Patch 1.0.8 and Beyond

[420]

One of the Diablo 3 developers posted this article yesterday explaining some of the changes they will be making to rare and legendary (and set) items.

The only thing mentioned that's actually slated for 1.0.8 is an "Identify All" button.

Developer Journal: Itemization Update

He may not know what the word "itemization" means but it makes for some interesting reading.

Some quotes:

All Legendary Items Will Scale to Monster Level

We'd like to continue with this line of reasoning and use it to make Legendaries more powerful. In the future, we plan to allow Legendary items to also roll their base stats (weapon DPS and armor value) at the level of the monster that dropped them. So, for example, if you found a Heart of Iron from a level 63 monster, its base armor would be increased to that of Archon Armor and its stat ranges would roll at level 63. This gives us the opportunity to broaden the range of Legendary items, providing players with more diversity. Love Leoric's Signet, but hate wearing a level 17 ring? Me too. Instead of farming Act II Normal to find a Leoric's Signet, let's go farm Inferno and get a level 63 version of the ring!

New Legendary Mods

We want players to feel like entire new builds can open up if they get their hand on the right items. Glimmers of this idea are already in the game with The Three Hundredth Spear and Thing of the Deep. The plan is to embrace the idea and push them to more extremes. Potential future Legendary item ideas include a Voodoo Mask that increases pet damage, a Barbarian set that makes Call of the Ancients last until they die (after we give them full pet survivability), a Wizard Orb that allowed for two Hydras to be active at once, or the "Ethereal" boots idea I posted here.

Fewer Item Drops, Better Items

As an example, suppose items currently roll between 1-100 Intelligence. Now, imagine that we dropped 25% as many items, but the Intelligence range was instead somewhere around 75-100. In the end, you'd find fewer items, but more of the items you find would be worth equipping. That's our goal.

Item Appearance Customization (This sounds like something I've been asking for since release.)

Other avenues we want to explore include providing players with vanity options or potential ways to differentiate themselves from their friends or other characters (i.e. character customization options in terms of gear). We are also exploring ways to make crafting more exciting by adding not just more ways to make appealing items, but also introducing ways to modify existing items.

New Ways to Farm Items

There are a number of ideas for how to address this long term that don't include removing the auction house outright, and most of the ideas are centered around giving players more ways to find items they are excited about:

One idea that we have discussed is "targeted Legendaries," where named NPCs have an increased chance of dropping specific legendary items. For example, The Butcher could have an increased chance of dropping The Butcher's Carver.
Another idea is that we introduce a system that will help alleviate some of the bad randomness players encounter by ensuring that at least some of the Rare and Legendary items you find will be something good for your class.
We've also discussed allowing bosses the first time you kill them in each difficulty to have a guaranteed chance to drop a Legendary.

All interesting stuff. I'd personally like to see an "imbue" option like Diablo 2. So if you find a level 63 non-magic item you can spend some gold/crafting materials to make it a random rare item of the same type.

-420

[420]

New article up detailing the upcoming co-op improvements in 1.0.8: Developer Journal: Multiplayer Improvements

Here is are some interesting excerpts:

Multiplayer Bonuses
Many players have already figured out that if you coordinate well with your party, you're more efficient. That's definitely true, but we'd like this benefit to be more explicit. So, we're going to straight up add a bonus for playing in multiplayer.

We're still working on the details of what that buff is going to be, but at the moment we're looking at 10% more XP per extra player in the game for a maximum bonus of 30% more XP in a 4-player game. This bonus will be multiplicative with MP bonuses. For example: suppose you are playing on MP10 with an XP bonus in Inferno of 510%. This means a monster is worth 610% of its normal XP (510% more). If you are playing in a 4-player game the monster will be worth 793% as much XP as normal. On top of this, you will also earn a flat 10% Gold Find and 10% Magic Find for each additional player in the game, and this bonus can exceed the 300% Gold Find and Magic Find caps.

Monster Health
Monsters currently gain 70% extra health per additional player in the game. This is being reduced from 70% to 50%. This means in a two-player game, monsters have 150% as much health as a single-player game. In a three-player game, they have 200% as much health. And in a four-player game, they have 250% as much health (compared to 310% on live).

Combat Alerts
When you're playing co-op, one common practice is to say "e" in chat when you come across an Elite pack.  So we thought - why doesn't the game just do this for you?

Starting in 1.0.8, when a player deals damage to or takes damage from an Elite pack or Treasure Goblin for the first time, a notification will be sent out to the entire party to let your teammates know what you've found. This will be accompanied by a "combat" icon on the mini-map so other players in your group can locate those enemies. On top of that, we're also going to put a combat icon over your banner in town. This way, players who are in town will know that you're fighting an Elite pack or Treasure Goblin and be able to quickly determine whose banner to take to get right into the action.

Private Chat
We're also adding private conversations in 1.0.8, which will allow you to chat with up to 99 of your closest friends. Think of private conversations in Diablo III as being similar to multi-user conversations in your favorite IM client. You're not making a permanent "channel," you're simply inviting multiple people to chat for the duration of that session.

All good stuff!

-420

[Mo]

Well ya except I'm unsure they need to nerf monster hp. I thought it scaled well as is.

[cuchulann]

I agree with you there Mo. I imagine they figure if the group finds the game to easy they can still turn up the MP. I like the MF and GF bonuses idea. You won't hear me complain about having too much of that.

[420]

So far I can't find any official confirmation, but it seems to be generally accepted common knowledge that monster density will be increased for Acts 1, 2, and 4.

Guess Blizzard really wants to get players away from Alkaizer Runs. My guess is that they will only increase creature density in Inferno, since it would really change the difficulty of the game for Normal, Nightmare, and Hell.

-420

[420]

Found an official post about monster density changes:


Vaeflare
Community Manager

As part of our preparation for the upcoming mob density changes we're working on for patch 1.0.8, we've been busy testing each region of the game in order to ensure that the mob density feels more consistent across all Acts (including beloved Whimsyshire), and that you could farm efficiently in an area of your choice. We don't want Whimsyshire to be the "must go" place, nor do we want it to be an extreme loss in efficiency.

That said, once patch 1.0.8 goes up on the PTR, we look forward to hearing your feedback on how each area feels.

-420

EDIT: Fixed formatting to show entire message.

[420]

Patch 1.0.8 is now up on the Public Test Realm.

PTR Patch Notes 1.0.8

PTR PATCH 1.0.8 - v.1.0.8.15858
These notes will be updated through the course of the testing process. Please be aware some changes may not go live until a new PTR build is released.

Table of Contents
General
Achievements
Auction House
Battle.net
Bosses
Classes
Crafting
Monsters
Quests
User Inferface
Bug Fixes


GENERAL
Players can now identify all items in their inventory by speaking to Deckard Cain or by using the Book of Cain that can be found near the shared stash in all Acts
The cooldown incurred by changing skills outside of town on Inferno difficulty has been reduced to 30 seconds (down from 60 seconds)
There is now an option in Video Settings to lock the cursor to the window when in fullscreen windowed mode, if Diablo III is the active window

Multiplayer Co-Op
Players now receive a 10% bonus to Magic Find, Gold Find, and Experience per additional player in a multiplayer game, up to a maximum of 30% in a four-player game
The Magic Find and Gold Find bonuses can exceed their respective 300% caps
The Experience bonus can stack with other bonuses from items and Monster Power (the bonuses will stack multiplicatively)
A notification is now sent to all players in a multiplayer game whenever a party member engages an Elite monster or Treasure Goblin in combat, and their location will be shown on the mini-map
In addition to this, an icon will also appear over player banners in town to indicate if they're in combat with a monster, Elite monster, or Treasure Goblin

ACHIEVEMENTS
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug that prevented monsters killed by a follower or pet, before being attacked by a player, from counting toward achievement criteria

AUCTION HOUSE
User Interface
Tooltips in the Auction House will now show an item comparison for a player's currently selected character

BATTLE.NET
Matchmaking
Players will now be able to search for games that were started on any quest once they have reached level cap
Matchmaking "Tags" have been added
In addition to selecting your Difficulty, Monster Power, and Quest, players will also be able to choose from the following tags when searching for Public Games: No Tag, Questing, Brawling, and Key Warden

Social
Players can now add a note about a friend by right-clicking the name in their Friends List
Players can now enter a message that will be broadcast to their friends
Players can now create multi-user conversations
There are multiple ways to start a conversation or invite other players to an existing conversation:
To start a conversation, open Public Chat Options, then select Invite Friends > Start Conversation or use the "Start a Conversation" option in the Social window by right-clicking on a friend's name
To invite or add friends to an existing conversation, open Public Chat Options, then select Invite Friends or use the "Invite to a Conversation" option in the Social window by right clicking a friend's name and selecting the desired conversation
Similar to public channels, private conversations can support up to 99 players
A new section has been added to the friends list called "Players Near You"
Any player who is on your local network will be displayed here (even if they're not currently your friend)
If needed, this feature can be disabled from the Social Options of the Game menu
Players may now be marked as a "Party Guide"
The Party Guide is assigned to the first person who joins a Public Game
If multiple characters join a Public Game at the same time, the game will choose the hero with the highest level or Paragon level to be Party Guide
When a Party Guide leaves the Public Game, a new one will be chosen automatically
Alternatively, the Party Guide can right click on a party member's portrait and pass them the Party Guide title
The Party Guide will have a unique icon that will appear on the mini-map
Names in your "Recent Players" list will now expire if they become older than a month
Blocked players will no longer appear in your "Recent Players" list

BOSSES
Bug Fixes
Skeleton King
A bug causing The Skeleton King and The King of the Dead to not play an animation when performing their Whirlwind attack should now occur less frequently

CLASSES
Wizard
Active Skills

Archon
The duration of Archon should now be extended by assists from players in multiplayer games, in addition to kills

Teleport
Players may now Teleport to any location within range, as long as a path is available

Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug causing Teleport - Safe Passage to only reduce damage from physical attacks

CRAFTING
General
Players can now craft multiple items and gems at a time within the same tier, so long as they possess the necessary materials
Players can now craft items using materials located in the shared stash

Blacksmith
Salvaged item information will no longer be displayed in the chat log

Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug preventing players from salvaging an item by dragging it onto the Blacksmith's anvil icon

MONSTERS
General
Players should now encounter more monsters in Acts I, II, and IV in Inferno difficulty when playing at Monster Power 1 or greater
In multiplayer games, the increase in monster hit points per additional player has been reduced to 50% (down from 70%)
Tormented Stingers and Stygian Crawlers have had their experience reduced by 75%

QUESTS
General
Experience earned by completing a quest is now granted to players that have reached the level cap

USER INTERFACE
General
A maximum of eight buffs and debuffs will now be displayed on the UI
The maximum number of debuffs that will be displayed is three

Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug preventing damage numbers from being displayed if a monster was affected by a spell such as Hex

BUG FIXES
The sound that plays whenever a Barbarian's Overpower ability comes off cooldown is no longer similar to a Legendary item dropping
Male barbarians no longer run faster than the other heroes while feared.

-420

EDIT: "Male barbarians no longer run faster than the other heroes while feared." <- Hilarious!

[420]

Couple interesting things I saw on the D3 forums:

First, an explanation of how xp bonuses will be calculated differently in 1.0.8.

From Neph Stacks Are Now Multiplicative?

Rather than giving 15% bonus experience added to your base experience for each stack of NV, there is now a multiplier.

Old version: If base exp is 200%, 5 stacks of NV = 200 + 75 = 275% experience

New version: If base exp is 200%, 5 stacks of NV = 200 * 1.75 (.15 per NV stack) = 350%

The multiplier is also increased by .10 (10%) for each additional player above 1.

So a 4 player game with 5 stacks of NV will be

base experience * 2.15, potentially over 1100% experience on high MP.

Items like hellfire ring, red gem in helmet, leoric's signet and cain's set add to the base experience, not the multiplier.

Next, something I've been hoping Blizzard would address since the game came out.

From "Ask the Devs" Round 2: Itemization - Answers (Part 2)

Travis: Class specific items can sometimes fall into a weird place. For example, you're playing your Demon Hunter, you see a Rare quiver on the ground, you identify it, and BAM! +300 Strength. At this point, you're probably thinking (or even saying aloud) "Why is that even possible?!"

While we feel that randomness is an incredibly important aspect of Diablo games, we also agree that players need to feel like their next great item is just around the corner. Items can roll many stats that may not be valuable to the player who finds them, and that's fine - but most items should feel like they could be good for someone.

Quivers rolling their primary stat as Strength doesn't really play any role here; however, we don't want to remove randomness completely and have it be a forgone conclusion that every quiver you pick up will roll with the exact stats you want. While we are changing it so that class specific items can't roll the primary value of a different class's stat, that doesn't mean you will never see +Strength on a quiver. What it does mean is you will only see +Strength on a quiver if it came as part of a Dex/Str affix or a Str/Vit affix, which is providing some benefit (even if not ideal) to the class the item is intended for.

Yeah! No more Mighty Weapons with 300 intelligence!

-420

[Soul Sojourner]

Just another way to undermine what players have worked so hard to obtain. You grind for how long to obtain the right item with the right stats, then Blizz pisses on the economy with making the 'right' stats always attainable. Sounds like a kick in the teeth for many. I could understand a little higher probability for relevant stats, and lower probability for irrelevant stats. Eh, just my opinion.

Thought about hooking up some D3 from time to time, see what's all changed/nerfed/fucked up, but meh... I don't think I'm even capable of liking D3 anymore.
Thanks to Mo though, I get my ARPG fix with PoE just about every day. Makes me miss D2 sometimes, but anytime I try to play that I pretty much decide it's just too old and walk away. lol.

[420]

Just another way to undermine what players have worked so hard to obtain. You grind for how long to obtain the right item with the right stats, then Blizz pisses on the economy with making the 'right' stats always attainable. Sounds like a kick in the teeth for many. I could understand a little higher probability for relevant stats, and lower probability for irrelevant stats. Eh, just my opinion.

The primary stat mod won't always roll, but if it does it will be the primary stat of the class that can use the class-specific item. Trust me, this is a major improvement considering the number of rare class-specific items I have found that were great except that they rolled a cross-class stat.

Unfortunately, what it really is, is a fix (or "kludge") to a broken system. The fact that main stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence) are such a major factor in determining damage, coupled with the prominence with which stat mods are featured on items, just fucks the mechanics of the game to a point where almost all items are useless because they roll cross-class mods.

It's sad, and I don't usually say this, but it's one of those mechanics the D3 developers should have taken from D2.

-420

[Soul Sojourner]

Eh, I've just gotten so used to PoE where it doesn't matter what class you are as any skill and any stat can be useful in innumerable ways which are all dependent upon what you want to do with them; you don't *have to* rely on items to get stats, although they can definitely help in attaining them if using passives for them is either inconvenient or impossible for your build plan. Basically, I don't understand the whole "this class is almost entirely based off this stat" thing anymore. But even in D2 I had a fairly balanced werewolf druid as my main character, but I did have others which put strongly into certain stats. It's just the druid I remember most. 

Anyway, I just think big changes like that drop the value of certain items for the very reasons you listed. While understandably frustrating, for a fully released game to be making changes that impactful is very reminiscent of beta. Also, just my opinion.

[420]

Public Test Realm: Patch 1.0.8 Notes (Updated 4/15)

I'll just post the changes:

PTR SPECIFIC CHANGES
Certain areas in Act I and Act II have received further adjustments to Monster Density

CLASSES

Demon Hunter
Active Skills

Rapid Fire
Base weapon damage increased from 276% to 438%
Hatred cost while channeling has been reduced from to 6 (down from 10)

Skill Rune - Bombardment
Weapon damage increased from 345% to 414%
Explosion radius increased to 8 yards (up from 4)

Skill Rune - Fire Support
Weapon damage of Homing Rockets increased from 35% to 145%

Skill Rune - Withering Fire
Now reduces the initial Hatred cost to 10 (up from 5)

Wizard
Active Skills

Arcane Torrent
Base weapon damage increased from 210% to 285%

Skill Rune - Arcane Mines
Weapon damage increased from 180% to 340%

Skill Rune - Cascade
Weapon damage of bonus missiles increased from 210% to 285%

Disintegrate
Base weapon damage increased from 170% to 220%

Skill Rune - Entropy
Weapon damage increased from 196% to 253%

Skill Rune - Intensify
Maximum damage increased from 221% to 286% weapon damage

Witch Doctor
Active Skills

Firebats
Now has a larger initial cost but a much lower continual cost while channeling
Note: This skill will be receiving a buff to its damage in the next PTR patch

MONSTERS

General
Damage dealt by Tormented Stingers has been reduced by 75%

Experience granted by Shadow Vermin has been reduced by 50%

The chance for Shadow Vermin to drop loot has been reduced by 50%

Keywardens
Nekarat the Keywarden now has a chance to drop a random Key (of Destruction, Hate, or Terror) in addition to the Infernal Machine plans

All Keywardens will now only appear in Inferno difficulty

And, some clarification from Wyatt Cheng,
Senior Technical Game Designer regarding the "adjustments" in monster density listed above:

Hey all, update on this.

1.0.8 will now have XP shrines multiplicative, and MF/GF from Fortune shrines will exceed the 300% cap.

-420

[Mo]

Demon Hunter
Active Skills

Rapid Fire
Base weapon damage increased from 276% to 438%
Hatred cost while channeling has been reduced from to 6 (down from 10)


Sweet

[420]

Public Test Realm: Patch 1.0.8 Notes (Updated 4/18)

Again, just posting the changes:

GENERAL
The bonus experience granted by Enlightened shrines is now also calculated multiplicatively

ACHIEVEMENTS
Bug Fixes
The "Massive Blow" achievement should once again be obtainable

The "Fallen Angel" achievement now only requires the player to kill Izual within 120 seconds

The "Bashanishu" achievement no longer requires the player to use Basic Attack to complete it

The "Hero's New Clothes" achievement no longer requires the player to deliver the fatal blow to meet the criteria

The "Uncaged" achievement now requires the player to stay alive during the encounter

The "Good Eye" achievement now requires the player to stay alive during the encounter

Fixed an issue that caused the "Self Sufficient" achievement to sometimes not be awarded the first time a player killed Diablo

Fixed an issue that caused the "Death Trap" achievement to not be awarded the first time a player completed the criteria

CLASSES

Barbarian

Active Skills

War Cry
Skill Rune

Skill Rune - Invigorate
Now regenerates 620 life per second (up from 310)

Passive Skills

Inspiring Presence
Now regenerates 4% of maximum life per second (up from 2%)

Now affects all party members

Demon Hunter

Active Skills

Companion
Skill Rune - Boar Companion
Now regenerates 310 life per second (up from 155)

Sentry
Skill Rune - Aid Station
Now heals nearby allies for 2% of max life per second (up from 1%)

Passive Skills

Brooding
Now regenerates 2% of maximum life per second (up from 1%)

Monk

Active Skills

Mantra of Healing
Now causes party members to regenerate 620 life per second (up from 310)

Skill Rune - Sustenance
Now increases Mantra of Healing's life regeneration to 1240 per second (up from 620)

Passive Skills

Guiding Light
Damage bonus increased from 16% to 20%

Witch Doctor

Active Skills

Firebats
Now has a larger initial cost but a much lower continual cost while channeling
Base weapon damage increased from 180% to 385%

Skill Rune - Cloud of Bats
Initial damage increased from 234% to 500% weapon damage

Skill Rune - Plague Bats
Maximum damage increased from 270% to 578% weapon damage

Passive Skills

Blood Ritual
Now regenerates 2% of maximum life per second (up from 1%)

Wizard

Active Skills

Familiar
Skill Rune - Vigoron
Now regenerates 620 life per second (up from 310)

Ray of Frost
Base weapon damage increased from 215% to 280%

Skill Rune - Black Ice
Ice patch weapon damage increased from 387% to 504%

Skill Rune - Sleet Storm
Weapon damage increased from 280% to 364%

Skill Rune - Snow Blast
Maximum damage increased from 280% to 364% weapon damage

Passive Skills

Galvanizing Ward
Now regenerates 620 life per second (up from 310)

FOLLWERS

Templar

Skills
Loyalty
Now regenerates 310 life per second (up from 155)

MONSTERS

General
The damage dealt by the fire pool left by Blazing Guardian attacks has been reduced by 50%, but it's minimum damage has been increased

Bug Fixes
Monsters with the Avenger affix now correctly gain +25% damage each time a monster in their pack dies

Monsters with the Vampiric affix now correctly heal for 200% of their damage done in all difficulties

-420