If you could mod d2 resurrected, mainly changes to runewords, skill scaling, synergies, enemy hp / damage / resistances, what would you do, or what would a RBD consensus look like? I know it is pretentious of me, having played through a few times, and right now abusing spirit and insight on my hydra sorc girl (and on my lightning trapper too), but I'm curious none the less.
From what I gathered, there are a few playstyles, or "schools of playing" here. KingofPain's nudist and tweaked variants, T-Hawk's hardcore single pass Star Teams, Kylearan's async team with limited shopping, and of course Sirian's old-old single pass runs, and even Sullla's curious "anything goes" single pass softcore play.
To get back to the Spirit / Insight, I still remember this from Page 2 of T-Hawk's hardcore start team thread:
As much as I am abusing it (in fact I'll go play with it right away after hitting "post thread"), there is the nagging annoyance at seeing a nice rare sorcie orb with +2 sorceress skills (and 1-2 automod for skills I'm not using right now), fast cast and some mana and know it to be inferior to spirit on many levels. Not only does spirit have way more mana and fast cast than most comparably great rares, but it also has a ton of fast hit recovery, and some vitality as cherry on top, all for the cost of an amn at most. If it was "merely" 20% fast cast, 2 to all skills, and +45..60 energy, (on top of the rune granted bonuses) it would still be great and an auto-include for most casting-oriented players, but it could be superseded by good rares that either cover it's now lost defensive bonuses (for example, a good life affix on a sorc orb), or provide better offense (trapper claws with IAS). I reckon the fast cast could even be lowered to 10% at this cost too.
Insight, meditation aside, is a crazy package too. Lower 60% of a cruel prefix, 16 to 23 levels worth of Penetrate in attack rating, Critical Strike, 5 all attributes, and finally magic find as cherry on top. You could split Insight into two runewords, one with meditation, the other with the rest, and both would be more or less autoinclude for a good part of the game, with each other being their only competitor.
This finally brings the topic of granted-auras and oskills. How much is too much? Casters have been coddled, more or less constantly through the patches, getting both Insight for their merc, and mana potions from vendors. Since 2.4 they can even opt-out from using a desert guy as tank and bring a bow girl instead who doesn't suicide into big boss packs in hell as often.
Minion masters, or just anyone with castable / spammable minions get to use Edge for the thorns aura, which competes with Iron Maiden, and blows Spirit of Barbs, or even the paladin's own Thorns aura out of the water.
Infinity is another autoinclude, albeit at levels so rich I dont have any frame of reference to comment on.
On the Oskill front, Passion / Kingslayer seem (from an outsider view) like a "Just Right" level: expensive flavor, not directly competing with their main class competitors.
Enigma and Call to Arms however, are clearly of the "one-right-choice" (if at crazy late points) type, but again, not much else I can say about them or what to do about them.
On the skills front themselves, Lightning Bolt is bugging me - the idea itself is great: Thrown attack that is essentially a spell in terms of being unblockable and ignoring AR/Defense, having flat lightning damage based on skill level, and converting weapon damage to lightning. It is crippled by lacking damage (both ED% and flat lightning damage) in the skill itself though, and in the amazon lacking access to off-weapon ED% beyond dexterity and a might mercenary.
From what I gathered, there are a few playstyles, or "schools of playing" here. KingofPain's nudist and tweaked variants, T-Hawk's hardcore single pass Star Teams, Kylearan's async team with limited shopping, and of course Sirian's old-old single pass runs, and even Sullla's curious "anything goes" single pass softcore play.
To get back to the Spirit / Insight, I still remember this from Page 2 of T-Hawk's hardcore start team thread:
(December 3rd, 2019, 22:03)T-hawk Wrote: Insight for the merc and Spirit for the caster are just automatic choices with almost no chance they'll be superseded during the lifetime of a twinkless character or group.
As much as I am abusing it (in fact I'll go play with it right away after hitting "post thread"), there is the nagging annoyance at seeing a nice rare sorcie orb with +2 sorceress skills (and 1-2 automod for skills I'm not using right now), fast cast and some mana and know it to be inferior to spirit on many levels. Not only does spirit have way more mana and fast cast than most comparably great rares, but it also has a ton of fast hit recovery, and some vitality as cherry on top, all for the cost of an amn at most. If it was "merely" 20% fast cast, 2 to all skills, and +45..60 energy, (on top of the rune granted bonuses) it would still be great and an auto-include for most casting-oriented players, but it could be superseded by good rares that either cover it's now lost defensive bonuses (for example, a good life affix on a sorc orb), or provide better offense (trapper claws with IAS). I reckon the fast cast could even be lowered to 10% at this cost too.
Insight, meditation aside, is a crazy package too. Lower 60% of a cruel prefix, 16 to 23 levels worth of Penetrate in attack rating, Critical Strike, 5 all attributes, and finally magic find as cherry on top. You could split Insight into two runewords, one with meditation, the other with the rest, and both would be more or less autoinclude for a good part of the game, with each other being their only competitor.
This finally brings the topic of granted-auras and oskills. How much is too much? Casters have been coddled, more or less constantly through the patches, getting both Insight for their merc, and mana potions from vendors. Since 2.4 they can even opt-out from using a desert guy as tank and bring a bow girl instead who doesn't suicide into big boss packs in hell as often.
Minion masters, or just anyone with castable / spammable minions get to use Edge for the thorns aura, which competes with Iron Maiden, and blows Spirit of Barbs, or even the paladin's own Thorns aura out of the water.
Infinity is another autoinclude, albeit at levels so rich I dont have any frame of reference to comment on.
On the Oskill front, Passion / Kingslayer seem (from an outsider view) like a "Just Right" level: expensive flavor, not directly competing with their main class competitors.
Enigma and Call to Arms however, are clearly of the "one-right-choice" (if at crazy late points) type, but again, not much else I can say about them or what to do about them.
On the skills front themselves, Lightning Bolt is bugging me - the idea itself is great: Thrown attack that is essentially a spell in terms of being unblockable and ignoring AR/Defense, having flat lightning damage based on skill level, and converting weapon damage to lightning. It is crippled by lacking damage (both ED% and flat lightning damage) in the skill itself though, and in the amazon lacking access to off-weapon ED% beyond dexterity and a might mercenary.