Keep them coming!Might even pick up D2R again. It's an ARGP. It does get a little boring sometimes. I am so happy to see all these D2R news. D2LoD was pretty much my first real real game I've ever nerded.
One part they didn't talk about was the "Cannot be Frozen" mod. That mod is something EVERY attack based build wants somewhere on their character. It can be hard to get as very few items offer the mod (and many of them just aren't that good). The combination of Pierce, Mana Leech, %Attack Bonus and Cannot be Frozen makes this a VERY enticing helm for any ranged attacker indeed, and still tempting as a chill/freeze solution for melee builds as well, even if they can't use the Pierce.
Ravenfrost is a boring item in my opinion, and a somewhat rare one especially for SSF players. Adding a reliable way to get CBF is good!
Angrymama: Well yeah, it's not an endgame item... but it's a good item that covers a lot of bases until you can get that Raven Frost + Razortail + Mana Leech source (Which can be more expensive/harder to complete than making this Runeword as you need to find/trade for three different items, especially early on). And for Throw Barbs (who are getting buffed), they still may use this for the extra pierce chance (Pierce is a damage mod in a way, just not for single target).Basically, this helm covers a LOT of bases for a ranged attacker, and while there's individual pieces that can do their part of the job better overall, having a Runeword that compresses all of them on a single item whose highest rune can drop from NM Hellforge is very nice.
Quite interesting, specially being another source of 'Cannot Be Frozen'. Should at the very least help out until Raven Frost decides to show up!
Both the article and the comments miss the most obvious thing: Thats an amazing budget javazon runeword as long as you dont have Griffin avaible to you. Perfectly viable to clear cows which will be the single most important source of income in early season. With dgtm, maek and ml all your mana issues are gone, while cnbf allows you to skip on that ravenfrost and pick a bk/soj instead. And those 33% pierce are in fact superior to the +2 all skills from valk or shako since they allow you to double up with razortail for some skill point savings early on, and pick thundergods later on for a noticable increase to your spender.
I actually really like this. If they kept the same runes and gave it a buff (resistances, + skills, whatever) I could easily see it becoming stronger than the mid-game item I think this is supposed to be. But if they nerfed it, it could easily become not worth the runes to make it.Sounds like actually thought out good balancing to me. I'll take it.