Climbing the Ladder

[Seth]

Ever since the release of patch 1.10, Diablo II has maintained a high and enduring ladder to rank its players based on their experience points and levels. As spawned by our Twitter Tracker here, how do you feel about the ladder system of Diablo II?

Some things to consider might be how it graded players. Was experience alone the best determinate? What else might have been good to consider alongside it? Some other conditions that it may have been prudent to save and reuse for grading players could be as follows:

• Total number of other players you have beaten.
• Total number of monsters you've killed.
• Total gold value of all items on your character- this may have made non-set and non-unique items more worth saving, since magic, rare, and crafted gear sold for higher gold prices than other gear.

What do you agree with, or conversely, what do you think could be better? Have any other ideas?

How far have you come on the ladder in Diablo II, or do you even bother participating? How have third-party programs affected the ladder system? Would you be more enthusiastic about the ladder if third-party programs weren't as prevalent?

[Psyxix]

I personally never cared about the ladder... but I don't agree with the current system of experience. I can see a system like we have here, with reputation points work. I mean if you help someone and that person is grateful for the service ... he'll give you a rep point. Why not, I mean it will certainly boost cooperation between players.

[rockstar]

The ladder is a feature that I never really cared about. I think in D3 the ladder will be replaced with an achievement system, as well as hopefully some kind of pvp rating system. I feel that these systems could more accurately show who's the top dog. I'd be much more interested to see which players have accomplished the games more challenging achievements and which players own at pvp than who has the most experience.

[Sixen]

For a time, they were even "immortalizing" the top 10 ladder players. If you look hard enough, some lists are still up on the Arreat Summit, .

[edi-lupus]

I think it would be fair if it was a mix of PvP duel wins (of the same status), and experience. Also, bots absolutely should not be allowed to participate on ladder (I dont no how they could make that happen.)

[hyde]

I think it would be fair if it was a mix of PvP duel wins (of the same status), and experience. Also, bots absolutely should not be allowed to participate on ladder (I dont no how they could make that happen.)

I agree, I think the ladder system was destroyed by the creation of bots.

HOW CAN YOU COMPETE AGAINST A MACHINE???

[kefka666333abc123]

Well a leveling ladder is fine but bots dominated it since the beginning and it really doesnt determine anything other then who has the most time to waste on D2 or whos bot dies the least lol...hopefully we can get more then one type of ladder in D3....a big one is a pvp ladder or ranking system of some sort..other things like leader boards for fastest time to kill a boss. Lowest level for killing a boss. Shit like that would be cool to keep track off as well.

[Genesis]

The total amount of play-time taken between character creation and the completion of Hell Baal

[emilemil1]

Yes, time is probably the best indication, but the downside is that it becomes easier and easier to get a good time when your friends gets higher and higher levels/better items. I think that a weekly ladder is necessary if time is going to be the factor.

The best thing would be to measure a persons total contribution, but that is extremely hard to balance. It will most likely become one build that is better than the others. It would also have to be reset fairly often or you will be unable to catch up with other players.

[bbqsauce1337]

damage dealt, im not much of a pvp-er