Re: 1.13 PTR is UP
- Fixed an item dupe bug.
We'll see if this means no more dupes, period, which would make D2 a very different game online, for the better.
- Respecialization is now possible! Completing the 'Den of Evil' quest will now additionally reward 1 free respec which can be saved. Players who have already completed this quest should receive 1 free respec in Hell difficulty.
Eh, 3 max per character then? I suppose it will change some builds that rely on level 24-30 skills, and I suppose some old characters out there with mistakes can be fixed.
- Increased the drop rate of high runes.
Ah, the million dollar question is: by how much? Hopefully it with no dupes it will be possible but difficult to make certain runewords.
- Support for blit scaling in windowed mode. The game can now be maximized to the largest 4:3 resolution supported (hooray widescreen users).
I..never noticed this?
- Some rare drop items now have an orange color. i.e. Runes and items required for Uber Tristam.
Crafteds are orange, why not another, new color? Just seems like an odd decision.
- Nightmare/Hell WilloWisps champions/uniques have had their damage greatly reduced.
Thank god, hell baal runs maybe won't be "someone teles in 10 seconds or everyone leaves, and in the end its very hard to get baal runs" perhaps?
- Greatly reduced the explosion damage dealt by Fire Enchanted monsters.
Very good, I don't know how they managed to miss this when it was introduced, but glad it's gone.
- Removed Oblivion Knight's Iron Maiden curse.
"Physical characters can now complete Act 4"
- Updated two Act 5 mercenary names to Klar and Tryneus.
Are these well-known forumers are something, somewhere?
- Added the windows system buttons to the game window (MIN, MAX, CLOSE).
I love this. It took ~30 seconds to alt+tab back in, I'm used to switching between games and other things since I last played D2.
-Immolation Arrow - Increased radius of Explosion effect by 33% and Immolation effect by 50%.
-Immolation Arrow - Explosion effect damage increased by 20%.
-Immolation Arrow - Increased base duration by 33%.
This is good. But how about the spear and jav tree (lightning fury excepted)?
-Shadow Master - Increased resistance range per point from 5-80 to 5-90.
Was shadow masters dying to elemental damage a major issue I wasn't aware of? But how about most martial arts skills, the right side of the traps tree, magic hammer, and mind blast?
-Whirlwind - Reduced initial mana cost by 50%.
-Masteries - Changed critical strike chance from 0-25 to 0-35.
Ok, Whirlwind is hard to use a low levels, but how about throwing skills, stun, bash, and war cry?
-Blessed Hammer - No longer ignores resistances of undead and demons.
Hammerdins can't do the second wave now, otherwise still stupidly powerful.. How about sacrifice, holy bolt, conversion, FoH, sanctuary, thorns, blessed aim?
-Werebear - Damage bonus increased by 15% across all ranks.
-Werebear - Increased health by 25% and armor by 1% per point.
-Shockwave - Synergy from Maul adds 5% damage per point.
Werebear buff is awesome, it always lagged behind wolf in damage. What is meant by "armor"? But how about the fire elemental skills and summons?
-Blood Golem - Removed negative shared life effect (player no longer loses life when golem takes damage).
-Corpse Explosion - Increased base damage dealt from 60% - 100% to 70% - 120% of corpses health.
-Poison Nova - Increased base damage by 15%.
CE was already a great skill in single players games, hopefully this will make it a better nicer to use in 8 player games. Blood golem still does no damage, so no one is going to use it as a heal when they can use a skeleton army. Poison nova buff is welcome, but how about poison dagger, the golems, and every curse except amp and LR?
-Firewall - Synergy receives 1% damage per point of Inferno and Blaze and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Blaze - Synergy receives 2% damage per point of Firewall and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Hydra - Increased base damage by 15% per rank.
-Hydra - Increased base speed of Hydra projectile.
-Hydra - Reduced cooldown by 25%.
-Lightning Mastery - Reduced overall effect by 15%.
Hydra has always been one of my favorite skills, but the "set up" was annoying when you could have just spammed a skill 10 times in the same period. Blaze..is still probably way too hard to use effectively. It should be doing insane damage considering how it works. I'm glad lightning mastery got a nerf. But what about the several other overpowered sorc skills that can be spammed with no thought to mana, the armors, the novas?
Conspicuously missing: Join game list is still awful and worthless and extremely antiquated.
)
Finally a little competition to the hammer guy
