D2R 2.4 - First Impressions

[Excalibur]

So guys, how do you find the new patch so far?
I joined for a few minutes to check some stuff and I am already excited!

First thing that I checked is whether the Javelins have more quantity and ...
Thunderstroke has now 120 Quantity and Titan's 180!!!



Second thing was to check the new level 85 caves in Act 5 for the monster density. I think they have a few more mobs but nothing that crazy.
Third thing to check was the Legacy option and YEAH! They improved it a LOT! It's close to 90% from the original D2 .. but the black bars remain.
Funny thing is that the cursor can also be moved to the black bars. I am using the "Glide" setting here:



Lastly, the Player settings persists now not only when you save and exit but also when you quit the game ENTIRELY.
Basically, the game keeps the last Players Setting that you have! Also, every time you join a game, you get the message at what player settings you are! Very very convenient!



I haven't played yet, these were just the stuff that I noticed and checked so far and I am very thrilled to explore more new stuff.
So what about you? Is there any change that you were eagerly waiting for?

 

[lizard]

I played my Zon on Switch and it is very noticable the lack of interuptions/attack cancelling from dodge evade etc.

Now if they only fixed the Valkyrie bug so I dont have to listen to her moaning. or at least let me turn it down withoit turning off the entire sound of D2r.

I look forward to try out the new frenzy barb merc and continue my all blue summon druid.

 

[Foghorn Leghorn]

A few things I've noticed so far with my Frostmaiden:

-having a quiver full of 500 arrows instead of 300 arrows is certainly a nice QoL improvement
-reducing the mana cost of Freezing Arrow is helping out nicely as well. I've done about 10 Stony Tombs runs as a test, and I don't believe she's chugged a mana potion yet
-I noted in the Bugs thread that Creeping Feature, the super unique located on Level 2 of the Stony Tombs, seems to be absent in my map. Not sure what's driving that....
-I'm aiming to equip an Insight bow for now (she's still a poor untwinked Amazon, so no Ice or Mav's set) so that I can beef up the merc with an Obedience or something
-my RNG luck still stinks

 

[ziambe]

hird thing to check was the Legacy option and YEAH! They improved it a LOT! It's close to 90% from the original D2 .. but the black bars remain.
Funny thing is that the cursor can also be moved to the black bars. I am using the "Glide" setting here:

Thanks for this! I would love to hear more about the graphics changes

 

[Miron]

Did some quick testings with various chars and act 3 mercs. Few observations:

Druid summoner - have full summoner with ravens exception (about 10 hard points in) and was expecting at least 1000+ damage but got only about 800.

I made a bow based hunter to support a limited number of summons but this new change favor caster type summoner to keep recasting ravens and wolves since they tend to die a lot on higher settings (I played p3)


Act 3 mercs - tried both lightning and fire with druid summoner. Expected to see the merc cast enchant on different units but it was more like an aura, he cast something and suddenly I had the effect on my char.

Didn't notice any drastic improvement in kill speed because of enchant and the merc is still less effective then the rogue IMO when facing/traveling in areas with lots of FIs.

Wasn't impressed with lightning either, did a quick test in RoF and felt like static work too slow and doesn't improve efficiency.
Anyway, more tests needed to fully appreciate the new mercs.


MA sin - used phoenix striker (D-claws as finishing move) to test new changes. Basically the result is that you can have at least 2 types of damage at any moment with first 2 finishing moves. You still need to control the number of charges, at least with D-claws, to maximize the effect of the attack when facing different immunities at the same time.


The new changes are nice overall, and I would like to test the new act5 mercs but in the end I feel that for existing chars it will hurt their efficiency too much to loose act2 merc. I'm not min-maxing my chars but the mercs were chosen to cover specific needs, especially with non cookie-cutter builds, and I feel the new mercs are not enough to replace existing mercs.

 

[Nazdakka]

I mean I'm only on Act 1 normal, but my Druid summons made very short work of /p8 Andariel.

 

[Ghonn]

Started a spearzon and breezed through P8 normal using fend and jab. It was fun although I don't have earlier experience about this build. Also she slowed down a quite a bit in nightmare so I definitely have some farming to do. Will probably convert into bow as soon as I can craft an Insight in a bow.

- I also love the player setting now persisting even over complete shutdown of D2

- Upgraded a freshly found Death's Sash into a demonhide belt. More rows, yeah! Goes fantastically with Death's gloves now.

- Dual wielding A5 merc. There are definitely better options for mercenaries for this char but it's something new, fun and intriguing. Looking forward to equipping him with proper gear as my amazon progresses further.

Any end game changes remain yet to be tested

 

[snickersnack]

I've only played a little bit of 2.4; RL has been a bit busy. Also, it took me a bit of time to transfer items. It wasn't too bad in terms of total time, but if I only have 30-40 minutes each evening, well....

I had already played my light sorc a bit, and I didn't notice much different aside from some quality of life stuff. Getting the /playersx message when loading in is nice.

So, I made Obedience in a Matriarchal Spear just a few minutes ago (+2 J/S ) and took my spearzon for a spin. HOLY HELL GUYS. Wow. She was briefly parked at Eldritch where I had levelled her up to 82. I loaded up the game, went to RoF to prebuff with Treachery and CTA and went to Eldritch. It was quite easy on /p7. Then, I decided to continue questing, and then I realized that I have a maxed out Valkyrie that I wasn't using. Wow, this character is pretty strong. The kill speed was pretty good and my health bulb only dipped a little bit. 90% FHR feels good, and with 63% CB, she'll be a pretty good boss killer. I might do some Baal runs with her. We'll see, maybe not, but she has cold/fire/light absorb also. She could use a little more all res, but that can be fixed with a sc or two.

I'm really glad that I started her and levelled her up in anticipation of the fixed dodge/avoid/evade bug.

 

[Qwazi]

Is insight in a bow going to be available for offline single player characters?

 

[snickersnack]

Is insight in a bow going to be available for offline single player characters?

Yup. Those RW changes aren't ladder related. When they do add ladder stuff, SP gains those things at the end of the ladder season.

 

[Excalibur]

it is very noticable the lack of interuptions/attack cancelling from dodge evade etc.

That's definitely a great QoL for Amazon!

Thanks for this! I would love to hear more about the graphics changes

Quite impressed they even bothered with it. I though they are going to abandon the Legacy graphics!

Yup. Those RW changes aren't ladder related. When they do add ladder stuff, SP gains those things at the end of the ladder season.

Really? I though all the Runewords available in 2.4 will be ladder only.
Does that mean flickering flame will work in offline mode?

 

[lizard]

Really? I though all the Runewords available in 2.4 will be ladder only.
Does that mean flickering flame will work in offline mode?

All the new Runewords (Mist, Obsession etc) are ladder excusive and wont be in SP until ladder 1 ends, but the changes to runeword bases (infinity spear, insight bow etc) will be available to SP afaik. SP is treated as non-ladder.

There will probably be mods that enable the new runewords, but this is against the rules here and I dont plan on using them (mods) in D2R anyway.

 

[maxicek]

My LS is weaker as I have the wrong synergies pumped. May need to respec

 

[maxicek]

There will probably be mods that enable the new runewords, but this is against the rules here and I dont plan on using them (mods) in D2R anyway.

Confirming it will be against the rules. D2R will stay vanilla, only GoMule allowed.

 

[Excalibur]

My LS is weaker as I have the wrong synergies pumped. May need to respec

With the proper Synergies it looks like you will still deal the same damage but you will also save 20 Points from Death Sentry!
So it's definitely an improvement!

 

[maxicek]

Yes, I think when I respec it will be better. I have loads of stat points wasted anyway from before I put together Enigma.

 

[Cattleya]

From what I've seen on the B.net forums, the ladder only runewords are currently working in Single Player. (Likewise, the new set upgrade cube recipes seem to be set as Ladder only online, and I know some people here have successfully used them in SP.)

I have no idea if this is intended or a bug. (There's been no official word either way.) So, I'd proceed with caution with any of the ladder only stuff right now. (Either the new runewords or the cube recipes.)

Stuff like the new bases for existing runeword (like Insight in bows) is working currently online off-ladder, so those should all be pretty safe to use right now in SP.

 

[Excalibur]

From what I've seen on the B.net forums, the ladder only runewords are currently working in Single Player. (Likewise, the new set upgrade cube recipes seem to be set as Ladder only online, and I know some people here have successfully used them in SP.)

Can you link me please?

 

[Cattleya]

Here are a couple of threads where people say they have been able to make them in SP:

Can 2.4 runewords be made in single player?

i mean i would assume so, as the old ladder only runeword were available in single player, but i don’t want to waste the runes. (obviously the old runewords in new bases work, thats not what im asking, i mean the NEW runeword)

us.forums.blizzard.com

Is this intended?

After two days of complainin’ about not having access to the new runewords in Single Player according to the patch notes, thanks to someone on the boards, I discovered we actually can create them. So now my question is: Is this intended? I don’t see why it wouldn’t be but also it isn’t beyond...

us.forums.blizzard.com

 

[Excalibur]

Thank you for the links!
From a post that I read it seems like this is a mistake. Question is whether Blizzard will let it be or fix it.
Curious because I really wanted to make a Holy Fire Paladin and I needed that Flickering Flame.

This is the post

I went in the game files to check this and i can confirm that as for right now new runewords ARE NOT AVAILABLE for the single player or non-ladde.
UPD: Actually it seems to be working in game just fine despite it being ladder only in the game files.