Diablo II 1.10 Fan Site Chat

[Bolty]

The Diablo II 1.10 Fan Site Chat is over - see the results of it here. The good news is that Griselda and I got many of your questions in. The bad news is that the answers, as always, are usually not specific enough to your liking. But there's some tasty tidbits in there.

What do you think? Talk amongst yourselves; I gave you a topic. :) Kudos to Griselda for helping out with the questions. I think you'll find quite a few of yours in the results.

-Bolty

Edit: changed this from a thread asking for Fan Site Chat questions to one discussing the answers.

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

Will Blizzard maintain a hard schedule of Realm Ladder resets? If so, can you give an approximation of what duration Ladders will run?

Will "Ladder-only" items move to "normal" realm intact with their characters after the conclusion of the Ladder duration, or will they become removed or "unable to trade"?

*tips helm*

[Brista]

What's happening to the rares affix pool?

(Muchas gracias, Bolty :) )

[edv]

Will the rune drop rates change (significantly) in 1.10?

edit: fixed typo

[D-Dave]

about random boss monster attributes:

Will you stick to the complete random system or will there be limitations (especialy concerning immunities)?

[ALnitak]

* Will dupe/hacks detection be improved on realms ? How (database of common dupes fingerprints...) ?

* What about well-known bugs : fire arrow bug, barb mastery, invisible lightning bolts on monsters... ? (some of them may have been already answered here... sorry if it had)

* I second the question about rune drops :-)

[Dyntheos]

*Are Necromancer Skeletons more powerful/viable in NM and Hell modes?


*Have the number of skeletons able to be summoned lessened and thier power increased?

[CelticHound]

1) From the 1.10 teasers we've been given so far, the game is going to have a bit of a different feel, especially in the higher difficulties. Any general comments on what's changed? (What's exceptionally cool, etc?)

Followups:

1a) Was any rebalancing done between the classes? (For example, are ranged characters rebalanced vs. melee characters?)

1b) Has the party bonus for experience changed? Are parts of Act V and the Moo Moo Farm still "sweet spots"?

1c) The new skill synergies - what effect will they have on character builds?

1d) Some of the new items seem pretty high end, with those and skills being boosted by synergies, how difficult will Nightmare and Hell be? (Easier? Impossible to complete in Single Player? Etc?)

1e) Are there new runewords and/or other goodies for low to mid-level characters?

1f) I hear gambling has been improved. Great! Any details?

2) (You knew it had to be asked!) What about this World Event?

3) Random gush - loved the sound track for Act V. (What can I say? I'm into sound. One of my wishes for the expansion was that the two new classes would have some special NPC dialog in Acts I-III.)


-- CH

[Hammerskjold]

- Will any of the applicable changes in 1.1 (Synergies, item drops formulaes, etc) apply to D2 Classic as well?

[WarBlade]

1.) Has there been much attention paid to one-hit kill monster encounters in Hell Level? Specifically Aura Encanted Unique monsters and lethal skill combinations like Multiple Shot + Lightning Enchanted.

2.) What improvements to the list of 'named' throwing weapons can we expect? (which currently have no set throwing items and a limited selection of Uniques)

[kandrathe]

Have hireling AI, stats or powers been changed to deal with the improved AI, and increased difficulty of nightmare and hell?

Can you tell us anything more about the mysterious world event?

Now that you have announced products Starcraft Ghost and WOW, can you give us any hints as to where the Diablo games series is heading next?

Will all players be able to get cool Avatars on Battle.net?

[Striker]

*Have the "Triumphant" and "Victorious" prefixes been changed to also work with traps?

*We've seen the screenshot that hinted at some monsters using Bone Spear. Any other hints or clues as to other "character skills" that they can use now?

*What were the patch testers reactions when they first encountered the new changes and additions?

Edit: Thought of some more questions. :)

*Can it be confirmed that lightning and chain lightning have been changed to be affected by fast cast as opposed to IAS? What about traps?

*Is there anything in the patch now that wasn't when it was first being developed?

*What, in your opinion, is the coolest new feature or change?

[Rhydderch Hael]

Is the Chat Gem still operating up to snuff? ;)

[Ignatz]

Will there be implemented some sort of standardized trading facilitator? That is, a meaningful, in-game monetary unit to fill the shoes of the SOJ, 7% mfsc, 100 pdsc, "Hex" charm, etc?

Ignatz


And because Adam Smith compells me:

<broken record>
A 1,000,000 gold 1-slot item sold at all vendors that does nothing at all, but resells at full value. That would work.
</broken record>

[yangman]

- Are crafting receipies going to be incerased in number, tweaked to be more useful, or at least made more practical to make? If so, care to elaborate?

- All these new Rune Word receipies sound nice and all, but they won't do any good seeing how hard plain socketed items are to find, especially of Exceptional and Elite classes. Hey, even some Normal classed socketed items are hard to find. Is there something being done to change this?

EDIT: Removed one question. Wasn't thinking straight.

[BOB2]

Hi Bolty,

It is my first post since the new forums are up. First thank you for getting them back.
1) I would like to know if Blizzard will change something in their patch to avoid weird (ie strange) random boss name
2) Have they thought to fix the golem life overflow issue?
3) As a more general question, have they included some cool features of mods like increased stash size or others ...?

Have a nice day

[Jugalator]

1. Has there been any attempt to improve the quality of Rares, and not have MAGIC items often being better?

2. Have "side areas" (like Pit of Acheron in Act V) been made more rewarding, for example through improvements to "golden chest" drops?

3. Have any of the existing crafting recipes been improved?

4. Are Act III monsters (like the Serpent Magi seen in Kurast Temples) still challenging in Act V? Wouldn't that make them too tough in Act III, or aren't they appearing there anymore?

5. Will non-attack skills like Barbarian's Increased Stamina somehow be improved through synergies as well?

6. Will Reziarfg finally awake from his slumber? Ok, skip that. :)

[Fragbait]

Surprised that nobody asked this yet, given the fact that this was one of the first questions in the previous fansite chats that you mentioned. Well:

WHEN? When will it be out? Tell us tell us tell us. Don't tell us 'we have not yet decided when'. Simply say a day. Please.


It would as well be interesting to ask:

1) Did you nerf one-hit-kill bosses? Did you make the normal monsters harder while nerfing the 1-H-K Bosses?

2) Did you change anything about the Cow level? Giving the Cows resists, for example?

3) Will there be synergies for every character class? Will synergies be necessary to master hell difficulty?

Any to specific question won't be asked, I think (like: 'Will Firewall finally burn for a decent time?').


Greetings, Fragbait

[DarkDwarf]

I'll make it quick and simple:

Why is Blizz not adding any new crafting recipes? Also when cubing something (Like an Ethereal CCB) will it now stay ethereal?

[dahak_i]

Have any changes been made to the Amazon skills Immolation Arrow or Strafe? (Mainly removing the 10 monster limit on strafe or either the timer/time limit on Immolation arrow.)

What, if anything, has been done to address the Guided arrow/Pierce "bug"?
(Personally, I think it's Buriza that caused this hullabaloo in the first place. In and of themselves, the way the skills function is fine with me)

---Don't exactly remember where this idea came from (maybe from the incorrectly uploaded AS), but...

Will the patch include tempered items, and if so what kind of pretty color will they be? How, exactly, will they work?
On the chance that I dreamt this up, tempered items are items that you can cube specific affixes/prefixes in to, while increasing the level requirement. They seemed pretty cool to me.