Median XL 2017 1.1 Version Log

Game news and forum updates
User avatar
suchbalance
Team Member
1756 | 513
Common Posting Badge
Posted over 1.000 messages
Legendary Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 250.000 views
Legendary Love Badge
Earned over 500 cookies
Common Supporter Badge
Donated 1 time
Common Guide Badge
Created a complete character guide
Common Skill Badge
Experienced Player
Legendary Contribution Badge
Median XL Team Member
Great Mind Badge
A Median XL guru... a true book of knowledge
Artagel wrote:Could you elaborate further on how divine judgment actually worked in the previous patch and how it is expected to work in the current patch for instance?


The elaboration would mean nought to you unless you are familiar with how D2 projectiles work behind the scenes, but I am sure that when you test the new version of the skill you'll see the difference.

Also I would like to comment on the whole Pala 2h situation. I don't know why people are trying to make it seem as if they are unusable. A Hand of God has DOUBLE the damage of the best Pala 1-hander, and for that you have to 1) focus on attack speed as an endgame stat rather than an afterthought and 2) lose a shield. Now as far as attack speed goes, Paladin already has an inbuilt way to trivialise the requirement - Rapture. But even if you want to go unholy influence you can still use a Hand of God at max fpa if you wanted by incorporating a wolf stance oskill in your build (since sIAS scales with slvl) - for example 2 piece Curse of the Zakarum set bonus or Auriel's Robe. But even without those items you can still use a Hand of God because even at 9fpa (achievable easily just with IAS from gear) it is competitive damage wise to a 7fpa 1h. Where you see "sadness" I see decision making and choices in character building.


Fumbles wrote:I just wish that barb melee tree would have looked at more closely rather than buffing skills randomly. By that I mean playing through the game first and making the decision instead of buffing and praying. Maybe Deathgaze/Iron Spiral have potential but only time will tell. I know its almost exclusively sb doing skill stuff but I feel like reverting the melee trees would be the best option at this point. Limiting the trees with weapon requirements was the worst thing that could have happened. The only reason to dual wield before was the 6 frame attacks but dual wielding died. Using an axe + sword now to gain access to all the melee skills at the cost of a shield is a joke. I'm not saying all aspects of melee are bad because boss killing is great. Killspeed(general farming) is absolutely terrible though. Barb needs a skill with some good aoe and needs access to the skill regardless of what weapon type is being used. Hulk just wants to smash.


I can't say I appreciate you essentially calling Barb melee skill changes "random", but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt this time and explain the reasoning. The changes to the melee trees this patch target exactly what you already identified in your post - that barb melee doesn't have any great farming skills. To that extent:

- Iron Spiral: if you actually gave this skill a proper test end game you would notice that the damage was quite good but the skill power didn't scale well when dealing with big monster packs. The pierce change addresses exactly that allowing you to essentially aoe most of the screen simultaneously now. Number of hits was reduced to prevent it from being too OP. Elemental conversion was reduced so you can now sustain yourself better with life leech.

- Death Gaze: axe projectiles have increased aoe which again means better coverage in a crowded area. Axes will now also target offscreen enemies a bit less. Damage was also increased to make it a better farming ability and the bonus damage now scales with base level meaning that, together with Iceburst you can make a build that works very well with shitty gear and just focusing on cold pierce since you can tap a big pack once with iceburst to slow them and get the pierce and then finish them off with the big added cold damage from Death Gaze. Again, conversion was reduced so you can sustain yourself better in combat.

- Earthquake: again, damage buffed to make it better for farming (even tho it's not the best skill mechanically, it has its uses) and it is now the best Snake Stance spread melee skill.

And regarding the whole requirements situation - I don't believe there really is a big problem. Yes now you can't use Yaggai with stormblast to double dip on the lightning pierce, but that doesn't make this axe trash and secondly items are always secondary to skills so changing something just to optimise melee for 1 item is silly. As counter intuitive as it sounds putting the weapon restrictions actually now gives more choices as far as gear and melee skill plans are concerned, because if there wasn't a restriction it's pretty obvious that stormblast>iceburst and iron spiral>death gaze & thunder clap > ww & axes>swords for general gameplay so you always end up with with the same optimal build. Now each weapon path has some downsides. You can also choose to have your cake and eat it by dual wielding, but then you give up survivability & GD.
User avatar
mahitovec
twitch.tv/mahitovec
1799 | 190
Common Posting Badge
Posted over 1.000 messages
Legendary Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 250.000 views
Great Love Badge
Earned over 100 cookies
Great Showcase Badge
Bored at work? Come watch my stream!
Common Guide Badge
Created a complete character guide
Using stormblast with Yaggai :thumb:
Pinkb00mer
Invader
8 | 0
Very excited to play with this new patch. :D
I have a question though, I have not been playing for very long.
If I have any of the Uniques that are being removed in my stash when I install the patch will I be unable to go back in on my characters in Single Player? I don't play on the realm I only play Single Player. I remember that happening after I installed MX17 that I had to make new characters to continue playing.
I currently use D2SE to be able to have a shared stash.
HABACALVA'S FIRESTAR: removed and replaced with a new unique - Habacalva's Legacy
STONE OF THE SKATSIM: removed and replaced with a new unique - Galeona's Lash
RAMCHARGE: removed and replaced with a new unique - Greenwalker's Charge
ASTROGHA'S FANG: removed and replaced with a new unique - The Defiler
HAND OF NAZ: removed and replaced with a new unique - Adjudicator
SCREAM OF NATURE: removed and replaced with a new unique - Mind Rake
GOBLIN'S SKULL: removed and replaced with a new unique - Skull of Viz-Jaq'taar
User avatar
suchbalance
Team Member
1756 | 513
Common Posting Badge
Posted over 1.000 messages
Legendary Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 250.000 views
Legendary Love Badge
Earned over 500 cookies
Common Supporter Badge
Donated 1 time
Common Guide Badge
Created a complete character guide
Common Skill Badge
Experienced Player
Legendary Contribution Badge
Median XL Team Member
Great Mind Badge
A Median XL guru... a true book of knowledge
Those items will become legacy - so if you already have them you get to keep them for your collection but they will not drop anymore.
User avatar
A New Start
Monkey King
281 | 27
Common Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 10.000 views
Common Love Badge
Earned over 20 cookies
Common Guide Badge
Created a complete character guide
Yo I'm SO hyped for this patch. Great work fam :thumb:
Pinkb00mer
Invader
8 | 0
suchbalance wrote:Those items will become legacy - so if you already have them you get to keep them for your collection but they will not drop anymore.

Thank you for the quick response. :D
Looking forward to it all.
MrFunk
Bone Archer
77 | 5
Common Supporter Badge
Donated 1 time
I'm 100% on board the hype train. It's going to be so exciting exploring the new areas! Great work as always guys.
User avatar
Nitz
Harpylisk
1476 | 57
Common Posting Badge
Posted over 1.000 messages
Great Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 50.000 views
Common Love Badge
Earned over 20 cookies
Common Guide Badge
Created a complete character guide
Ok suchbalance you did a huge part explaining stuff about 2h pala - could you answer me this question - "When you added bear stance as an oskill to nagi did you mostly want to improve the broadside nagi built or was it something else?"
User avatar
OnlyForFun
Cog
203 | 17
Can discover few new uniques for us ? :roll:
Pain
Azure Drake
162 | 12
Common Popularity Badge
Has a thread with over 10.000 views
Common Supporter Badge
Donated 1 time
Common Guide Badge
Created a complete character guide
sheeeet, i came