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.

Individual Items
All unique, set, & runeword items have been reviewed and balanced to improve itemization options, and some new items have been added. See All Items for a complete 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 areas (19 total)

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)
 * Customizable item filtering and drop notifications
 * Customizable screen info with options for real time, elapsed game time, and ping
 * Announcements are no longer made every time friends join/exit games (reduces spam)
 * Announcements for ladder accomplishments/deaths (can be muted in-game)
 * Trade site
 * Support for ladder/non-ladder "Battle.net" and singleplayer (including runewords/ubers in singleplayer/non-ladder) ...non-ladder support will begin before the end of season 4
 * 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)
 * Maximum stash gold doubled
 * 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 skill points as possible (shift+click)
 * Shortcut to identify items with Tome of Identify (shift+click)
 * Stackable gems, runes, essences, uber keys/organs, etc
 * Tomes can now hold up to 80 scrolls each, keys can stack up to 50
 * Advanced character statistics page (default: press 8), press while mercenary window is open for merc stats
 * Inspect other players in town (default: press 0 while hovering cursor on other player)
 * 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
 * Stat ranges on item tooltips can be toggled on/off, and shown temporarily by holding ctrl
 * Displayed loot can be toggled on/off
 * 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)
 * You may now buy your unique charms back from vendors after selling them

General Balancing

 * Drop rates significantly improved for low-player-count games (nodrop chance is similar to p5 when solo in vanilla areas, ~p3 in maps)
 * Perfect gems now start dropping in Hell, Flawless gems start dropping in Act 4 Normal
 * Nightmare bosses now drop essences used for Token of Absolution
 * Uber Keys/Organs droprates changed from ~8.2%/100% to 100%/45%, and Uber Keys are 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 area level raised to 85
 * The 3 red portal areas in Act 5 (Abaddon, Pit of Acheron, Infernal Pit) have had their density increased by 40-50%
 * The Maggot Lair and Arcane Sanctuary in Act 2 have wider pathways
 * Lower Kurast no longer has super chests
 * 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
 * Characters now automatically pick up gold they run over
 * Running no longer hinders block chance or defense
 * Characters have +100 additional 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)
 * Crushing Blow no longer affects bosses, uniques, or champions when they are below 65% life
 * 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 (theoretical maximum chance is now 93% with 75% CS and 75% DS)
 * Summons and traps are now affected by +% to Elemental Skill Damage (full effectiveness) and -% to Enemy Elemental Resistance (half effectiveness)
 * Abilities that reduce monster resistances now operate at 1/2 effectiveness when above 99% or below 0% (used to be 1/5 when above 99%)

Item Changes

 * Items can now be corrupted
 * Low-tier pointmods no longer have an upper ilvl limit
 * "Forbidden" pointmods are no longer restricted (Holy Shield, Smite, Barbarian combat skills, etc)
 * Pointmod gold costs per tier increased from 1000,3000,8000,16000,32000,64000 to 5000,10000,20000,40000,60000,80000
 * Some rune effects have been adjusted slightly

Item Bases:
 * 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%)
 * Damage bonus from Strength/Dexterity adjusted for several weapon types
 * Base damage for exceptional weapons increased by ~24%, adjusted for many other weapons
 * 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:
 * +1-3% 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

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

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

Mercenaries:
 * All mercenaries grant auras, and their auras are always active
 * Rogue mercenaries & Iron Wolf mercenaries use new skills
 * Mercenaries can now equip gloves, boots, and belts
 * Rogue Scout mercenaries can equip crossbows & Amazon Bows, 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
 * 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 safe zone 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
 * 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

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
 * Using Cloak of Shadows while fighting the Ancients will no longer crash the game
 * Missile-based skills (e.g. Fire Arrow) now receive correct AR% bonuses


 * Also see: Bugs