Installing Lord of Destruction is a little different from installing a normal game. First, you run the installer (it's of the same type as the Diablo II and Starcraft installers). While it's installing, you have to put the Original Diablo II play disc, and later, the LoD disk. When finished, you will have a brand new Diablo II icon, and you must have the LoD CD in the drive (the play disc won't work) to play.

The first thing you will want to know when starting your first game, is that there is a big difference between expansion and non-expansion characters. Your normal characters can be converted to expansion characters, which cannot be converted back. Also, expansion players can only play against expansion players, and normal players against normal players.

I simply converted all of my characters to expansion, and every new one I start is expansion (you can also start non-expansion characters if you wish). This is merely because all of the benefits of playing in expansion mode, far outweigh the lower number of people to play against on multiplayer. Just what are these benefits anyhow?

First and foremost, you now have two new character classes to choose from when starting a new adventurer. The druid and assassin complement the original five characters perfectly. The druid, who is in tune with mother nature, conjures up spells of the elements such as tornados, volcanos, and hurricanes. He can also summon up ravens, wolves, bears, and other beasts to help your quest for the light. Additionally, he can morph into animal shapes, giving him extra powers.

The assassin is a completely different breed. She is a martial artists, skilled in thievery (she doesn't even need keys for locked chests). Her main ability are hand-tp-hand combat, shadows (carbon copies of the assassin), and traps (special magical abilities of all the elements). She is one tough cookie!

To go along with these new characters, there are new weapons and armor that are class specific. For example, claws for the assassin, special helmets for the druid and barbarian, special staffs for the sorcerous, etc. The good thing is, when you get one specific to your character, they can give a huge boost in skills, defense, or offense. But when you get one for another class, it's ordinarily not even worth picking up, because it will usually net you very little gold.

There is even a whole new class of weapons. The new ethereal weapons normally have very good statistics, but the major downside is that they cannot be repaired. So, if you decide to use one, make sure you have a backup, for when the durability runs out. However, I have found that when a hireling equips an item (more on this later), the durability doesn't decrease, so ethereal items will last forever on them.

But new character class specific weapons, and ethereal weapons aren't all there is to the new items, there is an abundance of new modifiers as well. To go along with the gems, there is some special jewels and runes. Jewels are kind of like gems, except they have magical properties (and therefore must be identified) which are totally random. Sometimes you can get lucky, and have a jewel with awesome qualities, far outreaching those of even perfect gems.

But the runes are in a class of there own. Runes are little stones imbued with magical powers. On the surface, they look like regular gems, but they aren't even close. With special combinations of these runes, in the proper socketed items, one can make specific rune words to increase the power of your armor or weapons like never before thought possible. For a great link of rune word combinations, click here.

Ah, but that's not all, there is still one more type of new modifier, but this one doesn't go into socketed items. Charms are little tokens that you keep in your inventory to give your character special abilities. From resistances, to enhanced damage, to increased life/stamina. The major disadvantage is your inventory is only so big, so you can't keep every one you find.

OK, enough of these new items, just what can you do with them. There are 4 or 5 new classes of monsters, which will randomly appear throughout the game, as well as all over the brand new Act, which brings you to the lord of destruction himself, Baal. Baal, the brother of Mephisto and Diablo, is the leader of the evil world. He has very tough minions, to go along with his very special powers. This guy is something else.

As long as we are on the topic of Act V, we might as well continue with a little more information. Act V is close to the perfect Act. About the size of Act II, and looks even cooler than Act IV, this is my new favorite. You get to complete 6 new unique quests, and learn some very different people in the town. Not to mention the environment in Act V is that of cold and snowy (just like here in Green Bay).

To help you along the way, you have hirelings, as in the original Diablo II. These are characters that will fight along side of you. But these have been given a major overhaul with the expansion pack. You can now heal them, by dragging healing potions to their icons (no more going back to the town to refresh them). Also, when they die, you can resurrect them, for a price, to bring them back exactly as they were before. Still more is that they have specific attributes like strength, life, defense, and damage. But best of all, you can equip them with weapons, shields, body armor, and helmets. This will of course increase the attributes that those items specify. Finally, the hirelings are more than just decoys.

And last, but not least, we have two new beautiful cinematics to enjoy. The same quality as we have come to expect from Blizzard's cinematics; beautiful graphics, excellent sound, and an awesome way to continue the storyline. I could sit and watch these kind of cinematics for hours on end.

I didn't notice any problems with LoD. Blizzard seems to have made this even more solid than the original.

This is hands down one of the best expansion packs available. With a whole new Act, tons of new monsters, items, weapons, modifiers, and characters, this is much more than an ordinary expansion pack. If you like Diablo II, you will love Lord of Destruction.

Pros	Cons
A full new Act with 6 news quests A boatload of new monsters, weapons, and other items A heap of new modifiers Two new unique character types Two new beautiful cinematics Continues the original storyline perfectly Advanced hirelings Double stash size	Nightmare and Hell difficulty increased a little too much
10/10 stars