Diablo 3

[Bakana]

So how do people feel about this new Auction House thing that you can spend gold and real life money on and even sell your gold for real life money?

[Tenelen]

No pun intended but sounds like selling out. Sony ended up doing similar stuff and it was just stupid.

[Valdis]

Yea I'm not really sure what I think of it, on the one hand it should cut the spam bots and sites of ill repute down quite a bit but on the other I'm not sure what I think of it, unless it helps me pay my WoW subscription in which case I think it's a grand idea.

[Bakana]

haha yea the only benefit i see is that I basically play wow for free. Other then that I think its kind of dumb idk im thrown off by it

[Andaas]

Not really a big surprise, the Kotick-ery continues over at Blizzard.

6940

[Wresh]

Valdis and I talked about this earlier today.

I do think it will cut down on spam from gold farmers, but the gold farmers (items now too) will be probably 60-70% of the players you will see in game. Damn Chinese will take over the game to sell, sell, sell.

This will be a big turn-off if it does go live in this fashion and might cause ALOT of people to pass on the game.

[boopie]

Blizzard wants a cut of the lucrative black market for their intellectual property (aka "Kotickery") and dressed it up as protecting the customer base from scams (?). This has people with their panties in a bunch?

[Talas]

I don't like this at all. I had just graduated high school when Diablo2 came out. If I was faced with the decision of finding a summer job or attempting to play Diablo2 for cash, it should be pretty obvious that I would have been willing to play an extra 20 hours a week on Diablo2. (I know, I should have invested time in the Mrylokar's BP or Fungi Tunic.. oh well.. Diablo runs are paying the electricity bills!)

There are enough compulsive MMO players. This completely exacerbates the issue. Blizzard/Activision is doing nothing to help people cope with potentially self-destructive behaviors. If I can earn cash while playing the game, suddenly I have something else in my arsenal to throw at my parents as to why this is not a complete waste of time. Blizzard/Activision is not doing themselves any favors by exploiting their consumer's in this manner. Instead, their item store is going to cause a lot of issues for people that don't know how to cope with compulsive behavior.

Monetarily, itemizing over micro-transactions is going to cause a lot more of a political headache than profit. Governmental regulation is going to want to step in and control this spending. It is not going to outweigh exploiting slave labor in China.

If you really want to increase the longevity of the player-base, you need to provide outlets to help people cope with compulsive behaviors. Attempting to design MMO gameplay around players' compulsive behaviors is not going to increase the revenue chain, it is going to destroy it. Keep those Diablo3 players happy with new content - quit exploiting a Horodric cube mechanic to micromanage gem slots...

[Valdis]

While I agree some people will not be able to "help" themselves it isn't Blizzards job to be psychologists and parents to those people. While I would agree Blizzard shouldn't do anything to purposely make something that props up compulsive behavior this doesn't do that. It has two purposes that kind of support one another the first being a safe legitimate place for players to buy and sell items for gold or cash as opposed to all the sites out there where to this day you can still buy D2 items and gold. The second is since it's going to happen anyway and there's very little they can do about it, make it easier and simpler by supporting the method to do so and thus earn a cut.

Also I'm not sure if you meant it this way or not, but Blizzard will not be selling any items through the AH, the AH is fully user based.

The slave labor thing is moot since lets face it China will be forcing people to play to sell gold and items anyway.

All that being said I'm still not sure that I like this since I can't see many people wanting to use the gold AH when they could make some real money instead.

[Bakana]

With everything that was said they also probably saw how much money dumb little web browser games make and said how can we make money like that? So RL money AH! well at least maybe

[Valdis]

Well I think the old school D2 item and gold selling sites showed them how ludicrous people are at spending money on things like that far before the abomination that is Farmville reared it's ugly head.

[Bakana]

yea thats true but ever since things like Farmville its gone through the roof.

[Syana]

As long as the items for sale are only for vanity purpose and don't grant any in game advantages, I don't see a problem.

If I have to spend real money to stay competitive in the game, there's an issue. Unless, of course, the game itself is free.

If people wants to spend their hard earned money for in game vanity, who are we to judge? On the other hand, that 900th pair of shoes that you'll only wear once and that awesome new phone that does everything for you, when you don't even make phone calls, are totally a necessity.

[Allara]

Pretty sure you can buy anything, not just vanity stuff. Blizzard said they wouldn't post their own items for sale other than vanity items.

[Syana]

I should've stated that as long as there are no "godly" items that are only obtainable through real money purchases. If I have to pay for the game, I should be able obtain everything by just playing the game.

Also, I'm pretty sure someone else has posted this previously. It's worth noting, again:

6945

[Valdis]

Well pretty sure Diablo 3 will be like SC2, free to play.

Also as I have said you won't be buying items from Blizzard you will be buying them from players. Blizzard just takes a cut of the sale ala every auction house/site.

[Syana]

Hmm. I see.

Well, Blizzard basically just wants to be the eBay to their own games.

People have been selling Diablo 2 items on eBay forever. I think I made $1000 doing that; that helped pay for some books when I was trying to go to school. :P

Hmm. Does that mean Blizzard will have to issue out income tax documents?

[Valdis]

Possibly, but you can't actually get cash from Blizzard. You can create a Blizzard Credit supply, or you can connect it to a PayPal or similar account. In which case PayPal would issue your tax docs.

[boopie]

I would think the IRS expects you to declare your own income for that kind of small stuff. I've only ever sold a totaled car to some dude and the DMV didn't issue me a tax document.

[Bakana]

They most likely wont make you fill them out. Its like a casino they expect you to do all your own claiming but once you hit that 10k mark they make you do it

[Andaas]

Hmm, in Vegas and California, if you win any jackpot payout of $1200 or more, they make you fill out a tax form on the spot.

[Bakana]

ah well the NY casino is nicer then haha

[Valdis]

Some new news from Gamescon about D3.

http://www.diablofans.com/news/875-inferno-revealed/

[Wresh]

Some new news from Gamescon about D3.

http://www.diablofans.com/news/875-inferno-revealed/

Be interesting to see how they do this. Hell mode in D2 was stupid after Act 1 if you didn't have godly gear due to everything being immune to 80% of your attacks. It looks like they want Inferno mode to be more group oriented instead of whipping through it solo as well.....which if you're with people you know and trust, will be a good thing.

[Valdis]

Beta has just gone live.

[Kikiyo]

I so hope I get an invite.

[Loniel Bonewalker]

Diablo III beta test invitation!‏

8:14 PM
Reply ▼

diablo3

Add to contacts
To whitetalon92@hotmail.com

Greetings from Blizzard Entertainment!

We’re gearing up for the forthcoming launch of Diablo III and would like to extend you an invitation to participate in the beta test. If you are interested in participating, you need to have a Battle.net account, which you can create on our Battle.net website.

We will flag you for access to the Diablo III beta test when we begin admitting press. You do not need to go through the opt-in process.

To secure your place among the first of Sanctuary’s heroes,Please use the following template below to verify your account and information via email.

* Name:
* Battle.account name:
* Password:
* Country:
* E-mail Address:

Thanks and see you all in the Burning Hells!



I just received this laughable email figured i would post it in here. Guessing this is hackers new awesome horrid attempt to hack accounts? While i know no one around here is that dumb, just be careful.

[Valdis]

Hey while your at it send them your SSN and credit card...:friendly_wink:

[Loniel Bonewalker]

Hey while your at it send them your SSN and credit card...:friendly_wink:

Yea, well it is not like I fell for it. Just figured I would post it up. Got a kick out of it.

[Valdis]

I know you didn't I just love how completely transparent 99% of them are.

[Loniel Bonewalker]

I know you didn't I just love how completely transparent 99% of them are.

Yea they should probably try something like "if you would like us to hack your account, use your personal information to steal from you click <here>"

[Angelie]

So who here is playing in beta? Let's play together. I got bored of it a few weeks ago... :(

[Allara]

OMG Ang

[Valdis]

I'm still waiting on a beta. Also with only the first third of Act 1 available boredom is inevitable I would think.

[Tenelen]

WOOTY I got my invite!

[Zeyla]

O hai Angmoo!

[Aindayen]

Am I the .0001% in that I merely see supply and demand. Why wouldn't the company want to profit on such things. What if I'm a gamer that can only do 5 hours a week, if I have the financial means shouldn't I have the ability to purchase what I can't do in game (to some extent)?

Hell what did someone offer Card back in the EQ days. I know it was in the thousands...

[Valdis]

Aind that discussion was so last month. We have moved on to angst over lack of beta invites lol.

[Kikiyo]

Aind that discussion was so last month. We have moved on to angst over lack of beta invites lol.

This

[Valdis]

Oh btw Diablo 3 has a beta invite sweepstake on their FB page.

[Berae]

Am I the .0001% in that I merely see supply and demand. Why wouldn't the company want to profit on such things. What if I'm a gamer that can only do 5 hours a week, if I have the financial means shouldn't I have the ability to purchase what I can't do in game (to some extent)?
You should play Eve Online :)

[Aindayen]

I barely have time to turn my gaming PC on these days :(

[Lonskils]

That's ok Aind, you'll have plenty of time when ya girl leaves you for working to much.

[Tenelen]

That's ok Aind, you'll have plenty of time when ya girl leaves you for working to much.

Aind has a woman?

[Lonskils]

Aind has a woman?

Has for a while I think.

[Aindayen]

She's a workaholic like myself.

I believe I have a pic of her up on the RL pics thread.

One of these days I'll have to make her an honest women :)

[Zappo]

I barely have time to turn my gaming PC on these days :(
The whole no-time argument is making me think don't touch Star Wars and wait for EL DIABLO.

[Valdis]

Last drawing for the Facebook Diablo 3 beta give away will be Dec 12th. So we're probably looking at a mid-late Jan release date.

[Zeyla]

I didn't realize it was going to be so soon! Can't wait!

[NormetheGnome]

YEah but they made it so you have to have internet connection all the time. Even for single player. Im still working offshore so no internet connection. Blizzard can sick my duck.

[Zeyla]

I understand why they would do it, it still doesn't make it suck any less though :(

[NormetheGnome]

I can understand why too. The love of money. Cant access their Auctionhouse bullshit if you have no internet. Huge douche move. Any game that has a single player campain should 1 Not need an Internet connection, Steam comes to mind as being pretty irritating about this 90% of the time steam wont start in offline mode. And with blizzards turn around on fixing game breaking shit i have no doubt they will manage to fuck it up.

[Valdis]

Norme you are one depressing guy. Post something positive bud.

[Lonskils]

He does have good news. Another year, no STDs!

[NormetheGnome]

Nah I had the clap about 3 months ago. Thank god for antibiotics.

[Loniel Bonewalker]

Nah I had the clap about 3 months ago. Thank god for antibiotics.

As long as its curable.

[Andaas]

Seems I just got a beta invite.

[Allara]

Same here.

[Tenelen]

I like the changes they made with the latest build.

[Valdis]

You're all assholes.

[Phaera]

You're all assholes.

^ This. :D

[Allara]

This is so totally inspired by WoW it's hilarious.

And yet, so good.

I'm really happy they kept the same music style. The game looks amazing at 2560x1440.

[boopie]

wtf compensating much?

[Allara]

Huh? Who are you even talking to?

[boopie]

Everyone?

Hey, I signed up for the year thingie whatever too! Where's my invite???

[Tenelen]

Everyone?

Hey, I signed up for the year thingie whatever too! Where's my invite???

The annual pass only gets you beta access to MOP not D3.

[boopie]

So!

[Lonskils]

Hey, did anyone else just get a beta invite?

[Andaas]

See above... a couple of us have.

[Lonskils]

I was just rubbing it in a bit on Valdis and Pharea, as I had read above....

[Glimbert]

I got my beta invite too :) I'm looking forward to it!

[Zeyla]

No Beta invite for me :(

Allara, how is it like WoW? I'm curious

[Allara]

Allara, how is it like WoW? I'm curious

It's mostly in the user interface.

Quest objective tracker
Help pop-ups
UI elements when you level up and gain new abilities
Action bar/experience bar/menu bar
Mini-map
Character creation/select screens
Launcher/patcher
Login screen
So far it's really well polished and exceptionally well-paced. It's the subtle stuff particularly in sound design and graphical effects that add up to a highly polished experience so far. The way they handled voiceover content is great.

I love the "hunter" class so far, although with a monitor as big as mine is, it's really hard to keep track of my Hatred energy whilst defeating hordes of baddies. I find that to be a pretty big problem with combat, something add-ons would fix. But I don't think they're allowing add-ons for D3.

I really want them to port Evasive Shot back to WoW. Because that would make Dave really happy in PvP. *sarcastic face*

There's a nasty issue with texture/model streaming right now, where the game stutters quite frequently, making it very hard to play.

[Tenelen]

I love the "hunter" class so far, although with a monitor as big as mine is, it's really hard to keep track of my Hatred energy whilst defeating hordes of baddies. I find that to be a pretty big problem with combat, something add-ons would fix. But I don't think they're allowing add-ons for D3.

There's a nasty issue with texture/model streaming right now, where the game stutters quite frequently, making it very hard to play.

The Witch hunter is crazy fun, but I have played all the classes. I think the hardest class to play is the wizard as it is such a glass cannon. Even with the armor spells its just silly how much dmg they take. My Barbarian takes like nothing, I barely ever used pots on him.

[Zeyla]

What little I played of D3 a few years ago at Blizzcon made me excited to play it, I can imagine it is looking even better now!

[Valdis]

Yea I was a bit disappointed with the Wizard at Blizzcon this year cause the damage was never great and the damage I took was brutal. But the Demon Hunter was a blast. I just wish they had a more melee type class that was like a paladin.

[Valdis]

Well Blizz gave Kath a Beta Key....... So I guess, I'll be at her house this weekend.

[Wresh]

Well Blizz gave Kath a Beta Key....... So I guess, I'll be at her house this weekend.

So.....

Like normal?! lol

[Valdis]

Yea, so the Wizard was working pretty good. I'm not sure how fragile I was cause nothing really got close enough to me to worry over. But I'm only up to the graveyard.

[Elidroth]

No beta invite for me.. they can kiss my white ass.

[Areidne]

From what I played on Glim's beta... I love the Barbarian and actually couldn't stand the Demon Hunter. I'm a barbarian / warrior class in almost everything, so I've grown accustomed to it, but the DH it seemed to not have the damage output any of the other classes had. Using the dual crossbows had about as much damage as someone peeing on the zombies. :) Looks like I'll be smashing face with the barbarian again!!

[Valdis]

Yea I thought the same thing that the DH was a bit weak in comparison to the others. Also the patch they just did Friday made things a bit more challenging. Before that patch I could go to all the way to the Skeleton King and not break a sweat or use a health pot and rarely need the health orbs. After the patch I encountered large packs of rares with electricity as their special.

[Glimbert]

I still felt that Wizard wasn't taking enough damage, I almost think they need to drop either the effectiveness of their armor or drop their HP so getting hit is a bigger deal. I'd prefer the former.

Demon hunter seems MUCH MUCH better. I'm not sure what changed, but it seemed like you were dishing out the right amount of damage without twinking and taking the right amount.

I do love all the extra elites they've put in. Though by the time I got to leveling a barbarian, I had all amazing items, so I never broke a sweat going to the end. If something /did/ hit me, it was taking around 12pts of damage per hit... so... things died, a lot.

On catch I found on my demon hunter was that a group of Lightning and Ice elites... After the first ice froze me, I took off running dropping caltrops like I was peeing my pants, then finished them all off from as far away as possible. That was good times!

[Valdis]

New way to get into the Beta. Also D3 is now pushed back to at least Feb.

@BlizzardCS (http://twitter.com/#%21/BlizzardCS) is giving away 500 keys for the exclusive Diablo III beta test over the next five weeks. If you want to lead the charge against the minions of the Burning Hells before the game’s official release – follow the instructions below and enter the drawing for your chance to win.

Starting December 20, 2011, we’ll be randomly selecting 100 winners each week to receive a key to our exclusive Diablo III beta test. Drawings will occur at the end of every Tuesday for five (5) weeks for the total 500 keys.

What you need to know:

How to Enter:

Have an active Battle.net® account
Be a registered user of Twitter®
During the Contest period become a follower of BlizzardCS® by visiting http://twitter.com/BlizzardCS and clicking “Follow;”
Use the hashtag #DiabloBeta and @BlizzardCS in a Tweet
Send an email of the tweet to cstwitterfeedback@blizzard.com. With a link to your tweet.



If you have not registered a Battle.net account, visit http://www.battle.net (http://www.battle.net/) to register for a Battle.net account at no cost to you; and if you are not a registered user of Twitter®, simply visit http://twitter.com/signup to register at no cost to you.

Sweepstakes Starts
December 20, 2011 @ 1:00 pm (PST)
Sweepstakes Ends
January 23, 2012 @ 11:59 pm (PST)

[Valdis]

An update from Jay Wilson on the state of D3.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4325959/Systems_Changes-1_19_2012#blog

Also a synopsis from diablofans.com
The anticipated System Changes have finally come in! Here's a quick summary of the changes:

Scrolls of Identification are gone - players can now identify rares/legendary items without them.
Button '5' is now dedicated to potions.
The Mystic artisan has now been removed from the game.
The Cauldron of Jordan and Nephalem Cube have been removed.
The Stone of Recall is now a button at the bottom and has been renamed "Town Portal".
The Blacksmith is now responsible for salvaging players' items.
Common (white colored) items are no longer salvageable.
Character Attributes have been changed. See below for details.
Character stats are now placed in the same place as the inventory panel and the old dedicated stats panel has been removed.

[Zeyla]

Any ideas on a release date? Some time within the next few months?

[Valdis]

Most people seem to be thinking Q1 is out and late Q2 is the earliest. But as with all Blizzard stuff.... You just never know.

[Valdis]

http://us.media1.battle.net/cms/blog_header/SHRWOTVJNZ4V1329355082248.jpg


Last August we held a Diablo III press tour, and it was with a small group of fansites that I first revealed significant changes were still in store for the rune system. Since then, we’ve been hard at work on the rune and skill systems, and today we’d like to share details on the changes you’ll see in Beta patch 13. We’re confident that these changes will make Diablo III a better game, and to help illustrate why, I'll start with a high-level explanation of our goals for these systems as well as the feedback we were responding to in making these changes.

I'll start with the skill system. Our high-level goal with this system has always been to give players a great degree of power to customize their characters. We believe we accomplished that early on by abolishing skill trees and moving toward an open-ended system where skills, rune variants, and passives are chosen at-will by the player in a flexible customization system.

That goal and the system have been great successes, but the amount of customization we have available doesn’t mean anything if it’s not useful in combat situations. Combat depth is another one of our goals; Diablo III is designed to be a modern action game, built on the mantra of “easy to learn, difficult to master.” What that means for the player is picking a set of skills and abilities that work together, and then executing them in ways that lead to success: the wholesale slaughter of the demonic invasion. With that combat-depth goal in mind, we’ve been internally categorizing the skills since the inception of the system. Many of you could probably identify what these categories were if we asked, and some players have even mapped out what they are fairly accurately.

For every class we essentially created three common types of abilities, and then a handful of class-specific ability types. All classes have skills that fit into categories we call Primary Attack, Secondary Attack, and Defensive. Primary Attack skills are frequently used abilities that typically generate resources. Secondary Attacks are more powerful attacks that are limited in use through resource cost or cooldown. Defensive abilities are used to escape or control the flow of combat. Beyond that, classes have unique categories, like armor spells for the wizard or mantras for the monk. We used this methodology to help us design the classes and their skills, but we weren’t exposing this to the player despite the fact that these categories would give the player, like they did our own team, a better understanding of how the classes work.

One of our other goals is to ensure our game controls and interfaces are easy to use so that players spend their time trying to master game mechanics rather than fighting an interface. Giving players complete freedom to choose “anything” with no direction as to how our systems are intended to work was a failure in our design. There was also a detached relationship between the bottom-bar UI and the skill system. We have six skill slots, and six spots to put skills, but the two interfaces didn't really interact, and stocking abilities in your interface felt awkward.

To fix these issues, we focused on two core changes: (1) exposing the skill design intent by categorizing the skills and (2) linking skill selection directly to the bottom-bar UI to make assigning skills a clearer process. When viewing the skill screen, you’ll be presented with your six skill selection slots; each of these correspond directly to your bottom bar, and each will provide a specific list of skills from which to choose. By providing a clear-cut guide on how to best maximize your build potential, we hope to cover that “easy to learn” half of the mantra.

http://us.media2.battle.net/cms/gallery/LICWFYW7RKFJ1329356006243.jpg (http://us.media3.battle.net/cms/gallery/EDHJTN9F8VKO1329351777133.jpg)
(A Nightmare-level monk choosing skills and runes from the specified categories)


You may already be fuming because you’re a “difficult to master” type of person, but before you run to the forums, we have you covered. In the Gameplay options, we’ve added an ‘Elective Mode’ for the skill system. With this checkbox ticked you’ll be able to place any skill in any skill slot, as freely as you could before. The Elective Mode option is available at any time with no requirements or need to unlock it. We hope the new, more guided interface will give you an in-game heads up as to the intent of each skill -- and maybe even be the way you play through the game in Normal -- but if you eventually have a build that simply can’t be accomplished the way we’ve laid things out, you’re free to pop on Elective Mode and take the skills you want.

http://us.media5.battle.net/cms/gallery/BHZB2TGDFZI21329356013447.jpg (http://us.media5.battle.net/cms/gallery/VXGZ9BJ18G7G1329351785865.jpg)
(This screenshot depicts an 'Elective Mode' build made entirely of Primary and Secondary skills. Note that the skill slot names do not accurately reflect from which category a skill is selected in Elective Mode.)


While the skill system is largely unchanged save for some UI improvements and the helpful new (but optional) skill categories, we’ve been working to make some rather intense changes to the runestone system. Before we get too far, it’s probably best to clarify our terms: First, they’re now called skill runes, and they’re called skill runes because they’re no longer a physical item, but built directly into the skill system. Let’s back up, though, and go through some of the problems we were encountering and how this final design is intended to resolve those issues.

Our goal with the rune system has always been to provide additional character customization by allowing players to augment or completely alter their skills in new and significant ways. Originally, we tied this in to the itemization system because it felt like a good fit, as Diablo is all about the item drops. But with around 120 base skills, that meant there were around 600 rune variants; on top of that, each variant had five quality levels each, meaning ultimately there would be something like 3,000 different runes in the game… and we knew we were heading toward a problem.

Diablo is certainly about the items, but later in the game, having to juggle all of those various runes was not only un-fun, it was a serious and tedious inventory problem. We went through a number of different iterations, some of which we fully implemented and tested, to try to solve these fundamental issues while still keeping the customization intact. Ultimately we developed, implemented, and have been playing and testing a new system which we’re confident hits all of the desired mechanics and solves all of the related issues – and that’s what I’m going to talk about today and what you’ll see in Beta patch 13.

http://us.media5.battle.net/cms/gallery/9X42W6CEOJF61329356021057.jpg (http://us.media2.battle.net/cms/gallery/N9DNE6MT9ZGJ1329351793597.jpg)
(A mid-20's demon hunter choosing a skill and its rune variant)

With the new skill rune system, you’ll be unlocking new skills as you level up just like you always have… but in addition you’ll also be unlocking skill runes. Now, when you open the skill window, you’ll choose which skills you want in which slots, the skill rune variants you’d like, and your passives. All of this is done directly through the UI, and all of the options from the skill, skill rune, and passive systems are unlocked through character leveling progression, leading to a cleaner overall integration of these systems. Just as we set different skills to unlock at specific levels, skill rune choices unlock at different levels as well.

Another thing we strive for in our games is “concentrated coolness,” and while rune quality levels made sense when we were attempting to itemize them throughout the game, they make far less sense as runes are unlocked through the UI. We didn’t want to get back into a situation where you’re clicking a button to pump points into skills. It’s far more concentrated (and cool) when your rune choices have a single and powerful benefit to your skill choice. The new skill rune system does not have ranks, and we’ve instead made each around the equivalent to what the rank 4 or 5 rune was previously. One click, you make your rune choice, and you get an explosive benefit to that skill. That feels a lot cooler.

Runes have been by far the biggest design hurdle we’ve had in the game, and as you know we’ve been continually iterating on them. We fully expect that some of you will be disappointed that runes won’t be part of the itemization system. Internally, it took us a long time to let go of that notion too and stop trying to force them into being items, and instead embrace the intent of the system. Integrating runes with the skill system directly gave us a bunch of great benefits, and even without runes we’re launching with more item types than Diablo II had. We knew we were making the right choice by letting go of runes as items and focusing on the core objective of the system: to customize your skills in awesome ways.

Before I wrap up, I did want to cover that one of the added benefits of the new system is that you’ll be unlocking something every level all the way up to the level cap (60). Now, with each level you’ll unlock at least one new skill or rune, and in most cases you’ll be unlocking three or four. The most immediately exciting part of that system is that skill runes begin unlocking at level 6, which means that players in the beta test will finally be able to play around with some rune variants.
http://us.media5.battle.net/cms/gallery/33W72B96T0ZZ1329356028663.jpg (http://us.media1.battle.net/cms/gallery/7618YO99GW3Q1329351802329.jpg)
(The above image depicts a potential level 13 witch doctor build in beta with skill rune choices)


Phew. Well, there you have it -- the new skill and rune systems! We strongly believe that these changes are going to make for a better Diablo III, and we’re looking forward to you trying it out in patch 13, which should be live any minute now (if it isn’t already). As always, we’d love to hear your feedback on your experiences with these changes. To help center the conversation on these changes to a single location, we’re going to lock comments on this blog and encourage you to post in a thread we’re specifically making to discuss this: Skill and Rune Changes Discussion (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4079618933).

Thanks for reading.
Jay Wilson is Game Director for Diablo III and won first place in the team’s chili cook-off competition. Recipe available upon request.

[Zeyla]

Interesting, kind of sounds like the way skills are set in Secret World and Guild Wars 2. Where you chose your set of abilities from a larger set. If I'm reading that correctly that is...

[Valdis]

Yea if you go to http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian you can play around with the builds and see what all the runes do to all the skills. Also the current D3 patch has the runes in it now and you start getting runes for abilities at lvl 3 or 4 I think they said so you can get used to the idea and play around. I've tried a few times to play with it and the choices are a bit out of control when you aren't getting them slowly via playing but rather seeing all of it at once. Every class has 20+ skills and 5 runes per skill.... That's a shit ton of variety.

[Loniel Bonewalker]

Then in the end all will be a waste and there will be one best way to go and everyone will go that way.

[Valdis]

Well it will probably be more that for X boss go this route and for this boss go X route. But in the end that's what would happen anyway you'd have just spent 50 hours trying to get the right runes to drop so like every game there is still a best way.

[Lonskils]

Could they have at the very least named the abilities things OTHER than abilities that are in wow?

Blizzard. Frost Nova. Ice Armor. Mirror Image. Ugg

[Allara]

Could they have at the very least named the abilities things OTHER than abilities that are in wow?

Blizzard. Frost Nova. Ice Armor. Mirror Image. Ugg

Yeah I had the same thought, it's the same deal with the other classes.

[Valdis]

Except for Mirror Image which has been a classic Mage spell since the 70s all of those were in D2. Most of those abilities aren't WoW they are just classic archetype spells, it's like complaining when a spell caster has a spell called fireball.

[Glimbert]

Yep, all of those names were used in Dungeons and Dragons in 1974 (likely what Valdis was referencing), pre-diablo and WoW, so... I don't see the blatant thievery and usage of generic names changing soon.

[Syana]

magic missile ftw

[Lonskils]

Wasn't calling it thieving. But you'd think there would be of just plain awesome names for spells that wouldn't over lap.

[Loniel Bonewalker]

I sort of agree with Lons. I also do not think they are using those names because they are generic names or names of spells that were used in D&D. At least personally I think they are using them to make the game even more familiar to those whose first mmo or hell even fantasy style game is/was World of Warcraft (quite alot fit into this bracket I am sure). In the end I guess it really doesn't matter if its named fireball, fire arrow, or even flaming shit arrow. As long as the game is fun I guess is what matters.

Though again me personally I would prefer names that do not come from most other games etc obviously there will be some. For me when they use names of abilities in other games, I have a idea in my head how they should work and look whether from experience of otherwise. So if I am prepared for it to look and work one way based on the name I tend to get annoyed when the spell/ability does nothing as to what the name would suggest it does.

[Lonskils]

Case in point, Flamestike in World of Warcraft should never have been named that.

[Syana]

Wasn't calling it thieving. But you'd think there would be of just plain awesome names for spells that wouldn't over lap.

Blizzard is going to rename all of Diablo 3 spells so they will not overlap with World of Warcraft's spells (even though they do the same thing):

Magic Missile -> Magic Arrow
Arcane Orb -> Arcane Exploding Ball
Shock Pulse -> Shock Zaps
Frost Nova -> Ice Explosion
Ray of Frost -> Beam of Ice
Diamond Skin -> Skin like Diamond (oh wait that overlaps with EQ)
Spectral Blade -> Ghost Dagger
Wave of Froce -> Energy Wave
Electrocute -> Lightning Zap
Arcane Torrent -> Arcane Volley
Ice Armor -> Armor of Frozen Waters
Energy Twister -> Energy Cyclone
Slow Time -> Warp Time
Storm Armor -> Armor of Electricity
Explosive Blast -> Burst of Explosion
Disintegrate -> Vaporize
Hydra -> Three Headed Snake-thing
Magic Weapon -> Weapon of Magic (hmmm...)
Teleport -> Blink (oh wait.. dammit) Zoom!
Meteor -> Flaming Ball of Destruction
Mirror Image -> Illusionary Images
Blizzard -> Rain of Frozen Waters
Familiar -> Little Me
Energy Armor -> Armor of Energy (shrug)
Archon -> Arcane Entity

[Lonskils]

Smart Ass!

[Maegwin]

Coke: Coke Zero stole our recipe!

[Loniel Bonewalker]

Coke: Coke Zero stole our recipe!

except in this its not abilities completely invented by blizzard. has nothing to do with names sucking and not doing/looking as the name would suggest. Regardless it still stands that acting as if your designing all these new abilities with the same name/rename makes them not new as they make it sound. No one is saying they stole anything. However it is not as though its written in stone that they must use the same names form previous games and onward.

Generics like fireball could be said to be obvious, yet I am sure there is something else they could name it. Again I will say I think they are doing so that their WoW players will be familiar should they never viewed or played within the Diabloverse. Not saying all, but I still maintain that they could of created completely new spells, and visuals that do not need to bear similarities to WoW abilities or even SOME previous Diablo abilities. Oh and with coke zero its still a different type of coke, not the same product with coke Zero written on it.

[Valdis]

The problem is as we pointed out almost all of the abilities existed in Blizzard products prior to WoW. Hell the Warlock fire rain spell and the Mage water elementals appeared in the first Warcraft game. I mean sure they could come up with a new name for something that already exists in 90% of all fantasy universes but why waste the time.

[Maegwin]

I honestly believe it is for player familiarity and continuity. You don't want to have all your players needing to re-learn things, they all have a basic understanding of how Frost Nova should work - and it has a large impact at early levels of gameplay. People feel more comfortable working with something they know and understand, and I think they'll stick around longer and work through any difficulties if the game at least feels like they think it should.

[Syana]

I honestly believe it is for player familiarity and continuity. You don't want to have all your players needing to re-learn things, they all have a basic understanding of how Frost Nova should work - and it has a large impact at early levels of gameplay. People feel more comfortable working with something they know and understand, and I think they'll stick around longer and work through any difficulties if the game at least feels like they think it should.

FU, I want Ice Explosion NAO!

[Maegwin]

No, you'll get Frost Nova and you'll like it.






oh okay you can have Icicle Burst.

edit: and Snow Storm!

[Lonskils]

Popsicle Lick?

[Valdis]

Release should be coming soon.... Anyone with the WoW Annual Pass that looks at their battle.net account will see that their D3 game has been activated. This week I believe a bunch of press types are being showed all the Blizzard bells and whistles and sometime next week a major D3 announcement will be made.

[Ophylaela]

Still cant start the DL :P

[Valdis]

Nope.

[Syana]

blizzard needs to hurry up

[Valdis]

Well that italian site had a rumor that april 20th would be it but late May would be my guess. Blizz said they would like to give a 2 month notice.

[Tenelen]

I just reinstalled diablo 2 for shits and giggles

[Maegwin]

Someone asked a Blizz rep on scale of 1-10, 10 being imminent release, how close were they. He answered 9. So yeah, I believe the mid-April date is probably correct.

[Valdis]

Well to be fair they asked how close they were to the major D3 announcement not the release date.

[Valdis]

Well they have cut the D3 PVP arenas so that the game can ship properly. Note they will be adding the arenas back in with a patch at a later date. Also I believe open world PVP may still be possible.

On another note for people like Wresh it looks like they have changed the hardcore requirement from completing the game on normal to merely hitting level 10.

[Wresh]

Well they have cut the D3 PVP arenas so that the game can ship properly. Note they will be adding the arenas back in with a patch at a later date. Also I believe open world PVP may still be possible.

On another note for people like Wresh it looks like they have changed the hardcore requirement from completing the game on normal to merely hitting level 10.

Good...

Playing hardcore makes the game just that more intense and fun.

[Tenelen]

I played through a few more times this weekend. I haven't played since the last big update, but anyone else notice the dungeons seem to be smaller?

[Valdis]

I didn't find any that I would call significantly shorter I was more used to the layout patterns and thus made it through faster.

[Tenelen]

They took out one of the dungeons out of the graveyard, and the ghosts quests. Plus it seems like they took more of the corridors out of the skeleton kings dungeons.

[Glimbert]

May 15th! Hellz yeah!

[Valdis]

Nephalem Valor Buff

We’re working hard on balancing and testing Diablo III, and one of the major components is making sure that the end game experience is fun and exciting. We’d like to share a few of our goals for end game:



We have an enormous number of skill build combinations, and we want a lot of those skill builds to be viable and interesting
While there are millions of skill builds available to players, we don’t want players swapping skills regularly to beat specific encounters as they come up
We don’t want repeatedly running specific three-minute chunks of the game to be the most efficient way to acquire gear for your character
While a three-minute run shouldn’t be the most efficient, we also don’t want you to feel like it’s a two-hour commitment every time you sit down to play
Bosses should still feel worth killing


Nephalem Valor is one of the major new systems in Diablo III and it kicks in at level 60. Keep in mind that this is still in testing and we’re still working out the details. Here’s how it currently works internally: Rare and Champion packs already have great loot on them. By killing a Rare or Champion pack, not only do you get their loot, but you’ll also receive a buff granting you increased magic find and gold find. However, if you change a skill, skill rune, passive, or leave the game, the buff disappears. As an extra reward, if you kill a boss while this buff is active, you’ll receive extra loot drops from that boss.

The exact amount of magic find and gold find provided by the buff is still being reviewed, as is the amount of extra loot you get from a boss while the buff is active. We’re also playing around with whether or not the buff stacks, what the duration should be, and whether or not it should persist through death. We want to make sure the buff is strong enough to make staying in your current game more rewarding than creating a new game. At the same time, if the buff is too strong, it risks making shorter play sessions feel not worthwhile.

We expect this system will encourage players to stick with a skill build of their choice, select an area of the game they enjoy, and sweep it for rare and champion packs on their way to a boss, finishing off a run with a boss that’ll be worth killing. If you wanted a shorter play session you could be done at that point, but if you have more time, the path of least resistance would ideally be to stay in the same game and make your way towards the next boss.

[NormetheGnome]

So' since it has to be online is.there any plans to have roving packs of HOSS grinding shit? If so is there room for a monk?

[Valdis]

Well I believe you can setup quasi guilds in game. Or at the least add a clan tag of some kind. But once people have it and setup their D3 handle it would probably be good to make a thread or have people share em here.

[Glimbert]

I'm down for that, I'm still torn on mage or Witch Doctor though.

[Tenelen]

Well I believe you can setup quasi guilds in game. Or at the least add a clan tag of some kind. But once people have it and setup their D3 handle it would probably be good to make a thread or have people share em here.

Demon Hunter all the way for me, and then I might level a Barbarian.

[Valdis]

I'll most likely start on a mage.

[Valdis]

Note those with a WoW Annual Pass or the Blizzard store pre-order can download an installed for D3 now.

[Valdis]

D3 Beta is an open beta this weekend so if you haven't gotten a chance and want one go ahead and give it a shot.

[NormetheGnome]

All I know is that ill have a bottle of vodka a box of redbulls several cans of soup so I dont have to cook. Ill be playing monk first so if any one wants to hold.monsters while I punch them in the dick let me know. Im going nowhere for a few days. Also Burnem should be around in some fashion.

[Trem]

All I know is that ill have a bottle of vodka a box of redbulls several cans of soup so I dont have to cook. Ill be playing monk first so if any one wants to hold.monsters while I punch them in the dick let me know. Im going nowhere for a few days. Also Burnem should be around in some fashion. wow norme just wow

[NormetheGnome]

I know how to prepare for an expansion/release.

[NormetheGnome]

Ill be the first to 50...

[Valdis]

Ill be the first to 50...

But the max level is 60...

[NormetheGnome]

I dunno about the last 10 Ill be drunk sleepy and due for a real meal by then im sure

[Zeyla]

D3 Beta is an open beta this weekend so if you haven't gotten a chance and want one go ahead and give it a shot.

Darn, I missed out. Didn't touch a computer all weekend. Oh well, it will be out soon enough.

[Valdis]

Yea the beta servers go down for good May 1st so pretty much this is it.

[NormetheGnome]

Havnt been this excited about a game release in a good long while. On the upside I can do digital download and avoid the lepers at rhe midnight releases.

[NormetheGnome]

Hey valdis, you seem to.be in the know. How rare is rare.loot? I remeber after say level 8 to 10 not even bothering to pick up greens any more in D2 how much have they scaled that back because of the auction house crap?

[Valdis]

Well for the most part you won't want to ever pick up whites once you get too far in as it's vendor trash. The greens will probably always be worth keeping to salvage at the blacksmith to allow you to have him and the other one craft you some gear. I haven't played the beta in about a month now but the blacksmith gear was definitely worth it, granted to the stats weren't always great for your character but they were always on par with or better then the gear I had.

That being said keep in mind the max level was 13 and the gear I was crafting was for that general character level which means you generally need to get a good rare or higher quality to match. On the other hand it shouldn't be hard to use it to craft the few items you seem to have issues filling in such as the shoulders. Also the yellow weapons were very worth crafting Kath had her barb using a crafted 2h axe and absolutely demolished everything around her. I would imagine that when you are getting to the point where you are grinding even under max level for either experience or for magic find you may start skipping greens.

As for difficulty a lot of people have complained the beta feels to easy. From what the devs seem to say difficulty doesn't truly begin ramping until the end of Act 1. So Act 1's boss should be the first challenging place, I would guess roughly on par with Andariel ala D2 the first time you got to her. Another thing to keep in mind is that the runes and skills you have setup for your toon appear to be very flexible. So unlike D2 where you had 2-4 abilities and really only 1 that you would use constantly, D3 has the 6 abilities, 2 mouse buttons and 1-4, button 5 is perma resvd for your health pots. By default the game has a UI that forces you to put certain skills sets into certain buttons. (More info on that here (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4475014/Skill_and_Rune_Changes-2_18_2012#blog).) I would recommend reading/skimming that, it also tells you how to turn this off so you can do whatever you want. Currently the skill calculator (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian)I believe forces you to use that default UI if you want to get the idea. But to get back to the earlier point I am guessing depending on what mini-boss, quest boss, act mobs, act boss etc you are dealing with you might leave your skills alone but may end up swapping to different runes to handle the situations better.

Also for those that didn't see Inferno difficulty has been changed. Previously all of Inferno mob wise was level 61 or 62. Now the level of mobs ramp. So act 1 is still the same difficulty as it was previously but act 4 will have level 65 monsters. This adds a considerable amount of difficulty as all monsters are now 5 levels higher than you, on the other hand it means that those monsters will have a higher chance to drop better loot.

[Valdis]

http://youtu.be/K-ZA7NLSRhg

[Valdis]

Some quick notes on D3

End Game

Monsters in Act 1 are level 61, in Act 2 - 62 and in Acts 3 and 4 - 63. And each of those have Tier items that ONLY they drop - so a total of 3 Tiers in Inferno.


Hardcore


We have a prime directive of 'do no harm to the co-op game'.
We didn't want people to find ways to exploit, or to steal items from other people.
Having player corpses NOT be lootable makes it MORE hardcore, because what would happen in D2, is that you could play with your friends, and if you died you wouldn't lose your items, because they'd loot them for you and give them back.

[Valdis]

As we near Diablo III’s long-awaited May 15 launch date, we have some additional details to share on what to expect, how to prepare, and when you’ll be able to begin installing and playing.

Purchase the Game
If you haven’t already purchased Diablo III you can acquire it directly from Blizzard through the digital presale. You can also preorder the game at most major retailers and fine purveyors of high-quality gaming products worldwide. If you’re interested in the Diablo® III Collector’s Edition, please be aware that this physical retail-only edition is printed in limited quantities and has already sold out in most places that take preorders on games. We recommend calling around and checking if your local retailers will have the Collector’s Edition available.

Create Your BattleTag™
We expect that on launch night both the game service and website will be under very heavy strain due to the immense number of people excited to be among the first playing Diablo III. With that in mind, we highly recommend you create your BattleTag now (https://www.battle.net/account/management/battletag-create.html), as it’s required to play Diablo III. Please keep in mind that this non-unique nickname is a permanent choice, and will display both in-game and on the website, so be sure to choose one you like! (What is a BattleTag? (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4132437))

Regional Launch Times
As previously mentioned in the announcement of our midnight launch events (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/5203659/Diablo_III_Midnight_Launch_Events-4_25_2012#blog), the launch time of the game is broken down by region.

The Americas (U.S., Canada, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and South East Asia) servers open at: 12:01 a.m. PDT, May 15 (http://www.thetimezoneconverter.com/?t=12:01%20am&tz=California&)

Digital Presale Download
If you’ve purchased a digital copy you can begin downloading your client right now (https://www.battle.net/account/management/download/), and we highly encourage you to do so. We also have a Diablo III presale visual guide (http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/diablo-iii-presale-downloader-walkthrough) available that may be helpful. As it may take you some time to download the full game, it’s best that you begin early. This may afford you additional time to troubleshoot any downloader (http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/blizzard-downloader-common-errors-and-issues) or installer issues (http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/diablo-iii-installation-troubleshooting-pc) you may encounter.

Early Install
We will be unlocking the game's installer at 8:01 a.m. PDT on May 14. This will allow you to begin installing the game, troubleshoot any issues you run into (http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/diablo-iii-installation-troubleshooting-pc), download and install the launch day 1.0.1 patch, and be ready to play as soon as the servers come online.

Global Play Launch Time
We’ll be turning on Global Play when the game has launched in all regions. This means that you will not be able to play in a region outside your home region until after the Americas’ midnight launch at 12:01 a.m. PDT on May 15. We’ll provide an update once Global Play is enabled, and you’ll then be able to change the region you connect to through the game’s options. Please note that characters, items, and friends lists do not transfer across regions and players who use Global Play to connect outside of their home region will only be able to access the gold-based auction house. More information can be found in our Global Play introduction (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/5203654/Introducing_Global_Play_for_Diablo%C2%AE_III-5_1_2012#blog) article.

Launch Night Login
As we’ve unlocked the Diablo III installer early, many people will be ready to log in right when the servers go live at midnight, so we’re going to be closely monitoring the impact on the service. It’s possible we’ll need to adjust the rate at which we’re logging people in to ensure a stable experience, and if we do you may see a delay when attempting to login. Please be aware that a delay of up to 40 seconds is possible while the game attempts to connect you. If your connection doesn’t succeed in 40 seconds, you’ll be presented with an Error 37 message and asked to try again. If you see this error it does in fact mean that you should try again. We’ll be working around the clock to keep you informed of any issues that are occurring through the in-game breaking news window, as well as the official forums (http://www.battle.net/d3/forum/).

[Zeyla]

Pre-ordered, installer downloaded and BattleTag created.

If you want to chat or play some co-op, hit me up. For my non-RealID friends, my BattleTag: Zeyd#1355

Z

[Tenelen]

My battletag is: Tenelen#1891

[Elidroth]

Elidroth#1330

[depen]

Dealt#1670

[derk]

derk#1506

[Valdis]

It is mature rated so you will need to log in. This is the short made by Titmouse.

http://youtu.be/LEAPxgMCEA8

[Andaas]

I am known as andaas#1810 on battle.net; wish I could pick my own 4 digit number. :(

[Valdis]

It'd be nice wouldn't it.

[NormetheGnome]

Norme541#1413

[Nodd Oxide]

Sukanac#1150

[ToxicBill]

Toxicbill#1389

[Rhedd]

Rhedd#1846

[Zeyla]

Tried installing today and ran to an odd "Your Disc has been ejected error". Downloaded the game installer again and ran it and it seems to be working now.

If you have any trouble there is some basic troubleshooting steps here: http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/diablo-iii-installation-troubleshooting-pc

And no I won't be playing at 12:01am PST tonight, you night owls have fun. I'll catch you in the morning :)

Z

[Rhedd]

I'll go to bed early and play at like 4 am before work =D

[Glimbert]

I'll be there when the flood gates open, and up for around 20 hrs straight playing...

[Kikiyo]

Kikiyo#1126

[Glimbert]

My Battletag is Penguin#1869
A+ and I will be rocking a Mage + Barbarian Combo for the next 20+ hrs.

[Areidne]

I'm Panda#1809!

[KripDiggler]

Still cant get in. Says servers are busy. Login attempt 200+

[Mystrae]

Got in about 30 mins ago.

[Wresh]

I broke down and bought it this morning....Should be on for a while tonight.

Wresh#1415

[Alexthegreat]

Alexthegreat#1987

[Phaera]

Phaera1201

[derk]

I thought I was lucky to download it earlier (I didn't join beta). Finally got on after 2AM PDT after the login/server busy errors that started right after midnight. Then get a character creation error. Logout and login fixed that. But man the game is sure resource intensive. My MBP plays WoW fine with the settings turned up to high (not ultra). Diablo 3, I have to turn everything low or off to get it to play properly.

[Zeyla]

Really enjoying the game so far, for the little i got to play this morning. Now just waiting for the logon servers to work again. Sucks to have to log-in to play a single player game. I know why they do it (many publishers do it these days), doesn't make it suck less! heh heh

Oh and my son will be playing on the same account occasionally so if you don't see me playing on a character with a "Z" name it is probably him ;)

[Glimbert]

A+ and I took a nap, but we're into Act II, and having a blast. The mage + barbarian combo deals so much damage and has enough crowd control to make almost everything a cake walk (though I did die from standing in fire during a boss fight... even in Diablo I manage to play a gnome ;-).

[Zappo]

I'm under the name Gubbin#1301

[Sabertootth]

http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_gifs/3711171/Servers+are+busy/

[Valdis]

Hotfixes
// May 22 //
General

Players will now receive an error message when attempting to remove a gem from an item with no sockets (rather than disconnecting)
Players will now properly have their casting interrupted when attacked while performing resurrect on a fallen group member
Resolved over 30 game and service crashes affecting players

Classes

Demon Hunter (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/)

Active Skills

Smoke Screen (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/smoke-screen)

Duration reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second (tooltip will still show 2 seconds)
Skill Rune - Lingering Fog

Now increases the duration of Smoke Screen to 1.5 seconds (tooltip will still show 3 seconds)





Monk (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/)

Active Skills

Fists of Thunder (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/fists-of-thunder)

Skill Rune - Quickening

Fixed an issue that was causing spirit regeneration to incorrectly trigger off critical hits from other sources, such as Sweeping Wind



Mantra of Healing (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/mantra-of-healing)

Mantra of Healing will now correctly provide only two times the base healing effect for the first 3 seconds after activation, down from four times the base healing effect (tooltip will still show the old value)
Skill Rune - Boon of Protection

A maximum absorption amount has been set to 1000 Life. This skill will be redesigned in an upcoming patch.







Wizard (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/)

Active Skills

Arcane Torrent (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/arcane-torrent)

Skill Rune - Cascade

Fixed an issue that was causing Arcane Torrent to fire 3 new missiles per kill instead of only 1 new missile per kill
Number of new missiles generated from this rune will now cap at 10 missiles



Energy Armor (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/energy-armor)

Skill Rune - Force Armor

Amount of damage absorbed from a single attack will now cap at 100% of a player’s maximum Life





Items

The rare chest in the Town Cellar in Alcanus will now only spawn 50% of the time, down from 100%
Players can no longer dual-wield two-handed weapons


// May 18 //
Classes

Monk (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/)

Active Skills

Serenity (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/serenity)

Skill Rune - Tranquility

Duration of immunity granted to nearby allies from crowd control effects reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second





Encounters

Players will no longer remain invulnerable to attacks after defeating Diablo.
Players can no longer become stuck during Diablo’s Shadow Grab ability if a player blinds Diablo while Shadow Grab is being cast.

Items

Equipping a shield on a follower as a demon hunter will no longer disconnect you from the game.

Quests

Act I

Players can now always interact with Karyna during the quest and quest step "Trailing the Coven : Talk to Karyna" when they resume from a save.


Act II

The Enchantress will now always appear during the quest and quest step "Shadows in the Desert : Disrupt the Hidden Conclave."


Act IV

Tyrael will now always be present for the in-game cutscene during the quest and quest step "Prime Evil : Climb to the Pinnacle of Heaven in the Silver Spire."

[Elidroth]

I'm playing quite a bit. I'm trying to finish up my Pony level recipe at the moment.

Elidroth#1330

[Trem]

trem#1414

[Valdis]

The promised blue post on what they will be doing to iron out some of the D3 issues.
With Diablo III out for nearly two weeks now, millions of players around the world are storming Sanctuary and joining the battle against the Burning Hells. At the same time, we continue to work (http://www.diablofans.com/#) around the clock to make sure you have an epic online gaming experience.

As more and more players begin to perfect their character builds and progress into Diablo III’s higher difficultly levels, some of the most prominent feedback lately has been about game balance (http://www.diablofans.com/#) and design, and that’s what we’re here to talk about today. As with any new game, gameplay issues are inevitable, and we hear a lot of feedback regarding what‘s balanced, what’s not, and everything else in between. We recently made some decisions to adjust (or outright nerf) a few class skills, and today we wanted to explain our overall philosophy on design changes -- as well as give some insight into some more changes that are coming up.

Before we get to that, though, we thought it'd be fun to share a few interesting stats we've collected since Diablo III's release:

On average players have created 3 characters each
80% of characters are between levels 1 and 30
1.9% of characters have unlocked Inferno difficulty
54% of Hardcore players chose a female character
The majority of Hardcore deaths (35%) occur in Act I Normal
The most common level 60 build in the game is only used by 0.7% of level 60 characters of that class (not including Passive diversity)
The most used runes for each class at level 60 are Barbarian: Best (http://www.diablofans.com/#) Served Cold, Demon Hunter: Lingering Fog, Wizard: Mirror Skin, Monk: Peaceful Repose, Witch Doctor: Numbing Dart

When it comes to making game changes, in general, our intent is to react quickly to critical design and balance issues, bugs, and other problems that seriously conflict with our design intent through hotfixes. For issues which aren’t as severely out of line, we plan to react in a more measured fashion -- through client patches. We have a patch coming within the next week (patch 1.0.2) that has been in development since the game’s launch and is mainly aimed at addressing service issues. The first real game balance changes, outside of hotfixes, will be coming in patch 1.0.3. We expect that because the game is new, some other issues will arise that will need to be immediately addressed through hotfixes, but in general, most changes will arrive through patches.

Regarding the changes to Lingering Fog, Boon of Protection, and Force Armor: we determined these skills were simply more powerful than they should be, and we felt their impact on class balance and how each class was perceived warranted hotfixes as soon as we were able. However, we don't want you to be worried that a hotfix nerf is lurking around the corner every day. If a skill is strong, but isn't really breaking the game, we want you to have your fun. Part of the enjoyment of Diablo is finding those super-strong builds, and we want players to be excited to use something they discovered that feels overpowered. A good example of this is the monk Overawe rune, which many players have identified as being quite good. We agree it's good, but we don't think it's so far out of line that we're going to swoop in and hotfix it out of existence.

Inferno is intended to be extremely difficult, but with some specific skills, a few classes were simply able to progress far more easily than intended. This made the classes, which were about where they were supposed to be, seem very underpowered. It also created the perception that the classes doing well were intended to rely on specific runes in all their builds, and the other classes were just broken. This is the opposite of what’s true. If any single skill or rune feels absolutely required to progress, it means that skill is working against our goal of encouraging build diversity -- and those “required” skills need to be corrected. We know these hotfixes snuck up on people, and it took us a day or so to communicate that they had gone live. However, our intent moving forward is that when there are circumstances where a hotfix is necessary, we’ll communicate changes that could impact your ability to play your class through ‘Upcoming Changes’ posts in the General forum. Ideally, we’ll let you know as soon as we even have the idea that we want to make that kind of change.

That said, we also wanted to let you know we’re keeping a close eye on Inferno. The intent of incoming damage is that it should be a very consistent drain on your health, and mitigating that drain is a major part of what makes Inferno mode difficult. Right now, there’s a lot more damage “spikiness” occurring than feels right, and that’s one major area we’re looking to adjust in patch 1.0.3. While we don’t have any specifics yet, our design goals are to support and promote build diversity; continue to ensure that a mix of champion packs, rare packs, and boss fights are the most efficient way to acquire the best items in the game; and ensure that all classes are viable in Inferno.

From a high-level perspective, we think a more fundamentally fun way to approach difficulty in Inferno isn't seeing how much incoming damage you can avoid or mitigate, but rather to see how efficient you can be while voluntarily taking on a challenge that pushes you. For anybody who's ever died because they chased a Treasure Goblin too aggressively, you know what we mean; dying because you got greedy or overconfident can actually be a lot of fun. Now that the skills mentioned above have been brought more in line, we’ll be keeping a close eye on balance.

We've also seen some people saying our intention with Inferno is just one-shot you to make it difficult. While damage is a bit spikier than we'd like, we're actually seeing a pretty significant number of people attempting Inferno without sufficient gear. There's a good chance that returning to the previous Act to farm upgrades will do the most to help you survive. That said, we’d like to shift some of the focus away from survival and more toward using a variety of offensive tactics to succeed. Survival will still be important, but finding ways to maximize your damage while staying alive is more exciting. We’re not particularly concerned with whether or not a boss is “beatable,” though it should feel epic and challenging to defeat it. We’re more concerned with ensuring that acquiring 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor and taking on as many Champions and Rares as you can remains the most challenging and rewarding way to play.

On to items! One of the biggest pieces of feedback we’ve received regarding items is the relative power of Legendaries. This isn’t a simple issue to address, as it involves some intentional design decisions as well as expectations built by other games. First and foremost, Legendary items are not designed to necessarily be the best items in the game. They’re just one additional type of item as you level up, and they are not meant to be the primary items you’re chasing at the end-game. They can -- and should -- be exciting to find, but they’re not supposed to serve as the single driving force of the item hunt. Rare items, for example, have the possibility to roll up “perfect” stats that can, if you’re lucky, outpace the predetermined stats of a Legendary. That’s by design.


One problem we’ve seen -- and intend to correct quickly -- is players comparing high-level Magic (blue) items to lower-level Legendary items as “proof” of an imbalance. To help correct misconceptions of the actual stat budgets allocated to items, we’ll be exposing item levels (ilvl) of 60+ items in patch 1.0.3. Comparing an ilvl 63 blue to an ilvl 60 Legendary will hopefully make a bit more sense afterward. In addition, we’re planning to just straight-out buff Legendary items in a future patch, likely the PvP patch (1.1). These buffs will not be retroactive, and so they’ll only apply to new Legendary items found after the patch. In the long term, we’re looking at simply expanding the affix diversity and unique bonuses of Legendary items, and we’ll be able to share more details after the PvP patch.


Other areas of concern have been both the gem combination system and Blacksmith leveling and crafting costs. The intent, especially with the Blacksmith, is that he’s leveling with you, you’re able to use him as an alternate source for upgrades. Our design goal is that once you get to level 60, his recipes are actually good enough to help fill a character’s potential itemization gaps. To correct these issues, we’re looking to adjust the Blacksmith costs for training (gold and pages) and crafting from levels 1-59, and reduce the cost of combining gems so that it only requires two gems instead of three (up to Flawless Square). Both of these changes are scheduled for patch 1.0.3.

Of course, these are just a few of the more prominent issues we wanted to let you know we’re working on. In addition, we’ll be addressing a number of specific game bugs and other issues through future hotfixes and patches. We’re going full steam ahead on the PvP patch, which will also include a number of game changes unrelated to PvP, and we look forward to sharing more about that as we get closer to opening up a PTR, where you’ll be able to test out our changes -- and enjoy mercilessly slaughtering one another in the PvP arena.

[Ophylaela]

There is now a General chat channel that you automatically join when logging in.

first command typed once i saw a bunch of "people" talking in my window.....
/leave general

[Andaas]

Yeah, annoying that it doesn't remember between sessions.

[Zeyla]

I think I saw about 3-4 lines of general chat come up before I left the channel. Sucks that you have to do it each time.

[Scrith]

Scrith#1193

60 Monk soloing Inferno Act 1

[Sabertootth]

Lightbringer#1334

[Wresh]

Been talking to Valdis and Kath about needed gear for lvl 60 to help out on inferno...

Is there anything that people may need some assistance on getting (weapons, resis gear, etc.)? Asking because I do a shit ton of MF runs on a mini-boss in act 4 inferno (not actually in act 4 yet, but I got the wp from a friend and since then I've found some decent gear).

Reply here or send me an in game tell (Wresh#1415) and I will see if I can find something to help. I've found some decent blue 900+ damage weapons and a lot of resis all armor. Might save some $$ for everyone.

[Maegwin]

I was annoyed that they added it as well. It's like an invitation for seller spam, why would they add it?

[Valdis]

Last month we gave you a glimpse (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6018173/Game_Design_Update-5_28_2012#blog) into how we were taking in initial feedback on the game, and ideas for some potential system changes we could make. Today we wanted to follow up and provide concrete info on some of the changes we’ve been working on, and give everyone a heads up before the 1.0.3 patch hits later this month.

Bridging the Item Gap
The ilvl (item level) of an item determines the statistical budget for its power. The way the game is currently set up, Act I drops ilvl 61 gear and below, Act II drops ilvl 62 gear and below, and Act III and IV drop ilvl 63 and below. Unfortunately this has caused two main issues. The first is players who find an Act too difficult feel compelled to use the auction house in order to progress. The second is that certain classes, skills, and play styles are less gear dependent than others, so although great items are making their way into the game economy, people feel pigeonholed into a handful of viable strategies. For a lot of people they would rather do something frustrating or boring in Hell Act IV (such as having Tyrael fight for them or breaking vases) for a chance at a "top-tier" upgrade, rather than fight hordes of monsters in Inferno Act I. We’re shifting to a philosophy where the best items in the game can drop from many different places, so a wider variety of play styles are viable. If you would rather chain-pull elite packs in Act I rather than 3 minute cat-and-mouse in Act IV, we'd like you to be able to do that and know you can still find the best items in the game.

Nothing would explain it as well as just sharing the intended drop rates coming in the next patch, so here they are. Note that the drop rates vary slightly by item type; the table below represents an approximate aggregated rate of all item types:

New drop rates for 1.0.3
<center>
<thead>
Item
Hell Act III and IV
Inferno Act I
Inferno Act II
Inferno Act III/IV

</thead> <tbody>
iLvl 61
9 %
18%
19%
24%


iLvl 62
2%
8%
12%
16%


iLvl 63
0%
2%
4%
8%

</tbody>
</center>






As you can see, players who would rather murder monsters 4x as fast in Inferno Act I can do so knowing they have a chance at amazing items, and players who want a challenge can kill in Acts III and IV in Inferno and be rewarded with a higher drop rate.

You Keep Using That Word
As previously mentioned (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6018173/Game_Design_Update-5_28_2012#blog), we’re going to be reviewing Legendary items in a future patch. Legendaries won’t change in 1.0.3, but it’s still something we’re actively working on. When we’re done, high level Legendaries should be flat out better than blue items, they’ll carry a good amount of power with them, and they should also be distinctive or memorable in the benefits they provide. We’ll be able to share more information on the specific changes we’re making after 1.0.3 launches.

The Nephalem Difference
It’s no secret that our goal for the end-game item hunt is players hunting monsters packs, building to five stacks of Nephalem Valor, and then killing a boss. While we’re seeing a lot of that occurring, what we’re missing is people feeling like it’s worthwhile to continue onward after killing a boss. To help hit that goal we’re lowering the number of guaranteed Rare items on bosses when you have your full five stacks of Nephalem Valor from two guaranteed Rares to one guaranteed Rare (you still have a very good chance at multiple rares, it's just no longer guaranteed). In exchange, all champion and rare packs will now drop a bonus guaranteed Rare item when you have your full five stacks of Nephalem Valor. The change benefits players with more overall drops, and a reason to push to continue progressing.

You Into the Group Thing?
We’re removing the bonus monster damage per additional player in a coop game. Our design goal is for players who prefer to play solo to be able to play solo, and players who prefer to play in groups to be able to play in a group. We feel the bonus monster damage per additional player is one of the biggest inhibitors to wanting to play with your friends. In a perfect world, single player and co-op would be absolutely equal, but that’s not attainable when you consider item properties such as “Life on Kill” or skills such as Archon which simply scale better when you are solo. Since the variety and breadth of game mechanics essentially dictate that solo vs. group play will never be 100% equal, our goal is to make them as close as possible but err on the side of coop in cases where we need to make adjustments. The inherent logistical requirements when forming up with other players and attempting to work together effectively warrants some added benefits.

Oh Yeah!
Inferno balance right now has a difficulty gap in which Act I feels about right, but Act II feels like trying to bust through a brick wall. In patch 1.0.3 we’re going to be lowering that wall by adjusting the damage and health of monsters in Inferno Act II, III and IV. We feel like Act I Inferno is in a pretty good place. Our design goal with Acts II, III and IV is to keep them challenging, but smooth the difficulty ramp out a bit. If a monk or barbarian is geared well enough that they can use a heavily offensive build and murder everything in Act I, they should be able to swap to a more defensive build and do okay in Act II. As they gear up they can begin adjusting back to becoming offensive in Act II, at which point they can jump into Act III with a focus on defense, and so on. Difficulty certainly ties into itemization, encounter and enemy tuning, and class balance, and all of these things together are going to paint a more reasonable difficulty curve as you hit Inferno in 1.0.3.

Paying for Your Mistakes
Current repair costs at level 60 are barely noticeable, and because of that we see a lot of people wonder if “graveyard zerging” tough enemies or “chain rezzing allies on a boss” is intended gameplay – it definitely is not. To help solve the issue we evaluated a number of new death mechanics, such as just allowing the resurrection timer to increase even higher, disallowing resurrection during boss fights, or putting a debuff on you when you resurrect (such as reduced combat effectiveness). Ultimately we felt that increasing repair costs was the best solution that preserves the fast paced style of the game. Repair costs on level 60 items are going to go up a lot. Our goal is the next time a player is graveyard zerging a boss, it should occur to them that “this is probably not an efficient way to go about things”. We’re currently evaluating repair costs between 4x and 6x their current values. In the face of increasing costs, we recommend listening to the Hardcore players out there as they probably have some helpful advice on how to minimize repair costs. Following this change zerging a boss will still be possible, but our intent is that it won’t be optimal, and players who are seeking to be as efficient as possible will adjust their item hunting routes accordingly.

Whoa, Whoa, Nice Shootin’ Tex
We’re fixing a number of bugs with Attack Speed, mainly related to the stat not working on some items, but we’ve also decided we need to reduce the effectiveness of Increased Attack Speed overall. Many players have commented that Increased Attack Speed is such a dominant stat they feel it’s required. While we don’t have an issue with there being important stats, Increased Attack Speed in particular has secondary effects on mobility in combat, resource generation and resource consumption. We want there to be options and considerations for how you gear up, and one uber trump-everything stat can really work against choice and options. There are two different solutions we’re considering to reduce the effectiveness of Increased Attack Speed. The first is to simply reduce the value on all the items to their desired values. In general our desire is to never change items as that makes them feel less concrete, but the upside is you would still be able to look at an item and know exactly what you are getting. The other approach is to change the formula used for attack speed aggregation so that stacking attack speed from multiple slots suffers from diminishing returns. The downside of that approach is that it introduces yet another hidden modifier on an item property (and many people dislike hidden modifiers), and complicates the already difficult decision of item gearing. We’re currently leaning toward the first solution, to simply reduce the value on items, but we’d be interested to read people’s thoughts on the problem.

Just <strike>Three</strike> Two Easy Payments
We previously hinted that Blacksmith and Jeweler costs are coming down, and overall it will be far more reasonable to train them up and craft items. The most dramatic reduction is on the combine costs for tier 2-8 gems. The gem combine costs for Perfect Square and above will remain unchanged.

<center>
<thead>
Gem Quality
Previous Cost
New Cost

</thead> <tbody>
Flawed
3 Chipped + 500 gold
2 Chipped + 10 gold


Normal
3 Flawed + 750 gold
2 Flawed + 25 gold


Flawless
3 Normal + 1250 gold
2 Normal + 40 gold


Perfect
3 Flawless + 2000 gold + 1 Page
2 Flawless + 55 gold + 1 Page


Radiant
3 Perfect + 3500 gold + 2 Pages
2 Perfect + 70 gold + 2 Pages


Square
3 Radiant + 7500 gold + 1 Tome
2 Radiant + 85 gold + 1 Tome


Flawless Square
3 Square + 20,000 gold + 2 Tomes
2 square + 100 gold + 2 Tomes

</tbody>
</center>












Nerf Them, Buff Me
Class tuning is not a major focus for 1.0.3. There will be a small number of skills changes, but for the most part we want people to continue experimenting and enjoy their skills for a while. Our goal was and continues to be build diversity, and though we see quite a bit of build diversity, we think we can do much better. Class tuning will be an ongoing process, and we’re targeting the 1.1 patch for most class tweaks, with a focus on punching build diversity up a few more notches.

But What About…
While these are a few of the larger systems adjustments we’re making, the 1.0.3 patch will include many fixes, quality of life enhancements, Auction House improvements, and other changes. We hope you look forward to the patch as much as we do getting it out there, and again we appreciate your continued feedback. See you in-game!

[Valdis]

From the developer Q&A on Reddit tonight:

General

There could be an "auto-skip cinematics" options added in the future.
There will likely be an "invisibility mode" for the friend list in a future patch.
Blizzard are looking into adding an option that will filter out white items on the ground.
There will be more ingame hints added that point to the existence of Elective Mode.
Players have discovered all zones in the game.
Custom chat channels are in the works.

Items

The color of Health Potions, Gems, Tomes and Pages will change in a future patch.
When Legendaries get an upgrade in a future patch they'll have many interesting proc abilities.
There is no elemental damage because players would just use the one that has the highest DPS. The only elemental damage type that survived is Cold - it has lowered damage but chills enemies. It's also the least used damage type.
There are currently restrictions that don't let you dye Legendary items. Blizzard are looking into the Tech issue of solving that.
The Staff of Herding and all components required to craft it will be made to stand out WAY more in the inventory in 1.0.3.
The stat for increasing the potency of Health Globes might also affect Potions as well in the future.

Life Steal and Life on Hit

Life on Hit is roughly 3 times stronger than Life Steal but doesn't scale as well. Life Steal is tuned for DPS that players would hit months after release.
Life Steal is made to, someday, make you feel like you're breaking the game.
If in a few months Life Steal is still not used enough it'll receive changes.
Life Steal is also tuned for multiple targets taken into account.

Difficulty

Whimsyshire will also be affected by the incoming difficulty changes in 1.0.3. For Hell Whimsyshire counts as Act IV and for Inferno as Act III/IV.
In a future patch bosses will give better loot the first time you kill them in a higher difficulty (not going to be in 1.0.3).

Crafting

The Blacksmith crafting will have its prices decreased in 1.0.3.
Blizzard like the idea of adding gems into the Blacksmith's crafts in the future.
Crafting is not meant to have better items than monster drops or AH. It's just another gold outlet. With the price reduction in 1.0.3 though things should get "a little more interesting".
Blacksmith and Jeweler recipes drop only in Inferno. As people get more into that difficulty and Blizzard get more results to monitor they might considere increasing their drop rates.

Monsters

In a future patch Shielding enemies will cast their shields less frequently.
In a future patch rares with Invulnerable Minions will have their health decreased.
Some fleeing monsters will flee less in 1.0.3 so that enrage timers don't become a big issue for players.

Auction House

Blizzard are considering adding the RMAH to Hardcore mode.
Commodities have been down because of flawed design. It made players spam the Search button.
You will be able to cancel auctions in patch 1.0.3 (99% sure).
There are currently no plans to let players choose how long they're putting items up for.
The Auction House has no effect on drop rates. They are actually tuned for players that will never use the Auction House.
The game was tuned without the Auction House because there weren't enough players to make it work during internal testing.
Item comparison in the Auction House window will be added in the future.

Classes

Class sigils from the pre-release promotional site should start showing up in the next couple weeks.
Some Demon Hunter abilities will be buffed to promote build diversity (not in 1.0.3).
The least used skills at level 60 are Energy Twister, Exploding Palm, Sacrifice, Ancient Spear and Strafe.

Magic Find

Magic Find works exactly the same way as it did in Diablo II.

PvP

There will only be Arena in the PvP patch.
There might be dueling at some point in the future.

Hardcore

4.1% of characters are Hardcore.
Every design decision takes Hardcore into account.

Hardcore Characters Class Breakdown:

Level 46-50: Barbarian: 25.86% * Monk: 23.90% * Demon Hunter: 18.47% * Wizard: 16.96% * Witch Doctor: 14.81%
Level 60: Barbarian: 22.67% * Monk: 21.83% * Demon Hunter: 21.04% * Wizard: 19.23% * Witch Doctor: 15.23%

[Zappo]

I'd give you karma if I could.

[Valdis]

Well posting patch notes and dev info is generally what I am known for on the forums... It's actually my guild note even.

[Valdis]

Hotfixes that went live sometime Friday night

General

In cooperative games, monster damage will no longer increase when additional players join the game. Please note that monster health will still scale based on the number of players in a party

Bug Fixes

Tyrael no longer has collision when he is your active follower
Pots of ashes in Act I and vases in Act IV will now drop less gold when destroyed
Fixed a bug where players could turn in the same quest repeatedly and always receive rewards as though they were completing the quest for the first time

[Sabertootth]

Fast shielding desert giant outside of my dungeon i have to go into to get my blood of zulle on nightmare and im a demon hunter..... I am just gonna /wrist now

[Tenelen]

Fast shielding desert giant outside of my dungeon i have to go into to get my blood of zulle on nightmare and im a demon hunter..... I am just gonna /wrist now

HA This is nothing!

Try Horde, immune, shield, and frozen.

[Valdis]

To hell with Immune.

[Argonah]

Argo#1161

I've got a 60 monk and a 60 DH. Enjoying the game a lot so far!

[Valdis]

Diablo III Patch 1.0.3 - v.1.0.3.10057
General

To prevent monsters from being unintentionally kited into town from other areas of the game, portals have been placed at both ends of the bridge from New Tristram to The Weeping Willow. Towns have always been intended to be a safe haven from combat, and this change will help keep the denizens of New Tristram safe from the dangers that lurk beyond its walls.
The real-money auction house is now available for Chilean, Argentinian, and Brazilian currencies

Battle.net

General

Friends will now sort alphabetically by name within the Friends List, first by Real ID and then by BattleTag
The Quick Join menu will now also sort alphabetically by name, first by Real ID and then by BattleTag
Chat settings and preferences will now be saved whenever you log out
Reporting another player using the Report > Spam option will now mute that player for the duration of your gaming session


Bug Fixes

Using the /who command in a heavily populated chat channel should no longer cause the client to crash
The "Invite to Party" button should no longer become grayed-out if a player:

Declines a party invite
Requests a party invite and then declines it
Accepts a party invite, but immediately then leaves the party


The character screen should now always display the display the correct act and quest information
If Real ID has been disabled for a Battle.net account, attempting to add a Real ID friend in Diablo III will now prompt the player with the following error message: "Battle.net is unable to add friends because you have Real ID disabled."


Classes

Barbarian (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/)

Active Skills

Ignore Pain (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/ignore-pain)

Skill Rune – Contempt for Weakness

The amount of damage reflected will now cap at the player's maximum Life



Overpower (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/overpower)

Skill Rune – Crushing Advance

The amount of damage reflected will now cap at the player's maximum Life
The tooltip has been updated to represent that both melee and ranged damage are reflected



Weapon Throw (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/weapon-throw)

Tooltip now displays the correct duration for how long a target will be slowed: "Hurl a throwing weapon at any enemy for 100% weapon damage and Slow the movement of the enemy by 60% for 1.5 seconds." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)



Passive Skills

Relentless (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/passive/relentless)

Now reduces the Fury cost of all skill by 75%, down from 100% (the 50% damage reduction remains unchanged)




Demon Hunter (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/)

Active Skills

Cluster Arrow (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/cluster-arrow)

Skill Rune - Dazzling Arrow

Tooltip now displays the correct type of weapon damage dealt by Dazzling Arrow: "Enemies hit by grenades have a 55% chance to be stunned for 2 seconds and changes the damage to Physical." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)



Grenades (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/grenades)

Skill Rune - Stun Grenades

Tooltip now displays the correct duration for how long a target will be stunned: "Hurl grenades that have a 25% chance to Stun enemies for 1.5 seconds." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)




Bug Fixes

Caltrops (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/caltrops)

Skill Rune – Jagged Spikes

Effect will now only stack up to 10 times on a single target



Elemental Arrow (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/elemental-arrow)

Skill Rune – Nether Tentacles

Tentacles will now only hit each target once





Monk (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/)

General

Monks can now use spears, two-handed weapons, and two-handed swords


Active Skills

Serenity (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/serenity)

Skill Rune – Instant Karma

The amount of damage reflected will now cap at the player's maximum Life



Seven-Sided Strike (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/sevensided-strike)

Skill Rune - Sustained Attack

Tooltip has been updated for clarity: "Reduces the cooldown of Seven-Sided Strike to 23 seconds." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)



Mantra of Retribution (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/mantra-of-retribution)

Damage will now cap based on the maximum Life of the target



Bug Fixes

Near Death Experience (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/passive/near-death-experience)

Fatal damage absorbed by Serenity (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/serenity) will no longer trigger Near Death Experience




Witch Doctor (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/)

Active Skills

Summon Zombie Dogs (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/summon-zombie-dogs)

Skill Rune – Leeching Beasts

Tooltip has been updated for clarity: "Your Zombie Dogs heal 50% of the damage they deal as Life divided evenly between themselves and you." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)





Wizard (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/)

Active Skills

Diamond Skill (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/diamond-skin)

Skill Rune – Mirror Skin

The amount of damage reflected will now cap at the amount of damage absorbed by Diamond Skin



Magic Weapon (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/magic-weapon)

When activated, a buff icon will now appear that displays the amount of time remaining


Meteor (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/meteor)

Skill Rune - Star Pact

Now deals damage as Arcane instead of Fire



Passive Skills

Paralysis (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/passive/paralysis)

Tooltip now displays the correct duration for how long a target will be stunned: "Lightning damage dealt to enemies has up to a 8% chance to Stun the target for 1.5 seconds." (The functionality of the skill has not changed.)





Items

General

+ Attack Speed bonus values on weapons and armor have been reduced by 50%

This change does not apply to quivers


High-end items (items level 61-63) will now drop in all Acts of Inferno and Acts III and IV of Hell difficulty

The new approximate drop rates are as follows:

Hell - Act III and Act IV

iLvl 61: 9%
iLvl 62: 1.9%
iLvl 63: 0%


Inferno - Act I

iLvl 61: 17.7%
iLvl 62: 7.9%
iLvl 63: 2.0%


Inferno - Act II

iLvl 61: 18.6%
iLvl 62: 12.4%
iLvl 63: 4.1%


Inferno - Act III and Act IV

iLvl 61: 24.1%
iLvl 62: 16.1%
iLvl 63: 8.0%



Please see the Patch 1.0.3 Design Preview (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6262208/) for more information and specific details


Repair costs have been increased for item levels between 53 and 63
Magic Find will no longer be considered when looting objects in the environment such as chests, barrels, vases, pots, and corpses
The item quality of all components needed to craft the Staff of Herding, as well as the Staff of Herding itself, have been changed from Common to Legendary (i.e. their item names will appear orange in color)
The Staff of Herding can no longer be salvaged or dropped
Crafted items that are dropped on the ground due to a player’s inventory being full can no longer be seen or picked up by other players
Unique monsters in Hell and Inferno difficulty are no longer guaranteed to drop two Magic items when slain
Weapon racks will no longer drop weapons 100% of the time
Destructible objects no longer have a chance to drop items, and will only have a small chance to drop gold when destroyed


Weapons and Armor

"Balanced" superior items (i.e. Balanced Short Sword) will now grant a percent attack speed increase that only affects the weapon itself, rather than a flat increase to attacks per second that affected both equipped weapons when dual-wielding
Crowd Control Reduction from items and skills will now reduce the percentage value of Slow, Chill, and Attack Speed debuffs rather than reducing how long the debuff lasts

For example: previously, if you were debuffed by a 60% slow that lasted for 2 seconds while wearing gear that provides 20% Crowd Control Reduction, your movement speed would be reduced by 60%, but only for 1.6 seconds. Now, the same amount of Crowd Control Reduction will reduce the Slow effect to 48%, but the effect will remain for the full 2 second duration.


Manticore (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/item/manticore) now has one additional bonus affix


User Interface

Minimum damage and Maximum damage values will now display separately in an item's tooltip (i.e. "+2-4 Damage" will now display as "+2 Minimum Damage” and “+2 Maximum Damage")
Tooltips for items on the ground will now show comparison stats
Resist values will now be taken into effect when calculating the Protection comparison stat (the Protection value is an average protection estimate of all your resists)
When comparing a two-handed weapon against two currently-equipped one-handed weapons, the game will now simulate the removal of both one-handed weapons (instead of simply removing the main-hand weapon, which resulted in an inaccurate comparison)
When selling items to a vendor, the most recently sold items will now always display at the bottom of the Buyback tab


Bug Fixes

Items level 50 and above will now display their item level in the tooltip
Damage Over Time (DoT) skills will now properly benefit from items with the +Critical Chance affix
Legendary items with the +Attack Speed bonus will now correctly provide a bonus to attack speed

Please note that this fix will only affect new Legendary drops. Existing Legendary items will be addressed in future patch.


Players wearing +Life on Kill items should no longer receive a benefit from this affix when "killing" friendly monsters (e.g. when a witch doctor re-summons a Spider Queen while another Spider Queen is still active)
Fixed a bug with linking items with socketed gems in chat
Fixed a bug where vendors would occasionally not have any items for sale
Fixed a bug where selling more than 12 items to a vendor and then buying back 1 of those items could cause multiple items to disappear from the Buyback tab
Fixed a bug where swapping a 1-slot item (i.e. a ring) with 2-slot item (i.e. a weapon) in the second or third tab of a player’s stash would sometimes cause the 2-slot item to be filtered incorrectly to the first tab
Fixed a bug that was causing Collector's Edition dyes to sell for the same price regardless of stack size...


Crafting

General

The gold and material crafting costs for all items level 1-59 have been reduced by 50% to 75%


Blacksmith (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/artisan/blacksmith/)

The gold cost to level the Blacksmith has been reduced by 50%
The number of Pages of Blacksmithing, Tomes of Blacksmithing, or Tomes of Secrets required to level the Blacksmith has been reduced

Base levels now require 1 page/tome, down from 5
Milestone levels now require 2 pages/tomes, down from 5


The number of Pages of Blacksmithing and Tomes of Blacksmithing required to craft items level 1-59 has been reduced
Items with 3 affixes no longer require Pages of Blacksmithing or Tomes of Blacksmithing to craft
The gold cost of crafting items with 4 affixes and 5 affixes (including items in Inferno difficulty) has been reduced
Weapon crafting costs have been reduced
The chance for level 60 items to produce Legendary crafting materials when salvaged has been reduced


Jeweler (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/artisan/jeweler/)

The gold and material cost to combine gems ranks 2-8 has been reduced

Combinations for these ranks now only require 2 gems, down from 3

The gold cost to combine each rank of gems is now as follows:

Rank 2: Flawed: 10 gold (down from 500 gold)
Rank 3: Regular: 25 gold (down from 750 gold)
Rank 4: Flawless: 40 gold (down from 1250 gold)
Rank 5: Perfect: 55 gold (down from 2000 gold)
Rank 6: Radiant: 70 gold (down from 3500 gold)
Rank 7: Square: 85 gold (down from 7500 gold)
Rank 8: Flawless Square: 100 gold (down from 20,000 gold)





Followers

General

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where the maximum Life of your followers was being displayed as different values in different parts of the game UI



Enchantress

Skills

Mass Control (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/follower/enchantress/skill/mass-control)

Radius reduced from 15 yards to 8 yards
If Enchantress also has Reflect Missiles (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/follower/enchantress/skill/reflect-missiles) trained, Mass Control will no longer accidentally hex the player when both skills are activated
Skill will now correctly target enemies in all circumstances




Bosses

General

Bosses have had their pathing improved
The quality of the item for the fourth stack of Nephalem Valor from bosses has been slightly reduced


Skeleton King

Abilities

Will now summon Skeletal Archers in Hell and Inferno difficulties



The Warden (mini-boss)

General

Now has Fast and Molten affixes, in addition to Jailer
In Inferno difficulty, the Warden will also gain the Desecrator affix



Butcher

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where the corner panel fires in the Chamber of Suffering were doing twice as much damage as intended



Ghom

Abilities

Gas Cloud

Radius of Gas Cloud has been slightly reduced
Slowing effect has been removed
The amount of damage dealt by Gas Cloud when first entering the cloud has been reduced, but the amount of damage incurred for remaining in the cloud has been increased
In Inferno difficulty, Gas Clouds will last longer, spawn 2 at a time, and (after 4 minutes) spawn more quickly




Maghda

Bug Fixes

Punish Dust projectiles can no longer be reflected



Zoltun Kulle

General

Zoltun Kulle will now enrage in Inferno difficulty after 3 minutes, using his Ceiling Collapse ability more often and for much higher damage


Abilities

Ceiling Collapse

Can now be cast at a player from any range


Fireball

Fireball attack now moves slower
Can now be cast at a player from any range


Teleport

Will now Teleport and run away from the player less often
Will now occasionally Teleport to the player




Belial

General

Belial will now enrage in Inferno difficulty after 3 minutes in his final phase, increasing the number of green pools dropped across the entire encounter platform


Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug that was causing Belial to use his breath attack away from the player rather than towards the player under certain circumstances



Siegebreaker

General

Overall damage has been reduced
No longer vulnerable to Confuse and Charm effects
Will now drop a health globe every 25% health mark (i.e. at 75%, 50%, and 25% health)
Now enrages after 4 minutes
In Inferno difficulty, Siegebreaker will now gain the Reflects Damage affix



Cydaea

Abilities

Spiderlings

Spiderlings will now have an easier time hitting players, but their damage has been reduced by 20% to compensate
In Inferno difficulty, Spiderlings will now live longer, be more spread out, and (after 4 minutes) spawn more often




Rakanoth

General

In Inferno difficulty, Rakanoth will now become much more aggressive after 3 minutes



Izual

General

Health pool has been increased
The number of Oppressors that join the fight has been reduced from 4 to 2
Will no longer target Followers or Tyrael as frequently


Abilities

Base Attacks

Base attack damage has been lowered
No longer does Cold damage on top of base attacks


Charge

Charge damage has been reduced
Knockback has been removed
Will Charge slightly more often, but will only target players


Frozen Bombs

Frozen Bomb damage has been reduced
Bombs will now explode faster
Only 8 Bombs will now spawn around the player rather than 12
Bombs will spawn at Izual's feet less often


Frost Explosion

Frost Explosion damage has been reduced by 70%
Duration of freeze has been increased
Damage dealt to players while frozen will now break the effect
Players can now use defensive cooldown while frozen
Players can no longer avoid being frozen by doing high amounts of amount to Izual



Bug Fixes

Izual will no longer spawn twice if a player skips his introductory cut-scene



Diablo

Bug Fixes

Damage Over Time (DoT) effects will now be properly cancelled when Diablo becomes invisible and casts Shadow Clones in Phase Two
Diablo "Stomp" ability is now correctly classified as a debuff instead of a buff
Fixed a bug that was causing pets to not attack Shadow Clones



Monsters

General

Champions, Rares, and Uniques have had their pathing improved
Elite packs (Champion/Rare) now drop an additional item for players with 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor, which is guaranteed to be of Rare quality
Damage from monsters in Acts II, III, and IV in Inferno difficulty has been reduced
Colossal Golgor base damage has been reduced
Herald of Pestilence tentacle attack damage has been reduced
Soul Ripper and Soul Lasher damage has been reduced and both monsters will now run away less often
Wasps in Act II, Mage Constructs in Act II, and Winged Mollocks in Acts III and IV will now run away less
Succubus monsters will now run away less and for a shorter distance
The health pools of Woodwraiths in the Highlands now match the health pools of Woodwraiths in the Fields of Misery
Lacuni and Scavenger Rares and and Champions will now un-burrow when called by their allies
Bloodclan Warriors no longer knockback when buffed and attack slightly slower
Morlu no longer have the Invulnerable Minions, Health Link, or Fire Chains affixes
Plagued, Arcane Enchanted, and Electrified monsters no longer have resistance to Poison, Arcane, and Lightning damage (respectively)
Leaders of Invulnerable Minions packs have had their health pools reduced
Mortar monsters can now hurl projectiles farther, but their minimum range has also been increased by 100%


Bug Fixes

Interrupting a monster attack before it lands will now properly trigger its cooldown
Treasure Goblins will now drop gold piles for all nearby players
Lacuni Warrior Rares and Champions will now reset their enrage timer correctly in Inferno difficulty
The Succubus "Blood Star" debuff will no longer affect the player if the damage from the projectile is dodged/blocked/etc
The damage from the Succubus “Blood Star” debuff will now scale based on the current cost of a player's skill, even if the cost is reduced by items or skill runes
Monsters with the Extra Health affix should no longer gain more health every time players leave and join the game
Monsters with the Reflects Damage affix will no longer reflect Follower damage back to the player
Monsters with the Health Link and Knockback affixes will no longer knockback friendly monsters
Fixed a bug that was causing Champion Wallers to occasionally create walls at their location rather than the player's location
Fixed a bug where Sandwasp projectiles could sometimes become invisible


Bug Fixes

General

The experience bar for characters at level cap on a Guest Pass account will now display 0-0 experience. If the account holder upgrades to the full game, their characters will be at 0/41000 experience towards the next level.
The speed of the animation that plays when resurrecting another players should no longer scale with your attack speed
Attempting to cast a skill while spamming the Town Portal hot key will now correctly interrupt the Town Portal cast and animation
Players who use Town Portal while in a tar pit will no longer keep the tar pit debuff after being teleported
It is no longer possible for players in Hell difficulty to skip to Inferno difficulty by creating and leaving Public Games
It is no longer possible to prevent character death in a single-player game by pausing the game in one game client and then logging into the same account from a different game client
Fixed a bug where The Lyceum in the Southern Highlands was not appearing
Fixed a bug where players could switch their offerings in the Trade window right before clicking "Accept" and, due to high latency, the game would not always be able to verify that both players were accepting the same offerings
Fixed a bug that was allowing players to temporarily pick up items that belonged to another account
Fixed a bug that was causing players to become stuck when using a banner to port to another player that was in an "un-walkable" location (i.e. to a barbarian in the middle of performing Leap (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/leap))
Fixed a position desync bug ,aka "rubberbanding", that could happen when some movement skills (Strafe, Whirlwind, Tempest Rush) ended because the player ran out of the appropriate resource
Fixed several issues where a player's character would get stuck or "rubberband" while moving if their movement speed was slowed in any way
Several performance improvements have been made to both the PC and Mac client


Auction House

Item tooltips in the auction house will now correctly reflect stat bonuses provided by socketed gems
Items with class-specific affixes should now display the class restriction properly
It should no longer be possible for players to purchase a stack of items so large that it cannot be sent to their stash
The data displayed in each auction house tab should now properly reset when logging out


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 (http://us.battle.net/support/en/bnet/technical-support) or post in the Technical Support forum (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/5386227/) for assistance.

[Kakeku]

I played this game for about a week when it came out. It is not a bad game but not an addictive one either, at least to me. Diablo I was the best among the series. II and III are just the same concept with better graphics.

I probably would have played more Diablo III if my son did not intoroduce me the League of Legend. The game is surprisingly fun.

[Rhedd]

I played this game for about a week when it came out. It is not a bad game but not an addictive one either, at least to me. Diablo I was the best among the series. II and III are just the same concept with better graphics.

I probably would have played more Diablo III if my son did not intoroduce me the League of Legend. The game is surprisingly fun.

I actually play a ton of League Of Legends too! It's a blast.

[Angelie]

I'm still playing more Lord of Ultima than any other game :(

[Aindayen]

Ang have you heard from Renshin lately?

[Valdis]

1.0.3b was delayed at the last minute, however the following changes from that patch were hotfixed in last night I believe or maybe this morning.

Items

General

The drop rates for high-end items (items level 61-63) have been increased for Acts III and IV of Hell difficulty and Acts I – IV of Inferno difficulty

The new approximate drop rates are as follows:

Hell – Act III and Act IV

iLvl 61: 9% to 13.9%
iLvl 62: 1.9% to 3.45%
iLvl 63: 0% (no change)


Inferno – Act I

iLvl 61: 17.7% to 23.9%
iLvl 62: 7.9% to 12.6%
iLvl 63: 2.0% to 4.8%


Inferno – Act II

iLvl 61: 18.6% to 23.3%
iLvl 62: 12.4% to 18.6%
iLvl 63: 4.1% to 9.3%


Inferno – Act III and Act IV

iLvl 61: 24.1% to 27.1%
iLvl 62: 16.1% to 21.7%


iLvl 63: 8.0% to 16.3%






Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug with several items that would allow those items to block pathing when dropped on the ground



Bosses

Bosses are now guaranteed to drop at least 1 Rare item for players with 4 stacks of Nephalem Valor and at least 2 Rare items for players with 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor

Bug Fixes

Fixed a crash that could sometimes occur when a player was interacting with environment objects (e.g. opening chests or clicking on a lectern)

[Valdis]

Also a decent farm guide for inferno acts.

http://youtu.be/S0r2EzZDngQ

[Valdis]

1.0.4 System Preview

Well, we're getting closer to 1.0.4, and while it's still a few weeks away we're going to start hitting you fast and furious with blogs aimed at explaining the upcoming changes. To kick things off, I wanted to provide an overview of some of the larger systems changes and game improvements.

Let's get started!

So Happy Together
While many people are playing co-op, it’s still a minority of games. Ideally we would like players who want to play solo to be able to solo, and players who want to play co-op to play co-op. At the moment though playing solo is the clear choice, even for those who would prefer co-op with some of their friends.

The change we made back in 1.0.3 to remove the bonus monster damage per additional player was a great start, but we can clearly go a bit further. The first change we’re making in 1.0.4 for co-op is to remove averaging in multiplayer games of Magic Find and Gold Find. You’ll benefit from your full Magic Find stat, independent of other players in the game. We originally added Magic Find averaging so optimal play did not involve people stacking what we call “adventure stats” to the detriment of their party. While this may re-emerge as a problem, we think the current solution feels like too much of a penalty, and is doing more harm than good.

Along the same lines as the change in 1.0.3, we’re going to be lowering the health multiplier for monsters per additional player in co-op games. It’s going to be a flat 75% in 1.0.4 for all difficulty levels, as opposed to the scaling 75/85/95/110% it is now. This makes enemies far more manageable in co-op games, and rewards a co-ordinated group with a higher farming efficiency than playing alone.

Shrinking the Gap
"..in 1.0.4 we're going to shrink the gap between normal monsters and Elite packs"
We know there are a lot of you out there that are really frustrated by the difficulty of some of the champion and rare packs, so in 1.0.4 we’re going to shrink the gap between normal monsters and Elite packs (Champions and Rares). The design intent of Champion and Rare packs is to provide a spike of challenge, but in general we feel like the gap is too big. Normal monsters die quickly and are usually just fodder, and Champions and Rares can feel like a brick wall. In general we’re looking to bring normal enemies up a smidge, and Champions and Rares down.

So, in 1.0.4 we’re increasing the health of normal monsters by approximately 5%-10% in Inferno, but also increasing the likelihood they drop magic or rare items by a factor of four. We’re correspondingly lowering the health of Champions and Rares by 10-25% and editing specific affixes to shrink the difficulty gap. We’re still working on those numbers, but that’s approximately what we’re shooting for.

To further reduce the gap between normal and Elite monsters, we’re adjusting some of the more frustrating monster affixes, such as Fire Chains and Shielding.* Of course there are some normal monsters that are massive spikes in difficulty too, and we’ll be making polish adjustments to a few of those as well, like reducing the damage of two-handed skeletons like Skull Cleavers.

Weapons Master
One of the general improvements we’d like to make to our item game addresses the difference between an item having a chance of being good vs. knowing the item isn’t going to be good before you even identify it. In other words, there’s a world of difference between an item having no chance of being good, and some chance of being good. It’s not something we’re going to be able to fully address in 1.0.4, but giving every dropped item a chance to be good is a long-term goal. One area we felt we could make immediate improvements for 1.0.4 was with weapons.

Weapon damage is the most important stat on a weapon. It can be disheartening to get a lot of weapon drops and you know before even looking at them that they have no chance of being good. To help give weapons a fighting chance, the raw damage value on all level 61 and 62 weapons will be able to roll damage that extends all the way to the top end of level 63.

We also want to close the gap between dual-wielding and two-handers, and so we’re improving two-handed melee weapons by creating a new set of stronger affixes to compensate for the loss of stats that can come from your offhand.

On the topic of two-handers, we’re also changing how damage is calculated on a few damage-over-time skills. Many skills have text like “Deals 75% weapon damage for 5 seconds”, which isn’t exactly clear as it can be interpreted a few different ways. It also made skill evaluation difficult, particularly for skills with long durations or cooldowns. We’re switching a lot of these skills to read “X% weapon damage over 5 seconds”. Many skills already follow this format, and understanding what the skill does is very clear. As the skills are converted there is an additional opportunity: when converting to this format, choosing a value for X depends on your weapon speed. So what we’ve done in most cases is assumed a high attack speed (at least 2.0 attacks per second), chosen a value of X, and then in many cases bumped the value even higher. A skill that currently does 75% weapon damage for 5 seconds, with a 2.0 speed weapon, will convert to at least 750% weapon damage over 5 seconds. The skill becomes easier to understand, is a small buff for most one-hand builds, and a big buff for two-hand builds.

Efficiency vs. Challenge
"We're removing Enrage timers and the "heal back to full" behavior from champion and Rare monster packs"
Rather than focus on whether or not you can beat an enemy, many players would rather figure out how fastthey can beat them. We’re removing Enrage Timers and the “heal back to full” behavior from Champion and Rare monster packs. We don’t think they fit well into the general philosophy of the game, which is more about trying to farm as efficiently as possible. You’re already incentivized to kill things quickly, if a pack happens to take you a long time it can just feel unfair to have the pack enrage, kill you, and then heal back to full. The original intent behind Enrage Timers was to have a few encounters that served as a “DPS check” that also add tension and excitement. Due to the randomness of Champion and Rare monsters, combined with a general philosophy of efficient farming, this was simply the wrong approach for us to take. The Enrage Timers feel more appropriate on bosses, where the setup, predictability and mechanics of the fight add the required context for the time limit.

We can’t get away from the Efficiency vs Challenge discussion without talking about death penalties. When we increased repair costs in 1.0.3 it was to make death meaningful. Efficiency is not only about how fast you kill things, but what efforts you’re putting into doing so. Dying should cut into efficiency, and that creates a meaningful challenge to stay alive in not only how you play, but the importance of how you’re designing your character. That said, we think repair costs are just a bit too high, so in 1.0.4 we’re going to be reducing repair costs of high-end items by 25%.

Legendarier
We have improvements coming to Legendary items, and it seems like an important enough subject to give them their own blog. Stay tuned as Senior Game Designer Andrew Chambers gives the rundown in the next week or two. As a general reminder though, existing items are not changing. The Legendary improvements are going to be for Legendaries dropped or crafted after the 1.0.4 patch goes live.

Stay Classy
"We're making a metric-ton of changes to classes, so we're going to have a separate blog posts for each"
We're making a metric-ton of changes to classes, so we’re going to have separate blog posts for each. But in general we’re looking at unpopular skills and asking ourselves a few questions:

Does the skill have any control or readability issues that would make the skill less satisfying to use? If so – polish the skill more. A good example here is the Barbarian Rend ability – many people don’t use it because you can’t always tell which enemies are affected by the bleed and which aren’t.
Does the skill fill a similar role as an extremely popular skill? If so, buff the skill to be competitive with the popular skill. For example, Bola Shot could be a solid skill, but simply doesn’t have the raw damage when compared to Hungering Arrow, so we’re buffing Bola Shot to be competitive.
Does a skill have a dominant rune? If so, can we buff the underused runes to be more competitive? A good example here is the Wizard Hydra skill. The Venom Hydra is by far the most popular rune, and for good reason, so we are buffing the other runes to make them more competitive with Venom Hydra.
Is the skill a resource spender? In general we have found that many resource spenders just don’t do enough for their resource cost. Here I would use the example of Wave of Light, which is a fairly significant expenditure of Spirit that doesn’t always seem worthwhile. Many damage-oriented resource spenders are receiving buffs in 1.0.4
Would buffing the skill increase or decrease build diversity? Some skills when buffed cause other skills to become obsolete, so there’s a net decrease in build diversity - we’re more careful with those. Other skills, when buffed, add to the total pool of appealing skills, which increases build diversity. The most obvious example here is the Witch Doctor Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan, which are both receiving significant improvements in 1.0.4.

We hope you have fun, and stay tuned for each of the specific class articles in the next couple weeks.

The Outro
These are really just a few of the topline systems changes we’ll be making in 1.0.4, and we hope you’re looking forward to them as much as we are. We’ll of course have a lot more info coming at you in the weeks ahead on Legendary items, classes and more, as well as some interviews we’ll be holding shortly before the patch goes live – which, by the way, is currently targeted for the fourth week of August.

See you in-game!

*P.S. We’re getting rid of the Invulnerable Minions monster affix.

Wyatt Cheng is Senior Technical Game Designer on Diablo III, and as a member of Blizzard’s Beef Jerky Club is ordering jalapeno, habenero &amp; ghost chili jerky this month.

[Andaas]

While the changes to difficulty will make Inferno more playable; I really don't feel like the changes will sufficiently improve the drops enough to make the game fun. In the end, I was tired of the lame story after Nightmare, there wasn't enough random-generation to make replaying again and again feel "fresh".

That said, I will still more than likely go back and finish Inferno once this goes live (unless of course someone hacks my account from the recent security breach).

[Torrid]

What is really killing the game is a lack of a strong item sink. All increasing the quality of drops will do is make everybody's gear better and the game easier. You'll get some uber 1500 dps weapon after the patch, but it'll be worthless now because everybody else is getting them too. The gap between cheap gear and roflstomp gear shrinks, making the truly rare and super high end gear less of an upgrade and less fun to use.

You don't get anything good in the game now because the value of an item is entirely relative to what else is available. I made $900 in one week selling crafted boots back in June. Now crafting items is a complete waste of gold. With no items or gold leaving the system (minus the 15% AH cut) value just plummets as the market gets swamped. Too much supply, not enough demand. Bots magnify the problem and become ever more sophisticated. Blizzard does a shamefully pitiful job of policing the bots that are so toxic to the health of their game, as indicated when you bring up a list of the people with the most elite kills and gold looted with their new web profiles and see accounts wearing full gold find and have 300k elite kills. Did you know you can buy D3 gold from gray market sites for 90 cents per million?

D3 is what you get when the WoW devs get ahold of the Diablo franchise. They have no idea what they are doing. In WoW, every 6 months you essentially get a new act with a new item level tier; plus everything is no drop, which is how the game deals with inflation. D3 has NOTHING to deal with the massive inflation. It's not even a problem on their radar, apparently. Everybody's #1 complaint is that they farm for hours and hours and get nothing due to the insane inflation, and they respond by giving us a patch preview with increased bola shot damage. Diablo is not a game that should have 6 month patch cycles. It's not a goddamn MMORPG. Reducing mob health and removing shared MF in groups should have been hotfixed two months ago. These are very very easily implemented changes. When my friends were playing, nobody wanted to group. It was ridiculous.

[Valdis]

Barbarian

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifBash (http://diablowiki.com/Bash) Now Generates 8 Fury per attack (up from 6) and deals 165% weapon damage (up from 150%)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifOnslaught (http://diablowiki.com/Onslaught) : Add 2 reverberations that cause 25% (up from 23%) weapon damage per strike. Removes the chance for Knockback.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifPunish (http://diablowiki.com/Punish) : Increases the damage of your skills by 8% (up from 6%) for 5 seconds after using Bash. This effect stacks up to 3 times.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifInstigation (http://diablowiki.com/Instigation) : Generate 4 (down from 6)additional Fury per attack.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCleave (http://diablowiki.com/Cleave) Generate: 5 Fury per attack / Swing your weapon in a wide arc to deal 140% (up from 120%) weapon damage to all enemies caught in the swing.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifBroad Sweep (http://diablowiki.com/Broad%20Sweep) : Increase damage to 175% (up from 156%) weapon damage.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifHammer of the Ancients (http://diablowiki.com/Hammer%20of%20the%20Ancients) Cost: 20 Fury / Call forth a massive hammer to smash enemies directly in front of you for 325% (up from 200%) weapon damage. Hammer of the Ancients has a 5% increased Critical Hit Chance.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSmash (http://diablowiki.com/Smash) : Strike a smaller area for 406% (Up from 270%) weapon damage.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifRolling Thunder (http://diablowiki.com/Rolling%20Thunder) : Create a shockwave that deals 275% (up from 155%) weapon damage to all enemies within 22 yards in front of you.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSprint (http://diablowiki.com/Sprint)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifRun Like the Wind (http://diablowiki.com/Run%20Like%20the%20Wind) : Tornadoes rage in your wake, each one inflicting 60% weapon damage as Physical for 3 seconds to nearby enemies.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifWeapon Throw (http://diablowiki.com/Weapon%20Throw) Cost: 10 Fury / Hurl a throwing weapon at an enemy for 130% (up from 100%)weapon damage and Slow the movement of the enemy by 60% for 2 seconds.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifMighty Throw (http://diablowiki.com/Mighty%20Throw) : Increase thrown weapon damage to 169% (up from 130%) weapon damage.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifRend (http://diablowiki.com/Rend) Cost: 20 Fury / A sweeping strike causes all nearby enemies to Bleed for 700% (up from 210%)weapon damage as Physical over 5 (up from 3) seconds.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifLacerate (http://diablowiki.com/Lacerate) : Increase damage to 903% (up from 271%) weapon damage as Physical over 5 (up from 3) seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifMutilate (http://diablowiki.com/Mutilate) : Increase bleeding duration to 7 (up from 5) seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifBloodbath (http://diablowiki.com/Bloodbath) : Enemies killed while bleeding cause all enemies within 10 yards to begin bleeding for 100% (up from 60%) weapon damage as Physical over 5 ( up from 3) seconds.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSeismic Slam (http://diablowiki.com/Seismic%20Slam) Cost: 30 Fury / Slam the ground and cause a wave of destruction that deals 240% (up from 155%) weapon damage and Knockback to targets in a 45 yard arc.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifShattered Ground (http://diablowiki.com/Shattered%20Ground) : Increase damage to 288% (up from 202%) weapon damage and increases Knockback distance by 100%.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifRumble (http://diablowiki.com/Rumble) : The ground continues to shudder after the initial strike, damaging enemies in the area for 60% (up from 30%) weapon damage as Physical over 2 seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCracking Rift (http://diablowiki.com/Cracking%20Rift) : Focus the seismic shockwaves along a narrow path to inflict 340% (up from 255%) weapon damage to targets along a 42 yard path.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifWhirlwind (http://diablowiki.com/Whirlwind) Cost: 16 Fury / Deliver multiple attacks to everything in your path for 145% (up from 110%) weapon damage.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifVolcanic Eruption (http://diablowiki.com/Volcanic%20Eruption) : Turns Whirlwind into a torrent of magma that inflicts 189% (up from 143%) weapon damage as Fire.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifOverpower (http://diablowiki.com/Overpower)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCrushing Advance (http://diablowiki.com/Crushing%20Advance) : Redirect 35% (up from 30%) of incoming melee and ranged damage for 4 seconds after Overpower is activated.


Demon hunter

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifBrooding (http://diablowiki.com/Brooding) No longer requires you to have not taken damage in the last 3 seconds
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifMultishot (http://diablowiki.com/Multishot) Cost: 30 (down from 40) Hatred / Fire a massive volley of arrows dealing 165% weapon damage to all enemies in the area.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifFire at Will (http://diablowiki.com/Fire%20at%20Will) : Cost reduced to 15 (down from 20) Hatred. Deals 165% weapon damage as Lightning.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifBola Shot (http://diablowiki.com/Bola%20Shot) Generate: 3 Hatred / Shoot out an explosive bola that wraps itself around its target. After 1 second, the bola explodes dealing 160% (up from 130%) weapon damage as Fire to the target and an additional 110% weapon damage as Fire to all other targets within 7 yards.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifAcid Strike (http://diablowiki.com/Acid%20Strike) : Shoot 3 bolas that each deal 160% (up from 130%) weapon damage as Poison. The bolas no longer explode for area damage to nearby targets.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifThunder Ball (http://diablowiki.com/Thunder%20Ball) : When the bola explodes, it deals 160% (up from 130%) weapon damage as Lightning and has a 35% chance to Stun the primary target for 1.5 seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifImminent Doom (http://diablowiki.com/Imminent%20Doom) : Augment the bola to deal 216% (up from 182%) weapon damage as Arcane to the target and 149% (down from 154%) weapon damage as Arcane to all other targets within 7 yards, but increases the explosion delay to 2 seconds.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifEntangling Shot (http://diablowiki.com/Entangling%20Shot) Generate: 3 Hatred / Imbue an arrow with shadow energy that deals 90% (up from 75%) weapon damage and entangles up to 2 enemies, slowing their movement by 60% for 2 seconds.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifShock Collar (http://diablowiki.com/Shock%20Collar) : Strike targets with electrified chains that do an additional 70% (up from 18%) weapon damageas Lightning over 2 seconds.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifVault (http://diablowiki.com/Vault)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifTrail of Cinders (http://diablowiki.com/Trail%20of%20Cinders) : <del class="bbc">Ignite with</del>Leave a trail of fire <del class="bbc">dealing 100</del>in your wake that inflicts 1500% weapon damage as Fire <del class="bbc">to everything along your path</del>over 3 seconds.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifGrenades (http://diablowiki.com/Grenades)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifGas Grenades (http://diablowiki.com/Gas%20Grenades) : Throw gas grenades that explode for 95% weapon damage as Poison and leave a cloud that deals an additional 75% (up from 25%) weapon damageas Poison over 3 seconds to enemies who stand in the area.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifChakram (http://diablowiki.com/Chakram) Cost: 10 Hatred / Fire a swirling Chakram that does 170% (up from 150%) weapon damage as Physical to enemies along its path.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifTwin Chakrams (http://diablowiki.com/Twin%20Chakrams) : A second Chakram mirrors the first. Each Chakram deals 114% (up from 101%) weapon damage as Physical.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifBoomerang (http://diablowiki.com/Boomerang) : The Chakram path turns into a loop, dealing 230% (up from 188%) weapon damage as Lightning to enemies along the path.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSerpentine (http://diablowiki.com/Serpentine) : The Chakram follows a slow curve, dealing 230% (up from 203%) weapon damage as Poison to enemies along the path.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifRazor Disk (http://diablowiki.com/Razor%20Disk) : The Chakram spirals out from the targeted location dealing 187% (up from 165%) weapon damage as Arcane to enemies along the path.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifShuriken Cloud (http://diablowiki.com/Shuriken%20Cloud) : Surround yourself with spinning Chakrams for 120 seconds, dealing 34% (up from 30%) weapon damage per second as Physical to nearby enemies.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCaltrops (http://diablowiki.com/Caltrops)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifJagged Spikes (http://diablowiki.com/Jagged%20Spikes) : Enemies in the area also take 270% (up from 45) weapon damage as Physical over 6 seconds.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCluster Arrow (http://diablowiki.com/Cluster%20Arrow) Cost: 50 Hatred / Fire a cluster arrow that explodes for 225% (up from 200%) weapon damage as Fire into a series of additional miniature bombs that explode for 100% weapon damage as Fire each.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifLoaded for Bear (http://diablowiki.com/Loaded%20for%20Bear) : Increases the damage of the explosion at the impact location to 304% (up from 290%) weapon damage as Fire.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifMaelstrom (http://diablowiki.com/Maelstrom) : Instead of releasing grenades, the cluster releases shadow energy that deals 165% (up from 145%) weapon damage as Physical to nearby enemies. You will gain 4% of the damage done as Life.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSentry (http://diablowiki.com/Sentry) Cost: 10 Discipline / Drop a turret on the ground. The turret begins firing at nearby enemies for 55% (up from 20%) weapon damage. Lasts 30 seconds.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifChain of Torment (http://diablowiki.com/Chain%20of%20Torment) : Create a tether between you and the Sentry that does 80% (up from 40%) weapon damage every second to every enemy it touches.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSmoke Screen (http://diablowiki.com/Smoke%20Screen)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifChoking Gas (http://diablowiki.com/Choking%20Gas) : Leave behind a cloud of gas that deals 700% (up from 70%) weapon damageas Physical to enemies in the area over 5 seconds.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifRain of Vengeance (http://diablowiki.com/Rain%20of%20Vengeance) Cooldown: 30 seconds / Fire a massive volley of arrows around you. Arrows fall from the sky dealing 715% (up from 75%) weapon damage <del class="bbc">for</del>over 5 seconds to all enemies in the area.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifBeastly Bombs (http://diablowiki.com/Beastly%20Bombs) : Summon 20 Shadow Beasts to drop bombs on enemies, dealing 245% (up from 125%) weapon damage each.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifDark Cloud (http://diablowiki.com/Dark%20Cloud) : Launch a massive volley of guided arrows that rain down on enemies for 792% (up from 35%) weapon damage <del class="bbc">for</del>over 12 seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifAnathema (http://diablowiki.com/Anathema) : Summon a Shadow Beast that drops grenades from the sky dealing 3300% (up from 115%) weapon damage over 15 seconds (instead of for 10 seconds)
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifFlying Strike (http://diablowiki.com/Flying%20Strike) : A group of 8 Shadow Beasts plummet from the sky at a targeted location dealing 100% (up from 60%) weapon damage each and stunning enemies for 2 seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifStampede (http://diablowiki.com/Stampede) : Summon a wave of 10 Shadow Beasts to tear across the ground, knocking back enemies and dealing 120% (up from 75%)weapon damage each.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifRapid Fire (http://diablowiki.com/Rapid%20Fire) Cost: 20 Hatred initially, and an additional 10 Hatred while channeling / Rapidly fire for 276% (up from 228%) weapon damage as Physical.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifBombardment (http://diablowiki.com/Bombardment) : Rapidly fire grenades that explode for 345% (up from 276%) weapon damage as Fire to all enemies within a 4 yard radius.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifImpale (http://diablowiki.com/Impale) Cost: 25 Hatred / Impale a target for 265% (up from 250%) weapon damage.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifChemical Burn (http://diablowiki.com/Chemical%20Burn) : Your target will also Bleed for 220% (up from 125%) weapon damage as Physical over 2 seconds.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifStrafe (http://diablowiki.com/Strafe) Cost: 15 Hatred / Shoot at random nearby enemies for 156% (up from 120%) weapon damage while moving at 65% of normal movement speed.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifDemolition (http://diablowiki.com/Demolition) : Throw out bouncy grenades that explode for 187% (up from 144%) weapon damage to targets within 9 yards.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifEvasive Fire (http://diablowiki.com/Evasive%20Fire) Generate: 4 Hatred / Cost: 4 Discipline if you backflip / Shoot for 130% (up from 125%)weapon damage. If an enemy is in front of you at close range, you will also backflip away 15 yards.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCovering Fire (http://diablowiki.com/Covering%20Fire) : Shoot a spread of bolts that hit up to 3 targets for 130% (up from125%) weapon damage each.


Monk

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifExalted Soul (http://diablowiki.com/Exalted%20Soul) Increases maximum Spirit by 100 and increases Spirit Regeneration by 1 per second. / Spirit fuels your defensive and offensive abilities.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifThe Guardian's Path (http://diablowiki.com/The%20Guardian%27s%20Path) While dual-wielding, you gain a 15% chance to dodge incoming attacks. While using a two-handed weapon, all Spirit generation is increased by 35% (up from 25%)
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifFists of Thunder (http://diablowiki.com/Fists%20of%20Thunder)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifQuickening (http://diablowiki.com/Quickening) : Critical Hits generate an additional 15 Spirit for each target hit.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifDeadly Reach (http://diablowiki.com/Deadly%20Reach)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifStrike from Beyond (http://diablowiki.com/Strike%20from%20Beyond) : Critical Hits generate an additional 10 Spirit for each target hit.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCrippling Wave (http://diablowiki.com/Crippling%20Wave) Generate: 7 (up from 6) Spirit per attack / Unleash a series of large sweeping attacks that cause 110% weapon damage to all enemies in front of you. Every third hit damages all enemies around you and dazes them, slowing their movement speed by 30% and attack speed by 20% for 3 seconds.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifRising Tide (http://diablowiki.com/Rising%20Tide) : Critical Hits generate an additional 5 Spirit for each target hit.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifWay of the Hundred Fists (http://diablowiki.com/Way%20of%20the%20Hundred%20Fists) Generate: 8 (up from 6) Spirit per attack / Unleash a rapid series of punches that strikes enemies for 140% weapon damage.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifFists of Fury (http://diablowiki.com/Fists%20of%20Fury) : Affected targets will take an additional 100% (up from 10%) weapon damage as Holy over 5 seconds. Also adds a short dash to the first strike.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifDashing Strike (http://diablowiki.com/Dashing%20Strike) Cost: 25 Spirit / Quickly dash at the targeted enemy or location, striking for 160% (up from 100%) weapon damage and rooting the target for 1 second.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSweeping Wind (http://diablowiki.com/Sweeping%20Wind)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifMaster of Wind (http://diablowiki.com/Master%20of%20Wind) : Increases the duration of the vortex to 20 (up from 10) seconds.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifExploding Palm (http://diablowiki.com/Exploding%20Palm) Cost: 40 Spirit / Cause a target to Bleed for 745% (up from 220%) weapon damage as Physical over 9 (up from 3) seconds. If the target dies while bleeding, it explodes and deals 30% of the target's maximum Life as Physical damage to all nearby enemies.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifImpending Doom (http://diablowiki.com/Impending%20Doom) : Increases the duration of the Bleed effect to deal 745% (up from 220%) weapon damage as Physical over 15 (up from 6) seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCreeping Demise (http://diablowiki.com/Creeping%20Demise) : Also reduces your target's movement speed by 80% for 3 seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifThe Flesh is Weak (http://diablowiki.com/The%20Flesh%20is%20Weak) : Also causes the target to take 12% additional damage for 9 (up from 3) seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifEssence Burn (http://diablowiki.com/Essence%20Burn) : Instead of bleeding, the target will burn for 745% (up from 250) weapon damage as Fire over 9 (up from 3) seconds. If the target dies while burning, it explodes causing all nearby enemies to burn for 60% weapon damage as Fire over 3 seconds. This effect can happen multiple times.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSeven-Sided Strike (http://diablowiki.com/Seven-Sided%20Strike) Cost: 50 Spirit / Cooldown: 30 seconds / Dash rapidly between nearby enemies, dealing 1777% (up from 777%) weapon damage over 7 hits.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSudden Assault (http://diablowiki.com/Sudden%20Assault) : Teleport to the target, increasing damage done to 2310% (up from 1007%) weapon damage over 7 strikes.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifFulminating Onslaught (http://diablowiki.com/Fulminating%20Onslaught) : Each strike explodes, dealing 254% (up from 111%) weapon damage as Holy in a 7 yard radius around the target.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifWave of Light (http://diablowiki.com/Wave%20of%20Light) Cost: 75 Spirit / Focuses a wave of light that crushes enemies for 390% (up from 215%) weapon damage as Holy, followed by an additional 45% weapon damage as Holy to all enemies in a line.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifWall of Light (http://diablowiki.com/Wall%20of%20Light) : Increases damage of the initial strike to 566% (up from 312%) weapon damage as Holy.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifExplosive Light (http://diablowiki.com/Explosive%20Light) : Release bursts of energy that deal 430% (up from 285%) weapon damage as Holy to nearby enemies.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifPillar of the Ancients (http://diablowiki.com/Pillar%20of%20the%20Ancients) : Summon an ancient pillar that deals 280% (up from 210%)weapon damage followed by an additional 280% (up from 210%) weapon damage after 2 seconds.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifLashing Tail Kick (http://diablowiki.com/Lashing%20Tail%20Kick) Cost: 30 Spirit / Unleash a deadly roundhouse kick that knocks enemies back and deals 235% (up from 200%) weapon damage.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifVulture Claw Kick (http://diablowiki.com/Vulture%20Claw%20Kick) : Release a torrent of fire that burns nearby enemies for 259% (up from 220%) weapon damage as Fire and causes Knockback.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSpinning Flame Kick (http://diablowiki.com/Spinning%20Flame%20Kick) : Hurl a column of fire that burns through enemies, causing 294% (up from 240%) weapon damage as Fire to each enemy it strikes.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifTempest Rush (http://diablowiki.com/Tempest%20Rush) Cost: 15 Spirit plus an additional 10 Spirit while channeling / Charge directly through your enemies, knocking them back and hobbling them, slowing their movement by 60% for 2 seconds. Also deals 85% (up from 50%)weapon damage while running.

Witch Doctor

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCircle of Life (http://diablowiki.com/Circle%20of%20Life) Whenever an enemy dies within 12 yards, there is a 30% chance (up from 5%) that a Zombie Dog will automatically emerge. The range of this effect is increased by items that increase your gold pickup radius.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSpirit Vessel (http://diablowiki.com/Spirit%20Vessel) Reduces the cooldown of your Horrify, Spirit Walk, and Soul Harvest spells by 2 seconds. In addition, the next time you receive fatal damage, you automatically enter the spirit realm for 2 seconds (down from 3) and heal to 15% of your maximum Life (up from 10%). This effect cannot occur more than once every 90 seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifRush of Essence (http://diablowiki.com/Rush%20of%20Essence) Spirit spells return 49 Mana over 10 seconds. (Changed from 30% of the spells' Mana cost over 10 seconds) / Spirit spells are: / *Haunt / *Horrify / *Mass Confusion / *Soul Harvest / *Spirit Barrage / *Spirit Walk
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifVision Quest (http://diablowiki.com/Vision%20Quest) When you deal damage with Corpse Spiders, Firebomb, Plague of Toads or Poison Dart, your Mana regeneration is increased by 30% for 5 seconds (Changed from 300% Mana regeneration when 4 more skills are on cooldown).
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifGrave Injustice (http://diablowiki.com/Grave%20Injustice) Whenever an enemy dies within 8 yards, regain 2% of your maximum Life and Mana (up from 1%) and the cooldown on all of your abilities is reduced by 1 second. This range is extended by items that increase your gold pickup radius.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifTribal Rites (http://diablowiki.com/Tribal%20Rites) The cooldowns of your Fetish Army, Big Bad Voodoo, Hex, Gargantuan, Summon Zombie Dogs and Mass Confusion abilities are reduced by 25% (Previously didn't affect Gargantuan, Summon Zombie Dogs and Mass Confusion).
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSummon Zombie Dogs (http://diablowiki.com/Summon%20Zombie%20Dogs) Cost: 49 Mana / Cooldown: 45 seconds (down from 60 seconds) / Summon 3 Zombie Dogs from the depths to fight by your side. Each dog deals 9% of your weapon damage as Physical per hit.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifBurning Dogs (http://diablowiki.com/Burning%20Dogs) : Your Zombie Dogs burst into flames, burning nearby enemies for 2% of your weapon damage as Fire every second (Added "every second").


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifPoison Dart (http://diablowiki.com/Poison%20Dart)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifFlaming Dart (http://diablowiki.com/Flaming%20Dart) : Ignite the dart so that it deals 180% (up from 160%) weapon damage as Fire at once.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSpined Dart (http://diablowiki.com/Spined%20Dart) : Gain 29 Mana (up from 25 Mana) every time a Poison Dart hits an enemy.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCorpse Spiders (http://diablowiki.com/Corpse%20Spiders) Cost: 5 Mana / Throw a jar with 4 spiders that attack nearby enemies for a total of 120% (up from 16%) weapon damage as Physical before dying.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifBlazing Spiders (http://diablowiki.com/Blazing%20Spiders) : Summon fire spiders that deal a total of 156% (up from 21%) weapon damage as Fire.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSpider Queen (http://diablowiki.com/Spider%20Queen) : Summon a spider queen that births spiderlings, dealing 630% (up from 16%) weapon damage as Poison over 15 seconds. (Previously stated "to enemies in the area") / You may only have one spider queen summoned at a time.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifLeaping Spiders (http://diablowiki.com/Leaping%20Spiders) : Summon jumping spiders that leap up to 25 yards to reach their target and attack for a total of 144% (up from 19%) weapon damage as Physical.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifGrasp of the Dead (http://diablowiki.com/Grasp%20of%20the%20Dead) Cost: 123 Mana / Cooldown: 8 seconds / Ghoulish hands reach out from the ground, slowing enemy movement by 60% and dealing 320% (up from 20%) weapon damage as Physical over 8 seconds (Previously stated "for 8 seconds").

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifGroping Eels (http://diablowiki.com/Groping%20Eels) : Increases the damage done to 416% (up from 26%) weapon damage as Physical.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifDeath Is Life (http://diablowiki.com/Death%20Is%20Life) : Enemies who die while in the area of Grasp of the Dead have a 10% chance (up from 5%) to produce a health globe or summon a Zombie Dog (Previously did not have a chance to summon a Zombie Dog).


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSoul Harvest (http://diablowiki.com/Soul%20Harvest)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifLanguish (http://diablowiki.com/Languish) : Reduces the movement speed of harvested enemies by 80% (up from 60%) for 3 seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifVengeful Spirit (http://diablowiki.com/Vengeful%20Spirit) : Harvested enemies also take 230% (up from 70%) weapon damage as Physical.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifLocust Swarm (http://diablowiki.com/Locust%20Swarm)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifDiseased Swarm (http://diablowiki.com/Diseased%20Swarm) : Enemies killed by Locust Swarm leave behind a cloud of locusts that deal 75% (up from 25%) weapon damage as Poison over 3 seconds to enemies who stand in the area (Changed wording from "This cloud of locusts lingers for 3 seconds").


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSpirit Barrage (http://diablowiki.com/Spirit%20Barrage) Cost: 108 Mana / Bombard a target with a spirit blast that deals 230% (up from 190%) weapon damage as Physical.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifWell of Souls (http://diablowiki.com/Well%20of%20Souls) : An additional 3 spirits seek out other targets and deal 65% (up from 30%) weapon damage as Physical.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifPhantasm (http://diablowiki.com/Phantasm) : Summon a spectre that deals 225% (up from 45%) weapon damage as Physical over 5 seconds to all enemies within 10 yards.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifManitou (http://diablowiki.com/Manitou) : Summon a spectre that hovers over you, unleashing spirit bolts at nearby enemies for 1667% (up from 28%) weapon damage as Physical over 20 seconds.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifHorrify (http://diablowiki.com/Horrify) Cost: 37 Mana / Cooldown: 16 seconds (down from 20 seconds) / Don a spectral mask that horrifies all enemies within 12 yards, causing them to run in Fear for 4 seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifFirebomb (http://diablowiki.com/Firebomb) Cost: 10 Mana / Lob an explosive skull that deals 110% (up from 85%) weapon damage as Fire to all enemies within 8 yards.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifGhost Bomb (http://diablowiki.com/Ghost%20Bomb) : In addition to the base explosion, the skull creates a larger blast that deals an additional 30% (up from 20%) weapon damage as Fire to all enemies within 28 yards.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifFire Pit (http://diablowiki.com/Fire%20Pit) : The explosion creates a pool of fire that deals 36% (up from 8%) weapon damage as Fire over 3 seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifPyrogeist (http://diablowiki.com/Pyrogeist) : Create a column of flame that spews fire at the closest enemy for 640% (up from 140%) weapon damage as Fire over 6 seconds (up from 3 seconds). You may only have one Pyrogeist active at a time.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifAcid Cloud (http://diablowiki.com/Acid%20Cloud) Cost: 172 Mana / Cause acid to rain down, dealing an initial 115% (up from 100%) weapon damage as Poison, followed by 150% (up from 75%) weapon damage as Poison over 3 seconds to enemies who remain in the area.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCorpse Bomb (http://diablowiki.com/Corpse%20Bomb) : Raise a corpse from the ground that explodes for 230% (up from 200%) weapon damage as Poison to enemies in the area.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifLob Blob Bomb (http://diablowiki.com/Lob%20Blob%20Bomb) : The acid on the ground forms into a slime that irradiates nearby enemies for 250% (up from 25%) weapon damage as Poison over 5 seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSlow Burn (http://diablowiki.com/Slow%20Burn) : Increases the duration of the acid pools left behind to deal 300% weapon damage as Poison over 6 seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifKiss of Death (http://diablowiki.com/Kiss%20of%20Death) : Spit a cloud of acid that inflicts 127% (up from 116%) weapon damage as Poison, followed by 165% (up from 83%) weapon damage as Poison over 3 seconds (Previously stated "to enemies who remain in the area").


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifGargantuan (http://diablowiki.com/Gargantuan) Cost: 147 Mana / Cooldown: 60 seconds / Summon a Gargantuan zombie to fight for you. The Gargantuan attacks for 100% (up from 25%) of your weapon damage as Physical.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifHumongoid (http://diablowiki.com/Humongoid) : The Gargantuan gains the Cleave ability, allowing its attacks to hit multiple targets for 130% (up from 33%) of your weapon damage as Physical.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifWrathful Protector (http://diablowiki.com/Wrathful%20Protector) : Summon a more powerful Gargantuan that only lasts for 15 seconds. The Gargantuan's fists burn with fire, dealing 110% (up from 55%) of your weapon damage as Fire and knocking enemies back.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifBruiser (http://diablowiki.com/Bruiser) : The Gargantuan gains the ability to periodically slam enemies, dealing 200% (up from 100%) of your weapon damage as Physical and stunning them for 3 seconds.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSpirit Walk (http://diablowiki.com/Spirit%20Walk)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSeverance (http://diablowiki.com/Severance) : Damage enemies you walk through in spirit form for 225% (up from 100%) weapon damage as Physical every second for 2 seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifUmbral Shock (http://diablowiki.com/Umbral%20Shock) : When Spirit Walk ends, your physical body erupts for 310% (up from 85%) weapon damage as Fire to all enemies within 10 yards.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifZombie Charger (http://diablowiki.com/Zombie%20Charger)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifWave of Zombies (http://diablowiki.com/Wave%20of%20Zombies) : Summon 3 Zombie Chargers that each deal 115% (up from 72%) weapon damage as Poison.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifLeperous Zombie (http://diablowiki.com/Leperous%20Zombie) : The Zombie Charger leaves behind a cloud of noxious vapors that deals 240% (up from 25%) weapon damage as Poison over 3 seconds to enemies caught in it.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifFirebats (http://diablowiki.com/Firebats) Cost: 123 Mana / Call forth a swarm of fiery bats to burn enemies in front of you for 180% (up from 150%) weapon damage as Fire.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifHungry Bats (http://diablowiki.com/Hungry%20Bats) : Rapidly summon bats that seek out nearby enemies for 350% (up from 280%) weapon damage as Fire.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifPlague Bats (http://diablowiki.com/Plague%20Bats) : Diseased bats fly towards the enemy and infect them. Damage is slow at first, but can increase over time to a maximum of 270% (up from 225%) weapon damage as Poison.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCloud of Bats (http://diablowiki.com/Cloud%20of%20Bats) : Call forth a swirl of bats that damage nearby enemies for 234% (up from 195%) weapon damage as Fire. The damage of the bats increases by 20% (up from 10%) every second, up to a maximum of 100% (up from 50%).


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifPlague of Toads (http://diablowiki.com/Plague%20of%20Toads) Cost: 12 Mana (down from 34 Mana) / Release a handful of toads that deal 130% weapon damage as Poison to enemies they come in contact with.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifWall of Zombies (http://diablowiki.com/Wall%20of%20Zombies) Cost: 103 Mana / Cooldown: 25 seconds / Raise a line of zombies from the ground that attacks nearby enemies for 800% (up from 80%) weapon damage as Physical <del class="bbc">for</del>over 5 seconds.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifBarricade (http://diablowiki.com/Barricade) : Increases the width of the Wall of Zombies (Previously the zombies attacked for 80% weapon damage as Physical).


Wizard

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCold Blooded (http://diablowiki.com/Cold%20Blooded) <del class="bbc">Cold</del>All damage dealt to chilled and frozen targets is increased by 20%.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSpectral Blade (http://diablowiki.com/Spectral%20Blade)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifImpactful Blades (http://diablowiki.com/Impactful%20Blades) : Hits Slow the movement of enemies by 80% (up from 60%) for 1 second (Previously also had a 5% chance to Knockback).
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSiphoning Blade (http://diablowiki.com/Siphoning%20Blade) : Every enemy hit grants 3 (up from 1) Arcane Power.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifShock Pulse (http://diablowiki.com/Shock%20Pulse) Launch a volley of 3 electric bolts that deal 53% (up from 48%) weapon damage as Lightning damage per bolt. / Cost: 0 Arcane Power

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifFire Bolts (http://diablowiki.com/Fire%20Bolts) : Cast bolts of fire that each deal 152% (up from 137%) weapon damage as Fire.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifLightning Affinity (http://diablowiki.com/Lightning%20Affinity) : Every target hit by a pulse restores 3 (up from 2) Arcane Power.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifIce Armor (http://diablowiki.com/Ice%20Armor) Surround yourself in a barrier of ice that increases armor by 800% (down from 1000%), causing 0 - 0 Cold damage to attackers, chilling them for 0 second(s). / Duration: 120 seconds

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifJagged Ice (http://diablowiki.com/Jagged%20Ice) : Melee attackers also take 130% (up from 100%) weapon damage as Cold.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCrystallize (http://diablowiki.com/Crystallize) : Whenever you are struck by a melee attack, your Armor is increased by 30% (up from 15%) for 30 seconds. This effect can stack up to 3 times.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifElectrocute (http://diablowiki.com/Electrocute) This is a Signature spell. Signature spells are free to cast. / Lightning arcs from your fingertips, dealing 90% (up from 80%) weapon damage as Lightning. The lightning can jump, hitting up to 2 additional enemies.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifLightning Blast (http://diablowiki.com/Lightning%20Blast) : Create streaks of lightning that pierce through targets, hitting all enemies for 86% (up from 80%) weapon damage as Lightning.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifArc Lightning (http://diablowiki.com/Arc%20Lightning) : Blast a cone of lightning that causes 115% (up from 80%) weapon damage as Lightning to all affected targets.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifForked Lightning (http://diablowiki.com/Forked%20Lightning) : Critical Hits release 4 charged bolts in random directions, dealing 55% (up from 46%) weapon damage as Lightning to any targets hit.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifExplosive Blast (http://diablowiki.com/Explosive%20Blast)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifTime Bomb (http://diablowiki.com/Time%20Bomb) : Explosive Blast detonates from the point it was originally cast after 2.5 seconds for 315% (up from 293%) weapon damage as Physical.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifDiamond Skin (http://diablowiki.com/Diamond%20Skin)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifMirror Skin (http://diablowiki.com/Mirror%20Skin) : Reflects 100% (up from 50%) of damage absorbed back at the attacker.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifEnduring Skin (http://diablowiki.com/Enduring%20Skin) : Increases the duration of Diamond Skin to 9 (up from 8) seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifDiamond Shards (http://diablowiki.com/Diamond%20Shards) : When Diamond Skin wears off, diamond shards explode in all directions dealing 210% (up from 155%) weapon damage as Physical to nearby enemies.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifHydra (http://diablowiki.com/Hydra)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifFrost Hydra (http://diablowiki.com/Frost%20Hydra) : Summon a Frost Hydra that breathes a short range cone of frost, causing 36% (up from 31%) weapon damage as Cold to all enemies in the cone.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifLightning Hydra (http://diablowiki.com/Lightning%20Hydra) : Summon a Lightning Hydra that electrocutes enemies for 64% (up from 34%) weapon damage as Lightning.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifMammoth Hydra (http://diablowiki.com/Mammoth%20Hydra) : Summon a Mammoth Hydra that breathes a river of flame at nearby enemies, dealing 67% (up from 22%) weapon damage per second as Fire to enemies caught on the burning ground.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifArcane Hydra (http://diablowiki.com/Arcane%20Hydra) : Summon an Arcane Hydra that spits Arcane Orbs, which explode on impact, causing 60% (up from 28%) weapon damage as Arcane to enemies near the explosion.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifMeteor (http://diablowiki.com/Meteor) Cost: 60 Arcane Power / Summon an immense Meteor that plummets from the sky, causing 260% (up from 200%) weapon damage as Fire to all enemies it crashes into. The ground it hits is scorched with molten fire that deals 60% weapon damage as Fire over 3 seconds.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifMolten Impact (http://diablowiki.com/Molten%20Impact) : Increases the damage of the Meteor impact to 390% (up from 260%) weapon damage as Fire and the molten fire to 90% (up from 78%) weapon damage as Fire over 3 seconds.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifMeteor Shower (http://diablowiki.com/Meteor%20Shower) : Unleash a volley of 7 smaller Meteors that each strike for 104% (up from 80%) weapon damage as Fire.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifComet (http://diablowiki.com/Comet) : Transforms the Meteor to ice that deals 312% (up from 240%) weapon damage as Cold. The impact site is covered in a freezing mist that deals 72% weapon damage as Cold and Slows enemy movement by 60% over 3 seconds.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifArcane Torrent (http://diablowiki.com/Arcane%20Torrent) Cost: 16 Arcane Power (down from 20 Arcane Power) / Hurl a barrage of arcane projectiles that deal 210% (up from 175%) weapon damage as Arcane to all enemies near the impact location.

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCascade (http://diablowiki.com/Cascade) : Enemies killed by Arcane Torrent have a 100% chance to fire a new missile at a nearby enemy dealing 210% (up from 175%) weapon damage as Arcane.
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifArcane Mines (http://diablowiki.com/Arcane%20Mines) : Instead of firing projectiles, lay Arcane mines that arm after 2 seconds. These mines explode when an enemy approaches, dealing 180% (up from 150%) weapon damage as Arcane. Enemies caught in the explosion have their movement and attack speeds reduced by 30% for 3 seconds.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifArchon (http://diablowiki.com/Archon)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifSlow Time (http://diablowiki.com/Slow%20Time) : Archon form can cast Slow Time that lasts for 15 seconds (up from 8 seconds).
http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifArcane Destruction (http://diablowiki.com/Arcane%20Destruction) : An explosion erupts around you when you transform, causing 1600% (up from 450%) weapon damage as Arcane to all enemies within 15 yards.


http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifTeleport (http://diablowiki.com/Teleport)

http://www.diablofans.com/public/style_images/df/tools/Wiki2.gifCalamity (http://diablowiki.com/Calamity) : Casts a low power Wave of Force upon arrival, dealing 265% (up from 75%) weapon damage as Physical to all nearby enemies.

[Valdis]

Also note on Diablofans.com they have datamined a lot more info including things that point at paragon levels being implemented. The paragon levels will likely be a 1.1 change I would assume.

[Torrid]

Roll your barbarians now folks, if you didn't already have one. The double tornado build already shat all over every other build in the game, and they buffed it. The second best build, 'windup' wizard, was nerfed. (although some legendary procs might mitigate that nerf substantially, who knows) Buffing Crushing Advance is pretty funny when it makes you virtually invincible and can be spammed when you have a lot of Run Like the Wind tornados up with a high crit rate. I'm amazed they didn't nerf Run Like the Wind.

Rumor has it they are going to implement BoE drops to the game as a pathetic attempt to curb inflation; which only further proves how clueless they are. Destroy the economy with no drop items in order to save it. Brilliant! If they had any sense at all, they'd copy D2's ladder.

[Valdis]

I haven't seen any reliable talk about your BoE claims but the paragon levels that they are finding inside the patch notes could easily be built into a ladder system, and I had heard that, that would be a possible system that way instead of making all your gear obsolete you merely take away AA's at the end of a ladder.

[Valdis]

Diablo III Patch 1.0.4

Click here to review all 1.0.4 class changes.

GENERAL

New System added: Paragon Levels

After a player reaches level 60, killing monsters and completing combat challenge streaks (Killing Blow, Massacre, etc) will begin to award experience towards Paragon levels
There are 100 Paragon levels
Every Paragon level will reward you with:

Core stats such as Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Vitality in amounts similar to what you'd gain from a normal level
3% Magic Find and 3% Gold Find


In addition, a distinctive border will surround your character portrait in the in-game party frame to denote your Paragon progression, with a new frame earned after every ten levels. Your Paragon level will also be visible to other players wherever your normal level is shown.


Pets with passive life regeneration (most notably Followers, Zombie Dogs, and Gargantuans) have had their life regeneration greatly increased from levels 30-60
Nephalem Valor now grants +15% Bonus Experience per stack, as well as +15% to Magic Find and Gold Find
Magic Find will now cap at 300% (Nephalem Valor bonuses will still stack beyond this cap)
Magic Find is no longer averaged among all players in a multiplayer game
Players can now disable or enable music in the Sound Options
Additional Sound Options including Sound Output and Speaker Setup has been added
A new tutorial about "Elective Mode" will now appear when a player enters Nightmare, Hell, or Inferno difficulty for the first time

ACHIEVEMENTS

Bug Fixes

The achievement "Espionage" can now be completed as the Battlefield Reports lore can now drop in Act III
The achievement "A Unique Collection" can now be completed (see the Bug Fixes in the Monsters section for more information)
The "Kill Diablo" criteria for the achievement "Death From Afar" has been removed

AUCTION HOUSE

Auctions can now be cancelled at any point so long as they do not have any active bids
Number of "Preferred Stats" allowed per search increased from 3 to 6
Number of digits allowed in the "Min Value" field for equipment searches increased from 3 to 5
"Minimum Damage" has been replaced with "Average Damage" as a searchable stat

Bonus damage is calculated as the Average Damage: (Min Damage + Max Damage) / 2
For example, searching for a Bonus Damage of 12 will find an item with 10-14 damage, 12 minimum damage, or 24 maximum damage


Stat increases which come from slotted gems are no longer taken into account when searching for equipment
Armor, DPS, Buyout, and Time Left columns are now sortable in the Search tab
The maximum stack size of gold per listing has been increased from 100,000 to 1,000,000
The following message has been added to the Item Purchase screen: "Item properties and values may change over time due to game balancing"
Description text has been added or improved for several error messages

UI Improvements

Tooltips have been added for items in the Completed tab
Tooltips have been added for commodities
Item Compare tooltips have been added to the Recommended Items page
The listing price of unsold and cancelled auctions will now display in the Completed tab
The Auctions tab and Completed tab will now refresh when a player’s item has been purchased

Bug Fixes

Auction house search filters are now no longer case sensitive
Players can now search for stats on Legendary items
"Attack Speed" is now a searchable affix for quivers
"Chance to Blind on Hit" is now a searchable affix for amulets
Items with the "Level Requirement Reduced" affix will now properly appear in search results when specifying the level range
Searches will now properly filter results according to the set Minimum and Maximum values for "Life per Spirit Spent"
Witch doctor’s Corpse Spider bonus is now listed when searching for mojos
The Recommended Items page will now display quivers for demon hunters even if the player has a two-handed ranged weapon equipped

BATTLE.NET

The "Report Spam" option is now available in the main menu when right-clicking on a player's name (rather than being hidden in the "Report" sub-menu)
Reporting another player for chat spam using "Report Spam" option will now also temporarily mute that player for the duration of your login session
Reporting another player for friend request spam using the "Report Spam" option in the Friends List will now also automatically decline that player’s friend request
The Quick Join window has been improved
More information about Global Play (and its restrictions) has been added to the Account tab
The game will now display both on the login and character select screen which region a player is currently logging into

Chat

Clicking on achievement toasts will now provide more information about the achievement
The Public chat menu will now indicate which channels a player has already joined
/who and /invite commands can now be used in all channels
"DND" and "AFK" tags have been added to the "You are now Busy" and "You are now Away" status messages (respectively)
Shift-left-clicking on a player’s name will now display the following information: [Name]: [Level][Mode][Class] – [Act (difficulty)] (i.e. "[Pixie]: Level 45 Hardcore Barbarian – Act I (Nightmare)")
Chat Channel and Party message formatting has been updated

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug that caused items from the Normal gold auction house to display in the Hardcore gold auction house when a player switched between characters during periods of high latency
The chat commands /p and /party now work correctly when joining Public Games
Fixed a crash that could occur when clicking on a link to a fake item that contained more sockets than is possible

BOSSES

Boss rooms have been standardized so that, after the boss fight is complete, players will always be able to do the following:

Use Town Portal to leave the room
Re-enter the room again via Town Portal as well as the room's entrance portal


Maghda

Abilities

Insect Swarm

Projectiles can now be slowed



Ghom

Abilities

Breath Attack

Pets and Followers should now only take 10% damage from the breath attack


Gas Cloud

The rate at which Ghom spawns Gas Clouds has been reduced by approximately 20%
The cooldown on Ghom's Gas Cloud attack has been increased from 6-10 seconds to 10-13 seconds
Pets and Followers should now only take 5% damage from Gas Clouds




Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where certain movement skills were granting immunity to Ghom's gas clouds if cast while inside the cloud (and if the player never left the cloud’s area of effect)



Cydaea

Bug Fixes

Players can no longer bypass the chains that appear during the "Heart of Sin: Kill the Daughters" event


Azmodan

Abilities

Fire Ball

Projectiles can now be slowed



Izual

Bug Fixes

Skipping Izual's cut-scene should no longer cause players to become trapped behind his ice barrier
Fixed a bug where Izual’s Charge attack would not do any damage
Fixed a bug where Izual’s Charge attack could damage players twice
Fixed a bug where Izual could become immune to damage when at 30% health under rare circumstances


Rakanoth

Bug Fixes

Rakanoth is now properly immune to crowd control effects when enraged in Inferno difficulty


Diablo

Bug Fixes

Diablo's Bone Cage debuff will now be properly removed from the player during a phase transition if the cut-scene is skipped
Fixed an issue where triggering a phase transition while grasped by Diablo could cause both the player and Diablo to become temporarily invisible
Fixed an issue that caused Diablo to not summon Shadow Clones of the player if Seven-Sided Strike was cast at the appropriate time


CRAFTING

A repair tab has been added to the Blacksmith

Bug Fixes

Gem-combine designs for Amethysts and Emeralds should no longer contain typos

FOLLOWERS

The last follower a player had active in a single-player game will now be restored automatically after leaving a multiplayer game
The frequency of follower dialog has been reduced

ITEMS

All level 60- 62 damage affixes have had their Minimum and Maximum top-end damage values increased

Level 63 items will still roll the highest potential damage values in the game, but the damage difference between level 60-62 items and level 63 items just won’t be as dramatic as it was before
Note: This will only impact items created or dropped after patch 1.0.4


Two-handed melee weapons have made more viable:

Two-handed melee weapons can now roll their own affixes for core stats as well as higher damage values (as compared to one-handed melee weapons)

Core stat values have been increased by approximately 70%
Note: This does not affect two-handed ranged weapons


Additional affix changes for two-handed melee weapons include:

+ Crit Damage, Life on Hit, Life After Each Kill, and Life Steal values can now roll up to 200%
Note: This does not affect two-handed ranged weapons


Note: These changes will only impact items created or dropped after patch 1.0.4


All off-hand items (mojos, orbs, quivers, shields) can now roll Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Vitality in the same ranges as Armor and Weapons

Note: This will only affect off-hand items created or dropped after patch 1.0.4


Off-hands can now roll Reduced Level Requirement
Drop rate on quivers has been reduced
+MaxFury and +MaxSpirit will no longer roll on ranged weapons
Max Block amount on shields with an item level of 59 and higher has been changed so they all provide the same amount of Max Block
Repair costs have been reduced by up to 25% for item levels between 53 and 63
Weapon racks have had their weapon drop rate restored to 100%, though weapons are more likely be of Common quality (white or grey items)
Destructible objects now have a chance to drop items again
The text color of gems, potions, crafting pages and tomes dropped on the ground has been changed from white to light blue
The maximum stack size of gems has been increased from 30 to 100
The gem drop sound effect is now more noticeable

Legendary Items

Significant changes have been made to Legendary items:

Custom proc effects have been added to over 50 Legendary items and Set item bonuses
All Legendary items will now roll with at least one of the following affixes to ensure that their DPS is viable: +Elemental Damage, +Attack Speed, +Critical Damage, +%damage, Has Sockets
Affix values on Legendary items are no longer demoted and will now roll at their maximum potential
Many lower level Legendary items have had their affix count increased to 6
Legendary items based on Uniques from previous Diablo games have received a tuning pass to make their stats more reflective of their ancestors
The chance for a Legendary item to drop that's below an item level of 50 has been increased
Item level 63 Legendary items have been added to the game
Legendary Sets:

All item level 61 set pieces have been increased to item level 63 (excluding rings and amulets), and had their base item changed from late Hell/early Inferno to late Inferno
Class-specific sets are now guaranteed to have the class’s core stat on every item in the set


Summoned Creatures:

Creatures summoned by Legendary item procs should now follow the player or Follower with the item equipped
Creatures summoned by Legendary item procs should now have combat awareness similar to Followers
Creatures summoned by Legendary item procs should now their level determined by the Legendary item level



Please note that these changes will only apply to new Legendary items that drop or are created after patch 1.0.4. Legendary items which dropped or were created prior to patch 1.0.4 will remain unchanged (this also applies to items which have not been identified yet). To distinguish these items from one another, new Legendary items will have slightly different names and appearances from those dropped or created prior to 1.0.4.

Vendors

Squirt the Peddler has permanently moved from the Caldeum Bazaar up to the Hidden Camp, as she heard people liked buying Health Potions up there

Bug Fixes

Legendary items (pre- and post-1.0.4) with the +Attack Speed affix should now work correctly
Items with +Chance to Stun on Hit now have the suffix "of Staggering" instead of "of Devastation"
Multiple chests that had a small chance of dropping loot into unreachable locations have been repositioned slightly to prevent this from happening
Fixed a bug where Normal chests found in Bastion keep were dropping items from too low of a treasure class (these chests will now drop the same class of items as other Normal chests throughout the game)
Fixed a bug that allowed players to see properties of unidentified items

MONSTERS

Monsters across the game have had a pass to make their experience and loot rewards more proportional to the effort required to kill them

For example, Imps and Tormented Stingers grant less XP and drop less items, but Lacuni Warriors grant increased XP and drop more items


Experience awarded by level 61-63 monsters has been increased by approximately 60%
Normal monsters should now drop Magic (blue) items and Rare (yellow) items approximately 4 times more than before
Bonus health granted to monsters in co-op games has been reduced to 75% per additional player for all difficulties:

Normal: (no change)
Nightmare: 85% → 75%
Hell: 95% → 75%
Inferno: 105% → 75%


Monster damage and health and drop rates has been adjusted for Inferno as follows:

Normal monsters now have a greatly increased chance to drop Magic (blue) and Rare (yellow) items
Act I

Elite monster health reduced by 11%


Act II

Normal monster health increased by 4%
Elite monster health reduced by 8%
Overall damage done by all monsters reduced by 8%


Act III and Act IV

Normal monster health increased by 10%
Elite monster health reduced by 2.5%
Overall damage done by all monsters reduced by 15%



Spine Hewer, Skeletal Reaper, Skull Cleaver, and Swift Skull Cleaver damage has been reduced by approximately 37%
Sarkoth <Hoarder of Treasure> has had his loot quality and health adjusted slightly
Quill Fiends in the Dank Cellar will now drop less additional gold (but will still drop more than other Quill Fiends) and should now properly turn hostile when confronted by a player
Blood Clan Ranged monsters should now run away less often and for shorter distances
Moon Clan Ranged monsters should now run away for shorter distances
Snakeman Casters now have a melee attack
Snakeman Casters' Electric Burst now has a max channeling duration of 7 seconds
Rockworms should now burrow less frequently after unburrowing, and will unburrow more quickly after burrowing
Succubus blood star projectiles can now be slowed
Brickhouse monsters (e.g. Demonic Tremors) should now Arm Shields and enrage less often, and will no longer gain an increase in damage while enraged
Possessed monsters can no longer spawn with the Illusionist affix
Fast mummies (Betrayed, Accursed, and Reviled) can no longer spawn with the Illusionist affix
Pets and Followers should now only take 10% damage from a Fast mummy's Poison Death Cloud
Heralds of Pestilence no longer attack pets and Followers
The first and third levels of Leoric’s Dungeon now have a total of five Uniques that can be spawned
Reduced the chance of a skeletal Rare pack to spawn in the Cemetery of the Forsaken from 50% to 20%
The lone Champion Shaman in the Demonic Trebuchet is no longer considered a Champion
The treasure goblin spawn has been removed from the Road to Alcarnus

Champions and Rares

Champion and Rare monsters will no longer enrage after prolonged combat, and they will no longer heal to full health after not being engaged
Jailer can now no longer appear with Knockback, Nightmarish, or Vortex
Invulnerable Minions has been removed as a possible affix
Fire Chains damage has been reduced by 20%
Nightmarish monsters will now make players immune to Fear for 6 seconds after the Fear is cast on the player
Plagued, Frozen, and Mortar monsters will now do only 10% of their damage to pets and Followers
Shielding monsters will no longer shield if they are the last monster left in the area, and only one monster in a given pack can be shielded at a time
The spawn points of Arcane Enchanted beams have been adjusted slightly to be more spread out, and their damage has been reduced by approximately 30%
Champion and Rare Fallen Lunatics have been removed from both Zoltun Kulle dungeons
Swarm monsters now have a more pronounced Champion and Rare appearance

Bug Fixes

Mortar monster projectiles should no longer be aimed within the monster's dead zone
Waller monsters can no longer spawn walls on top of players
Plagued, Arcane Enchanted, and Electrified minions no longer have resistance to Poison, Arcane, or Lightning damage (respectively)
Dark Moon Shaman Champions and Rares now correctly show their affixes
Dark Moon Shaman’s Empower ability will now properly reduces all types of incoming damage
Oppressors' Charge attack will no longer deal damage to players twice
Berserkers now have the proper "blue glow" of Champions
The Champion pack at the end of Kyr the Weaponsmith's event "A Reputation Restored" will now drop loot and give experience
The common and Champion skeletons that spawn from the treasure chest during the zombie ambush event in Act I, Cathedral level 4 will now drop loot and give experience
The Goatman Ambush event in the Fields of Misery will now properly spawn a full pack of Champions (instead of just one Champion)
The Aspect of Terror will now drop at least one Magic (blue) item, and its clones will now only drop health globes
The Flying Molok can no longer turn invisible and become un-targetable
The Bloated Malachor’s damage has been normalized to be in line with the rest of his other monster variants
Killing Sardar's illusions will no longer trigger quest completion for "Sardar’s Treasure: Kill Sardar"; the quest will now properly complete when Sardar is slain (this is because Sardar is no longer an Illusionist, and will now only spawn with Vampiric and Nightmarish affixes)
It should now be significantly easier to dodge Triune Berserker Power Hits
Damage over time spells will no longer prevent certain monsters from dropping health globes
A player who is killed by a monster's Reflect Damage affix will now be able to release his or her corpse and be resurrected by other players
Fixed a bug that allowed monsters with multiple affix powers to sometimes to ignore the cooldown timers of those powers
Fixed a bug where several Unique monsters could not spawn in Act II – The Howling Plateau (this fix now allows players to finish the achievement “A Unique Collection”)

QUESTS

Players will now receive full experience and gold rewards for completing quests for the first time in Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno difficulties
Players will no longer receive a quest reward after opening the entrance to the Waterlogged Passage; instead, they will now receive the reward after completing the step "Kill Gavin the Thief" instead (which occurs slightly after)

Bug Fixes

The Quest Select window will now always display the most recently completed quest or quest step, as well as all resumable steps leading up to that point
"Trailing the Coven: Talk to Karyna" will now automatically update for players to "Trailing the Coven: Find the Khazra Staff" (even if they have not yet talked to Karyna) when triggering the Lost Wagon scene

This is to ensure that players are able to receive a quest reward when clicking on the wagon


Players no longer receive Town Portal as a reward during repeated completions of the quest "A Shattered Crown: Take the Skeleton King's crown from the Chancellor's Altar" and will now receive gold and experience
Players can no longer disrupt the rituals during "The Crumbling Tower: Explore the Lyceum," which used to prevent players from completing the event
Vendel the Armorsmith can no longer be killed by the environment during the event "The Scavenged Scabbard"
Skipping the cut-scene during the quest "A Royal Audience: Talk to Emperor Hakan II" as quickly as possible will no longer prevent the quest objective from being updated
The matchmaking cut-off point for the quest “The Light of Hope” has been adjusted slightly

USER INTERFACE

The ability to drag-and-drop skills in Elective Mode will now only be enabled while the Skill window is open
Resist values are now taken into consideration when calculating the item comparison "Protection" value
When a player cancels out of a Trade window, any items that are under the player's cursor will also be cancelled
A two-second delay will now occur when clicking "Accept" in a Trade window if either player makes any changes to their offering

Bug Fixes

Holding CTRL while mousing over an item on the ground that has socketed gems will no longer cause that item to appear unsocketed
Players will no longer get disconnected from the game if their Mouse Wheel is bound to the function "Close All Open Windows"

MAC

Retina Displays are now fully supported
Game resolutions which match Mac screen aspect ratios now offered
Switching between Windowed and Fullscreen modes is now faster
Added a "Help" menu so players can more quickly navigate to relevant support pages
Added a menu item which allows players to copy system information to their Clipboard
Added a menu item to reveal various games files and folders in Finder

Bug Fixes

Selecting the default resolution settings in Video Options will now correctly reset the resolution
Changing the resolution settings while in Windowed (Fullscreen) mode will now properly change the resolution

BUG FIXES

Level 60 characters will no longer receive a "+XP" message when looting a new lore journal
Decreased the chance for multiple Sigil rooms in the Gardens of Hope (Tier 2) to spawn at once
Fixed a bug that was causing some tiles in the Holy Sanctum not to spawn, preventing players from being able to access the room's treasure chest

CLASSES

Barbarian (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/)

Active Skills

Ancient Spear (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/ancient-spear)

Now also roots the target in place for 1.5. seconds
Will now default to Basic Attack if on cooldown or if the player runs out of Fury


Bash (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/bash)

Fury generated increased from 6 to 8
Weapon damage increased from 150% to 165%
Skill Rune - Onslaught

Weapon damage increased from 22% to 25% per reverberation


Skill Rune - Punish

Bonus damage per stack increased from 6% to 8%


Skill Rune - Instigation

Bonus Fury generated reduced from 6 to 4



Cleave (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/cleave)

Weapon damage increased from 120% to 140%
Skill Rune - Reaping Swing

Proc coefficient increased from 0.667 to 0.8


Skill Rune - Broad Sweep

Weapon damage increased from 156% to 175%
Proc coefficient increased from 0.5 to 0.8


Skill Rune - Gathering Storm

Proc coefficient increased from 0.5 to 0.8



Hammer of the Ancients (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/hammer-of-the-ancients)

Weapon damage increased from 200% to 325%
Skill Rune - Rolling Thunder

Weapon damage increased from 155% to 275%


Skill Rune - Smash

Weapon damage increased from 270% to 406%


Skill Rune - The Devil's Anvil

Proc coefficient reduced from 1 to 0.08



Leap (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/leap)

Can now be used while immobilized by crowd control effects (such as Jailer)

Note: Leap will not break CC effects, but that it can still be used while under the effect



Overpower (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/overpower)

Skill Rune - Crushing Advance

Can no longer trigger On Hit procs
Amount of damage reflected increased from 30% to 35%



Rend (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/rend)

Weapon damage increased from 210% over 3 seconds to 700% over 5 seconds
Skill Rune - Lacerate

Weapon damage increased from 271% over 3 seconds to 903% over 5 seconds


Skill Rune - Bloodbath

Weapon damage increased from 60% over 3 seconds to 100% over 5 seconds



Seismic Slam (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/seismic-slam)

Weapon damage increased from 155% to 240%
Skill Rune - Shattered Ground

Weapon damage increased from 202% to 288%


Skill Rune - Cracking Rift

Weapon damage increased from 255% to 340%



Weapon Throw (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/weapon-throw)

Weapon damage increased from 100% to 130%
Will now default to Basic Attack if the player runs out of Fury
Skill Rune - Mighty Throw

Weapon damage increased 130% to 169%



Whirlwind (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/whirlwind)

Weapon damage increased from 110% to 145%
Skill Rune - Volcanic Eruption

Weapon damage increased from 143% to 188%




Demon Hunter (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/)


Active Skills

Bola Shot (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/bola-shot)

Weapon damage to the primary target increased from 130% to 160%
Skill Rune - Thunder Ball

Weapon damage increased from 130% to 160%


Skill Rune - Acid Strike

Weapon damage of each bola increased from 130% to 160%


Skill Rune - Imminent Doom

Weapon damage to the primary target increased from 182% to 216%



Caltrops (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/caltrops)

Skill Rune - Jagged Spikes

Can no longer trigger procs



Chakram (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/chakram)

Weapon damage increased from 150% to 170%
Skill Rune - Twin Chakrams

Weapon damage increased from 100% to 114%


Skill Rune - Serpentine

Weapon damage increased from 203% to 230%


Skill Rune - Razor Disk

Weapon damage increased from 165% to 187%


Skill Rune - Boomerang

Weapon damage increased from 188% to 230%


Skill Rune - Shuriken Cloud

Weapon damage increased from 30% to 34%
Proc coefficient reduced from 0.333 to 0.125



Cluster Arrow (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/cluster-arrow)

Initial bomb weapon damage increased from 200% to 225%
Skill Rune - Maelstrom

Weapon damage increased from 145% to 165%


Skill Rune - Loaded for Bear

Weapon damage increased from 290% to 304%



Entangling Shot (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/entangling-shot)

Weapon damage of base skill and all rune variants increased from 75% to 90%
Skill Rune - Shock Collar

Now deals an additional 70% weapon damage over 2 seconds
Weapon damage % is no longer based on attack speed



Evasive Fire (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/evasive-fire)

Weapon damage increased from 125% to 130%
Skill Rune - Covering Fire

Weapon damage increased from 125% to 130% weapon



Grenades (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/grenades)

Skill Rune - Gas Grenades

Proc coefficient reduced from 0.5 to 0.165



Impale (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/impale)

Weapon damage increased from 250% to 265%
Skill Rune - Chemical Burn

Weapon damage increased from 125% to 220%



Multishot (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/multishot)

Hatred cost lowered from 40 to 30
Skill Rune - Fire at Will

Now reduces Hatred cost to 15



Rain of Vengeance (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/rain-of-vengeance)

Changed from 75% weapon damage for 5 seconds to 715% weapon damage over 5 seconds
Skill Rune - Dark Cloud

Changed from 34% weapon damage for 12 seconds to 792% weapon damage over 12 seconds
Can now find targets in a larger radius around the player


Skill Rune - Beastly Bombs

Weapon damage increased from 125% to 245% per bomb


Skill Rune - Stampede

Weapon damage increased from 75% to 120% per strike


Skill Rune - Anathema

Changed from 115% weapon damage for 10 seconds to 3300% weapon damage over 15 seconds


Skill Rune - Flying Strike

Weapon damage increased from 60% to 100%



Rapid Fire (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/rapid-fire)

Weapon damage increased from 228% to 276%
Skill Rune - Bombardment

Weapon damage increased from 276% to 345%



Sentry (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/sentry)

Turret weapon damage increased from 20% to 55%
Skill Rune - Chain of Torment

Maximum tether length increased to 45 yards
Weapon damage increased from 48% to 80%



Smoke Screen (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/smoke-screen)

Skill Rune - Choking Gas

Now does 700% weapon damage over 5 seconds
Weapon damage % is no longer based on attack speed



Strafe (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/strafe)

Weapon damage increased from 120% to 156%
Skill Rune - Demolition

Weapon damage increased from 144% to 187%



Vault (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/vault)

Skill Rune - Action Shot

Will now always shoot 4 arrows


Skill Rune - Trail of Cinders

Now leaves a trail of fire behind the player dealing 1500% weapon damage over 3 seconds




Passive Skills

Brooding (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/passive/brooding)

No longer requires player to not be damaged for 3 seconds to regenerate 1% of maximum Life per second



Bug Fixes

Rain of Vengeance (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/active/rain-of-vengeance)

Skill Rune - Anathema

Shadow Beast should now drop the appropriate amount of grenades




Monk (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/)


Active Skills

Crippling Wave (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/crippling-wave)

Spirit generated increased from 6 to 7


Cyclone Strike (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/cyclone-strike)

Proc coefficient increased from 0 to 0.125


Dashing Strike (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/dashing-strike)

Weapon damage increased from 100% to 160%


Exploding Palm (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/exploding-palm)

Changed from 220% weapon damage over 3 seconds to 745% weapon damage over 9 seconds
Skill Rune - Impending Doom

Duration increased from 6 seconds to 15 seconds.



Lashing Tail Kick (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/lashing-tail-kick)

Weapon damage increased from 200% to 235% (this also benefits Sweeping Armada, Scorpion Sting, and Hand of Ytar)
Skill Rune - Vulture Claw Kick

Weapon damage increased from 220% to 258%


Skill Rune - Spinning Flame Kick

Weapon damage increased 240% to 294%



Mystic Ally (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/mystic-ally)

Can no longer trigger procs


Seven-Sided Strike (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/sevensided-strike)

Weapon damage increased from 777% to 1777% over 7 hits
Skill Rune - Sudden Assault

Weapon damage increased from 1007%to 2309% over 7 hits


Skill Rune - Several-Sided Strike

The 2 extra hits now also increase the total duration of the spell (which increases the amount of time that you are invulnerable)


Skill Rune - Fulminating Onslaught

Weapon damage of each explosion increased from 111% to 254%



Sweeping Wind (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/sweeping-wind)

Skill Rune - Master of Wind

Increased the duration of the vortex from 10 to 20 seconds



Tempest Rush (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/tempest-rush)

Weapon damage increased from 50% to 85%


Wave of Light (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/wave-of-light)

Weapon damage of initial strike increased from 215% to 390%
Skill Rune - Wall of Light

Weapon damage bonus to initial strike increased from 312% to 566%


Skill Rune - Explosive Light

Weapon damage increased from 285% to 430%


Skill Rune - Pillar of the Ancients

Weapon damage on both the initial strike and delayed explosion increased from 210% to 280%



Way of the Hundred Fists (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/way-of-the-hundred-fists)

Spirit generated increased from 6 to 8
Skill Rune - Fists of Fury

Now does 100% weapon damage over 5 seconds




Passive Skills

Exalted Soul (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/passive/exalted-soul)

Now also generates 1 Spirit per second


Fleet Footed (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/passive/fleet-footed)

Movement speed bonus no longer counts toward the 25% movement speed increase cap


The Guardian's Path (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/passive/the-guardians-path)

Two-handed weapon Spirit generation bonus increased from 25% to 35%



Bug Fixes

Exploding Palm (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/exploding-palm)

Fixed a bug that allowed players to gain multiple rare item drops from a single Champion or Rare pack by killing all remaining monsters in the pack at the same time using Exploding Palm


Mystic Ally (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/mystic-ally)

All Mystic Ally variants are now summoned with full health


Wave of Light (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/wave-of-light)

Fixed an issue that was causing enemies affected by Wave of Light to not always receive the full damage



Witch Doctor (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/)


General

Base Mana regeneration increased from 20 per second to 45 per second
The spellcasting animations for the following skills have been modified to allow the effect to occur quicker and for the player to move sooner after casting: Acid Cloud, Corpse Spiders, Firebomb, Locust Swarm, Poison Dart, and Zombie Charger


Active Skills

Acid Cloud (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/acid-cloud)

Range increased from 45 yards to 50 yards
Now deals 115% weapon damage plus 150% weapon damage over 3 seconds (up from 100% weapon damage followed by 75% weapon damage over 3 seconds); also benefits Acid Rain
Skill Rune - Lob Blob Bomb

Now increases base damage of Acid Cloud to 115% weapon damage
Slime weapon damage increased from 25% to 50% per second


Skill Rune - Slow Burn

Now increases base damage of Acid Cloud to 115% weapon damage, and deals and additional 300% weapon damage over 6 seconds


Skill Rune - Kiss of Death

Cloud of acid weapon damage increased from 110% to 126%
Weapon damage done to enemies who remain in the affected area increased from 83% to 165%, and damage is now dealt over 3 seconds


Skill Rune - Corpse Bomb

Weapon damage increased from 200% to 230%
When casting Acid Cloud, your witch doctor will no longer attempt to walk closer to targets that are out of range



Corpse Spiders (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/corpse-spiders)

Will now inherit +Critical Damage bonuses from the player
Can now proc Life on Hit for the player
Are aware of enemies from further away
Have increased speed when pursuing enemies
Skill Rune - Spider Queen

Changed from 16% weapon damage per second for 15 seconds to 630% weapon damage over 15 seconds
Tooltip has been updated to clarify that you may only have one Spider Queen active at a time



Firebats (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/firebats)

Weapon damage increased from 150% to 180%
Skill Rune - Plague Bats

Maximum weapon damage increased from 225% to 270%


Skill Rune - Hungry Bats

Weapon damage increased from 280% to 350%


Skill Rune - Cloud of Bats

The damage of the bats will now increase by 20% (up from 10%) every second, up to a maximum of 100% additional damage (up from 50%)



Firebomb (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/firebomb)

Weapon damage increased from 85% to 110% (this benefits all runes except Pyrogeist)
Skill Rune - Fire Pit

Changed from 8% weapon damage for 3 seconds to 36% weapon damage over 3 seconds
Proc coefficient reduced from 0.67 to 0.067


Skill Rune - Pyrogeist

Changed from 140% weapon damage over 3 seconds to 640% weapon damage over 6 seconds
Tooltip has been updated to clarify that only one column of flame can be active at a time



Gargantuan (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/gargantuan)

Gargantuan survivability has been increased:

Maximum Life now scales with the player's Maximum Life

At level 60, the Gargantuan will receive an additional 50% of the player’s Maximum Life


The amount of damage a Gargantuan 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.


Weapon damage increased from 25% to 100%, but can no longer trigger procs
Skill Rune - Humongoid

Weapon damage increased from 32% to 130%


Skill Rune - Wrathful Protector

Weapon damage increased from 55% to 110%


Skill Rune – Bruiser

Weapon damage increased from 100% to 200%



Grasp of the Dead (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/grasp-of-the-dead)

Now does 320% weapon damage over 8 seconds
Skill Rune - Death is Life

Now has a 10% chance to produce health globe or summon a Zombie Dog



Horrify (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/horrify)

Cooldown reduced from 20 seconds to 16 seconds


Plague of Toads (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/plague-of-toads)

Mana cost reduced from 34 to 12


Poison Dart (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/poison-dart)

Skill Rune - Spined Dart

Mana return on hit increased from 24 to 29


Skill Rune - Flaming Dart

Weapon damage increased from 160% to 180%



Spirit Barrage (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/spirit-barrage)

Weapon damage increased from 190% to 230%
Skill Rune - Well of Souls

Weapon damage increased from 30% to 65% for each of the bonus projectiles


Skill Rune – Manitou

Changed from 28% weapon damage every second for 20 seconds (for a total of 560% weapon damage) to 1667% weapon damage over 20 seconds
Search radius for targets has been increased from 20 yards to 30 yards
Proc coefficient reduced from 0.5 to 0.125
No longer shows a buff icon



Spirit Walk (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/spirit-walk)

Skill Rune - Umbral Shock

Weapon damage of explosion increased from 85% to 310% but is no longer increased by attack speed


Skill Rune - Severance

Changed from 100% weapon damage per second to 450% weapon damage over 2 seconds



Soul Harvest (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/soul-harvest)

Skill Rune - Languish

Movement speed reduction increased from 60% to 80%


Skill Rune - Vengeful Spirit

Weapon damage increased from 70% to 230%



Summon Zombie Dogs (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/summon-zombie-dogs)

Zombie Dog survivability has been increased:

Now also receive 35% of the player's Maximum Life
The amount of damage a Zombie Dog 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.


Cooldown reduced from 60 seconds to 45 seconds
Skill Rune - Rabid Dogs

Proc coefficient has been reduced from 1.0 to 0.10


Skill Rune - Burning Dogs

Proc coefficient has been reduced from 1.0 to 0.05



Wall of Zombies (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/wall-of-zombies)

Now does 800% weapon damage over 5 seconds


Zombie Charger (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/zombie-charger)

Skill Rune - Leprous Zombie

Changed from 25% weapon damage for 3 seconds to 240% weapon damage over 3 seconds


Skill Rune - Wave of Zombies

Weapon damage increased from 72% to 115% per zombie




Passive Skills

Circle of Life (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/passive/circle-of-life)

Chance to summon a Zombie Dog when an enemy dies increased from 5% to 30%


Grave Injustice (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/passive/grave-injustice)

Mana and Life gain increased from 1% to 2% of their maximum values whenever a nearby enemy dies


Rush of Essence (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/passive/rush-of-essence)

Now returns a flat amount of Mana over 10 seconds (49 Mana at level 60)


Spirit Vessel (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/passive/spirit-vessel)

Spirit realm duration reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds
Heal increased from 10% to 15% of player’s maximum Life
While in the spirit realm, players can now walk through enemy monsters


Vision Quest (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/passive/vision-quest)

Vision Quest has been redesigned and now grants 30% increased Mana regeneration for 5 seconds after doing damage with Corpse Spiders, Firebomb, Plague of Toads, or Poison Dart


Tribal Rites (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/passive/tribal-rites)

Now also benefits Gargantuan, Mass Confusion, and Summon Zombie Dogs



Bug Fixes

Corpse Spiders (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/corpse-spiders)

Skill Rune - Leaping Spiders

Spiders will now always leap to their target as soon as it’s in range




Wizard (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/)


Active Skills

Arcane Torrent (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/arcane-torrent)

Arcane Power cost reduced from 20 to 16
Weapon damage increased from 175% to 210%
Skill Rune - Death Blossom

Projectiles are now less random


Skill Rune - Arcane Mines

Weapon damage increased from 150% to 180%


Skill Rune - Cascade

Weapon damage increased from 175% to 210%



Archon (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/archon)

Slow Time duration increased from 8 seconds to 15 seconds
Skill Rune - Arcane Destruction

Weapon damage increased from 450% to 1600%



Diamond Skin (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/diamond-skin)

Skill Rune - Mirror Skin

Amount of damage reflection increased from 50% to 100%


Skill Rune - Enduring Skin

Duration bonus increased from 8 seconds to 9 seconds


Skill Rune - Diamond Shards

Weapon damage increased from 155% to 210%



Electrocute (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/electrocute)

Weapon damage increased from 80% to 90%&amp;#160; (this also benefits Chain Lightning, Forked Lightning, and Surge of Power)
Skill Rune - Forked Lightning

Weapon damage increased from 46% to 55% per charged bolt


Skill Rune - Lightning Blast

Weapon damage increased from 80% to 86%


Skill Rune - Arc Lightning

Weapon damage increased from 80% to 115%



Energy Twister (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/energy-twister)

Proc coefficient reduced from 0.25 to 0.125


Explosive Blast (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/explosive-blast)

Skill Rune - Time Bomb

Weapon damage increased from 293% to 315%



Hydra (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/hydra)

Skill Rune - Arcane Hydra

Weapon damage increased from 28% to 60% per Arcane Orb


Skill Rune - Lightning Hydra

Weapon damage increased from 34% to 64%


Skill Rune - Frost Hydra

Weapon damage increase from 31% to 36%
Cone width changed from 15 yards with a 60 degree spread to 35 yards with a 30 degree spread


Skill Rune - Mammoth Hydra

Weapon damage increased from 22% to 67%



Ice Armor (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/ice-armor)

Increased the likelihood that attackers will be Frozen rather than Chilled
Skill Rune - Crystallize

Armor bonus per stack increased from 15% to 30%


Skill Rune - Jagged Ice

Weapon damage as Cold increased from 100% to 130%



Meteor (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/meteor)

Weapon damage increased from 200% + 60% over 3 seconds to 260% + 60% over 3 seconds
Skill Rune - Molten Impact

Weapon damage increased from 260% +78% over 3 seconds to 390% + 90% over 3 seconds


Skill Rune - Meteor Shower

Weapon damage increased from 80% to 104%&amp;#160; for each smaller Meteor


Skill Rune - Comet

Weapon damage of initial hit increased from 240% to 312%



Shock Pulse (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/shock-pulse)

Skill Rune - Fire Bolts

Weapon damage increased from 136% to 152%


Skill Rune - Lightning Affinity

Arcane Power restored per pulse increased from 2 to 3



Spectral Blade (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/spectral-blade)

Skill Rune - Impactful Blades

Now guarantees to Slow the movement speed of enemies by 80% for 1 second (rather than a 5% chance to cause Knockback and Slow the moment speed of enemies by 60% for 1 second)


Skill Rune - Siphoning Blades

Arcane Power restored per hit increased from 1 to 3



Teleport (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/active/teleport)

Skill Rune - Calamity

Weapon damage increased from 75% to 265%




Bug Fixes

Cold Blooded (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/wizard/passive/cold-blooded)

Tooltip has been updated to clarify that all damage is increased by 20% to Frozen or Chilled targets, not just Cold damage (functionality of the skill has not changed)

[Zeyla]

Dinked around with it yesterday and some of the changes are nice. I like being able to actually use my dogs and Garg again on my Witch Doc. I also like that you can spot gems and potions now in the mass of white text, heh heh. It will keep me busy until Guild Wars 2 this weekend :)

[Valdis]

Yea I played last night for a few hours. I haven't tried to change up my old standard Wiz build but if I can get Kath to play I think I might remake my old Meteor Swarm build.

[Trem]

I beat the game at or around lv 30 and thought, that was it? Do i want to play that again? nope! sigh. Was totally hoping for a better plot twist than the evil mother bit. Am i missing something by not playing it again do something cool happen or is it just harder or a lot harder? Is it funner co op?

[Aindayen]

I beat the game at or around lv 30 and thought, that was it? Do i want to play that again? nope! sigh. Was totally hoping for a better plot twist than the evil mother bit. Am i missing something by not playing it again do something cool happen or is it just harder or a lot harder? Is it funner co op?

Funner?

Oh how I miss Trem the monk...

[Zeyla]

It does get more challenging eventually (In Inferno difficulty mostly). Even though the strategy for most of the difficult mobs is to whack it a few times then kite it around. The thing that keeps you playing is the gear carrot-on-a-stick, and even then most of the loot that drops is crap anyway so you are mostly just farming gold to buy decent stuff off the AH. Damn, why am I still playing it?!? heh heh

Co-Op play is actually pretty fun though

[Widespreadd Panic]

Trem don't feel bad, I only made it to level 18 and never touched it again.

[Lonskils]

Trem don't feel bad, I only made it to level 18 and never touched it again.

10 here, I've played more interesting Monkey Tower Defense games.

[Trem]

Funner?
It's a word damnit!

I think i still have the fondest memories in an mmo as a monk in Ever Quest. There was some really good ones in WoW too. I really should look into recorded my awesome adventures.

[Lonskils]

It's a word damnit!

I think i still have the fondest memories in an mmo as a monk in Ever Quest. There was some really good ones in WoW too. I really should look into recorded my awesome adventures.

Ah, good times defending stables. We never got over run!

[Aindayen]

It's a word damnit!

I think i still have the fondest memories in an mmo as a monk in Ever Quest. There was some really good ones in WoW too. I really should look into recorded my awesome adventures.

You could always log back in near MoP to say hai~