For my rogue, the Bleed effect feels balanced for regular mobs but when it comes to super high health bosses it ends up being a huge majority of my damage. Thinking back to how Diablo 2 handled it, the Sorceress' Static Field would not take a monster below 33% health in Nightmare difficulty and 50% in Hell difficulty. Would this be a good way to balance it? What do you think about making bosses resistant to these forms of damage so they don't immediately crumple to this damage type?

You're probably right. Same thing goes with Enchanters' gravity effects. It may have to be mitigated to either a maximum or simply nerfed down against bosses. Boss-specific rates are probably in order.

Boss-specific rates would work, just don't hit too hard with the nerf hammer
And imho you should let them bleed to death, if they're hit when their health is already low; otherwise bleed becomes useless for half the fight.

Yeah. The calculation should probably be a bit more complex. Something that would carry a minimum value and a maximum value.

How many classes have access to the Bleed effect?

Rogue
Bard
Shaman

Any others?

Do any unique items provide it as a proc?

Gnoll, Shaman, Necro, Rogue, and SK can get it.

An item can also proc it: Augur's Harvester

Definitely something to keep in mind. For some classes that is the only ability that makes them viable - without it they would be pretty much unplayable (to the point where they were fun).

Like? Rogue?

Yeah Rogue for sure. Shaman is fine due to the autoattack buff. I haven't played the other classes yet this season with it. Doing Enchanter now until Magician gets buffed a bit.

Mmmm I just read your patch notes...haven't played yet, so don't know how big of an impact the bleed change is going to have, but while I agree that a change in how bleed works was needed, couldn't you have limited the change to just champs/bosses (where it was op)? It looks that the change will affect bleed globally...
I don't like the idea that - starting now - there's a different bleeding multiplier for each weapon class; and the best one, piercing, cannot be used by the SK (who can trigger bleed only by reaching a lvl20 bonus).

As I said before, this is just a feeling; once I've played I'll let you know my thoughts about it.

EDIT: as Mukkel said, some classes are viable mostly thanks to bleed, and by my limited experience with SK, it falls in this category...

Posted in another thread, but this destroyed rogues since bleed was 70% of their damage. Prior to the nerf I was getting roughly 5700dps. Now it's 1700. This is in all elite gear with BiS weapons.

Let's be serious here, bro. If a class is leaning on bleed for 70% of their damage then something is probably wrong with bleed. lol... personally I quite like the new implementation (says guy that never plays)

...or maybe something is wrong with that class' other skills. 1750dps for a late Hell char with full elite gear and BiS weapon (quoting Mukkel here) is really low!
Btw why didn't you treat bleed the same as enchanter's gravity spells?? That was the way to go imho.

...haven't tried my SK yet, so expect more posts from me on this topic

Exactly, which is why making sweeping changes like this without addressing other fundamental issues is a bad idea, bro! Any class that had a bleed ability right now is I'm willing to bet - 100% gimped and depended on that damage to do pretty much anything.

I'm going to go home and tool around with a Rogue in hell for a bit. If I break 1750 deeps I'm going to make fun of you.

I will make bards immune to sneeze attacks in combat.

Could you fix magicians while you're at it? I'm stuck on that red dragon dude and it's impossible to beat him. My 1100dps just doesn't cut it *SADFACE*

They're on the list. Somewhere!

You're really delaying me getting that server Magician first - NOT APPRECIATED!

I've had to create another character and make a HC Enchanter. Thanks Mael - all your fault.

Dude I was up until like 1:30 a.m. busting out this amazing new patch. You should still be reeling from the amazing updates I have unfurled upon you.

Played just a bit with my SK, and I must say your nerf bat hits hard!
Ok bleed was OP before, but now it's borderline useless ( using a 2h blunt right now, Ribcracker); can we agree on some middle ground? My SK is afraid to leave town, and Arwen is getting upset...

Frankly, that lvl20 perk now feels like a troll/noob trap ... at least you can respec for free.

EDIT: Didn't mean to sound harsh, sorry if I was. Appreciating your game and your constant working and patching

ALL MELEE SHOULD GET FLURRY! DO IT! GO!

I want to make a boss that flurries you. How about that? And summons 4 pets every time he attacks.

I'm scared to hell of reflect damage on my hardcore character... Also, my pets should flurry 32x per melee round. That should make them about right. POPTARTS.

Keep in mind that iron maiden got nerfed into oblivion a while back. It used to reflect full a percentage of your damage, but now it's basically just a really powerful damage shield that also affects magic.