Upcoming balance changes for Druid - give Werewolf skill FRW

General Discussion
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I am a long time Fury and Fury/Rabies player since early days of D2 LoD, in PvP Fury has never really been that great at least not while dueling non-melee classes, however in D2 LoD it had two significant differences, .08 highlords that granted 30% faster run and walk and 5% faster run and walk small charms. Currently of course neither of these items exist in D2R, which is fine, I don’t expect these items to be back, however this has caused a significant drop in faster run and walk for Werewolfs, which was already a problem before.

Werewolfs are the only class in the game that cannot teleport, interestingly enough they do not have access to any Skill that grants faster run/walk, for those that don’t know skill FRW is far superior to item FRW, because it does not suffer from diminishing returns, that means you can have 250% FRW in your Werewolf, and a Paladin with vigor and 100% FRW will run faster than you.

Some of the patch changes talk about being able to cast some of the fire skills in Werewolf form which might or might not be good for PvP, most likely not though, there is no mention of teleport, which to be honest wouldn’t be a bad idea, either way what Werewolfs really need is a FRW skill. In this case the ideal candidate is already there: Werewolf/Werebear skills, currently Werewolf gives completely useless IAS (more on that later), if it instead gave Faster run/walk, not only would it make a lot of sense for the only class in the game that cannot Teleport, but it would help significantly in both PvP and PvE, while at the same time not make Elemental druids run faster which might or might not be a problem.

Therefore the proposal is to make Werewolf and Werebear Skills grant Faster run and walk instead of the useless IAS Werewolf grants, before the latest patch for the first time in Diablo 2 Werewolf IAS made a difference due to the IAS “bug”, but now it is back to being the only skill that grants something in this case IAS but doesn’t really have any effect at all, with the exception of ultra low weapons that you would not use anyway.

Please upvote this post if you would like to see this change implemented in either the next patch or a future patch

TLDR; Make Werewolf skill grant Faster run and walk instead of IAS which has no benefit.

8 Likes
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game is being ruined by patch anyway so I’m supporting any and all changes to make the game more rediculous. Werewolf skill should not only have frw, but it should give teleport too.

1 Like
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This change makes so much sense that not implementing it makes absolutely no sense.

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How is the game being ruined by the upcoming patch? Either way this change in particular is small and much needed.

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Awesome post! I definitely think it’s an excellent idea. +1 from me sir.

And no, the game isn’t being ruined by the patch. They’re potentially fixing the massive imbalances caused by 1.10, although I’d rather see the game reverted back to 1.09 then fixed from there. Still, it could end up being amazing.

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Thank you!, I have a lot of hope for 2.4 balance changes, because Druids have been underpowered for so long, there are very few Druid players, this is a problem when making changes to improve the class since nobody cares…

In contrast everyone is either a Paladin or a Sorc, the Paladin in particular is probably the most OP character in any ARPG I have ever seen or heard about, literally every single one of their skills is OP, even Zeal which for some reason is uninterruptible, as opposed to Fury that restarts the frames when it gets interrupted….

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You spelled Furry wrong.

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Yeah, it’s crazy how popular sorcs are. Seems like the beginning of D2R’s preseason was 99.9% sorc, then people slowly started switching to pally once they had the funds. Hence S and P torches being the only ones that have any value at all.

Sorcs are the class where anyone can just roll their face across the keyboard and do well at the game, in any scenario. And the pally just has insanely powerful variants for melee or caster.

Truthfully though, I think the druid would be far more popular if he didn’t look like an old bum who finally crawled out of his cardboard box and decided to reintroduce himself to humanity after 10 years under an overpass.

I also think the assassin’s aesthetic has a ton to do with how unpopular she is.

Although no one will ever be as popular as the easiest class in the game, the sorc.

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This is how it always is? Most players start with a sorc because you get teleport skill and can make a cheap farming character and then build whatever they actually want to play when they get currency.

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It was especially pronounced for D2R though.

Back during D2 LoD’s ladders, it seemed insanely mixed. I would see all kinds of classes. During PD2 or PoD’s seasons, I’ve noticed more sorcs than any other class, but it’s probably only 33% sorc, and the rest is perfectly mixed.

I think D2R’s crowd is just looking for the easiest route, since they probably hadn’t played D2 for a really long time, and remembered how easy the sorc was.

I honestly don’t think the sorc is the best mf character, but she’s definitely the easiest, and you can farm the popular areas with her.

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I joined D2R about a month late so I didn’t see the early mix, but I can tell you that my ladder experience from LoD has always been 70-80% start with sorcs with the remaining 20-30% mostly pally and barb… and the occasional other character from people who didn’t want to compete and just wanted to have fun playing through from nothing.

1 Like