Median XL Set Up Guide & Gameplay Primers

Median XL [Ultimative] Set Up Guide & Gameplay Introduction

Median XL is a total conversion mod for Diablo II: Lord Of Destruction and features many gameplay mechanics and gimmicks of the base game expanded into an important part of gameplay within the mod. Ultimative is much like an expansion of Median XL.
One interesting gameplay facet is how gear aquisition in this game involves significantly less random chance and more strategy than in other successors to Diablo II (e.g Torchlight, Path of Exile) via an advanced crafting system that allows players to fine tune equipment or base their characters entirely on it.

The Original Modder's webpage: 			http://modsbylaz.vn.cz/
Community Forum & Home Page of Ultimative:	http://www.medianxl.com/
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Set Up:
1. Have Diablo II: Lord Of Destruction. Doesn't matter which patch or prior alterations there are on the installed copy.

2. Install D2SE Mod Manager. This will allow you to have 1 copy of Diablo II, yet, selectively load between official patches and any mods.
<Installation is telling the installer the location of Diablo II on your computer.>
[Pick any of these]
Forum thread by author:	http://snej.d2maniacs.org/forum/index.php?topic=18954.0
Forum thread on MXL:	http://www.medianxl.com/t110-d2se-modmanager?highlight=D2SE

3. Take any of these:
Latest Median XL:			http://d2se.org/d2se/modplugins/D2SE_MedianXL_2012_v005_sfx.exe
	Prior Versions of Median:	http://modsbylaz.vn.cz/
Latest Ultimative:			http://www.medianxl.com/t1589-mxl-ultimative-v7-released
	Prior Versions of Ultimative:	http://www.medianxl.com/f10-changelog
These will contain installation instructions within them. For D2SE and .rar's, installation is much like copy and pasting data in to a folder within the MOD directory.

Want Closed B.net Multiplayer? There are The Sin War ('official' Median community) and D2Maniacs (general server for Diablo II mods).
4. At this point with Median already set up, you only need to download and open a .reg file.
The Sin War:	http://tsw.vn.cz/files/TSW2.reg			(from: http://tsw.vn.cz/how-to-join/ )
D2Maniacs:	http://d2maniacs.org/misc/D2Maniacs_WinXP.reg	(from: http://d2maniacs.org/  )

Note: D2SE Mod Manager comes along with ...
GLIDEwrapper:	http://www.svenswrapper.de/english/index.html
Requires a graphics card that support OpenGL. This will resolve possible performance issues, and grant additional options to improve graphics and increase window size.
	*glide-init.exe is initially German and can be set to English.

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Gameplay Primers:
1. The Horadric Cube (granted on start) is used extensively in gear acquisition and upgrading, whatever is needed can mostly be made through the Horadric Cube.
Much about the mod and cube recipes are documented here:
Online:		http://modsbylaz.vn.cz/
Offline*:	http://www.medianxl.com/t3217-mxl-ultimative-xi-html-documentation-v25pre
	*Contains unlisted information for Median.
Definitely look at Level Challenges because their rewards are powerful and can only be acquired if the character is underneath a specific level (i.e 50, 80, 90).

2. Upon reaching Act 3 of any difficulty setting, it's advised to be at the maximum for resistances.

3. Make your character walk within combat. Because of the way defense and block chance works in the original game, Defense is ignored and Block Chance is reduced by 1/3 when running.

4. +% Faster Hit Recovery is important to avoid getting stun-locked. These can be found on Mystic Orbs sold by vendors or jewels (generated or re-rolled by Cube, +15% is the most that will appear and occurs on jewels requiring player level ~40).

5. Stat Allocation paradigm still involves investing in Strength and Dexterity to meet gear requirements, however it's relatively easy to reduce requirements (by -10% to Requirements jewels), or find other equipment that increase stats.
Specific weapons have a damage bonus from specific stats, and casters will benefit from investing in Energy [w/ Diminishing Returns] (energy factor from items can also increase the bonus per point of energy).
More information here, some outdated: http://diablo.gamepedia.com/Game_Mechanics_%28Median_XL%29

6. Some monster spells are extremely dangerous (usually Area of Effect, or a very slow projectile) and must be avoided regardless of how well equipped a character is.