Blizzards asks for your Diablo II Suggestions/Concerns

[Hammerskjold]

>I have no beef with people partying, not partying, or playing however (non-cheating) they want to. The issue here is that one (similarly leveled) character can join the game I created to, for example, co-op through a quest with friends, and have a single person blow through it and take all of the experience, potentially the drops, all with greater kill speed than my entire party combined.

That has existed in one form or another though, it's all well and good to show some courtesy and not behave like a jack-ass when and where others are involved. What with the golden rule and all. But my question is, to what end?

While I have seen the example you mentioned (especially if Ladder is involved), I could also see the player justifying it by saying Ladder is a competitive ranking. While I don't entirely agree with that view, it's not entirely invalid either. Why should he\she help someone who is their view, their competition?

>As for legitimately acquiring the equipment, I believe that's a rather grey area. I don't believe I know anyone who has found two Bers in the same ladder season. Trading for items that rare is a near certainty of getting duplicates.

I didn't want to get into that because this type of discussion is tricky enough without it. But yes, personally I think it's separate from the issue yet part of the problem. Certain items\r-words almost screams 'dupe bait'. That doesn't mean I'm going to automatically brand someone wielding a LastWish a cheater, but unfortunately the way things are there's a high chance that r-word is not exactly kosher.

>Howsabout this: the most prominent skill on just about any given character now no longer comes from that character, but from an (overpowered) item. Solo mono-elemental Sorceress, Amazons are not much without their Conviction (most blatant offender). Blessed Hammer paladins lose much without their various goodies, and while they are still viable, they are not the killing machines we all know them as without everything else. You can make a case for Teleport--it is used mainly as a movement utility, but Conviction? Do most of those builds even work without it? The game has been distorted when the "best sorceress skill" is a Paladin skill, AND is equippable, either on oneself or on a mercenary.

My guess is bliz somewhat painted themselves into a corner on this, which is why I still say it's the best they can do under the circumstances. (They shouldn't have painted themselves into a corner in the first place, but no one is perfect.) For argument sake let's say we remove all this x-skill items. I'm willing to bet most of the players will say 'wtf? what the hell are we left to fight with, harsh language?!' Bliz made the changes to game difficulties, and items \ r-words was used as a balancing factor.



>Bots are the problem, but not only would they be (at the very least) much less widespread without Enigma to teleport the paladins in question to their killing zone, but they would be raceable. Even if possible, do you know how long it would take, how many potions/town trips it would take, etc., for a bot Paladin without teleport to kill with Blessed Hammer? Yes, there are other offenders, but none even close to this severe in terms of the ladder raceway.

Then isn't the real problem duped runes and bots? I'm willing to bet you remember Pindlebots yes? And you remember how bliz solved that one according to the patch txt at least. Pindleskin's reward is toned down to 'discourage' botters. With that kind of solution, who needs an enema.

I don't know much about bots, only from reading some of the txt files concerning them. But if I understand them right, even without Enigma these bots will always have an advantage over me. Bots do not need sleep, they do not need meal and bathroom breaks like me. They do not feel boredom while doing repetitive tasks. They do not feel fear, they can not be bargained with, they will not stop until they find and terminate Sarah Connor. (Compared to that, teleport via Enigma looks fairly insignificant in the long run to me. And the marathon run is what bots seems to excel at.)

Seriously, they might be raceable under some conditions like you say, but to what and for what point? If you personally enjoy Man vs Machine type race that's one thing. But you remember the ending of John Henry vs the Steam Drill right?


>It is well to remember that Blizzard is a corporation whose primary goal is profit. The main purpose of Diablo II is, at this point, to serve as a good-faith gesture to the players. Blizzard will do what they feel will make the majority of them happy (or possibly what the majority of them SAY they want).

We're not in disagreement on this, I never once claimed that they're some sort of benevolent charity organization. Just to make something clear I'm also not some foaming bliz basher. That's way too easy to do.


>Unfortunately, judging by the vast amounts of maphack account bannings, multiple CD-key usings, and all of the other crap that goes on, I'd say this likely leaves me and my balance in the minority.

Here is where my criticism of bliz (and some player base) comes in. Bliz says they want to promote a cheat free\reduced environment, to the best of their ability. I'm not sure if this is a left hand\right hand situation or simply being very cynical. But considering the DClone event is connected with the sales of SoJ, I find that stance hard to take seriously. Same goes with r-words that uses multiple high runes that seems to either ignore the practical drop probability for most legit players, or again from a very cynical point of view understands perfectly what is going on.

>People want to have the game played for them, seemingly, so they can be "ub3r".

I know what you're saying, but wanting to be uber is not exactly bad in itself. Not everyone enjoys or wants a challenge. D2\LoD use to have a stronger case for saying this game is fairly open ended. For some players completing Normal (with or without intentional 'handicaps') can be a monumental deed. For others completing or assembling a collection is their main goal. Recently however the swing seems to be heading for less diversity. There was always something like this even in 1.00, but not to this extent. Hell mode seems to be the end game, period. What would be considered a bonus area\event in the past is now considered end game target for some. Multi-Ladder is where is at, everywhere else is for tards or n00bs, or tardy n00bs. At this point it's a chicken or egg thing to me, did players screamed and demanded for these and bliz gave it to them, or vice versa, or both.

But in the end, it's not like this is some sort of binding vote. (Since I don't have shares or a chair in either Blizzard or Vivendi, nor do I have enough skills and abilities to make a mod that contains all my wish list.) And many of the things we discussed is probably best left as agreed to disagreed or simply differing points of view.

While I can still get some sort of enjoyment from the game in some form or another, I don't have the interest to post in the official forum where I might have a better chance of getting heard. However that doesn't stop you or anyone else to do so if you feel that strongly about the matter. (If you haven't done so already.)

[Merlinios]

Gonna try to keep this one a bit shorter, as we're either agreeing or dancing around in circles on most of these points.

That has existed in one form or another though, it's all well and good to show some courtesy and not behave like a jack-ass when and where others are involved. What with the golden rule and all. But my question is, to what end?

My actual complaint on this one is not the player behavior, but the equipment that enables one character to outkill my entire party which is reasonable well-equipped and of comparable level. I'm all for the competitive spirit (though the example is a bit extreme), but it seems like the competition has changed from "play the game" to "get Enigma first and turn on the bot" or "Go dupe an Infinity."

My guess is bliz somewhat painted themselves into a corner on this, which is why I still say it's the best they can do under the circumstances. (They shouldn't have painted themselves into a corner in the first place, but no one is perfect.) For argument sake let's say we remove all this x-skill items. I'm willing to bet most of the players will say 'wtf? what the hell are we left to fight with, harsh language?!' Bliz made the changes to game difficulties, and items \ r-words was used as a balancing factor.

Yep, guess I pretty much agree with you there on cause/effect, and even that the current policy is probably the correct one, businesswise. But that doesn't stop me from feeling that the game (rather than the players, or Blizzard, or whoever else) would benefit directly (which would, hopefully, cause benefits for all other parties concerned).

This is a large part of what seperates Guild Wars and Diablo II (to me). Arena.net has repeatedly shown a willingness to keep the game...good rather than do whatever the masses claim to want. They've also been very willing to work with players on certain issues, but they know when to cement the calcaneous to the floor.

Then isn't the real problem duped runes and bots? I'm willing to bet you remember Pindlebots yes? And you remember how bliz solved that one according to the patch txt at least. Pindleskin's reward is toned down to 'discourage' botters. With that kind of solution, who needs an enema.

Yes, that is the problem. Blizzard has shown, however, that they don't want to put in the time/money/effort to fix it. Simply deactivating Enigma (and Infinity, and some other things) would at least level the playing field somewhat. The teleport issue is actually mainly an issue on the hammering bots. They use it to aim attacks, as I've had the misfortune to observe, not to mention take far less damage (never running, bypassing projectiles) and gain all sorts of goodies from the armor. Remember Gotterdamerung? It would translate fairly well to Enigma, conceptually, if they refuse to outright remove oskills.

(Compared to that, teleport via Enigma looks fairly insignificant in the long run to me. And the marathon run is what bots seems to excel at.)

Yes, bots have the perseverance capabilities, but to what end if you balance the items versus the enemies so you need to do tactical things, like...something other than click on enemies until they die. Have yet to see a bot (or most players, for that matter) do something even as strategic as lure melee enemies into narrow passages, or use walls/obstacles against range. No, it's not a tactical game (sadly), but do we really need the level of destruction characters are now capable of? Might be nice if level 88+ was able to be killed by something other than bugs related to secondary attacks.

While I can still get some sort of enjoyment from the game in some form or another, I don't have the interest to post in the official forum where I might have a better chance of getting heard. However that doesn't stop you or anyone else to do so if you feel that strongly about the matter. (If you haven't done so already.)

I don't actually feel that strongly about the matter, but I feel good venting in some open debate with an intelligent aggressor (devil's advocate, whatever you want to call yourself here). Diablo II holds little value to me beyond attempting to hook up with friends, playing weird variants, and running the ladder. Talking about it is usually far more satisfying.

Yeah, Blizz isn't going to do anything that takes much time or costs much money for a game this old, especially to help the multiplayer side. They're deeply invested in another multiplayer game. I understand that many of you have rejected said game, but, that doesn't change the fact that bandaids are all you're going to get. And, you guys can bitch about Blizz all you want on this, but I know of very few companies who would even *touch* a game of this age, let alone patch it.

That's quite correct, and if they took away my cause to do so, unless they did one hell of an overhaul, they'd probably be taking away more enjoyment than they created. Honestly, I might be happier if they just killed Diablo II Battle.net support entirely and left us to host private battle.net imitators.

I don't know how Blizzard made a game that is this addictive, and yet lacks satisfaction. There is no adrenal rush. (after a time) There is no joy in finding rare items. Stupid MMO syndrome. They may yet be the death of gaming.

(once again, longer than expected, so I'd better add another parenthetical line right here)

--me

[candlelight]

I'd settle for Blizz doubling or tripling stash size.

Since LOD has been released, various changes to the game have increased the gains from storing gems / runes / jewels and using them up in runewords, crafting, or cube recipes. And yet, stash size has remained unchanged.

Ironically, Blizzard may be increasing their own storage costs by giving people stronger and stronger incentives to maintain multiple mule accounts as the game becomes more and more focused on gathering and processing raw materials, over time.

[Merlinios]

I'd settle for Blizz doubling or tripling stash size.

Since LOD has been released, various changes to the game have increased the gains from storing gems / runes / jewels and using them up in runewords, crafting, or cube recipes. And yet, stash size has remained unchanged.

Ironically, Blizzard may be increasing their own storage costs by giving people stronger and stronger incentives to maintain multiple mule accounts as the game becomes more and more focused on gathering and processing raw materials, over time.

[Bob]

1) Runes/runewords.
-Increase drop probability (as has already been said).
-Bring in a raft of new low and mid-level words.
-Make upgrading runes easier (remove the gem requirements). Open more rune upgrade recipies to non-ladder
-More runewords which provide auras would be nice

2) Mercenaries:
-2 potential upgrades; having 2 mercenaries at once & full equipability
-Possibly allow the player to choose which upgrade they have at the completion of each act.

3) Reduce resistance penalty for higher difficulty levels (25%/50%, perhaps) or make resistance-providing equipment more easily available

4) Make socketed items more easily available, perhaps through horadric cube recipies. Currently the Larzuk upgrade is once per difficulty and it's hard to figure out if you'll get the number of sockets you need anyway.

5) Do something about monsters capable of one-hitting casters. Perhaps have a new ability which does 90% of a character's HP worth of damage at all times

-Bob

[Merlinios]

1) Runes/runewords.
-Increase drop probability (as has already been said).
-Bring in a raft of new low and mid-level words.
-Make upgrading runes easier (remove the gem requirements). Open more rune upgrade recipies to non-ladder
-More runewords which provide auras would be nice

Nothing against increased drop probabilities, or low-level words, provided they are actually low level and not just low-cost (*Ahem* Insight *cough*). The original idea (I believe) behind the rune upgrades only on ladder was to get people to play ladder. By making insanely rare items only available on ladder, people, other than the 10,000 ish who might try to win the ladder, had an incentive to leave all of their old accounts behind and start fresh on ladder. Solid plan, I'd say. Not sure what changing it does at this point, though.

More aurae is not really a good idea, methinks. Those that exist are already broken in half. All of them, with the possible exception of Thorns are currently VERY good in the end-game, used properly. They are so good, in fact, that people have been willing to sacrifice otherwise extremely powerful slots just for an aura. More aurae just throws the game balance further out of whack, unless you think they should give monsters another large buff? Show me a Barbarian who wouldn't run Cleansing, and I'll show you a Singer.

2) Mercenaries:
-2 potential upgrades; having 2 mercenaries at once & full equipability
-Possibly allow the player to choose which upgrade they have at the completion of each act.

This seems largely to coincide with your "more aurae" philosophy. Characters are already powerful enough. We do not need more buffs.

3) Reduce resistance penalty for higher difficulty levels (25%/50%, perhaps) or make resistance-providing equipment more easily available

Resistance equipment is everywhere. You're not looking, or you're blinded by +skills or Aurae-granting runewords. Mosers Blessed Circle is cheap as dirt. Perfect Diamonds are available to anyone who can get to the Hellforge. Prismatic amulets have a Horadric Cube formula. I suspect you don't want easily available resistance equipment, but easily available overpowered resistance equipment (IE, Crown of Ages)

My Sorceresses normally have 75 across the board. There is no reason for any class not to aside from lack of trying.

4) Make socketed items more easily available, perhaps through horadric cube recipies. Currently the Larzuk upgrade is once per difficulty and it's hard to figure out if you'll get the number of sockets you need anyway.

Those formulae already exist.

Do something about monsters capable of one-hitting casters. Perhaps have a new ability which does 90% of a character's HP worth of damage at all times

Aside from Smite, why exactly do we play melee characters if this is imposed? Barbarians have become little more than walking Battle Orders. You'll be hard-pressed to find an Amazon not using Lightning Fury as her primary attack, though Strafe is semi-popular. Charged Strike is occasionally used as well, but realistically, only on bosses. Paladins have their Smite and Zeal, neither of which are as efficient against masses of enemies as caster skills. And the druids are a joke compared to the rest of them, in terms of optimized melee, with the possible exception of the Barbarian

I also feel it needs to be said that if your caster is dying in one hit (and it bothers you), you need to re-think your build. There is literally no reason to die in one hit. Take off some skill adders for some health, resistance, damage reduction gear. Stop sinking so many points into energy. Use a shield with high blocking capabilities. There are many, many things you can do to avoid the one-hit deaths. I believe all of my casters' health is up above the 4 digit line, pre-Battle Orders. They all have shields, with the exception of the Enchantress' bow if she's on alternate (which she frequently is).

Or you could just not get hit. Missiles are all dodgable. Melee attackers are all...melee range. And you don't have to worry about any kind of Iron Maiden.

Sorry to sound rather condescending here, but this is exactly the view that I loathe so much. This is what has destroyed the game. The gaming public has deluded itself into thinking that it wants more powerful, more findable items and easier-to-kill monsters. In reality, this merely makes the game boring faster. I look at people complaining about how boring the game is in Battle.net chat, or in-game, even. More than half run bots. There is only so much you can show off your "phat lewt" or your indestructible character before boredom sets in. And then what? Diablo 2 is a hack-and-slash game biased toward treasure-hoarding. But once you can kill all of the enemies with your eyes closed, and you have three or four mule accounts full of rare items and runes, what next?

Let's stop trying to make the game easier and easier and look toward something to actually do. 5000 Mephisto runs MIGHT appeal to me if he was a little harder to kill. I don't want freebies. I want a time waster, which is why I bought the game. The all-consuming addiction worked for awhile. Then the ladder took its place. Until the next reset, though, there really isn't much to do with Diablo II but make progressively more handicapped variants.

(Sorry about that other post up there. I have no idea what happened, nor what I originally intended to say...probably some hardware issues on one end or the other, but I wouldn't discount lack of sleep as the cause.)

--me

[Occhidiangela]

My due lire:

1. The Normal Cube is 3 X 4. Make the NM Cube 4X4 and the Hell Cube 4 X 5.
2. Fix Fend
3. Fix Impale/CS
4. Chain Lightning,
5. Fix Lightning Strike.
6. Fix LCS

I had a long post a while back about how the skill trees should be re aligned with pre reqs and relationships between skills, but since game play changes aren't due to happen anytime soon, I'll not resurrect that discusion.

I'd like to see a return of class specific crafts. It stunk that those were removed.

Occhi

[Phredreeke]

1. The Normal Cube is 3 X 4. Make the NM Cube 4X4 and the Hell Cube 4 X 5.

That's a good idea. Motivation for players to not skip halls of the dead at later difficulties.

My suggestion, make Spirit of Barbs actually useful. It's probably the worst level 30 skill in the game. Here's some ways it could be made better.

-Make the damage ignore your damage reduction. That way the player could use damage reduction items without reducing the (already poor) effeciency of Spirit of Barbs.
-Make the damage magic, not physical.
-Add poison damage. Barbs can be poisonous you know.

[Occhidiangela]

-Add poison damage. Barbs can be poisonous you know.

And a synergy with Creeper? :blink:

Occhi

[Assur]

-Add poison damage. Barbs can be poisonous you know.

Poison Creeper already does poison damage, so that is covered. Perhaps synergies for the creepers and spirits could be introduced, the way it's been done with the wolves and bears.

[Phredreeke]

Well, at least it's something to make it differ from being a bad Thorns-clone.

[Assur]

Well, at least it's something to make it differ from being a bad Thorns-clone.

It's a bad Thorns clone:DIt would be neat if it had, added, magic damage. I would start a melee WW at once.

[Bob]

My actual complaint on this one is not the player behavior, but the equipment that enables one character to outkill my entire party which is reasonable well-equipped and of comparable level. I'm all for the competitive spirit (though the example is a bit extreme), but it seems like the competition has changed from "play the game" to "get Enigma first and turn on the bot" or "Go dupe an Infinity."

It seems to me that the aura is too powerful. It's a nice idea, but badly implemented. In a party you can cover your vulnerabilities by having a nice mix of characters. When you play alone you can't. Having auras-on-items giving you maybe 3 or 4 extra auras if you're dedicated to them can help emove weaknesses in various areas to allow you to play solo without ust grinding to a halt on certain enemies. However, the auras given are much to powerful and allow you to get the aura you migth expect from having a paladin wander around after you. To this end I think all the aura-providing runewords should have the aura level reduced to 1. You want higher level auras? get a party and put a paladin in it.
Conviction would still probably be very powerful, but it woudn't be as bad (the maximum resistance reduction would more than half). Maybe conviction is just to powerful though? I'd warrant than an Amazon wadering around with a paladin in tow to provide level 20 conviction would be a lot worse for the addition of 1 character.


on another note. Another new idea:
a mod to reduce nodrop percentage. Another boon to the solo character and to complement magic find. The point is that it wouldn't directly make a player overpowered. It may make the powerful items more ubiquitous though, this will allow the game to simply be balanced towards most people being equipped with that sort of stuff.
It could also be a one-off mod for a unique item or a runeword or something.

-Bob

[Merlinios]

It seems to me that the aura is too powerful. It's a nice idea, but badly implemented. In a party you can cover your vulnerabilities by having a nice mix of characters. When you play alone you can't. Having auras-on-items giving you maybe 3 or 4 extra auras if you're dedicated to them can help emove weaknesses in various areas to allow you to play solo without ust grinding to a halt on certain enemies. However, the auras given are much to powerful and allow you to get the aura you migth expect from having a paladin wander around after you. To this end I think all the aura-providing runewords should have the aura level reduced to 1. You want higher level auras? get a party and put a paladin in it.
Conviction would still probably be very powerful, but it woudn't be as bad (the maximum resistance reduction would more than half). Maybe conviction is just to powerful though?

Don't be so sure. The main reason it's in use is as an immunity breaker, possibly in conjunction with Lower Resist charges. It's not broken because it takes resistances way into the negatives, but because the Sorceress' only real weakness is now irrelevant. Yes, lowering the level of Conviction will help a bit, but the majority of the breakable immunities are low enough that low Conviction will still break them and let something else (Rainbow Facets, masteries, Lower Resist) do the rest, which still creates the imbalance present in the sorceress. The melee classes have long been capable of clearing everything out with the proper build, true, but look at the kill speed ratio (bar Blessed Hammer, which has its own set of issues).

I'd warrant than an Amazon wadering around with a paladin in tow to provide level 20 conviction would be a lot worse for the addition of 1 character.

Must be why all them Lightning Fury Amazons have the Infinity mercenary in tow.

My due lire:

1. The Normal Cube is 3 X 4. Make the NM Cube 4X4 and the Hell Cube 4 X 5.
2. Fix Fend
3. Fix Impale/CS
4. Chain Lightning,
5. Fix Lightning Strike.
6. Fix LCS

Of these relatively realistic changes, I think I'd most like to see the LCS fixed. One can argue the "it impacts everyone" thing here (probably not--most people seldom look at it). Can't say that Impale, Fend, have been too big on my list. I tend to play off-class weapon melee Amazons when I play melee amazons. Mauls are sexy. Critical Strike is a bit important there, though.

I'm not sure about the cube expansion either. That does change what can be done with a few crafting recipes based on space limits. Or was that the point? More storage space would be convenient, I suppose. What if they just expanded the stash to infinity (or rather, just bigger than what is in use at any given time) and gave it a scroll bar (or something equally "simple")? Seems like it would save server space, but I could be wrong.

I must be honest, I'm not too sure what's wrong with Chain Lightning and Lightning Strike. I assume it's the same problem? I haven't used either extensively in-game, and haven't spent too much time with the code-diggers since I bought Guild Wars.

I'd like to see a return of class specific crafts. It stunk that those were removed.

Agreed, but low priority. Except that it will be implemented badly in the form of massively overpowered items yet again. If they can do it and maintain what little semblance of balance is left, I'd be a happy camper...sitter.

Also in this line, howsabout giving enemies that don't rhyme with "Doom Sniper" a fighting chance at killing us, eh?

--me

[Zingydex]

Perhaps you're forgetting the also-bugged gloam-class monsters, and any aura-enhanced frenzytaur pack - both of whom will mow down less-than-godly characters with ease if not approached with extreme caution.

[Merlinios]

Perhaps you're forgetting the also-bugged gloam-class monsters, and any aura-enhanced frenzytaur pack - both of whom will mow down less-than-godly characters with ease if not approached with extreme caution.

Nope, those were an intentional exclusion. They're easy enough to handle if approached carefully, and if they're approached in the wrong manner, you have a full few seconds, rather than mere frames, to respond appropriately.

--me

[Munkay]

Nope, those were an intentional exclusion. They're easy enough to handle if approached carefully, and if they're approached in the wrong manner, you have a full few seconds, rather than mere frames, to respond appropriately.

--me

My experience says otherwise. I agree that in most situations they can be handled, and there is a sufficient period (in seconds) to wise up and get to a safe place. But there have definitely been times that I've been toast before I could react. The corners in World Stone Keep are a good example, my sorceress turned the corner into a boss pack and was toast before she even had time to say "tele".

I'd much rather see a tougher, longer fight, then one based on a twitch reaction. Make them shoot faster, do less damage - whatever the solution I'm with Zingdex and think they should be fixed.

Agree to disagree Merlinios?

Cheers,

Munk

[Merlinios]

My experience says otherwise. I agree that in most situations they can be handled, and there is a sufficient period (in seconds) to wise up and get to a safe place. But there have definitely been times that I've been toast before I could react. The corners in World Stone Keep are a good example, my sorceress turned the corner into a boss pack and was toast before she even had time to say "tele".

I'd much rather see a tougher, longer fight, then one based on a twitch reaction. Make them shoot faster, do less damage - whatever the solution I'm with Zingdex and think they should be fixed.

Agree to disagree Merlinios?

Cheers,

Munk

No beef with your desire to fix them. I was merely stating that in most cases they shouldn't be killing you (if you're smart). There are of course exceptions (mainly from aura-enchanted bosses).

While I too would prefer longer battles, I don't think that's Diablo II any longer unless you start playing highly defensive variants. I'd settle for giving other monsters buffs similar to Gloams or Minotaurs (perhaps not quite on the level of Tomb Vipers, but they're handle-able once you know how the bug's killing you). The problem, say I, is not that Gloams and Minotaurs and Vipers kill you too fast, but that with the way the game is currently set up, monsters that kill you slower can only do so if you've an empty belt, no portals, and no teleport. Make it a game again. I hunt Nihlathak's Temple because the enemies there don't just roll over and give up. If you're going to power them down (which is not by any means what I was suggesting for the Vipers), you need to remove Full Rejuvenation potions, perhaps lower resistance caps, do SOMETHING. There's no reason to play if you're indestructible other than acquiring "phat lewt", which you apparently already possess if you're indestructible.

As it currently is, the game seems to be composed of enemies that kill you before you can respond (Vipers, occasional packs of buggy/"overpowered" enemies) and enemies that can't kill you at all unless you play variant-style. That is my contention. By all means, fix them, but at least give them a fighting chance.

--me

[Bob]

Don't be so sure. The main reason it's in use is as an immunity breaker, possibly in conjunction with Lower Resist charges. It's not broken because it takes resistances way into the negatives, but because the Sorceress' only real weakness is now irrelevant. Yes, lowering the level of Conviction will help a bit, but the majority of the breakable immunities are low enough that low Conviction will still break them and let something else (Rainbow Facets, masteries, Lower Resist) do the rest, which still creates the imbalance present in the sorceress. The melee classes have long been capable of clearing everything out with the proper build, true, but look at the kill speed ratio (bar Blessed Hammer, which has its own set of issues).
Must be why all them Lightning Fury Amazons have the Infinity mercenary in tow.

Well, how about the change comes with a change to the stats of conviction so that it won't break resistances for the first 5 levels? This would have the side effect of stopping paladins (who don't have a whole pile of +skills gear) from just dropping a point in it to solve their problems when they run into a physical immune.

An alternative solution is to replace convict-on-a-stick with 'conscience' aura, or something which has the same stats as convict, but no breaking ability (or a break to 95% ability, but no further reductions allowed. Which would probably be a pig to program, however).

I still think most of the other auras-on-items wouldn't be a problem if they were all level 1 only, or maybe it's just that I want such items.

-Bob

[-Aerows-]

How about a widescreen option for PC players? Mac players got it in 1.10, but PC players with new laptops and new widescreen monitors are left with black bars if their PCs support it, or a stretched out mess. I can't log in for some reason, therefore I can't suggest this myself:(.