Ben Brode on Blackrock Mountain, Deck Spotlight: Lykan's Ramp Druid, IEM Katowice This Weekend - March 15th
BlizzCon 2015 Announced - Nov 6th and 7th
Join the Party at BlizzCon 2015 November 6 and 7
Instant Rift Closure
Tyvalir clarified today that Rifts being instantly closed when you speak to Orek is not an intentional undocumented change, but rather a bug. No plans to change that as of now, but they watching the feedback of players who say this feature is a good change. Read below.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hey guys, I wanted to clear up some confusion I've seen in this thread and elsewhere about why Rifts close on the PTR as soon as you speak to Orek after beating the Rift Guardian. Simply put, this is a bug which we'll be fixing before patch 2.2.0 goes live.
As a side note, we've heard players share feedback about the closing mechanism for Rifts when you're playing in groups. While we don't have any plans to change the timer before a Rift closes, we are continuing to pass these thoughts on to the design team.
Season 3 Exclusive Items
Nevalistis made a post listing which legendary items are planned to be exclusive to Season 3, which will come slightly after Patch 2.2 hits. Also note how the Bane of the Stricken gem will not be in Patch 2.2 as they are not happy with its current implementation. Check the list below.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The following items are intended to be Seasonal only for Season 3. Note that not everything on this list is currently flagged as a Season 3 item at this time. This is a bug and should be fixed in a future PTR patch:
As with previously reworked Seasonal items, once patch 2.2.0 launches, these items will no longer drop in non-Seasonal games and will remain removed from the non-Seasonal Legendary pool until Season 3 concludes.
- Dead Man's Legacy (rework)
- Dread Iron (rework)
- Nagelring (rework)
- Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac (rework)
- Hammer Belt (Placeholder Name)
- Ranslor's Folly
- Little Man's Finger
- Spirit Guards
- Iceblink (Legendary gem)
- Mutilation Guard (Legendary gem)
- Bottomless Potion of Amplification
On a related note, we will be removing Bane of the Stricken from Patch 2.2.0. We're not happy with its current implementation. It's possible we may revisit it in a later patch.
Set Bonuses Mix and Match
Wyatt Cheng tweeted about how the developers think sets might be considerably more appealing with the revamped set bonuses, namely the more interesting 2p and 4p ones. They hope it will allow for some mix and matching experimenting between the sets, as well as making the journey towards getting the 6 piece bonus more interesting.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Twitter)
There are so many great things about stronger/more interesting 2 and 4 piece bonuses on 6 piece sets.
It makes the journey so much more interesting as you assemble your set. Also, it allows some mix-and-match experimentation between sets.
Whirldwind Barb Testing
Rhykker has made some thorough testing with the Sets and items that support a Whirlwind focused Barbarian on Patch 2.2 PTR. Check the footage and analysis of each in the video.
Amazing how one of the best features of 2.2 is a fucking bug. Never been more dissapointed. While farming i ton of rifts. That 30 sec wait between them is dreadful. Atleast when you play alone.
There was another thing - progress globes in normal rifts. I thought 'hey that's nice, killing elites will be more rewarding now for any player, good idea blizzard ^^'. Yup, a bug too.
They'll either buff the Wastes set or nerf the IK set. Although since this is Blizzard, they'll likely nerf both and buff Demon Hunters.
You can't run IK WW in Greater rifts.
And clear time with Waste + zodiac is just better. You have perma wrath and survivability with perma wrath + waste set and the new bracers that i cannot spell.
Season exclusive items again.. sigh
Well, I guess this is at least our chance of having a say in the matter. WIth such a huge patch on its way, if everyone says they want that timer removed and we have a reasonable and mature discussion about it showing the devs that would be a good change, I'm sure they can listen and rethink their stance.
Most players agree that if Seasons don't have at least a few exclusive items, there's no incentive to playing them. To be fair, the way they have it set up (with seasonal legendaries becoming non-seasonal afterwards) and a reduced season duration, I can't think of a better way of pleasing both sides. I'd be thankful they aren't truly exclusive and only found on seasons during its duration.
I agree with Zero; I don't mind waiting a couple months for a season to end before getting access to certain items. It would be bad if you could *only* get these items during a season - wasn't that the case in D2? Some items were always ladder-only?