Getting to level 99 or playing hardcore mode isn’t the objective for 99+% of players.

Diablo 2 is a fairly forgiving and moderately casual game imo. Most builds require only one skill for damage, and respeccing and how easy it is to get a character rushed means it’s easy to experiment or fix builds.

Where is Jamella Editor Resurrected? D2 was a great into to memory and hex editing as a kid :)

Edit: wouldja look at that https://github.com/dschu012/d2s

Also fun: https://d2esr.fandom.com/wiki/Eastern_Sun_Rises_Wiki

I played D2 pretty obsessively for a few years during my teens and never bothered going higher than 92, rolling new builds was always more fun than endless baal runs for me.