This manifesto post outlines the balance changes in 2.3.0. Full patch notes will be released next week, so the changes outlined here are subject to change.
Core Systems Changes
Environmental traps in the labyrinth now calculate a player's effective life differently for determining damage. This was previously the total of a player's maximum life and Energy Shield. Now Energy Shield counts as 60% of its value for this purpose. Only Energy Shield covering life is counted. This was determined to be the best ratio applicable to the wide variety of Energy Shield based builds that exist.
Chaos conversion has been reduced in effectiveness. This only appears on a few items, but is a system change rather than just a change to those items. As such the items affected will not have legacy versions with old values. We have made sure these items display the correct new effective value however. The values of chaos conversion on Voltaxic Rift, Infernal Mantle and Consuming Dark uniques have been reduced to be 60% of their prior value.
Monsters and maps with the Hexproof prefix now grant the Hexproof keyword. Hexproof prevents curses applying to monsters, but can be bypassed under certain conditions. Currently only one unique item being added in 2.3.0 will bypass Hexproof, but this power may show up from other sources in the future. This does not affect curse reduction that unique monsters can have, and allows for Curse Immunity that is absolute and not keyworded as "Hexproof".
We have made changes to how taunts are treated in the game. Taunted targets now have an effect to indicate they are taunted. Enemies you Taunt deal 10% less damage to targets that aren't you (including in PVP). Your Taunt effects can't be overwritten by other taunt effects. You can replace your own taunts. Where multiple players are taunting, the first person to taunt gets the effect.
Item Balance
Unique Jewels now have a separate sequence of rarities within the unique items. Unique jewels will now have three tiers of rarity, all of which are rarer than the normal base rarity tier. Additionally, fourth tier "chase" unique items (like Shavronne's Wrappings) have been made rarer than they were in 2.2.0.
Weapons that can roll both caster and attack mods have been changed in how they determine their mods. When these items only have caster, or attack mods, they are less likely to get mods of the other type. This also affects the items on creation, so they are more likely to have only caster, or only attack mods.
This is a subtle change, so you will still see hybrid items, just fewer than previously.
The implicits on Sceptres and Wands have been increased in value. Sceptres now also follow an increasing sequence of elemental damage similar to what wands have. The highest Wand implicit can go up to 42%, the highest Sceptre implicit can go up to 40%.
As Sceptres previously only had a few possible values, existing sceptres get an implicit on the high end. Legacy items can be updated to new implicit values with a Blessed Orb. This means old Sceptres will be given an implicit band higher than they would get when dropping after 2.3.0.
Skill Changes
Ancestor Totems now emerge 40% faster when first placed, have 50% more totem life, and remain active 40% further away from the owner.
Enfeeble now causes monsters to only lose 21% Critical Multiplier at Level 1 (from 40%), This goes up by 1% every 2 levels of the gem, having -30% at Level 20. A monster's base Critical Multiplier is +30%, so at level 20 this bonus is nullified. This makes it less effective when the monster has additional Critical Multiplier, through map mods or an affix.
Shield Charge is now an Area of Effect skill. It deals damage to enemies you collide with as you charge, then deals a larger aoe at the end of the charge. It no longer always stuns. It gains more damage and stun threshold reduction the further you travel, up to a certain distance.
The cast time for Ice Nova and Vaal Ice Nova has been changed from 900ms to 800ms.
Warlord's Mark now has an additional 10% chance to stun at all levels of the gem, rather than scaling up to 15% by level 20. This was to fix a situation where any hit could stun an enemy
Support Changes
All Support Gems now have Support as part of their name.
Elemental Proliferation Support radius has been increased from 12 units up to 16.
Spell Totem Support now has a smaller damage penalty, at level 1 it has changed from 50% less to 35% less. At level 20 it has changed from 31% less to 26% less.
Monster and Map Balance
Cruel, Merciless and Map content requires various rebalances. Rather than apply arbitrary buffs to life and damage, we have instead added monsters with new skills to higher difficulties, and applied various corrections to specific monster skills.
Cruel and Merciless changes:
Oak's Brute has been added to The Wetlands. This monster uses an Enrage skill periodically.
Cannibal Fire-eater has been added to The Coast. This monster breathes fire.
Kraityn's Sentry has been added to Broken Bridge. This monster uses Blast Rain.
Spectral Swashbuckler has been added to The Ship Graveyard. This monster uses Spectral Throw
Goatman Fire-raiser has been added to The Climb. This monster uses Magma Orb
Each of these monsters has also been added to the pool of random monsters in maps. They usually only spawn alone, or in a pair.
Map-only monster changes:
Goatman Shamans no longer spawn entirely as Shaman packs, they are now combined with regular Goatman monsters as well.
Porcupine Goliaths in Endgame Maps now grant approximately 20% more experience and items.
Croaking Chimerals in Endgame Maps now grant approximately 30% more experience and items.
Packs of Scum Crawlers combined with Soulless Watchers in Endgame Maps now contain 25% more monsters.
Blood Elementals which use Gore Earthquake have been added to end-game Maps, some of the Blood Elementals in Blood Elemental Packs will now use Gore Earthquake
Some of the Water Elemental packs in Maps will now contain ones that use Vortex.
Some of the Sea Witch packs in Maps will now contain ones that use Frostbolt.
Some of the Ghost Pirate packs in Maps will now contain ones that use Blade Vortex. Some of the Demon Packs in Maps will contain ones that use Demonic Blade Vortex.
Some of the Ruined Titan packs in Maps will now contain ones that use Earthquake.
Some of the Goatman Shaman (Lightning) packs in Maps will now contain ones that use Orb of Storms.
Numerical adjustments to several monster skills have been made. These are generally buffs to spells cast by monsters.
Lowered some life monsters which appear solo in the core game, but can appear as packs in maps.
Rebalanced the Graveyard Map Boss (Merveil, the Reflection, who is only present in her first form) to be easier.
Rebalanced the first form of the Necropolis Map Boss (Merveil, the Reflection) to be harder.
Other map changes:
Removed Village Ruin as a possible Map type for Zana Missions.
Added Canyon and Plateau as possible Map types for Zana Missions.
Added Caer Blaidd, Wolfpack's Den as a possible Unique Map type for Zana Missions. This has not reduced the odds of Untainted Paradise being a Zana map.
Added a new end-game Map, "Plaza Map", currently a Tier 14 map with a stand-alone version of the Goddess of Justice as the boss encounter.
The experience penalty has been adjusted further since the changes to equivalent levels of high level areas introduced in 2.1.0. The new values are still being tested, and will be detailed in the patch notes next week.
Other Monster changes and rebalances
Added a new boss, Q'uru, to The Caverns in Act 2. This ancient Vaal Plummeting Ursa horror uses Earthquake and Enrages periodically.
Enrage grants increased attack speed, movement speed and damage for the duration of the enrage.
Cruel Izaro has had his life reduced by 20% and the damage of various of his skills reduced: Leap Slam damage reduced by 12.5%, Shield Charge damage reduced by 12.5%, Ground Slam Damage reduced by 10%, Reave Damage reduced by 10% and Goddess of Justice Spirit Mortar Barrage reduced by 10%.
Passive Tree and Ascendancy Changes
We only have one minor change in the main passive tree, Arcane Vision is now connected to the same attribute node as Pain Attunement. The changes to Ascendancy Trees have been much more extensive.
As well as looking at general inter-Ascendancy class balance, there is a strong focus on "the nodes less taken" within each Ascendancy tree. It is also worth noting that some of the weaker classes can have some strong synergies unlock when eight points are available.
Rather than listing every change here, we have made an updated set of skill tree data available to the community for use in passive skill/build planning tools.
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