Blizzard Quote [source]

Diablo III Patch 2.6.6 PTR Has Finished

From 1st August the 2.6.6 PTR (Public Test Realm) has now reeached end of life and is officially offline.

In Patch 2.6.4, Diablohub commenced a new precedure for testing Diablo features and content. It seems to have worked well Blizzard's production schedule because it has allowed them to acquire focused, and actionable client feedback. Blizzard repeated the procedure for Patch 2.6.6, with a one-week PTR to test the impact of new features and gameplay in Season 18.

Blizzard have listened to gamers' feedback and have introduced new powers across a number of current Legendaries which previously had none. A brand new, unique Season buff for the Season of the Triune was developed to change the moment-to-moment game play right from level one.

PTR Details

The Patch 2.6.6 PTR started on Thursday, July 25 and ran for a week. During the course of the PTR, there were periodic maintenance outages, hotfixes, and minor patches.

There were two buffs active to help players on their PTR journey: increased Legendary drop rate and double Blood Shard drops. These were designed to allow everyone to acquire any new items (or supplemental items) that they might need for testing!

Patch Notes

Here are the patch notes for the most recent update for Diablo III, Patch 2.6.6.

• The buff for Season 18, the Season of the Triune, has been added
  • Triune's Will: All abilities have a chance when hitting an enemy to spawn a circle that gives a power. Only one circle can be active at a time.
    • Power: Players in the circle receive a 100% damage bonus while active
    • Resource Reduction: Players in the circle receive a 50% discount on resources spent while active
    • Cooldown Reduction: While standing in an active circle, any skills currently on cooldown come off of cooldown more quickly

• Developer Note: There are additional specific notes below, but broadly for 2.6.6, we wanted to introduce a handful of new item powers targeted at two audiences: (1) certain classes with long-standing requests for balance/quality of life adjustments and (2) the broader player base for experimenting with Kanai's Cube. This means fewer class-specific new additions, but more additions that everyone has an opportunity to play with. We also experimented with making some of the craftable sets from Haedrig more appealing for fresh level 70's or players looking to maximize their farming runs. We hope to see some interesting new theorycrafting and tactics out of 2.6.6 and can't wait to see what the community does with this new loot!
• Flavor of Time
  • New Legendary Power: Pylon effects last twice as long.
• The Executioner
  • New Legendary Power: Attacks will slay enemies with less than (5-10%) health.
• Stone Gauntlets
  • New Legendary Power: Getting attacked will slowly turn you to stone... (You gain 50% more armor, but your movement speed is reduced by 15% and attack speed is reduced by 20%. This effect stacks up to 5 times)
• Echoing Fury
  • New Legendary Power: Slaying enemies engulfs the wielder into a Frenzy. (Killing enemies increases your attack speed by 15% and movement speed by 5%. This effect stacks up to 5 times)
• Squirt's Necklace
  • New Legendary Power: While not taking damage, your damage is increased by up to 100% and damage taken is increased by up to 50%.
• Messerschmidt's Reaver
  • New Legendary Power: Reduce the remaining cooldown of one of your skills by 1 second when you slay an enemy.
• Mortick's Brace
  • New Legendary Item: Wrath of the Berserker gains the effect of every rune.
  • Developer's Note: If you played during the Patch 2.2.0 PTR, you'll recognize this as an item that was later removed from the game before it went to live servers. At the time, Mortick's Brace gave too much power for a single item slot. However, the power curve of Diablo III has changed significantly since then and we're comfortable with bringing it back.
• Spite
  • Note: This item can be crafted from the Blacksmith and is not a normal loot drop
  • New Legendary Power: Non-cleaving Gargantuans gain the cleave and chilling effects of the Humongoid rune.
• Legacy of Dreams
  • New Legendary Gem:
    • While you have no set bonuses equipped, every Legendary item you have equipped increases your damage dealt by 3.75% and reduces your damage taken by 2%. (Max level 99)
    • Rank 25: This bonus is doubled for Ancient items.
  • Developer's Note: The end game opened up significantly with Season 17's Legacy of Nightmare's buff (and the community was clear about how much these new options were appreciated), but wanted to make this addition a more permanent fixture in a more streamlined way than simply making it baseline. This Legendary Gem should open that path up even further and at more opportunities than just late game Greater Rift pushing.
• Crafted Sets
  • Note: The following sets have been significantly revised from their existing level 70 counterparts. Items crafted prior to 2.6.6 will continue to exist in their old forms but will not be updated after the patch. In addition, after the patch, the old recipes will no longer be available to craft and all players will need to re-acquire these recipes by finding the plans again through Horadric Caches or by killing Odious Collectors.
  • Sage's Journey
    • A Belt has been added to this set.
    • Haedrig the Blacksmith now automatically learns how to forge this set at Rank 12.
  • Captain Crimson's Trimmings
    • (2) Set Bonus
      • Regenerates 6000 Life per Second
      • Reduces cooldown of all skills by10% 20%.
      • Now also reduces Resource Costs by 20%
    • (3) Set Bonus
      • Set bonuses have been replaced
        • Damage dealt is increased by your total percentage of Cooldown Reduction
        • Damage taken is reduced by your total percentage of Resource Cost Reduction
  • Aughild's Authority
    • (2) Set Bonus
      • Set bonuses have been replaced
        • Reduces damage taken by 15%
        • Increases damage dealt by 30%
    • (3) Set Bonus
      • Reduces damage from elites by15% 30%
      • Increases damage against elites by15 30%
  • Cain's Destiny
    • (2) Set Bonus
      • Attack Speed increased by 8%
      • +50% Experience. (5.0% at level 70) (Moved from (3) Set Bonus)
    • (3) Set Bonus
      • When a Greater Rift Keystone drops, there is a 25% chance for an extra one to drop.

Blizzard Quote [source]

Blizzard in eSports

Blizzard made an announcement at the BlizzCon last year that they will be coming out with Diablo Immortal, an entirely fresh and mobile-only extension of the well-known PC-based role-playing action game. The launch will be in collaboration with mobile developer NetEase games. eSports has always been a major focus of Blizzard and Diablohub is their only the franchise which isn't involved in it yet.

Keeping in mind that mobile is the most rapidly growing segment in the gaming world, and the fact that mobile eSports are still in the nascent stages, with Diablo Immortal, Blizzard is hoping that they will be able to extend their eSports ambitions to the mobile space as well. Here's more on why Blizzard is creating Diablo Immortal.

Furthermore, anyone who enjoys the rush of eSports and games like Diablo, World of Warcraft, StarCraft and others, should definitely try out live dealer games at some of the most prominent casinos on the internet. In fact, if you are a Canadian, the ideal option for you will be to sign up for the free slots Canada has to offer, at the best online casinos (listed on the linked-to page). Let's now tell you about Blizzard's current involvement in the eSports scene.

StarCraft

This was the first big eSports hit by Blizzard and their current StarCraft II Remastered Edition has successfully ignited the same kind of interest that was garnered in South Korea, during the times of the original Brood War. In fact, the StarCraft II World Championship series has more than $ 2 million to be won in prize money each year.

Heroes of the Storm

This one is Blizzard's alternative for people who love Dota 2 and League of Legends. The MOBA or Multiplayer Online Battle Arena can use characters from all its IP addresses and the Heroes of the Storm Global Championship League (now ended) involved a prize money of a whopping $ 5.4 million awarded in the year 2017. Their competitive card game named Hearthstone has also become increasingly popular over the past few years, with $ 1 million being awarded in each one of its last two World Championship tournaments.

Overwatch

This one is presently Blizzard's most prominent endeavours in the field of eSports. The Overwatch league involves 20 different geo-located teams and there are plans that each one of these teams will establish their home base for multiple local matches, starting from the year 2020. There is an Overwatch World Cup held as well, involving top players of various national teams.

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft isn't like the other competitive eSports games in the Blizzard's portfolio. This MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) takes two different approaches to eSports - Speed Running Type Mythic Dudgeon Races and Arena Mode. The former has the potential of "Player vs Environment" type of eSports titles

Final Word

Blizzard currently has different games, with each one having their own eSports scenes. However, in all of them, it's the Blizzard that runs the show. Their Overwatch League is a very good example of Blizzard showcasing their unique approach of running a competitive scene.

Blizzard Quote [source]

Le Monde Reports Blizzard Diablo 4 in France

According to the Le Monde newspaper (article here in French) Blizzard has demonstrated a version of Diablo 4 to developers in France.

According to Le Monde, the demo took place in Versailles but was overshadowed by talk of job cuts as Blizzard tries to cut its workforce in 2019.

Most of Blizzard's current titles, World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo etc are gettin g long in the tooth now but the latest version of Diablo isn't expected until 2020.

Originally released in 1996, Diablo is one of the biggest games in the world, with a massive online community contributing to Activision Blizzard's profit margin.

In 2016, the 20th anniversary of Diablo, two former developers David Bervik and Bill Roper tweeted hinting at an imminent release of Diablo 4;

At the same time there were rumours of an announcement at BlizzCon 2018 with talk of a release date for Diablo 4. This was apparently removed at the last minute and replaced with a version of Diablo for a Smartphone instead. The same article discusses the many different directions the new version has taken whilst in development have caused the current delays.

At the same time fans were left frustrated when a goody bag containing a Diablo4-branded set of dice leading many to speculate that a release of version 4 had been planned but withdrawn at the last minute.

Despite all this controversy and uncertainty at BlizzCon 2018 though, some argue that version 4 is imminent.

What do we know about Diablo 4 then?

Well, again from Screenrant we can assume that expectations are high! We also know that Blizzard is taking as long as it deems necessary to get this version right after the internal disappointment with the release of Diablo 3.

The same article also speculates that the next version will be "dark and more gothic", in contrast with what many people see as the cartoon-like graphics in some parts of version 3; particularly the Gothic World of Sanctuary.

Apparently, v.4 will be designed to be much more social the previous versions, where players will be able to gather and trade online.

What do Blizzard say about Diablo 4?

Some would say remarkably little.

In their announcement of BlizzCon 2019, there doesn't seem to be any mention of Diablo 4, only a promise of "the latest news on everything Blizzard".... Watch this space!!!

Blizzard Quote [source]

Many of you will have seen this screen when trying to access the Battke.net website;

We've been following these problems that have resurfaced in recent days.

Clicking on the "Retry" button above set off a redirect that took us to this Twitter post;

Here's the discussion we found;

Diablo 3 Server Status? General Discussion Conners 4 days ago Diablo 3 Servers down at 12:57 PM on a Friday? Why can't Blizzard do server maintenance at like 3 am on a monday instead? When will the Diablo 3 servers be back up? I'm guessing the Diablo 3 servers are 100% down right now? If I'm wrong someone please post here, or post in this thread when the servers are back up? Rnclock 4 days ago @BlizzardCS 1h1 hour ago We apologize once again for the inconvenience caused by today's outages. We're working to resolve this as quickly as possible! @BlizzardCS 3h3 hours ago We're currently investigating an issue affecting our authentication servers, which may result in failed or slow login attempts.

Here's what else we uncovered;

BlizzardCS- the Americas tweet on 29th of May "We're currently investigating an issue affecting our authentication servers, which may result in failed or slow login attempts." As a result of the authentication servers having issues, players may have trouble logging into their Blizzard-related accounts. Players may be placed in a virtual "queue" to log in. And due to the issues, these queue times are enormous and not accurate whatsoever. Some Overwatch players were notified of estimated queue times ranging from three hours to nearly eight hours. r/Overwatch - 7.5+ hour wait to log-in? Just say the servers are down, Blizzard. r/Overwatch: Subreddit for all things Overwatch, the team-based shooter from Blizzard Entertainment. Initial reports of server outages began appearing at approximately 11:30pm CT on Reddit and other social media outlets. Predictably, within the hour, frustrated players had made some pretty good memes about the server issues. BlizzardCS- the Americas tweet We apologize once again for the inconvenience caused by today's outages. We're working to resolve this as quickly as possible! At 1:50pm CT, Blizzard apologized for the outages and reminded players that the company is working on a resolution. For now, players can keep attempting to log into games, but it may be a lengthy delay before the servers are working as intended. Update June 7, 3:00pm CT: Blizzard Entertainment has released another statement apologizing for the outages and offers no estimated time that they will be resolved. Update June 7, 5:00pm CT: Blizzard Entertainment announced the server issues have been resolved for most customers. They recommend restarting the Battle.net app for optimal performance. The outages lasted upwards of five hours in some areas.

Many people suspect that the login problems are due to DDOS attacks that have taken the server down.

We had a look at some server checkers and found the following;

Clearly Blizzard are having server problems that they are struggling to resolve. Let us know your thoughts!

Blizzard Quote [source]

Legendary: An Ancient & Primal Guide

Ancient items play a pivotal role in Season 17.

Each Ancient you kit out will yield a huge 750% increase to damage inflicted and a 4% decrease in damage sustained.

First, for those of you who've taken a rest from collecting loot, let's step back and take a refresher to clear up any mis-understandings regarding the differences between Legendary, Ancient and Primal Ancient items.

Essentially, Ancient Items and Primal Ancient items are more powerful variations of Legendary items. They are equivalent to Legendary items but for the fact that their essential attributes (damage or armor) and all their potential values can yield boosted results for lowest and highest possible rolls.

Ancient & Primal Ancient Items

• The stats on these items will (generally) be tailored to the character class you are playing when the item drops
• Set items are also able to roll as both Ancient and Primal Ancient
• You can't equip more than one item with the same name, even if one is Ancient and the other isn't
• Any percentage-based affix will not be boosted (such as Attack Speed, bonus % to skills or % Critical Hit Chance/Damage)

Ancient Items

• Only drop for characters who have reached level 70, and only on Torment level difficulties
• When dropped, Ancient items share the same orange glow as regular Legendaries
• You must identify the item to see if it's an Ancient
• Once identified, Ancient items have an orange border (or green for Set items) around the item tooltip and say "Ancient" in the item description.
• They drop from all sources including monsters, chests, Kadala, Horadric Caches, Kanai's Cube, and even crafting at the Blacksmith or Jeweler

Primal Ancient Items

• When dropped, Primal Ancient items have a red beam and glow
• Drops from any source of Legendary item in the game, including Horadric Caches, Kadala, and Kanai's Cube, but only after having successfully completed at least a level 70 Greater Rift solo
• These items are much rarer than Ancient items and have perfect Ancient-level stats on all affixes, including the item's Legendary Power

Primal Ancients & Developer Philosophy

Primal Ancients are intended for Diablo III players who have mostly finished their build or finished their Season 17 Journey but want to carry on in this Season. They're also intended for non-Seasonal players who have awesome kit and spend most of their time gaining Paragon Levels and upgrading Legendary Gems. We wanted to extend the excitement of seeing gear drop or spending Blood Shards at Kadala beyond obtaining Ancients in every slot. Primals provide an avenue for dedicated players to complete a build, without feeling like required upgrades. We hope that answers any questions you may have about Ancients and Primal Ancients.

Now off you go!