Solid Class Changes for Patch 2.5

PTR Feedback
12

Make sorc frost nova works by synergy with forzen/shiver/chilling amor instead of bilz and forzen orb.

2 Likes
13

The Cold Armor Skills need an overhaul…

  • Frozen Armor, Shiver Armor, Chilling Armor - should not have synergies with each other. No one is going to invest 20 points for all 3 armors. They should have synergies with other skills…
    • Chilling Armor - synergy w/ Ice Bolt
    • Frozen Armor - synergy w/ Frozen Orb
    • Shiver Armor - synergy w/ Enchant
14

I’m a somewhat casual player trying out a Hydra/Frozen orb hybrid that I’ve gotten up to level 88 this ladder. I agree that Hydra can use a bit more love. I have +9 to sorc skills from gear. Between max Hydra (29), FM (29), and 20 hard points between FBall,and Fbolt, my Hydras do around 1400 damage. My Frozen Orb (29) is doing around 400 damage.

The only Frozen Orb Synergy is Ice Bolt at 2%. I’d like to see that synergy bumped to 4%. It’s a real pita when you hit fire immunes and need to break out the frozen orb pea shooter. I think this along with removing the Fball Synergy from Hydra and bumping the Fbolt Synergy to 6% would help this hybrid build.

2 Likes
15

I agree they should have synergies with other skills. But the synergies I’d recommend are the following:

Frozen Armor: Ice Blast, Glacial Spike

This makes sense because the synergies of Frozen Armor increase the freeze length, and these are the other skills that freeze things.

Shiver Armor: Frost Nova

This makes sense because Shiver Armor is about defending up close and apply damage. Frost Nova requires you to get into close range to cast Frost Nova and damage the enemy. If you also change the Frost Nova synergies to Shiver Armor you then have a viable Frost Nova build that while lower damage than Nova, is also safer what with the slow effect and the armor buff from 20 points in Shiver Armor.

Chilling Armor: Ice Bolt, Frozen Orb

This makes sense because Chilling Armor is about countering ranged attackers with Ice Bolts and Ice Bolt and Frozen Orb are the two spells that that do that damage. It’s also make sense if Frozen Orb got an additional synergy from Chilling Armor that increased damage there by +2% (just like Ice Bolt does). That would be a slight buff to Frozen Orb that wouldn’t shoot it past Blizzard either.

2 Likes
16

These are solid suggestions. I was hoping they’d buff damage or reduce cooldown of Frozen Orb. Having Frozen Orb get an additional synergy from Chilling Armor that increased damage by +2% is a solid change.

17

Been thinking a bit more about the Hydra/Fire Bolt/Meteor changes, and I think following would be the more complete changes that are desirable:

Hydra: Change Damage Synergy to Hydra of Fire Bolt to 6%, remove the synergy from Fire Ball. (Damage stays the same, but only takes 60 points for build, allowing for greater build flexibility).

Fire Bolt: Add Knockback effect to Fire Bolt. Change +16% Fire Damage synergy from Meteor to +16% Damage Synergy from Hydra. Add new +20 Physical Damage synergy from Meteor (not a percentage, flat damage, so maxing out at 400 physical damage on a Fire Bolt with 20 points in Meteor).

Meteor: Cut the time to impact in half. Convert 50% of Fire Damage to Physical Damage.

With those changes, against Monsters vulnerable to Fire you’d cast Meteor, and then spam Fire Ball while waiting for the casting delay to run out (or for trash mobs just cast Fire Ball without bothering with Meteor, it’s that good), but for Physical Immunes you’d cast Meteor and then spam Fire Bolt while waiting for the casting delay to run out.

Meanwhile, for a Hydra build instead of casting Fire Ball after deploying all your Hydras, you’d cast Fire Bolt, which while doing less damage than Fire Ball has the effect of Knockback which actually works quite well with the Hydra playstyle. It would also work well with Thunder Storm, making that a viable hybrid with Hydra in addition to the more typical Frozen Orb.

You could also do a 100 point build with 20 Fire Bolt, 20 Fire Ball, 20 Meteor, 20 Hydra, and 20 Fire Mastery for the highest fire damage possible with Physical Damage on the Meteor/Fire Bolt as your back up for Fire Immunes.

18

Fast hit recovery and fast block frames rollback to version 2.3

PvP character balance that hasn’t been patched since the last Legacy Diablo 2.

I’m making some corrections now, but it feels like things are getting worse and worse.

assassin
nerfed speed
nerfed trap installation speed
Nerf finish move hit judgment

A nerfed W-w (chaos rune word)
Nerfed FHR & FB (mind blast and traps combo)

barbarian
Nerfed wwAttack Speed, AR

19

ok but merge golem mastery with skeletal mastery and summon resist for the new “summon mastery”
we only spend pts in SM anyway

change fire golem to putrid/poison golem and give him an aura with poison DoT

YES

additively

  • reduce summons collision by half
  • get rid of Pexplosion, no need for another skill that works like CE
  • change CE fire element to poison, necs have nothing to do with fire
  • add “poison pit” in the place of Pexplosion, “summon putrid remains from the depths to damage enemies over time”, more skill more AoE and more DoT
  • rename PnB to “Poison, Bone and Blood Spells”
    • add d3 blood rush to it, more lvls less hp consumed by use
  • revives:
    • reduce the number of revives
    • make revives last forever just like skellys
    • increase revives dmg
    • increase revives move speed
  • make, not only IG, but all our summons carry over games

YES

YES

1 Like
20

I’m not a fan of Revives carrying over from game to game, much less lasting forever once summoned. There are some pretty darn powerful enemies in this game(Frenzytaurs, Urdars with Smite…) so you should have to reacquire them and they don’t need a buff either given they get their stats boosted by Skeleton Mastery quite a bit. Skeletons though I can see since starting a Nightmare or Hell game in Act 1 without Nilathak portal to grab fresh corpses kind of sucks. Why should the Druid be able to have an army upon leaving town but the Necromancer can not?

1 Like
21

youre right and not only

  1. Urdars
  2. Moon lords
  3. Megademons
  4. Gloams
  5. Council members

tomb vipers used to be part of this list

but in a game where runs dont even last 5 min…
why would anyone go off their farm route to revive any of those?
sure you can be lucky and find urdars on your way to farm CS or moonlords on your way to farm baal…if they spawn…then what?

urdars are used for ubers

why would i use my nec for ubers instead of my cheapass pally which needs no preparation and is much more reliable?

you can revive monsters on wherever area youre farming

but why would i revive anything to stay in the way of my merc? the only thing that has enough dmg to produce corpses at a viable rate? i dont even rise all my skellys right now for the same reason

thats why i suggested:

right now i get 1 extra revive by skpt, easily 40 if i invest 20 skpts into it, and i still not use any of them… give me 10 (20[40]) that carry over games and last forever untill killed

22

Agreed. It always seemed wierd that CE has fire element and not poison elememt as you mentioned. Would fit necro theme better.

1 Like
23

Some more Paladin ideas I have floating around in my head…

Vengeance: Remove Resist Fire/Cold/Lightning synergy, buff Salvation synergy to 15%

Vengeance is a combat skill that presently requires a massive 100 point skill investment just to gain a 240% boost to Elemental Damage. By removing the Resist Auras from the equation, Vengeance Paladins suddenly have massive skill flexibility since it now only requires 40 skill points and with a 25% boost in overall Elemental Damage(240% → 300%).

Prayer: Life Healed per 2 seconds changed to Replenish Life and stacks with Replenish Life on gear. Mana cost removed.

The passive healing on Prayer occurs every two seconds yet Replenish Life occurs every single tick of a frame. Meaning the act of Prayer is effectively 50 Frames of healing all at once as opposed to being spread out over the course of 25 frames/second. That delay in healing can be the difference in life or death so speeding up the process would have an immeasurable impact on passive healing. To put it in perspective, 25 Life every 2 Seconds(granted by level 20 Prayer) would equate to 12.5 Life/second(0.5 Life per frame/tick). That in Replenish Life terms is exactly 128.

As for removing the Mana cost, it encourages Paladins to utilize the aura early on in Ladder. I am well aware of the PvP consequences on LLD but then Paladins have always avoided Prayer’s mana cost via Cleansing/Meditation and if its level 9 dueling, the aura can always be banned like Psychic Hammer usually is.

Resist Fire/Cold/Lightning: Now grants 1% Elemental Absorption per level while active.

The Paladin’s Resist auras are quite strong as they are right now but a little extra incentive to utilize them actively would bolster their usefulness. Especially if Resist Cold/Lightning got runeword additions like Resist Fire did with Flickering Flame.

Vigor: Reduces Slow Effects by 2% per level.

It’s no secret that Slow effects from being Chilled, Holy Freeze or Decrepify majorly affect non-casters. As such I find that Vigor needs to offer more than just FRW so having it reduce Slow Effects would be greatly beneficial and add great value to the aura and Harmony runeword. Would also benefit Act 2 Mercenary if it were to be bestowed upon it as a base aura. Oh and Harmony would look good in a Sword to be blunt.

Redemption: Grants the holder increased Life/Mana Leech

Redemption aura’s current use is to clear the battlefield of corpses and converting it to Life/Mana(de facto free Rejuvenation Potion). Yet when there are no enemies to “redeem”, the aura is effectively worthless to leave up and since Phoenix grants it outright, it ought to provide something worthwhile to the aura holder when not converting corpses into Soylent Green Life/Mana. As such I find it should increase Life/Mana Leech by 0.5% per level, hence at level 20, you gain 10% Life/Mana Leech while the aura is active.

Sanctuary: Drain Effectiveness set to 100 on affected enemies.

Leeching Undead can be a real pain given that many Undead have 0 Drain Effectiveness. Even though the skill permits leeching on Physical Immune Monsters, the Monster’s Drain Effectiveness still applies and therefore Life/Mana Leech is mostly worthless on those enemies. It’s not a major change but one that fits the aura’s theme.

Salvation: Now boosts Defense. Softcaps at level 31 with 95% boost to Defense. Synergy with Defiance aura added(+10% Defense per point).

Salvation aura has always been considered the Yin to Conviction aura’s Yang. In other words, Salvation is the direct counter to Conviction but presently this only applies in the Resistance category. It does nothing to offset Conviction’s reduction in %Defense so to encourage more utilization of the aura, I find boosting Defense would be a welcomed addition to this level 30 aura. The Defense boost can be further increased by spending points into Defiance.

Conversion: Enemies killed with Conversion are reanimated to fight for you. Duration and power determined by skill level.

Conversion presently converts monsters to fight for you. That is indeed great but what if you are able to 1-hit KO? Well Conversion should then reanimate them to fight for you. This would work really well with the Paladin’s Thorns aura and any other auras that would bolster their power while simultaneously turning the Paladin into a mini-summoner.

Sacrifice: Now grants increased chance of Open Wounds.

Sacrifice needs something to give it use beyond a synergy so I find that it granting increased chance of Open Wounds would certainly make it worthwhile to use on Bosses high HP targets.

edit Fixed typo

2 Likes
24

theamazonbasin com/wiki/index php/Thunder_Storm)

Thunderstorm proc intervals
lvl 1…4.4 sec
lvl 2…3.92 sec
lvl 3…3.56 sec
lvl 4…3.24 sec
lvl 5…3 sec
lvl 6…2.8
lvl 7…2.64
lvl 8…2.52
lvl 9…2.36
lvl 10…2.28
lvl 11…2.16
lvl 12…2.08
lvl 13…2
lvl 14…1.92
lvl 15…1.88
lvl 16…1.8
lvl 17…1.76
lvl 18…1.72
lvl 19…1.68
lvl 20…1.64
lvl 21…1.6
lvl 22…1.56
lvl 23…1.52
lvl 24…1.48
lvl 25…1.48
lvl 26…1.44
lvl 27&28…1.4
lvl 29&30…1.36
lvl 31&32…1.32
lvl 33,34&35…1.28
lvl 36&37…1.24
lvl 38 to 41…1.2
lvl 42 to 44…1.16
lvl 45 to 48…1.12
lvl 49 to 53…1.08
lvl 54 to 59…1.04
lvl 60…1

EDIT: behold ! the ultimate lvl 30 Nova sorc :smiley: d2planner/7l0106hg
maxroll codes :3…wanted to put it somewhere after going trough the trouble of making it XD

25

Those are some really good thoughts on the underused skills of the Paladin.

26

That’s a plausible change to make a Vengeance hybrid more viable.

I would like it if Vengeance was allowed to work with ranged weapons. Even at 1/2 effectiveness, as it would allow nice for the Paladin to have a range build.

1 Like
27

So base Vengeance off like Enchant which cuts the Fire Damage in half when using a Ranged attack? Hmm could include that with Holy Fire/Freeze/Shock too if you think about it.

1 Like
28

On another note, what about Concentrate? First, the word itself seems like this skill should always hit. On the surface, this change seems relatively balanced as other classes have access to always hit skills:

  • Paladin = Smite
  • Amazon = Impale
  • Assassin = Dragon Talon/Claw, etc.

Would be nice to add to the mix…

  • Barbarian = Concentrate

Overall, I think Concentrate could use a little love from the developers, especially adding always hit… just fits fantasy of this character nicely. Still single target, great for boss killing, and poor for map clearing.

A less controversial change to Concentrate is to change Bash synergy to Shout, which complements this uniquely defensive build.

29

Concentrate is a possibility but what about Berserk? It’s a pure Magic Damage attack and drops your Defense to 0. Having it always hit would be a pretty nifty trade-off. Whirlwind was also another skill I’d contemplate removing the hit-check on(spinning wheel of death… lol).

1 Like
30

Good point. You changed my mind. Berserk needs to always hit. This skill should not rely on attack rating, considering it’s magic damage. Thinking about it, is there another magic damage skill that doesn’t always hit? I think Berserk is the only one.

Updated OP with the following…

  • Berserk - need to always hit. Skill should not rely on attack rating (magic damage)
31

Some more Paladin ideas…

Holy Bolt: Now receives synergy from Sanctuary aura(20% per point)

This would effectively yield 1400% synergy bonus to to Holy Bolt compared to the 1000% bonus it enjoys now. To put it in perspective, a level 41 Holy Bolt deals 578 to 657 or 6358 to 7227 when fully synergized. The new synergy brings it to 8670 to 9855 or roughly ~33% increase in damage.

It’s also another semi-bone to Hammerdins where with Sanctuary aura buffing their Hammers, it’d also buff their Holy Bolt damage that they lost when Blessed Hammer was removed. That gives them the option to use Holy Bolts or a melee attack against Undead targets. If there are MI Demons, then FoH/Holy Bolt is their only recourse outside of an Elemental/Physical attack.

Haven’t decided if I’ll do FoH or not.

1 Like