The Season 14 PTR for Diablo II: Resurrected goes live April 14 at 11:00 a.m. PDT and runs through April 21. This patch is focused heavily on Warlock tuning following the Reign of the Warlock launch, with significant nerfs across the Demon, Chaos, and Eldritch skill trees, plus major changes to Herald spawns and Sunder Charm drop rates.
Note: These changes are being tested on the PTR and may be adjusted before going live. We expect some numbers to shift based on feedback.
Warlock Changes
General
- Warlock health potion effectiveness increased from 100 to 150
- Warlocks can now only equip a two-hand weapon in one hand if the other hand is using a grimoire class item, not a shield
Demon Tree
Demonic Mastery - Max demon count now requires base skill point investment to increase. No more easy demon armies from +skills alone.
Summon Goatmen - Attack Speed bonuses from the skill are now capped at 50%.
Blood Oath - Damage Transfer stat capped at 50%.
Blood Boil - Range now scales in three tiers based on skill level: 2 yards (1-4), 3 yards (5-9), and 4 yards (10+).
Consume - Bonuses now vary based on the game difficulty the demon was on when it was bound, not when consumed. So a demon bound on Hell difficulty will always give the Hell difficulty bonus.
Bind Demon - This skill got hit hard:
- Now requires base skill point investment to bind higher-tier demons (10 points for champions, 15 for uniques, 20 for super uniques)
- Synergy chance to bind from Death Mark reduced from 1% to 0.5%
- Missing health binding bonus reduced
- Max health cap introduced per demon type
- Cursed Affix chance to cast Amplify Damage slashed from 75% to 5%
- Mana cost reduced to 9 per second
- Several auras removed from the possible pool (Conviction, Holy Fire, Holy Lightning, Blessed Aim, Might). These now roll as Fanaticism, Vigor, Thorns, or Concentration instead. Holy Freeze remains available.
Chaos Tree
Miasma Bolt - Cloud damage reduced by 50%, direct hit damage slightly reduced, and a delay added before the cloud spawns. Also fixed a double-tick issue that was causing unintended damage.
Sigil: Lethargy - Damage Taken stat removed entirely.
Ring of Fire - Damage reduced to be more in line with Frost Nova damage.
Miasma Chains - Casting delay removed (a buff), but now has an active chain limit of 5 and cloud damage reduced by 50%.
Flame Wave - 15% damage reduction.
Eldritch Tree
Echoing Strike - Damage synergy bonus reduced from 5% to 3%. Also fixed to be additive instead of multiplicative (was way overperforming).
Eldritch Blast - Life and mana steal are now static at 5% regardless of skill level.
Terror Zones, Heralds, and Sunder Charms
This section addresses the community feedback that Herald spawn rates and Sunder Charm drops felt too low since Reign of the Warlock launched.
Herald Spawns - Heralds now spawn and hunt players immediately upon killing any monster in a Terror Zone. The chance for a Herald to appear increases with each kill in the same Terrorized Zone. The intent is for players to have a very high chance of seeing both a Tier 1 and Tier 2 Herald in a single zone.
Latent Sunder Charms - These can now drop from any monster (Terrorized or not) using Magic Find, removing the requirement of finding and killing Heralds. The increased drop chance from Heralds now starts at Tier 2 (Heralds of Dread) instead of Tier 4, and is no longer heavily modified by player count.
Consolation Prize - If a Herald fails to drop a Latent Sunder Charm, there's now an increased chance of dropping something else desirable instead, like a charm or amulet.
Colossal Ancient Statues can now drop from non-Terrorized act bosses.
Worldstone Shard drop chance is no longer modified by player count.
Colossal Ancients
- Magic Resistance increased from 50 to 75
- Colossal Talic received a damage increase across Whirlwind, Fire Twisters, and Volcano
Quality of Life
- Bindable move directions (WASD) have been reintroduced
Notable Bug Fixes
- Achmel the Cursed can no longer be bound by Bind Demon (was probably never intended)
- Echoing Strike was stacking multiplicatively instead of additively - fixed
- Echoing Strike wasn't rolling to hit or incurring weapon durability loss - fixed
- Miasma Bolt was double-ticking damage - fixed
- Miasma Chains clouds were exponentially ticking damage - fixed
- Enhanced Entropy now scales radius and duration with bonus skill levels at breakpoints instead of base skill points
- Bind Demon was checking bind chance every 2 frames instead of the intended 24th frame - fixed (massive reduction in bind rate)
- Western Worldstone Shards were dropping more frequently than other shard types from high-level Terrorized monsters - fixed
The overall theme here is clear: the Warlock came in hot with Reign of the Warlock, and Blizzard is pulling back on several mechanics that were overperforming - particularly Bind Demon, Miasma damage, and Echoing Strike. On the flip side, Herald and Sunder Charm accessibility is getting a big boost, which should make that grind feel a lot less punishing.
Source: Blizzard - Diablo II: Resurrected PTR 3.2 Coming Soon