D2R Ladder Guide: Season 1 Start Date, Changes, Runewords, Reset, Rewards & More of Diablo 2 Resurrected Ladder System

D2R Ladder Guide: Season 1 Start Date, Changes, Runewords, Reset, Rewards & More of Diablo 2 Resurrected Ladder System

3/2/2022 4:09:01 PM

Join players from all over the world in Diablo II: Resurrected, and compete to see who can become the top player. Level up in the new exclusive ladder system with more frequent restarts and become one of the legends.

With the rollout of Ladder PTR in Diablo II Resurrected, more information about the ranking system is revealed. Here we sort out the most important things about the D2R Ladder you should know to help you get good knowledge about the leaderboard ranking mode in Diablo II Resurrected!

Diablo II Resurrected Ladder System - D2R Ladder Season 1 Start Date, Runewords, Reset, Changes & More

Diablo 2 Resurrected 2.4 Patch is highly anticipated because it will introduce the first ladder season. The ladder season 1 will offer exclusive content that will later reach the "no ladder" mode, such as new rune words that try to give greater use, and greater value, to D2R runes that were unfairly undervalued. For the players who have not played ladder in Legacy Diablo 2, you would want to know more details about the ranking system.

What is Ladder in Diablo 2?

In Diablo 2, ladders are like seasons in more modern games. You start here with a new character and can measure yourself against other players on a ranking list. It is divided into standard game, expansion, softcore, and hardcore. Instead of just leading your lone warrior to victory, you play a ranked character that is compared with other ladder participants via a leaderboard. You compete with others in multiplayer and want to reach a maximum level of 99 as quickly as possible. It’s the online-only competition that lists the players that are at the highest levels, and then keeps the name of the first player to reach level 99 at the top of the list.

That's in the ladder: The ladder is about, among other things, reaching the maximum level of 99 as quickly as possible. With your new character, you then climb up a leaderboard and compete with other players. A ladder character has access to special content that is not available to standard players. The most important of these are new runewords that you can craft yourself.

Diablo 2 Ladder Reset

What's next after the ladder? The ladder should reset regularly to provide a breath of fresh air. This has worked in Diablo 2 for 21 years and will be continued in Resurrected. It is not yet clear when the resets will take place. If the game is based on Diablo 3, a new ladder should start about every 3 months.

Diablo 2 Ladder Rewards

Does the ladder gives players any unique season rewards? If you're talking about the ladder itself, there's nothing but perceived glory. However, playing on the ladder rather than non-ladder grants you access to a slew of helpful D2R ladder runewords, horadric cube formulae for upgrading unique and uncommon things to exceptional level, and some unique drops. So we can say that the prize for climbing the ladder is that you can stop playing the game after the season is over and the characters you worked so hard on become normal characters.

Diablo 2 Resurrected Ladder Changes

In Diablo 2 Resurrected, Ladder season will return to the game with some new balance changes and features. What does the ladder bring? Blizzard has already published a list of new features and content for the ladder. Among them are:

1. Ladder-Only Items & Runewords Available For No-Ladder Players

Runewords, Unique Items, and Horadric Cube recipes that used to be Ladder-only are now part of Non-Ladder Multiplayer and Singleplayer, as they are an important part of popular builds. Additionally, the Pandemonium event and Uber Diablo content will now be part of single player.

2. Balance Changes for All Classes

The changes to the classes are extremely extensive. Basically, they serve as a buff for everyone, which should make melee combatants, who have been disadvantaged so far, particularly happy. There are about damage increases and some attacks can no longer be interrupted. However, fans of barbarians in particular are already certain that one of their builds will remain "unplayable".

3. New Ladder Runewords and Recipes for the Horadric Cube

By participating in ranked modes, players will be able to unlock many new runewords. These runewords will be unique to Ladder players. As with the original Diablo II Resurrected Ladder mode, the new Runewords will not be able to be used in Unranked Mode. At the end of the Ladder season, characters who have composed unique runewords will go into No-Ladder mode. Many of the new runewords are already known and have been tested. Not all of them are necessarily useful, but could make for exciting new builds. Diablo Expert Dbrunski has already tested the first new Runeword, Unyielding Will.

4. Ladder Season Duration

According to the current situation, the ladder system with its player rating list will be implemented almost identically. However, Blizzard is shortening the season a bit - restarts should happen more frequently than every six months. And it is very likely to follow the rule of the ladder reset in Diablo 3, that is, a season lasts 3 months.

5. Changes to Mercenaries, Item Sets, Areas and More

That could be exciting. Act 1 Huntresses and Act 5 Barbarians can now carry character-specific cheap D2 items and use the bonuses gained from them. One of the Act 5 mercenaries should now also be able to wield two weapons at the same time, but not a two-handed weapon. The iron wolves from act 3 now get frost armor instead of ice armor.

D2R Ladder Start Date (Season 1 Schedule)

When Will the D2R Ladder Season 1 Start and End?

On March 2nd, 2022, you can try out the ladder on the newly launched Diablo 2 PTR. The content of the first season will be available there to check for bugs and improvements. When the forthcoming patch 2.4 will be released the ladder remains to be seen. As a rule, such tests on the PTR take between 2 and 4 weeks. According to this calculation, the D2R ladder season 1 would officially start at the beginning of April 2022, and then run for 3 months until June 2022.

Updated! D2R Ladder Release Date of the first season is set on April 28th, 2022!

How To Play D2R Ladder PTR?

At the moment, the PTR is only available for the PC version of Diablo 2: Resurrected. To participate, navigate to the drop-down menu above the "Play" button in the lower-left corner of the Diablo 2 tab in the Battle.net client.

Select the option "PTR: Diablo II: Resurrected". Installs the client if necessary. You should then be able to easily access the PTR and test out the new content.

How To Play Ladder Season in Diablo 2 Resurrected?

Just like the original title, the ranking system offers 4 different modes. Currently planned to last 4 months, the seasons will allow players to compete for the best place. Rewards are provided when a certain level is reached, allowing in particular to obtain new runic words. These are created for the occasion, and can only be recovered by playing with a seasonal character.

In order to play the ladder, you have to create a new character. This must be marked as a "ladder character" via a check box, similar to the seasons in Diablo 3. There are 4 different ladders:

Standard – Normal ranked game mode that includes completing four Campaign Acts
Heroic – Ranked play mode with one life, including passing four campaign acts
Standard + Expansion – Usual ranked game mode, which includes the passage of five campaign acts, including content from the Lord of Destruction expansion
Heroic + Expansion – Ranked game mode with one life, including passing five campaign acts, including Lord of Destruction expansion content

Each mode has its own leaderboard, where players can compete for a limited time to gain experience strategically, while gaining access to specific ladder content.