Ladder Start Date & 2.4 Patch Notes - Diablo II: Resurrected

Ladder Launch Timing:

We are excited to invite you the Diablo II: Resurrected competitive Ladder system starting on April 28, PT. The Ladder launch represents an optional ranked competitive system of the game through a series of modes available to select from with a fresh Ladder-specific character. Each mode will have their own leaderboard where players compete to strategically gain experience within a limited timeframe while having access to Ladder-specific content. When the Ladder season ends, leaderboard rankings will reset, transitioning characters to non-ladder mode, giving players an opportunity to store their hard-earned treasured loot as a new Ladder season awaits them.

Plague

Sword, Claws, Daggers

Cham + Shael + Um

• 20% Chance to cast level 12 Lower Resist when struck
• 25% Chance to cast level 15 Poison Nova on striking
• Level 13-17 Cleansing Aura When Equipped (varies)
• +1-2 All Skills
• +20% Increased Attack Speed
• +220-320% Enhanced Damage (varies)
• -23% To Enemy Poison Resistance
• 0.3% (0-29.7) Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
• +25% Chance of Open Wounds
• Freezes Target +3

Pattern

Claw

Tal + Ort + Thul

• +30% Faster Block Rate
• +40-80% Enhanced Damage (varies)
• 10% Bonus to Attack Rating
• Adds 17-62 Fire Damage
• Adds 1-50 Lightning Damage
• Adds 3-14 Cold Damage
• +75 Poison Damage Over 5 Seconds
• +6 to Strength
• +6 to Dexterity
• All Resistances +15

Unbending Will

Sword

Fal + Io + Ith + Eld + El + Hel

• 18% Chance to cast Level 18 Taunt on striking
• +3 To Combat Skills (Barbarian Only)
• +20-30% Increased Attack Speed (varies)
• +300-350% Enhanced Damage (varies)
• +9 To Maximum Damage
• +50 To Attack Rating
• +75% Damage to Undead
• +50 Attack Rating Against Undead
• 8-10% Life Stolen Per Hit (varies)
• Prevent Monster Heal
• +10 To Strength
• +10 To Vitality
• Damage Reduced By 8
• +1 Light Radius
• Requirements -20%

Wisdom

Helm

Pul + Ith + Eld

• +33% Piercing Attack
• +15-25% Bonus to Attack Rating (varies)
• 4-8% Mana Stolen Per Hit (varies)
• +30% Enhanced Defense
• +10 Energy
• 15% Slower Stamina Drain
• Cannot Be Frozen
• +5 Mana After Each Kill
• 15% Damage Taken Goes to Mana

Obsession

Staff

Zod + Ist + Lem + Lum + Io + Nef

• Indestructible
• 24% Chance to cast level 10 Weaken when struck
• +4 To All Skills
• +65% Faster Cast Rate
• +60% Faster Hit Recovery
• Knockback
• +10 To Vitality
• +10 To Energy
• Increase Maximum Life 15-25% (varies)
• Regenerate Mana 15-30% (varies)
• All Resistances +60-70 (varies)
• 75% Extra Gold from Monsters
• 30% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Flickering Flame

Helm

Nef + Pul + Vex

• Level 4-8 Resist Fire Aura When Equipped (varies)
• +3 To Fire Skills
• -10-15% to Enemy Fire Resistance (varies)
• +30% Enhanced Defense
• +30 Defense Vs. Missile
• +50-75 To Mana (varies)
• Half Freeze Duration
• +5% To Maximum Fire Resist
• Poison Length Reduced by 50%

Mist

Bow & Crossbow

Cham + Shael + Gul + Thul + Ith

• Level 8-12 Concentration Aura When Equipped (varies)
• +3 To All Skills
• 20% Increased Attack Speed
• +100% Piercing Attack
• +325-375% Enhanced Damage (varies)
• +9 To Maximum Damage
• 20% Bonus to Attack Rating
• Adds 3-14 Cold Damage
• Freeze Target +3
• +24 Vitality
• All Resistances +40

Additionally, we are also considering buffing certain skills in the Bow and Crossbow tree to help improve bow gameplay in higher difficulties.

Developer Comments: 

We wanted to give more advantages for using Amazon melee skills, so we are freeing up skill synergy reliance on “Lightning Fury”, which will make the lightning melee skills a cheaper skill point alternative to build around. Also, we are improving the power of the lesser-used melee skills such as “Impale” and “Fend.” Lastly, “Plague Javelin” has received improvements with Casting Delay, damage synergy, and duration scaling, to further diversify its usage compared to “Poison Javelin.”

We wanted to add some quality-of-life changes to certain Passive and Magic Skills. We improved the radius for “Inner Sight” and “Slow Missiles”, and we gave more reason to invest skill points for “Slow Missiles.” Also, we wanted to alleviate the disadvantage of the animation lockout from using the “Dodge” and “Avoid” skills so that players are more willing to spend points on these skills.

Fire bow skills are receiving damage scaling improvements at higher levels so that they consistently fulfill their fire elemental damage type roles for their level tier. Also, mana costs were reduced for the elemental arrow skills to give them more general usage. “Strafe” will no longer have weapon damage reduction and will also provide Attack Rating so that it can have distinctive advantages over the other physical bow skills.

Furthermore, various Trap skills are not often used. So, we’re re-evaluating synergy requirements to promote more trap builds and damage scaling buffs.

Developer Comments: 

Martial Arts skills are receiving a significant change with having Finishing Moves (including the Attack skill) only consume 1 of each charge at a time instead of all 3 at once. We feel like this will allow Martial Arts to perform smoother during combat by better maintaining current charges instead of having to re-acquire charges too often. In addition to this, we are increasing Attack Rating for Charge-up skills to compliment the smoothness of gaining and spending charges Lastly, we wanted to improve damage payoff for the lesser used Finishing Move skills.

We felt that Shadow Disciplines are generally widely used and effective, but we wanted to add some quality-of-life changes, so we added tooltip clarity, buff duration consistency improvements, and casting delay changes.

With Trap skills, there are multiple underused skills that can be more effective or have improved synergy distribution. For Lightning and Fire Traps, we are freeing up synergy reliance on “Death Sentry” to give more build possibilities elsewhere. Also, Fire traps are receiving damage synergy improvements to make them more effective at higher difficulties. Lastly, the Blade skills are receiving multiple improvements to make them more viable to dedicate builds around these skills.

The brawn of the Barbarian is unmatched. Nonetheless, we see opportunities to add more diversity to Combat skills. We’re looking into adding more possibilities with Combat Skills such as Leap Attack and Grim Ward, while also re-evaluating skill synergy requirements to promote more reasons to spend points on certain Combat Skills.
Additionally, we think Throwing Barbarians can be more viable, so we are looking into enhancing the Double Throw and Throwing Mastery skills.

Developer Comments: 

We are adding more tooltip descriptions to Warcries for clarification on hidden skill mechanics. “Shout” and “Battle Command” durations were updated to be consistent with each other for quality-of-life purposes. For “War Cry,” we want to make it more effective and rewarding to use at higher difficulties. Lastly, with “Grim Ward”, we are adding a new functionality and synergy to give more reason to use the skill, which also gives more reason to spend skill points on “Find Potion.”

We added pierce chance to “Throwing Mastery” so that the Barbarian can better handle groups of enemies with Throwing skills.

We want to make the Leap skills move a lot faster so that they are less awkward to use. “Leap Attack” is receiving better level scaling to make it a more reliable damage skill to build around. For “Berserk”, the existing “Shout” synergy is changing to “Battle Orders,” because the Defense loss from the skill contradicts the usage of “Shout,” and this will better connect with other skill synergy build possibilities. “Double Throw” will now have a baseline damage increase so that it will not purely rely on synergies for damage. Lastly, “Frenzy” is receiving a new synergy from the lesser-used “Increased Stamina” skill to give more reasons to invest skill points there and add new build diversity.

Regarding Summon skills, we believe Summons are weak in high difficulty. On this front, we’re evaluating health gains per level, quality-of-life improvements, damage output, and new synergies for Ravens, Wolves, and Vines.

Lastly, we’re evaluating improvements to the Werebear skills, primarily focused on synergy improvements.

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.

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.

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.

Additionally, we see opportunities for Bone skill improvements in high difficulty. We’re tweaking synergies on this front.

Developer Comments: 

We saw a good opportunity to improve lesser-used summons for the Necromancer. Skeletal Mages have received significant damage scaling improvements so that their elemental damage values are more consistent. This means that Cold damage is more effective but still slightly weaker than Fire damage because of its chill utility, and Poison damage is much more reliable with a fixed duration and better damage scaling. “Blood Golem“ and “Fire Golem” are receiving damage improvements to make them more competitive with the other Golems. For “Iron Golem,” we are changing the “Thorns” aura to deal more reliable damage to improve its source of effectiveness (See Paladin changes below for more details).

Bone skills are generally well performing but we saw an opportunity to improve synergy bonuses to better scale in the late game and to make their heavy skill point investment more valuable. Additionally, “Bone Armor” is receiving better damage absorb scaling to make it more rewarding to spend points on the skill itself instead of relying too heavily on its synergies.

For the “Weaken” skill, we added new damage reduction scaling to give more reason to spend additional points on the skill and to give it a more powerful identity.

We also see an opportunity to scale Offensive Aura skills as well. This includes making improvements to AoE Damage auras to make them more effective at closer range. We also want to improve Thorns so that it can scale better and deal more reliable damage at higher levels.

Developer Comments: 

We added more information to tooltips to describe hidden functionality for certain Defensive Auras.

We wanted to add more potential to the AoE (Area of Effect) Damage auras since they are a capable way for the Paladin to handle groups of monsters. By increasing damage based on distance to the caster, each AoE damage aura will have increased effectiveness while still maintaining the same cadence of visual VFX on the screen. Also, we saw that “Holy Fire” should scale better at higher skill levels to be consistent with general Fire Damage power compared to the other elements. For “Thorns”, we want to improve the gameplay around getting hit to deal damage, so we are making the skill deal flat damage based on attack attempts rather than returning damage after getting hit. This will allow Thorns to have a more consistent combat performance instead of unpredictable and riskier results.

We wanted to improve the lesser-used Combat skills to give more viable build options. “Holy Bolt” will now pierce to increase its combat use cases and will have less skill point synergy investment to open more possibilities to spend skill points elsewhere. “Fist of the Heavens” is also getting the same “Holy Bolt” pierce changes and will now have less Casting Delay and improved controls to help make it a more effective Level 30 skill to use.

Regarding Cold Skills, we believe there can be more diversity with the armor skills (I.e., Frozen Armor, Shiver Armor, and Chilling Armor) for distinctive advantages.

We are also looking into adding more build possibilities around lesser used Lightning skills by exploring more skill synergies.

Lastly, we’re also revisiting Fire skills, to improve underused ones, like Hydra. Similar to Arctic Blast, we’re exploring making player control improvements to the Inferno skill so that it is less clunky to use.

Developer Comments: 

With the cold armor skills, we want to further diversify them by ensuring that each has distinctive advantages. After these changes, “Chilling Armor” will have the greatest Defense bonus and damage potential while still only triggering on ranged attacks. Also, “Frost Nova” is receiving damage scaling improvements to give it more power where it was lacking in the later game.

We saw an opportunity to add new synergies for lesser used Lightning skills to increase their damage potential and create new skill build possibilities.

We wanted to improve the lesser used Fire skills and give more reasons to use them. Inferno is receiving player control improvements with free form casting, like Arctic Blast, and better damage scaling. Blaze is an often-ignored skill so we wanted to free up synergy requirements and provide more utility and power with damage increases and a new Run/Walk Speed buff for extra utility. Lastly, with Hydra, we wanted to improve the gameplay of summoning Hydras to make it easier to use to skill in combat situations. The removal of Casting Delay and the new limitation on max Hydras will match the maximum Hydra count achievable from before the changes, but now players will have a much easier time to summon that amount.

• Now casts Glacial Spike more often
• Glacial Spike level scaling increased
• Frozen Armor level scaling increased

• Removed Inferno
• Added Fire Bolt
• Increased chance of the Iron Wolf casting Fire Ball
• Added Enchant - Now the Iron Wolf will cast Enchant on himself, the player, and nearby allies

• Added Static Field
• Charged Bolt level scaling increased
• Increased chance of the Iron Wolf casting Lightning

• Increased +25 Mana to +50 Mana (2 Items)
• Added Regenerate Mana 12% (3 Items)
• Added +1 to All Skills (Full Set)

• Changed 6-14 Cold Damage to +2-198 to Maximum Cold Damage (+2 Per Character Level) (Full Set)

• Increased +20 Fire Damage to +200 Fire Damage (Full Set)
• Increased +25 Defense to +200 Defense (Full Set)
• Added 10% Life Stolen Per Hit (Full Set)
• Added +20% Deadly Strike (Full Set)

• Added Regenerate Mana 16% (2 Items)

• Increased Fire Resist +15% to Fire Resist +25% (2 Items)
• Added 25% Bonus to Attack Rating (Full Set)
• Added 4-396 Defense (+4 Per Character Level) (Full Set)

• Added 5-495 Defense (+5 Per Character Level) (2 Items)
• Added +100 to Life (Full Set)
• Added +1 To All Skills (Full Set)

• Added Maximum Mana 20% (Full Set)
• Added Cannot Be Frozen (Full Set)

• Added +24% Piercing Attack (3 Items)

• Added Cannot Be Frozen (3 Items)
• Added +2-198 To Lightning Damage (+2 Per Character Level) (2 Items)

• Added 1-148% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (+1.5 Per Character Level) (2 Items)
• Increased Replenish Life +10 to Replenish Life +20 (Full Set)
• Added +2 To Fire Skills (Full Set)
• Added Increased Maximum Life 12% (Full Set)

• Added Poison Length Reduced by 75% (2 Items)
• Added +1 To All Skills (Full Set)
• Added Damage Reduced by 16% (Full Set)

• Added 7% Mana Stolen Per Hit (2 Items)
• Changed Adds 15-20 Cold Damage to +1-148 to Maximum Cold Damage (+1.5 Per Character Level) (Full Set)