The first non-beta release version of Median 2006, aptly numbered 1.12 (!), is out!
In case you've been living on Mars for the last year, Median 2006 is a Diablo 2 mod (yes!) for 1.10 and 1.11 and is the successor of Median 2 Special Edition which is the successor of Median 2, adding up to 48 patches in exactly one year.
So why should I download this? Is it the same as M2 or M2SE?
A: M2006 is an evolved version of M2SE. For starters, the three class-specific innates per class in M2 and M2SE tended to suck and add very little to the class, forcing everyone to rely on learnable skills alone and giving rise to the complaint that 'all classes are the same'. This is no longer the case in M2006. There are now five innates per class, all of them useful (yes, even Ghost Arrow is now useful).
The learnable skills are the same for the most part, but rebalanced and fit into an actual skill tree as opposed to being available at level 1. This should improve replayability, and I did some theorycraft to make sure that low level skills are just as viable as high level skills, and that Normal doesn't turn into a boring struggle just because you're saving up all your points.
There are many more crafting options in the form of 'professions', which (usually) unlock hidden cube recipes. You can select one profession at level 30, but only one. Professions include Runemaster, which allows you to upgrade single runes by putting them in the cube and hitting transmute; Priest, which unlocks cube recipes to generate charm-like 'books' with magical bonuses including oskills; and Witch, which enables you to cube runes into 'elixirs' which give a temporary but large bonus to attributes, skill levels or magic find, or clear all skill timers.
The mod is (even) more polished than its predecessors, in terms of balance, AI and difficulty (it had better be, after all that work!).
