Patch

Throughout its history, Diablo II has been patched to fix bugs, introduce improvements, adjust game balance and add content. Patches are automatically downloaded and installed when connecting to Battle.net, so players are always playing the latest patch on the Realms.
Earlier patches can still be played in Single Player (and Other Multiplayer) by reinstalling Classic Diablo II for patches prior to the Expansion (1.07), and by reinstalling the Lord of Destruction Expansion for later patches. Earlier patches can be downloaded from Blizzard's File Transfer Protocol site.

Patch	Release Date	Comment
1.13d	27 Oct 2011 0[1]	Released two days after start of Ladder season 9
1.13c	23 Mar 2010 0[2]	Start of Ladder season 6
1.13b	23 Feb 2010 0[3]	Public Test Realm
1.13a	10 Dec 2010 0[4]	Public Test Realm
1.12	17 Jun 2008 0[5]	Start of Ladder season 5
1.11b	13 Sep 2005 0[0]
1.11	1 Aug 2005 0[6]	Pandemonium Event introduced
1.10	8 Jul 2004 0[7]	Start of Ladder season 2, Ladder Rune Words released server-side
	28 Oct 2003 0[8]	New Ladder system, start of Ladder season 1, World Event introduced
	4 Aug 2003 0[9]	Beta
	17 Jul 2003 [10]	Beta (Macintosh)
	10 Jul 2003 [11]	Beta (Macintosh)
	3 Jul 2003 [12]	Beta (PC)
1.09d	5 Dec 2001 [13]	PC
1.09d	21 Nov 2001 [14]	Macintosh
1.09c	14 Nov 2001 [15]
1.09b	5 Sep 2001 0[0]
1.09	20 Aug 2001 0[0]
1.08	29 Jun 2001 [16]
1.07	29 Jun 2001 [17]	Expansion release
1.06b	17 May 2001 [18]
1.06	19 Apr 2001 [19]
1.05b
1.05
1.04b
1.04
1.03
1.02
1.01
1.00	29 Jun 2000 0[0]	Classic release

Patch 1.13d

New Features

Ignoring players is now saved between sessions of the game. All ignores are now written out to disk (file: 'ignorelist'). This feature can be toggled by issuing the command '/ignorepersist'.
Users can now filter messages based on content by issuing the command '/filtermsg <content>'. To unfilter content issue the command '/unfiltermsg <content>'. (The maximum length of a filter pattern is 128 characters)
Users can now set their home channel by issuing a new Battle.net chat command '/home <channel name>' while in the Battle.net chat interface.
Users can return to their home channel at any time by issuing the command '/home' while in the Battle.net chat interface.

Major Bugs

Fixed a known dupe method.
Fixed another issue where players were able to stack auras in an unintended way.

Minor Bugs

Fixed a bug where Mercenaries wouldn't have multiple auras active when they should have.
Fixed an issue where players could create games prefixed with color codes.
Potentially fixed an issue where players would be disconnected when watching the cinematics when in a Battle.net game.
Fixed an issue where the game would crash when running in windowed mode with sound disabled and the game tried to play a cinematic.

Battle.net Chat Reminder

Battle.net provides a number of ways to manage in-game spam and communication from other players. Some of these commands are:

/options ignorepublic (/o igpub)

Ignores messages in public chat channels from anyone who isn't on your friends list.

/options unignorepublic (/o uigpub)

Reallows messages in public chat channels from anyone who isn't in your friends list.

/options ignoreprivate (/o igpriv)

While in private chat channels you will not receive messages from anyone who isn't in your friends list.

/options unignoreprivate (/o uigpriv)

Re-allows messages in private chat channels from anyone who isn't in your friends list.

/options ignorewhispers (/o igw)

Ignore whispers from anyone who isn't in your friends list.

/options unignorewhispers (/o unigw)

Reallows whispers from all users.

Patch 1.13c

A new Mystery has been revealed!

Adventurers of Sanctuary are hereby warned once again, that a new challenge awaits you. Within Diablo's Bosses, spanning across the world from the ancient Monastery Catacombs to the Throne of Destruction, is where you'll find what you seek...

Major Bugs

Fixed an item dupe bug.
Video improvements for Intel Mac machines with OS 10.5 or greater.
Fixed an issue where some players could kill other players while in town ("TPPK").
Fixed an issue where some players could disconnect other players when they had too many active states.
Fixed two issues where players could stack auras in an unintended way.

Minor Bugs

Uber Mephisto now checks for both Uber Baal and Uber Diablo to be killed before spawning summoned minions (Before he would only check for Uber Baal).
The game will no longer stop and then restart the game music after the window loses and then regains focus.
Fixed an issue where the game window would minimize when running in windowed mode when it lost focus.
Fixed an issue where the game window wouldn't center properly when it was created.
Fangskin should now properly drop loot in Hell difficulty.
Fixed an issue where auras were not re-applied to your mercenary after it was resurrected.
Fixed an issue where if you had two items which provided auras to a mercenary and you unequipped one, the aura from the remaining item never became active.
Fixed an issue where the Paladin class runeword 'Principle' wasn't having all of its stats applied properly.
Fixed an issue where the Paladin's Charge ability would become locked out if Holy Shield faded while charging.
Fixed an issue where the Barbarian's Leap ability could become locked out if they were hit when they started to leap.

Specific changes/improvements

Respecialization is now possible! Completing the 'Den of Evil' quest will now additionally reward 1 free respec which can be saved. Players who have already completed this quest should receive 1 free respec in Hell difficulty.
Increased the drop rate of high runes.
Support for blit scaling in windowed mode. The game can now be maximized to the largest 4:3 resolution supported (hooray widescreen users).
Some rare drop items now have an orange color. i.e. Runes and items required for Uber Tristam.
Modified the gold bank limit to be a flat cap not bound by level.
Removed the requirements to create a hardcore character.
Greatly reduced the explosion damage dealt by Fire Enchanted monsters.
Uber Mephisto and Uber Baal's summoned minions no longer give experience.
Removed Oblivion Knight's Iron Maiden curse.
Hellfire Torch Firestorm proc rate has been reduced to 5%.
Users can now toggle the display of text over the Health and Mana globes by clicking on the bottom area of each orb.
When creating a single player game, each difficulty button is now bound to a unique key: Normal 'R', Nightmare 'N', and Hell 'H'.
The 'Enter Chat' Button in the battle.net waiting room is now bound to the 'Enter' key.
Added the windows system buttons to the game window (MIN, MAX, CLOSE).
Added new command line parameter '-nofixaspect' which allows users to not fix the aspect ratio to 4:3 when maximizing in windowed mode. This lets the game 'stretch' to fill your monitor.
Added support for '-sndbkg' command line switch. This enables sound in background.
Added the following aliases for pre-existing command line options, '-nosound', '-window', and '-windowed'.

Revised Skill balance for Player Character classes

Amazon

Immolation Arrow - Increased radius of Explosion effect by 33% and Immolation effect by 50%.
Immolation Arrow - Explosion effect damage increased by 20%.
Immolation Arrow - Increased base duration by 33%.

Assassin

Dragon Claw - Synergy receives 4% additional damage per point of Claw Mastery.
Dragon Talon - The bonus to Attack Rating per point has been increased to 35.
Shadow Master - Increased resistance range per point from 5-80 to 5-90.
Combo points awarded by combo moves now last 15 seconds, up from 9.

Barbarian

Whirlwind - Reduced initial mana cost by 50%.
Masteries - Changed critical strike chance from 0-25 to 0-35.

Paladin

Blessed Hammer - No longer ignores resistances of undead and demons.

Druid

Werebear - Damage bonus increased by 15% across all ranks.
Werebear - Increased health by 25% and armor by 1% per point.
Shockwave - Synergy from Maul adds 5% damage per point.

Necromancer

Blood Golem - Removed negative shared life effect (player no longer loses life when the golem takes damage).
Corpse Explosion - Increased base damage dealt from 60% - 100% to 70% - 120% of corpses health.
Poison Nova - Increased base damage by 15%.

Sorceress

Firewall - Synergy receives 1% damage per point of Inferno and 4% per point of Warmth.
Blaze - Synergy receives 1% damage per point of Firewall and 4% per point of Warmth.
Hydra - Increased base damage by 15% per rank.
Hydra - Increased base speed of Hydra projectile.
Hydra - Reduced cooldown by 25%.

Patch 1.13b

Public Test Realm

Patch 1.13a

Public Test Realm

Patch 1.12

Downloadable Installer Support

If all required Diablo 2 '.MPQ' files are installed on the hard drive, the game will no longer require the CD to play.

For users that originally performed a 'Full Installation' and wish to run without the CD, all '.MPQ' files should be copied from the Diablo 2 CDs to the Diablo 2 directory. Most users will only need to copy D2Music.mpq from the Diablo 2 Play CD and/or D2xMusic.mpq from the Lord of Destruction CD. Mac users will need to copy these music files and rename them to 'Diablo II Music' and 'Diablo II Expansion Music' respectively.

Anyone who did not perform a 'Full Installation' will need to re-install from CD again to ultimately play without the CD. In this case, a 'Full Installation' is required, followed by file copy step noted above.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an incompatibility between Rosetta and OpenGL mode on Intel Mac.

Patch 1.11b

FIXES

Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when you return to chat after playing a game on Battle.net.
Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when the runeword "Peace" was equipped on a hireling.

Patch 1.11

A new Mystery has been revealed!

Players of Hell Difficulty Realm games are hereby warned once again, that a series of new and challenging tests await you! The answer lies within Diablo's Bosses, which span across the world from the Den of Evil to the Throne of Destruction...

New Items

Added 10 New Runewords.
Added new Unique Items that will drop from Special Bosses.

Hireling Enhancements

Players can purchase hirelings that are within 1-5 levels below their own level.
The rate at which hirelings gain experience has been increased. They should now stay closer to the player's level.

Major Bugs

Creating a town portal when corpses or other objects entirely fill the area where the portal will appear in town will no longer crash the game.
Skills obtained from runewords created while the item is equipped will no longer disconnect you from Battle.net when chosen.
Barbarians will no longer become stuck when using Whirlwind right after Inferno from the unique item Balrog Blade Flamebellow.
German, Spanish, and Polish users will no longer crash when the mouse cursor moves over an item that grants an Aura while equipped.
The game will no longer crash when selecting a skill granted by a weapon at the same time as switching weapons with the W key.
Dying or being requested to trade while changing the key configuration will no longer cause you to get stuck.
The "Missile Firing too far" assertion error has been corrected.
Attempting to sell a Horadric Cube or a quest item to an NPC by holding Control while clicking will no longer disconnect you from Battle.net.

Minor Bugs

Running the game with -install no longer causes the game to be installed as a Windows Service. -install is now ignored.
Sometimes the seals in Diablo's lair would not activate. This has been corrected.
Character expiration messages have been updated to reflect the expiration policy implemented in patch 1.10.
Unidentified items sometimes caused other set items to display green for items the player does not have. This has been corrected.
The German mouseover text for the Ist rune has been corrected.
Account recovery is now allowed for existing accounts whose name is only one or two characters.
When leaving a game on Battle.net, you will now be brought back to the channel in which you were previously.
Transmuting an ethereal item now retains the ethereal stats bonuses.
In Japanese Lord of Destruction, items that add to all Assassin skills incorrectly stated in their mouseover text that they added to all Druid skills. This has been corrected.
Battle.net messages for non-English versions have been corrected.

Fixed Game Exploits

It is no longer possible to bypass the 10-second hostility timer by activating a waypoint at the same time as declaring hostility.
Uber Diablo is no longer killed when Shenk the Overseer or Blood Raven die nearby.
Necromancers with Trang-Oul's Set equipped could sometimes become invincible to attack. This has been corrected.
Blessed Hammer no longer remains active while in town, preventing players from subsequently declaring hostility and having the hammers hit other players for damage.
Set items retained their multi-piece bonuses after the player died, even though they were removed. This has been corrected.
Items with skill-charging effects will no longer give synergy bonuses to skills when equipped on a character without those skills.
Pasting from the Clipboard no longer allows the creation of characters with more than one dash or underscore in their name.

Patch 1.10

Mysterious World-event

Players of Hell difficulty Realm games are hereby warned that a new, challenging world-event has been added to Diablo II version 1.10. Players of Hardcore characters should be even more wary when encountering Superunique monsters during an active world event. Be prepared to execute a hasty Save and Exit, if your situation seems too dangerous.

Fundamental architecture changes/improvements

The skill and monster systems are now completely data-driven. Skill balancing is simpler and quicker. Monster control/populating/creation is simpler. Although done for our needs, mod-makers should like these changes, too. A major result is that nearly any skill can be used by any character class.
A skill now may have synergy Bonuses (similar to masteries) applied by putting points into other skills.
The player stats and inventory system has been completely redone to run more efficiently, improving server performance and stability.
The collision detection system has been sped up significantly. Again, improving server performance.

Specific changes/improvements

Increased difficulty for high-level players to reduce future exploitation of the game system.
Made monsters tougher
Beefed up monster difficulty in Act V, Nightmare, and Hell difficulties. This was accomplished by improving monster stats (hp, ac, etc.) and by boosting their AI/behavior in NM and Hell difficulties (that is, by making decisions more often and by simply moving faster). In Nightmare and Hell difficulties monster damages have generally been increased -- dramatically in some cases.
Reduced the effectiveness of Experience runs, power-leveling, and leeching.
Added randomized (especially ranged-attack) monsters to Nightmare and Hell Act V - e.g., Burning Dead, Imps, etc.
Increased the Experience attached to most Act V monsters in Normal, Nightmare, & Hell difficulties.
Reduced the HP of (Act V) Barbarian soldiers in Nightmare and Hell difficulties.
Increased the rate of occurrence of Unique monsters in Hell difficulty.
Reduced the party member Experience sharing to 0 beyond a maximum distance of about 2 screens from the monster death. This prevents low-level characters from joining a party and then staying completely out of harm's way while still getting Experience.
Increased the Experience penalty for Clvl 70+ as follows: Clvl 1 - 69: 100% Experience Clvl 70 - 99: 85% - 0.8% Experience (approximately exponential decaying)
Encouraged players to play in more of the Diablo II areas/locations/levels.
Reduced drops from the most-run SuperUnique monsters, ThreshSocket and Pindleskin.
Cut Experience and reduced drops in the Cow level.
Randomized the monster populations more thoroughly throughout Act V in Nightmare and Hell difficulties, including the addition of 'guest monsters' from other Acts.
Increased the number of Unique monsters in each area and difficulty.

Improved various Items

Improved the attributes for newly-dropped Rare Armor, Helms, and most Weapons.
Added over 100 new Unique Items, of which 29 can be found only in Ladder games.

Revised Skill balance for all Player Character classes

Amazon - Javelin and Spear Skills

Jab - Increased Attack Rating.
Power Strike - Increased Attack Rating and Damage done to targets. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Poison Javelin - Increased the total amount of Poison Damage and Duration. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Impale - Increased Attack Rating. Increased Damage.
Lightning Bolt - Increased Lightning Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Charged Strike - Increased the number of Charged Bolts released. Reduced average Lightning Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Plague Javelin - Added an Attack Rating bonus. Increased Poison Damage. Increased Poison Duration. Lowered Mana cost per level of skill. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Lightning Strike - Reduced the average Lightning Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Lightning Fury - Rebalanced by increasing the average Lightning Damage. Although it starts lower, it rises rapidly to much higher damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.

Amazon - Passive and Magic Skills

Inner Sight - Increased the reduction in Enemy Defense. Improved overall.
Valkyrie - Increased Attack Rating and decreased Mana cost. Added resistances and skills like Evade, Dodge, etc. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Decoy - Extensively revised with added resistances and skills like Evade, Dodge, etc.

Amazon - Bow and Crossbow Skills

Magic Arrow - Added Attack Rating bonus.
Fire Arrow - Added Attack Rating bonus. Decreased Mana cost. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Cold Arrow - Added Attack Rating bonus. Increased Cold Damage. Increased Mana cost. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Exploding Arrow - Added Attack Rating bonus. Increased Fire Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Ice Arrow - Added Attack Rating bonus. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Immolation Arrow - Added Attack Rating bonus. Decreased Mana cost. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Freezing Arrow - Added Attack Rating bonus. Decreased Mana cost. Added skill synergy bonuses.

Assassin - Martial Arts Skills

Dragon Talon - Increased Attack Rating.
Fists of Fire - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Claws of Thunder - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Blades of Ice - Added skill synergy bonuses.
All kick skills - Increased Attack Rating bonus.

Assassin - Shadow Disciplines

Venom - Fixed duration at 0.4 seconds regardless of poison items equipped.
Shadow Warrior - Increased the Life and resistances.

Assassin - Traps Skills

Fire Blast - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Shock Web - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Charged Bolt Sentry - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Wake of Fire - Slight increase to Damage at higher levels. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Lightning Sentry - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Wake of Inferno - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Death Sentry - Added skill synergy bonuses.

Barbarian - Warcries

War Cry - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Shout - Increased duration.
Battle Orders - Increased duration.
Battle Command - Increased duration.

Barbarian - Combat Masteries

Throwing Mastery - Increased the Attack Rating bonus to throwing skills.

Barbarian - Combat Skills

Bash - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Double Swing - Decreased Mana cost. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Stun - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Double Throw - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Concentrate - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Frenzy - Added skill synergy bonuses.

Druid - Elemental Skills

Firestorm - Increased Fire damage at higher levels. Increased damage at higher levels. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Molten Boulder - Added physical damage. Increased damage at higher levels. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Arctic Blast - Increased Cold damage at higher levels. Increased damage at higher levels. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Fissure - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Cyclone Armor - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Twister - Increased damage at higher levels. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Volcano - Added physical damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Tornado - Increased damage at higher levels. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Hurricane - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Armageddon - Increased Fire damage at higher levels. Added skill synergy bonuses.

Druid - Shape Shifting Skills

Werewolf - Added skill synergy bonuses. Allowed casting of Armageddon.
Werebear - Added skill synergy bonuses. Allowed casting of Armageddon.
Maul - Increased Stun duration.
Rabies - Increased Poison Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Fire Claws - Slight increase to Fire Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.

Druid - Summoning Skills

Summon Spirit Wolf - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Heart of Wolverine - Increased radius of effect and Life.
Summon Dire Wolf - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Oak Sage - Increased radius of effect.
Spirit of Barbs - Increased Life.
Summon Grizzly - Added skill synergy bonuses.

Necromancer - Summoning Skills

Skeleton Mastery - Increased Damage of non-Skeletal 'pets'. Increased Life of Skeletal 'pets'.
Raise Skeleton - Increased Skeleton Life, Attack Rating, and Defense. Decreased the maximum number of Skeletons that can be summoned as follows: the first 3 skill points in Raise Skeleton still yield 1 Skeleton per point (as in 1.09), however, subsequent Skeletons now require 3 skill points each. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Clay Golem - Added the ability to slow players and monsters on hit. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Raise Skeletal Mage - Increased Damage. Decreased the maximum number of Skeletal Mages that can be summoned as follows: the first 3 skill points in Raise Skeletal Mage still yield 1 Mage per point (as in 1.09), however, subsequent Mages now require 3 skill points each. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Blood Golem - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Iron Golem - Added Defense bonus. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Fire Golem - Increased Fire Damage. Added Holy Fire Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.

Necromancer - Poison and Bone Skills

Teeth - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Bone Armor - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Poison Dagger - Increased Attack Rating. Increased Duration. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Bone Wall - Cut duration in half. Life decreased. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Poison Explosion - Increased Duration. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Bone Spear - Increased Magic Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Bone Prison - Cut duration in half. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Poison Nova - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Bone Spirit - Increased Magic Damage at highest levels. Added skill synergy bonuses.

Paladin - Combat Skills

Holy Bolt - Increased Magic damage. Ignores resistances of Undead. Increased Healing to non-monster characters.
Blessed Hammer - Increased high-level damage. Ignores resistances of Undead and Demons. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Vengeance - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Sacrifice - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Holy Shield - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Fist of the Heavens - Ignores resistances of Undead and Demons. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Zeal - Increased damage above level 4. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Charge - Added skill synergy bonuses.

Paladin - Offensive Auras

Might - Increased area of effect.
Holy Fire - Added Fire Damage to attack. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Thorns - Increased area of effect.
Blessed Aim - Increased area of effect.
Holy Freeze - Added Cold Damage to attack. Added aura damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Holy Shock - Rebalanced the area of effect. Increased Lightning Damage on attack. Improved damage ramp. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Sanctuary - Increased Magic Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.

Paladin - Defensive Auras

Prayer - Increased Healing and area of effect.
Resist Fire - Increased area of effect.
Defiance - Increased area of effect.
Resist Cold - Increased area of effect.
Resist Lightning - Increased area of effect.
Cleansing - Increased area of effect. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Meditation - Increased area of effect. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Redemption - Increased area of effect.
Salvation - Increased area of effect.

Sorceress - Cold Spells

Ice Bolt - Increased Cold Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Frozen Armor - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Frost Nova - Increased Cold Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Ice Blast - Increased Cold Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Shiver Armor - Increased Cold Damage. Increased Cold Duration. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Glacial Spike - Increased Cold Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Blizzard - Increased Cold Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Chilling Armor - Increased Cold Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Frozen Orb - Added skill synergy bonus.

Sorceress - Lightning Spells

Charged Bolt - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Energy Shield - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Nova - Rebalanced Lightning Damage.
Lightning - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Chain Lightning - Added skill synergy bonuses.

Sorceress - Fire Spells

Fire Bolt - Increased Fire Damage at higher levels. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Inferno - Increased Fire Damage at higher levels. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Fire Ball - Increased Fire Damage at higher levels. Slightly increased Mana cost. Added skill synergy bonuses.
Enchant - Rebalanced Fire Damage. Added Attack Rating bonus. Reduced Mana cost. Added Skill Synergy Bonus.
Meteor - Added skill synergy bonuses.
Hydra - Rebalanced Fire Damage. Added skill synergy bonuses.

Added new Rune Words and Horadric Cube Recipes

Added 20 new Rune Words.
Added a Horadric Cube recipe as follows: 3 flawless gems + 1 magic weapon = socketed, magic weapon.
Added 46 more Horadric Cube Recipes -- upgrades for the remaining Runes and item 'rerolls'.
The highest 19 Rune upgrades are usable only by Ladder characters.

Closed some PvP loopholes/exploits

Terminated the casting of 'absentee' skills such as the Sorceress' Meteor, Firewall, Blaze, Hydra; the Assassin's Sentries; the Druid's Volcano; etc. when the player enters town. This prevents declaring Hostility and doing immediate damage to the unsuspecting.
Prevented 3rd-party hacks from treating background objects as a Waypoint.
Enforced a 10-second delay between declaring Hostility and using a Waypoint or Town Portal to leave town.
Ears and other items dropped on the ground by players (even in town) are deleted more frequently, and even when on the same screen as players. Magic, Rare, Set, and Unique items persist longer.
The attribute "Hit Slows Target" has been limited to no more than 50% slowing when used in PvP.
Fixed the bug that prevented a hostile player from targeting a Whirlwinding Barbarian equipped with a 2-handed sword.
Throwing an Oil Potion no longer crashes an opponent.

New Battle.net features

Please see www.battle.net for more information.

Introduced a new Lobby. Players now start in the lobby where they may decide to enter battle.net chat as before or to simply create/join a game without entering chat.
Added the ability to recover a forgotten/stolen account password via email registration.
Added a new command '/mail account_name' which sends a message directly to the account's registered email address.
An 'expiration date' is now shown with Realm Characters on the selection screen.
Introduced a new Ladder System for those who prefer to play free from any characters who may have participated in past item duping or hacking.
To use this new feature, a player places a check in the Ladder box upon character creation -- in the same way that Expansion and Hardcore selection is done. Periodically, the Ladder may be reset, adding the old Ladder characters to the regular population -- who, of course, cannot play games with the new season's Ladder characters. Thus, every season each new Ladder character truly starts from scratch, as no 'twinking' is possible from older characters.
Once a player defeats Diablo, all Diablo II Battle.net accounts accessed from that computer may create Hardcore characters.

Battle.net bugs

Prevented a crash when waiting in the Blizzard Tech Support channel on Battle.net.
Realm games created without a Password no longer allow players who specify a Password to join.
When a character dies during an 'Alt-F4' disconnection from B.net in Hardcore, the character icon now properly appears in both chat and the Character Selection Screen.
Corrected typos in the Options help.
Prevented players from changing their chat text color and indentation to masquerade as official Blizzard accounts.
Warcraft III players no longer appear as cloaked figures in Diablo II chat rooms.
Battle.net stability has been improved when a Diablo II character that had been designated as the operator of a private channel resigns.
Players may no longer immediately re-join a chat Channel from which they have been banned.
Barbarians dual-wielding with a Javelin now show the Javelin in battle.net chat, too.
Removed Age from the Player Profile.

Major Bugs

Fixed the 'Druid Drop' bug related to equipping items which would cause players to be dropped from a game when activating Werewolf or Werebear skills above level 33.
Super Unique, Unique, and Champion monsters can no longer be created as nearly invincible, that is, with < 0 hit points.
Barbarians and Assassins who are dual-wielding potions are no longer prevented from entering a game.
A Zod Rune applied to an Ethereal item no longer reduces its durability to 0.
Characters with extremely fast attack speeds no longer erroneously miss their targets.
Summoned creatures (aka 'pets') now properly inherit the player's level to determine their monster level.
A summoned Grizzly now properly pursues and attacks its enemies more effectively.
Fury and Phoenix Strike can no longer target the casting player's hireling or pet.
Valkyries are no longer treated as monsters and erroneously assigned additional Life in Nightmare and Hell difficulties.
A Valkyrie affected by a party member's Oak Sage can no longer be killed with 1 hit.
Assassins and Barbarians with Mastery points no longer have excessive Critical Strikes applied to their melee attacks.
Oak Sage and Heart of Wolverine now function properly above skill level 20.
Poison Creeper now properly receives the PvP damage penalty.
Holy Freeze no longer slows the Lightning skill.
The curse Attract can no longer be overridden by any other curse.
Using Battle Command can no longer erroneously retain the skill bonus granted by an item after un-equipping the item.
Active level 18+ Thorns no longer makes the player character invulnerable to monster melee attacks.
Lightning and Chain Lightning are now properly affected by items with casting rate magic properties.
Using Enchant on ranged weapons now boosts the damage a variable amount.
Fireballs used against a Lightning Enchanted monster no longer make its Charged Bolts invisible.
The 3rd charge of the Assassin's Skill - Blades of Ice, now freezes the target.
Lower Resist now correctly updates the resistances displayed on the target's character screen.
Crushing Blow now works at the percentage chance stated.
Items can no longer be created with level requirements higher than 99.
A throwing item with the magic property Replenishes Quantity now replenishes if depleted to 0 quantity.
Newly-discovered Ethereal items with the magic property Increased Maximum Durability now may have the maximum durability.
The Rune Word "Melody" now works properly for bows.
Leaving the vicinity of a Super unique monster and returning after 20 seconds, now properly respawns the Super unique for treasure drops.
The erroneous action of the Reduce AC modifier. which had shown in the item pop-up as x% Target AC has been corrected. It now no longer sets the target's AC equal to the percentage, but properly reduces the target's AC by the percentage. The display has been corrected to say "-x% Target AC." The modifier's effect is reduced by one half when player characters, SuperUniques, hirelings, and Act-end bosses are targeted.
Fixed a bug in damage calculation for weapons which computed +min/+max damage prior to +damage%.
If Holy Bolt is assigned to the right mouse-button and Charge or Smite to the left, left-clicking on a party member no longer sticks one in place.
A player character standing on a player corpse is no longer immune to missiles.
Auto-targeting skills when assigned to the left mouse-button no longer repeatedly cast, if one is holding the button down to move.
Auto-targeting skills are those that nearby target if one is not selected, e.g., Fist of the Heavens.
The Paladin's non-aura skills now attack appropriately, when one clicks on a foe without enough Mana to use the skill.
A class of bugs that had reduced the effectiveness of alternating weapon attacks when equipped with two weapons has been fixed, including the various dual-claw Assassin attacks.
Poison length calculations are now correct.
Poison now works properly when applied to ranged attacks.
Mindblast and Conversion now remove any auras from their targets upon casting and also when they wear off.
Confuse now works properly, that is, without the occasional misfire.
Holy Shield now boosts the defense of the player, not the shield.
Blade Fury now uses the proper amount of Mana.
Skeletons, Skeletal Mages, and Golems are now raised with appropriate (non-0) Attack Rating and Defense stats.
Iron Golems are no longer summoned with excessive additional Life in Nightmare and Hell difficulties.
Hirelings can no longer equip items without meeting the item requirements.
Rogue hirelings can no longer shoot Lightning Bolts by equipping items that boost Bow and Crossbow skills.
Isenhart's Case and Horns now work together correctly on Hirelings.
Monster warping (aka teleporting) in some TCP/IP games has been reduced.
Slowed or chilled monsters no longer 'desynch' (or 'lag') as easily.
Corrupted Rogues no longer pause for long periods of time when pursuing a foe.
When a Barbarian throws a weapon with his left hand (right inventory slot) while equipped with a melee weapon in his right hand (left inventory slot), the thrown weapon now does proper damage. NPCs no longer bestow quest rewards (e.g., socketing) upon unidentified items.
An NPC no longer fails to give a quest reward item to a character with a full Inventory or Stash.
The Heaven's Brethren set bonus of "+5 to Light Radius" now works.
As shown on the Character screen, Assassins receive a damage bonus from boots.
The Assassin's Claw Mastery bonuses to Damage and Attack Rating are no longer erroneously swapped.
A behavior-changing curse (like Dim Vision) can no longer affect a monster permanently, when the player portals away.
The Life of monsters affected by Regeneration or Poison now updates correctly.
Enchant cast upon other player characters is now enhanced by the caster's Fire Mastery.
Skills and magic effects that change one's maximum Life now change one's current Life by a corresponding percentage.
The Attack Rating displayed for the Assassin kick skills is no longer higher than the actual Attack Rating.
Macintosh-specific fixes
- Improved compatibility with dual-monitor Macintosh systems.
- Prevented a crash when using the scroll bars and highlighting games in Battle.net's Join menu.

Minor Bugs

Summon Spirit Wolf no longer overstates the Damage.
Spirit of Barbs, Heart of Wolverine, and Oak Sage no longer understate their radii of effect.
When the Automap option "Center" is off, the Automap no longer centers upon opening the Skill Tree or Inventory.
The extraneous text in the Change Realm dialog box has been removed.
The health bar of a Flayer knocked from his Flayer Shaman now works.
Fixed a general monster health bar overflow bug.
A temporary loss of the Stamina Shrine effect no longer occurs.
The Skill Tree levels are now displayed properly when a player equips both a non-melee item that boosts all character class skills along with a weapon that boosts an individual skill.
Skills granted by items are now always displayed as such in the Skill Tree.
The damage displayed on the character screen is now correct when a character with high strength has no weapon equipped.
The damage displayed on the character screen is now correct for Freezing Arrow and Holy Shock.
The hover text of the Amazon skill Multiple Shot now correctly displays that it does 3/4 weapon damage.
When the Assassin has two Claws equipped and is using the Weapon Block skill, the Chance to Block percentage properly appears in the hover text of the Defense stat in the character screen.
The Golden Bird quest status is shown correctly in the quest log, if one exits the game before getting the reward.
The Redemption skill description now correctly states that it affects only the caster, not the party.
The Redemption skill graphic effect can no longer appear erroneously when a player returns from town through a Town Portal.
The Thunderstorm skill graphic effect now displays properly.
The damage listed on the character screen for Holy Shock no longer appears blue.
Hardcore Assassins and Druids no longer appear as cloaked figures in the multiplayer character selection screen of DII Classic.
Message log scrolling is now more responsive.
Players now see other players kicking barrels.
Berserker Axe" is now spelled correctly.
Io, Shael, and Jah Runes now have Korean, Japanese, and Chinese translations.
Corrected localization (translation, text box sizes, etc.) for a number of issues in French, German, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish.

Enhancements and other changes

Implemented a new system to detect and delete 'duped', 'hacked' and other erroneous items from the inventories of Realm Characters as they are loaded.
Increased the damage of nearly all skills above skill level 20.
Added synergy bonuses to many skills. The bonuses boost the effectiveness of the higher-level skills based upon the number of points allocated to the lower-level (synergizing) skills. Players are rewarded for using skill points earlier rather than hoarding them all for later 'cookie-cutter' distribution to high-level skills.
Rebalanced the rate of Unique/Set/Rare/Magic items drop.
Lower Resist and Conviction skills now work properly against immune monsters.
Cold Mastery has been changed to a constant amount.
Elemental Piercing versus immunities has been changed to a constant amount.
Improved the existing 7 class-specific Sets by adding and/or boosting partial and complete Set bonuses. Also added a visual effect to wearers of these complete Sets.
Limited the maximum experience gain from The Ancients quest in Act V to 1 character level.
One can no longer enter Town Portals cast by other players in areas beyond the "blocking quests" without having completed those quests: e.g., Canyon of the Magi/Seven Tombs/Duriel's Lair (The Summoner), The Harem/Palace Basement/Arcane Sanctuary (The Tainted Sun), Durance of Hate (The Blackened Temple), The Worldstone Keep (The Ancients), The Secret Cow Level (Terror's End in DII classic or Eve of Destruction in DII: LoD). NOTE: A player who kills the High Council (but doesn't use Khalim's Will to smash the Compelling Orb), may take a Town Portal into the Durance of Hate.
NPCs no longer accept lower difficulty quest items to complete quests in a higher difficulty.
Atma now heals automatically.
Quest items are automatically identified when they drop.
Increased the challenge of Mephisto and the Ancients.
Increased the damage and defense of Andariel, Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal.
Gave Mephisto a more powerful Frost Nova, based on his own (not player's) stats.
Added blocking and resistances to Duriel.
Reduced the levels of all auras used by Unique monsters.
Added more Unique monsters to the open areas of Acts IV and V.
Life leeching is now determined by each monster type and reduced below 100% in Nightmare and Hell Difficulties.
Added resistances and blocking to the Unravelers in Act II in Hell Difficulty.
Increased monster hit-points in one player games and reduced the increase to monster hit-points for each additional player in multiplayer games.
Boosted the effects of Health and Mana potions.
Mana potions are now sold by some shopkeepers.
The Antidote potion now gives +50 poison resistance and +10 max poison resist for 30 seconds.
The Thawing potion now gives +50 cold resistance and +10 max cold resist for 30 seconds.
The Stamina potion now gives super stamina recovery for 30 seconds.
Newly-found (post-1.10) magic bows with the properties "Fires Magic Arrows" or "Fires Explosive Arrows" have these properties at appropriate skill levels rather than being fixed at level 1.
Improved gambling by increasing the chances for Rare, Set, and Unique items.
Improved monster drops by boosting the base item types and by increasing the chance for Rares.
Increased the chances that dropped items have the magic properties of Enhanced damage, Life-stealing, Mana-stealing, and + to all Resistances. Increased hireling Life/attack rating/defense/level. Also removed the skill cap from Act III hirelings. (Hireling level at hiring is now different between DII classic and LoD.)
Increased life regeneration for hirelings.
Boosted the effect of Health potions upon hirelings.
Lowered the cost of resurrection of hirelings.
Increased the leash range of hirelings.
Summonables except for Revived monsters and pets that don't attack or defend - e.g., Vines now get Defense and Attack Rating based on their level.
Bone Walls are now friendly to the caster's party - that is, not attackable.
Improved Blood Raven's behavior.
Guest monsters (those from earlier Acts and lower difficulty levels) compute their Treasure Class (for item dropping) appropriately for their new, higher levels.
Chilling Armor no longer responds to other Chilling Armor bolts.
A player may have up to 16 corpses now. Only the first (oldest) corpse holding items is saved between games.
In Nightmare and Hell difficulties recovering one's corpse now restores 75% of the Experience that had been lost at death. This applies to all of a player's corpses.
Block lock' has been eliminated. When a player character has just blocked an attack, the player cannot block again for a short period of time, the length of which increases as Blocking speed increases.
Reduced the 'lag' when Lister the Tormentor and his minions are summoned by Baal.
The levels of The Forgotten Tower are now larger in Nightmare and Hell difficulties.
Increased the likelihood of dropping Elite items.
Only a very few Unique items and new 'uber' items are now over level 85. That is, the best items now drop more often.
Jewels and other modifiers can now boost the elemental damage of a melee weapon if that trait is listed as part of the Jewel description.
The Buriza's level (not its level requirement) was increased to 59.
Items that grant skills bestow a lower skill level to those character classes who natively have the skill in their skill tree. Note that Charged items receive synergy and mastery bonuses, but don't receive bonuses by assigning extra points to the skill.
Boosted the Cham Rune freeze effect on weapons from +1 to +3.
The Eth Rune's effect is now "-25% to Target AC". Thus, 4 Eth Runes reduce the target AC to zero.
The modifier "Ignores Target AC" no longer acts upon SuperUniques, hirelings, and Act-end bosses. Its lack of effect upon player characters and unique monsters remains unchanged.
Changed the Horadric Cube recipe that had used 3 chipped gems to require 3 standard gems as follows: 3 standard gems + 1 socketed weapon = socketed, magic weapon.
Changed the two Horadric Cube recipes for Rejuvenation Potions to require a chipped gem and a standard gem.
One may sell items to an NPC without the confirmation dialog by ctrl-left-clicking on them.
Increased the size of the message log from 32 to 128 lines.
Reduced the density of the graphic special effect displaying curses.
Added optimizations to light map computation and added various levels of light map fidelity which automatically adjust to keep the frame rate acceptable.
Selecting "Show Party - No" in the Automap Options now shows one's pets.
In the inventory an unidentified Unique item is now shown as its generic item type.
Improved the accuracy of the Mana cost display.
Added a graphic effect to the Whirlwind skill.
Improved the second level charge-up graphic effect of the Assassin's Phoenix Strike.
Added new color schemes for certain Rare, Set, and Unique items.
Maces and Staves now display "+50% Damage to Undead", consistent with other weapon classes.
The TCP/IP Join Game button remembers the last IP address entered.
Chat commands (e.g. 'fps') are now preceded by a slash (e.g. '/fps').
A new chat command '/nopickup' toggles on/off the ability to automatically pick up items lying on the ground. When off, one must hold down the Alt key to pick up items.
Monsters (except for SuperUniques) in non-ladder Realm games are now at 75% HP (Hell), 85% AC (NM & Hell), and don't increase their AI speed for higher difficulties.

Macintosh-specific changes

Support for both "widescreen" and "4:3" mode in Mac OS X 10.2+.
Improved OpenGL performance for systems with minimum requirements: MacOSX 10.2, 256MB RAM, and Radeon or GeForce AGP video card.

Patch 1.09d

Minor Bug

Fixed a bug with certain Creative Lab DVD drives and copy protection.
Fixed another bug where a connection problem ("Unable to connect to Battle.net") would instead result in a downloading patch dialog that stayed at 0% indefinitely.
Fixed a lockup that occurred on Dual CPU/Dual Video card systems when hitting the quit button in chat.

Patch 1.09c

Major Bug

Fixed a trading bug that could be exploited to allow one user to crash out another user.

Minor Bug

Fixes issues with High Point Technology's RAID controller drivers.

Modifications (North American versions only)

Please note that included with this patch is a .dll file that relays back to Blizzard the hardware configuration of the system on which the patch is installed. This file will be effective in North America only.

In keeping with our policy of protecting user privacy, we will not be collecting any personal information, nor will we be able to associate any hardware information with any particular user. We will only be recording CPU, RAM, operating system, video card, and sound card information.

The reason we are doing this is to help our development teams optimize our upcoming game, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, for various hardware configurations. The information we receive will help us tailor the game to meet the system requirements of our customers and help us to enhance their overall gameplay experience. If you have any questions or concerns about this procedure, please email us at support@blizzard.com.

Patch 1.09b

FIXES

Fixed a bug where a connection problem (ie "Unable to connect to Battle.net") would instead result in a downloading patch dialog that stayed at 0% indefinitely.

Reference

Arreat Summit (web.archive.org)
Chaos Sanctuary (web.archive.org)
1.10 README (General Diablo II Discussion)
1.11 IS HERE! (General Diablo II Discussion)
1.13 Public Test Realm is LIVE! (General Diablo II Discussion)
1.13b PTR is Live (General Diablo II Discussion)
1.13 LIVE -- LADDER RESET (General Diablo II Discussion)
Patch 1.13d (General Diablo II Discussion)