Paladin - what would you change in skills?

[Zax-11538]

Thats interesting proposition, sadly i have no clue how to mod that so i will keep it for future :D.

[DarkHelmet-1157]

Prayer: It’s effect on Holy Bolt was buffed in 2.4 but it’s arguably one of the least used auras due to it’s rather unique mana cost to maintain its effect. That’s why it’s rather popular on Act 2 Mercenaries since Mercenaries never run out of Mana and hence can double its effect with Insight. Yet as a stand alone aura, it’s that mana cost that causes players to not even bother activating it but rather use the skill as a synergy sink(at best) or ignore the skill entirely unless it’s a prerequisite.

If people were to use it, one or two things would have to happen. 1) Mana cost has to go, thereby allowing its base effect to run unimpeded and/or 2) Add a secondary effect that is exclusive to the aura that makes it enticing to utilize despite it’s constant mana drain and the one area I think would work would be to add Life/Mana Leech to the aura(0.25% per level, 5% at level 20). This would allow the Paladin to leech that Mana back, provided the target has positive Drain effectiveness. Since this aura applies to allies, they would gain the Leech perk. A2 Mercenaries would obviously benefit a ton from this change.

Blessed Hammer: No longer affects Animal/Beast class monsters and no longer receives benefit from Concentration aura.

Holy Bolt/Blessed Hammer/FoH: Magic Damage increased by Sanctuary Aura(25% of listed %Undead value). Ex: Level 40 Sanctuary = 1320% Undead = 330% or 4.3 Multiplier. That’s compared to Level 40 Concentration(645% or 322.5% = 4.225 Multiplier for Blessed Hammer). This is to keep Concentration buffing Physical Damage and NOT Magic Damage.

Sanctuary Aura: Affected enemies now have their Magic Resistance reduced by 1% per level(1/5th effectiveness against Magic Immune monsters). Keep in mind this ONLY applies to Undead so Greater Mummies and Plague Bearers in A2 in particular This effect can allow other players(aka Bone Necromancers) to attack these targets The melee function of the skill(notably removing Physical Resistance) is still there as well.

Above is a huge buff to Sanctuary and frankly I find it BS that Physical Immunity can be removed, Elemental Immunity can be removed and even Poison Immunity can be removed. Yet Magic can’t? I call shenanigans.

As for Thorns and other under-utilized skills, I’m going to defer to others who might have an idea(since I lack one lol).

[Zax-11538]

@DarkHelmet-1157

Blessed Hammer: No longer affects Animal/Beast class monsters and no longer receives benefit from Concentration aura.

Damn dude, i feel like that would kill the hammerdin build

Hammers have strong dmg but its not exactly user friendly skill without enigma already.

[DarkHelmet-1157]

Eh they were so OP that they ignored Magic Immunity. I suppose I may have gone a bit far on that but everyone is sick and tired of seeing Hammerdins.

[Zax-11538]

@DarkHelmet-1157

Holy Bolt/Blessed Hammer/FoH: Magic Damage increased by Sanctuary Aura(25% of listed %Undead value). Ex: Level 40 Sanctuary = 1320% Undead = 330% or 4.3 Multiplier. That’s compared to Level 40 Concentration(645% or 322.5% = 4.225 Multiplier for Blessed Hammer). This is to keep Concentration buffing Physical Damage and NOT Magic Damage.

Check this out, i already buffed the holy bolt with sanctuary as synergy:

My dream version of D2R ( I am actualy creating it with modding)

Hey, some of you probably saw my two topics I made today about skill changes for Paladin and Barbarian and I will eventualy do a lot more topics like that asking others what they think should be improved in D2R. Reason for that is I would like to create my own dream version of D2R. Improved Diablo 2 like I would make it or change it to be better game. Some purist probably would not agree but game is far from being perfect. I used to love Diablo 2 modding years back and never thought that I wou…

[DarkHelmet-1157]

What about Sanctuary lowering Magic Resistance of affected enemies? It won’t help the raw power of Bone Necromancers(since Sanctuary is an Offensive aura that applies to enemies) but it’s a damn nice debuff aura that would work wonders in A2 for Magic users(and Wave 2 of Baal).

[Necrosaro-1260]

It has been done on charms I saw on nexus maybe that can help Tigger some coding help

[Zax-11538]

@DarkHelmet-1157

What about Sanctuary lowering Magic Resistance of affected enemies?

Thats impossible, it doesnt work in D2. Unless they fixed it somehow for D2R. -% enemy magic res never worked.

@Necrosaro-1260

It has been done on charms I saw on nexus maybe that can help Tigger some coding help

Interesting how does it exactly works on charms?

[DarkHelmet-1157]

Well they finally got Sanctuary to work properly, perhaps they can explore adding -%Magic Resistance to Sanctuary Aura to further give it appeal besides niche melee use. It’d only apply to Undead to begin with and makes A2 slightly easier for Magic users. It’s also a bone to Hammerdins who lost their Holy Bolt buff from Blessed Hammer since by “breaking” the Magic Immunity(albeit at 1/5th the rate), they’ll actually deal some Magic Damage with Blessed Hammer(although not much… at most 9% if my math is right). So with 14k Hammers x .09 = 1260 Magic Damage. Might be enough in P1 but P8 it’s going to take a few Hammers.

[Necrosaro-1260]

No idea how it was done, I don’t do much coding haha

[EnTaro-21982]

@Zax-11538

What if, i actualy add new synergy to thorns from conversion and defiance increasing dmg of thorns significantly so its not not garbage and also give passive DMG reduction to defiance for hard points for paladin only. That would make build where you deal good dmg by letting others hit you but still resist a lot of dmg and converted mobs would give back a lot of dmg with improved thorns.

Sounds practical, useful synergy to complement Thorns. Maybe try test adding Crushing blow synergy, then Open wounds synergy, and see how it feels. Altho against bosses I think you will use some Zeal or Smite. But how Thorns with crushing blow works on players 3,5. With higher HP monsters.

I mean if you can mod D2 at your will and test stuff, thats so fascinating to me. I am eager to see how those different ideas work out. I assume you post some playthrough on youtube.

[Zax-11538]

@EnTaro-21982

I mean if you can mod D2 at your will and test stuff, thats so fascinating to me. I am eager to see how those different ideas work out. I assume you post some playthrough on youtube.

well usualy my will want tsomething, but D2R doesnt listen

Modding is not easy and its very time consuming

I forgot a lot of it over last 15 years.

[Luap26-1769]

Zax, what about vengeance changed to be like Enchant. Buff yourself for tri split elemental damage, then use whatever melee attack the pally wants. Would also make the skill cooler on kingslayer RW

[Zax-11538]

Hmm it does sound great, but i dont believe i can do it, i fear skill can have only one or two types of dmg like that. I would have to check it. Second issue is that it would be same as holy fire, freeze and shock basicly, just added dmg from them.

Vengeance works in kind of unique way.

[blood13666-1452]

already viable without runeword like HoJ//Dream…slap infinity on merc and tada
…although its way more expensive than these runewords

Maxroll
holy shock build
d2.maxroll.gg/d2planner/g30106b3
holy fire build
d2.maxroll.gg/d2planner/ky0106s1

holy freeze actually the only 1 not viable yet but patch 2.5 probaby gonna power up holy freeze to 3/4 of the other 2 aura dmg if the devs accept the feedback

[Zax-11538]

I fear like all these aura runewords will go to hell with my mod

[Jman-1752]

Charge: Give it a small AoE so it’s more useful in PvE. This is what most RPGs do with skills like Charge.

Vengeance: Four synergy bonuses is too much. Remove Salvation’s synergy bonus and fold the potential damage bonus into the main skill.

Holy Shield: Can cast without shield. Won’t give you block chance, but will boost your defense. This would help 2-hander pally builds. (who need all the help they can get!)

[CleanLX-1524]

@Jman-1752

Charge: .
Vengeance: .
Holy Shield: .

I never use Charge, too mana intensive, maybe I’m doing it wrong… I use Vigor, but you need pretty heavy investment to get any real speed out of it.

Only way I have found Vengeance somewhat useful, is to make the entire build based around it… then he becomes pretty much useless for most everything in the game… my experience

Holy shield work without shield… open up 2 handers… this is really interesting.

[Necrosaro-1260]

If I was to guess using the skill nova and making it not show an animation or any similar skill that has some kind of splash

[Zax-11538]

Thx for replies and suggestions to everyone. I think I have prepared all changes i wanted in my notes and will start working on modding in into patch today. I will share what i will be changing and and when i will finish with modding it in game, i will post update in my “dream version of D2 topic” with details.

My current ideas (not 100% final tho)

There is plenty of auras which are not being used actively. Reason is mostly that if you have for example zealer, you dont want to lose dmg aura to use prayer. If you have hammerdin, you dont want to lose concentration to regenerate mana from meditation. Also certain skills are not worh leveling currently like salvation or redemption. I came to conlusion that fix to that is in the passive bonuses from these auras amd if aura has passive benefit for every hard point, its worth leveling it and have brnefots even without using it actively.

I am also completely removing required skills for another skills. This never made sense to me. Also required level is lowered significantly for most skills, for many to level 1. What do you need now for playing tesladin? Lvl 24 and bunch of skill points in might, holy fire and holy freeze which you will never use. Just waste of point. Well with my modifications, you can enjoy your build and start leveling up holy shock from level 6 just like you could holy fire. And you dont have to waste skill points in skills you wont use. I also tweaked mana consumption for some skills and much more, so here you go, changes i plan to use:

Sacrifice
Higher skill level 30 instead of 20 and if you invest 19 skill points, life is no longer sacrificed, to compensate single monster attack, sacrifice will have +5% attack speed synergy per level from vigor. Damage synergies removed and dmg scalling increased.

Zeal
Stronger dmg synergy from sacrifice and new attack speed synergy from vigor. Lvl 1 skill.

Vengeance
Skill leveling is possible to 30, stronger synergies and mana cost lowered significantly. Lvl 1 skill.

Conversion
I would like to add +% enhanced dmg on skill because you dont always convert. Level 6 skill.

Smite
Mana cost changed

Charge
I would like to add splash dmg on impact. Level 1 skill , lower mana cost.

Holy shield
shield damage buffed by 1/3, lvl 18 skill, lower base mana cost but increasing with level.

Holy bolt
New synergy 20% from sanctuary.

Blessed hammer
Synergies lowered from 14% to 9%, lower base mana cost. Lvl 12 skill.

Fist of heavens
Lvl 24 skill, lower mana cost, synergy from salvation instead of holy shock and stronger.

Prayer
Passive regen and life leech for every hard point.

Resist fire
Active resistanced nerfed, added passive fire res.

Resist cold
Active resist nerfed, added passive cold resist. Lvl 1 skill

Resist lightning
Active resist nerfed, added passive lightning resist. Lvl 1 skill.

Defiance
Level 1 skill, passive normal and % damage reduction 1 and 1%.

cleansing
Lvl 1 skill, passive poison resist.

Vigor
Lvl 1 skill, active bonus +2% attack speed per level.

Meditation
Active mana regeneration significantly nerfed from 300% to 50% with increase +25% per skill level. Passive bonus +20 mana per hard point. Lvl 1 skill.

Redemption
Lvl 12 skill, passive bonus +15 life per hard point.

Salvation
Active all res nerfed, pasive bonus 1 magic damage reduction per level. Lvl 24 skill.

Might
Passive bonus +5 strength per hard point.

Concentration
Lvl 1 skill, no other changes.

Fanaticism
Lvl 1 skill. Increased party dmg slightly.

Holy Fire
Added -% enemy fire resist 10% +2% per skill level.

Holy freeze
Increased cold damage on higher levels,lvl 6 skill, Added -% enemy cold resist 10% +2% per skill level.

Holy shock
Lvl 6 skill, Added -% enemy lightning resist 10% +2% per skill level.

Blessed aim
Lvl 1 skill, +150% dmg vs demons and +25% every level.

Sanctuary
Lvl 18 skill, cleansing removed as synergy and added holy bolt as synergy for magic dmg +20% instead of 7%.

Thorns
Lvl 1 skill, added two synergies from defiance and conversion both adding +25% increase to flat thorns dmg.

Conviction
Lvl 6 skill, can be leveled to only 15 instead of 20. - enemy resist nerfed to base -15% with +5% per level.

What do you think guys?

EDIT: old bonuses of skills are not changed unless said otherwise. For example bonus from prayer is on top of old effect.