Blizzard Quote [source]

For the calendar year, Blizzard Entertainment had two top-10 PC games in North America and Europe. Diablo III was the #1 best-selling PC game at retail, breaking PCgame sales records with more than 12 million copies sold worldwide through December 31, 2012, and World of Warcraft®: Mists of Pandaria® was the #3 best-selling PC game at retail.⁵

As of December 31, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG, with more than 9.6 million subscribers.

Blizzard Quote [source]

We will be performing scheduled game maintenance for Diablo 3 on Tuesday, February 5th. Maintenance will begin at 3:00 AM PST and is expected to last for 8 hours. During this time Diablo 3 will not be available for play. In addition, many web services will be unavailable.

Thank you for your patience.

Blizzard Quote [source]

We recently made some posts pertaining to “black weapons” (i.e. weapons with the MinMaxDamage affix), and mentioned that if we considered making adjustments to how black weapon damage was calculated, we would let you know.

First Things First

We’re not going to be changing how the MinMaxDamage affix calculates bonus damage on weapons in 1.0.7, nor do we have any immediate plans to do so. We’re okay with the way black weapons are now and we don’t feel the bug, as it exists currently, is severe enough to warrant an urgent fix. It’s still a bug we want to fix at some point in the future, but we have no intention of making any changes to items that currently have or might drop with the MinMaxDamage affix between now and then (i.e. once we do fix the bug, only new items that drop from that point on would roll with the revised calculation).

So, now that we've cleared that up…

Changes to Rubies in 1.0.7

In patch 1.0.7, Radiant Square Rubies, Star Rubies, Flawless Star Rubies, Perfect Star Rubies, and Radiant Star Rubies are all receiving a buff to their damage ranges. This change should already be live on the PTR.

Due to the bug with how bonus damage is calculated on black weapons, however, the bonuses received from the new Ruby values are currently much larger than intended. So, to help with this issue, all the Rubies which received a damage buff -- as well as Marquise Rubies -- will also be switching to a new calculation, one that better matches what you would intuitively expect. (As KirusAlufras pointed out, Rubies don’t work consistently between physical damage weapons and non-physical damage weapons, and we’d like to correct that.)

The new buffed Rubies will do exactly what the tooltip claims. If a tooltip says +80 to Minimum Damage and +80 to Maximum Damage, then the damage on the weapon will go up by those amounts when the Ruby is socketed.

• So, for example, if you have a weapon with 150 - 200 damage and your Ruby adds +80 Min/+80 Max then your weapon will do 230 – 280 after inserting the Ruby.


• As another example, you have a “black” physical damage weapon that does 300-450 damage. If you insert a Ruby with +80 Min / +80 Max then your weapon will do 380 – 530 damage.


• One more example: You have a Fire damage weapon that does 150 – 200 damage and an extra 50-100 Fire damage. If you insert a Ruby with +80 Min / + 80 Max then your weapon will do 230-280 damage with an extra 50-100 Fire damage.

Note: Emeralds, Amethysts, and Topaz will remain unaffected. Chipped quality Rubies through Perfect Square Rubies will also be unaffected and will continue to use the current (bugged) calculation.

Why We’re Making This Change

Philosophically, this change is important because the MinMaxDamage affix doesn't work the way that you'd expect when it comes to bonus damage. It's not intuitive. If you see one thing on the tooltip, socket a ruby, and then get an unexpected result, that’s confusing. Additionally, physical damage weapons already have some mechanical advantages, such as interacting directly with “Adds X% elemental damage” affixes. In small amounts these advantages can be cool, but we feel that letting the black damage bug be compounded by powerful gems would take it to an extreme we aren’t comfortable with.

For those who have already been playing around with the rubies on the PTR, thank you for your feedback so far. In light of our decision to change how damage bonuses for the higher-end rubies are calculated, combined with your feedback, we'll be re-evaluating the numbers on these gems before 1.0.7 ships (this applies to the Marquise Ruby, as well). Ultimately, we want to ensure that some (but not all) builds and play styles will still favor using the new and improved rubies, and are open to making adjustments as needed.

This change will be implemented in a future patch 1.0.7 PTR build, so you’ll get a chance to test it out and theorycraft before patch 1.0.7 goes live.

Blizzard Quote [source]

Updates to patch notes can be found in red. Last updated January 30 at 6:00 p.m. PST.

Below you'll find the preliminary PTR patch notes for 1.0.7. Please note that this isn't the final version of the 1.0.7 notes and that some changes may not be documented or described in full detail.

To provide feedback on these changes, please visit the PTR Feedback forum. To report any issues you experience while playing, please visit the the PTR Bug Report forum. Additional information about the PTR can be found in the PTR FAQ.

PTR Patch 1.0.7 - v.1.0.7.14456

These notes will be updated through the course of the testing process. Please be aware some changes may not go live until a new PTR build is released.

Table of Contents

• Patch Features
• General
• Achievements
• Auction House
• Battle.net
• Bosses
• Classes
• Crafting
• Dueling
• Items
• Monsters
• User Interface
• Bug Fixes
   

Patch Features

New Feature: Dueling
For those who wish to test their mettle against fellow Nephalem, your time has come. Players will now be able to duel one another in a new zone designed specifically for this style of combat. This zone can be accessed by speaking with Nek the Brawler located at the inn in New Tristram, and supports 2 to 4 players in a Free-For-All format.

To learn more about dueling, click here!

General

• Nephalem Valor stacks will now persist through Acts
• Base pick-up radius for all characters has been increased from 1.5 yards to 3 yards
• The resurrection timer will no longer increase if a player is killed multiple times in a row
• Players should no longer play a flinching animation (causing them to briefly lose control of their character) if they are hit by multiple monsters at the same time
• The experience bonus rewarded for killing monsters on Monster Power levels 1-10 in Inferno has been increased:
  • MP 1: 25% (up from 10%)
  • MP 2: 50% (up from 20%)
  • MP 3: 80% (up from 30%)
  • MP 4: 120%(up from 45%)
  • MP 5: 165% (up from 60%)
  • MP 6: 215% (up from 75%)
  • MP 7: 275% (up from 95%)
  • MP 8: 340% (up from 115%)
  • MP 9: 420% (up from 135%
  • MP 10: 510% (up from 160%)
• When resuming a game, players will now be placed in town instead of at the last known checkpoint (a portal will be available to take you to your last known checkpoint, if desired)

Achievements

• Bug Fixes
  • Subjugators now count towards the achievements "We are Champions" and "Champion's Collection"
  • Rare Colossal Golgors will now count towards the "Rare Kill" achievements

Auction House

• User Interface
  • Cancelled PayPal auctions will now display a UI error
• Bug Fixes
  • Stash Tab Art will now properly update when viewed in the Auction House

Battle.net

• General
  • Monster Power is now available for Public Games
    • Players can now select their desired Monster Power level from a drop-down when joining Public Games provided that the “Enable Monster Power” box has been checked in the Options menu
  • “Report Botting” has been added to the right-click > report player menus
  • The Battle.net UI now displays how many players are online

Bosses

• General
  • Izual is now included in the list of bosses that grant an extra reward when you have 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor, and the overall reward for killing him has been increased

Classes

• Barbarian
  • Bug Fixes
    • Threatening Shout – Grim Harvest should no longer cause monsters to drop loot multiple times
• Demon Hunter
  • Bug Fixes
    • The Reflects Damage affix will now properly reflect damage caused by Bola Shot
• Monk
  • Active Skills
    • Cyclone Strike
      • Weapon damage increased from 100% to 313%
    • Dashing Strike
      • Weapon damage increased from 160% to 303%
    • Exploding Palm
      • Explosion damage increased from 30% to 50% of the target’s maximum health
    • Inner Sanctuary
      • Radius increased from 8 yards to 11 yards
      • Skill Rune – Forbidden Palace
        • Damage bonus increased from 10% to 15%
      • Skill Rune – Sanctified Ground
        • Now reduces enemy movement speed by 80% (up from 60%)
    • Lashing Tail Kick
      • Weapon damage increased from 235% to 470%
    • Mystic Ally
      • The amount of damage a Mystic Ally can take from a single hit is now capped
        • The cap scales with the player's level, and is further reduced by the player's Armor and Resistance
      • Skill Rune – Eternal Ally
        • Weapon Damage increased from 40% to 60%
        • The Eternal Ally now has a 100% chance to be reborn after 3 seconds (up from 50% and down from 5 seconds)
      • Skill Rune – Fire Ally
        • The cooldown of the Fire Ally’s special attack has been reduced from 8 seconds to 4 seconds
      • Skill Rune – Water Ally
        • The Water Ally’s special attack now reduces enemy movement speed by 60% (up from 30%)
        • The cooldown of the Water Ally’s special attack has been reduced from 8 seconds to 4 seconds
    • Sweeping Wind
      • Base weapon damage increased from 15% to 20% per stack
      • Skill Rune – Blade Storm
        • Weapon damage increased from 20% to 26% per stack
      • Skill Rune – Cyclone
        • Weapon damage increased from 20% to 26% per stack
    • Tempest Rush
      • Weapon Damage increased from 85% to 155%
    • Wave of Light
      • Weapon damage increased from 390% to 829%
      • Follow-up weapon damage increased from 390% to 829%
      • Skill Rune - Explosive Light
        • Weapon damage increased from 430% to 914%
      • Skill Rune - Pillar of the Ancients
        • Now deals 595% weapon damage followed by an additional 595% weapon damage after 2 seconds (up from 280% weapon damage)
  • Passive Skills
    • Near Death Experience
      • Dying will now reset the cooldown
  • Bug Fixes
    • Fixed an issue where Sweeping Wind was not actively updating its damage and attributes from the player
    • Cyclones generated by Sweeping Wind should now travel roughly in the same direction that the player is facing
• Witch Doctor
  • Active Skills
    • Spirit Barrage
      • Skill Rune – Well of Souls
        • The secondary missiles fired by this rune can now hit the primary target
• Wizard
  • Active Skills
    • Arcane Orb
      • Weapon damage increased from 175% to 200%
      • Skill Rune – Obliteration
        • Weapon damage increased from 228% to 260%
    • Blizzard
      • Weapon damage increased from 210% to 510% over 6 seconds
      • Proc coefficient increased from 0.01 to 0.0125
      • Skill Rune – Grasping Chill
        • Proc coefficient increased from 0.01 to 0.0125
      • Skill Rune – Frozen Solid
        • Proc coefficient increased from 0.01 to 0.0125
      • Skill Rune – Stark Winter
        • Proc coefficient increased to from 0.005 to 0.0125
      • Skill Rune – Snowbound
        • Proc coefficient increased to from 0.01 to 0.0125
      • Skill Rune – Unrelenting Storm
        • Weapon damage increased from 280% to 680%
    • Shock Pulse
      • Weapon damage increased from 105% to 150%
      • Proc coefficient increased from 0.667 to 0.8
      • Skill Rune – Fire Bolts
        • Weapon damage increased from 152% to 195%
        • Proc coefficient increased from 0.667 to 0.8
      • Skill Rune – Explosive Bolts
        • Weapon damage increased from 70% to 105%
        • Proc coefficient increased from 0.5 to 0.8
      • Skill Rune – Lightning Affinity
        • Proc coefficient increased from 0.667 to 0.8
      • Skill Rune – Living Lightning
        • Weapon damage increased from 37% to 52%
  • Passive Skills
    • Critical Mass
      • Critical Mass now affects the cooldowns of Archon: Teleport and Archon: Slow Time while in Archon Form
    • Temporal Flux
      • Now reduces enemy movement speed by 60% for 3 seconds (up from 30% and 2 seconds)
    • Unstable Anomaly
      • Now activates upon receiving fatal damage (changed from when a player is reduced below 30% Life)
      • Dying will now reset the cooldown
  • Bug Fixes
    • Blizzard Critical Hits now correctly have a chance to proc Arcane Power on Crit

Crafting

• General
  • A new crafting reagent, Demonic Essence, has been added to the game
    • This reagent is account-bound and can be acquired from Elite monsters and bosses in Inferno difficulty
      • Major in-game events that grant a stack of Nephalem Valor when completed now also have a chance to drop Demonic Essence
    • Nephalem Valor will not be required in order for Demonic Essences to drop
    • However, each level of Monster Power will increase the drop chance of Demonic Essence from Elites and bosses according to the following values:
      • MP 0: 20.0000% 15.0000%
      • MP 1: 23.0000% 16.5000%
      • MP 2: 26.4500% 18.1500%
      • MP 3: 30.4175% 19.9650%
      • MP 4: 34.9801% 21.9615%
      • MP 5: 40.2271% 24.1577%
      • MP 6: 46.2612% 26.5734%
      • MP 7: 53.2004% 29.2308%
      • MP 8: 61.1805% 32.1538%
      • MP 9: 70.3575% 35.3692%
      • MP 10: 80.9112% 38.9061%
  • The drop rate for Blacksmithing Plans and Jeweler Designs has been increased by 400%
• Blacksmith
  • Four Rare recipes have been added to the Blacksmith: Archon Spaulders (Shoulders), Archon Gauntlets (Gloves), Archon Armor (Chest Armor), Razorspikes (Bracers)
    • Each crafted item will have the following characteristics:
      • iLevel 63
      • 6 Affixes
      • Account-bound
      • Similar to the Hellfire Ring, it will have four variants, each guaranteeing a fixed core stat which will have the highest range available in the game
        • The values for several of the fixed core stats have been increased:
          • Archon Spaulders:
            • Dexterity, Intellect, and Vitality can now roll 201-230 in their respective stat (up from 100-115)
            • Strength could already roll in this range, and so remains unchanged
          • Archon Gauntlets:
            • Strength and Vitality can now roll 201-230 in their respective stat (up from 100-115)
            • Dexterity and Intellect could already roll in this range, and so remained unchanged
          • Archon Armor:
            • Strength, Dexerity, and Intellect can now roll 201-230 in their respective stat (up from 101-115)
          • Razorspikes:
            • Strength, Dexeterity, Intellect, and Vitality can now roll 201-230 in their respective stat (up from 101-115)
    • Crafting the item will require 1 Demonic Essence (other reagent costs will vary per recipe)
      • The Rare and Magic reagent costs for Archon Gloves and Razorspikes have been updated:
        • Archon Gloves
          • Now require 20 Iridescent Tears (instead of 50 Exquisite Essences)
        • Razorspikes
          • Now require 30 Exquisite Essence (instead of 25 Iridescent Tears)
• Jeweler
  • A new Rare recipe has been added to the Jeweler for an Amulet
    • This amulet will have the following characteristics:
      • iLevel 63
      • 6 Affixes
      • Account-bound
      • Similar to the Hellfire Ring, it will have four variants, each guaranteeing a fixed core stat which will have the highest range available in the game
    • Crafting the item will require the 1 Demonic Essence as well as:
      • 100,000g
      • 1 Perfect Gem (varied depending on which core stat you select)
      • 1 Fiery Brimstone
  • A new tier of account-bound gems of has been added to the game: Marquise
    • Marquise Gems stats are as follows:
      • Marquise Emerald
        • Weapon: Increased Critical Hit Damage by 110%
        • Helm: +33% Extra Gold from Monsters
        • Armor: +62 Dexterity
      • Marquise Topaz
        • Weapon: Melee attackers take 2200 2500 per hit
        • Helm: 33% Better chance of finding magical items
        • Armor: +62 Intelligence
      • Marquise Amethyst
        • Weapon: Each Hit adds +700 Life
        • Helm: +19% Life
        • Armor: +62 Vitality
      • Marquise Ruby
        • Weapon: +150 Minimum and +150 Maximum Damage
        • Helm: Increases Bonus Experience by 33%
        • Armor: +62 Strength
    • These gems can only be created at the Jeweler and will require the following reagents:
      • 3 Radiant Star Gems
      • 20 million gold
      • 1 10 Demonic Essence
    • Un-socketing Marquise gems will cost 5 million gold
    • The designs for the Marquise gems will drop randomly from all level 63 monsters
      • Note: The designs are not account-bound
  • Radiant Square Rubies, Star Rubies, Flawless Star Rubies, Perfect Star Rubies, and Radiant Star Rubies have had their weapon bonuses increased (these changes will apply to both existing rubies, as well as new rubies):
    • Radiant Square Ruby: +40 minimum damage/+40 maximum damage (up from +16/+16)
    • Star Ruby: +60 minimum damage/+60 maximum damage (up from +17/+17)
    • Flawless Star Ruby: +80 minimum damage/+80 maximum damage (up from +18/+18)
    • Perfect Star Ruby: +100 minimum damage/+100 maximum damage (up from +19/+19)
    • Radiant Star Ruby: +120 minimum damage/+120 maximum damage (up from +20/+20)

Dueling

• General
  • Demon Hunters, Witch Doctors, and Wizards now receive a 30% damage reduction while in the Scorched Chapel
  • Barbarians and Monks now receive a 35% damage reduction while in the Scorched Chapel
    • Note: Barbarians and Monks are receiving an additional 5% reduction due to the fact that they generally need to be closer to their targets (as compared to Demon Hunters, Witch Doctors, and Wizards) 
  • Nek the Brawler has been evicted from the Slaughtered Calf Inn and now resides alongside your followers in Act I
    • He's now also available in the Act II and Act III/Act IV hubs
  • A PvP chat channel has been added

Items

• General
  • Crafting Plans and Jeweler Designs have been added for all of the new Rare recipes listed above
    • These plans (excluding the chest piece) will drop randomly in the world and also have a 50% chance to drop off the following bosses when you have 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor:
      • Skeleton King
      • Spider Queen
      • Maghda
      • Zoltun Kulle
      • Ghom
      • Cydaea
      • Rakanoth
      • Izual
    • The drop rate from the above bosses will now scale according to your Monster Power level:
      • MP 0: 20%
      • MP 1: 23.2%
      • MP 2: 26.912%
      • MP 3: 31.218%
      • MP 4: 36.213%
      • MP 5: 42.007%
      • MP 6: 48.728%
      • MP 7: 56.524%
      • MP 8: 65.568%
      • MP 9: 76.059%
      • MP 10: 88.228%
    • The Archon Armor recipe can be purchased from Squirt the Peddler for 1.5 million gold each
    • Please note that neither the Crafting plans nor the Jeweler Design are account-bound
  • Holding shift while buying health potions will attempt to purchase 5 potions at once
  • Follower items below iLevel 60 will now no longer drop in Inferno
  • Goldskin now has a limit on the number of times it can proc on a single target
  • Vanishing Dye and All-Soap's Miraculous Dye Remover can now be used on Legendary items
  • Hellfire Rings now salvage into Legendary crafting materials
• Vendors
  • Squirt the Peddler no longer sells Dyes, but (as noted above) will now sell the plans for the Archon Armor recipe for 1.5 million gold each
• Bug Fixes
  • Goldskin will no longer proc when attacking monsters that drop no loot
  • Plans: Staff of Herding can now be dropped on the ground, or sold to a vendor for 0 gold
  • All Staves of Herding can now be sold to a vendor for 0 gold

Monsters

• General
  • The Reflects Damage affix has been redesigned:
    • It will now apply a short duration buff to the monster and will only reflect a percentage of damage dealt back to the player while that buff is active
    • A visual effect will display whenever the durational buff is active
  • Damage dealt by pets to monster with Reflects Damage affix will no longer be reflected back to the player
  • Damage dealt by the Molten affix has been reduced by 40%
  • Damage dealt by the Plagued affix has been increased by 120%
  • Fallen Lunatics should now detonate in a more consistent manner
  • The Triune Berserker before Alcarnus should no longer swing faster after a few attacks
  • Keywardens:
    • The Act II Keywarden (Sokahr) should now only use its mortar ability in Inferno difficulty
    • The Act III Keywarden (Xah’Rith) should now only use its rain of corpses ability in Inferno difficulty
    • The Act IV Keywarden (Nekarat) should now only use its earthquake and charge abilities in Inferno difficulty
• Bug Fixes
  • Rare Sand Dwellers will now spawn in The Forgotten Ruins
  • Champion Plague Swarms will now spawn in Cryder’s Outpost
  • Champion Fallen Cur will now spawn in The Storm Halls

User Interface

• General
  • Legendary items now have a new mini-map icon
    • This icon should now persist properly and be shown on the mini-map so long as the player is in the same zone as the dropped item
    • Note: The icon will only display when Legendary items are dropped by a monster, not a player
• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue causing the Enable Monster Power option to reset
  • Fixed an issue affecting the scroll speed of text
  • Vendors will now properly display an Armor tab when you are in an Inferno game with Monster Power set above 0

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where new Hardcore characters were not labeled as Hardcore on the homepage
• Fixed an error that could occur when closing the World of Warcraft client while the Diablo III client was still running
• Players will now be properly removed from both the party and the game session whenever a Vote Kick has passed
• Players will no longer be disconnected from the game whenever vote kicked during a boss encounter
• PTR Bug Fixes
  • General
    • Using the PTR Character Copy feature for a region on which you have no active characters will no longer result in login errors or your PTR account becoming locked
  • Crafting
    • Marquise designs and Archon crafting recipes are now searchable on the Auction House
  • Dueling
    • Players are now correctly considered "Elites" in PvP and PvE combat
    • Players should now be automatically healed and have all active debuffs removed upon leaving the Scorched Chapel
    • Followers should no longer become hostile towards players after exiting the Scorched Chapel
    • Storm Armor shocks can now be dodged
    • Nek the Brawler will no longer die if another player joins or leaves a game while someone is standing near him
    • It's no longer possible to have inactive followers providing buffs in duels
  • Items
    • Goldskin's proc will no longer work when in the Scorched Chapel
    • The Puzzle Ring's proc will no longer work when in the Scorched Chapel
    • The Incense Torch of the Grand Temple and Neanderthal can now drop
  • Monsters
    • Damage reflected back from the Reflects Damage affix should now be capped at 10% of the monster’s current health pool (overkill damage is not considered in the reflect)