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Proposed Class Balance Changes in patch 2.4 summarised and discussed

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Description

In case you missed it, the upcoming 2.4 patch will be introducing a number of balance changes to classes and gameplay.

This is a departure from Blizzard's original position at Blizzcon which was that balance changes would not occur:
Blizzard wrote:
At it's core we want this to still be the same. So right away things the balance, the monsters you see, spawn rates, item drops and things like that are the same.
Andre Abrahamian - Lead Designer 16:56 19th Feb 2021
I guess things have changed a lot since then (this was pre-launch times after all). After all, the game did go through several healthy balance changes in legacy, so it's only natural that that continues for the fun of the game and making things interesting where they had already been 'figured out'. It's debatable whether or not this is a remaster or a remake at this point, but casting all semantics and language aside I'm personally really hyped to see this new direction from the devs, and most importantly, that they've listened to fans on this issue and tried. Not everyone will be happy of course! Nerfs as well as buffs here.

Anyway, here are the current proposals from the announcement of 2.4 for each class. We can talk about the implications of this on character builds, market trends etc. in this topic. The descriptions provided are rather vague but I'm sure that you guys can figure out what will be done with the numbers or take educated guesses.

Lastly, remember this is all subject to change.

Image Amazon balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
The Amazon's agility and versatility are profound. Generally, we like the current state of the Amazon class and believe her to be quite balanced. Nonetheless, we see an opportunity to improve the Amazon's melee skills. We want to buff the strengths of certain underused melee skills such as
Impale
and
Fend
to give more reasons to use them. We are also looking into freeing up synergy requirements for melee skills to give more skill point freedom for other possibilities.

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

Image Assassin balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
The Assassin vanquishes evil from the darkness with great ease. However, for this class, we see an opportunity for the Martial Arts builds to shine brighter. Martial Arts skills can become increasingly challenging to perform in higher difficulties, so we are re-evaluating how to improve generating and spending Combo Points.

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

Image Barbarian balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
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.

Image Druid balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
The bestial ferocity of the Druid makes all tremble. With that said, we see exciting opportunities to level up certain aspects of this class. From our perspective, Druid Fire skills are underperforming. We're re-evaluating Casting Delays for Fire skills, exploring improvements to some of their Physical Damage components, and improving synergies. We’re also looking at potential tweaks affecting other Elemental skills that are underused. We want to improve the controls for
Arctic Blast
too, such as allowing more free form while channeling and no longer locking your targeting onto one enemy at a time.

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.

Image Necromancer balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
The commander of Death sends his foes to an early grave. Like the Amazon, we like the current state of the Necromancer class. Nonetheless, we see an opportunity to improve specific Summons we believe are underused. We're balancing elemental damages of Skeletal Mages and making lesser used Golems more effective.
Additionally, we see opportunities for Bone skill improvements in high difficulty. We’re tweaking synergies on this front.

Image Paladin balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
The Wrath of the holy zealot is glorious. Despite this, we believe certain Combat skills are underused. We’re exploring ways to make lesser-used skills (I.e.,
Fist of the Heavens
) more utilized, so players have more reasons to spend skill points to unlock these skills.

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.

Image Sorceress balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
There is no greater master of elemental magic than these mages. We're very satisfied with the Sorceress’s current state, but we see a few of opportunities for improvements.

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.
In light of the proposals above which class has come out on top as the winner, and do you guys have any potential ideas for future builds based around new advantages? It's clear that a lot of new areas for theorycrafting will emerge in this pre-ladder season information rush so I'm interested on your take on it guys.
Description by BillyMaysed
5

Can be used to make Runewords:

7
User avatar

Teebling 6846Admin

Europe PC
In case you missed it, the upcoming 2.4 patch will be introducing a number of balance changes to classes and gameplay.

This is a departure from Blizzard's original position at Blizzcon which was that balance changes would not occur:
Blizzard wrote:
At it's core we want this to still be the same. So right away things the balance, the monsters you see, spawn rates, item drops and things like that are the same.
Andre Abrahamian - Lead Designer 16:56 19th Feb 2021
I guess things have changed a lot since then (this was pre-launch times after all). After all, the game did go through several healthy balance changes in legacy, so it's only natural that that continues for the fun of the game and making things interesting where they had already been 'figured out'. It's debatable whether or not this is a remaster or a remake at this point, but casting all semantics and language aside I'm personally really hyped to see this new direction from the devs, and most importantly, that they've listened to fans on this issue and tried. Not everyone will be happy of course! Nerfs as well as buffs here.

Anyway, here are the current proposals from the announcement of 2.4 for each class. We can talk about the implications of this on character builds, market trends etc. in this topic. The descriptions provided are rather vague but I'm sure that you guys can figure out what will be done with the numbers or take educated guesses.

Lastly, remember this is all subject to change.

Image Amazon balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
The Amazon's agility and versatility are profound. Generally, we like the current state of the Amazon class and believe her to be quite balanced. Nonetheless, we see an opportunity to improve the Amazon's melee skills. We want to buff the strengths of certain underused melee skills such as
Impale
and
Fend
to give more reasons to use them. We are also looking into freeing up synergy requirements for melee skills to give more skill point freedom for other possibilities.

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

Image Assassin balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
The Assassin vanquishes evil from the darkness with great ease. However, for this class, we see an opportunity for the Martial Arts builds to shine brighter. Martial Arts skills can become increasingly challenging to perform in higher difficulties, so we are re-evaluating how to improve generating and spending Combo Points.

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

Image Barbarian balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
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.

Image Druid balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
The bestial ferocity of the Druid makes all tremble. With that said, we see exciting opportunities to level up certain aspects of this class. From our perspective, Druid Fire skills are underperforming. We're re-evaluating Casting Delays for Fire skills, exploring improvements to some of their Physical Damage components, and improving synergies. We’re also looking at potential tweaks affecting other Elemental skills that are underused. We want to improve the controls for
Arctic Blast
too, such as allowing more free form while channeling and no longer locking your targeting onto one enemy at a time.

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.

Image Necromancer balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
The commander of Death sends his foes to an early grave. Like the Amazon, we like the current state of the Necromancer class. Nonetheless, we see an opportunity to improve specific Summons we believe are underused. We're balancing elemental damages of Skeletal Mages and making lesser used Golems more effective.
Additionally, we see opportunities for Bone skill improvements in high difficulty. We’re tweaking synergies on this front.

Image Paladin balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
The Wrath of the holy zealot is glorious. Despite this, we believe certain Combat skills are underused. We’re exploring ways to make lesser-used skills (I.e.,
Fist of the Heavens
) more utilized, so players have more reasons to spend skill points to unlock these skills.

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.

Image Sorceress balance changes

Blizzard wrote:
There is no greater master of elemental magic than these mages. We're very satisfied with the Sorceress’s current state, but we see a few of opportunities for improvements.

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.
In light of the proposals above which class has come out on top as the winner, and do you guys have any potential ideas for future builds based around new advantages? It's clear that a lot of new areas for theorycrafting will emerge in this pre-ladder season information rush so I'm interested on your take on it guys.

7
Power creep train is coming!
7
I predict Bowazons or Fire Sorceress will come out on top. Just a hunch, I don’t have anything to back that up…
7
User avatar

BillyMaysed 2258Moderator

Sorceress Americas PC
Teebling wrote: 2 years ago
buff the strengths of certain underused melee skills such as
Impale
and
Fend
Teebling wrote: 2 years ago
enhancing the
Double Throw
and
Throwing Mastery
skills.
Teebling wrote: 2 years ago
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.
Teebling wrote: 2 years ago
Bone skill improvements in high difficulty
Teebling wrote: 2 years ago
We’re exploring ways to make lesser-used skills (I.e.,
Fist of the Heavens
) more utilized
Teebling wrote: 2 years ago
revisiting Fire skills, to improve underused ones, like
Hydra
Its like they got my wish list and granted pretty much all of them... :O
Trang Oul wrote: 2 years ago
Power creep train is coming!
Dont ruin my high from this update!!

7
Okay but when are they going to nerf
Poison Dagger
already???
/s

Add BigSmelly#11936 on Bnet for fastest response

See my listings here and feel free to make an offer -- I will usually consider Perfect Gems and I am ALWAYS looking for Magic Vampirebone GIoves
7
User avatar

BillyMaysed 2258Moderator

Sorceress Americas PC
BigSmelly wrote: 2 years ago
Okay but when are they going to nerf
Poison Dagger
already??? /s
Lol ya i hope they actually buff the poison skills along with bone.

7
Finally I get to build a worthwhile
Hydra
sorc hopefully

Renton212#2452
7
User avatar

BillyMaysed 2258Moderator

Sorceress Americas PC
Renton212 wrote: 2 years ago
Finally I get to build a worthwhile
Hydra
sorc hopefully
I've always hoped they'd turn all the fire bolts into fire balls with Aoe dmg :D

7
Excited about Druid fire spells being tweaked; they have always seemed tragically weak compared to how cool they are!

Changing the casting delays would be a pretty massive change -- I'm not sure how that really feeds into the Fire Druid fire & forget style...
Molten Boulder
spam could be silly fun though!

Would it be ridiculous to suggest that they can be cast from were-form?
7
Renton212 wrote: 2 years ago
Finally I get to build a worthwhile
Hydra
sorc hopefully
Always thought
Hydra
(or guardian when I first experienced it in D1) was one of the coolest skills in the game, super happy they are looking into making it more viable!

lf godly plate of the whale
7
User avatar

Asha 396

Sorceress Europe PC
The only thing devs ACTUALLY need to fix for the druid - is to remove that damn prerequisite arrow from
Hurricane
to
Armageddon
. Otherwise armag-using dru remains humiliated by 5 hard skill pts forever.
7
Too little too late they got their full price for graphics mod games dead as ... on psn
7
OMG OMG OMG
I had a flashback when patch 1.10 was released.

I remember blizzard d2's website saying "HELL HAS FINALLY FROZEN OVER"
7
lllDaedaluslll wrote: 2 years ago
Too little too late they got their full price for graphics mod games dead as ... on psn
Too little too late? relax it's been 3 months of a RErelease game 20 years ago. I bet even blizzard didn't think there were going to be so many players
7
BillyMaysed wrote: 2 years ago

I've always hoped they'd turn all the fire bolts into fire balls with Aoe dmg :D
My thought exactly. :) But wouldn't that make the ordinary
Fireball
obsolete? Maybe make each head cast different fire skill (
Inferno
,
Fireball
,
Firestorm
...).
Blizzard wrote:
We're balancing elemental damages of Skeletal Mages
What do you think about giving them multishot? Some year ago I played with modding D2 and it was fun to see such a massive barrage of elemental missiles.
I also wish mages' spells improved with skill level (possibly with hard points):
Fire Bolt
->
Fireball
,
Ice Bolt
->
Ice Blast
and so on.
Blizzard wrote:
Furthermore, various Trap skills are not often used. So, we’re re-evaluating synergy requirements to promote more trap builds and damage scaling buffs.
Another wish: remove Lightning from
Death Sentry
(so it casts only CE), and make it require both lightning and fire traps, as the pinnacle of trap skill tree.
Blizzard wrote:
Additionally, we think Throwing Barbarians can be more viable, so we are looking into enhancing the
Double Throw
and
Throwing Mastery
skills.
AoE, please.
Another idea: throwing weapons are actually combo weapons - they can be used both in mêlée and thrown. Depending on how they are used, appropriate passive Mastery skill is applied (spear/throwing for javelins, axe/throwing for throwing axes, and only throwing for throwing knives - no knife mastery). Make both Masteries apply to such weapons, regardless of how are they used. An unintended effect may be that Barbarians use throwing weapons in mêlée (such as
Lacerator
with
Amplify Damage
proc), so both Masteries are applied. And possibly make Sword Mastery work with knives (daggers).
Blizzard wrote:
We’re exploring ways to make lesser-used skills (I.e.,
Fist of the Heavens
) more utilized, so players have more reasons to spend skill points to unlock these skills.
No/less cooldown?
Blizzard wrote:
This includes making improvements to AoE Damage auras to make them more effective at closer range.
Only AoE, not attack damage, right? Dual Dream builds are already OP.
Blizzard wrote:
We also want to improve
Thorns
so that it can scale better and deal more reliable damage at higher levels.
If they improve
Thorns
, they should do the same with
Iron Maiden
and
Spirit of Barbs
.
Blizzard wrote:
We are also looking into freeing up synergy requirements for melee skills to give more skill point freedom for other possibilities.
I wonder if it is meant to be a nerf (just less synergies), or less synergies, but compensated by enhancing the other synergies or the skills themselves. I'm afraid the latter...
7
Ugh, they can’t just go muck up diablo 4? D2R is going to be D3 all over again… sigh.
7
User avatar

Beardozer 460Moderator

Sorceress Americas PC
PD2 gave sorceresses a Cold
Enchant
to go along with
Enchant
, so melee builds could get fire and cold damage. They also added splash damage to all melee weapons. This made
Zeal
builds extremely fun on the sorc.

Give me my full melee sorc meme build. I want dual
Enchant
and splash damage!

diablo2.io janitor | Odunga Brotherhood
7
they have to bring back v1.09
7
for throw barb They could add
Pierce
to
Throwing Mastery
or to
Double Throw
. Like 2% per lvl so they can have decent
Pierce
with raortail.

For Martial arts I wanna
Phoenix Strike
to be viable for my kicksin
7
Al the changes they described sounds good (no Nerfs, only Buffs to underused skills) so technically it sounds great for build diversity!

But somehow i just can't seem to trust Activision Blizzard on that one. I just hope VV can do what they think is best for the game without some Act Blizz staff forcing them or something.
9

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