Patch 1.0.3 Now Live

Posted by DHAdmin on June 19th, 2012 at 8:36 am

Patch 1.0.3 has gone live and it's a big one! Most of the changes should come as no surprise for those of you who have read Wyatt Cheng's 1.0.3 design preview. You can read the rather massive set of patch notes below.

Blizzard Quote [source]

Diablo III patch 1.0.3 is now live in the Americas. Check out the full patch notes below to learn about all the latest changes.

Important: Please note that you will not be prompted to download patch 1.0.3 until the patch is live in your home region. If you are logging in from a European or Asian client, you will need to wait for this patch to release in that region before it can be installed. Additionally, if your home region is the Americas, you will be unable to log into Europe or Asia using Global Play after patch 1.0.3 is live until those regions have also patched.

Diablo III Patch 1.0.3 - v.1.0.3.10057

The latest client patch notes can be found here.
Visit our Bug Report forum for a list of known issues.
Hotfixes made in addition to changes in patch 1.0.2c can be found here.

Table of Contents

General

  • To prevent monsters from being unintentionally kited into town from other areas of the game, portals have been placed at both ends of the bridge from New Tristram to The Weeping Hollow. Towns have always been intended to be a safe haven from combat, and this change will help keep the denizens of New Tristram safe from the dangers that lurk beyond its walls.
  • The rewards provided for replaying quests have been reduced
  • The real-money auction house is now available for Chilean, Argentinian, and Brazilian currencies

 

Battle.net

  • General
    • Friends will now sort alphabetically by name within the Friends List, first by Real ID and then by BattleTag
    • The Quick Join menu will now also sort alphabetically by name, first by Real ID and then by BattleTag
    • Chat settings and preferences will now be saved whenever you log out
    • Reporting another player using the Report > Spam option will now mute that player for the duration of your gaming session
  • Bug Fixes
    • Using the /who command in a heavily populated chat channel should no longer cause the client to crash
    • The "Invite to Party" button should no longer become grayed-out if a player:
      • Declines a party invite
      • Requests a party invite and then declines it
      • Accepts a party invite, but then immediately leaves the party
    • The character screen should now always display the correct act and quest information
    • If Real ID has been disabled for a Battle.net account, attempting to add a Real ID friend in Diablo III will now prompt the player with the following error message: "Battle.net is unable to add friends because you have Real ID disabled."

 

Classes

  • Barbarian
    • Active Skills
      • Ignore Pain
        • Skill Rune – Contempt for Weakness
          • The amount of damage reflected will now cap at the player's maximum Life
      • Overpower
        • Skill Rune – Crushing Advance
          • The amount of damage reflected will now cap at the player's maximum Life
          • The tooltip has been updated to represent that both melee and ranged damage are reflected
      • Weapon Throw
        • Tooltip now displays the correct duration for how long a target will be slowed: "Hurl a throwing weapon at any enemy for 100% weapon damage and Slow the movement of the enemy by 60% for 1.5 seconds." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)
    • Passive Skills
      • Relentless
        • Now reduces the Fury cost of all skill by 75%, down from 100% (the 50% damage reduction remains unchanged)
  • Demon Hunter
    • Active Skills
      • Cluster Arrow
        • Skill Rune - Dazzling Arrow
          • Tooltip now displays the correct type of weapon damage dealt by Dazzling Arrow: "Enemies hit by grenades have a 55% chance to be stunned for 2 seconds and changes the damage to Physical." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)
      • Grenades
        • Skill Rune - Stun Grenades
          • Tooltip now displays the correct duration for how long a target will be stunned: "Hurl grenades that have a 25% chance to Stun enemies for 1.5 seconds." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)
    • Bug Fixes
      • Caltrops
        • Skill Rune – Jagged Spikes
          • Effect will now only stack up to 10 times on a single target
      • Elemental Arrow
        • Skill Rune – Nether Tentacles
          • Tentacles will now only hit each target once
  • Monk
    • General
      • Monks can now use two-handed axes, two-handed maces, and two-handed swords
    • Active Skills
      • Serenity
        • Skill Rune – Instant Karma
          • The amount of damage reflected will now cap at the player's maximum Life
      • Seven-Sided Strike
        • Skill Rune - Sustained Attack
          • Tooltip has been updated for clarity: "Reduces the cooldown of Seven-Sided Strike to 23 seconds." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)
      • Mantra of Retribution
        • Damage will now cap based on the maximum Life of the target
    • Bug Fixes
  • Witch Doctor
    • Active Skills
      • Summon Zombie Dogs
        • Skill Rune – Leeching Beasts
          • Tooltip has been updated for clarity: "Your Zombie Dogs heal 50% of the damage they deal as Life divided evenly between themselves and you." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)
  • Wizard
    • Active Skills
      • Diamond Skin
        • Skill Rune – Mirror Skin
          • The amount of damage reflected will now cap at the amount of damage absorbed by Diamond Skin
      • Magic Weapon
        • When activated, a buff icon will now appear that displays the amount of time remaining
      • Meteor
        • Skill Rune - Star Pact
          • Now deals damage as Arcane instead of Fire
    • Passive Skills
      • Paralysis
        • Tooltip now displays the correct duration for how long a target will be stunned: "Lightning damage dealt to enemies has up to a 8% chance to Stun the target for 1.5 seconds." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)
    • Bug Fixes
      • Magic Weapon
        • Fixed a display issue that was causing Magic Weapon to increase the character sheet damage value by an incorrect amount (the functionality of the skill has not changed)

 

Items

  • General
    • + Attack Speed bonus values on weapons and armor have been reduced by 50%
      • This change does not apply to quivers
    • High-end items (items level 61-63) will now drop in all Acts of Inferno and Acts III and IV of Hell difficulty
      • The new approximate drop rates are as follows:
        • Hell - Act III and Act IV
          • iLvl 61: 9%
          • iLvl 62: 1.9%
          • iLvl 63: 0%
        • Inferno - Act I
          • iLvl 61: 17.7%
          • iLvl 62: 7.9%
          • iLvl 63: 2.0%
        • Inferno - Act II
          • iLvl 61: 18.6%
          • iLvl 62: 12.4%
          • iLvl 63: 4.1%
        • Inferno - Act III and Act IV
          • iLvl 61: 24.1%
          • iLvl 62: 16.1%
          • iLvl 63: 8.0%
      • Please see the Patch 1.0.3 Design Preview for more information and specific details
    • Repair costs have been increased for item levels between 53 and 63
    • Magic Find will no longer be considered when looting objects in the environment such as chests, barrels, vases, pots, and corpses
    • The item quality of all components needed to craft the Staff of Herding, as well as the Staff of Herding itself, have been changed from Common to Legendary (i.e. their item names will appear orange in color)
    • The Staff of Herding can no longer be salvaged or dropped
    • Crafted items that are dropped on the ground due to a player’s inventory being full can no longer be seen or picked up by other players
    • Unique monsters in Hell and Inferno difficulty are no longer guaranteed to drop two Magic items when slain
    • Weapon racks will no longer drop weapons 100% of the time
    • Destructible objects no longer have a chance to drop items, and will only have a small chance to drop gold when destroyed
  • Weapons and Armor
    • "Balanced" superior items (i.e. Balanced Short Sword) will now grant a percent attack speed increase that only affects the weapon itself, rather than a flat increase to attacks per second that affected both equipped weapons when dual-wielding
    • Crowd Control Reduction from items and skills will now reduce the percentage value of Slow, Chill, and Attack Speed debuffs rather than reducing how long the debuff lasts
      • For example: previously, if you were debuffed by a 60% slow that lasted for 2 seconds while wearing gear that provides 20% Crowd Control Reduction, your movement speed would be reduced by 60%, but only for 1.6 seconds. Now, the same amount of Crowd Control Reduction will reduce the Slow effect to 48%, but the effect will remain for the full 2 second duration.
    • Manticore now has one additional bonus affix
  • User Interface
    • Minimum damage and Maximum damage values will now display separately in an item's tooltip (i.e. "+2-4 Damage" will now display as "+2 Minimum Damage” and “+2 Maximum Damage")
    • Tooltips for items on the ground will now show comparison stats
    • Resist values will now be taken into effect when calculating the Protection comparison stat (the Protection value is an average protection estimate of all your resists)
    • When comparing a two-handed weapon against two currently-equipped one-handed weapons, the game will now simulate the removal of both one-handed weapons (instead of simply removing the main-hand weapon, which resulted in an inaccurate comparison)
    • When selling items to a vendor, the most recently sold items will now always display at the bottom of the Buyback tab
  • Bug Fixes
    • Items level 50 and above will now display their item level in the tooltip
    • Damage Over Time (DoT) skills will now properly benefit from items with the +Critical Chance affix
    • Legendary items with the +Attack Speed bonus will now correctly provide a bonus to attack speed
      • Please note that this fix will only affect new Legendary drops. Existing Legendary items will be addressed in a future patch.
    • Players wearing +Life on Kill items should no longer receive a benefit from this affix when "killing" friendly monsters (e.g. when a witch doctor re-summons a Spider Queen while another Spider Queen is still active)
    • Fixed a bug with linking items with socketed gems in chat
    • Fixed a bug where vendors would occasionally not have any items for sale
    • Fixed a bug where selling more than 12 items to a vendor and then buying back 1 of those items could cause multiple items to disappear from the Buyback tab
    • Fixed a bug where swapping a 1-slot item (i.e. a ring) with 2-slot item (i.e. a weapon) in the second or third tab of a player’s stash would sometimes cause the 2-slot item to be filtered incorrectly to the first tab
    • Fixed a bug that was causing Collector's Edition dyes to sell for the same price regardless of stack size

 

Crafting

  • General
    • The gold and material crafting costs for all items level 1-59 have been reduced by 50% to 75%
  • Blacksmith
    • The gold cost to level the Blacksmith has been reduced by 50%
    • The number of Pages of Blacksmithing, Tomes of Blacksmithing, or Tomes of Secrets required to level the Blacksmith has been reduced
      • Base levels now require 1 page/tome, down from 5
      • Milestone levels now require 2 pages/tomes, down from 5
    • The number of Pages of Blacksmithing and Tomes of Blacksmithing required to craft items level 1-59 has been reduced
    • Items with 3 affixes no longer require Pages of Blacksmithing or Tomes of Blacksmithing to craft
    • The gold cost of crafting items with 4 affixes and 5 affixes (including items in Inferno difficulty) has been reduced
    • Weapon crafting costs have been reduced
    • The chance for level 60 items to produce Legendary crafting materials when salvaged has been reduced
  • Jeweler
    • The gold and material cost to combine gems ranks 2-8 has been reduced
      • Combinations for these ranks now only require 2 gems, down from 3
        • The gold cost to combine each rank of gems is now as follows:
          • Rank 2 - Flawed: 10 gold (down from 500 gold)
          • Rank 3 - Regular: 25 gold (down from 750 gold)
          • Rank 4 - Flawless: 40 gold (down from 1250 gold)
          • Rank 5 - Perfect: 55 gold (down from 2000 gold)
          • Rank 6 - Radiant: 70 gold (down from 3500 gold)
          • Rank 7 - Square: 85 gold (down from 7500 gold)
          • Rank 8 - Flawless Square: 100 gold (down from 20,000 gold)

 

Followers

  • General
    • Bug Fixes
      • Fixed a bug where the maximum Life of your followers was being displayed as different values in different parts of the game UI
  • Enchantress
    • Skills
      • Mass Control
        • Radius reduced from 15 yards to 8 yards
        • If Enchantress also has Reflect Missiles trained, Mass Control will no longer accidentally hex the player when both skills are activated
        • Skill will now correctly target enemies in all circumstances

 

Bosses

  • General
    • Bosses have had their pathing improved
    • The quality of the item for the fourth stack of Nephalem Valor from bosses has been slightly reduced
  • Skeleton King
    • Abilities
      • Will now summon Skeletal Archers in Hell and Inferno difficulties
  • The Warden (mini-boss)
    • General
      • Now has Fast and Molten affixes, in addition to Jailer
      • In Inferno difficulty, the Warden will also gain the Desecrator affix
  • Butcher
    • Bug Fixes
      • Fixed an issue where the corner panel fires in the Chamber of Suffering were doing twice as much damage as intended
  • Ghom
    • Abilities
      • Gas Cloud
        • Radius of Gas Cloud has been slightly reduced
        • Slowing effect has been removed
        • The amount of damage dealt by Gas Cloud when first entering the cloud has been reduced, but the amount of damage incurred for remaining in the cloud has been increased
        • In Inferno difficulty, Gas Clouds will last longer, spawn 2 at a time, and (after 4 minutes) spawn more quickly
  • Maghda
    • Bug Fixes
      • Punish Dust projectiles can no longer be reflected
  • Zoltun Kulle
    • General
      • Zoltun Kulle will now enrage in Inferno difficulty after 3 minutes, teleporting to the player more frequently and dealing damage when arriving at the player’s location
    • Abilities
      • Ceiling Collapse
        • Can now be cast at a player from any range
      • Fireball
        • Fireball attack now moves slower
        • Can now be cast at a player from any range
      • Teleport
        • Will now Teleport and run away from the player less often
        • Will now occasionally Teleport to the player
  • Belial
    • General
      • Belial will now enrage in Inferno difficulty after 3 minutes in his final phase, increasing the number of green pools dropped across the entire encounter platform
    • Bug Fixes
      • Fixed a bug that was causing Belial to use his breath attack away from the player rather than towards the player under certain circumstances
  • Siegebreaker
    • General
      • Overall damage has been reduced
      • No longer vulnerable to Confuse and Charm effects
      • Will now drop a health globe every 25% health mark (i.e. at 75%, 50%, and 25% health)
      • Now enrages after 4 minutes
      • In Inferno difficulty, Siegebreaker will now gain the Reflects Damage affix
  • Cydaea
    • Abilities
      • Spiderlings
        • Spiderlings will now have an easier time hitting players, but their damage has been reduced by 20% to compensate
        • In Inferno difficulty, Spiderlings will now live longer, be more spread out, and (after 4 minutes) spawn more often
  • Rakanoth
    • General
      • In Inferno difficulty, Rakanoth will now become much more aggressive after 3 minutes
  • Izual
    • General
      • Health pool has been increased
      • The number of Oppressors that join the fight has been reduced from 4 to 2
      • Will no longer target Followers or Tyrael as frequently
    • Abilities
      • Base Attacks
        • Base attack damage has been lowered
        • No longer does Cold damage on top of base attacks
      • Charge
        • Charge damage has been reduced
        • Knockback has been removed
        • Will Charge slightly more often, but will only target players
      • Frozen Bombs
        • Frozen Bomb damage has been reduced
        • Bombs will now explode faster
        • Only 8 Bombs will now spawn around the player rather than 12
        • Bombs will spawn at Izual's feet less often
      • Frost Explosion
        • Frost Explosion damage has been reduced by 70%
        • Duration of freeze has been increased
        • Damage dealt to players while frozen will now break the effect
        • Players can now use defensive cooldown while frozen
        • Players can no longer avoid being frozen by doing high amounts of damage to Izual
    • Bug Fixes
      • Izual will no longer spawn twice if a player skips his introductory cut-scene
  • Diablo
    • Bug Fixes
      • Damage Over Time (DoT) effects will now be properly cancelled when Diablo becomes invisible and casts Shadow Clones in Phase Two
      • Diablo "Stomp" ability is now correctly classified as a debuff instead of a buff
      • Fixed a bug that was causing pets to not attack Shadow Clones

 

Monsters

  • General
    • Champions, Rares, and Uniques have had their pathing improved
    • Elite packs (Champion/Rare) now drop an additional item for players with 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor, which is guaranteed to be of Rare quality
    • Damage from monsters in Acts II, III, and IV in Inferno difficulty has been reduced
    • Colossal Golgor base damage has been reduced
    • Herald of Pestilence tentacle attack damage has been reduced
    • Soul Ripper and Soul Lasher damage has been reduced and both monsters will now run away less often
    • Wasps in Act II, Mage Constructs in Act II, and Winged Mollocks in Acts III and IV will now run away less
    • Succubus monsters will now run away less and for a shorter distance
    • The health pools of Woodwraiths in the Highlands now match the health pools of Woodwraiths in the Fields of Misery
    • Lacuni and Scavenger Rares and and Champions will now un-burrow when called by their allies
    • Bloodclan Warriors no longer knockback when buffed and attack slightly slower
    • Morlu no longer have the Invulnerable Minions, Health Link, or Fire Chains affixes
    • Plagued, Arcane Enchanted, and Electrified monsters no longer have resistance to Poison, Arcane, and Lightning damage (respectively)
    • Leaders of Invulnerable Minions packs have had their health pools reduced
    • Mortar monsters can now hurl projectiles farther, but their minimum range (dead zone) has also been increased by 100%
  • Bug Fixes
    • Interrupting a monster attack before it lands will now properly trigger its cooldown
    • Treasure Goblins will now drop gold piles for all nearby players
    • Lacuni Warrior Rares and Champions will now reset their enrage timer correctly in Inferno difficulty
    • The Succubus "Blood Star" debuff will no longer affect the player if the damage from the projectile is dodged/blocked/etc
    • The damage from the Succubus “Blood Star” debuff will now scale based on the current cost of a player's skill, even if the cost is reduced by items or skill runes
    • Monsters with the Extra Health affix should no longer gain more health every time players leave and join the game
    • Monsters with the Reflects Damage affix will no longer reflect Follower damage back to the player
    • Monsters with the Health Link and Knockback affixes will no longer knockback friendly monsters
    • Fixed a bug that was causing some Elite monster packs in Inferno difficulty to not reset their enrage timers and heal to full health as intended
    • Fixed a bug that allowed players to avoid or delay the enrage timer reset on Elite monster packs in Inferno difficulty by running through a dungeon portal
    • Fixed a bug that was causing Champion Wallers to occasionally create walls at their location rather than the player's location
    • Fixed a bug where Sandwasp projectiles could sometimes become invisible

 

Bug Fixes

  • General
    • The experience bar for characters at level cap on a Guest Pass account will now display 0/0 experience. If the account holder upgrades to the full game, their characters will be at 0/41000 experience towards the next level.
    • The speed of the animation that plays when resurrecting another players should no longer scale with your attack speed
    • Attempting to cast a skill while spamming the Town Portal hot key will now correctly interrupt the Town Portal cast and animation
    • Players who use Town Portal while in a tar pit will no longer keep the tar pit debuff after being teleported
    • It is no longer possible for players in Hell difficulty to skip to Inferno difficulty by creating and leaving Public Games
    • It is no longer possible to prevent character death in a single-player game by pausing the game in one game client and then logging into the same account from a different game client
    • Fixed a bug where The Lyceum in the Southern Highlands was not appearing
    • Fixed a bug where players could switch their offerings in the Trade window right before clicking "Accept" and, due to high latency, the game would not always be able to verify that both players were accepting the same offerings
    • Fixed a bug that was allowing players to temporarily pick up items that belonged to another account
    • Fixed a bug that was causing players to become stuck when using a banner to port to another player that was in an "un-walkable" location (i.e. to a barbarian in the middle of performing Leap)
    • Fixed a position desync bug (aka "rubberbanding") that could happen when some movement skills (Strafe, Whirlwind, Tempest Rush) ended because the player ran out of the appropriate resource
    • Fixed several issues where a player's character would get stuck or "rubberband" while moving if their movement speed was slowed in any way
    • Several performance improvements have been made to both the PC and Mac client
  • Auction House
    • Item tooltips in the auction house will now correctly reflect stat bonuses provided by socketed gems
    • Items with class-specific affixes should now display the class restriction properly
    • It should no longer be possible for players to purchase a stack of items so large that it cannot be sent to their stash
    • The data displayed in each auction house tab should now properly reset when logging out

If you are experiencing technical issues with the patching process, connecting to Battle.net after installing the patch, or errors while playing a newly-patched game, please visit our support site or post in the Technical Support forum for assistance.

 

First Streamed Hardcore Inferno Clear

Posted by DHAdmin on June 19th, 2012 at 3:00 am

Update: Bashiok has confirmed this IS the first hardcore inferno clear. A HUGE congratulations to Kripparrian and Krippi on meeting their goal prior to the 1.0.3 patch!

The first streamed hardcore inferno clear happened today at 1:44 am PDT by Kripparrian and Krippi. Whether or not this was the world first clear is unclear. Bashiok commented on his Twitter account regarding the subject.

Blizzard Quote [source]
People think that was the first HC Inferno clear? Weird. Webcams r 2 legit 2 quit. hay HAY

When asked why no other hardcore inferno clears have been made known, Bashiok tweeted the following responses.

Blizzard Quote [source]

Well you have the data, why don't you tell us if someone had already killed d inferno hardcore then?
We don't publicly announce/recognize world firsts. I'm just surprised that was the first one that was publicized.

Could you at least give a date on the actual inferno HC first clean? Or how many people did it at this date?
I'll double check it when I get into work tomorrow. :)

Regardless of whether or not this was the world first, it is still very impressive. Congratulations to Kripparrian and Krippi!

Reminder - Attack Speed Nerf in patch 1.0.3

Posted by DHAdmin on June 18th, 2012 at 7:04 pm

Tomorrow brings Diablo 3's fist major Patch, 1.0.3. Along with it comes a rather large nerf to Attack Speed, I am just posting this in hopes people realize not to buy Attack Speed items from the auction house. Your items will be nerfed tomorrow!

Blizzard Quote [source]

As a reminder, we will be nerfing "Increases Attack Speed" (IAS) effects on all items except quivers with the 1.0.3 patch. This change does affect unidentified items as well, as item affixes and ranges are determined at the time of an item being dropped, and not when identified.

Characters with IAS on their items will see a drop in their character sheet damage, as character sheet damage takes into account attack speed among other factors.

This change should not be confused with the Legendary buffs coming in a future patch (not 1.0.3), and those buffs, as previously mentioned, will not be retroactive.

You can read more about these and other upcoming changes in the 1.0.3 Design Preview blog.

Guide to the Secret Level

Posted by DHAdmin on June 18th, 2012 at 2:57 pm

There is no cow level

Whimsyshire is a Diablo 3 secret level that provides a change of scenery from the usual areas you encounter in the game, here's a quick few things to know about the area before we begin the guide.

  • It's best to search for the required items to enter the level on Normal difficulty
  • Cupcakes act as Health orbs
  • Clouds are chests
  • Resplendent Chests are now Pinatas
  • None of the monsters have ranged attacks (Other than the Champions/Elites)
  • Only one member of a multiplayer game needs the staff

So how do I enter Whimsyshire?

We need a Staff of Herding, which can be acquired by giving your Blacksmith 5 rare items along with the staff plans.

8cb39bb158bd2d60d575d07281686609.jpg

Is there something behind me?

Plan: Staff of Herding

The plan is a rare drop from the boss Izual at "The Great Span" in Act 4. It is highly recommended that you fight this boss on Normal difficulty, although the plan can drop on any difficulty. After you have the plan it's time to search the world of Diablo 3 for the other 5 rare items we need.

6694744859e7ed1a06020b944c667e5c.jpg

Hmm.. Tasty!

Black Mushroom

The first item on our list is found in Act 1, on any floor of the Cathedral. It is recommended that you search only Cathedral Level 1 as it has the greatest chance for the Black Mushroom to spawn. The mushroom can spawn in any room. For an example of the Black Mushroom looks like, check the photo. Like all the other items, the Black Mushroom is not guaranteed to spawn in your game, meaning you will have to keep remaking games a few times until you find it.

Leoric's Shinbone

This item is a random spawn in Leoric's Manor in Act 1. The fastest route to getting this item is by starting a new game on the quest "The Imprisoned Angel" and then taking the waypoint to Leoric's Manor. Unlike the Black Mushroom, Leoric's Shinbone always spawns in the same room making it much easier to find. If the fireplace has burnt logs in it, simply click them and you will find the shinbone. If no logs are present, it's time to make a new game and try again.

Wirt's Bell

Wirt's Bell can be bought for the low price of 100,000 gold in Caldeum Bazaar in Act 2 from everyone's favorite vendor, Squirt the Peddler.

Liquid Rainbow

The Liquid Rainbow is found in Act 2 in a Mysterious Cave that can only be opened by a rare spawn merchant, who you must save from ghosts. After killing the ghosts and speaking to him, he will open the cave allowing you access. Once inside the cave you need to look for a Mysterious Chest that can only spawn on the first floor of the cave. Unfortunately even if the cave spawns in your game, there is a chance the Mysterious Chest will not. This is perhaps the hardest of all the items to get. The quickest way to find the merchant and his cave is to start a new game with any quest in Act 2 past the "Blood and Sand" and then take the waypoint, "Path to the Oasis". From there run to the right and follow the bottom edge of the map until you find a little path that leads to the cave.

Gibbering Gemstone

The final item drops from a rare spawn monster named Chiltara in the Caverns of Frost level 2, which is found in the Fields of Slaughter in Act 3. Both the Caverns of Frost and the monster Chiltara are rare spawns, making this a very time consuming item to find. Start a new game on the quest "Machines of War" at the second part of the quest - "Destroy Ballistae" and then take your waypoint to the Bridge of Korsikk and head northwest exploring the area until you find the cave.

Note: Two caves can spawn in this area, Icefall Caves is not the right one, Chiltara can only spawn in Caverns of the Frost, level 2.

7b98718a4ac84aa4ead480eea77a307a.jpg

Finally!

Finding the entrance

Once you have collected all the pieces its just a matter of crafting the Staff at the Blacksmith. Then head to Old Tristram Road at the start of Act 1. As long as you have the staff in your inventory the cow king will appear and have a brief conversation before opening the level. Note when entering the secret level it may be full of monsters near the entrance so be careful, especially on hardcore.

Upgrading your Staff of Herding

  • Upgraded versions of the plan are bought in Act 4 from Gorell the Quartermaster, who is found in town near your followers. You must be on the quest "Prime Evil" for the vendor to have the upgraded plans.
  • It requires the previous version of the staff to craft the next one.
  • Nightmare upgrade costs 200,000 gold
  • Hell upgrade costs 500,000 gold
  • Inferno upgrade costs 1,000,000 gold
  • Higher versions of the staff open all previous difficulties also

Have fun!

Champion and Elite Monster Affixes

Posted by DHAdmin on June 14th, 2012 at 9:55 pm

Champions and Rares are monsters with blue or yellow names, any normal monster can spawn as one. They are much more powerful than regular monsters and travel in groups. They have the possibility of dropping the best items in the game. In addition they have abilities called affixes, which grant special them special properties such as being able to create walls out of thin air or even make clones of themselves. The affixes that can spawn on a monster are completely random.

At level 60 every Champion or Elite you kill will grant you a spell buff called "Nephalem Valor" but that is a topic for another guide.

f66ae2ecc62c3ec1b8c3b42c62576650.jpg

Sand Sharks!

Champions
  • They come in packs of 3 to 4 monsters.
  • Champions can spawn with any affix other than - Minions, Horde and Missile Dampening.
  • High quality loot will drop only after all Champions have been defeated.
  • On Normal difficulty they have 1 affix.
  • On Nightmare they have 2 affixes.
  • On Hell they have 3 affixes.
  • On Inferno they have 4 affixes.
d34b4bc4fcf1c06b00ca2b6b4144a260.jpg

Can we just be friends?

Rares
  • Rare monsters are much stronger than a single champion and are followed by three to four minions who are weaker than the rare itself.
  • Rares can spawn with any affix other than - Fire Chains, Health Link and Avenger.
  • Minions can not have the affixes - Horde, Missile Dampening
  • Only the leader drops high quality loot.
  • On Normal difficulty they only have 1 affixes.
  • On Nightmare they have 2 affixes.
  • On Hell they have 3 affixes.
  • On Inferno they have 4 affixes.

Some combinations of Champions and Rares can be fairly easy, but don't let that fool you some combinations are absolutely deadly such as a Mortar, Fire chains and Molten pack. This guide goes over every possible affix.

Vortex

This ability pulls the player to the monster that casted the spell, but causes no damage. A monster requires line of sight to see you, meaning they can not pull you from behind walls or around corners. By itself vortex is not particular dangerous for a melee as they are already up next to the monster, but combined with other affixes such as Arcane Enchanted, Molten, Desecrator - getting pulled into any of those can be certain death.

Health Link

This affix is only possible on Champion monsters and only if more than one is alive. Health Link gives all the champions one large health pool, and the damage you deal to one applies to all of them as long as they are nearby.

Jailer

Jailer gives monsters the ability to trap a player in a prison for a few seconds. Like Vortex, this is not dangerous by itself, but being jailed while a beam of arcane comes towards you is a heart pounding moment. Jailer is worst for any class or player that kills by kiting, being stopped dead in your tracks makes getting away tough. Luckily a few classes have skills to deal with Jailer, for example monks can use Dashing strike to move but it does not free Here is a quick list of all skills that can free you from Jailer

  • Witch Doctors - Spirit Walk.
  • Monks - Serenity, Seven Sided Strikes,
  • Wizards - Teleport
  • Demon Hunter - Smoke Screen
Arcane Enchanted

This affix gives a monster the ability to summon a deadly force of arcane magic, a small circle is placed on the ground and a few seconds later a beam shoots out of from it traveling in a random circular direction. Do not get caught in this! It is one of the most deadly affixes.

Extra Health

Any monster with this affix has extra health, making even weaker packs of Champions/Elites take a while to kill.

Horde

Only rare monsters can have this affix. It increases the amount of minions a monster has by 2-3x

Avenger

Only Champion monsters can spawn with the Avenger affix. When a monster that belongs to a Champion group with the Avenger affix dies, the rest of the pack gains in size and strength. This can make an already difficulty pack even harder as each monster dies.

Desecrator

Desecrator is a targeted spell that creates an area of death on the ground. It takes 1 second for a newly formed Desecrator circle to begin doing damage, get out of these as quick as you can.

Electrified

Lighting shoots out at every direction whenever the monster attacks, or is attacked.

Reflect Damage

Everytime you hit a Champion or Rare with the Reflect Damage affix you take a portion of the damage you dealt back at yourself.

Fast

Every thing the monster does is done much quicker.

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Skeletons that create lava? No thanks

Molten

While a molten monster moves it leaves behind a trail of lava that does considerable damage to anyone standing in it. When a molten monster dies it leaves behind a bomb that explodes after a few seconds dealing a large amount of damage to anyone nearby

Fire Chains

Only champions can spawn with this Fire Chains affix, it creates a chain of fire between itself and the other champion monsters in its pack. If you happen to get caught between two monsters, expect to take a lot of damage. Monster AI is also changed to try and trap the player between the chains.

Teleporter

Allows a monster to teleport at will, away from battle or into battle.

Frozen

Frozen monsters do cold damage with every attack, they also possess the ability to summon frozen balls that over a few seconds explode freezing any player caught in its radius.

Illusionist

Illusionist allows a monster to create clones of it self that are much weaker and have less total health, they do however spawn with the same percent of health as the monster they were cloned from.

Knockback

Every hit from a Knockback monster has a chance to knock back the player and slow them for a few seconds

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No where to run!

Waller

Waller allows monsters to create walls out of thin air, these walls can trap a player allowing them not to run away. A lot of spells can not pass through Waller either, providing the monster a moment of protection.

Missile Dampening

A faint circle in a large area appears around the monster, any projectile that enters the sphere is slowed considerable. It is very similar to the Wizard Spell, Slow Time.

Mortar

Mortar allows a monster to hurl firebombs at the player, they only hit players out of melee range but if they do hit you, they do a considerable amount of damage.

Nightmarish

Nightmare has a chance to be inflicted on a player everytime they are hit by a monster imbued with the Nightmarish ability, they will flee from battle for a seconds while they player is unable to control the character.

Vampiric

A percent of damage the monster causes to you, heals the monster.

Plagued

Plagued monsters leave a large area of poison on the ground that deals damage to any player standing on it, unlike Desecrator and Molten, Plagued does not disappear until the monster that casted it dies.

Shielding

The monster creates a shield around itself making itself invincible to all forms of damage for a few seconds.

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