Blizzard Quote [source]

Season 16: The Season of Grandeur Begins

Today January 18th 2019 marks the start of Season 16 - the season of Grandeur

Season 16 marks the release of the latest Diablo III Patch (patch 2.6.4)and starts January 18 and accompanies our latest Diablo III patch. Here we've highlighted key features in this patch to get you off to the best possible start.

Season 16 offers some unique features that may never be repeated. Throughout Season of 16 all players will benefit from the legendary power of the Rings of Royal Grandeur. It doesn't matter if they are fitted directly on your character or via the Jewelry Slot in Kanai's Cube, you don't need to hunt for, or kit out the item to gain the benefit from it Set bonus-enabling potential.

For newbies amongst you, during Season 16, many classes will have the choice of being able to fuse different Class set bonuses in novel ways or cram another Legendary power into their favorite builds.

Season 16 will be unique also because it will empower Theorycrafter to tinker and optimise their favorite build to push it to the max.

New Cosmetic Rewards

The Season Grandeur will also see the introduction of new cosmetic rewards, that you can achieve and you move through the season Journey.

Players will be able to gain a brand-new set of p0rtrait frames that are based on a theme on the call of Adventure, as well as the helm and Shoulder slots of the exclusive Conqueror Set. As you can see in the image, this patch offers a set of wings fit ofr a King or Queen. Drawing inspiration from some of the noblest creatures in Sanctuary, the Wings of Lempo are as beautiful as any you will see.

Season 16 Rewards

If you've reached the level of Conqueror over the last few seasons, you've no doubt gained some extra stash tabs already. In Season 16 though, players who haven't yet earned four stash tabs will still be able to free an extra tab by completing the following tasks at the Conqueror level;

• Guardian of Sanctuary: Complete a level 70 Nephalem Rift on Torment XIII within 5 minutes
• Gem of My Life: Level 3 Legendary Gems to level 55
• All I Do IS Win: Finish 2 Conquests this Season
• In for The Kill: Kill Azmodan at level 70 in under 30 seconds on Torment XIII difficulty
• Money Ain't a Thang: Slay Greed on Torment XIII difficulty
• Take U There: Reach Greater Rift level 60 Solo
• Power Amplification: Use Kanai's Cube to augment an Ancient Legendary item with a level 50+ gem
• Cubic Reconfiguration: Use Kanai's Cube to reforge a Legendary item

Seasonal Conquests

The Seasonal Conquest rot/ation doesn't stop in Season 16. For the blitz quick amongst you, Speed Demon/need for Speed require the quickest nephalem to finish a Nephalem Rift at level 70 on Torment X or above in less than 2 mins. On a Good Day? I Can't Stop helps you to progress with your Legendary Gem; with level III Legendary Gems to 65 to succeed in this challenge. For the most ferocious demon killers , Boss Mode/World's Apart is a speed challenge where you'll have to vanquish the following bosses at level 70 and Torment X in less than 20 mins: The Skeleton King The Butcher Zoltun Kulle Ghom Cydaea Rakanoth Diablo Adria Queen Araneae Maghda Belial Siegebreaker Assault Beast Azmodan Izual Urzael Malthael That's a tough challenge! For Curses!/Stars Align, pick any Cursed Chest event that requires killing monsters and defeat over 350 or more at level 70 on Torment X or higher. Finally, Years of War/Dynasty demonstrates your mastery of multiple classes by clearing a Greater Rift level 55 solo with the full bonuses of any 6 full Class sets.

Haedrig's Gift

Also in Season 16 we rotated the Class Sets you can win for completing key chapters courtesy of Haedrig's Gift (see below). For people who are new to the concept of Seasons, we have the following guide:

Finishing Chapters 2 3 & 4 of the Season Journey will earn you 3 of Haedrig's Gifts. Each of these Gifts has a few pieces from one of your Class Sets. Players will only be able to unlock one Class Set in this way in a Season across Hardcore and Non-Hardcore so be sure to pick wisely. Thse are the sets that will be gifted by Haedrig's Gift in the Season of Grandeur:

Barbarian - Immortal King's Call

Crusader - Seeker of the Light

Demon Hunter - Natalya's Vengeance

Monk - Uliana's Stratagem

Necromancer - Trag;Oul's Avatar

Witch Doctor - Spirit of Arachyr

Wizard - Vyr's Amazing Arcana

Quality of Life Updates

Blizzard have listened to feedback from players and have worked on two popular requeststo help improve the Diablo III experience. They've made small changes, such as deleting Legendary potions from player inventories to save space.

Blizzard have also made more substantial changes to celebrating end-game loot in Primal Legendaries.

Blizzard have added specially colored beams and a special mini-map icon to highlight when they drop as well as brightening the tooltip and border colorations to make them more noticeable;

Lastly, Blizzard warns that you must understand that while you can start accumulating Primal Legendaries; after finishing your first Rift 70 or more Solo, you'll earn an achievement showing your success and the Greater Rift boss will be certain to drop a Primal Legendary. Such a drop depends on other loot rules ie although there's a good chance it will work well for your class, this will depend on the luck of the draw.

Get ready for Season 16 and be sure to let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Blizzard Quote [source]

Sharing the gift that is Diablo with family and friends is one of the greatest things one can do this holiday. Even though we know people are busy building snowmen, stuffing turkeys or preparing their vocal cords to sing Christmas carols, there has never been a better time to play Diablo, considering that the recently-released Nintendo Switch version is allowing people to take the action with them where ever they go.

Now you stand the chance to win fantastic prizes with the EU sweepstakes! Here's what's up for grabs:

30 copies of Diablo III for Nintendo Switch + Diablo cases

One Diablo III for Nintendo Switch bundle

10 Whimsyshire Plushes

With the season of gifting and being jolly drawing closer, awesome gifts are being given to a few lucky winners. One of these epic gifts is a Diablo III Bundle for the Nintendo Switch.

In the Diablo III Eternal Collection for Nintendo Switch, the winner will get a code to download Diablo III, a Nintendo Switch console and dock with a Diablo theme and a carrying case (Diablo edition). In the Definitive Edition of the game, on top of getting all the available features and updates, there will also be the Necromancer content pack and Reaper of Souls expansion. What's more, there is also a Ganondorf (Nintendo fans know him as one of the baddest and most terrifying villains from the Zelda games) cosmetic armor set, as well as other goodies from inspired by the Kingdom of Hyrule.

But wait, there's more to give away apart from the main prize! 30 people will be lucky enough to grab themselves a redeemable Nintendo Switch Diablo III Eternal Collection download code. Also, 10 people will be able to nab a Whimsyshire Goblin plush. (Your job is to give one of these little guys a warm and cozy place away from the winter cold!).

If you want to take part in the EU sweepstakes (and we know you do), use the newly created gleam.io to provide your name and email address before 31 December. All the lucky winners will receive an email by 14 January, 2019.

Click Here To Enter Now

Blizzard Quote [source]

Diablo III Nintendo Switch Photo Contest

Can you take an epic shot?

If you can, you might stand a chance to score yourself an epic prize.

Whether you are sitting on top of the Eiffel Tower or on a train ride to work vanquishing the minions of darkness.

We know you are hard at work defending the Sanctuary in pretty interesting places in the real world of mortals.

How to Participate in the Competition:

1. Start by uploading a photo. The picture you take must have either the Nintendo Switch case for Diablo® III or have a Nintendo Switch screen with Diablo® III on it.
2. Provide your details. If you end up winning, we'll need your information in order to contact you. After the contest, the data will be deleted.

That's all there is to it!

If You Want to Enter the Contest, Click Here!

What's your prize?

1st Prize: You get the Diablo III Eternal Collection Edition (Bundle) for the Nintendo Switch plus the Dark Wanderer Backpack

2nd Prize: Diablo III Eternal Collection Edition (Bundle) for the Nintendo Switch

All winners in the top 10 (based on community votes) will win Nintendo Online game time for up to one year!

Blizzard Quote [source]

Patch 2.6.4 PTR

Patch 2.6.4 PTR, which allows for testing the game at a rapid pace, was launched last week, allowing you to give the developers some feedback before the full download is launched. Season 16 is shaping up to be one epic journey, with the developers implementing some features that have been long requested, such as the class set balancing, changes to the quality of life and the new seasonal buff, which promises to be a game changer.

PTR Details

Patch 2.6.4 PTR was conducted over the course of one week, starting from November 21st on a Wednesday. As the game was being patched, players were told to expected periodic minor patches, hotfixes, outages and maintenances.

To help players out on their PTR journey, two buffs are active throughout: double Blood Shard drops and increased Legendary drop rate. This means if you require class set items (or additional items), these buffs will allow you to acquire them!

The PTR Bug Report forum is where players should submit bug reports while the PTR Feedback forum is where feedback should be submitted; these separated tracks have been created so that important information can easily be prioritized by the quality assurance testers and designers.

PTR Goals

The developers know you are tempted to grab as many goodies as you can, considering there is the game-changing Seasonal buff and a large number of class set changes to enjoy! However, they have outlined what they would like to see tested the most to direct your focus on the most important things.

• Greater Rifts being pushed to the maximum by players in both Non-Seasonal and Seasonal play
• With the Season of Grandeur buff making it possible, developers would like to see more class set mix-and-match experimentation

PTR Tips

Compared to the PTRs that have been conducted in the past, this one is slightly different (and the last test happened a while back). That's why the developers have compiled a couple of helpful tips that will get you started, whether you are PTR seasoned veteran or a newbie.

• Participants have been asked to select a section of the update they should focus their testing on because the PTR is of limited duration.
• For instance, you need to focus on changes that affect a Monk in particular if you primarily play using a Monk. Good things to focus on include what you'd like to see in future (it doesn't matter if the features are beyond this current patch's scope), things you feel need to be tweaked and the things you want to be kept.
• Stocking up on Bovine Bardiches, Puzzle Rings and similar items are things that need serious consideration before jumping into the PTR. PTR farming can be sped up significantly when you have these items with you after your character is imported!
• Do your best to break the game patch! However, be sure to alert the developers so they can fix the issues and ensure everyone enjoys a smooth launch.
• It is important to pay more attention to your experience rather than the solution when giving feedback to the developers. How did you feel about the changes? Did you notice something that was off? Was something insufficient or wrong? It is important to pinpoint the issues themselves; however, the developers are always willing to listen to your suggestions.

Patch Notes

Last updated December 3 @ 10:00 p.m. PST.

Patch 2.6.4 preliminary patch notes can be found in the following section. Keep in mind that a couple of the changes might not be comprehensively described or documented since this is not the patch's final version.

PTR PATCH 2.6.4 - v2.6.4.49286

Please head on over to the PTR Feedback forum if you wish to leave feedback for patch 2.6.4. Please head on over to the PTR Bug Report forum if you wish to alert the developers of any issues you encountered during your play.

For further details on how to be a PTR participant, click here.

• General
• Quality of Life
• Philosophy
• In this patch, a couple of Quality of Life changes were included that were frequently requested, as well as improved indication and celebrating Primal Legendary drops.
• All characters now get five extra Armory tabs, making the total number of tabs equal to 10
• Material tabs are now the place to keep your Greater Rift Keystones
• Any Greater Rift Keystone you currently have in both your stash and inventory has been moved automatically.
• Any dropped Primal Legendaries will be marked with a red beam
• The mini-map will show a red pentagram indicating Primal Legendaries that are on the ground
• The icon of Primal Legendaries now has an updated background and red border
• Greater Rifts
• Philosophy
• Micro-management of Paragon points for the duration of a Greater Rift doesn't feel like gameplay that can engage players, nor does it mesh well with the consistency of the current rules of participating in a Greater Rift. Furthermore, since the prior window, particularly between Greater Rifts, is usually very tiny, the alteration to the matchmaking below will simplify the process of finding Greater Rift groups for all players
• When there is an open Greater Rift, no swapping of Paragon points will take place
• When a Greater Rift is open, players will now be able to get matched into public games
• You will not be able to participate in an active rift if this is the manner you have joined
• Until they complete their run, players currently in the Rift will face no extra difficulty scaling when continuing the Rift
• Seasons
• Season 16: Season of Grandeur
• The developers have implemented the Season of Grandeur buff
• All seasonal players will get the Ring of Royal Grandeur's legendary power from the buff
• Whether in Kanai's Cube or equipped, you will not be able to stack the buff with extra Ring of Royal Grandeur
• Non-Seasonal players will not be able to apply this buff unlike in past seasons
• A Rift Guardian will drop a Primal Legendary if it is the first time a solo player is attempting to complete a Level-70 Greater Rift
• Class Set Changes
• Philosophy
• To improve the diversity of all sets and classes of Greater Rifts of a higher level, the developers have taken another tuning pass. Keep in mind that there might be more tweaks over the PTR's course since the values are only tentative.
• All Classes
• Legacy of Nightmares
• An increase, from 100-percent to 500-percent, has occurred on the (2) Set bonus
• Barbarian
• The Legacy of Raekor
• An increase, from 2800-percent to 7000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Immortal King's Call
• An increase, from 1500-percent to 4000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Might of the Earth
• An increase, from 5600-percent to 20000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Wrath of the Wastes
• An increase, from 3000-percent to 10000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Crusader
• Thorns of the Invoker
• An increase, from 140-percent to 350-percent, has occurred on the (2) Set bonus
• An increase, from 5400-percent to 15000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Roland's Legacy
• An increase, from 3300-percent to 13000-percent, has occurred on the (4) Set bonus
• An increase in Attack Speed, from 50-percent to 75-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Seeker of the Light
• An increase in the damage of the Blessed Hammer, from 2000-percent to 12000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Demon Hunter
• Embodiment of the Maruader
• An increase, from 3000-percent to 12000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Unhallowed Essence
• An increase, from 100-percent to 350-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Natalya's Vengeance
• An increase, from 3500-percent to 14000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• The Shadow's Mantle
• An increase, from 1200-percent to 6000-percent, has occurred on the (2) Set bonus
• An increase, from 50000-percent to 75000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Monk
• Uliana's Strategem
• An increase, from 2100-percent to 9000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Inna's Mantra
• An increase, from 150-percent to 1500-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Monkey King's Garb
• An increase, from 1000-percent to 1500-percent, has occurred on the (2) Set bonus
• Raiment of a Thousand Storms
• An increase, from 100-percent to 400-percent, has occurred on the (2) Set bonus
• An increase in the damage of the Dashing Strike, from 13000-percent to 60000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• An increase in the damage of the Spirit Generator, from 1300-percent to 6000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Necromancer
• Trag'Oul's Avatar
• An increase, from 3300-percent to 3800-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Witch Doctor
• Spirit of Arachyr
• An increase, from 4500-percent to 9000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Helltooth Harness
• An increase, from 1500-percent to 3000-percent, has occurred on the (2) Set bonus
• An increase, from 4400-percent to 9000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Raiment of the Jade Harvester
• An increase, from 560 seconds to 3500 seconds, has occurred on the (2) Set bonus
• An increase, from 1650 seconds to 10000 seconds, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Zunimassa's Haunt
• An increase, from 5500-percent to 15000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Wizard
• Tal Rasha's Elements
• An increase, from 750-percent to 3000-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Delsere's Magnum Opus
• An increase, from 3800-percent to 8500-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus
• Vyr's Amazing Arcana
• An increase in bonus damage, from 50-percent to 100-percent, has occurred on the (6) Set bonus

How to Participate

To be a public test participant, your Battle.net account must have an attached Diablo III license that is in good standing (for example, from an account that is not banned or suspended). On top of that, the Battle.net desktop app needs to be downloaded and installed if this has not been done already.

Step 1: A PTR account must be created. Head on over to Account Management when you are in your Blizzard Battle.net account, which brings up the management page for the game. Click on "Create a PTR account" once you are on this page.

You may not find the "Create PTR account" button if you have previously participated in any PTR for Diablo III. This is because the step can be skipped since you already have an existing PTR account.

Step 2: You must choose the "Diablo III" option, which is located on the application menu's left side, once your PTR account has been created, the desktop app for Blizzard Battle.net has been installed and you have used your credentials for Blizzard Battle.net to log in.

Step 3: On top of the "Play" button, you will see a drop-down menu on the Diablo III screen (note: if Diablo III has not been installed, this button might say "Install" instead). Before proceeding, choose "PTR: Diablo III" from that drop-down menu.

Step 4: The patch should now be able to be installed and played.

All accounts, no matter the region, can participate and all supported languages are available in the PTR.

PTR Character Copy

You can use the PTR client to directly transfer all your characters to the PTR from your Diablo III live account. However, you are only allowed to transfer just one account per region at a time. This means you will lose all PTR characters if you decide to transfer characters from an account that is in another region.

Step 1: Log in and out of a live game.

Step 2: Create a character of level 1 once you log into your PTR client. Go back to the main character screen once done.

Step 3: Locate the "PTR Copy" button on the upper-right corner and click on it. (Note: until you have created a new level 1 character, this button will not be available in the game.)

Step 4: Choose your region.

Step 5: To transfer all characters you have in the chosen regional account, click on "Copy."

Step 6: The PTR client will be disconnected.

Step 7: Log in again. Now you will be able to play with your transferred characters.

Keep in mind that characters can only be transferred from a single region at a time. You lose all PTR characters that were copied previously when you decide to transfer characters from another region. On top of that, there is a 24-hour wait time once you transfer characters to a PTR account. You will get an error message if you try to transfer characters again before the 24 hours are up.

Since this server is for testing, uneven performance should be expected, and keep in mind that downtime and restarts can happen at any time without warning. The developers thank you for your anticipation and are anticipating your great feedback.