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[larvi]

If I remember, I turn off elective mode after setting up my skills. Can't drag things any more but can still have your stuff in whatever slot you want.

Thanks much, just did a little testing and it looks like that may do the trick.

 

[Fenderputty]

Hmmm buffing of two handed weapons to make up for the loss of an offhand slot. Nice.

 

[Cipherr]

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
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
Rather than focus on whether or not you can beat an enemy, many players would rather figure out how fast they 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 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.

Fucking SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE man! This shit sounds FANTASTIC! I so fucking called the partial rollback of repair costs. And they REMOVED HP SCALING FROM MULTIPLAYER YES! Holy shit at weapons all having a chance to roll awesome ranges, and huge buffs for 2H weapons, lowering elite pack HP, higher drop rates from trash mobs and no more MF/GF averaging!

Fuck yeah man, this shit is all positive.

Hmmm buffing of two handed weapons to make up for the loss of an offhand slot. Nice.

Can you imagine the weapons market? 2H with capped dps are cheap as shit right now. All of a sudden 2H will be equal in ability and use to 2 1handers. The market is going to be funny as hell to watch.

 

[Fenderputty]

Fucking SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE man! This shit sounds FANTASTIC! I so fucking called the partial rollback of repair costs. And they REMOVED HP SCALING FROM MULTIPLAYER YES! Holy shit at weapons all having a chance to roll awesome ranges, and huge buffs for 2H weapons, lowering elite pack HP, higher drop rates from trash mobs and no more MF/GF averaging!

Fuck yeah man, this shit is all positive.




Can you imagine the weapons market? 2H with capped dps are cheap as shit right now. All of a sudden 2H will be equal in ability and use to 2 1handers. The market is going to be funny as hell to watch.

None of the current two handers are going to be affected though correct. Everything going forward from 1.0.4 is going to be real interesting. If 2H and iLVL 61 & 62 weapons can also have high damage, then the weapon market will become more diverse prices should drop accross the board. It's also going to make seeing that iLVL 61/62 and 2H weapon more interesting as it drop. Fucking sweet.

Making coop more inviting. Sweet

I love the evening out of trash and elite packs too. The fact that the're upping the chance of magic items to drop from trash is AWESOME.

I love the lack of enrage timer. Half of the time enrage timers on elites weren't about DPS checks either. Becaause my DPS is high. But if it's on an elite that's molten and runs away from you, it takes a lot of patience and running around to take down. Getting rid of invulnerable minions is fantastic as well.

I can't wait to hear about the skill buffs and the legendary buffs. This patch sounds like a god send. Should really extend the playability. Sounds like they're going to buff WD too making it a more viable build in inferno.

 

[inky]

edit: All of this sounds ultra-meh. No one will come back solely for 1.0.4 but it's cool for those who are still playing it. l

Pretty much. Most of it doesn't sound like they are making the game interesting/fun/amazing again, just simple common sense stuff people have been pestering them about since week 3. It's a lot of changes for sure, and I'll have to see the class specific/item buffs as well.

Maybe now I can justify a couple of item runs a week, instead of none. My friends don't even play anymore, so the MF changes are useless to me, in fact most of the coop ones are.

 

[V_Arnold]

YES! YES! EVERY SINGLE CHANGE IS AMAZING!

Every single one of them.
Every.Single.One.Of.Them.

1.0.4 is literally a dream come true. Oh my god.
*smiles*

edit: All of this sounds ultra-meh. No one will come back solely for 1.0.4 but it's cool for those who are still playing it.

Haha. Keep drinking that booze, man
If the skill buffs make 4-10 new builds viable, if monster packs last a bit longer and net more rares without them being elite packs, there will be SO MUCH FUN in the game again, that I cant even imagine it. Damn it, I need to get all my toons to 60. Lacking a DH, a WD and a Barb, lol.

 

[BigBlue1974]

I'm really excited to see these changes.

The changes they are making with the co-op health along with the shared MF is excellent. I'm looking forward to teaming up with some of the people here. As well, the increased health and potential loot from trash is also a great idea.

I love the fact that they'll remove the BS regen to full health of champs. I don't die *too* often but it can be a real pain to get a group down to near death, die and then have to redo the whole battle.

 

[yo_soy_el_topo]

Like all the changes, still don't know if it's enough to make me actually want to play it again yet though.

To clarify I've put over 300 hours into the game and like it a lot. I just need a bit more content. I still feel from half of act 3 (after Siegebreaker) onwards the game feels incomplete and needs something to help in terms of making it fun enough for me to actually want to get better gear.

IMO Act 4 needs to be completely redone but whatever.

It's a great change for people who were having issues with the games difficulty but not enough for people who just need some more interesting content.

 

[Kilrogg]

Yeah, I'm excited to know what kind of skill buffs they're gonna come up with for wizards. I love my windup wizard, but the wicked wind twisters + diamond skind + frost nova + explosive blast is starting to feel a bit cookie-cutter. Remember that this first post is but a cursory glance at what's to come with the patch.

 

[Fenderputty]

Pretty much. Most of it doesn't sound like they are making the game interesting/fun/amazing again, just simple common sense stuff people have been pestering them about since week 3. It's a lot of changes for sure, and I'll have to see the class specific/item buffs as well.

Maybe now I can justify a couple of item runs a week, instead of none. My friends don't even play anymore, so the MF changes are useless to me, in fact most of the coop ones are.

If co-op is viable, you should add the GAF'ers that are still playing. It's not a total wasteland.

EDIT: I don't get teh naysayers here. How many people quit because of teh difficulty spikes and then the massive repair bills? They're making loot (specifically weapons and legendaries much much better). They're making skills more viable increasing the amount of builds to play with.

If you're a loot whore ... I don't see what's so "meh" with the update.

The co-op buff is freaking awesome too.

 

[V_Arnold]

Yeah, I'm excited to know what kind of skill buffs they're gonna come up with for wizards. I love my windup wizard, but the wicked wind twisters + diamond skind + frost nova + explosive blast is starting to feel a bit cookie-cutter. Remember that this first post is but a cursory glance at what's to come with the patch.

Yep, I basically stopped playing with my Wiz as it is kinda boring at this point, either I am killed if I start badly, or I just permafreeze everything - including the strongest elite packs in Act3. Not really a long-term entertainment source, honestly. And I would not go back to Poison Hydra ever, it has been way too long. Even if I love the sound of dat Blizzard.

 

[rataplein]

i got the cravings for diablo iii. i was going to buy it, but i remembered i can only play it in my netbook now. so i'd like to ask:

do you guys think i can run it?. i have an asus 1215b. it has an amd e350 processor.
i checked on "canyourunit" website, and i pass al the minimum reqs, except the cpu one. but sometimes those test are not really realiable...

so any of you guys now if i can run it properly in low settings?


thanks!

 

[Various Artists]

All right, Im back in, but not til the patch drops.

 

[Pop On Arrival]

yeah, I think everything sounds great, actually. Team games should be way more fun now, I think. I hope the white mob buff isn't an indirect nerf to WW barbs, lol.

 

[Kilrogg]

i got the cravings for diablo iii. i was going to buy it, but i remembered i can only play it in my netbook now. so i'd like to ask:

do you guys think i can run it?. i have an asus 1215b. it has an amd e350 processor.
i checked on "canyourunit" website, and i pass al the minimum reqs, except the cpu one. but sometimes those test are not really realiable...

so any of you guys now if i can run it properly in low settings?


thanks!

I have a Lenovo X121e, which has the same e350 APU as your netbook, and it can run it, but barely. Basically it's playable as long as you play solo (possibly 2-player) and don't wander too far into the higher difficulty levels. Once you reach hell and inferno a decent framerate is the difference between life and death. Obviously I'm playing on minimum settings at 1024*600 (800*600 being the lowest possible resolution).

I suggest you buy it and play through normal and maybe nightmare, and if you still enjoy the game, buy a capable laptop or desktop.

 

[Blast Processing]

I really like the sound of all these changes. The problem I have is, why weren't things like this from the start? It's like Blizzard never even tested Inferno. I believe there is a direct quote from them to the effect of what they did was just take it at a point where testers said it was hard, and double the difficulty--the type of thing that it looks like these changes (and prior ones) are just rolling back.

 

[SteveO409]

What would be the ideal way to farm with the new co-op changes. Just farm the whole act since you'll steamroll or do a route

 

[Totakeke]

Skimmed the article, then came here to see if there's anything to get excited for that I missed. Nope, not really.

 

[SteveO409]

I really like the sound of all these changes. The problem I have is, why weren't things like this from the start? It's like Blizzard never even tested Inferno. I believe there is a direct quote from them to the effect of what they did was just take it at a point where testers said it was hard, and double the difficulty--the type of thing that it looks like these changes (and prior ones) are just rolling back.

Really bad QA testing and it obviously felt like a rush product with lack of polish

 

[SRTtoZ]

they actually listened. love the changes!!!

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

Making elites easier? lol I'm gonna steamroll this game post-patch. They are already kind of easy for me.

 

[inky]

If co-op is viable, you should add the GAF'ers that are still playing. It's not a total wasteland.

EDIT: I don't get teh naysayers here. How many people quit because of teh difficulty spikes and then the massive repair bills? They're making loot (specifically weapons and legendaries much much better). They're making skills more viable increasing the amount of builds to play with.

If you're a loot whore ... I don't see what's so "meh" with the update.

The co-op buff is freaking awesome too.

I have plenty of gaffers already, and most of them haven't connected in 50+ days either.

I quit because the loot is uninteresting crap with too much emphasis on the same main stats (all of it, not only legendaries), there was no encouragement for build variety and no long term goals. Also, my not so crap loot stopped selling regularly, while the good improvement loot spiked in price considerably (looks like almost everybody out there has 100s of millions), so I just cashed out on my most valuable items while keeping a MF set for when I decided to come back. I also quit because my friends were gone and there was no incentive for me to level my alts when my WW barb is already the best class/skill combination for farming shit.

Don't get me wrong, I played like 250 hrs of it, and can say I enjoyed most, but there are very few hooks left keeping me back. In fact, the only thing has been trying to sell my surplus equipment @ the RMAH, and almost all of that is gone. I have enough Blizz bucks for an expansion, and Guild Wars 2 is coming soon, so I don't really see myself playing. Maybe that's why I feel it's not enough for me. *shrugs*

 

[Impeccable]

Now I can get excited about weapons!

(LOVE the details so far.)

 

[Prezhulio]

so i might be able to progress in act 2 inferno with my WD after this (since i don't want to grind act 1 to high hell or pay for the gear)?

 

[rataplein]

I have a Lenovo X121e, which has the same e350 APU as your netbook, and it can run it, but barely. Basically it's playable as long as you play solo (possibly 2-player) and don't wander too far into the higher difficulty levels. Once you reach hell and inferno a decent framerate is the difference between life and death. Obviously I'm playing on minimum settings at 1024*600 (800*600 being the lowest possible resolution).

I suggest you buy it and play through normal and maybe nightmare, and if you still enjoy the game, buy a capable laptop or desktop.

well, ill buy it then. thank you!

 

[maabus1999]

Half of this is just to change 1.03 changes. Plus, this is 2 months too late; too many new titles coming out to pull many people back in IMO, on top of their own MOP releasing within a month.

Plus, there is zero "itemzation" changes to how stats are worked as far as I can tell. That is the biggest issue IMO...everything is outright boring item wise. The new build diversity is nice but I'd also say "show me."

 

[Anoregon]

The changes seem good overall, but until I see specifics about items and class skills/runes I'm going to remain unconvinced that this is a game I will be interested in again.

 

[spindoctor]

Very good changes all around. I hope some of they make certain combinations of affixes never appear at all such as jailer + mortar which traps you and then you have no way of avoiding the mortars and death.

 

[sazzy]

Not getting my hopes up. Will judge when I play. The changes sound good on paper, but fuck if we know they aren't introducing more unlisted crap changes that make the overall game worse.

 

[Kilrogg]

well, ill buy it then. thank you!

You're welcome. Keep in mind that I said the game is playable. It gets choppy quite easily, but not so choppy that actions on screens become guesswork, unless you're playing with other people (where the game then becomes laggy because the fps gets too low at some point) or there are many enemies on screen (or you play for too long or whatever). I believe the highest FPS you'll get in an empty area at the lowest settings will be around 20. It's not much of a problem in normal and possibly nightmare because enemies don't deal that much damage and die fast.

 

[Backfoggen]

We’re removing Enrage Timers and the “heal back to full” behavior from Champion and Rare monster packs.
We’re getting rid of the Invulnerable Minions monster affix.

F
I
N
A
L
L
Y

 

[Blast Processing]

Very good changes all around. I hope some of they make certain combinations of affixes never appear at all such as jailer + mortar which traps you and then you have no way of avoiding the mortars and death.

Mortar is also supposed to have been fixed with a minimum range, but I still get mortars to the face when I'm in contact with, melee attacking enemies.

 

[secretanchitman]

thank god. these are all changes i wanted from day 1, especially the inferno changes. now ill probably level my dh again (stopped because i knew i would hit a wall eventually).

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

thank god. these are all changes i wanted from day 1, especially the inferno changes. now ill probably level my dh again (stopped because i knew i would hit a wall eventually).

honestly a strong glass cannon demon hunter isn't even effected by a lot of things mentioned. But yeah should be easier.

For instance I find invulnerable minions to be pretty easy with a demon hunter + high dps + cluster bombs.

 

[ZenaxPure]

While I haven't played coop on higher difficulties I think this HP change is needed. I did the skeleton king on normal with my level 10 monk and my friend's level 10 barb and it took us longer to kill him than every single time I soloed him on every single difficulty. It was absolutely boring punching him so much.

 

[Fenderputty]

honestly a strong glass cannon demon hunter isn't even effected by a lot of things mentioned. But yeah should be easier.

For instance I find invulnerable minions to be pretty easy with a demon hunter + high dps + cluster bombs.

The only time I REALLY hate invulnerable minions is when they're

A. Fast
B. Molten

Like fast moving molten flies with invulnerable minions. You can't even see which one's the boss to start attacking.

 

[Vossler]

Changes sound good. I haven't given up yet, but I was close. Will hit about the end of August, right?

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

The only time I REALLY hate invulnerable minions is when they're

A. Fast
B. Molten

Like fast moving molten flies with invulnerable minions. You can't even see which one's the boss to start attacking.

yeah that can suck. For a DH nothing imo is worse than goddamn teleporting + fast + shield or whatever bullshit.

 

[UnblessedSoul]

I like all the new changes mentioned so far, I'm a tad optimistic at this point

 

[Revoh]

These changes should've arrived a month ago.
After seeing Path of Exile's loot I can't ever go back to D3.
Seriously, they need a major loot overhaul, D3's loot is fucking BORING.

 

[DTKT]

Still not enough to bring me back.

I'll wait for 1.1

 

[Fenderputty]

yeah that can suck. For a DH nothing imo is worse than goddamn teleporting + fast + shield or whatever bullshit.

Yeah ... you can take my above example and replace fast with teleport and it's still fucked. HAHA

Fireshcains with teleport is just stupid too. Freichains themselves aren't that bad, but if they're on a teleporting enemy or those stupid enemies that dual wield chop swords and naitively teleport ...

The above combos are the main reason I still roll with lashing tail kick as it's great crown control for me.

 

[SRTtoZ]

The only time I REALLY hate invulnerable minions is when they're

A. Fast
B. Molten

Like fast moving molten flies with invulnerable minions. You can't even see which one's the boss to start attacking.

Bingo. Fast/molten/invul is awful for us glass cannons. They better not nerf cluster bombs though...

 

[larvi]

yeah that can suck. For a DH nothing imo is worse than goddamn teleporting + fast + shield or whatever bullshit.

vortex is worse than tp for my DH, getting vortexed into the middle of a molten/arcane/firechain horde is pretty much insta death for me

 

[Rentahamster]

Hmmm buffing of two handed weapons to make up for the loss of an offhand slot. Nice.

Yep, it's pretty stupid how weak they are. Hopefully one of the buffed affixes is the possibility for 2 sockets to spawn on a 2-hander. IMO, that is one of the largest imbalances for 1-handers vs. 2-handers.

 

[Won]

*reads patch stuff*

Yeah, they should call it the "common sense" patch.

Good stuff, but in the end nothing that would make me interested in the game again. Have to wait till the expansion for that I guess. But 2015 is not that far away!


Also still no loot from bosses in Nightmare and Hell?

 

[Flying Toaster]

Pre patch notes give the idea that they at least have pulled their heads out of their asses and are attempting to make for some common sense changes. If this is just a teaser of whats to come, then this is going to be good overall.

 

[Natiko]

Lots of really nice changes! If they do a good job with the legendary item changes as well then I'll be really happy.

 

[michaelius]

Good bye challenging difficulty - welcome rotfl stomping mobs without effort.

 

[Celegus]

Sounds awesome!!!!!!! Everything listed is fantastic for the game and will finally convince me to play with level 60 characters again! I've still been playing almost every day, but mostly just leveling up other classes and such which is still fun. Inferno sucks as of now, but all of this should really help.