There weren't any new 'ladder-only' runewords during this season.

This did not stop bots indefinitely however, as programmers redesigned them to circumvent the 'Warden' using different methods. Unlike Season 2, Season 3 did not have a contest, and furthermore, thousands of accounts got permanently banned for using 3rd-party software from Maphacks to Bots. The second reset of the ladder took place on August 8th, 2005, just after patch 1.11 was released, and it also introduced the 'Warden' anti-cheat system to Diablo 2. This season also introduced several new exclusive 'ladder-only' Rune Words later after the ladder race had come to an end just before 2005. The Ruststorm program was run during this season once, and several users complained that their items had been erased unfairly. The first character to reach level 99 on the ladder, regardless of being on classic or expansion, hardcore or not, would be awarded a prize containing a Blizzard T-Shirt, a signed copy of World of Warcraft Collector's Edition, a toy statue, and a Blizzard North CD Wallet. The contest began for all users that had a legitimate registered account (for recovery) for all 5 Realms, and it was a ladder race to be the first to reach level 99. The first of the ladder seasons began with the initial release of Patch 1.10 in October 28, 2003.Īfter seeing how the first season went down, Blizzard decided to perform its first ladder reset on July 7th, 2004 with a promotional contest called 'When Worlds Collide,' as World of Warcraft was scheduled to be released the following year.

Diablo 2 ladder reset dates