The Diablo 2 Resurrected engine runs at 25 Frames per Second (FPS). Every action a character performs requires a specific number of frames to complete. Frames can't be broken down into fractions, therefore, you have to reduce the count by a complete Frame to shorten the animation length, leading to the Breakpoints of the animation.
Breakpoints influence Block Rate, Cast Rate, Hit Recovery, and Attack Speed. The lower the Breakpoints are, the faster these actions are performed, thus making your characters potentially way more effective. If you're playing the game at normal difficulty, understanding Breakpoints isn't really required. But if you're planning to take on Nightmare or Hell mode, taking advantage of these mechanics will make quite a difference.
Frame rates can be improved by using traits that speed up these skills. These are found as magic prefixes or suffixes on Magic, Rare, Set, and Unique items.
Faster Cast Rate (FCR) - It determines how many animation cycles a class/form needs to attack through spells.
Increased Attack Speed (IAS) - It determines the speed of attacks by Melee and Ranged characters, as well as Assassin's Traps
Faster Hit Recovery (FHR) - It determines your character's ability to recover from stuns to perform a new action (cast, hit, drink a potion, flee, etc.).
Faster Block Rate (FBR) - It determines how quickly you use a shield (or a shield substitute such as Necromancers' Shrunken Heads) to block an incoming Physical melee or ranged attack.
You'll need to find gear with the desired property to improve Breakpoints. You can easily find your current percentage on any Breakpoint by opening your Attributes (A) and then clicking the triangular "Advanced Stats" button on the right. This will bring up the Advanced Stats window.
A good example of an item with two of these traits is the Stealth armor runeword, which gives a 25% Faster Cast Rate and 25% Faster Hit Recovery. When you get a certain percentage of one of these four properties, you may hit a breakpoint -- a threshold that eliminates 1 frame per second needed to perform an animation.
Removing one frame per second may not seem like much, but consider this: the faster these animations go, the less time your character spends either making an offensive move or escaping damage. If you're on a character with a naturally slow block rate and you're using a shield, you may be eating up so many animation cycles with block animation that you'll get a version of stunlocking -- your character can't recover enough even to move out of danger.
Breakpoints don't progress in a steady linear fashion; the higher you go, the more you need to invest to reduce frames. Paladins need only 32% Faster Block Rate to improve from 5 fps to 3 fps, but they'll need 86% to reach 2 fps and a whopping 600% to reach 1 fps. Needless to say, top-tier Paladins only worry about getting to 86% FBR. For nearly every one of these traits, there is a "sweet spot" where you should try to aim for your class and spec's best results.
That is all you need to know about Breakpoints in Diablo 2 Resurrected. If you want to know more guides, feel free to browse here. Besides, this is one of the best places that d2r items for sale, including Runes, Runewords, Gems, Set Items, Unique Items, etc., which are not only cheap but 100% safe. You can use these items to enhance your character's ability and defeat powerful enemies!
