This game is now quite enjoyable to play 1-2 hours every now and then.
I have to wonder though- Just how long did those folks with paragon lvl 400 play to get there?
50% additional exp community buff. Level twice as fast. I went from 40 to 170 with fairly limited play in a month
I just got my Mask of Jeram (the pet build one, not the crappy set one) last night. Rocking a level 60 tasker and theo with 47% faster attacks and the new level 70 mask of Jeram with 97% increased damage. Fetishes/dogs went from being solid shields to hitting like trucks.
Diablo III patch 2.0.4 is now live in the Americas. Check out the full patch notes below to learn all about the latest changes.
Important: Please note that you will not be prompted to download patch 2.0.4 until the patch is live in your home region. If you are logging in from a European or Asian client, you will need to wait for this patch to release in that region before it can be installed. Additionally, if your home region is in the Americas, you will be unable to log into Europe or Asia using Global Play after patch 2.0.4 is live until those regions have also patched.
Diablo III Patch 2.0.4 - v2.0.2.23119
Visit our Bug Report forum for a list of known issues.
GENERAL
•Greatly increased the survivability of pets summoned by several items and skills, including: •Skycutter
•Maximus
•The Gidbinn
•Genzaniku
•Litany of the Undaunted
•Call of the Ancients
•Falling Sword - Rise Brothers
•All Town hubs have had the placement of the Nephalem Rift Obelisk, Orek, and Kadala adjusted to help reduce the chance of accidental clicking
•The Blacksmith's Belongings box in Act I no longer has collision
CLASSES
•Barbarian •Philosophy •Many skills that spend Fury feel great, but when it comes time to generate Fury the single-target options don't feel meaty compared to the generators that can hit more than one target at a time. As a result, we are increasing the potency of those single-target generators to be more competitive.
•Active Skills •Bash •Increased base damage from 170% to 215% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Clobber •Increased chance to stun for 1.5 seconds from 30% to 35%
•Skill Rune - Onslaught •Increased additional damage from 80% to 100% weapon damage
•Frenzy •Increased base damage from 120% to 155% weapon damage
•War Cry •Bug Fix: Fixed an issue preventing the 5 seconds of paused Fury degeneration after casting War Cry from working.
•Weapon Throw •Increased base damage from 150% to 185% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Mighty Throw •Increased damage from 210% to 270% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Throwing Hammer •Increased chance to stun from 30% to 40%
•Crusader •Philosophy •Many of the Crusader's Wrath spenders are below where we would like, while Heaven's Fury - Fires of Heaven was over-performing. We are toning back Fires of Heaven while increasing the potency of most of the other Crusader spenders to encourage greater build exploration.
•The single-target Wrath generator spells, Punish and Justice, don't feel meaty compared to generators that can hit more than one target at a time. As a result, we are increasing the potency of Punish and Justice to be more competitive.
•We are making a few adjustments to improve Steed Charge. The cooldown and duration of the skill have both been reduced. Overall, this makes the total uptime for the skill slightly higher and, more importantly, you'll be able to hit the button more often. We're removing the ability for Steed Charge to break stuns, which allows us to focus on Steed Charge being primarily a mobility skill that can still get you out of root effects, such as Jailer. We still want Steed Charge to be useful in combat, so we're also increasing the damage on damage-focused runes.
•General •Crusaders now take 15% less damage from all sources
•Active Skills •Akarat's Champion •Skill Rune - Rally •Fixed an issue where Rally would not reduce the cooldown of Condemn
•Blessed Hammer •Skill Rune - Burning Wrath •Increased radius from 5 to 8 yards
•Increased pool damage from 95% to 150% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Icebound Hammer •Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Icebound Hammer wasn't chilling enemies
•Icebound Hammer no longer goes away when exploding
•Blessed Shield •Increased base skill damage from 280% to 340% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Combust •Increased damage from 105% to 270% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Shattering Throw •Increased damage from 50% to 333% weapon damage •Known Issue: The tooltip for this skill rune does not reflect this change
•Fist of the Heavens •Increased base skill's impact damage from 250% to 340% weapon damage
•Increased base skill's bolt damage from 210% to 340% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Divine Well •Increased damage from 14% to 80% weapon damage
•Increased bolt zap search radius from 12 to 18 yards
•Skill Rune - Fissure •Increased area of effect damage from 80% to 400% weapon damage over 5 seconds
•Increased Arc capsule damage radius from 3 to 6 yards
•Skill Rune - Heaven's Tempest •Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Heaven's Tempest was not moving around in its intended pattern
•Heaven's Fury •Skill Rune - Fires of Heaven •Reduced damage from 950% to 735% weapon damage
•Justice •Increased base skill damage from 175% to 240% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Burst •Increased damage from 25% to 30% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Hammer of Pursuit •Hammer of Pursuit now seeks targets more quickly after cast
•Increased damage from 200% to 300% weapon damage
•Phalanx •Increased base skill damage from 295% to 380% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Bowmen •Increased damage from 85% to 160% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Bodyguard •Increased damage from 200% to 285% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Shield Charge •Increased damage from 75% to 180% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Stampede •Increased Stun chance from 25% to 30%
•Punish •Increased base skill damage from 200% to 270% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Retaliate •Increased damage from 70% to 94% weapon damage
•Shield Bash •Increased base skill damage from 325% to 370% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Crumble •Increased on death proc damage from 550% to 660% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Pound •Increased damage from 550% to 740% weapon damage
•Increased bonus damage from shield Block Chance from 150% to 500%
•Steed Charge •Reduced base skill cooldown from 25 to 16 seconds
•Reduced base skill duration from 2 to 1.5 seconds
•No longer breaks Stun
•Skill Rune - Endurance •Reduced duration from 3 to 2 seconds
•Skill Rune - Ramming Speed •Increased damage from 475% to 515% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Nightmare •Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where the Fire pools were not lasting their full intended duration
•Skill Rune - Draw and Quarter •Increased damage from 125% to 185% weapon damage
•Sweep Attack •Increased base damage from 400% to 440% weapon damage
•Passive Skills •Lord Commander •Now reduces the cooldown of Steed Charge by 25% and Bombardment by 35%
•Demon Hunter •Philosophy •Many skills that spend Hatred feel great, but when it comes time to generate Hatred the single-target options don't feel meaty compared to the generators that can hit more than one target at a time. As a result, we are increasing the potency of a few single-target generators to be more competitive.
•Active Skills •Evasive Fire •Increased base middle shot damage from 160% to 200% weapon damage
•Increased base side shot damage from 80% to 100% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Covering Fire •Bug Fix: Fixed a bug causing the side shot damage to be lower than the amount listed
•Increased the damage of the side shots from 160% to 200% weapon damage
•Increased the range of the side shots from 50% to 80% to match the range of the middle shot
•Hungering Arrow •Increased base damage from 125% to 155% weapon damage
•Sentry •Skill Rune - Guardian Turret •The damage reduction from this rune will now be reflected in the Toughness display
•Monk •Philosophy •Monks are working as intended and Dashing Strike is perfectly balanced.
•There are no Monk changes at this time. Monks are currently in a fairly comfortable place, but as with all aspects of the game, we will continue to monitor them and make changes as needed.
•Witch Doctor •Philosophy •The Witch Doctor was lacking good options for when they were low on Mana. A lack of attractive Signature spells results in builds primarily focused on sustaining Mana for long periods of time. We are increasing the potency of a few single-target Signature spells to be more competitive so that there are still aggressive options while waiting for Mana to regenerate.
•Haunt has received some changes to provide a low-Mana option as well as to emphasize options for a damage-over-time (DOT) play style.
•Active Skills •Poison Dart •Increased base skill damage from 155% + 40% to 185% + 40% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Splinters •Increased damage from 65% to 105% weapon damage per dart
•Skill Rune - Spined Dart •Increased amount of Mana returned from 25 to 50
•Skill Rune - Flaming Dart •Increased damage from 275% to 425% weapon damage over 4 seconds
•Damage over time from Flaming Dart can now stack with itself
•Skill Rune - Snake to the Face •Stun chance increased from 25% to 33%-35%
•Corpse Spiders •Increased base skill damage from 216% to 324% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Leaping Spiders •Increased damage from 238% to 383% weapon damage
•Skill Rune - Blazing Spiders •Increased damage from 259% to 400% weapon damage
•Firebomb •Skill Rune - Pyrogeist •Increased damage from 560% to 880% weapon damage
•Haunt •Reduced Mana cost from 200 to 50
•Increased base skill damage from 1465% over 6 seconds to 4000% over 12 seconds
•Wizard •Philosophy •Two skills on the Wizard, Arcane Orb - Frozen Orb and Electrocute, have bugs with their implementation. Unfortunately, these bug fixes do have the side effect of weakening these skills. Ultimately, this brings these skills back in line with other Wizard skills, which is why we chose to implement these fixes.
•Teleport is receiving some changes to allow it to work in more situations. The range is being increased overall for each cast of Teleport. As a result, the Wormhole rune is receiving a reduction in the number of successive casts that can be completed. Previously, you could cover 140 yards in 4 casts and now you can cover 150 yards in 3 casts. Overall, this is a buff.
•Active Skills •Arcane Orb •Frozen Orb •Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Frozen Orb was chilling for longer than intended
•Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where the Frozen Orb bonus damage radius was hitting a larger area than intended
•Electrocute •Skill Rune - Surge of Power •Reduced proc scalar from 0.25 to 0.166
•Teleport •Increased range from 35 to 50 yards
•Skill Rune - Wormhole •Reduced maximum allowed teleports from 4 to 3
•Passive Skills •Arcane Dynamo •Bug Fix: Arcane Dynamo now properly grants bonus damage to channeled spells
•Prodigy •Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where Electrocute was granting double the intended amount of Arcane Power when used with Prodigy
ADVENTURE MODE
•The Nephalem Obelisks now have a short cast time before they activate
•Nephalem Rifts •Adjusted the potential layouts for Sewer and Aqueduct style dungeons to include more randomized options
CRAFTING
•Level 70 crafted sets no longer require Flawless Royal gems and instead now require Marquise gems
•The drop rate of unique Legendary crafting materials has been significantly increased •This matches the drop rate of Death's Breaths
•Death's Breaths are no longer required for level 61-70 Rare crafting recipes
•Bug Fix: Legendary crafted shields now provide the correct amount of Block Value for their level
ITEMS
•The treasure from Resplendent Chests has been improved to feel more resplendent
•Bug Fix: Legendary Follower relics will no longer roll incorrect Primary stats
•Malthael is now much more afraid, and will more consistently drop the Reaper's Fear Legendary crafting material
•Bug Fix: Gloves of Worship no longer grant 60 minute buffs for Empowered or Fleeting Shrines
MONSTERS
•Damage from ghosts with the Soul Siphon ability has been reduced
•Poison Enchanted •Duration of each Poison Enchanted globule reduced from 8 to 6 seconds.
•Maximum number of Poison Enchanted globules has been reduced from 4 to 3 per cast
•Poison Enchanted is now triggered with more variation in timing from Champion packs
•The "Kill Malthael" quest is now required to be completed before Malthael will drop loot
QUESTS
•The Crazy Climber event now requires players to kill the monsters spawned during the event to complete
•The Jar of Souls event now spawns additional monsters in Torment I and higher
•The Matriarch's Bones event now spawns additional monsters in Torment I and higher
•In Campaign Mode, Manglemaw now only drops loot and gives XP before the player progresses to the Chancellor's Tomb quest
USER INTERFACE
•Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where game objects were prioritized over chat links in the chat window
•Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where players were sometimes unable to click on chat links at the bottom of the chat window
If you are experiencing technical issues with the patching process, connecting to Battle.net after installing the patch, or errors while playing a newly-patched game, please visit our support site or post in the Technical Support forum for assistance.
Will have to see how the reduction to chilling affects monster movement though. I rely a bit on orb slowing monsters down enough to give me some space to maneuver.
I messed around a bit with my Wizard last night and didn't really feel the ill effects of the nerf. I've been playing Normal or Torment 1, which isn't typically an issue.
As much as I'd like to find level 70 set items, losing bonus XP from Pools of Reflection is the worst feeling.
Legendaries in rifts 100% upped. Blood shards are also getting buffed with this too.
Chest runs and unique runs are also getting nerfed.
The exact post from Travis day:
Quote from Travis Day - Game Designer »
Hey all,
A series of hotfixes will be deployed today making more adjustments to overall reward structures within the game.
I wanted to take a minute to explain the reasons for the changes that we are making. A driving goal of our design has been to make killing monsters feel rewarding, we want you all to find tons of cool items that you are excited about but more importantly we want you to have fun while doing it.
Rifts have always been intended to be the most efficient play method in the game, currently they aren’t for a number of reasons. Part of this has to do with the high level of efficiency in farming that players find doing things like farming Manglemaw, Razorclaw and any other number of unique monsters. Another contributing element is that farming chests without having to actually fight monsters is far more effective than actually fighting the monsters. It is very important to us that chests are exciting to find and feel rewarding but presently they are far too common and reliable to farm in certain areas of the game.
Finally Kadala, she has always been intended to give players some degree of control over their item upgrades. While we don’t want players to simply pick and choose from a list of items at an excessively high cost, we do want you to have an answer to the question “How do I upgrade my boots?” Kadala is meant to be that answer, she is meant to give you some direct control over the types of items you find. Since we are increasing the overall reward structure of the game she is also going to be increasing but by a larger amount than the rest of the changes since she didn't feel rewarding enough to us.
Without further delay here is a list of the changes that will be coming in the hotfix.
The Bad!
Unique monsters now drop less items.
*Uniques were dropping far more loot than their difficulty would warrant.
Chest spawns have been thinned out across all acts of the game.
*Ideally chests become less common and something that players can’t flip games to farm. It is our goal to make them feel exciting and rewarding when you find them.
The Good!
The bonus legendary drop rate for rifts is being increased from 25% to 100%!
*This means that while in a rift your chance to find a legendary item from monsters, chests, elites, and everything else is double what it is outside of rifts. No this does not mean opening bounty bags in rifts is the new hotness. ;P
Kadala’s legendary drop rate has been significantly increased.
*Blood Shards are meant to be a compelling element of rift rewards and something players are excited to get.
Loot is an incredibly important aspect of Diablo games and we will continue to keep a very close eye on it. If more problems arise we will continue striving to address them. It isn’t our goal to take loot away from people, we just want to make sure they are having as much fun as possible while finding it and these changes all support that goal.
Just curious as to who is still playing this. I've been playing quite a bit lately and have gotten up to P207. Love playing my Twin Chakram Demon Hunter with 4 piece marauders.
I have most of the gear that I want, though I wouldn't mind better versions of it.
I need a witching hour belt, calamity, and a soj/nat's ring.
Nat's Ring would let me switch my boots to Marauders and my helm to an Andys. Though SOJ is probably the stronger ring. Regardless right now I'm using an awful BK's.
I'm still playing and find it remarkable that I just today learned why sheet/weapon DPS is meaningless. I had read advice to the extent of "you have to test for yourself to know how much damage you're really dealing" for months but never understood why. I assumed that when a skill says "deals X% weapon damage" that X = weapon DPS, when in reality X = weapon damage (duh). This neatly explains why, for classes like Monk where you are often resource-starved, it can be more efficient to use a slow two-hander with high damage because you will save resource while dealing a similar amount of damage. LIFE-CHANGING.
Im still playing. In about a week I might take a break as the misses will be doing massive finals studying. I been trying to do split farming pub games lately and everyone runs to act 1 finishes it and leaves or AFKs. Im honestly getting annoyed at this. Would love to get a group to hammer split farming.
Also Sheet DPS is maybe the biggest lie right now considering what isn't taken into account for dps like bonuses.
everyone runs to act 1 finishes it and leaves or AFKs.
Until there is some other way to get the royal ring of grandeur that will be life. I know that givne my druthers the only thing I'd be doing is act I boutnies for that stupid ring. And I don't even have enough pieces of any sets for it to matter.
Been playing as a Crusader with my wife. I managed to get that shield (Jokenborg or something) that adds 6 additional hits to the Crusader's Captain America Shield Throw. Even though the shield is 20 levels below me, I'm still crushing large groups easily.
I have to wonder though- Just how long did those folks with paragon lvl 400 play to get there?
50% additional exp community buff. Level twice as fast. I went from 40 to 170 with fairly limited play in a month
Now I just need a good Gidbinn.
This seems like a good time to get my other four characters up to 70.
Will have to see how the reduction to chilling affects monster movement though. I rely a bit on orb slowing monsters down enough to give me some space to maneuver.
As much as I'd like to find level 70 set items, losing bonus XP from Pools of Reflection is the worst feeling.
Black Hole is great.
Legendaries in rifts 100% upped. Blood shards are also getting buffed with this too.
Chest runs and unique runs are also getting nerfed.
The exact post from Travis day:
I have most of the gear that I want, though I wouldn't mind better versions of it.
I need a witching hour belt, calamity, and a soj/nat's ring.
Nat's Ring would let me switch my boots to Marauders and my helm to an Andys. Though SOJ is probably the stronger ring. Regardless right now I'm using an awful BK's.
http://www.diabloprogress.com/hero/pringlesman-1461/Angelin/2936715
Calvin and Hobbes
Cube Tutor
Also Sheet DPS is maybe the biggest lie right now considering what isn't taken into account for dps like bonuses.
Until there is some other way to get the royal ring of grandeur that will be life. I know that givne my druthers the only thing I'd be doing is act I boutnies for that stupid ring. And I don't even have enough pieces of any sets for it to matter.
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