Skill Changes

From Project Diablo 2
Jump to navigation Jump to search

This page lists skill changes from the vanilla game. For a list of player-vs-player skill changes, see PvP Changes. Also see: All Skills

 The Skill Overview section on this page may have outdated info (from s9 changes)

Skills on Items

All item auras and oskills are listed below with details about changes from the vanilla game:

Auras
Skill Item Source (Aura Level) Item Changes Mercenary Sources
Might Last Wish (17), Templar's Might (6-8) added: Templar's Might Act 5 Mercenary, removed from Act 2 Mercenary
Concentration Pride (18-20), Mist (8-12), Mage Slayer (3-6) new: Mist, Mage Slayer
Fanaticism Beast (8-10), Faith (12-15)
Holy Fire Dragon (12), Hand of Justice (12), Flamebellow (24-28) added: Flamebellow
Holy Freeze Doom (16), Ice (18), Shattered Wall (16) new: Shattered Wall removed from Act 2 Mercenary
Holy Shock Dream (13), Zerae's Resolve (25-30) new: Zerae's Resolve Act 3 Mercenary
Sanctuary Azurewrath (10-12), Heavenly Garb (1), Asylum (17-20) added: Heavenly Garb, Asylum
removed: Lawbringer
Act 4 Mercenary
Conviction Infinity (12)
Blessed Aim Act 2 Mercenary
Thorns Edge (15), Bramble (18-21), Silence (23-25) added: Silence Act 2 Mercenary
Defiance Exile (13-16) Act 2 Mercenary
Vigor Harmony (10), Kalan's Legacy (4-6) added: Kalan's Legacy Act 1 Mercenary
Meditation Insight (12-17) Act 1 Mercenary
Redemption Phoenix (10-12)
Prayer Act 3 Mercenary, removed from Act 2 Mercenary
Cleansing Plague (15-17) new Act 3 Mercenary
Salvation Zenith (8-12) new
Resist Fire Djinn Slayer (6), Todesfaelle Flamme (6), Flickering Flame (1-6) added: Djinn Slayer, Todesfaelle Flamme
new: Flickering Flame
Resist Cold Frostwind (6) added
Resist Lightning Lightsabre (6) added

When a single character/mercenary has multiple items that grant the same aura, the level of the aura granted to that character/mercenary will be the sum of those auras' levels

OSkills
Skill Item Source Item Changes
Poison Strike Venom, Infernal Spire added (both items)
Critical Strike Insight, Peace, The Gladiator's Bane added: The Gladiator's Bane
Zeal Passion, Boneslayer Blade, Ferocity added: Boneslayer Blade, new: Ferocity
Concentrate Passion added
Berserk removed from Passion
Vengeance Kingslayer
Joust Zerae's Resolve new
Exploding Arrow Blastbark added
Strafe Endlesshail added
Guided Arrow Widowmaker
Multiple Shot Widowmaker added
Cold Arrow Pluckeye added
Fend The Impaler added
Jab The Impaler added
Javelin and Spear Mastery The Impaler added
Raven Eaglehorn added
Arctic Blast Frostwind
Werebear Beast
Maul Beast added
Hunger Beast added
Lycanthropy removed from Beast & Wolfhowl
Werewolf Wolfhowl
Feral Rage Wolfhowl
Summon Dire Wolf Wolfhowl replaced charges
Golem Mastery Metalgrid added
Iron Golem Metalgrid replaced charges
Clay Golem Stone (36 regenerating charges) charges now regenerate
Blink Enigma (5 regenerating charges), Naj's Puzzler (3 regenerating charges) replaced Teleport, replaced Teleport charges
Revive Eternity, Blood Raven's Charge (15 regenerating charges) replaced charges, charges now regenerate
Cyclone Armor Infinity replaced charges (staff version)
Blood Golem Death replaced charges
Corpse Explosion Corpsemourn replaced charges
Cloak of Shadows Darksight Helm replaced charges
Amplify Damage The Gavel of Pain (3 regenerating charges) charges now regenerate
Enchant Fire Demon Limb (20 regenerating charges) charges now regenerate
Heart of Wolverine Oath (20 regenerating charges) charges now regenerate
Battle Command Call to Arms
Battle Orders Call to Arms
Battle Command Call to Arms
Blade Dance Chaos replaced Whirlwind
Warmth Enlightenment
Hydra Dragonscale
Fire Ball Trang-Oul's Avatar
Fire Wall Trang-Oul's Avatar
Meteor Trang-Oul's Claws changed from global bonus to item bonus
Fire Mastery removed from Trang-Oul's Avatar
Inferno removed from Flamebellow
Valkyrie removed from Harmony (changed to class-only skill)

Oskills are capped at +3 when used by their native class - otherwise they grant the full amount.


Some items grant other skills when equipped:


Note that many items have also gained new or improved chance-to-cast effects. For example:


Skills only obtainable from items:


Skill Overview

This section lists major mechanical differences from the vanilla game. For full details and a list of numerical changes and other balance adjustments, see the changelog for each skill. The Portal Skill Planner may also be useful for comparing vanilla & PD2 skills.

Broad Skill Changes:

  • All characters gain the "Move Only" skill, which simply makes them walk/run toward a location without attacking
  • Improved summon AI
  • Summons and sentries (traps, hydras) now benefit from +% to Elemental Skill Damage
  • Summons (except Fire Golem) now benefit from -% to Enemy Elemental Resistance at 1/2 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%)
  • Spells and abilities no longer share cooldowns globally
  • Skill synergies and their positions within the skill tree have been adjusted to streamline skillpoint allocation (you won't need to respec to play certain builds)
  • Most skill buffs now last a minimum of 5 minutes
  • Summoned minions which wear equipment (Valkyrie, Shadow Warrior, Shadow Master) can now be inspected - use the inspect hotkey while hovering over them with the Unsummon skill

Amazon

Javelin and Spear Skills

Impale has been replaced with Javelin and Spear Mastery

Jab
Javelin and Spear Mastery
  • replaced Impale, new skill that adds bonus damage and critical strike chance for javelins and spears
Fend
  • 3 hits per attack instead of 10 (helps avoid animation lock)
  • now grants +20% melee splash radius on stage 2 and +40% on stage 3
Power Strike
  • now also creates a lightning nova on attack
Charged Strike
Lightning Strike
  • number of hits capped at 10
  • range of "chaining" reduced slightly
Poison Javelin
  • poison duration is always 1 second instead of increasing per level
  • increased missile velocity/range by 25% and missile hitbox size by 100%
Plague Javelin
  • poison duration is always 3 seconds instead of increasing per level
  • increased missile velocity/range by 25% and missile hitbox size by 100%
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Fury
  • now begins with 10 bolts and releases an additional bolt every 5 levels

Passive and Magic Skills

Avoid has been merged with Dodge

Slow Missiles has been reworked as Slow Movement

Dodge
  • merged with Avoid (dodges both melee and ranged attacks when attacking or standing still)
  • removed animation, now has a 4 frame cooldown after mitigating an attack
  • now also grants bonus FHR per hard level
Evade
  • now has a 4 frame cooldown after mitigating an attack
  • now also grants bonus movement speed
Critical Strike
  • crits now deal 1.5x damage instead of 2x damage and crit chance is now capped at 75% (same for deadly strike and other skills that grant crit for specific weapons)
Pierce
Penetrate
  • now also reduces enemy defense % per hard level
Inner Sight
  • now also reduces enemy attack rating
  • radius begins at 6.6 yards and scales up to 20 yards (was always 13.3 yards)
Slow Movement
  • renamed from Slow Missiles, now also slows enemy movement speed
  • slowing ranged attacks now scales per level
Decoy
  • now attacks enemies and uses Strafe
  • now has damage synergies
Valkyrie
  • now moves faster, has dramatically improved AI, and uses Power Strike
  • can now summon an additional valkyrie at levels 20 and 30

Bow and Crossbow Skills

Magic Arrow
  • now shoots an additional arrow every 5 hard levels
  • now converts 50% damage to magic (was 1% per level)
  • deals additional flat magic damage
Multiple Shot
  • now gains bonus enhanced damage and attack rating
  • now deals 20% reduced damage each time it pierces (the initial hit will always deal 100%, capped at 20% minimum)
  • range reduced (used to hit off-screen enemies)
Guided Arrow
  • now pierces, can pierce same target 3 times
  • can convert some damage to magic with synergies
Strafe
  • projectile speed/range and hitbox size greatly increased
  • no longer causes "next hit delay" (faster breakpoints available)
  • capped at 5 hits per attack instead of 10 (helps avoid animation lock)
  • now gains bonus attack rating
Cold Arrow
  • shoots 2 arrows + 1 per 4 levels (was just 1)
  • converts 50% physical damage to cold damage (was 3% + 2% per level)
Ice Arrow
  • projectile speed/range increased
  • freeze duration no longer scales per level
  • now affected by pierce
Freezing Arrow
  • radius now scales up to 6 yards (was 3.3)
  • freeze duration reduced from 2 seconds to 0.5 seconds
Fire Arrow
  • shoots 2 arrows + 1 per 3 levels (was just 1)
  • converts 50% physical damage to fire damage (was 3% + 2% per level)
Exploding Arrow
  • bigger explosion
Immolation Arrow
  • no longer has a cooldown
  • no longer benefits from pierce


Assassin

Martial Arts

Charge-up skills reworked

  • Instead of charges being generated one-at-a-time per charge-up attack and the effects only triggering when consumed, a 3-stage cycle is used:
  • Charge-up attacks immediately trigger the attack's effect which corresponds to the current stage (1-3) and generate charges until the character has that many charges of the attack's type. The first attack will trigger a stage 1 effect and generate 1 charge, the second attack will trigger a stage 2 effect and generate 1-2 charges, and the third attack will trigger a stage 3 effect and generate 1-3 charges.
    • Using 1 charge-up skill will result in 3 total charges per cycle
    • Using 2 different charge-up skills (A,B,B) will result in 4 total charges per cycle (1 from skill A, 3 from skill B)
    • Using 2 different charge-up skills (A,A,B) will result in 5 total charges per cycle (2 from skill A, 3 from skill B)
    • Using 3 different charge-up skills will result in 6 total charges per cycle (1 from first skill, 2 from second skill, 3 from third skill)
  • A finishing move or basic attack may be used after any stage to consume all the charges and trigger an effect for each one, resetting the cycle. If a fourth charge-up attack is used instead, the previous charges will simply expire without triggering anything and the cycle will begin again. Charges expire after 5 minutes if no attacks are used.

Kick attacks now benefit from most damage sources like other attacks and have 1 additional range

Tiger Strike
  • limited to claws/daggers
  • now grants +20% melee splash radius on stage 2 and +40% on stage 3
Cobra Strike
  • limited to claws/daggers
  • reworked to cast a Teeth-like poison bolt ability on stage 1, dual leech on stage 2, and a poison cloud on stage 3 (these attacks carry Venom damage and poison damage from gear)
Dragon Talon
  • capped at 3 hits per attack (helps avoid animation lock)
Dragon Claw
  • cannot be interrupted
Dragon Tail
  • attack speed penalty reduced from -40 to -20 (improves breakpoints)
  • no longer causes knockback
Dragon Flight
  • cooldown increased to 2 seconds (was 1)
  • range has been increased by 50%
Fists of Fire
  • reworked to cast a burning explosion on stage 1, fire nova on stage 2, and meteors in a linear pattern on stage 3
Claws of Thunder
  • charged bolt missile travel velocity has been doubled
Blades of Ice
Phoenix Strike
  • limited to claws/daggers
  • removed "next hit delay" for 3rd charge (cold attack)

Shadow Disciplines

Claw Mastery is now Claw and Dagger Mastery

Claw and Dagger Mastery
  • renamed, now affects daggers as well as claws
Weapon Block
  • now works while moving
  • has a 4 frame cooldown after mitigating an attack
  • now also gives +1% FBR per level
  • affected by "Increased Block Chance" at a 1:5 ratio
Psychic Hammer
  • bounces to an additional enemy every 10 levels
  • now has damage synergies
Cloak of Shadows
  • now has a fixed duration of 5 seconds (was 8 + 1 second per level)
Mind Blast
  • no longer stuns after first hard level (was 2 seconds + 0.2 per level)
  • no longer converts enemies
  • radius now scales per level
  • now has damage synergies
Burst of Speed
  • attack speed bonuses now require hard levels
Fade
Venom
  • poison damage now lasts 1 second instead of 0.4 seconds
  • no longer benefits from +% poison damage twice
Shadow Warrior
Shadow Master

Traps

Chain Lightning Sentry is new

Sentry traps are now displayed in the upper left similar to minions

Fire Blast
  • now gains an extra bomb every 4 hard levels
Wake of Fire
  • range increased, range scaling removed
Wake of Inferno
  • shoots 5 times instead of 10
  • now has a fixed range of 20 instead of a scaling range of 0.5 yards per level
Blade Sentinel
  • now always paths to your mouse location and no longer has its pathing blocked by monsters
  • increased projectile movement speed and hit rate (every 5 frames instead of every 15)
  • now releases an aoe burst when changing directions
  • duration no longer scales with levels
  • no longer counts toward trap count
  • now benefits from resistance penetration at half efficiency similar to elemental traps
Blade Fury
  • now pierces enemies and splits into multiple projectiles when colliding with a wall
  • attack trigger time is now affected by attack speed
  • penalty for 2-handed weapons removed
  • now adds bonus attack rating
Blade Shield
  • uses "on striking" instead of "on attack" and can apply: Chance to Cast on Striking, Crushing Blow, Open Wounds, Life/Mana after each Kill
  • no longer uses durability
  • attacks faster with hard levels
  • range increased
  • now has attack rating
  • now has the ranged leech penalty (50% reduced leech)
Shock Web
  • removed next hit delay
  • increased ground speed
  • now gains 1 additional spike per three levels instead of via synergy
Charged Bolt Sentry
  • now gains +1 bolt per 4 hard levels instead of via synergy
Lightning Sentry
  • nows shoots 5 times instead of 10
Death Sentry
  • can now only explode corpses instead of shooting lightning most of the time
  • explosion damage is 3-5% of corpse's life plus some additional flat physical and fire damage
  • radius is always 10 yards (was 3.33 + 0.67 per level)
  • now gains +1 shot per 3 hard levels instead of via synergy
Chain Lightning Sentry
  • new skill that shoots bolts of Chain Lightning that bounce between targets


Barbarian

Warcries

Howl
  • now lasts 3 seconds at all levels
  • enemies don't flee as far
Taunt
  • is now an aoe skill centered on the caster
  • duration increases with hard levels
Battle Cry
  • reduces enemy physical resistance instead of damage (can break immunities)
  • duration is now 8 seconds
War Cry
  • now has scaling AOE
  • stun removed, but procs FHR
Find Potion
Find Item
Grim Ward
  • reworked to grant nearby allies bonus damage and attack rating instead of making enemies flee
  • can now be cast at range instead of just melee, and can be used on skeleton corpses
Shout
Battle Orders
  • now adds flat life/mana, with +15 life and +7.5 mana per level (was 35% + 3% life/mana/stamina per level)
Battle Command
  • grants 1 additional skill point every 10 hard levels
  • also adds 20% + 3% enhanced damage per level

Combat Masteries

Sword Mastery, Axe Mastery, Mace Mastery, Polearm Mastery, & Spear Mastery have been replaced with General Mastery and Polearm and Spear Mastery

Increased Stamina has been reworked as Combat Reflexes

Deep Wounds is new

General Mastery
  • replaced Sword Mastery, Axe Mastery, & Mace Mastery
Polearm and Spear Mastery
  • replaced Polearm Mastery & Spear Mastery
Throwing Mastery
  • adds pierce
Combat Reflexes
  • renamed from Increased Stamina
  • now also grants life
  • now also grants FHR with hard levels
Iron Skin
  • now also adds PDR% with hard levels
Increased Speed
Natural Resistance
Deep Wounds
  • new skill which increases both chance to cause open wounds and the damage it deals

Combat Skills

Bash
  • 75% chance monster is put into FHR animation with knockback, otherwise no knockback
Double Swing
Frenzy
  • duration increased to 15 seconds (was 6)
  • now gains increased splash radius
Double Throw
  • now bounces up to 7 times between targets instead of benefiting from pierce
Stun
  • now stuns in a small area
Concentrate
  • converts 30-70% of physical damage to magic damage (+2% per hard level) instead of only 0-20% via synergy
Berserk
  • now requires two weapons
  • now deals physical damage instead of magic damage, is uninterruptible, and penetrates physical resistance
  • reduces player's physical resistance instead of defense, duration is now always 0.5 seconds
Leap
  • leap distance and speed increased
  • knockback radius is now only increased with hard levels up to 10 yards (was 2.67 + 0.67 per level)
Leap Attack
  • leap speed increased
  • now deals damage in an area instead of attacking a single target
  • does not use duability or attack rating
Whirlwind
  • now attacks at a constant rate like it did in classic (no benefits from IAS)
  • when dual wielding, both weapons are swung simultaneously per attack
  • no longer attacks in place during a namelock and will now whirlwind back and forth through the monster
  • now benefits from Faster Run/Walk and also grants additional velocity
  • can now trigger chance-to-cast effects


Druid

Elemental Skills

Gust is new

Firestorm
  • range increases with levels and the number of missiles increases with hard levels
Molten Boulder
  • boulder speed increases per level
Fissure
  • now has increased density, lowered cooldown, and no longer causes next hit delay
Volcano
  • now has reduced cooldown and next hit delay
Armageddon
  • now has increased radius, increased meteor fall rate, and larger aoe for meteors
  • meteors deal a more even split of physical and fire damage
  • duration increases by 3 per level instead of via synergy
Cyclone Armor
  • now gains 3 absorb per Energy
Arctic Blast
  • reduces enemy cold resistance (can break immunes)
  • has a bigger hitbox and travels faster
Twister
  • now shoots additional twisters at higher levels (max of 14, does not shotgun)
Tornado
  • hitbox size increased
Hurricane
  • duration increases by 3 per level instead of via synergy
Gust
  • new skill that teleports the player and chills enemies, cooldown can go down to 0.5 seconds

Shape Shifting Skills

Werewolf
  • practically unlimited duration (was 40 seconds + 20 seconds per Lycanthropy level)
  • now grants bonus damage and flat magic/physical damage reduction instead of stamina, life, and attack rating
Werebear
  • practically unlimited duration (was 40 seconds + 20 seconds per Lycanthropy level)
  • now grants 20% increased splash radius and chance for uninterruptible attacks
Lycanthropy
  • now also grants bonus attack rating
Maul
  • stun length no longer scales with levels; now decreases to a minimum of 0.2 seconds
Shock Wave
  • now has increased range and projectile speed, and the number of shock waves scales with levels
  • stun length no longer scales with levels
Hunger
  • reworked as a Werebear-only skill that grants bonuses upon eating corpses (movement speed, life leech, crit chance)
Fire Claws
  • reworked to now cast a fast moving firestorm on attack, with more firestorm tendrils at higher hard levels
Feral Rage
Rabies
  • speed and range of spreading poison increased
Fury
  • 3 hits per attack instead of 5 (helps avoid animation lock)
  • now gains +20% melee splash radius on the second attack and +40% on the third

Summoning Skills

Different vines and animals may now be summoned alongside each other

Vines and spirits can no longer be targeted by monsters or take damage

Raven
  • reworked so that attacks no longer blind their targets, but now deal half cold and half physical damage
  • ravens persist while teleporting and cannot take damage or be influenced by any area effects
  • can summon up to a total of 15 ravens simultaneously, with every 10 hard levels summoning an additional raven per cast
Poison Creeper
  • now reduces enemies poison resist by 5% + 1% per level (can remove immunities)
  • an additional poison creeper can be summoned every 10 hard levels
  • now has damage synergies
Carrion Vine
  • recovers a flat amount of life instead of a percentage, moves slightly faster
Solar Creeper
  • recovers a flat amount of mana instead of a percentage, moves slightly faster
Heart of Wolverine
Spirit of Barbs
  • now deals a flat amount of damage to attackers instead of reflecting a percentage
Oak Sage
  • now grants a flat amount of life instead of a percentage
Summon Spirit Wolf
  • now deals splash damage and move slightly faster
Summon Dire Wolf
  • now deals splash damage and move slightly faster
Summon Grizzly
  • now deals splash damage; an additional Grizzly can be summoned with 20 hard levels


Necromancer

Summoning Spells

Raise Skeleton is now Raise Skeleton Warrior

Summon Resist has been removed, Blood Warp and Raise Skeleton Archer are new

Skeleton Mastery
  • now also affects velocity and bonus elemental damage, no longer affects revives
Raise Skeleton Warrior
  • now deals splash damage
  • total skeleton warriors capped at 8
Raise Skeletal Mage
  • projectiles now pierce enemies and have a larger hitbox
  • total skeletal mages capped at 8
Raise Skeleton Archer
  • new skill which summons skeleton archers that deal physical damage
Golem Mastery
  • can summon an additional golem for every 5 hard levels
Clay Golem
  • now deals splash damage
Blood Golem
  • now grants life per hit instead of leeching a percentage of damage as life
  • now applies open wounds
Iron Golem
  • now deals splash damage if created with a weapon
Fire Golem
  • weighted more toward aura damage and less toward melee attack damage
  • no longer immune to fire
Revive
  • revives now deal melee splash damage and also have bonus elemental damage and additional skill levels
  • total of 8 revives at 20 hard levels (was 1 revive per level)
  • duration now scales per level
Blood Warp
  • new skill that teleports and costs life instead of mana, with the lost health recovering over 5 seconds (casting it again will replace the previous life recovery effect)

Poison and Bone Spells

Poison Explosion has been reworked as Desecrate

Poison Dagger has been reworked as Poison Strike

Teeth
Bone Spear
  • launches an additional spear at levels 15 and 25 (does not shotgun)
Bone Spirit
  • faster missile speed
Bone Armor
  • now gains +3 additional absorb per Energy
Bone Wall
Bone Prison
Corpse Explosion
  • 5-10% corpse life damage (was 70-120%) and now has added flat fire/phys damage
  • radius starts higher and caps at 10 yards
Poison Strike
  • renamed from Poison Dagger, can now also be used with scythes
  • now penetrates enemy poison resistances by -1% per level, up to -40%
  • now releases a poison cloud on hit which carries poison damage from gear/charms
Desecrate
  • reworked from Poison Explosion - creates corpses on the ground instead of requiring a corpse to be cast
Poison Nova

Curses

Curse Mastery and Dark Pact are new

All curses have synergies with Curse Mastery for improved effects, and many also have their radius increased by it

Amplify Damage
  • reduction to enemy physical resistance now starts at -10% and scales with levels and synergy (was just -100%) and can break the same immunes after level 30 (or level 20 with synergy)
Dim Vision
  • now also reduces enemy attack rating
Weaken
  • now also reduces enemy defense
  • reduction to enemy damage now scales with levels
Iron Maiden
Terror
  • now also reduces movement speed of fleeing enemies by -10% (increased further by hard levels and synergy)
  • radius increased to 6 yards (was 2.6 yards)
  • duration is now 3 seconds (was 7 + 1 second per level)
Confuse
  • now also increases attack speed of confused enemies by 10% per hard level
Life Tap
  • life steal amount is now 10% and increases with hard levels and synergy (was just 50%)
  • duration now caps at 20 seconds
Attract
  • now also reduces enemy defense by a large amount
Decrepify
  • no longer reduces enemy damage
  • now reduces enemy physical resistance by -10% (was just -50%)
  • now also reduces enemy cast rate; reductions to enemy attack speed, cast rate, and movement speed begin at -10% and scale with levels (was just -50%)
Lower Resist
  • less effective against non-immune enemies, can break more immunes after level 15
  • radius caps at 10 yards and increases with hard levels
Curse Mastery
  • new skill that improves effect of all curses and allows an additional curse to be applied at levels 10 and 20
Dark Pact
  • new skill that damages cursed enemies in an area based on the number of curses applied to them - one of the curses will be consumed if multiple are present


Paladin

Defensive Auras

Prayer
  • now also grants life per hit
  • now also grants +1 passive health regeneration per hard level
Cleansing
  • now also grants +1% passive poison/curse duration reduction per hard level
  • no longer gains bonus healing from Prayer
Meditation
  • now also grants +1 passive mana after each kill per two hard levels
  • no longer gains bonus healing from Prayer
Resist Fire
  • now also grants a bonus for fire damage
  • passive maximum fire resistance bonus is no longer doubled when the aura is active
Resist Cold
  • now also grants a bonus for cold damage
  • passive maximum cold resistance bonus is no longer doubled when the aura is active
Resist Lightning
  • now also grants a bonus for lightning damage
  • passive maximum lightning resistance bonus is no longer doubled when the aura is active
Defiance
  • now also grants +1% PDR per two levels
Vigor
  • now also grants pssive +1% FRW per two hard levels
Redemption
Salvation
  • now also grants a bonus to elemental damage

Offensive Auras

Might
  • allies receive 1/2 of the bonus
  • radius increased
Holy Fire
  • now includes bonus attack rating
  • radius now caps at 8 yards (was 4 + 0.67 per level)
Holy Freeze
  • now includes bonus attack rating
  • radius is now always 8 yards (was 4 + 0.67 per level)
Holy Shock
  • now includes bonus attack rating
  • radius is now always 9.3 yards (was 4 + 0.67 per level)
Blessed Aim
  • now also provides deadly strike
  • now passively applies -1% to target defense per hard level instead of passively granting additional attack rating
Concentration
  • allies receive 1/2 of the enhanced damage bonus
  • now also adds bonus attack rating
Fanaticism
Thorns
  • reworked to deal a flat amount of damage to attackers instead of a % of their attack returned
Sanctuary
  • reworked to apply to all enemies instead of just undead, add magic damage to attacks, and reduce enemy magic resistance by a relatively small amount (can break immunes)
  • no longer applies knockback to undead or negates physical resistance of undead bosses (prime evils, ubers, map bosses)
  • now includes bonus attack rating
  • radius is now always 10 yards (was 3.33 + 0.67 per level)
Conviction
  • less effective against non-immune enemies and can break higher immunities above level 25
  • radius is increased and now scales with levels

Combat Skills

Holy Nova, Holy Light, Joust, and Holy Sword are new

Conversion has been removed

Sacrifice
  • now causes the slain monster to explode, dealing overkill damage plus 5% of corpse life as half physical and half magic damage
  • damage to self decreases by 1% per level to a minimum of 3%, and is now affected by PDR
Smite
  • can gain significantly more damage from the Holy Shield pseudo-synergy since it now has damage synergies of its own
  • no longer applies knockback (in PvE)
  • indirectly affected by Grief having "Adds X-Y damage" instead of "+X damage" like The Redeemer or Astreon's Iron Ward
  • indirectly affected by Crushing Blow having greater diminishing returns against bosses
Holy Bolt
  • bolts now pierce all allies and enemies, healing or damaging each
  • fires an additional holy bolt at levels 15 and 25, can shotgun nearby enemies
Zeal
  • 3 hits per attack instead of 5 (helps avoid animation lock)
  • now gains +20% melee splash radius on the second attack and +40% on the third
Charge
  • now gains up to +60% increased melee splash radius based on the distance traveled
  • now works in melee range instead of doing a normal attack
Vengeance
  • reworked to create triple-element explosions which may chain toward nearby enemies; carries any elemental damage from items
Blessed Hammer
  • hammers now travel faster and have larger hitboxes
Holy Sword
  • new skill that grants block chance and bonus damage against demons/undead for two-handed swords
Holy Shield
Fist of the Heavens
  • holy bolts now damage all creature types (was just undead)
  • removed cooldown, auto-targeting has reduced range
Holy Nova
  • new skill that heals allies and damages enemies in an wide area, has a long cooldown
Holy Light
  • new skill that heals a single target
Joust
  • new skill that teleports to an enemy and impales them, increasing movement speed for 2 seconds
  • has a 3.5 second cooldown which can be reduced with hard levels (minimum of 1.5 seconds)


Sorceress

Cold Spells

Frozen Armor has been replaced with Cold Enchant

Ice Barrage is new

Ice Bolt
  • faster missile speed
Cold Enchant
  • new skill which replaces Frozen Armor and is useable alongside Enchant Fire
Frost Nova
Ice Blast
  • pierces, faster missiles
Shiver Armor
Chilling Armor
  • creates single blizzard spike per counter ranged attack
  • chills melee on successful strike
Glacial Spike
  • freeze duration is now 2 seconds and doesn't scale with levels
  • radius increased by 20%
Blizzard
  • improved ground density, projectile hitbox size increased by 50%
Frozen Orb
  • removed cooldown and changed to slower "lightning" cast frames
  • range has been increased by roughly 20%
Cold Mastery
  • now also adds cold damage
Ice Barrage
  • new skill that shoots up to 5 ice lances which have AOE impact that chill (lances don't pierce, but they do shotgun)

Lightning Spells

Charged Bolt
Static Field
  • reduces enemy life to 55%/70%/85% in normal/nightmare/hell (was 0%/33%/50%)
  • now also has -1% to enemy lightning resistance per level (breaks immunities)
Telekinesis
Nova
Lightning
  • changed to faster cast frames (was slower "lightning" frames)
Chain Lightning
Teleport
  • 65% spell damage penalty for 1 second after casting, reduced by 2% per hard level
Thunder Storm
  • no longer flashes your screen
  • time between attacks goes down with hard levels
  • casts nova on impact
Energy Shield
  • absorb reduced to 15% +2% per level (was 20% +5%), caps at 80% (was 95%)
  • synergy from telekinesis nerfed (now has 225%-100% damage taken, was 200%-75%)
Lightning Mastery

Fire Spells

Enchant is now Enchant Fire

Combustion and Lesser Hydra are new

Fire Bolt
Warmth
  • now also adds flat attack rating (10 + 10 per level)
Inferno
  • reduces enemy fire resistance (can break immunes)
  • has a bigger hitbox and travels faster
Blaze
  • reworked to create an explosion when cast as well as provide a movement speed bonus and "Cannot be Frozen"
  • increased fire trail hitbox size
  • duration caps at 10 seconds
  • now has a 2 second cooldown
Fire Wall
  • duration reduced slightly
Fire Ball
  • explosion radius increased slightly
Enchant Fire
  • renamed from Enchant to distinguish it from the new Cold Enchant skill
  • is now an aoe skill (similar to battle orders)
  • now correctly applies 1/3 of damage to ranged attacks
  • now grants allies 50% of the damage instead of 100%
  • no longer benefits from +% fire damage twice
Meteor
  • cooldown reduced, meteors fall faster and have 33% larger aoe
  • now deals an even split of physical damage and fire damage (both are boosted by +% fire damage)
Fire Mastery
  • now also adds fire resistance penetration
Hydra
  • shoots Fire Balls instead of Fire Bolts
  • duration reduced from 10 seconds to 6 seconds
  • reduced start-up delay between casting and hydras attacking
Combustion
  • new skill which shoots fire balls in all directions, has a long cooldown
Lesser Hydra
  • new skill that summons hydras which shoot fire bolts