That does make sense. But I’d buff some weapons damage more than others. Specifically in my mind:
I dont mind if they would rebalance some %ed here and there after.
BUT not to the point it would be same strength as it was. There must be a solid buff for physicals overall.
If light sorc, hammerdin, javazon is not nerfed, then there is no argument for not buffing melees.
I think a buff to damage across the board for base weapons would be a good change. Support.
A 10-12% damage buff for Colossus Crossbow seems appropriate. WF and upped Buriza have similar damages with optimal gear but crossbows max out at 2.72 attacks per second.
but colossus crossbow requreres 160 strength, which are points that you didn’t put into dex 
i’d love if buriza was finally worth upping, but at the current state it isn’t
NM and Hell weapons and armor can all use expanded sockets as well. As of now, only elite armor gets max sockets (4)on all types of body armor whereas majority the NM versions are are stuck at 2 or 3.
A large number 1h weapons come with only 2 sockets and are useless for anything end game.
I covered this issue here in more detail:
Sure there are not many 2 socketed endgame weapon runewords.
Some Zod-El runeword called End of Cycle wouldnt hurt 
My proposal of buffing base weapons damage means Unique and Set items get stronger also beside runewords.
Sadly no. Not because adding a new tier is a bad idea but adding a new tier of weapon/armor will be incredibly difficult for the development team to find “real historic artifacts” to generate it.
You have to understand that this isn’t Diablo 3 or 4. Diablo 2 items, maps and lores are motifs of real history that’s why people feel the dark, grim, horror feeling to it. While Diablo 3’s item is based off some creator’s imagination, thus lacking empathy when generating the aesthetics of diablo.
The only aesthetics in Diablo 3 that followed the spirit of game design of Diablo 2 is the witchdoctor. The items, lore are motif of real history, whereas the monk, crusader, demon hunter are mostly fantasy.
One important note is that, even if there are resources, it’s not going to render the same feeling. The reason is that the modern world has become very literate with history. We have gone past the hollywood films of “The Mummy” series where mummified undeads and curses were spooky. We don’t believe in that sh*t anymore so…
Your idea is bound to fail…hope that the Diablo 4 dev team acknowledge this as well. Their aesthetics is in a terrible state. (Graphics ≠= aesthetics)
There are exactly 3 for weapons, Steel, Strength, and Wind.
All 3 suck. Well, Strength has some uses for crushing blow for early smite builds but even then who builds Smite for leveling 
ElZod is clearly Alpha & Omega 
Steel and Strength dont suck. Good for normal-nightmare.
Haha this is the first name I thought about too, but its name is kinda not fitting in D2 atmosphere, rather some modern stuff…
Oh yes they do.
Compare Leaf to Steel and say it isn’t bad. Hell, compare it to the worthless low level set weapons and tell me it isn’t bad. Lower level unique weapons are also superior to the higher level required Steel.
Strength also sucks for what it is. The damage is pitiful for level 25 requirements. The only savings grace is the crushing blow. I only ever use it for a good 2 socket scepter with +3 Holy aura so I can take down bosses faster as the aura does almost all the damage. Holy Thunder would be preferable over Strength but Blizzard, in their infinite wisdom, decided that low level runewords should be built in bases that actually don’t drop in Normal difficulty…
Skills which utlize weapons as damage source should get their own baseline damage as well - in order to reduce gear dependance.
It seems to me that it is better to solve this issue not through weapons, but through a change in the stat system.
Str dex for gear the rest in vitality and again and again no flexability.
Str dex energy can give additional bonuses that are not currently given.
Steel gives you 50% open wounds, Strength 25% crushing blow. And thats good stats.
I always made one Steel for my barb early game.
Why would they have to be better than their Unique, Set siblings? Its rethoric question.
The reasons you have given with “motif of real history” doesn’t apply to me one bit. And we have a blizzard canon in the game…
I agree with a base weapon damage increase.
Yeah that’s an unfortunate down point for crossbows. As you said though, don’t want to make Buriza have too much dps so this figure sounds about right.
Str and Dex currently give damage, attack rating and block chance. Some builds chose to put more points than for gear in them…
It doesn’t have to be but Steel is worthless at 13. Some better alternatives to both Steel and Strength:
All of these uniques have crushing blow and/or open wounds:
Rixot’s Keen (25% crushing) requires level 2
The Gnasher (20% crushing, 50% open wounds) requires level 5
Kneel Striker (25% crushing) requires level 5
Blood Crescent (33% open wounds) requires level 7
Crushflange (33% crushing) requires level 9
Bloodrise (25% crushing) requires level 15
The enhanced damage on all of these also far exceed both Steel and Strength
On the set side of things, Isenhart’s Lightbrand requires level 6 and Civerb’s Cudgel is level 9. Both of these have amazing weapon damage for their level requirements.
My favorite starting weapon is actually Khalim’s Will with Horadric Staff being runner up. Blizzard doesn’t want you using these apparently as neither can be transferred via shared stash.
The point wasn’t whether they should be better than sets, the point was that these 2 socket weapon runewords are the most pitiful in the game. They can’t even hold up to a level 2 unique. Furthermore, physical damage classes have virtually no real runeword options early to mid game.
Leaf is amazing for caster, Spirit is also stellar. Insight also provides massive damage for your merc while providing amazing mana regen when your gear is lacking early game.
Melee, on the other hand, has no viable runewords until Unbending Will at level 41 (in 2.4 ladder only patch) or Oath at level 49 in live game.
I suppose bowzons and SS druids can take advantage of Insight in the coming patch…
Spirit is too strong for its low runes. It should cost like Ist/Gul. Making every sorc orb, staff, claws obsolete early game.
Insight is also pretty strong. I dont know much about Leaf.
I dont like making runewords strong as these ones.
100 Str - Lose 500 hp and gain 800 dps for frenzy no thankslose 500 hp and gain 800 dps for frenzy no thanks.
Mob will kill me faster than 800 dps will help me kill him.