Diablo: The Hell mod

Downloads / Main site

What is The Hell mod?

It is BIG. It is STABLE. It has a megaton of IMPROVEMENTS over original game.
Endless BUGFIXES of original Diablo (way more fixes than Diablo patch 1.09 would ever provide).
It resurrects secret QUESTS that Blizzard didn't create for the final version of Diablo.
It gives you endless hordes of monsters and a neverending flow of items.
The mod was created so that it stays closer to the original game visually. And it's sort of like a good car. It might look modest. But when you look at the engine, sit behind the wheel, take that hottie on the road and give her a hard time, leaving a good mileage behind you, that is when you understand and FEEL what it's all about.

What it gives you in general

1. support of modern operating systems, up to win10
2. ability to play in windowed mode (as well as fullscreen), adjust screen resolution
3. multiplayer support (through Tunngle, over UDP)
4. original game bug fixes and exploit removal
5. more content: spells, items, colors schemes, monsters, bosses, uniques, quests, sounds, music, etc.
6. improved game atmosphere
7. tons of new and improved game features

What it gives you specifically

+ Support for all new Windows versions (up to Windows 10),
+ Support for different game resolutions and for window mode,
+ Smarter difficulty: starts easy, but arrives at insane difficulty at the end (meaning Doom mode),
+ "More than meets the eye": hundreds and thousands of subtle changes that cannot be noticed too soon,
+ Item availability depends on dungeon level, difficulty mode, monster level and player level,
+ "Vise": inability to quick-exit game when in dungeon (multi) or save\exit area when in battle (single),
+ Over 700 dungeon level color palettes,
+ Near 400 base items and near 900 unique items,
+ Improved/fixed/expanded monster/player animations/sounds,
+ Well balanced traps,
+ Near 220 monster types and near 580 unique monsters,
+ Bosspack size and AI depends on difficulty mode, game mode and dungeon level now,
+ Unique uber bosses on 3rd difficulty mode of multiplayer,
+ Multiplayer difficulty changing on the fly according to number of players in-game,
+ Dungeon architecture depending on difficulty mode,
+ Set items available for each class (orange item class),
+ Fixed and rebalanced old spells, and some new ones,
+ Cooldowns on powerful AOE spells,
+ More music, most of it available as you progress through difficulty modes,
+ Much, much, MUCH more features that I would never be able to list here in details...

Additional game info

Inventory items
Everything you equip on your character and use in inventory/belt.
Let's see what are the main differences between D1 and TH.
Item break occurs when current durability reaches 1, after that maximum durability starts depleting, when it hits 0, then the item is broken, destroyed.
Item availability depends on dungeon level and difficulty mode. All items are available (as drops) only by the time you get to play on 'doom' mode. Additionally, in singleplayer mode, item availability depends on your character's basic attributes. Which means you can't find items that are too far away from your stat range.
As in D2, Shift+Leftclick transfers potions of life/mana/holy to your belt.
Weapon switch hotkey is V.
There are stones instead of scrolls in the game now. Called relicts.
Magic books may have character level requirements.
Magic spells
There are a few types of magic damage in TH:
fire > lightning > arcane (magic) > physics > holy
Fire spells are the most diverse and powerful, holy spells deal the least damage, making undead the worst enemy types for pure casters.
Spells can be damaging, controlling or for personal usage.
Now on to spells list:
Fire bolt, charged bolt, holy bolt - standard low level damager spells. Holy bolt knocks back targets on impact.
Arcane star - damaging spell, damage is arcane, of magic type. For those who think that spell damage can be either fire or lightning. Well, now you know more.
Inferno, lightning - attack targets 20 times per second, for the duration of the spell.
Chain lightning - there is none here.
Healing - heals you, effectiveness depends on basic vitality.
Reflect - increases melee damage FROM monsters, and returns 400% of the damage back to them. Works similar to D2 Paladin skill 'Thorns'.
Fire wall, lightning wall + rings of fire/lite - not damaging spells, they are used for crowd control.
Elemental - self-targetting physical damage offensive spell. Doesn't affect undead though.
Force wave - physical crowd control spell.
Bone spirit - cuts a percentage of target current hitpoints. Can't damage undead.
Nova spells - highly damaging spells, but trigger cooldown on cast, to avoid letting mages spam these like crazy.
Fury - a spell that works differently for each class. Modifies battle stats. Gives triple shot (not to Assassins).
Fire blast - main offensive fire spell. Has splash damage (100% damage).
Ball lightning - high damage spell, has no splash.
Hydra - similar to Guardian from Diablo 1, but amount of Hydras is limited by spell level.
Golem - deals physical damage that can't be resisted by monsters. Teleports near master when gets too far.
Stone curse - makes enemies petrified and immune to all damage. Golems don't even try attack cursed monsters. Some are immune to Stone curse.
Flash - magic damage spell. Does insane damage on very high spell levels.
Mana shield - damage goes to mana 100%, but increased (as a payment). Starts at 200% on spell level 1, and decreases rapidly with spell level increase.

On hotkeys

Standard F5 - F8 are still there.
Non-adjustable TH hotkeys listed below.
I - inventory
Enter - group chat
Alt + Enter - quick switch between window mode and fullscreen
C - character sheet
Esc - main menu
Tab - map
P - pause game
F9 - F12 - adjustable quick multiplayer messages (messages can be altered in 'hellmsg.ini')
~ - display setup menu (in-game)
F1 - Fury
F2 - Healing
F3 - Reflect
F4 - Mana Shield
Q - Teleport
W - Fire Wall
E - Lightning Wall
R - Fire Nova
T - Lightning Nova
Y - Arcane Nova
U - Holy Nova
O - Town portal
A - Fiery blast
S - Lightning ball
D - Arcane Star
F - Stone Curse
G - Golem
H - Holy Bolt
J - Flash
K - Inferno
L - Lightning
X – Force Wave
B - Bone Spirit
N - Flame Ring
M - Lightning Ring
Z - Elemental
Ctrl – Hydra
V – weapon switch

Character classes

The Hell offers 6 choices here: Paladin, Scout, Mage, Monk, Assassin, Gladiator.
No class is better thatn the other. All have their pros and cons.
Paladin
Skill: item repair. Every repair lowers item maximum durability by 1.
Specializes in 'one-handed weapon + shield' fighting style. Decent with bows as a support weapon. Weak with axe, terrible with staff.
Does +25% damage to undead.
Does almot +100% damage with Holy magic.
Good with Healing spell. Overall, a terrible caster.
Best when it comes to blocking blows with a shield. Also, has decent damage absorption.
Scout
A 100% ranged character. Uses bows only. But uses them so well that nothing else is required. Shes's fast, precise and can score spectacular critical hits. Sword and maces - awful, axes and staves - horrible.
Skill: seeing. Allows to see monsters in darkness and beyond obstacles and walls (highlighted with red). Also, can detect trapped dungeon objects.
Has increased damage absorbtion of ranged attacks. But she has low melee damage absorb.
Weak against melee attackers and especially those who can take on you by surprise (hidden and warpers).
Incredibly agile, which gives her extra accuracy when using fire or lightning arrows.
Mage
Unchallenged when it comes to casting spells. Horrible with all weapon types.
Skill: spell recharge. Unlike in original D1, lowers item current durability.
Has low life and lowest life regeneration. But has high mana and powerful mana regeneration bonus. Melee damage absorb: lowest of all.
Those who got used to Sorcs being top class in D1, should avoid such mentality here: Mage is no better than others.
Monk
Most universal fighter class. Excels at ANY weapon type. Not just staves, as in Hellfire. Axe - easy, bows - no problem, bare fists - masterfully, blades - godly, flails - effortless, staff - ...well that is indeed just like in original game (strong and fast). Blocks like crazy, can't block only if wielding bow or axe. High dexterity allows him to dodge melee attacks and arrows even better.
Skill: telekinesis. Mental powers and all that...
Weak as a caster but decent in supportive magic: healing, walls, etc.
Assassin
Silent and deadly. Mixed fighter. Specializes in speed and critical hits. Uses supportive magic. Worst when it comes to using bows. Downright horrible.
Skill: identify.
Favourite fight style: two one-handed weapons.
Speed attack, damage stacks, critical hit chance and force - all this makes her number uno when it's about DPS. She's best when you need to kill a boss and be quick about it.
Damage absorb of ranged attacks is somewhat higher than normal. She's very dodgy, and monster minimal chances to hit her are lowe in comparison to other classes. But that requires high armor values. And for that she pays by having modest life pool. And she literally, cannot block attacks. Melee damage absorb - moderate.
Good as a caster, actually second only to Mage class.
Gladiator
And finally, this guy. I know, I know, you already know, he's the master of hand-to-hand combat and a bad bowyer. Well, that's wrong. Gladiator excels both in melee fighting and in using crossbows. He's a master of all combat but magical. Worst caster he is though. But when he's got a cossbow in his hands, monsters listen. Second only to Scouts, he scores powerful crits with crossbows. Best with axe, and dual swords/maces. Has high base damage but kind of weak criticals.
Skill: reflect.
Has highest life regeneration rate. Highest hitpoint rating. Insane melee damage absorbtion.
Blocking is clumsy. But he would barely need that. High stun threshold, high hitpoints, high damage absorb - this all allows him to neglect blocking completely and withstand crazy beating, continuing his onslaught.

On quest locations

In singleplayer, there are special locations (quest zones). They are unique, in a sense.
You cannot save game when in a quest zone. At all.
Can't cast portal there, and use stairs. Until area is cleansed (no monsters left). This is lockdown, called 'Vise'.
When lockdown is lifted, you hear the horn sound. That means you can cast portal and use stairs again.
Another feature of these zones is temporary character altering. You can receive penalties for the time of your presence on such levels. These can include life/mana regeneration, DFE, AC, attack/cast speed, resistances, accuracy, inability to cast certain spells.
I would advise against using glasscannon builds in quest zones. As your main goal there is to survive. Not die.

Links

Development blog
Official forums