Community Feedback for Improving Itemization

General Discussion
241

Rather than try to make this work for a melee character, why not make it caster focused? “Hand of Broc” sounds more like a caster oriented item anyways (most likely a Necromancer), and as Leather Gloves it can be used by a caster character easily. I’d suggest changes to make it like this:

The Hand of Broc
Leather Gloves
Defense: 14
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 5
+1 to Magic Skills
+2 Mana Per a Kill
+2 Life Per a Kill
+10-20% Enhanced Defense
+10 Defense
+20 to Mana
Magic Resist +10%
10% Faster Cast

Magic Skills would be: Magic Arrow, Teeth, Bone Spear, Bone Spirit, Holy Bolt, Blessed hammer, Psychic Hammer

That would make this the go to glove for Bone Necromancers, and Hammerdins, leaving Magefist for the Fire Druids and Fire Sorceress. Fits the “Necromancer spellcasting glove” theme the name suggests.

Alternatively, you could make it +1 to all Summon Skills.

Summon Skills being: Decoy, Valkyrie, Hydra, Raise Skeleton, Raise Skeleton Mage, Revive, Clay Golem, Blood Golem, Iron Golem, Fire Golem, Shadow Warrior, Shadow Master, and all the skills in the Druid Summoning tree.

Doesn’t synergize as well with Faster Cast but would still fit the Necromancer spell caster theme.

What are you doing… these changes are not really in theme and make it a combat class oriented item. 50% ED on gloves? This is a caster item. Really all it needs is a little Faster Cast.

Frostburn
Gauntlets
Defense: 47-49
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 60
Durability: 24
+10-20% Enhanced Defense
+30 Defense
+5% Enhanced Damage
Increase Maximum Mana 40%
Adds 1-6 Cold Damage
10% Faster Cast

Just make Vigor an O-skill, that’s all that is needed.

Why does this have anything to do with piercing? Treads of Cthon suggest a crusader trampling over his enemies. I’d suggest adding Charge as an O-skill.

Treads of Cthon
Chain Boots
Defense: 25-26
Required Level: 15
Required Strength: 30
Durability: 16
+30-40% Enhanced Defense
+12 Defense
50% Slower Stamina Drain
30% Faster Run/Walk
+50 Defense vs. Missiles
+10 To Life
+2 Charge

Great changes, I approve.

Like I said elsewhere, Magefist is fine as is. It’s already in the top two caster gloves around. What is needed is not to make Magefist more versatile for different caster types other than fire, what is needed is for there to be more glove options for casters to choose from. Maybe replace the Fire Damage with a defensive option like resistances or something.

Maybe give it +10% Chance to Block and +10% Faster Block Rate? Bladebuckle makes me think of blocking blades, so I think it would be thematic, and certainly useful for low dexterity builds.

What? Why are you giving this belt more IAS than Nosferatu’s Coil? It’s already a good belt, though focused more on Magic Find. Increasing the MF is fine, but 10% IAS on a belt is already extremely good, giving it more than that takes away the use case for other belts. If you want something else for combat purposes… maybe give it +3 Inner Sight or something? That would make it useful to a character that needs to penetrate enemy defense maybe.

I like that. Or maybe -Enemy Poison Resistance? I think I’m okay with either one.

Agreed, this is a good change.

What you want here is:

  • +2% Damage to Demons per Character Level
  • +8 to Attack Rating Against Demons Per Character Level
  • 4-5% Life Steal

Those would be some good dual leech gloves.

I’d suggest something like 8% Chance to Cast Level 1 Decrepify on Striking if you want to focus this on a combat class. That way it can break enemy physical resistances by itself.

Alternatively, if you were willing to consider redesigning it for a caster class, this could be focused around the “chill of the grave” theme and give Cold skill casters something to play with. Add a Reanimate effect and boom a thematic interesting glove. You don’t even really need to change much as the +strength and +energy already fit a caster well:

Gravepalm
Sharkskin Gloves
Defense: 96-112
Required Level: 32
Required Strength: 20
Durability: 14
+140-180% Enhanced Defense
+10 To Energy
+10 To Strength
20% Faster Cast
+5%-10% Cold Skill Damage
10% to cast Level 3 Revive When You Kill an Enemy.

Rather than replacing the +60 Poison Damage, I’d suggest changing it to damage over 0.4 seconds, and adding -15% Enemy Poison Resistance. That will still give the gloves some poison damage without a poison skill (and the reduced time should help with stacking poison charms), and the minus to enemy resistance will work with anthrax charms not just poison skill characters. I’d also consider replacing the +15-25 defense with 10% Increased Attack Speed. That will differentiate these gloves from Trang-Ouls Claws which have +25% Poison Skill Damage with 20% Faster Cast. Venom Grip will be the goto for combat characters using poison damage (Venom on an Assassin, Rabies Druid, Plague Javazon, characters using anthrax charms) while Trang-Ouls will be for casters (Poison Nova).

Definitely need Faster Cast on this belt, good idea. Also, change the 5% Mana Steal to +5 Mana Per a Kill. Maybe give it Cloak of Shadow charges? Or +1 Cloak of Shadows as an O-skill? Replacing the -3 to Light Radius?

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242

Who exactly is going to use it? A Sorceress has to compete with Orb/Shield combo which means +7 skills. I guess we could give it Staff Mods in addition to the current +5 All Skills instead, +3 Blizzard, +3 Lightning, +3 Fireball, I guess? Would you prefer that to +7 All Skills?

Seriously, who is going to use it other than a Sorceress? Amazons can’t use a staff. You think a Barbarian is going to use a staff instead of using Frenzy? I guess maybe Leap Attack Barbarian could use it… though that would be fine I think, if they want to do that. They’d probably be better off with dual wielding Unbending Will or something.

A Warcry Barbarian? If they want to use that over dual wielding Heart of Oak I think that’s fine to. Probably a mistake, but okay.

Paladins? They can get up to +7 already, +2 Paladin Skills on Scepter with +3 to Blessed Hammer, and +3 to Concentration, and a +2 Spirit Shield. No way a Paladin is going to give up a shield for a +7 Staff. Unless maybe a Charge Paladin? More power to them I say.

Necromancer? Think Bone Necromancers are going to give up their White Wands? Or Poison Nova Necromancers their Death’s Web?

Assassins? They are better off with dual claws.

There is only one class other than a Sorceress that is going to be interested in a +7 Staff and that is Druids. So what? Let them use a staff. It’s perfectly thematic for a Druid caster to use a staff.

1 Like
243

I don’t know if you want to use it to compete with Jmod and DF. It will be very complicated if you think so because every elemental skill got its own BIS gears.

HOTO+ Spirit can provide 75FCR and nearly 75@ that made them popular.
Mang Song has +5 skill which is equal to H+S, but it does not have enough FCR and @.
Let’s talk about its FCR first. In my opinion, it should have 55 FCR minimum which is equal to DF + spirit, and the user can hit 105 BP with another 10 FCR.
As a 2H weapon, no @ is not gonna work because the user can’t use shield which is the main sources of @. so the staff should provide 35@ at least.

Let’s look at the other stats next. It provides - enemy @ but all of them are low. No sorc can use all of them but we can make these stats useful in another way. How about this :

+5 skill, 55 FCR, 35@ to 50@
+10 to 15% cold damage - 10 to 15 enemy cold resistantance ( we have DF + Jomd probably nobody cares about cold, but it still need to be here as placeholder )
or
+10 to 15% fire damage , - 10 to 15 enemy fire resistance ( have its own advantage and disadvantage vs Temper/CM + Jmod/Spirit )
or
+10 to 15% lightning damage , -10 to 15 enemy lightning resistance.
(BIS orb + Jmod provides +30/-30 ,20FCR , 3+3 skill vs Mang Song facet +20/-20, 55 FCR, 5 all skill)

In my opinion, we should use the existing stats to buff it in a reasonable way instead of giving it dramanic high stats that has never been used on anything else. + 7 skill with a lot of semi-useless stats will only make it looks unofficial.

+1 teleport together with the stats on Jah and Ber are already OP enough for an armor.
With the highest strength, even Sorc want to use it which made it BIS for all class. I don’t remember any unique item can be this popular.

244

Mods are more reasonable. +1 to 3 Bliz, or 1 to 3 lightning, or 1 to 3 fireball

BO barb will use it. well, you mentioned it yourself
Summoner Nec can use it too

245

I agree that +7 is starting to veer off into “moddish” territory, but it could also definitely work for what is supposed to be the holy grail of 2 handed staves. A roll of 5-7 would be justifiable if someone was lucky enough to get it.

The sprite art and the in-game model is so sick. You literally see the golden skull. I think it would be cool to see a Barb or Necro wielding this.

Definitely one of the most badass items in the game.

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246

i feel that buffing uniques to make them compete with RW is a bad idea in general.
what i would do is to give them a “gimmick” to make them “unique”, but this will never happen :smiley:
I’ll give you 3 examples (the bad, the mediocre, the good) :

Bloodfist

  • This unique is an example of bad design choice since it brings nothing special, all stats can be rolled on yellows as well. Maybe give it Fool’s mod but make it so that you also hurt yourself when you attack, similar to Sacrifice?

Dracul’s Grasp

  • the 5% chance of Life Tap is a good design choice because it gives you a cross-class skill that can be used by any class but this should have been balanced in some way, like giving it a large life drain when equipped.

Sunder charms

  • As a design concept these are perfect. They give you a major advantage but also a hefty handicap which you need to compensate for. All uniques should have been created this way.
247

Okay let me be fair on Mang Song’s mods then. Maybe +7 to all skills would have been a bit too much to ask for. As for the fcr, I think that 50% fcr would be good though you were arguing that it had to be at least 55%. Some things I just don’t agree with. Now to talk about Mang Song’s mods.

Mang Song’s Lesson:
+4-6 all skills
+50% fcr
+30-50% all resist
-12–20 efr
-12–20 elr
-12–20 ecr
+15-20% max life
+10-15% max mana
+20-30% regenerate mana
3os

We can definitely find ways for sorc to reach fcr bp’s with these mods. Just imagine if both Mang Song’s and Tyreal’s had the mods I mentioned. You could easily hit 105% fcr coming up with 2-3 fancy setups. The purpose of a staff is to sacrifice defensive mods for more life and mana. But you would want to have all resist mod on the staff at the same time. I don’t see the problem with uniques competing with runewords. At least the game will have less cookie cutters and more options. More people would have different gear setups. That’s what the developers should have considered years back.

248

Although people will have a harder time to find a 15 FCR amulet or use 2 FCR rings instead, 50 FCR on the staff looks better indeed. We can look for more opinions on this.

But, 20% enemy resistance reduction with 3os ? that is +15/-35, very close to 3/3 orb + Jmod (+30/-30) but with more FCR and @. It will also beat infinity overall even though you mentioned that rare runeword should remain OP in the previous post.

I can only agree with 1 to 2 os , or my opinion +15/-15 without os should be more reasonable.

249

Tyrael is more defensive than offensive.
He does not have power to kill Baal/diablo/merp. The demons can’t kill him either.

+3 skill is not reasonable. Tyrael only give you +2 skill when you are going to fight diablo. He does not have the power to give +3 or he would have given it to you. Fighting diablo is a major battle so he had no reason to hide the power.

+1 to teleport instead of teleport charge makes no sense. According to the story, he would not be trapped anywhere with +1 teleport. Tyrael either have no teleport or limited teleport. He used up his power so the player need to save him.

Also dislike the +50 strengh, we just should not copy from Enigma. Enigma is more focused on support with some defensive stats. Tyrael’s Might can be extreme on defense with some extra stats on support.
IMO, +0.75 per level or +50 Vit suits more Tyrael’s characteristic. Remain +50 to 100% damage to Demons. Poison Length reduction is not necessary because demon’s don’t have strong poison attack. We can add +5% to 10% maximum resistance or physical reduction too.

Edit, Tyrael looks like a warrior with sword. He does not use FCR

1 Like
250

Agreed and updated OP accordingly.

Agreed, and updated MSL in the OP based on your feedback…

Mang Song’s Lesson
Archon Staff
Two-Hand Damage: 83 to 99
Required Level: 82
Required Strength: 34
Staff Class - Slow Attack Speed
+5 To All Skills
30% Faster Cast Rate
-7-15% To Enemy Lightning Resistance
-7-15% To Enemy Cold Resistance
-7-15% To Enemy Fire Resistance
Regenerate Mana 10%
50% Damage To Undead

  • Proposed Buffs:
    • Add Increase Maximum Life 10-15%
    • Add Increase Maximum Mana 15-20%
    • Change All Skills from +5 to +5-7
    • Change Faster Cast Rate from 30% to 50%
    • Change Regenerate Mana from 10% to 20%
    • Change -7-15% To Enemy Cold Resistance to +7-15% To Cold Skill Damage

Alot of really good suggestions and made all of the updates below in the OP as well…

Agreed, and updated TM in the OP as shown below. Hopefully, we can all agree the below would be the ideal buffs for this unique…

Tyrael’s Might
Sacred Armor
Defense: 1322-1502
Required Level: 84
Required Strength: None
+120-150% Enhanced Defense
+50-100% Damage To Demons
+20% Faster Run/Walk
+20-30 To Strength
All Resistances +20-30
Cannot Be Frozen
Requirements -100%
Slain Monsters Rest in Peace
Indestructible

  • Proposed Buffs:
    • Add +2 To All Skills
    • Add +7 To Light Radius
    • Add Damage Reduced By 7%
    • Add Level 7 Teleport (77 charges)
    • Add Level 1-3 Salvation Aura When Equipped
    • Change Enhanced Defense from +120-150% to +200-250%
    • Change All Resistances +20-30 to Poison Length Reduced By 77%
    • Change Damage To Demons from +50-100% to 150-200%
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251

If you are talking about lore wise then I would have to say that Tyreal’s Might is Tyreal’s hidden power. His Sacred Armor he lost 200+ years ago. I’m sure somewhere in the lore where he has the hidden potential to wipe out all the prime evils. Tyreal probably lost too much of his powers.

Again this is his hidden power he does not have with him. It’s hidden somewhere in the world. It would make a lot of sense to add more stuff to the lore where his power level is mad high. Just make it happen because it’s Tyreal.

How do you know that? Those act 3 mercenaries wear swords and still cast spells. So why can’t an angel? hmmmmmmmm

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252

Those are good changes :+1:

I know +3 seems kind of excessive, but if you take into account that the item is supposed to be the Holy Grail of the Holy Grail in D2 items. +3 isn’t the end of the world and actually very fitting for it when most armors in the game are +2.

I think the teleport charges are fine as long as the armor has 40%FRW which it should have.

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253

Angelic power is limited and their battles only come at the behest of non-angelic authority above them. What battles they can fight are also limited to the very purpose of their original individual creation.

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254

Edit: The armor is called Tyrael’s Might, and it is supposed to be one of the best armor. Tyrael need to be a powerful angel in the first place so people named the armor Might after Tyrael. The armor can also be made by Tyrael so people named it after his name.
The armor shoudn’t be more powerful than Tyrael in either way or whoever get this armor would be stronger than Tyrael because literally everybody can use it. If this armor is so powerful with the hidden potential to wipe out all the prime evils, why we have never heard of it from any NPC and nobody is encouraging us to find it first ? Will it be the end of world if demons find it first ?

The armor should only contain a part of Tyrael’s power. +2 skill is the maximum value that Tyrael can give , and the limited teleport charge is the only way to make it reasonable according to the story

Hidden power does not count because nobody can define what it is. We need to buff it based on something in order to make it reasonable. Otherwise I can also say give it +10000% damage as hidden power instead of +3 skill

All sword mages are weak, and how can a weak mage get a powerful armor ?
He destroyed Worldstone by throwing out his sword, it is an physical attack or he would have casted a spell instead. Also, look at the original Tyrael’s Might, it is obviously a defensive item. The only offensive stats is +50-100% Damage To Demons. I did not see anything that is for mage specifically

255

I have been thinking about Tearhaunch and vigor+2 but I didnt say anything because I thought it would be OP if you remove the part “paladin only”.

Vigor +2 means +18% FRW. Tearhaunch itself has 20% FRW. Even without “paladin only” you are slower (with +38% FRW ) than Aldur’s or Natalya’s +40% FRW. I would suggest to make Tearhaunch to be the fastest FRW boots.
Remove “paladin only”
FRW increases from 20% to +40% FRW (yes you are running with +58% FRW)
Remove +5 Str and +5 Dex

EDIT: required lvl29 worries me. I know there is a real speedrunning contest (any% hell for example). Whoever find this item early, is going to break records solo and teamplay. I suggest to change to lvl70.
Increasing FRW is also intended only for Lategame.

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256

Agreed. This looks like a good change below and will keep on the list for next update…

Tearhaunch
Greaves
Defense: 60-63
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 70
Durability: 24
+60-80% Enhanced Defense
20% Faster Run/Walk
All Resistances +10
+35 Defense
+5 To Dexterity
+5 To Strength
+2 To Vigor (Paladin Only)

  • Proposed Buffs:
    • Remove +5 To Dexterity
    • Remove +5 To Strength
    • Change FRW from 20% to 40%
    • Change +2 To Vigor (Paladin Only) to +2 To Vigor

On another note, here are a few more unique items we can take a look at…

Stoutnail
Spiked Club
One-Hand Damage: 10 To 16
Required Level: 5
Durability: 36
Mace Class - Normal Attack Speed
+100% Enhanced Damage
+50% Damage To Undead
+7 To Vitality
Attacker Takes Damage of 3-10
Magic Damage Reduced By 2

  • Proposed Buffs:
    • Add +1 To Werewolf
    • Add +1 To Lycanthropy

Deathspade
Axe
One-Hand Damage: 14 To (17-18)
Required Level: 9
Required Strength: 32
Durability: 24
Axe Class - Fast Attack Speed
+60-70% Enhanced Damage
+8 To Minimum Damage
15% Bonus to Attack Rating
Hit Blinds Target
+4 points of Mana after each kill

  • Proposed Buffs:
    • Add 10% Chance Of Deadly Strike

Blacktongue
Bastard Sword
One-Hand Damage: (10-11) To (28-30)
Two-Hand Damage: (30-32) To (42-44)
Required Level: 26
Required Strength: 62
Durability: 40
Sword Class - Normal Attack Speed
+50-60% Enhanced Damage
+113 Poison Damage Over 6 Seconds
Prevent Monster Heal
+50 To Attack Rating
Poison Resist +50%

  • Proposed Buffs:
    • Add +20% Increased Attack Speed
    • Add -5-10% To Enemy Poison Resist
    • Change +113 Poison Damage Over 6 Seconds to 300 Poison Damage Over 3 Seconds

Doomslinger
Repeating Crossbow
Two-Hand Damage: (9-12) To (19-24)
Required Level: 28
Required Strength: 40
Required Dexterity: 50
Crossbow Class - Fast Attack Speed
+60-100% Enhanced Damage
Piercing Attack (35)
30% Increased Attack Speed
+1 To Amazon Skill Levels
+15 To Life

  • Proposed Buffs:
    • Add 10% To Cast Level 15 Fire Ball On Striking
    • Change Amazon Skill Levels from +1 to +1-2

Jade Talon
Wrist Sword
Damage: (98-115) To (130-153)
Required Level: 66
Required Strength: 105
Required Dexterity: 105
Durability: 56
Katar Class - Very Fast Attack Speed
(Assassin Only)
+190-240% Enhanced Damage
+1-2 To Martial Arts (Assassin Only)
+1-2 To Shadow Disciplines (Assassin Only)
+30% Faster Hit Recovery
10-15% Mana Stolen Per Hit
All Resistances +40-50

  • Proposed Buffs:
    • Add +30% Faster Block Rate
    • Change Enhanced Damage from +190-240% to +230-280%
1 Like
257

Arkaine was nerfed pretty heavily in 1.10.

1.08:


1.10:

Arkaine was an ancient hero who turned the tide of the Sin War . He was well known for wearing the Holy Armor known as Valor . Before his death, Arkaine stashed Valor in a secret vault. It was said that a hero would arise to don Valor once again when it was needed.

The legacy of Arkaine persisted long after his death. “Every child” is told his tale and that of his armor, word of his deeds existing in the collective minds of the peoples of Khanduras and Entsteig At some point The Lay of Arkaine was composed. Bards within Entsteig continued to compose sagas in honor of him well after his death.

What a legendary piece of lore.

I propose to have Indestructible reinstated and also be able to roll 1-3 open sockets. What do you guys think?

I also feel that such an armor could even have an Aura. “May the spirit of Arkaine protect me”.

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258

One or the other, not both. I suggest the 1-3 os, that way it can roll eth and made indestructible. The 1.08v is a good example of the affix mess the game was in it’s early years. Thank you for sharing the lore. when looked at from that perspective it’s easy to see a reason to improve on the armor’s affixes.

If an aura were to be considered, I think it should be one that already exists in the game, such as a random +1 Spirit or a random +1 from War Cries, or even +1 to a random curse. +3 os and +1 Amp or Decrep would be amazing and make the armor a potential BiS piece for a new melee meta.

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259

Np! Some of the lore in this game is great. Shadowfang is another one that has a “LOTR” vibe going on with it.

Good point, and I agree.

That would really add some uniqueness to the itemization in the game. The potential should definitely be there for the lucky few that can get such a roll. Ethereal + Opensockets is something that should be seen on more TC87 Armors and Melee weapons.

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260

Thanks for sharing the lore!

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