Ember's Expansion Exploits
at Sirian's Page

What is the intent behind the Expansion Exploits? What sort of characters will be inducted?
Purpose: The purpose of the Exploits listing is to encourage you to have some fun with the Diablo 2 Expansion. I also want to encourage players to try something different. This does not necessarily mean that you should dream up the most handicapped "Variant" character you can imagine. Do that if you like, but that's not necessary or even desirable for inclusion in this listing. In fact, quite different from the classic Hall of Heroes, there are no restrictions placed on the design of your characters for the Expansion Exploits.
Your Character: Lord of Destruction, the Expansion Pack, is brand new at this time, and while many elements of it are familiar, many others are new, or different. Many changes have been made, and for single player characters, difficulty has been increased. (Realms are another matter, because there are numerous shortcuts possible, and bonuses and benefits to party play, trading, etc.) The discovery phase was begun in the beta, but there is much yet to learn or relearn. Play the Expansion in single player, in hardcore, survive, and you qualify to tell your tale here. There is glory to be won for undertaking challenges, but there are many kinds of challenges you might choose to engage. Be creative, have fun.
The Rules: The Rules below are intended to standardize the game being played, so that characters and their achievements can be meaningfully measured and compared, not only against one another, but against the game itself. Please make sure you understand the rules if you intend to participate.



To be eligible for induction into the Hall of Heroes, a character must meet these requirements:
1) Your hero must be a Hardcore character.
2) Your hero must be an Open character, played exclusively in Single Player. Sorry, no mods and no Realms. For the Expansion Exploits, your character must be created in the Expansion. Sorry, converted characters from the original game are not eligible. Note: you must use the latest available version of the Expansion. If a new patch is released, ugrade as soon as possible.
3) To be eligible for induction, your hero must survive to reach the summit of Mount Arreat in Nightmare difficulty. Exception: Variant builds are eligible for induction upon defeating Baal in Normal difficulty, providing that they do not enlist the aid of any hirelings. Any use of hirelings (merceneries) constitutes a non-variant build, for purposes of this listing. If you receive a hireling as a quest reward, you must immediately do your best to get them killed as soon as possible, if you want to qualify for early induction as a variant. You cannot simply wait for the hireling to expire. ... What is a Variant? A Character with multiple non-optimal design elements, including skill paths or item restrictions or other self-chosen handicaps. The less power you choose to play with, the harder it gets. Some examples of Variant Builds include characters specializing in particularly weak skills (like Teeth, Ravens, Shock Web, Holy Fire, or Ice Bolt) or characters with severly restricted gear (like paladins using a two-handed axe or barbarians wielding daggers) or characters specializing in attack forms outside their skill-supported specialties (such as a barbarian using a bow, a melee sorceress or necromancer, or a throwing druid) and any character with unfavorable statistical distribution (like a bowazon restricted to low dexterity, a sorceress with very low energy, a melee barbarian with low strength, or any character with minimum vitality). Give your character some style of his or her own, with something distinctive that falls significantly short of being the most effective, and you're in Variant territory. Whether you play unrestricted, play with a few nonoptimal components, or play a full blown Variant, play something fun, survive, follow the rules listed here, and your character will be recognized.
4) There are no restrictions on character level. However, here at Ember's, honor accrues to those who undertake challenges, not avoid them for survival's sake. Ember values the accomplishments of players, not the power of items, skills, and characters. The lower your level when succeeding at a particular challenge, the more difficult the task, the more recognition to be earned.
5) No trades, no gifts. Play the standard single player game the way it's designed. Completion of some quests, and of many areas of the game, is optional and left to your judgement. There is honor available for full-clearing the game, but also for completing tasks at lower levels, and these can be mutually exclusive. Neither is required. Replaying areas as many times as you like is permitted, as is forcing a map change by switching difficulties or momentarily hosting a TCP game, then restarting. Likewise, there are no limitations placed on Saving and Exiting if you get into trouble, although there is higher honor accrued for not having to do so.
6) The less powerful your character skills, items, and statistics, the more honor accrued for your achievements. Likewise, any use of hirelings will affect the challenge level, although it is possible to play your hireling as a variant, with restricted gear or no gear at all. However, keep in mind that completing Normal with a hogtied variant will not compare with completing Hell with a mildly underpowered character. Normal Difficulty just isn't that dangerous. Also, do not feel a need to compete for rankings here. Ember's Expansion Exploits are not intended to be a competition for bragging rights, but rather an opportunity for you to challenge yourself to whatever degree may entertain you, yet do so in a way that participates in a community of like-minded players who all share Ember's ideals of what constitutes a worthy endeavor in Lord of Destruction. You needn't match Ember's quest to earn recognition. Choose your own quests, at your own pace, with character builds you enjoy, and above all, have some fun!
7) Don't cheat! Just don't. I will be taking steps to weed out obvious lamers, but there's no way I can possibly regulate players determined to break the rules and get away with it. This listing relies on your honesty and good word. If you deceive and swindle your way to a listing here, you will be breaking my trust, dishonoring Ember and her Quest, betraying all your fellow players, and most of all, cheating yourself of the pride you would feel in a legitimate accomplishment. Don't do that! You are worth far more than that as an individual. Respect yourself and these Exploits. Better to legitimately earn a listing here even at the bottom, with a modest accomplishment, than to cheat your way to a false glory. Ember believes in you! Believe in yourself. Don't cheat.
8) You are allowed up to three listings in the Expansion Exploits. If three of your characters are inducted, and later you play a different character, undertaking more difficult challenges, you may submit the new character and earn a higher position in the listing, but understand that one of your old exploits will be removed. You are also allowed to update your listing if your character survives to undertake additional challenges. Slain characters remain eligible, so there is no risk to your hero's recognitions here in seeking additional challenge. If you have full-cleared all areas of Hell Difficulty at least once, there are no challenges remaining and your exploits will be complete. No additional honor will acrue for replaying already-completed battles. NOTE: there is a separate Hall of Heroes for classic Diablo II. Your listings here do not affect your listing (if any) for the original Hall of Heroes.
9) Due to limits on both my time and my webspace, I must restrict the number of screenshots I will host for each hero: your skill trees, plus a maximum of three other screenshots. You therefore have two options: A) Submit a limited number of screenshots and I will host them with your exploits, or... B) Host your hero's exploits on your own personal webspace, to which I will link. Choice B is more work for you, but allows you to include as many screenshots as you may desire, as well as control the html and presentation of your story.
10) Induction into the Expansion Exploits is a privilege, not a right, and will be granted or denied at my sole discretion. Until such time as I have learned enough about the Expansion to meaningfully compare different builds and different levels of challenge, all inductees will be listed alphabetically. If and when the listing is changed to reflect difficulties faced, degrees of challenge overcome, understand that the order in which characters are listed is based solely on my subjective evaluation and is not open to debate. Do not place undue attention on the rankings, rather, enjoy the exploits of all the heroes listed here, for each represents a worthy achievement in the Diablo II Expansion.
NOTE: As of this writing, there is a bug with the Assassin Mind Blast skill that turns it into a one-shot-kill vs any nonboss monster. Unless and until this bug is fixed, no Assassins using either Mind Blast OR the Shadow Master (who will cast Mind Blast on her own) are eligible to be listed here. If your Assassin plans include these skills, hold off until such time as the bugs have been fixed.



You must conform to the following instructions and provide the specified
information and screenshots when submitting a character for review:
1) DO NOT send any screenshots until I have specifically requested them! Keep in mind that if you fail to follow directions, you will be ignored.
2) When you have a character you believe is eligible for Expansion Exploits, write up a synopsis for me. Include your character's class, primary skills, a short description of primary items, information about any hirelings used, any special rules or restrictions that you adhered to, and how far you've gone in the game. You needn't write perfectly nor cleanly, but be as clear and concise as you can. If I can't make any sense of your submission or you apparently didn't take any care with it, you might be ignored.
3) While playing, it will be necessary for you to take screenshots. Some screenshots are required, others are optional. You press the PrintScrn key while playing to take a screenshot. DO NOT EDIT your shots! I will take care of that. NOTE FOR MAC PLAYERS: you will need to convert your screenshot files to .jpg format before sending them to me. Surf the web for image utilities if you don't have an editor already.
4) Along with your synopsis, you should include a listing of the screenshots you've taken, including a BRIEF description of what is depicted and what point in the game each shot was taken. Note: if going for full clear credit, it's enough to tell me you've "got all the full-clear" shots. You don't have to describe those. Your list need only detail the OPTIONAL shots you want considered for inclusion with your exploits.
5) I will evaluate your submission and inform you of my decision. If your character is accepted, I will provide you a list of which screenshots I want you to send me. You will then have to zip all the jpg files into one archive and attach the zipfile to an email, to send me. You MUST zip the shots, and label the zip file with your character's name and your own nickname so that I can sort out your shots from everyone else's. IMPORTANT: failure to provide all requested screenshots will result in the denial of your application for listing. In short, that means that you MUST HAVE the required screenshots even if I don't ask you for them and, further, any optional screenshots you claim to have must be delivered if I ask for them. So don't forget to take the required shots, and don't claim to have shots you can't produce; if that situation arises, there will be no appeal.
5-A) You will want to send me your character report (containing what you want known of your exploits) along with the screenshots. IMPORTANT: please send your report in plain text format (Notepad or any ASCII editor will do). Write a detailed report if you like -- length is not a problem -- but do not rely on screenshots to tell your story. I can only host a few shots per hero. AT THE MINIMUM you need to list your skills, any important items, and report what parts of the game you cleared or skipped. Additional details are optional, at your discretion.
If I pull up your report in Notepad and it looks like this:

instead of this:

because of punctuation formatting, I will not accept it.
6) Since you never know which screenshots I will ask for, that should make it (if only slightly) more difficult for any players to exagerate their claims, and will also let me pick and choose among potential screenshots to be included with your hero's exploits.
7) To be inducted you must have four distinct screenshots, taken while standing either on the summit of Mount Arreat, or within the Worldstone Chamber while standing over the dying/dead body of Baal. Open your character screen (C key) while leaving the other half of the screen focused on your character and location, and take a shot. Then close your character screen and open your skill trees, and take one shot of each tree. All four shots must show your character in the same spot, the same pose (in other words, take them all four at once). There is no more end-game countdown timer, so I can no longer use that as visual proof the game has been completed. Remember: you must reach Mount Arreat's summit (the Ancients) in Nightmare to become eligible for induction. Variants become eligible at the end of Normal, so their shots will be taken in the Worldstone Chamber. NOTE: If you are unfamiliar with taking screenshots, a bit of practice to get the hang of it before crunch time arrives might be a good idea. I can't help you if your chance to take shots passes you by because you weren't adequately prepared, and this COULD disqualify you. Don't let that happen!
7-A) NOTE: if you survive the Ancients in Nightmare, and go on to defeat Baal, you may wish to take another round of shots and submit those instead. YOU CANNOT SUBMIT BOTH. You get a maximum of one update per difficulty level, plus a final update if your hero perishes.
8) Once you have qualified for induction and taken your four mandatory screenshots, you may want to take screenshots of any particularly difficult battles you encounter, notably Act End bosses, Quest bosses, or any nasty random bosses you decide to engage. This way you can establish partial progress if your character should later be slain without completing the game. Feel free to take optional shots of anything else you find interesting, or at any point you wish to mark your progress, just in case. A variety of shots is good, including ones that show your character screen, inventory, interesting items, hirelings and minions, or what have you. Don't go overboard, but remember also that once the moment passes, the chance to record it passes with it. If possible, when taking a boss picture, point to him and get a shot of his special abilities and current health -- just don't get killed in the process!
9) To be credited with a full clear, you will have to take a LOT of screenshots. Most won't see the light of day, but you never know which ones I'll ask for, and you will have to provide all the ones I request. MAKE SURE your automap is turned on when you take the shots, please. You don't have to do that in general, but you do for full-clear credit. Here's a complete list (write em down or print this out if you need a reminder): ACT ONE: Blood Raven, The Countess, Level Two of the Cave, UGP, Hole and Pit preferably while a boss is highlighted, and a shot showing all quests completed. ACT TWO: Radament, Ancient Kaa, Level Two of the Stony Tomb, Level Three of the Halls, the Ancient Tunnels, each of the seven tombs cleared (I may ask for all seven, you never know), and the Arcane Sanctuary from the waypoint showing the complete map. ACT THREE: both spider lairs, both gold chests in the Marsh, full map of level three of both jungle dungeons, all six temples, a complete map of sewers level one, a full map of Durance 3, and a picture showing all six quests completed. ACT FOUR: a shot of Izzy dead or nearly so, a full map of City of Damned, and a shot of the spirits flowing out of the Hell Forge after smashing the stone; ACT FIVE: complete maps (with ALL areas filled in) for the Frigid Highlands, Arreat Plateau and Frozen Tundra (you will have to take two screenshots in each area to get the whole area covered. Be very thorough, because I am quite likely to ask for one of these areas, and you'll be disqualified if you don't clear every last square foot, or if you can't provide the screenshots promptly); you also need screenshots of the gold chests in all five optional dungeons, plus a shot showing all six quests completed. I know that's a lot of shots, but take them all anyway. I won't ask for them all, and you can delete the extras once you've been inducted.
9-A) Full Clear means killing everything in all areas and fully exploring all maps, kicking open every last barrel and urn, opening all stashes and chests, all Evil Urns. If you run into a particularly tough boss or tough random abilities on Super bosses like Fangskin, Sparkfist, and Hephasto, you are allowed to stop and try again in a new game. You may reroll the map if you like, but you must kill everything in each area at least once. There is one exception: opponents with unlimited healing ability (Council Members ONLY -- the regenerative power of the Teleportation ability has been capped now) can be parked if you are unable to kill them within twenty minutes of giving it your best effort -- and you will be credited with having cleared them anyway. Some chars with low offense are simply not capable of overcoming these unlimited regenerating bosses. However, all non-regenerating bosses must be slain. Also, the order in which you do the clears is up to you. You may even backtrack to earlier acts, to clean up anything you missed. Full Clears are no big deal to Softcore chars, who see little benefit in dying in some unimportant hole in the ground, or who may be so strong, there's little challenge there for them anyway. Hardcore is a different matter, as there are some tough (and unnecessary) risks in the optional areas, or with tackling bosses that could otherwise be safely avoided, so that is why special credit accrues for Full Clears. Note also that with Immunity now appearing on monsters and bosses, and resistance increased in Hell difficulty for all targets, the Full Clear carries even more weight toward Expansion Exploits than it does for the classic Hall of Heroes. NOTE: For Expansion Exploits ONLY, you can now earn full clear credit act by act, or for some acts but not others, in Hell Difficulty. You can thus gain partial credit for full clears in Hell without having to clear the entire difficulty, or if you are slain, gain full clear credit up to the point of your death.
10) I need a screenshot of your character from the main selection screen, where you choose which character to play, to make the pictures you see on the Hall's main page. Position your character in the bottom slot if you can, make sure the cursor and selection box are elsewhere, and take a screenshot. This one I will always ask for, so that your hero can be protrayed in the listing.
11) Please use some common sense when requesting updates to your listing. I won't have time to make continuous updates. At most, I can do one or two such updates per character, ever. So take your screenshots and hold on to them, but only request an update if you complete a whole difficulty, or reach the final goal you set for the character, or if the characer is killed in action. Thank you.
12) I may decide to ask you for additional information about your hero and his or her adventures. If I am unsure of the legitimacy of your claims, for example, I might be able to determine if you are genuinely expert enough to pull them off, or instead obviously clueless and wasting my time, by having you explain your tactics, or detail to me the events that took place. At the same time, I might be asking for more information about your character to improve the quality of the listing itself, to provide more detail to readers, so please don't take offense to any requests I make. I'm just one guy doing the best he can. Thanks. :)
13) Please preface all Email subject lines with EEE: to let me know that your particular correspondance applies to Ember's Expansion Exploits (and allow me to sort all these messages into one location to save myself time). Failure to comply may result in your emails getting lost in the shuffle. Don't let that happen!
14) I'm not earning money for this site. This is as much for my amusement as yours, so have some patience if I am slow getting back to you. I have to fit this endeavor into the rest of my life, you know. Thanks! And... good luck with the Expansion Pack!


- Sirian


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