I’m gonna write out my feedback and attempt to consolidate the topic into as few posts as possible (b/c there’s going to be a lot of posts about this).
Item changes for low-level equipment is particularly good. I might have selected something other than FRW to add to Bloodletter. I think the +3 rogue’s bows will be popular. I think the Battlebranch being made available quicker to low level is good. Would have been cool if the unique Scythe had been switched to life leech instead of mana leech (maybe next time). Blinkbat allows a very solid alternative choice for Zons, melee, ranged characters to equip something other than Stealth, cool option. A socket for a The Ward shield will allow it to compete w/ Ancient’s Pledge. The effective boosts to the Angelic Raiment synergy set is welcome and will allow it to compete w/ Sigon’s (especially for duel-wield barb). If i didn’t mention something I think that the item changes are cool, but nothing that would flip itemization choices concerning utilizing a competitive item.
That’s all low level stuff. I’d like further information about the specifics of the changes to {ladder-only} runewords. Are they buffed? nerfed? balanced? more standardized?
For the High level changes; MOST of these are horrible. I’ll begin w/ the few changes that are good.
Good / meh: terror shards dropping somewhat less often.
Good: terror shards not replacing an item drop via a shard dropping in place of treasure.
Good: Heralds tier 3 and higher might drop treasure that could be surprisingly valuable is exciting.
BAD: raising item treasure quality of a Latent Sunder to 75 w/o re-populating loot w/ the pre-RotW vintage Sunder items.
Horrible: reducing the drop rate chance of a Latent Sunder (again w/o re-populating loot w/ the pre-RotW vintage Sunder items).
Horrible: reducing the drop rate of statues that are utilized to access the Colossal Ancients fight.
Horrible: The development direction that is pushing to further increase rewards for Players 5-8 difficulty while small groups and those who wish to play solo online suffer. If these changes are beneficial to the offline mode players, then the changes should only apply to offline mode.
Overall the 3.3 Ver of Reign of the Warlock | D2:R is bright if you don’t enter Hell difficulty and will feel much less exciting for those players who prefer to grind in Hell difficulty with the intent of obtaining a Colossal unique jewel they want for their character.
I believe interest in playing on the ladder after the 3.3 Ver change will be optimisitic for the first 30 hours of play for a gamer, but will quickly fall off as these players struggle to acquire the Colossal Ancient fight statues and Latent Sunder grand charms.