Blizzard Quote [source]

10:35 p.m. PDT: To assist our teams with their review process, we have disabled all gold trades in the Americas region until further notice. Players can still trade items, but trades that involve any sum of gold currency cannot be completed.

10:15 p.m. PDT: We believe we’ve found a fix for the gold duplication bug and will be deploying it shortly to all regions. In order to implement this fix, we'll be bringing Diablo III into maintenance. We anticipate this maintenance will last for approximately 1 hour, lasting until approximately 11:30 p.m. PDT.

Blizzard Quote [source]

Hey everyone,

As you may have already seen in the Breaking News window (or discovered while trying to load up the Auction House once logged in), we've brought both the gold and real-money Auction Houses offline for maintenance. After the release of Patch 1.0.8 this morning, we found that some players were exploiting a bug that enabled them to duplicate gold through the Auction House. We're working on fixing the bug right now, and bringing the Auction Houses offline helps us troubleshoot in a more stable environment while preventing further exploiting.

Q. When will the Auction House be available?
We don’t have an ETA just yet. Our priority at the moment is (of course) to fix the bug and make sure it can’t happen again. We know this is an inconvenience for some of our players, so we’ll be providing updates in this thread as soon as we have any details to share.

Q. Will there be a rollback?
Our priority is to fix any issues with the game client first—that's what we're working on right now. After we've addressed the situation, we'll need to determine whether or not a rollback is appropriate. We know this is an important issue for all of our players, so we’ll be sure keep you informed of what's happening and will provide any updates in this thread, as well.

Q. Will players be banned for using this dupe?
We're currently in the process of reviewing the accounts involved and taking appropriate actions, including temporary locks, suspensions, and/or bans. Our exploitation policy for Diablo III can be found here, which should give you an overview of the kinds of activities that are and aren’t cool within the game.

Thank you for all of your reports, and for your patience. In the meantime, to help streamline communication, we're going to be locking and redirecting posts to this location.

Blizzard Quote [source]

Diablo III patch 1.0.8 is now live in the Americas. Check out the full patch notes below to learn about all the latest changes.

Important: Please note that you will not be prompted to download patch 1.0.8 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 the Americas, you will be unable to log into Europe or Asia using Global Play after patch 1.0.8 is live until those regions have also patched.

Diablo III Patch 1.0.8 – v.1.0.8.16416

The latest client patch notes can be found here.
Visit our Bug Report forum for a list of known issues.

Table of Contents

• General
• Achievements
• Auction House
• Battle.net
• Bosses
• Classes
• Crafting
• Followers
• Monsters
• Quests
• User Inferface

GENERAL

• Players can now identify all items in their inventory by speaking to Deckard Cain or by using the Book of Cain that can be found near the shared stash in all Acts
• The cooldown incurred by changing skills outside of town on Inferno difficulty has been reduced to 30 seconds (down from 60 seconds)
• The bonus experience granted by Enlightened shrines is now also calculated multiplicatively
• The Magic and Gold Find granted by Fortune shrines can now exceed the 300% cap
• There is now an option in Video Settings to lock the cursor to the window when in fullscreen windowed mode, if Diablo III is the active window
• Multiplayer Co-Op
  • Players now receive a 10% bonus to Magic Find, Gold Find, and Experience per additional player in a multiplayer game, up to a maximum of 30% in a four-player game
    • The Magic Find and Gold Find bonuses can exceed their respective 300% caps
    • The Experience bonus can stack with other bonuses from items and Monster Power (the bonuses will stack multiplicatively)
  • A notification is now sent to all players in a multiplayer game whenever a party member engages an Elite monster or Treasure Goblin in combat, and their location will be shown on the mini-map
    • In addition to this, an icon will also appear over player banners in town to indicate if they're in combat with a monster, Elite monster, or Treasure Goblin

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Bug Fixes
  • The "Massive Blow" achievement should once again be obtainable
  • The "Fallen Angel" achievement now only requires the player to kill Izual within 120 seconds
  • The "Bashanishu" achievement no longer requires the player to use Basic Attack to complete it
  • The "Hero's New Clothes" achievement no longer requires the player to deliver the fatal blow to meet the criteria
  • Fixed a bug that prevented monsters killed by a follower or pet, before being attacked by a player, from counting toward achievement criteria

AUCTION HOUSE

• General
  • The stack size for gold sales on the auction house has been increased from 1 million to 10 million
• User Interface
  • Tooltips in the Auction House will now show an item comparison for a player's currently selected character

BATTLE.NET

• Matchmaking
  • Players will now be able to search for games that were started on any quest once they have reached level cap
  • Matchmaking "Tags" have been added
    • In addition to selecting your Difficulty, Monster Power, and Quest, players will also be able to choose from the following tags when searching for Public Games: Monster Slaying, Brawling, and Key Warden
      • Note: When the Brawling tag is selected, your Monster Power selection will not be taken into account
• Social
  • Players can now add a note about a friend by right-clicking the name in their Friends List
  • Players can now enter a message that will be broadcast to their friends
  • Players can now create multi-user conversations
    • There are multiple ways to start a conversation or invite other players to an existing conversation:
      • To start a conversation, open Public Chat Options, then select Invite Friends > Start Conversation or use the "Start a Conversation" option in the Social window by right-clicking on a friend's name
      • To invite or add friends to an existing conversation, open Public Chat Options, then select Invite Friends or use the "Invite to a Conversation" option in the Social window by right clicking a friend's name and selecting the desired conversation
    • Similar to public channels, private conversations can support up to 99 players
  • A new section has been added to the friends list called "Players Near You"
    • Any player who is on your local network will be displayed here (even if they're not currently your friend)
    • If needed, this feature can be disabled from the Social Options of the Game menu
  • Players may now be marked as a "Party Guide"
    • The Party Guide is assigned to the first person who joins a Public Game
    • If multiple characters join a Public Game at the same time, the game will choose the hero with the highest level or Paragon level to be Party Guide
    • When a Party Guide leaves the Public Game, a new one will be chosen automatically
    • Alternatively, the Party Guide can right click on a party member's portrait and pass them the Party Guide title
    • The Party Guide will have a unique icon that will appear on the mini-map
  • Names in your "Recent Players" list will now expire if they become older than a month
  • Blocked players will no longer appear in your "Recent Players" list

BOSSES

• Bug Fixes
  • Skeleton King
    • The Skeleton King and The King of the Dead will now play an animation when performing their Whirlwind attack

CLASSES

• Barbarian
  • Active Skills
    • War Cry
      • Skill Rune – Invigorate
        • Now regenerates 620 life per second (up from 310)
  • Passive Skills
    • Inspiring Presence
      • Now affects all party members
  • Bug Fixes
    • The sound that plays whenever a Barbarian's Overpower ability comes off cooldown is no longer similar to a Legendary item dropping
    • Male barbarians no longer run faster than the other heroes while feared.
• Demon Hunter
  • Active Skills
    •    Companion
      • Skill Rune – Boar Companion
        • Now regenerates 310 life per second (up from 155)
    • Rapid Fire
      • Base weapon damage increased from 276% to 438%
      • Hatred cost while channeling has been reduced from to 6 (down from 10)
      • Skill Rune - Bombardment
        • Weapon damage increased from 345% to 414%
        • Explosion radius increased to 8 yards (up from 4)
      • Skill Rune - Fire Support
        • Weapon damage of Homing Rockets increased from 35% to 145%
      • Skill Rune - Withering Fire
        • Now reduces the initial Hatred cost to 10 (up from 5)
    • Sentry
      • Skill Rune – Aid Station
        • Now heals nearby allies for 2% of max life per second (up from 1%)
  • Passive Skills
    • Brooding
      • Now regenerates 2% of maximum life per second (up from 1%)
• Monk
  • Active Skills
    • Mantra of Healing
      • Now causes party members to regenerate 620 life per second (up from 310)
        • Skill Rune – Sustenance
          • Now increases Mantra of Healing’s life regeneration to 1240 per second (up from 620)
  • Passive Skills
    • Guiding Light
      • Damage bonus increased from 16% to 20%
• Witch Doctor
  • Active Skills
    • Firebats
      • Now has a larger initial cost but a much lower continual cost while channeling
        • Base weapon damage increased from 180% to 385%
        • Skill Rune – Cloud of Bats
          • Initial damage increased from 234% to 500% weapon damage
        • Skill Rune – Plague Bats
          • Maximum damage increased from 270% to 578% weapon damage
  • Passive Skills
    • Blood Ritual
      • Now regenerates 2% of maximum life per second (up from 1%)
• Wizard
  • Active Skills
    • Arcane Torrent
      • Base weapon damage increased from 210% to 285%
      • Skill Rune - Arcane Mines
        • Weapon damage increased from 180% to 340%
      • Skill Rune - Cascade
        • Weapon damage of bonus missiles increased from 210% to 285%
    • Archon
      • The duration of Archon should now be extended by assists from players in multiplayer games, in addition to kills
    • Disintegrate
      • Base weapon damage increased from 170% to 220%
      • Skill Rune - Entropy
        • Weapon damage increased from 196% to 253%
      • Skill Rune - Intensify
        • Maximum damage increased from 221% to 286% weapon damage
    • Familiar
      • Skill Rune – Vigoron
        • Now regenerates 620 life per second (up from 310)
    • Ray of Frost
      • Base weapon damage increased from 215% to 280%
      • Skill Rune – Black Ice
        • Ice patch weapon damage increased from 387% to 504%
      • Skill Rune – Sleet Storm
        • Weapon damage increased from 280% to 364%
      • Skill Rune – Snow Blast
        • Maximum damage increased from 280% to 364% weapon damage
    • Teleport
      • Players may now Teleport to any location within range, as long as a path is available
  • Passive Skills
    • Galvanizing Ward
      • Now regenerates 620 life per second (up from 310)
  • Bug Fixes
    • Fixed a bug causing Teleport – Safe Passage to only reduce damage from physical attacks

CRAFTING

• General
  • Players can now queue up multiple items and gems at a time within the same tier to be crafted, so long as they possess the necessary materials
  • Players can now craft items using materials located in the shared stash
• Blacksmith
  • Salvaged item information will no longer be displayed in the chat log
  • Players can now disable the confirmation dialog when salvaging items of Rare quality
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed a bug preventing players from salvaging an item by dragging it onto the Blacksmith's anvil icon

FOLLOWERS

• Templar
  • Skills
    • Loyalty
      • Now regenerates 310 life per second (up from 155)

MONSTERS

• General
  • Players should now encounter more monsters in Acts I, II, and IV in Inferno difficulty when playing at Monster Power 1 or greater
  • In multiplayer games, the increase in monster hit points per additional player has been reduced to 50% (down from 70%)
  • The damage dealt by the fire pool left by Blazing Guardian attacks has been reduced by 50%, but it's minimum damage has been increased
  • Poison damage dealt by Brood Hatchlings has been reduced by 40%
  • Damage dealt by Tormented Stingers has been reduced by 75%
  • The health of normal Spiderlings has been reduced by approximately 68%
  • The health of Elite Spiderlings has been reduced by approximately:
    • 4.5% for Champions
    • 3% for Rares
    • 9% for Rare minions
  • The following monsters have their experience and chance to drop loot modified to better align with their hit points:
    • Accursed, Betrayed, Bile Crawlers, Blazing Guardians, Blazing Ghouls Brood Hatchlings, Cavern Spiders, Charged Constructs, Chilling Constructs, Crazed Cultists, Crazed Summoners, Dark Conjurers, Dark Cultists, Dark Moon Clan Impalers, Dark Summoners, Dark Zealots, Deranged Cultists, Doom Wraiths, Dust Shamblers, Enraged Zealots, Fallen, Fallen Grunts, Fallen Peons, Fallen Soldiers, Foul Conjurers , Frost Guardians, Ghouls, Hungry Corpses, Moon Clan Impalers, Murderous Fiends, Noxious Guardians, Ravenous Dead, Retching Cadavers, Reviled, Savage Fiends, Spiderlings, Shade Stalkers, Shadow Vermin, Shock Guardians, Skeletal Crawlers, Smoldering Constructs, Spine Lashers Stygian Crawlers, Tormented Stingers, Toxic Constructs, and Vicious Ghouls
  • Keywardens
    • Nekarat the Keywarden now has a chance to drop a random Key (of Destruction, Hate, or Terror) in addition to the Infernal Machine plans
    • All Keywardens will now only appear in Inferno difficulty
  • Bug Fixes
    • Monsters with the Avenger affix now correctly gain +25% damage each time a monster in their pack dies
    • Monsters with the Vampiric affix now correctly heal for 200% of their damage done in all difficulties

QUESTS

• General
  • Experience earned by completing a quest is now granted to players that have reached the level cap

USER INTERFACE

• General
  • A maximum of eight buffs and debuffs will now be displayed on the UI
    • The maximum number of debuffs that will be displayed is three
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed a bug preventing damage numbers from being displayed if a monster was affected by a spell such as Hex

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]

Everyone plays Diablo III differently. Some players strive to achieve the fastest speed runs or the highest DPS they can muster. Other players crave the thrill of playing Hardcore, are committed to maxing out all five classes, or have taken up the challenge of reaching Paragon level 100.

While these are all impressive feats, some players have gone above and beyond in their service to Sanctuary, becoming level 100 Paragons not once, but on multiple characters. And a select few of those have achieved the impressive feat of reaching Paragon level 100 with all five character classes.

To date, only about a dozen players around the world have accomplished this, and we caught up with one of them to find out more about the challenges he faced on his personal quest for "Paragon 500."

Q. What name do you go by in-game, and what country and gameplay region are you from?

I go by Schnutti and my BattleTag is Schnutti#2852. I'm from Germany and therefore I play on the European Diablo III region.

Q. Which hero class was your first Paragon level 100 character?

My first hero class was the Wizard. Reason for that is that I've always been a big wizard fan since Diablo II. I love the way of fighting demons with magic spells. And I love wands, orbs and sources! ;)

Q. What was your preferred route and Monster Power level?

Most of the time I played Act 3. The preferred route: Core of Arreat (backwards) —> Skycrown Battlements (backwards) —> Keep Depths 2 —> Bridge of Korsikk —> Rakkis Crossing —> Tower of the Damned 1—> Arreat Crater 2. I played mostly on MP0 (no Monster Power). Occasionally I changed MPs to overcome boredom, though. :P But I always came back to MP0.

Q. Did you prefer to level solo, with friends, or in public games?

I preferred to level alone, but occasionally I also played with friends to change things up. Solo playing was always most efficient though. I think Blizzard is doing a good job by improving Multiplayer Experience now in 1.08.

Q. What was your most memorable moment of this entire experience?

Well two moments I would say. One of course was when I finished my last Paragon 100. :) And the other was when I met some nice guy from the UK named Anuhart in chat. I always thought that I must be the most crazy player out there. But he had double my playtime by that time! He is a 100% self-found player with a lot of knowledge about the game but also a great and kind person.

Q. We have to ask: what was your favorite Legendary item or set piece you found during your journey?

Well I suppose the favorite ones are the ones that are worth the most. ;) So I would say Immortal King's Belt with 280 Strength, 75 Vitality, 77 All-Resist and a Lacuni Prowlers with 119 Dexterity, 29 Vitality, 9% Attack speed and 6% Critical Strike.

Q. What was your favorite snack and drink accompaniment while slaying demons in Sanctuary?

Well I'm not the typical Coke, burger and pizza guy. ;) I always try to eat healthy food and do a lot of sports, too. I think it's important to do that if you play for many hours every day otherwise you would ruin your body slowly. I drank a lot of coffee and water, sometimes fast food, but usually healthy food.

Q. What else did you do to pass the time on your journey to Paragon 500? Did you watch TV shows, movies, listen to music, or watch livestreamers?

The TV was running most of the time. But I also chatted a lot with friends via Skype and I listened to music. I don't really like livestreams, at least not for Diablo III because for me Diablo is not a game about skill. It's a game about patience, passion and slow progression.

Q. Other players in the Diablo III community look up to you for your accomplishments. What players do you look up to?

There is no particular Diablo III player I look up to because it's hard to measure skill in Diablo III. I look up to everyone that is enjoying this adventure game. Beginner or superpro - it doesn't matter. Because fun should be the reason we are playing Diablo III! :)

Q. What are you currently doing in game?

Currently I'm trading, chatting with friends, farming some essences, farming some keys, hoping for a good crafted item, and looking forward to the next patch and the expansion. ;)

Q. What is your favorite change that is coming in patch 1.0.8 of Diablo III?

Clearly the improvement for Monster Density in Act 1, 2 and 4 but also the improvement of the rewards for Mulitplayer Gaming.

Q. What tips do you have for players looking to achieve Paragon level 100 in Diablo III?

Make small step goals. Like 100 million experience every day. Don't buy too much stuff on the Auction House because it might spoil your fun because Diablo is a loot finding game. If you have the best gear already, it feels like there isn’t much reason to play.

You can find out more about Schnutti’s experiences on his thread here on the DiabloFans forums!

Are you working towards Paragon level 100 on you first character or are you perhaps finishing up Paragon 500 on your fifth Hero? Do you have tips and tricks to share? Let us know about your experiences in the comments below!