Travis Day took a moment today to discuss some upcoming changes to acquiring loot.
Blizzard Quote [source]
A series of hotfixes will be deployed today making more adjustments to overall reward structures within the game.
I wanted to take a minute to explain the reasons for the changes that we are making. A driving goal of our design has been to make killing monsters feel rewarding, we want you all to find tons of cool items that you are excited about but more importantly we want you to have fun while doing it.
Rifts have always been intended to be the most efficient play method in the game, currently they aren’t for a number of reasons. Part of this has to do with the high level of efficiency in farming that players find doing things like farming Manglemaw, Razorclaw and any other number of unique monsters. Another contributing element is that farming chests without having to actually fight monsters is far more effective than actually fighting the monsters. It is very important to us that chests are exciting to find and feel rewarding but presently they are far too common and reliable to farm in certain areas of the game.
Finally Kadala, she has always been intended to give players some degree of control over their item upgrades. While we don’t want players to simply pick and choose from a list of items at an excessively high cost, we do want you to have an answer to the question “How do I upgrade my boots?” Kadala is meant to be that answer, she is meant to give you some direct control over the types of items you find. Since we are increasing the overall reward structure of the game she is also going to be increasing but by a larger amount than the rest of the changes since she didn't feel rewarding enough to us.
Without further delay here is a list of the changes that will be coming in the hotfix.
The Bad!
Unique monsters now drop less items.
*Uniques were dropping far more loot than their difficulty would warrant.
Chest spawns have been thinned out across all acts of the game.
*Ideally chests become less common and something that players can’t flip games to farm. It is our goal to make them feel exciting and rewarding when you find them.
The Good!
The bonus legendary drop rate for rifts is being increased from 25% to 100%!
*This means that while in a rift your chance to find a legendary item from monsters, chests, elites, and everything else is double what it is outside of rifts. No this does not mean opening bounty bags in rifts is the new hotness. ;P
Kadala’s legendary drop rate has been significantly increased.
*Blood Shards are meant to be a compelling element of rift rewards and something players are excited to get.
Loot is an incredibly important aspect of Diablo games and we will continue to keep a very close eye on it. If more problems arise we will continue striving to address them. It isn’t our goal to take loot away from people, we just want to make sure they are having as much fun as possible while finding it and these changes all support that goal.
Good hunting and link the loot!
Travis Day
Blizzard Quote [source]
Diablo III patch 2.0.4 is now live in the Americas. 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 2.0.4 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 2.0.4 is live until those regions have also patched.
Diablo III Patch 2.0.4 - v2.0.2.23119
Visit our Bug Report forum for a list of known issues.
For a list of up to date hotfixes, please go here.
Table of Contents
GENERAL
- Greatly increased the survivability of pets summoned by several items and skills, including:
- Skycutter
- Maximus
- The Gidbinn
- Genzaniku
- Litany of the Undaunted
- Call of the Ancients
- Falling Sword - Rise Brothers
- All Town hubs have had the placement of the Nephalem Rift Obelisk, Orek, and Kadala adjusted to help reduce the chance of accidental clicking
- The Blacksmith's Belongings box in Act I no longer has collision
CLASSES
- Barbarian
- Philosophy
- Many skills that spend Fury feel great, but when it comes time to generate Fury the single-target options don't feel meaty compared to the generators that can hit more than one target at a time. As a result, we are increasing the potency of those single-target generators to be more competitive.
- Active Skills
- Bash
- Increased base damage from 170% to 215% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Clobber
- Increased chance to stun for 1.5 seconds from 30% to 35%
- Skill Rune - Onslaught
- Increased additional damage from 80% to 100% weapon damage
- Frenzy
- Increased base damage from 120% to 155% weapon damage
- War Cry
- Bug Fix: Fixed an issue preventing the 5 seconds of paused Fury degeneration after casting War Cry from working.
- Weapon Throw
- Increased base damage from 150% to 185% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Mighty Throw
- Increased damage from 210% to 270% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Throwing Hammer
- Increased chance to stun from 30% to 40%
- Bash
- Philosophy
- Crusader
- Philosophy
- Many of the Crusader's Wrath spenders are below where we would like, while Heaven's Fury - Fires of Heaven was over-performing. We are toning back Fires of Heaven while increasing the potency of most of the other Crusader spenders to encourage greater build exploration.
- The single-target Wrath generator spells, Punish and Justice, don't feel meaty compared to generators that can hit more than one target at a time. As a result, we are increasing the potency of Punish and Justice to be more competitive.
- We are making a few adjustments to improve Steed Charge. The cooldown and duration of the skill have both been reduced. Overall, this makes the total uptime for the skill slightly higher and, more importantly, you'll be able to hit the button more often. We're removing the ability for Steed Charge to break stuns, which allows us to focus on Steed Charge being primarily a mobility skill that can still get you out of root effects, such as Jailer. We still want Steed Charge to be useful in combat, so we're also increasing the damage on damage-focused runes.
- General
- Crusaders now take 15% less damage from all sources
- Active Skills
- Akarat's Champion
- Skill Rune - Rally
- Fixed an issue where Rally would not reduce the cooldown of Condemn
- Skill Rune - Rally
- Blessed Hammer
- Skill Rune - Burning Wrath
- Increased radius from 5 to 8 yards
- Increased pool damage from 95% to 150% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Icebound Hammer
- Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Icebound Hammer wasn't chilling enemies
- Icebound Hammer no longer goes away when exploding
- Skill Rune - Burning Wrath
- Blessed Shield
- Increased base skill damage from 280% to 340% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Combust
- Increased damage from 105% to 270% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Shattering Throw
- Increased damage from 50% to 333% weapon damage
- Known Issue: The tooltip for this skill rune does not reflect this change
- Increased damage from 50% to 333% weapon damage
- Fist of the Heavens
- Increased base skill's impact damage from 250% to 340% weapon damage
- Increased base skill's bolt damage from 210% to 340% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Divine Well
- Increased damage from 14% to 80% weapon damage
- Increased bolt zap search radius from 12 to 18 yards
- Skill Rune - Fissure
- Increased area of effect damage from 80% to 400% weapon damage over 5 seconds
- Increased Arc capsule damage radius from 3 to 6 yards
- Skill Rune - Heaven's Tempest
- Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Heaven's Tempest was not moving around in its intended pattern
- Heaven's Fury
- Skill Rune - Fires of Heaven
- Reduced damage from 950% to 735% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Fires of Heaven
- Justice
- Increased base skill damage from 175% to 240% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Burst
- Increased damage from 25% to 30% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Hammer of Pursuit
- Hammer of Pursuit now seeks targets more quickly after cast
- Increased damage from 200% to 300% weapon damage
- Phalanx
- Increased base skill damage from 295% to 380% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Bowmen
- Increased damage from 85% to 160% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Bodyguard
- Increased damage from 200% to 285% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Shield Charge
- Increased damage from 75% to 180% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Stampede
- Increased Stun chance from 25% to 30%
- Punish
- Increased base skill damage from 200% to 270% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Retaliate
- Increased damage from 70% to 94% weapon damage
- Shield Bash
- Increased base skill damage from 325% to 370% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Crumble
- Increased on death proc damage from 550% to 660% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Pound
- Increased damage from 550% to 740% weapon damage
- Increased bonus damage from shield Block Chance from 150% to 500%
- Steed Charge
- Reduced base skill cooldown from 25 to 16 seconds
- Reduced base skill duration from 2 to 1.5 seconds
- No longer breaks Stun
- Skill Rune - Endurance
- Reduced duration from 3 to 2 seconds
- Skill Rune - Ramming Speed
- Increased damage from 475% to 515% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Nightmare
- Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where the Fire pools were not lasting their full intended duration
- Skill Rune - Draw and Quarter
- Increased damage from 125% to 185% weapon damage
- Sweep Attack
- Increased base damage from 400% to 440% weapon damage
- Akarat's Champion
- Passive Skills
- Lord Commander
- Now reduces the cooldown of Steed Charge by 25% and Bombardment by 35%
- Lord Commander
- Philosophy
- Demon Hunter
- Philosophy
- Many skills that spend Hatred feel great, but when it comes time to generate Hatred the single-target options don't feel meaty compared to the generators that can hit more than one target at a time. As a result, we are increasing the potency of a few single-target generators to be more competitive.
- Active Skills
- Evasive Fire
- Increased base middle shot damage from 160% to 200% weapon damage
- Increased base side shot damage from 80% to 100% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Covering Fire
- Bug Fix: Fixed a bug causing the side shot damage to be lower than the amount listed
- Increased the damage of the side shots from 160% to 200% weapon damage
- Increased the range of the side shots from 50% to 80% to match the range of the middle shot
- Hungering Arrow
- Increased base damage from 125% to 155% weapon damage
- Sentry
- Skill Rune - Guardian Turret
- The damage reduction from this rune will now be reflected in the Toughness display
- Skill Rune - Guardian Turret
- Evasive Fire
- Philosophy
- Monk
- Philosophy
Monks are working as intended and Dashing Strike is perfectly balanced.- There are no Monk changes at this time. Monks are currently in a fairly comfortable place, but as with all aspects of the game, we will continue to monitor them and make changes as needed.
- Philosophy
- Witch Doctor
- Philosophy
- The Witch Doctor was lacking good options for when they were low on Mana. A lack of attractive Signature spells results in builds primarily focused on sustaining Mana for long periods of time. We are increasing the potency of a few single-target Signature spells to be more competitive so that there are still aggressive options while waiting for Mana to regenerate.
- Haunt has received some changes to provide a low-Mana option as well as to emphasize options for a damage-over-time (DOT) play style.
- Active Skills
- Poison Dart
- Increased base skill damage from 155% + 40% to 185% + 40% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Splinters
- Increased damage from 65% to 105% weapon damage per dart
- Skill Rune - Spined Dart
- Increased amount of Mana returned from 25 to 50
- Skill Rune - Flaming Dart
- Increased damage from 275% to 425% weapon damage over 4 seconds
- Damage over time from Flaming Dart can now stack with itself
- Skill Rune - Snake to the Face
- Stun chance increased from 25% to 33%-35%
- Corpse Spiders
- Increased base skill damage from 216% to 324% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Leaping Spiders
- Increased damage from 238% to 383% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Blazing Spiders
- Increased damage from 259% to 400% weapon damage
- Firebomb
- Skill Rune - Pyrogeist
- Increased damage from 560% to 880% weapon damage
- Skill Rune - Pyrogeist
- Haunt
- Reduced Mana cost from 200 to 50
- Increased base skill damage from 1465% over 6 seconds to 4000% over 12 seconds
- Poison Dart
- Philosophy
- Wizard
- Philosophy
- Two skills on the Wizard, Arcane Orb - Frozen Orb and Electrocute, have bugs with their implementation. Unfortunately, these bug fixes do have the side effect of weakening these skills. Ultimately, this brings these skills back in line with other Wizard skills, which is why we chose to implement these fixes.
- Teleport is receiving some changes to allow it to work in more situations. The range is being increased overall for each cast of Teleport. As a result, the Wormhole rune is receiving a reduction in the number of successive casts that can be completed. Previously, you could cover 140 yards in 4 casts and now you can cover 150 yards in 3 casts. Overall, this is a buff.
- Active Skills
- Arcane Orb
- Frozen Orb
- Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Frozen Orb was chilling for longer than intended
- Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where the Frozen Orb bonus damage radius was hitting a larger area than intended
- Frozen Orb
- Electrocute
- Skill Rune - Surge of Power
- Reduced proc scalar from 0.25 to 0.166
- Skill Rune - Surge of Power
- Teleport
- Increased range from 35 to 50 yards
- Skill Rune - Wormhole
- Reduced maximum allowed teleports from 4 to 3
- Arcane Orb
- Passive Skills
- Arcane Dynamo
- Bug Fix: Arcane Dynamo now properly grants bonus damage to channeled spells
- Prodigy
- Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Electrocute was granting double the intended amount of Arcane Power when used with Prodigy
- Arcane Dynamo
- Philosophy
ADVENTURE MODE
- Nephalem Rifts
- Nephalem Obelisks now have a short cast time before they activate
- Adjusted the potential layouts for Sewer and Aqueduct style dungeons to include more randomized options
CRAFTING
- Level 70 crafted sets no longer require Flawless Royal gems and instead now require Marquise gems
- The drop rate of unique Legendary crafting materials has been significantly increased
- This matches the drop rate of Death's Breaths
- Death's Breaths are no longer required for level 61-70 Rare crafting recipes
- Bug Fixes
- Legendary crafted shields now provide the correct amount of Block Value for their level
ITEMS
- The treasure from Resplendent Chests has been improved to feel more resplendent
- Malthael is now much more afraid, and will more consistently drop the Reaper's Fear Legendary crafting material
- Bug Fixes
- Legendary Follower relics will no longer roll incorrect Primary stats
- Gloves of Worship no longer grant 60 minute buffs for Empowered or Fleeting Shrines
MONSTERS
- Damage from ghosts with the Soul Siphon ability has been reduced
- Poison Enchanted:
- Duration of each Poison Enchanted globule reduced from 8 to 6 seconds.
- Maximum number of Poison Enchanted globules has been reduced from 4 to 3 per cast
- Poison Enchanted is now triggered with more variation in timing from Champion packs
- The "Kill Malthael" quest is now required to be completed before Malthael will drop loot
QUESTS
- The Crazy Climber event now requires players to kill the monsters spawned during the event to complete
- The Jar of Souls event now spawns additional monsters in Torment I and higher
- The Matriarch's Bones event now spawns additional monsters in Torment I and higher
- In Campaign Mode, Manglemaw now only drops loot and gives XP before the player progresses to the Chancellor's Tomb quest
USER INTERFACE
- Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where game objects were prioritized over chat links in the chat window
- Fixed an issue where players were sometimes unable to click on chat links at the bottom of the chat window
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]
Over 1.5 million players around the world have stopped Death since Reaper of Souls™ launched last Tuesday, March 25. To celebrate this achievement and help support your ongoing crusade against the forces of evil, all nephalem who log into Diablo III this weekend will receive a +50% bonus to XP! This bonus XP period begins in the Americas region tonight, April 4 at 5:00 p.m. PDT and ends on Monday, April 7 at 5:00 a.m. PDT.
Thank you so much for being a hero of Sanctuary. We hope you have fun this weekend, and we'll see you in Westmarch!
Friend request accepted! You can now chat with your Battle.net friends directly through the desktop app for Battle.net.
To get started, simply look for the Friends icon in the upper-right of Battle.net the next time you log in. Clicking the icon will open up your Battle.net friends list, where you’ll be able to see their status and access a number of handy communication tools, including:
- Chat with Battle.net friends. Open a chat window on your desktop. Your messages will show up in any Blizzard game your friend happens to be playing at the time.
- Send and accept friend requests. Click the Add a Friend button and enter your friend’s BattleTag or email address to send them a friend request, or use the new People You May Know list. You can also right-click a friend’s name for more options.
- Add Favorite Friends. Drag a friend’s name to the new Favorites section of your friends list, keeping your closest friends even closer.
To customize the in-app Friends features, click the gear-shaped icon in your Friends list, or select Settings > Friends & Chat from the main menu. From there you’ll be able to set which of your friends’ activities trigger pop-up notifications (toasts), determine how chat messages appear, and more.
Battle.net Social Features Mini-FAQ
Can I change my online status through Battle.net?
Yes, you can change your status to Online, Busy, or Away directly through the app, and your status will be reflected in all of the games you’re playing. In addition, if you update your status in-game, it will be reflected back in Battle.net.
If my friend is playing multiple games, will they receive my message in every game?
Yes, any message you send through the Battle.net desktop app will appear in the app along with any game that your friend is playing on Battle.net at the time. You can further configure how messages are displayed through Battle.net’s Settings > Friends & Chat menu.
Does Battle.net support chatting with game-specific friends (e.g. character friends in World of Warcraft or character friends in StarCraft II) or World of Warcraft guild chat?
The Battle.net desktop app only supports direct chat with BattleTag and Real ID friends. If a character friend from World of Warcraft or StarCraft II attempts to message you, you will not receive any notification in the Battle.net app—just in-game.
What are the different ways I can add friends via the app?
When you click Add a Friend, you’ll be presented with the option to send friend requests by BattleTag, by Real ID (email address), or via a new People You May Know list. The suggestions on the People You May Know List are all friends of your existing friends, sorted by how many mutual pals you already share. To manually search for potential friends you might know, you can right-click an existing friend’s name and select View Friends, and then send friend requests from there.
Can I manage how I appear on other players’ Friend of Friends or People You May Know list?
Yes—if you’re using Real ID and would prefer to instead have your BattleTag displayed on Friends of Friends or People You May Know lists, you can do so through Battle.net’s Privacy settings. First, click the gear-shaped icon in your Friends list, and select Privacy Settings to go to Battle.net account management. Next, uncheck the Show my Real ID on Friends of Friends lists option and click Submit. This will make it so your BattleTag is displayed when other players view Friends of Friends lists or People You May Know lists. If you no longer wish to be friends with someone, you can right-click their name and select Remove Friend—this will make it so your names and statuses will no longer appear in each others’ friends list and Now Playing list.
Can I report someone for misconduct through the app?
if you receive an unwanted friend request, you can report it and/or block further communication from that player by clicking the ! icon in the pending request box. To report a friend who’s behaving inappropriately, right-click a friend’s name, and click Report. You’ll then be able to select the reason from a drop-down and provide additional details on the why you’re reporting the player.
Are you making any changes to the Now Playing list?
In addition to displaying which friends are currently playing the game you’ve selected, you’re now able to click on a friend’s name in the Now Playing list to start chatting with them.
Couple extra pictures
Blizzard Quote [source]
DEATH BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO SANCTUARY
More than 2.7 million players join the crusade against the Angel of Death with the launch of Diablo® III: Reaper of Souls™
IRVINE, Calif.—April 3, 2014—Malthael claimed that no one could stop Death . . . actually, Diablo® III players have already stopped Death more than 1.5 million times and counting. On March 25, players the world over launched a crusade against the fallen angel with the release of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls™ for Windows® and Mac®. As of the first week of the expansion’s availability, more than 2.7 million copies have sold-through online and at retailers worldwide.*
Players, community personalities, and members of the press joined Blizzard to celebrate the expansion’s release on the evening of March 24 at launch parties in Seoul, Taipei, Warsaw, Stockholm, and Los Angeles. The icy grasp of the Angel of Death reached players around the world through live streams from several of the events, with total Diablo III views on Twitch on launch day alone exceeding 2.4 million.†
“With Reaper of Souls, we wanted to emphasize all the things that Diablo gamers have always loved about the series, from the dark gothic setting to the piles and piles of epic loot,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re excited to see that players are enjoying the changes we’ve made to the game, and we look forward to achieving our Paragon levels alongside everyone else in the weeks and months ahead.”
Reaper of Souls continues the Diablo III story with a challenging new act that takes players from the legendary city of Westmarch to the unhallowed halls of the Pandemonium Fortress, culminating in an epic battle with Malthael, the Angel of Death. The expansion also adds the unstoppable Crusader class to Diablo III’s roster of heroes, and increases the game’s level cap to 70, adding several powerful spells and abilities for the original five hero classes.
Other new features in Reaper of Souls include Adventure Mode: a new game mode that allows players to choose their own path across Sanctuary in total freedom; Bounties: randomized objectives that award gold and experience; Nephalem Rifts: fast-paced randomized dungeons offering endless replayability and heaps of loot; and the Mystic: a powerful new artisan who provides gear-customization options.
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is available for purchase in retail stores throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as digitally around the world via the game’s official website (http://www.diablo3.com/reaperofsouls). The expansion will launch in Russia and the CIS, and at retail stores in Mexico, Chile, and Brazil, on April 15. Reaper of Souls has been fully localized in English, German, French, Latin American Spanish, European Spanish, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Russian, Italian, Polish, and Brazilian Portuguese.
With multiple games in development, Blizzard Entertainment has numerous positions currently available—visit http://jobs.blizzard.com for more information and to learn how to apply.