I I’ve come up with a simple and effective way to address some of the the major issues with D2 ladder and want to hear your opinion.
Problems:
Lack of diversity in the early game meta - sorcs dominate
Most uniques are absolutely worthless
Melee/physical builds are much more difficult to get going; have less MF than caster counterparts in late game
Buff some of the most “prized” uniques in the game
Solutions:
1. Add 100-200% MF on unused sets like Nat’s Set, Marvinas Set, Aldur’s Set, and 50% to IK’s set, and Trang’s set. Getting access to high amounts of MF on less commonly used characters will make them FAR more attractive to use early game (and help compensate for their lack of mobility).
2/3. Allow unique items to spawn with sockets. UNUSED/barely used exceptional unique items should spawn with 0-2 sockets and elite unique items should spawn with 0-3 sockets. Unique items that get lots of use (shako, vipermagi, arreats, etc) are exempt from this buff. Fringe uniques (guardian angel, azurewrath, ribcracker) spawn with 1 less slot.
Note - this would GREATLY buff many items and make countless “nearly BIS” builds viable across the board - primarily benefiting weapon-based classes/builds. Perhaps even new meta builds would emerge. Fundamentally, the optimal gear for these builds would require lots of insanely rare jewels, making the top-end of power extremely hard to reach, but the entrance quite accessible. It would also “preserve” the feeling of each unique weapon/helmet/armor/shield, and ultimately make many of these “low value” uniques far more valuable IF they land with a good roll/sockets.
Buff some highly under powered elite uniques: A) Tyreal Might +1 teleport (enigma) and 3os, B) Give Gladiators Bane +15% damage resistance and 4os C) Make Corpsemourn have a 5% chance to cast level 3 corpse explosion on melee striking. D) consider “buffing” the previous uniques who used open sockets as their “special” aspect like runemaster, hone sudan and black hades.
It doesn’t matter what happens early game. If anything, it’s great for the game. First you make a sorc, farm your enigma, then make other characters. Trav Barb is probably even more OP early ladder in terms of value generation. Why just complain about sorc ? It’s a 20 years old argument at this point.
Uniques are worthless because LOD came out and brought some powerful runewords. It’s working as intended. First you played through the game , got some cool uniques. then you got LOD and that brought a breath of new life into the game, where the new good items are runewords. I know, it was hard for me to accept as well, i remember being 14 and telling myself " I don’t need those runewords, i never needed them before, whatever" and now i get it. It’s just the next step. Working as intended.
MF is trash in late game, you want runes. Your Melee/physical argument doesn’t apply. Also, hell trav barb is insanely good at MF.
SOJ, Griffons, death’s fathom still best in slot, why do you want to buff ‘the most prized’ unique items ? They are already the best. irrelevant point.
Even PD2 doesn’t just let you socket unique items, it would break the balance. they do have a option to socket it with a good risk of bricking the item if the roll fails. It’s a good idea, but not just to boost the baseline of uniques.
I’m not saying D2 is a perfect game. I’m not against change. But those arguments have been made so many times before, and it’s always just because people don’t play enough.
I’ve been playing for 2 weeks about 4 hours a day, I haven’t found anything above Gul. The baseline is not streamer gear. the baseline is your ‘trash’ uniques. Turns out they aren’t bad, they are pretty standard. It’s your perception of normality that is skewed
Nothing is more boring than D2 when you are maxed geared. Just play more.
I have an entire section in the thread below for buffing the rarest uniques in the game and made a concerted effort to have the buffs fit the fantasy of said items. Hopefully, the development team could atleast use these proposed buffs for a brainstorming session for a future patch.