Patch 1.0.5 Interview, How to Change Monster Level, Appear Offline Option, Curse Weekly Roundup

Patch 1.0.5 Interview with Jay Wilson and Wyatt Cheng
PC Gamer had the opportunity to talk with Jay Wilson and Wyatt Cheng about the changes coming with patch 1.0.5. Main topics have been bullet pointed but you can read the full interview here.
  • The changes to crowd control skills are designed to help create a wider use for these skills.
  • The Diablo team will often include Warcraft and Starcraft teams on ideas to get additional input.
  • Their current focus is larger, more noticeable changes.
  • Monster Level was added to give players the option to optimize their playing. Adding more difficulty for those who want it.
  • They hope each player will be able to find their own balance between challenge, speed, and drops.
  • They don't want the Monster Level mechanic to be a necessary difficulty for players to complete.
  • There are no achievements or specific drops based on monster level chosen.
  • Monster Level 0 is easier than the current difficulty but should yield the same current drops.
  • Monster power still stacks with party size in proportion to Monster Level.
  • Your Magic Find can stack above the 300 cap with the increase in Monster Level.
  • The Infernal Machine will have newer versions of previous bosses.


PTR Status: Offline
You may have noticed the link at the top of the news post yesterday. The PTR was up for a small amount of time before being taken offline. There is no ETA for when the PTR will be live again, hopefully soon.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Hey all,

We will be bringing the PTR offline for the weekend in order to troubleshoot issues affecting PTR account creation, character creation, and login. While this is only public test (the first for Diablo III) and uneven game performance is expected, we want to make sure that the experience is as smooth and stable as possible. It's going to take some extra work on our end to make that happen, and the PTR will need to be offline while we make our updates.

Thank you so much to everyone who submitted reports about the problems you experienced. We'll be working diligently over the next few days to resolve as much as we can and get the PTR back online so you can test and provide feedback on patch 1.0.5.



How to Change Monster Power Level
Lylirra gives us a quick rundown on how to change the Monster Power levels.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Similar to the "Players X" command in Diablo II, Monster Power is a system designed to give players more control over how challenging enemies are in each difficulty.

Step 1: Open up the in-game Options menu (default: Esc) and select the Gameplay tab.

Step 2: Check the box next to "Monster Power" to enable it.

Step 3: Open up the Quest Selection window.

Step 4: Select your designed Monster Power level from the drop-down box near the bottom of the window, under "Difficulty Setting."

Step 5: Once you've set your Monster Power level, quest, and difficulty, click "Select Quest" to confirm.

Step 6: Enter game and profit!

"No Monster Power" is the default setting. Each Monster Power level will increase the health and damage of monsters, and in return players will receive scaling bonuses to experience (for heroes levels 1-60) as well as boosts to Magic Find and Gold Find (for heroes in Inferno) which will stack above the 300% cap. The option to increase Monster Power will be available to all players starting at level 1 and can be adjusted separately for Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno difficulty.

(Note: If you join a multiplayer game, you will adopt the Monster Level of the party leader. When you leave the party, your Monster Power level will automatically revert back to your previous setting.)



“Appear Offline” Option Coming Soon to Battle.net
We quickly gave a shout out to this new feature coming to battle.net and Diablo III in patch 1.0.5. For those who missed the small note, here is the full rundown.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

In the coming months, we're planning an update to Battle.net that will give you more control over your online presence when playing Blizzard games. Soon, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and Diablo III players will be able to select "Appear Offline" as one of their Battle.net social-status options (along with Available, Busy, and Away) for those times when they want to wander Azeroth by their lonesome, dominate the galaxy in radio silence, or slay demons in solitude. When you choose this option as your status, all of your Real ID friends, BattleTag friends, and character-level friends will see you as “Offline” in their friends list whenever you’re logged into a game.

The “Appear Offline” status option will be added to World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and Diablo III separately in future updates for each game. For Diablo III, we expect to add the feature in a patch after 1.0.5. For World of Warcraft and StarCraft II, we expect to add the option sometime after the release of each game’s upcoming expansion.

Thanks for your continued feedback, and we’ll share more information on the availability of this new feature in the months ahead.



Curse Weekly Roundup
This week the Curse weekly Roundup takes on a new look!

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