Considering how quickly the travincal council wipes my mercenaries in hell every time… I can’t wait to find out in the PTR if monsters are suddenly throwing up 6 hydras each with no cooldowns… 
Oh god, talk about a nightmare lmao. Hopefully they’ve tested things like that internally already.
These changes are a safe step forward, which is great. 
The strategy is to first fix what isn’t working properly, like skills such as impale, fend, dodge and evade, and fixing huge imbalances such as with the mercenaries. In addition there are some smaller balance changes which are going to be tested thoroughly on the PTR.
This is actually a huge step for Diablo II and makes me excited for future changes. 
Future PTR Wish List
General
- stash tab where gems, runes, keys etc. can be stacked
- (slightly) reduced repair cost for superior items
- (option to) show tooltip for stats of Valkyrie (i.e. resistances, immunities), Shadow Master etc. when hovering over the portrait
- when a monster converts back immediately remove the auras, like the might aura from your might merc
Sorceress Skills
- Ice Bolt synergy for Chilling Armor so that the Chilling Armor Ice Bolts do decent damage
- add a small amount of flat damage to Static Field, possibly with a two-way synergy to Thunder Storm to add more flat damage to Static Field and to add a percentage damage to Thunder Storm
Assassin Skills
- Cloak of Shadows also slightly lowering enemy elemental resistance by 1% per level, possibly a synergy to Shadow Warrior and Shadow Master
- make Psychic Hammer more useful, for example by making it reduce the enemy physical resistance by 2% per level (repeated uses does not stack) or by increasing the magic damage and making it a synergy to the Assassin’s Blade skills or Mind Blast
Amazon Skills
- Inner Sight also slightly lowering enemy elemental resistance by 1% per level
Barbarian Skills
- increased chance to drop better magic items and higher gold drops for enemies under the effects of Grim Ward
Runewords
- a mobility fcr helm runeword, something like:
LumEld
2 Socket Helm
+30% Faster Cast Rate
+20% Faster Run/Walk
+1-49% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (+0.5 per Character Level)
Level 11-22 Teleport (18 Charges)
+10 Energy
+15% Slower Stamina Drain
- an uber helm with indestructible mod, so you can actually save the 3 socket ethereal helmets for this runeword, something like:
ChamUmZod
3 Socket Helm
+1 To All Skills
+1-49% Chance of Crushing Blow (+0.5 per Character Level)
+1-49% Bonus to Attack Rating (+0.5 per Character Level)
+30 Strength
+25% Faster Hit Recovery
All Resistances +15
Level 13-17 Life Tap (90 Charges)
Cannot Be Frozen
Indestructible
- a defensive (ethereal) claw runeword, something like:
HelTirIo
3 Socket Claw
20% Chance to Cast Level 13 Shiver Armor When Struck
+1 To Assassin Skill Levels
+3 To Shadow Disciplines
Cannot Be Frozen
+30 Replenish Life
+2 Mana After Each Kill
+10 Vitality
-20% Requirements
Repairs 1 Durability in 5 Seconds
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Its difficult to see how the Barb is any better, unless you are going full Berserk which i would not do on HC.
I like that increase stamina keeps Frenzy going - great. But i struggle to see where you get the skill points to put in there?
20 weapon mastery
20 BO
20 Frenzy
About 10 in skills just because you have to for unlocks.
You still have taunt and doubleswing to think about, as they are the proper synergies for Frenzy with +damage.
Natural immunity begs 5 points.
You just dont have anything left for increased stamina, and that breaks my heart. You would need 10 skills in it to get +4 seconds, but youll never have those 10 skill points to allocate.
Also, whilst enchant looks interesting with AR - How can any Frenzy Barb pick anything but an A2 might merc still? I was really hoping A5 mercs could hold 2 swords.
Having said that - I love that the game is getting a once over. Looking forward to the next patch.
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Plague roll too high. 100% ED roll? That is way too high. Feels like d3…amazing or useless depending on the roll. Most rune words are 40-60% tops in d2 - have a look.
Please make this more in line with all the other rolls.
merc a1, 3, 5 cant break immunities, back to a2 merc… nothing to do here
Surely you realize that if you have Infinity equipped on a merc, the “- (45-55) to enemy lightning resistance” does NOTHING for YOUR damage? Occasionally lite sorcs will make a low str infinity in a normal pole arm to equip and significantly boost their damage, but that is not terribly common nor efficient for PvM.
People equip infinity on a mercenary to get the level 12 conviction aura, which reduces monsters resistance to fire, cold, and lightning by 85% (as well as decreasing defense). If you are relying on the mercs chain lightning proc to kill monsters, you have very real problems that transcend the effectiveness of the infinity.
Only conviction aura and lower resistance curse “break” immunities. You can google that pretty easily and get the technical explanation.
i would also take away the synergies for the other armors. no one wants to invest 60 points in 3 armors, even with the defense boost. the maximum someone would invest is 20 points in 1 armor
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People do not roll lightning based characters because of infinity. The choose lightning for a combination of reasons that have more to do with the types and quantities of lightning immunes that are “breakable” vs. the breakability of the cold and fire immunes. Add in that Griff is more effective against lightning immunes (AFTER they are broken) than, for instance, Nightwing’s is against cold immunes, and the cumulative effect is that lightning is the most efficient choice. But this has ZERO to do with infinity which is equally effective against cold, fire, and lightning (assuming you are equipping it on your merc, which is what virtually everyone does. for instance, NO javazon would EVER equip an infinity, lol).
Also, chain lightning (this hits multiple times off screen) and lightning have big area coverage and are conducive to efficient clearing speed. There are a lot of factors that go into it, but the point is that changing infinity would change nothing. If they removed the - lighting resistance or added - all resistance to it, it would have zero affect on how it is played and the choice of element for toons. People would still go lightning.
Well the do roll lightning because of infinity because no one plays lightning before having it. You play Blizz to farm wealth, get infinity, switch to lite
The quantity of breakable immunities only matters because of infinity otherwise a sorc wouldn’t be able to break them.
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Wrong, people choose infinity to decrease immunities with CONVICTION which is equally powerful at breaking cold, lighting, or fire. They choose lightning because there are fewer unbreakable lightning immunes than fire or cold. If oblivion knights had their cold resistance turned down and finger mages had their lightning resistance tuned up, there would be a switch to cold over lightning for chaos runs. Again, it has nothing to do with infinity and everything to do with the monsters that can be broken, how the skills work, and the other gear that enhances the damage once the immunities are broken.
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Exactly, If they would up lightning and lower cold they would switch because of the breakable immunity spread. But as far as I’m aware sorcs can’t use conviction without infinity, and infinity’s conviction breaks mostly light and least cold so people choose lightning because of infinity because without it they can’t break ANY
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Thank you for the well thought out Patch Devs.
I only have one simple request.
Please make a GG 2h Weapon Runeword (Lance class,Polearm,Mauls) For barbs. As is, there is no incentive to use anything but dual wield for pvp cuz current meta just to strong.
I LOVED my Lancer barb in Classic or bh/maul barb and miss having that reach/raw power and it’s just not viable to use a 2h in xpac. It’s to big of a nerf compared to dual wield Grief+ ect.
PLEASE PLEASE make a 2h Runeword weapons for Lances/Mauls with Zod. THis would be a GREAT way to add a useable excitable new Runeword w/ Zod (Kinda like what yall tried to do w/ new staff obsession)
Please, Please, I want to have a badass VIABLE and Useable War Pike ww barb.
It would need 400-500+% damage/ +3-4 skills/ Big AR Boost (These things would seperate it from BOTD runeword as it’s still just too nerfed vs Grief+ dual wield setup. Need 1k+% max damage) or Aura when equipped for AR and Resistances, +80% Attack speed (Yes I know this seems alot, but it needs to be this high w/ 500+% damage to be viable vs duel wield grief+) among other things. ALSO -Requirements 30-40% But this would be AMAZING as a new Runeword. Make it expensive…Make it Zod+atleast 1 other high rune if you want, just PLEASE make it. Maybe make it w/ Zod+Cham+Vex+Sur+Hel or whatever to give Cham and Vex and Sur more uses. I would grind out those runes to make a Godly GG 2 h runeword.
I know the specs i’m mentioning seem strong, but it NEEDS to be strong to compete w/ duel wield current meta. This is also why im saying make it Expensive, hell give it wide roll ranges if you want, to require a few rolls and stiff heavy investment to get a good one, but please PLEASE, Give a 2h barb a good weapon. I know this will also buff charger paladins that are already very strong…but well, I guess yall could also Buff Whirlwind when using 2h weapons? That could be another option…give WW an AR/Damage boost when using 2 hand weapons?
Just please buff 2 handed Barbs. It’s a damn barbarian…and NOONE uses 2 handed weapons and it’s a shame. I mean, how can a Barbarian not have a viable setup using a Massive weapon to Obliterate stuff???
2h ww barb is so fun and I miss playing it.
I may have missed it somewhere but are these changes for all modes? Even the runewords?
Frenzy crushing blow is that build
Don’t have to worry about seasons if you don’t play ladder.
yeah i dont have to warrry about seasons if i dont play the game anymore…
but thats not solution 
Dude that I was responding to was arguing that they need to change infinity to make it equally effective against other elements, as though there was something special about infinity that makes it more powerful against lightning immunes. I have to assume he believes that the - lightning res to enemies has something to do with it and it doesn’t. There’s nothing to change on infinity that would get him the result he seeks. They would have to change monster immunities and other game mechanics. Level 12 conviction does what it does and it is not lightning specific.
Ahhh alright, that’s why our conversation felt so weird, both talking about the same but different words used, was confused. Ye conviction works equally for fire cold light, sadly only light benefits the most, they wouldn’t even need to change the resistances of monsters they would just need to get rid of the mechanic that conviction and lower resistance curse only apply 1/5 effectiveness on immune monsters
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I’m not sure what you’re talking about as I never mentioned the -to LR on infinity. I’m talking about how the conviction aura is enough to break any regular monster’s lightning immunity, but it’s not enough to break every cold and fire immunity.
And no choosing lightning as an element doesn’t have 0 to do with an infinity lol. That’s literally why people respec to lightning once they get an infinity. I’ve played the game for 15 ish years. I know what people do. Go look at venom lords fire resistance in hell for example and compare that to storm casters’ lightning resistance.