News Tag: D2r Season 14 Ptr 3 2

While Diablo 2 Resurrected PTR 3.2 primarily centers on adjustments to the Sorceress, the changes to Terror Zones and item drops are just as noteworthy.

The developers have made several alterations to the drop rate of Worldstone Shards in Terror Zones, as well as to the spawn frequency and loot tables of Heralds. These adjustments directly affect how Sunder Charms are obtained.

Worldstone Shards

Worldstone Shards serve as a key currency for transforming an entire game session into a Terror Zone. Although PTR 3.2 patch notes merely stated that the drop rate of Worldstone Shards is no longer influenced by player count, testing suggests that the shards now drop far more frequently - roughly once every 5 to 7 minutes. They are practically everywhere. This shift presents both advantages and drawbacks for players.

For some, an item's worth is tied to its rarity. If shards become so abundant that they start piling up to maximum stack sizes, their trade value will naturally plummet, rendering them about as valuable as a Perfect Gem.

On the other hand, players who dislike Terror Zone mechanic previously had little control; without shards, Terror Zones would appear randomly across the map. For builds specializing in a specific damage type, certain zones could be an absolute nightmare to navigate.

With a significantly higher drop rate, players gain the freedom to convert acts into Terror Zones at will. You can stockpile shards from a particular act and activate the terrorized state exclusively in areas that suit your character's strengths, effectively avoiding zones filled with immune monsters or terrible terrain.

Overall, the high drop rate of Worldstone Shards is a welcome change for casual players. It grants agency and choice rather than forcing everyone to slog through unpleasant areas. Hardcore players focused on peak efficiency may, of course, hold a different view.

Heralds Spawn Frequency

According to the official notes, slaying monsters within a Terror Zone will now summon Heralds almost immediately. Based on player testing, the first two Heralds indeed appear with remarkable speed. In a larger area like Halls of Pain, you can often draw out two Heralds without even fully clearing a single floor.

The issue lies with the subsequent spawns. Once those first two Heralds are called forth rapidly, the frequency for the third and beyond falls off a cliff, even if you clear every last corner of the zone. It essentially reverts to the old, slower summoning rate.

This front-loaded mechanic inadvertently encourages a min-max approach to farming. Players can enter a Terror Zone, swiftly spawn and defeat the first two Heralds, then save and exit to start a new game and repeat the process. This, of course, runs counter to the intended design goal of having players fully clear Terror Zones.

To address this, the summoning speed of the first two Heralds could be moderately reduced, while significantly boosting the summoning rate for the third and subsequent Heralds - or perhaps discarding the old summoning logic entirely. Such a change would discourage players from gaming the system by resetting games for the initial drops and would instead reward those capable of clearing entire zones in a single, sustained session.

Heralds Loot

The loot table for Heralds has also been revised. Most importantly, Sunder Charms now drop from Level 2 Heralds instead of the previous requirement of Level 4. Furthermore, if a Herald does not drop a Sunder Charm, the chance for it to drop Unique items and Diablo 2 Resurrected Runes is now considerably higher.

Additionally, when engaging Heralds with a substantial amount of Magic Find, the likelihood of obtaining Unique Rings and Unique Amulets is exceptionally high.

Sunder Charms

Given the changes to Sunder Charm drop mechanic, many players have expressed concern that these charms might become overly common. However, based on current testing, there is no immediate cause for alarm.

First, to farm these charms efficiently, one must be capable of clearing all Terror Zones and taking down Heralds within them. If your physical damage build lacks a Sunder Charm to begin with, surviving and killing Heralds in a zone teeming with physically immune monsters is nearly impossible. Even top-tier builds like Blessed Hammer Paladin can struggle in certain scenarios without a solid gear foundation.

There have also been rumors about Sunder Charms dropping from regular monsters outside of Terror Zones. During testing, players have yet to confirm any such drops. Whether the actual drop rate is generous remains a matter of individual luck and clear speed.

Drop Rate from Regular Monsters

Rumors suggest that the drop rate for Sunder Charms from regular monsters is roughly equivalent to that of a Grand Charm with +1 to Skills. An average player might find only one or two over the course of an entire season, or perhaps three to five with exceptional fortune.

Some players wonder if finding a Sunder Charm during a Normal difficulty playthrough would disrupt the game's balance. In reality, as long as it does not become a common occurrence, allowing Sunder Charms to drop with an exceedingly low probability during the leveling process does not harm the experience.

Even with such a charm equipped, a character's power will not see a dramatic leap without the support of other gear. Moreover, if the designers were truly concerned about this, they could simply implement a restriction similar to that of Worldstone Shards, ensuring Sunder Charms only begin dropping after a character has defeated Hell difficulty.

These are all the item drop and Herald-related changes in Diablo 2 Resurrected PTR 3.2. Overall, these adjustments appear to be positive steps forward, though some finer details may still require further tuning.

PTR 3.2 for Diablo 2 Resurrected Season 14 arrived rather abruptly, yet it is clear to everyone playing that this is an emergency season deployed specifically to dial back the power level of Warlock. Beyond adjustments to Warlock and Terror Zones, there is virtually no substantive new content. Even so, the PTR content was far from satisfactory.

This PTR provides players with an Ethereal Thunder Maul intended for testing Echoing Strike skill, but its durability sits at a mere 31 points, causing considerable inconvenience when trying to evaluate the skill properly. Furthermore, the initial gear setup and underlying design logic for the test characters suffer from numerous flaws.

Echoing Strike Warlock

The character supplied for testing is dressed in equipment that appears magnificent at a glance, yet falls into utter contradiction once put into practice.

Lack of Sustain

The test character has no source of Life Leech whatsoever, and no mercenaries were provided. With Echoing Strike having been toned down, the shortcomings in both survivability and sustained presence become glaringly apparent. You must equip an item bearing Life Leech affix just to achieve the most basic level of recovery.

Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint

Moreover, for Echoing Strike - and indeed all skills - the fastest casting breakpoint caps at 125% Faster Cast Rate. The test character arrives with a total Faster Cast Rate of precisely 124%. This single-percentage-point deficit means that the current 124% investment only delivers the performance equivalent to the 75% breakpoint, resulting in an exceedingly awkward and clunky feel.

Ethereal Gear

Taken individually, the items worn by the character look quite good. There is an amulet with two affixes granting 20% Faster Cast Rate, socketed with a Ber Rune, along with an Enigma runeword armor.

Additionally, because the character wears Highlord's Wrath and Gore Rider, Deadly Strike chance is extremely high. The inventory is also stuffed with skill Grand Charms, a Hellfire Torch, and an Annihilus unique Charm.

All of this, however, is utterly sabotaged by that Ethereal Thunder Maul with a meager 31 durability points. To test Echoing Strike, players are forced to repeatedly wield a weapon that will shatter in short order. Once the weapon breaks, the only recourse is to visit a vendor and grab a mundane blue axe of inferior quality as a makeshift replacement.

Misleading Power Level

Even on Players 1 difficulty, this ostensibly formidable setup fails to dispatch common monsters in a single blow. The tooltip damage for Echoing Strike displays a value of 7000, and the skill level has been boosted to 39, but this is entirely propped up by those grand Charms and an Ethereal Fortitude runeword.

No player in an actual playthrough would ever craft an Ethereal Fortitude weapon for an Echoing Strike Warlock - unless they are exceptionally wealthy and doing so purely for amusement - because the weapon would degrade at an alarming rate with every use of the skill.

The configuration offered on  PTR not only fails to reflect the genuine in-game strength of the build but actively paints an overly flattering portrait of the skill's actual performance. When it comes to resistances, the character remains severely strained, even with an inventory full of Charms.

Ring of Fire Warlock

Beyond the issues with the max-level template, the design of the low-level test character is equally baffling. PTR also supplies a level 18 Warlock meant for testing Ring of Fire. Although the skill points have already been allocated (13 points into Ring of Fire), the character is placed in Act 1.

Players must first run through Act 1, endure the lengthy trek through Act 2, and only upon reaching Act 3 do they arrive at an area with monsters tough enough to appropriately gauge the skill's effectiveness. Using a level 13 Ring of Fire in the early low-level zones feels powerful, certainly, but that is purely because the skill level grossly outmatches the weak monsters, not because the skill itself is potent - especially given that Ring of Fire has been heavily curtailed in this PTR cycle.

For both the high-level and low-level test characters, the stash is completely empty. You must find your own means to stock it with weapons and Diablo 2 Resurrected Runes. While some gold was provided to players, this does little to remedy the overall lack of preparation for testing.

How Could PTR Be Improved?

Judging from player feedback, the gear supplied to testers in PTR 3.2 looks as though it was thrown together haphazardly by an intern. Testers are left needing to engage in tedious Magic Finding runs just to obtain the equipment required for testing on PTR. The entire purpose of providing an initial template is to allow players to evaluate the changes efficiently and directly, not to erect unnecessary hurdles and frustrating grinding sessions.

If the development team wishes for players to focus their efforts on testing skill balance and mechanical adjustments, then future PTRs ought to offer a more diverse selection of gear - including non-ethereal weapons with standard durability - along with an ample supply of consumables and crafting materials.

Here is hoping that future PTR environments will be more welcoming and more centered on the act of testing itself, rather than forcing testers to squander valuable testing time on deteriorating weapons and pointless cross-act foot travel.