Blizzard continues to refine and adapt their revamped classic for the modern audience; for patch 2.3, the team is focusing on difficulty scaling, keybinds, and optimization.
Patch 2.3 Details
There are a few areas of focus that Blizzard is working on in the latest patch for Diablo II: Resurrected. These changes all serve to refine the game and systems in Diablo II, whether they be quality of life enhancements or overall performance tweaks.
Offline Difficulty Scaling
This will be a scaling tweak (already present on PC) that will allow the console players to scale the difficulty from anywhere between 1 – 8 players to increase XP gains and loot drops. This is incredibly useful for farming certain items or leveling up new characters. Blizzard explains what exactly this will add to the game in their recent developer post, writing:
This feature from the original PC game is now coming to console platforms. For solo offline players who want to scale the game difficulty—as well as the rewards—up to eight players, your wish is being granted. To use this feature, players simply need to open their settings menu, go to the “Game Settings” tab, then “Offline,” and adjust the “Offline Difficulty Scaling” slider. Once that setting has been configured, new monsters will spawn with varying HP and reward players with vastly increased experience gains and loot drop rates when defeated. (Blizzard Entertainment)
Keyboard + Mouse Controls and Bindings
The KBM controls will also be getting some love in this update. This time around, Blizzard is revamping the control options for PC players to make the experience similar to that of Diablo III and those using a gamepad. This boils down to a change where PC players will now have the ability to display another action bar. This will allow players access to spells and abilities without relying on function button keybinds. Blizzard explains what this will mean for players in their latest developer post, stating:
Players can now opt to use the Active Skill Bindings bar. This will show an additional bar above the standard HUD at the bottom of the screen. Players can map up to 16 skills (although the tooltip suggests F1–F8) to that additional bar. Furthermore, if the Quick Cast Skills option is active, pressing these buttons will instantly use the abilities rather than just re-map the right or left mouse buttons. (Blizzard Entertainment)
Optimization
Blizzard is also planning some optimization tweaks alongside some visual improvements in this patch as well. These changes will include updated UI elements for when a player is muted, which expansion a character is playing in, and updating the target channel when sending messages to create a more fluid, straightforward experience.
Diablo II: Resurrected’s gameplay is getting some slight tweaks here too. Finally, Blizzard is adding in a “MISS” indicator when an attack doesn’t go through. I suspect this will make combat feel slightly more fluid and responsive. As a Werebear main, melee can sometimes feel like it’s not working as intended.
Audio is seeing some changes as well. Audio cues will now play for all of the gamepad players out there when navigating the options menu and when adding potions to their belts. It’s nothing major, but it’s nice to see Blizard adding elements from other game versions to create a more cohesive experience.
Perhaps some of the biggest news here is exclusive to all the NVIDIA users out there – DLSS will now be a toggleable option in the graphics menu!
For the full rundown on all these changes, check out Blizzard’s official patch notes here.
Wrapping Up
The support that Diablo II: Resurrected is getting is excellent to see. We’re also excited to see what improvements the team continues to make with the title, not that it necessarily needs anything else. Although a seamless offline/online mode would be fantastic, it’s unlikely to expect such a feature based on how this title was designed.
But, what do you think of the upcoming changes in Diablo II: Resurrected Patch 2.3? Tweet us your thoughts over @DayOneGames, or drop us some comments below; we’d love to hear from you.
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