Edit: since it seems that for someone this is really what I would create, actually it's not. The real purpose of this thread is to make an actual suggestion to the devs to make the itemization and all other things covered in this post better and to create a really solid base where to add other features (PvEvP and so on)
However, I'd like to hear anyway some of your "mod-ideas"
today I'm here to show you the features that you can try in the Mod I'm working on: Diablo 3: Revenge of the Nephalems.
Remember that this is quite a long read and it is still a work in progress so keep in mind that the numbers you see here might be changed in the future and that much more has to come!
This is just the beginning!
In this first version of the Mod I focused more on itemization and affixes (including some changes to artisans) to get a solid base for eventual future changes (see below) and/or additions.
The Mod also includes some Quality of Life changes.
AFFIXES
One big change I've done is to affixes:
I liked the new 4/2 system implemented in patch 2.0, where some affixes couldn't compete with each other but I felt that the system still had some flaws because there were still some affixes that were mandatory or completly/almost useless.
This is why some affixes have been updated/removed and why I created another category of affixes: Innate.
Innate affixes are magic properties that:
always felt mandatory for some items
cannot be changed in any way (no mystic/blacksmith)
do not compete with each other
always roll on items.
Sockets and "item level requirement" work in a bit different way: these ones do not have a 100% chance to roll on an item even if they're now innate affixes.
Note: a reason why "item level requirement" is rolled as an innate affix is because I think it might be kinda useful for some alt leveling (even if it cannot roll on legendaries) and because so it can no longer compete with secondary affixes (which are now much more useful)
I wanted to have even secondary affixes to matter so all the ones I felt were useless are gone.
Diablo 2 had affixes like "increases light radius" and Diablo 3 had affixes like "experience per kill" which were both there just for "fun".
It's ok to have some affixes that are not very powerful but I think that in some way they ALL must be useful.
Let's have a look on the new affixes table:
Note 1: this is the list of new/updated/removed affixes. Affixes that are not listed here remain the same Note 2: 1-handed and 2-handed weapons include ranged weapons too of course Note 3: some values for 2-handed weapons are higher than the ones of 1-handed weapons (not shown in the table) Note 4: single resistance and all resistances can now roll on a same item once again (much like it happened in Diablo 2)
REMOVED AFFIXES
Experience per kill / Ignores durability lost: I felt they were completly useless so they're completly gone
Life per kill / Health Globe and Potion healing bonus: replaced with "healing bonus"
Pickup radius: replaced with "Increased Area of area of effect abilities"
Gold Find: I think that difficulty levels are enough to increase/decrease gold find
Bleed damage: more on this later
NEW AFFIXES
Increased chance to deal splash damage: this one is an innate affix and it increases the chance (not the damage) to deal splash damage by 30% (total of 50%) and it's exclusively and always rolled on 2-handed weapons. This has been done to give 2-handed weapons a way to compete with 1h+off-hand or 2x1h. Heavenly Strength has been changed. It was kinda sad that for just one passive you couldn't rely on a complete set of items.
Chance to Bleed: it increases the chance to make your target bleed (base % is 0). More on Bleed damage later.
Chance to spawn a Nephalem Glory orb: description says it all
Increased Nephalem Glory duration: description says it all
Increased Area of area of effect abilities: it increases the area of all your AoE abilities both defensive (Shouts, Mantras etc) and offensive (Rend, Rain of Vengeace etc.). It does not increase the area of "movement-abilities" such as Dashing Strike or Teleport etc.
Increased healing effects: it increases the effects of potions/globes/runes/abilities (both active and passive). In the current build of the Mod it does not affect healing affixes such as Life Regeneration, Life on Hit, Life per Fury/Spirit/Wrath spent etc. but things might change during the testing.
UPDATED AFFIXES
Chance to roll a socket: sockets now have a chance to roll and are an innate affix. Note that for 2-handed weapons you can have up to 2 sockets now.
Chance to immobilize / stun / etc. on hit: it is now an innate affix and it rolls tied to the type of weapon damage (physical, fire, frost etc.). To see the exact percentage of proc you have just to press the CTRL button while viewing the item (much like you do to see the min-max values of an affix).
Cold: Freeze
Fire / Holy: Blind
Poison / Arcane: Slow
Physical / Lightning: Stun
Increased value on single resistance affix: single resistances can now roll up to 200. One With Everything has been changed. It was kinda sad that for just one passive you couldn't have a decent amount of single resistance to make it a real choice.
Thorns: the damage values have been changed to weapon damage so the player has a better understading of how much damage they do
Reduced Level Requirement: it's an innate affix and has a chance to roll on non-legendary items only
Note: fear and knockback proc effects have gone from "normal" items, but you can find these affixes as innate affixes on some legendaries such as Windforce.
AFFIXES WITH NEW CLASSIFICATION
+X-Y damage: it's now an innate affix found on weapons, sources and mojos. No one would have ever used a 250 DPS weapon at high levels so this affix is pretty much mandatory. A proof of this is that no one legendary weapon/source/mojo (even in an un-modded patch 2.0) will ever roll without this affix.
Movement speed: it does not increase your power in any way so it's basically a secondary affix. I don't know why it was considered a primary one.
ADDITIONAL CHANGES
Bleed damage
Bleed damage is now a base "property" that every character has.
Your base chance to make a target bleed is 0% which can be increased with items.
The new bleed damage consist in dealing a X% (numbers still in phase of test) of the damage dealt over 3 seconds (in testing as well) to the target, stacking indefinitely.
This means that everytime I get a "bleed damage hit" it stacks and refreshes to its maximum duration.
E.g.:
let's assume to have a 10% bleed damage.
If I deal 200 damage per hit, I will deal an additional 10% (that's 20 damage) over 3 seconds if I get a "bleed damage" hit.
If I get a second "bleed damage" hit, before the bleed effect fades, then I will deal 40 damage over 3 seconds.
If I get a third "bleed damage" hit, before the bleed effect fades, then I will deal 60 damage over 3 seconds and so on.
Bleed damage hits can be inflicted only with NON-CRITICAL hits so it can compete with CC+CHD.
If you think that this affix might become OP, remember that your critical hits are usually 4/5 times higher than you normal hits and that the bleed effect has a short duration, so if you have to get away or you have a low chance to make the target bleed, the bleed effect might fade before you hit the target with another "bleed hit" and this will make you start from zero.
Anway it's only a matter of number balance
New calculations
The total amount of Chance to Crit, Chance to Bleed, Chance to spawn a Nephalem Glory orb on hit among all items is now calculated the same way as the one of Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction, Cooldown Reduction and Resource Cost Reduction.
This is to limit the potency of said affixes (mostly for Critical Strike Chance which I find somewhat weird that it didn't already have the same calculation rule as Cooldown Reduction, Resource Cost Reduction etc.)
Note: Bleed chance (with the max values shown in the table) for dual-wielding characters will be a total chance of ~40% while for 1h+off-hand characters the chance will be ~42% (same as 2h). Remember that numbers might change during testing.
LEGENDARIES: MAKING A STEP FORWARD
I really like the new legendaries of patch 2.0.
To be honest I like the ones with strong legendary powers, while the others... well... not so much.
Travis Day said in an interview that they cannot find out 400 new legendary powers that are balanced and that there should be a "gap" between rare and "strong-legendaries": this gap are "not-so-good-legendaries".
I find this a bit awkward since some legendary powers are everything other than balanced and I cannot understand why some legendaries are called in this way if they're pure garbage.
I can understand that they wanted to have an additional "type" of items between rares and strong-legendaries, so I thought: "why not calling bad-legendaries legendaries and strong-legendaries something like mythical items by giving these a different color?"
In this way you really know that if you find a mythical item you REALLY jump on the chair!
But then I re-thought about this: "we want to make legendaries as epic as we can make them".
Why did I wrote this?
Because I wanted to say that there's no need to create every legendary with a legendary power but there's a need to make them better, mostly the bad ones, so you can really feel the epicness in dropping one of them! EVERYTIME you get one!
What I'm talking about is this:
There's nothing legendary in here! Just because it rolls a bit higher stats than a rare, it does not make this item a legendary! It cannot even roll a socket (mystic cannot be an excuse)!
Let's see how it's gonna look like in the Mod:
Much much better!
LEGENDARIES: MAKING TWO STEPS FORWARD
Oh well! You've just added two currently "primary" stats as "fixed" stats... and anyway even here there's nothing legendary on this weapon!
You're completly right.
But those two innate affixes were mandatory so basically you were not in a 4/2 environment but you were actually in a 2/2 one.
With the mystic, wouldn't you have rerolled one of those stats to have a socket?
Would you have ever consider that weapon if it didn't roll with the "+X-Y damage"?
Also, that legendary is not he final version because the final version is this:
Here's something legendary!
The "Increases Nephalem Glory duration by 20-30 seconds" is a peculiarity of this weapon because the maximum values on an item for this affix is "8-12".
Yes, nothing great but even without a legendary power you might consider this for a more sustainable Nephalem Glory power with less items.
You don't need a legendary power for every legendary, but you need peculiarities... these are the things that every legendary should have.
Much like this:
25-30% melee damage reduction! Hell... this is an insane peculiarity which makes this legendary really worth it!
Another example?
Patch 2.0 version:
Mod version:
Now, leaving a part the innate affixes, what's changed here?
The attack speed is increased by a lot! That's a peculiarity of this legendary! (the patch 2.0 version had the % life affix which was not enough to make it worth for the loss of a socket)
You still might get the "lower-tier" of rolls but if you get the "higher-one" you know this weapon can become really strong! (more on higher and lower tiers rolls later)
Let's have a look on a crafted chest-armor:
Patch 2.0 version:
With this you have high chances to get really bad rolls... and you know you spent a lot (time, materials etc.) to get it and if it rolls bad affixes you're gonna throw your computer away (lol).
Mod version:
It has now a peculiarity: other than rolling a high value of splash damage, it also rolled this affix which normally cannot roll on a chest.
You still might get bad rolls but the chances are far less due to sockets being an innate affix and also you know that this chest has something different compared to rares other than just higher rolls.
Imagine this chest combined with a mod version of a 2-handed weapon!
What about legendaries with "weird" combinations of affixes?
Patch 2.0 version:
This amulet has the peculiarity to have "+X% movement speed".
But.. would you ever consider it with those low values on attack speed and cooldown reduction?
You would have to sacrifice some important stats (main stat, critical hit, crit damage etc.) to wear it. Is it really worth it?
Mod version:
Even if movement speed was still on the primary "table" and there was no chance for a socket I think that this amulet could have been considered a nice choice (20% as and 15% cdr) anyway.
I think that "weird" legendaries should exist but they really should have meaningful peculiarities to make them worth the loss of other items with better combinations of affixes.
Imagine an amulet with like "20% ias, 20% cdr, 20% resource cost reduction and 30% splash damage". You would lose CC, CHD, main stat etc... but you'd gain much higher values on these other affixes.
This is just a "stupid" example of how even a "weird" legendary can have a high chance to be a real choice for the player, even without a legendary power or a "perfect combination" of affixes.
MYSTIC: "SMART" RNG
I put a spoiler button just in case you don't want to know how the mystic works in RoS
The mystic was a great addition to the game... long due I'd say.
She gives the player a great tool to fight the RNG even if she uses RNG as well.
Unfortunately I found that her RNG was a bit too random and sometimes frustrating to not say "mindless".
What I'm talking about are situations where she rolls two of the same affixes/values:
and where she rolls affixes that have values inferior to the ones you currently have for said affixes:
I think that she needs a better RNG, so I improved her by not allowing her to roll a same affix that you currently have with values that are equal or inferior to your current values.
This means that if I want to improved my % of resource cost reduction (like in the image) I will never get a value equal or inferior to 6 (unless I reroll to a completly different affix of course).
Sure it causes the player to have maybe an excessive method to fight against RNG but it also avoids situations where the player gets frustrated because he spent a lot of money/mats and he's not able to get that +1% or that +1, +2 sockets etc.
I think that at least these situations should be avoided... the RNG will still exist but in this way it will be a bit less out of control and more sensed.
BLACKSMITH: ADD SOCKET
Finally it's back!
The add socket feature is now become a reality in D3:RotN Mod!
If one of your items didn't roll a socket you can add it by going to the blacksmith.
All you have to do is giving him the item you want to socket, some materials, some gold and an Evil Soul, a new legendary material dropped from all end-act bosses once you pressed the "reset story" button for Campaign Mode.
If you are in Adventure Mode you can visit Kadala and buy an Evil Soul with your Blood Shards (quantity to be decided).
Note 1: only one socket at a time will be added to an item so for an unsocketed chest you will have to go to the blacksmith 3 times. Note 2: this new material can be found only on torment difficulty. Note 3: chances to drop an Evil Soul to be decided.
Devs said that the quest in Diablo 2 was mandatory and "not fun", but I think that sockets are mandatory in Diablo 3 too and I consider this new feature a garanteed way to improve your gear.
At least in this way the player will be sure that he can improve! No RNG involved!
DIFFICULTY LEVELS AND LEGENDARIES
One of the main concerns of people who played RoS beta was that there was no actual "benefit" to go to higher difficulty levels other than an increased chance to find legendaries (a part from +%XP and +%gold).
The difficulty increase was not really worth it, so how can you change that?
One of the nice things that this Mod has is that many legendaries have preset-affixes that may roll with "lower-tier values" or "higher-tier values".
An example is The Grandfather:
It can roll +8-12% attack speed or +15-20% attack speed.
While in patch 2.0 the difficulty levels do not influence the quality of an item, in this Mod they are because the more difficult is the game and the more chances you have to roll a "higher-tier value".
Basically if I play in Torment 1 I will have a 90% chance to get lower-tier value roll (8-12% IAS) and only a 10% chance to get a higher-tier one (15-20% IAS) while if I play in Torment 3 I will have a 50% chance to roll either a lower-tier or a higher-tier.
Currently the chances to roll the different tiers are divided in this way (this might change during testing):
NORMAL:
Lower-Tier roll chance: 99%
Higher-Tier roll chance: 1%
HARD:
Lower-Tier roll chance: 98%
Higher-Tier roll chance: 2%
EXPERT:
Lower-Tier roll chance: 97%
Higher-Tier roll chance: 3%
MASTER:
Lower-Tier roll chance: 95%
Higher-Tier roll chance: 5%
TORMENT I:
Lower-Tier roll chance: 90%
Higher-Tier roll chance: 10%
TORMENT II:
Lower-Tier roll chance: 75%
Higher-Tier roll chance: 25%
TORMENT III:
Lower-Tier roll chance: 50%
Higher-Tier roll chance: 50%
TORMENT IV:
Lower-Tier roll chance: 25%
Higher-Tier roll chance: 75%
TORMENT V:
Lower-Tier roll chance: 10%
Higher-Tier roll chance: 90%
TORMENT VI:
Lower-Tier roll chance: 0%
Higher-Tier roll chance: 100%
I think that with this new "feature" it will make much more sense to farm higher difficulty levels.
"PROBLEMATIC" ABILITIES
ONE WITH EVERYTHING
Currently it is set to make the Monk gain 0.5 points of armor and all resistances for each point of Dexterity.
Earlier it was the same as in patch 2.0 but with the negative effect of having all the resistances reduced by 25%.
I didn't like that solution so I changed it to the current version which makes this passive still a strong ability.
Remember that numbers might change during testing.
HEAVENLY STRENGTH
In addition to the patch 2.0 version, this passive has another negative effect which removes the 30% splash chance bonus that 2-handers give.
QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES
This is a list of some of the QoL you will find in the Mod:
Dynamic Tooltips: by activating elective mode and by pressing CTRL button while viewing your abilities, you can see the exact damage they deal, the exact cooldown they have, the exact cost they have etc.
"Detail" pane additions:
Thorns: you can check the total weapon damage you deal and by overing the percentage you will get the exact damage your thorns do
Abilities damage: you can also check here the exact damage your abilities do
Base weapon damage: you can finally see the exact amount of base damage of your weapons
Pickup Radius: base pickup radius has been increased to 5 yards
Movement Speed: base movement speed has been increased by 15%
MANDATORY AFFIXES AND MAIN STATS
I'm already looking at D3: RotN Mod v2.0.
Don't get me wrong, I like the changes in the first version but I think that there is more I can do to improve the game so the first Mod is more a "get the players in habit with these new mechanics/features" other than a complete "fix" to some problems.
One of them is the mandatory affixes.
I like Diablo and its RNG and in the first version of the mod I introduced Innate affixes which are evertyhing other than "random" since they always roll on items and do not compete against other affixes.
Unfortunately the game was set in a way where affixes like "+X-Y damage" were really a must have.
I think that the biggest cause of this problem is how main stats (strength, dexterity, intelligence) work.
This is why I'm thinking to change how the whole system of stats / abilities works in RotN v2.0.
Abilities will be divided in 3 categories:
Weapon damage abilities: these abilities work like they currently do
Fixed-damage abilities: these abilities will have fixed damage (Diablo 2 style)
Hybrid-damage abilities: these abilities will have a component of weapon damage and a component of fixed damage
Statistics will work like this:
Strength: increases the weapon damage component of abilities
Dexterity: increases both the weapon and fixed damage components of abilities (Dexterity will be less effective than Strength and Intelligence since it will increase both damage components)
Intelligence: increases the fixed damage component of abilities
Needless to say that each class will have at least one of each type of abilities and that:
Barbarians and Crusaders will have more skills relying on weapon damage
Monks and Demon Hunters will have more skills relying on both weapon and fixed damage
Wizards and Witch Doctors: will have more skills relying on fixed damage
With this change you can also have a more flexible system between classes (some barbarians with a "fixed-damage" build might want an item with intelligence or a wizard with a "weapon-damage" build might want an item with strength), you can really think of "crazy-builds" and also you don't always need to have the "+X-Y damage" affix on a weapon (thanks to "fixed damage abilities").
Sockets are a different matter and all I can think of is a nerf to gems or to make sockets not roll at all so the only way you have to add them on an item is to go to the blacksmith.
We'll see.
ITEM TREE VS SKILL TREE: MORE OR LESS FLEXIBILITY?
I was one of the people who was against to the "free-skill-switch" but after some time I completly changed my mind and I really liked to not be tied to something similar to the old Diablo 2 Skill tree.
However, I think that with the patch 2.0 the player is now tied to an item tree mostly due to affixes like "+X% [element] skills damage" and "+X% [skill] damage".
This is why I thought of implementing a system where the player can choose which bonus to get (something similar to one of my previous ideas --- for "+X% [element] skills damage" the new affix would be something like "+X Elemental Power").
But I was unsure how it would have played out in the Mod v1.0 and how people would have reacted with another "not-so-rng" feature so I didn't implement this change.
Only time will tell if I will need to add this feature in the future or not.
IS THERE MORE COMING?
PvP and PvEvP is something I'd like to add (already working on some features) but I would like to see how these/future changes feel first before implementing them.
When everything is set in stone then I will be able to add those features, an improved version of the Paragon "talent-tree" and more (that's a surprise! ).
That's all for now!
Thanks for reading the "mod notes"!
However, I'd like to hear anyway some of your "mod-ideas"
Link to E.U. Forums: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/10033983428
Link to Italian Forums: http://eu.battle.net/d3/it/forum/topic/10033613440
Link to Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/20fj5c/if_diablo_3_had_mods/
Diablo 3: Revenge of the Nephalems Mod v1.0 alpha
Hi guys,
today I'm here to show you the features that you can try in the Mod I'm working on: Diablo 3: Revenge of the Nephalems.
Remember that this is quite a long read and it is still a work in progress so keep in mind that the numbers you see here might be changed in the future and that much more has to come!
This is just the beginning!
The Mod also includes some Quality of Life changes.
AFFIXES
I liked the new 4/2 system implemented in patch 2.0, where some affixes couldn't compete with each other but I felt that the system still had some flaws because there were still some affixes that were mandatory or completly/almost useless.
This is why some affixes have been updated/removed and why I created another category of affixes: Innate.
Innate affixes are magic properties that:
Sockets and "item level requirement" work in a bit different way: these ones do not have a 100% chance to roll on an item even if they're now innate affixes.
Note: a reason why "item level requirement" is rolled as an innate affix is because I think it might be kinda useful for some alt leveling (even if it cannot roll on legendaries) and because so it can no longer compete with secondary affixes (which are now much more useful)
I wanted to have even secondary affixes to matter so all the ones I felt were useless are gone.
Diablo 2 had affixes like "increases light radius" and Diablo 3 had affixes like "experience per kill" which were both there just for "fun".
It's ok to have some affixes that are not very powerful but I think that in some way they ALL must be useful.
Let's have a look on the new affixes table:
Note 1: this is the list of new/updated/removed affixes. Affixes that are not listed here remain the same
Note 2: 1-handed and 2-handed weapons include ranged weapons too of course
Note 3: some values for 2-handed weapons are higher than the ones of 1-handed weapons (not shown in the table)
Note 4: single resistance and all resistances can now roll on a same item once again (much like it happened in Diablo 2)
REMOVED AFFIXES
- Experience per kill / Ignores durability lost: I felt they were completly useless so they're completly gone
- Life per kill / Health Globe and Potion healing bonus: replaced with "healing bonus"
- Pickup radius: replaced with "Increased Area of area of effect abilities"
- Gold Find: I think that difficulty levels are enough to increase/decrease gold find
- Bleed damage: more on this later
NEW AFFIXES- Increased chance to deal splash damage: this one is an innate affix and it increases the chance (not the damage) to deal splash damage by 30% (total of 50%) and it's exclusively and always rolled on 2-handed weapons. This has been done to give 2-handed weapons a way to compete with 1h+off-hand or 2x1h. Heavenly Strength has been changed. It was kinda sad that for just one passive you couldn't rely on a complete set of items.
- Chance to Bleed: it increases the chance to make your target bleed (base % is 0). More on Bleed damage later.
- Chance to spawn a Nephalem Glory orb: description says it all
- Increased Nephalem Glory duration: description says it all
- Increased Area of area of effect abilities: it increases the area of all your AoE abilities both defensive (Shouts, Mantras etc) and offensive (Rend, Rain of Vengeace etc.). It does not increase the area of "movement-abilities" such as Dashing Strike or Teleport etc.
- Increased healing effects: it increases the effects of potions/globes/runes/abilities (both active and passive). In the current build of the Mod it does not affect healing affixes such as Life Regeneration, Life on Hit, Life per Fury/Spirit/Wrath spent etc. but things might change during the testing.
UPDATED AFFIXES- Increased value on single resistance affix: single resistances can now roll up to 200. One With Everything has been changed. It was kinda sad that for just one passive you couldn't have a decent amount of single resistance to make it a real choice.
- Thorns: the damage values have been changed to weapon damage so the player has a better understading of how much damage they do
- Reduced Level Requirement: it's an innate affix and has a chance to roll on non-legendary items only
Note: fear and knockback proc effects have gone from "normal" items, but you can find these affixes as innate affixes on some legendaries such as Windforce.AFFIXES WITH NEW CLASSIFICATION
- +X-Y damage: it's now an innate affix found on weapons, sources and mojos. No one would have ever used a 250 DPS weapon at high levels so this affix is pretty much mandatory. A proof of this is that no one legendary weapon/source/mojo (even in an un-modded patch 2.0) will ever roll without this affix.
- Movement speed: it does not increase your power in any way so it's basically a secondary affix. I don't know why it was considered a primary one.
ADDITIONAL CHANGESBleed damage
Bleed damage is now a base "property" that every character has.
Your base chance to make a target bleed is 0% which can be increased with items.
The new bleed damage consist in dealing a X% (numbers still in phase of test) of the damage dealt over 3 seconds (in testing as well) to the target, stacking indefinitely.
This means that everytime I get a "bleed damage hit" it stacks and refreshes to its maximum duration.
E.g.:
let's assume to have a 10% bleed damage.
If I deal 200 damage per hit, I will deal an additional 10% (that's 20 damage) over 3 seconds if I get a "bleed damage" hit.
If I get a second "bleed damage" hit, before the bleed effect fades, then I will deal 40 damage over 3 seconds.
If I get a third "bleed damage" hit, before the bleed effect fades, then I will deal 60 damage over 3 seconds and so on.
Bleed damage hits can be inflicted only with NON-CRITICAL hits so it can compete with CC+CHD.
If you think that this affix might become OP, remember that your critical hits are usually 4/5 times higher than you normal hits and that the bleed effect has a short duration, so if you have to get away or you have a low chance to make the target bleed, the bleed effect might fade before you hit the target with another "bleed hit" and this will make you start from zero.
Anway it's only a matter of number balance
New calculations
The total amount of Chance to Crit, Chance to Bleed, Chance to spawn a Nephalem Glory orb on hit among all items is now calculated the same way as the one of Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction, Cooldown Reduction and Resource Cost Reduction.
This is to limit the potency of said affixes (mostly for Critical Strike Chance which I find somewhat weird that it didn't already have the same calculation rule as Cooldown Reduction, Resource Cost Reduction etc.)
Note: Bleed chance (with the max values shown in the table) for dual-wielding characters will be a total chance of ~40% while for 1h+off-hand characters the chance will be ~42% (same as 2h). Remember that numbers might change during testing.
LEGENDARIES: MAKING A STEP FORWARD
To be honest I like the ones with strong legendary powers, while the others... well... not so much.
Travis Day said in an interview that they cannot find out 400 new legendary powers that are balanced and that there should be a "gap" between rare and "strong-legendaries": this gap are "not-so-good-legendaries".
I find this a bit awkward since some legendary powers are everything other than balanced and I cannot understand why some legendaries are called in this way if they're pure garbage.
I can understand that they wanted to have an additional "type" of items between rares and strong-legendaries, so I thought: "why not calling bad-legendaries legendaries and strong-legendaries something like mythical items by giving these a different color?"
In this way you really know that if you find a mythical item you REALLY jump on the chair!
But then I re-thought about this: "we want to make legendaries as epic as we can make them".
Why did I wrote this?
Because I wanted to say that there's no need to create every legendary with a legendary power but there's a need to make them better, mostly the bad ones, so you can really feel the epicness in dropping one of them! EVERYTIME you get one!
What I'm talking about is this:
There's nothing legendary in here! Just because it rolls a bit higher stats than a rare, it does not make this item a legendary! It cannot even roll a socket (mystic cannot be an excuse)!
Let's see how it's gonna look like in the Mod:
Much much better!
LEGENDARIES: MAKING TWO STEPS FORWARD
Oh well! You've just added two currently "primary" stats as "fixed" stats... and anyway even here there's nothing legendary on this weapon!
You're completly right.
But those two innate affixes were mandatory so basically you were not in a 4/2 environment but you were actually in a 2/2 one.
With the mystic, wouldn't you have rerolled one of those stats to have a socket?
Would you have ever consider that weapon if it didn't roll with the "+X-Y damage"?
Also, that legendary is not he final version because the final version is this:
Here's something legendary!
The "Increases Nephalem Glory duration by 20-30 seconds" is a peculiarity of this weapon because the maximum values on an item for this affix is "8-12".
Yes, nothing great but even without a legendary power you might consider this for a more sustainable Nephalem Glory power with less items.
You don't need a legendary power for every legendary, but you need peculiarities... these are the things that every legendary should have.
Much like this:
25-30% melee damage reduction! Hell... this is an insane peculiarity which makes this legendary really worth it!
Another example?
Patch 2.0 version:
Mod version:
Now, leaving a part the innate affixes, what's changed here?
The attack speed is increased by a lot! That's a peculiarity of this legendary! (the patch 2.0 version had the % life affix which was not enough to make it worth for the loss of a socket)
You still might get the "lower-tier" of rolls but if you get the "higher-one" you know this weapon can become really strong! (more on higher and lower tiers rolls later)
Let's have a look on a crafted chest-armor:
Patch 2.0 version:
With this you have high chances to get really bad rolls... and you know you spent a lot (time, materials etc.) to get it and if it rolls bad affixes you're gonna throw your computer away (lol).
Mod version:
It has now a peculiarity: other than rolling a high value of splash damage, it also rolled this affix which normally cannot roll on a chest.
You still might get bad rolls but the chances are far less due to sockets being an innate affix and also you know that this chest has something different compared to rares other than just higher rolls.
Imagine this chest combined with a mod version of a 2-handed weapon!
What about legendaries with "weird" combinations of affixes?
Patch 2.0 version:
This amulet has the peculiarity to have "+X% movement speed".
But.. would you ever consider it with those low values on attack speed and cooldown reduction?
You would have to sacrifice some important stats (main stat, critical hit, crit damage etc.) to wear it. Is it really worth it?
Mod version:
Even if movement speed was still on the primary "table" and there was no chance for a socket I think that this amulet could have been considered a nice choice (20% as and 15% cdr) anyway.
I think that "weird" legendaries should exist but they really should have meaningful peculiarities to make them worth the loss of other items with better combinations of affixes.
Imagine an amulet with like "20% ias, 20% cdr, 20% resource cost reduction and 30% splash damage". You would lose CC, CHD, main stat etc... but you'd gain much higher values on these other affixes.
This is just a "stupid" example of how even a "weird" legendary can have a high chance to be a real choice for the player, even without a legendary power or a "perfect combination" of affixes.
MYSTIC: "SMART" RNG
I put a spoiler button just in case you don't want to know how the mystic works in RoS
The mystic was a great addition to the game... long due I'd say.
She gives the player a great tool to fight the RNG even if she uses RNG as well.
Unfortunately I found that her RNG was a bit too random and sometimes frustrating to not say "mindless".
What I'm talking about are situations where she rolls two of the same affixes/values:
and where she rolls affixes that have values inferior to the ones you currently have for said affixes:
I think that she needs a better RNG, so I improved her by not allowing her to roll a same affix that you currently have with values that are equal or inferior to your current values.
This means that if I want to improved my % of resource cost reduction (like in the image) I will never get a value equal or inferior to 6 (unless I reroll to a completly different affix of course).
Sure it causes the player to have maybe an excessive method to fight against RNG but it also avoids situations where the player gets frustrated because he spent a lot of money/mats and he's not able to get that +1% or that +1, +2 sockets etc.
I think that at least these situations should be avoided... the RNG will still exist but in this way it will be a bit less out of control and more sensed.
BLACKSMITH: ADD SOCKET
The add socket feature is now become a reality in D3:RotN Mod!
If one of your items didn't roll a socket you can add it by going to the blacksmith.
All you have to do is giving him the item you want to socket, some materials, some gold and an Evil Soul, a new legendary material dropped from all end-act bosses once you pressed the "reset story" button for Campaign Mode.
If you are in Adventure Mode you can visit Kadala and buy an Evil Soul with your Blood Shards (quantity to be decided).
Note 1: only one socket at a time will be added to an item so for an unsocketed chest you will have to go to the blacksmith 3 times.
Note 2: this new material can be found only on torment difficulty.
Note 3: chances to drop an Evil Soul to be decided.
Devs said that the quest in Diablo 2 was mandatory and "not fun", but I think that sockets are mandatory in Diablo 3 too and I consider this new feature a garanteed way to improve your gear.
At least in this way the player will be sure that he can improve! No RNG involved!
DIFFICULTY LEVELS AND LEGENDARIES
The difficulty increase was not really worth it, so how can you change that?
One of the nice things that this Mod has is that many legendaries have preset-affixes that may roll with "lower-tier values" or "higher-tier values".
An example is The Grandfather:
It can roll +8-12% attack speed or +15-20% attack speed.
While in patch 2.0 the difficulty levels do not influence the quality of an item, in this Mod they are because the more difficult is the game and the more chances you have to roll a "higher-tier value".
Basically if I play in Torment 1 I will have a 90% chance to get lower-tier value roll (8-12% IAS) and only a 10% chance to get a higher-tier one (15-20% IAS) while if I play in Torment 3 I will have a 50% chance to roll either a lower-tier or a higher-tier.
Currently the chances to roll the different tiers are divided in this way (this might change during testing):
- NORMAL:
- Lower-Tier roll chance: 99%
- Higher-Tier roll chance: 1%
- HARD:
- Lower-Tier roll chance: 98%
- Higher-Tier roll chance: 2%
- EXPERT:
- Lower-Tier roll chance: 97%
- Higher-Tier roll chance: 3%
- MASTER:
- Lower-Tier roll chance: 95%
- Higher-Tier roll chance: 5%
- TORMENT I:
- Lower-Tier roll chance: 90%
- Higher-Tier roll chance: 10%
- TORMENT II:
- Lower-Tier roll chance: 75%
- Higher-Tier roll chance: 25%
- TORMENT III:
- Lower-Tier roll chance: 50%
- Higher-Tier roll chance: 50%
- TORMENT IV:
- Lower-Tier roll chance: 25%
- Higher-Tier roll chance: 75%
- TORMENT V:
- Lower-Tier roll chance: 10%
- Higher-Tier roll chance: 90%
- TORMENT VI:
- Lower-Tier roll chance: 0%
- Higher-Tier roll chance: 100%
I think that with this new "feature" it will make much more sense to farm higher difficulty levels."PROBLEMATIC" ABILITIES
ONE WITH EVERYTHING
Currently it is set to make the Monk gain 0.5 points of armor and all resistances for each point of Dexterity.
Earlier it was the same as in patch 2.0 but with the negative effect of having all the resistances reduced by 25%.
I didn't like that solution so I changed it to the current version which makes this passive still a strong ability.
Remember that numbers might change during testing.
HEAVENLY STRENGTH
In addition to the patch 2.0 version, this passive has another negative effect which removes the 30% splash chance bonus that 2-handers give.
QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES
This is a list of some of the QoL you will find in the Mod:
MANDATORY AFFIXES AND MAIN STATS
Don't get me wrong, I like the changes in the first version but I think that there is more I can do to improve the game so the first Mod is more a "get the players in habit with these new mechanics/features" other than a complete "fix" to some problems.
One of them is the mandatory affixes.
I like Diablo and its RNG and in the first version of the mod I introduced Innate affixes which are evertyhing other than "random" since they always roll on items and do not compete against other affixes.
Unfortunately the game was set in a way where affixes like "+X-Y damage" were really a must have.
I think that the biggest cause of this problem is how main stats (strength, dexterity, intelligence) work.
This is why I'm thinking to change how the whole system of stats / abilities works in RotN v2.0.
Abilities will be divided in 3 categories:
Statistics will work like this:
Needless to say that each class will have at least one of each type of abilities and that:
- Barbarians and Crusaders will have more skills relying on weapon damage
- Monks and Demon Hunters will have more skills relying on both weapon and fixed damage
- Wizards and Witch Doctors: will have more skills relying on fixed damage
With this change you can also have a more flexible system between classes (some barbarians with a "fixed-damage" build might want an item with intelligence or a wizard with a "weapon-damage" build might want an item with strength), you can really think of "crazy-builds" and also you don't always need to have the "+X-Y damage" affix on a weapon (thanks to "fixed damage abilities").Sockets are a different matter and all I can think of is a nerf to gems or to make sockets not roll at all so the only way you have to add them on an item is to go to the blacksmith.
We'll see.
ITEM TREE VS SKILL TREE: MORE OR LESS FLEXIBILITY?
However, I think that with the patch 2.0 the player is now tied to an item tree mostly due to affixes like "+X% [element] skills damage" and "+X% [skill] damage".
This is why I thought of implementing a system where the player can choose which bonus to get (something similar to one of my previous ideas --- for "+X% [element] skills damage" the new affix would be something like "+X Elemental Power").
But I was unsure how it would have played out in the Mod v1.0 and how people would have reacted with another "not-so-rng" feature so I didn't implement this change.
Only time will tell if I will need to add this feature in the future or not.
IS THERE MORE COMING?
PvP and PvEvP is something I'd like to add (already working on some features) but I would like to see how these/future changes feel first before implementing them.
When everything is set in stone then I will be able to add those features, an improved version of the Paragon "talent-tree" and more (that's a surprise!
That's all for now!
Thanks for reading the "mod notes"!
(Sorry for my english!)
This is my "imaginary" mod...
...and you guys? What MOD would you create to improve Diablo 3?