Endgame players in Diablo 2 talk about Breakpoints a lot and why they matter so much. For a newer player, this might seem like a bunch of fidgety math and frame-counting — but what is it really?
Simply put, Breakpoints are cut-off thresholds for when your “Faster Cast Rate,” “Faster Hit Recovery,” “Faster Block Rate,” and “Increased Rate of Attack” bonuses actually affect your character. As simple as that. No weird complicated math or involved frame-counting plugins needed.
Why Do Breakpoints Matter?
Breakpoints are an artifact of Diablo 2’s age as a game, along with its 25 frames per second animation speed. At the core, it’s all just about increasing certain values to the point (“Breakpoint”, if you will) when a frame gets shaved off of your character’s animation for casting, being stunned from critical hits, blocking, or swinging the weapon. In simpler terms, there is no point in stacking these “Faster” modifier percentages until you know you can reach a certain point with them.
So, there is no difference between your Druid having 20% Faster Cast Rate and 25% as bonuses on his gear. Or even 29% Faster Cast Rate, for that matter. Only when you get to the 30% Breakpoint will your Druid cast his spells a little bit faster. Then, you will need to get to 46% to see any difference in the speed once again.
Ideally, you will want to know what percent you need to reach to “level up” your casting, hit recovery, blocking, and attacking speed with the character. That’s what Breakpoints are.
Note: if “Frames” in the tabs below confuse you, just think of them as the time it takes for the character to perform the action. The lower the number, the better!
Faster Cast Rate (FCR)
This modifier, hopefully, should be self-explanatory: this is the rate at which your character casts their spells. You will find it on a wide variety of gear.
- This stat is most important for casters. The only exception is the Assassin with her Traps: despite being a “caster,” the speed of laying traps is actually affected by the Increased Attack Speed (IAS), not FCR.
- Note that character forms (Bear Form for the Druid, for example, or the Vampire Form for the Necromancer) affect the base speed and Breakpoints for the character.
- Lightining and Chain Lightning have a slower base speed and higher Breakpoints compared to other Sorceress spells.
- Some spells have a delay between uses. This delay (often 1 second, or 25 frames) will not be affected by “Faster” bonuses. The difference in speed for these spells will be less noticeable than with something you can “spam” repeatedly.
- FCR becomes crucial for some classes starting with the Nightmare difficulty and onward, like with the Sorceress. Her Teleport spell, a crucial element to many of her builds, benefits from higher speed greatly.
All Weapons and Shields
- 0% – 19 Frames
- 7% – 18 Frames
- 14% – 17 Frames
- 22% – 16 Frames
- 32% – 15 Frames
- 48% – 14 Frames
- 68% – 13 Frames
- 99% – 12 Frames
- 152% – 11 Frames
All Weapons and Shields
- 0% – 16 Frames
- 8% – 15 Frames
- 16% – 14 Frames
- 27% – 13 Frames
- 42% – 12 Frames
- 65% – 11 Frames
- 102% – 10 Frames
- 174% – 9 Frames
All Weapons and Shields
- 0% – 13 Frames
- 9% – 12 Frames
- 20% – 11 Frames
- 37% – 10 Frames
- 67% – 9 Frames
- 105% – 8 Frames
- 200% – 7 Frames
Human Form
- 0% – 18 Frames
- 4% – 17 Frames
- 10% – 16 Frames
- 19% – 15 Frames
- 30% – 14 Frames
- 46% – 13 Frames
- 68% – 12 Frames
- 99% – 11 Frames
- 163% – 9 Frames
Bear Form
- 0% – 16 Frames
- 7% – 15 Frames
- 15% – 14 Frames
- 26% – 13 Frames
- 40% – 12 Frames
- 63% – 11 Frames
- 99% – 10 Frames
- 163% – 9 Frames
Wolf Form
- 0% – 16 Frames
- 6% – 15 Frames
- 14% – 14 Frames
- 26% – 13 Frames
- 40% – 12 Frames
- 60% – 11 Frames
- 95% – 10 Frames
- 157% – 9 Frames
Human
- 0% – 15 Frames
- 9% – 14 Frames
- 18% – 13 Frames
- 30% – 12 Frames
- 48% – 11 Frames
- 75% – 10 Frames
- 125% – 9 Frames
Vampire
- 0% – 23 Frames
- 6% – 22 Frames
- 11% – 21 Frames
- 18% – 20 Frames
- 24% – 19 Frames
- 35% – 18 Frames
- 48% – 17 Frames
- 65% – 16 Frames
- 86% – 15 Frames
- 120% – 14 Frames
- 180% – 13 Frames
All Weapons and Shields
- 0% – 15 Frames
- 9% – 14 Frames
- 18% – 13 Frames
- 30% – 12 Frames
- 48% – 11 Frames
- 75% – 10 Frames
- 125% – 9 Frames
Lightning/Chain Lightning
- 0% – 19 Frames
- 7% – 18 Frames
- 15% – 17 Frames
- 23% – 16 Frames
- 35% – 15 Frames
- 52% – 14 Frames
- 78% – 13 Frames
- 117% – 12 Frames
- 194% – 11 Frames
Other Spells
- 0% – 13 Frames
- 9% – 12 Frames
- 20% – 11 Frames
- 37% – 10 Frames
- 63% – 9 Frames
- 105% – 8 Frames
- 200% – 7 Frames
Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)
If you have been playing a melee character, you have likely seen Hit Recovery in action — you just didn’t know that it has a name. When an enemy delivers a critical hit on your character, something that takes off more than 1/12th of your character’s max HP at once, your character goes into a stun animation from it. Faster Hit Recovery reduces the duration of this stun.
- Slow Hit Recovery can get very dangerous when fighting an enemy that can keep attacking you in this manner: if you keep getting stunned over and over again, trapped in what is called a “stun lock”, you may go down very quickly.
- FHR is more important for melee characters and especially so in PvP.
- Some skills (from both players and monsters) likewise cause their target to be stunned. Some skill and spell effects extend this stun debuff to all of the hits they land on you. FHR also helps with these.
All Weapons and Shields
- 0% – 11 Frames
- 6% – 10 Frames
- 13% – 9 Frames
- 20% – 8 Frames
- 32% – 7 Frames
- 52% – 6 Frames
- 86% – 5 Frames
- 174% – 4 Frames
- 600% – 3 Frames
All Weapons and Shields
- 0% – 9 Frames
- 7% – 8 Frames
- 15% – 7 Frames
- 27% – 6 Frames
- 48% – 5 Frames
- 86% – 4 Frames
- 200% – 3 Frames
All Weapons and Shields
- 0% – 9 Frames
- 7% – 8 Frames
- 15% – 7 Frames
- 27% – 6 Frames
- 48% – 5 Frames
- 86% – 4 Frames
- 200% – 3 Frames
Human Form (1-Handed Weapons)
- 0% – 14 Frames
- 3% – 13 Frames
- 7% – 12 Frames
- 13% – 11 Frames
- 19% – 10 Frames
- 29% – 9 Frames
- 42% – 8 Frames
- 63% – 7 Frames
- 99% – 6 Frames
- 174% – 5 Frames
- 456% – 4 Frames
Human Form (other Weapons)
- 0% – 13 Frames
- 5% – 12 Frames
- 10% – 11 Frames
- 16% – 10 Frames
- 26% – 9 Frames
- 39% – 8 Frames
- 56% – 7 Frames
- 86% – 6 Frames
- 152% – 5 Frames
- 377% – 4 Frames
Bear Form
- 0% – 13 Frames
- 5% – 12 Frames
- 10% – 11 Frames
- 16% – 10 Frames
- 24% – 9 Frames
- 37% – 8 Frames
- 54% – 7 Frames
- 86% – 6 Frames
- 152% – 5 Frames
- 360% – 4 Frames
Wolf Form
- 0% – 7 Frames
- 9% – 6 Frames
- 20% – 5 Frames
- 42% – 4 Frames
- 86% – 3 Frames
- 280% – 2 Frames
Human
- 0% – 13 Frames
- 5% – 12 Frames
- 10% – 11 Frames
- 16% – 10 Frames
- 26% – 9 Frames
- 39% – 8 Frames
- 56% – 7 Frames
- 86% – 6 Frames
- 152% – 5 Frames
- 377% – 4 Frames
Vampire
- 0% – 15 Frames
- 2% – 14 Frames
- 6% – 13 Frames
- 10% – 12 Frames
- 16% – 11 Frames
- 24% – 10 Frames
- 34% – 9 Frames
- 48% – 8 Frames
- 72% – 7 Frames
- 117% – 6 Frames
Spears and Staves
- 0% – 13 Frames
- 3% – 12 Frames
- 7% – 11 Frames
- 13% – 10 Frames
- 20% – 9 Frames
- 32% – 8 Frames
- 48% – 7 Frames
- 75% – 6 Frames
- 129% – 5 Frames
- 280% – 4 Frames
Other Weapons
- 0% – 9 Frames
- 7% – 8 Frames
- 15% – 7 Frames
- 27% – 6 Frames
- 48% – 5 Frames
- 86% – 4 Frames
- 200% – 3 Frames
All Weapons and Shields
- 0% – 15 Frames
- 5% – 14 Frames
- 9% – 13 Frames
- 14% – 12 Frames
- 20% – 11 Frames
- 30% – 10 Frames
- 42% – 9 Frames
- 60% – 8 Frames
- 86% – 7 Frames
- 142% – 6 Frames
- 280% – 5 Frames
Faster Block Rate (FBR)
When the enemy succeeds in hitting you, but you succeed in blocking it (with a shield), you go into a blocking animation. This one is easier to mess up for your character earlier in the game, especially with an Amazon, Druid, Necromancer, and Sorceress.
However, patch 2.4 in Diablo 2 Resurrected makes the consequences much less severe than in the original Diablo 2. At its extremes slow Block Rate can still become a nuisance for more vulnerable classes when they are slowed down on dealing damage.
- Note that if Amazon equips a 1-Handed Axe/Mace/Sword, Club, Scepter, Wand, Throwing Axes, or a 2-Handed Sword wielded in one hand, her Blocking rate decreases dramatically. Any other weapon will improve the speed dramatically.
- Paladin is among the fastest Blocking characters in the game, and is unmatched when using a Holy Shield Skill. However, you would need a whopping 86% Faster Block Rate to improve on the Holy Shield’s speed. Then, there is no way to improve beyond the next tier.
- Mercenaries from Act 3 do not block despite using a shield.
- Assassin’s Weapon Block skill is affected by her current FBR.
- Remember that your character, no matter the Class, can’t Block while running.
Values highlighted in green below should work with most of the builds for the corresponding Class, but not necessarily all of them.
With A 1-HanD Swinging Weapon
1-Handed Axe/Mace/Sword, Club, Scepter, Wand, Throwing Axes, or a 2-Handed Sword
- 0% – 17 Frames
- 4% – 16 Frames
- 6% – 15 Frames
- 11% – 14 Frames
- 15% – 13 Frames
- 23% – 12 Frames
- 29% – 11 Frames
- 40% – 10 Frames
- 56% – 9 Frames
- 80% – 8 Frames
- 120% – 7 Frames
- 200% – 6 Frames
- 480% – 5 Frames
With Other Weapons
- 0% – 5 Frames
- 13% – 4 Frames
- 32% – 3 Frames
- 86% – 2 Frames
- 600% – 1 Frames
All Weapons and Shields
- 0% – 5 Frames
- 13% – 4 Frames
- 32% – 3 Frames
- 86% – 2 Frames
- 600% – 1 Frames
All Weapons and Shields
- 0% – 7 Frames
- 9% – 6 Frames
- 20% – 5 Frames
- 42% – 4 Frames
- 86% – 3 Frames
- 280% – 2 Frames
Human Form
- 0% – 11 Frames
- 6% – 10 Frames
- 13% – 9 Frames
- 20% – 8 Frames
- 32% – 7 Frames
- 52% – 6 Frames
- 86% – 5 Frames
- 174% – 4 Frames
- 600% – 3 Frames
Bear Form
- 0% – 12 Frames
- 5% – 11 Frames
- 10% – 10 Frames
- 16% – 9 Frames
- 27% – 8 Frames
- 40% – 7 Frames
- 65% – 6 Frames
- 109% – 5 Frames
- 223% – 4 Frames
Wolf Form
- 0% – 9 Frames
- 7% – 8 Frames
- 15% – 7 Frames
- 27% – 6 Frames
- 48% – 5 Frames
- 86% – 4 Frames
- 200% – 3 Frames
All Weapons and Shields
- 0% – 11 Frames
- 6% – 10 Frames
- 13% – 9 Frames
- 20% – 8 Frames
- 32% – 7 Frames
- 52% – 6 Frames
- 86% – 5 Frames
- 174% – 4 Frames
- 600% – 3 Frames
In All Other Cases
- 0% – 5 Frames
- 13% – 4 Frames
- 32% – 3 Frames
- 86% – 2 Frames
- 600% – 1 Frames
With Holy Shield Skill
- 0% – 2 Frames
- 86% – 1 Frame
All Weapons and Shields
- 0% – 9 Frames
- 7% – 8 Frames
- 15% – 7 Frames
- 27% – 6 Frames
- 48% – 5 Frames
- 86% – 4 Frames
- 200% – 3 Frames
Increased Attack Speed (IAS)
IAS is the most complicated calculation for your character. The math required for it involves your particular weapon, the speed modifiers on your secondary weapons and other items, your skills and their effects… we highly recommend you use the Attack Speed Calculator link in the Resources section below if you do want to optimize your IAS for the endgame.
Otherwise, early on it may be easier to go off of the base speed listed on your weapons.
- Skills like Fanaticism buff the speed of all of your attacks (and, sometimes, those of your party members as well).
- Note that Assassin’s trap-laying speed is affected by Increased Attack Speed and not Faster Cast Rate, despite it working similar to a casting skill otherwise.
Resources & Links
Pure Diablo
Understanding D2R Breakpoints
Diablo Wiki
Breakpoints
