Fulfilling their promises from BlizzCon, the Diablo 2 developers came out swinging with a massive 23 additional Unique, Set, and Runeword changes. This comes in addition to the previous 10 items changed last season and is still in the early stages of a long list of items they want to adjust in the game. This on top of the recent news that online character conversions between Resurrected and Reign of the Warlock are being halted lead many to believe Blizzard is aiming to really push Diablo 2 into a new era with lots more changes to come.
Ladder Season 16 Schedule
Ladder Season 15 Ends: Monday, November 9, 11 a.m. PST
Season 16 Patch begins rolling out: Monday, November 9
Ladder Season 16 Starts: Friday, November 13, 5 p.m. PST
Ladder Season 16 will usher in a new opportunity for valiant adventurers to race to Level 99 and amass powerful loot along the way. We cannot wait to see which determined souls carve their name into the Leaderboard this time.
Ladder Season 16 Launch Timing
| North America | November 13, 5:00 p.m. PST |
| Europe | November 14, 1:00 a.m. GMTNovember 14, 2:00 a.m. CET |
| Asia | November 14, 9:00 a.m. CSTNovember 14, 10:00 a.m. KST |
Patch 3.4 Notes
Below, we provide our commentary for snippets from the official patch notes available here.
Character Conversion
We have made some adjustments to character conversions between partitions moving forward.
Starting November 16, players will no longer be able to convert Expansion (LoD) Online (Ladder and Non-Ladder) characters to Reign of the Warlock. Players will still be able to convert Offline characters and Classic to Expansion (LoD) conversions.
Their reasoning was this was mostly used for bots, but it may also be to allow for more flexibility in the game moving forward so they can freeze Diablo 2 Resurrected in a good place and get more creative with Reign of the Warlock.
Items Now Available in Online Non-Ladder
Previously updated Ladder-only items will be available in Non-Ladder with the new season.
This applies to RotW only; these items will not be changed for Classic or LoD.
- Angelic Raiment
- Bane Ash
- Blinkbat’s Form
- Bloodletter
- Gravenspine
- Manald Heal
- Pluckeye
- Rogue’s Bow
- The Battlebranch
- The Ward
As always, when new item changes occur on the Ladder all of the previous Ladder only item changes get pushed to non-ladder
Item Updates in Online Ladder and Offline Only
Items listed below that have been changed will only be updated on Online Ladder and Offline.
This applies to RotW only; items will not be changed for Classic or LoD.
- Dimoak’s Hew
- +100% Enhanced Damage → +100-150% Enhanced Damage
- +15 Dexterity → +20 Strength
A minor change to help increase the viability of Dimoak’s Hew early on. A little bit more damage and some extra Strength (which is more damage during the damage calculation) may make this a bit more viable early on.
- Added +15% Increased Attack Speed
- +30-40% Enhanced Damage → +40-80% Enhanced Damage
- Added +5 Minimum Damage
A funny weapon with 100% Mana Stolen per Hit that had very little damage now suddenly gains a bit more to it. While it still won’t be anything to carry your character, it may actually see play on something like an early Fury Druid.
- Griswold’s Edge
- Knockback → 4% Chance To Cast Level 1 Amplify Damage On Striking
- +80-120% Enhanced Damage → +100-160% Enhanced Damage
- Added Slows Target By 25%
Knockback removal is a great help as it often just pushes mobs out of range causing more annoyance than help for Melee characters. Amplify Damage, Additional Enhanced Damage and Slows Target are big boosts though and will lead to this being a great early-game weapon.
- The Salamander
- Added +10% Faster Cast Rate
- +2 To Fire Skills → +3 To Fire Skills
- +2 To Fire Ball → +4 To Fire Ball
Originally this weapon never had a chance because Leaf Runeword was always an improvement, but with these additions it now beat out Leaf in multiple cases, especially for a Fireball Sorceress.
- The Tannr Gorerod
- +80-100% Enhanced Damage → +200-220% Enhanced Damage
- Added 5-9% Life Stolen Per Hit
A massive damage boost with Life Stolen Per Hit means this weapon goes from unusable to a great Act 2 Mercenary weapon to level up.
- The Grim Reaper
- +20% Enhanced Damage → +80-120% Enhanced Damage
- 5% Mana Stolen Per Hit → 5-9% Mana Stolen Per Hit
Another pretty big damage boost to an underpowered weapon. While it still won’t see too much play, having a big damage stick could at least be used on a Mercenary temporarily.
- Silks of the Victor
- Added +20% Faster Run/Walk
- Added +30% Increased Attack Speed
- Added +50-100% Enhanced Damage
- Added +15% Chance To Find Magic Items
One of my favorite changes for the patch, this item is like the Skin of the Vipermagi for melee characters now. An absolutely great armor for any physical character that bridges the gap between something early like Twitchthroe and something stronger like Fortitude.
- The Impaler
- +140-170% Enhanced Damage → +170-240% Enhanced Damage
- Added Repairs 1 Durability in 4 Seconds
One of my favorite item changes. Additional damage plus Repairs durability makes this a great weapon for the Impale skill which normally is hard to use due to constant need to repair. A unique for a very underused skill.
- Coldkill
- +40 Cold Damage → +80-100 Cold Damage
- +150-190% Enhanced Damage → +160-200% Enhanced Damage
A very small boost to a Unique that already had some use cases. But with how far melee is behind casters right now, any additional damage boost is happily accepted.
- The Atlantean
- +200-250% Enhanced Damage → +250-300% Enhanced Damage
- Added +2-5 To Zeal (Paladin Only)
- Added +100-125 Attack Rating
- Added Requirements -20%
- Required Level 42 → Required Level 35
Another beautiful item that will lead to many Zealots having a blast playing through Nightmare and Hell instead of struggling to find damage. Every bit of these changes are useful and the sneaky Requirements -20% will be a big help considering how much Strength and Dexterity is needed for this sword.
- Lava Gout
- 2% Chance To Cast Level 10 Enchant On Striking → 5% Chance To Cast Level 10 Enchant On Striking
- Half Freeze Duration → Cannot Be Frozen
Cannot be Frozen on another item! For all of the Physical characters playing through needing to find this extremely important affix, having another source is always welcome. The Enchant boost is nice but won’t really change much overall.
A nice attempt at making this item useful for another underused skill, but unfortunately probably won’t be enough to really make a dent.
- Grim’s Burning Dead
- Added 15% Reanimate As: Burning Dead Archer
- Added +3-5 To Fire Golem (Necromancer Only)
- +3 To Necromancer Skill Levels → +4 To Necromancer Skill Levels
While I don’t see this item getting too much play now, it could at least be a solid summoner weapon for a little while instead of not having any use case whatsoever. That being said, without changes improving skills like Fire Golem this probably won’t have too much use.
- Swordguard
- All Resistances +10-20 → All Resistances +20-30
- Added Replenish Life +10-15
- +170-180% Enhanced Damage → +180-230% Enhanced Damage
- Added Attacker takes damage of 15-25
- +5-495 Defense (Based on Character Level) → +7-779 Defense (Based on Character Level)
Another great sword getting many buffs, Swordguard will see plenty of play on a variety of Barbarians and 2 handed Charge Paladins. With shields adding so much value, being able to get things like Resistance on a sword really increase their viability.
- Demonhorn’s Edge
- 10% Increased Attack Speed → 20% Increased Attack Speed
- Added +1 To Barbarian Skills
A nice boost to a very underused helm. While it will still be hard to roll the values high enough on this for it to have any value, at least there are cases where it could work out now.
- Veil of Steel
- Added +2 To All Skills
- Added Physical Damage Received Reduced by 15-25%
- Added Magic Resist +20-40%
One of the biggest changes of the patch, Veil of Steel went from garbage to a Crown of Ages on steroids. All of the resistances, skills, and PDR will lead to so many physical builds picking this up and even many Hardcore casters taking it for survivability.
- Ethereal Edge
- +150-180% Enhanced Damage → +220-260% Enhanced Damage
- +25% Increased Attack Speed → +40% Increased Attack Speed
- Added +2-198 To Maximum Damage (Based on Character Level)
Huge damage increases for Ethereal Edge in every way! A super exciting shapeshifter weapon that will now hit for basically double what it was hitting before. Also some possibility for use on Whirlwind Barbarians.
- Executioner’s Justice
- +240-290% Enhanced Damage → +260-300% Enhanced Damage
- 50% Chance To Cast Level 6 Decrepify When You Kill An Enemy → 25% Chance To Cast Level 13 Amplify Damage When You Kill An Enemy
- +30% Increased Attack Speed → +40% Increased Attack Speed
- Added +15 Life After Each Kill
- Added +5 To Mana After Each Kill
Our first TC87 change and it’s a great one. While the loss of Decrepify at first seems rough, gaining a Level 13 Amplify Damage means the entire screen is basically going to be Cursed when it goes off. Another item for Shapeshifters and Whirlwinders to play around with!
- Isenhart’s Armory
- Full set:
- +20% Faster Run/Walk → +30% Faster Run/Walk
- Added +25% Faster Hit Recovery
- Isenhart’s Lightbrand:
- +20% Increased Attack Speed → +40% Increased Attack Speed
- Added +5-495 Attack Rating (Based on Character Level)
- Removed 2-Piece Set Bonus +5-495 Attack Rating (Based on Character Level)
- Added 3-Piece Set Bonus: +2-198 To Maximum Damage (Based on Character Level)
- Isenhart’s Parry:
- Added 2 Piece Set Bonus: Cold Resist +15%
- Added 2 Piece Set Bonus: Fire Resist +15%
- Isenhart’s Case:
- Added Magic Resistance +25%
- Isenhart’s Horns:
- Added 5% Life Stolen Per Hit
- Full set:
Some great boosts for an easy to farm early set. Most characters will find at least 1-2 of these items every run and while they may still be Charsi food in many cases, putting a few of them together now could at least run many characters through Normal. One of my favorite changes as well is the Life Stolen Per Hit added to the helmet, giving another early game option for Mercenaries who need Life Steal to survive.
- Eternity
- 5 Socket Melee Weapons → 5 Socket Melee and Missile Weapons
- Added +30 Increased Attack Speed
- +260-310% Enhanced Damage → +300-390% Enhanced Damage
- Added +3-297 To Maximum Damage (Based on Character Level)
- Level 8 Revive (88 Charges) → +5 To Revive (O skill)
The biggest change of all, Eternity goes from a Runeword most people did not even know existed to one of the best in the game. Massive DPS buffs all around and the addition of missile weapons opens up the door for competition to Windforce and Faith for Bowazons while many melee characters may find themselves considering it as well, though Grief is still pretty tough to beat.
Conclusion
Overall, a lot of great changes that will hopefully bring more variety and excitement to builds. It’s exciting to see the developers continue to shake things up and I can’t wait to see what more they have to come.
