Diablo II: Lord of Destruction is an expansion pack for the hack and slash action role-playing game Diablo II. Unlike the original Diablo's expansion pack, Diablo: Hellfire, it is a first-party expansion developed by Blizzard North.

Diablo II: Lord of Destruction is an expansion pack for the hack and slash action role-playing game Diablo II. Unlike the original Diablo's expansion pack, Diablo: Hellfire, it is a first-party expansion developed by Blizzard North.

Lord of Destruction added content in the form of two new character classes, new weapons and an addition of a fifth act, and also dramatically revamped the gameplay of the existing Diablo II for solo and especially multiplayer.

Lord of Destruction adds a number of new features to the core gameplay of Diablo II. These include:

Two new character classes: the Assassin and the Druid.

A fifth act taking place in and around Mount Arreat in the northern Barbarian Highlands, with an additional act boss, Baal.

Many new items, including new weapons and new pieces of armor:

33 different Runes, which can be placed into sockets and provide different bonuses from gems.

Runewords are specific sequences of runes which grant a specific set of additional bonuses (similar to the preselected bonuses of unique quality items) when socketed into an appropriate item.

Hundreds of additional Horadric Cube recipes.

Crafted items are very similar to rare quality items but they cannot be found in chests or dropped by monsters. They can be created with the Horadric Cube and the right ingredients. They have 3-4 predetermined properties determined by the recipe and up to 4 additional randomly selected from the same pool as rare item properties.

Jewels gain the same random bonuses that items can. These can be placed into sockets. They have the same effect no matter what the base item is. Unique jewels are Rainbow Facets which have different bonuses to a certain element.

Ethereal items that are normally more powerful than their standard counterparts, but they have lowered durability and cannot be repaired. However, if equipped by an NPC companion they do not lose durability. (There are different Ethereal items which have bonus stats that make them repair durability on their own)

Charms that can be kept in the inventory and provide passive bonuses.

Class-specific items that can only be used by a certain character, e.g. Claws for an Assassin.

Additional unique and set items, including class-specific sets.

An expanded stash for storing items two times the size of the original stash.

An alternate weapon/shield/spell setup that can be switched to via a hotkey in gameplay.

Hirelings can now follow the player through all the Acts. They can also be equipped with armor and a weapon, can gain their own experience, when before they leveled up with the player, can be healed by potions, and can be resurrected when killed.

The game can now be played at 800x600 resolution, up from 640x480.