Season 5 - Calling for Well Deserved Nerfs

General Discussion
1

For Season 3, progress was made when the developers changed Cold Mastery to now apply 1/5 effectiveness after an immunity is broken for increased consistency. Going forward into Season 5, I urge the developers to continue with more nerfs to move D2R in an exciting new direction, one that fosters player choice and further fuels build diversity.

Blessed Hammers
I urge the developers to remove the effect of Concentration from Blessed Hammers. Nerfed hammers at 5-6K is still one of the best skills in the game and allows you to run different auras- Salvation, Meditation, etc. This opens up build diversity. Community feedback was TZ’s was too easy for Hammerdins. Every other class has to deal with immunities, making various cycles of TZ’s inefficient to farm. Hammerdin, doesn’t have to worry about this. Adding Sundered Charms did not address that problem.

Cold Mastery
Cold Mastery should be affected by 1/5 penalty against Sundered Monsters. That 150-200% pierce would become 30-40% pierce. With this change, it would keep cold resistance of monsters relatively high and would require gear that has -% Enemy Cold Resist on it, such as: Doom, Wizendraw, Voice of Reason, Facets. This change adds value to these items. Cold Mastery gives too much bang for the buck with no additional effort. If Cold Mastery is nerfed to 1/5 penalty, then the developers should consider adding ability to pierce immunities the way Conviction and Lesser Resist does for consistent mechanics.

Lightning Fury
All that is needed to take Lightning Fury down a notch is to reduce the number of bolts so they don’t split recursively to stupid levels. The developers could increase the raw damage of the skill but lower the scaling for the number of bolts by half. This would help with low density maps, and wont break high density ones. I don’t mind if the javazon stays #1 Cow Killer, but her insane cow killing potential at the moment is little silly.

Enigma, Grief, Spirit, Stealth, Mosaic
The justification for these nerfs is these five runewords are generally considered OP by the community and ultimately stifles build diversity. All the godly stats on Enigma makes it too good to pass up. The outrageous amount of Strength is superfluous with little trade off. Grief is simply too powerful with the bonus flat damage that no other weapon comes close, even Breath of the Dying and expense Last Wish. Spirit is arguably the best shield in the game and so cheap. Spirit needs a hefty nerf. Stealth simply invalidates every early armor in the game. Stealth also needs a hefty nerf. And don’t get me started with the screen vomit from Mosaic…

Enigma

Enigma
Jah Ith Ber
Armor
+2 To All Skills
+45% Faster Run/Walk
+1 To Teleport
+750-775 Defense
+0-74 To Strength
Increase Maximum Life 5%
Damage Reduced By 8%
+14 Life After Each Kill
15% Damage Taken Goes To Mana
+1-99% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

  • Proposed Nerfs:
    • Change Strength to +0-24 (0.25 Per Clvl)
Grief

Grief
Eth Tir Lo Mal Ral
Swords, Axes
35% To Cast Level 15 Venom On Striking
+30-40% Increased Attack Speed
Damage +340-400
Ignore Target’s Defense
-25% Target Defense
+1-185% Damage To Demons
Adds 5-30 Fire Damage
-20-25% To Enemy Poison Resist
+20% Deadly Strike
Prevent Monster Heal
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
+10-15 Life After Each Kill

  • Proposed Nerfs:
    • Change Damage to +280-340
Spirit (Shield)

Spirit (Shield)
Tal Thul Ort Amn
Shield
+2 To All Skills
+25-35% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
+250 Defense vs. Missiles
+22 To Vitality
+89-112 To Mana
Cold Resist +35%
Lightning Resist +35%
Poison Resist +35%
+3-8 Magic Absorb
Attacker Takes Damage of 14

  • Proposed Nerfs:
    • Change All Skills to +1
    • Change FHR to +25%
    • Change Mana to +59-82
Spirit (Sword)

Spirit (Sword)
Tal Thul Ort Amn
Sword
+2 To All Skills
+25-35% Faster Cast Rate
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
Adds 1-50 Lightning Damage
Adds 3-14 Cold Damage 3 Second Duration
+75 Poison Damage Over 5 Seconds
7% Life Stolen Per Hit
+250 Defense vs. Missiles
+22 To Vitality
+89-112 To Mana
+3-8 Magic Absorb

  • Proposed Nerfs:
    • Change All Skills to +1
    • Change FHR to +25%
    • Change Mana to +59-82
Stealth

Stealth
Tal Eth
Armor
+25% Faster Run/Walk
+25% Faster Cast Rate
+25% Faster Hit Recovery
+6 To Dexterity
Regenerate Mana 15%
+15 To Maximum Stamina
Poison Resist +30%
Magic Damage Reduced By 3

  • Proposed Nerfs:
    • Change FRW to +15%
    • Change FCR to +15%
    • Change FHR to +15%
Mosaic

Mosaic
Mal Gul Amn
Claws
+50% Chance For Finishing Moves To Not Consume Charges
When a finisher is executed this way, it now refreshes the expiration timer of the stack
+2 To Martial Arts (Assassin only)
+20% Increased Attack Speed
+200-250% Enhanced Damage
+20% Bonus to Attack Rating
7% Life Steal
+8-15% to Cold Skill Damage
+8-15% to Lightning Skill Damage
+8-15% to Fire Skill Damage
Prevent Monster Heal

  • Proposed Nerfs:
    • Remove refreshes expiration timer of the stack
23 Likes
2

all was good except spirit nerf.

It was designed to be a great low level runeword and it is. It came out after many other runewords were already out and helped to fill a need for good low level runewords. there are uniques that can give plus 1 to skills. the runeword’s +2 to skills is one of its main appeals and its ability to be on weapons and shields.

With you on the other nerfs, not spirit.

10 Likes
3

We are just under two weeks into season 2. Might be a tad too early for the season 3 massive wish lists. I mean, how many season 2 massive wish list requests were implemented? Even Seks decided to work on his own mod instead of flooding here after not being happy with the season 2 changes.

4

What about this change to Spirit, it might take a little more effort to get +2 skills…

Spirit

  • Change to +1-2 To All Skills
2 Likes
5

I mean slightly better but again I’d be more ok with something else getting nerfed such as its cast speed or something. the +2 to skills is like the main reason it was even made

2 Likes
6

i aggree. but… do devs care about…?

3 Likes
7

I still have faith in the development team even though Season 2 was pretty lackluster in my opinion. I give credit where credit is due as they did great work on 2.4. I’m trying to share ideas early in the process while there is still plenty of time during the planning phase for Season 3. They have incorporated community feedback, so we can still hope for change.

4 Likes
8

inst concentration that gives hammers penetration?

i agree with the removal of the % dmg bonus

i dont know
java casting frames are too bad
we should improve it before nerfing anything else

or make it require an ist

dont know
i rather see more expensive RW like LW getting +dmg affix

agreed

1 Like
9

Cold mastery nerf is top priority, majority of ladder play sorc and cold mastery + sunder stacking is a mistake.

2 Likes
10

I dont understand why do you want to nerf grief which melee chars need to be even remotely close to casters , while you dont want to nerf most op runeword in game infinity.

Also cold sorc is only really fun to playsorc now because of cold mastery working 100% with sunders.

I cant agree with your suggestions as they are not really fixing anything.

Nerfing spirit why? In weapon its just low budget caster weapon, in shield only pala can benefit it early while high level 4 socket shields require high str requirement.

15 Likes
11

Developers have only nerfed some of the unique items (balrog skin, Aegis shield, Grim Helm, etc.) from 1.08 to 1.09 legacy. Rather than lowering the value of items that have already been announced, Blizzard mainly focused on nerfing the mechanics of interactions between in-game skills and characters during pvp (nerfing to ww IAS, the effect of decreasing FHR), or nerfing skills. . I agree that the items listed above are too over-spec. But so far, they have been using the method to announce stronger items or rune words. This is because it naturally induced a meta change without causing dissatisfaction with the users who already had it.

Developers, past, present and future, seek to receive minimal complaints from their customers. The reason FHR was deleted because it couldn’t be made like the legacy D2 proves that. PVM users are satisfied with the 2.4 patch. Even if you protest from the ptr that pvp users protest and the balance is broken, you can tell just by looking at what you don’t want to see or listen to.

4 Likes
12

Its not mistake, its what is making sorc actualy fun to play without skiping 90% of game. If op think that people will be running with sorc with wizendraw in hands, he is mistaken.

6 Likes
13

How about running with sorc with Mang Song’s Lesson in hands?

All the developers need to do is add CM to the 1/5th penalty when said monster was immue and broken by the charm and they’e good. The developers will eventually come around when they see everyone building cold.

I also believe they missed an opportunity to add value to items that have -% Enemy Cold Resist as shown below:

Doom Runeword

  • -40-60% To Enemy Cold Resist

Wizendraw

  • -20-35% To Enemy Cold Resist

Voice of Reason Runeword

  • -24% To Enemy Cold Resist

Ice Runeword

  • -20% To Enemy Cold Resist

Mang Song’s Lesson

  • -7-15% To Enemy Cold Resist

Rainbow Facet

  • -3-5% To Enemy Cold Resist
1 Like
14

I’ve been playing my Frozen Orb Sorc today. Took her all the way through Nightmare, farmed NM TZs until 75, then went to Hell. She is using 3 piece Tal Set (Wand, Helm, Belt), Spirit Monarch, some rare 30 frw boots with dual resists, and some rare jewelry. With the Sunder Charm, I have run through City of the Damned Waypoint in Hell before I quit for the night.

While it was freakin sweet to step out into the Moor and actually complete the Den of Evil when it was meant to be completed, I’m a bit torn. Cold Mastery with it should follow the same formula as any other skill does that currently adds a penalty vs Sundered. This won’t affect a Blizzard Sorc too much, but it would kill a Frozen Orb Sorc. I’m at a point now with Frozen Orb (level 79 Sorc), where I’m just maxing Shiver Armor, and going to end up dumping the rest of the points into a synergy for it. Frozen Orb really does need another synergy if this mechanic is going to stay.

1 Like
15

No theydont , it would be terrible decision. Frost nova and frozen orb sorc with sunder charms are now probably best balanced builds in game. They just need to lower dmg of blizzard and move to balance other builds classes with ither changes.

Your solution would only harm the cold sorc and make her less fun to play. Because dmg of most of her skills is too weak without lowering res to -100%.

Yeah right, you need ohm Lo cham and its not caster weapon.

Nobody will use this in hands of sorc lol

Its not caster weapon, and even if xou use it, 24% is too weak bonus.

High end hard to find item, you cant use shield and its weak 15%

Basicky only item making sense to use but again too weak effect.

Your suggestions is attemp to nerf blizz build while you harm frost nova and frozen orb build. Its not good solution at all.

6 Likes
16

You sacrifice shield for low 15%,not gonna happen.

17

Tell me charles, what are you trying to fix? If you would actualy play orb or frost nova with sunder charm, you must know its not op. So it must be blizzard as reason for 1/5 right?

So why just not simply nerf dmg of blizzard then as its doing too much dmg? You fix one thing which is broken but not broke other two.

Or like actuaky add - enemy res on sunder charms and nerf effect of cold mastery.

18

That could be easily resolved by buffing Frozen Orb’s Ice bolts to now pierce and increase the Ice Bolt synergy to 3%. I agree that Frozen Orb might need to be buffed with the proposed changes.

Getting back on point, I still think Cold Mastery should follow the same formula as any other skill that adds a penalty vs. Sundered Monsters.

19

Pierce would do nothing.

But why do you want to buff frozen orb dmg? There is no issue with it. Issue is blizzard doing too much, not orb doing low dmg.

Now you will buff orb and cold nova because you want to nerf blizzard? Just nerf blizz instead and its done.

20

Spirit needs a buff, perhaps life regen.

Grief is fine as is, it is a mid tier weapon with mid tier damage. The devs need to rework other items to ensure they arent out matched by grief.

I would trade str/clvl with +4 to all skills on nigma and give Coh that specific mod along with its +20 str.

1 Like