1: Superior Weapons
First of all, can we have the Attack Rating on Superior Weapons actually be useful? Right now it varies from +1 to +3.
That has to have been a mistake or typo when implemented. That change in AR does nothing.
Make it vary from +100 AR to +300 AR, that way the plus to attack rating on a superior weapon is actually slightly useful. Honestly, +300 AR is still worse than the equivalent of +15% ED in terms of how marginal it is.
2: Two Handed Weapons
Two handed weapons could use a damage boost. Currently +1 Strength adds +1% ED to melee weapons, while +1 Dexterity adds +1% ED to missile weapons. Traditionally (in D&D and derivatives) two-handed weapons have benefited 50% more from strength bonuses than one handed weapons. In D2R this would mean two handed melee weapons should get +1.5% ED per a point in Strength. I’d also suggest Bows should be changed to get +1% ED per point in Dexterity and +0.5% ED per a point in Strength, while Crossbows should get +0.5% ED per point in Dexterity and +1% ED per a point in Strength. (Crossbows are historically focused on strength over dexterity).
3: Crossbows
Crossbows are suffering right now, they used to be useful occasionally, but now they are almost never used. One of the historical benefits of Crossbows over Bows was that it was it required less training to make a good crossbowman compared to a bowman. This is sort of represented in the way Necromancers and Sorceresses are in some ways better using a Crossbow instead of a Bow - but only at initial use, as Increased Attack Speed is added Bows surpass Crossbows since Crossbow are capped at 11 frames per attack, while bows are capped at 10 frames for the Necromancer, and 9 for the Sorceress (for comparison bows are capped at 7 frames for the Amazon, and 8 for the Barbarian).
You’d think a Crossbow ought to make sense as a missile weapon for an Enchant Sorceress, but with enough increased attack speed a Bow is actually better. The cap for frames on a Crossbow needs to be lowered to 9. That’s what is needed for the Crossbow to compete with the Bow for an Enchant Sorceress.
The Bow is still going to be indisputably better for the Amazon and Barbarian.
Perhaps when making this change it might be good to give the Paladin and Assassin the same frames with a bow as the Barbarian (as those are all martial classes), so that they also are better off with a Bow than a Crossbow, but still leaving the Crossbow as an alternative for them if they are okay with 9 frames per attack instead of 8.
That’s the most essential change needed for Crossbows, though it’s not enough. Historically the other major benefit of Crossbows over Bows was its penetration power through armor. There are two possible ways to simulate this. One is to give Crossbows + Attack Rating, probably something like +100 AR for Normal Crossbows, +200 AR for Exceptional Crossbows, and +400 AR for Elite Crossbows (and have it so upgrading the base gives you the expected increase in AR). This would help enormously for non-Amazons using missile weapons to actually hit their targets and would also scale with difficulty level because of the difference from Normal to Elites.
This would of course stack with other +AR, so a superior elite crossbow (assuming the first change I proposed is accepted) could have +700 AR.
The second possible method would be something like -5% target defense for Normal Crossbows, -10% target defense for Exceptional, and -20% target defense for Elite. Exact numbers of course would need to be balanced.
4: Staves
Staves are of course targeted primarily at Casters, and suffer from two problems. The first is that a one handed weapon and shield can provide more modifiers than a single two handed weapon. This is particularly important to Casters as the two most important mods for them are +skills and Faster Cast Rate. Rather than changing the base staff for this problem, I’d recommend adding higher level Faster Cast affixes for Rare/Magical Staves.
Currently the Faster Cast Affixes available are:
Of the Apprentice (10% Faster Cast; item level 5)
Of the Magus (20% Faster Cast; item level 29)
Scepters can roll only “Of the Apprentice.” Orbs, Wands, and Staves can all roll either “Of the Apprentice” or “Of the Magus.”
Add at least two additional levels for Staves only:
Of the Wizard (40% Faster Cast, item level 55)
Of the Archmage (60% Faster Cast, item level 76)
There is also the second problem that shields provide block, and two handed weapons do not. This does not simulate well the fact that one of the ways a staff was historically used was to parry attacks.
Essentially, we need a “new” mechanic that allows a staff wielder to negate a melee attack either when attacking, or when standing still. I put new in quotes because in fact this mechanic already exists in Diablo II. It’s called Dodge, a skill on the Amazon.
I propose cloning that code, calling it “Parry” and give a % chance to trigger when being attacked when wielding a weapon with that attribute. For Staves I’d suggest something like 20% to 30% for the Normal Staves, 30% to 35% for the Exceptional Staves, and 35% to 40% on the Elite Staves.
I’d also recommend a new suffix that can spawn on specific types of weapons called “of Parrying” that adds +10% to 20% increased chance of Parrying. (Basically, similar to the “of Deflecting” that can spawn on shields).
Now the question arises as to how to handle an Amazon with Dodge and a weapon with Parrying on it. I suggest the same solution used for Critical Strike and Deadly Strike. They are both checked independently and so are not additive. Assuming an Amazon has 60% Dodge (achieved at Lvl 29) and 60% Parry (using a Staff with 40% parry and the "of Parrying suffix) that only gives an 84% chance of negating the melee attack. I don’t think Staffzons are going to become meta. The build most likely to benefit from this change is actually probably the Charge Paladin.
5: Swords
Swords are doing pretty well. They have some of the best runewords, and are nicely situated for most melee builds. One handed swords that is. Using Two handed swords as a two handed sword is rather rare. Barbs use two handed swords, but usually as one handers.
Two handed swords suffer from a similar problem of no blocking from a shield, and historically have also been used to parry (though not as effectively as staves). So I would suggest giving two handed swords a parry chance similar to Staves. Let’s say 10% to 20% on the Normal two handed swords, 20% to 25% on the Exceptional, and 25% to 30% on the Elite. But only on two handed swords being used as two handed swords, sorry barbs but two handed swords used as one handers don’t get the parry bonus.
Also, swords of all types can spawn with the “of Parrying” suffix. So you can’t have a 20% parrying sword as a base for a runeword, but a nice rare one handed sword can have it.
Additionally, swords were also used to penetrate armor, so let’s give all (both one and two handed) swords a + to Attack Rating. Let’s say +50 on Normal swords, +100 on Exceptional Swords, and +200 on Elite Swords.
6: Spears
Spears, suffer from the same issue of being a two handed weapon. They were also historically use to parry (though not as effectively as swords) and used to penetrate armor.
So let’s give two handed Spears (ie not Javelins) something like 0% to 10% chance to parry on Normal spears, 10% to 15% on Exceptional Spears, and 15% to 20% on Elite Spears. And a Spear can spawn with “of Parrying” suffix. So you could get a Rare Elite Spear with 40% parrying for your Spearazon, but that means forgoing a Runeword like Infinity.
Let’s also give +75 to Attack Rating on Normal Spears, +150 AR on Exceptional Spears, and +300 to AR on Elite Spears. The + to AR goes on Javelins as well as two handed spears.
7: Polearms
Polearms were historically used to deal with heavily armored opponents. Let’s give Polearms plus Attack Rating, and minus Monster Defense per Hit (already exists in game, see Malice runeword). Essentially the Polearm is damaging the enemy armor as you strike them.
Something like +75 to Attack Rating and -50 to Monster Defense on Hit for Normal Polearms, +150 AR and -100 to Monster Defense on Hit for Exceptional Polearms, and +300 to AR and -200 to Monster Defense on Hit for Elite Polearms.
As for parrying instead of making it a base attribute of Polearms, let’s just let Magical and Rare Polearm potentially spawn with the “of Parrying” suffix. So it’s not available for bases for rune words, but you can get parrying on a rare Polearm.
This also differentiates between Polearms and Spears for you Act 2 Merc bases. Do you want the greater survivability of a Spear base, or do you want the reduction in enemy defense from a Polearm (which might be important to you being able to hit the enemy more often).
8: Axes
Let’s treat the two handed axes similar to Polearms, so +75 to Attack Rating and -50 to Monster Defense on Hit for Normal Axes, +150 AR and -100 to Monster Defense on Hit for Exceptional Axes, and +300 to AR and -200 to Monster Defense on Hit for Elite Axes.
One Handed Axes only get the + to Attack Rating. Basically they lack the leverage a two handed axe or polearm has.
9: Clubs and Maces
Honestly, I think clubs and maces were more about putting the enemy in hit lock than penetrating armor, but that isn’t a mechanic I think we want to put on base items. So although it’s not historically accurate, I think minus to Monster Defense on Hit is probably the best pick since it does simulate the “having to hit the enemy repeatedly to get through the armor” aspect of maces and clubs.
-50 to Monster Defense on Hit for Normal Clubs and Maces, -100 to Monster Defense on Hit for Exceptional Clubs and Maces, and -200 to Monster Defense on Hit for Elite Clubs and Maces.
10: Hammers
War Hammers were designed to deal with armor. So let’s give +100 AR for Normal Hammers, +200 AR for Exceptional Hammers, and +400 AR for Elite Hammers. Let’s also give the two handed hammers -50 to Monster Defense on Hit for Hammers, -100 to Monster Defense on Hit for Exceptional Hammers, and -200 to Monster Defense on Hit for Hammers.
11: Daggers
Change Daggers to gain Enhanced Damage bonus from dexterity instead of strength.
Daggers didn’t deal with armor by damaging it, or by penetrating it, but mostly targeting gaps to avoid the armor. So let’s do something different for daggers. Let’s give them minus target defense. Say, -5% target defense for Normal Daggers, -10% target defense for Exceptional Daggers, and -20% target defense for Elite Daggers.
Daggers were also sometimes used as parry daggers, so let’s allow rare and magical daggers access to the “of Parrying” suffix.
12: Bows
Bows are doing better than Crossbows, but they do need some AR like all the other weapons, so let’s give them +50 AR for Normal Bows, +100 AR for Exceptional Bows, and +200 AR for Elite Bows. (I suppose it would make more realism sense to put this on the actual arrows, introducing various arrow types, but that’s its own issue. And this is a simpler change more likely to be implemented).
There done.
As people might have noticed, this is primarily focused around giving weapons a better chance to hit. This is one of the major problems facing non caster characters. It’s also a very unfun problem when you can’t hit the enemy. This would be a way to address that problem while also differentiating the different weapon bases more (since they approach the issue in different ways). Different builds will benefit from different approaches.
It also works with the scaling since it gives a further reason beyond just damage to hunt elite bases, and superior bases as you level up. You really don’t struggle with chance to hit in the early game, but end game really needs a more ways to improve your chance to hit.
(Obviously not saying it would live long enough to actually do anything here, just talking purely AR.)