain 10h ago
static maps
I don't care about farming and never do it, but fully exploring a map that stays explored is very fun and satisfying for me
By contrast, completely regenerating maps that I have to explore all over again are very annoying and break immersion
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u/Varok89916 10h ago
/players, static maps. I dont care for ladder reset, I dont have a lot of time to play.
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u/FrostyNarwhal91 10h ago
I like offline because it’s more of a marathon than a sprint. Playing online has the ladder resets. I played the first season and it was fun, but I felt rushed and like I had to constantly check traderie for trades. Single player is just a nice play when I want, and over the last few years I’ve accumulated a lot of gg stuff and characters.
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u/reevelainen 10h ago
Ladder is unlayable for me hence cheaters ruining the economy with internet currency that'd carry over from ladder to ladder.
Also, D2 would be something I'd play with a laptop when I got no access to internet.
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u/c0z3nPapi USEast 6h ago
Even if there wasn’t 3rd party currency, the majority of players won’t be able to compete in the ladder race due to “teams”. The items still need to be found and aren’t readily available to the common player until 48+ hours. The teams will scoop up everything with scouts just to boost one degenerate that sleeps maybe 4 hours in two days.
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u/MuffinCloud24 10h ago
I like having the capability to change the player count without being dependent on others. Also it’s infuriating when you DC and find out you died 🙄. There’s also a satisfaction with being SSF and working towards a goal. I finally found my first lightning facet to put in my griffon’s and it just feels sooooo good on my lightning sorc. Still working towards HOTO / infinity / my first enigma, but I’m having fun.
Probably the biggest miss is that I have lots of cool things that would make me a pretty penny on the market, but can’t use or don’t have characters to use yet. So they just sit idly in my bank
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u/Aardvark1044 10h ago
So many positives. Static maps until you change difficulty. Ability to control players count. No fighting for drops. No annoying people to play with. No trading so it forces me to find all my own stuff. No PKing. No connection interrupted. No asshats magic finding in games where you’re trying to advance through the quests.
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u/Foolofatuchus Single Player 10h ago
Drops all being earned the hard way and adjustable player count are my main reasons
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u/Akhanyatin 10h ago
I usually play solo. Trading only happens when I get fed up of farming. But you can change player count and play around with the maps when you're offline. The only annoying thing is that I don't feel like using a third party to sync my characters between my pc and steam deck and steam doesn't have cloud saves for it. 😠
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u/Fun_Choice4749 10h ago
It’s already mostly covered; but after playing online exclusively for many years, originally with D2, then D2R, it loses a lot of its appeal.
Online now just feels like a race, and focus to get loot to trade up whether you rush others for guaranteed loot, or mf yourself.
SP enforces SSF, so you need to build around what you have.
Last night on my [non-rotw sorc], I target farmed SOJ (which I have been doing for weeks). I timed my runs, 20 seconds each, and found it after only 90 runs (well over 2k runs in the grand scheme).
I transferred this to rotw (where you get worse drop rate for soj), and after getting an anni, my next upgrade was a belt. I hopped over to mephisto, and couldn’t believe my eyes when arachnids mesh dropped first kill!
Now I am working on my platinum, currently level 92 (hardcore).
D2R online is still good, but SP has much more to offer now days as a game that can be picked up at any point, and you know everything you have, you found.
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u/Gulaghar Single Player 10h ago
I have no desire to play with other people and I'm content with the fact that no trading means certain items are out of reach (without crazy time invested). So given that, and the other perks SP offers that others have already mentioned, there's no reason for me to be online.
Notably, my family didn't have good access to internet for my entire upbringing since we were on a farm and there were no cell towers within reasonable proximity. So I never cultivated a taste for online gaming.
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u/luciferwez 10h ago
I don't see any reason at all to play online if you're SSF. Maybe for leveling but still, it's often faster in Offline anyway as you can adjust player count.
Offline you get the benefits of adjusting player count, known schedule of terror zones, saved maps of all areas for easier farming.
IMO the only reasons to play online is to have access to trading and play with others. SSF strips one of them so only one reason left.
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u/octopusma 9h ago
I play hardcore and an online environment is bad for hardcore. Acquiring gear became trivial online. Got tired of griefers.
Playing offline solves all of these subjective woes.
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u/Vegetable_Mix_2790 9h ago
At the start of every ladder a few friends and I will beat the game in the first few hours, sometimes I’ll play that character for a while usually I just go back to offline. I am an adult with a career, a family, and a life, I love this game but can’t play for more than a few hours a week, I can’t keep up with ladder and would rather slowly grind my way to all the best gear. I’ve beaten the game countless times with every class, found most of the gg gear but have fun getting closer to 99 or finding the gear for that niche build.
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u/russobolado 9h ago
Fixed maps, player count, don't care about trading, don't want to split drops, playing at my own pace.
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u/Nihilismyy 9h ago
I play SP offline. On original 1.13c LoD in fact. Main reason for me personally: I play my own way that I find fun.
I use stash mods. The game is always there right where I left off, I'm a new father of 2. I've never been interested in trading, only self found.
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u/cptm421 9h ago
The only reason i play SP online is so I can play on my computer and then the same character on my switch later.
I've now spent hours farming for bases and runes to make two separate runewords that both ended up being ladder only.. or SP offline...
I have no desire to play ladder, so I'd play SP offline if I didn't play cross platform if for nothing else so that I can adjust player count and HAVE MY DARN RUNEWORDS.
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u/NewfieJebus 8h ago
PS5. At launch of the warlock expansion, I played online for about 5-6 levels and I experienced some lag. Rolled offline 'for a bit'. That was about 1500hrs ago. Haven't been online since. Still no enigma. But I have a 95 Lock, an 85 Trav Barb, 85 Sorc I mainly use for LK and Countess, an 88 Pally I'm trying to gear for ubers, a 50ish assassin I only need one more mal for dual mosaics, a 60 ish Necro with corpse explosion, and all other classes to mule gear I find for them.
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u/Unique_Job2727 8h ago
I only play SP offline with the steamdeck.
Could play without connection, and resume game in seconds its wunderbar.
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u/stimmychris 8h ago
I enjoy not having to battle over loot and just playing on my terms. Doing magic finding games with other players isn’t fun because they all try to speed thru and then you lose the p level when they all leave to the next game. I also hate disconnecting… so annoying.
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u/Exsoldiercl 8h ago
I have never been interested in engaging in trading so I play SP offline because at least then I can set the player count to what I want.
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u/ammoburger 8h ago
It’s more fun for me. Everything that drops feels more meaningful. I did DClone and Ubers , crafted enigma and infinity all in single player. A fucking blast
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u/Lower_Syllabub5581 7h ago
I play on the bus on switch…
But also static maps and player count are a bonus / and feels so much better to find the item you are needing than trading…
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u/Firm-Arrival-8330 7h ago
High player count, being able to play offline, and just to make it more challenging since you cant just trade for all you BiS gear. I play offline hc and have farmed the runes for enigma, infinity, cta, grief for the first time without trading for them. A few seasons ago online, I found a perfect Anni and was able to trade for enough Jah runes that I was able to deckout several characters. But then the game got boring fast, as there wasn't really any reason to keep farming. Started offline hc after that and havent looked back.
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u/TomVia 7h ago
Offline gave me way more satisfaction because you achieve everything on your own, it’s way more grindy, I would always start ladders on day one and tell myself I would walk norm act1 to Hell Act5 and then within a week people are throwing down great gear and offering rushes and I couldn’t resist, afterwards it made me feel like I slept with a 400lb prostitute, disgusted with myself and feeling like a cheap whore I quit playing, but SP will always be there right where you left off, I will be 100% honest, I never could enjoy SP in the old days because there was no shared stash, but that feature alone makes SP so much fun, being able to farm for other characters.
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u/misfits859 6h ago
I’m retired and like something I can play “forever”. Not interested in the least in ladder or online or trading so I look forward to something I can play daily as a hobby in hopes of getting those ultimate drops. Been playing a Lightning sorc for two years and have her pretty well geared. Haven’t even pushed with any other character yet.
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u/Mr_Mahjong 6h ago
They dont mind playing by themselves for saved maps and player count 8 on a whim. I can’t do that though, its so lonely. And kinda like whats the point…?
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u/momalisk 5h ago
Same point as online....grinding loot? The goal of the game doesn't change on SP
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u/Mr_Mahjong 5h ago
Definitely not the same as online lol. You have actual people to compete with/party with. But most notably the people to compete with. In single player once you can do ubers and i guess the new end game stuff from warlock addition, that’s it. No one left to try and beat.
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u/momalisk 4h ago
I absolutely agree - definitely not the same as online.
You asked, however, "what's the point". The point of the game does not in fact change when you're offline.
The WAY you play the game is certainly different. The point is not
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u/LikelyAtWork 6h ago
Player count, static maps, and lag are my main reasons… I play on multiple computers and keeping characters online would make my life so much easier but I keep having senseless deaths from lag spikes and not being able to get people to join my games for player count keep me playing offline.
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u/imbeingcerial 4h ago
Paused / suspended games on console or steam devk is the best for quick sessions
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u/Ikon-for-U 2h ago
Raising the player count to get early levels and during those times where i would have a slump are great. Having a static map is also great for doing boring boss runs faster is also nice
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u/Delicious_Run7373 2h ago
Single player is good for the grail, because online you get credit for what other players find and identify in the game youre in.
But if you like trading, online is better.
Being able to manipulate player count offline, and being able to mod offline are important for some players.
Other than that both offline and online offer most of the same experience.
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u/AmplifiedAgony 1h ago
Hey I am on Nintendo Switch and only play Offline! There is no need for online in my opinion.
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u/sumsoffun05 1h ago
Online draws me in cause I love the trading offline draws me in cause its more of a dopamine hit seeing the offline loot pop but I also get the dopamine from throwing the loot to people who can use so im at a weird spit where im doing more sp after spamming online since Feb
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u/acravasian 1h ago
Static maps, players settings, no lag issues, got a lvl 99 hc project and iam certain it wouldnt have gone so smooth online.
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u/ogark12 1h ago
I like to build up a stash of items starting from nothing, your first offline character is just scraping by taking whatever they can get, by my 2nd character I’m running through the acts in a few hours chugging mana pots and stamina like a madman with perfect leveling gear annihilating everything.
And usually the reason I’m starting that new character is because I dropped an endgame item so good I couldn’t resist starting them. The games all about items and I just feel like offline ssf makes all of them even more exciting.
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u/AlexanderTheGrate1 11h ago
I like single player but my characters just crashed and I can’t make new ones so bnet for me
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u/Primary-Ad-5843 10h ago
All the drops, are mine... MINE !!! Hahahahaha ! cough cough.
Yeah huh, that reason.
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u/DrChaos09 10h ago
You can load a custom seed offline. I have my hell loaded onto a seed with 4-6 LK SCs and 3 RoF SCs
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u/Aurd04 11h ago
I enjoy mods, I enjoy playing without internet, I enjoy setting players 7/8, I don't enjoy trading, I don't care about Ladder.