Oh man, it's been a while since I've worked on this, and I'm in a PhD right now, it might be a while before you see an update here :)

The Synergies compatibility would basically require to do the same work, but with Synergies monsters files instead of vanilla.

I might go back to TL2 modding at some point.. But not in the future

I look forward to the synergies compatibility, keep up the great work!

Ha I did not update it in a while and I wanted it to be bigger so I did not make a lot of communication on it.

Darn @Potter dont know how i missed this mod of yours! :facepalm:
This is going into my personal merge right now!

aw darn, well i truly do appreciate yoru effort in searching man! thanks for even considering it ! :-)

I searched but I could not find any global critical damage modifier :( I fear that it might be hardcoded in the game.

@potter ohh ohk that makes more sense! That definitely seems to be a significant more work! is there perhaps something like a critical damage modifier that could be made "0% dmg" that could make their one-shot capabilities null? or would that also involve 1-by-1 editing of monster files?

Not sure about isolating the crit chance thing. I might if I have time.

It would still be incompatible with Synergies. It's not just a modifier ; there is no such thing. I edited each monster one by one and reduced "by hand" their crit chance to 0. Since i modified monster files, it won't be compatible with Synergies (it won't crash, but you will fight vanilla monsters instead of fighting Synergies' one)

would you be able to make a variant of this mod that makes it solely so monster crit chance is 0%? Would be very useful and fix the multiplayer one-shotting mobs glitch, and given it affects one modifier would also be compatible with synergies perhaps?

@Aherin - Thanks man!

Hey man I like where this mod is going. I just added it to my personal mod pack after getting oneshot multiple times in the frosted hills :) Those hulking slashers (big Mirka Guys with ice claws) are the worst for the random one shots.

@author I think some "weak" enchanments should be replaced by useful ones from items ,like +%gold drop,+%magic find,+%exp gain... to +hp ,+mana ,+armor...If players really want grinding that much , they can learn treasure hunter spell and reroll map to farm until whenever they like ;)
I remember some unique items(or even legendary? ) have that "noob" enchanments , that means another useful enchantment replaced by them
Sorry if you mind my "wall of text" comments !

@author Since you want to rework tl2 balance , I think loot system should be improved . I know many modders out there tried to fix this problem , then why you dont try to do it on your own ;) Quality>Quantity , white items(except socketable) should be removed , instead gold will be dropped ( less pain to organize inventory and combeback to town or send pet to sell trash that often) You can consider the idea from a good mod name "Drop gold instead of junk" by Sandros

@author(sorry your name is too long) I think limit of some "good things" should be decreased : Maximum 50%ADR , 50% block chance ,50% dodge so legal god mode no more happen , encourage players still play wisely even they had end game items ;)
Also you should check a mod name DrawDistance(DoneRight) from {LINK REMOVED}ClockworkCore.org website , they increase monster draw distance and monster's arrgesiveness at the same time . I feel like they should have been included with the original game !
Cheers !

@author Hey I really like your mod ! I want suggest a idea come from Synergies : Not only Champions , almost all monsters will spawn with a random affixes . I think Elite Vannila dificulty is not that hard , all monster should have random affixes, that make make them unique/harder everytime we face them !
About %ADR , how about add it to Armor? A very good amount of armor points should also increase our %ADR. In Vannila , stack %ADR easily overshadow the effective of Armor !
About vitality , they should give us more have more heath each point so players with no shield build will consider them as essential attribute :)
Thank you for reading !

Added a note about incompatibilities, and added a "Compatibility Patch for Synergies and Unearthed Arcana" in the TODO list :-)

If I use git properly there might be a way to avoid doing it by hand

I don't know yet. I'd like the effect to stay on some specific items and skills for sure, but I want to avoid stacking gems to get to 75% DR.

Having vitality increase Damage Reduction is actually a good suggestion ! As long as Boris is nerfed though ;p But it would most definitely provide some usefulness of vitality

@ potterman28wxcv (author):
Will you add the "%ADR" to Vitality or will it be found on Chaos Embers?
Or will it be some other plan entirely?

Yes ! In vanilla, all the monsters with shield have a 100% block chance. You can see it with GUTS. Hence the original purpose of my mod.. :)

The only monsters that have less than 100% are guys like crabs, that don't have any shield, but instead they have a small chance of blocking.

Cool :) I will surely work on that next week ! The freeze bomb should be interesting for sure ^^

Hey potterman! I added a block chance indicator for targetted enemies in my LurkerHUD remod. It seems, 100% block is the minimum value for enemies, even a simple minion with a shield has 100.1% block chance...

And, great ideas you have in here. I like these "on death" effects, specially the freeze bomb. :)

@ potterman28wxcv (author): Agreed on all this too. Mobs need better effects all around.

I have some ideas about changing the Champion affixes and spicing them a little.

I would remove the following :
-> gaz on death. I don't know about you, but i never had any trouble with it, it barely deals any damage, and it's really easy to avoid
-> haunted - too easy to dodge, and not enough damage. I'm not a big fan of the effect as well
-> shocked - *aaaah my framerate*
-> teleporting - the most annoying affix i've been fighting in torchlight. "hey come back here dude !". I will only keep it on the scavenger and grave digger, because it's quite fun to chase them.

I would add the following effects :
-> frost - on death, same effect as the Ice Elemental when it dies. I will maybe have to tweak the duration so that it does not freeze you for too long
-> missile reflection
-> health regen
-> shocked would become : cast thunder bolt on death. Same thing as frost, i would have to tamper down the duration of the original skill i guess. And edit the layout, so that the sphere is smaller
-> ghost - summon a wolf shade on death (the Berzerker's one)

That's for the minion affixes. Now for the Champions, so far i would have:
-> champresist. It's the one that is there currently
-> ice prison. The Champion casts Ice Prison on you every 20 seconds or something
-> leader. The champion casts Battlestandard to help his foes (by the way: can you destroy the flag ? can't remember)
-> missile barrage. Every 15 seconds, the champion launches missiles towards you

What are your thoughts about it ?

@ potterman28wxcv (author): Agreed. Sounds like a good plan!

Maybe you're right for the minus stat. I think it's OK to have crits by effects (for example, a mage giving +x% chance to crit). But the base stat was too high.

Yeah, having the level requirement set to 100 for the legendaries could help here.

As for the change to Boris, what about this :

I fix the stat bonus - so that 1) it doesn't scale with level anymore, and 2) the stat bonus is not too OP. This would have the advantage of making Boris more helpful in the early game, and way less overpowered in the late game. Ideally, the number of points it gives to say Focus should be such that you don't gain more DPS by investing in Boris than you would by investing in say the Fire enchanter.

@ (author): Games that have minus stats are usually given by devs because there is a buff skill that can raise them.

So if an Enemy Mage can cast a 10% Crit Chance Buff on all allies in the area then the -10% will off set this increase.

Just look at the Berserker's 125% Ice Shield for a small glimpse of that idea in the game.

@ (author): The mod of "Lao III" made Boris a dependency as well... I would be most interested to see your revision of that enchanter... most likely a nerf since insane Strength leaves common mobs exploding just by touching them with a weapon or skill.

That also reminds me that the 105 class armor sets need to be changed with Boris together since Boris is a dependancy for legend weapons in the original game.

By the way, I'm not yet sure that the changes I've done to Crit chance are sufficient. I've never encountered a crit yet, but if you do.. Please inform me.

I'm writing this because I saw some odd properties on a couple of monsters, like -10% to crit chance. They are supposed to have a base of 0% crit anyway, so I have no idea why the devs put properties like this one.

@steffire Thanks ! Yes, I really dislike the dependency to % damage reduction.. I think I should find a replacement for it. It's stupid that you have to get those in order to have a chance to survive. Maybe replacing them by a % to armor would make more sense. It's not my short term concern, but I will add it on my Todo list.

Oh, and you remind me of Boris. His enchants should be replaced by something else

@potterman28wxcv (author):

Incredible work! This is one mod I've wanted for years but always had to settle for less changes.

It's mainly because of how insane enemy crit damage can be on Elite especially without legally maxed defenses that require dedicated farming which means the original top difficulty is not casually accessible due to the "% All Damage Reduction Dependency".

Thank you for the response. I always thought their block chance were just too high, this change evens the odd fairly because playable character's block chance is maxed out at 75% (hardcoded stat).

All enemies with a shield have a 100% block chance until you destroy their shield, either by inflicting sufficient damage, or by using skills that destroy shields.

Now it's reduced to 75% - I'd like to include a 25% missile reflection chance to compensate, but i have to check that Prismatic Bolt isn't broken with the reflection

I didn't know there's 100% block chance enemies, are they armored ones or are they normal enemies on highest levels in the game?