Currently Grim Ward can only be used on monsters flagged as “soft” in monstats2.txt, meaning monsters without flesh like skeletons, wraiths, oblivion knights, etc. cannot have their corpses made into a Grim Ward.
It doesn’t really make sense considering Grim Ward is made out of bones, so why would you need a fleshy target to make one? Very strange that skeletons can’t be made into a Grim Ward.
Some more specific restrictions apply:
Find Potion and Grim Ward cannot be used on the following due to lack of flesh, or bones (they aren’t flagged as soft in MonStats2.txt):
Abyss Knight
Blood Hawk Nest
Bone Fetish
Doom Knight
Finger Mage
Gargoyle Trap
Oblivion Knight
Skeleton
Skeleton Archer
Skeleton Mage
Swarm
Tentacle Beast tentacles
Thorned Hulk
Willowisp
Wraith
I understand why this restriction would apply to Find Potion, kind of hard to scavenge potion ingredients from non-fleshy/bony corpses but this shouldn’t apply to Grim Ward.
I agree with you but that’s a separate issue to this one. This needs addressed as well.
This is an issue for areas that are rather sparse of “soft” corpses like Chaos Sanctuary and the Stony Tombs for example, I think this rather strange “soft” corpse requirement should be removed from Grim Ward.
It would likely take basically no work considering Find Item can be used on all corpses, so they would just need to change Grim Ward to share the same targeting parameters.
I cant say i have issue with that, there is plenty places where it works well. You dont have to go chaos. That location is so over rates honestly.
Perhaps, I don’t really see why they should limit Grim Ward like this though. They wanted to promote using it right? So why would they hamper or restrict its usage in certain areas with corpse requirements?
There’s not really an argument against removing the “soft” corpse requirement IMO, again it would be barely any work to change it.
The thing i hate the most is blizzard deciding find potion will be synergy…
It’s a strange synergy choice, they want to promote usage of Find Potion but I think it’s hampered by how the game has evolved. I think FP was meant as more of a party skill before mana potions could be purchased from vendors, so there would be incentive for barbs to find potions for their caster friends. But of course with mana potions being available from vendors FP utility has been replaced (except for finding Full Rejuvs for which it is quite nice).
Also something interesting is with 2.4 Find Potion has become a hidden synergy to Find Item, it gives 1% Find Item per hard point so if you’ve got 50% FI and 20 points into FP it would be a 70% chance to drop again.
I dont think so, i had 20 points in both and didnt have that much. And if its not counter there, how people know its hidden bonus, it would be very hard to notice.
+1% synergy bonus from Find Potion is now properly communicated on the Find Item skill tooltip
Indeed it is still there.
Back to the topic, I would like to see this changed the next time a patch rolls out.
Grim Ward is very annoying or impossible to use in areas with few or no “soft” targets, the “soft” target requirement has no merit from both gameplay and lore reasons in my opinion. Why would you be unable to make a Grim Ward out of a skeleton, considering it’s a construct made completely out of bone?
I think it would take very little time and effort to change this as well, all it would take is to make it share the same targeting parameters as Find Item.
They should also tell people that it doesn’t work on certain corpses. I thought it must be a bug. I was searching to see if anyone else had reported it when I found this thread.
Ideally they’d make it so that Grim Ward can be used on any corpse, just like Find Item.
I see no need for the arbitrary corpse restriction, just reduces Grim Ward’s viability in certain areas like the Crypt, Mausoleum, Stony Tomb, Chaos, etc.
Still hope this is changed with 2.5. If you can Corpse Explode a skeleton then why can’t you make a Grim Ward out of one too?
It makes sense from both a lore and gameplay perspective for Grim Ward to be castable on all corpses. Currently it’s hard to use in some areas like the Crypt/Mausoleum (only castable on zombie corpses) or Chaos Sanctuary (only castable on venom lord corpses).
They wanted to incentivize using Grim Ward with the 2.4 changes, so why is it still hampered by corpse requirements?
I think that’d be changing the mechanics of the skill too much, it’d basically become another war cry/curse which I think is bland. I like the corpse requirement, just not the “soft” corpse restriction.
Players steamroll normal monsters
Not always, Grim Ward was a huge help to my singer barb as he was leveling as well as when I respecced him to frenzy. Up to -120% physical resistance is a huge damage buff when you don’t have access to Decrep or Amp Damage.
The only time they need ans have the time to place a grim ward is against bosses and … drum rolls! Those always have no corpse around them beside Andy
Grim Ward doesn’t work against bosses and I don’t think that will change, even if it did I still think it should require a corpse.
Ideally grim ward should not require corpse and just cost Life to the caster instead
Spill your blood on the ground to summon the effigy of your legendary ancestors
Grim Ward is often used defensively so a life cost would be a detriment to that usage I think.
I think your suggestion just changes the mechanics too much, I like how it currently works and all I want is for it to be usable on all corpses.
It doesn’t make much sense to have a skill aimed at helping melee deal more damage and at the same time make targets run away from the melee character lol
Slow is decent and mitigate the horrible effect of fear but the later still should be replaced with taunt
Grim ward taunting would become a decoy totem
Costing % life could remove the need for corpse and also give a base for the units’ own Hp
I must also have wrongly expressed myself with bosses, I meant it’s useless because most of the monsters you can apply it on are easy to kill therefor don’t need to cast it and when you need it, you can’t cast it and it doesn’t work on the monster you need it on
After playing a whole lot with Grim Ward, I don’t think it’s necessary.
I just finished a SSF HC leap attack barb playthrough and I think that this playthrough would have been a lot harder if grim ward didn’t exist. It’s great.
What I would change about grim ward though, is that mobs should be afraid of the grim ward, not of the barb (because it leads to weird situations where mobs run towards the ward sometimes). It’s kind of fun and abusable where you can control where mobs can go by standing on the certain side of them (can make them run into a corner), but I think the same can be achieved with some proper placement and taunting.
Yes, grim ward would be used way more often if it could be made from any corpse. But IMO it’s more fun when you sometimes get in a frustrating situation where you don’t have the right corpse (e.g. no venom lord corpse in CS).
There’s a video about game design that I have recently watched, it’s called “Why old MMO’s feel better” by Josh Strife Hayes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Gaz8oxzJ4 - highly recommended; and it kinda reinforced my position on why convenience should not be added to games, stuff shouldn’t be buffed, etc; and I think it applies to grim ward in D2 as well.
if you don’t have a corpse nearby, just cast howl. No need to homogenize 2 similar skills even more.
Okay, you can choose not to use it though if you find it makes your playthrough too easy. I don’t see why it needs to be more restrictive to others. It’s like saying Cloak of Shadows should only apply to demons or something because it makes all monsters inanimate.
What I would change about grim ward though, is that mobs should be afraid of the grim ward, not of the barb (because it leads to weird situations where mobs run towards the ward sometimes). It’s kind of fun and abusable where you can control where mobs can go by standing on the certain side of them (can make them run into a corner), but I think the same can be achieved with some proper placement and taunting.
I’m not sure how much work that would take to have Grim Ward act as the fearing “unit”, but I don’t think it’s something that really needs changed. Yes it can be (ab)used to trap stuff in corners, I do it in Trav all the time. I don’t think it’s really a problem though, it can be hard to get into the right position to get them stuck in a corner and there doesn’t tend to be many corners where stuff can get stuck anyways, just in tight interior areas mostly.
Yes, grim ward would be used way more often if it could be made from any corpse. But IMO it’s more fun when you sometimes get in a frustrating situation where you don’t have the right corpse (e.g. no venom lord corpse in CS).
Again, you don’t need to use it. You can challenge/restrict yourself like I’m sure you already do.
