This is my 3rd Post in my series of posts relating to D2r PTR.
This topic relates to the Buff now being implement for the Necro Skill, Bone Spirit, and to the paladin Offensive Aura’s and the Paladin Skill Fist Of Heaven.
OK, I fully understand the thinking here. Necro’s in PvM are not gods, and you want more players to play them. Bone Spirit, Offensive Aura’s and FoH are all seen as underused skills, i get it. These damage boosts will somewhat increase the popularity of these builds. However the way you want to implement these changes will create long term issues detrimental to the life of the game.
Therefore my suggestion is : proceed with your plan, but change the damage type. i.e. for Bone Spirit, create an additional attack type, such as adds x-xx damage to demons or adds x-xx damage to undead and have it scaled similar to your suggested (or even double) where/provided it does not affect players in pvp.
The same principal could be applied to the aura’s and to fist of heaven. also, fist of heaven needs the current delay that it has else you actually break that build. if you want to redue the time on something, reduce Frozen Orb casting delay by 1/2.
I want to play this game for years. In order to do that, there must be a driver to keep players interested. that means, Ladders, New Content and Player vs Player (PVP). All of these features drive the economy, and retain your player base.
In D2LOD it was the pvp communities that kept the D2 economy afloat for decades. Yes people would also come back for ladders, but part of that would be to trade “chase items” to PVP players. Would people still have played ladders? yes, but would the game have died sooner then it did ? yes.
The pvp community has a symbiotic relationship with the far wider pvm community. I appreciate that this might not be fully understood by alot of players but having a healthy PvP scene is a check against the ever reducing population playing the game. Having good PvP is a fundamental keystone to the overall health of the (or any) game.
In PvP the skill, Bone Spirit is fantastic. Necro’s are “S Tier” in PvP, and everyone knows how strong paladins are. What you are doing here is propeling Necro’s into orbit in the “good mannered pvp community” while propelling foh into orbit in the good and bad mannered community. For the Offensive aura’s you are doing something that is going to cause grief for alot of pvm players when someone hostiles them with such a build.
please consider changing these buffs to affect monsters only and not players.
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My first post was for the consideration of an entrance level runeword granting teleport, on the basis that it would be a “class balance fix” enabling more classes to be viable (played) from Day1 of ladder. i got a 404 when revisiting the topic so i made a new topic here: Please consider a new Mid-Level Runeword Granting +Teleport
My second Topic related to “shopping” items from vendors - refresh tool and possible ability to shop and/or gamble sorceress orbs - Shopping from Vendors - refresh screen
My third Topic related to the buffs to Necro’s and Paladins where i suggested that the buffs only be for PvM and not for PvP and that FoH should not have its casting delay reduced/removed: Bone Spirit, Aura’s and FoH do not need these buffs
My fourth topic related to the MDR Bug where having multiple elements of damage would actually REDUCED your damage where your opponent had items that grant the ability “magic damage reduced” (mdr) : The Magic Damage Reduced (MDR) bug in PvP
My Fifth topic related to a bug where if you used jewels with enhanced damage + min/max, in anything other then a weapon, it would bug the item and not grant the correct damage modifier as specific on the jewel: The Jewel Bug - how damage from jewels does not work properly
My sixth topic related to charge bug, how a fix has caused a problem, and the ww bug how something has changed with how it works resulting in less damage for the iconic build: Please fix “Charge Bug” and Barbarian WW Bugs
My seventh topic reviewed the new runewords and provided feedback relating to them. Basically, they are an addition to the game, slightly underpowered but they filled a gap. More needed, slightly better mods required. i.e. with some minor tweaks some of these runewords will be great while still not being overpowered. The New Runewords - Observations
My eight topic related to the Shaper Nerf in the PTR where Increased Attack Speed (IAS) in shaper forms was made to make more weapons viable but as a side effect appears to have unintentionally crippled Shapers. Shape attack speeds issue - Not working as intended