Patch 2.4 Balance Changes
DIABLO II: RESURRECTED PATCH 2.4 BALANCE PTR
Patch 2.4 PTR (PC-only) will be available starting Tuesday, January 25, PST! This patch will focus mostly on balances, balancing classes, mercenaries, and set items. This patch also brings us 7 brand new runewords, check them out below!
From the Blizzard post
PTR FOCUS & DETAILS
We’re ecstatic to make balance changes that will improve the viability of each class while retaining the class fantasy of our favorite heroes. It has been more than eleven years since we’ve made changes like this to the game! So, when we started making balance adjustments, we wanted to focus on expanding more skill build variety and adding more viable possibilities with playing each class. The game is built around completing the Acts on each difficulty and we wanted our players to be empowered to play their heroes in the ways they preferred. A key opportunity we saw was improving the effectiveness of lesser-used skills.
As we progress in this PTR, please be aware there may be periodic maintenances, outages, hotfixes, or minor patches. All the changes implemented in this PTR are not in stone. We want to gauge reception and feedback on these changes before we make them final for Live. We encourage our PTR participants to explore and play the following new content:
- New Class Balance Changes: To ensure that the most significant class changes receive an ample amount of attention, we'd love feedback on changes affecting our seven unique classes.
- New Rune Words: We encourage you to experience the new Rune Words that can be created and inserted into correlating socketed gear. Please share your feedback on these new items.
- New Horadric Cube Recipes: New Horadric Cube Recipes have been implemented to complement Set items, we encourage you to craft these and share your feedback; especially in tandem with new improvements being made to Set items that are generally underused by players.
- And much more: Mercenary changes, Set Item Bonus Changes, New Level Area changes, Item Tooltip changes, and other changes to gameplay have been implemented for testing in this PTR. Your impressions and insights on how these changes affect your experience would be very appreciated.
Please leave your feedback in the PTR Feedback forum. If you discover any bugs, please report them in the PTR Bug Report forum. So, without further ado, let’s dive into these new changes!
PLEASE NOTE: Game content discussed in this blog is not final and subject to change.
An overview of the 7 new runewords
Runeword | Sockets | Allowed Bases | Runes | Level | Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flickering Flame (2.4) | 3 Sockets | Helm | 55 | ||
| Mist (2.4) | 5 Sockets | Missile Weapon | 67 | ||
| Obsession (2.4) | 6 Sockets | Staff | 69 | Indestructible (  )24% Chance to cast level 10 Weaken when struck+4 To All Skills+65% Faster Cast Rate+60% Faster Hit RecoveryKnockback ( )+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 ( ) | |
| Pattern (2.4) | 3 Sockets | Hand to Hand | 23 | ||
| Plague (2.4) | 3 Sockets | Sword, Knife, Hand to Hand | 67 | 25% Chance to Cast Level 15 Poison Nova On Striking20% Chance to Cast Level 12 Lower Resist When StruckLevel 13-17 Cleansing Aura When Equipped (varies)+1-2 All Skills+20% Increased Attack Speed (  )+220-320% Enhanced Damage (varies)-23% To Enemy Poison Resistance0.3% (0-29.7) Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)25% Chance of Open Wounds ( )Freezes Target +3 ( ) | |
| Unbending Will (2.4) | 6 Sockets | Sword | 41 | 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+9 to Maximum Damage (  )+50 to Attack Rating ( )+75 Damage to Undead+50 to 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 to Light Radius ()Requirements -20% ( ) | |
| Wisdom (2.4) | 3 Sockets | Helm | 45 | ||
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