I have a lvl 80 blizzard sorc in D2R with moderately high gear and max cold mastery and the cold master change doesn’t do jack for me in hell difficulty. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be after all.
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It’s really not that strong though. It goes from zero damage to tiny damage.
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No, this isn’t a bug. This is a bug fix. Prior to the LOD expansion cold mastery broke immunity. Then they broke the skill vs immunities and never fixed it until now.
They made more cold immune enemies than any other type (and with much higher res to cold than other elements had to deal with to break their immunities) because a cold sorc was expected to spec into cold master to compensate.
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There were 14 patches after patch 1.08 where the original Diablo 2: LoD developers could have changed Cold Mastery to effect Cold immunity but chose not to. Just because there is technically more cold immune monsters in the game than Fire Immune, does not mean those cold immunes have practical implications on the game. For example Frozen Horrors cannot stop you from beating Hell Difficulty and neither can the trapped souls in Act 4. This was not a bug it was an intended feature.
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I ran the numbers on it, they still won’t be able to break Oblivion Knights or any of the non guess monsters in act 5. In other words other than maybe making pits a viable farm spot… nothing much changes.
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Jay Wilson’s Diablo 3 design philosophy, “you can never have too much power,” is a poor philosophy for game design. Challenge and a sense of accomplishment from overcoming it, comes from a lack of power and ease of completion. Having to compensate for that in some way, whether it’s with wit, knowledge, skill, strategy, teamwork, creativity, or sheer work to become more powerful, is the backbone of what made Diablo 2 a great game. It’s also the reason society values the gold medal more than the silver, because the level of work and effort that went into getting the Gold is presumably more impressive and therefore worth more. You al want a participation trophy so you can throw it in the trash a few years later or do you want an Olympic gold medal? You typically don’t get both.
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How far back in the day are we talking? If it is pre 1.10 that was because synergies were not a thing, there was no reason to stay as one spec.
Post 1.10 fire/cold hybrid was great for starting out in hell solo sure, but pure blizzard would have significantly faster clear speeds especially doing mf runs. This is why pure cold is more common to be seen early before people get infinity.
That wasn’t a bug, it was a deliberate change. It’s in the patch notes. 1.08 changed cold mastery, lower resist, and conviction to no longer break immunity. Then 1.10 let conviction and lower resist break again but left cold mastery still unable to do so. They changed it to a flat amount per level though so it was a huge buff.
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Now cold mastery goes logical. -120% cold mastery should mean that a enemy with 100% cold resist can get damage… And that is how it is works now.
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I had noticed that monsters were dying to their weak element despite saying immune, but I literally hand’t put it together that Cold Mastery was breaking immunes.
I’ll test all types of pierce and report back later, but I think they ALL break immunities now, at 1/5 effectiveness, just like Conviction and Lower Resist.
Do you know that you can mod the game and remove/nerf immunities if you are playing strictly offline?
There is a mod already available on nexusmods that caps resistances at 80%, can’t post any links on this forum.
I would advocate this solution for Battle.net. I hate immunities. Oh, you wanna play single element? Nvm, you really can’t. 80% resist sounds like a good number not to be hard walls, but not pushovers, either.
The point of immunities was so one spec couldn’t just roll over everything after they gave massive buffs to elemental skills via synergy.
I’m aware of mods. I usually don’t use mods though. Can’t really explain it well, but it feels like jumping over the fence at the lowest point, while every other is struggling. I’ll take the challenge no sweat, I have just always felt it wasn’t a good decision with that many immunes.
Other games I don’t mind mods though, some are even mandatory to be playable (Looking at you Bethesda!!) 
see immune mob
teleport past it
Woah. Such challenge. Much accomplishment.
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You lack creativity… Instead of running away, you could design a build for your mercenary so he can deal with immunities, or you could craft your own build so you have alternate damage types to circumvent them, or bait, kite, knockback, and otherwise position yourself appropriately to accomplish the task at hand when cowardice isn’t an option. Killing shouldn’t always be the goal in a good game; sometimes outsmarting and outmaneuvering can be just as rewarding.
The Acute Stress Response, that helps keeps your attention in game, is “fight or flight.” That source of engagement falters when you no longer have to deal with immunities. It becomes “fight and always win,” so there is no decision to be made, no alternative action, no reaction; you enter a state of unconscious thought absent of stimulation and you become bored. At this point you might as well just be playing a slot machine waiting for a dopamine kick when a rare item drops. A good game provides more to it’s player base than a gambling addiction.
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imba? not really… i have CM at 33 atm and i kill them so slow, that i have to skip anyway. And in act 4 and 5 they have to much res they are still totally immun.
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I’m 50/50 on this now. Cold has kind of the bad end of the stick breaking immunities in general. Early game this is decently OP because you can kill some extra things you normally shouldn’t be able to kill. Late game, you’re still more screwed than any other element.
I think I’m leaning more towards not patching this.
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Blizzard sorc and orb sorc were already two of the most powerful and by far most popular builds in D2 . I would tend to agree it must certainly be a bug to be fixed. If anything, anything at all, needed a massive power buff, it definitely wasn’t the cold sorc. lol
If they are going to buff something (which I have doubts about in the first place), they need to look at the characters that get selected by 5% of players.
I think youre missing the point. Its not a massive power buff. Go play it before you talk about it. Theres like 2-3 cold immune mobs you can really kill in hell.
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