1.0.5 Systems Preview

[420]

Time to start looking forward toward the next big patch (1.0.5).

First topic: Crowd Control Changes

I'll have to read it in more detail but there are come interesting bits in the first couple paragraphs:

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.

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.

-420

EDIT:
Here is the first indication Blizzard has given for what level they expect players to be at for specific areas of the game:

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):

[420]

Blizzard posted a "Patch 1.0.5 Sneak Peek" today.

It's pretty short so I will just post it in its entirety.

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.

-420

[420]

New post by a Blizzard developer: Defensive Bonuses and Monster Damage

In short the plan is:

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

There are some interesting statistics based on the current Inferno creature damage output and damage reduction skills. For instance, "Energy Armor is used by 83% of level 60 wizards." and a pie graph shows that 87% of barbarians using War Cry use the Impunity (resist all) rune while 8% use the Invigorate (life regeneration) rune. (I switched both of my barbs from Invigorate to Impunity two weeks ago.)

There are also some example calculations and class specific changes detailed in the post.

For example:

Witch Doctor:

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

and...

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.

-420

EDIT: Fixed quote.

[420]

Here is a detailed post on the b.net forums by a community "MVP" member showing the effects of the changes to defensive skills and Inferno monster damage. Still don't know where the formulas come from but the community seems to agree and, so far, Blizzard hasn't corrected them.

1.0.5 IS A HUGE BUFF... NOT A NERF...

- Armor Formula -

Armor DR = Armor / [ Armor + ( 50 * Monster Level ) ]

- Resistance Formula -

Resistance DR = Resistance / [ Resistance + ( 5 * Monster Level ) ]

- Total Mitigation -

Mitigation = 1 - [ ( 1 - Armor DR ) * ( 1 - Resistance DR) ]

Now that we've got all the formulas out of the way and people actually know how mitigation is calculated, let's take a look at the data for 1.0.5. Keep in mind that Monster Damage is reduced by 25% now.

For this specific example, I'm going to use War Cry and Energy Armor.

- Old War Cry -
Armor - 20%
Resistance - 50%

- New War Cry -
Armor - 20%
Resistance - 20%

- Old Energy Armor -
Armor - 65%
Resistance - 40%

- New Energy Armor -
Armor - 35%
Resistance - 25%

http://i.imgur.com/PmpFr.png

Now there's the cold hard numbers.

If a monster dealt 70,000 damage in 1.0.4, it now deals 52,500 damage in 1.0.5

If you refer to the chart and look at the survivability column, you will notice a trend.

That's right, your survivability is going to INCREASE with the LESS armor and resistance that you CURRENTLY have.

A Barbarian at 1000 Armor and 100 Resistance is going to see a 19.83% increased survivability rate come 1.0.5.

Interesting stuff. I may just gold farm Hell Whimsyshire until 1.0.5 comes out. I'm getting tired of just dropping dead over and over again in Inferno without ever getting anywhere.

-420

[Mo]

Energy Armor nerf pisses me off.  Seize Initiative nerf pisses me off.  I don't like nerfs unless the skill in question is undoubtedly overpowered.

Blizzard: "Isn't dropping dead fun for you??"

Funny. I was farming Act 2 Inferno and a whole bunch of times I'd run into an elite pack that normally would kill me a half dozen times.  What I did with these was just lure them over to an area transition and proceed to use Guerrilla warfare. i.e. transition out, wait for diamond skin to recharge, bring it up, start explosion, transition in, explode, cast meteor, transition out, port to town, heal, port back, rinse repeat until they were dead.

lol I was half expect Blizzard to be watching me while I was doing that and coming in and saying: "Hey you're not playing the game in a way we deem as fun.  Why are you kitting and transitioning away from monster?  We might introduce a town portal recharge timer now."

Umm Blizzard ya maybe its not loads of fun but it's a lot more fun than constantly dropping dead.

[420]

The full 1.0.5 patch notes have been posted for the Public Test Realm where the public can get a preview and help Blizzard by testing out the new changes:

1.0.5 Patch Notes

In addition to a major change in Inferno monster damage output there are a ton of changes to skills in all classes and a couple skill runes are even being replaced with new runes.

Here are some highlights:

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 1-60) 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.

Nephalem Valor gets some love and a couple new shrines:

Resplendent Chests will now operate similarly to Elite packs in Inferno difficulty:

• When players open a Resplendent Chest, they will receive a reward based on how many Nephalem Valor stacks they have active at the time
• Opening a Resplendent Chest will grant one stack of Nephalem Valor

Major in-game events will now grant one stack of Nephalem Valor when completed by a level 60 character in Inferno difficulty

• If completed in a multiplayer game, all eligible characters in the party will receive the buff regardless of whether they participated in the event or were close to the event's location

Major in-game events in Inferno difficulty that involve a special chest or Unique monster (ex: ) will now also drop additional loot for every stack of Nephalem Valor a player has active at the time of the event's completion

• Several events have had Unique monsters added to them for this purpose

Experience Shrines can now appear in Inferno difficulty

Two new shrines have been added to all difficulty levels:

• Empowered Shrine - Increased resource regeneration and reduced cooldowns
• Fleeting Shrine - Increased movement speed and pickup radius

Looks like the Demon Hunter will be getting the most extensive skill changes but all classes will be getting a bunch.

A few examples:

Barbarian

Hammer of the Ancients

Increased Critical Hit chance is now based on the amount of Fury the player has when Hammer of the Ancients is activated:

• For every 5 Fury a player has, Hammer of the Ancients has a 1% increased Critical Hit chance

Skill Rune - Smash

• The radius of Smash has been slightly increased to help resolve an issue that caused Hammer of the Ancients to occasionally miss targets immediately in front of the player

Skill Rune - The Devil's Anvil

• Movement speed reduction increased from 60% to 80%

Demon Hunter

Companion

• Added a 30-second cooldown
• Reduced each Companion's attack cooldown from 1.5/2 seconds to 1 second
• Weapon damage increased from 30% to 38%, but they can no longer critically hit
• Companion's damage now scales with attack speed

Skill Rune - Wolf Companion

• Wolf Companion has been redesigned to be a more durable pet:
• Now has comparable durability to one Zombie Dog
• New attack: 120-degree Cleave with a 10-yard radius that hits for 94% weapon damage

Skill Rune - Spider Companion

• Spider Companion has been redesigned to be a more durable pet:
• Has slightly more durability than the Wolf Companion
• New attack: 120-degree Cleave with a 10-yard radius that hits for 38% weapon damage and Slows every enemy it hits by 60% for 2 seconds

Skill Rune - Boar Companion

• Boar Companion has been redesigned to be a more durable pet:
• Has more durability than the Spider Companion
• New attack: Single-target attack that hits for 38% weapon damage
• Provides (155 @ 60) Life per second and a 15% bonus to all resistances for the Demon Hunter

Monk

Pacifism
Now also works on Freeze and Immobilize effects (note: the tooltip will not say Freeze, because Freezes are classified as a Stun)

Witch Doctor

Gruesome Feast
Now shows a buff icon when you have active stacks

Wizard

Storm Armor

• Ability has been redesigned to periodically deal 100% weapon damage as Lightning to nearby enemies

Skill Rune - Reactive Armor

• Redesigned to deal 70% weapon damage as Lightning to ranged and melee attackers

Skill Rune - Strike Back has been renamed "Thunder Storm"

• Thunder Storm increases your periodic damage to 130% weapon damage

In addition to all that there will be bug fixes and some major follower buffs too.

-420

[Mo]

The Item modifications all look very nice:

Items
The cast time for identifying Rare items has been reduced to 1 second
The cast time for identifying Legendary items has been increased to 4 seconds
The location of Legendary items will now be marked by a column of light as well as a ping on the mini-map the first time they drop, and a new sound has been added
Affixes on items will now roll their level based on the level of the monster killed (rather than the item

[420]

Newest 1.0.5 patch note changes are posted.

The one that caught my eye:

The chance for Legendary and set items to drop has been doubled

-420

[Mo]

Newest 1.0.5 patch note changes are posted.

The one that caught my eye:
-420

yay!

[420]

Some new official posts:

Monster Power ("MP")

At MP1 or higher, anything that used to drop only in Act III or Act IV of Inferno can now drop in any Inferno act (so Acts I - IV).

This means that the highest level items will drop in all acts of Inferno difficulty if the Monster Power is set to 1 or higher. (0 is default)


Puzzle Ring Treasure Goblins

Treasure goblins that spawn from Puzzle Rings will still be level 61 (in all acts of Inferno). This is regardless of Monster Power.

Rings and Amulets

Confirmed. In 1.0.5, rings and amulets can roll level 63 affixes.

-420

[420]

Just found out about this Wizard exploit. It will be fixed in 1.0.5, but for now it looks pretty sweet.

Exploit
The key to this exploit is the Storm Chaser rune for Energy Twister. The other runes for that skill got nerfed in 1.0.4 so that they didn't "proc" (and therefore didn't crit) as often but somehow Blizzard missed the Storm Chaser rune. This will be fixed in 1.0.5.

Example Video
You Tube Video: Diablo 3: Storm Chaser Critical Mass (1.04 Tank Wizard)

Gear
High critical hit chance and attack speed increase.

Skills
(Link to build)

Active
Energy Twister with Storm Chaser
Teleport with Wormhole
Explosive Blast with Chain Reaction
Diamond Skin with Crystal Shell
Frost Nova with Cold Snap
Energy Armor with Prismatic Armor

Passive
Blur
Evocation
Critical Mass

NOTE: I've also seen this build with the following alternate skills.
Active
Storm Armor with Shocking Aspect in place of Energy Armor

Passive
Astral Presence and Cold Blooded in place of Blur and Evocation

-420

[Mo]

Some how I feel that games aren't fun when played these ways.  Must just be me though.

Critical Mass has been exploited since the beginning.  Strange how Blizz never thought about that when play testing this game.

[420]

More details on "Monster Power" posted this morning:

Monster Power: More Guts, More Glory

The system is enabled through the Options menu, just under where you enable Elective Mode.

Once enabled, the option to set Monster Power will appear in the lower portion of the Quest Selection window next to the Difficulty drop-down menu.  You can choose from Monster Power 1 (MP1) all the way up to Monster Power 10 (MP10), or you can opt for No Monster Power (the default setting) to play the "normal" challenge level for your chosen difficulty. Monster Power can be adjusted separately for each hero and difficulty, and can be changed at any time through the Quest Selection interface.

How this works in multiplayer:

At the launch of patch 1.0.5, Monster Power will be available in both solo and private multiplayer games. Whenever you join a private multiplayer game, your hero will temporarily adopt the Monster Power level set by the party leader, and it will return to the previous setting you selected as soon as you leave the group.

(Please note that you will not be able to adjust Monster Power in Public Games at the feature's launch, though we're looking into the possibility of adding that ability in the future.)

And here are some helpful visual aids:











-420

[Mo]

Gonna be tough!

Farming any act in Inferno will produce the same quality and quantity of drops.  Neat, that helps with changing up the pace which is good cause going through act 3 over and over much be very boring over time.

[420]

Blizzard announced that the 1.0.5 patch will go live tomorrow morning!

Official Announcement

Thank you to everyone who helped us test this patch. We look forward to releasing patch 1.0.5 to the public tomorrow morning!

-420

[420]

Patch 1.0.5 is out! Looks like the game servers will be down until about 1pm however.

Here is a link to the most recent 1.0.5 patch notes: Patch 1.0.5 Notes

-420

[420]

Apparently the damage that monsters did at the various Monster Power levels was too high and a hotfix was applied today: Diablo III Hotfixes - October (Updated 10/23)

October 23


General
The scaling bonus to monster damage in Inferno difficulty has been reduced by approximately 25% for all Monster Power levels
For more information, please click here
The following changes have been made to Xah'rith the Keywarden:
He can no longer spawn with the Illusionist or Fast affix
The damage dealt by a number of his abilities has been reduced
The movement speed reduction applied by his Cold attacks has been reduced
His size has been slightly reduced

Bug Fixes
Fixed a server crash that could occur if a player transitioned between Acts while a "goatman" monster was drumming

Actual damage details here: MONSTER POWER BONUS DAMAGE REDUCED IN INFERNO

As the title suggests, we're going to be reducing the amount of damage monsters do in Inferno whenever Monster Power is enabled. Before I detail what's changing, though, let me first explain why we're making some adjustments.

When we originally designed and implemented the bonus values for monster damage in Inferno, we were unaware that a bug was causing monster abilities (i.e. Rare and Champion affixes) to not scale correctly with each Monster Power level. While this bug was caught during testing and did not make it into the game, the result of it being fixed meant that monster damage -- specifically damage done by monster abilities -- was ultimately higher at MP1 through MP10 than we intended it to be when 1.0.5 released.

So, to bring monster damage back in line with our original goals for the system, we're implementing a hotfix that will reduce the scaling bonus to monster damage in Inferno difficulty by approximately 25% for all Monster Power levels.

Here are the new damage values that will be hotfixed in for each MP setting:

MP1: 109.60% (down from 114%)
MP2: 120.12% (down from 130%)
MP3: 131.65% (down from 148%)
MP4: 144.29% (down from 169%)
MP5: 158.14% (down from 193%)
MP6: 173.32% (down from 220%)
MP7: 189.96% (down from 250%)
MP8: 208.20% (down from 285%)
MP9: 228.18% (down from 325%)
MP10: 250.09% (down from 371%)

Please note that these changes will only apply to monster damage in Inferno difficulty. Monsters in Normal, Nightmare, and Hell will be unaffected and continue to use their current values.

This hotfix is currently scheduled to be released tomorrow morning during normal Tuesday maintenance in the Americas, which means the new bonus damage values in Inferno will take affect once the game servers come back online.

-420