General Changes

This page lists an overview of changes made in PD2 relative to the vanilla game. Topics which are too detailed for this list include links to other pages with additional information. Also see: All Topics

Skills
All skills have been reviewed and balanced (or reworked if necessary) to ensure each has a niche, and some new skills have been added. The Skill Overview page lists changes for each skill. There's also a Skill Planner for PD2. See All Skills for a complete list with details per level.

Individual Items
All unique, set, & runeword items have been reviewed and balanced to improve itemization options, and some new equipment items have been added. See All Items for a complete equipment list.

There are also several new non-equipment items. For example:
 * Worldstone Shard and Larzuk's Puzzlebox can corrupt items and add sockets to them
 * Jewel Fragments can be stacked and used like jewels in recipes
 * Maps allow access to new endgame zones (23 total new zones)

See New Items for a complete list.

General
Below is a comprehensive list of changes that don't fit in either of the previous categories. Bulleted points that follow page links are described with more detail on those pages.

Out-of-Game

 * Widescreen support and improved graphics
 * More characters per account (up to 18) and accounts/characters don't expire
 * Global ladder & interaction, regional servers
 * Lobby games are no longer hidden after progressing to the next difficulty and game difficulty is shown, lobby games can be filtered by name
 * Game name/password/description can be auto-filled and game name can be auto-incremented
 * Games now perm in 2 minutes
 * Game servers have rolling resets every ~4 hours (for stability reasons)
 * Announcements are no longer made every time friends join/exit games (reduces spam)
 * Announcements for ladder accomplishments/deaths (can be muted in-game)
 * Cosmetic rewards for the first 3 players of each class to reach level 99 or defeat uber bosses in each ladder season
 * Trade site
 * Support for ladder/non-ladder "Battle.net" and singleplayer (including runewords/ubers in singleplayer/non-ladder)
 * No support for non-expansion (classic) or Open "Battle.net", but singleplayer characters can still be played together with TCP/IP by creating a virtual LAN between computers
 * Messages that begin with "!" will not appear above the character's head (was an attack vector for crashing servers)
 * No tolerance for cheating or unfair practices such as botting, maphack, auto-pickup, or real-money-trading (see the full list of PD2's rules)

Quality-of-Life

 * Bigger stash (10x15), cube (4x4), and inventory (10x8, still only 10x4 available for active charms)
 * Shared stash pages (9 total per account, 1 personal stash page per character)
 * Maximum stash gold doubled


 * Characters now automatically pick up gold they run over (as long as it isn't filtered out)
 * Loot dropped on unreachable tiles by flying enemies will now spawn at the nearest ground location
 * Customizable item filtering and drop notifications


 * All active skills can now be bound to left click
 * New "Move Only" skill which makes characters move toward a selected location without attacking
 * Targeting monsters has been improved - if you namelock an enemy and it dies you will continue to attack instead of your character stopping all actions
 * Option to "quickcast" skills (activates the skill when the key is pressed rather than just switching to the skill) - only primary keybinds will quickcast, whereas secondary keybinds will switch skills normally


 * Shortcuts for moving items between inventory & stash/cube/ground (shift+rightclick, ctrl+shift+rightclick, ctrl+rightclick)
 * Shortcuts to add 5 stat/skill points (ctrl+click) and add as many points as possible (shift+click)
 * Shortcut to identify items with Tome of Identify (shift+click)


 * Stackable gems, runes, essences, uber keys/organs
 * Shortcuts for stacking/unstacking (ctrl+shift+click) and separating individual items when a stack is picked up (ctrl+shift+click, ctrl+click)
 * Tomes can now hold up to 80 scrolls each, keys can stack up to 50


 * Customizable screen info in the upper right that shows zone level and has options for real time, elapsed game time, ping, etc
 * Advanced character statistics page (default: press 8), press while mercenary window is open for merc stats
 * Inspect other characters (default: press 0 while hovering over them in town), also works outside of town while hovering over other characters or your own minions (Valkyrie, Shadow Master) if you select a skill which can target them such as Holy Bolt or Unsummon
 * Options for auto-partying and auto-permitting corpse looting


 * New .roll command to help facilitate sharing loot in parties
 * Messages that begin with .p or .party will only be seen by party members
 * New .dps command to show/hide how much damage per second the character has done recently


 * Stat ranges on item tooltips can be toggled on/off, and shown temporarily by holding ctrl
 * Displayed loot can be toggled on/off


 * Gamble refresh button
 * Killing the Cow King no longer prevents you from opening the Secret Cow Level, and Wirt's Leg from any difficulty can be used to open it
 * The red portal to Nihlathak's Temple in Harrogath near Anya no longer closes permanently after defeating Nihlathak
 * Antidote, Thawing, and Stamina Potions now auto-belt
 * Characters can now hold multiple Wirt's Legs and unique charms in their inventory/stash (still only 1 of each charm can be active at a time)
 * Unique charms can be repurchased from vendors (if accidentally sold)

General Balancing

 * Drop rates improved for low-player-count games - nodrop chance when solo is similar to vanilla's /players5 but still scales up to a similar level with full games
 * Flawless gems now start dropping in Act 4 Normal and perfect gems start dropping in Hell
 * Nightmare bosses now drop essences used for Token of Absolution
 * Uber Keys are now also dropped by Blood Raven, Bloodwitch, and Izual
 * The time between Baal's minion waves has been reduced by 50%
 * Many zones have had their zone level raised to 85
 * The 3 red portal zones in Act 5 (Abaddon, Pit of Acheron, Infernal Pit) have had their density increased by 40-50%, and Mausoleum & Crypt have had their density increased by 9%
 * The Maggot Lair and Arcane Sanctuary in Act 2 have wider pathways
 * Lower Kurast no longer has super chests due to their mismatched risk/reward
 * Monsters that die from Chaos Sanctuary seals rather than being killed will no longer drop loot
 * Running no longer hinders block chance or defense
 * Maximum resistances for characters/mercenaries reduced from 95% to 90%
 * Assassins start with two Katars, Barbarians start with two Hand Axes, Druids start with a +1 Firestorm Club, and all starting items are low quality
 * Amazons, Assassins, Barbarians, and Paladins gain an additional 0.5 mana per level
 * Characters have roughly +100% additional starting stamina
 * Stamina Shrines now last half as long and also grant +35% velocity
 * Many effects (shrine buffs, warcries, "Hit Blinds Target") will no longer overwrite or be overwritten by curses or each other
 * The chilled/frozen debuffs now also reduce cast speed alongside run/walk speed and attack speed
 * Antidote/Thawing Potions now grant +25% to Poison/Cold Resist (was 50%) and no longer grant +10% to Maximum Poison/Cold Resist
 * Attackers Take Damage and reflect mechanics now also affect ranged attacks and deal damage when attacked instead of when hit (occurs before hit, so if reflected damage kills the attacker, the attack won't land)
 * Ranged attacks now leech half as much as melee attacks
 * Crushing Blow no longer affects bosses, uniques, or champions when they are below 65% life, and the melee reduction is now the same as the ranged reduction
 * Critical Strike and Deadly Strike rebalanced to improve itemization - they now each cap at 75% instead of 100% and multiply damage by 1.5 instead of by 2
 * Summons and sentries (traps, hydras) are now affected by +% to Elemental Skill Damage
 * Summons (except Fire Golem) are now affected by -% to Enemy Elemental Resistance (half effectiveness)
 * Abilities that reduce monster resistances have been rebalanced and now operate at 1/2 effectiveness when above 99% or below 0% (used to be 1/5 when above 99%)

Item Changes

 * Low-tier pointmods no longer have an upper ilvl limit
 * Useable "forbidden" pointmods are no longer restricted (Holy Shield, Smite, most Barbarian combat skills, Poison Strike on Necromancer shields)
 * The chances for items to get pointmods and for pointmods to be higher have been increased
 * old chances: 30% no mods, 40% 1 mod, 20% 2 mods, 10% 3 mods; 60% +1, 30% +2, 10% +3
 * new chances: 10% no mods, 40% 1 mod, 30% 2 mods, 20% 3 mods; 40% +1, 35% +2, 25% +3
 * Pointmod gold costs per tier increased from 1000,3000,8000,16000,32000,64000 to 5000,10000,20000,40000,60000,80000
 * Repair cost for superior items has been decreased
 * Some rune effects have been adjusted slightly
 * Rares now get a minimum of 4 affixes at ilvl 45+, 5 at 65+ and 6 at 85+
 * Rare jewels now always get 4 affixes

Item Bases:
 * Ethereal bonus reduced from 50% to 25% (most exceptional/elite weapons rebalanced so that eth stats remain the same)
 * Ethereal items no longer have half durability
 * Throwing weapons and arrows/bolts have unlimited quantity
 * All claws can now have pointmods
 * Clubs can now have Druid pointmods (similar to pelts)
 * Quivers can now be magic or rare
 * Melee weapons now deal splash damage
 * Staves have 10%/30%/50% FCR as an automod (normal/exceptional/elite)
 * Crossbows have 10% Physical Pierce as an automod
 * Daggers have 20% Deadly Strike as an automod
 * Removed hidden movespeed penalty from medium/heavy chests and shields
 * Paladin shield automod "All Resistances" ranges reduced (maximum 30% instead of 45%)
 * Kick damage of boots adjusted
 * Damage bonus from Strength/Dexterity adjusted for several weapon types
 * Base damage for normal/exceptional/elite weapons increased on average by ~4%/~42%/~24%
 * Attack speed (WSM) for Amazon spears improved by 10
 * Melee range increased for many weapon bases
 * Base defense and block chance increased for Ward/Aegis
 * Maximum sockets increased for several weapon bases and Necromancer shields
 * Durability increased for all weapons

Item Affixes have received several changes, especially for rares. Some notable examples:
 * Elemental damage affixes for charms normalized according to charm size & element type, damage increased
 * +2-4% Poison, Fire, Cold, or Lightning Damage for large charms
 * 3 Sockets for rare chests, shields, weapons
 * 5-20% PDR for chests, shields; 5-10% PDR for belts
 * +10-20% FCR for chests, shields; +10% FCR for gloves, belts
 * +10-200% Enhanced Damage for chests, shields
 * +1 Class Skills for chests, shields, helms
 * 5-30% Deadly Strike, Crushing Blow, or Open Wounds for most weapons
 * +301-400% Enhanced Damage for some lesser-used weapons and bows

Staffmods have received several changes, both in how they generate and at what probability.
 * There are no longer Staffmod groups. PD2 have a different amount of skills for each character type, instead of 30 skills across the board for each character type.
 * Hence, Staffmods are generated following a simple algorithm, where every 7th level a new group of skills are introduced (for ilvl 1-12, all rlvl 1 skills can be generated, for ilvl 13-18, both rlvl 1 and rlvl 6 skills can be generated, for ilvl 19-24 all rlvl 1,6 and 12 can be generated, e.t.c).
 * Since there are no more staffmod groups, all skills across the board can be generated on the same item as long as the ilvl-requirement is met.
 * For ilvl 37+, all staffmods can roll on all items, together. This means you can roll an item with rlvl 1(firebolt) and rlvl 30(fire mastery) together.
 * This was not possible in vanilla, where the groups limited how staffmods rolled together.
 * There are also new probabilities for how the mods are generated. These are as follows: The odds of rolling a staff mod have been changed from
 * Staff Mod Amount (old): 10% -> 3 mods 20% -> 2 mods 40% -> 1 mod 30% -> no mods
 * Staff Mod Level (old): 10% -> +3 30% -> +2 60% -> +1
 * The new staff mod odds have been changed to
 * Staff Mod Amount (new): 20% -> 3 mods 30% -> 2 mods 40% -> 1 mod 10% -> no mods
 * Staff Mod Level (new): 25% -> +3 35% -> +2 40% -> +1

Recipes
Crafting has been overhauled:
 * Any base (except circlets/quivers) may be used for crafting
 * Crafting with ethereal items causes the resulting item to be ethereal
 * Crafted items no longer have higher level requirements than their rare equivalents
 * Crafted items and set items can now be upgraded
 * Rare items can now be used in crafting recipes

Recipes:
 * Some recipes have been simplified
 * New repair recipe that uses Zod and works with ethereal/broken items
 * Other new & modified recipes corresponding to new items

Non-Player Characters

 * Jerhyn and his guards now always stand outside of the Palace in Lut Gholein
 * Deckard Cain now wanders at the top of the stairs in Harrogath near Malah
 * Anya will give a regular tier 1 map in Hell in addition to her normal reward
 * Healing NPCs now remove chill in addition to other ailments

Mercenaries:
 * Mercenaries have better AI
 * Mercenaries from all acts grant auras
 * Mercenaries use new skills
 * Mercenaries can now equip gloves, boots, and belts
 * Rogue Scout mercenaries can equip any bow/crossbow & quivers, Iron Wolf mercenaries can equip Paladin shields, scepters, tipped maces, wands, knives, & Sorceress orbs, Barbarian mercenaries can equip axes, tipped maces, & hammers
 * Mercenaries now have the same stats regardless of which difficulty they're hired from

Monsters:
 * Monsters can now spawn with Concentration, Vigor, or Holy Shock auras
 * Dolls have a small delay before exploding when killed, their explosion has a smaller radius, and it deals less damage
 * Mephisto can now float over the blood moat in Durance of Hate, and the council members in Durance of Hate are closer to Mephisto
 * Andariel and Duriel in Hell difficulty now use the same loot tables as Mephisto and Baal, respectively
 * Uber Key Holders (Countess, Summoner, Nihlathak, Blood Raven, Bloodwitch, Izual) are stronger
 * Uber Ancients have been added
 * Diablo-Clone is much harder and is now accessed with the new Vision of Terror item instead of selling Stones of Jordan
 * Rathma is a new uber boss

Player versus Player
PvP Changes:
 * Skill PvP damage has been rebalanced
 * New dueling arenas accessible via items which can be purchased from Anya
 * Spectator mode can be toggled by typing .spec or .spectate within the non-combat part of an arena
 * After dying in these arenas, characters revive without needing to retrieve their corpse
 * Note: Hardcore characters revive in the same way - HC dueling can be done inside PvP arenas without risking characters, but character death is still permanent everywhere else


 * Slow, Knockback (from items), Flat Elemental Absorb, and Attackers Take Damage are disabled in PvP arenas
 * Life replenish is capped at +30 in PvP arenas
 * Stuns in PvP can no longer be reapplied to players who are already stunned, and attacks/hits/spells against stunned players will reduce the stun duration by 2 frames each
 * Regenerating charges (e.g. Blink on Enigma) regenerate 200% faster in PvP arenas

Bug Fixes

 * Andariel quest bug fixed (multiplayer only)
 * Ethereal armor bug (ebug) from socketing recipe fixed
 * Council hydra damage against mercenaries/summons fixed (tied to PvP damage)
 * Trap bug fixed (traps no longer decrease the number of unique/champion packs that may spawn nearby)
 * Act 2 mercenaries no longer crash the game due to Delirium (CtC Delirium was removed from Delirium runeword, so they can't jab enemies as a fetish)
 * Mana burn bug fixed
 * Jewels with enhanced damage or min/max damage will now work correctly
 * Paladin Charge desync bug fixed
 * Cloak of Shadows will no longer crash the game at the ancients
 * All missile skills now properly benefit from skill attack rating bonuses
 * Quest items can no longer be upgraded into Hand Axes (upgrading recipe is disabled for them)
 * Lilith can no longer spawn outside the map
 * Fixed a bug which caused excess MDR to apply to physical damage if the target's Magic/elemental Damage Reduction was higher than the attack's magic/elemental damage


 * Also see: Bugs