Card Design Competition #7, Deck Talk: Neirea - Secret Balance Mage, Blizzard Stream Awards
Weekly Sales: Chef Stitches & Blood Elf Tyrande, Blizzard Stream Awards
Patch 6.1.2 PTR - Build 19750, BRF LFR Wing 3, Blizzard Streamer Awards, Blue Posts
PTR Patch 2.2 Texture Changes
Below you can check a montage with some notable texture changes datamined from the latest Patch 3 on the 2.2 PTR. Note some of these (Premium Pass, Cosmetics UI Icons) seem to be exclusive to the new Store/Cosmetics system being implemented in the Asian servers as datamined some time ago. Click the image to see the its full resolution version.
Season 2 Ending Soon?
We had a blue thread earlier today titled "Season 2 Ending Soon" - recently updated to be less misleading. Its purpose is to explain to us how the 30-day notice before the end of the Season is changing to a 15-day notice. Now bear in mind Nevalistis said this post is not said notice, so the Season is not ending in 15 days! But maybe it's a lot closer than we expect. Let the speculations begin...
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We've been thrilled to see so many players actively participating in Season 2 as well as on the PTR for our upcoming 2.2.0 patch. Your feedback has been integral in the great strides we've made towards not only our next patch, but our next Season. As we previously mentioned during our most recent Tavern Talk, we want to ensure our patching schedule provides the best player experience possible while allowing us to provide updates in a timely fashion. To facilitate this, we're moving towards the following model:
We received a lot of feedback during Season 1 that thirty days was too long a time frame for an end of season announcement. For Season 2, we'd like to instead provide a two week notice. At the time of that notice, we will also provide the exact times that Season 2 will end as well as the date and exact times that Season 3 will begin.
- End the current Season
- Launch our latest patch
- Begin the next Season
Please note that this post is not the two-week warning. While we don't have that information to share with you today, we want those of you participating in the current Season to know what to expect moving forward so you might plan accordingly to meet your Seasonal goals.
In the meantime, we wish all Season 2 challengers the best of luck, whether it’s knocking out a Conquest, putting together your perfect set of gear, seeing how high you can get in Greater Rifts, or wherever your adventures may take you.
Bloodshard Cap Increase
There was a blue post clarifying how the blood shard increase coming in Patch 2.2 is likely going to work. It's not going to be "retroactive", that is, you will have to run additional solo Greater Rifts to update the cap. Read the other details below.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Just a few clarifications:
Hope this is more clear!
- The boost to your cap is not retroactive. You will need to run additional solo Greater Rifts after 2.2.0 goes live to update your Blood Shard cap.
- Your cap will increase by 10 per solo Greater Rift level completed. For example, if you complete a level 20 solo Greater Rift right after the patch launches, your cap will increase to 700 (a bonus of 200). If you then complete a level 21 solo Greater Rift, your cap will increase by another 10 ( and so forth).
- Your "Personal Best" is defined by the highest Greater Rift level you reach. In the case of increasing your Blood Shard cap, this only applies to your highest solo Greater Rift level reached.
PTR Buff is Back
The buff to legendary drop ratio on the PTR is back to allow players to more easily find those new and changed legendaries. All meant to facilitate the actual feedback from the testing players without forcing them to go through a couple dozen hours of farming to provide that. Read below.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Patch 2.2.0 is introducing a lot of new and revised Legendary and Set items to the game. Some may find it challenging to gear effectively within a short testing window, especially if you don't happen to own some of the items receiving updates or want to test Legendaries with a newly created Seasonal character. To help facilitate item testing, we will be activating community buffs during the course of the PTR.
The following buffs are now active on the PTR:
This buff is temporary and will run starting today until March 18 at 9:00 p.m. PDT. We may activate additional buffs throughout the course of the PTR as testing needs arise.
- 2000% Bonus Chance to find Legendaries
- 300% Bonus to Experience gained
- Double Treasure Goblin spawns
- Double Blood Shards earned
As always, your feedback is appreciated and we thank you for participating in our latest testing phase.
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Posted Mar 11, 2015I like the season 3/ hots portrait and the banner that looks to go along with it. :V
also, shout out to the bloodshard cap increase, again!
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Posted Mar 12, 2015and here i thought, texture changes would mean an update for the awful armor textures this game has.
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Posted Mar 12, 2015And as soon as the buff was back. Ptr was filled to the brim of loot whores and ptr was yet again unplayable. gg blizz
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Posted Mar 12, 2015For some reason even the live servers is getting super laggy after this buff has gone live. Had the same problem when the buff was live a few days ago.
Checked the official forums and i'am not the only one with this problem.
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Posted Mar 12, 2015There are (most likely) two reasons why this is happening are:
1. Tons of people trying to get into and playing on the servers make it harder for the machines to keep up with all the sessions. After all, PTR is scaling for a testing audience, not a production crowd.
2. Each item drop processes the algorithm for determining the item's attributes (rare vs leg, sword vs shield, affixes, etc.). The huge increase in drops puts strain on the game client. It also is creating an entry on the game database when the item is picked up, because it has to associate the item id with the space IDs for inventory.
All of these extra functions (combined with the # of people from point 1) will cause the PTR to be "laggy."
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Posted Mar 12, 2015What is this Premium Pass? I typically know what it is for most games, but how does that translate to Diablo or any other Blizzard game?
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Posted Mar 12, 2015^ This! Very curious/apprehensive about anything "premium" or "pass." =.=
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Posted Mar 12, 2015We recently datamined information about a potential Free to Play version of D3 that might allow players to purchase "temporary" content (Act V, new character slots, etc) and also a currency called Platinum used to buy cosmetic items (like new wings, pets, portrait frames, pennants) and temporary buffs.
Bear in mind that at first this functionality will only come to the Asian servers. They are likely going to "test" them there, see if the model works, and maybe later bring it to the NA/EU market. Nothing confirmed so far except for the fact that these -will not- affect NA/EU servers at first!
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Posted Mar 12, 2015I don't quite get the Blood Shard Cap increase...
So say the patch goes live and I clear a level 30 Rift... Even if that's NOT my current best, will I still get the blood shard cap increase, or do I have to get a new personal best to trigger the cap?
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Posted Mar 12, 2015Your previous personal best does not matter. It's not retroactive.
If you clear a level 30 GRift you're immediately gonna get +300 extra cap (after the change is live, after Patch 2.2 hits).
If you clear a level 50 GRfit you're gonna upgrade it from +300 to +500 bloodshards. Anything in between (from 30 to 31 for instance) awards a +10 cap per level.
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Posted Mar 12, 2015Awesome, thanks. Although as I'm to impatient to do anything other than spunk all my bloodshards the moment I leave a Grift, this change probably wont effect me all that much :D.