A quick PTR / 2.5 Update

I’m disappointed to hear that terror zones are going to be a Ladder Season 2 only feature.

I’m primarily a non-ladder player, and wish to continue enjoying my characters past the ladder’s end on non-ladder. While I do plan to build one or two characters in the new ladder season on ladder, I also wish to continue leveling/gearing my non-ladder characters and progressing them further.

I was looking forward to terror zone in non-ladder so that I could get these characters into the high 90s without needing to do repetitive baal runs ad nauseam.

hearing that it may be ladder only is upsetting. :frowning:

19 Likes

Yes, absolutely keep touching balance. Sorry you’ll need to smarten up and start using something other than the top 3 S++ builds everybody is already playing

1 Like

Nice!! Don’t think hammerdin should be nerfed, but should add more magic immunes monstrer on TZ.

3 Likes

By the way,
a blocking (black list) function
shuld do more then just MUTE the other player…
Like the host has the right to kick out the other player,
and even prevend them from joining the game the host has created,
these are more important than Terror Zones,
which only help single players to lvling up…

1 Like

I’m a sad panda, too.

Hmmmmmm…no new rune words?

All the other classes have been buffed in 2.4.0,
necromancer, though well balanced,
but seems to be not powerful enough in muti-players games.
The main reasons can be the difficulty to get corpses,
and DPS is split too much per target.
Thus, according to my knowledge of a necromancer,
how to improve summoning and curses skills
while not to break the balance 2.4.0 has made.

ONE、Summoning Skills
In the old 1.10 Diablo II update,
being over number but weak,
skeletons has been cut,
but each of them is now stronger.
It’s a great move with long sightedness.
However, to do it again in Diablo II Resurrected,
it’s less fun of to be a commander will decrease as well.
Thus, the following advises I have,
are all based on a consideration,
to cut the numbers of minions no more.

1、 Raise Skeleton
Chance of spawning with a shield,
Is now 5% based on each point invested.
and the chance to block is now no longer with a 3% cap.
Receives Bonuses From:
Skeletal Mage: +2.5% Damage Per Level
Revive: +1% Chance to Block Per Level
2、 Skeleton Mastery
Upon death, each skeleton has 5% chance based on each point invested, to leave a corpse.
3、 Clay Golem
Replenish Life +1 based on each point invested.
Receives Bonuses From:
Weaken: +2.5% Damage Reduction Per Level
4、 Golem Mastery
Upon death, 5% chance based on each point invested, to leave a corpse.

5、 Skeletal Mage
Missile Damage +15% based on each point invested.
Receives Bonuses From:
Raise Skeleton: +2.5% Damage Per Level
Revive: Missile Speed +5% Per Level
And the maximum is the same like a normal Oblivion Knight (Mage)
6、 Blood Golem
Receives Bonuses From:
Life Tap: +2.5% Damage Per Level
7、 Summon Resist
Growth function is now approaching infinitely to 80%.
8、 Iron Golem
Optimize AI, now always teleport to player, not unsummon.
Receives Bonuses From:
Iron Maiden: +5% Thorn Damage Per Level
9、 Fire Golem
Receives Bonuses From:
Lower Resist: +2.5% Fire Damage Per Level
10、 Revive
Number of minions now decrease by half.
Receives Bonuses From:
Raise Skeleton: +3 Seconds Duration Per Level
Skeletal Mage: +3 Seconds Duration Per Level

TWO、Curses
There is no synergies mechanics between two Curses,
and only Duration and Radius increase.
We hope Curses can be optimized,
just like Warcries and Auras.

1、 Amplify Damage
Receives Bonuses From:
Lower Resist: +2.5% Damage Taken Per Level

2、 Dim Vision
Decrease Attack Rating and Defense of target as well. (Cloak of Shadows likewise)
3、 Weaken
Decrease non-psychical Damage from target as well.
4、 Iron Maiden
Receives Bonuses From:
Iron Golem: +10% Damage Returned Per Level
5、 Terror
Slow the target, and increase Damage Taken as well. (Grim Ward likewise)
6、 Confuse
Receives Bonuses From:
Attract: +0.5 Seconds Duration Per Level
7、 Life Tap
Receives Bonuses From:
Blood Golem: Attacker gets Healed +2.5% of Attack Damage Per Level
8、 Attract
Receives Bonuses From:
Confuse: +0.5 Seconds Duration Per Level
9、 Decrepify
Receives Bonuses From:
Clay Golem: -1% Speed Per Level
10、 Lower Resist
Receives Bonuses From:
Amplify Damage: -1.25% All Resists Per Level

Reading through some of this again, and this struck me. Diablo at it’s core, is a game able to be played solo for all content. D4 will break this a bit with World Bosses, and DI breaks this for Raid content. However, there is one major difference between these games and Diablo 2, and that is loot. Loot is built around being rewarding for multiplayer in those game, in D2, it is not.

There is also a fundamental difference between the game as it is now, vs as it was when Cows were the big group thing. That is itemization balance. The shared loot aspect was less punishing then, as even what we would consider poor unique/set items now, were usable as upgrades back then due to the overall game balance. Hence, when the game dropped a bunch of items for the party to share, there were plenty of opportunities for upgrades. Where in the balance of now, most of what matters at that level are runes, bases, and caster based items. While 2.4 was a step in the right direction with widening the viable and fun funnel again, we are not there yet.

Just a couple of thoughts, since that jumped out at me on a second read through of comments here.

4 Likes

Game Launches

Blizzard: Non-ladder will have all the same things as ladder just without the competitive climb

Season 1: You miss all of this unless you play ladder. Already dropping the ball.

8 Likes

hope there arent any

the game needs reworked uniques and pre-1.10 runewords rework

not more runewords

3 Likes

Go ahead and stir the pot. Nerf the Hdin and upset a bunch of people and make a bunch of others feel good so they can sleep at night because the Hdin haunts them in their sleep. Please only buff no nerfing.
Thank you by the way for the update. I am looking forward to the ladder reset. Gotta get those anni’s to my non-ladder characters :wink:

3 Likes

Yeah i will take either. New runewords or buffed uniques.

please dont actually start nerfing things directly like the hammerdin or whatever. If dins need nerfed maybe change some immunities and increase the magic immunes. Just dont start nerfing, as this was something you’d stated in the past you didn’t want to do.

5 Likes

Is there any way we can get future changes to not affect past custom mods? Everytime major changes come out if affects indepth mods until the mod maker edits the changes around the base game.

Thanks

You’re right. I’m mostly talking as a casual that doesn’t have strong game knowledge on why some things are the way that they are.

I agree if it’s too difficult, it’s not going to be fun either.

I’m seeing TZ as something that is supposed to aid primarily in the ladder race, and I’d like to hope that it’s the opposite of Baal runs - in the way that it’s actually engaging and challenging, that there is a risk of dying. Some people are upset that getting to 99 is no longer sacred and “easier”, but if TZ poses a threat to dying in the 96+ levels, that’s what will make the ladder race engaging and fun (in my opinion) and not just a mindless grindfest.

I definitely think people should be able to solo P1 terror zones, but I don’t think there was ever true intent for people to solo on P8, that’s just how things ended up with some skills being extremely over powered (blessed hammer), and some being completely useless. It just happened to turn out that way, and because it did, I don’t think it has to stay that way, maybe only if it truly makes the game better.

3 Likes

The idea of Terror Zones is cool, and kudos to the team for all the time and effort that has already gone into it. I can’t help but be disappointed, though, that all that time and energy went into making something that wasn’t on anyone’s top 5 (maybe 10?) wish list for what they’d like to see. It’s not hard at all to figure out what players ACTUALLY want: better storage, stackable currencies, non-caster parity, maybe some new runewords or base options, and a fresh season. Instead, we get: none of those, news that the TZs will probably be ladder-only, cryptic musings about possible rebalances, and indefinite extension of a season depopulated by the blind eye to botting until it was way too late. Hopefully Season 2 can get rolled out by Halloween, at this rate, and there are still people around to play with by then.

7 Likes

This clearly shows your lack of understanding of the game

Hdins is the one that needs the nerf

Not bone spear

Not bone spirit

Not teeth

Not berserk

Not magic arrow

Not Psychic hammer

Not holy bolt

3 Likes

I consider myself a casual as well, a dedicated casual that can sink some hours in, but casual. To be honest, much of my memory of D2 has only been jogged in the months post-reveal of D2R last year. The innate problem of Terror Zones are that it exacerbates the innate problems of D2 itself. As an alternative to the Baal grind for leveling, it works fine. As a solo farm zone, it does fall flat in it’s current incarnation. For those of us that didn’t bother grinding Baal in Hell in the first place, it won’t make a difference outside of “Hey, my build can do this Terror Zone, farm here for an hour.”

1 Like

Just deploy it during ladder. It’s end game content anyways.

Rather stick to a schedule.

Is what it is, but still nice to know when it’s approaching.

2 Likes

Agree with you on 100%. The sad part however is that this and maybe the next patch (if even there is any other after this one) will most likely be the last. Diablo 4 beta is rumored to begin before the end of the year and ofc after that preparations for it so consider all of the minimal current support for this “no long term profit game” is over.
Time to stick the servers in the basement and have 1 blizzard employee set up an alarm every 4 months to go down there and flip the switch for the reset wuhuuuuuuuuu