Diablo II: Resurrected Patch 2.4 Balance PTR

General Discussion
41

You can get +skills on staffs.
So this will be better then HOTO + Spirit :wink:

I disagree.

HotO + Spirit gives (relevant states only)

+5 To All Skills
+65-75% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
+22 To Vitality
+10 To Dexterity
+89-112 To Mana
Replenish Life +20
Increase Maximum Mana 15%
Fire Resist +30-40%
Cold Resist +65-75%
Lightning Resist +65-75%
Poison Resist +65-75%
+3-8 Magic Absorb (varies)
Level 4 Oak Sage (25 Charges)

Obsession gives (relevant states only)

  • +4 To All Skills
  • +65% Faster Cast Rate
  • +60% Faster Hit Recovery
  • +10 To Vitality
  • +10 To Energy
  • Increase Maximum Life 15-25% (varies)
  • Regenerate Mana 15-30% (varies)
  • All Resistances +60-70 (varies)
  • 75% Extra Gold from Monsters
  • 30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

The only big difference really is the Increase Life by 15-25%, but I could argue that Oak Sage charges give you 45% increase life. Sure, you can get +3 to a specific skill so you can have +7 to your primary skill while you lose your chance to block in the process. Is that really worth Zod over Vex+Pul, though?

This rune word could of been really, really good and made Zod’s value increase dramatically. It needs an aura and either Meditation or Conviction would make sense.

3 Likes
42

Lol Conviction would be so dope on that thing

2 Likes
43

great news

#change :+1:

2 Likes
44

that problem will be easy fixed by…

just delete all imnunity of the game and change it for damage reduction for those X element with the max of 90% and minimun of 20%, you can lower that resistances with the unique facets and -X% to element resistance items.

on top of that create a new horadric recipe and the obviously new unque facet for physical resistances that give -10% to -20% to all resistance elements (that effect will work only in pve and for rings and amulets).

the recipe can be —> amulet or ring + unique facet (if you use fire you get -X% to fire, if use cold -X% to cold etc…)

EDIT1: i forget to say that the cube recipe will add this effect so if you do it in a Soj you will finish with a SOJ + the effect of -X%.

that way you kill a few problems at the same time

1- BIS item of infinity
2- Build diversity (bye bye only light element)
3- balance all elements where any it’s the “BIS” element to use
4- more trade posible of facets (they are pretty useless now and no one use them except light facet on griffon)
5- No need of enigma with infinity to make good use of the aura range.
6- usable by all characters in equal.
7- no BIS items necesary, you can use any ring or amulet and any socketed item
8- No PVP affected
9- balanced damage over other builds (due the max 90% min 20% resistance to elements change of monsters), making viable some physical builds also.

that’s just an example of a balanced change to the game that only affect PVE and will make a lot of new builds viable for every character with just two little changes in the game. Not a lot of work needed to do them, just change a few numbers in the code and add a new item and horadric cube recipe.

5 Likes
45

It’s +7 to the relevant skills, that’s the USP here. More damage, higher defense (%life and chance to cast weaken which translates into 43% damage reduction), almost no strg requirements instead of 156 (again more life or mana).

This is a great runeword right there.

6 Likes
46

I didn’t read to the end, are they giving us free respecs?

47

Awesome changes - even though I disagree with the Enchant on a3 merc (I suggest nerfing the effectiveness when applied to allies such as summons,if possible).

I am still hoping for some love to 2 handed melee weapons. They don’t offer enough to balance out the choice of using no shield. Also Crossbows has been ignored for far too long, the weapon type should embody “power over speed”.

For future content patches, I suggest giving Paladin a Cleave attack for 2 handed weapons only and Werebear a similar one Called Swipe or something. Capable of hitting 3-5 nearby enemies at once.

But for now I am super excited to play this 2.4 patch!

Added: I forgot - how will the changes to MA charge spending, effect the multiple hits of a single Dragon Talon/Claw attack? Will Tiger Strike apply to all kick/claw hits, or only the first as it does now (bug in case of Dclaw).

48

I don’t get how the vengeance skill for the paladin wasn’t touched at all? Practically nobody uses that skill currently…

2 Likes
49

They should have given A3 lightning merc Thunderstorm, just for a little extra sumthin sumthin. :>

Them having static field is very nice though.

50

when is it coming out? it has been monthssssssss and no ladder… no point in playing yet

51

Feels like the Barb experience is going to be pretty smooth. Start leveling as a double thrower, try out the newly buffed war cry starting at like level 40, and then once you get some decent gear switch to zerk with its new BO synergy.

52

It’s +7 to the relevant skills, that’s the USP here. More damage, higher defense (%life and chance to cast weaken which translates into 43% damage reduction), almost no strg requirements instead of 156 (again more life or mana).

This is a great runeword right there.

I do not get hit enough while playing my Sorceress for Weaken when struck to be appealing.

I could argue that HotO, with Level 4 Oak Sage charges, gives more increased life than this and you give up your chance to block. Even a small percent of Block Chance adds up to a LOT of damage reduction over time, since every block is 100% Damage Reduction.

The potential for +7 to primary skills is the only appealing factor and the question becomes, is that worth Zod rune?

53

may be good for necro summ :thinking:

2 Likes
54

lol a3 fire merc getting enchant cast locked for a few. :laughing:

Next game, 8 summon necros. A3 fire merc = :exploding_head:

1 Like
55

no change to dclone?

2 Likes
56

That is my problem, it is way too strong for summoners. It should be heroes and merc’s only.
When applying it to a full army of summons, you get the dmg increase multiplied by a crap ton. Not to mention it’s a super easy way of acquiring an additional damage type for free.

1 Like
57

Does impale still do durability damage? It isn’t mentioned currently in the notes. Seems like that would be an obvious removal if you want impale to be used more.

Do the slow missile scaling changes mean it starts at a lower value and works up to 33%, start at 33 and scale up from there or is 33% now in the middle?

Would have liked to see Guided Arrow pierce returning with a cap on the number of pierces.

Does the listed venom change fix how venom interacted with other poisons?

Hope the blade skill changes make a blade assassin a decent build. I always liked the idea of those skills.

The MA change to kicks I think is meant to only be a buff in that they’ll have a 100% hit chance if you have a charge, but still work the same as they did before if you have no charges. The way you wrote the notes though will likely confuse some people and make them think they can’t kick at all without a charge. I’d probably edit the notes to clarify that point.

Kind of hoping for more from Druid Summon changes. I can see not wanting to just let them summon everything at once if that makes it too similar to necro summoners, but maybe at least make the bear not exclusive with wolves so you can pick a wolf type and have a bear out.

I think the Druid vines could be made to provide some passive bonus to any other summons you have out to make spending points in them more interesting. IE: poison damage for p. creep, life leech or chance at open wounds for carion, magic or fire damage maybe for solar.

Ravens seem like they should just have a 100% hit chance.

It’d be nice if the FoH/holy bolt changes make FoH a viable PvM build. Since the bolts presumably still only damage undead it seems like it may only work well in undead heavy areas. I feel like you could change this since thematically it would make sense for holy energy to also damage demons. That would leave only animals (I think?) being unaffected by holy bolts.

Will grim wards new debuffs affect targets that can’t be affected by the fear or overlap with other warcries that the fear can’t overlap with or is it all just merged into one debuff and only affects targets it fears? Depending on the stats and mechanics of this it may actually end up becoming a frequently used skill.

Chance to pierce for throwing barbs is nice. Chance to chain may have been more interesting since D2 only has one other chaining skill that I can think of currently and chaining would be useful in a wider variety of scenarios.

The Act 3 merc changes seem like they have the most potential for mercs. I do wish the insight changes would have included any weapon or at least add swords as well so we could put it on any merc. I’d consider expanding the weapon types available to infinity and faith as well.

5 Likes
58

I think you have to factor in the fact that your merc won’t be able to use things like might or concentration from Pride to help your summons damage then though. It’s kind of a trade off from hiring a might merc from A2.

1 Like
59

Figured I’d put in a post that gives my overall thoughts.

Changes that need to be made:
-Lower the regular monster resistances so that all elemental resistances can be broken via infinity, not just for lightning immunes. It’s only fair.
-Allow druids to summon one kind of wolf+ a bear, or give druids the ability to summon multiple bears with a new swipe skill that can do AOE.
-Give melee skills some more love, their clear speed is atrocious when compared to a hdin or light based characted w/ infinity.
-Change how armageddon works so that it actually hits monsters frequently. Change it to where fissure and volcano synergize with each other and reduce volcano CD.
-Make Vengeance on the paladin viable.
-Make holy bolt damage all enemies, not just undead
-Nothing was done to address how fast a throw barb or amazon will run out of throwables/arrows

Things you did well:
-Amazon melee rework and bow skill things like strafe and mana cost reductions on ele bow skills
-Made holy bolt pierce (still needs to do damage to all enemy types though)
-Added more physical damage to armageddon (skill needs a rework though, it doesn’t hit very often to be reliable)
-Assassin charge improvements for claw skills as well as freeing up some trap synergies and improving blade skills
-Changing berserk synergy to Battle Orders
-Hydra CD removal
-A1 merc rework

5 Likes
60

A3 Merc can also be given Aura items on top of this change.