i initially swayed both ways on this. Its LOD so should be LOD toon creation, but i didnt think that for very long. At the end of the day if somebody WR's with classic strat, everybody running that catagory has the option to start as classic or lod. everyone in the same boat. Its no biggie.
Its no different from any other strat, if u wanna compete u gotta use the best strat, or find your own.
DonForgo: "Classic has different mechanics, and different stats for monsters. It is an entirely different game." Yes, this is not only a skip act, these are other monster stats, some skills with a different effect, this is a different game, albeit with the same picture.
Daz86: " everyone in the same boat." Yes, for runners this is true, but whether the viewer will be interested. I like to watch a runner's skill in a particular game, in this case, LoD. If I want to see a runner's skill in a classic, I'll find and watch this run.
Just think about it, it will be interesting to watch 90% Classic and 10% LoD.
Good luck on your runs in Diablo 2: LoD.
@Daz86 has the right of it. Allowing classic increases the ways this game can be played. It incentivizes runners to theory-craft new routes and strategies. It increases the amount of decision making and risk/reward gameplay. One of the most important rules set currently is the definition of any% for this game. "Timer starts on character creation of a lvl 1 Char in Act 1 and ends when Baal dies within the category difficulty." This captures any and all strategies, routes, possible skips, and potential time-save innovations that may exist in the future.
On Classic start is a "Different Game": It decreases items available from loot, very specific character skills, monster stats starting in NM and continuing into Hell, and whether or not you need to complete A5 in Normal and NM, sometimes. It doesn't make Duriel fly, or SOJs to spew out of every monster. It has always been available as an ingame mechanism. Why would we limit what's available for the speedrun of the game?
As for skipping ingame content: There's a reason we don't go kill Bloodraven, don't clear the Ancient Tunnels, and poor Radament hardly gets killed. We're trying to speedrun a game in the fastest way possible. Also if we're saying A5 is the DEFINING part of this game, we can just do D2:LOD Only runs. Using command line -act5 you only run A5 and call it a day. Enjoy the 10-20 minute speedruns.
The pressure/relevance of viewership: I personally care that I have an audience that watches me play this game. I may personally change what i'm running for the viewer's enjoyment. That has nothing to do with how the speedrun of this game should be moderated/maintained.
Adding categories: Cut that out, I see you Entropi :p
Mostly unrelated note: Personally I wouldn't mind seeing -act5 come back into discussion as a category, or at least category extension, becasue the short time I did play it for testing, it was really fun. Sorc can be 7 minutes btw, at least. It'd be like Individual Level timing in some other speedrun games
I agree with the line of thought that if we're speed running a game, then using IN GAME features to do it faster is allowed. As far as "spirit of the game" that applies to play thrus, not speed runs.
If you're a viewer and don't want to watch it be done that way, that's your choice, but not a reason to handicap a speed run.
