[Cyanide]

I thought I'd create a thread that will be updated with Blue posts, sort of like a blues tracker for the more important/good-to-know stuff. And because these are official sources, it will end speculative thoughts on how certain things work in the game.

This is just for easy referencing, or getting to know the direction that the developers want Diablo 3 to head.

Lastly, just want to say that I consolidated some of the other posts into this one, so here's a "thank you" for taking the time to write the stuff up.

+ [16/10/12 - Infernal Machine] +

Ready for a double dose of diabolical danger? In patch 1.0.5, level 60 players will be able to forge a cursed construct called the Infernal Machine, allowing them to battle "uber" versions of some of the most malevolent mischief-makers this side of New Tristram…in pairs. While the rewards for defeating these extra-bad bosses will be great, some assembly is required.
Read on to find out how to craft the Infernal Machine, where it can be used, and what epic rewards await those brave enough to unlock its secrets.

The Components

To craft the Infernal Machine, players will first need to collect four components from powerful Keywardens in each Act of Inferno:

The Key of Destruction will drop from Odeg the Keywarden in Act I - Fields of Misery
The Key of Hate will drop from Sokahr the Keywarden in Act II - Dahlgur Oasis
The Key of Terror will drop from Xah'Rith the Keywarden in Act III - Stonefort
The Infernal Machine Blacksmithing Plans will drop from Nekarat the Keywarden in Act IV - Silver Spire Level 1

More information on the bosses and rewards after the break!

+ [16/10/12 - Patch 1.0.5 Arrives Today] +

We will be performing scheduled maintenance for Diablo III starting tomorrow at 3:00 a.m. PDT in order to deploy patch 1.0.5. We anticipate that maintenance will conclude and that all services will be available by approximately 1:00 p.m. PDT.

Important: Please note that you will not be prompted to download patch 1.0.5 until the patch is live in your home region. If you are logging in from a European or Asian client, you will need to wait for this patch to release in that region before it can be installed. Additionally, if your home region is the Americas, you will be unable to log into Europe or Asia using Global Play after patch 1.0.5 is live until those regions have also patched.

For reference, here are the scheduled maintenance times for each region:

The Americas: 3:00 a.m. PDT (10/16) to 1:00 p.m. PDT (10/16)
Europe: 6:00 p.m. PDT (10/16) to 4:00 a.m. PDT (10/17)
Asia: 1:00 p.m. PDT (10/17) to 11:00 p.m. PDT (10/17)

Please note that these times are subject to change. For time zone assistance, please visit: http://everytimezone.com

+ [12/10/12 - Monster Power: More Guts, More Glory] +

The armies of the Burning Hells are about to become a lot more hellacious. In patch 1.0.5, we'll be introducing Monster Power, a new system designed to give players more control over how challenging enemies are in each difficulty setting. Similar to the "Players X" command in Diablo II, Monster Power gives Diablo III players the option to increase the health and damage of monsters according to different "power levels" -- and in return, they'll receive scaling bonuses to their adventure stats (including experience, Magic Find, and Gold Find) as well as more drops.

The option to adjust Monster Power will be available to all players starting at level 1 through the Quest Selection window, and can be adjusted separately for Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno difficulties. Here's how the system works....

Information can be found here

This is how Monster Power scales in Inferno:

You can continue reading the rest of the blog update from the link above.

What I'm particularly happy about is this: "More power to the people"

The Power Is Yours

In Diablo III, your character's power can grow by multiple orders of magnitude, but up until now there hasn't been a way for you to truly put that potency to the test. The Monster Power system provides a new outlet for high-powered heroes to truly see how far they've come and tangibly experience just how epic the gear they've collected is.

Different players want different levels of challenge, and with Monster Power you'll be able to determine what the right level of challenge is for you. Whether you're in it for the guts, the glory, or simply the goodies, we're excited to offer players the opportunity to face the forces of evil on their own (possibly slightly insane) terms.

+ [05/10/12 - PTR Patch 1.0.5 Notes] +

PTR Patch 1.0.5 Notes

+ [25/09/12 - On WW Barbs and Nerfing in general] +

Source

Run the Like Wind makes WW/double tornado barb a very strong build by combining multiple benefits into one neat little package: life regeneration, Fury gain, damage, in-combat mobility, and run speed. It's all there. Ask just about anyone (or take a look at the posts in these forums) and they'll tell you WW barbs are incredibly powerful, and it's also one of the first builds people point to when the word "nerf" is mentioned.

I think most players -- whether they'd admit it publicly or not -- probably agree that the tornadoes left by sprinting (a skill that provides utility, huge mobility, and proc effects including Life On Hit and Into The Fray) shouldn't be so powerful in comparison to other skills that have restrictions on them. Like Hammer of the Ancients, which requires you to stand still, swing, and who's sole purpose is to deal damage. We'd like to bring the skill more in-line with other build options, and we think that from a pure design standpoint the problem is tornadoes triggering procs, most specifically Life on Hit.

The survivability you get from WW with LoH is definitely an outlier compared to other available builds. This wasn't a huge issue previously, but once we introduced Monster Power it became clear that we needed to make some adjustments. Basically, when we were doing our initial testing for 1.0.5, anything that didn't kill WW barbs in the first second of combat failed to be any sort of real threat, and that applied even after scaling Monster Power up to its higher settings. The amount of damage enemies do at higher Monster Power levels is pretty insane, and while the WW barb was still doing fine, it felt punishingly unfair to every other class and barbarian build.

This introduced another problem: if a WW barb could heal from empty to full health in half a second, then for any monster to pose a threat it would need to take you from full to dead in less than half a second. We could certainly make damage more spikey, but most players don't enjoy being insta-gibbed, and we tend to agree that going from full health to DEAD without ever seeing your health hit those intermediate values can make combat feel a little shallow. Having times when you want to play more conservatively vs. more aggressively can add depth to combat and make it more interesting, so (in general) we try to avoid creating situations where spikey damage is the norm.

So, even though we really liked the build, in the end all the data was telling us that WW needed to be changed.

Just to give you some history, when we started to troubleshoot how we could better balance Run Like Wind, we didn't want to remove the ability for tornadoes to trigger procs completely. Rather than break the build, we wanted to find ways to reduce the sheer efficiency of it without removing the fundamental mechanics that make it work. We also discussed options outside of adjusting its proc coefficient, too:

We looked at just nerfing Sprint's tornado damage, which would allow us to keep the core mechanics without the build being greatly more effective than every other build in the game, but the life regen still made the game too bursty at the higher Monster Power levels.

We also looked at reducing the run speed. But, the running speed boost is baked into Sprint, so it felt wrong to consider changing that aspect of the skill. The fact you have in-combat mobility is a fundamental property of leaving tornadoes behind as you sprint, so if we removed that aspect it'd be the same as deleting the skill from the game, and we're not interested in doing that.

The last alternative was Fury cost. You gain Fury with WW, but it comes from Battle Rage – Into the Fray. Into The Fray seems to interact just fine with other skills, which really underscores that the real issue is the tornadoes’ ability to proc effects.

After a lot of internal testing and heated debates, we ultimately decided to address the core of the issue and reduce Run Like Wind's proc coefficient, and we brought it down by a significant amount (from 0.2 to 0.08). We want to make sure whirlwinding is still viable, though, so to compensate, we also dropped down Whirlwind's Fury cost from 16 to 9. This should make it possible for players to still whirlwind continuously, but it lessens the need to have Sprint in order to use Whirlwind at all.

Of course, we're really looking forward to players jumping on the PTR, testing out the changes first-hand, and sharing their feedback. We're still working out a few kinks with the PTR client, but hopefully we can start getting that feedback pretty soon now.

+ [25/09/12 - pcgamer.com Patch 1.0.5 Interview with Jay Wilson and Wyatt Cheng] +

Diablo 3 Patch 1.0.5 interview with Jay Wilson and Wyatt Cheng

You also mentioned in that entry talking with the Warcraft and StarCraft guys about the game. I’m curious to know how often this happens, and if you have any specific examples of decisions you made for Diablo based on their feedback, or decisions they made because of something you guys suggested.

Jay Wilson, Game Director: We talk a lot about each other’s projects. Like, we all play each other’s games, and especially our design culture is very cross-team oriented. So, the game directors for all the projects – we go out to lunch together once a week. We actually meet at least one other time in a more formal capacity. And that’s just to talk about games and what everybody’s doing.

I, particularly, gave a lot of feedback on the pet battles system that’s going into [World of Warcraft expansion] Mists of Pandaria. They gave us a lot of feedback on game tuning and how to handle, kind of, in-game content and reward systems.

WC: I would say that the degree of collaboration is very high. A lot of it, like Jay has alluded to, is formal, recurring meetings with the other directors … There’s also a lot of social interaction that can happen, too, informally. I get e-mails or IMs from people on the other teams, or I’ll ask them for their opinions.

We also try to open up communication a little bit. So, sometimes if I’m working on a change, I’ll cc them on an e-mail so they can kind of listen in, so to speak. And 90 percent of the time, they won’t say anything. But if they see something that seems out of line, then they’ll chime in.

I’d say that happens almost on a daily basis.

Pretty good interview giving us a look at what goes on in development.

For the full interview, head on over here

+ [21/09/12 - PTR Patch 1.0.5 Notes] +

New System: Monster Power
Similar to the "Players 8" command in Diablo II, Monster Power is a system designed to give players more control over how challenging enemies are in each difficulty. With this system, players can choose to increase the health and damage of monsters according to different "power levels" and in return they’ll receive scaling bonuses to experience (for heroes levels 1-59) as well as boosts to Magic Find and Gold Find (for heroes in Inferno) which will stack above the 300% cap. The option to increase Monster Power will be available to all players starting at level 1 in the Quest Selection window, and can be adjusted separately for Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno difficulties.

New Event: Infernal Machine
The Infernal Machine is a device that will allow level 60 players to battle "uber” versions of some of Sanctuary's most nefarious bosses. While the rewards for defeating these bosses will be great, some assembly is required. Only the most powerful Nephalem can unlock the secrets to building the Infernal Machine, but once forged the device can be used to open portals to special encounters featuring not one, but two bosses which have been augmented from their original versions, both in terms of difficulty and appearance. Defeating each boss pair will provide players with extra items and gold, as well as a chance to find components for a new Legendary ring.

Full PTR Patch notes can be found here

+ [15/09/12 - Dev Journal: Defensive Bonuses and Monster Damage] +

Dev Journal: Defensive Bonuses and Monster Damage

We're taking a close look at defensive skills vs. incoming monster damage in 1.0.5. We’re going to be changing a few defensive skills for each class, including some direct nerfs to skills like wizard Energy Armor and barbarian War Cry - Impunity. However, we're also reducing incoming damage in Inferno, so players will actually come out ahead. In short the plan is:

1. Reduce the effectiveness of select defensive skills
2. Reduce monster damage by more than the mitigation lost by these skills
3. Putting both changes together, players actually take less damage than before

Why We're Making This Change

Why are we doing this? The reason is not complicated. High incoming monster damage combined with extremely powerful defensive skills make those skills and runes feel mandatory. Our goal is that by simultaneously nerfing defensive skills and reducing incoming damage, players who choose to continue using these defensive skills will take less damage overall, and players who choose to forego these "mandatory" skills will find themselves more survivable than what you would currently experience on live. Overall, these changes result in a huge buff in the player’s favor. Just how mandatory are these skills?

As it is now, Energy Armor is used by 83% of level 60 wizards. Also, take a look at the distribution of the War Cry skill on level 60 barbarians:

In developing Diablo III, defensive skills were made potent because we wanted to ensure they would be attractive. In some regards, we were too successful. Many players feel compelled to grab every defensive skill available to them, which can take away from some flexibility in using different build options.

This also creates problems for a class that may have less defensive skills. When one class has massive defensive buffs, abilities like Mortar, Arcane Enchanted, and Plagued can feel pretty modest, and at the same time feel overly punishing to a class without them. We’re all in favor of people being able to build their character for survivability, but there needs to be a balance.

How Much is Enough?

So the stated goal is to make sure the combination of the defensive skill nerf combined with the reduced damage from monsters still results in an overall buff to players. Let's bust out some math! As previously mentioned, Energy Armor is one of the skills being impacted. The exact change is the base armor provided by Energy Armor is being reduced from 65% to 35%, and the resistance increase provided by Prismatic Armor is being reduced from 40% to 25%.

The benefit of these skills is greater at higher levels of Armor and Resistance, so let’s assume very high numbers of each. Suppose a wizard has 6000 Armor and 800 Resist before Prismatic Armor. Assuming a level 63 enemy:

• In 1.0.4 this translates to 9900 Armor (75.86% mitigation) and 1120 Resist (78.05% mitigation) with Prismatic Armor, for a total mitigation of 94.70%
• In 1.0.5 this will be 8100 Armor (72.00% mitigation) and 1000 Resist (76.05% mitigation) with Prismatic Armor, for a total mitigation of 93.29%
• If a monster hits for 50,000 damage, then the damage taken by the wizard will go from 2650 damage to 3355 damage.
• This means incoming damage would have to be less than 79% of the current value (2650 /3355) in order for it to feel the same after 1.0.5.

Based on this it’s clear that in order to ensure 1.0.5 is a net buff for all wizards we’d have to reduce incoming monster damage by at least 21%. Prismatic Armor still provides a significant boost to survivability, but it should no longer feel mandatory, opening up other options such as a more offensively minded Storm Armor (which is getting buffed in 1.0.5).

Let’s do another example with the barbarian. War Cry Impunity is being reduced from 50% resistances to 20%.

• A barbarian with 800 resist before War Cry against a level 63 enemy translates to 1200 Resist (79.21% mitigation) with Impunity in 1.0.4
• In 1.0.5 this will be 960 Resist (75.29% mitigation) with Impunity
• If a monster hits for 20,000 damage after Armor, then the damage taken by the Barbarian will go from 4158 damage to 4942 damage
• This means incoming damage would have to be less than 84% of the current value on live (4158/4942) in order for the game to feel the same.

As it happens, we’re going to reduce all damage in Inferno by at least 25%. Players who want to be the toughest damage mitigators in the game can continue to use defensive skills and get a sizable bonus for doing so. Players who want to use other skills can do so without sacrificing such a massive amount of survivability. Class builds that don't currently use heavy mitigation skills such as Smoke Screen-focused demon hunters or Gargantuan-tanking witch doctors will find their survivability has gone up considerably due to reduced incoming monster damage.

Class by Class

+ [Barbarians] +

Barbarians:

• War Cry - Impunity: Bonus resistance reduced from 50% to 20%.
• Leap - Iron Impact: We’re adjusting the design of this skill. Rather than providing 300% armor for 4 seconds, it’s going to provide 100% armor per target hit for 3 seconds. So if you don't hit any targets, you won't get any armor. If you hit 5 targets, you'll actually get 500% armor. We are making this change because the intended fantasy of Iron Impact is a barbarian who leaps into the thick of battle and is super tough. The way the skill plays out on live it is essentially an Ignore Pain that can also move you. For the most part it is better than Ignore Pain, making not only Ignore Pain unattractive, but also the other Leap Attack runes. In 1.0.5, if you want a defensive cooldown - grab Ignore Pain. If you want to leap into the thick of battle and be super tough, take Iron Impact.

+ [Demon Hunters] +

Demon Hunters:

• In the case of the demon hunter, the class is a bit too binary. If you're playing a glass cannon Smoke Screen build, then you're invulnerable most of the time, and when you make a mistake, you die instantly. If you're using Shadow Power - Gloom with a legacy Natalya's set, then you have near constant uptime of 65% damage reduction, but if you're not using the legacy Natalya's set, Shadow Power - Gloom is a luxury.
• Independent of the general defensive skill nerf, we had already decided to buff Shadow Power to last longer. The primary purpose of Shadow Power is to give you a short window of time during which you can unload some damage to recoup some Life. Unfortunately the 3-second duration makes this awkward to use. We are changing Shadow Power from 20% Life Steal for 3 seconds to 15% Life Steal for 5 seconds. This should be a modest buff to the skill as well as making it a lot more pleasant to use. All of the runes are scheduled to see similar changes, such as Blood Moon going from 30% Life Steal for 3 seconds to 25% Life Steal for 5 seconds. Each rune effect is slightly smaller, but for 5 seconds instead of 3 seconds, resulting in an overall buff over the duration of the effect.
• Taking into account the across-the-board nerf to defensive skills, Gloom will become 35% damage reduction for 5 seconds.
• This developer journal is focused primarily on defensive skill changes, but because the change to Gloom is significant, I want to mention that we are looking at concrete mechanics changes to the demon hunter to introduce new play styles. Many players have mentioned that outside of Gloom, demon hunters seem to lack defensive options. More importantly, demon hunters would like some different play styles, and we agree! Here are a few changes we are adding for demon hunters in 1.0.5 to open up new ways to play:
• We are adjusting some runes and passives to provide ways to increase survivability that scales with your Life, Armor, and resistances.
• We are changing the Spider, Boar, and Wolf companion pets to be actual pets that can tank for you like a Gargantuan or Zombie Dog.
• We are putting a short cooldown on Sentry, but you can have two out simultaneously. On top of that, the Custom Engineering passive will let you have a third Sentry turret! This opens up a whole new play style for the Demon Hunter of establishing a "nest" that you can draw enemies into.

+ [Monk] +

Monk:

• The strongest monk defensive skill is One With Everything. We've mentioned it before and it bears repeating - this is something we would like to fix someday, but we're going to take our time. Changes to One With Everything heavily impact existing monk gear. We still plan on addressing this in the future but will do so in a way that does not invalidate the gear monks have invested in.
• Resolve: Damage reduction reduced from 25% to 20%.
• Seize the Initiative: Changed to grant 50% of your Dexterity as Armor. This will result in anywhere from 750 to 1250 armor for most monks (depending on your Dex) which is comparable to the mitigation lost by other classes. The reduction to Resolve and Seize the Initiative should mean if you want to be a “super-tanky monk” you can still take all three defensive skills, but it should be a lot easier to pick some other passives without feeling like you’re going to blow up at the first Elite pack you encounter.

+ [Witch Doctor] +

Witch Doctor:

• Jungle Fortitude is being reduced from 20% to 15% damage reduction.

+ [Wizard] +

Wizard:

• Energy Armor: Armor increase reduced from 65% to 35%.
• Energy Armor - Prismatic Armor: Resistance increase reduced from 40% to 25%.
• It’s worth noting that we’re going to provide additional alternative defensive options for the wizard such as adding flat melee damage reduction to Ice Armor and creating a Familiar variant that provides passive Life regeneration.

Why You Nerf Inferno?

Alright, so let's recap. Defensive skills are taking a hit in 1.0.5, but incoming damage from monsters is also being reduced. Taken together, the changes mean Inferno is going to be easier. For some of you this is totally cool; you welcome an easier Inferno because it’s about efficiency and not difficulty. For others, you may be skeptical but you're at least intrigued at the possibility that you'll be able to drop some defensive skills and discover some new builds. However, for others, Inferno is currently already too easy. Maybe you don't use any defensive skills; maybe your gear is so good you dropped War Cry - Impunity weeks ago. For this last group you may be wondering "Another Inferno nerf? But I crave more of a challenge, not less!"

For people in this last group, 1.0.5 is bringing the "Monster Power" system. The details of this system will be outlined as we get closer to 1.0.5, but in short this is a callback to the Diablo II ”players X” option, allowing you to increase the level of challenge for increased rewards. Our hope is that we can make Inferno easier while simultaneously providing new ways for top-end players to gauge their increasing power in tangible ways.

Wyatt Cheng is a Senior Technical Game Designer for Diablo III, and he’s annoyingly excited about Netrunner being re-released as a Living Card Game. It’s really starting to get on everyone’s nerves.

+ [13/09/12 - Patch 1.0.5 Sneak Peek] +

Patch 1.0.5 Sneak Peek

We’ll have articles in the coming days providing all the details on the upcoming patch, but we wanted to give you a sneak peek at what major features to expect.

Defensive Skill Changes

In our eternal quest to promote build diversity; we’ll be making changes to defensive skills across the board while simultaneously reducing incoming damage. The net result is a survivability buff for players, and an increase in build options as defensive abilities become less “mandatory.”

New Event: Infernal Machine

The Infernal Machine is a device that will allow level-60 players to battle “uber” versions of some of Sanctuary’s most nefarious bosses. While the rewards for defeating these bosses will be great, some assembly is required.

New System: Monster Power

Similar to the “Players 8” command in Diablo II, the Monster Power system is designed to give players more control over how challenging enemies are in each difficulty.

This and more is coming in Patch 1.0.5! Stay tuned for all the gory details.

+ [06/09/12 - Developer Journal: Crowd Control Changes] +

Developer Journal: Crowd Control Changes

Shortly after Diablo III launched, I remember watching Jay play his barbarian. He was having a blast, killing monsters left and right, but something was bothering him. He was annoyed because Ground Stomp -- one of his favorite abilities -- got worse as he progressed to higher difficulty levels, and that his character felt weaker despite having better gear and more stat points.

We all agreed that the game needed to get harder at higher difficulty levels, but Jay didn't like this particular way that it was getting harder. Specifically, he didn't like that we diminished crowd control (CC) effects. We had discussed CC effects many times during development, and we felt the system we had got the job done, but Jay felt we could do better.

Before release, we'd designed the game so that CC skills would have diminished durations at higher difficulties -- for example, most CC skills have their effectiveness reduced by 65% in Hell and Inferno. Jay has never been a fan of the way Ground Stomp and other CC skills become less powerful as a result of diminishing effects, but he also knew that a system to limit CC was required to add challenge at higher difficulties. While we've wanted to improve CC for some time now, we had bigger fish to fry first (like adding the Paragon System and improving Legendary items), so we made a note to revisit CC effects in a future patch.

Why We Reduce CC

Fast forward to present day as we prepare for patch 1.0.5. Before I talk about what we're doing to buff CC skills while still allowing the game to get harder, first, let's go over some of the reasons why we diminish the effects of CC in Diablo III:

• Monsters need time to do their thing to threaten you.
• While infinite CC rotations can feel make players feel awesome, it's fleeting. If CC becomes too powerful, it can trivialize most major mechanics and the game can become boring.
• Players in co-op have the potential to synchronize CC.

Of course, there are side effects to reducing CC to increase difficulty. One of the bigger issues we've seen is that, when it comes to mitigating incoming damage, CC skills rarely hold up against other options as you progress through Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno. While a skill like Ground Stomp mitigates damage, let's you control the battlefield, and is really fun to use, the duration reduction at higher difficulties is really noticeable, making the skill far less effective. Ignore Pain, on the other hand, mitigates damage by reducing how much of it you take, regardless of difficulty level. It may not be as exciting to trigger, but it's more reliable in those later levels since its power isn't diminished.

The following graphs show a few examples of how CC skills become less widely used as players progress from levels 25, 47, and 59 * (the levels you're likely to be at Act III Normal, Act III Nightmare, and Act III Hell):

It's no surprise that as the effectiveness of a CC skill starts to diminish, its relative value (especially against skills that provide self-buffs) starts to diminish as well. This can make you feel less powerful as a player, but it also starts to push people into a narrower set of builds. After all, if one skill's power depreciates over time and another skill's power doesn't, the skill that retains its power can become much more appealing.

*These graphs illustrate the general trend of how, as players level up, CC skills become less popular, while skills that provide self-buffs become more popular. We opted to not include level 60 data in these graphs because there are many builds in Inferno that use CC skills successfully (for example, Frost Nova with Critical Mass). While we think these synergy-based builds are awesome, they’re still outliers and would ultimately skew the graph data from the overall trend.

Trial and Error

Crowd controlling monsters is not only tactically valuable, but we think it's really fun, too. Our goal was to recapture that feeling in the higher difficulties. We wanted players to feel strong and heroic when using their CC skills, no matter what level they are, and we came up with a few ideas on how to accomplish that.

Idea #1: Reduce the Duration of CC effects in Co-Op Games

The first solution we came up with was to reduce the duration of CC effects in co-op games only, and allow full durations in single-player. While this would provide a great experience for solo players and help prevent the issue of infinite CC rotations in group play, the obvious downside is that CC skills would still feel weak in co-op games.

There are already a few mechanics (such as On Kill triggers) that discourage players from teaming up with their friends, and we don’t want to pile on "my CC is less effective" as yet another reason to avoid co-op. So, we tossed that idea out and went back to the drawing board.

Idea # 2: Make Diminishing Effects Not as Strong

We also discussed making all CC effects shorter from the start, but make them not diminish (this would apply for both single-player and co-op games). For example, we talked about making Ground Stomp always last for 2 seconds, even when you first get it at level 1. Sure, it's not as good at first, but at least it doesn't get worse with time.

Of course, this means that we’d have to make CC less powerful across the board. Although it solves the original problem of CC skills feeling weaker over time, it creates the new problem of "my CC skills never feel powerful," which is arguably worse.

Idea #3: Diminishing Returns

Another idea we considered was implementing diminishing returns the way World of Warcraft does. So, your first stun gets full duration, the second stun is cut in half, the third stun is cut by 75%, and for the fourth stun and beyond you get "IMMUNE."

While this works for WoW, it just doesn't seem like a good fit for Diablo III. Not only does it feel really weird to get an "IMMUNE" message, but it also puts a lot of limitations on you in co-op games when the order in which you and your teammate use CC can matter a great deal.
Let's say you have a 5 second stun and your partner has a 1.5 second stun. If you go first, the monster is stunned for 5 + 0.75 seconds = 5.75 seconds total. If your partner goes first, the monster is stunned for 1.5 + 2.5 seconds = 4 seconds total. That seems like more micromanagement than we want to place in a fast-paced action game like Diablo III.

Additionally, there are currently a few methods of CC which are already very potent. For example, certain wizard and monk builds can maintain extremely heavy CC on enemies. As we examined CC, we realized we wanted to make CC skills feel good on their own, while still allowing these dedicated builds and combinations to be successful. In effect, we want to buff the baseline usage without hurting the players who have figured out certain potent combinations (though in the big picture we are still keeping an eye on that). This was yet another reason not to adopt the WoW diminishing returns system.

As you can see, every one of the solutions we discussed had a pretty noticeable downside, and we were kind of left hanging. We went over the reasons together and Jay basically said, "I know WHY we reduce the durations, but I still don't like it. Keep working on it."

Developers, Assemble!

As we started to wrap up development for patch 1.0.4, I decided to get a fresh perspective on the situation and hit up some designers on World of Warcraft and StarCraft II. One of the great things about working at Blizzard is being able to tap the creativity of other development teams, while still being able to do what is right for the Diablo franchise. Although they work on a different game, many of the designers around the company have been playing the heck out of Diablo III, and I figured they would be able to offer me some deeper insight into what they thought worked and what didn't.

After tossing out ideas for a while, we had a small epiphany:What if we used diminishing returns, but developed a different set of rules for Diablo III?

What if monsters just never went immune? And what if, instead of reduced % durations, the durations were reduced based on the length of the CC, so that it didn’t matter which order the CC effects were applied when playing co-op?

Here's the system we arrived at:

How It Works:

• Monsters have a "CC resistance" that is stored on a per-monster basis.
• The CC resistance starts at 0%. For every 1 second CC that is applied to the monster, the monster receives 10% CC resistance.
• Monsters lose 10% of their CC resistance every second that they are not CC’d.
• Elite monster CC resistance is capped at the current reduction values already active for Elites. In other words, CC resistance on most Elite monsters is capped to:

• 35% in Normal
• 50% in Nightmare
• 65% in Hell
• 65% in Inferno

What This Means For the Player:

• From a high level, diminishing returns are applied on consecutive stuns to reduce their effectiveness.
• You will never get an "Immune" message due to diminishing returns.
• Diminishing returns on Elite monsters cap out at the same values that are currently applied to Elite reductions.

• As previous mentioned, this means that near-infinite CC strategies will still work. We're okay with these strategies remaining viable, as we love how powerful it makes players feel. (That said, we will continue to keep an eye on these strategies and may make some changes in the future if we feel it will be better for the health of the game.)

• If two players are in a co-op game, the order in which they apply their stuns doesn't generally matter, so you shouldn't feel totally "screwed over" by the other person applying their stun before yours.
• A character using only the occasional CC every 10-15 seconds will always get the full duration in all difficulty levels.

A Free Demonstration

Let's provide some examples to show how this new system can play out in real scenarios.

+ [Example 1:] +

1. A wizard freezes an Elite monster in Inferno difficulty for three seconds using Frost Nova. The monster is frozen for the full 3 seconds and now has 30% CC resistance (+10% resistance per second for 3 seconds = 30% CC resistance).
2. The moment the freeze ends, a witch doctor casts Horrify which fears the monster for 4 seconds. Since the monster has 30% CC resistance, it’s actually only feared for 2.8 seconds (4 seconds * 70% CC effectiveness = 2.8 seconds). The monster now has 58% CC resistance (30% from the first 3 second freeze + 28% from the 2.8 second fear).
3. After 5.8 seconds (freeze + fear duration), the monster is no longer CC’d. Suppose nothing happens for 5 seconds. During this time, the monster loses 50% of its CC resistance and is now at 8% CC resistance (58% - 50% = 8% CC resistance).
4. A monk casts Blinding Flash, applying a 3 second blind. The monster is blinded for 2.76 seconds (8% CC resistance off of 3 seconds) and the monster now has 35.6% CC resistance (which we could round off as necessary).

+ [Example 2:] +

1. A monk with the Pandemonium rune is in Nightmare difficulty and casts Seven-Sided Strike on a single enemy, resulting in a lot of possible 7-second stuns.
2. The first hit stuns the monster and lasts for a full 7 seconds, but adds 70% CC resistance.
3. The second hit also successfully stuns the monster, and lands 0.4 seconds later after the first hit. The 70% CC resistance is lowered to 50% because the game is currently on Nightmare difficulty, and Nightmare difficulty has a CC resistance cap of 50% -- so the stun is 3.5 seconds long. The 3.5-second stun gets applied, even though it is fully redundant with the existing 7-second stun. Since the new stun is shorter than the amount of time left on the current stun, no additional CC resistance is added. In effect, this second stun has no effect at all..

+ [Example 3:] +

1. A party of four monks attempts to stun-lock an Elite monster in Inferno difficulty. They are all using Blinding Flash with the Self-Reflection rune, which blinds an enemy for 4 seconds.
2. The first monk casts Blinding Flash and the monster is blinded for 4 seconds. It also now has 40% CC resistance.
3. The second monk also casts Blinding Flash, but times it to land the instant the first one ends. It lasts 2.4 seconds and increases the CC resistance to 64%.
4. Both blinds wear off 6.4 seconds later. The third monk lands his Blinding Flash immediately afterwards, which lasts 1.44 seconds. This increases the monster’s CC resistance to 78.4%.
5. It's now been 7.84 seconds, and the fourth monk wants in on the action. She uses her Blinding Flash. Even though the monster’s CC resistance is technically at 78.4% by now, it's capped at 65% because of the CC resistance caps in Inferno. So, the 4 second blind actually lasts for 1.4 seconds. This adds another 14% CC resistance, bringing the final to 92.4%. (The effective resistance is still at the 65% cap, but the 92.4% is tracked under the hood for the stun resistance to wear off.)
6. The poor monster has now been blinded for a total of 9.24 seconds, and the monks are out of Blinding Flashes.
7. The next blind will occur when the first monk’s Blinding Flash comes off cooldown. Since Blinding Flash has a 15 second cooldown, and only 9.24 seconds have passed, the party has to wait for another 5.76 seconds. During this time, the monster loses 57.6% CC resistance, leaving it at 34.8%.
8. The first monk uses his Blinding Flash as soon as it comes off cooldown. The 4 second blind is reduced to 2.61 seconds thanks to 34.8% CC resistance, and the monster’s CC resistance goes up another 26.1% to 60.9%.

+ [Example 4:] +

Scenario 1

• Player 1 applies a 1 second stun, it lasts 1 second. Monster has 10% CC resistance.
• Player 2 applies a 6 second stun, it lasts 5.4 seconds. Monster now has 64% CC resistance.

Scenario 2

• Player 1 applies a 6 second stun, it lasts 6 seconds. Monster now has 60% CC resistance.
• Player 2 applies a 1 second stun, it lasts 0.4 seconds. Monster now has 64% CC resistance.

(Scenario 1 & 2 demonstrate that this system allows consecutively chained CC effects to be applied in any order. In other words, the math is commutative.)

We feel these changes should make CC abilities much more appealing (especially in those later difficulty levels), and are currently targeting them to go out with patch 1.0.5. While that patch is still a ways away, we encourage you to experiment with the math in the meantime, ask us any questions you may have about how the new diminishing returns system will work, and share your feedback!

Wyatt Cheng is a Senior Technical Game Designer for Diablo III. His favorite Iron Chef is Hiroyuki Sakai. A la cuisine!

+ [01/09/12 - Trail of Cinders and +X% Elemental Damage explained] +

Upcoming changes for Trail of Cinders

+ [Trail of Cinders] +

In patch 1.0.5, we will be fixing a bug with Trail of Cinders that is causing the rune to deal five times more damage than intended. As a result of this fix, the amount of damage done by Trail of Cinders will be reduced from its current value (1500% weapon damage over 3 seconds) to the value we originally designed for 1.0.4, which is 300% weapon damage over 3 seconds. While this bug was discovered very quickly after 1.0.4 released and is capable of being hotfixed, we didn't want to move forward with the fix without giving players proper notice. We also know that players are having fun using Trail of Cinders in their builds, so -- although this is an important issue we want to address -- we're opting to wait for the next client patch to make any adjustments.

We recognize that some builds which currently use Trail of Cinders will no longer be viable once this bug is fixed. Ultimately, we want to continue to provide players with more build options and ways to feel creative with their skill/gear selections, but not at the expense of going against our design goals or creating situations which can encourage players to limit themselves defensively.

Discipline-based skills were never intended to trump Hatred-based skills when it comes to dealing damage. Instead, Discipline should be something you build up and save to use defensively, or to provide utility in addition to dealing damage. Allowing Trail of Cinders to remain in its current form goes against this philosophy, and in addition creates risky scenarios for players (after all, if you’re incentivized to spend all your Discipline doing damage, it won’t be available when you need it to keep yourself alive with skills like Smoke Screen or Shadow Power).

We don't yet have a date for when 1.0.5 will be released, but we'll provide more information as the development process continues. We'll also update this thread with a reminder once we're close to releasing the patch.

+X% Elemental Damage Affix Explained

+ [+x% Elemental Damage Affix] +

The "+x% Elemental Damage" affix works by adding "x%" of your physical damage to your attack, in the form of the damage type listed.

So, really basic example:
Your physical damage is 100, and the item adds +3% Fire damage.
You gain 3 extra damage to your attacks as Fire damage.


Things this takes into account:
Rings, mojos, orbs (etc) that have an "X-Y" damage affix (e.g. "1-2 Damage")
The base damage range of your weapon, before any elemental damage is added from the affix
+Min or +Max affixes on weapons

(Note: It doesn't benefit from "+X-Y Elemental Damage" affixes on weapons.)

We realize the current wording for this affix can be confusing, and it's something we'd like to make more clear in the future. If you have any suggestions for how this affix could be better worded, we're definitely interested in your suggestions. Just keep in mind that space is limited in item tooltips, and that whatever we use would need to be translated into all of our supported languages.

+ [21/08/12 - 1.0.4 Patch Notes] +

1.0.4 Patch Notes

GENERAL

+ Show +

• 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

+ Show +

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

+ Show +

• 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

+ Show +

• 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

+ Show +

• 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

+ Show +

• A repair tab has been added to the Blacksmith

Bug Fixes

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

FOLLOWERS

+ Show +

• 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

+ Show +

• 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

+ Show +

• 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

+ Show +

• 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

+ Show +

• 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

+ Show +

• 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

+ Show +

• 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

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

Quick Comments

	ZiggyD:	Admirable effort!
	Nemo:	Thanks Cyanide