11 CHANGES That Would DRASTICALLY IMPROVE Melee in Patch 2.6 - Diablo 2 Resurrected

[@Dbrunski125]

*Shout out to Crescendo for his original forum post* us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d2r/t/26-suggestion-melee-cant-compete-with-casters-here-are-some-simple-ideas-to-fix-that/152794 Discord: discord.gg/xy3EynP Support the Stream !! streamelements.com/se-6922588... Become a Channel Member !! kzbin.info/door/Fc8... Twitch: www.twitch.tv/dbrunski125

[@zarthemad8386]

1: Remove Cap, and adjust the calc to give players a bonus to hit mobs (a 10-15% shift) 2: Remove entirely 3: Keep as is (pvp mainly affected) 4: THIS IS MANDATORY!!!!! 5: NM weapon bases +25%, Hell weapon bases +75% RAW values .. All damage is just from crushing blows. 6: No (weapon buffs cover this) 7: No 8: No, only p2w/farmers would get. Zods are unicorns ... or buff rune drops by 500-1000% 9: Yes 10: Yes 11: Medium Armor gives 20% (chest 10 boots 5, helm 5, gloves, 5) Heavy 40% and double the others

[@kungfujoe2136]

they jsut made blizard wizard the best class/spect in the game i'm sure now only 98 in stead of 99% of ppl will play sorc

[@dustenthewind865]

love that last idea. Adding inherent damage reduction on heavy armors would actually make them worth the str requirement and it makes sense logically. I'm a pvp main so a lot of the melee changes you suggested kindof scare me (melee is already strong in pvp) but I think adding damage reduction to heavy armors would be a welcome change in pvp

[@csucskos]

I'm a melee addict and I'd love it to be more on par with magic so take this into consideration. I think the enemy hp buff is not the best idea, because that'd limit every melee player to run crushing blow. I already think crushing blow is stupid, it obliterates bosses and makes that you only think about swinging your weapon as many times as possible. I like deadly strike far more, like it should stack over 100% and it could be an added damage not a chance to proc thus you would actually care about your base damage and not just attack rate. Also two handed weapons should totally deal more damage, in my research it's better to have a Grief+Phoenix shield than to have a Breath of the Dying on any item or a Death on an etheral. Only BoD+etheral can top it, but on average grief is still better. I don't feel like adding AoE to melee is good. I mean it'd be great but in my ideology melee could be better against single targets and spells could be effective against a lot more but smaller enemies. But to be more fair they should actually make melee more viable, by removing the 95% hit chance cap and by increasing melee damage so fighters can deal enemies one by one more easily. Although this is just how I'd differentiate spellcasters and melee fighters. (Also ignore target defense is too effective imo, yeah, grief again.)

[@azzonagaming1889]

All the devs should play a melee class from 0 to hell baal. See how stupidly hard it is for a melee to pass hell without help. Then they'll know "yea melees need buff"

[@marcobonotto3598]

FRW def penalty 50% on light armors, 25% medium, 0% heavy, this could be an interesting tradeoff when u choose the base for a runeword

[@1Life2Little]

Not a bad idea.

[@sibernthaw6270]

this for shure. 2 birds

[@punec]

Imo what they should also add to the different armor types is damage reduction - like 0 for light 5% for medium and 10% for heavy. We get movespeed penalty so i think this isnt too big along with the changes you suggested

[@punec]

Nvm dbrunski mentions this forget i wrote XD

[@momow3767]

I had almost this exact idea and almost made a new reply before I saw your comment. However I was thinking 70/35/0 for a more drastic difference.

[@CasuaIisKing]

the zod rune making an item ethereal would be awesome, this would allow alot more niche items to be used at all

[@MindlessTube]

Even on phase blade?

[@thorbenmeyer152]

Even on bows ?

[@thorbenmeyer152]

Even on crossbow ?

[@Zinaroth]

I don’t see how this would help. Niche items can already roll ethereal and have sockets added to them where you can put a zod rune in. It would only help to make these items easier to obtain.

[@ALLmasked]

@@Zinaroth you changed my mind. would rather see zod in a new useful runeword than just be the thing to put to make things eth. probably add a cube recipe to make things ethereal.

[@timofeyzhukov-khovanskiy9173]

One thing about AOE on melee through runewords is that so far, even with Coooley's suugested stuff, we're talking HRs of gear, so you're basically still rocking a caster until you get enough wealth to gear up a melee char. Leap attack barb is somewhat better for a playthrough, but it is still so darn gear dependent. It would really help out to have some basic aoe on melee toons

[@polkhigh_33]

Its not even better honestly. Its great for mobility, but in terms of killspeed, youre much better off going for the usual doubleswing/bash or singer build. Simply due to the fact that the AoE portion is rather low and doesnt scale with weapon damage.

[@kylejamer]

Even the Singer crushes straight melee during the NM - Hell climb.

[@polkhigh_33]

@@kylejamer Without Starter gear yep. With some Low Level Set items you really dont need to Go Singer. Civerb mauls with death 2pc , sigon 2pc, Angelic jewelry and stealth makes Doubleswing go brrrrr

[@timofeyzhukov-khovanskiy9173]

@@polkhigh_33 I do find the aoe somewhat lackluster on leap attack, and the frequency of application is much less than the singer barb

[@manateewarrior1543]

I'd like to see a elemental effects on vengeance like random chance to cast ice nova/hydra/chain lightning on strike I'd also like to see concentrate turn into a cleave aoe attack to make mf/gf barbs a little more interesting to play in other areas of the game.

[@balail9167]

I agree with the suggestions and your opinion on them. One thing I would add is regarding Two-handed weapons. I think they should get a buff on Attack Rating, making it easier to deliver a successful hit with them. As most of them require either only Strength or mostly Strength stat and a lot of it, that would make them a bit more balanced. If weapon bases as a whole do get a base damage increase overall, I think that would be enough for Two-handers as well, but them being slower to hit, I think landing more successful blows is more important when using them and will make them a bit more desirable and viable options.

[@FzNd]

Lots of good suggestions here. The one I'm not so sure about, is the higher Monster HP/Crushing blow "solution". If eel like that only leads to making crushing blow even more mandatory than it already is. I'd like to see other avenues for building a melee character. Otherwise I like most of your suggestions. I like your change ideas regarding hit-cap and defense while moving. I like proposed changes to armour types. I would love to see more reason to take a two-handed weapon. That being said, I generally disagree with the very common "we need to buff more stuff" mentality that so many people have when it comes to balance. That is precisely what leads to the madness we saw in Diablo 3. What Diablo 2 needs is nerfs across the board. Most builds are simply far too strong, once properly geared. You could counter that by making monsters tougher, but that makes the game miserable for every character that isn't properly geared (in other words, everybody who isn't using jsp :D). Some spells in particular need to be toned down in power (Hammers, Blizzard and Lightning Fury are perhaps the best examples, but there are others of course. For Hammers it's easy. They shouldn't work with Concentration. The other two simply deal too much damage). This also ties in with the "melee needs AoE" argument. That is only true, because there is an overemphasis on AoE damage by having it generally too high. AoE spells should be fantastic in blowing up hordes of trash, but they should be less effective agains tougher monsters. In general, AoE abilities should have lower damage in relation to single target abilities, but looking at spells like Blizzard, that is clearly not the case. It deals huge amounts of damage AND hits a very large area. An AoE-focussed Sorceress SHOULD be better at dealing with hordes of trash than, say a Fana Zealot. But she should have a harder time with Death Lords, Urdars etc; and certainly with bosses, which currently isn't the case. Blizzard annihilates all. Most of the go-to runewords need to be toned down in power (Spirit, Insight, Infinity, Enigma, Fortitude, Grief, Faith are perhaps the most common offenders here, but there are others), while many under-used ones and Uniques probably need a slight upward adjustment. We also should look at items that are similar, but have a clear winner. Spirit vs. Lidless Wall is a good example. They esentially do the same thing, only that Spirit does it better in every way. Flipping things around a bit might make the choice more interesting, e.g. bring the fcr on Spirit down by 15% and up it on the Lidless Wall. Then Spirit is the better choice if you prioritize skills, while the Lidless is the better choice if you need more fcr. Charms are too strong. You shouldn't be able to gain that much power simply by stuffing your backpack full of charms. I don't mind them providing small bonusses. I don't even mind the Anni and Torch, because they are cool, unique things. But skill-charms simply shouldn't exist., neither should you be able to get 20 life or 5 all res from just a small charm. If they are kept as they are, a charm-inventory IS the way to go (yes yes, I know many players hate the idea, because they believe inventory tetris is somehow a skill that differntiates "good players" from "bad ones" - nonsense). And it should be a lot smaller than it currently is. Limit it to a maximum of 2 grand charms, 4 large ones, and 6 small ones. Want Gheed's and a Sunder Charm? Sure, but then you can't have skillers. Another thing that can be done to bring casters more in line is resource management. As is, mana is completely irrelevant in Diablo 2. Outside of Energy Shield Sorcs, nobody invests even a single point into Energy, and yet everybody can spam their spells. Just chug a mana pot early on, use Insight in the middle, and have so much +mana on gear that it doesn't matter later on. If a caster wants to spam their spells, they should have to invest into mana and mana regen. And +100 mana should not be on an item that also provides +2 skills and tons of fcr (hello Spirit). It should be on an item that provides +100 mana - and not much else. Then you have to make a choice: more resources to spam my skills, OR more power, but you can't have both in the same item slot. General problem in D2. Why does Enigma have Teleport (the strongest skill in tghe game - see below) AND Skills AND tons of stats AND tons of MF? Why have +skills on Arach, the only belt that also has FCR? Those are the two things casters want the most. Put the skill point onto a different belt and make them choose between the two. There are just far too many "multi-purpose" items in the game. However, all of that remains meaningless as long as Teleport is in the game. Teleport is by far and beyond the most powerful ability in the game (hence 85% of players start with a Sorc and everybody wants Enigma). Nobody in this game walks anywhere. Everybody just blinks around the map using ftl travel. Ridiculous. But then again - you can't suggest simply removing it, because the interwebs would lose their marbles and probably chase the poor Devs with Torches and Pitchforks :D. Honestly, I don't know how to handle Teleport. Slap a cooldown on it? I hate CDs in ARPGs. Just make it cost MUCH MORE mana? Also feels clunky, because you should be able to use it in combat, just not as a walking replacement that ignores walls all the time. I honestly think the best thing would be to just remove it entirely and give the Sorc a new skill.

[@KrigHammar]

While you can see the problem with the teleport, look at any d4 video, all the butthurt funboys crying about why cd on teleport. I think 1 solution could work on teleport. While you can use as mobility skill since you cant really aim without as hammerdin or tornado druid. I think if they would nerf the distance of the teleportation, that could be 1 thing. You can teleport on certain enemy to aim your spell better, or you can teleport out if some mobs charges on you. But for example just 500 radius zone.

[@kylediaz3302]

Your suggestions are for another game. The point of D2R is to make it just like the classic without messing around with things. You start messing with rune words and you will break the community; that's not smart. This game isn't for complete reworks and innovation on a 10 year plan; it's to bring back a classic. Minor tweaks to things is fine (like giving melee splash sounds nice), but most of what you are listing is for D4 , D5, D6, etc not D2R. The moment they start nerfing skills and gear, it becomes a crap show. Buffing weapons as he suggested will no negatively alter PVM or PVP; it will give more diversity to both aspects of the game. Adding melee splash while doing PVM doesn't hurt anything, adding terror zones didnt hurt anyone, adding a few lower end rune words to help melee, and the change to throwing mastery for barb was great; these are acceptable changes (sundar maybe not so much) that don't completely alter the game.

[@CommanderReplay]

Ive been a life long zealer, and have had a lot of time to think about the issues plaguing melee. While I love all of these suggestions, I think the only one that truly matters is buffing the base damage because doing any of the others without buffing the damage and melee is still more or less in the same place. Splash damage would be the next most impactful change. I got to use stormlash for a little bit this season and just like everything its underpowered damaged wise, but the ability to static everything around you gives you a nice little bit of AOE that is quite fun. Id really liek to see the elite tier uniques catch up to the runewords where you have to make a choice about what you want to run. I also thought they should change corpsemourn to have chance to cast corpse explosion, would be super cool for melee characters. Love the video!

[@windwalkerrangerdm]

I think adding more (much, much more) damage bonus on melee attacks based on strength, and then doubling it for 2handed weapons would be a great buff. Could be reflected on some ranged attacks via dex bonus to create some phsyical based ranged builds as well.

[@kleebgaming5209]

Hard disagree. Even if they multiplied damage for all melee attacks by 10, you're still only able to hit 1 monster at a time and will still kill at a fraction of the speed of a caster.

[@jprec5174]

Strength already adds a decent amount of damage its just most people are kinda not bright and go fully into vit to follow the old pre respec pvp meta. Increasing this bonus for 2h is a good idea though. I know thunder mauls get a 1.1 strength mod (so 10% more damage per point of strength). They could def up that to 50% for all 2h and maybe 1.2 for 2h swords (incentivize barbs to move away from grief/phase blade).

[@windwalkerrangerdm]

@@kleebgaming5209 I think 1 hitting monsters is pretty good with a good attack speed, and the increased damage will be very useful in elites and bosses. there are many places this would come handy like travincal or the baal minions, and it also matters while leveling up where you dont get to 1 hit monsters, especially in increased playr count.

[@atrax5825]

@@windwalkerrangerdm Melee is already stronger in killing bosses so u are totally missing the point. It would not change anything. Its aoe spells that need to be nerfed.

[@windwalkerrangerdm]

​@@atrax5825 I think there are only a couple runewords that deserve a nerf, one being enigma for sure, and the other maybe grief. I think static field needs to change alltogether. And maybe fury zon needs further nerf. However, nerfing all aoe spells somehow is going to break many builds and many norms that the playerbase has gotten used to, so it might create a backlash. Instead, reasons should be created to create alt builds, hopefully melee. The best approach would be to alter useles or redundant melee skills. Imagine impale hits aoe on a line, or berserk deals aoe arc. However this is also a serious alteration. Next best thing would be to make chars specialize different zones. There are already some examples of this, but the gap could be widened by changing the monsters and locations, instead of changing the characters and skills. However this is also a lot of work and a serious change, it might be borderline expansion stuff. So instead my suggestions are focused on being easy to implement, and being small changes overall. Hence the str to damage buff, and maybe energy to resists, and dex to faster cast rate, and with some changes to how defense works, it's not that hard to imagine different builds that work on different stat distributions. If you can get your fcr from dex, then maybe you can replace some items with others. If you can get some of your resists from energy, then maybe you don't need that off-hand shield that much. The best part of this approach is that, it wouldn't break the old builds at all, things would be the same for them, you can still pump all the points into vitality and get the same items and the runewords, and your char would still completely be the same. However, melee oriented builds can now benefit from this new system, and the casters could try new stuff as well. I think there are 2 ways to buff a build, you could fix its weaker points, or you could further focus on its stronger aspects and make them better. At the end game, you keep killing bosses for farm, and maybe you try to do pandemonium or ubers. While some melee builds are good at this, there's no reason not to make them even better as an incentive. If you are killing baal faster than a blizzard mage with a melee build, that's the only thing that matters. This is the only metric, the cycle with which you farm a certain location/boss

[@iagoodka]

Kill two birds with one stone. If I remember correctly I suggested the DR on heavier armours long time ago when discussing FOrb changes (piercing) with Dbrunski under one of his videos (this is my gf's YT account). Nice to see it's being discussed more. Here's how it could look like while taking care of two issues at the same time: Light armours: 75% Def reduction while running, no speed penalty, +20% FHR. Medium armours: 50% Def reduction while running, +10% FHR, 5% speed penalty, +5% DR. Heavy armours: 25% Def reduction while running, 10% speed penalty, +10% DR.

[@sYnchr0_]

I used a d2 editor a few years back to see what it would take to make a WW barb viable in p8 Chaos. I combined a perf Ebotd CB with a Grief, made two of those and dual-wielded (Yes 415%ed + 400dmg and all the other stats). I added +1 to skills on most of my gear. A full inventory of 3/20/20s and it still sucked. As in, it still took several swipes to kill a pack of mobs. Melee is so criminally underpowered, that even tripling the damage might not be enough to achieve similar clear speeds of some of the casting classes.

[@Zingo89]

Cool ideas and it would help melees for sure. I got a idea a few weeks ago and the idea is to give melees a "chance on hit" to cast X spell and the dmg of the spell is baseed on ur AR. So lets say u have dual angelic rings and angelic amu and u get like 10k AR the spell will deal 10k dmg. Makes it so u can actually clear stuff fast and smooth as melee on players1 while still using a lot of MF gear AND you have the option to invest a lot more into dmg (AR) if u want to play on higher player count. And it wont screw with pvp like increasing all weapons dmg ranges would. And yes, a 2soc visionary barb helm with 2x RBFs would be godtier but those are so rare it deserves to be godly. Some spell examples: 50% chance to cast frost nova on hit, dmg based on attack rating. 50% chance to chain lightning on hit, dmg based on attack rating. 50% chance to cast fissure on hit, dmg based on attack rating. And obviously the RWs would give some more stuff, like attack speed, maybe some -enemy resistance? crushing blow? etc

[@1adamantium1]

Come up with a mechanic like pierce but for swords/axe/maces. i.e. "Cut through" where your sword swing has a chance to cut through multiple surrounding targets. Swords "Cut through" Axes- " Sever through" Maces/hammers - "Bash through"

[@jankoznar8591]

I would really love one additional option in this game. Something like "semi-zoom" function. When you press F key then game will zoom on your char but it is too big now. I know this function was implemented for "stay and watch some details" but i recently tried play whole campaing with zoomed char (meele char) and game got new dimension for me. With that zoom is lot easier to be in "presence" in the game, cuz you do not only watch minimap for end tiles of current zone and you can enjoy battle details of your char (with barb it is really fun). I know this is really unimportant thing and for example range chars would not use it but it should be technically very easy to do and it would open some new view angles on this game while playing meele chars. Something like press F once for semi-zoom, then press F again for full-zoom, then press F for standard camera distance.

[@GenesisRogue]

Wow good video Dbrunksi. All excellent points. I’ve always thought two handed weapons needed higher damage scaling or specific two handed only rune words.

[@ianatwood5253]

I'm not too sure if anyone else has already mentioned, but even by giving melee a 100% hit chance, melee has to also take into consideration enemy monster block chance lol..monsters can also block. IMO, yes remove the 95% hit cap and up it to 100%, but keep attack rating a thing. I'd also recommend lowering the defense of Act Bosses and such to be able to hit them easier, especially in nightmare/normal difficulties. Perhaps Hell bosses remain the same, but in order to get above 80% hit chance against a boss in Hell you have to have like 12k+ attack rating, to include being a high level, like 92+

[@delix]

Could also have any attack rating over a 100% chance to hit a specific monster to actually reduce the monster’s chance to block. Seems interesting enough

[@jaysoniorg2950]

It isn't hard to have that much AR though. With Angelic's you can get close to 30k AR.

[@ianatwood5253]

@Jayson Iorg right, but then you're sacrificing to use angelics instead of using amulets like atma scarab, highlords, or cats eye... or perhaps even amulets with skills/fcr, etc. all for an immense amount of attack rating lol don't get me wrong angelics certainly has its place and its just that, attack rating. It's almost mandatory to use angelics while leveling a melee toon, because of chance to hit. I'd be fine if the bosses in Hell difficulty defense/chance to hit remained the same, but the ones that need lowered defense or easier (higher) chance to hit is nightmare and normal bosses Overall, if they wanted to improve melee then these are the things they need to look at, basically whats in the video, altering/improving chance to hit, improving weapon base damage (which would essentially improve weapons that have enhanced damage on them), creating a kind of gap/difference between 1h/2h weapons that overall improves 2h weapons because right now 2h weapons are seen as inferior to 1h weapons. The only class that possibly benefits the most from 2h is a shapeshift druid, more specifically a werewolf, but for a barbarian to use a 2hander has become obsolete and even a shapeshift druid using 2h has gone down, because of the changes of how block animation works now. Then also One last thing to consider is introducing other forms of AoE for melee, ie. a runeword with corpse explode on it sounds like one awesome idea. There is also the idea of altering how light, medium, and heavy armor classes work, which IMO is an awesome idea to bring more use to the heavier armors. Also, the idea about how defense and block chance is lowered while running. It makes sense for it to lower, but perhaps not so drastically.. as another has mentioned, perhaps this is what the different armor weights help distinguish. For example, wearing light armor reduces defense while running by 50%, medium 25% and heavy armor 0%

[@toxiccubestudio7961]

These are definitely good points that were brought up and I feel like the 2 biggest are melee splash and the loss of defense while running. Nobody walks everywhere so why even have that debuff. Just as pointless as stamina. Great video and I am glad you bring up these discussions because you and a few other streamers are the voice of the community and it helps the game and the fans when you bring up much needed changes. Keep up the great work!

[@CamSally27]

I like a lot of these suggestions. One more that I would add is make the physical sunder charm have a chance to cast amp damage instead of how it currently works. Oh and also make WW work with chance to cast on striking

[@blizbiggy]

I agree with changing up the physical sunders. They're pretty useless as they sit right now.

[@Gavinbelson]

the physical sunder should add cleave or some aoe

[@vsetkoobsadene]

@@blizbiggy Physical sunder charms allow to use amp and decre at full capacity on the sundered monster so quite on the contrary, they are very useful.

[@polkhigh_33]

Thats a fairly bad suggestion. Why break that cycle of sunder charms by making one or two of them do something else? Its not that physic and magic sunder arent good enough, but physical and magical damage being favored in terms of monster resis in the major part of farming zones. Do you really want them to fix this, looking at the current state of physical damage dealers?

[@polkhigh_33]

@@vsetkoobsadene In theory yes, in actual gameplay nah. You either skip physical immune mobs or have other ways to blow them up like Berzerk on barbarians, wasting 3 inventory slots on a charm thats not doing anything 90+% of the time is pretty much the definition of wasted slots. And well, I wouldnt be too vocal about the interaction between decrep/amp and physical sunder, blizzard is quiet known for showing consistency by finishing the walk, even if theyre off track.

[@Zenmuron3]

I think melee attacks should "cleave". That is, if your character swings their weapon starting from their right and goes to the left, then that entire area should take damage (full?). However, I think that on hit effects should not proc on any cleaved targets, just the targeted mob. So you don't just Crushing Blow whole packs down or life leach 10 things at once.

[@Zinaroth]

I don’t see how being worried that they might buff melee too much is a thing. Even if we have a single season start where melee starts out stronger before getting readjusted it would still be a stark contrast to the 20+ years of casters reigning supreme. Turn it up to 11 for all I care and then we can always rein it back in a bit. I would rather buff melee too much than too little.

[@tobiash.7709]

i like the idea of buffing elite mobs and bosses the most. This way you have a more distinct role for casters (aoe clearer) vs melee (boss killer). It also would "nerf" casters a bit, by not beeing best at everything in the game.

[@pervysage5465]

I know most players don't play through this game at all - instead have their characters rushed online by other people - but consider the following: that change makes playing through the game with melee character even more punishing that it is, and farming for gear - which melee characters are much more dependent on - even longer than it should be. Most of the changes in that post are actually terrible, and this one in paricular is pretty thoughtless.

[@kylejamer]

They're already buffed. Another layer on top would be mind boggling. I've been mostly playing Frenzy Barbs on D2r because it wasn't something I could make work as a kid. I still can't, the gear plateau between 35 and 70 is staggering. Literally the only stuff I've upgraded since level 20 has been stuff I've made in the cube. Elites and uniques on NM and Hell only feed my gambling addiction at this point. And Melee as Boss Killer only works because of Crushing Blow

[@FATTIFATTIBUMBUM]

I would love to see an armour runeword granting charge. we all got teleport. would be cool to be able to chose charge as well! imagine charge on a javazon for instance. :D their fcr breakpoints are horrible so would be good if it would be similar stats as enigma, frw, +2skills etc

[@miks301]

Yeah melee does have crushing blow, but sorcs have static field which is objectively better. I have a few easy peasy fixes. Give every class a +3 damage scale per level for 2h melee weapons and +1 for one handers. Add also perhaps 10 or 20 attack rating per level. Doesnt affect casters, definitely helps melee, scales strong at low levels, at high levels it allows you to clear without GG gear. Defense should always count while running. Block shouldnt tbh. Add a melee splash for certain maxed out melee skills. Would provide aoe without giving casters the ability to 1 pt wonder their way to melee splash. Make smite require attack rating. Reduce leech penalty for melee. Reduce synergies on certain skills. For example, make frenzy synergize with increased speed for 8% and do the duration increase.

[@pires11d]

One thing I would also change is the way physical and magic sunder charms work. For the physical one, instead of increasing the damage taken, I'd lower the player's life by a ranging percentage (-5 to -15%?). For the magic one I'd do the same, but lowering mana instead of HP. This could fix the problem of not having any equipment that raises your magical resistance.

[@jaysoniorg2950]

Medium armor: 5% damage reduction, +5 to all res Heavy armor: 10% damage reduction, +10 to all res, +10% def Hammer max sockets = 6 and count as mace (Legendary Mallet has the highest one handed damage in game by far, but no RW's) Two handed weapons receive 2x str bonus to damage 100% of bonus damage from str also applies as an AOE around the melee character for each strike

[@RitzBitz13]

i agree with all these points! Melee needs a serious buff and i WANT to play a driud SS or a Barb WW, but because melee is so hard to get a handle on in a early game and im not so in depth in knowledge i wouldnt know exactly what i am doing. I want to do melee but i need to see changes to feel the need to, or ill just play Blizz sorc. that point being said, sunder charms i think are a great add on but they need to change Cold Mag to be exactly the same as the other ones.... starting out, 4 days into Season 2, i could solo anything with my cold sunder charm / Blizz, it was too broken. Cold Mag should just add % of damage and force u to seek lowering the res the way u need to with other elements. Magistry allowing u to drop their Res to -150....little too OP imo

[@Bowazon]

I actually responded to this thread in great detail. Just thought of this just now though: With the defense removal on running, this should be changed to affect medium and heavy armours and shields less severely, for example: - Wearing a full plate mail (heavy) you only lose 50% of the defense on that armour piece instead of the full 100% currently. - Wearing a splint mail (medium) you lose 75% of the defense on that armour piece instead of the full 100% currently. Same principle for light/medium/heavy shields. What do we think?

[@anderschristensen4105]

In my opinion AOE for melee is the most important point out of all eleven. I dislike the idea about having a runeword or a specific item bringing it. It should be made as splash damage, similar to PD2, allowing it to always be active. By adding it through an item you would just force a new meta item that everyone would wear and that would take away from diversifying your build. Making the physical sunder charm bringing a splash/cleave effect would also be okay. I also liked the idea of making a zod rune roll both ethereal and indestructible. Every time i find a cool rare with the Cruel mod i am gutted because its either not eth or have erep. As an additional point i would like to see WW change so it can proc "on-striking" effects. How cool would it be to rock atmas and proc amplify damage through monster packs. Just my 5 cents.

[@sageambrosek5206]

2 handed weapons were nerfed in the latest patch! The new WW ias calculation make's it impossible to hit 4 frames on weapons that it used to be easy on. The most glaring example being ok set. It used to hit 4 frames with 2 shaels on the hammerr without the ias from the set bonus even being counted. Now with ias jewels on ever slot on everything and even FAITH!! Merc it can only hit 5!

[@seanj5249]

Would be cool if they did something like heavy/medium/light armor types reduce 25%/50%/75% armor while moving

[@08mayleen]

re: the defense stat, there's a mod called BTDiablo that basically removed stamina and walking is the same as running. Even if you walk, you feel like running, thus preserving your defense to what it is.

[@nickitaabitov1265]

it is necessary to fix the bug with the mercenary. 1) auras do not appear immediately 2) the visual effect of fade remains even after its expiration. I just don't know where to write...well, about grief in the characteristics.

[@PlayJAKPlays]

Would love to See/Take some sort of survey on this. would love two see all of the points in this vid broken down into 2-3 questions.

[@brosephbroheim6428]

All they really need to do is remove the inherent physical damage reduction of monsters in hell. Easy double or triple damage. If you're okay with corpse explosion and summons being stronger as a side effect. Could also give 20% splash damage to targets within 3 yards or something of your primary target.

[@techspotlight21]

I never really thought about this topic but I agree. Melee characters do have issues with groups. And that's the main reason I've barely touched the barb. On a bunch of melee runewords the 100% chance to cast level 30+ lightning on level up. That should become 5% cha ce to cast on strike. The level up percent means nothing when you're on level 99

[@wizinjsh]

For melee AOE i like the idea which was in MedianXL mod for necro. When you hit you release a spirit which jumps 5 targets (at lvl1) (20+ with skills) and does 1/2 damage and steals life. But it a skill change not weapon mod.

[@greggen63]

Some interesting points here. I'm quite against the suggestion of buffing champion and unique mobs. The problem with that suggestion is that crushing blow becomes a disproportionately powerful mechanic and it would detriment a lot of items significantly. I think some of the other ideas have a lot of merit. For me, a starting point would be simply to buff all weapon damage by 50-100 percent. As mentioned, that would benefit most ranged and melee classes without massively strengthening Grief, which is way too powerful compared to other options. The suggestion of making defense a more worthwhile attribute is an interesting one, because it could affect all classes although clearly melee characters typically build more into strength and get hit more often. A scaling damage reduction on each class of armour, and maybe reducing (not removing) the movement speed penalties on each class of armour and shield would be an interesting change.

[@LinusF_]

Zod making both melee and missile bases ethreal would be cool and ofcourse a unique small charm with splash damage(3-5 of enemies close to the main target take 33% dmg) and physical sunder charm should also give like 30-50% increased physical damage done to monsters.

[@ericswanson9773]

Lots of spot on topics. Buffing unique items would help or bring them back to their old stats.

[@momchilgradinarov6428]

Last point was the best. Definitely DR makes a lot of sense for heavier armours. You lose speed, but get tanking ability. But also, better DMG for two handed weapons will also be significant and welcome change, just for variety's sake. Last thing I would like to see is more and different high end runes for weapons/armours/etc., because it feels everyone runs the same half a dozen runewords.

[@Tyrael538]

i agree with you on everything there, i personnaly would like to see ethereal bows and crossbows. what do you think?

[@liquidformat]

On point 4 I think it would be nice if we had melee AOE options that didn't require you being endgame filthy rich. Yeah tesladin/dragondin is great but by the time you can afford that you are ridiculously rich. The shield cooly suggested while also great required something like zod cham Lo if I remember correctly. There are already a decent number of endgame options out there. I think we really need more options that help throughout game play, looking at ways I can start a ladder off with a melee build and be competitive with A and B tear builds and be able to MF competitively with casters should be the goal here not pie in the sky builds like tesladin and dragondins

[@occelatus1063]

Excellent video and examples. Especially the added damage from skills(whirlwind), zod and 2h. Don’t know about splash in itself. Perhaps better if it comes from skills rather than default. Regardless, since every patch buffs the characters damage I would like to make the game more deadlier, so you die more often. Makes playing style and hc much more interesting. And also in a way nerf hammers since it would more punishable to just stand there and release your hammers etc

[@jprec5174]

Make the game harder after they fix melee imo.

[@Abber64]

I agree with you 100%. These are changes that should definitely take place, but they will not impact much on players decisions to play melee over casters. They will have to bring out some earth shattering rune words for melee along with these changes in order for this to happen, and who knows, maybe it could. I enjoy playing caster play style though and think I always will.

[@apd907001]

Two handed weapons giving 25% physical immunity pierce. Armors giving +10% phys dmg reduc for medium and 20% for heavy. Contempt runeword, new runeword only aura that reduces npc enemies phys res to 0% like sanctuary aura but effecting all npc enemy types. New hammer only runeword with 3 sockets, zod, shael, ber. Grants 50% cb, 80% ias, and ethereal with 10% chance of amp dmg.

[@norbertbukki5620]

Pretty cool ideas in this video. I can especialy agree with point 4, to give melee some sort of AOE. My best example would be my own hybrid Werewolf Fury druid with fire skills activating on striking from items. He has the melee damage and speed, but lacked some AOE. I made Doom runeword in a Berserker axe (would benefit from MORE durability VS base 26..) that gives good AOE slow with Holy Freeze, and 5% chance to cast lv18 Volcano on striking (maxed synergies!), plus it freezes/wounds target. While it looks like a Cold specific item with the added -enemy cold resistance, it has it's use here. Other mandatory item is the Phoenix runeword in a Monarch. That is a fire base item, that has -enemy fire resistance, up to a max of 400% enhanced damage (!) and a whopping 40% chance on striking to cast lv22 Firestorm (also maxed synergies) plus the Redemption aura that gives life/mana after kills. Topping out the elemental damaging skills, I maxed out Armageddon (can be cast as Werewolf) and started going towards fully synergizing it. Still need to get my hands on a Ravenlore, as this build heavily focuses on fire based damage output. Charm-wise I went with 8 Elemental skillers, an Anni and Dtorch (5% on striking to cast lv10 Firestorm /wink..). When this ladder ends i'll roll my first Infinity for my merc AND give a perfect 60 fire sundering charm to my "Firewolf", who goes by the name of Jon_Talbain. Build is still work in progress, but it already shown potential before the 1st Ladder period ended. So yes, melee characters SHOULD get some buff with adding some AOE damage to their melee skills. Lastly I am all in for armor bases gaining a passive DR% based on their weight class. Like lets say medium gaining 8% and heavy gaining 15%. Have a perfect 600 Sacred Armor stashed away for later, would be nice to gain some extra DR% just by wearing it with the mammoth STR needed for it! Happy hunting to everyone! :)

[@nathanpapp432]

This is basically the fury build i use. My fury wolf build fully invests into armageddon and its fire synergies at the expense of a few points in lycanthropy and werewolf. I use flickering flame and phoenix shield. Weapon options are flexible, you could use schaefers if you use treachery and highlord, you could use stormlash, both of them have static which is nice. Hand of Justice or another Phoenix are probably the best options. I would only max the firestorm synergies if im also using a phoenix weapon. Otherwise its not really worth the investment imo, you sacrifice too much ar and life for not a whole lot of damage.

[@JGComments]

If like to see splash damage based on STR

[@petronetto]

Swing an Axe in a face of a mob has a chance to miss while throw a fireball in a moving target not, makes zero senses. It should be the other way around, casst should have chance to hit while melee doesn't

[@miguelviau3163]

could add a few more options that cast amp damage on the late game runewords or elite uniques

[@JJV7243]

These ideas are good but missed the CORE issue - the relative dependence of character damage on skills vs. weapons. Casters get the major component of their damage from skills - whereas melee gets it from weapons (hard to find). The best way to bridge this gap would be to BUFF the power of ALL weapon-based damage skills - all of them now get (in addition to their % acc and % dmg): +5 attack rating per level and +3 (flat damage like grief) per level in. Now, a level 20 barbarian using a 1-4 damage dagger with a level 10 skill would have the dagger dealing 31-34 base damage instead of 1-4; making a greater % of base damage come from you skills.

[@badulswordan7720]

Wouldnt be enchanted dmg on barbarian helms also be a good idea 🤔?

[@Thynqikan]

I agree with all of the points and think they could implement every one of them. I love melee characters but choose to not play them because of how inefficient they are. Double the starting attack rating of all melee builds, include some form of aoe on swing: if I swing a weapon in a crowded area there is a strong likelihood that I will hit more than a single target with a single swing. I also think all 2 handed weapons need a form of weapon block to encourage their use over a 1 handed+shield set up: think of it as keeping your opponent at bay away from you with your larger weapon (it is the basis of a pike!)

[@TheUnkindness]

2 handed weapons could have a big AR boost which would allow players to reach 100% chance to hit a lot easier. It could partially make up for the lack of blocking chance. Also maybe add an inherent aoe effect on 2 handed base weapons. It would feel more realistic to have aoe on 2 handed weapons as they are so massive they actually can hit multiple enemies. That way you'd have the choice of going 1 handed for faster attacks, block chance and more stats or 2 handed for more AR, more damage and aoe attacks.

[@w.schulz6196]

Sorceress teleport needs a 5sec CD ( enigma too ) for all other classes without teleport ( enigma ) to be worth playing too. either your revised attack rating or las melee ranged physic dmg always hit it's so unfair the spell always hit. there needs to be a nerf for Coldmastery Hammerdin Javazon Lightingsorc and lifetap. then the game will finally not only be playable in the low lvl but also in the late game if you don't teleport everything through or make all monsters (boss) 1 hit dead maybe then the cry for players 8 will finally pass and groups will finally form to play together because not all monsters are 1 hit dead or everyone teleports solo through all 5 acts in 10 seconds to the boss

[@leejordan001]

Also adding RAW attack rating to melee skills not just %attack rating to skyrocket AR.

[@nonamenosurname8516]

increasing HP of monsters would be really hard for players who just wear what they find - who dont farm, just go straight walking all locations with one goal to kill baal hell. I still remember my beginning in D2R. With 5th character close to 80 every location became playable - I begun to find good items and some decent runes (my all my characters after I hit a wall. I just begun new character). It was no trading, no sorc, just playing with 1-2friends, walking all locations. After that I begun trading and from that point it was EZ. Now I would prefer more HP monsters because I love melee, but they are slow compare to casters. Well I made Tesladin, and he is quite fast. But I understand there is no chance to please everybody. I still dont get why they havent changed grief. If it makes it so OP. Just change grief so its added dmg would apply only to weapon itself.

[@jason9101]

AOE would be a huge change and a welcomed one

[@Thynqikan]

agreed. While I am ok with spell effects on hit I think the better way to go is to implement each weapon swing a chance to hit multiple targets in a single attack. I guarantee you this: if I use a weapon near a crowd I am extremely likely to hit more than a single target.

[@FoodDipFan]

@@Thynqikan This. I'd much rather a melee splash type skill instead of something like CE. That's the only reason to play a necro PvM and if you give CE to everyone then he becomes useless.

[@PalfraDK]

Another option to the zod change would be to add a cube recipe, zod+item=eth version of item. Consumes the zod, then you can zod the item after if you want. Consuming zod will also increase it's value.

[@carrbon2322]

2.6 Having Solo Ladder Option would be sick

[@1Life2Little]

Solo ladder?

[@carrbon2322]

@@1Life2Little yes! Just like PoE has, a race could be on d2. without JSP

[@unixtreme]

@@carrbon2322 SSF would be cool.

[@IAmSpeedius]

Perhaps combine points 2 and 11. Medium and Heavy armor types have a lesser defence rating reduction while running. Heavy armors -20% defence while running, medium -33%, and light -50%

[@JJV7243]

The werebear skill at base level 5, iron skin, and holy shield at base level 5 should remove the runwalk penalties from heavy armor -> thus making it an option for some builds.

[@TheMadKeyboard]

Love these ideas..... would be game changing for melee.... this would be a step in the right direction for balance...

[@Droppingtotes]

With heavy armors having a negative to walk run; doesn't that make whirlwind better because you stay on the targets longer?

[@astarothhvbdteam6729]

Here's a great idea , in WoW doesn't matter if you move or not - it matters what type of armor you can wear kind of... basically the stronger physically your class is - them more damage reduced you've got - so in d2 you can balance it by the amount of strenght = if points you've used(invested in) - if you can equip a sacred armor obviously you have more deffence than wearing a dusk shroud

[@GBIGBIGBI]

Valid points. I don't think they would be too difficult to implement and refreshing the game would do the community much good.

[@MegasSalavatis]

The changes are magnificent. One comment though. Maybe I am wrong but it seems that they will all benefit a paladin the most and create another paladin meta. Max block issue - Paladin benefits most. Shield with corpse explosion - paladin shields will be the best. CTH issues - smite.

[@tbone8358]

Dbrunski do you know if the sunder charms are going to be available on singleplayer (console) in 2.6?

[@Phnxkon]

I think all the ladder stuff goes to SP/NL once the season ends

[@tbone8358]

@@Phnxkon No that’s wrong. Ladder is not singleplayer. Non ladder has nothing to do with singleplayer. Don’t say SP/NL because they’re not interchangeable and you might confuse people.

[@Phnxkon]

@@tbone8358 I wasn't trying to confuse people. Does single player not get TZ and the new runewords once the ladder season is over? I may be misinformed please share.

[@tbone8358]

@@Phnxkon I hope so, I’m not sure that’s why I was asking but thanks for letting me know! I haven’t heard any news about it from blizzard so I was worried that it wasn’t being updated to singleplayer? Did you hear anything- thank you again

[@trontron8160]

Again Thanks Bunches for a very Awesome look into the changes needed for melee characters. So these all work for me as the first character I usually roll is always a barbarian. I am old school from the old ways when you nvr respect till Hell. And I can tell you it’s not the same as back in the day when I had my crew to run with everyone always shared drops so there was never any issue with equipment. But I have to say I am older now and grinding alone is ok but not nearly as fun as back then. These changes you discussed are noice but I have a real issue with the weapons the fact that we are stuck choosing a weapon skill and have to spend points into it to make any progress is the biggest problem for me. Progressing thru normal is a breeze really and and nightmare not to hard either but pushing thru nightmare my weapon of choice had changed due to not finding any sword drops or blanks that could be socketed as upgrades. So I am left using a unique maul that I had socketed and put in a faster attack speed rune in it but because I’ve invested 10 into swords I’m screwed I can respec but Jezz shouldn’t there be like a area of relief for the weapons we choose and not tie them to a respec casters really don’t have that issue but maybe it’s just me idk. Just some of my thoughts kinda has always been a issue that I think gets over looked anyways enough of my rant, thanks for providing awesome content looking forward to more on Diablo 4 👍

[@monocerotis6917]

cool ideas =) I waiting for your updates for New Runewords in seasons 3 ? =)))

[@karlklabuster8044]

Good ideas !! Hope the Devs will read this !!

[@TheJrl420]

I like the defense when running idea. I hate almost getting smoked because I forgot to go back to walk while playing absent-mindedly

[@donnymcpherson9697]

I'm a diehard melee player. All these suggestions would help bridge the gap. My biggest beef however is the disadvantage we have when it comes to rune drops. The whole system of runes dropping more for casters because they kill groups at a time is a big drawback for melee. When I play as much or more as a caster but am unable to build the best runewords because I can't group kill I get very discouraged. Change the rune drop system. Thank you.

[@Infovince3434]

I hate that the WW Barb doesn't activate skills-on-attack like AD on a Lacerator when in WW.

[@MrLazyleader]

I would also double the base damage of all weapon bases. This would not only give melee the damage they need but also weaken grief by comparison.

[@Emperor_x8]

I would add is have spell attacks be affected by defense as well it was apparently a glitch in the original game so why not fix it but I admit it would buff the rogue mercenary a little bit but not for sure what extent

[@tur13l]

always thought the barb could get a freeze immunity via natural immunity 20 hard points? or mb 10 or 15?

[@RoadToad42]

They need to make the level-difference have less of an effect in the Attack Rating formula. And possibly rescale the AR formula overall. Adding AR/%AR never feels effective in increasing chance-to-hit. Maybe also increase DEX contribution towards AR. Dex is always a dump-stat unless you are doing Max-Block.

[@tarron3237]

Skaling of single target dmg vs AoE is not consistent or sensible. Furthermore melee dmg vs spell dmg is also not consistent or sensible. Melee combat is more dangerous, thus dmg in melee should be higher to offset that fact. So the whole problem is a conceptual one.

[@justinhildebrand1515]

Db trying to hint to us that melee will be the new runeword focus 🤔👀😂

[@Casper26699]

wasn't expecting much but damn these are some solid ideas, hope blizz see's this

[@DanielSt444]

I'm not sure that buffing heavy armor would be enough to incentivize people to wear it. Because if you are at the point where you can afford a CoH or something then it's pretty unlikely that you're going to die doing almost anything in the game. It might help at lower gear levels though... probably help the merc too

[@refikalpertuncer8512]

Good ideas but they wont make a player choose melee over caster. Casters are fast and efficient, even at early game with a little bit of luck. Melee characters primarily require a drastic pure damage buff and some sort of high dps area of effect skill, like cleave or ground slam etc. Only then these changes should be applied. Another way to improve melee is to create easy access to items that can change the damage type from physical to elemental by a large percent. Melee is so far behind, very difficult to bring them on par with only couple of changes..

[@gwelandor7583]

The damage reduction on medium and heavy armours is awesome. Also like the Zod buff 💪🏻

[@zarthemad8386]

1: Remove Cap, and adjust the calc to give players a bonus to hit mobs (a 10-15% shift) 2: Remove entirely 3: Keep as is (pvp mainly affected) 4: THIS IS MANDATORY!!!!! 5: NM weapon bases +25%, Hell weapon bases +75% RAW values .. All damage is just from crushing blows. 6: No (weapon buffs cover this) 7: No 8: No, only p2w/farmers would get. Zods are unicorns ... or buff rune drops by 500-1000% 9: Yes 10: Yes 11: Medium Armor gives 20% (chest 10 boots 5, helm 5, gloves, 5) Heavy 40% and double the others

[@SteveEwe]

They definitely need to remove running Def penalty from armour type. It doesn't make sense that you lose that much armour effectiveness when running. Maybe lose a small amount of contributing defense from dexterity bonus, that way defense contributing from armour retains its value. And perhaps a reduced diminshing return on defense values overall. If you stack different defense values and chart the percentage chance to get hit you will see a curve disfavour additional defense, the increase in percent chance of avoiding a hit falls off a cliff at very high defense values. There isn't much incentive to wear 600 defense armour as opposed to 400 defense armour, but the penalty (str required and encumbrance) is disproportionately worse, once you stack other defense and buffs. It's a psychological trap to think a really heavy high defense armour is better than a typical Duskshroud. A well geared character gets like 1 or 2% better effectiveness from it. And the better all your other defense items and buffs are, the less favorable the heavy body armour is.

[@colleptic]

Provide greater AOE to melee - this the one of the most important areas. BUT, this must not be done via adding other class's magic to weapons or whatever. They need to fix melee skills that are already there. Fix the class, do not give them corpse explode...what... should we all just be Necros? All melee trees/skills already have abilities that just need to be tweaked. For example, Double Swing attacks two targets...why does that not scale to more targets as you put points into it? By 20 points, it should do 6 targets...and with better gear/points, it should add even more targets. This then carries over to Frenzy. Concentrate needs to be a single target skill, that adds CB, but Berserk should also have a target multiplier as well...as you are BERSERK! After this, have pierce items/skills allow a cut through affect to happen, just like they do for ranged weapons. Amazon's already have that as a skill, with Barbs you can add it as a lesser buff when you train masteries. Paladins may only get it from items, as their Auras, with a buffed Zeal target count prob would not need it added in anywhere. I know I have not talked about each class, but you should be able to see the picture here...the skills are ALREADY there!

[@r3niferx]

I love every change listed here, maybe except nr 9 but this is great list and I would love them to happen!

[@MrJexx1972]

Do you think they will bring back ultra wide screen support?

[@Bugeaters]

Most of these seem like solid ideas. I don't like splash damage, and buffing base damage or changing zod would need to be done very carefully though

[@VanTemplar]

One more from me: Allow Frenzy to work with two handed weapons. Just imagine a Frenzy Barb swinging a two handed BoTD at crazy speeds while having added AOE as well. Would love that!

[@brandonmakridis1565]

When you make a melee attack in D2 (and D2R) the calculation has 2 parts. One of them is influenced by your attack rating (and the monster's defense), and the other part is influenced by your level (and the monster's level). Personally, I think they should remove the level side of the equation, and base it solely on your AR vs the monster DEF. I also agree with removing the 95% cap. Also, to clarify, the ITD mod takes away the attack rating portion of the equation (essentially making that part of the equation 100% since the monster defense is no longer considered), but it keeps the level side of it (and still maxes out at 95%).

[@lukeknopp4267]

I think its easy enough to press walk when in melee range. Its not realistic to be able to block when running, shields are heavy

[@juker92]

i think rising bosses' HP is a bad idea because it forces you to equip CB if you want to do any damage, essentially making any other weapon or equipment that doesn't have it useless

[@johnjackson2349]

I agree with most of these changes to be honest. The only one I would frown at would be buffing the base damage of items. Simply because it would also affect things like life leech. My ww barb has already reached the point of invincibility due to how much he leeches and more damage would make this even worse

[@grattata4364]

To counter this they could just reduce the LL/ML on hell to like 1/4 or 1/5 instead of 1/3. The problem you're talking about isn't rocket science to solve.

[@johnsmith4082]

One change that would help 2-handers would be to reduce the strength and dexterity requirements. Sure it's a bigger, heavier weapon, but you're also using two hands! This would also allow 2-hander builds to invest more points in vitality, which is much more important when you don't have a shield.

[@PastryDeath]

I do think melee needs to be changed, but I don't really like the concept of bandaid changes. Things like having a runeword that procs corpse explosion on kill is an awesome idea, but I'd like to see the more fundamental changes. What about something like "when your melee skill reaches level 30, it becomes always hits." That way you experience all of the difficulties of the game with the handicap of hit rating, but once you reach the end game, you no longer have to worry about it. What I'd like to see is the expansion of Oskills to include more game changing class abilities (teleport, amazon avoidance passives, energy shield, battle orders, conviction etc). Maybe make them rare only or magic only affixes, or maybe you can only get them from a unique large charm that drops off the UBER UBER Grizwald boss. This game needs brand new content or else it's dead in a few months.

[@suprisedlink9374]

I agree with all of these. It would really shake up the meta and make melee feel much less stale.

[@JJV7243]

Light armor - lose all defense while running, medium = lose 50%, heavy = lose none. Would help balance the armors. Do the same for shields and block chance.