Gameplay and Skill Changes in Diablo 2 Resurrected Patch 2.6

Major Gameplay and Skill changes will be introduced with the upcoming 2.6 patch, along with a new ladder season start! The skill balance changes and generic gameplay changes will affect almost every build. This guide covers the most important updates for the game’s mechanics. Meanwhile, don't forget to keep an eye on Rpgstash's ladder item selection, we will already have ladder runes, ladder rune packs, ladder runewords and ladder charms available on the first day of the new season in our D2R Store!

General Gameplay Changes

The following list contains the most important upcoming changes:

• Ranged weapons will have their quantity stacks increased, making quality-of-life improvements for ranged builds. Bows and Arrows will now have a stack size of 500, and Throwing Weapons will also get a 50% stack increase.
• Blocking attacks will no longer apply while your character plays a pre-cast animation of a skill. Blocking will still apply for the post-cast animation.
• Dual-wielding attack speed will be calculated with a new method. Swapping weapons between hands will no longer affect attack speed dramatically, so the weapon swap trick can no longer be used.
• Faster Hit Recovery will have diminishing returns against players. This change will only apply for PvP.

Amazon Skills:

• The Impale attacking skill is now uninterruptible and will always hit the target. It will also slow the target.
• Fend attack speed will be doubled.
• Power Strike, Charged Strike, and Lightning Strike will have their synergies changed.
• Poison Javelin will have it's damage changed
• Plague Javelin will get a synergy boost, a fixed 3 second duration of effect, and can be casted once every second.
• Inner Sight's Radius will get a 35% increase
• Slow Missiles will also get 35% radius increase, decrease ranged enemy attack damage, and will scale with additional skill points.
• Valkyrie casting delay is reduced to 0.6 second.
• Dodging will no longer prevent you from casting a skill.
• Avoid will no longer prevent you from casting a skill.
• Freezing Arrow mana cost will be halved.
• Magic Arrow will deal more magic damage.
• Guided Arrow will deal more damage.
• Strafe will deal more damage, and get a huge attack speed boost.
• Fire Arrow mana cost will be fixed.
• Exploding Arrow will deal more damage, it's mana cost halved, and synergy increased.
• Immolation Arrow's fire dmg per second will be doubled and mana cost halved.

Assassin Skills:

• Fist of Fire will have a much higher attack rating bonus.
• Claws of Thunder will have a much higher attack rating bonus.
• Blades of ice will have a much higher attack rating bonus.
• Tiger Strike will have a much higher attack rating bonus.
• Cobra Strike will have a much higher attack rating bonus.
• Phoenix Strike will have a much higher attack rating bonus.
• Dragon Talon will only consume one charge per attack, and will always hit the target as long as any charge is available.
• Dragon claw will get a damage boost, only consume one charge per attack, and will always hit the target as long as any charge is available.
• Dragon Flight will get its casting delay removed, get a damage boost, only consume one charge per attack, and will always hit the target as long as any charge is available
• Venom's duration will be tripled
• Shadow Warrior's and Shadow Master's casting delay will be 0.6 second.
• Shock Web, Charged Bolt, Lightning Sentry, Fire Blast, Wake of Fire, Wake of Inferno, Blade Fury and Blade Sentinel will receive synergy changes.
• Blade Sentinel's casting delay will be halved, damage increased, missile speed increased.
• Blade Shield's duration and damage will be increased.

Barbarian Skills:

• War Cry's damage will be increased and mana cost reduced.
• Shout's duration will be increased by 10 seconds.
• Battle Command's duration will be increased by 25 seconds.
• Grim Ward will slow enemies, increase their damage, and receive a new synergy.
• Throws will have a chance to pierce.
• Leap will have its minimum distance increased and speed of motion increased by 75%.
• Leap Attack will have it's speed of motion increased by 75%, and will get a huge damage and attack rating boost.
• Berserk will have it's synergies changed.
• Double Throw will deal much more damage.
• Frenzy will get added duration from the Increased Stamina synergy.

Druid Skills:

• Molten Boulder will get it's speed doubled and missile range decreased by 50%.
• Volcano will get more damage from the Molten Boulder synergy.
• Armageddon will have it's casting delay removed, and damage hugely increased.
• Arctic Blast will get a damage boost and can be casted in free form.
• Cyclone Armor can be casted in shape shifted forms.
• Twister will receive a huge damage boost.
• Hurricane can be casted in shape shifted forms.
• Werewolf and Werebear will have their attack speeds modified.
• Rabies will get a damage boost
• Fury will get a synergy attack rating boost.
• Maul will receive huge damage boosts, and it's stun effect will be capped at 10 seconds.
• Shock wave will have increased damage from the Maul synergy.
• Fire Claw's damage and synergies will be changed.
• Oak Sage's life will now be fixed, and will provide a fix 25% physical damage resist.
• Heart of Wolverine's life will now be fixed, and will provide a fix 25% physical damage resist.
• Spirit Of Barbs's life will now be fixed, and will provide a fix 25% physical damage resist. It will no longer return damage when hit, and will deal a flat amount of damage.
• Raven's mechanics will get major changes, it's damage boosted, and will also have more attack rating.
• Summon Spirit Wolf will receive a life and damage boost.
• Summon Dire Wolf will receive a life and damage boost.
• Summon Grizzly will receive a life boost.
• Poison Creeper will receive a life and damage boost.
• Carrion Wine's life recovery will increase by +1% per level.
• Solar Creeper's mana recovery will increase by +1% per level.

Necromancer Skills:

• Skeletal Mages will get a giant damage boost
• Blood Golem will receive a life and damage increase.
• Iron Golem will no longer be affected by thorns.
• Fire Golem's holy fire level scaling will be doubled.
• Bone Armor will absorb 15 additional damage per level instead of 10.
• Bone Spear will get a slight synergy damage increase.
• Bone Spirit will get a slight synergy damage increase.
• Weaken's damage reduction will now scale by 1% each level.

Paladin Skills:

• Holy Fire will deal more damage
• Thorns Aura will no longer return damage, and will deal a flat amount of damage.
• Sacrifice's damage to self will be decreased
• Conversion's chance to convert cap will be increased from 50% to 90%
• Holy Bolt will pierce targets and receive a damage boost.
• Fist of Heavens's casting delay will be reduced from 1s to 0.4s

Sorceress Skills:

• Frost Nova will get a damage boost.
• Frozen Armor's duration will be increased by 24 second.
• Shiver Armor will get a damage boost and a duration increase by 24 second.
• Chilling Armor will get a huge damage, defense, and duration boost.
• Nova will receive a synergy
• Thunder Storm will receive a synergy and a duration boost.
• Inferno will get a damage and range boost
• Blaze will also increase run speed, and will deal more damage.
• Hydra will have it's casting delay removed, and the number of Hydras will be limited at 6.