After 11 years there are finally extensive changes

Blizzard hasn’t changed Diablo 2 much for over a decade, but the new edition now seems to be reason enough to tweak the class balancing a little after a long time and add some new content.

Diablo 2: Resurrected gets class adjustments with Patch 2.4

The last time there were changes to the classes for Diablo 2 was 2010. With patch 2.4 for Diablo 2: Resurrected, it happens again after more than eleven years. The patch will Early 2022 initially on the PTR tested and includes the following:

• Return of the four rankings from the original
• Overhaul of the mercenaries
• New rune words
• Adjustments to class balancing

Ranking list, runewords and mercenaries

Diablo veterans already know the rankings from the original and are already waiting to be able to compete with others in the new edition. These four rankings will be available with the patch:

• Standard Ranking: The normal version of the ranking with four acts.
• Hardcore ranking: The hardcore version (only one life) of the four-act leaderboard.
• Standard ranking list (extension): The normal version of the leaderboard, which includes five acts, as it contains the content from the expansion Lord of Destruction contains.
• Hardcore ranking (expansion): The hardcore version (only one life) of the ranking list with five acts, i.e. the content from the expansion Lord of Destruction.

the new rune words are first introduced in the rankings over several seasons and then find their way to the characters that you do not play in the rankings. Blizzard has not yet revealed what new rune words will be. The same applies to the specific adjustments made to the mercenaries. It is known, however, that Blizzard want to create more alternatives to the popular desert mercenaryby upgrading the other three mercenaries.

Class adjustments in Diablo 2: Resurrected

When it comes to adjustments, Blizzard is primarily concerned with: Improve rarely used skills and buildsto add variety to the way you play. Exact details about the adjustments are not yet available, but the developers already explain in their blog post where the journey should go.

Amazon: In the Amazon, some hand-to-hand combat skills are to be improved, while the synergies in this area are to be adjusted at the same time in order to enable more combinations. In addition, a few bow and crossbow skills should be strengthened.

Assassin: The Assassin is said to provide more incentives for martial arts builds. For this, the creation and output of combo points should be revised. In addition, little-used trap skills should be improved.

Barbarian: Some combat skills are being reworked for the barbarian to make them more attractive. The same applies to some of the throwable skills.

Druid: The fire skills of the druid will be improved, as will some summoning skills, so that they are better scalable and usable at higher difficulty levels.

Necromancer: For the necromancer there are a few small improvements to the skeleton mage and rarely used golems. Bone Skill Synergies will be improved to be more useful on higher levels of difficulty.

Paladin: A few seldom used skills are strengthened on the paladin. Additionally, offensive auras scale better to remain an option on high difficulty.

Sorceress: The sorceress receives improvements in her armor skills. In addition, new synergies should make lightning builds more attractive. Last but not least, there are a few adjustments to certain fire skills.

(Source: Blizzard)

You can see all the details of the changes tonight (December 16) from 8:00 p.m. on the Twitch channel from the content creator MrLlamaSC. The design lead of Diablo 2: Resurrected, Robert Gallerani, will be present to present the patch in more detail and to answer your questions.

There are quite a few purists of the brand in the Diablo 2 community “Everything stays as it is here”which is why the patch, which is actually small compared to other games, is quite a big deal for the game. It remains to be seen how the overall community will react to the changes.