I laughed soooo hard on this one I must type this out in full for everyone to savor. 13:00 "By the time they get Burst of Speed on, the Mark of Bear, Mark of Wolf, all the stuff prepped, the Chaos has been cleared by the Hammerdins and Sorceresses, and they are onto the next game."

The best thing about bulwark is that it doesnt make all similar uniques obsolete. Just another viable option

I can't be the only person who wishes that they'd hold off on new rune words and instead add new uniques to fill in a bunch of the items that didn't have a unique variant. Particularly for exceptionals and elites.

As much as I don't love the design of some of these, it goes to show how stupid pre-buffing is. I say kill it completely. Only allow your off-hand swap for pre-buffs, and make it so the item has to stay equipped for any buff to remain. This would also just make your off-hand choice a lot more meaningful, using it to shore up weaknesses instead of just defaulting to CTA.

i hope they scrap all of that tbh

They should really do a overall unique buffs / nerfs. Most of them feel useless in comparison to runewords.

I have a bruit force solution to deal with all the annoying pre-buff items. Change it so that an item is removed then you instantly lose whatever buff it was giving. I do it so that buffs from your weapon swap still apply, but nothing else. Yes this will hurt things like Treachery before ubers, but feels worth it to remove an annoying mechanic.

For all the gripes I have about this batch of runewords, I like that they're adding more options for mid runes.

IMO: Shael-Io is a good mid-game gear. It's situational because of the %Absorb, rather than stacking up resistances from Tri-res runes. Hustle is an okay mid-game gear, but it needs more than just IAS since it doesn't mean anything if you don't deal damage. Give it a small chance (8-12%) of Deadly Strike for weapon and Crushing Blow for Armor. Might also sprinkle some HFD into it too. Metamorphosis seems to be a Druid specific RW since it doesn't make any sense if it can be put in any helm without it having + Werewolf/bear skill. I think it's made to be on par with other unique Druid pelts, and the stats were pretty solid although the level requirement is too high because of CBF from Cham rune. Also, a single mark can only be active at a time since it's pretty obvious that people will exploit having 2 huge buffs from both marks. Lastly, Mosaic is too weak for a nearly late-game gear simply because Claws sports low base damage. I like the gimmick, but it still lacking in some aspects. Add + to Assassin skills and repair durability mod at least, while increase the %ED, add +Max Damage BCL and -%requirement should also be in consideration.

Trash pure trash will never use any of them. Give us a loot filter and stackables

Just want to thank you for being one of the genuine ones. More and more Diablo youtubers are getting bought. I watched an "impressions" video on Diablo IV that was more or less a 40 min long commercial. Dude was all smiles but Blizzard NDA got his soul in one of those homoerotic MMA chokeholds. Thank you Dr Alpaca!

Possible Solution: Cube recipe to turn a charm into a Proc-Charm, then cube rune words with the charm to get the proc on the charm at 1/5 the proc chance on the item. That way you have to find and make the items but you don't have to spend half your time item swapping. Would be mass power creep but it's already possible with item swap so at this point it would just be a quality of life thing.

With BoS, Windforce reaches 8 fpa with 20 IAS (which it has) and 7 fpa with 65 IAS. This could mean that faith is no longer BiS for Bowazon. Also, faith in GMB (WSM 10) reaches 7 fpa (75 eIAS) with BoS lvl 9 (44 sIAS) and Fanaticism lvl 12 ( 31 sIAS - lowest roll on Faith) with 0 IAS. This opens up so many options for bowazons of all kinds. M'avinas provides 70 IAS from set boni, which also means max fpa out of the box with hustle on the swap. Hello budget ice bowazon. To me, it's clearly better than harmony and great for any bowazon that doesn't use enigma. Also, for a javazon: max fpa with only 10 ias, if you keep this is a spear (jab) or bow on the swap. I may be in the minority, but I'm very excited about Hustle.

the conspiracy donation comment was pretty funny. I think I'd use metemorphasis on my shapeshifting druid, and just keep using it. I could even see using Hustle on there if I were doing a fury druid, I'm sure there are other things that would be better though. I think Hustle armor should grant Vigor and give you +1 charge, and the weapon should grant Fanaticism, and be better in other ways too, but that would take away the pre-buff aspect and it would just be a mini faith/harmony, but in any weapon/armor and cheaper and you could have both.

The frenzy barb merc of my enchantress does love the hustle xD

Exsplosive arrow option would make it good for chantries. Good point about team playing and pre buffing as you get left behind. Destroys the flow.

I think your arguments against the value of the new runewords is valid, but only for a small set of players that want to minmax as you're describing. I think (I don't know) that the majority are not swapping items and proccing to the degree that you describe. Instead, runewords like Metamorphosis are a neat buff if you want to run a werebear or werewolf, which both sort of needed buffing in my opinion. I might be wrong and maybe everyone but me would see the swap-and-buff as more a real necessity.

I sorta like the helmets. I think they are meant to be a cheap sorta guaranteed way of fixing your resis from sunder charms. When you get stronger overall gear you swap out of it. But not every one is a veteran player and I can imagine alot of the people that played d2 for the first time when d2r came out struggled with resists. So for them I like these helmets.

I agree with ya Llama, no more prebuffs

Metamorph should only work while in the relevant shapeshift form, that'd save the fomo of other classes and give the melee druid some buff, on that note just let them teleport and use cta in shapeshift form, would be more of a buff.

Here for the MacroLlamaBoi. While I don't agree with the issues of prebuffing for non-PvP, I think this is good analysis.

I think they should make a truly good druid helm if they are going to buff melee builds. Don't be afraid to make it a double high rune cost runeword. Jalals is good so make this one significantly better. Also, no mark buff just make it a constant stat line for either form that your in. Add more like fire abosrb and chance to cast amp damage on hit when in werebear form and add Lighning absorb deadly strike and runwalk speed while in werewolf form. Then eliminate the human form between transforming so a player might choose to be wolf or bear versus certain enemies like pit lords or council vs lightning beetles and souls. Then if a player wants to run up to ubers and begin as bear and do crushing blow and such until they are lower and you proc an amp damage you can swap immediately into wolf and have deadly strike and fury for the 4 seconds amp damage is up. Then shifting between becomes organic and useful not a requirement or tedious annoyance to keep up buffs. Instead of buff swapping you use each one for different situations and the stats are just static when in each form. You can play either form and have advantages in each form and no mark buff exploits either. Simplify it and also make it way stronger. Want to buff melee builds but only make marginally better runewords still with a high rune than existing uniques. Just go all the way and make it really good and feel both normal to D2 mechanics and also organic to swap around if the players wants to not because you feel you are wasting a tedious buff if you aren't

is Metamorphosis only usable with druid helms? Otherwise you could combine it with the werebear oskill item

Bulwark is a replacement for the blood helm I would sometimes craft for my merc just to have some LL. Not that it matters as much with insight bows but it can't hurt either.

Having each helm have 10-15 % max resistance on top of the resist and absorb would be better

Said it before and I'll say it again. Not enough runewords for early/mid game. By the time any of these new words are craftable, there's better gear you can find. Early level game is where the struggle bus happens(gear wise)

I think with this BoS build on a bowazon gonna be nice - I haven’t looked at a calculator yet but we might get max ias on a wf zon while using atmas- might out dps faith gmb bows??

Bulwark + prayer aura merc looks really strong for solo play.

Give mosaic 100% chance so you only need 1 to still be bad. Hustle armor -20 frw, +10 ias, +10 fhr and +10 all res. Give helms +5 max res in addition. Metamorphosis seems cool but allow the ability to go straight into bear from wolf and vice versa.

By the time you get all the buffs up, you will need to rebuff cta again before fight, then also other buffs will be down to about 2 min

Metamorphosis probably needs some testing because I heard you can only cast shape-shifting skills while you have the mark.. it won't be a prebuff, just a buff for shape-shifting druids.

How do you think Mosaic will work? It doesn’t indicate “on-kill, on-strike or on-attack.” I wonder if it can be used in a cheesy way like ebotd on a poison necro 🤔

Are these ladder only or do they plan on pulling these into the base game?

I like situational gear especially resists. But I agree buffs then unequip is not great and leads to abuse

Hustle on the Frenzy merc seems kind of nutty

Looking at these runewords now, I feel like they were created to help counter the negative effect of sunder charms in the mid-game

Ground and Cure could be used for level 60-70 sorcs trying to pound andy and meph runs. Usually when I get to that point i'm running Andy with -70 or worse psn res and close to 0 lit.

Great vid hope blizzards sees it and listens to what you said.

Metamorphosis sounds like a chore to you because you're thinking about a different class other than druid using it Of course it's tedious to prebuff But people already do this with fade, cta, demon limb, bear sorceresses, etc It's intended for a shape shifting druid, you dense creature, can you do this 5 minute prebuff with barb? Yeah! But it's not the intention of the item ffs

Strafe will proc burst of speed really fast with pierce and shooting like 10 arrows at a time

Word of the day! "Multipligitive'

I think Bulwark will be nice if you are leveling a shapeshift druid if you find yourself a decent druid helm early game.

I prediced I would regret hearing llamas opinion on Metamorphosis.

Could you have a Hustle weapon on switch, and hit something until BoS procs, and then switch to your main weapon?

If they will improve the level and worth of these runewords it like lower it down to lvl 25 -35ish this runewords might be useful to start or mid nightmare difficulty

The Mosaic combined with a plague is fucking insane. You should give that a try.

It seems like the first one, helms; is for covering Sunder Charms.

The armor could have a % chance on struck for burst of speed. I don't see why it didn't. I guess because they put so much FRW on it but then just lower the FRW or replace it with all res or something lol.

What if you make 2 claws - that's 50% of not consuming a finisher- then you proceed with doing a max level multikick and pray for good procs?

i think metamorphosis is going to be sick. but i'm going to wait until season ends because i already have a shapeshifter made. instead i'm trying out the new martial arts sin.

They should implement a charm inventory that you can store only charms in and charms have no effect in your regular inventory. That way you don't run out of inventory space. Would be the best quality of life change to D2R.

Making those % RWs weaker and lasting 600s instead could do wonders IMO. 1. Melee is getting a needed buff 2. You have to spend some time in advance to activate it, but then you have a different mechanic than casters: you take time to buff up but after that you’re not going for 30s run. You’re going to actually play.

That wep could be good for characters like fireclaw druids who lack attack speed early on. The dmg from fireclaw with the speed means you don't need anything except that item early on. Also thought of teleporting widow maker fire enchantress sorc

Hope they bring a buff timer

Its still a long way till next ladder, so good chance things will change.

I really wish blizz would just look at what senpai and his team are doing and take notes from them

if we could equip more weapons, maybe the pre buff wouldn't be a hassle ? like equip 2-4 sets of weapons, instead of only 2 sets of weapons

Hearth needs cannot be frozen. Hustle armor some res and def.

While i do agree the RWs need more work and some turnarounds, it feels to me that they are somewhat guided to new players who are just now getting in the Diablo universe, like they know about Grief or Cta but wont grind for a Ber or a Ohm, so we have these which are quick, versatile and will help you to get to trough hell. Then the new player can decide, “should i go for that grief? Or ill just leave it here and start a new char or w/e”. I like to see it that way because if i see it on the veteran way then yeah, it just like MrLlama said, equip this, prebuff there, equip that, maximize efficience, it just lose all purpose. In that regard Hustle is the best, it allows to break the game and tinker for veterans and its a nice boost for new players.

I didn't consider Ubers with these helms. It probably helps other classes/players who don't want to just roll paladin. They're decent Merc helms. They're ok for early ladder and work considerations in HC in some edge cases where you need the sorb badly or just go budget on your helm. Overall disappointing but some niche uses

Where can i find a link to his discord?

I would rather skip all the helm runes and just go for my 2 piece sigon (helm, armor) to get that 10% life leech which is the main issue with mercs. This is the route i've always gone with when starting and has carried my merc through hell mode. If I feel like adding sockets to those 2 piece sigons i just start a new character and get a fast rush to act5. For me personally I find this faster than getting an io rune and I am more likely to find the 2 piece WAAAAY faster than getting the 3 socket helm and that io rune. The most promising rune word so far is Mosaic but I do agree with you that the mechanic on charges SHOULD go on the claw mastery. For what Mosaic is now it just seems like a waste of Mal and Gul.

For Hustle I think it's just a cheap off hand bow. Okay when you first get it but ultimately really it's just to buff your primary bow/weapon. People OBSESS over cta, you don't need it... this is especially true when leveling and the majority of players are casuals who will never even make a cta lol.

can you just proc Hustle and put it in stash ? :)

theres another content creater theorycrafting that mosaic with the right setup could reach around 400k dps on tigerstrike/dragontail with the right rng of keeping the charges

I hope they find a way to bring back a more classic playstyle, where we prioritized survival and tough characters over how big your sheet peen is. D2 had the same level of power creep as d3. But no one wants to talk about that.

Maybe they should make the Hustle weapon give a low level fana aura (lower than beast and faith, like maybe literally level 1) to make up for the low Ed and it would help summon necros early too. Then make the armour have a vigour aura... Then you have a reason to make both and it's maybe not so OP and doesn't eliminate the whole concept of IAS in the game and it doesn't have to be an annoying proc thing.... I still don't like the name, though.

I wish they would stick with doing meta shift changes… add more end game things to do and big chances on the meta. Make the game fun and interesting again.

Why can't we get things like leaf and stealth? Why doesn't nightmare countess have its own leaf and stealth equivalent? These devs are not thinking about the player base and what we go through. Same for hell countess. If a dev has no idea what im saying, then that's a big problem. I want all my characters to have the ability to farm some rune words from each difficulty, and some decent gear without farming 1000 hours. These runewords are proof the devs just wanna appeal to the niche.

prebuffs should be as easy as cta, so either 100% chance on striking, or give the tooltip skill to use it like cta, otherwise its an unreasonable time consuming task, that u have to do if u want optimize...

Sorceress teleport needs a 5sec CD ( enigma too ) for all other classes without teleport ( enigma ) to be worth playing too. either your revised attack rating or las melee ranged physic dmg always hit it's so unfair the spell always hit. there needs to be a nerf for Coldmastery Hammerdin Javazon Lightingsorc and lifetap. then the game will finally not only be playable in the low lvl but also in the late game if you don't teleport everything through or make all monsters (boss) 1 hit dead maybe then the cry for players 8 will finally pass and groups will finally form to play together because not all monsters are 1 hit dead or everyone teleports solo through all 5 acts in 10 seconds to the boss

They should just make it so that using Maul while in wolf form automatically changes you to Bear, and Using Feral Rage during bear form automatically changes you to Wolf. Done and Done. that would actually be fun. Maul and Feral rage charges should carry over too. LOL

Where are the early and mid runewords for melee/phys builds???

I just want to see claws of thunder assassin use crescent moon.

The worst thing is : You can't use BO and teleport when you get a mark. Even you back to human.

hustle seems to be a thing for dagger barbs?

I would just use rock stopper over all this

I’m not going to play Ladder to get those 🤷🏻‍♂️ this Ladder I really wanted to farm some sunder charms, Flickering Flame or even Plague.. but this time? not interested.. Let’s see what more they add, since they told us runewords are not the only thing

Prebuffing sucks ass, I would love nothing more than them making buffs last indefinitely.

Whats gm duels?

Claw has all dmg from charges, it doesn't need to do high DMG.

For ubers i prefer prebuffing with fade. They do not stack ;)

Mosaic bad though? I saw a ton of people using it effectively

I'd much rather them buff uniques. At least they didn't make unique helms irrelevant

the average player is not min maxing the way you are worried about; for the majority of players we wear what we got and go

Legit, all I want them to do at this point since they refuse to basically accept enigma is damn near a REQUIREMENT for 90% of builds to function decently end game, is to simply add a runeword that gives teleport at lower levels to make things simpler at this point. I'm talking like level 20 or something runeword that has very few perks and doesn't require crazy runes to build that gives like a few bonuses + a teleport option just to ease the game progression and grind and make sorceress less required to run first every season over another build you would want to play. Just my opinion Cause honestly teleport staves exist, i'm aware, but repairing those on new seasons early on is massively expensive and somewhat tedious to worry about. They would still be useful until you could craft that tele armor as well.

For helmet runewords, i think they should add a variable -3 to 5% enemy's corresponding elements resistance. It will be better fit their theme complementing Saunder charms so and make some use case for them. Yet, they will be beaten by any facet socketed Helmet so that they fit their identity as a transition runeword.

Would be happier with hustle if it was charges instead or just the ability to cast level 5 burst of speed so you could weapon swap and not have to screw around with it. I don't see how you could say it's overpowered for ubers when treachery exists and physical characters take 5x longer to clear the game than casters.

I just heard the same last 3,4,5 how many others videos already made about each individual rwords... Is a choice! I rather have them and use them situational or else be at the mercy of whatever RNG gods decide Andariel or whatever to drop. Even if is garbage at least you have the guarantee that having the required base + runes you get those stats. That is the power of runewords from this *roulette* of fortune game that D2 is.

To be honest with you, I think they did this because of the sunder charms. I think sunder charms kind of ruined what they were really trying to do as far as breaking immunities, and nobody really wants thunder charms, so to fix that they offset it with these armor pieces with all the resistances so that if you do have a sunder charm, this will negate the resistance problem.

Give Mosaic +3 MA and some CB and It's be fun for ubers.

For Hustle: increase the procc chance. Reduce burst of speed to level 1. Increases %ED. Give better stats than Accuracy vs undead..

The helms probably aren't bad for an early game playthrough. But lore is probably better.

Can they PLEASE fix the chat lobby and add cool channels again like HC, Druid Den, Barb arena, etc... also the game search function seems to of never really worked for me.

Tell them we want high endgame runeword that are exiting to use . And we need a melee aoe runeword .

dammmmmmmn that's crazy he thought at the time mosaic would suck

mosiac BROKEN

They need to start over. Look at current runewords and uniques in game. There's so many that need to be re balanced for how the game currently runs and would give tons of variety. I'll have a go. Venom is currently garbage and costs a Mal. No one in their right mind would make this. Look at it. It's awful. My suggestion: ignore targets defense, open wounds, 2000-3000 poison damage, level 2 lower resist charges or - 10% enemy poison res. Can be made in all weapons. Keep the formula.

Speedrunner complains that he has to hit enemies in Diablo 2. I understand.

Re: Metamorphosis they should make it so the attack skill changes you to the appropriate form, from whichever form you were in previously. So you don't need to go back to Druid form AND you don't even need to shapeshift first at all, you just use a wolf attack and you're in wolf form, then you use a bear attack and it puts you in bear form and already attacking. This would make the druid play a lot more like a shapeshifter from mythology stories or disney movies or something like that, where it's just part of how the shapeshifter fights rather than being an annoyance to change forms to then do something and you only pick one form and fight in that form. It should be more fluent.