Seasonal Items Changes

Diablo II: Resurrected General Discussion
1

As far as I remember, there was a couple of questions about seasonal items changes at the end of the survey we received after the Technical Alpha.

So, even if items stats will probably remain exactly the same in the first ladder, we can imagine that Blizzard will test some changes in the later ladders, since it can be a way to introduce renewal and balancing without “breaking” the game brutally.

I like the game as it is and I consider it’s normal, in a way, if we can’t find usefulness or efficiency on every single item. However, many items have some “contradictions” in their stats, which don’t bring several ways to use them but just make them unplayable in any character build, even exotic. This items could become interesting with a few changes.

For example, I would enjoy to play a sorceress with a staff rather than a flail and a monarch :wink:
In fact, I already can do it, and I do it from time to time, but it’s much more harder to make it viable :confused:

I don’t know how Blizzard would implement this temporary changes, but we can imagine that the items would keep their stats once in NL, making them much more rare (and expensive) through time.

Would you like to see seasonal / temporary items changes ?

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3

Maybe, but only to items that wouldn’t normally be used in end-game setups, and ONLY if those temporary changes expired at the end of a ladder.

A good example of what I mean is say a Peasant Crown. Let’s boost it so it grants 10% FCR and something weird but not too over-powered, like say +3 to Fireball, Glacial Spike, and Lightning. Now it may be fun that season, and give a lot of incentive, to play through with some new & fun meme builds that are designed around that Peasant Crown boost. But remember, these absurd boosts would expire at the end of season and it would become a normal Peasant Crown.

What we wouldn’t want to see are boosts to things that are already powerful end-game gear setups. A good example would be taking Shako and boosting it to +4 skills and 20% FCR. This change here isn’t providing any new dynamic to toy around with. People use Shako anyway, and all this is doing is making Shako a lot stronger, and power creeping the hell out of the game.

We would want middle tier to low tier items boosted, for the sake of providing some interesting builds that are DIFFERENT for us to have a play through experience with. Another good example would be taking that unique Blackbog’s Sharp, which was designed for Poison Dagger Necro. The problem here is that Poison Dagger Necro is just pretty bad ^^ so if we were to jack up Blackbog’s attributes, Poison Dagger Necro might be a fun play through that season.

But again, the temporary boost should never be given to already over-powered gear, and they should never surpass gear that has already set the standard for the power creep of the game.

Now IF they did smaller seasonal boosts, like let’s say that Peasant Crown idea, but this time it only grants 10% FCR, maaaaybe those seasonal boosts could stick around in NL so long as they weren’t transcending the already set standard for meta end-game setups. But this would be a big debate imo.

Anyway, that’s how I feel about it.

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4

If they changed the break points for Sorceress using 2h staff making it much easier to do from fhr to fcr it would make 2h staff sorceress more viable.
Temp changes would be bad, would also make PvP less fair as it comes down to people having items you will never be able to obtain unless you pay money for them as people probly sell them for real cash like the D2 wizspike gloves.

5

what a hekkin BULLS$%&! IDEA. -.-
instant Refund!
Stop that diablo 3 crap!

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6

Maybe not seasonal item changes, but I’d be in favor of seasonal class skill balancing changes. This would be a way to slowly and carefully balance the underused/underpowered skills to make them more viable, that way we have more build options and play styles open up than the cookie cutter builds we’ve been using for the past 20 years. If the change is found to be OP, immediately roll it back/nerf. If it’s found to be working as intended and does not result in easier play vs other optimal known builds, the CM’s have a reason to communicate with us by raising the question whether or not the community wants keep the changes.

Any class balancing changes must be tempered with wisdom in order to avoid power creep. Don’t need rifts or quadrillions of damage.

Fix the disappearing skeleton/iron golem problem!!11!1 I want a Pride iron golem. :slight_smile:

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7

You people are so negative, I think it’s an amazing idea, you can implement it in such ways that wouldn’t break the balance as well, who said you only need to make yourselves stronger?

Think outside the box, what if for the next ladder all hell monsters are immune to everything, but their immunities break more easily, or if you use more then two attack sources they only get damaged? (fire, cold, phys, magic and etc)

there is plenty to do with this option, I think seasonal themes in general can be cool

8

I’m open to the idea of seasonal changes, be it to items to skills. This is with the provision that the items return to normal after the season is over and off ladder items don’t get some legacy boost. This would also need a good 6 month ladder and no short little ladder where people finally get the items down and understand the new builds and then the ladder ends.

That said…D4. I have the belief that they do not hope to be supporting D2R in this fashion. This is because they are intending to get D4 out and support D4 in this fashion. If D2R is a bigger success than D4 and if all the legacy players want to stay on D2R instead of moving to D4, then D4 has completely failed as a game. Blizz can not afford to let that happen, it would show that they can not make even the current releases of their franchises as good as the old company could make. If they can’t out-do a 20 year old game. Blizz should pack it up and give up…Its not like they have any new franchises they are making happen.

9

Yes. There’s so much demand in the D2 community for changes that large efforts like PD2 are very successful. Below are Nov 2020 PD2 class balance changes for example.

If VV doesn’t do changes in future, then the community will do them if VV’s mod interface is sufficiently powerful. The community isn’t happy to just bang on vanilla bnet ladders forever. Also, streamers really get behind projects like PD2, ex: Llama, DatModz etc. It keeps things fresh and mixes things up, especially when the base ladder or some version of an “unmodified ladder” remains, be it bnet classic/lod etc. You can have both worlds. If VV doesn’t come through with decent mod support it will be a big disappointment. But they’ve gone out of their way to discuss modding support in interviews so people are hopeful. We’ll see.

Druid

Summons

You may only have 1 spirit and 1 vine up at a time, all other summons may be active.

Oak Sage Grants flat life instead of % life as well as providing a life regen aura that scales from points in carrion / solar.
Carrion Grants AOE heal to nearby allies whenever it consumes a corpse.
Solar Grants AOE mana to nearby allies whenever it consumes a corpse.
Raven Now hits 3 times, caps at 12 ravens and at every 10 hard points spent.
~ You may now summon an additional raven per cast (max 3).
~ Ravens now have both wolves and grizzly as synergies and are part of the summon toolkit as well as doing small splash damage and partial cold damage.
Spirit of Barbs Now has a flat reflect damage value that scales instead of % of monsters reflected.
Grizzly Now has a melee splash at 20 hard points, grants a second bear.

Shapeshifting

Rabies Spread tick rate increased and spread radius increased.
Hunger Allows werebear form to consume corpses for a short buff to movement speed, life leech, and critical strike chance.
Werebear Is now a level 1 skill and grants enhanced damage% and enhanced defense% (keep in mind defense works while moving).
~ Werebear now grants a buff to summon grizzly i.e. leader of the pack and a decrease to wolves (Infinite duration “9999 seconds”).
Werewolf Grants enhanced damage %, attack speed % and 1 flat mdr +pdr every 3 levels. Werewolf now grants buff to wolves i.e. leader of the pack and a decrease to grizzly (infinite Duration “9999 seconds”).
Lycanthropy Now grants increased maximum life and attack rating to all shapeshift forms; life percentage significantly reduced.
Fury 3 hit cap instead of 5.
Shockwave Stun is always 0.2 seconds. Damage scales. Increased range and projectile speed. Werebear, Twister, Tornado synergies.

Elemental

Gust Teleport stuns on arrival, soft points spent lower the cooldown (.5 seconds cap) (does not work while shapeshifted).
Artic Blast Now is a level 1 skill, also has bigger hit box and travels faster, and is a part of the wind druid synergy toolkit.
Twister Now grants additional twisters based on soft points (14 max twisters). No ‘shotgun effect’.
Tornado Hit box improved (bigger).
Firestorm Increased AOE based on skill level.
Molten Boulder Increased missile speed based on soft points spent.
Fissure Density increased, cooldown reduced, next hit delay removed.
Volcano Cooldown reduced, next hit delay reduced.
Armageddon AOE decreased, fall rate increased.
Cyclone Armor No longer a wind druid skill synergy. Small CD.

Assassin

Traps

Chain Lightning Sentry Added skill at lvl 30. Chain radius same as sorc. Bounces up to 5 times.
Death Sentry Only explodes corpses. Flat phys/fire damage. 5-10% corpse life. lvl 30.
Fire Blast Extra missile per 4 hard point up to 6.
Shock Web No next hit delay. Larger Ground spread.
Blade Fury Pierces. Attack trigger time affected by attack speed. 100% weapon damage and no longer reduced by 2h weapons
Blade Sentinel Moves Faster. Gets stuck less. No longer counts toward trap count.

Martial Arts

Dragon Talon Kick Capped at 3 attacks
Dragon Flight Cast Delay is 2 seconds
Phoenix Strike Removed Next Hit Delay for 3rd charge (cold attack). Now 2nd charge (lightning attack) no longer prevents 3rd charge from dealing damage when using Dragon Claw as the finisher

Shadow Disciplines

Burst of Speed Attack speed is hard points only. Will work with Whirlwind changes.
Mind Blast Remove stun after lvl 1. Increased AOE with soft points.
Psychic Hammer Huge Damage increase. Synergies added.
Claw/Dagger Mastery Changed from only claw mastery.
Fade Damage reduction reduced
Cloak of Shadows Fixed Duration (Canight doesn’t remember how long.)

Necromancer

Curses

Curse Mastery Improves effect of all curses. Additional curse at 10/20 hardpoints.
~ Curses require hard points to be powerful.
~ Necromancers can use each others curses.
Dark Pact Consumes curses on targets and does damage for each curse.
~ Only consumes 3 curses even with Darkforce.
~ First curse remains after using with Darkforce
Amplify Damage Reduce enemy PDR%
Dim Vision Reduce enemy AR
Terror Reduce enemy MS per point base
Confuse Increase AS of monsters
Attract Reduce enemy defense.
Decrepify No longer reduce’s enemy PDR% or damage.
~ Reduce MS, AS, and cast rate.
Decrep/Terror These work together. Max -85% MS

Summons

Summon Skeleton Splash. Damage increased. Less skeletons able to be summoned. (8 max)|
Summon Mages Pierce.
~ Damage increased.
~ Less skeletons able to be summoned. (8 max)
Golem Mastery Every 5 hard points gives additional golem. up to 5.
Iron Golem Has splash if created with a weapon. Only first iron golem created is perm.
Clay Golem Has splash
Revive Total of 6 revives at 20 hard points.
~ Can get 3 more with eternity RW.
Fire Golem Indirect buff of Aura ticks increased

Bone

Bone Spirit Faster missile speed
Corpse Explosion 5-10% corpse life damage.
~ Flat fire/phys damage.
~ Synergy with Poison explosion, revive.
Bone Spear Additional spear at 15/25 skill.
~ Three spears cannot hit one target.
Blood Warp Teleport.
~ Cooldown reduced with points.
~ 8% max health cost per cast.
Desecrate Cast corpses on ground.
~ Poison explosion on cast.
~ Corpses can be exploded.
~ The corpses you’ve cast are monsters according the area you’re place.
Poison Dagger Now carries poison damage from gear/charms in the poison clouds released on hit (passive -1% enemy poison res. )
~ Only works on the dagger attack and not the cloud.

Paladin

Offensive Auras

Might Damage Bonus Slightly Increased.
~ Radius Slightly Increased
Holy Fire Aura tick rate increased
~ AOE fixed
~ Fire Damage & Fire Damage added to attack increased
~ Bonuses from Resist Fire & Salvation increased
~ Bonus from Blessed Aim added
Blessed Aim Passive 10% increased AR per hard point.
Holy Freeze Aura tick rate increased
~ AOE fixed
~ Slowed By % slightly increased
~ Cold Damage & Cold Damage added to attack increased
~ Bonus from Resist Cold decreased
~ Bonus from Salvation increased
~ Bonus from Blessed Aim added
Sanctuary Aura tick rate increased
~ AOE fixed
~ Applies + magic damage as well as small undead damage bonus
~ Has flat magic damage applied to attacks. Magic damage aura tick.
~ Knockback undead type monster removed
~ Bonus from cleansing removed
~ Bonus from Might added
~ Bonus from Blessed Aim added
~ Bonus from Thorns added
Holy Shock Aura tick rate increased
~ AOE fixed
~ Lightning Damage slightly decreased
~ Lightning Damage added to attack increased
~ Bonus from Resist Lightning decreased
~ Bonus from Salvation increased
~ Bonus from Blessed Aim added
Fanaticism Appears unchanged above level 20. (Tooltip damage bonuses below level 20 are inaccurate; appears to be a slight nerf)
Conviction Got nerfed. (In standard Diablo 2, at 20 level decrease enemies Defense 90% Elemental Resistance 125%)

Defensive Auras

Aura tick rate increased, all reworked to have passives now.

Prayer Health regeneration and life per hit (passive health regeneration per 2 base skills)
Cleansing Reduce length of poison and curses (passive duration of curses and poison per 2 base skills)
Meditation Increase mana recovery (passive mana per kill per 5 base skills )
Redemption Redeems 5 Life per corpse at all levels.
Fire/Cold/Lightning Resist Grants bonus to elemental damage for each respective element.
Salvation Grants a bonus to all elemental damage.
Vigor Passive 1% FRW per hard point

Combat

Sacrifice Damage +% & Attack+% Greatly Increased
~ Damage to self% decreased by skill level
~ Receives bonuses form Redemption & Fanaticism increased
Smite No longer impacted by flat damage increases (e.g. Grief)
~ Receives only 14% of the damage bonus from damage boosting auras (e.g. Fanaticism, Might)
Zeal Number of attacks decreased to 3 from 5 damage has been increased. Avoids animation lock
~ Required level decreased 12 to 6
Conversion Higher chance to convert. 8 second duration at all levels.
~ Required level decreased 24 to 18
Joust Teleport to enemy and impale them. FRW boost when landing. Hard points increase FRW. Small CD. Crit buff.
Holy Bolt Pierces allies and enemies. Heals and damages.
Holy Light Single target heal
Holy Nova Long CD. AOE heal and damage.
Fist of Heaven Removed Auto Target and CD
~ Receive bonus form Holy Shock Removed
~ Receives bonuses form Holy Light & Holy Nova Added
~ Receive bonus form Holy Bolt Changed(Increase Bolt & Lightning Damage)
~ Required Level 30 to 24
~ Required Skill Changed

Barbarian

Combat

Frenzy Is now a level 1 skill
~ Duration increased (8 seconds at level 1 scaling up to 36 seconds at level 28)
~ Movement speed reduced
~ Scaling increased, Gains 2% velocity per level until 16%, 1% per level after that
Bash 25% chance if monster is not put in to faster hit recovery animation
~ If monster is put into FHR animation then no knockback
~ Bash now requires 2 handed weapon,
Concentrate Is now a level 12 skill
~ Convert’s phys damage to magic
~ Magic damage conversion increased 2% per hard point
Berserk * Is now a level 24 skill.
~ Now physical damage.
~ Reduces your physical resistance for .5 seconds after berserking.
~ Scaling physical resistance pierce.
Leap/Leap Attack AOE on landing.
~ Hard point’s increase the speed of the leap (also has a killer sound effect now) can Leech,
~ Gorefoots increase speed.
Whirlwind Increase the movement speed (4% per soft point)
~ Movement speed increase speed of Whirlwind
~ Will not apply splash.
Double Throw Starts at 3, goes up to 5 per weapon. 10 total bounces.
~ Pierce doesn’t effect.

Warcries

Battle Cry Reduce enemy physical resistance.
~ Can break immunities
Grim Ward Grants party members flat attack rating, and damage
Battle Command Gain 1 addition skill point every 10 hard points, and enhanced damage, 2% damage per soft point.
Battle Orders 15 life 7.5 mana per level. Flat increase.
War Cry Now has scaling AOE.
~ Stun removed.
~ Procs FHR

Combat Masteries

Iron Skin Hard points offer PDR%. Soft points defense
Combat Reflexes Formerly increased stamina.
~ Hard points max HP.
~ Soft points FHR.
~ Stamina bonus.
Throwing Mastery Adds pierce.
~ Applies to Bow and Crossbow as well.
Polearm and Spear Mastery Improves Polearms and Spears
General Mastery Improves Swords, axes, maces

Sorceress

Fire

Meteor 25% phys on impact.
~ Missile falls faster.
~ Fire ground shorter but higher damage.
~ Shorter CD.
Inferno Faster Spray speed
Fire Wall Reduced duration.
~ Reduced CD.
Combustion Added for fireball synergy.
~ Long CD.
~ AOE burst fire ball.
Hydra/Lesser Hydra Lesser shoots fire bolt. Greater shoots fire ball.
Fire Mastery Med damage, Med Pierce
Warmth Added flat attack rating bonus

Cold

Frozen Orb Removed cooldown
Blizzard Improved ground density
Ice Bolt Faster missile speed
Ice Blast Pierces. Faster missiles
Ice Barrage AOE impact that chills.
~ Additional missiles as you level (max 5).
~ Shotguns
~ No pierce
Cold Enchant Can use enchant fire and cold together.
Chilling armor Creates single blizzard spike per counter ranged attack.
~ Chills melee on successful strike.
Cold Mastery High pierce
~ low damage

Lightning

Thunder storm Time between attacks goes down with increased skills
~ Cast nova on impact
Static Field Reduces enemy’s life to 50% in normal, 65% in nm, 80% in hell.
~ Additionally gives -1% to enemy lightning resistance per soft point.
~ Breaks immunities
Teleport * 50% spell damage debuff for 1 second on cast.
~ Teleport uses lightning FCR frames.
~ Damage debuff reduced by hard points (+1% damage per point. This means that at lvl 2, you have a 49% damage debuff, and so on, until 30% at lvl 20)
~ Teleport is disabled on Mini Key Boss zones
Lightning Mastery No pierce, high damage
Energy Shield Absorb caps at 80%.
~ Synergy from telekinesis has been nerfed.
Telekinesis Large Damage buff.
~ Synergies added.

Amazon

Bow and Crossbow Skills

Magic Arrow High flat magic damage.
~ 50% weapon damage.
~ Add 1 arrow every 10 soft points
Multi-shot Reduced mana cost
~ Range reduced greatly
Guided Arrow Now pierces.
~ Can pierce same target 3 times.
Strafe No next hit delay.
~ Reduced to 5 attacks from 10.
Fire/Cold Arrow Additional arrow every 4 soft points.
~ Flat damage.
~ Hybrid element/phys damage.
~ Fire increased damage decreased range.
~ Cold is 75% weapon damage.
~ Fire is 100% weapon damage
Exploding Arrow Bigger AOE.
~ AOE triggers on each pierced impact.

Javelin and Spear Skills

Javelin and Spear Mastery Replaces impale. IAS per hard point
Fend 5 attacks instead of 10
Power Strike Lightning Nova on attack.
~ Main target gets primary lightning damage + Nova damage
Poison Javelin Increased damage.
~ Poison done over .5 seconds.
Plague Javelin Poison damage done over 3 seconds. (fixed)
Lightning Fury Damage and bolts released nerfed.
~ Capped at 10 bolts.

Passive and Magic Skills

Inner Sight Reduce enemy attack rating (percentage based) and defense|
Slow Movement Reduce enemy missile speed and movement speed|
Evade Is now a level 6 skill.
~ Scaling FRW added
Dodge Grants bonus FHR per hard point
~ Removed animation
Pierce Is now a level 12 skill.
Valkyrie Additional valkyrie at lvl 20 and 30.
~ Valks use Power strike.
~ Valks move faster.
~ Can inspect
Penetrate passive -5% to enemy defense per hard point

10

As someone who does not agree with ladder only runewords (since it does not allow access to all the items to those who don’t have the time or even enjoy playing ladder), I am fully for seasonal item/skill changes in some way. However, I think they should all reset once ladder is completed. This will give those who enjoy ladder play some incentive to play it still, and at the same time does not hinder those who don’t or can’t play ladder.

I’ve also suggested in another thread to cosmetic incentives in the ladder seasons. For example, since mercs’ appearances don’t change when new equipment is given to them, perhaps there could be new merc cosmetic upgrades you can acquire through ladder seasons. That’s just one example, but I’m sure I could think of others.

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11

OK… So what is stopping you from playing a sorc with a staff instead? Stats? Thats your choice to go with the better/different stats vs a Staff.

This thread and your opinion is what is wrong with these forums, people trying to FORCE their wishes on everyone else, when the choice is already there and free… PLAY THE GAME THE WAY YOU WANT.

D2 is a beautiful unbroken machine that allows for millions of combination choices, and still be effective in a lot of ways.

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12

Please read the entire post and don’t quote a single sentence for the only pleasure of being in contradiction.

Otherwise, it’s easy to change the meaning of what people say :

Or maybe it’s people who think other opinions are what is wrong… :thinking:
I’m gonna help you reading anyway :

As you can see, it’s not something I suggest myself, but something which could happen.

I’m not really in favor of changes, because I have the feeling it would be too risky to change D2 experience wanting to fix its supposed “flaws”.

However, I’m also open-minded to other PoV.

And it wouldn’t be an offence to D2 to imagine some temporary changes on existing items, bringing some renewal btw…

13

Just out of curiosity, what staff is better than the single weapon and shield?

14

In Classic pvp there are some :stuck_out_tongue:

15

No Ladder changes in D2:R, stop ruin the fun!!
This is not Diablo 3…
Stop, just stop spreading horrible Ideas -.-

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16

I do agree that there should be no seasonal buffs. I think ladder only items are enough incentive.

D3 already has this, D4 devs have already been developing a seasonal buff system, so I think it’s perfectly fair to leave d2 mostly as is.

When I want seasonal buffs and tons of new content every 3 months, I can load up d4 and poe2, please don’t paint d2 with that same brush, it will terribly damage the nostalgia.

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17

Better? Hmm… A godly rare socketed with a Facet as an example… But then I never said a staff was better, I only said you have the choice to use one if you like, and you can still do damage, you just cant take as much damage back and will lose some stats in the process.
Mang Songs will replace the 5 skills of an occy/spirit for example, but you lose FCR, Res, and more that you would have to make up elsewhere.
Early in the game, a Fire Sorc will benifit greater from a Leaf vs Orb/Shield, unless you get lucky and find a really nice FCR mana steal +orb and go with Stealth.
All depends on your build and what you want to do.

18

I want to see changes but for the love of god can you please stop saying seasonal. This is D2 not D3. We call them ladders, ladder resets, new ladders etc

19

Tbf…Blizzard has called it “ladder season” since it was implemented, numerous times.

It’s not a big deal, they mean the exact same thing.

20

Are they suggesting seasonal item changes to introduce power creep? No, I don’t want to end up seeing 10 billion damage on characters. Even now after a bunch of patches, you can get up to 50, 000 damage because of power creep.

I think they should nerf everything and bring the numbers back down. At the moment with the latest patch, I really don’t like all the stacking the game already does. I would generally like to see that every unique has an interesting purpose in builds. I would also like to see that upgrading uniques makes more sense too.

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21

Full agree. Seasonal is fine if something simple, like upping base on sets in cube like uniques or just season only that doesn’t go to non ladder. Full game should be played both in and out of ladder. Scale back down and rebalance synergies correct so that weapon dmg builds don’t suck without high end runewords.