In case you missed the news, a hotfix has gone live today increasing the drop chance of high-end items. Make sure to check out the hotfix post to see all the changes.
Analysis: Highest Attack Speed for Each Class
xXrasuninXx posted a detailed thread over in the Theorycrafting and Analysis forums. He lists the highest possible attack speed affix for each of the fastest weapon types. He also calculates all possible skills each class can use. The following are attacks per second will only last for 3 to 8 seconds depending on the length of that classes ability.
- Monk - 5.220
- Barbarian - 6.895
- Demon Hunter - 5.280
- Witch Doctor - 4.338
- Wizard - 4.338
Natalya's Wrath Update
If you have an eye on the current
Natalya's Wrath set, be aware that the new set in 1.0.4 might bedifferent.
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Update
edit: Removed my comment about "no intent to fix it in future Legendary set". I actually don't know that for sure. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Twitter
Your wording regarding the Natalya's 4p bonus seems a little too careful, especially with the edit. Change coming in 1.1 not 1.03b?
No response to previous tweet. Calling it.
My wording is usually picked pretty carefully. We're not changing it. New set in 1.0.4 might be different though. (Source)
edit: Removed my comment about "no intent to fix it in future Legendary set". I actually don't know that for sure. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Your wording regarding the Natalya's 4p bonus seems a little too careful, especially with the edit. Change coming in 1.1 not 1.03b?
No response to previous tweet. Calling it.
My wording is usually picked pretty carefully. We're not changing it. New set in 1.0.4 might be different though. (Source)
Player Feedback
Blizzard is always looking for constructive feedback on Diablo III. Lylirra hits the official forums, explaining good ways to give feedback. She goes on to say community managers and even developers do read the official forums daily. They also read twitter, their facebook, and of course fansites!
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
1. When feedback is submitted on the forums, is it always seen by Blizzard community managers or others at Blizzard?
While we have a lot of eyes on these forums and invest a considerable amount of time and effort into making sure the community's feedback is heard, it's just not feasible for us to read every single post created in every single forum. That's the reality of it with no tasty sugar-coating. (Doesn't mean we don't try, though.)
That said, there is a constant stream of information flowing from these forums back to the developers. If we're not sending over emails to Jay, Wyatt, Andrew, and the other designers about feedback we've seen in these forums, we're having IM conversations or walking over to their desks to discuss the community's concerns in person. We also have weekly meetings with the developers to go over recent popular topics.
As for increasing the chance for your post to be seen, the most important thing is to make sure the content of your post is worded constructively. It can be critical of the game and its mechanics, or of how we engage the community -- positive or negative, that doesn't matter. In general, though, constructive posts are more likely be seen because they're easier to read and understand (which in turn promotes discussion and keeps the thread active), and they're also likely to not violate the posting Code of Conduct (which can result in posts being locked or deleted).
This is also where the "Thumbs Up" button can be a great asset. Highly-rated posts tend to gain more visibility, and their status as "highly-rated" indicates to us that the sentiments inside are shared by a large number of players. If you see a post you agree with, hit the "Thumbs Up" button. It's a quick way to provide feedback without having to post yourself, or to say "I agree" in addition to posting. (It's also a much better option than just creating a post with a "+1" in it.)
We obviously pay attention to all constructive posts, regardless of their rating, but showing your support for an idea or discussion by voting it up is a great way to increase that idea's or discussion's visibility.
2. If the answer to the first question is no, what is the preferred way for players to leave feedback?
Posting on these forums is great, and it's the place where you're most likely to have your feedback read by
Blizzard. Community managers review these forums daily, as do many members of the development team.
Is there any plans to get feedback from the rest of the community (e.g. people who do not visit forums, but play the game), or forums is the only place feedback is gathered?
We keep tabs on Twitter conversations, Facebook posts, and discussions held on other Diablo fansites, too.
While we have a lot of eyes on these forums and invest a considerable amount of time and effort into making sure the community's feedback is heard, it's just not feasible for us to read every single post created in every single forum. That's the reality of it with no tasty sugar-coating. (Doesn't mean we don't try, though.)
That said, there is a constant stream of information flowing from these forums back to the developers. If we're not sending over emails to Jay, Wyatt, Andrew, and the other designers about feedback we've seen in these forums, we're having IM conversations or walking over to their desks to discuss the community's concerns in person. We also have weekly meetings with the developers to go over recent popular topics.
As for increasing the chance for your post to be seen, the most important thing is to make sure the content of your post is worded constructively. It can be critical of the game and its mechanics, or of how we engage the community -- positive or negative, that doesn't matter. In general, though, constructive posts are more likely be seen because they're easier to read and understand (which in turn promotes discussion and keeps the thread active), and they're also likely to not violate the posting Code of Conduct (which can result in posts being locked or deleted).
This is also where the "Thumbs Up" button can be a great asset. Highly-rated posts tend to gain more visibility, and their status as "highly-rated" indicates to us that the sentiments inside are shared by a large number of players. If you see a post you agree with, hit the "Thumbs Up" button. It's a quick way to provide feedback without having to post yourself, or to say "I agree" in addition to posting. (It's also a much better option than just creating a post with a "+1" in it.)
We obviously pay attention to all constructive posts, regardless of their rating, but showing your support for an idea or discussion by voting it up is a great way to increase that idea's or discussion's visibility.
2. If the answer to the first question is no, what is the preferred way for players to leave feedback?
Posting on these forums is great, and it's the place where you're most likely to have your feedback read by
Blizzard. Community managers review these forums daily, as do many members of the development team.
Is there any plans to get feedback from the rest of the community (e.g. people who do not visit forums, but play the game), or forums is the only place feedback is gathered?
We keep tabs on Twitter conversations, Facebook posts, and discussions held on other Diablo fansites, too.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Drop Rates
I can see how it could be read either way. So, to clarify using your example: the drop rate was previously 17.7%, it has been increased to 23.9%. It's not a range.
Shoulda used -> instead of just -
Yeah, you're probably right. I actually had "-->" in there originally, but it formatted all funny in the blog.
That said, I'm totally willing to ignore my need for perfect formatting for the sake of communicating the change clearly. So, it's time for a vote! (Sort of.)
If you think I should go back and change this:
iLvl 61: 17.7% to 23.9%
iLvl 62: 7.9% to 12.6%
iLvl 63: 2.0% to 4.8%
To this:
iLvl 61: 17.7% --> 23.9%
iLvl 62: 7.9% --> 12.6%
iLvl 63: 2.0% --> 4.8%
Let me know, and it shall be done.
Why use such decimals? Wouldn't it be easier to simply round it to 24%?
More accuracy, and more transparency.
Frankly a range makes MORE sense. I.E. -- early Inferno Act 1 drops at x%, increasing to y% by the end of the Act. It should gradually get better. So farming early Act II is about as effective as farming late Act 1. That makes sense to me. It should continue to ramp up throughout the game
The chances of getting an item of each item level are even throughout an entire Act. The hotfix note provides "approximate" rates because there are minor variances based on item type, and the % listed is an approximate aggregate across all item types (for the item level in a specific Act).
...and the new format has been chosen.
Your feedback combined...!
Hopefully those edits help nix any lingering confusion. I'll make sure similar formatting/wording is used for future notes, as well, if applicable. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Loot
We will be applying hotfixes which will be further buffing the drop chances of higher level loot in Inferno difficulty, keep an eye on our "Diablo III Hotfixes - June" blog to see what the new drop chances will be. On the topic of your legendary drops, we are planning a strong buff to legendary items that will make them flat out better than blue items; however this will sadly not be retroactive.
The point of Diablo was never to kill Diablo, it was to grind for gear. I've had hundreds of hours of fun while doing that in D2. The idea of killing champions instead of doing a million mephisto/diablo/baal runs for items was pretty good, I liked it. Nephalem stacks, pretty good too (to some degree).
It's great to hear how you like the system of the Nephalem buff and having to explore the world for champion packs instead of simply killing a single boss many, many times. This is much better to me as well than the constant boss runs in Diablo II. It gets me exploring and searching for the champion packs and each time it is different as the area you encounter the champion pack in, the affixes they have and the monster type they are will make me approach each one differently.
Now to speak of co-op. Co-op is a punishment in Diablo 3. Elite packs with over 6.4 million health. Packs with invulnerable minions, horde, vortex, arcane, plague, molten and so forth. I've just had a pack with arcane, plague, molten and mortar and I honestly laughed. Some combinations are just redicilous. But who cares, atleast they drop something worth the 20 minutes it took to kill them right? If you wonder, they gave me ilvl 55 wrists with health regen and indestructibility. Hooray.
The luck of the affixes you get landed with can sometimes be very frustrating but it's part of the challenge; I remember getting a vortex, invulnerable minions, horde, extra health and it was so hard to kill But the great feeling of eventually overcoming such a pack is fantastic. Sometimes it can be saddening to see that effort results in poor loot, but when that you find a Ilvl 63 rare that rolls near perfect stats you do not forget the feeling!
But the idea of designing D3 around some crappy system which should be OPTIONAL for the rich or spoiled called the RMAH, is fatal.
The RMAH is not what Diablo III is designed around and it is fully optional, it is never forced upon you to use it. I myself have not used it yet, neither for selling or buying but I may some point in the future. It is simply an additional service that you can utilize if you so decide, the same goes for the gold AH.
Part of the challenge is to feel frustration???? You are fritter away a century of psychological research about behaviourism.
I believe you misinterpreted the meaning in my comment. My statement was simply that those difficult packs are part of the challenge, not that feeling frustration was a part of the challenge.(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Development Chats
It's the first time we've ever done anything like that. We've held a couple developer chats in-house using a system called CoverItLive, that we can embed right into the blog. We were on our way to holding a CoverItLive, and someone brought up the idea of trying a dev chat out on Reddit with an AMAA (it may have even been me, I'm a Reddit fan). So, we decided to try it out. I think it was pretty successful, and offering the transcript on our site afterward allowed everyone to see the info once it had ended. To be honest I think we'll probably use Reddit again at some point in the future, but the next time we do a dev chat (at least for Diablo III) we want it to be a CoverItLive chat on our site.
Another reason why Reddit was a good choice, in my opinion, is that through community-moderation of up and down voting questions there were no complaints/claims that we were attempting to doctor the results by picking and choosing questionswe wanted to answer instead of the ones people wanted answered.
Also, when do you think the community can expect such a session to take place?
We think it probably makes sense when it will make the most impact for the community and our developers. We were thinking of centering it around PvP, but I think it'd be good to have one before then. We honestly haven't begun planning for it.
There is nothing positive about reddit imo. ITs full of A holes with a lousy opinion. So that tells me alot about the choices you choose. Then again I dont care because ive never liked you. You say alot of things but never hold any truth behind what you post.
Huh. Maybe you're in different subreddits than I am? I find it to be an informative and entertaining experience. Sure you get the crazies, and trolls, and ragers, but you get those anywhere. You kind of have to look past the noise.
Wouldn't Facebook be a better medium?
For a Q&A? Facebook doesn't have threaded comments or quotes, and very basic moderation tools. It'd get really messy. I suppose through an app maybe? I'm also not sure what the overlap is of our core playerbase (who would value a Q&A like that) and our Facebook fans, although I'd be interested to hear opinions.
sounds like blizz is going to be underhanding some dollars to reddit for frontpage posts about products. that is the only reason why, PR, ads, swindling more customers etc.
What part of my post, or anything associated with our discussion, sounds like that?
Also you don't "underhand" dollars to a website that sells ad space. We could buy ad space there some day I suppose? I'm not sure what your point is.
... and yet the question was not answered.
In the part you quoted, no it was not. If you read the rest of my post though I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
We honestly haven't begun planning for it. <- this part Im sorry .. call me old fashioned .. but when your planning to release a game with a massive online community .. this would be something thought of before release
Oh, well it really doesn't take that much time to plan one. We could do one next week if we wanted. It's more about taking up developer's time from working on the game, and making sure when we have one we know there's enough going on or a specific topic that we can fill an hour or two with a diverse array of questions. I feel like we just did the Reddit one and should try to space them out a bit more so we're hitting new issues and questions. I'm sure you'll all disagree, you'd want one every day (I would if I was you), but it's actually quite a bit of work to operate one.
Hey did the "Next Blizz" button break? I have to find all of your posts through Diablofans' tracker.
Yes! Ugh. It's a known issue. I hope it's fixed soon.
so whats next fox news a valid source for current and world news? When is blizzard going to say hey...we messed up and lets fix this..Stop acting like a 5 year old that is clearly caught but still making excueses.
What?
Yes, but I would like Bashiok's input on this as he is here atm and what someone that isn't Jay Wilson thinks, that is as close to the devs as it gets for us.
And I can appreciate the desire to discuss it, but you're derailing the thread.(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Aus/NZ Servers
This is true for the forum rules.
But I'll give a update anyway, just keep in mind this is a exception to the rule
Yes, we are continuing to review how to improve the player experience for the Aus/NZ region. So what does that mean exactly?
It means that we haven’t ruled out any option which includes looking into the solution by the original poster.
What is certain is that even looking into these suggestions will take time. So once we have something more solid then I will definitely update everyone here in the Aus/NZ forums.
See I apreciate the effort you made in giving us this post. But you still honestly havn't told us anything other than exploring options and "soon", which is what we have been getting for 6 weeks of d3 and 8 years of wow.
All options we are reviewing are specific to Diablo III. This is based on your feedback here in the forum since launch, so when I get something more solid it will be posted. We want Diablo III to be around for many years to come. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
I can see how it could be read either way. So, to clarify using your example: the drop rate was previously 17.7%, it has been increased to 23.9%. It's not a range.
Shoulda used -> instead of just -
Yeah, you're probably right. I actually had "-->" in there originally, but it formatted all funny in the blog.
That said, I'm totally willing to ignore my need for perfect formatting for the sake of communicating the change clearly. So, it's time for a vote! (Sort of.)
If you think I should go back and change this:
iLvl 61: 17.7% to 23.9%
iLvl 62: 7.9% to 12.6%
iLvl 63: 2.0% to 4.8%
To this:
iLvl 61: 17.7% --> 23.9%
iLvl 62: 7.9% --> 12.6%
iLvl 63: 2.0% --> 4.8%
Let me know, and it shall be done.
Why use such decimals? Wouldn't it be easier to simply round it to 24%?
More accuracy, and more transparency.
Frankly a range makes MORE sense. I.E. -- early Inferno Act 1 drops at x%, increasing to y% by the end of the Act. It should gradually get better. So farming early Act II is about as effective as farming late Act 1. That makes sense to me. It should continue to ramp up throughout the game
The chances of getting an item of each item level are even throughout an entire Act. The hotfix note provides "approximate" rates because there are minor variances based on item type, and the % listed is an approximate aggregate across all item types (for the item level in a specific Act).
...and the new format has been chosen.
Your feedback combined...!
Hopefully those edits help nix any lingering confusion. I'll make sure similar formatting/wording is used for future notes, as well, if applicable.
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)Loot
We will be applying hotfixes which will be further buffing the drop chances of higher level loot in Inferno difficulty, keep an eye on our "Diablo III Hotfixes - June" blog to see what the new drop chances will be. On the topic of your legendary drops, we are planning a strong buff to legendary items that will make them flat out better than blue items; however this will sadly not be retroactive.
The point of Diablo was never to kill Diablo, it was to grind for gear. I've had hundreds of hours of fun while doing that in D2. The idea of killing champions instead of doing a million mephisto/diablo/baal runs for items was pretty good, I liked it. Nephalem stacks, pretty good too (to some degree).
It's great to hear how you like the system of the Nephalem buff and having to explore the world for champion packs instead of simply killing a single boss many, many times. This is much better to me as well than the constant boss runs in Diablo II. It gets me exploring and searching for the champion packs and each time it is different as the area you encounter the champion pack in, the affixes they have and the monster type they are will make me approach each one differently.
Now to speak of co-op. Co-op is a punishment in Diablo 3. Elite packs with over 6.4 million health. Packs with invulnerable minions, horde, vortex, arcane, plague, molten and so forth. I've just had a pack with arcane, plague, molten and mortar and I honestly laughed. Some combinations are just redicilous. But who cares, atleast they drop something worth the 20 minutes it took to kill them right? If you wonder, they gave me ilvl 55 wrists with health regen and indestructibility. Hooray.
The luck of the affixes you get landed with can sometimes be very frustrating but it's part of the challenge; I remember getting a vortex, invulnerable minions, horde, extra health and it was so hard to kill
But the great feeling of eventually overcoming such a pack is fantastic. Sometimes it can be saddening to see that effort results in poor loot, but when that you find a Ilvl 63 rare that rolls near perfect stats you do not forget the feeling!But the idea of designing D3 around some crappy system which should be OPTIONAL for the rich or spoiled called the RMAH, is fatal.
The RMAH is not what Diablo III is designed around and it is fully optional, it is never forced upon you to use it. I myself have not used it yet, neither for selling or buying but I may some point in the future. It is simply an additional service that you can utilize if you so decide, the same goes for the gold AH.
Part of the challenge is to feel frustration???? You are fritter away a century of psychological research about behaviourism.
I believe you misinterpreted the meaning in my comment. My statement was simply that those difficult packs are part of the challenge, not that feeling frustration was a part of the challenge.(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Development Chats
It's the first time we've ever done anything like that. We've held a couple developer chats in-house using a system called CoverItLive, that we can embed right into the blog. We were on our way to holding a CoverItLive, and someone brought up the idea of trying a dev chat out on Reddit with an AMAA (it may have even been me, I'm a Reddit fan). So, we decided to try it out. I think it was pretty successful, and offering the transcript on our site afterward allowed everyone to see the info once it had ended. To be honest I think we'll probably use Reddit again at some point in the future, but the next time we do a dev chat (at least for Diablo III) we want it to be a CoverItLive chat on our site.
Another reason why Reddit was a good choice, in my opinion, is that through community-moderation of up and down voting questions there were no complaints/claims that we were attempting to doctor the results by picking and choosing questionswe wanted to answer instead of the ones people wanted answered.
Also, when do you think the community can expect such a session to take place?
We think it probably makes sense when it will make the most impact for the community and our developers. We were thinking of centering it around PvP, but I think it'd be good to have one before then. We honestly haven't begun planning for it.
There is nothing positive about reddit imo. ITs full of A holes with a lousy opinion. So that tells me alot about the choices you choose. Then again I dont care because ive never liked you. You say alot of things but never hold any truth behind what you post.
Huh. Maybe you're in different subreddits than I am? I find it to be an informative and entertaining experience. Sure you get the crazies, and trolls, and ragers, but you get those anywhere. You kind of have to look past the noise.
Wouldn't Facebook be a better medium?
For a Q&A? Facebook doesn't have threaded comments or quotes, and very basic moderation tools. It'd get really messy. I suppose through an app maybe? I'm also not sure what the overlap is of our core playerbase (who would value a Q&A like that) and our Facebook fans, although I'd be interested to hear opinions.
sounds like blizz is going to be underhanding some dollars to reddit for frontpage posts about products. that is the only reason why, PR, ads, swindling more customers etc.
What part of my post, or anything associated with our discussion, sounds like that?
Also you don't "underhand" dollars to a website that sells ad space. We could buy ad space there some day I suppose? I'm not sure what your point is.
... and yet the question was not answered.
In the part you quoted, no it was not. If you read the rest of my post though I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
We honestly haven't begun planning for it. <- this part Im sorry .. call me old fashioned .. but when your planning to release a game with a massive online community .. this would be something thought of before release
Oh, well it really doesn't take that much time to plan one. We could do one next week if we wanted. It's more about taking up developer's time from working on the game, and making sure when we have one we know there's enough going on or a specific topic that we can fill an hour or two with a diverse array of questions. I feel like we just did the Reddit one and should try to space them out a bit more so we're hitting new issues and questions. I'm sure you'll all disagree, you'd want one every day (I would if I was you), but it's actually quite a bit of work to operate one.
Hey did the "Next Blizz" button break? I have to find all of your posts through Diablofans' tracker.
Yes! Ugh. It's a known issue. I hope it's fixed soon.
so whats next fox news a valid source for current and world news? When is blizzard going to say hey...we messed up and lets fix this..Stop acting like a 5 year old that is clearly caught but still making excueses.
What?
Yes, but I would like Bashiok's input on this as he is here atm and what someone that isn't Jay Wilson thinks, that is as close to the devs as it gets for us.
And I can appreciate the desire to discuss it, but you're derailing the thread.(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Aus/NZ Servers
This is true for the forum rules.
But I'll give a update anyway, just keep in mind this is a exception to the rule
Yes, we are continuing to review how to improve the player experience for the Aus/NZ region. So what does that mean exactly?
It means that we haven’t ruled out any option which includes looking into the solution by the original poster.
What is certain is that even looking into these suggestions will take time. So once we have something more solid then I will definitely update everyone here in the Aus/NZ forums.
See I apreciate the effort you made in giving us this post. But you still honestly havn't told us anything other than exploring options and "soon", which is what we have been getting for 6 weeks of d3 and 8 years of wow.
All options we are reviewing are specific to Diablo III. This is based on your feedback here in the forum since launch, so when I get something more solid it will be posted. We want Diablo III to be around for many years to come. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
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