Solid Class Changes for Patch 2.5

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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33

The proper synergy to Concentrate is Taunt. Make sure Taunt can’t be overwritten by Howl/Grim Ward the way Attract can’t be overwritten.

Then you can make the other Monsters flee while you focus on one monster with Taunt and Concentrate. Shout would be an okay second synergy, but I think Iron Skin makes just as much sense as Shout.

Rather than Concentrate have Always Hit they need to replace Stun with something useful. Make that a new skill that always hits.

Holy Fire/Freeze/Shock already work with ranged weapons don’t they? I haven’t actually tried that in D2R but 15 years ago it did.

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34

Holy Fire/Freeze/Shock work at 100% with Ranged attacks last I checked which seems rather odd that an aura works at 100% efficiency but a Sorceress spell does not? Where’s the logic in that one folks? Frankly I think they need to remove that Range nerf but perhaps I’m just an old coot looking to give Bowzons some love with Enchant.

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35

I think Shout is superior to Iron Skin as a synergy for Concentrate, as it is more useful in group play along with Battle Orders.

36

Adding:

Barbarian

  • WarCry: From your other thread - Unblockable

  • Leap Attack: Make WarCry a synergy for Leap Attack adding (whatever value) damage to the area of effect of leap attack. This doesn’t need to be big, just a little “oomph” to make it work.

This feels like it flows :smiley:

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37

It’s actually an inaccuracy with the skill description/tooltip, Enchant is fully effective with ranged weapons (no penalty).

http://theamazonbasin.com/wiki/index.php/Enchant

Despite what the skill tree description says, fire damage added by Enchant is not reduced to 1/3 when applied by a ranged attack.

Having said that, there is some odd behavior with Fire Skill Damage that causes ranged attacks to not have as much damage as melee weapons with Enchant (also applies to Venom). From the same link:

  • +% FSD also applies to melee attacks at time of attack, so it will be applied a second time to melee fire attack damage added by Enchant, Holy Fire and items. Character screen displays +% FSD being applied to ranged fire attack damage as well, but this is not actually the case.

I’ve reported the inaccurate Enchant description/tooltip here, hopefully they fix it:

38

Agreed, those are solid suggestions.

39

Sorceress:

Frozen Armor, Shiver Armor and Chilling Armor can now be cast on Allies

Cold Armors would definitely see more use if they could be cast like Enchant on Allies. Meaning instead of purely being a defensive skill for the Sorceress, she can cast it on her Mercenary and anyone in her party to give them a nice Defensive boost.

Thunderstorm can be cast on Allies

One of the drawbacks of Thunderstorm is that its radius of effect can be quite limited. Yet if you could cast it on not only yourself but allies, can you imagine the power of the spell if you had Lightning coming down from the sky so often that Monsters melt before they reach you?

These suggestions fall in line with an idea I have with Act 3 Iron Wolves. Enchant, Shiver Armor and Thunderstorm would all be “Utility” spells that can be cast on all nearby allies. Their basic attack spell would be Fireball/Ice Blast/Lightning with Hydra/Glacial Spike/Static Field being their secondary attack.

Giving them Conviction aura also would skyrocket their usage rate, especially early ladder.

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40

Excellent idea and updated OP accordingly…

  • Frozen Armor, Shiver Armor, Chilling Armor - can now be cast on allies (similar to Enchant) with intended purpose of adding utility to cold armor spells