[2022] Monster Mods FAQ

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

There have been a lot of questions about the upcoming new system for monster mods that was announced in {LINK REMOVED}yesterday's balance manifesto. In today's post, we're providing answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.

Since the mods are simplified and separated, does that mean rare monsters will now have more mods on average to compensate? How many mods can a rare monster have now? We're currently playtesting the new monster mod system to determine this. At the moment it's 2-4, but this may change as we continue to iterate.

Will the modifiers' effects be made more intense to compensate for their simplification? These are new mods that have similar themes to old ones, but have new balance values. In many cases these are the same as before, but we're evaluating on a case by case basis. It's mostly the weaker secondary mods that need to be juiced up so that they make sense as a standalone mod.

Are rare monsters still getting increased damage/hp/defenses per mod or only whatever the individual mods on the rare roll? Rare monsters never received additional damage per incremental mod, and the only defenses they received was a life bonus (on top of whatever the mod actually did of course). Under the new system, they will get life, experience, item rarity and quantity bonuses per additional mod.

Will the changes made to reduce the number of rare monsters spawned in various mechanics be undone now that each individual rare encounter is less likely to be a major burden to the player? No.

Will Pantheon mods still exist with simplified lines such as ''Uses Kitava's Skills'' or something like that? Pantheon mods still exist but are very rare.

Will stealing ''Ignites'' make all our hits ignite? This makes all monster fire damage ignite, so it makes all your fire damage ignite if you steal it.

Is this a nerf to Headhunter? Will mods be able to stack like they could before Archnemesis? Mods will not be able to stack (as many can't function when stacked). There are more mods to steal, which is a buff to the upper end of Headhunter gameplay.

Can we have examples of some of the new reward types being introduced? Not yet.

Does this mean I'm forced to play Magic Find all the time now? If you're able to sacrifice character power for magic find then, you'll find more and better items. That was true before 3.19 and is the nature of magic find in Action RPGs. Note that magic find has diminishing returns, so a small investment can go a long way.

How have reward conversions changed? We're still working on this, but we can confirm:

• Only some of the new rewards are conversion ones
  
• We are removing the undesirable ones like conversion to flasks
  
• We are trying to make the rewards from rare monsters not so all-or-nothing

Does Magic Find still massively affect the reward conversions? We are still iterating on these systems and don't want to set expectations around this in either direction just yet.