1. Elemental Skills
Firestorm
- Casting Delay will no longer share its cooldown with other skills that have Casting Delays
- Tooltip updated to now display Casting Delay
Molten Boulder
- Missile speed increased by 100%. Missile range decreased by 50% (The overall travel length remains the same)
- Casting Delay reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second
- Casting Delay will no longer share its cooldown with other skills that have Casting Delays
- Tooltip updated to now display Casting Delay
- Volcano synergy increased from 10% to 12%
Fissure
- Casting Delay will no longer share its cooldown with other skills that have Casting Delays
- Tooltip updated to now display Casting Delay
Volcano
- Molten Boulder synergy increased from 12% to 16%
- Tooltip updated to now show Volcano duration
- Casting Delay will no longer share its cooldown with other skills that have Casting Delays
- Tooltip updated to now display Casting Delay
Armageddon
- Casting Delay has been removed for this skill
- Physical Damage significantly increased
- Tooltip updated to now display Physical Damage
- Volcano synergy changed to increase Physical Damage instead of Fire Damage, and increased from 14% to 18%
- Removed the Hurricane skill requirement for Armageddon
- Increased the missile damage radius of Armageddon by 33% (from 3 to 4)
- Increased the missile drop rate of Armageddon by about 30% (from ~3 per second to ~4)
Arctic Blast
- Removed synergy from Hurricane
- Base damage and level scaling increased by ~100% (also to compensate for the incorrect damage calculation in the past)
- Controls are updated so that the skill now casts in free form and no longer locks onto one target at a time
Cyclone Armor
- Can now be cast while in Werewolf or Werebear form
Twister
- Damage scaling increased by 50%
- Arctic Blast synergy added: +20% Stun Duration per level
Hurricane
- Casting Delay removed
- Can now be cast while in Werewolf or Werebear form
Developer Comments: With the Casting Delay changes, Druid Fire skills are generally going to be more widely used. In addition, we are increasing the physical damage scaling for Fire skills to be a reliable alternative damage source. We felt that “Arctic Blast” is generally lacking power, so we are increasing the damage scaling, reducing the synergy requirements to free up skill points, and improving the general player controls to allow for smoother freeform targeting. In addition, we wanted to complement the “Arctic Blast” changes with improvements to “Twister” to add more build possibilities. Lastly, we are allowing Shapeshift forms to cast each of the elemental buff skills to avoid the current hassle of having to change forms to continuously maintain these active buffs.
2. Shape Shifting Skills
General
- The previous logic for shapeshifting attack speed has been restored. The new logic remains in place, and whichever resulting calculation is faster is the one that will be used in an attack.
Developer Comments: It was not our intent to nerf Werebear and Werewolf as a result of our changes to attack speed. Our end goal is to allow the player to fully realize the fantasy of a fast Werewolf or a slower but hard-hitting Werebear. We are evaluating what the best solution for this is, but in the meantime, our hope is by utilizing both systems and always choosing the fastest speed calculation, we get the best of both worlds where it is a buff in some situations and a status-quo in others
Werewolf
- Tooltip updated to now display Casting Delay
- Changed how attack speed is determined while transformed as a Werewolf. Attack speeds while transformed should match attack speeds while untransformed (enhanced by the Werewolf's increased attack speed).
- Werewolf now only uses the new attack speed calculation that was originally introduced in the PTR
- Raised Werewolf attack speed cap from +75% to +150%
Rabies
- Attack Rating bonus increased from +7% to +10% per level
- Poison Creeper synergy increased from 18% to 20%
Fury
- Attack Rating bonus increased from +7% to +10% per level
- Increased speed between attacks by 40%
Werebear
- Tooltip updated to now display Casting Delay
- Changed how attack speed is determined while transformed as a Werebear. Attack speeds while transformed should match attack speeds while untransformed.
- Werebear now only uses the new attack speed calculation that was originally introduced in the PTR
- Raised Werebear attack speed cap from +75% to +150%
- Damage bonus per level increased from 8% to 15%
- Base defense value increased from 25% to 40%
- Defense bonus per level increased from 6% to 10%
- Cannot be interrupted while performing attacks or skills
Maul
- Damage bonus per level increased from 20% to 30%
- Attack Rating bonus increased from +20% to +40% baseline, and +10% to +15% per level
- Tooltip Stun value will now properly cap at 10 seconds, which follows the core game's Stun duration cap
- Now grants +3% attack speed per charge
Shock Wave
- Maul synergy increased from 5% to 10%
Fire Claws
- Damage increased by 75%
- Removed synergy from Fissure
- Removed synergy from Volcano
Developer Comments: Werewolf skills are receiving Attack Rating improvements to help melee gameplay. For “Fire Claws,” we wanted to reduce the heavy skill point synergy costs to open more build possibilities. Werebear skills are receiving damage improvements to make them more viable for higher difficulties.
Cheap Diablo II: Resurrected Items
3. Summoning Skills
- Druids can now have spirit wolves, dire wolves, and bears all summoned at the same time
Developer Comments: The restriction of the Druid being allowed only one type of summonable at a time has restricted the viability of this build and has hampered the fantasy of a Druid Summoner from living up to its full potential. We feel that a druid being able to summon all of his allies at once will make for a more interesting and fun playstyle.
Oak Sage
- Min Life and Max Life values are averaged to always be the same, accurate to the tooltip
- Physical Damage Resist in Normal Difficulty increased from 0% to 25%
- Physical Damage Resist in Nightmare Difficulty reduced from 100% to 25%
- Physical Damage Resist in Hell Difficulty increased from 0% to 25%
Heart of the Wolverine
- Min Life and Max Life values are averaged to always be the same, accurate to the tooltip
- Physical Damage Resist in Normal Difficulty increased from 0% to 25%
- Physical Damage Resist in Nightmare Difficulty reduced from 100% to 25%
- Physical Damage Resist in Hell Difficulty increased from 0% to 25%
Spirit of Barbs
- Min Life and Max Life values are averaged to always be the same, accurate to the tooltip
- Aura no longer returns a percentage of damage when hit. Now the aura will deal a flat amount of damage when the aura-effected targets are attacked.
- Physical Damage Resist in Normal Difficulty increased from 0% to 25%
- Physical Damage Resist in Nightmare Difficulty reduced from 100% to 25%
- Physical Damage Resist in Hell Difficulty increased from 0% to 25%
Raven
- Number of hits per Raven reduced from 12 to 5, and no longer increases per level (*Restored to original value)
- Reduced the damage gain for skill ranges 2-8, 9-16, and 17-22
Developer Comments: We hope that by restoring the original Raven hit functionality and reducing the damage scaling at early levels, we hope to correct any damage reductions caused by our original balance changes while also ensuring that Raven isn't doing too much damage at early levels.
- Attack Rating bonus per level increased from 15% to 30% (now also displays in the tooltip)
- Modified the AI so that the Ravens attack more often
- Damage level scaling significantly increased
- Summon Spirit Wolf synergy added: +12% Damage per level
- Summon Dire Wolf synergy added: +12% Damage per level
- Summon Grizzly synergy added: +12% Damage per level
Summon Spirit Wolf
- Min Life and Max Life values are averaged to always be the same, accurate to the tooltip
- Attacks now deal cold damage and chill for a duration (Provides utility with chilling and acts as an alternative damage type compared to Dire Wolves)
- Damage level scaling increased by 10%
- Base Life increased by about 80%
- Life now increases by 10% per level
- Updated the tooltip to display each synergy bonus value
Summon Dire Wolf
- Min Life and Max Life values are averaged to always be the same, accurate to the tooltip
- Damage level scaling increased by 30%
- Base Life increased by about 90%
- Life synergy reduced from 25% to 15% (This is because the base life was increased, and Spirit Wolf and Grizzly now gain Life per level)
- Updated the tooltip to display each synergy bonus value
Summon Grizzly
- Min Life and Max Life values are averaged to always be the same, accurate to the tooltip
- Base Life increased by ~15%
- Life now increases by 10% per level
- Updated the tooltip to display each synergy bonus value
Poison Creeper
- Min Life and Max Life values are averaged to always be the same, accurate to the tooltip
- Poison damage level scaling significantly increased
- Life scaling increased by 100%
- Rabies synergy added: +10% Poison Damage per level
Carrion Vine
- Min Life and Max Life values are averaged to always be the same, accurate to the tooltip
- Life recovery has been reworked to be +1% Healing per level, instead of using a diminishing calculation ranging from 3%-12%
Solar Creeper
- Min Life and Max Life values are averaged to always be the same, accurate to the tooltip
- Mana recovery has been reworked to be +3% Mana baseline with +1% Mana per level, instead of using a diminishing calculation ranging from 1%-8%
Developer Comments: There are plenty of Druid summons that could be improved to better build around. In general, all summons will no longer have hidden randomized health values so that the tooltip is more accurate and so summons perform more consistently. Ravens are getting significant changes to help them function as a spell-like skill for summoning Druids to use, and this includes damage scaling buffs and new synergies from other summons to fuel their damage. Wolves are getting improvements to give them more of an identity as damage-dealing summons. The spirit summons are receiving a physical damage resist change across each difficulty to make them survive more consistently. ”Spirit of Barbs” is receiving changes to Thorns to make it a more reliable source of damage. Lastly, each of the creeper summons are receiving improvements to give more reason to invest skill points and to have them perform better at higher levels.