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"Adventure Awaits"
Hero Rotation Update, Tempest Jaina & Zerg Hunter Zeratul Now Available
Patch 6.1.2 PTR - Build 19711, CC DR Changes, Blue Tweets, Patch 6.1 Known Issues

New Set Pieces

John Yang tweeted some very interesting new pieces of information today. The 5 Reaper of Souls vanilla class sets are getting an extra piece in the next PTR patch (not confirmed to go live yet), Jade Harvester will get some new bonuses to make up for the changes that affect Spirit Walk and the Wrath of the Wastes (Whirlwind) set is getting a couple changes too. Read below.

Originally Posted by Blizzard

The 5 vanilla class sets will get a 7th piece in the next PTR patch. Should help w/ gearing/power issues since the sets have weapon/jewelry. (Twitter)

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Jade Harvester will get new 2pc/4pc bonuses and a new complementary item to make up for the Immunity changes that affect Spirit Walk. (Twitter)

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@itsNobbie WW Set has changed and should feel more like WW. WW won't require Rend on target for dmg. You'll see it next PTR patch in a week. (Twitter)

Immunity Skill Cooldowns

It was clarified by Tyvalir today that some "immunity" skills are getting changes in the next PTR patch. The whole notion of being completely impervious to damage has always been under their radar, as it negates a huge part of Diablo's gameplay, and is definitely something the devs are not comfortable with. Read the details below.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

I see perma-serenity w/ Zodiac pushing Team ICE up a few notches.

It’s interesting that you mention permanent Serenity uptime.

The concept of permanent immunity has actually been on our radar since we introduced Cooldown Reduction in Reaper of Souls. Since then, we’ve seen many players who have been able to skirt the edges of permanent immunity using this affix. Frankly, we think that’s awesome, since we love it that players can customize their characters in different ways.

While it’s our goal for CDR to be a desirable affix, and while we’re okay with players greatly reducing the cooldown of their immunity skills, we also want to avoid a scenario where permanent immunity is possible. For instance, in patch 2.1.2, we put a cooldown on Smoke Screen to mitigate permanent immunity builds for the Demon Hunter so that you couldn’t chain this skill back-to-back.

Starting in the next PTR patch, we’ll be applying this philosophy to the following immunity skills.

• Spirit Walk
• Serenity
• Smoke Screen
• Laws of Hope – Stop Time

With this, the cooldowns on these skills will begin after their buff ends. To minimize negatively impacting the normal use case for these skills, we’re lowering the cooldown time to compensate – for example, Serenity is going from a 20 second cooldown that starts on activation, to a 16 second cooldown that starts when Serenity ends.

Previously, we may have decided against adding an item power to the game that might lead to permanent invulnerability. However, with these new changes, we’ll have much more freedom in designing new and powerful items, since there will be a stop gap to ensure that permanent invincibility is no longer a concern.

We wanted to let you all know about the above changes in advance, so that you’ll be prepared for them in the next PTR patch. I'll be eager to hear everyone's thoughts once these changes actually go into effect.

GR Pylons Not Spawning

Some people have considered Pylons not spawning in Greater Rifts an undocumented PTR change, and quite a few actually think that is the way to solve some higher GR RNG influence. A reply earlier today explained how that is actually a bug, and not an intended change. See below.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Just curious if anyone knows of a blue confirmation that there won't be any pylons in 2.2 grifts (there currently aren't)? I personally welcome the change, but would like to see if there's an official statement.

Note: all the top leaderboard spots are pylon-based. Plenty of videos out there to prove it, meaning it's another layer of RNG (and exploits - considering you can 'force spawn' pylons for those of you who know how).

Hey Mikhail!

Just wanted to jump in here quickly to confirm that pylons not spawning in Greater Rifts on the PTR is a bug, which we'll be fixing in an upcoming PTR patch.

We've previously mentioned that we'd like pylons to be fun and helpful to find, whether you're in Rifts or Greater Rifts. At the same time, we don't want them to be a strong determining factor in achieving high positions on the Greater Rift leaderboards.

We've made changes in the past to how pylons spawn, as well as to their overall power levels, in order to achieve this goal. We'll also continue to tune them and make other adjustments as needed going forward.

Patch 2.2 PTR Impressions

Rhykker has put up a video talking about some changes in Patch 2.2 PTR, how new sets work and showcasing the cosmetics user interface. A few corrections to point out - Wrath of the Wastes is getting reworked next patch to not require Rend for Whirlwind to deal extra damage, and Krede's Flame affix isn't new. Still quite an entertaining show - check it out!