Hi! As a way for making some discussion, I’d like to share my thoughts on the upcoming patch, the new runewords and some general changes I’d like to see:
MOSAIC
Mosaic’s new modifier is fine, but it should not be restricted to a single runeword, and I think a nice way of integrating it is through the Skill Tree. Some people propose it for claw mastery which is fine, but I think finisher moves could also be a good option, and an incentive for maxing them out, for example (and it’s just an example, I haven’t run calculations on the subject):
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Dragon Talon - +1.5% chance to not consume charges per level
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Dragon Claw - +2% chance to not consume charges per level
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Dragon Tail - 4% chance to not consume charges per level
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Dragon Flight - 5% chance to not consume charges per level
That way, you can actually have fun with the build while you play the game (I’m a solo self found player mostly, so I think about my playstyle), and Mosaic can be the “cherry on top” that gets you 100% chance to not consume charges and “finishes” the build, in similar fashion as Razortail and Wisdom work for reaching 100% pierce on an Bowazon or a Double Throw Barbarian.
I also think the runeword is way underpowered, and it should have one or more of these changes:
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It’s rune cost lowered (from GUL to IST, at least)
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Include the “Indestructible” (or self-repair) mod, to provide a boost in damage and save repair costs
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Increase chance to not consume charges from 25% to 40% at least.
These changes would let you have a 100% chance to not consume charges while also leaving a claw slot free for using something else (like Natalya’s set, for example). It will still be weaker than a trapsin in most cases, but it will also be a viable and fun build to use.
HUSTLE (ARMOR)
I think that the armor sits in a weird place, because when playing Solo Self Found or trading, by the time you get a “KO” rune for making this armor, it will be near the time you can put together a “Lionheart” or “Treachery”, which are in general way better options for melee or ranged physical (bowazon, throw barb) characters, and I’m not even considering the fact that Barbarians and Amazons have access to their class specific +2 skills armors way earlier (“Myth” and “Peace”).
I think that at least for armors, Hustle should have it’s “KO” rune cost lowered. It being replaced with a TIR rune could make it a VERY useful armor for physical damage dealers in general through nightmare (and the +2 mana per kill could help a lot when using skills like multishot, zeal, double throw and many others). Even if you don’t agree with a TIR rune, I still argue that the “KO” rune cost (and level requirement attached to it) should me lowered to a rune that you could get and use by farming nightmare countess, for it to actually be useful through the game section it’s supposed to be helping with (mid game).
THE NEW ELEMENTAL HELMETS
(Bulwark / Cure / Ground / Hearth / Temper)
I think they’re great in general, and being made with runes farmable from Nightmare Countess makes them a great choice for Solo Self Found and early ladder in general. I still think that two of those should have some changes to make them more attractive for everyday use:
HEARTH
As cold damage is not a huge deal in general on D2R (aside from Mephisto or Uber Izual), a nice addition could be to add “cannot be frozen”, as it would help physical damage dealers a lot during early to mid game. If that’s overpowered, at least halving freeze duration would be nice to have.
CURE
Reducing poison length by 75% is a nice bonus, but I think it could be replaced by a level 1 Cleansing aura when equipped. That way, you get a more versatile helmet that could be used on mercenaries (I’m with youtuber “Macrobioboi” on this one).
OTHER CHANGES THAT I’D LIKE TO SEE
Besides the usual QOL things most people want (Currency Tab and/or stackable currency, item filter, more character slots, etc.) I would like to see these changes:
SKILS
Assassin
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Blade Shield - Change it to not consume the weapon’s durability, so we can finally play a BladeSin with Ethereal Weapons (Blade Sentinel and Blade Fury don’t consume durability already)
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Psychic Hammer/Cloak of Shadows/Mind Blast - Make these skills have sinergies between them, so we can have an alternative “ShadowSin” build, that relies on Psychic Hammer for picking individual targets, while controlling crowds with Cloak of Shadows, Mind Blast, also being able to telestomp strong enemies with their Shadow Warrior/Master and Mercenary. It could make for a viable mid tier build that only requires 60 skill points, leaving a lot of room for hybridizing (like what happened with the BladeSin in patch 2.4,) being able to spend the extra points in skills like Shadow Warrior/Master, Death Sentry or Dragon Talon.
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Dragon Talon/Claw/Tail/Flight - As I said above, give all finisher skills a +% chance to not consume charges based on their level, so as to incentivize maxing the one you’re going to use, as well as giving players a fun playthrough until they can make a “Mosaic” runeword to reach 100% chance if they like.
Druid
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Werewolf/Werebear - Allow players to use teleport while being shifted into wolf or bear form. Not being able to do this results in a very clunky gameplay for Summoner Druids (feeling forced to play in human form if they want to telestomp effectively). A mid game Summoner Druid wolf helping their army with Fury, and using a Steelspell for dealing damage, telestomping and using decrepify on large monsters could be a fun playstyle if teleporting while shifted was possible.
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Summon Spirit Wolf - Calculate their damage in the same way Berserk converts physical damage into magic, so that the wolves cold damage is boosted by auras like might, concentrate and Fanaticism, and THEN converted into cold damage.
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Oak Sage/Heart of the Wolverine/Spirit of Barbs - Boost their health and/or resistances so they can actually survive in Hell.
Barbarian
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War Cry - Reduce it’s casting cost scaling #LetBarbsSing
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Weapon Masteries - Put a bonus effect on each weapon for flavor (+0.5%/+1% Open Wounds chance per Blade Mastery level, +0.5% Crushing Blow chance per Mace Mastery Level, and so on). That way, people won’t just look at the highest numbers on a weapon to put on their barbarian, as their weapon type will actually matter.
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Concentrate - Use Shout instead of Bash as a synergy, as it makes more sense with the defensive nature of the skill. Also, in combination with Iron Skin and the defense changes I propose, it could make way for a Concentrator Barbarian build, as a more defensive alternative to the Berserker.
Necromancer
- Poison Dagger - Give it a chance for Open Wounds and/or Increased Attack Speed, so it becomes a useful skill for helping to kill bosses with a Poison Necro (paired with a Fleshripper, for example).
Sorceress
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Meteor - Give it a % of physical damage so it becomes a nice alternative to hydra (which outclassed it since patch 2.4)
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Frost Nova - Replace it’s sinergies with one or more of the “armor” spells (Frozen, Shiver and Chilling armor), so it becomes a lower damage (but safer) build alternative to a Nova Sorceress.
Amazon
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Fire Arrow/Exploding Arrow/Immolation Arrow - Make both Fire Arrow and Explosion Arrow give more damage to Immolation Arrow’s both explosion as well as the fire damage per second, so the skill gets more damage and becomes an actual alternative to cold damage arrows in mid-late game (which do more damage and freeze monsters as well).Also, it makes Hybrid elemental Bowazons decide between using their skill points for more fire damage, or more crowd control (by putting more points into Ice Arrow for more freezing duration)
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Lightning Bolt - Make it always pierce, so it becomes a situational skill (until you get enough pierce % through skills and/or items) in tight corridors
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Inner Sight - Change the -defense effect into a percentage instead of a flat number, so the skill scales better into higher difficulties
MECHANICS
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Defense - Don’t reduce defense to 0 while you move. I understand the reasoning behind the penalization, but it’s way too harsh and doesn’t incentivize a defensive playstyle. I think a nice approach would be to reduce the penalization to 25% when walking and 50% when running. That way, there would be an actual incentive to putting points into armor skills (Iron Skin, Shout, Concentrate, and the Sorceress cold armor spells)
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Armor - Related to the defense change, I think you could incentivize the use of heavy armor by making it give a +% of physical damage reduction equal to the -% Run/Walk speed penalization they have. In the current game, heavy armor makes you slow, requires heavy investment in strength points but the defense bonus isn’t worth it by it being nullified for simply moving while being attacked. Please give me a reason to use a sacred armor instead of a Dusk Shroud or a Mage/Archon Plate for my runewords
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Fire and Poison Throwable Potions - Up their quantity (from 25 to 35) and make their damage scale on every difficulty. That way, you could have crowd control support for melee classes, and fallback for a Double Throw Barbarian encountering Physical Inmunes.
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Bring “autosort” support for Keyboard and Mouse - This.
MERCENARIES
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Act 3 Mercenary (Iron Wolves) - Give them 1 point into their respective elemental mastery at level 40 or 50. That would make their damage scale pretty well, and make them useful mid to late game. Also, if you made the Cold Mercenary (the less used one) use Cold Mastery and actually reduce the enemy’s cold resistance, that would make them very desirable for Tornado Druids or Ice Maiden Bowazons (at least until you get Infinity on your Act 2 mercenary). Also, give them access to daggers (doesn’t require new graphics or animations) so we can give them a Gull Dagger (for MF) or a Wizardspike (for faster casting and resistances)
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Act 1 Mercenary (Rogue) - You could introduce a physical variant with multishot, so we can have a low damage crowd control alternative with skills such as Slow Missiles, and being able to take advantage of item modifiers like knockback, “Freeze Target” and/or enemies fleeing on hit. Also, please fix the “Fires Exploding Arrow” modifier on unique bows not working on mercenaries, despite the game showing an explosion on hit.
RUNEWORDS
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“Wisdom” - Lower the rune cost from “PUL” to a “KO” or a rune of similar value, so it becomes an actually usable mid game helmet for Bowazons and Throw Barbarians.
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“Crescent Moon” - Make it available on Spears (so there’s an incentive on being a Lightning Spearzon in mid game instead of just using Titan’s Revenge like everyone else) and claws (so you can dual wield in a “Claws of Thunder” Martial Arts Assassin, as an alternative to the Holy Shock Paladin)
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"Splendor" - Make it usable on orbs and wands, so we can actually use those items (for example, you could make a “+4 Nova orb” but without the bonuses of items like a “Spirit” sword, having to exchange mana, bonuses to other skill trees and FCR for more damage) And also, having an alternative to “White” on wands in the case that some summoning skills or curses become viable to invest points eventually (Patch 2.7, maybe?)
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"Nadir" - Add “+100 attack rating” so it becomes an actually useful helmet while leveling up with physical damage dealers, instead of just being used for it’s Cloak of Shadows charges.
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Radiance - Add “+10 Faster Cast Rate” and +45 to mana (instead of 33) so it becomes an alternative for casters that would like more speed and mana (Nova/Frost Nova Sorceress, WarCry barbarian, or any build that lacks FCR for reaching a breakpoint), instead of the +1 to all skills and lightning resistances that “Lore” provides.
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“Insight” - Make it available on Spears (so there’s an incentive on being a Lightning Spearzon in early-mid game instead of just using Titan’s Revenge like everyone else does)
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"Enlightenment" - Give it “+10 Faster Cast Rate” so it becomes a competitive choice for a sorceress in comparison to Skin of the Vipermagi (“Do I want more damage with my skills, or faster casting and resistances?”)
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"Venom" - Give it +30 IAS and -35/-40% Enemy Poison Resistance, so it makes sense to use it in mid game for a Poison Necromancer or Rabies Druid.
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"Rain" - Reduce the rune cost of “MAL” to “PUL” or a rune of similar value.
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"Bramble" - Change the range of bonus poison skill damage, from “25-50%” to “40-50%”. The runeword costs two high runes, so the idea of “rerolling for a better result” is not very viable.
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"Wind" - Nobody used it before, and now “Hustle” is going to completely outclass it for a fraction of its cost. Please make it worth of the SUR rune that requires (by maybe making it available on helmets and/or shields)
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"Wrath" - As any Missile Weapon runeword, it needs at least +30% IAS to be usable. Also, give it a fixed +375% damage to undead, the same way as it does for demons.
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"Brand" - As any Missile Weapon runeword, it needs at least +30% IAS to be usable.
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"Obsession" - In its current state, it’s usability is very low, apart from a Nova Sorceress player that’s min-maxing. Please, at least bump the plus to all skills to 5.
If you read this whole text, thanks a lot and sorry for my poor english. Please, I’d like to read your thoughts as well.