Patch 2.5.0.43508 Datamined Changes

As always, please remember datamining can show changes that do not reflect the full truth.

PTR Patch Notes 2.5.0.43508

A new patch just went live on the PTR. 

Originally posted by Blizzard (Official Forums)

Classes

Barbarian

• Seismic Slam
  • The Rumble rune will now consume all remaining fury to increase the rune’s damage over time component by 15% weapon damage per point of fury spent

Class Specific Items

• The following class sets received changes
  • Crusader
    • Roland's Legacy
      • (4) Set Bonus
        • Damage bonus has been increased to 2500% (from 1250%) damage bonus on Sweep Attack and Shield Bash
  • Monk
    • Inna's Favor
      • (6) Set Bonus
        • Damage bonus for each Mystic Ally has been increased to 125% (from 100%)
  • Witch Doctor
    • Zunimassa’s Haunt
      • (6) Set Bonus
        • Damage bonus has been increased to 2500% (from 1500%) when enemies are hit by your mana spenders for 8 seconds
  • Wizard
    • Delsere’s Magnum Opus
      • (2) Set Bonus
        • Cooldown of Slow Time is reduced by 3 seconds (from 2) when casting Arcane Orb, Energy Twister, Explosive Blast, Magic Missile, Shock Pulse, Spectral Blade and Wave of Force
      • (4) Set Bonus
        • Damage reduction increased to 60% (from 50%)
      • (6) Set Bonus
        • Enemies take 3500% increased damage (from 2500%) while inside Slow Time
          • The slow and damage bonuses persist on enemies for 5 seconds after they exit Slow Time
• Some existing class-specific Legendary items have been updated to include a unique Legendary power
• Note: Existing items will not be affected by the following changes. Only new versions of the items will roll with the added Legendary power
  • Demon Hunter
    • Holy Point Shot
      • Impale throws two additional knives
        • Note: Each enemy can only be hit once per skill use

Set Dungeons

 Uliana’s Stratagem

• The minimum number of enemies players need to hit with a single Exploding Palm for the first Bonus Objective has been lowered from 21 to 15 and the number of times it must be performed has been changed from 3 to 4

Looking for News Volunteers

With Season 9 out with a few new goodies, we are looking for some people that may want to help out in generating some content on the front page, whether it be from the weeks top builds, new blue posts, or the latest fan art.  If you are interested in helping out leave a comment with the kind of content you like!

 Juggernaut 

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Official Forums)

OK I got it - immunity to cc means a whole bunch of procs that raise damage or debuff won't work. 
Just wanted to clarify for those who haven't seen the new Juggernaut affix in-game or read our recent patch notes that this is correct. As with all enemy affixes, some will be easier for certain builds to handle while the inverse is true for others.

One of our goals when adding new enemy affixes is to broaden the types of enemy variety you see in the game and the kinds of challenges you'll face. This helps achieve both of those goals while (hopefully) encouraging you to think more tactically in certain cases as a CC-dependent character.

Damn! Will have to actually look at affixes now - it would be nice to have a visual indicator on the elite.
Totally fair feedback! I'm happy to pass this on and thanks for sharing it.

The Barber

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Official Forums)

I'm using it with a build I'm working on and I like it even though it's not doing insane amounts of godly damage like on the ptr.
Glad you're liking the revamped Barber! As more people play with this item, there will doubtless be interesting new builds they create that are worth trying out.

It's also worth noting that with the changes to certain items in patch 2.4.3, we've seen players talk about how these compare to the most powerful Legendary and Set items available in the game.

To clarify, our goal when updating Legendary items is to open up new build opportunities for players to explore. Along with this, it's important to note that not every item is designed to push the current best Greater Rift level. Some will be better for speed farming builds, and others will simply be a means to create fun novelty builds (like Manajuma's Way, for instance).

There's more than one way to compare an item's relative worth, and more than one way to incorporate it into various builds. Even so, I'm glad to see people trying the new items out and sharing their experiences. It helps, for sure!

Is it really not guaranteed elemental damage though?
Also, putting The Barber on your follower causes them to instantly commit seppuku and keel over dead.
The issue occurring between The Barber and your followers has been fixed (yay).

As for the weapon not rolling the additional damage modifier, that does seem buggy - I will pass this on, and thanks for reporting it!

Rainbow Portrait -Sir William On Console

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Official Forums)

So, with the 1.15/1.16 patch, will this portrait drop now on the consoles?
Can someone from Blizzard or MissCheetah or Nevalistis confirm this please?
Sorry for the delay in response, but I had to do some digging on this one. On console, Sir William does not currently drop the Whimsyshire portrait. The reason why is because full portrait integration isn't actually active yet for the Ultimate Evil Edition on PS4/XB1, though a couple of portraits can be earned through the Darkening of Tristram event (see here for more information on that). Full integration will be coming with the patch where Seasons become available on console.

If this is something you guys would like to see in the future once portrait integration is in, I'll be happy to pass along that feedback to our console development team!

Necro Can Play with Anyone

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Official Forums)

This thread has derailed a bit, but I'd like to re-rail it to iterate that the above is correct. Unlike an expansion, the Necromancer pack does not limit access to any zones or game modes (like Reaper of Souls does for Adventure Mode). Players who don't purchase the Necromancer Pack simply won't have access to creating a Necromancer. They'll be able to play with other players with the pack as normal.

Hotfixes

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Official Forums)

[LIVE HOTFIXES]

General

• A fix has been deployed that should resolve many of the 64-bit client issues since the release of Patch 2.4.3 (1/9)
  
  • Please note that this fix will require you to download a small patch
  • If you have updated to the latest patch and are still experiencing issues, please detail your experience in our Bug Report or Technical Support forums and be sure to include your dxdiag report

Items

• The Barber
  
  • Addressed an issue where having The Barber equipped on a Follower could repeatedly kill that Follower (1/9)
• Flail of the Ascended
  
  • Fixed an issue where Shield Glare would only damage the last enemy hit by Shield Glare (1/9)

Patch 2.4.3 Pushed

Patch 42655_Win32_2_4_3_RC has been pushed to Blizzards CDN. We should see the patch rolling out at any time

2.4.3 Patch Notes

Diablo III patch 2.4.3 is now live in the Americas for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One! Check out the full PC patch notes below to learn all about the latest changes. To view our console patch notes, click here. Important: Please note that you will not be prompted to download patch 2.4.3 until the patch is live in your home region. If you are logging in from a European or Asian client, you will need to wait for this patch to release in that region before it can be installed. Additionally, if your home region is in the Americas, you will be unable to log into Europe or Asia using Global Play after patch 2.4.3 is live until those regions have also patched.

Diablo III PATCH 2.4.3 - v2.4.3.42336

Visit our Bug Report forum for a list of known issues. If you are experiencing technical issues with the patching process, connecting to Battle.net after installing the patch, or errors while playing a newly-patched game, please visit our support site or post in the Technical Support forum for assistance.

Table of Contents:

• General
• Classes
• Items
• Seasons
• Adventure Mode
• Monsters
• Bosses
• Achievements
• Quality of Life

GENERAL

• New Feature: 20th Anniversary Event
  • A mysterious group of Cultists is stirring up trouble! Hunt them down in Adventure Mode to uncover clues that reveal a portal into Tristram’s past, and rediscover the terrifying darkness that took hold of the town so many years ago…
  • This event is only available in January
    • Please note that the anniversary event features a pre-cursor event

• Hardware Support
  • Support has been added for the Corsair Utility Engine (CUE) SDK and Razer peripherals
    • Supported backlit keyboards will respond to certain in-game situations like Legendary and Set item drops, characters leveling up, and more
    • Players will need to update their firmware for supported devices to use this feature
  • Added a 64-bit client as default for 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems
    • With this, players should see improvements to system performance and faster loading times
    • This change uses DirectX 11 natively, which brings support for normal maps, per pixel lighting and improved anti-aliasing options
    • The 32-bit client is still available as an option through the Battle.net Launcher
  • Added a screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) pixel shader option
  • Added a large cursor option
  • Improved support for 60Hz+ monitors

• Bug Fixes
  • Resolved an issue that could cause crashes in some instances

CLASSES

• Barbarian
  • Overpower
    • Now has 3 charges
    • Cooldown per charge remains 12 seconds with a chance to be reduced slightly by critical strikes

• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue which caused Wave of Light to sometimes fail to deal damage when players were under the effect of Epiphany
  • Fixed a bug which prevented a Hydra from being spawned when two Mirror Images attempted to cast Summon Hydra at the same time
  • Fixed an issue which caused the active effect of Earth Ally and Fire Ally to not benefit from Attacks Per Second or +Mystic Ally damage
  • Fixed an issue which prevented the Archon version of Teleport from correctly incorporating the player’s attacks per second

ITEMS

• Legendary Items
  • Red Soulstone Shard
    • New Legendary Gem
      • Periodically struggle for control, unleashing a ring of Fire that inflicts 12,500% weapon damage to enemies it passes through
        • With the above change, the primary effect of the gem deals significantly more damage at the gem’s base level, but scales more slowly with additional levels
      • After gaining a level, your resource costs are removed and cooldowns on skills are reduced by 75% for 30 seconds (Requires Rank 25)
• Class Specific Items
  • New items have been added to the game
    • Crusader
      • Armor of Akkhan
        • Talisman of Akkhan (Amulet)
          • Has been added as a 7th piece to Armor of Akkhan
          • The set’s current bonuses and powers remain the same
        • This amulet will always roll with Critical Hit Chance in addition to 3 other random affixes
  • Some existing class-specific Legendary items have been updated to include a unique Legendary power
    • Note: Existing items will not be affected by the following changes; only new versions of the items will roll with the added Legendary power
    • With the below changes, the minimum levels required to use these items have been adjusted to match the level at which their corresponding skills unlock
    • Barbarian
      • Saffron Wrap
        • The damage of your next Overpower is increased by 40-50% for each enemy hit, up to a maximum of 20 enemies
    • Crusader
      • Faithful Memory
        • Each enemy hit by Falling Sword increases the damage of Blessed Hammer by 50-60% for 10 seconds, stacking up to 10 times
    • Demon Hunter
      • Hellcat Waistguard
        • Grenades have a chance to bounce 3-5 times, dealing an additional 50% damage on each bounce
        • This bonus is increased to 800% on the final bounce
        • The following skills are affected by this power:
          • Cluster Arrow – Dazzling Arrow, Cluster Bombs, Loaded for Bear, and No Rune
          • Rain of Vengeance – Anathema
          • Strafe – Demolition
          • Rapid Fire – Bombardment
    • Monk
      • Rabid Strike
        • Spirit spenders that teleport you while Epiphany is active are also mimicked on a distant target for free
    • Witch Doctor
      • The Barber
        • Instead of dealing direct damage, your Spirit Barrage now accumulates on the target
        • When you stop casting, it explodes dealing the accumulated damage to all enemies within 15 yards
    • Wizard
      • Manald Heal
        • Enemies stunned with Paralysis also take 13,000-14,000% weapon damage as Lightning
  • The functionality of some items has changed
    • Crusader
      • Defender of Westmarch
        • Can no longer summon a wolf more than once per second
        • Damage done by the wolf is increased for each block made during the interim
    • Witch Doctor
      • Jeram's Bracers
        • The minimum level for this item to drop has changed from 12 to 31 in order to match the level at which Wall of Death unlocks
  • The following class set powers have received changes
    • Barbarian
      • Wrath of the Wastes
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Whirlwind gains the effect of the Dust Devils rune and all Whirlwind damage is increased by 800%
          • The damage of your Dust Devils is increased by 180%
            • Please note that these changes will not be reflected in the item’s tooltip
    • Crusader
      • Roland's Legacy
        • (4) Set Bonus
          • Increase the damage of Shield Bash and Sweep Attack by 1250%
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Every use of Shield Bash or Sweep Attack that hits an enemy grants 50% increased Attack Speed and 15% damage reduction for 8 seconds. This effect stacks up to 5 times.
    • Demon Hunter
      • Embodiment of the Marauder
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Your primary skills, Elemental Arrow, Chakram, Impale, Multishot, Cluster Arrow, Companions, and Vengeance deal 1200% increased damage for every active Sentry
    • Monk
      • Inna’s Mantra
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Gain the five runed Mystic Allies at all times and your damage is increased by 100% for each Mystic Ally you have out
    • Witch Doctor
      • Spirit of Arachyr
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • The damage of your creature skills is increased by 2400%. Creature skills are Corpse Spiders, Plague of Toads, Firebats, Locust Swarm, Hex, and Piranhas.
    • Wizard
      • Delsere’s Magnum Opus
        • (6) Set Bonus
          • Enemies affected by your Slow Time take 2800% increased damage from your Arcane Orb, Energy Twister, Explosive Blast, Magic Missile, Shock Pulse, Spectral Blade, and Wave of Force abilities.
  • Bug Fixes
    • Hellfire Amulet
      • Fixed an issue where Fetishes spawned by this item with the Fetish Sycophants passive would not reduce the cooldown of Big Bad Voodoo correctly when Starmetal Kukri was equipped
    • Illusory Boots
      • Will now properly allow Crusaders using Steed Charge to pass through walls
    • Pinto's Pride
      • Fixed a bug where the bonus Wave of Light damage from this item was not being calculated correctly
    • Flail of the Ascended
      • Now takes into account +Shield Bash affix bonuses in its damage
      • Damage stacks will now persist when changing gear and picking up items
    • Faithful Memory
      • Fixed an issue where Faithful Memory was not properly buffing damage from certain Blessed Hammer runes
    • Fixed an issue which sometimes caused cosmetic pets to be dismissed unintentionally, requiring the player to resummon them through the collections UI
    • Fixed a bug causing transmogrify options to not properly unlock sometimes when first acquiring an item which grants a new transmogrify option
    • Fixed a bug which caused the buff from the Legendary item Ahvarion, Spear of Lycander to end when changing floors in a Greater Rift
    • Fixed an issue which caused the Bones cosmetic pet to incorrectly produce sound when players interacted with some user interface elements
    • Fixed an issue which caused +Elemental damage bonuses on weapons to override the damage bonus granted to Ancient Spear by Skular’s Salvation and its elemental type
    • Fixed an issue which allowed Necrosis damage from the Helltooth Harness set to be reflected back by some enemies onto Witch Doctors using projectiles like Poison Dart
   

  SEASONS

  • Season Journey
    • The Destroyer and Guardian tiers of the Season Journey will no longer require players to augment an Ancient Legendary item using level 30 or higher and level 40 or higher Legendary gems, respectively
    • Along with this, the Conqueror tier now requires players to augment one Ancient Legendary item using a Legendary Gem at level 50 or higher
    • Starting with Season 9, players will be able to complete the Sanctuary’s Most Wanted objective in the Season Journey across multiple games
   

  ADVENTURE MODE

  • Bounties
    • The number of enemy kills required to complete the following Bounties has been reduced
      • Kill Aloysius
      • Kill Axegrave
      • Kill Bholen
      • Kill Captain Donn Adams
      • Kill The Crusher
  • Rifts
    • The Cesspools map has been adjusted
      • Enemy density and overall map size have been reduced
      • This area can now appear as the starting dungeon in Rifts and Greater Rifts
  • Greater Rifts
    • We have made a number of changes to improve the play experience of Greater Rifts
      • The Greater Rift progress bar now displays the percentage completion at the end of the bar when it is nearly filled
      • Monsters should now be more evenly distributed on each floor in Greater Rifts
        • Along with this, the experience and Greater Rift progression awarded for defeating many smaller monsters has been increased
      • The size of each floor in a Greater Rift is now more consistent
        • On average, a rift should take between two and four floors to clear
      • There is no longer an increased chance to see the same tile set when you venture down a floor in a Greater Rift
      • There is now a guaranteed area at the entrance of each floor with no monsters
        • This area is just large enough for ranged characters to maneuver
      • Several additional monster types can now appear as Champions and Elites
      • Greater Rifts now spawn Hellhide Tremors, Disentombed Hulks, Sand Dwellers, and Colossol Golgors with other monsters in somewhat larger groups
      • Greater Rifts now spawn somewhat fewer Sand Wasps and Fallen Grunts on floors where they appear
    • The stacking effect of the following is now cleared upon entering a Greater Rift
      • The items Lord Greenstone’s Fan, Fortress Ballista and Flail of the Ascended
      • The skills Arcane Dynamo and Mythic Rhythm
    • The gold reward and empower cost for Greater Rift 25 and above have been increased
      • The ratio between gold reward and empower cost remains about the same
    • Players will now get an extra chance to upgrade their Legendary Gems if they do not die in a Greater Rift
  • Greed’s Realm
    • The portal to Greed’s Realm will now close 60 seconds after opening Greed’s chest
    • With this, players may now open multiple portals to the realm in a single game
  • Zones
    • The waypoint for Pandemonium Fortress Level 2 in Adventure Mode has been moved from the entrance to the midpoint of the level in order to provide quicker access to some bounties
      • With this change, bounties requiring you to kill unique enemies will only spawn these enemies in the first half of the dungeon, and all monsters on the map will contribute to bounty progress
  • Bug Fixes
    • Fixed an issue preventing the scene for Bounty: Research Problems from spawning
    • Fixed bugs that led to large open areas with no monsters in some rooms in Greater Rifts, which was especially common near the entrance to certain floors
   

  MONSTERS

  • Enemies
    • Quality of life improvements have been made to enemies
      • Several enemies that leap at the player can now be killed in mid-air, including Winged Assassins, Punishers, Lacuni Huntresses, and Burrowing Leapers
      • Several enemies that can become un-attackable, such as Sandsharks, Snakemen, and Rockworms now spend more time vulnerable. When these enemies do burrow or stealth, they no longer remain in this state for more than 3 seconds
      • In addition, emerging Rockworms now always show ground cracks to help attentive players avoid their initial attack
      • The Succubus' Bloodstar attack has had its damage reduced by 15% and the projectile's travel distance has been reduced
      • The damage from Khazra spears has been reduced by 15%
      • The damage from Ice Porcupine icicles has been reduced by 15%
  • Enemy Affixes
    • Shielding
      • Will now be cancelled immediately if the shielded monster is the last remaining monster in a pack
    • Reflects Damage
      • Now fires a projectile instead of instantly dealing damage to the player
      • The warning duration for this affix has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1, and its active duration has been reduced from 6 seconds to 4
    • Electrified
      • Crawling lightning generated by this affix now pierces, allowing it to damage multiple targets in succession
      • With this, the damage caused by this affix has been reduced by about 35%
    • Juggernaut
      • New enemy affix
        • Juggernaut monsters are permanently immune to crowd control effects, but move more slowly than normal monsters
        • Along with this change, enemies with this affix take 30% more damage from all sources
        • Only a rare Elite enemy can be a Juggernaut
    • Bug Fixes
      • Fixed an issue which caused Winged Assassins to sometimes travel across the ground instead of through the air when leaping
      • Fixed an issue which prevented Greater Rift Guardians from reliably teleporting to players when they spawned more than a few screens away
      • Fixed an issue which sometimes cause Rift Guardians to spawn in a location where they couldn’t be targeted
   

  BOSSES

  • Belial
    • Now transitions more swiftly between his normal and larger version boss phases
   

  ACHIEVEMENTS

  • Bug Fixes
    • Fixed the wording on the “Socket To Me” achievement to clarify that socketing only one gem is required
   

  QUALITY OF LIFE

  • Dyes
    • Can now be accessed through a new tab at the Mystic
      • This includes Collector’s Edition dyes
    • With this change, dyes will no longer be sold by vendors
  • Bug Fixes
    • Fixed display and text issues with some skills and items
    • Fixed an issue causing keybind issues when the UI was hidden
    • Fixed a bug which caused Followers to sometimes become idle in combat
    • Fixed an issue which prevented Followers from being dismissed while they were incapacitated in battle
    • Fixed an issue which allowed pets and Followers to be attacked immediately after exiting a portal

Season 9 Countdown

Patch this Week

First Look – Patch 2.4.3 Overview

An ancient evil stirs in the ruins of Old Tristram, and a mysterious portal has appeared that leads to the halls of an all-too familiar cathedral. Deep beneath the catacombs, the Dark Lord awaits any intrepid adventurer who dares to challenge him.

Say it with me: FRESH MEAT!

For the month of January, experience an homage to the original events of Diablo, brought to you in glorious RetroVision™ and filled to the brim with nostalgia-inducing features. An evocative audiovisual extravaganza awaits you, as everything from familiar enemies to iconic items have been brought to life in the Diablo III engine. Transmogrification rewards, achievements, and a handful of extra surprises lurk in the depths of this perilous, pixelated dungeon.

Updated Items

As with previous patches, Patch 2.4.3 brings another round of updates to several Legendary and Set Items, including some new Legendary powers! Check out a few of the items we’ve updated, and don’t forget to read our PTR patch notes for the full list of class sets we’re changing.

• Saffron Wrap
• Faithful Memory
• Hellcat Waistgaurd
• Rabid Strike
• The Barber
• Manald Heal

Greater Rift Revisions

Greater Rifts are the bread and butter of any seasoned Diablo III player’s end-game experience. We’ve got a handful of updates in store to help smooth out your gameplay experience in these ever-changing dungeon delves.

One mob, two mob, dead mob, new mob!

Monster distribution has been spread out more evenly, and the size of each floor is now more consistent. On average, a rift should take between two to four floors to clear. The tile types you see will vary more frequently, making it much less likely to see the same floors follow each other back-to-back. Finally, those of you with survivability in mind will find extra reward in staying alive; players who avoid death in a Greater Rift will be rewarded with one additional chance to upgrade their Legendary Gems!

Quality of Life Changes

In addition to a slew of bug fixes, several quality of life changes are coming to Diablo III, affecting everything from monsters to the way you dye your gear! 

Leaping enemies like Winged Assassins, Punishers, Lacuni Huntresses, and Burrowing Leapers can now be slain in mid-air, making for some pretty epic killing blows. Sharpen your blades, because enemies with unattackable phases like Sandsharks, Snakemen, and Rockworms will spend less time avoiding you and more time baring their fangs.

Dead before they hit the ground.

Several enemy affixes have been tweaked, including updates to Shielding, Reflects Damage, and Electrified. In addition, an entirely new affix, Juggernaut, is entering the fray. These monsters are nigh unstoppable as they are immune to all crowd control effects, but they move more slowly than other enemies and are more susceptible to damage.

Finally, Sanctuary’s finest fashionistas will find that their cache of dyes have moved to a new location! Dyes are now held by Myriam, the Mystic, and she’s happy to help you coordinate your boots and cloak to perfect chromatic harmony. Or dissonance. We won’t judge.

Whether you're fighting for the Zakarum or Whimsyshire, Myriam is happy to oblige.

---

 

New adventures and loot are right around the corner with the next patch! We can’t wait to see what builds you’ll put together and the stories you’ll unfurl as we move into Season 9. What new changes are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments below, or ask any questions you might have about what’s in store. We’ll see you in Sanctuary!

Celebrating 20 Years of Diablo

Blizzard Celebrate 20 Years of Diablo - In-game events in all Blizzard Titles

As we approach the original game’s release anniversary on December 31, Blizzard Entertainment is thrilled to commemorate twenty years of Diablo. We’re ready to celebrate our passion for the world of Sanctuary and the brave heroes who inhabit it!

Starting soon, you can experience special in-game events and goodies in Diablo III, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, Overwatch, StarCraft II, and World of Warcraft to celebrate a few of the things we love about Diablo. These events and items will only be available for a limited time, so be sure to check them all out before they’re gone.

A small taste of each tribute is below—keep an eye out for more details about these celebrations. . . and thank you, all of you, for allowing us to continue adventuring in the world of Sanctuary. Here’s to twenty years of loot!

---

 

Diablo III:

Recapture the feeling of your first play through of the original Diablo with The Darkening of Tristram tribute event. Venture through a reimagined version of the original cathedral in Diablo III and keep an eye out for some familiar items.

Heroes of the Storm:

The battle for the High Heavens continues, and a new Diablo-themed portrait is up for grabs! Can you emerge victorious on this hectic new brawl map?

Hearthstone:

In this Tavern Brawl, a hooded stranger awaits, holding a grim deck in his hands. Will you unravel the secrets surrounding this dark wanderer?

Overwatch:

Bring the battle for Sanctuary into the fight for the future with in-game sprays representing your favorite Diablo III classes—along with a new player icon modeled after the Lord of Terror!

StarCraft II:

Put the Lord of Terror to work for you with a Diablo-themed worker portrait.

World of Warcraft:

Strange things are afoot in the world of Azeroth as denizens of Sanctuary cross over into an unfamiliar world.

The Best Holiday Game Discounts from Amazon

Lightning Talks from Blizzcon

Blizzard has returned covering some more of the lighting talks done at Blizzcon so that everyone can get the information.

Diablo Dungeon Design ft. Ed Hanes

One Couch to Rule Them All ft. Mike Hershberg

 Engineering the Design of Set Dungeons ft. Stuart Capewell and Alex Sulman

BlizzCon Virtual Ticket Giveaway - Tune in to See what news about Diablo is revealed!

Today we are happy to give away a handful of Virtual Tickets! With one of those, you get to watch all the developer and contest Panels live and as VoD. You'll also get a whole bunch of virtual goodies for all modern Blizzard games, including the 20th Anniversary Diablo pet for Diablo III.

For more info on BlizzCon Virtual Tickets, visit the official site here!

To participate, simply leave a comment on this post, letting us know what you're most looking forward to from this BlizzCon! We'll draw the winners on Wednesday, November 2nd.

If you're not one of the lucky few, we'll provide live coverage of all things Diablo right here during both BlizzCon days, the 4th and 5th of November.

Is a Diablo Release Upcoming At Blizzcon 2016? (SPECULATION) 

Join the HearthPwn Community on Curse, The Taste of Victory - Flavor Text Competition Voting
Health Sustain Discussion & Future of Supports, Heroes WTF Moments #54
Legion Beta Key Giveaway - Week 3: Maybe We're Prepared?

Diablo PTR patch - June 20th: Build 37893

A new PTR Patch has been datamined. Read all the class changes and its new strings, which contains changes to items and sets, below. Also keep in mind this is a work in progress, so we may add more info later as it becomes available.

The following information is datamined and may be inaccurate! It is also likely to change before the patch goes live.

Set Changes

Item Changes

Skill Changes

Diablo Patch 2.4.2a PTR

Update: Official Patch notes added at the bottom of the post. The PTR is also now active.

Set Changes

Item Passives

Difficulties

Item names

New Monsters

Item Text

Skill Changes 

 Official Patch Notes

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Official Blog)

GENERAL

• New difficulty levels, Torment XI-XIII have been added to the game
• Gold rewards have been adjusted:
  • Greater Rift 26 and up has been rescaled to a flat 3% increase per tier
  • Torment VII-XIII has been changed to match Greater Rift reward scaling
  • The cost to empower a Greater Rift has been reduced to match the new gold reward rate

CLASSES

• Barbarian
  • Active Skills
    • Threatening Shout
      • Skill Rune - Falter
        • Can no longer stack with casts from other sources

• Demon Hunter
  • Active Skills
    • Spike Trap
      • Has been redesigned
        • Traps no longer have an arming time
        • Traps now only detonate once
        • Now has 4 charges each with a 5 second recharge time
        • All active traps are now detonated by the next Hatred spender you cast
      • Damage increased from 340% to 950% weapon damage
      • Hatred cost reduced from 30 to 10
      • Skill Rune - Echoing Blast
        • Damage increased from 575% to 1330% weapon damage
        • Has been redesigned
          • Enemies are now slowed by 70% when the trap is detonated
      • Skill Rune - Lightning Rod
        • Damage increased from 880% weapon damage over 10 hits to 1380% weapon damage over 3 hits
        • Decreased the radius that lightning can arc to other traps from 75 to 25 yards
      • Skill Rune - Long Fuse
        • Has been removed
        • Replaced with
          • Impaling Spines
            • While the trap is active, enemies within range are instantly immobilized for 3 seconds
            • Increases damage to 1220% weapon damage
      • Skill Rune - Scatter
        • Now places 2 traps side by side and consumes 2 charges of Spike Trap
      • Skill Rune - Sticky Trap
        • Has been removed
        • Replaced with
          • Custom Trigger
            • Your Hatred generators now detonate Spike Traps
            • Increases damage to 1150% weapon damage

• Witch Doctor
  • Active Skills
    • Piranhas
      • Can no longer stack with casts from other sources
    • Mass Confusion
      • Skill Rune - Paranoia
        • Can no longer stack with casts from other sources

• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue that prevented Ray of Frost - Black Ice from creating an ice patch when the player didn't land the killing blow

ITEMS

• Bottomless Potion of Chaos
  • New Legendary Potion
    • Teleport to another location when used below 40% health
• Invigorating Gemstone
  • Has been redesigned
    • Each hit done increases healing received by 1% for 5 seconds
    • Stacks up to 10 times
    • You are now immune to Crowd Control effects at Rank 25
• Class-Specific Items
  • Crusader
    • Armor of Akkhan
      • (6) Set Bonus
        • Damage bonus increased from 450% to 600%
        • Now also reduces damage taken by 15% while Akarat's Champion is active
    • Cord of the Righteous
      • New Legendary Belt
        • Fist of the Heavens costs 40% less Wrath and deals 150% more damage
    • Darklight
      • Has been redesigned
        • Now gives Fist of the Heavens a chance to be cast a second time at the targeted location
  • Thorns of the Invoker
    • (6) Set Bonus
      • The 800% Thorns damage dealt to the first enemy hit can now benefit from +% Physical Damage
  • Demon Hunter
    • The Demons Demise
      • Has been redesigned
        • The damage of your next non-channeled Hatred spender is increased by 40% for each Spike Trap that you detonate
  • Monk
    • Raiment of a Thousand Storms
      • (6) Set Bonus
        • The damage bonus granted to Spirit Generators after casting Dashing Strike increased from 300% to 1250%
  • Witch Doctor
    • Homunculus
      • Sacrifice damage bonus increased from 25-30% to 50-60%
    • Ring of Emptiness
      • Haunt and Locust Swarm damage bonus increased from 75-100% to 250-300%
  • Wizard
    • Firebird's Finery
      • (4) Set Bonus
        • Has been redesigned
          • Dealing Fire damage with one of your skills causes the enemy to take 1000% weapon damage as Fire for 3 seconds. This effect can be repeated a second and third time by different skills. If an enemy is burning due to three different skills simultaneously the enemy will Ignite, dealing 3000% weapon damage per second until they die
      • (6) Set Bonus
        • Has been redesigned
          • Your damage is increased by 100% for each nearby enemy that is Ignited up to a maximum bonus of 2000%. You always receive the maximum bonus whenever a nearby Elite monster is Ignited
  • Several existing class-specific Legendary items have been updated to include a unique Legendary power
    • Note: Existing items will not be affected by the following changes. Only new versions of the items will roll with the added Legendary power.
    • Barbarian
      • Sledge of Athskeleng
        • Legendary power added
          • Seismic Slam increases the damage of your next 3 Earthquakes within 15 seconds by 100%
    • Demon Hunter
      • Fletcher's Pride
        • Legendary power added
          • Spike Traps gain the effect of the Impaling Spines rune and are deployed twice as fast
    • Monk
      • Scarbringer
        • Legendary power added
          • Lashing Tail Kick deals an additional 1000% damage to the first 5 enemies hit
    • Witch Doctor
      • Gazing Demise
        • Legendary power added
          • Spirit Barrage damage is increased by 500% for each second it’s channeled. Stacks up to a maximum of 5 times
    • Wizard
      • Starfire
        • Legendary power added
          • Lightning damage done is increased by 15% for every 10 yards you are from the target
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the buff from the Orb of the Infinite from being applied if the damage killed the enemy
  • Fixed an issue that caused the Firebird's Finery (2) Set Bonus to proc early if there was another damage shield on the player
  • Fixed an issue that caused the Treasure Goblin spawned by the legacy Puzzle Ring to pick up Transmog items

ADVENTURE MODE

• Infernal Machine drop rates have been adjusted:
  • There is now a 50% chance for a machine to drop on Torment I increasing to 100% on Torment IV
  • Torment levels V-XIII have an increasing chance for a second machine to drop
• Nephalem Rifts
  • Greater Rift Keys are now guaranteed from any Nephalem Rift and increasing the difficulty now increases your chance of getting a second or third key
  • Greater Rifts
    • Some of the Experience earned in a Greater Rift has been shifted from killing monsters to the reward for closing the rift. The overall amount of Experience earned should be roughly the same

USER INTERFACE

• Pylons in Nephalem Rifts now have unique minimap icons
• A hotkey has been added to the game to hide the UI
• When the Blacksmith is trained to maximum level his recipe list will now start collapsed
• The Menagerist Goblin now has a unique minimap icon

Diablo PTR Patch 36239

As always keep in mind datamined info may not be correct.

Skill Changes

String Changes

New Card Reveals From Gamescom, New Mechanic: Joust + New Ranked Rewards
Gamescom Info - Infernal Shrines, Kharazim, Rexxar, Artanis, - Ability and Video Previews!
Patch 6.2.1 PTR - Build 20363, August 5 Hotfixes, Heroes and Hearthstone Announcement

Diablo PTR 2.3.0 Patch 2

As always please remember the following is datamined and may contain errors. This post is a WIP, please keep checking back

Set Bonus Changes

Item Passive Changes

Class Cahnges

Champions Pursue Valor, Glory, and Fun, Popular Decks of the Week
New Matchmaking Rule, Upcoming Shop Sales, Rotation for July 21, 2015, Tyrael's Charger
Solo Kazzak Kill, 6.2 Pepe Achievement, Blue Tweets, Overwatch Q&A, Galaxy Cardback

Diablo 2.3 PTR Patch 1 - Datamined Info

A new patch has just hit the CDN. There appears to be some class changes, and a few other item passives changes. 

Please keep in mind the following is datamined, and thus may have errors, or may not paint the full picture.

This is a work in progress post. Keep checking back.

• Update 2:50 EDT - Added Achievement Strings
• Update 3:07 EDT - Added Item passives
• Update 3:44 EDT - There is not much else. Some random strings. At this point check back in a few hours when we have some more detailed set changes. [Note: we do not datamine various things such as EXP changes and so on. We will have paragon though.]
• Update 4:25 EDT - Added paragon levels 2001-10000
• Update 11:30 EDT - Added new Set strings - Shenlong's and Vyr's!

Paragon Levels 2001- 10000 Experience

We have made a sheet of paragon Levels 2001 - 10000 required experience per level.

~ Click to view paragon 1 - 10000 ~

 Item Passive Changes

Note: we will have a more detailed list of set changes in a few hours.

Sets

Shenlong's Spirit

• 2 pieces: The damage of your Spirit Generators is increased by 2% (up from 1%) for each point of Spirit you have.
• When reaching maximum Spirit, all damage is increased by 100% (down from 300%), but you no longer passively regenerate Spirit and 65 Spirit is drained every second until you run out of Spirit.

Vyr's Amazing Arcana

• 4 pieces: Archon stacks also increase your Attack Speed, Armor and Resistances by 1%. (reworked from starting with 50 Archon stacks)

Helltooth Harness

• 2 pieces: Primary skills, Acid Cloud, Firebats, Zombie Charger, Zombie Dogs, Gargantuan, Grasp of the Dead and Piranhas now cause Necrosis as well. Necrosis now also increases damage from all sources by 15% for 10 seconds. (new)
• 6 pieces: Now increases damage of Primary Skills, Acid Cloud, Firebats, Zombie Charger, Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan by 800% for 12 seconds after casting Wall of Death. This effect stacks up to 3 times. (new)

Seeker of the Light

• 6 pieces: Increase the damage of Blessed Hammer by 750% and Falling Sword by 500%. (up from 250%)

Spirit of Arachyr

• 2 pieces: Summon a permanent Spider Queen who leaves behind webs that deal 2500% (up from 1500%) weapon damage over 5 seconds and Slows enemies. The Spider Queen is commanded to move to where you cast your Corpse Spiders.
• 6 pieces: The damage of your creature skills is increased by 800% (up from 500%). Creature skills are Corpse Spiders, Plague of Toads, Firebats, Locust Swarm (new), Hex, and Piranhas.

 

• Vyr's Hellacool Helm renamed to: Vyr's Sightless Skull
• Vyr's Shocking Shoulders renamed to: Vyr's Proud Pauldrons

Legendaries

• NEW: Scrimshaw (Spear): Reduces the Mana cost of Zombie Charger by [VALUE]%.
• NEW: Unknown: Acid Cloud gains the effect of the Lob Blob Bomb rune.
• NEW: Unknown: Gain the Confidence Ritual passive.
• Sacred Harness (Belt): Judgment gains the effect of the Debilitate rune (new) and is cast at your landing location when casting Falling Sword.
  
• Henri's Perquisition (Mojo): The first time an enemy deals damage to you, reduce that damage by [VALUE]% and Charm the enemy for 3 seconds.
• Hunter's Wrath (Belt): Your primary skills (reworded from Hatred Generators) attack 30% faster and deal [VALUE]% increased damage.
  
• Coils of the First Spider: While channeling Firebats, you take 30% reduced damage (new) and gain [VALUE] Life per Hit.
  
• Jeram's Bracers (Bracers): Wall of Death can be cast up to three times (up from twice) within 2 seconds before the cooldown begins.
  
• Bracers of the First Men (Bracers): Hammer of the Ancients now attacks 50% faster and deals [VALUE]% increased damage. (new)
  
• Bracers of Destruction (Bracers): Seismic Slam deals [VALUE]% increased damage to the first 5 enemies it hits (up from 2).
  

 

 Class Changes

Achievement Strings

Diablo 3 Pet and Transmogs With SC2: Legacy of the Void Digital Deluxe and CE

Blizzard announced today the pre-order bonuses for Legacy of the void. The Digital Deluxe, which will be priced at 59.99 and will get you two Diablo 3 rewards:

• Probe pet
• Protoss transmog

Supporting Solo Players

Tyvalir replied to some discussion on improvements for solo players

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

There's a lot of very level-headed, civil discussion going on here about the differences between solo and group play. Thanks to everyone for the great ideas you all brought up (seriously, there are more good quotes here than I can reasonably fit in one reply).

Two that stood out to me in particular:

While I do understand that Blizzard does want to incentivize group play to a degree, with the xp changes coming I think that it's time to finally help out those who enjoy playing solo, or at least narrow the gap a little.

Nobody likes to feel sub standard. And the sheer rate at which I can gear pugging T6 compared to people who don't enjoy party play is insane.

I get where you're coming from here. In a nutshell, we want to bring the rewards closer between single and multiplayer, but we're aiming to do it carefully so that we don't swing the pendulum too far in the opposite direction (which previously caused the opposite problem, where multiplayer felt relatively unrewarding).

There are some examples of this in the upcoming patch - like the changes we're making to crowd control and changing Keywardens to drop machines instead of keys. Both of these tweaks should help draw the rewards between solo and multiplayer closer together.

[Resolved] PTR Game Termination Issue - 7/15

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Updated: 7/15 3:56 p.m. PDT

The PTR servers have stabilized. Game terminations should no longer be occurring. We'll be continuing to monitor, but the issue should now be resolved.

Thank you for your patience!

2000% Bonus Legendary Find Now Active on PTR

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

The following buff is now active on the PTR:

• 2000% Bonus Chance to find Legendaries

This buff was reactivated on July 13 at 5:00 p.m. PDT. Happy testing!

PTR Going Offline for a Possible fix to "Terminated Games"

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

That's what I'm here to do now.

We're aware of the issue that is prematurely terminating PTR games and actively investigating at this time. While we have no further updates to provide just yet, we'll let you know once a resolution is in sight.

Thanks for your patience and understanding as we work to resolve this issue.

PTR here to test and find bugs , problems and fix them before it get to Live server.

This is the most important point to remember. It's a complex issue, and it's an opportunity for us to observe, test around, and investigate this issue in the PTR environment. We certainly want to prevent something like this from potentially occurring on live servers.

Any update on the matter?

Not as of yet. It's important to remember that the PTR servers can (and will) go down for unexpected periods of time and may experience issues such as this. Unlike our live servers, they are a tool intended for testing and uneven game performance will occur.

We will continue working diligently on resolving this issue, and as soon as I have additional information to share, I'll be back here to update you all.

---

Just a quick update on this, folks.

We're bringing the PTR down shortly to apply some updates, which we're hoping will fix the issues players have reported with games being terminated. We hope to have it back up again soon, and we appreciate your patience in the meantime!