This is Part 2 of my Unique items rework/improvement project. This time I was working on Helms and Gloves. Just like last time, feel free to comment my changes or ask why I made some changes if you are curious. Also make suggestion if you think i made items too strong or if they are still weak so i cant balance my suggestions better.
HELMS
Coif of Glory Helm
New bonus +1-10% Lightning damage
NOTE
Change I made for Coif of Glory is mainly just making item slightly bit interesting.
Howltusk Great Helm
Removed 3-5 damage returned
New bonus +1-2 Throwing Mastery
New bonus +5-8 Dexterity
NOTE
Howltusk seems to be mainly designed for raged characters but it doesnt provide that much considering it requires 63 strength. Also some bonuses on it doesnt make that much sense for character who is playing in range not being hit that much. So I improved the helm to be actualy usefull for anyone using throwing as their skills. Small Returned damage seemed to be pointless on for lvl 25 on it so i removed it.
The Face of Horror Mask
Strength bonus replaced by dexterity bonus and range changes to +15-20
New bonus +2 Magic Arrow
NOTE
Face of Horror has pretty high 50% chance that monsters will flee. So helm doesnt really make that much sense to increase strength as its not good for melee characters because of flee effect as monsters will constantly run away from you. On the same time helm has strength bonus which is more focused on melee. I changed it to dexterity so its more usefull for ranged characters. I also added Magic arrow as new interesting bonus which can be used by all characters.
Wormskull
Removed life leech
Removed Posion damage
+1 Necro skills replaced with +1 to Poison and Bone skills
Mana bonus increased from +10 to +10-30
New bonus +3-8% Faster cast rate
New bonus +10% Magic damage
NOTE
Wormskull is quite weirdly deigned helm because it has +1 necromancer skills but at the same time poison damage and life steal which doesnt really seems to be usefull for necromancer. Maybe devs thought it could be used for Poison dagger necro, but damage on it is extremely low and life steal will not do much because Poison dagger is mostly elemental damage. Poison dagger skill is not really used anyway so I decided to change helm to be more focused on magic side of necromancer instead. I also throwed in small FCR bonus to reach some early breakpoints. The reason I didnt want to improve helm for melee is that Undead crown is already doing that and I dint want to change that helm as its kind of iconic item.
Darksight Helm Basinet
New bonus +30-50% Enhanced damage
NOTE
Darksight is not terrible helm, but its not also that amazing. It looks to be mostly desgined for melee characters or maybe ranged ones. Cannot be frozen on helm is really amazing but there are other good choices in exceptional helms melee characters would use. I didnt want to make Darksight too strong because it already has CBF so I added enhanced damage bonus so it can offer little bit more to melee/range builds.
Walkyrie Wing Winged Helm
New bonus +15-30 Dexterity
New bonus +10-20 Minimum damage
NOTE
Walkyrie Wing is decent helm, but I wanted little bit more on it for Amazons focusing on physical damage from her skills by adding +min damage. I also added quite high dexterity bonus because thats main attribute ranged amazon.
Steel Shade Armet
New bonus +1 all skills
New bonus +1-2 sockets
New bonus Damage reduced by 8-12
NOTE
I didnt have any special vision how to improve Steel shade, I only felt that it need something more to be better than just being rarely used for merc in travincal. So I added +1 skills, damage reduction and 2 sockets so player can decide how to improve Stell Shade on its own by utilizing sockets.
Veil of Steel Spired Helm
Removed negative Light radius
Bonus to all resistances changed from +50% to 20-40%
New bonus +2 sockets
New bonus +50-100% enhanced damage
New bonus +10% crushing blow
NOTE
Veil of steel is quite bad helm for one main reason. It has way too high strength requirements so there are basicly 3 classes who would be using it. Druid and Barbarian have better options with their class helms and Paladin will rather use Crown of ages or for example Vampire Gaze. So I made some improvements so helms actualy provide good bonuses for such high strength investment.
Nightwing’s Veil Spired Helm
New bonus +3-5 Freezing Arrow
New nonus +10% increased attack speed
NOTE
I dont think Nightwings required to get buff, but that helm is mostly used on just cold Sorceress. But there are other characters using cold damage so i wanted to add something for them on Nightwings to make helm more interesting choice. I think my change with +Freezing arrow could give paladin using Holy freeze new way how to play ranged Holy freeze build.
Crown of Ages Corona
Bonus to all skills increased from +1 to +2-3
Giant Skull Bone Visage
New bonus +15% Faster run/Walk
New bonus +15% chance to cast Deprepify level 10 when being hit
New bonus +15% chance to pierce
GLOVES
Venom Grip Demonhide Gloves
Crushing blow chance increased from 5% to 5-10%
New bonus Prevent Monster Heal
Poison damage increased
Gravepalm Sharkskin Gloves
Damage against undeads removed
Attack Ratting against undeads removed
New bonus +10% increased attack speed
New bonus +25% lightning resist
New bonus +5% faster cast rate
Ghoulhide Heavy Bracers
New bonus Cannot be frozen
New bonus Resist Cold +15-30%
New bonus Increased attack speed +10-20%
Lava Gout Battle Gauntlets
Enchant on stringing improved to 5% chance to cast lvl 15 enchant
Fire damage removed
New bonus +5-10% deadly strike
New bonus -5%-15% enemy fire resist
Hellmouth War Gauntlets
Fire damage increased to 50-200
Chance to cast Meteor and Firestorm removed
New bonus Increased attack speed +20%
New bonus +15% Magic find
New bonus +9% chance to cast Lower Resist curse on hit
hey zax, we both know that they don’t really do anything we want them to, why do you … use (waste) all this time on this when you know it’s not going to happen…
Zax obviously has a passion for the game he loves. He isn’t worried about Blizzard ignoring the player base all of these years… If he’s enjoying what he’s doing, then it’s time well spent regardless of what happens.
You should know at least something about having a passion for activities that you enjoy. After all you seem to get a high amount of enjoyment from trolling/flaming people and/or yelling at clouds, because you keep doing so.
Because all this is part of mod for D2R i am creating anyway. So why not share it basicly it has multiple reasons why i post this. I want to show my work, look for feedback or suggestions to make it better ,maybe there is even chance that blizzard will take some inspiration from this and i also think its just fun to discuss changes and ideas how to improve game. This didnt take that much time to make honestly.
I am curious, would you appreatite more if i should add some commentary behind the item changes for individual items next time? I mean reasons why i changed them.
Thank you for the community service Zax, I really enjoy your suggestions. With the min/maxing that hast taken hold of D2R, these changes would improve build/gear diversity a lot.
Personally I’d appreciate unique Rings/Amus with Faster Cast rate, as these are currently missing.
Dear Blizzard: if you read this, get Zax a viable offer for a Job as they really care and have a deep understanding beyond your typical YouTuber/Twitch ad person.
Lol, thank you, I appreatiate it But blizzard would probably dont give me job as I dont really have any experience in programming or anything usefull in game development outisde of my ideas
Yeah I think it is great idea but I didnt want to drasticly change current amulets. This project is about improving existing one and when I finish, i will move into creating new unique items to add missing unique items and maybe few new rings, amulets, or even charms.
I think that two added sockets are enough as it can be well utilized, you can use facets, topazes for MF, or many other things to improve it.
I dont want it too strong after all its only lvl 62 helmet. I get it shako is epic and also quite low level but i think its fine have as iconic helmet.
My main goal with changes is to make usufull. They dont have to be strong or compete with other items, but when they drop, i want player to react like " nice, i can use this or trade this is is interesting item for someone to use.
I feel like iron skin would be too much as oskill. You have + all skills on top if it so it could easily provide passive bonus like +200% defense and thats massive.
these changes are actually quite balanced and reasonable, yet still effective. usually i only see overpowered suggestions here in the forum when it comes to unique buffing. hope the blizzard employee responsible for balance patches takes a few notes from it. i mean they did take some community suggestions into consideration sofar(new barb merc, merc changes, fist of heavens changes, etc.) Well done Zax!
And yea, i’d like to get a few sentences for te reason you chose the buff for certain items.
Here are a few thoughts of mine. For Steel Shade, to make it unique and thematic with Fire Absorb, I thought it would be cool to give it a few sockets, GF and ICB (but no +skills as trade-off)…
Steel Shade
Armet
Defense: 300-345
Req Level: 62
Req Strength: 109
+100-130% Enhanced Defense
Replenish Life +10-18
+4-8% Mana Stolen Per Hit
+5-11 Fire Absorb
Proposed Buffs:
Add 1-2 Open Sockets
Add +50% Gold Find
Add +10% Increase Chance to Block
Change Fire Absorb to +0-24 (0.25 Per Clvl)
For Wolfhowl, give it CtC Howl When Struck for namesake, buff feral rage and make dire wolf o-skill. I also think the devs should make shouts available in shapeshifted form, which would buff Druids and this helmet…
Wolfhowl
Fury Visor
Defense: 332-377
Req Level: 79
Req Strength: 129
+120-150% Enhanced Defense
+2-3 To Warcries (Barbarian Only)
+3-6 To Feral Rage
+3-6 To Lycanthropy
+3-6 To Werewolf
+8-15 To Strength
+8-15 To Dexterity
+8-15 To Vitality
Level 15 Summon Dire Wolf (18 Charges)
Proposed Buffs:
Add 5% CtC Lvl 30 Howl When Struck
Add +12-16 To Summon Dire Wolf
Change Feral Rage to +4-8
Remove Lvl 15 Summon Dire Wolf (18 Charges)
For Spirit Keeper, give it unique attribute of summoning 1 additional spirit along with bonus to +summoning skills…
Spirit Keeper
Earth Spirit
Defense: 413-443
Req Level: 67
Req Strength: 104
+170-190% Enhanced Defense
+1-2 To Druid Skills
+20% Faster Hit Recovery
+10% To Maximum Poison Resist
Fire Resist +30-40%
+9-14 Lightning Absorb
Cold Absorb 15-25%
Proposed Buffs:
Can Now Summon 1 Additional Spirit
Add +2 To Summoning Skills (Druid Only)
For Giant Skull, give it CtC Grim Ward upon kill and buff crushing blow…
Giant Skull
Bone Visage
Defense: 350-477
Req Level: 65
Req Strength: 106
+250-320 Defense
+10% Chance Of Crushing Blow
Knockback
+25-35 To Strength
Socketed (1-2)
Proposed Buffs:
Add 10% CtC Lvl 15 Grim Ward When You Kill An Enemy
Instead of whining to dev in vain, you should put your ideas into making a mod on nexusmods that everyone can download and enjoy. The only d2r I play now is offline and they have the following qol: shapeshift can teleport, cain move to good location, tele back to town in act 2 and 3 moved to good spots, arcane sanctuary ghosts stay on path instead of flying around and drop nothing when killed, and so on. And while I personally don’t like bigger inventory mod, bigger stash and bigger horadric cube is massive qol change.
Perhaps so… There must be some well of infinite wisdom that forced your hand to reply with such a simple statement Debbie downing the ideas. Instead of just earmarking the whole batch of ideas as “powercreep”, why not share your obvious wealth of infinite wisdom about what you believe is overpowered? Go through and give details about each item update the OP suggested… Perhaps make some countersuggestions that you feel would be better suited for the game. Otherwise “lol ridiculous power creep ideas.” doesn’t hold much weight here.
I believe the general idea the OP is trying to do is to make the items more useful and to help increase build diversity, otherwise they’re just going to continue being ignored like they are now.
Notice how under “Helms” that Griffon’s Eye, Harlequin Crest, and under “Gloves” Chance Guards and Dracul’s Grasp aren’t listed? Take a wild guess why.
Why the hell would you buff COA? especially to +3 skills? It’s already a great helmet and if I would change anything to it, it would be that it always spawns eth + indestructible to further improve the topic of defensive stats. Even 2 skills would make this probably a must have helmet in most cases.
15 frw do not show on the item screenshot.
I like a lot of your suggestions but some are off
why would you make them generic while they are now specific against undead areas? add ias and they are like LoH but for undead areas.
+1 skills on gloves? I really don’t think that this is a great idea. How about adding OW instead? it would go with the offensive power theme
But blizzard would probably dont give me job as I dont really have any experience in programming or anything usefull in game development outisde of my ideas