omg they fixed auras from items from switching on/off. This is HUGE for characters wearing items that grant auras. Dual dreamers = actually functioning now. My favorite character, Magus, wearing Hand of Justice/Dragon/Dream/Dream is pounding faces full speed now. I'm so glad because while I don't mind playing in 1.14, this particular character is so fun to play with a controller. All melees are fun to play with controller but this one is my favorite melee and it's just so much better when the auras actually work at all times.
Also since Holy freeze granted from ICE runeword actually works all the time, ice maiden actually is playable now. Huzzah.
They sort of mentioned this in patch notes kind of.. but they said
- Fixed an issue where auras could toggle off and on briefly while performing inventory functions
UH NO dude. They were toggling on and off at all times. Luckily the fix fixes it at all times so they work fully correctly now praise tiny supple baby jesus.
Force move is in key bindings for those of you who are looking for it. Can't bind it to main click buttons unfortunately, kinda sad about that. Force move is kinda meh overall, like maybe I'll get used to it but you can't just hold it down like you can in d3 - as soon as you attack it gets reset, so you have to re-press it. Still kinda of nice not having to click everything all the time. Also with item labels always showing there's a lot less worry about accidentally picking up items. Maybe I'll figure out a control scheme I really like in the future nothing is jumping out to me right now. I'd like to use space or something for force move and just always have items showing but I'm not sure if I like that yet.
You can set default players settings in the gameplay settings as well now too, and can change them on the fly using this interface as well I guess. HOWEVER IT RESETS EVERY GAME. WHAT. How worthless. This is the worst implementation of a setting I've ever seen. Good to at least give console players the option, but why reset it every game? It's all the way at the bottom too, so if you want to set it every game, you have to go into settings and scroll AAAALL the way down to the very bottom of all the gameplay settings.
/nopickup functions with auto-gold pickup now fully correctly, and also functions correctly period when using a controller. On controller particularly this is really nice because there were times like at the throne of destruction where even when item labels were toggled off, items that you were standing on top of would show up anyways no matter what version of settings you had on. Now with /nopickup enabled, item labels will not show up unless you specifically have them toggled on or are holding down the show item button. VERY NICE. Great job!
I super enjoy push-to-cast. This is great on casters, it's great on melee, it's great for everything. pushing a button and having it cast is just like... pure bliss my guys. This one change alone is such a massive QOL that it puts the final nail in the 1.14 coffin for me personally.
IAS Cap was brought back - this change is undocumented in the patch notes. My assassin trap laying speed is back to normal
I can't say I'm surprised but I can say that I am sad. It was fun while it lasted boys. Oh well, guess I can stop looking for that matriarchal bow.
Kinda sad about them removing dead mercs from showing up in town when making a new game. Was a nice little reminder to go bringem back to life.
The implications of a patch like this are pretty huge imo - It shows strongly that they likely aren't going to stop development of the game yet. We'll probably see more patches like this one! While some things are a miss for me (weird choices with players settings slider), pretty much everything else is huge overall for D2 and a big step towards making the game really feel more modern. I hope to see more of these types of options in the future. I really like that there isn't a departure from what D2 is here, it's just giving more options for interacting with the game, I'd love to see more.
Now lets get some balance changes as well for those underperforming underused skills and maybe some items as well *runs and hides*