Quite the write-up we have here, skimmed it for a minute or so and will read a bit more later when I get the chance.

I haven't played D2R personally so the changes with IAS/FHR/FBR are going to be lost on me, but looking at your Stormshield socket options is Shael no longer an option due to the FBR changes? Honestly was my go-to over any of the fancy jewels in LoD.



my man, first thing I looked for to criticize lol.

So, shael still works, but since they changed how block works (less animations play) there are less opportunities for shael to come into play. I’ve been using Jah or Cham in my SS depending on whether I’m using edc and Angelics or BotdZ or a different weapon with HL/ravens

Here's the relevant section from the guide:

In patch 2.4, D2R has changed how blocking animations are triggered, making FBR somewhat less important.

From the patch notes:

Blocking will no longer interrupt a player while performing a skill or attack. If a player character triggers a block during this time, the damage will still be negated, but the animation will not play.

This means you can still block attacks even if your shield isn’t animating the block, and you can actually attack somewhat more frequently now than you could in previous patches, since the block animation is no longer interrupting your ability to attack. Placing a Shael rune in your Stormshield can provide some slight benefit since you will still see a block animation play occasionally, but it’s more common to use a damage jewel or Cham rune now than in previous patches.

And the end result is, as Ink stated, Shael is just less frequently used now. And because of the IAS changes, Stormshield is often see as a good opportunity to get 15 more IAS too if its needed, so people often 40/15 or 100ar/15 it. If no IAS is needed, people see it as a damage-boosting area and will often put a 30 max in or a rarer damage jewel.

Also hey, long time no talk!

This post was edited by Koston on Sep 20 2022 03:01pm

I assumed it'd work more or less like Zeal now, definitely a nice benefit to have now.

I know the guide is tailored for melee vs melee and thus one handed weapons, but for my own curiosity what's the two handed situation like now? Anything neat become useable? Heard people discussing Reaper's Toll for pvm but I dunno.

Yes it has been very long time since I chatted with either of you, no D2R has me slacking on the internet side of things.

Koston just

Thx for this great work dedicated for the melee community !

4 frame and even 3 frame is possible for a lot of two handed now. Reaper’s is sick. Etomb doesn’t need ias jewels anymore but you can hit the fastest version of 3 frame if you do use them.

I've seen some good numbers with 2h death especially, and 2h ebotd archon.

As a disclaimer, this is more anecdotal since I haven't used 2 handers in a while. It's purely based on what I've heard many others say.

Tomb Reavers are still okay but people have come to the consensus that they are outclassed now and basically most 2 handed options are really outclassed by EBOTD GT. It's very hard to beat apparently and just rips through everything. Tomb Reaver still has its place because the all resistances and MF helps though, so I think some prefer it based on those mods alone (especially the MF if we're talking PVM). It's a 3 frame weapon too. I heard there was a lot of hype at Reaper's Toll and while it is a very good weapon, I heard most of the hype was driven by streamers and such who had not even tried EBOTD GT yet. So I'm not 100% sure about that. As Gwala stated above, I believe EBOTD Archon Staff is just as good too. Haven't heard much about 2H Death yet.