"Diablo II lord of destruction V1.11 will be out in August.
After a long wait, Blizzard expects to release Daiblo II Expension: Lord of Destruction V1.11 in August. A new secret quest will be in Hell games. Players must search through the evil caves to the throne of destruction to find out the new Evil and kill it. This difficult quest will test the ability of each player.
In v1.11, besides the new quest, player vs player will be cruder. For example, there will be no time deplay when casting town portal, which was for player to have more time prepare for a fight or escape. The paladin cannot use blessed hammer in town to avoid being harmed when coming out of the town. When fighting the urber Diablo, be careful of not let Shenk or Blook raven die. This will make killing uber Diablo more difficult. Also, when equipment has certain skill, but player doesnot have this skill, this skill can not be used or added.
Player doesnot need to worry. In V1.11, there are 10 more rune words. The new equipment that never before seen can be found in some boss monsters. For merc, player can hire the merc only 1- 5 level lower than player. Mer can gain experience more quickly and can live longer to help player."
This is from this site
http://forum.cjb.net/punishergada-about29-0-asc-15.html
what you think?
There are also level caps to prevent rushing. Baal in normal cant be killed till lvl 40...pretty uncool...