Diablo II: Resurrected Ladder Season 3 will begin on February 16th, so make sure to clear your season 2 stash by then.
D2R Patch 2.6 Buffed Runewords
Before we start talking about the meta and which builds to play for each class there are some buffed Runewords, which deserve a brief mention.
- Hustle Runeword
Hustle Runeword on chest armor is now an actual option. The plus six to Evade will be very interesting alongside the Faster Run, Walk Speed and Increase Attack Speed. You can use it on your mercenary or you can use it on yourself. Keep in mind that Evade is great because it applies when your character is moving, so you can actually run with it and have a base value of 40% Chance to Evade Attacks.
For the weapon version of Hustle Runeword, the level 1 Fanaticism Aura from Hustle weapon is already making some of the Necromancers salivate since they want to cast that iron golem on it as soon as possible. It’s basically a budget beast for someone Necromancer for the first few days of D2R Ladder Season 3.
The Fanaticism Aura at the hands of a non-paladin Melee character will be useful for party play, as well. It’s also a decent budget weapon for millions. Of course, I think the weapon is a decent alternative despite the latest Burst of Speed nerf.
- Mosaic Runeword
On the other hand, Mosaic might actually be huge especially for dual claw setups because you will never run out of charges and you can keep spamming your finishers with max charges.
This is going to create a very interesting synergy with Phoenix Strike since the percentage damage also applies and increases Phoenix Strike and Elemental Damage. Holding infinite phoenix track charges and then spamming Dragon Talon, Dragon Tail or other Dragon finishers will feel extremely rewarding for Assassin.
Now, keep in mind that you can also use different charge up skills. Retain their charge at maximum and unleash everything through your Dragon Finishers without losing a charge and actually refreshing the duration of the stack. I am expecting to see some interesting Martial Arts focus builds in the near future.
Assassin
Speaking of Assassins, it finally happened traps can now benefit from all enemy
negative resistance gear.
This is huge because Lightning Sentry can now benefit from Griffon’s Eye and lightning facets. In addition to the Thunder Charm, Synergy Assassins can also choose to self-field Runewords, such as Crescent Moon and Infinity because their negative Enemy Resistance property now benefits traps. We might see Infinity self-building lightning center Trapsins in D2R Ladder Season 3.
We also shouldn’t forget Fire Trap. Fire Trap have great AOE potential and Fire Blast delivers the much needed focus target damage. I expect both traps and variations to be Stellar builds for D2R Ladder Season 3. This change alone will put Trapsins on S tier for D2R Ladder Season 3 meta.
Sorceress
Another class balancing change is the Cold Sorceress nerf. When an enemy’s cold immunity is broken by Sunder Charm, the cold Mastery will now work with 20 efficiency. The Blizzard Sorceress will still be able to retainer power if properly equipped with the right gear.
Therefore, Cold Sorceress should prioritize Cold Facets minus enemy cold resistance gear and perhaps also invest additional points into Cold Mastery. It is advised that Cold Mastery will still apply with 100 efficiency against non-called immune monsters. The 20 efficiency nerf kicks in only when Cold Sunder Charm applies to a monster and breaks its cold immunity.
This nerf will somewhat slow down Cold Sorceress to directly gain massive power at the very first day of ladder start. It may also slow down Blizzard Sorcerer’s gear progression at season 2.
Cold Sorceress just needed a Cold Sunder Charm and she was good to go in D2R Ladder Season 3. Hunting down Cold Facets and cold piercing gear will be crucial to retain her massive power. Enemy negative cold resistance gear and facets always apply with 100 efficiency. Therefore, they will be prioritized for Season 3 Cold Sorcerer builds.
Another Sorcerer’s build will undoubtedly be the self-infinity wielding Nova Sorc when properly geared a Nova sword with Griffons self-wield infinity. And lightning Sunder Charm becomes a deadly force, which can quickly farm Terror Zones for XP game.
The difference is simple because when the Sorcerer’s cell feels Infinity the -55 enemy negative lightning resistance actually applies to her with this build. Energy Shield, also comes into play while there are different ES Sorceress variations. I think Nova Sorc with self-wield infinity setup will be very powerful for farming D2R Ladder Runes in Terror Zones in D2R Ladder Season 3.
Necromancer
For the Necromancer, there is absolutely nothing exciting to talk about except for that Hustle Weapon, Level 1 Fanaticism Aura. The Poison Nova damage canceling is still in the game. So, your army interferes and sabotages your poison over damage as a side note.
The interference problem is true for nearly all poison spells with Venom being the exception because of the tick rate calculation as a Summoner Necromancer. You still need to trespass Nihlathak’s garden or whatever to summon an army at the start of each game.
Looking at the current status of Necro, we can see that the Bone Necromancer will be the most valuable pick out of the three specs for group play. Lower resist will be important, so the Bone Necromancer should look for a white based wand, which has plus 3 to Bone Spear and has some plus lower resist skills. Otherwise, they will have to waste some extra points to unlock it.
We cannot skip Fire Sorcerers, as well. In my opinion, Fire Sorcerer is also a great build, which can dish out high damage. The same logic applies with fire piercing gear. Therefore, Fire Sorcerers should also look for enemy negative fire resistance gear.
In my opinion, all three Sorcerer’s builds are powerful builds if you would like to play a Sorceress for D2R Ladder season 3.
Druids
For Druids, shape-shifting looks interesting, but you still cannot teleport while shapeshifted. There is some room for playing around with the new Metamorphosis Runeword. But I’m expecting shapeshift Druids to fall behind since teleporting will be a nuisance for them. There are some Terror Zones where teleporting is crucial for farming D2R Ladder Items. I would love to see shape-shift Druids being able to teleport without changing to human form. This would open up so many possibilities for the build.
Summon Druids did not see dramatic changes or Runewords. Therefore, I do not expect high performance from the build. Summon Druid lacks average damage and it is a defense oriented build. This is a nice variety for the game, especially for people who want to play a bit more defensive and take their time for those wanting to rush D2R Ladder season 3 Terror Zones.
I would recommend the next Druid build. We should not forget that Fire Druid is an ester build you can directly start the game as a Fire Druid and just progress your build without even respecting. You just need a 6 open socket sword and jam it with Fire Facets that alone will give you minus 30 enemy negative fire resistance with proper enemy negative fire resistance gear.
Fire Druid easily destroys any monster including players 8 scaled fire immunes. Therefore for those wanting to play a Druid, Fire Druid will be my obvious pick for D2R Ladder Season 3.
Paladin
Unsurprisingly, Hammerdins (Hammer Paladin) and Javazons will be blasting as always they will definitely be meta. The reason is simple. A Hammerdin can get going with an Enigma Runeword and Spirit Runeword. An alternative to Hammerdin could be a hybrid for Hadin. But I strongly recommend playing a Hammerdin, if you’d like to play D2R Ladder season 3.
Also Read: D2R Ladder Season 3: My Top 7 Ladder Start Builds
Javazon
Competitively, a Lightning Fury Javazon on the other hand requires a bit more Niche gear. But she can still attain high power level relatively quickly. Both Titan’s Revenge and Thunderstruck are great weapons for Javazon.
Barbarian
The Whirlwind Berserk Barbarian Build will be powerful, especially with the early accessible gear and new Runewords.
The Barbarian’s goal should be to collect decent budget mid-game equipment and then transition to Grief Beast or Death Runewords as soon as possible.
Using these Runewords will massively increase the offensive power of the Barbarian, which will allow you to farm those players 8 scale Terror Zones from the looks of it. We are getting more midi specs joining the competition at D2R Ladder Season 3.
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