Patch 1.0.3 Preview
Blizzard has just posted a massive patch 1.0.3 preview. There is a lot of info below including a few tables and strongly suggest you read the full post, but for those in a hurry we have a quick rundown.
DiabloFans Quote:
Legendaries Drop rates have changed in 1.0.3 The highest ilvl can drop in act 1 inferno but at a lower rate than act 3 and 4. You can view the table in the post to see all the percents.We won't be seeing the Legendaries stats change this patch however when they are done high level Legendaries should be flat out better than blue items. Nephalem Valor With 5 stacks of NV bosses will now only drop 1 "guaranteed" rare instead of 2. (They will still have a high chance to drop more just like before, just one less "guaranteed" one.Elite packs will now drop a bonus guaranteed rare when you have full stacks of NV Group Play Monsters will not longer have bonus damage per additional player in coop games. Inferno Balancing Act 1 feels just how they want it.Getting to Act 2 is to large of a step, if a barb and monk can clear Act 1 with an offensive build and murder everything, they should be able to switch to a defensive build and do okay in Act 2Act 2,3 and 4 will have have monster health and damage adjusted to make them fit smoothly. Deaths and Repair Costs Repair costs at 60 are almost not noticable, and due to this they see a lot of people simply "graveyard zerging" enemies.They had a few ideas on how to discourage this, ultimately they will be increases repair costs between x4 and x6 their current values. Attack Speed Attack speed modifier will now properly work on all items.Players currently feel that Attack Speed is one of the "required" stats, and blizzard does not want this. They have two ideas to fix this and are looking for feedback on them. They are currently leaning toward the first idea. Reduced how much attack speed can be found on an itemadd a hidden modifier that basically adds diminishing returns on attack speed. Gems As stated before, both the Blacksmith and the Jeweler will become a little cheaper.There is a table in the post below showing you the new cost for crafting the first 8 tiers of gems. (They only require two of each gem type now, along with reduced gold cost) Class Balancing Patch 1.0.3 will not be focused on class balancing. (there will be a small number of skill changes)Patch 1.1 will be the patch for most class tweaks which will have focus on punching build diversity up a few more notches
Originally Posted by Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
(Last month we gave you a glimpse into how we were taking in initial feedback on the game, and ideas for some potential system changes we could make. Today we wanted to follow up and provide concrete info on some of the changes we’ve been working on, and give everyone a heads up before the 1.0.3 patch hits later this month.
Bridging the Item Gap
The ilvl (item level) of an item determines the statistical budget for its power. The way the game is currently set up, Act I drops ilvl 61 gear and below, Act II drops ilvl 62 gear and below, and Act III and IV drop ilvl 63 and below. Unfortunately this has caused two main issues. The first is players who find an Act too difficult feel compelled to use the auction house in order to progress. The second is that certain classes, skills, and play styles are less gear dependent than others, so although great items are making their way into the game economy, people feel pigeonholed into a handful of viable strategies. For a lot of people they would rather do something frustrating or boring in Hell Act IV (such as having Tyrael fight for them or breaking vases) for a chance at a "top-tier" upgrade, rather than fight hordes of monsters in Inferno Act I. We’re shifting to a philosophy where the best items in the game can drop from many different places, so a wider variety of play styles are viable. If you would rather chain-pull elite packs in Act I rather than 3 minute cat-and-mouse in Act IV, we'd like you to be able to do that and know you can still find the best items in the game.
Nothing would explain it as well as just sharing the intended drop rates coming in the next patch, so here they are. Note that the drop rates vary slightly by item type; the table below represents an approximate aggregated rate of all item types:
New drop rates for 1.0.3
As you can see, players who would rather murder monsters 4x as fast in Inferno Act I can do so knowing they have a chance at amazing items, and players who want a challenge can kill in Acts III and IV in Inferno and be rewarded with a higher drop rate.
You Keep Using That Word
As previously mentioned, we’re going to be reviewing Legendary items in a future patch. Legendaries won’t change in 1.0.3, but it’s still something we’re actively working on. When we’re done, high level Legendaries should be flat out better than blue items, they’ll carry a good amount of power with them, and they should also be distinctive or memorable in the benefits they provide. We’ll be able to share more information on the specific changes we’re making after 1.0.3 launches.
The Nephalem Difference
It’s no secret that our goal for the end-game item hunt is players hunting monsters packs, building to five stacks of Nephalem Valor, and then killing a boss. While we’re seeing a lot of that occurring, what we’re missing is people feeling like it’s worthwhile to continue onward after killing a boss. To help hit that goal we’re lowering the number of guaranteed Rare items on bosses when you have your full five stacks of Nephalem Valor from two guaranteed Rares to one guaranteed Rare (you still have a very good chance at multiple rares, it's just no longer guaranteed). In exchange, all champion and rare packs will now drop a bonus guaranteed Rare item when you have your full five stacks of Nephalem Valor. The change benefits players with more overall drops, and a reason to push to continue progressing.
You Into the Group Thing?
We’re removing the bonus monster damage per additional player in a coop game. Our design goal is for players who prefer to play solo to be able to play solo, and players who prefer to play in groups to be able to play in a group. We feel the bonus monster damage per additional player is one of the biggest inhibitors to wanting to play with your friends. In a perfect world, single player and co-op would be absolutely equal, but that’s not attainable when you consider item properties such as “Life on Kill” or skills such as Archon which simply scale better when you are solo. Since the variety and breadth of game mechanics essentially dictate that solo vs. group play will never be 100% equal, our goal is to make them as close as possible but err on the side of coop in cases where we need to make adjustments. The inherent logistical requirements when forming up with other players and attempting to work together effectively warrants some added benefits.
Oh Yeah!
Inferno balance right now has a difficulty gap in which Act I feels about right, but Act II feels like trying to bust through a brick wall. In patch 1.0.3 we’re going to be lowering that wall by adjusting the damage and health of monsters in Inferno Act II, III and IV. We feel like Act I Inferno is in a pretty good place. Our design goal with Acts II, III and IV is to keep them challenging, but smooth the difficulty ramp out a bit. If a monk or barbarian is geared well enough that they can use a heavily offensive build and murder everything in Act I, they should be able to swap to a more defensive build and do okay in Act II. As they gear up they can begin adjusting back to becoming offensive in Act II, at which point they can jump into Act III with a focus on defense, and so on. Difficulty certainly ties into itemization, encounter and enemy tuning, and class balance, and all of these things together are going to paint a more reasonable difficulty curve as you hit Inferno in 1.0.3.
Paying for Your Mistakes
Current repair costs at level 60 are barely noticeable, and because of that we see a lot of people wonder if “graveyard zerging” tough enemies or “chain rezzing allies on a boss” is intended gameplay – it definitely is not. To help solve the issue we evaluated a number of new death mechanics, such as just allowing the resurrection timer to increase even higher, disallowing resurrection during boss fights, or putting a debuff on you when you resurrect (such as reduced combat effectiveness). Ultimately we felt that increasing repair costs was the best solution that preserves the fast paced style of the game. Repair costs on level 60 items are going to go up a lot. Our goal is the next time a player is graveyard zerging a boss, it should occur to them that “this is probably not an efficient way to go about things”. We’re currently evaluating repair costs between 4x and 6x their current values. In the face of increasing costs, we recommend listening to the Hardcore players out there as they probably have some helpful advice on how to minimize repair costs. Following this change zerging a boss will still be possible, but our intent is that it won’t be optimal, and players who are seeking to be as efficient as possible will adjust their item hunting routes accordingly.
Whoa, Whoa, Nice Shootin’ Tex
We’re fixing a number of bugs with Attack Speed, mainly related to the stat not working on some items, but we’ve also decided we need to reduce the effectiveness of Increased Attack Speed overall. Many players have commented that Increased Attack Speed is such a dominant stat they feel it’s required. While we don’t have an issue with there being important stats, Increased Attack Speed in particular has secondary effects on mobility in combat, resource generation and resource consumption. We want there to be options and considerations for how you gear up, and one uber trump-everything stat can really work against choice and options. There are two different solutions we’re considering to reduce the effectiveness of Increased Attack Speed. The first is to simply reduce the value on all the items to their desired values. In general our desire is to never change items as that makes them feel less concrete, but the upside is you would still be able to look at an item and know exactly what you are getting. The other approach is to change the formula used for attack speed aggregation so that stacking attack speed from multiple slots suffers from diminishing returns. The downside of that approach is that it introduces yet another hidden modifier on an item property (and many people dislike hidden modifiers), and complicates the already difficult decision of item gearing. We’re currently leaning toward the first solution, to simply reduce the value on items, but we’d be interested to read people’s thoughts on the problem.
JustThree Two Easy Payments
We previously hinted that Blacksmith and Jeweler costs are coming down, and overall it will be far more reasonable to train them up and craft items. The most dramatic reduction is on the combine costs for tier 2-8 gems. The gem combine costs for Perfect Square and above will remain unchanged.
Nerf Them, Buff Me
Class tuning is not a major focus for 1.0.3. There will be a small number of skills changes, but for the most part we want people to continue experimenting and enjoy their skills for a while. Our goal was and continues to be build diversity, and though we see quite a bit of build diversity, we think we can do much better. Class tuning will be an ongoing process, and we’re targeting the 1.1 patch for most class tweaks, with a focus on punching build diversity up a few more notches.
But What About…
While these are a few of the larger systems adjustments we’re making, the 1.0.3 patch will include many fixes, quality of life enhancements, Auction House improvements, and other changes. We hope you look forward to the patch as much as we do getting it out there, and again we appreciate your continued feedback. See you in-game!
Bridging the Item Gap
The ilvl (item level) of an item determines the statistical budget for its power. The way the game is currently set up, Act I drops ilvl 61 gear and below, Act II drops ilvl 62 gear and below, and Act III and IV drop ilvl 63 and below. Unfortunately this has caused two main issues. The first is players who find an Act too difficult feel compelled to use the auction house in order to progress. The second is that certain classes, skills, and play styles are less gear dependent than others, so although great items are making their way into the game economy, people feel pigeonholed into a handful of viable strategies. For a lot of people they would rather do something frustrating or boring in Hell Act IV (such as having Tyrael fight for them or breaking vases) for a chance at a "top-tier" upgrade, rather than fight hordes of monsters in Inferno Act I. We’re shifting to a philosophy where the best items in the game can drop from many different places, so a wider variety of play styles are viable. If you would rather chain-pull elite packs in Act I rather than 3 minute cat-and-mouse in Act IV, we'd like you to be able to do that and know you can still find the best items in the game.
Nothing would explain it as well as just sharing the intended drop rates coming in the next patch, so here they are. Note that the drop rates vary slightly by item type; the table below represents an approximate aggregated rate of all item types:
New drop rates for 1.0.3
Item |
Hell Act III and IV |
Inferno Act I |
Inferno Act II |
Inferno Act III/IV |
---|---|---|---|---|
iLvl 61 |
9 % |
18% |
19% |
24% |
iLvl 62 |
2% |
8% |
12% |
16% |
iLvl 63 |
0% |
2% |
4% |
8% |
As you can see, players who would rather murder monsters 4x as fast in Inferno Act I can do so knowing they have a chance at amazing items, and players who want a challenge can kill in Acts III and IV in Inferno and be rewarded with a higher drop rate.
You Keep Using That Word
As previously mentioned, we’re going to be reviewing Legendary items in a future patch. Legendaries won’t change in 1.0.3, but it’s still something we’re actively working on. When we’re done, high level Legendaries should be flat out better than blue items, they’ll carry a good amount of power with them, and they should also be distinctive or memorable in the benefits they provide. We’ll be able to share more information on the specific changes we’re making after 1.0.3 launches.
The Nephalem Difference
It’s no secret that our goal for the end-game item hunt is players hunting monsters packs, building to five stacks of Nephalem Valor, and then killing a boss. While we’re seeing a lot of that occurring, what we’re missing is people feeling like it’s worthwhile to continue onward after killing a boss. To help hit that goal we’re lowering the number of guaranteed Rare items on bosses when you have your full five stacks of Nephalem Valor from two guaranteed Rares to one guaranteed Rare (you still have a very good chance at multiple rares, it's just no longer guaranteed). In exchange, all champion and rare packs will now drop a bonus guaranteed Rare item when you have your full five stacks of Nephalem Valor. The change benefits players with more overall drops, and a reason to push to continue progressing.
You Into the Group Thing?
We’re removing the bonus monster damage per additional player in a coop game. Our design goal is for players who prefer to play solo to be able to play solo, and players who prefer to play in groups to be able to play in a group. We feel the bonus monster damage per additional player is one of the biggest inhibitors to wanting to play with your friends. In a perfect world, single player and co-op would be absolutely equal, but that’s not attainable when you consider item properties such as “Life on Kill” or skills such as Archon which simply scale better when you are solo. Since the variety and breadth of game mechanics essentially dictate that solo vs. group play will never be 100% equal, our goal is to make them as close as possible but err on the side of coop in cases where we need to make adjustments. The inherent logistical requirements when forming up with other players and attempting to work together effectively warrants some added benefits.
Oh Yeah!
Inferno balance right now has a difficulty gap in which Act I feels about right, but Act II feels like trying to bust through a brick wall. In patch 1.0.3 we’re going to be lowering that wall by adjusting the damage and health of monsters in Inferno Act II, III and IV. We feel like Act I Inferno is in a pretty good place. Our design goal with Acts II, III and IV is to keep them challenging, but smooth the difficulty ramp out a bit. If a monk or barbarian is geared well enough that they can use a heavily offensive build and murder everything in Act I, they should be able to swap to a more defensive build and do okay in Act II. As they gear up they can begin adjusting back to becoming offensive in Act II, at which point they can jump into Act III with a focus on defense, and so on. Difficulty certainly ties into itemization, encounter and enemy tuning, and class balance, and all of these things together are going to paint a more reasonable difficulty curve as you hit Inferno in 1.0.3.
Paying for Your Mistakes
Current repair costs at level 60 are barely noticeable, and because of that we see a lot of people wonder if “graveyard zerging” tough enemies or “chain rezzing allies on a boss” is intended gameplay – it definitely is not. To help solve the issue we evaluated a number of new death mechanics, such as just allowing the resurrection timer to increase even higher, disallowing resurrection during boss fights, or putting a debuff on you when you resurrect (such as reduced combat effectiveness). Ultimately we felt that increasing repair costs was the best solution that preserves the fast paced style of the game. Repair costs on level 60 items are going to go up a lot. Our goal is the next time a player is graveyard zerging a boss, it should occur to them that “this is probably not an efficient way to go about things”. We’re currently evaluating repair costs between 4x and 6x their current values. In the face of increasing costs, we recommend listening to the Hardcore players out there as they probably have some helpful advice on how to minimize repair costs. Following this change zerging a boss will still be possible, but our intent is that it won’t be optimal, and players who are seeking to be as efficient as possible will adjust their item hunting routes accordingly.
Whoa, Whoa, Nice Shootin’ Tex
We’re fixing a number of bugs with Attack Speed, mainly related to the stat not working on some items, but we’ve also decided we need to reduce the effectiveness of Increased Attack Speed overall. Many players have commented that Increased Attack Speed is such a dominant stat they feel it’s required. While we don’t have an issue with there being important stats, Increased Attack Speed in particular has secondary effects on mobility in combat, resource generation and resource consumption. We want there to be options and considerations for how you gear up, and one uber trump-everything stat can really work against choice and options. There are two different solutions we’re considering to reduce the effectiveness of Increased Attack Speed. The first is to simply reduce the value on all the items to their desired values. In general our desire is to never change items as that makes them feel less concrete, but the upside is you would still be able to look at an item and know exactly what you are getting. The other approach is to change the formula used for attack speed aggregation so that stacking attack speed from multiple slots suffers from diminishing returns. The downside of that approach is that it introduces yet another hidden modifier on an item property (and many people dislike hidden modifiers), and complicates the already difficult decision of item gearing. We’re currently leaning toward the first solution, to simply reduce the value on items, but we’d be interested to read people’s thoughts on the problem.
Just
We previously hinted that Blacksmith and Jeweler costs are coming down, and overall it will be far more reasonable to train them up and craft items. The most dramatic reduction is on the combine costs for tier 2-8 gems. The gem combine costs for Perfect Square and above will remain unchanged.
Gem Quality |
Previous Cost |
New Cost |
---|---|---|
Flawed |
3 Chipped + 500 gold |
2 Chipped + 10 gold |
Normal |
3 Flawed + 750 gold |
2 Flawed + 25 gold |
Flawless |
3 Normal + 1250 gold |
2 Normal + 40 gold |
Perfect |
3 Flawless + 2000 gold + 1 Page |
2 Flawless + 55 gold + 1 Page |
Radiant |
3 Perfect + 3500 gold + 2 Pages |
2 Perfect + 70 gold + 2 Pages |
Square |
3 Radiant + 7500 gold + 1 Tome |
2 Radiant + 85 gold + 1 Tome |
Flawless Square |
3 Square + 20,000 gold + 2 Tomes |
2 square + 100 gold + 2 Tomes |
Nerf Them, Buff Me
Class tuning is not a major focus for 1.0.3. There will be a small number of skills changes, but for the most part we want people to continue experimenting and enjoy their skills for a while. Our goal was and continues to be build diversity, and though we see quite a bit of build diversity, we think we can do much better. Class tuning will be an ongoing process, and we’re targeting the 1.1 patch for most class tweaks, with a focus on punching build diversity up a few more notches.
But What About…
While these are a few of the larger systems adjustments we’re making, the 1.0.3 patch will include many fixes, quality of life enhancements, Auction House improvements, and other changes. We hope you look forward to the patch as much as we do getting it out there, and again we appreciate your continued feedback. See you in-game!
NOT both.
This two-pronged approach is going to be overkill. The whole reason ActII and up is insanely OP is because you currently CAN'T get the gear you need in Act I to reasonably progress in Act II. With the item drop change we'd be able to do that w/o you needing to nerf anything in Inferno. Conversely (but not as fun imo) would be to simply nerf Act II and up and leave drop rates where they are.
The problem is that they are responding with every reasonable solution to the same problem instead of just focusing on one at a time and see how well that works in the wild (not their insanely limited internal pool of players).
wtf... this is the only way to kill champs in some cases and now they will make us pay 30k for a repair instead of 6 just great...
Somewhat off-topic, but haste is not good for every healer in WoW and neither for "nearly all" dps. So a bit of an iffy comparison from my perspective.
There's nothing "casual-catering" about it. Go back and read the blue post again.
They're not breaking Inferno, they're making it viable, it will still be hard. At least wait for the patch before you start flinging poo.
And how is it dumb if Act I Inferno is fine as it is? Because it is fine, the progression from Hell Act IV to Inferno Act I feels good, it transitions perfectly to a steeper curve. Act II is nigh insane, being one shotted through Diamond Armor is just screwed up.
... What? Yes, the prices are low, but if you'll pay attention, these are all from gems that drop and gems up till the recipes you acquire through upgrading the JC. The upgrades from plans are unchanged, i.e. still freaking expensive.
Anyhow, how does it make the game easy when they lower the more accessible gems prices to reasonable amounts? Your rage seems unjustified and unnecessary, and frankly, your entire post reeks of nonsensical babel.
What does scare me though is the repair costs. However, as others have stated, I think this will be a nice way of telling when you're faffing around where you're not supposed to be. Back tracking to farm will make sense in such occasions.
Also note, this is the first balance change and its in a good direction. If things are still wonky then they'll change them again. D3 is still in flux, but at least we can agree that the game is heading in a positive direction.
Eventually, I accepted this and farmed act 1 over and over again until I had the gear to actually do act 2 with the exception of and 800dps sword I bought in the auction house. Now, act 2 isn't so tough. I can run around with 5 stacks of nephalem valor and kill bosses as a monk (i even have enough time to switch to magic find gear before the last hit). I think if they nerf act 2,3, and 4, then I'll pretty much be done with the game as I'll be "overgeared" and it'll feel like easy mode. I was hoping to be playing this game for months before beating inferno... but I'm in act 3 now and it's only been 3 weeks.
I realize a LOT of people are going through what I went through at first... thinking act 2 is just too hard... but really I think you just need to keep at it and keep trying! My vote is against the nerfing of later acts. I would, instead, nerf the ranged classes so that act 2 is harder for EVERYONE. I want a hard game.
I am for making the multiplayer more do-able, however. If I can clear act 2 solo, and my friend can clear act 2 solo, we should be able to team up and clear act 2 together. This wasn't the case and it seemed broken.
Really?
Players feel like they don't have a choice when gearing because there's only one good option. Blizzard's genius response: nerf the good stat so to force people to choose between stats they don't want - hey, now you have more than one choice! Now you get to choose between several stats you don't want! Awesome design!
I usually don't use foul language in forum posts, but I just can't hold back any more. I'm so fucking tired of all the idiotic design decisions that Jay Wilson is making (or approving). The new Diablo 3 team is just doing a piss-fucking-poor job at designing this game. It's laughable how many terrible decisions they can make without truly considering their impact outside of a narrowly confined scope. I really think I made a mistake considering D3 a day-1 buy. It's fun, but they're butchering it, and I don't like paying for a beta.
/rant
Or L2play instead of being a trash casual and it won't cost you that much.
D3 has no ladder, no massively high lvl cap and no need for rerolling characters to try different builds. The only longevity the game has is force players to farm for few dozen hours in order to get enough gear and progress. We're only 3 weeks from release and theres a good portion of the community running Act 1 and Act 2. In a few months people would easilly kill diablo even if inferno kept been retardly hard. Any smoothness will only make farm less needed, reducing the already small longevity of the game.
I don't know about you guys but i'm pretty sure by now making this game online based and adding an AH just made the item hunt too easy thus making the progression also pretty easy and frustrating at the same time (cause you're farming gold, not items, most of the time).
I hope PvP is amazing or else this game will have a very little life cycle.
Would love to have the option to remove the nerf like ICC/DS in WoW..
But when you remove the nerf in inferno the drop chance of good gear gets lowered or when u have the nerf on in inferno u don't get Nephalem Valor.. Fans wanted a challenge then don't QQ about it.. We played Diablo 2 for like 10 years and we are supposed to play Diablo 3 as much as we played Diablo 2.. So It's not like we want to clear inferno as fast as hell.. QQ'rs if you like to finish the game fast then stick to hell not inferno.. The game is supposed to be a challenge not childs play..
If they are increasing the repair costs, why not even out the gold drops? Kinda tiresome having 5 NV and seeing...1-3gold drops.....
All in all, I think it is going to be slightly easier, but still a challenge. Plus, its going to be a more balanced, fair challenge that will allow more enjoyable playstyles and more build diversity. Well done!
As for people whining that this is going to make inferno to easy, you are missing the point. Before you had to hit Act I, then farm gold until you could hit the auction hosue for gear good enough to do act 2. Or alternatatiely, you could go to II without adequate gear and die over and over trying to get enough ddrops to raise your survivability. It was not really about skill either way, but just an unenjoyable time sink, less fun than a traditional, more even difficulty and gear advancement curve. Plus, tanks will not be forced into overly defsnive roles at all times, and grouping will be a valid option.
What's to complain about?
Anyways, for Glasscannons the repair cost increase is gonna hurt or cause us to "reset" more games unless the mob nerfing causes survival stats to be viable.
Repair costs will raise, yes. So people won't keep dying and trying again and again but be more carefull, that is the whole point of the game. Don't rush too fast in places you aren't prepared for..
And about the Inferno act's balancing. They said they will balance the TRANSITION between the acts, so act 1 -> act 2 is a little smaller of a difference and probably act 2 -> act 3 and act 3 -> act 4 will be little larger. Nobody said that act 1 -> act 4 will be nerfed, just the steps in between will be more balanced. It could be that they will though, but that is not what is says!
I'm getting frustrated of people whining about games being to hard and not completing the game in 1, 2, 3. You want everybody to finish the game in a month? It's a hack & slash game and farming is the base principle of the game, so FARM! If you die to much or it is too hard, go 1 step back and farm a little more! I just ignore all the whiners because they don't see the challenge of the game but sometimes I'm afraid that Blizzard even listens to those whiners and nerf the game where it is not needed....
- Edit -
On a side note...
As opposed to tanks doing what - High DPS... ?
What next - Glass-Cannon Wiz's complaining they can't tank?