Median 2008 mod for Diablo 2

The main attraction of Median 2008 is the brand new skill trees, 30 skills per class, providing a whole new experience. The mod also offers a new base item setup with 6 quality tiers, 430 uniques, 490 runewords, a new affix pool and gem/jewel stats, and many new and powerful crafting recipes.

All this would be for nothing without the monster AI modifications and new attacks and abilities to make them more dangerous, and for advanced players there are 18+1 new uberquests; the attribute challenges, which reward those who invest only half of their stat points with shiny items; and the level challenges, which require you to complete difficult tasks at a low character level.

A bullet list of all changes would take up most allowed space in this description, so please consult the official site.

Skills

The 210 new skills (25+5 per class) give rise to very different build strategies. Ever wanted to build a throwing barbarian, animal charmer druid or bloodwitch amazon?

Amazon - Focussed on speed and agility to run clear of incoming damage, the amazon possesses many powerful physical bow, javelin and spear skills, or she can be a pagan priestess, calling down spells of blood upon the enemies.
Example skil: Ghost Arrow - Shoot through anything in your path, including enemies and solid walls, striking for extra damage.

Assassin - Physically weak, she can warp around the battlefield in the blink of an eye, and delivers devastating poison and fire damage with melee attacks or thrown knives, or places mechanical time bombs.
Example skill: Storm Crows - Throw a barrage of throwing knives which fan out and seek random nearby targets.

Barbarian - The game's toughest melee fighter shows off his spiritual side. Augmenting his melee and axe throwing skills are a selection of stances, spirit towers that attack enemies for you, and the ability to summon ancient projections.
Example skill: Fortress - Erects a ring of eight guard towers around you, shooting enemies with deadly arrows.

Druid - Nature's prettyboy is the most radically changed character in the mod. The Scosglen hunters possess several deadly bow skills, as well as the ability to charm enemies to your side and imbue them with magical strength!
Example skill: Killer Instinct - When activated, your charmed monsters deal extra physical damage until killed.

Necromancer - The Median necromancer focusses on summoning vast hordes of expendable shadow creatures and creating offensive or defensive totems from dead monsters or conjured corpses, as well as using dark magic crossbow attacks.
Example skill: Unholy Prayer - Stand and channel blasphemous energies, rendering nearby minions invulnerable while you hold the spell.

Paladin - Which side do you choose in the coming conflict: noble Crusader or emo Darkguard? The paladin gets to choose his destiny; retributing with crushing force when attacked as a holy paladin, or unleashing dark forces as an unholy paladin.
Example skill: Retaliate - When struck, you have 2 seconds to make a melee attack; damages and knocks back an area of enemies.

Sorceress - The Zann Esu have a wide array of new and powerful elemental spells at their disposal, as well as a series of defensive abilities and feedback spells, which inflict damage based on mana lost. Oh, and don't underestimate the melee sorceress!
Example skill: Nova Charge - Electrical charge that causes you to automatically emit large shock novas when enemies are nearby.

Monsters

What would new skills be without new monsters to pulverise? The focus here is on AI and behavioural changes. From hammer-throwing clerics and quill rats with homing spikes to corpse exploding goatman priests, apes that cast shockwaves when damaged and frogs that turn into a prince when killed, the new monsters are more than a match for the new skill set.

Gargoyle Warriors - animated Barbarian statues, they attack with a berserk frenzy and can turn into invulnerable stone form to heal themselves.
Goatman Priests - the leaders of a goat clan, the priests can corpse explode their underlings and throw pain spirits that convert lost life into damage.
Rust Monsters - while fairly harmless on their own, their attack has the touch of rust and melts the target's armor, rendering him or her very vulnerable.

Uberquests

These are special dungeons, levels or summonable bosses (!) that should only be attempted by the skilled and powerful.

There are 12+1 uberbosses and 6 uberlevels, ranging from a necromantic temple below Kurast to the cursed city of Ureh (from the Diablo novel 'Kingdom of Shadow') and an uberquest that reenacts the capture of Baal by Tal Rasha and the Horadrim... with you as Baal. On the highest difficulty, you may find certain legendary and powerful unique charms and special Sacred uniques and sets .

Challenges

Completing difficult tasks and encounters at a low level or without spending all of your attribute points may earn you big rewards... from powerful charms to additional new skills.

Items

While some people play the game to defeat the denizens of Hell (haha), for most others TEH L00T and the bragging rights that come with it are more important. Median 2008 does away with normal, exceptional and elite items, instead providing six 'tiers' of item quality. Baal may drop a cap, but it will be a cap with 600 defense on it.

The magical prefixes and suffixes have been redone from scratch, and runes and gems have new properties that make them actually worth using. There are also plenty of cube recipes to reroll, imbue, enchant and tinker with your items. A huge collection of 430 new uniques and 490 new runewords is a given, of course.