heres my opinion on this patch.
General adjustments:
1. Spawn remains the same and is not increased to 4 spawn
good2. Grand Charm skillers are replaced with Soulstone skill charms. the details of which are found here:
http://blue.arimyth.com/charms.html Soulstones are a Carry 1 item and don't drop every time you face a Hell boss.
looks cool but it's kind of pointless also i don't know how people get all these skillers doesn't it take ages to farm them? im lucky to find 1 skiller that im looking for while all the rest are crap ones +1 barb skills etc3. Crushing blow reduced to a 1% chance of occurring on 2h weapons. For a paladin attacking at least at 5 FPA (which is 5 attacks per second), this means they will deliver a crushing blow about once every 20 seconds. For barbs/druids who often attack at 4 FPA (which is 6.25 attacks per second) they will deliver a crushing blow once every 16 seconds.
good crushing blow is rigged. this will make people need high damage to kill a boss now. and this does hurt my low damage,tanking+concivtion aura paladin that uses 1 hand zeal and life steal but im sure he's still useful with out crushing blow.4. Portals now have quest requirements returned to them to reduce rushing
it might back fire people may get left behind and become annoyed5. A character that has completed the Normal (Nightmare as well) Baal quest cannot --JOIN-- a game that has the quest open. These characters can still --CREATE-- Normal (and Nightmare) games though.
so my hell char can no longer help the newbies get into nightmare? do you know how often this happens? this will be a good move against rushing 6. Ability to gain strength from items is greatly diminished. So players can either choose between great end game gear or lots of life.
you know my barb got 300 hard points into str so he can do high damage with IK set. IK set gives good defence and easy to get and i would put 3 soul skulls and 1 uber amathest into the weapon for uber life steal. i also made a super high STR and life steal druid. but then iron maiden was added into the game and i would die in 1 hit going all that str.Edit: ops nevermind im not 100% if i got 300 HARD points into str but after counting from my old screen shots it seems like i just got 250-280. =/ and im fairly sure my IK helm had x3 uber topaz but i also had one with x3 uber amethyst. and i can't remember which one i was wearing. but since my hp is so low im fairly sure i had the topaz one on 7. Other item changes here:
http://blue.arimyth.com/helms.html ,
http://blue.arimyth.com/Crafting-patch.html ,
http://blue.arimyth.com/gems.html and
http://blue.arimyth.com/aldurswatchtower.htmlhavn't looked at all the items. but im all for for makeing crap items useful. have you ever tried to make a spear WW barb? every spear from normal to hell sucks ass he has zero weapon options the whole game. fixing things like this would be nice.Skill Changes:
PureRage_DoD has been working on and implemented the following skill changes:
Necro
1 skeleton at 1 hard point, 2 at 2 hard points, then 1 more for every 2 points, capping at 11 skeles and 11 mages.
Poison Strike no longer spawns a cloud
CE now has double the mana cost and a 1 sec cooldown
Pierce values on lr/amp have been changed to 1% per hard point and 1% per 4 soft points.
Blades no longer block paths
Summons AI Delay has been halved
Mages life gains actually work now
awesome change. posion necros are way overpowerd. but now should be ok.Druid
Spirit wolves are capped at 3
Dire wolves capped at 2
Lycanthropy gains 4%life per level instead of 5%
Ravens damage has been buffed greatly. You gain 1 raven at level 1, 1 more at 10 hard points and a final raven at 20 hard points.
The damage gains get better at higher skill levels so test with some + skills
moultenboulder: synergys changed (10%phys-volvano, armageddon & fissure) (12%fire with firestorm) Gains 1 extra boulder when maxed
Fissure: synergys changed (10% syn with firestorm, Volcano & moulten Boulder)
armageddon: doubled missiles splash radius
Volcano: reduced missile radius from 6 to 4
Summons AI Delay has been halved
more awesome changes now maybe someone will make a spell caster druid thats not just the physical element tornado thingsBarb
Increased stamina reduced to 4% per level.
Frenzy now gives 1%dr per hard point and is included in the self buff portion of the skill. Duration increased to 20 secs
Masterys now start at 12% critical strike at level 1 and cap at 50% at 20 hard points in the skill.
Grim Ward now summons a single blade with an aura that reduces enemys def by 25% (12 yard radius)
can this blade tank and stuff? make sure you can't spam grim ward or els it will be absued to tank bosses also 25% lower def? thats not very useful.Sin
Claw Mastery now gains 10% AR per hard point in Venom
Fade now yields 1% DR per hard point and is listed on the skill
Shadow Master won't use traps or mind blast.
Shadows AI Delay has been halved
Phoenix Strike now releases all charges at the same time
releases all charges at same time does this make phoneix strike x2 as strong? now that it can be spammed. Zon
Impale now deals magic damage. Def will now be dropped to 0 while using impale for a fraction of a second.
Strafe had its NHD reduced to 2 from 4 (should double single target DPS)
Vlak's AI Delay has been Halved
double single target DPS? that sounds overpowerd maybeSorc
Icebolt missile speed increased to match firebolts
Hydra's duration increased to 24 seconds. Max number of hydra heads increased from 12 to 24
Frozen armor can be cast on friendly units
FireWall: capped at 10 yards
Blizzard: reduced radius from 7 to 4 to increase target effectiveness
7 too 4 radious will make a huge difference. it may become overpowerd. also now that sorcs can use frozen armor on allies people will want them in there party now =)Pally
Smite now grants 1%Dr per hard point active for 5 secs after smiting
Blessed hammers no longer bypass demon and undead mag resist
Salvation now provides no absorbs but gains 1% absorb per point into each respective resist aura.
Each respective resist aura (fire, cold, and light) now provides 10 absorb to its element rather than 20.
Conviction now starts at 25% pierce gaining 1% per hard point and 1% per 4 soft points and provides the pally a 1% per 2 hard points passive pierce to each element.
Sanctuarys base magic damage increased by 20%, damage to demons is = to undeads, 20% magic pierce added to the aura
Vengeance now has a splash radius and a new overlay to go with it. Damage has been reduced by 50% but the attacked target is hit twice (splash and swing)
blessed hammer no longer by passes undead magic defence? thats way to intense why not change it to by pass 50% instead of 100%?so here is my opinion
the skill nerfs are awesome and mostly good they balance the game out keep them. but becareful of some make sure you test them first like the zons x2 DPS.
the anti rushing is good but make sure people don't get left behind. don't make it too intense. make it a fair and easy going anti rushing one that is not tedious but is also reasonably effective if possible.
you cut the items that give resistance by too much. this is to much of a difficulty increase and not very newbie freindly. uber diamonds only give +15 to all resistance now.
all this stuff about skillers and such they are hard enough as it is to get them. people who have 5+ of there elemental skill tree of skillers farm like crazy to get them.
lowering the +STR on items is a good idea and bad idea.
it will reduce the poped corpes bug where people lose there items cause they don't got str but it will also change alot of builds. take whirlwind barbs for example they get most of there damage points from STR and not there skills except for weapons mastery deadly strike.
i think i figured out a solution to this problem though. instead of STR giveing +2% ED per point for 2 hand weapons make it +3% ED per point
and fix the other 1 hand weapons ED and such for STR too. and the spear make it 1.5% ED from STR and 1% ED dex.
elemental absorb seems very hard to get now. and paladins auras don't give much of it either. make it so if a paladin is useing that aura you will get good resistance and absorb. remember there is still lower resistance curse the enemys can cast on you. and if you have a paladin useing a resistance aura you should make it strong enough to counter lower resistance curse. or els people will not even bother with it and just go one of the many other auras.
anyways hope my opinions can help soul mancer and the community make a decision. there is definitely things that should be kept in blues patch but some as noted i don't feel are newbie freindly enough.