Median XL: Ultimative XVI

General
Added over 150 endgame runewords. These are empowered versions of existing
runewords. Any runeword based on Zod rune (or lower), can now be mixed with Xis
rune for a level 120 version. For example: El-Xis on Helms will create level 120
Summit runeword
Densities: reworked on all levels in order to achieve a better stability and
performance, and make the difficulty curve more natural
Uberquests / Monsters
Removed dumb 1HKO procs from several bosses

The Void: fixed a bug that allowed boss seal to be destroyed by minions. Reworked
boss fight
Startled Witch: ensured no one will enter her grounds uninvited
Uldyssian: final stage is now free-for-all. Modified Uldyssian AI. Stage #10
(totem) was reworked as it was buggy
Kabraxis: now has a chance to teleport when struck to prevent lock abusing
Athulua: slightly hardened
MarcoNecroX: removed health regeneration and reduced damage. Just kidding. He now
ignores immunity shields

Baal (throne): no longer has a debuff aura on destruction

Griswold: no longer has melee-only aura on terror / destruction
Amazon
Increased cast rate with one handed weapons
Thundercrack: fixed a (massive) bug that made lightnings not pierce
Stormcall: increased damage
Hammer of Zerae: incresed damage and weapon modifier from 3/4 to 3/2
Magnetic Field: modified mechanics to work more efficiently, increased field
density and max damage
Pounce: slightly reduced range
Assassin
Batstrike: fixed a bug that caused bats not getting any %avoid from Perfect Being.
This means they were having effectively 1/10 as much survability as intended on the
highest levels
Druid
Now receives 25 health per level
Werewolf Form: reworked attack rating formula
Harbinger: fixed a bug that caused the skill not to check attack rating
Elemental: now deals a reasonable amount of damage
Yes, druid was a broken class. It was massively buffed some patches ago. Cry me a
river.
Paladin
Dragon Oath: removed
Dragonshout: removed
Burnout: removed
Demonrend: removed
Deva King: removed
Merkabah: removed

New Skill: Solar Flare

New Skill: Drakemaw
New Skill: Frozen Breath
New Skill: Incarnation
New Skill: Dragon Wyrms
New Skill: Dragonknight

Superbeast: duration is now always 5 minutes

Rapture: modified overlay
 Retaliate: adjusted damage to fit new skills
Vessel of Retribution: adjusted damage values to have an effective damage similar
to Vessel of Judgement
Blessed Life: fixed a typo on the flat damage reduction formula (thanks
@suchbalance)
Plague: is now a level 12 skill. Reworked damage formula, removed %block and added
hard point synergy
Dragonheart: renamed from Lionheart, no longer uses armor shrine overlay and no
longer slows you down
Hoplites: now have 50% physical resistance
Tainted Blood: now adds 15% defense per hard point and 5% per soft point. Can no
longer be casted on other players
Sorceress
Leonardo: reduced knowledge. Less books in the air to prevent lag spikes
Blade Spirits: now properly display hard point synergy
Chronofield: now only affects running/walking speeds
oSkills
Liche Form: reduced duration to 5 seconds
Orb of Annihilation: can no longer be used on left-click
Feral Strike: now works with swords instead of knives
Ravage: now works with swords instead of knives
Thorn Field: now works with swords instead of knives
Shunpo: range increased by 25%
Items
Giyua's Sacrum: now adds %fire spell damage instead of cold
Hadriel Set: reworked to include cold spell damage and pierce
The Grizzly (Secret): buffed stats. Big time.
Demonic Touch: replaced death projector reanimate with edyrem (works in toraja)
Reapers: renamed from Gehenna (helm). Removed Path of Flames oskill
Segnitia: reduced flat damage to 100 and crushing blow to 5%

Enchanting Crystals: items can now only be rolled once

Elixirs: now last 30 seconds
Jewels: can no longer be gambled

I am Rich gem: color is no longer overriden by Ancient Repositories

Character Orb: removed due to clunky mechanics, being unintuitive and having
broken stat scaling
Rare Affix Pool
Tantrum can now spawn in crossbows
Bane can now spawn in sorceress orbs
Terror Strike and Solar Flare can now spawn in paladin weapons
Cube Recipes
Removed athulua's blessing recipe
Removed quest shortcuts that somehow never made it to the documentation
Item Drops
Certain bosses that had almost guaranteed chance to drop sacred uniques have been
rebalanced
Fixed a bug with shrine drops in The Void
Griswold: now has 50% chance to drop special box in terror
Bugfixes
Fixed Level Challenge 1 level requirement
Fixed Athulua erroneously spawning in Tran Athulua
Fixed gamebreaking state collision between Liche Form and Graveyard
Fixed a bug that would allow people to use Yshari Set skills on regular areas
Fixed a bug that allowed eagle stance to bypass immunity shields
Other
NPC sell limits have been modified for acts 1 and 2 in hatred
Cubing %experience orbs with weapons to make money is no longer a thing
 Shortened description of median statue because reading is too hard
Removed unused assets in the patch to reduce size a bit
Other minor bugfixes
Special Credits
suchbalance: general assistance and help creating new endgame runewords
Inertia: skill icons and other assets

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Installation

How do I install Median XL?

Simply make sure your Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction installation is up to date, then
find the file named patch_d2.mpq in your install directory and replace it with the
one in the mod download. Detailed instructions and information about Macs are
inside the download.

Can I still go back to classic LoD?

To install the mod, you need to swap out one file. To go back to classic LoD, swap
it back! It is that simple!

Will my classic Lord of Destruction characters work?

No; Median XL has separate characters.

I don't have the Lord of Destruction expansion!

What a bloody shame. No Median XL for you!

Compatibility

Which Diablo 2 version do I need?

You need Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction 1.10, 1.11, 1.12 or 1.13. If Blizzard
releases 1.14, it will most likely remain compatible, but check the latest news
just to be sure.

What are the system requirements for Median XL?

Any system that runs Diablo 2 reasonably well is compatible with Median XL. Note
that the Diablo 2 engine is outdated and will occasionally slow down on even a
modern system when too much awesome stuff happens, regardless of system
specifications. This is perfectly normal and unavoidable other than by making the
mod less awesome.

Does this mod work on a Mac?

Yes, although the installation procedure may be slightly complicated.

Does this mod support PlugY?

Yes, however the skill reallocation feature in PlugY is disabled due to a major bug
in PlugY that may cause you to end up with a large number of skill points. Also,
PlugY itself has a few glitches that may lead to item loss.

Does this mod support Multires?

Yes.

Does this mod support my illegal/pirated/torrented Diablo II?

I don't know because I didn't steal the game.

Does this mod support maphack/pickit/bots?

Stop cheating and learn to play.

Crashes and errors

Median XL crashes while loading

- You installed a LoD patch while Median XL was already installed.
- You are using -direct -txt or a loader.
- You are using PlugY and it is not installed correctly.
- You are trying to play on battle.net.

Median XL crashes during gameplay

- Your Diablo 2 files were damaged. Yes, this does happen.
- Different mod versions in a multiplayer game.
- You are using PlugY and it has a bug. Contact the creator of PlugY for a
solution.
- Your character reached the file size limit for Diablo 2 save files and now it
crashes every time it attempts to save the game. This can occasionally happen if
you have a lot of socketed items with a large number of modifiers. To fix it, throw
out some items or alternatively install PlugY and use its shared stash feature.

Median XL does not save characters properly

- You are using PlugY and it has a bug. Contact the creator of PlugY for a
solution.
- Your save folder is read only. This may be due to a permissions problem with
recent Windows versions (Vista and up) which zealously protect the Program Files
folder. Try running Diablo 2 as administrator.

My characters have disappeared

- A computer or game crash may have corrupted your save file. I hope you have a
backup.
- Your file paths may have been redirected by another mod (active or uninstalled).
Reinstall Diablo 2.
- Your file paths may have been redirected by Windows. Try running Diablo 2 as
administrator. If you already did, try not running it as administrator.

Median XL crashes while travelling between Acts

- Your sound is missing, defective or disabled, causing the Diablo II video player
to crash. This is not a Median XL bug.

Median XL gives a 'Bad Inventory Data' or similar error while loading a character
- You are attempting to use a character that is not from Median XL.
- Your character save file has become damaged.
- You are using PlugY and there are invalid items in the shared stash.
- You tried to hack your character and failed epically.
- This may happen after a Median XL version upgrade. Although characters should be
compatible between various Median XL releases, new items introduced in later
patches are not backwards compatible and the Omega patch is a little more
sensitive. Try going back to your earlier version and throwing out some items until
your character loads.

The mod does nothing, my game did not change

- Another mod changed your file locations.
- You copied the game to another folder.
- You renamed the Median XL patch_d2.mpq file.
- You have a Mac and did not follow the instructions.
- You have an unpatched (1.07) version of LoD.

None of the runewords work

- Check the requirements on the runeword page.
- Fill all sockets with jewels except the last one, where you put the rune.
- Make sure the item is nonmagical (grey).
- If you were using the third party 'Runeword mod', remove it.

If you checked all this and found nothing, contact me through EMAIL for a solution.

Gameplay

Why can I only put two points into a skill?

Skills start out with a maximum level of 2 that goes up by 1 after each six
character levels. In other words, the maximum skill level slowly increases as your
character levels up.

Does [this skill] carry [crushing blow/leech/etc.]?

Any skill that deals weapon damage will carry all weapon modifiers. The exceptions
are x% Chance to cast level y [Skill] on Attack (as opposed to "Striking"), +x to
[Life/Mana] on Striking in Melee and Stun Attack, which only affect melee attacks.

Where do I get teleport?

Some characters have a teleportation skill (amazon: Pounce - assassin: Blink -
barbarian: Spirit Walk - necromancer: Bend the Shadows - paladin: Colosseum, Divine
Apparition). If you use a different character or you do not have this skill, you
can use an item with charges of these skills. The most popular is the runeword
staff Pax Mystica, which has charges of Blink. At the end game, the Moon of the
Spider reward charm for the Lord Aldric Jitan uberquest grants you the Jitan's Gate
skill.

Will the classic LoD runewords work?

The classic LoD runewords have been removed because they would not fit into the new
item paradigm.

How do I get those pretty colours like on the screenshots?

Go to your Diablo II folder, find the program 'D2VidTst', run it, let it do its
thing for a while and then choose Direct3D mode. This enables coloured lighting in
Diablo II. This does not work if you run Diablo II in a window.

Features

What are Hatred, Terror, Destruction difficulty?

These are the new names for Normal, Nightmare and Hell respectively.

What are Crafting Points?

You need Crafting Points to use some cube recipes. The amount of Crafting Points
required is listed below the recipe. Find items with +xyz Crafting Points on them
and wear those items while performing the recipe.

What are Uberquests?

Uberquests are the ultimate challenge of Median XL. They involve special difficult
monsters and bosses to kill. Most have a special unique reward for beating them on
Destruction difficulty... See the UBERQUESTS MENU for more information.

What are Challenges?

Challenges reward you for completing difficult tasks under special limited rules.
See the CHALLENGES MENU for more information.

Strategy and tactics

What is the best class?

The best class is the class you like the most.

Physical damage kills me easily!

Defence rating and defensive skills (like the amazon's Defensive Harmony and the
sorceress' Warp Armor) are much more important in Median XL than in classic LoD. By
contrast, life and blocking are less important. Note that in Diablo II your defence
is ignored when you run, so hit 'R' to enter walk mode. In Median XL, walk mode is
much faster and more comfortable.

Elemental damage kills me easily!

Improve your resistances. It is important to have 75% resistance to every element
before Act 3 Hatred. As for poison damage, the Poison Length Reduced by xx%
modifier is very useful. In the end game, you should be able to find items with a
bonus to maximum resistances, allowing you to increase your resistances to 90% or
95%.

My weapon attacks don't do enough damage!

Aside from the obvious solution of getting a better weapon, you can also invest
into skills that increase your damage or put points into strength or dexterity.
Unlike in classic LoD, the strength and dexterity bonuses make a noticable
difference at high levels, especially if you have no skills that add +% damage
(bowazon). The description of the weapon tells you how much damage you gain at your
current strength or dexterity value.

My spells don't do enough damage!

The +x% to [Element] Spell Damage modifiers are plentiful and powerful. Get some of
these bonuses and you will notice a significant difference. Aim for +200% in your
chosen elements by the end game. Also make sure to put some points into energy to
benefit from the spell damage synergy. The spell description of affected spells
tells you how much of a damage bonus you gain at your current energy value.

How many elements do I need?

Regular enemies can only have one natural immunity, so two elements is fine. The
exception is Titan resist auras (solution: kill the Titan first). Physical immunity
does not appear on any enemy by default but has a small chance to spawn on any
random enemy in Destruction difficulty. Also, the Fauztinville uberquest contains
monsters that are immune to multiple elements, and heroic bosses are very hard to
kill without a large number of elements at your disposal.

Can I remove immunities from enemies?

You can use various skills and items to remove an immunity off an enemy: the
amazon's Spellbind, assassin's Phase Bomb, druid's Mythal, necromancer's Bane or
the paladin's Colosseum ability or certain class-specific items with the Mega
Impact modifier. These attacks only work at 1/5 effectiveness if the target is
immune. Items with -x% to Enemy [Element] Resistance do not break immunities by
themselves, but can be used to further reduce an enemy's resistance after the
immunity has been removed with Phase Bomb. Note that if an enemy is completely
immune to all elements, this is usually an uberquest enemy and there is a trick to
killing it. Consult the description of the uberquest.
My minions die all the time!
Many items carry the +x% Bonus to Summoned Minion Life modifier. Focus on these
items and your minions will get much stronger.

My minions die all the time to elemental damage!

Focus on items with +x% Bonus to Summoned Minion Resistances. At skill level 5 and
up, minions have 75% base resistance in Hatred difficulty, 25% in Terror and -25%
in Destruction. The maximum amount of minion resistances on items you can have is
+75%, meaning your minions can be elemental immune in Hatred and Terror but not
Destruction.

[This enemy] is invulnerable!

Uberquest enemies usually have a special trick to them. Some bosses are protected
by a shield when their minions are nearby. Others can only be damaged after you
kill a minion. Some enemies are simply unkillable and should be avoided. Consult
the documentation for the uberquest for more information.

Issues

Are there any belts with more than 2 rows?

Due to a Diablo II engine limitation, additional rows are hardcoded to the classic
LoD belt types.

My sacred belt has one one row!

Due to a Diablo II engine limitation, belts that do not have the 'belt' itemtype
(ie. ones with the 'sacred belt' itemtype) have only one visible row. The other row
exists, but is not accessible. Filling up your belt with shift-click and using
potions with the number keys does work, though.

My gems are not upgraded by a Gem Shrine!

Due to a Diablo II engine limitation, the new gems are not considered gems in some
parts of the game.

Is it normal that an uberboss or heroic boss spawns as a champion pack?

Diablo II likes to force spawn champions even when explicitly asked not to, or when
a given monster is excluded from the champion pool. Restart the game and try again.

Multiplayer

Can I play Median XL with other people?

Median XL officially supports TCP/IP multiplayer and open battle.net. It does not
work on closed battle.net ('realms') because a realm game runs on the server and
all your computer does is display the graphics. Blizzard's servers do not have
Median installed.

Does Median XL have a realm?

Since the Vivendi vs. BnetD lawsuit, realm emulation is considered illegal. For
this reason, I do not provide an official realm for Median XL. Certain third
parties may offer Median XL realms, but these are not supported by Modsbylaz and
may use lower quality hacked versions of the mod.

You didn't answer the question...

I heard the D2 Maniacs realm is free of cheaters and offers the official version of
Median XL. Note that I do not own or take part in this realm; any questions should
go to the realm owner.

How do I find other Median players?

The Pandemonium section on the official FORUM allows players to find each other and
play online together.

TCP/IP or open battle.net doesn't work!

Make sure that all players in the game have the same version of Diablo II LoD, the
same version of the mod and that either noone or everyone is using PlugY (if you
don't know what PlugY is, you're not using it).

I checked all that and it still doesn't work!

Median XL does not interfere with your ability to play multiplayer. This is not a
Median XL problem. If a router or LAN is involved, Diablo II may display an
incorrect IP address; consult a site like www.whatismyip.com to obtain your public
IP. If this fails, please consult the official Blizzard support pages on
www.battle.net.

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