First off, I wanted to say well done by the development team. It’s very clear they are taking feedback seriously and the changes outlined in the recent patch notes are fantastic. With that said, listed below are a few remaining changes that I hope they consider…
Class Changes
Amazon
- Ice Arrow - buff damage as skill is single target (e.g. double damage as compared to Freezing Arrow and would make skill more valuable versus bosses and elites)
Assassin
- Blade Fury - attack rating should scale per level and not a mere flat 10%
Druid
- Battle Orders, Battle Command - can now cast BO/BC in shapeshifted form
- Rabies - increase poison creeper synergy and reduce poison duration
- Lycanthropy - add faster run/walk by 1% per level for greater mobility
- Poison Creeper, Carrion Vine, Solar Creeper - die too quickly, significantly increase life for added survivability, and improve life/mana regeneration scaling per level as they suffer harsh diminishing returns
Barbarian
- War Cry - reduce mana cost to 0.60 to improve cost-effectiveness
- Grim Ward - change fear effect to taunt effect, currently redundant with howl
- Leap Attack - use % weapon damage for the damage to surrounding enemies
- Whirlwind - most non-controversial change they could implement is to tweak the numbers and start whirlwind off at 0% (currently starts at -50%). All this penalty does is to discourage players from using whirlwind during their Barbarian playthrough
Necromancer
- Raise Skeletal Mage - increase elemental damage and increase missile speed
Sorceress
- Thunderstorm - increase frequency of lightning (e.g one bolt per half second)
- Hydra - Fire Bolt synergy increased from +3% to +6% while removing Fire Ball synergy
Mercenaries
Act 1 Rogue Scouts
- Can now use crossbows
Act 3 Iron Wolf
- Can now use staffs and orbs
- Can now use teleport for added survivability
- Can now block when shield is equipped
- Can now gain +sorceress skills from gear
- As Act 1 receives +amazon skill bonuses and Act 5 receives +barbarian skill bonuses, then it makes sense Act 3 should receive +sorceress skill bonuses
Act 5 Barbarian Warrior
- Can now use axes
Runewords
Cresant Moon
- Can now be made in Claws and Daggers. Crescent Moon is a 3 socket runeword, it’s a perfect candidate to be made in Claws, and opens up more build diversity for Assassins. And don’t forget about Dagger Barbs
Unbending Will
- Can now be made in Axes. This mid level runeword has a huge boost to enhanced damage, it greatly benefits from being made in an ethereal berserker axe
Obsession
- With the elusive Zod, the developers should consider buffing Obsession as follows:
- Add +10-15% To Cold Damage
- Add -10-20% To Enemy Fire Resistance
- Add -10-20% To Enemy Lightning Resistance
- Increase Magic Find to 100%
Set Item Bonus Changes
Bul-Kathos’ Children
- Knockback ability removed from Bul Kathos’ Sacred Charge Colossus Blade
- Knockback must be removed to make it viable. You can’t use Frenzy with this two sword set because of this effect, making for a very slow kill speed
Heaven’s Brethren
- Add +100% Enhanced Defense (3 Items)
- Add +20% Crushing Blow (Full Set)
- Heaven’s Brethren is designed as a defensive set, although the damage is fairly low, and the clvl requirement of the shield is very high
Isenhart’s Armory
- Add +50% Enhanced Damage (3 Items)
- Add +1 To All Skills (Full Set)
- Isenhart’s Armory does not have enough damage for melee and lack of plus skills means this set isn’t effective for very long
Berserker’s Arsenal
- Add +20% Increased Attack Speed (2 Items)
- Add +10% Deadly Strike (Full Set)
- Berserker’s Arsenal is mediocre when compared to other class-themed sets, offering +1 to all skills, and axe deals poor damage
Trang-Oul’s Avatar
- Fix bug that increases casting delay resulting in slower casting
- Perfect time to fix this set
Area Level 85 Changes
- Add Tristram (Hell)
General Changes
- Move Cain by Stash in Act 5
- Allow Cain to identify items in Horadric Cube
- Crossbow strength and dexterity requirements reduced
Improve Console Controls
- Allow player to move the minimap by using right thumbstick
- Allow player to turn off auto-display loot text (e.g. breaks immersion)
- Allow player to move potion from inventory to belt (e.g. hold button to move)
- Allow player to allocate attributes in intervals of 10 (e.g. tedious when respecing)