Patch 2.6.7 PTR (Public Test Realm) Has Started 10/17
After a week of testing PTR 2.6.7 has started from the 17th October and Blizzard needs your help to make Season 19 the best ever!
Brand new class sets have been developed for Diablo III as outlined in Blizzard’s Support blog, and at the same time have given an extensive revamp of several Barbarian Legendaries after client feedback. Blizzard have continued to develop its approach to Seasonal buffs and how they can change up the overall gameplay journey. Players are invited to take a preview of the preliminary patch notes below and start theorycrafting. Don’t forget Diablo III Patch 2.6.7 will be available before the end of 2020
Table of Contents
Blizzars are keen to point out that these notes are a preview for PTR content, and are subject to change.
PTR Details
Blizzard will be running the Patch 2.6.7 PTR over the course of one week, starting Thursday, October 17. During the course of PTR, there may be periodic maintenances, outages, hotfixes, or minor patches.
There will be two buffs active to help you on your PTR journey: increased Legendary drop rate and double Blood Shard drops. You can also buy customized gear we’re focused on testing from the special PTR vendor, D’jank Miem, who will exchange Blood Shards for class-specific bags full of Legendary items that need your testing!
Feedback should be provided in the PTR Feedback forum while bug reports should be provided in the PTR Bug Report forum. Clearly separating these discussions allows your designers and quality assurance testers to home in on the information they need most.
PTR Goals
With another new game-impacting Seasonal buff and entirely new class sets to experiment with, we know it’ll be very tempting to get your hands on as much as you can! To help guide your focus, here are our priorities in terms of what we’d most like to see tested.
- Monk and Crusaders heavily testing their new class sets and item changes
- Barbarian testing for the revised Barbarian legendary item changes
- Experimentation with the Pandemonium buff, with emphasis on finding bugs and testing functionality
PTR Tips
As with our previous PTRs, this testing period will have a short duration. Whether you’re a PTR veteran or newcomer, we thought we’d pass along a few tips to get you started.
- Because of the limited duration of this PTR, we ask that participants pick a particular portion of this update to focus on testing.
- For example, if you’re primarily a Wizard player, consider what changes impact the Wizard specifically. What you like best, what you think may still need adjustment, and what you’d want to see in the future (even if that may be beyond the scope of this patch) are all good questions to ask yourself.
- Prior to the start of PTR, consider stocking up on items like Puzzle Rings and Bovine Bardiches. Having these available after you import your character can make any necessary PTR farming much faster!
- Try to break things! Just tell us when you do so we can make sure that the patch launch is as smooth as possible.
- When providing feedback, focus less on a solution and more on your experience. How did the changes make you feel? Was there something “off” that you noticed? Did something seem wrong or insufficient? Suggestions are always welcome but identifying the issues themselves is most important.
Patch Notes
Last updated October 14 @ 10:00 a.m. PST.
Below you will find the patch notes for the most recent update for Diablo III, Patch 2.6.7.
Table of Contents:
Note: All changes apply to all versions of Diablo III, including PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC unless otherwise indicated. Please note that PTR is only available for PC and Mac users.
General
- Greater Rift Keystones are now subject to vacuum pick-up
- A note regarding the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) has been added, clearly stating we do not sell account information. For more information regarding the CCPA, please see here. (Console Only)
Seasons
- Developer Note: One of the biggest pieces of feedback from Season 18's buff was that the Triune bonus didn't stick with your character while you adventured. With Season 19, we've altered course as well as upped the ante by experimenting with new mechanics to add an element of both chaos and power to the battlefield. It should feel a bit like Pandemonium, and it may be a consideration whether or not you want to reset your total kill streak for a particular killstreak bonus versus continuously maintain the overall effect (especially as the highest level killstreak rewards will be harder to leverage in situations like Greater Rifts). Killstreaks with higher kill count requirements are more powerful, and we're looking forward to seeing what players think of and do with them!
- The buff for Season 19, the Season of Eternal Conflict, has been added
- Pandemonium
- For the duration of the Season, all players will have a stacking buff that persists as long as you have hit or killed a monster within the last 5 seconds
- Each stack gives 0.05% movement speed and 0.1% bonus damage. This bonus caps at 50% movement and 100% damage (1000 stacks)
- In addition, after reaching a certain number of kills in a row, a power is unleashed, dealing an amount of scaling damage based on player level and difficulty or Greater Rift level:
- 15 Kills: Five massive energy twisters are unleashed
- 30 Kills: Dark Geysers form beneath enemies
- 50 Kills: Exploding Chickens seek and destroy
- 100 Kills: Corpses rain from the sky
- 150 Kills: A wide Frost Nova freezes enemies
- 200 Kills: Treasure chests fall from the sky
- 300 Kills: A ring of fire engulfs everything
- 400 Kills: Meteors hail from above
- 500 Kills: Angels descend upon the battlefield to fight for your cause
- 1000 Kills: ???
- Powers are tracked at a group level; this means only one power can be active in play at a time, regardless of the number of players in a group
- Pandemonium
Items
- Developer Note: With Patch 2.6.7, we are beginning to roll out new class sets for every class in Diablo III. For the Season of Eternal Conflict, we're focusing on the two classes that embody the Light and wield some form of Holy elemental damage: Crusader and Monk. You'll also find a handful of retuned or newly added Legendary powers intended to synergize with the new class sets. We did a lot of community research into which skills were most requested by players as well as most underrepresented in current builds, and we hope you're as excited as we are for these new gameplay options. The other class sets will be coming in later patches, so if your class isn't represented this time around, fret not—they're coming in a future patch!
- You'll also notice a significant number of Barbarian item changes in this patch. While the Barbarian class set will be coming at a later date, we have very much heard the War Cry from our dedicated Barbarian community and implemented a number of changes heavily inspired by extremely thorough feedback. While not every suggestion has been taken at a 1:1 parity, the thoughtful analysis helped guide us to changes we could implement in this patch. Thanks very much to the community members who expressed their concerns in a respectful, constructive manner. It's very helpful, and we greatly appreciate the thought and effort that went into making your voices heard!
- New Crusader Set: Aegis of Valor
- 2-Piece Bonus: The charged bolts from Fist of the Heavens has a chance to cast another Fist of the Heavens
- 4-Piece Bonus: Hitting with Fist of the Heavens reduces damage taken by 1% for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 50 times
- 6-Piece Bonus: Increase the damage of Fist of the Heavens by 10,000%
- New Monk Set: Patterns of Justice
- 2-Piece Bonus: Sweeping Wind gains the effect of every rune
- 4-Piece Bonus: Each enemy within Sweeping Wind increases your movement speed by 5%. Stacks up to 10 times.
- 6-Piece Bonus: Attacking with Tempest Rush while Sweeping Wind is active will temporarily increase the size of Sweeping Wind after hitting over 30 times within a short period. Sweeping Wind damage is increased by 10,000%
- Darklight
- Fist of the Heavens has a
[45-60%]100% chance to be cast twice. - Additional Legendary Power: Increases the damage of Fist of the Heavens by [200-250%].
- Fist of the Heavens has a
- Eye of the Storm
- New Legendary Power: When Sweeping Wind hits exactly 1 enemy, its damage is increased by 100%.
- Vengeful Wind
- Increases the maximum stack count of Sweeping Wind by
[6-7]10 - Additional Legendary Power: Increases the damage of Sweeping Wind by [250-300%]
- Increases the maximum stack count of Sweeping Wind by
- Chantodo's Resolve
- The scaled attack speed damage bonus to Wave of Destruction has been reduced
- Developer Note: This is a reactive adjustment from an earlier change to how Wave of Destruction receives a bonus from Attack Speed. The buff that resulted from that change was more than we expected, so we're reigning it in.
- Wrath of the Wastes
- 6-Piece Bonus: The damage bonus now also applies to Rend
- Lamentation
- Additional Legendary Power: Increases the damage of Rend by [150-200%]
- Ambo's Pride
- New Legendary Power: Attacking with Whirlwind also applies Rend and the total damage of Rend is dealt over 1 second
- Remorseless
Hammer of the Ancients has a [25-30%] chance to summon an Ancient for 20 seconds- New Legendary Power: While both Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients are active, Hammer of the Ancients deals [200-250%] more damage.
- Fjord Cutter
You are surrounded by a Chilling Aura when attacking.- New Legendary Power: Seismic Slam attacks 50% faster and also deals 100-150% increased damage against Slowed or Chilled enemies
- Bracers of Destruction
- Seismic Slam deals [400-500%] increased damage to the first
510 enemies it hits.
- Seismic Slam deals [400-500%] increased damage to the first
- Fury of the Ancients
- Call of the Ancients gains the effect of the Ancients' Fury rune and your Ancients attack 100% faster
- Bone Ringer
- Now has a cap of 60 stacks.
- Developer Note: We never intended for this item to be used in a way where you farm stacks for an egregious amount of time (5+ minutes) and then watch all their health disappear in less than a second. It's not an engaging style of gameplay, and we don't want that experience to be the best way to play the Necromancer.
- Legacy of Dreams
- This gem is now more likely to drop from a Greater Rift Guardian
Monsters
- Blighter
- Blighter's Poison Tentacles' Area of Effect now hits less frequently, but at higher damage, when attacking players
Bug Fixes
- Spite
- Fixed an issue where casting Restless Giant would cause the 200% physical bonus damage to fail to apply when the Gargantuan enraged
- Squirt's Necklace
- Fixed an issue where some ground effects were causing the Squirt's Necklace buff to fall off despite being shielded
How to Participate
To participate in the public test, you must have a Diablo III game license attached to a Battle.net account in good standing (i.e. one that hasn't been suspended or banned). In addition, you will also need to download and install the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app if you have not already done so.
Step 1: Restart the Battle.net desktop app.
Step 2: Navigate to the Diablo III tab on the left-hand menu.
Step 3: On the Diablo III screen, there is a drop-down menu right above the "Play" button (note that this may say "Install" if you do not have Diablo III currently installed). Select "PTR: Diablo III" from this drop-down menu before proceeding.
Step 4: Click Install to begin the installation process.
Your PTR account will be created automatically if you do not already have one. The PTR is available in all supported languages, and accounts from all regions are eligible to participate. For additional assistance with installing and launching the PTR, click here.
PTR Character Copy
The option to copy your existing Diablo III characters from your live account to the PTR will be available and can be done directly through the PTR client. However, only one region per account can be copied at a time. So, if you choose to copy characters from your account in a different region, any previously copied PTR characters will be lost.
Step 1: Log into the live game and then log out.
Step 2: Log into PTR client and create a level 1 character. After you're done, return to the main character screen.
Step 3: Click on the "PTR Copy" button located in the upper right-hand corner. (The PTR Copy button will not appear in-game until you have created a new level 1 character.)
Step 4: Select your region.
Step 5: Click "Copy." This will copy all characters on your account from the selected region.
Step 6: You will be disconnected from the PTR client.
Step 7: Log back in. Your copied characters will be available for play.
Please note that you can only copy characters from one gameplay region at a time. If you choose to copy characters from a different region, any previously copied PTR characters will be lost. In addition, you can only copy characters over to your PTR account once every 24 hours. Attempting to copy characters before this cooldown is up will result in an error.
Blizzard Quote [source]
Diablo Patch 2.6.6 Details
What's new in Ptach 2.6.6:
Note: All changes apply to all versions of Diablo III, including PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC unless otherwise indicated.
- A pet has been added that will be available for players who pre-purchase Warcraft III: Reforged Spoils of War Edition (PC Only)
- 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.
- Triune of Love (Power): Players in the circle receive a 100% damage bonus while active
- Triune of Determination (Resource Reduction): Players in the circle receive a 50% discount on resources spent while active
- Triune of Creation (Cooldown Reduction): While standing in an active circle, any skills currently on cooldown come off of cooldown more quickly
- Developer Comment: The last couple of Seasonal buffs have been focused primarily on end-game content. We wanted to try something different this Season with a buff that was more beneficial to players regardless of where they might be in their Season Journey. Triune's Will can come into play as early as level 1 and continue to make an impact on your game experience from the beginning to the end of the Season, and we're looking forward to seeing how players leverage this ever-changing boost throughout their adventures!
- Developer Comment: In addition, we received feedback from players during the PTR about colorblind accessibility. We've changed one of the blue-tinted circles to a darker, green earth tone that should stand out a lot more for affected players. We greatly appreciate your feedback!
- 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.
- 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!
- Updated Item Notes: There are a number of notes below clarifying the intention of certain item functionalities. In a couple cases, such as with Flavor of Time, the item wasn't behaving properly during PTR per our intentions (which has been fixed). For others, we just wanted to provide more clarity about exactly how these items behave.
- Flavor of Time
- New Legendary Power: Pylon effects last twice as long.
- Note: Only wearers of this item gain this effect. This is intended.
- The Executioner
- New Legendary Power: Attacks will slay enemies with less than (5-10%) health.
- Note: This item's power does not work on followers. This is intended.
- 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)
- PTR Update: This item now displays a buff icon and has a clearer in-game description. Thank you for the feedback!
- Note: Immunity to control-impairing effects can work against the reduced attack and movement speed penalties. This is intended.
- 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)
- PTR Update: This item's power now works on kill assists and pet kills. Thank you for the feedback!
- 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%.
- PTR Update: This item now displays a buff icon. Thank you for the feedback!
- Messerschmidt's Reaver
- New Legendary Power: Reduce the remaining cooldown of one of your skills by 1 second when you slay an enemy.
- PTR Update: This item's power now works on kill assists and pet kills. Thank you for the feedback!
- 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.
- Developer's Note: We're not done with Barbarians, either. However, this is a change that required less testing and could be easily added to 2.6.6, so rather than waiting for a larger batch of changes, we saw no reason to hold this one 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.
- New Legendary Gem:
- 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 by
10%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
- Set bonuses have been replaced
- (2) Set Bonus
- Aughild's Authority
- (2) Set Bonus
- Set bonuses have been replaced
- Reduces damage taken by 15%
- Increases damage dealt by 30%
- Set bonuses have been replaced
- (3) Set Bonus
- Reduces damage from elites by
15%30% - Increases damage against elites by
15%30%
- Reduces damage from elites by
- (2) Set Bonus
- 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.
- (2) Set Bonus
- Fixed an error that occurred when reporting a player via a friend request
- Fixed an error that occurred when saving an existing Friend Note without making changes
PTR-Specific Bug Fixes
- Squirt's Necklace
- Fixed an issue where the damage taken increase was not reaching the 50% cap
- Captain Crimson's Trimmings
- Fixed an issue where the bonus provided by this class set was subject to snapshotting
Blizzard Quote [source]
Diablo III Patch 2.6.6 & Season 18: The Season of the Triune Begins August 23rdBlizzard have announced the starting date of the latest season; Season 18 starting August 23. The latest Diablo III patch, discussed later, will be released at the same time. Here we list the details of the all-new Season of the Triune buff, the heap of new Legendary powers, and a few crafted item revamps in Patch 2.6.6!
Table of Contents
- Season 18 Theme
- Season 18 Cosmetic Rewards
- Season Journey Rewards
- Seasonal Conquests
- Haedrig's Gift
- Patch 2.6.6 Notes
- Season 18 FAQ
New Season 18 Theme
Season 18 introduced the Season of the Triune, which is a call-back to an ancient cult forged over 3,000 years ago by the Prime Evils of the Burning Hells. Parading as three benevolent deities dedicated to Determination, Creation, and Love, the Prime Evils intended to infiltrate the hearts of men in a bid to tilt the odds in their favor in the ongoing Eternal Conflict. Ultimately defeated by Uldyssian during the Sin War, the survivors of the Cult of the Triune still operate today as the more widely-known Coven, whom continue the work of Adria and Magdha even after their deaths.
Throughout Season 18, all players will benefit from the Power of the Triune buff, which will periodically summon circles around the battlefield that provide one of three random buffs:
- Triune of Love (Power): Players in the circle receive a 100% damage bonus while active
- Triune of Determination (Resource Reduction): Players in the circle receive a 50% discount on resources spent while active
- Triune of Creation (Cooldown Reduction): While standing in an active circle, any skills currently on cooldown come off of cooldown more quickly
Blizzard aimmed to set up something different in Season 18, and particularly were looking st speed up the gameplay from the instant players begin their journey. This buff alters gameplay from level 1 to level 70 and beyond, and is best played by moving as much as possible around the battlefield to leverage these powerful boosts. Blizzard want to see how well players utilize these ancient powers from their first level to their final Greater Rift push!
Season 18 Cosmetic Rewards
As early as Season 17, Blizzard started to re-introduce previous Seasonal rewards to make them available to players who may have missed them the first time around. This means that in Season 18, awards that were originally available from Season 6 are returning to the Season Journey.
In addition to the Chest and Gloves slots of the exclusive Conqueror Set, Diablo III players will be able to earn a series of portrait frames bedecked with the mysterious beauty of Blood Shards. A ghastly All Hallow's pennant will also be available, allowing you to proudly proclaim your love for all things grim and creepy.
Season 18 Journey Rewards
Blizzard note that for players who've been diligently slaying demons for the past few Seasons and reached Conqueror in the Season Journey each time, most will have accrued a few extra stash tabs. In additions players will earn a new tab each Season by finishing the Conqueror tier, up to a maximum of five:
- Guardian of Sanctuary: Finish a level 70 Nephalem Rift on Torment XIII within five minutes
- Gem of My Life: Level three Legendary Gems to level 55
- All I Do IS Win: Complete two Conquests this Season
- Disarm You: Kill Rakanoth at level 70 in under 15 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 18 Conquests
Here are the challenges you'll meet if you Want to prepare your Conquest plan for Season 18.
Push your way to Greater Rift level 75 to complete Divinity/Lionhearted. On a Good Day/I Can't Stop guides you to get your Legendary Gem grind on; level three Legendary Gems to 65 to complete this challenge! For the speedy, Speed Demon/Need for Speed requires the fastest nephalem to complete a Nephalem Rift at level 70 on Torment X or higher in under two minutes. 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. For the fiercest demon slayers, Boss Mode/World's Apart is a speed challenge where you'll need to eliminate the following bosses at level 70 and Torment X in under twenty minutes:
- The Skeleton King
- The Butcher
- Zoltun Kulle
- Ghom
- Cydaea
- Rakanoth
- Diablo
- Adria
- Queen Araneae
- Maghda
- Belial
- Siegebreaker Assault Beast
- Azmodan
- Izual
- Urzael
- Malthael
Haedrig's Gift in Season 18
At last, the Class Sets rewarded for completing certain chapters in the Season Journey courtesy of Haedrig's Gift have rotated once more. Blizzard have listed the available Sets below. For those new to Seasons, here's how it works:
Completing Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of the Season Journey will reward you with three of Haedrig's Gifts. Each Gift contains a few pieces from one of your Class Sets. Players can only unlock one Class Set in this manner per Season across Hardcore and Non-Hardcore, so choose wisely!
The set you will receive depends on the class of the character you're playing when you open each Haedrig's Gift. To collect a full Class Set, you'll need to open all three on the same character.
Here are the sets granted by Haedrig's Gift in Season 18:
- Barbarian - The Legacy of Raekor
- Crusader - Armor of Akkhan
- Demon Hunter - Embodiment of the Marauder
- Monk - Inna's Reach
- Necromancer - Pestilence Master's Shroud
- Witch Doctor - Zunimassa's Haunt
- Wizard - Delsere's Magnum Opus
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.
Seasons- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- New Legendary Gem:
- 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 by
10%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
- Set bonuses have been replaced
- (2) Set Bonus
- Aughild's Authority
- (2) Set Bonus
- Set bonuses have been replaced
- Reduces damage taken by 15%
- Increases damage dealt by 30%
- Set bonuses have been replaced
- (3) Set Bonus
- Reduces damage from elites by
15%30% - Increases damage against elites by
1530%
- Reduces damage from elites by
- (2) Set Bonus
- 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.
- (2) Set Bonus
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.