Top Standard Decks for June 2016, July 2016 Season Begins - Halfhill, The Angry Chicken #157 - The One with Chakki
Mystic Kingdoms Arthas & Crimson Hare, Team League Rewards Buffed, Twitter Tease
Legion Developer Q&A - PvP
New Diablo Job - Game Director
Blizzard has a very interesting new job opening for an unnanounced project in their career page - they're looking to hire a new game director for the Diablo franchise! Some very interesting responsabilities and requirements - check it out.
Focused Feedback Threads & Season Journey
The focused feedback threads are back for the latest PTR Patch 2.4.2 patch, so if you're helping them test the massive changes to crowd control, support skills and the end-game group meta feel free to leave your two cents over at the official forums.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
While the PTR is down:Great question, Hebalon. Here's what you can expect in each tier, for convenience:
Can you please give a list of the new Rift-related achievements? Or maybe even a complete list of all achievements? Is HC level 70 still required?
Is it still T10 in 3 minutes? What time is needed for T11, 12, 13?
So far, the first 4 Chapters look reasonable, and I absolutely like the idea that the full set requires a little bit more then 3 simple tasks.
Chapter I
Chapter II - Completing rewards 1st Haedrig's Gift
- Complete a Nephalem Rift
- Equip 5 Gems into your gear
- Level your Blacksmith to 10
- Level your Jeweler to 10
- Level your Mystic to 10
- Complete 5 Bounties
- Defeat Izual at any difficulty level
- Defeat Rakanoth at any difficulty level
- Reach level 50
Chapter III - Completing rewards 2nd Haedrig's Gift
- Complete a Nephalem Rift on Expert difficulty
- Level all artisans to 12
- Craft a level 70 item from the Blacksmith
- Craft a level 70 item from the Jeweler (Ring or Amulet)
- Enchant an item using the Mystic
- Fully equip a follower
- Defeat Cydaea at Hard difficulty or higher
- Defeat Siegebreaker at Hard difficulty or higher
- Reach level 70
- Unlock Kanai's Cube
Chapter IV - Completing rewards 3rd/Final Haedrig's Gift + New Portrait Frame and Pennant
- Complete a Nephalem Rift on Master difficulty
- Transmogrify an item
- Craft an Imperial level gem
- Learn 5 Blacksmithing recipes
- Learn 5 Jewelcrafting recipes
- Buy 1 item from Kadala
- Defeat Belial at Master difficulty or higher
- Defeat Maghda at Master difficulty or higher
- Complete a full set (Act I-V) of bounties
- Extract 1 Legendary Power into Kanai's Cube
Slayer - Rewards Portrait Frame
- Complete a Nephalem Rift on Torment I difficulty
- Enchant a weapon to have a socket at the Mystic
- Defeat Odeg (A1 Keywarden) on Torment 4 or higher
- Defeat Sokahr (A2 Keywarden) on Torment 4 or higher
- Defeat Xah'Rith (A3 Keywarden) on Torment 4 or higher
- Defeat Nekarat (A4 Keywarden) on Torment 4 or higher
- Defeat the Spider Queen at Torment II difficulty or higher
- Defeat the Skeleton King at Torment II difficulty or higher
- Complete a Greater Rift level 20 solo
- Upgrade a rare item to legendary using Kanai's Cube
Champion - Rewards Portrait Frame
- Complete a Nephalem Rift on Torment V difficulty
- Level one Legendary Gem to level 25 or higher
- Complete the Realm of Regret (A1 Uber) on Torment VI or higher
- Complete the Realm of Putridness (A2 Uber) on Torment VI or higher
- Obtain a Legendary from Kadala
- Complete one Set Dungeon
- Defeat the Butcher at Torment VI difficulty or higher
- Defeat Zoltun Kulle at Torment VI difficulty or higher
- Complete a Greater Rift 35 solo
- Equip additional legendary powers for weapon, armor, and jewelry via Kanai's Cube
Destroyer - Rewards Portrait Frame
- Complete a Torment X Nephalem Rift in under 6 minutes
- Level 3 Legendary Gems to 35 or higher
- Craft a Flawless Royal gem at the Jewelcrafter
- Complete the Realm of Terror (A3 Uber) on Torment X or higher
- Complete the Realm of Fright (A4 Uber) on Torment X or higher
- Master a Set Dungeon
- Defeat Malthael at Torment X difficulty or higher
- Defeat Urzael at Torment XI difficulty or higher
- Complete a Greater Rift 50 solo
- Use Kanai's Cube to convert a Set Item
Conqueror - Rewards 1 additional Stash Tab
- Complete a Torment XII Nephalem Rift in under 6 minutes
- Level 3 Legendary Gems to 45 or higher
- Craft a Hellfire Amulet
- Complete 1 Conquest
- Defeat Diablo at Torment XIII difficulty
- Defeat Adria at Torment XIII difficulty
- Complete a Greater Rift 60 solo
- Use Kanai's Cube to augment an Ancient item with a level 30+ gem
- Extract 20 Legendary powers into Kanai's Cube
Guardian - Rewards Portrait Frame
- Complete a Torment XIII Nephalem Rift in under 5 minutes
- Level 3 Legendary Gems to 55 or higher
- Complete 2 Conquests
- Defeat Ghom at Torment XIII difficulty in under 30 seconds
- Defeat Rakanoth at Torment XIII difficulty
- Complete a Greater Rift 70 solo
- Use Kanai's Cube to augment two Ancients with level 40+ gems
- Use Kanai's Cube to reforge a Legendary item
Sorry if it's a bit messy to read. Tried to get this up for everyone to reference ASAP, so let me know if you see any issues (as there was much copypasta involved).
- Complete a Torment XIII Nephalem Rift in under 4 minutes
- Level 3 Legendary Gems to 65 or higher
- Complete 3 Conquests
- Defeat Azmodan at Torment XIII difficulty in under 15 seconds
- Complete a Greater Rift 80 solo
- Use Kanai's Cube to augment three Ancients with level 50+ gems
- Extract 40 legendary powers into Kanai's Cube
New Ban Wave
Quite a few users are reporting on our forums and over on Reddit a new ban wave on players who used third party software, hacks or bots, on the live version of D3. Unfortunately it seems that quite a few players are reporting potentially false positives.
Quick PSA: while there's no guarantee that a ban will be lifted, specially for those who are guilty, some users are claiming that contacting Customer Support may get your case reviewed - for those who are absolutely 100% certain they did not use anything.
Really nice new seasonal achievements, the last one will be harder this time
Now they're looking for a director?! cmoooooooooooooon D4!
Gr80 solo? Damn, I can't even do 75 currently, like, not even close due to lacking damage. Gr80 seems very hard for people not able to play much or those unlucky with drops/crafting. I guess it's fine. Pains me that I don't think I'll manage to complete the journey but I can see a lot of players thinking previous journeys were too easy being happy/ier.
I have yet to unlock a stash tab through achievements, and at this rate, I never will. I am a casual player by definition, but D3 is the only game I play and I play it as often as my wife, 2 kids and work allow. I appreciate ramping up difficulty as power creep demands, but making rewards that were previously available under a hard level of difficulty even harder seems pretty unrewarding to me.
I don't really know much about big game development, but a Game Director seems like the kind of thing you need to have in place before you start making something... That would suggest that it's a long way off still.
Season changes would be nice if they'd addressed solo play and classes at all, but with the continued mismanagement of the game of late I'm losing interest fast. Has such a high percentage of the playerbase finished this season's Guardian already that they felt it had to become magnitudes more difficult? I sort of doubt it. Might just skip this whole patch/season altogether.
Thanks god the level 70 hardcore toon is gone.
Alltogether I think the stash tab is possible for everyone with just a little dedication. And guardian shouldn't be too easy to achieve imho, after all it's just a portrait frame, so if you really want it, you've got to invest time to get it. Just like the set dungeon wings. They were pretty hard to get before the dungeons got nerfed, I was proud to have them from the start of that patch's season. It wouldn't feel right if every casual player could earn them just like that.
As for headrig's gift, well, that should take a good while longer to get it now, but I think that way it might feel more like you've earned it. But on the other hand, it might just be useless since you already found the items you'll get on the way to completing the journey. So I'm kinda torn here.
i got banned and i din du nofing
Game director. Well i guess d3 expansion is out of the question then. Seeing how they allready got most of the people needed for a d3 expansion. My guess is either d4 or maybe they make some overwatch bullshit diablo pvp shit. Then im out for sure.
I really hope it will be D2 HD.
BTW, try D2 Median XL Ultimative. Beats the crap out of D3.
They already have a MMO, a card game, an RTS, an ARPG, a MOBA, and an FPS. What could they possibly want to make?
No need to do more banwave, Gabynator isnt coming back.
before d4, there will be warcraft 4 first and maybe a lost vikings strategy game
It looks like all of the Greater Rift requirements for season journey has been reduced by 10 (with the exception of Slayer, which was reduced by 5).
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/20745095729?page=3#52
It sounds reasonable on the surface, but really, that's 40 minutes a day, every day, assuming 120 days a season. Work a double? Next day you have to put in 1h 20m just to keep you minimum of 80 hours. But lets say you can only play on weekends, that's 2h 33m you have to put in each day of your two days off or just over 5 hours straight if you only have one day to play.
I try to get in one Rift before the kids wake up, and a Grift when I get home from work. That's about 30m a day, or about 20 hours a season. To be fair, I try to get a couple of hours on both my weekend days, which would bring me to 68 hours a season.
But then, I don't actually get to play 30 minutes a day, or 4 hours a weekend.
My point is, if power creep makes you raise the difficulty level, you shouldn't make the previously attainable rewards just harder to get. That makes EVERYONE who didn't get the reward in an earlier season just feel like shit, like they missed out on an exclusive reward. If every season, I just barely get to the stash tab I would have received LAST season, I am going to feel pretty defeated before I even START next season.
I see a lot of comments around saying that it should be reasonable to expect someone to play 90+ hrs per season to complete their season journey. Now I get that the journey should involve investing some time and effort, but - how many other games do you also put in 90+ hrs per few months repeatedly? Or should you only be allowed to play one video game? I've invested far more time into Diablo 3 than I have almost every other video game I can think of. Far more than almost all of them last for. Not playing 3+hrs a day means I don't have the highest paragon, or the strongest character. I don't get on leaderboards. That's fine. But you shouldn't feel like you failed at a season because you couldn't afford to make Diablo your one and only piece of entertainment for three months.