PTR balance review & patch direction suggestion

the good ole days w/ 7015s and btals. es sorc didnt even get damaged by PNB nec lol. :X but even without those items it still tanked them. well see 2.4 so far can still be changed, tweaked or buffed/nerf. but keep postin!

1 Like

strongly agree with you. hope blizard give attention to this feedback

1 Like

I agree with increasing the range of the Magic Absorption % option.
However, balancing skills only with items is not a good idea.
The skill itself also be properly balanced.

This would solve many problems… Like!

1 Like

Sorc, with energy shield, that character can’t be killed even 5 or more hammer hit.
With current system, paladin can kill them with 1 smite to stun and FOH-telleport-hammer combo.
But, with 2.4 PTR, changed FHR system doesn’t allow it.
There will no class that can kill the sorc.
As long as the sorc hold teleport.

It’s another disaster.

Well if you like-minded as me. I am for nerfing hammerdin damage for both pvm/pvp, but won’t happen, otherwise many players will cry. For me one mr shield could be enough for pvp both against new necro buff and hammer.

But balance for PvP shouldn’t be priority number 1 imo.

Someone argues that PvP kept the game played all these years. Means that players basically played it very inbalanced all these years! If some new inbalance will be introduced, means players will play the game inbalanced on the same level. This is why they contradict themselves a bit I think…

2 Likes

Thanks for comments.
I basically said that balancing the skill itself is better than the nerf by the item.
Because it is likely to cause another ripple effect.

It is true that PvP users have imbalance game for so long time.
Users desperately hope it gets better, but the situation right now, it’s hopeless.
And I don’t want to divide priorities between PvP and PvM. There are both important contents.

Also, I’m talking about various patch directions and characters, but it’s a pity that only NEC nerf seems to be getting everyone’s attention.

1 Like

AMAZON:
I haven’t tested melee Ama changes yet but I doubt that it can get her close to melee builds based on Grief rune word. Maybe spears should get access to some of more popular melee rune words like Grief, Death, Last Wish, Obedience, Oath.

Bowazon buffs look OK, but for a physical damage build (Strafe/Multishot + Guided Arrow) there is still not enough DPS. I was playing top geared Strafezon on D2R 2.3 and her clear speed was barely enough for players 1.

ASSASSIN:
I haven’t tested MA buffs yet but they were needed for sure.

SD tree is just perfect.

Fire traps changes look decent and Blade skills buffs are great. I’d say Bladesin build needs just a bit more love to be really good. The main problem is lack of AR bonuses on these skills (it should be similar to kick skills bonuses). You can check my post regarding blade skills here - Blade Assa - so near and yet so far - #2 by Majesty-1216

DRUID:
Last changes to fire skills were definitely a step in the right direction, but skill mechanics of Armageddon and Molten Boulder have a big, negative impact on their DPS. These 2 skills simply do not hit often enough and they are very unpredictable. Also Molten Boulder’s burn damage per sec is very low.

I would also say that Armageddon’s small radius makes it unfit for a pure caster build. Another pain is that you need to spend 5 points on skills that you’re not going to use with Armageddon (maybe with exception of Cyclone Armor).

Volcano has much better mechanics than the other two, but its damage is just waaay too low for a skill with 3 synergies and 4 sec casting delay (compare it to Blizzard or anything else really).

Fissure and Firestorm are in a good spot and they always had been.

Arctic Blast should have much larger area of effect to be useful (maybe a cone-shaped area). Also its damage seems to be very low.

Summons with exception of Oak Sage and HoW are still mediocre at best. Creepers work too slow and they very often get too close to monsters and die very fast. Ravens, Wolfs and Grizzly damage is super low even with all synergies maxed out. Wolfs and Grizzly are ok only as meat shields. Spirit Wolfs now provide a bit of crowd control thanks to cold damage but they’re still mostly a meat shields. Pure Summoner Druid build still do not exist.

PALADIN:
He is THE BEST and the most versatile class by far. The most needed change for Paladin IMO is addition of Magic Immune monsters on Hell difficulty. Hammerdin build has one of the highest DPS in game without any real downsides. There is no other build allowing you to farm all the content super-efficiently using only one type of damage.

SORCERESS:
In general they are in a very good spot right now. Maybe a nice thing would be addition of second main skill for Cold and Lightning trees, but change like this it’s far from being a priority now.

For pure light Sorc there is only Lightning (as main skill) and none of the other skills comes even close. Maybe lower mana cost and one more synergy (from Thunder Storm) for Nova would open a way for a new lightning build with Nova as main skill.

Fire tree IMO is perfect after last changes, with exception of Inferno which should have much larger area of effect to be useful (maybe a cone-shaped area). Also its damage seems to be very low.

As for Cold tree I have some concerns regarding Blizzard + Frozen Orb combo, and FO’s place in general. You can find all my suggestions (also in regard to Shields skills) in my post here - Frozen Orb needs a buff - #24 by Majesty-1216

BARB AND NECRO:
I think they are in a pretty good spot atm with exception of some very niche builds. Maybe just Whirlind should get some love.

MERCENARIES:
In addition to 2.4 changes I would:

Act 1 – Add 3rd Rogue type with Strafe + Guided Arrow (to have an alternative with decent physical damage). Add Blessed Aim and Vigor variants for all three Rogue types.

Act 2 - Remove Blessed Aim, Defiance and Holy Freeze from their auras pool.

Act 3 (their biggest problem is super low damage) - Add Holy Fire Aura and Fire Mastery for Fire Merc, Holy Freeze and Cold Mastery for Cold Merc, Holy Shock and Lightning Mastery for Lightning Merc. Increase chance to cast Static, FA and Enchant.

Act 5 – Remove Stun and Battle Cry (since it messes with curses and some other skills). Make them 3 different types to chose from: with Battle Orders, with Battle Command and with Shout. Add War Cry for all of them.

NEW RUNEWORDS:
In general they are really OK. I would make only a few adjustments:
Plague – add daggers and claws as possible bases (Plague perfectly fits these weapon classes and they also happen to have very small rune words pool).
Unbending Will – reduce number of required runes (with their mods) by 2 so it can be made on Nightmare (I believe that you can find Fal from Act 3 NM on). I would drop Hel and Eld.
Wisdom – swap Pul with Lem
Flickering Flame – Well thought rune word, but for me it seems too cheap for a massive res boost, +3 skills and -15% res. Compare it to Nightwing for example. Cham would be nice here, but that’s probably too expensive.
Obsession – looks realy OK, but I don’t think it can compete with Hoto/Ocu/Eschu/DF + Spirit. Maybe only for HC sorceress if you prefer max vita over block. I feel it need just a bit more to be perfect, but I can’t figure out what exactly. We have to remember that it can have impressive +skills if you find a good base. My biggest regret is that it’s not the same for Druid, cause such staff would be a perfect fit for Elemental Druid fantasy. So maybe this small addition should be something like +3 to a random Elemental Skill (Druid only)?

Suggestions for next seasons:
The most important things in my opinion are meta changes/improvements for each new season/ladder (same approach as you took for season 1) to encourage people to try new builds/items. I would definitely buff some super rare Unique items (like Tyrael’s Might) because there are not so many uniques that can compete with Runewords in end-game builds (especially for body armor slot). New runewords are nice, but new uniques/sets would be nicer :slight_smile:

Also some new event/story content would be perfect. I don’t even mean something big like a whole new act, but new events/mechanics like Diablo Clone and Uber Trist. Maybe we could start with Diablo Clone rework :slight_smile:

There are also some meta problems which could be addressed like Sorc being the first ladder char for 90+% of players (mostly due to access to Teleport). Also if there are no plans to nerf any builds (I still think that Hammerdin should not be jack of all trades as you could read in Pala section above) - some classes definitely should get more love than others. Take a look at Maxroll Tier lists for example – it’s hard to disagree with how they placed most builds and you can clearly see that some classes are far superior.

agree 100% …Plz consider pvp balance

I hope blizzard should watch this post!!!

65 % run/walk is to op. Nerf down to 35-40 % run/walk.
Remove cold absorb from this item. Maybe add 5-10 cold resist instead.
Change Poison resist from 0.75 to 0.25 per lvl

I couldn’t agree with you more.

good lord… look at all of these fake bot replys in broken english… looks like an amazon review page for some cheap china crap.

1 Like