EDIT: OP requesting thread lock… this was a bad idea
Rules: read the entire OP before respond you must have detailed specifics
obvoiusly we are all different people. some of us are arguing wether things ARE balance changes or not…
but i think its safe to say that none of us want balance changes outside of QOL and bug fixes on launch
but come season 2 ( or 4 or 5 or whenever u feel it would be a good time for balance changes to be added, if ever) what issues have been annoying you in d2 for 20 years
names a couple skills you might buff, nerf/ rework
some items u might hit with nerfs, or buffs or reworks
and explain why i have already done this on multiple occations but i am curoius as to what other people would do.
BUT im going to make some starting ground-rules. no STUPID ideas…
no touching the teleport on enigma… thats been discussed to death i want to hear original ideas, if u want to discuss the life after kill or the + strength sure… but i dont need to listen to 1.09 people whine about enigma… we’ve been there before…
you MUST including a reasoning behind why you think such a change is warranted, and not becuase " i don’t like it" it has to be a BALANCE reason
for an example: i think holy shield should be nerf on the FBR frame reduction form -3 frames when active to -1 frames when active, smite damage lowered, defense lowered + block rate lowers… aka nerfs acorss the board excluding duration
reasoning. this skill alone gives paladin an absurdly fast 2 frame block something no else can come close to with zero fbr, (and u can hit 1 frame with some FBR as well) it allowed absurdly high block percentages… it allowed less sucking of points into dex… and just increases overall survivability vs physical damage to an absurdly absurd amount, so much so that even in pvp with over 30k AR its damn neart impossible to even land a hit on one, and thats before they bring in exile and consider the defiance buff and ebugging a vortex shield on top of that…
here you are complaining about a unique ability that no other class has access to, the quick block of the paladin via Holy Shield. Like Teleport, BO, auras, Static, etc… these abilities should have never been introduced to other classes. It destroyed game balance.
Before 1.10, each class had its stengths and weaknesses, but after 1.10 everyone had access to key skills such as Battle Orders on swith, Teleport on armor, Conviction or other aura on merc.
But Holy Shield was not picked to be an oSkill. That is exactly why you want it nerfed.
That can of worms that 1.10 opened has clouded judgment.
(if on a separate realm, I think balancing the 1.09 elite uniques to be comparable to runewords and rares would be pretty cool. Bring back %life on shako from 1.08, make arcaine’s valor good again, grandfather, etc.)
Might as well buff some skills at that point, too, making frozen orb a bit more comparable in dmg to blizzard would be alright, orb is underused now.
Maybe make glacial spike a 6pc set as well, that causes meteors of different types to land on enemies when you hit them. That’d be cool.
A charm inventory that limits how many you can have. The skill point stacking has become too abundant and almost seems like a requirement now. Especially, for spellcasters, who don’t have many prefixes to augment spells.
Remove Ice Blast and Chilling Armor and replace them with something else. Give the cold tree more diversity than wasting space with three projectiles and three different armors.
Add different prefixes to unique or runewords. Give them something that augments abilities to make the builds more viable. An example would be prefixes that make Firebolt shoot multiple projectiles, maybe even prefixes that lowers spell cooldowns.
Adding pierce elemental resistance for pure builds would be nice.
Have 1.14 be the baseline, then have the updates optional. That way when people get bored of the original eventually, they do have the option to play something different.
ok so apparently i naively assumed would people would read more of what i wrote than the title…
i said SPECIFIC ITEMS/skills, specific reasoning as to why
and here geezer is here trying to make d3 changes with 6 piece sets for a specific skill.
i want individual specifics and well thought out changes
if u are going to change a skill i want what damage… duration… projectile travel speed, + per skill level.
if its an item… i want individual stats, stat ranges.
and a details explanation as to think why.
you ALL get an F… and geezer and taste get expelled
Some balances could require multiple changes. Like updating weaker abilities, by making prefixes available to augment them, would be different kind of balance altogether. You also never even used the word “specific” in your opening statement.
Within the confines of 1.10+: Small synergy to those skills with none, such as a 2% synergy for Whirlwind, Strafe, Guided Arrow, etc. Perhaps have multi arrow do 1% elemental dmg from elemental skills.
Slight buff to Zeal - Make the first 4 levels of it give the same 6% dmg, 10% AR as the rest of the points. Zeal is a big base for Paladin builds, if the attack rating buff is too much, just stick to the damage.
Slight dmg buff for double swing (Barb). Kind of silly that it only has a synergy to increase damage, rather than the skill itself having such.
Frozen Orb synergy increased to 4% from 2%.
Thunderstorm give synergy, lightning strikes tick with FCR breakpoints if don’t already, strikes additional targets as hard skill points invested (up to like 3-4 nearest targets)
If complete rebalance:
Remove all synergies and rescale them to smaller numbers, with mostly one synergy apiece. Directly buff skills that synergies made viable that were not as viable prior (such as blessed hammer). Skills that have actual set damage numbers have lower synergies, while skills that require weapon damage have higher (IE, Fireball would have a 2% synergy while Zeal would be 4%). Use the 2% synergy on skills for classes that have access to a crit hit skill (zon, barb). Look at 1.09 monster hp compared to 1.10 hps, and scale to to an appropriate amount that would be higher than 1.09s (to account for synergies and new runeword access). Keep 1.10 defense, power, speed, ai. Keep immunities, as no problems there with not having multiple synergies to be competitive in an element, and lower scale hps bring older equipment back in line for viability.
Personally, balancing the entire game would need a solid foundation first. That means every single ability would be needed to be broken down into variables. Then those variables would have to be calculated into min/max level for DPS balance.
Attack Speed
Damage Type
Critical Chance
Status Effect
I would take into account unique aspects of the ability and make a comparison based on both single target and area of effect damage and find a decent middle ground. That way an ability that does single target should kill faster with single targets, but an area of effect should kill faster with mobs. The DPS should be with an acceptable range of time between so many enemies killed, otherwise viability between builds could drop significantly.
I would take out synergies altogether. Then add additional unique prefixes on uniques or runewords that could compliment specific prefixes on skills. Basically using specific key words on information texts that allow specific abilities to receive that bonus. This way I could monitor and balance stacking effects and give diversity to builds.
Add a ground stomp attack that you can use during Whirlwind to bring enemies closer to you, and add extra damage to whirlwind…maybe like a bleed attack that gets applied as you hit them with whirlwind.
Could even create a new set with bonuses that help it out…call it whirlbleed. Totally new idea that will make D2 amazing.
To balance something properly, you look at the foundation first. That could be anything from the basic starting principles of damage with certain elements.
Example :
Lightning > 1- 6 Damage x Skill Level + Bonus Effect
Fire > 2 - 5 Damage x Skill Level + Bonus Effect
Cold > 3 - 4 Damage x Skill Level + Bonus Effect
The average damage would be similar. You would then augment that damage considering the unique aspects of the abilities, because every ability should have some type of quirk. Abilities should be comparable in some degree, otherwise there would be no point to choosing it over another ability.
You make those slight adjustments taking into account percentiles. As percentiles are one of the best ways to maintain the balance within game, when you already have your solid foundation with min/max numbers.
An example could be an ability without a status effect could get an additional 20% damage boost and that could be considered acceptable. Something with melee might have a different bonus to something with range properties. There would me tons of math involved, period.
You don’t put out balance changes without considering the entire foundation.
I think Geezer is just trolling since he is against any balance changes, lol. While I’d love to see a complete rebalance, highly highly doubt it’d happen. All I care for is stuff like I posted, low level stuff to make the divide less between casters/elemental skill users that get great scales to damage with limited equipment and those classes that are highly dependant upon weapon damages so that the weapon damage people can actually have a bit more chance in Hell with Nightmare equipment. I personally don’t like touching a zealer in Hell with anything less than a Lightsaber, which I can’t get until Hell. Used to love running hell with Ginthers and Butchers Pupils and it be challenging, but not tedious.
they literally made direct statements saying they would not only not touch loot tables they would also not be rebalancing any skills. The things they said they are open to are more QoL changes. Nothing major like balancing. I would even be willing to bet everything i have that they never touch skill balancing besides maybe a tiny boost to never-used skills. But even then, probably not. Absolutely no one should get there hopes up for balancing.
I think it is on the table, but not at launch. They’ve mentioned too much about balance changes if players want them, as well as that Korean interview where they said that the meta can diversify a bit if they do balance changes, but they wouldn’t make every skill good.
really? based on which quotes in which interview? Since they said the exact opposite in other interviews, they really should clarify their stance before even starting Beta. They shouldn’t have any conflicting statements, but it appears they do.