Home Games Diablo II Diablo 2 Resurrected Introduces First Balance Changes In More Than A Decade

Diablo 2 Resurrected Introduces First Balance Changes In More Than A Decade

April 15, 2022

Diablo 2 Resurrected was built to be a faithful recreation of the original game, but Blizzard is also making some tweaks to the fundamentals for the first time in a decade. The latest patch, version 2.4, makes balance changes to the classic action-RPG.

As detailed in the patch notes, the 2.4 version makes fairly substantial changes across all seven classes. Some, like the Amazon and Druid, got lots of buffs. Others like Assassin and Sorceress received more minor tweaks. The Barbarian, in particular, got double-digit buffs to several of its weapon masteries.

Those balance changes come among several other bug fixes and quality-of-life adjustments. The patch promises better pet AI, performance and settings adjustments, and more options for how you appear online and message friends. This patch also paves the way for the first ladder season to begin later this month. You can find the full patch notes below.

“It’s why, unlike Diablo III, I don’t foresee myself spending a lot more time with Diablo II: Resurrected,” Alessandro Barbosa wrote in GameSpot’s Diablo 2 Resurrected review. “That’s not to say the adventure was without merit, and it’s certainly great to have a way to play one of Blizzard’s classics with a coat of paint that does its visual aesthetic justice so many years later. But outside of players already well-versed with the game’s aged design choices and imbalance, there’s not a lot here outside of a history lesson for new players to enjoy. A lot of the time spent playing Diablo II: Resurrected, I just longed to return to Diablo III.”

Diablo 2 Resurrected 2.4 Patch Notes

CLASS CHANGES

AMAZON

Impale

Animation speed for Impale increased by 30%

Plague Javelin

Plague Javelin poison duration is no longer fixed at 3 seconds as it was in the previous PTR, but its duration and damage scaling have been adjusted compared to Live. This should net out to a 20% damage-per-second increase at level 1 and up to a 33% damage-per-second increase at max level.

Multiple Shot

Added synergy from Guided Arrow: +12% physical damage per level

Immolation Arrow

Cooldown reduced by 40%

Guided Arrow

Added synergy from Multiple Shot: +12% physical damage per level

Strafe

Synergy from Multiple Shot: +5% physical damage per level
Synergy from Guided Arrow: +10% physical damage per level

Developer Comments: We’ve noted your feedback that it feels odd that the physical bow skills don’t have any synergies like the cold and fire bow skills do. We hope that giving some synergies to the physical bow skills help them remain viable.

ASSASSIN

Wake of Inferno

Added yards calculation to the Wake of Inferno tooltip

Blade Fury

Attack rating increased by 10%

BARBARIAN

Leap Attack

The Barbarian now deals extra physical damage to surrounding enemies within a range of 4.6 yards when landing from a Leap Attack. Damage scales per level.
Modified Leap and Leap attack jump to give it a smoother trajectory that should keep the barbarian on screen at all times, and reduce jerkiness when he lands
Leap and Leap attack now have a minimum jump height and duration
Increased mana cost of Leap Attack from 9 to 10

Developer Comments: We saw an opportunity to make leap attack more viable by changing to fantasy to make the leap itself an attack. By doing this we feel like the combat viability of the skill will increase while still preserving it as a movement skill. We feel that this change paired with the animation changes we made to it brings the leap attack more in line with the fantasy and feel we want it to have.

Sword Mastery

Renamed to Blade Mastery
Now affects daggers in addition to swords
Increased base attack bonus to 40% (from 28%)

Axe Mastery

Attack rating increased by 12%
Increased base attack bonus to 40% (from 28%)

Mace Mastery

Attack rating increased by 12%
Increased base attack bonus to 40% (from 28%)

Polearm Mastery

Increased base attack bonus to 44% (from 30%)

Spear Mastery

Increased base attack bonus to 44% (from 30%)

Throwing Mastery

Increased base attack bonus to 44% (from 30%)
Added chance to not consume quantity per level (Up to 50%)
Critical strikes with throwing weapons now replenish quantity

Developer Comments: Barbarians run out of throwing weapon quantity far too quickly. Adding chances to not consume as well as chance to replenish will allow a throwing barbarian to be viable without having to return to town frequently.

DRUID

Armageddon

Removed the Hurricane skill requirement for Armageddon
Increased the missile damage radius of Armageddon by 33% (from 3 to 4)
Increased the missile drop rate of Armageddon by about 30% (from ~3 per second to ~4)

Summoning

Druids can now have spirit wolves, dire wolves, and bears all summoned at the same time

Developer Comments: The restriction of the Druid being allowed only one type of summonable at a time has restricted the viability of this build and has hampered the fantasy of a Druid Summoner from living up to its full potential. We feel that a druid being able to summon all of his allies at once will make for a more interesting and fun playstyle.

Werewolf

Werewolf now only uses the new attack speed calculation that was originally introduced in the PTR
Raised Werewolf attack speed cap from +75% to +150%

Fury

Increased speed between attacks by 40%

Werebear

Werebear now only uses the new attack speed calculation that was originally introduced in the PTR
Raised Werebear attack speed cap from +75% to +150%
Damage bonus per level increased from 8% to 15%
Base defense value increased from 25% to 40%
Defense bonus per level increased from 6% to 10%
Cannot be interrupted while performing attacks or skills

Maul

Now grants +3% attack speed per charge

Developer Comments: We’ve debated on the best way to bring shapeshifting Druids forward. After much discussion, we are going to commit to the modern (Balance PTR 1) way of calculating attack speed for the wereforms. We have rebalanced the werewolf to allow that form to reach even faster speeds than it could previously. As for werebear – we want to deliver on the fantasy of a powerful, unstoppable, killing machine. We’ve introduced uninterruptible attacks and skills, as well as increased damage and defense. While this will change the way players have played the Werebear in the past, we feel like it is more in line with the intended fantasy. For players who loved their fast werebear builds, we’ve added attack speed bonuses to Maul, but we also hope the new Werewolf changes will offer them the same style of play, as it is now the faster form.

NECROMANCER

Blood Golem

20% reduction in mana cost applied per level
Attack damage increased by about 20%

Fire Golem

20% reduction in mana cost applied per level
Attack damage increased by about 20%
Holy Fire level bonus per level restored to 1 from 2

Developer Comments: We’ve heard your feedback that golems don’t feel valuable enough as skills. Without giving them a larger overhaul, we hope these changes will make them feel powerful enough to use more often.

PALADIN

Thorns

Now deals a flat amount of damage when hit in addition to returning a percentage of damage taken to the enemy when hit

Holy Fire

Changed how the proximity bonus for Area Damage is calculated. It will now deal 200% damage to enemies at melee range.
Tooltip: The maximum Area Damage values incorporate the maximum proximity damage bonus.
Resist Fire Synergy increased from 18 to 21%

Holy Freeze

Changed how the proximity bonus for Area Damage is calculated. It will now deal 200% damage to enemies at melee range.
Tooltip: The maximum Area Damage values incorporate the maximum proximity damage bonus.

Holy Shock

Changed how the proximity bonus for Area Damage is calculated. It will now deal 200% damage to enemies at melee range.
Tooltip: The maximum Area Damage values incorporate the maximum proximity damage bonus.

Sanctuary

Changed how the proximity bonus for Area Damage is calculated. It will now deal 200% damage to enemies at melee range.
Tooltip: The maximum Area Damage values incorporate the maximum proximity damage bonus.

Holy Bolt

Now damages Demons in addition to Undead

Fist of the Heavens

Now damages Demons in addition to Undead

Developer Comments: After seeing feedback to the removal of area damage scaling in our PTR Balance Patch, we agree that it is an interesting mechanic that is worth trying to balance properly. We’ve reworked how the proximity damage bonus is calculated while retaining the 200% maximum possible damage bonus.

SORCERESS

Nova

Nova mana cost reduced. The initial mana cost is now 13 from 15

MERCENARIES

Act 1 – Rogue Archer

Can now use Amazon Bows
Can now gain + Amazon skill bonuses from gear

Act 3 – Iron Wolf

Swapped frozen armor for Chilling Armor

Act 5 – Barbarian Warrior

Can now gain + Barbarian skill bonuses from gear
A new ferocious Barbarian is available for hire from Qual-Kehk. These warriors cannot use two-handed swords. but are well trained in the art of dual wielding. Utilizing the Frenzy, Taunt, and Iron Skin abilities, they lure enemies in and unleash a fierce barrage of attacks.

Developer Comments: Our hope with these changes are to continue to bring the non-Act 2 mercenaries up in viability so that they see increased usage, and to push each one further into their class archetype by allowing them to use class specific equipment.

RUNE WORDS

Plague can now be used on Claws and Daggers in addition to Swords
Infinity, Obedience, and Pride can now be used by Spears and Amazon Spears

LEVEL AREA AND MONSTER UPDATES

Increased Unique monster density in the new level 85 areas

GENERAL AND MISC UPDATES

General

Added player messaging for when a player tries to launch the game on an out of date patch version
Added ‘Message of the Day’ capabilities to the main menu to allow us to share important game updates with all players

Improved the reliability of pets, summons, and mercenaries teleporting to the player instead of being despawned

Barbarian

Updated Barbarian Leap and Leap attack animation behavior to give it a smoother trajectory that should keep the Barbarian on-screen at all times, and reduce jerkiness when he lands

Character Selection

Newly created characters will now sort to the top of the character selection list

Mercenaries

Mercenary UIs will now display if the mercenary cannot use a skill because they are too low level

Online

Added messaging if a player attempts to create a private channel with a name longer than the character limit
Added a /offline chat command which sets your user presence to ‘Offline’

Vendors

Players can now buy pre-filled tomes and keys when using a controller

Performance

Optimized particle effects on some console platforms
Added a VFX quality option for PC players
Optimized inventory quick-move actions to reduce delay

Settings

The Offline Game Difficulty Scale setting will now persist between game sessions.
Added an option to choose whether or not to confine your mouse cursor to the game screen
Added a VRAM usage bar in the settings menu

BUG FIXES

Accessibility

Fixed some issues in the UI that could occur when using Large Font Mode

Barbarian

Fixed an issue where your attack speed while dual-wielding could be incorrectly calculated depending on which hand it was held in or in which order they were equipped in
Fixed an issue where the Grim Ward’s synergy from Find Potion wasn’t functioning

Druid

Fixed an issue where Hunger was not costing mana if it was cast without a target selected
Druid Solar Creeper will now properly consume corpses and restore mana whenever the Druid is missing mana.
Rabies now properly consumes mana when your attack misses

Paladin

Fixed an issue where you wouldn’t be able to weapon swap if you were wielding a bow with no ammo as a Paladin on controller
Fixed an issue where you could not disable auras as a Paladin if you were using a bow without ammunition on controller
Fixed an issue where the Conviction Aura Tooltip would display incorrect information
Fixed an issue where Sanctuary aura was not granting its bonus damage to Undead
Fixed an issue where Sacrifice was not hitting moving targets

Gameplay

Fixed an issue where using a skill could be interrupted if a player dodges, avoids, or blocks while executing a skill.
Fixed an issue where uninterruptible skills could be interrupted within a 1 frame window if you were using the skill repeatedly
Fixed an issue where the skills granted by items sometimes couldn’t be used on a controller
Fixed an issue where you could be blocked from talking to an NPC if a player initiates a trade request with you while you are talking to an NPC
Fixed an issue where weapon swap was not updating Faster Run/Walk on the game client
Fixed an issue where you would not be able to observe another players attack animation for the Rabies skill if the attack missed
Fixed an issue where skill bindings for OSkills wouldn’t persist after dying and joining a new game
Fixed an issue where one of the Chaos Sanctuary seals was difficult to select.
Fixed an issue where the Glacial Trail entrance wouldn’t highlight
Fixed an issue where fire enchanted monsters were doing too much damage in Nightmare difficulty
Fixed an issue where continuing to move after running out of stamina could cause the stamina bar to not refill.
Fixed an issue where a room in Act 1 Caves had misplaced walls
Fixed an issue where a player could get repeatedly placed in a stun state and unable to execute attacks
Fixed an issue where a few melee skills would often miss when attacking moving targets (Amazon Fend, Druid Fury, Paladin Sacrifice, Paladin Zeal).
Fixed an issue where a channel ability would stop casting if you were directly targeting an enemy with your mouse prior to casting and that enemy died
Fixed an issue where Quick Cast melee skills would sometimes fail to execute properly under certain circumstances
Fixed an issue where Quick Cast melee skills would behave different depending on if they were bound to left or right click. Behavior has been unified such that left click quick cast skills behave in the way the right click behavior operated.
Fixed an issue where Force Move and Quick Cast skills could still operate when in a full screen UI menu in Legacy Mode.
Fixed an issue that could cause players to miss their attack when using melee skills against enemies that are just barely within striking range and moving away
Fixed a rare issue where casting spells rapidly could result in incorrect mana cost in certain networking situations
Fixed an issue where Replenishing and Propagation item modifiers were not triggering when Quantity was removed from melee skills.

Character Creation

Fixed an issue where some players could bypass character name validation and create invalid offline character names. Those characters can now be repaired – affected players will be prompted to rename the invalid characters.

Controls

Fixed on issue where using a PlayStation controller on PC, some button prompts could appear with an Xbox controller button icon
Fixed an issue where binding a skill to Key 2 without binding anything to Key 1 would show the keybind UI to not show

Graphics

Fixed artifacting that could occur on certain VFX when using DLSS
Fixed an issue where the player would become invisible if using Fade behind a transparent wall
Fixed an issue where ethereal items were appearing invisible when standing behind transparent walls
Fixed an issue where grass in Tamoe Highland could pop in and out while traversing.
Fixed an issue where VFX could become missing after playing for an extended period of time on consoles
Fixed an issue where VFX could appear as black boxes on PS4 in high memory usage scenarios
Fixed a DLSS-related ghosting artifact that could occur on moving objects while the game camera is stationary

Localization

Fixed some localization issues with skill tooltips
Fixed some localization issues related to user presence in the Xbox social menus
Fixed some localization issues in the Settings menu
Fixed miscellaneous issues related to localization of chat commands

Online

Fixed an issue where users in Europe or Korea were unable to block or report users
Fixed an issue where the right click context menu options in the Friends List would not consistently function
Fixed an issue where you could not highlight game names and join if using a controller in the Lobby menu.
Fixed an issue where you could get stuck in an ‘attempting to join’ state if you tried to join a game through the friends list while you were rate limited
Fixed an issue where swapping between Keyboard and Controller on the front end could rarely force you into the Offline character tab and prevent access to the online tab for a small amount of time.
Fixed an issue on consoles where online friends who have their presence set to appear ‘Offline’ in their platform settings would appear in the friends list sorted into other online friends rather than with their other offline friends
Fixed an issue on Switch where if you remove someone from your friends list, they may not correctly get removed
Fixed a visual issue that could occur when opening the Horadric Cube while in the middle of a trade with another player
Auto-generated game name and password from game sessions generated using the main menu ‘Play’ button will now be hidden.
Fixed an issue where your character selection wouldn’t persist if you exited the lobby

Performance

Fixed an issue where users with 3050 series GPUs would have incorrect default graphics settings
Fixed a crash that could occur when exiting the game
Fixed a crash that could occur during the Pandemonium event
Miscellaneous crash/stability fixes

Settings