Mechanical Changes that would Improve the Game?

General Discussion
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Been thinking about what fundamental mechanic improvements/tweaks would improve the game:

  1. To hit calculation - ignore level dependence/greatly reduce monster/player level in the calculations

  2. Improve 2H weapons (that are largely unused) by increasing their STR damage scaling (from 1% per STR point to 2-2.5%).

  3. Make “freezing” affect FCR. Its incredibly punitive that freeze affects attack speed but not casting speed (hence why all martials wear ravenfrost) - have it reduce your FCR % by 50% (e.g. 120 FCR would become 60 FCR for a set time).

  4. Remove invulnerability frames on lots of spells (volcano etc) or set it to no more than 1 frame.

  5. Poison should deal damage on the same frame as other hits (I believe, that it currently doesn’t deal damage during a frame when a monster gets hit).

  6. Set Crossbows’ attack speed cap to be the same as bows. Why did they ever cap Xbows maximum attack speed to 11 frames and keep bows at 7?

Corrections? Suggestions?

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2

I had a similar thought about tweaking the Chance To Hit Formula in order to help melee-based characters across the board. When you look at the formula below, the attack/defense rating calculation is weighted EQUALLY to attacker/defender level calculation.

I think the attack/defense rating calculation should have HIGHER assigned weight. This puts more emphasis on attack/defense ratings and less on attacker/defender levels.

  • Chance To Hit Formula = 200% * {AR / (AR + DR)} * {Alvl / (Alvl + Dlvl)}
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Thanks for chiming in? Any thoughts on the other comments. Not many people study D2 as much as you do :wink:

4

Definitely agree with this. Even if they capped crossbows at 9 frames it would still allow them to be useable by non-Amazons. But at 11 frames it’s hard to justify over just using a bow with IAS.

Don’t know if this would really help all 2 handed weapons. Staffs need a defensive element more than they need increased damage.

5

In terms of Crossbows, I would like to see the developers add an innate ability for them to Ignore Target’s Defense and lower the strength and dexterity requirements:

  • Light Crossbows - small Str/Dex req.
  • Heavy Crossbows - medium Str req.
  • Repeating Crossbows - medium Dex req.

Basically, Crossbows should deal way more damage than Bows, but keep them slow to compensate… make that hit count!

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Yea that would be an alternative. Cap crossbows at 9 frames, but make them deal like 50% more damage than bows (would probably need EVEN more of a dmg boost because crossbows can’t give plus to amazon skills).

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  1. To hit calculation is pretty rough during leveling thats right. You have to be higher level to have higher hit chance. But in order to level up you need to farm and hit monsters. Its a vicious cycle.
  1. I think 2 handers should have higher base damage. They are kinda slow too, which makes sense, but their damage should be like not 2x higher, but like 3x higher than one-handers. Having Strength get 2-2,5% bonus to damage is also nice touch, but not enough.
  1. Yes! Get some disadvantage to casters as well. Also Decrepify slow FCR. There should be also a curse that reduces Elemental dmg output of casters like Weaken and Decrepify do.

4,5,6 I really dont care about much

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8

interesting suggestions thanks for contributing a potential idea

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9

i see no problem with that as long that cbf works against holy freeze

i agree with everything else, generaly speaking

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10

Of course - Cannot be frozen gear would negate this penalty to casters

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11

Alot of rpgs use defense as way to reduce the damage you take. D2 is supposed to have a similar mechanic with certain armors having hidden integer dr but the stat is so low that it is redundant. The only reason someone would want high defense is for BvB or Zeal v Zeal. A formulae could be implemented which ties armor type with defense for a final integer dr. For instance Ancient armor is a medium armor so the final dr could be half of the total defense the armor provides. Light armor could be 1/4, and heavy armor could be 3/4. Make using heavy, high defense armor worth it!

12

Alternatively, you could have Crossbows or any particular 2-H weapon pierce Enemy Physical Resistance. I mean the only way to lower enemy Physical Resistance is to debuff them with a curse or apply Sanctuary aura(which only works on Undead) and seeing as Elemental casters have Rainbow Facet Jewels and items that further pierce Enemy Resistance means that Physical attackers need something to balance things.

So I was thinking that starting at the Exceptional tier that a modest 1-5% Enemy Physical Resistance be applied to Crossbows and 5-10% on Elite tier. Similarly, other 2-H weapons could come with innate Crushing Blow, Open Wounds or also pierce Enemy Physical Resistance. Was thinking of the following:

Maces: 5-10% Crushing Blow(10% on Thunder Maul)
Staves: 5-10% Crushing Blow
Spears: 5-10% Enemy Physical Resistance
Polearms: 5-10% Enemy Physical Resistance
Axes: 5-10% Open Wounds

Keep in mind this is only for 2-H weapons so dual-wielding 2-H Swords… they are exempt because they can be dual-wielded by Barbarians. I know its a slight against Swords but they are arguably the best weapon class in the game.

13

These are solid suggestions.

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  1. Action speaks louder than words. Namely instead of suggesting a change to the Hit Check formula, derive one and present it for discussion/debate. Otherwise it’s all fluff at this point.
  2. Strength buff to 2-H Weapons would be a marginal impact and frankly -Enemy Resistance would do far more given that Elemental has Rainbow Facets and Unique items that pierce Enemy Resistance.
  3. Freezing impacting Cast Rate is definitely something I could get behind but the impact on FCR isn’t 120% FCR to 60 FCR but rather 8 Frames → 12 Frames(really hurts). I’d also advocate for Decrepify and Holy Freeze having the same impact on Casters(might make PvP a whole more interesting if it did).
  4. Agreement on this, although I’d want to see PvP testing.
  5. Yeah Poison in this game is really “broken”. It needs a foundational overhaul
  6. Crossbows wouldn’t necessarily need a speed upgrade if they did what I recommended in 2nd bulletpoint.
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15

All these suggestion work for me! The finer points (how something is tuned) need testing/evaluation. What needs to get changed (and roughly in what direction) are key. Your change in casting frames is fine, and weapons ignoring phys res is also fine as an alternative.

16

How about making it so flying enemies that die above non-pathable terrain actually drop loot?

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17

I don’t think this is an “improvement” so much as just “a major change.”

It cuts both ways: before this new terrorizing thing, monsters were mostly a lower level than your character. Once they were in the 90s it made survivability go noticeably way up for my characters (technically back in D2Lod… I never stuck around that long with any 1 character in D2R)

I think this will add a huge extra challenge to melee characters (especially if the high level monsters also do more damage… but that does not seem to be the case?). I do not think this challenge should be removed because I like challenge :grinning:

  1. Immunity frame removal: this sounds amazing. Yes, please, and thank you! A lot of assassin skills are held back by this (mostly traps, but also martial arts finishers if your attack speed is too fast)
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