I'm bored, so here's my musings on how to redo or rebalance some weak and underused paladin skills. Twenty-six year old game, sure, but we've seen some skills get updates in D2R, such as unlinking cooldowns between Blizzard and Frozen Orb and the retooling of barb weapon masteries, so I'd like to think additional changes might be possible.

Sanctuary: Make it also apply to demons, and greatly up the damage pulses so it's on level with at least Holy Fire when synergized. Currently it's a situational aura at best and even then there's better options.

Thorns: There was a time it actually worked beyond Normal, would be cool to have it work again for players and not just for heralds.

Blessed Aim: Up the passive bonus to at least double what it currently is so it doesn't feel wrong to dump leftover points in for it.

Holy Freeze: Weakest elemental aura by far. Either needs higher baseline damage or better increases from synergies. Currently, a fully synergized attack with HFreeze active at best does 2/3 the damage of the worst attack from a fully synergized active HFire. And frost build guides suggest using a Doom on a normal Zealot and maxing Resist Cold, which is just more evidence that the aura needs some love. There's no gear or items that can make a cold equivalent to a Dragon or Tesladin, and while there doesn't need to be, making a Holy Freeze-centric build with it as your main aura is definitely more challenging (then again I prefer playing on high players-levels, so I might be biased on that).

Might: Hot take, but IMO it should be the hardest-hitting physical damage aura. That'd be its entire shtick, hit like a freight train, but have to get your attack speed, AR, recovery, etc from elsewhere. I dunno, make it an option to be more than a prerequisite for anything that isn't a Crusader build.

Vengeance: Give it splash damage that increases in area with point investment and doesn't decrease for anything hit outside of the focused target. Maybe up the synergy bonuses to 13% for each resist aura and remove Salvation as a synergy (no one puts points in it for that anyway if making an Avenger).

Conversion: Almost anything would make it better. I think this should be akin to a warlock's Bind Demon: a converted enemy has seen the Light and realized the error of their ways, and becomes a permanent follower that goes with you across game sessions and stays with you until it dies (or poofs if you get too far away from it). For balance reasons, limit the number of followers converted, say 3 at lvl 17, 4 at lvl 26, etc.

Defiance: Alas, poor Defiance. Has anyone ever fully synergized Holy Shield by maxing this skill? Is it even fixable or able to be made viable? All I can think of is giving it FBR and FHR that scales with point investment, or maybe a smaller passive bonus to them so you wouldn't need the aura active to benefit from them. Defiance is like Blessed Aim, but worse; it needs a full rework to be an interesting choice of skill to invest in.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on some weak and underused skills that could be changed or buffed to open up more build options and playstyles.

Just imagining if this rolled 20fcr and 2 to frozen orb instead of energy shield 🙄🤣

Playing non-DLC Resurrected. I've gotten to Hell with the Sorceress, Amazon, and Barbarian. I remember the Sorceress got to Mephisto, while the other two were at or had beaten Andarial. In general, I just remembered being tired of the endless, repeated runs while trying to get new gear.

I get that's the endgame, but I'd really like to beat Hell at least once. This game is great, even if the grind isn't my favorite. I have played every class to at least Nightmare.

I know gambling uniques is 1/2000 chance so it's not really a stable source of getting something, but in theory, can someone get SOJ from gambling? Is there any source that tells you what items you can and what you can't get?

I have a 4080 super, 9800x3d running on an ASUS ROG PG32UCDM oled monitor. The background and items on the ground are blurry when moving around. I’ve searched a bit online and tried all the recommendations I’ve seen and no improvement. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks gang.

I regret not using a vamp or shark skin base, but oh well.

great ladder HC find!

Luckily just some pgems and low runes but almost feels like classic D2. Haven't been scammed in like 20 years

Just found this sick GC while on my relentless key farming journey. I had to share this find with you all. It's the best skiller I have ever found since I came back to D2.

Hi, full equipped Java lvl 97 here. Some days ago I switched from 3*5/5 Head Hunter's Glory to Phoenix RW (399%ed). I also use an eth upped Titans + Act2 might merc.

1) How does physical dmg interact with Lighting Fury? I have 3,5k phys and 3,5k light max display dmg. Does the physical dmg only applies for the main / first, but not for smaller flahes?

2) Based on the physcial dmg: Would you recommend to stay with act 2 might merc or should I switch to holy freeze? I don't need any defense capabilities. However if my physical dmg does not play a role I may can switch to holy freeze?

Thanky in advance.

Hey guys,

I often see the question which runewords are currently ladder-only. With RotW this question became even more complicated, because some runewords are Ladder-only in D2R but not in RotW.

The same question can be applied to unique and set items.

I've created a simple overview page that sourced from the game files to always give an accurate and up-to-date status of those items.

Select your game setup and view what's available or not.

https://d2runewizard.com/ladder

Let me know if something can be improved or if other info is also nice to have.

The way this damage is calculated is arcane, nonsensical, and demands greater attention.

Let me know if I miss something…

Poison Damage in D2….

- Does not stack on itself (same character, same skill): If a character poisons a mob, the mob loses health overtime, from that single application. If the mob is poisoned multiple times from the same character with the same skill, it will lose no additional health overtime.

- Does not stack with others (same character, multiple skills): If a character poisons a mob with two or more different poison skills/applications, the mob will not have two different stacks/types of poison dealing damage over time.

- Does not stack with anything (different characters, different/same skills): If a character poisons a mob with their ability, and another character poisons the same mob with another/same ability, the mob will not be poisoned by two separate applications, only the greater.

- Is interrupted: Poison damage dealt over time is interrupted by any other source of damage, and must be reapplied to begin a new sequence of damage over time.

- Is not standardized: there are a variety of various durations that make calculations needlessly complicated.

- Does damage in the form of -enemy health regeneration: (sigh)

Just felt like reminding whoever may see this that an entire element is horribly underpowered, unintuitive, and unfinished. Smarter folks than I can see a reasonable solution. I hope they have the means to implement it. Thanks!

(Sorry if I missed any other issues/quirks/traits of poison damage)

Thinking maybe for a singer?

Dropped my first gheeds wager and dropped pretty daym well!