Blizzard Quote [source]

Diablo III patch 2.1.1 is now live in the Americas for PC! Check out the full patch notes below to learn all about the latest changes.

Important: Please note that you will not be prompted to download patch 2.1.1 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 in the Americas, you will be unable to log into Europe or Asia using Global Play after patch 2.1.1 is live until those regions have also patched.

Diablo III Patch 2.1.1 - v2.1.1.27255

Visit our Bug Report forum for a list of known issues.

Table of Contents:

• Classes
  • Crusader
  • Witch Doctor
• Items
  • Class-Specific Legendary Items
  • Legendary Gems
  • Bug Fixes
• Adventure Mode
  • Infernal Machine
  • Greater Rifts
  • Kadala
  • Bug Fixes
• Crafting
  • Mystic
• Monsters
  • Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts

CLASSES

• General
  • Pets
    • Philosophy
      • We want pet survivability to be roughly equivalent to the player that summoned them
    • Many monster attacks that are intended to be avoided by players, and weren't already dealing reduced damage to pets, now deal significantly less damage to pets
    • Bug Fixes
      • Pets are now properly affected by Shield Pylons

• Crusader
  • Active Skills
    • Shield Bash
      • Can now be interrupted during the hit animation

• Witch Doctor
  • Active Skills
    • Fetish Army
      • Fetish Life has been greatly increased
      • Fetish movement speed has been significantly increased
      • Fetish leash range has been slightly increased
    • Gargantuan
      • Gargantuan is now summoned at the location of your mouse cursor
      • Summon animation speed has been increased
    • Spirit Walk
      • No longer cancels early when the physical body that is left behind takes enough damage
    • Summon Zombie Dogs
      • Zombie Dog Life has been greatly increased
  • Passive Skills
    • Fetish Sycophants
      • Fetish Life has been greatly increased
      • Fetish movement speed has been significantly increased
      • Fetish leash range has been slightly increased
  • User Interface
    • Fetish Army and Fetish Sycophants portrait icons should now display more fitting names on mouseover

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ITEMS

• Class-Specific Legendary Items
  • Wizard
    • Firebird's Finery
      • The infinite DoT debuff should now have a unique effect when it is applied
• Legendary Gems
  • Boon of the Hoarder
    • The number of Gold piles that explode from enemies on kill has been reduced
      • To compensate, the amount of Gold in each pile has been increased
      • The total amount of Gold dropped remains unchanged, but this will noticeably reduce screen clutter
• Bug Fixes
  • The Moratorium secondary power can now be triggered by assists
  • The Bane of the Trapped damage increase will now properly applied to Frozen enemies
  • The Gem of Efficacious Toxin poison DoT can now properly be applied by pet attacks

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ADVENTURE MODE

• Rift Guardians and Greater Rift Guardians now drop more crafting materials
• Infernal Machine
  • In multiplayer games, the Key of Bones, Key of Gluttony, and Key of War will now be considered group drops 
    • This means that, instead of players having an individual chance to find a key, that chance is now exists at the party level
    • If a Key of Bones, a Key of Gluttony, or a Key of War drops, it will drop for everyone in the party at the time
• Greater Rifts
  • The Rift of Trials has received numerous adjustments in an effort to more accurately assess an appropriate level of Greater Rift
  • Large Aqueduct and Sewer maps will no longer show up in Greater Rifts
• Kadala
  • Philosophy
    • While Kadala is doing a great job of giving players more control over finding specific items, we felt the current experience was a bit cumbersome and inconvenient
    • As a result, we're working to reduce the frequency at which players need to run between Kadala and the Blacksmith to salvage unwanted items
  • The cost to purchase items from Kadala has been greatly increased
  • The chance for Kadala to drop a Legendary item has also been greatly increased
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue that could cause Greater Rift Guardians to sometimes drop multiple of the same Legendary Gem

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CRAFTING

• Mystic
  • Enchanting
    • Philosophy
      • We want players to be able to more reliably add sockets to their jewelry in order to enjoy Legendary Gems
      • We still have long term plans to provide more outlets for excess gems and more ways to farm gems that a player needs; however, since those changes are further down the road, we wanted to improve the quality of life of Seasonal and Non-Seasonal players alike by making it easier to add a socket to your Rings and Amulets
    • The cost to enchant jewelry has been reduced from a Flawless Imperial gem to an Imperial gem

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MONSTERS

• The Electrified monster affix now has a short internal cooldown
• The damage of The Butcher's Fan of Spears attack has been slightly reduced
• The range of the Charging Beasts' Charge attack has been slightly reduced
• Plague Nest Bats have had their health globe drop rate significantly decreased
• Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts
  • Maggot Broods no longer start out burrowed in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts
  • Sand Dwellers no longer start out burrowed in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts
  • Demonic Hellflyers now run away less frequently and no longer ambush players from the air in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts
  • Ghosts now run away less frequently and no longer fly through walls in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts
  • Rockworms can no longer spawn in Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts

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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.

Blizzard Quote [source]

Some nephalem hunt for portals to the Vault, while others hunt down Easter Eggs. Some celebrate their odd gaming quirks, while others obsess over their latest Legendary. What fascinating discussions are your fellow players sharing? Find out in this week's edition of The Waypoint!

Love At First (Legendary) Sight

/u/Mosaz (also from Reddit Diablo) asked an interesting question: Have you ever looted an item that you decided to try out, ended up falling in love with, and changed your whole play style as a result? Over a hundred players have already chimed into the discussion, citing a variety of Legendaries like Boon of the Hoarder, Wand of Woh, Carnevil, and Fate of the Fell, and more!

Can you think of an item that made you rethink your play style? If so, what was it, and what build did you end up using?

Seasonal to Non-Seasonal Paragon Experience

Are you wondering how many Paragon levels you'll ding on your non-Seasonal characters once the current Season is over? Wonder no longer, as /u/djindjin from Reddit Diablo has you covered with his Diablo III Paragon Calculator! Just type your current Seasonal and non-Seasonal Paragon levels into his helpful calculator, or simply enter your BattleTag, and hit "Go!" 

Becoming a Treasure Goblin Hunter

Since the Vault was released in patch 2.1.0, many nephalem have been hunting for that one Treasure Goblin who will grant them their portal to riches! Over on Diablo Incgamers, several players in Vantek's thread are sharing their experiences tracking down this golden, but often elusive opportunity, discussing different farming locations and techniques. 

Have you had any luck finding the portal to the Vault? If yes, where did your lucky Treasure Goblin spawn?

A Handy Guide to Every Acronym In The Game

DPS? CD? CHD? Even, dare we say, a DW WW Barb using CotA? What does it all mean? Hulktopus on our official forums helps you sort out all of this Diablo speak and more in his "Acronyms - The Definitive List" guide, which was also stickied in our New Player Help forum! It's a long list, but as Hulktopus says: "ctrl + F is your friend!"

Did Hulktopus miss any key phrases? Post your additions below!

What Easter Eggs Have You Seen in Diablo III?

Anuiran of Diablo Hub made a list of all the fun, fabulous, and sometimes freaky Easter Eggs he's found in the game. His database is filled with everything from Legendary items to Lamentations (of the women), and includes a variety of references you might not have recognized.

Know of any other Easter Eggs or homages buried in Diablo III? If so, we'd love to hear your most hilarious or clever finds!

That wraps up this week's discussions! Until next time, heroes. We'll see you in Sanctuary.

Found a cool player-created thread, article, guide, tweet, or video? Then don't hesitate to send it to tyvalir@blizzard.com along with a brief explanation of why you think it should be included in our next column! 

Blizzard Quote [source]

To ensure that StarCraft II continues to offer a smooth experience for players when Patch 2.1.4 goes live, we’re looking for some extra help testing on the PTR, and that’s where you come in. When you test the new features on the PTR in all the various game modes (Matchmaking, Custom Games, Arcade, vs AI) and reach level 5, you’ll become eligible to win some awesome prizes.

How to Qualify

You’ll have from 12:00 a.m. PDT on August 26, 2014 to 11:59 p.m. PDT on September 22, 2014 to reach level 5 on the StarCraft II PTR in order to become eligible for the prizes below. You can check out the official rules here: Patch 2.1.4 PTR Participation Giveaway – Official Rules.

Prizes for participation

To all players who reach level 5 on the PTR:

• A one month subscription for Twitch Turbo

To 50 random players who reach level 5 on the PTR:

• A Twitch subscription for WCS EU/AM

To one random player who reaches level 5 on PTR:

• A pair (2) of 2014 BlizzCon tickets

How to Get In

Accessing the Public Test Realm is easy with the Battle.net Desktop App. Once you've installed and logged into the App, select StarCraft II from your list of games. Next, click the region selection box above the Play button, choose "PTR: Heart of the Swarm" from the dropdown list, and hit Install. If you own a copy of StarCraft II but don’t see a PTR option available, you can enable PTR access by going to Battle.net Account Management and selecting the Public Test Region button under your game license. Once your installation is complete, hit Play to launch the PTR and start digging in to all of the goodies mentioned above.

If you'd like to switch back to the current version of StarCraft II, simply exit the game and head back to the Battle.net App to switch the region selector back to your preferred Battle.net region.

Please note that the Public Test Realm can only be accessed through the Battle.net Desktop App as outlined above. Attempting to launch “StarCraft II Public Test.exe,” found in your StarCraft II installation folder will not grant entry into the PTR.

Thank you very much for helping us test upcoming StarCraft II features on the Public Test Realm. Your participation will be vital during this extended testing period as we prepare to roll out StarCraft II Patch 2.1.4. 

Blizzard Quote [source]

Patch 2.1.0 is now live in the Americas! 

To celebrate the arrival of this major content update, all players who log into Diablo III this week on Windows or Mac will not only receive a +100% bonus to Gold Find, but all Treasure Goblin spawns in the game have been doubled! (As with our previous buff, please note that the Gold Find bonus will stack multiplicatively with existing bonuses including those provided by items and Paragon points.)

This bonus Gold Find and double Treasure Goblin period begins in the Americas region today, August 26, and ends on Tuesday, September 2, at 11:59 p.m. PDT.

We hope you enjoy patch 2.1.0 and look forward to hearing your feedback. In the meantime, good luck, have fun, and we'll see you in Sanctuary!

*The buff is only available on Windows and Mac, but it will apply to all heroes—including those on accounts without Reaper of Souls enabled. 

Blizzard Quote [source]

Amidst the chaos of battle, ragged opportunists sneer and scuttle to collect the loot of the fallen. Hunched over by the weight of their purloined wealth, these mischievous scavengers represent a more recent addition to Sanctuary's bestiary, with sightings increasing (perhaps unsurprisingly) shortly after the Fallen Star appeared. While not much is known about these so-called "treasure goblins," one thing is certain: they're not native. 

As quickly as they enter our world, they depart—disappearing into mysterious portals and escaping with their misbegotten goods. But from where do these enigmatic visitors hail? And to where do their strange doorways lead? No mortal has ventured into nor even seen beyond their gilded veils to provide such answers. . . .

Until now. 

Thinking With Portals:

Ever since the recent demonic invasion, tales of Treasure Goblins scurrying about Kehjistan's battlefields have riddled Sanctuary’s taverns. At first believed to be frenzied grave robbers, the goblins' true nature became known only once they were witnessed in broad daylight. Now, their grayish bodies and lizard-like heads are recognizable to all but the most cloistered of citizens, and prove a welcome sight to powerful nephalem in search of easy loot.

Treasure Goblins are a guarded species, however. If observed during one of their hunts, they will attempt to retreat through arcane portals—formed from magic not unlike that the Horadrim once employed to summon Town Portals and waypoints. As their presence has become more common, so have rumors of their gold-filled "vault." It is said that beyond a goblin's portal untold riches await, as well as untold horrors. 

But what is fact and what is simply fable? It's time to find out. 

Introducing the Vault:

In patch 2.1.0, whenever a Treasure Goblin is slain, there is chance that he (or she) will open a portal to the Vault.

In the Vault, players will encounter unimaginable wealth, presumably stolen from the merchants and townfolk of Sanctuary. Piles of gold, chests brimming with treasure, and enough gems to sate even Shen himself will reward your curiosity. 

Be warned! The Vault is also the domain of the Baroness Greed, the de facto leader (or so we assume) of the Treasure Goblin horde. 

She is a swarthy matron consumed by her namesake and will not take kindly to your intrusion. End her reign and claim your spoils (if you dare)!

Designing Greed:

Treasure Goblins are among the most beloved of all of Sanctuary's creatures, and their ability to escape (often with precious trinkets in tow) has drawn the focus of many adventurers. As a result, the idea that a player could actually catch one of said goblins off-guard and suspend the doorway into their world offered a tantalizing possibility for the Diablo III development team. 

We had a chance to sit down with lead writer Brian Kindregan, senior level designer Matthew Berger, and a cadre of talented artists (senior character artist Chris Amaral, senior environment artist Richie Marella, and technical artist Neal Wojahn) to discuss the creation of, and inspiration behind, the Vault and its sumptuous leader. They kindly put down the weapons of their trade to help us pull back the design portal and see inside the development process.

Q. Brian, there's a lot of activity happening in the Vault—what's going on in there?

Brian:  The Baroness Greed is never satisfied, so there's a lot of work to be done to keep the Vault up to snuff. Her goblin minions are continuously sent out to collect more gold. The incoming gold in turn has to be tallied. And the existing gold must be inventoried to make sure none of it has gone missing. Plus, Greed takes a bath in all her gold every three hours. She's definitely high-maintenance, as is her domain. 

Q. It's been speculated that gold has no value for the goblins and that all they’re really after are the white items. Care to comment?

Brian: Greed is obsessed with all things valuable. It's a compulsion and the only cure is, apparently, more cowbell increasing amounts of physical wealth.

Q. When designing the Vault, where did you begin? And how did you begin?

Richie: We started on the Vault environment first and worked closely with the character team. We actually borrowed coin designs from them and they used a goblin statue for a mace inspiration. 

Neal: Victor Lee did some really sick concepts a while ago, too; I’m not sure if they were for anything in particular but we always loved them so much that they inspired a lot of the architecture in the Vault itself.  

And as Richie noted, those coin effects inspired us a lot. As we iterated, the Vault developed its own identity, and it drifted a bit away from that initial style. Instead of the Vault being a gold realm, we thought of it like a treasure realm. That's when we added a lot of things in the background for interest like gems, weapons, vases, and other valuables.  

Q. What was the design inspiration for the Vault and its inhabitants?

Richie: The inspiration for the Vault was a mixture of a couple of things: a bee hive, the Lord of the Rings, and Scrooge McDuck's infamous Money Pit.

One thing early on we really wanted to go for was "mountains of treasure" that covered a lot of the Vault grounds. We also wanted to create this atmosphere of "worker" goblins, busy working away much like worker bees in a bee hive. I also played around with the hive motif with multiple storage holes built into the walls—these eventually evolved into mini-vaults. 

Initially, most people assumed that Greed would be a male. When working with the character team on Greed, though, they proposed for it to be a female. This turned out to be a great idea because it fell in line with what we were going for with the bee hive motif and having the so-called queen (aka the Baroness) at the end fit perfectly.

Chris: We knew that we needed a variety of goblin types for the zone, too. A low level/low health worker goblin, a hefty brutish guard goblin, and of course the leader of the pack: The Baroness!

Q. We're definitely introduced to some new goblins in the Vault: Treasure Fiends, Peons, and Sentries. Is there an established caste system in the Goblin Kingdom?

Brian: There is indeed. The entire bureaucracy and society of the realm is set up to bring in, tabulate, and store as much gold and treasure as possible.

Q. Matthew, your team obviously had a lot of fun creating the enigmatic Treasure Goblins. How great was it to finally visit their home?

Matthew:  We'd always wondered exactly what was hiding behind the portals that those pesky goblins disappear through and the idea of being able to visit that place—which we assumed would be awash with riches—was pretty fun.

Once we had decided that we were going to finally visit Greed's lair and let players try and take a fraction of her wealth back with them it was all a question of making it as memorable as possible. Everyone wanted to add their own little personal touches to the Vault. Piles of gold everywhere, goblins running around in the background, troopers appearing through portals,  and (SPOILERS!) Greed's death. There really was no shortage of ideas. 

Q. What about the Baroness? Can you tell us a bit about the evolution of her fight?

Matthew: The fight with Greed itself evolved fairly naturally as we played it internally. Her charge attack, for example, was initially much more straightforward: she would charge at you and if she missed she'd get stunned. To add a bit more variety we then added a second charge that had a much longer range so that she could charge all across the room sometimes and surprise the player—that then evolved into her triple charge. Initially, Greed oriented herself while preparing the charge which made it very hard to avoid, when we moved into the triple charge we had her stop doing this, allowing the player an easier time to avoid it. This coupled with the great new warning that the artists had given it was the winning formula.

In a similar fashion, we made a variant of her attack where she makes chests of treasure rain down on the player, adding a lot more tempo to give the fight some fresh legs as you got towards the finale.

Q. What was your favorite thing to design in the Vault?

Neal: I loved making the breakables because of the gold effects I got to do, but my absolute favorite was making the giant treasure chest that appears at the end of the Baroness fight! It was cool to make a mega-uber chest. As a prop artist, I don't do as much figurative work, so it was nice to add all the little elements like the face teeth and little feet on it. It was also fun because I got to do a clean version for when it's closed, and a bloody version for when it's open!

But that's not all! The character and environment teams were also kind enough to share several pieces of concept art:

And That's a (Gold) Wrap. . .

And so it is, that in patch 2.1.0, Treasure Goblins will become just a little more reckless, offering players a chance to finally venture through into their world to reclaim the lost spoils of war and contend with Greed, the Goblin Baroness.

Fortune and glory awaits those who are bold enough to step through, so good luck! We'll see you on the other side.