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Thorns is another affix we feel leaves a lot to be desired -- not just in co-op games, but in solo games too. It's not a bad stat, per se, and there are many builds that can benefit from it, but it definitely needs some tuning before it can really be considered competitive. We don't have anything planned for the short term, but for the long term we've considered various improvements and tweaks like allowing thorns to benefit from primary stats, building in additional passive support, as well as having one of the gem bonuses give a boost to that style of damage. (We've also tossed around the idea of adding another affix that's very similar to thorns, but has a much more universal function and would be able to benefit all classes [i.e. ranged + melee damage] without the need for passive skill support.)

We've definitely discussed the possibility of allowing Hellfire Rings to salvage into component pieces, and have debated your feedback quite heavily as a part of that process. While we understand why players would like Hellfire Rings to salvage into demonic organs (or even Keywarden keys), we don't think that's the right way to go right now since it would essentially let you skip some encounters completely. It's something we may revisit in the future, though, once the event has been around for a longer period of time.

We do agree with you, however, that the rings should be able to salvage into Brimstones, in addition to Magic and Rare crafting materials. The reason we didn't go with Brimstones originally was that we wanted to avoid the situation where you could always get that particular mat from a single item, over and over. The idea doesn't really sync up with our design philosophy, and the market is pretty saturated with Brimstones as-is. Even so, we know that it can feel cheap to not have a chance to get a Legendary material from a Legendary item, and we don't feel like our original reasons continue to hold up in light of the feedback you've provided us.

Since I know this will get brought up: We're also exploring ways to improve the worth of Brimstones, as well as crafting in general. We feel like the system itself could use some revamping, but we're not yet at a point where we can discuss what kind of changes we're considering. We haven't ruled out the possibility of introducing new recipes at some point in the future, though, or introducing other ways for players to put their crafting materials to good use.

An important thing to keep in mind is that we don't make public announcements every time we action players for cheating, and the reason for this is that we are constantly removing this kind of exploitative behavior from the game -- on a weekly basis, sometimes even on daily basis. Public announcements would become tedious if we decided to make one every single time we banned someone for using a bot, a hack, or some other kind of cheat. Instead, we usually will post something whenever we issue a big wave, or whenever we feel like we need to remind players that exploitative behavior is not okay and can lead to a permanent ban from Diablo III.

It's something we take very seriously, though. Our developers, support staff, and anti-hack teams are all busting their butts to ensure that your online experience is as free of cheats, hacks, and bots as possible. From the development side, we look at ways to reduce the effects of exploitative behavior on the community and/or prevent certain programs from working outright. This trick here is to make sure that whatever we do doesn't negatively impact legitimate players, which is actually a very fine tightrope to walk (you saw the complications of that whenever we introduced game limiting). From the support side, we make sure that your in-game reports reach our anti-hacks teams. And from the anti-hack side, we take action on players that we are able to confirm to be maliciously exploiting the game, be it through botting or other forms of cheating.

The reality to all of this, though, is that even though we devote considerable time, effort, and heart to removing bad behavior from the game, there will always be individuals who excel at coming up with new ways of getting around the roadblocks we put up. So, it's a constant battle, but one that we're willing to fight. If you want to pitch in, you can; the easiest way to do so is by emailing hacks@blizzard.com or submitting a report through our webform.

And, just for clarity, let me repeat:

- Exploitative behavior is not okay (this includes botting).
- If you are found to be exploiting the game, you can be permanently banned.
- Source: https://us.battle.ne...oitation-policy

Btw as i read on some bot forum (am not botting just like to read the ban reports:) ) the last public statement called "diablo players banned" was about people using maphack and that zoom out thingy not a massive bot banwave.
It included, but certainly was not limited to, that particular type of behavior. We called it out specifically in the announcement, so it's nothing new.

So, how many dead villagers are there?
I think this is rather interesting and am glad you put it together. I didn’t notice the house-to-people ratio in Diablo III right away, but I would say that generally the fantasy genre usually has strange environment-to-actor ratios. As long as you’re enjoying your Tristram census, I wouldn’t worry about how you spend your time in Diablo III. (Though, it might be another story if you did something like a machinima series of CSI-style investigations into each one of their deaths. :P) (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

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