Blizzard is set to release Patch 2.4 for Diablo II: Resurrected on the PTR this Tuesday, and it brings major balancing changes to all classes.
There are three common themes here. One is that skills with cast delays will no longer share a cooldown with other similar skills. Second, skills that do damage have been improved - either by increasing their pure damage numbers or by upping their damage percentage calculations.
Lastly, others have their synergies to one skill removed so players are encouraged to invest their points on less popular ones. For instance, Amazon’s Power Strike, Charged Strike, and Lightning Strike all have their synergies removed from Lightning Fury.
Some also have their durations lengthened. The Assassin’s Blade Shield, for example, has its baseline duration increased from 20 seconds to a whopping 120 seconds.
Barbarians have some notable improvements as well.
War Cry has its damage raised by about 30%. In addition, both Leap and Leap Attack have the speed of their leap motion increased by 75%. This is a great change, considering that most people use these skills to move quickly.
Balancing Changes
- Impale
- This skill is now an uninterruptible attack
- Attack Rating modification has been removed. Now this skill will always hit the target
- Plague Javelin
- Poison duration is now fixed at 3 seconds
- Poison Javelin synergy increased from +10% to +14%
- Casting Delay reduced from 4 seconds to 1 second
- Valkyrie
- Casting Delay reduced from 6 seconds to 0.6 seconds
- Casting Delay will no longer share its cooldown with other skills that have Casting Delays
- Dragon Flight
- Now consumes only 1 of each Martial Arts charge when cast
- Now guarantee hits the target only if the Assassin has any Martial Arts charges
- Casting Delay removed
- Damage bonus per level increased from 25% to 35%
- Blade Shield
- Weapon Damage increased from 25% to 75%
- Blade Sentinel synergy added: +10% Damage per level
- Blade Fury synergy added: +10% Damage per level
- 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
- Volcano synergy increased from 10% to 12%
- Armageddon
- Casting Delay has been removed for this skill
- Physical Damage significantly increased
- Summon Spirit Wolf
- 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%
- Blood Golem
- Now gains Max Life per level
- Damage scaling per level has been increased
You can read the full list of changes coming to Patch 2.4 on the game’s official website.
So, what can you say about the massive changes coming to Diablo II: Resurrected?
