Dominus Rex mod for Diablo II

I have a ton of updates here for you all to read. I won't post any pictures here for a while, but suffice to say there's plenty to keep you busy (and plenty left to do to keep me busy, sadly!). Let's get started.

 Quick caveat: I'm simply copying and pasting the plethora of other news posts I've done on other sites, so there may be redundant news (and likely there are things I've implemented which aren't mentioned anywhere!). This is just to give you all an idea of where DR is at right now.

 Cube size is greatly enlarged to let you haul stuff around. Inventory size is purposely kept limited simply to keep charm power in check. I'm adding plenty of unique charms, none of which are "carry1"- so things will get out of hand if I don't limit charm space. And the sheer number of new item stats I'm adding make it nearly necessary to ship my mod with at least a modified PlugY Stats Interface file, which is the plan. You'll of course be able to get PlugY, and I won't disable (m)any of the features, because if you want to cheat, you'll find a way. Of course I discourage cheating, but for the sake of not screwing characters over through the course of patch updates, you will be able to unallocate skill points. Assuming it works, as many of my skills have skill point formulae, which tends to bug up with PlugY.

For those of you who played earlier versions of Dominus Rex, you are in for a treat- and a surprise.
I have completely redone all skills for all characters. I do not mean "rebalancing". I mean that I have deleted every CLoD skill, and replaced it with a custom-built skill. This means I've build 210 skills from the ground up. Have fun finding the Dominus Rex equivalent to the Hammerdin! :)
DR 0.2 had plenty of changes by itself- an overhauled affix system (once again, done from the ground-up), modified weapon/armor stats, completely new item types (including weapons and armors), completely new uniques (a third time- from scratch), modified monster behaviors, and more.

New runes. There are 50 runes now; the 33 from CLoD and 17 new ones. When dropped, their names show in orange, just like crafted items. This is to alert the player when a rune drops (runes are, for the most part, much more common than in CLoD- but probably even more useful!), per request by a player. Runes no longer have a level requirement, but also have no inherent bonuses. However, cubing a rare item with a rune will create an item through a system I have aptly titled "Runecrafting". Currently, there is a single runecraft for each rune, but I plan on expanding this. Right now, a rare and a rune will spit out a low-level rare (40% input item level) with some preset mods based on the rune used. Don't worry; the highest rune can start dropping in Nightmare, and drops thousands of times more often than Zod ever could in CLoD. Also, just like CLoD, runewords exist. There are "runewords" for rings and amulets as well, so socketed jewelry is certainly useful.

For the curious, here are all the custom-created item stats (these are only the ones I did by myself, naturally):
item_cube_essence

This was originally for the Horadric Charm; which may or may not make an appearance in the final version.
item_craftingpoints

Not Median's way of crafting. This stat varies from 0 to 100 and is obtainable only through "tempering" items (dark green item name text). Tempered items are tough to make and have no stats besides crafting points, which appears on the item in the form "XX% Temperable". Once an item is temperable, you can custom-craft it until the crafting points are gone. Everything is temperable, including charms and jewels, although jewels are limited to 33% Temperability, and charms are limited to 33% Temperability per charm size (small=33%, large=66%, grand=100%). I'll find some way of letting the players know the tempering recipes. Most will be pretty intuitive, though, i.e. "Item+Perfect Gem= Item -5% Temperability, +(stats based off gem type)". I've gotten the basic tempering recipes complete, now it's just the thousands of lines I have to do for the actual recipes.

item_extra_skills0

One of the rarest mods in the game. This mod was actually created in a very old version of DR which had a skill level cap of 3 which could be increased via act boss quest drops in which they dropped an item that could be cubed onto the dual-class charm to increase your level cap by 1. The property is still obtainable on some very rare items, but don't expect to be able to shove 30 points in a skill. I'm still thinking of a way to limit the number of skill points in skills without stealing straight from Laz, though.
item_extraskeletons

Back when the Necromancer was still the Necromancer (), this mod increased the number of summonable skeletons (obviously). I'll probably change the name and have it apply to either one of the Sorceress summons or something. Meh, I don't know. It might just get deleted.

item_timerreduction

Decreases all spell timers by a percentage. Obvious.

item_aura_pulse_frequency

For some auras, like Holy Fire and Conviction, the pulse frequency of an aura has some effect on its usefulness. This stat decreases the delay between pulses, so for anything like Holy Fire, this stat has a noticeable effect on your killing speed. I'll also have it affect anything that "pulses"- Thunderstorm, for example.
warcry_duration

All warcries have a very short duration- 5 seconds plus an addition 40 frames (1.6 seconds) per level. To make them actually usable, you'll definitely need to stack this property. It'll be relatively common, spawning on Barbarian-themed uniques, and Barbarian-only magicals and rares. I might make it an automod on a new barbarian-only weapon type, to encourage singers, but I'm not sure yet.
item_attackerfreezes

Yes, I know Laz made it too, but it's a very handy property to have, and it was a great exercise in creating new item stats.

item_knocksplayerback

Sounds strange, I know. When this stat is on an item, whenever the player is struck, they are knocked back. This will appear on "Eagle"-themed items, as well as "Wind"-themed ones. It's actually helpful when you're mobbed on one side only. The KB keeps you from being locked. However, it is horribly annoying.

item_healwhenstruck

Another Laz property, I just created it by myself. I'd have felt dirty just copying his stuff straight up. It heals whether you're damaged in melee or by a ranged attack.
item_healinmelee

Yet another Brother Laz original. Heals you on melee strikes, just like Hymn.
item_armorpergold

Increases your total armor based on your carried gold. Same as the "Scales of the Gold Dragon" screenshot I have posted already.
item_replenishlife_pervit

Every 8 points you have in Vitality, this mod grants +1 replenish life. Very basic, but pretty useful.

I've always thought the Amazon's skill trees really had nothing to do with being a REAL Amazon... so I'm tossing them out the window. The new proposed trees are:
-Skirmishing

Centuries of living in lush, wild jungles has given the Amazon instinctive abilities when it comes to fighting- through ranged hunting with bows, and wars with nearby tribes. Her light combat abilities are unmatched.
Sample skills: Stunspread (as per my last screenshot), Decapitating Strike, and Blowdart Trap.
Stunspread fires a number of "blunt-tipped" arrows, and stuns everything the arrows hit for a (very) short duration. This skill has a timer [3 sec]. Don't forget- Prolonged Stunspread will enhance the duration of this skill. When both are maxed, you get a nifty 3.6 second stun!
Decapitating Strike requires a sword- or axe-class weapon... but is basically the old Paladin Charge skill. However, Decapitating Strike grants a huge
movement speed bonus, and massive enhanced damage per level (maxes above 800%). Remember- you can't be in melee range if you want to use this!
Blowdart Trap
is still a work in progress, but I've got it mostly functional. It summons a short-ranged trap that releases poisoned projectiles. Currently it does no weapon damage; this skill is relatively up in the air, though.
-Fletching

Of course, the Amazon is unparalleled in her skill with bows. Fletching skills are comprised of three basic trees, of which you may only invest in one. I have code-named these "mini-trees" Scalding, Venom, and Pain. Scalding
skills will comprise mostly of fire damage, the most basic being "Phoenix Feathers", a short-term buff that enchants your bow with fire damage. It is only usable when equipped with a bow, and is uncastable on other party members. Venom
skills will (obviously) revolve around poison, but will also see some slowing effects as well, and possibly an immunity-breaking skill. Pain skills are my personal favorites. The most basic Pain skill is "Dusk-tipped Arrows", which adds Hit Blinds Target to your bow for a short period of time. The chance to blind increases with skill level.
-Herbalism

Far from the days of Pierce, Dodge/Evade/Avoid, and Valkyrie, the Herbalism tree adds a new page to the Amazon's weapon repertoire: staves.
All Herbalism skills are ONLY usable with Staff-Class weapons (and yes, I will be adding Amazon-only staves!), but have very powerful effects. Everything from curses, stun, summoning, and aurae are available in this tree. Valkyrie will stay, albeit in a lesser form. Three (tentative) skills from this tree are Mindmelt, Waspswarm, and Toad.

Mindmelt is (currently) basically a Confuse-clone with one major difference- it's permanent. Waspswarm summons a Swarm-like minion that possesses relatively low damage and low health, but has three
passives to a) increase it's health and damage reduction (%-based), b) add poison damage to its attacks (very long duration!), and c) add a slowing effect to its attacks. Maxing these four skills is quite the investment, but well worth the return! Toad is exactly what you'd expect- it turns your target into a toad.
And a very harmless toad at that. I've been encountering some trouble with this one, so I'm very unsure whether it will make it in the final release or not... but cross your fingers!

General theme for unique items is, well, to make them unique.
Not uber-powerful, but different. This will take the form of cross-class oskills, new properties (many of which I have coded myself), and things like the "Stick with a Nail in it"- humorous descriptions and ridiculous stats (999% ED on a club? Weird.). I also created a "stock" set of 40 magical prefixes/suffixes, giving defense% or damage% depending on item type. Hopefully this gives magicals and rares a much higher chance of spawning with these important mods. The highest affix spawns magic-only and gives between 350 and 450 ED%... which is great, since it can stack with other mods that grant ED% (Giant's, namely).

Unlike the CLoD Sorceress, the true, DR-version Sorceress
is much more in-tune with the actual definition of "sorcery". Yes, she still has elemental spells, but they're all mashed in one tree. Most damage dealt is pure magic; a few "raw" elemental spells exist as well. This is the Magicka Elementa tree.
The bulk of the sorceress spells, however, lie not in her magical affinities. Instead, she's getting two new skill trees, and they are:
Demon Binding. Pagan Magicks, lost to the sands of time in Sanctuary, have recently been discovered being practiced by a small, remote cult of witches. These magicks are not fully understood, but through a series of incantations, the casters of these spells are able to "bind" demons from the netherplanes to do their bidding. These demons are "gated", and as such, require a ferocious amount of focus to keep the bind between demon and caster unsevered. However, truly gifted witches are capable of summoning multiple demons.
The Demon Binding tree will have three completely different summons, of which you are only allowed one (type) at a time. My current ideas? "Infernal Ape", "Shadowpriest", and "Satan's Calf".
Baboon Demons, Vampires (or Zakarumites), and Hell Bovines, respectively. Each summon will have a number of passives to enhance them, giving them increased damage, unique special abilities, or just turning them into tanks. You can sink a lot of points here, considering there will be 4 investable skills per summon.
The third and final tree is the pinnacle of achievement in black magicks. The Profane Arts
are considered by many to be the most feared spells in all of Sanctuary. Even minor hexes cast by master "artists", as they tend to call themselves, have a knack of killing their victims before the agony truly begins.
Profane Arts consist mainly of curses, and much like Necromancer (CLoD) curses, they are useful in numerous situations (but don't expect an Amplify Damage clone!). Due to their vile, insidious nature, every skill point in a curse reduces a certain statistic by a flat amount. This is permanent. For example, investing in Cull the Weak (reduces maximum life of monsters by a flat
amount) reduces the player's maximum life by a percentage (not sure yet; I'm thinking about fixing it at 50%) of the skill's effectiveness. So a Cull the Weak that reduces max health by 2000 would reduce player HP by 1000.
However, don't cry yet. There's a skill (Bone Scrying) that reduces the penalties associated with all curses. Investing heavily in curses, any sorceress will want points in Bone Scrying. However, one who dabbles for a solitary effect can safely avoid it, as their penalties should not be very high. The skill will probably cap at reducing the penalty to 20% of its original cost (in the earlier example, the max health penalty would be reduced to only 200). For curse sorceresses, this will effectively be a "free" stat boost (and not just the core stats!).
Hopefully, most sorceresses will want to invest in all three trees. I'm going to create some "easy-to-aim" spells, Cows will be "tank" minions, and then it's just a matter of picking a curse... and you've got your typical CLoD hybridmancer!

The Necromancer

The misunderstood black sheep of Sanctuary. They toy the line between good and evil, although the fight against the hellfilth has inevitably forced them to side with right. Most heroes are hesitant to fight alongside Necromancers, although this doesn't bother them. Necromancers are shining dark warriors, and the discrimination is nothing compared to what is at stake- the world itself. And so their War began...
The Necromancer in DR is of course separated into three trees, and retains a very similar flavor to the CLoD Necromancer. However, the Necromancer is much less about summoning and curses now, and much more in tune with his raw magical abilities.
No Necromancer is complete without some truly black magic, and so the first tree I will share is, of course, the Black Magic
tree. This skill is full of some nasty stuff- a five-second-long curse that reduces the cursed monsters' resistances to -100 (immune monsters included), a Mandragora summon that releases a piercing wail upon death (dealing massive physical damage to everything around it), and plenty of back-row, pure damage spells. Most of them are pretty rough outlines, but I'm toying with an idea for a skill called "Skullsplit".
The basic idea is that it releases a single Unholy Bolt, which splits into two after a short time... but only if it doesn't hit anything! This continues up to six times, leaving a whopping 32 bolts if you aim it accurately! However, once the 32 bolts reach the end of their destination, they simply expire. Learn how to aim!

The second tree is very similar in title, and is The Dark Arts. Yes, that's basically black magic (semantically speaking), but the Dark Arts involve mainly passive abilities. These range from passive thorns (percent-based), to slow, to Hit Causes Monster to Flee. Yes, the Necromancer is the true crowd-control powerhouse. Max his passives, give him a bow, and you win.

The final tree is the Pain and Torture
tree. This tree is all about crippling enemies. No damaging skills here, but you can expect some relatively painful abilities here.
Since the Necromancer is the third character I am designing (and I'm still struggling with finishing the first and starting the second!), most of this is a pretty rough outline. The skill trees are here to stay, but the skills themselves might (well, probably will) receive some tweaks. Just don't be disappointed with you can't get a Necromancer who freezes, stuns, poisons, slows, blinds, and charms targets all with one swing.
Paladins, Druids, and Assassins have "tentative" skill trees, which I have barely planned. They'll have largely the same flavor as their CLoD counterparts. Here's a quick rundown of the skill tree titles as I've planned so far:
Paladin: Mantra, Condemnations, Body and Blood

Druid: Meteorology, Elder Training, Animal Summoning

Assassin: Gadgets, Chakras, Reflexes

Beyond that, I'm not releasing any teasers. You'll just have to wait for the other classes to get finished!  

I'm considering adding two additional tiers and turning the tiers into, you guessed it:
Chipped/Cracked
Flawed
(standard)
Flawless
Perfect
This will let me do some cube recipes that will be easy for players to figure out.

Unlike CLoD tiers, I'm turning all items into (from a gameplay standpoint) a single tier. This means that a "Worn Cap" (which is the equivalent of chipped for leather, I guess) will have nearly the same requirements as a "Perfect Cap"... stat-wise.
Perfect items will require a much higher level requirement.
Right now, things are still normal/exceptional/elite because I really haven't gotten around to finding a system that works well. My idea definitely isn't perfect. Maybe I'll stick it into 0.3 and go from there.

In fact, I just finished the Sorceress skills less than a minute ago. Last two "spells" are passives, both of which I'll explain (since screenshots of passives are... well, useless).
The first is Focus. The skill grants a significant mana regeneration bonus (125% at level 1, +25% per level), but grants a huge bonus to cast rate when your mana is below 25% of your maximum (250% bonus at level 1, +10% per level). All Sorceress spells have a pretty hefty mana cost to them, so this skill is useful just about all the time. I may give it an attack speed bonus if your health is below 25% of your maximum, and corresponding health regeneration, but I'm unsure as to whether or not the mana effect alone is overpowered.
The second skill is Spell Deity.
This is the grandmother of all spellcasting passives. It gives a bonus to the maximum number of skill points you can invest in a skill. Like CLoD, the skill level max is 20- but this skill can, theoretically, let you invest a truly absurd amount of points into skills. The bonus is +1 skill maximum at level 1, and an additional +1 skill maximum per 4 levels. I may add a secondary effect to the skill, but I think this effect is, currently, sufficient.

-Professions implemented. The seven I've made work fine. Cube recipes now amount to ~900, mostly thanks to professions.
Tentatively, here is an incomplete professions list:
Runescriber: grants an effect similar to Runemaster (+X to all stats per rune equipped), allows player to upgrade runes in the cube (max rune level allowed based on Runescriber skill), allows player to add sockets to equipment. Some runewords may grant abilities based on Runescribing level.
Assembler: allows the use of "Horadric Kits", which are (or rather, would be) valuable items droppable by enemies that are useless to other classes, but when cubed by themselves (by Assemblers only), they create relatively powerful items (nothing ridiculous, but very useful in general- large ED% items, utility uniques, various cube reagents, et cetera). Some items may give bonuses based on Assembling skill.
Decipherer: Allows the "translation" of scrolls found throughout the game. Most scrolls are readable by the player but are cryptic. Deciphering them makes them much "clearer" to the player. For example, a scroll that says, "Angel's Tears can wipe away darkness" might, when translated, read "Angel Sapphire + Blade of Darkness = Azurewrath" or something similar. Some scrolls would be unusable until deciphered (this would be denoted by Must be Deciphered on the scroll's text).
Fletcher: Allows the creation of custom arrows (bolts are eliminated; crossbows fire arrows). Some bowskills would get significant benefits from your Fletching skill level. Some uniques/sets/runewords receive bonuses from your Fletching level. Rare/crafted arrows would be impossible to find except through this profession (magical ones and unique ones will still drop).
Tinkerer: Allows player to craft special charms, confers a degree of Runescribing and Gemcutting [explained below] to the player, allowing them to upgrade runes and gems (albeit at a much reduced effect). Many items would give bonuses if the player has a high Tinkering skill.
Gemcutter: Allows player to upgrade gems; unlocks gem grades above Perfect (I'm currently planning two, I may make more!). Allows the creation of "custom gems", which are fusions of any three gems at a time (they socket as jewels and grant only the weapon, armor, or jewelry effects of the gems based on the inputs). Lets the player cube sockets onto their items. Allows re-rolling of rings/amulets. Some items would have stats based on your Gemcutting ability (namely, "unique" gems (jewels), rings, and amulets)
Alchemist: Just what you'd expect. Let you create potions, and at high levels, permanent elixirs. There is no limit to the number of elixirs you can use, though, making this an attractive end-game profession (and a relatively useless one early on!). Some magic skills may get bonuses based on your Alchemy skill.
Bladeworker: Allows crafting (sharpening*, enchanting, et cetera) of blade-type weapons (swords, axes, katars, daggers, some polearms, some maces, et cetera). Many weapons would give bonuses based on Bladeworking skill. Many skills would get bonuses based on Bladeworking.
(*Sharpening allows the Bladeworker to cube a bladed item by itself to grant it an Enhanced Damage bonus based on your Bladeworking ability)
Thief: Significantly penalizes the player in a number of aspects (all stats, max health, movement speed, and grants negative damage reduction [increasing damage taken]) but grants a massive magic find bonus.
-Work on Necromancer skills is still underway. Bug minions are seriously a pain in the ass. I suck at minion skills.
-Tempering recipes initiated. Basic tempering is done (items can actually be tempered). Right now it just requires a rare item and some perfect gems, but this will likely change before release date to require specific reagents. Basic tempering affixes have been added.
-Item World work continues. Mainly I'm focusing on the monsters for it at the moment; the dungeon itself is still basically nonexistent. I also need to download the extended levels plugin from the 'Keep.
The Item World is a new dungeon, each level using random tilesets (not random every time you enter; simply random when I choose them), progressing all the way to 100. Each level would have custom-made enemies (I'm thinking the "Stash" monsters unused by the game, and Flying Scimitars, since they're the only "item"-looking monsters), which have the chance of dropping special items that let you "level up" any weapon or armor you own. The dungeon would, ideally, be 100 floors, but I'll slash it to 10% and go with 10. Also, ideally, there would be a superunique every floor, which would drop a "special" level-up item.
Right now, I'm thinking that the level-up item would grant +10% ED on whatever you cubed it with (defense for armors, naturally, damage for weapons), at no level requirement increase. You would be limited to one level-up item from each floor, though, along with the special level-up items dropped by the superuniques.
However, the idea would take up quite a good deal of time, and wouldn't make it into the 0.3 release. I'm just curious as to your feelings on a completely optional side-dungeon, accessible at any stage of the game (the first floor would have mlvl 10 monsters). I'm afraid that the dungeon would either go completely ignored, or would be basically necessary if you wanted to get anywhere.
The early levels should probably be quite a bit smaller than the Forgotten Tower, though- and then, say, are multiplied by X, where X is the decafloor you're on. So floors 1-10 would be very small, 11-20 would be twice as large, 21-30 would be three times the size of the first set, 31-40 would be four times, and so on. So even the very high numbered floors would not be horrendously large, but it'd still be a pain to trek through.
I actually never thought about cranking drop rates on higher floors. I don't think I can do that without cloning monsters a lot, so instead, I'll just crank monster density.

Starting at floors 25, 50, and 75, a new monster type will open up with additional drops- 25 will "unlock" a magic-dropping monster (with a very high level as to get the best possible affixes), 50 will unlock a rare-dropping monster (with a relatively high level so as to get high-quality rares), and 75 will unlock a unique-dropping monster.
Disabling TP's sounds more and more attractive to me, I just hope it's as simple as I think it is.
New proposed idea:

You don't have to get an item to level 1 before cubing it to level 2... however, leveling up an item linearly from 1 to 100 will give you the best possible output. Instead, a player could simply "rush" to level 15 or so, which should be relatively simple, and start farming "Item Levels" from there. This will save time but will result in slightly lower-quality items in the end.
I'm considering having each Item Level give a [5% + (Dungeon Level)/5] Bonus, meaning that levels 1-5 give a 5% bonus, 6-10 give a 6%, 11-15 give a 7%, and so on. This should definitely encourage the higher dungeon levels, where players can relatively easily sweep five or six levels in just a few minutes, enhancing an item by over 100% Enhanced Damage/Defense. The Úmage Reduction on armors will not be available until level 75, and will be 1% every level. That means you'd only have to "max out" two pieces of armor to hit the R; cap, which I think is more than fair.
You want the perfect item? Work for it.

Although you might be mistaken- you can't upgrade your item unless you actually obtain the items required. So if you rush to 15, you lose out on 15 levels worth of cubing. Granted, it's the weakest 15 levels of bonuses, but if you want the "perfect" equipment... Heh. Good luck.
And once you cube "Item Level: 15" onto your item, you can't cube "Item Level: 10" onto it. Once it hits a number, you can't go lower, even if you wound up skipping it. You can always go higher- say, straight to 100- but you miss out on a lot of other bonuses.
The "Item Boss: General" (level 10 Boss) will only function if your item is exactly
level 10. So not only do you have to kill the boss, you also have to find another Item Level on that floor, or else the recipe will not work!
-Some magic affixes have been reworked. Two basic affixes have been added; one prefix and one suffix. Both spawn very regularly, and add ED (based on itemtype; damage on weapons and defense on armors, naturally). Both the prefix and suffix for these affixes are grouped so you can't get a 900% ED item. Magic items can get some crazy affixes now (450% ED on weapons/armor, 50 to all attributes on staves/circlets/amulets, or 35% to all attributes on weapons/circlets/amulets). Itemtype restrictions on affixes has been expanded. For the most part, "caster" weapons (orbs, wands, staves, and scepters) will not spawn with standard weapon mods and instead have their own affix pool.
-Work on uniques continues. All base weapons are implemented, but some are unfinished. I was actually testing some skills and a unique Short Bow dropped in the Cold Plains with no stats, named "String does not Exist" (I changed "An Evil Force" to better reflect the fact that it's a string error for easier error detection during testing periods). I'm working on it, though.
-New item-tier system is underway. Item tiers will reflect gem tiers (the two will be strongly related come release). Expect "chipped" items through "perfect" items, with additional tiers as well (similar to Profanes and Sacreds). I'm also attempting to make items only usable by certain professions but it isn't going very well. The closest I've gotten is items that have intrinsically no attributes that scale with profession level. I'm considering dropping the idea.
-Rune system is getting a significant overhaul. Instead of "no effect" runes, runes will actually give CLoD-like effects (although notably stronger, effectively making them "unique jewels"), but the runeword system will force players to place a socketed item (with the correct number of sockets!) in the cube, along with the correct runes to make the runeword. You will then be given a rare/crafted (runes 33 [Zod] and below will spawn rares, and above will spawn crafteds) item with a small number of innate mods based on the "runeword" itself (item level is controlled by the highest level of the rune used- higher-level runes will allow for higher-level outputs, meaning higher quality affixes). This is to increase variety in similar runewords. Sure, your "Headache" helmet will always give 30% Faster Hit Recovery and -2 Life on Striking, but the rest is up to chance (Caveat: "Headache" isn't an actual runeword).
-I'm working on about 30 new armors and well over 50 new weapons... on paper. This includes their upgraded counterparts (so basically, five new armor types and 10+ new weapon types). I'm also planning expanding automods for all class-specific items. I'm considering class-specific rings/amulets, maybe even charms; I would add class-specific gems/runes/jewels but I think that's impossible. Class-specifics no longer grant staffmods but alternate stats the item type would be expected to give (Wolf Heads, for example, grant Lifesteal and IAS), making them attractive for certain builds.
-Reworked Treasure Classes a bit. Boss drops are a bit higher quality, and have a higher chance of dropping "special" items that typically only drop very rarely. Running bosses is unencouraged; act boss drops after their quest drop are typically equivalent to standard superuniques. Runes drop a bit less frequently than they did in 0.2b (Ohm's dropped in A2 normal). Perfect Gems can drop. Gems in general drop more frequently. Wraith-type monsters have higher quality drops. I'm starting to plan drops to be based on monster type- quill rats won't drop armor/weapons anymore, for example. This might get way too complicated for me, so I might forget about it. At the very least, don't expect animals to drop real "loot"; I'm adding a separate "animal" loot list to deal with this problem.
-Skills (constantly being) reworked. Sorceress minions might be out in release, as they're currently buggy and boring. I'm no good at modifying AI patterns... *Sigh* I'm also planning about eight or nine skills on the Amazon and Sorceress that will get trashed/redone/replaced. Professions haven't been placed on skill-trees yet, as they aren't complete enough to warrant testing (they exist only on my end).
Hope this is enough to whet your palate.