이 사이트는 자바스크립트를 사용합니다.
브라우저에서 자바스크립트를 활성화 해주십시오.
라이브
PTR
11.0.2
PTR
11.0.5
베타
Mercenaries in PTR Patch 2.4 Diablo II: Resurrected - Meta Changes Inbound?
디아블로 II
2022/03/04 시간 12:19
에
Tharid
에 의해 작성됨
Back in December, Blizzard announced mercenary skill changes and improvements coming to Diablo II: Resurrected. After the second round of adjustments has been introduced to Patch 2.4's PTR this week, a plethora of questions arise:
What are the consequences of the massive mercenary changes introduced with Patch 2.4? Are they enough to end the reign of the Desert Mercenaries of Act II? And if so, who will take the crown in the soon-to-be 2.4 mercenary meta?
Patch 2.4 Patch Notes (Second Round)Mercenary Changes in Patch 2.4 (First Round)Mercenaries in Diablo II: Resurrected
Act I Rogues: More Skills, Insight, Amazon Bows
Since the first round of changes, the brave rogues of Act I are able to use one more skill in their toolkit. Exploding Arrow was added to the Fire archetype, while the Ice archetype received Freezing Arrow as a second skill. Both Amazon spells provide more AoE damage potential, and, even more importantly, crowd-control capabilities thanks to Freezing Arrow's area effect.
One of the most well-thought-out general changes to mercenaries directly affect Act I rogues: The runeword Insight
can now be put into bows
! One of the main reasons to use an A2 mercenary in the mid-and early late-game of character progression is no longer exclusively tied to the beloved desert warriors. From now on, the ranged rogues will be a valid choice for mana-hungry spellcasters to provide the ever-so-meaningful Meditation aura, especially if you can find a 4-socketed bow early in your playthrough.
A1 mercenary on Patch 2.4 PTR with an Insight Hydra Bow
Last but not least, the most recent change to Act I mercs is also the most important one: They
can now use Amazon bows
and
gain +Amazon skill bonuses from gear
. While top-end Amazon-only bow options have very similar damage and speed values compared to current best-in-slot choices like Great Bow and Blade Bow, both Matriarchal Bows and Grand Matron Bows can roll so-called "auto mods": these class modifiers can appear on items of all qualities, including socketed normal items. The auto mod for Amazons, based on item level, can roll up to +3 to Bow and Crossbow skills, unlocking massive damage potential in terms of the top-end loadout of Act I mercs - not least because Bow and Crossbow skills like Freezing and Exploding Arrow scale so well with increasing skill level.
That together with the brand-new Patch 2.4 missile weapon runeword Mist completes the reasons for a potential increase in use of Act I mercenaries in the upcoming Diablo II: Resurrected meta-game:
Mist
Missile Weapons
'ChamShaelGulThulIth'
Required Level: 67
Level 8-12 Concentration Aura When Equipped (varies)
+3 To All Skills
20% Increased Attack Speed
+100% Piercing Attack
+325-375% Enhanced Damage (varies)
+9 To Maximum Damage
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
Adds 3-14 Cold Damage
All Resistances +40
Freeze Target +3
+24 Vitality
Socketed (5)
A total of +6 to Bow and Crossbow skills if put into an auto-modded bow, a 100% chance to pierce with every attack, Concentration aura, and a massive ED multiplier - Act I rogues will definitely pack a much bigger punch in Patch 2.4. Will it be enough to surpass the incredible package that a decently geared A2 mercenary provides? Probably not. However, the changes definitely add meaningful choice to end-game character builds that don't rely on massive aura or debuff support while also providing additional early- and mid-game mercenary options thanks to the Insight change.
Act II Desert Mercenaries: Same Old With Some Quality-of-Life
To keep things short: Nothing really changes for Act II mercenaries. As a nice quality-of-life improvement, players will be able to recruit all Act II mercenary types across all difficulties from Patch 2.4 on. The changes to Thorns looked promising at first but feel somewhat lackluster in their current iteration - not that it was a desirable aura choice for any build archetype in the first place.
Act III Iron Wolves: New Spells, Old Problems
The Iron Wolves of Act III carry great lore and fantasy - that is why it's even sadder that they couldn't prove themselves as a worthy mercenary choice in the last 20 years of Diablo II's meta-game.
Similar to the Act I rogues, Blizzard tried to beef up all three Act III mercenary archetypes by adding more skills to their toolkits. The two most interesting skill introductions are Enchant for the Fire and Static Field for the Lightning archetype. After these first changes have been announced, theorycrafters were in high hopes - only to be let down shortly after. In theory, both Enchant and Static Field have their clear upsides; the first is a great damage buff for summon- and melee-based builds, while the latter could be more than useful for end-game bossing.
However, Act III mercs still lack in the most basic mercenary areas and especially in terms of survivability. With the release of the second round of 2.4 patch notes, Blizzard announced swapping the Fire archetype's Fire Bolt skill for Redemption Aura. Mercenary experts rejoiced - Redemption, an aura that is limited to its caster and consumes corpses around them to convert them into life and mana, could be a great way to introduce life gain for a ranged mercenary. Unfortunately, Blizzard reverted the change and removed it from this week's patch notes within the hour - and all that was left was, once again, iron wolf sadness.
Yes, there may be some niche, high-cost Act III mercenary builds like the Auradin-like setup with Dragon, Dream, and the new Flickering Flame runeword. But, even with the introduction of Patch 2.4, Act III mercenary build options are still heavily limited by the core flaws of the mercenary toolkit itself. That being said, the silver lining on the horizon named Redemption was visible for just a second, indicating more changes coming with future patches to eventually turn the Iron Wolf into a true meta contestant.
Act V Barbarians: New Dual Wield Archetype
First things first: It is safe to say that the Barbarian Warriors of Act V will receive the most influential changes in Patch 2.4. In the first iteration of the 2.4 PTR, the Battle Cry skill has been added to the only Act V mercenary archetype that was already able to use one one- or two-handed sword together with the skills Stun and Bash.
The second round of changes that have been released this week introduced a whole new Barbarian mercenary archetype with the following abilities:
Dual-Wield Weapon Usage
: The new Barbarian mercenary archetype (if you choose the one with Frenzy skill) is able to dual-wield two one-handed swords instead of just one one-handed or one two-handed sword.
Taunt
: This Barbarian shout spell (that counts as a curse) forces enemies around the mercenary to attack him while decreasing their damage and attack rating.
Frenzy
: The Barbarian swings two weapons at once. Each successful attack increases its overall attack speed and movement speed.
Iron Skin
: This skill passively increases the Barbarian's defense rating.
While the fact that Act V mercenaries now also benefit from + Barbarian skill bonuses from gear may seem like the biggest change at first, the real deal of this list is obvious:
Barbarians are able to dual-wield swords now!
Theorycrafters have dreamt about this day, and it is finally here - the possibilities are endless! Or are they?
In our first round of mercenary testing, we have found out that this new A5 mercenary archetype doesn't exactly behave as expected. Several weapon modifiers - especially on-hit effects like Crushing Blow and Open Wounds - aren't applied correctly if equipped to the off-hand weapon slot. That, of course, makes theoretically powerful sword runeword combinations like Grief/Last Wish way less effective. It remains to be seen if this behavior is a bug or "working as intended".
A5 mercenary on Patch 2.4 PTR dual-wielding Dragon Phase Blades
However, this current implementation shouldn't stop the hype train regarding the aforementioned changes. The fact that A5 mercenaries are now able to support players with two sword-based runewords is a great change towards more merc build diversity. Looking at rough clear speed numbers, both dual-wielding barbarians and desert mercenaries are pretty much up to par. The obvious Grief/Last Wish powerhouse combo still wreaked havoc in testing despite the missing off-hand bonuses, and a double-Dragon-wielding barbarian with a Dragon chest armor on top offers insane AoE-clearing potential thanks to a Level 46 Holy Fire aura and an army of hydras spawning within the first few hits.
In addition, the insane movement speed bonus provided by Frenzy actively circumvents the year-old mercenary AI issues. That together with Patch 2.4's improvements to all minion AIs including mercenaries makes the new Act V barbarian mercenary feel like a somewhat sentient melee companion. The Taunt and Iron Skin package offers enough new defensive capabilities to turn the dual-wielders into real tanks, and first PTR tests have shown that they can even be used to fight Uber encounters.
Blizzard's goal to make the Act II Desert Mercenaries less desirable as a mercenary choice is achieved mostly through the changes made to the Act V Barbarians. They open up several options in terms of melee mercenary and aura setups, offering a ton of new exciting runeword combinations and gameplay decisions. Last but not least, the greatest thing about these changes is the fact that Act II mercenaries are still perfectly viable. This shows that Blizzard understands very well how to change up the meta-game without ruining original gameplay - a welcome design philosophy around a remastered title that preserves and respects the Diablo II player experience.
와우헤드 구입하기
프리미엄
$2
한 달
광고 없는 경험을 즐기고, 프리미엄 기능을 해금하고 사이트를 후원하세요!
댓글 0개 보기
댓글 0개 숨기기
댓글을 달려면 로그인하세요
영어 댓글들 (2)
댓글 달기
로그인이 되어있지 않습니다. 댓글을 남기려면
로그인
하거나,
회원가입
을 해 주세요.
이전 게시물
다음 게시물