Diablo II: Lord of Destruction

The Assassin relies on a mixture of martial arts skills and the ability to lay active traps. She can also open locked chests without the use of a key. The Assassin is voiced by Carrie Gordon Lowrey.

Her Shadow Disciplines tree contains a mixture of passive bonuses (such as Claw Mastery or Weapon Block) and buffs (such as Burst of Speed or Venom), along with a few spells such as Mind Blast which damage, stun, and confuse the enemy. She also can summon a Shadow Warrior or Shadow Master, which are useful summons that are also capable of dealing significant damage themselves.

The Traps tree provides a few direct attacks, and more importantly, a number of summonable traps. The traps are stationary devices that will attack any hostile target in range a certain number of times before breaking. Traps are either based on fire or lightning, though the Death Sentry trap can explode nearby corpses in addition to shooting bolts of lightning. The blade trap skills are essentially ranged projectiles that cause physical damage.

The Martial Arts tree consists of charge-up skills and finishing moves. Attacking with a charge-up skill increases the number of charges, up to three, then the finishing move releases the charges in a single powerful blow (note that a normal attack also counts as a finishing move). The charge-up skills include attacks like Blades of Ice and Fists of Fire, which add elemental damage to the finishing blow, and also skills like Cobra Strike, which adds life and mana stealing to the finishing attack. The finishing blows are, for the most part, kicks, such as Dragon Talon, which releases a number of kicks in quick succession, and Dragon Flight, which teleports on to a target and kicks them, releasing any charges.

The Druid specialises in nature-based magic and shapeshifting, with direct damage spells and a variety of minions. The Druid is voiced by Michael Bell.

The Elemental tree consists of the magic of earth and sky. The 'storm' spells have effects like Cyclone Armor, which protects the Druid from the elements, and Tornado, a vortex of swirling winds that moves somewhat randomly and can deal massive damage. The 'fire' spells are more earthly than the Sorceress's, with spells like Fissure and Volcano. The ultimate Elemental spells are Hurricane and Armageddon; both create a storm that follows the Druid, damaging all that come too close.

The Summoning tree governs the calling of natural allies to the Druid. While the wolves and grizzly the Druid can summon are traditional melee summons, the other summoning spells are a bit different. Ravens do marginal damage, but can blind enemies and cannot be targeted. Ravens disappear after they have attacked a certain number of times. The Druid can summon will-o-the-wisp-like spirits that provide Paladin-like Auras, increasing damage, life, or returning damage back to the attacker (like the Necromancer's Iron Maiden). The Druid also can summon one of three vines. These can poison enemies from below, or consume corpses to replenish the Druid's life or mana.

The Shape-Shifting tree gives the Druid the ability to become an animal, with gigantic bonuses to life. The Druid may either become a nimble Werewolf or a large Werebear. Each form has its own special attacks, such as the Werewolf's Feral Rage, which causes the Druid to get faster and faster as he continues to attack enemies, and the Werebear's Maul, which makes the Druid swing harder and harder during attacks. The Werebear is also able to obtain substantially more life and armor than the Werewolf is. It is worth noting that all of the Druid's equipment functions as normal when shifted, if at different speeds, but the druid is virtually unable to cast spells, except for Armageddon and summoning ones.

• "Fortress" from Act V of the game, inspired by variety of operatic scores, one of them would be Claude Debussy's Pelléas and Mélisande, with a direct musical reference to a phrase from the middle of "Scene 1: Je ne pourrai" from Act I of Debussy's play.[7]
• "Ice Caves" from Act V inspired by fragments of Bernard Herrmann's "Vertigo" and a sequence of Carl Orff's "Trionfo di Afrodite".
• "Ancients" from Act V contains a direct quote from Richard Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" Prelude to act one.
• "Siege" from Act V is inspired by fragments of "Mars" by Gustav Holst and contains a direct quote from it.[8]

In the United States, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction debuted in first place on NPD Intelect's computer game sales rankings for June 2001.[9] It maintained the position in July and August,[10][11] but was dropped to #2 by The Sims in September.[12] Following a placement of sixth for October,[13] the game totaled sales in the United States of 576,143 units by the first week of November. At the time, GameSpot's writer Desslock noted that Lord of Destruction had "sold well and continue[s] to do so", and cited its performance as evidence that "there's probably never been a larger demand for RPGs".[14] It fell to 19th place on NPD Intelect's chart for November, and was absent from the top 20 for December.[15][16] However, Lord of Destruction ultimately became the United States' fourth-best-selling computer game of 2001,[17] with domestic sales of 859,743 units and revenues of $29.2 million.[18]

Lord of Destruction received a "Silver" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),[19] indicating sales of at least 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom.[20]

By July 26, 2001, global sales of Lord of Destruction had surpassed 1 million units, while more than 2 million units had been shipped. These figures made it the fastest-selling expansion pack ever for a computer game at the time.[21]

Lord of Destruction received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.[22] GameSpot awarded the game an 8.2 out of 10,[29] IGN administered the game an 8.8 out of 10,[30] and GameSpy gave the game an 88 out of 100.[31] The game has also won an award for being in the top 50 most important games of all time according to IGN magazine for its online multiplayer.

Within the Diablo II community the expansion caused some controversy when Blizzard patched the original game with an update that made Nightmare and Hell difficulties particularly harder than before; some players felt that Blizzard was effectively forcing them to upgrade to the expansion in order to find the items and gain the abilities necessary to deal with the new challenges.[32]

During the 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Lord of Destruction received a nomination for "PC Role-Playing Game of the Year",[33] which ultimately was awarded to Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal.[34] It was nominated as the year's best expansion pack by Computer Gaming World, GameSpy, GameSpot and RPG Vault, but lost these awards variously to Throne of Bhaal and Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge.[35][36][37][38] However, the game won Computer Games Magazine's award in this category. The editors wrote, "Add-on developers take note—the bar has been raised."[39]