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Diablo II/Skills

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This is a sub-page of Diablo II.

Throughout development of Diablo II, skills changed drastically, sometimes in name, sometimes in function, and sometimes skills got cut altogether. At one point in development, skill levels were tiered out at levels 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25, but this was changed to a set of tiers at levels 1, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30.

'NOTE:' This only covers skills which were cut and their evidence still exists in the files. This may cover content that was known in prerelease that changed.

Only the original game's classes are well-known enough to discuss them.

All Classes

All classes had the ability at one point to convert items in their inventory. See Barbarian#Find Heart for more information on this.

Resurrect Icon

All classes had the ability at one point to resurrect friendly players in multiplayer. This was scrapped, but the icon and skill description still exist for it.

Many screenshots from beta builds show a "Kick" skill which is seemingly available to all classes. Notably, all classes do in fact have a kick animation in the finished game, this is used for interacting with certain objects, such as clay pots and baskets.

Amazon

The Amazon was the first class completed by Blizzard North for the game. It has relatively few changes.

Cut Skills

Fist of Ares

Fist of Ares icon

Originally this skill would duplicate the missiles shot by the player, including ones fired by other skills such as Magic Arrow, Cold Arrow, etc. This was pretty insanely overpowered and its effects got moved into Multiple Shot. Some of the graphics and a sound for this ability still exist in the files.

Diablo2 FistofAres Back.gifDiablo2 FistofAres FadeIN.gifDiablo2 FistofAres Front.gifDiablo2 FOAorbiter.gif

Changed Skills

Eye of Zeus and Hand of Athena were changed to Inner Sight and Slow Missiles, but did not change in functionality. Several of the game's files still refer to the skills this way. Dopplezon was changed to Decoy and is still referred as such in the files.

Unknown Skills

There is a sound effect, hurl.wav which is not used.

Assassin

The original game included text about the (then in-development) Assassin class's skills. Read here for more information.

Barbarian

Changed Skills

Find Heart

Convert icon

Originally Barbarians had a skill referred to as Find Heart. This would've caused organs to spew out from slain monsters, which could be converted into more useful items. Then, the ability to convert items was given to all classes and organs dropped for everyone. And then finally, the Convert skill became the basis for the Horadric Cube, and Find Heart became Find Potion (and retained the same skill icon to match this).

Despite all of this change, the organs can still be spawned with a character editor and will convert to another item if they are right-clicked in the inventory. If it is spawned with a character editor, the item will be called "Skeleton X", where X is the organ name. If it is retrieved from a slain monster, it will be given the name of the monster that drops it. These items are hardcoded to function like this, and no other item in the game does this.

There are 12 organ items in the game. Cut item images are posted next to the item where they were cut.

  • Heart -> Converts to an unused Health Potion that heals for 35% of health. The icon is used for Khalim's Heart.
  • Brain -> Crashes the game when it tries to convert. The icon is used for Khalim's Brain.
  • Diablo2 Invjaw.jpg Jawbone -> Converts into 10-40 Bolts.
  • Eye -> Converts into an unused Mana Potion that heals for 35% of mana. The icon is used for Khalim's Eye.
  • Diablo2 Invhorn.jpg Horn -> Converts into 10-40 Arrows.
  • Diablo2 Invtail.jpg Tail -> Converts into a stamina potion.
  • Diablo2 Invflag.jpg Flag -> Doesn't convert into anything. It takes up a 2x1 inventory slot despite the icon being only 1x1. The icon was later reused for the Standard in Patch 1.11.
  • Diablo2 Invfang.jpg Fang -> Converts into a key.
  • Diablo2 Invquil.jpg Quill -> Converts into 10-40 Arrows.
  • Diablo2 Invsol.jpg Soul -> Converts into an unused Mana Potion that heals for 35% of mana.
  • Scalp -> Converts into an unused Full Health Potion that heals for 100% of health. Does not have an inventory icon.
  • Diablo2 Invsple.jpg Spleen -> Crashes the game when it tries to convert.

Other Skills

An alternate effect for when Battlecries affect teammates.
An alternate effect for Barbarian battlecries.

Several of the warcries got changed graphics prior to the game being released. The older development assets were kept in a folder called /Extra/.

Diablo2 TauntCurse.gifDiablo2 TauntCurseSlow.gif

Druid

The original game included text about the (then in-development) Druid class's skills. Read here for more information.

Graphics exist for a mobile plant monster. Its animations are similar to that of the Druid's Vine skills which suggest that it might have been a summonable creature. It's fully animated, but lacks sounds and the code needed to spawn it.

Diablo2 XZplant.gifDiablo2 XZplant2.gifDiablo2 XZplant3.gifDiablo2 XZplant4.gifDiablo2 XZplant5.gif

Necromancer

Cut Skills

Poison Inferno

The Necromancer had a poison Inferno ability similar to the Sorceress. This skill seems to have been scrapped in favor of Poison Explosion later in development, despite being a more interesting ability. The graphics and sound effects still exist in the game.

Diablo2 PoisonInferno.gif

Familiar

The Necromancer also had a scouting ability known as the Familiar. The Necromancer would take control over a Familiar that could be used to scout the map while being outside of their body. Most of the data surrounding this skill still exists in the game, including the casting sounds, effects, and even some of the code behind it. This was probably cut because it wasn't a very useful skill to have.

Diablo2 FIfamiliar.gifDiablo2 FamiliarFade.gif

Other Skills

The Necromancer was also planned to have several mind-control abilities, but this got folded into some of the curses, like Confuse, Attract, and Terror. Some of the planned graphics for these skills still exist.

Diablo2 NecroMindCast.gifDiablo2 NecroMindReceive.gif

Changed Skills

Raise Skeleton was originally referred to as Reanimate and had different graphics to accompany it. When Raise Skeletal Mage was introduced, Reanimate received a name change and new graphics.

Diablo2 RaiseDead.gif

Unused Iron Maiden effect.

Curses at one point had missiles, but in the final game are instant-cast effects over a radius. The graphics for their original behavior still exist. In addition, several of the curses got their names changed entirely through the course of development, but internally their names remain the same. Reverse Vampire became Life Tap and Taint became Terror. There also exist a number of generic curse effects. There are also sounds that reflect this change.

Diablo2 CurseMissle.gifDiablo2 CurseEffectBlue.gifDiablo2 CurseEffectGreen.gifDiablo2 CurseEffectRed.gif

Bone Shield has alternate graphics that aren't used, and graphics for when a charge is depleted.

Diablo2 BoneShield.gifDiablo2 BoneShieldExplode.gif

Golem skills have alternate graphics that aren't used in the files.

Diablo2 GolemCast.gif

Unsummon has a sound effect, but it doesn't play due to the volume being set to 0 (by mistake?) in Sounds.txt.

Paladin

Aura Changes

Originally, auras were casted every so often, and their visual representation covered the entire player. This changed, since auras in the final iteration of the game don't have a casting animation and are only shown at the feet. Blizzard included all of these old aura animations in the game, for whatever reason.

Defiance

Diablo2 AuraDefiance.gifDiablo2 AuraDefianceCast.gif

Resist Cold/Resist Fire

Diablo2 AuraResistCold.gifDiablo2 AuraResistFire.gifDiablo2 AuraResistFireCast.gif

Thorns

Diablo2 AuraThorns.gifDiablo2 AuraThornsCast.gif

Cut Skills

Based on the above graphics, there are three auras that have graphics, but aren't in the game. The only thing that is known is their name, based on the name of the files.

Inspiration

Diablo2 AuraInspiration.gifDiablo2 AuraInspirationCast.gif

Reflection

Diablo2 AuraReflection.gifDiablo2 AuraReflectionCast.gif

Absorb

The third image is an effect which would play if the player got hit while the aura was active.

Diablo2 AuraAbsorb.gifDiablo2 AuraAbsorbCast.gifDiablo2 AuraAbsorbHit.gif

Generic Auras

These auras aren't given a name in the files. They are just referred to as "aurablue", "auragreen", "aurared" and "aurawhite".

Diablo2 Aurawhite.gifDiablo2 Aurast wh.gifDiablo2 Aurablue.gifDiablo2 Aurast bl.gifDiablo2 Aurared.gifDiablo2 Aurast rd.gifDiablo2 Auragreen.gifDiablo2 Aurast gr.gif

Other Skills

Diablo2 SalvationAura Front.gif Salvation has alternate graphics that aren't used.

Diablo2 Vengeance.gif Vengeance would've played this (neat) effect when it hit something. A shame it isn't used.

Diablo2 SanctuaryMissiles.gif Sanctuary has alternate graphics for its effect that aren't used.

Sorceress

By far the class with the most changes, the Sorceress was finished last in the game.

Cut Skills

Ice Storm

Ice Storm icon.

It's not totally known what this skill was originally designed to do. Based on its graphics, it functions very similar to Blizzard, but perhaps freezes the targets instead?

Diablo2 IceStorm.gifDiablo2 Icestormimpactvar03.gifDiablo2 IceCast.gif

Chill Blood

The skill was mentioned in pre-release news articles but the effect is never explicitly stated. The skill was abandoned and it's not known what its effect was, but graphics and sound for it still exist in the game. Based on the graphics, it seems like it was some kind of curse that would freeze people in a radius if casted repeatedly.

Diablo2 Chillblood.gifDiablo2 ChillBlood02.gifDiablo2 ChillBloodInitialPoof.gifDiablo2 Chillbloodpuff curse.gifDiablo2 Chillbloodpuff.gif

Shivers

Shivers icon.

Another skill that was mentioned in prerelease news but the explicit effect was never told to the public. A few casting animations are all that exist for it.

Diablo2 ShiversCast.gifDiablo2 ShiversOverlay.gif

Other Skills

Diablo2 Warmth.gif Warmth has unused graphics, seemingly from when it wasn't a passive ability.

Diablo2 NovaBlue.gifDiablo2 ElecNova.gifDiablo2 ElecNovaA.gifDiablo2 ElecNovaB.gif Nova has quite a few unused graphics.

Diablo2 FrostNova.gifDiablo2 FrostNova2.gif Likewise, Frost Nova has a few different variations. At least one of these can be seen in prerelease screenshots.

Diablo2 LightningCastRunesBack.gifDiablo2 MANASHIELD8DIR.gif Mana Shield has alternate graphics that aren't used. These look like effects that would play if the player got struck while Mana Shield is active.

Monster Skills

Fetish Shamans have code for an aura skill. They would use the ability prior to the expansion but it didn't function properly or display due to a bug. In the expansion, they decided to nerf the AI entirely, since it only very rarely (if even at all) resurrects Fetishes, and it doesn't use the aura at all.

Diablo2 Bighead.gif Tainted/Afflicted/Damned have alternate missile graphics that aren't used.

Diablo2 Vampire spelloverlay.gif This overlay, called "Vampire_spelloverlay.dcc" is not used.

Diablo2 SpikefiendMAMAmissle.gif Quill Bears (a cut monster) could shoot gigantic quills.

Greater mummies have five unused sound effects and an overlay that does not function. Their AI is a bit strange in general.

Diablo2 GreaterMummyCast.gif

Unknown

It's not known what precisely these missiles and/or overlays were used for.

Diablo2 LightningGenerator.gifDiablo2 Overlayf.gifDiablo2 WhiteFlash.gifDiablo2 WhiteFlash2.gifDiablo2 EvilAura.gifDiablo2 AnotherIceReceive.gif