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Mercenary Changes in Diablo II: Resurrected Patch 2.4 and Beyond
Diablo II
Geposted
23.12.2021 um 20:13
von
Tharid
In the recent Developer Interview with
MrLlamaSC
, Design Lead Rob Gallerani, Senior Game Producer Matthew Cederquist, and Global Community Development Lead
Adam Fletcher
unveiled massive changes to the Mercenary system in Diablo II: Resurrected.
In Patch 2.4, players will have more viable choices based on improvements made to the mercenaries, their skills, and their equipment.
News: D2:R Developer Interview with MrLlamaSC
Diablo II: Resurrected Patch 2.4 Mercenary Changes
Act I Mercenaries: Rogues of the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye
According to Rob Gallerani, the ranged mercenaries from Act I will get new skills. Those skills will aim to improve the archer's area-of-effect damage effectiveness.
So far, Act I mercenaries either used Cold Arrow or Fire Arrow - two single-target Amazon abilities. Looking at the developer statement to increase AoE damage, we could see them using Freezing Arrow or Immolation Arrow instead - the two "end-game" Amazon abilities that deal substantial damage to multiple enemies at the same time.
Based on these changes, the Rogues of Act I could become a staple choice for class builds that lack a second spell damage school in their kit. If these new spells have decent scaling, characters like Blizzard Sorcs could make good use of a decked-out Fire Rogue.
Act II Mercenaries: Desert Warriors
Act II Mercenaries have been the weapon of choice for the majority of builds in D2 and D2:R alike. The damage potential and utility of their aura spells alone surpasses everything the other mercenaries have to offer.
That is why the popular Desert Warriors will mostly receive quality-of-life changes. From Patch 2.4 on, players will be able to hire all six different Act II mercenary types across all difficulties. Right now, Act II Mercs have different auras based on the difficulty they're hired in.
Apart from that, the Nightmare Combat merc that provides Thorns will be impacted by changes made to the said aura. According to the developers, Thorns damage will be calculated on a flat-damage base instead of percentages in 2.4.
Act III Mercenaries: Iron Wolves
Flavorwise, the Iron Wolves have always been a great fit for the brutal jungle of Kurast. To up their overall effectiveness, their core stats will be improved in the upcoming patch, and they will receive new "utility spells". We don't know anything specific about these spells yet, but, according to Gallerani, they will most likely be of elemental nature.
For the longest time, Act III's mercs were equipped with simple elemental spells like Inferno or Glacial Spike. Adding more utility-based spells like Static Field or Blizzard could support a lot of pure damage builds.
Act V Mercenaries: Barbarians
For the longest time, Act V's Barbarians have felt like a weaker version of the Act II Desert Warriors. The warriors of Harrogath have never found their spot as a decent mercenary pick - but that will definitely change!
According to Matthew Cederquist, Act V mercs will be able to use the Barbarian skill Battle Cry. This useful ability lowers the enemy's damage and defense, making it a great fit for the all-in melee mercenary. Gallerani also noted that they will increase total life and defense values of Act V mercenaries.
With these buffs, Barbarians could become a great addition to physical damage builds like Zealadin.
Mercenary Item and Rune Word Changes
The "x factor" for mercenaries in Patch 2.4. will most definitely be the changes to runewords and set items. As of now, only a runewords are being used - mostly due to the fact that almost every build wants to use an Act II mercenary.
We've only seen two new runewords so far - Pattern and Plague. We know that these runewords have been available in Diablo II's codebase for the longest time. However, the developers stated that both of them could look different from what we know from the game files.
We hope to see at least some attributes of the original Plague being introduced to Diablo II: Resurrected:
Plague
Weapon
'ChamFalUm'
Required Level: 1
25% Chance to Cast Level 15 Poison Nova On Striking
20% Chance to Cast Level 12 Lower Resist When Struck
Level 13-17 Cleansing Aura When Equipped
+1-2 All Skills
+260-380% Damage to Demons
-23% To Enemy Poison Resistance
0.3% (0.3-29.7) Deadly Strike (Based on Level)
Adds 5-30 Fire Damage
25% Chance of Open Wounds
Freezes Target +3
+10 to Strength
The fact that this runeword debuffs enemy poison resistance while having a chance to cast Poison Nova alone makes this a great weapon runeword for Act V Barbarians or Act II Desert Warriors. It also adds Deadly Strike, Open Wounds, and Freeze Target, three incredibly useful modifiers for fast-hitting mercenaries.
It is very likely that we will see more runewords being introduced with Patch 2.4, and both Gallerani and Cederquest pointed out that many of those have been designed with mercenary support in mind.
New Runewords in Diablo II: Resurrected Patch 2.4 and Beyond
In addition to runewords, set items will also see significant improvements. We don't know any details yet but hope to see more of the high-level sets like M'avina's Battle Hymn or Heaven's Brethren being viable in end-game mercenary setups.
Mercenaries in Diablo II: Resurrected
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