Diablo2 Patch 1.15 - Socket Spectacular

[Pijus]

If Blizzard were to put out another Diablo2 patch, what would you want in it? Me, I want the ability to freely socket my gear.

For patch 1.15 I would like Blizzard to add a cube recipe that takes an item, a perfect skull and a jewel, and sockets the item. 4 sockets for magic items, 2 sockets for rare items, and 1 socket for unique and set items.

I want to get all of your opinions on what effects this recipe would have on the game, and if you like it or not.

I came to want this recipe after playing an untwinked spear WW barb, and several untwinked Strafe amazons. I got one of these amazons into hell, using a rare bow that I found in normal act4. Because nothing better dropped in all of nightmare. And I stopped in nightmare LK to farm for a while. Got a Lem rune, made a Treachery. But of all the rare and magic bows that dropped from the superchests, and of all the bows I gambled while farming there, nothing was even remotely good. One of those bows I found was really interesting. It was a magic now that was basically as good as my current bow. I thought, "if I take this to Larzuk and get 2 sockets, it would be an improvement". But then I thought "can I waste my Larzuk socket on a middling bow? Also, what if he gives me 1 socket?". And that's when I decided that Blizzard was too stringy with the sockets.

We could have a whole new universe of possibilities if we had that cube recipe. Just imagine it!
Merciless Gothic Bow 'NefEthEth Perfect Skull'
Cruel Lance 'ShaelShaelShaelShael'
Ruby Gothic Plate of the Mammoth 'OrtThul Perfect Topaz Perfect Topaz'
Deadly Circlet of Amicae 'SolSolSol'

Just typing these items out makes me really excited to play some D2 and find some magic and rare items! I do see a couple of potential issues that could arise. First, having all those sockets would make the game slightly easier. And several types of items would get a serious power boost. Paladin shields could be made to give insane amount of resistances. JMoD would be replaced by CMoD(chromatic monarch of deflecting). And super awesome endgame circlets could have 2 sockets added to them, making them even more awesome. Personally I think there are acceptable tradeoffs for all the fun that we could have.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts, thanks!

 

[D2DC]

#1 Ubers. I don't really care about Torch/Anni since I've never used them anyway.

#2 Clvl up to 100.

 

[Miron]

@Pijus as you said yourself it might make the game easier but at this point (less people playing, game is old etc.) It's less of an issue.
Maybe a more balanced option will be a recepie that add 'jewelers' to magic items and retain the risk of 1 socket for rare items?
Another option is something similar to existing recepies that creates magic items. The new recepie will create/reroll the magic item while adding 'jewelers' affix.

As for patch 1.15:
- Allow barb mercs to use axes
- Allow barb mercs to cast BO (low level with set duration?)
- Allow act3 mercs to use daggers
- Remove item type limitations from crafting recepies (any reason for it in the first place?). For example - any gloves can be used instead of only chain gloves type for Hit Power recepie
- Improve crafts auto-mods. For example:
Safety weapon will add 50% slow and 'knock back'.
Hit Power weapon will add 250% ED and 20 Max or 250-500 lightning and 250-500 cold damage (instead of ED)

* I see crafts as the biggest and unexplored potential in the game that can compete with runewords.

 

[Pijus]

@Miron Replacing the prefix with jewelers would make all magic weapons useless. So that's a no go for me. And the risk of 1 socket for rares is too punishing. You have to get ultra lucky to find a good rare in the first place. And then you roll one socket and ruin it? I couldn't deal with that. It's just introducing a layer of gambling that doesn't need to be there. I actually thought rares should get 3 sockets at first. But then I read the Arreat Summit, where they say "magic items can have 4 sockets, rare items can have 2 sockets, unique items can have 1 socket" and I thought that sounded very right. Also, since helms are capped at 3 sockets, rare helms with 3 sockets would make them too good compared to magic helms.

I like your suggestions for the barb mercs. I remember thinking that barb mercs should be able to use more weapons.

 

[art_vandelay]

Too many things to list. Most importantly:

• Make it so that bosses can spawn in weird colors again. They broke this in 1.10 and since then there are no more purple, blue and green (and some other wondrous colours) bosses in the game anymore.
• Bring back Warped Ones (Fallen) in the Durance of Hate!
• Add interesting stuff to areas nobody goes to, like guest monsters, sparkly/super chests or just a particularly high boss density. Whatever gets people to go there. (There are still so many projectiles they could give to new viper species: Frozen Orb Vipers! )
• Generally add more superuniques to the game. There should be Frenzytaur superuniques at the very least (Cursed, Extra Strong, Fanaticism?).
• Adding to the last part: More superuniques that spawn together in dangerous combinations, like the council.
• Make Wave Bosses harder (always CE Bartuc!) but in return make them drop like proper bosses and let Bartuc and his minions drop like the Travincal council members. Also reduce the time it takes for Baal to call them, right now it's like 11s between waves. Baal should be the most challenging AND rewarding run. Right now it is just the most annoying and disappointing run.
• Someone at the old SPF wanted this and I concur: Set upgrade recipes! 4 belt rows for that Death's Sash you want to keep using into NM.
• Add an ingame way to make stuff indestructible without wasting a socket. Something like a recipe requiring Sur+Gul so that those runes get a purpose of their own
  
• Add magic/physical damage facets so Wind Druids and HDins have something very expensive to work toward.
• Fix all Amazon bugs (Fend, Strafe, AR bonus on bow skills) and Sanctuary Aura (it should give massive % ED/AR vs. Undead originally, but it just doesn't)
• Add more class-specific uniques or fix the currently available ones. So many elite class-specific uniques are just total jokes, e.g. what where they thinking when they made Spirit Keeper???
• Let Larzuk give 3os to Crafts once more and make it so that the 'Weapon' Crafts of each type take every weapon type as input, just like in good old 1.07. Although I like what @Miron said too, just make it by general item type: belt, boot, weapon...
• Let random archer bosses spawn with Freezing/Immolation Arrow, Strafe, Pierce, Guided Arrow and a proper archer AI (like Bloodraven)
• Shift-gambling. I don't care about all the stuff above, just give me shift-gambling... please!

Well... ended up going overboard

 

[WoRG]

Just a couple quick ones that immediately come to mind...

A rune, jewel, or other socketable that adds FCR!
A rune, jewel, or other socketable, or a cube recipe, or heck, even a quest, that confers etherealness to an item


A return of 1.07 style crafting, including greater crafts, would indeed be great! Or instead of allowing blue-only affixes to spawn, enable some of the other affixes like 'of Grace and Power' or 'Elemental' as craft-only affixes...

WoRG

 

[D2DC]

I love all the monster/gameplay suggestions @art_vandelay. But, a lot of other ones are cherry picking things we like from previous versions. IMO that will take away too much from the appeal of SP.

@WoRG has some insane crafts, +500% 3os etc. But, look at what he had to go through to get there. He literally wrote the book on crafting. And, these were "impossible" for 20 years, until @Fruit figured out the ilvl 99 issue. Now imagine that every BNet player is crafting/duping items like his. They would lose all of their lustre.

SP offers you a much more varied (and punishing ) experience. Personally, I really want to play something like Frozen Orb Sorc with no casting delay. It is supposed to be the top tier cold skill, but gets pwned by Blizz. But, rather than change that in a new modern version, I relish the opportunity/challenge to go back and play 1.00. If anybody/everybody cando the same things in the most recent (BNet) patch, where is the SP advantage/appeal?

 

[Babyhell]

A great D4.

 

[nepeta]

Bring back IM, LR and MSLE. Oh and I like art_vandelay's suggestion of boss combos, that would be brutal.

 

[saracen85]

Bring back IM, LR and MSLE. Oh and I like art_vandelay's suggestion of boss combos, that would be brutal.

Haha.. Yes, IM... Gotta admit, CS seems much easier now