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Philosophy on Retroactive Changes

Wyatt Chang made a post on the forums explaining the developers' stance on retroactive changes to items. Check it out below!

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Will the new changes to legendary affixes be retroactive? E.g. Madstone, Leoric's Crown, Vigilante Belt. Would this apply retroactively to items that have had their affixes modified? (Thinking Flow of Eternity).

We try to avoid retroactive changes on items as much as possible. First and foremost, there needs to be a compelling reason for us to make an item change retroactive, because in an ideal situation, items should have a sense of permanence. As part of that permanence, we want to avoid creating an environment where players feel they need to hold on to a Legendary forever in hopes it gets buffed or changed in your favor.

There's a lot of philosophy that goes into when we make these decisions. First, we try to determine if the issue we're trying to solve can be done without changing the item. For example, say there's a problem with a Legendary. There's a few ways we can address that without messing with the item itself. Maybe the skill an item relies on is weak, maybe the skill merits a buff. We could also introduce a new Legendary item that offers a cool interaction or synergy with the "weak" one, and makes it better. 

Even in cases where an item is "too strong," we first ask ourselves if it's possible to introduce other, comparably strong items to compete with it and create choice. Stone of Jordan is a great example. It's a very strong item, but rather than nerfing it, we've chosen to introduce other, equally powerful rings as alternatives. 

Ultimately there are 3 situations that have come up to date that warranted a retroactive item change:

Situation 1. There might be a case where a mechanic is simply not something we want and no future Legendaries or skill adjustments will alleviate the problem. Those are the cases in which we make a retroactive decision. While we don’t like to nerf things, it was clear to the majority of the community that the Furnace and Rimeheart were causing problems and it is better for the overall health of the game. 

Situation 2. We have retroactively buffed set bonuses. The sets play a pivotal role in the overall power level of each class. If we introduce a new version of a single item such as Depth Diggers, we can do so without many side effects. In the case of altering a set bonus, trying to maintain set items with different set bonuses is impossible. If we made a new version of the set it raises questions of how the items mix-and match, confusion over the names and if the set effect is the same but with larger numbers it becomes just plain confusing. Do not expect us to do this type of retroactive change much in the future, our focus as a development team will be on bringing new Legendary items and new Set items to the game.

Situation 3. In the case of the 2-handed change we made the buff retroactive because we didn't want an entire class (Crusaders) to log in and feel substantially weaker due to the corresponding adjustment to Heavenly Strength. If we hadn't also been tweaking that passive, we probably wouldn't have made the increase to 2-Handed weapons retroactive. We try our best to avoid situations where a class logs in after a patch and feels substantially less powerful. In this case we had to choose between trying to avoid retroactive changes and ensuring a class doesn’t feel substantially weaker and we upheld the latter.

You shouldn't expect retroactive changes from us frequently, if at all. We really want items to feel permanent, and for players to feel free to salvage/vendor items without fear of regret.

Vigilante Belt on PTR

It appears that the ability recently added to the Vigilante Belt (on the PTR) to allow Monks to summon two Mystic Ally avatars is going to be moved to The Crudest Boots in a future build.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Now that Vigilante Belt is a monk legendaries it will only drop as non-smart-loot for other classes. But Vigilante Belt is also the only belt that was able to roll Cooldown Reduction. Please make another belt able to roll CDR so classes besides monks can still find a CDR belt!

Funny you should mention it, because we're going to make some changes relevant to this. We decided to revert the Vigilante Belt to it's previous form, so it'll be good for everyone again, and the Legendary power to summon two Mystic Allies has now been moved to The Crudest Boots.

Mystic Ally does not become available before LV 22, but the boots can currently become available at LV 8. Will you still be allowing the boots to drop at LV 8-21 without an affix and with the affix at LV 22+, or will it be another item whose minimum level at which it drops gets raised due to the affix?

Good question! The boots won't start dropping until level 22.

Console-related Blue Posts

There were quite a few posts related to the Ultimate Evil Edition (console version) of Reaper of Souls today, clarifying things like inventory management, future patches and save transfers. Below is a roundup of them!

Originally Posted by Blizzard

Inventory Management on Coop
Over the course of a local co-op game, someone's eventually going to need to get up and refill their beverage or attend to other worldly needs. The way my buddies and I work it out is we just tend to wait until those breaks for the chance to do what we need to in town or in the inventory menus. Also, it should be noted that the auto-follow feature makes it convenient for players to get up at a moment’s notice without inconveniencing the others. 

Also, although it’s not going to eliminate the need for inventory management, local co-op mode in Ultimate Evil Edition features a dedicated loot system in favor of the shared loot. That is to say, loot will be assigned to a specific player in the group when it drops. If you pick up gear that’s meant for another player onscreen, it will automatically go into their inventory. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
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Unlocking Bounties

 Does anyone happen to know if you have no prior saves or anything like that ( literally a fresh install on a new system) and want to do Bounties fresh from lvl 1 would it be possible? Basically 
will adventure mode be available from a fresh start?

You unlock Adventure Mode only after you defeat Malthael on Campaign Mode.

Correct! In order to access Adventure Mode in Ultimate Evil Edition, you must first defeat Malthael in Campaign Mode.  

The exception is if you unlock Adventure Mode on the PS3 version of UEE, and then transfer your save to the PS4 or Xbox One version of the game, your progress will transfer with you. In this specific case, you won't have to unlock Adventure Mode again.

Good luck defeating Malthael, ChipotleGG! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
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Inventory Management on Coop

 They are going to patch on consoles. 

Read here, from today. 

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/08/07/diablo-iii-on-ps4-new-ultimate-evil-edition-details/#sf4047236

Adding to this, here’s the Xbox One news.

my xbox 360 version froze and deleted all of my hard drive data. i had 41 of the 45 achievements, 4 level 60 charecters, and 1 witchdoctor that could run inferno master V with no difficulty,I was on paragon 45, and i saved 24 infernal machines to be ready to do them when the new expansion came out. I love the diablo series and i used to play the diablo 2 LOD with much anticipation on diablo 3 to come out. Now i really dont know if i will be playing since all of my hours of fun play and finds have gone down the drain. please help me blizzard my email is oliver91387@hotmail.com

On consoles, the Diablo III game data is stored directly on the console itself by default. Unfortunately, if the save file information is lost or has been corrupted,we would not be able to offer to restore that. As a general precaution, we advise players to back their save files up to external media devices or cloud saves (if available). If you continue to experience difficulties with getting the game to run on your system, I recommend that you reach out to Microsoft Support directly.  (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
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Exporting Saves from Xbox to Xbox-360

 SO I was silly and traded in my copy of D3 on Xbox 360 to preorder Xbox one version before I thought of transferring. I have my D3 data saved to the cloud, and have linked my gamer tag and battle-net account. Will I be able to transfer my old data to Xbox one without booting up the Xbox 360 version?

If anyone else has thought of this or if Blizzard could let me know, that would rock.

In order to export your save, you will need access either to the digital or physical copy of the original game for PS3/360. A rented or borrowed disc would work – it doesn’t have to be your original copy. 

Quick shout-out from our FAQ:

Q. What if I no longer have access to my original Diablo III disc and/or current-gen platform?

If you no longer have access to your original Diablo III disc and/or current-gen platform, don't worry—you may still be able to transfer your save data to another brand or platform generation for Ultimate Evil Edition.

You’ll need your save file (available via cloud storage, USB, hard drive, or memory unit), any current-gen Diablo III disc or a digital version of the game, and access to a current-gen platform (as with the disc, the platform doesn’t need to be yours).

From there, follow these steps:

• Step 1: Insert the original Diablo III disc or launch the digital version of the game.
• Step 2: Ensure that you are connected to the Internet.
• Step 3: Download and install patch 1.0.3 for Diablo III onto the system.
• Step 4: Log in to your Sony Entertainment Network or Xbox Live account.
• Step 5: Import your saved data as normal (Xbox 360, PS3).
• Step 6: Depending on what kind of transfer you’re looking to process at this point, refer to the appropriate category below for instructions on how to export and import saves from Diablo III to Ultimate Evil Edition.

In your case, since you're looking to move from Xbox 360 to Xbox One, here are the instructions you'll want to follow after.

More information about cross-brand/cross-generation transfers is available in that thread.. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
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Export Save Question

 If you select the export save option today, then do it again in two weeks before the game comes out, will the new save you export overwrite the old one? If this was answered in the FAQ I missed it.

The feature will only ever maintain your latest export. If you’re planning on continuing your adventure in the meantime, you’ll want to hold off or re-export when it comes time for the jump to Ultimate Evil Edition on your next generation console of choice. It’s worth noting that if you’re getting the game for the same console (PS3, Xbox 360), no export is necessary. The new game will read the existing save file. For reference, our article about console save transfers can be found here. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PTR Skill Effects

We have uploaded to our Youtube channel a video with a compilation of some of the recently changed skill animations on the Public Test Realm. If you haven't had the chance of seeing those by yourself, check the video below.