This is a sub-page of Diablo II.

Throughout development of Diablo II, skills changed drastically, sometimes in name, sometimes in function, and sometimes skills got cut altogether. At one point in development, skill levels were tiered out at levels 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25, but this was changed to a set of tiers at levels 1, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30.

'NOTE:' This only covers skills which were cut and their evidence still exists in the files. This may cover content that was known in prerelease that changed.

Only the original game's classes are well-known enough to discuss them.

All Classes

All classes had the ability at one point to convert items in their inventory. See Barbarian#Find Heart for more information on this.

All classes had the ability at one point to resurrect friendly players in multiplayer. This was scrapped, but the icon and skill description still exist for it.

Many screenshots from beta builds show a "Kick" skill which is seemingly available to all classes. Notably, all classes do in fact have a kick animation in the finished game, this is used for interacting with certain objects, such as clay pots and baskets.

Amazon

The Amazon was the first class completed by Blizzard North for the game. It has relatively few changes.

Cut Skills#

Fist of Ares#

Originally this skill would duplicate the missiles shot by the player, including ones fired by other skills such as Magic Arrow, Cold Arrow, etc. This was pretty insanely overpowered and its effects got moved into Multiple Shot. Some of the graphics and a sound for this ability still exist in the files.

Changed Skills#

Eye of Zeus and Hand of Athena were changed to Inner Sight and Slow Missiles, but did not change in functionality. Several of the game's files still refer to the skills this way. Dopplezon was changed to Decoy and is still referred as such in the files.

Unknown Skills#

There is a sound effect, hurl.wav which is not used.

Assassin

The original game included text about the (then in-development) Assassin class's skills. Read here for more information.

Barbarian

Changed Skills#

Find Heart#

Originally Barbarians had a skill referred to as Find Heart. This would've caused organs to spew out from slain monsters, which could be converted into more useful items. Then, the ability to convert items was given to all classes and organs dropped for everyone. And then finally, the Convert skill became the basis for the Horadric Cube, and Find Heart became Find Potion (and retained the same skill icon to match this).

Despite all of this change, the organs can still be spawned with a character editor and will convert to another item if they are right-clicked in the inventory. If it is spawned with a character editor, the item will be called "Skeleton X", where X is the organ name. If it is retrieved from a slain monster, it will be given the name of the monster that drops it. These items are hardcoded to function like this, and no other item in the game does this.

There are 12 organ items in the game. Cut item images are posted next to the item where they were cut.

• Heart -> Converts to an unused Health Potion that heals for 35% of health. The icon is used for Khalim's Heart.
• Brain -> Crashes the game when it tries to convert. The icon is used for Khalim's Brain.
• Jawbone -> Converts into 10-40 Bolts.
• Eye -> Converts into an unused Mana Potion that heals for 35% of mana. The icon is used for Khalim's Eye.
• Horn -> Converts into 10-40 Arrows.
• Tail -> Converts into a stamina potion.
• Flag -> Doesn't convert into anything. It takes up a 2x1 inventory slot despite the icon being only 1x1. The icon was later reused for the Standard in Patch 1.11.
• Fang -> Converts into a key.
• Quill -> Converts into 10-40 Arrows.
• Soul -> Converts into an unused Mana Potion that heals for 35% of mana.
• Scalp -> Converts into an unused Full Health Potion that heals for 100% of health. Does not have an inventory icon.
• Spleen -> Crashes the game when it tries to convert.

Other Skills#

Several of the warcries got changed graphics prior to the game being released. The older development assets were kept in a folder called /Extra/.

Druid

The original game included text about the (then in-development) Druid class's skills. Read here for more information.

Graphics exist for a mobile plant monster. Its animations are similar to that of the Druid's Vine skills which suggest that it might have been a summonable creature. It's fully animated, but lacks sounds and the code needed to spawn it.

Necromancer

Cut Skills#

Poison Inferno#

The Necromancer had a poison Inferno ability similar to the Sorceress. This skill seems to have been scrapped in favor of Poison Explosion later in development, despite being a more interesting ability. The graphics and sound effects still exist in the game.

Familiar#

The Necromancer also had a scouting ability known as the Familiar. The Necromancer would take control over a Familiar that could be used to scout the map while being outside of their body. Most of the data surrounding this skill still exists in the game, including the casting sounds, effects, and even some of the code behind it. This was probably cut because it wasn't a very useful skill to have.

Other Skills#

The Necromancer was also planned to have several mind-control abilities, but this got folded into some of the curses, like Confuse, Attract, and Terror. Some of the planned graphics for these skills still exist.

Changed Skills#

Raise Skeleton was originally referred to as Reanimate and had different graphics to accompany it. When Raise Skeletal Mage was introduced, Reanimate received a name change and new graphics.

Curses at one point had missiles, but in the final game are instant-cast effects over a radius. The graphics for their original behavior still exist. In addition, several of the curses got their names changed entirely through the course of development, but internally their names remain the same. Reverse Vampire became Life Tap and Taint became Terror. There also exist a number of generic curse effects. There are also sounds that reflect this change.

Bone Shield has alternate graphics that aren't used, and graphics for when a charge is depleted.

Golem skills have alternate graphics that aren't used in the files.

Unsummon has a sound effect, but it doesn't play due to the volume being set to 0 (by mistake?) in Sounds.txt.

Paladin

Aura Changes#

Originally, auras were casted every so often, and their visual representation covered the entire player. This changed, since auras in the final iteration of the game don't have a casting animation and are only shown at the feet. Blizzard included all of these old aura animations in the game, for whatever reason.

Defiance#

Resist Cold/Resist Fire#

Thorns#

Cut Skills#

Based on the above graphics, there are three auras that have graphics, but aren't in the game. The only thing that is known is their name, based on the name of the files.

Inspiration#

Reflection#

Absorb#

The third image is an effect which would play if the player got hit while the aura was active.

Generic Auras#

These auras aren't given a name in the files. They are just referred to as "aurablue", "auragreen", "aurared" and "aurawhite".

Other Skills#

Salvation has alternate graphics that aren't used.

Vengeance would've played this (neat) effect when it hit something. A shame it isn't used.

Sanctuary has alternate graphics for its effect that aren't used.

Sorceress

By far the class with the most changes, the Sorceress was finished last in the game.

Cut Skills#

Ice Storm#

It's not totally known what this skill was originally designed to do. Based on its graphics, it functions very similar to Blizzard, but perhaps freezes the targets instead?

Chill Blood#

The skill was mentioned in pre-release news articles but the effect is never explicitly stated. The skill was abandoned and it's not known what its effect was, but graphics and sound for it still exist in the game. Based on the graphics, it seems like it was some kind of curse that would freeze people in a radius if casted repeatedly.

Shivers#

Another skill that was mentioned in prerelease news but the explicit effect was never told to the public. A few casting animations are all that exist for it.

Other Skills#

Warmth has unused graphics, seemingly from when it wasn't a passive ability.

Nova has quite a few unused graphics.

Likewise, Frost Nova has a few different variations. At least one of these can be seen in prerelease screenshots.

Mana Shield has alternate graphics that aren't used. These look like effects that would play if the player got struck while Mana Shield is active.

Monster Skills

Fetish Shamans have code for an aura skill. They would use the ability prior to the expansion but it didn't function properly or display due to a bug. In the expansion, they decided to nerf the AI entirely, since it only very rarely (if even at all) resurrects Fetishes, and it doesn't use the aura at all.

Tainted/Afflicted/Damned have alternate missile graphics that aren't used.

This overlay, called "Vampire_spelloverlay.dcc" is not used.

Quill Bears (a cut monster) could shoot gigantic quills.

Greater mummies have five unused sound effects and an overlay that does not function. Their AI is a bit strange in general.

Unknown

It's not known what precisely these missiles and/or overlays were used for.