Based from what you said , most of you have no idea or just didnt play diablo 2 past normal difficulty.
Etheral items - best items for merc weapons , bugging armors , botd? I enjoyed collecting them.
Rune words - my passion in this game was rune finding, crafting and mf (rare items).
Builds stats/skills - you have an option to reset your char skills / stats , you dont have to level up a new char again.
Antidote / thawing potions - u kidding me ? they were always on my belt , always . poison in hell and frozen status are crazy...
As for most of the others , I 100% agree.
Ethereal: Didn't bug me. Sometimes they were cool, sometimes they weren't, just like everything else.
Rune Words: I don't think the minor runewords bugged people. If you claim to know someone who made a legit BotD (no duped runes anywhere along the way), I don't believe it.
Builds stats/skills: They added the option to respec in patch 1.13 which was 10 years after release...
Antidote/thawing potions: I used them because they made the game easier, but I don't feel like they made the game more fun. If they didn't exist, poison and freeze would have just been balanced differently. Once I had ridiculous endgame gear, I didn't even use them at all because they were more hassle than they were worth.
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...and if you disagree with me, you're probably <insert random ad hominem attack here>.
Ethereal: Didn't bug me. Sometimes they were cool, sometimes they weren't, just like everything else.
Rune Words: I don't think the minor runewords bugged people. If you claim to know someone who made a legit BotD (no duped runes anywhere along the way), I don't believe it.
Builds stats/skills: They added the option to respec in patch 1.13 which was 10 years after release...
Antidote/thawing potions: I used them because they made the game easier, but I don't feel like they made the game more fun. If they didn't exist, poison and freeze would have just been balanced differently. Once I had ridiculous endgame gear, I didn't even use them at all because they were more hassle than they were worth.
Runewords which were impossible to get without duping.
Tiny inventory space filled with charms.
Losing items transferred in "drop" games since there was no shared stash.
Ninja-looting.
Needing multiple accounts for item storage.
Having to find trade games.
Trading for SOJ's and gems since gold was worthless.
Duped items which disappeared without warning.
Endless boss runs.
Having to level a new character for every new build idea.
And I'm sure tons more which will probably keep me awake all night as they come to me.