Patch 2.6.4 PTR Preview
Blizzard has shared a preview of the upcoming PTR changes, which include quality-of-life changes, class set balancing, and seasonal buffs.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment (Official Post)
We’re launching the Patch 2.6.4 PTR later this week for some rapid-paced testing, and we want you to have the full download before you jump in to provide feedback. Between long-requested quality of life changes, class set balancing, and a new game-changing seasonal buff, Season 16 is going to be quite the journey.
PTR Details
We will be conducting the Patch 2.6.4 PTR over the course of one week, starting Wednesday, November 21. During the course of the PTR, there may be periodic maintenances, outages, hotfixes, or minor patches.
There will be two buffs active to help you on your PTR journey: increased Legendary drop rate and double Blood Shard drops. This should allow everyone to acquire any class set items (or supplemental items) that might be needed!
Feedback should be provided in the PTR Feedback forum while bug reportsshould be provided in the PTR Bug Report forum; clearly separating these tracks allows our designers and quality assurance testers to hone in on the information they need most!
PTR Goals
With a huge number of class set changes and a game-breaking Seasonal buff, we know it will be very tempting to get your hands on as much as you can! To help guide your focus, we’d like to offer our insight behind what we’d most like to see tested.
- Players pushing Greater Rifts as high as possible in both Seasonal and Non-Seasonal play
- Experimentation with class set mix-and-matches, as made possible by the Season of Grandeur buff
PTR Tips
This PTR is a little different from ones we have conducted in the past (and it’s been a while since we last had one). Whether you’re a seasoned PTR veteran or this is your first go around, here are a few tips to get you started.
- Because of the limited duration of this PTR, we ask that participants pick a particular portion of this update to focus on testing.
- For example, if you’re primarily a Monk player, consider what changes impact the Monk specifically. What you like best, what you think may still need adjustment, and what you may want to see in the future (even if that may be beyond the scope of this patch) are all good questions to ask yourself.
- Prior to the start of PTR, consider stocking up on items like Puzzle Rings and Bovine Bardiches. Having these available after you import your character can make any necessary PTR farming much faster!
- Try to break things! Just tell us when you do so we can make sure the 2.6.4 launch is as smooth as possible for all our fans.
- When providing feedback, focus less on a solution and more on your experience. How did the changes make you feel? Was there something off you noticed? Did something seem wrong or insufficient? Suggestions are always welcome but identifying the issues themselves is most important.
Patch Notes
Last updated November 19 @ 10:00 p.m. PST.
Below you'll find the preliminary PTR patch notes for patch 2.6.4. Please note that this isn't the final version of the patch notes and that some changes may not be documented or described in full detail.
PTR PATCH 2.6.4 - v2.6.4.49286
To provide feedback on patch 2.6.4, please visit the PTR Feedback forum.
To report any issues you experience while playing, please visit the PTR Bug Report forum.
For additional information on how to participate in the PTR, click here.
- General
- Quality of Life
- Philosophy
- For this patch, we wanted to include a few frequently requested Quality of Life changes and focused on better celebrating and indicating Primal Legendary drops.
- Five (5) additional Armory tabs have been added for all characters, bringing the total to 10
- Greater Rift Keystones are now stored in the Materials tab
- Any existing Greater Rift Keystones in both inventory and stash have been automatically moved
- Primal Legendaries are now marked by a red beam when they drop
- Primal Legendaries on the ground are now indicated by a red pentagram icon on the mini-map
- Primal Legendaries now have a red border and updated background on their icons
- Greater Rifts
- Philosophy
- The gameplay of micro-managing Paragon points during the course of a Greater Rift doesn't feel like especially engaging gameplay, nor was it consistent with the other existing rules of entering a Greater Rift. In addition, the below change to matchmaking is to make it much easier for all players to find groups for Greater Rifts, as the previous window (only between Greater Rifts) is typically very small.
- Paragon points can no longer be swapped while a Greater Rift is open
- Players can now be matched into public games where a Greater Rift is open
- Players who join in this manner will not be able to enter the active Rift
- Players inside the Rift will be able to continue with no additional difficulty scaling until the run has been completed
- Seasons
- Season 16: Season of Grandeur
- The buff for Season of Grandeur has been implemented
- This buff gives all Seasonal players the legendary power from Ring of Royal Grandeur
- This buff does not stack with additional Ring of Royal Grandeur (either equipped or in Kanai's Cube)
- Unlike previous Seasonal buffs, this buff will not apply to Non-Seasonal players
- When completing a Greater Rift level 70 solo for the first time in a Season, a Primal Legendary is guaranteed to drop from the Rift Guardian
- Class Set Changes
- Philosophy
- We are taking another tuning pass across all class sets to improve class and set diversity at higher level Greater Rifts. Please note that these values are not final and we anticipate some adjustments to occur during the course of PTR.
- All Classes
- Legacy of Nightmares
- The (2) Set bonus has been increased from 100% to 500%
- Barbarian
- The Legacy of Raekor
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 2800% to 7000%
- Immortal King's Call
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 1500% to 4000%
- Might of the Earth
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 5600% to 20000%
- Wrath of the Wastes
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 3000% to 10000%
- Crusader
- Thorns of the Invoker
- The (2) Set bonus has been increased from 140% to 350%
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 5400% to 15000%
- Roland's Legacy
- The (4) Set bonus has been increased from 3300% to 13000%
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 50% increased Attack Speed to 75%
- Seeker of the Light
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 2000% Blessed Hammer damage to 12000%
- Demon Hunter
- Embodiment of the Maruader
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 3000% to 12000%
- Unhallowed Essence
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 100% to 350%
- Natalya's Vengeance
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 3500% to 14000%
- The Shadow's Mantle
- The (2) Set bonus has been increased from 1200% to 6000%
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 50000% to 75000%
- Monk
- Uliana's Strategem
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 2100% to 9000%
- Inna's Mantra
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 150% to 1500%
- Monkey King's Garb
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 1000% to 1500%
- Raiment of a Thousand Storms
- The (2) Set bonus has been increased from 100% to 400%
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 13000% Dashing Strike damage to 60000%
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 1300% Spirit Generator damage to 6000%
- Necromancer
- Trag'Oul's Avatar
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 3300% to 3800%
- Witch Doctor
- Spirit of Arachyr
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 4500% to 9000%
- Helltooth Harness
- The (2) Set bonus has been increased from 1500% to 3000%
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 4400% to 9000%
- Raiment of the Jade Harvester
- The (2) Set bonus has been increased from 560 seconds to 3500 seconds
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 1650 seconds to 10000 seconds
- Zunimassa's Haunt
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 5500% to 15000%
- Wizard
- Tal Rasha's Elements
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 750% to 3000%
- Delsere's Magnum Opus
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 3800% to 8500%
- Vyr's Amazing Arcana
- The (6) Set bonus has been increased from 50% bonus damage to 100%
How to Particpate
To participate in the public test, you must have a Diablo III game license attached your Battle.net account in good standing (i.e. one that hasn't been suspended or banned). In addition, you will also need to download and install the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app if you have not already done so.
Step 1: Create a PTR account. To create a PTR account, log in to Blizzard Battle.net Account Management and double-click on your Diablo III game license; this will bring you to the game management page. On this page, click "Create a PTR account.
If you've participated in any previous Diablo III PTR, the "Create PTR account" button may not appear. This is because you've already created a PTR account and can therefore skip this step.
Step 2: Once you have created a PTR account, installed the Blizzard Battle.net desktop, and logged in with your Blizzard Battle.net credentials, select "Diablo III" from the main menu on the left-hand side of the application.
Step 3: On the Diablo III screen, there is a drop-down menu right above the "Play" button (note that this may say "Install" if you do not have Diablo III currently installed). Select "PTR: Diablo III" from this drop-down menu before proceeding.
Step 4: You should now have the option to install and play the patch.
The PTR is available in all supported languages, and accounts from all regions are eligible to participate.
PTR Character Copy
The option to copy your existing Diablo III characters from your live account to the PTR will be available and can be done directly through the PTR client. However, only one region per account can be copied at a time. So, if you choose to copy characters from your account in a different region, any previously copied PTR characters will be lost.
Step 1: Log into the live game and then log out.
Step 2: Log into PTR client and create a level 1 character. After you're done, return to the main character screen.
Step 3: Click on the "PTR Copy" button located in the upper right-hand corner. (The PTR Copy button will not appear in-game until you have created a new level 1 character.)
Step 4: Select your region.
Step 5: Click "Copy." This will copy all characters on your account from the selected region.
Step 6: You will be disconnected from the PTR client.
Step 7: Log back in. Your copied characters will be available for play.
Please note that you can only copy characters from one gameplay region at a time. If you choose to copy characters from a different region, any previously copied PTR characters will be lost. In addition, you can only copy characters over to your PTR account once every 24 hours. Attempting to copy characters before this cooldown is up will result in an error.
It's a lot more than just a ring slot. It opens up a ring slot or cube spot and/or an armor or weapon slot, so for instance you could run the UE Multishot build as normal, which doesn't typically include the RORG, and with the buff you could swap the chest piece for Cindercoat and BOOM, 20% more DPS. Or you could use the Hexing pants, or swap any set piece, really. There are a lot of possibilities.
YES! That's a great idea, especially with the LON set getting a huge buff.
I guess BlizCrap fook that up too
I'm not saying that it's much more than "just a ring slot" but yes it would open some decent new build ideas having 4 rings or any other gear combination.
There are some interesting Archon/Meteor/FO hybrid builds for wiz that come to my mind. I already made them almost work without that upcoming theme. And yes, that would be a completely other playstyle and more than just some random +20% dps thingy. Just an example. I'm pretty sure there would be plenty of similar ideas across the board.
Please stop being so negative and try to be creative. I guarantee you it's 100% more game changing than double goblin / bounty. It actually makes a difference. I'm amazed how it's possible to think it's the worst theme so far...
You have no idea what you are talking about
Is fine, you will soon see the importance of the RORG passive!
gotta love the change to jade harvester XD
when haunt lands on a haunt target it does 35000 seconds aka 9.72repeating hours of damage
that's insane
but let me start with my perspective on this patch. when blizzard cooked these preliminary notes up, they had data to base their numbers on. and if that data shows that the 6p seeker of light crusader bonus has to have a buff of +10.000%, it gets put in the notes. sure, it looks inflated as hell but maybe it gets lowered. but we speak of only 10.000% here. there isn't a lot of range and eventually it will sit at 6.000%. that looks silly too.
maybe other classes buffs are very good and here to stay. maybe it isn't +10.000%, maybe it is +20.000% in the final build? blizzard only knows the way up and doesn't have the interest to fiddle with the base power of an ability. so they just slide to the right as much as possible.
and we all know how that will end up in the live game later: some creative people find extreme cookie cutting builds and effectively exploit those buffed skills to a much larger extent as intended. you cannot swing those big numbers when doing "balancing" passes and hope that all goes down smoothly.
so, all in all this is a lazy and foolish way of tweaking classes and an underwhelming vital sign from this game.
100% more than Goblin? Pff. Zero and percent increase does not compute...
Or you free up a ring slot so that you can change your build to work with say Focus and Restraint, a legendary weapon instead of a set weapon, for instance, Torch and Tzo Krin's Gaze with Inna set. So many interesting things comes to mind! This is a way better "seasonal affix" than before! Love it.
A build doesn't have to be S-teir to be playable, you know, Vilendor. There's tons of things you can do with this affix if you just play for fun I'm sorry it doesn't satisfy you but there are other games out there that you surely would enjoy to play.
Grinding gems to forge em into armor will go quicker now. And we all want to walk true 125GR.
I liked changes!
100% safe to say that it is game changing. not 100% more than goblin. sry if I didnt made it clear before.
Rather than looking at how much they're buffing classes, you should actually be looking at what they're not buffing: the strongest things in the game. They have done this time and time again over the years in D3 - it's absolutely nothing new, and not some kind of knee jerk reaction to placate people. This is just what they've always been doing.
When you look at those numbers, that's the best guess starting point to try and get those builds up to the same level as the best that currently exist. Akkarat, Rathma, Pestilence, Inarius, and Firebirds were all left unchanged with this patch. Just remember that this level of OP already exists in D3, but it's limited to far fewer playstyles. I'm fine with fixing that.
and why not bring the OP specs down? always going higher results in a lot of problem, nerfing only extracts tears from elitists.
This has been implementen. The potion Slot now counts as "equipped". You place the potion there.
Also non ancouned change. You get an achievement on GR70 solo called "The Primal Soul-O"
So are the PTR closed again or what ?
I get the error code 33 today.
People complaining about them breaking the game by adding outrageous numbers need to learn basic maths -.-
The average increase is 3-4x as much, I think the most I see is 5x as much. This is clearly designed as a balance patch to bring lower tier builds up in line with the high tier ones.
Anyway I don’t mind the change, I hope they thing if something cooler in the future though, that actually changes gameplay somehow.
I think it’s not really a surprise we don’t get content since they wouldn’t make any money from it, sad as that is.... Hopefully with D4 they figure out monetisation. I would actually be fine with a cheap subscription if it meant we got new content every 3-4 months.
SO, its been 3 weeks since PTR started, and NO info whatsoever when this is going live? not like its a HUGE change when all they did was tuning numbers..