Greetings and Happy New Years to you all. As you should know by now, the Battle.net Diablo II ladders have been zeroed. All non-Hardcore characters created before the reopening of the Realms after the ~12:00am reset have been permanently stripped of their rankings to make room for a wave of all new, fully twinked [definition], team-supported 24/7 ladder runners.

Congratulations to the old guard who broke every bit of ice possible and made the online Diablo II environment one of innovation, exploration, and most of all, good, clean fun. Fear is, those were the days of yore. Today, there is ample documentation available in the public domain for anyone to make an incredibly powerful character of any class. In the coming year, we will see a strong dividing line emerge between the ladder runners and the novices -- there won't be much between these two extremes.

With fun and creativity in the Realms thus reduced, much of the the JANG family of characters will be undergoing some big changes, many of them final:

•  Nepthys, Herself, who had been secretly planning a comeback upon release of the Expansion pack, will be stripped of her items to make truly final her retirement. She goes out in style, ending ended the season as the #11 sorceress on the USWest ladder (Blood-Star, #3, was erroneously listed twice), nearly two months after she stopped playing. Nepthys, we love you. You will always be remembered.
   
•  Isis, the strong young sister, will go into hibernation, taking Nepthys' place as the hold-over character for the Expansion pack.
   
•  Bobo will be stripped and destroyed, his useful life having come to an end some time ago, only a few of his items worthy of use or trade.
   
•  MageBarb will be kept as one of two played JANG characters, just for fun.
   
•  Most of the Mules will be stripped down and deleted, their items converted into "name-brand" uniques and Stones of Jordan.

In happier news, there is a new character in the house! Welcome TheNewJANG, a Barbarian of incredibly tacky name (didn't have time to think up something good if he was going to make an early ladder run) who, with no help transferring items, gaining quest points or securing waypoints, made it to #50 on the USWest Barbarian ladder on this, his inagural day! (Screenshot 1 - ladder, screenshot 2 - items & stats.)

All in all, this day marks the end of The JANG as a Diablo II regular. Special thanks go out to the following individuals who made this a great six months of gaming:

:(BLOOD): (man where did you go?), Gangles (afreidin), ThirdWishER, {AF}Predator, LilVeraphie (Winicia, Winico), VeraphiesBoy (jfu), Allah (H_Avenger), WeaselsRevenge, orderof-justice (witch_justice, etc.), Ryes, neotechdragon, Dresdin (the legendary Kristova), Vorpalita, and many more.
 

All hail LORD MageBarb! Our hometown hero today beat Nightmare difficulty Diablo at level 37. Realizing that he is actually getting a bit ahead of himself, MageBarb will return to Nightmare Act 4 to level up for awhile before returning to make the quick run to Act 2, followed by a brief plateau, followed by the final push to Barondom.

Well it sure took long enough! Nepthys was finally bested for #10 position on the USWest ladder after not playing for nearly a month. What took y'all so long?! Imagine if it was NASCAR: "Ernhardt drops out of race, Jarrett passes for 10th place 46 laps later."

After a long night of trading, converting muled items into SOJ's, Isis finally found the belt she needed [screenshot]. This new beauty also has precisely the amount of lightning coverage she needs to keep this resist maxed out in Hell when she removes her 49% lit. resist, +55 mana fast cast ring and replaces it with Nepthys' prized +85 mana fast cast gem. Now for better armor. This one is gonna be tough.

Isis today got a new helm with some +dexterity, allowing her to again switch back to her Spectral Shard (just to spite all the Shard-haters out there, of course). The only problem is, the new helm has less +life, so she'll probably do some time experimenting with different setups again. She's still looking for a nice fastest hit recovery, +mana, +life plated belt, in addition to similar stats in a studded or quilted armor, along with +10 or so dexterity between the two.

Speaking of belts, Bobo finally found a blue one with liveable stats! Now for some decent blue boots... I know, how about Gorefoot? j/k

MageBarb today turned lvl30 and earned his all-important War Cry spell (along with Natural Reistances and Battle Commands from saved-up skills). In an outburst of jubilance, MageBarb went on to violently murder Diablo and his minions in a matter of minutes. Now let's see how well this guy does in Nightmare.

Nepthys has finally retired, lvl87, #7 on the USWest sorc ladder. Now I can go back to playing the game just for fun and skip all of the glory crap {8>]

Read all about Nepthys in her huge new section.

Nepthys today reached a level she never, ever expected to near! Top 10 in the West! Disbelievers can refer to the screenshot on her page <g>. (Noteworthy: The USWest realm is host to a very large number of foreign players, mainly Korean, but including Japanese, Australians, New Zealanders, and more, making it arguably the most diverse and geographically widespread playing field.)