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46
Streameren "Archon The Wizard", streamer og har "besøg" af Wyatt Cheng, der som bekendt er Diablo 3 game designer.

Der bliver nævnt en hel masse interessante ting, blandt andet har Cheng sagt at de internt i teamet diskuterer ladder-aspektet meget, men at det under alle omstændigheder først vil være aktuelt med ladder når der kommer expansion.

Desuden har Cheng sagt, at de gerne vil gøre alle items "interessante", på den måde at man måske ikke selv kan bruge det til noget, man kan kigge på det og tænke "okay, jeg kan ikke bruge det, men der er helt sikkert en anden der ville kunne have brugt det", fx hvis thorns nu var et brugbart affix (mere end det er nu), så ville man finde et bælte med thorns og tænke "nå, det kan jeg ikke bruge, men et eller andet sted i verden er der en der ville kunne have brugt det", i stedet for "det her er der ingen der kan bruge".
Han snakker også om at de gerne vil beholde randomness i item drops, men fx gerne vil gøre noget ved fuldstændigt useless stats på items, som fx strength på et DH quiver.
I den sammenhæng snakkede han også lidt om white items, og at han gerne ville have en enkelt af mange white drops til måske at være brugbare.

Da det er ren tale, har jeg selvfølgelig ikke en direkte kilde som kan læses, og desuden siger Cheng at intet af det han siger er noget fast, men bare noget de tænker internt i D3 teamet.


Streamen kan ses her, Cheng er stadigvæk på:

http://www.twitch.tv/archonthewizard


Edit: Cheng logger af nu, men kommer på senere, tilgengæld kommer Travis Day, som også er game developer på om lidt.

47
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls / D3X GUIDE: Demonic Essences og Crafting Plans
« Dato: April 01, 2013, 08:51:59 pm »
Demonic Essences og AB Crafting (Account Bound Crafting)

Med patch 1.0.7 blev der tilføjet nye drops; Demonic Essences og nye crafting plans der dropper fra nogle specifikke bosser.

Hvad er Demonic Essences og AB Crafting?

Demonic Essences er et crafting material, som udelukkende bruges i nye crafting plans, der blev introduceret samtidigt.



Account Bound Crafting er crafting af items, som derefter er Bound to Account, og altså ikke kan trades til andre, eller sælges. Et tidligere eksempel på dette, er Hellfire Ring, som man kan læse om her. I patch 1.0.7 blev der så tilføjet nogle flere plans, der fungerer på samme måde (uden at involvere übers dog), og Blizzard har snakket om at tilføje flere.

Der er lige pt. 5 forskellige items man kan lave med disse crafting plans, og hvert af disse items findes i 4 forskellige udgaver.

De 5 item typer er:

  • Arhcon Armor of... Der kræver 2 Tomes of Secrets, og en Demonic Essence at crafte.
  • Archon Spaulders of... der kræver 10 Tomes of Secrets, og en Demonic Essence at crafte.
  • Archon Gauntlets of... der kræver 20 Iridiscent Tears, 5 Tomes of Secrets og en Demonic Essence at crafte.
  • Razorspikes of... der kræver 30 Exquisite Essences, 5 Tomes of Secrets og en Demonic Essence at crafte
  • Amulet of... der kræver en perfect square gem (af den type stat du vil crafte), en Fiery Brimstone og en Demonic Essence at crafte

Altså chest armor, shoulders, gloves, bracers og amulet.

De fås alle sammen i følgende varianter:

Intelligence

Strenght

Dexterity

Vitality.



Fælles for dem alle er, at de har mellem 201-230 af en af disse stats, alt efter hvilken udgave man crafter, og derudover 5 random properties. Dette betyder, at de har potentiale for at være nogle af de bedste items i spillet, men at det også kan tage mange crafts at få en god udgave.

Hvordan får man Demonic Essences og AB Crafting plans?

Demonic Essences kan modsat nogle andre crafting mats, ikke fås ved at salvage items. De dropper derimod fra elite/champion monstre, bosser, treasure goblins og visse ingame events der giver NV stacks. Det er vigtigt at bemærke at disse Essences desuden også er Account Bound.

Chancen for at der dropper Demonic essences er kun afhængig af MPL (Læs om Monster Power Level her) og altså ikke NV stacks. Chancen for at de dropper, er følgende:

  • MP 0: 15.0000%
  • MP 1: 16.5000%
  • MP 2: 18.1500%
  • MP 3: 19.9650%
  • MP 4: 21.9615%
  • MP 5: 24.1577%
  • MP 6: 26.5734%
  • MP 7: 29.2308%
  • MP 8: 32.1538%
  • MP 9: 35.3692%
  • MP 10: 38.9061%

De nye plans kan derimod fås på forskellige måder. Bemærk dog at du skal have en plan for hver variant af det item du vil lave; altså en for at lave intelligence-versionen, en for at lave dexterity-versionen etc.

Archon Armor kan kun købes hos Squirt the Peddler i Act 2, og dropper altså ikke.

De andre droppes af nogle specifikke bosser.

Alle plans kan dog købes på AH, da de i sig selv ikke er account bound.

De bosser der kan droppe de nye crafting plans er:

  • Skeleton King
  • Spider Queen
  • Maghda
  • Zoltun Kulle
  • Ghom
  • Cydaea
  • Rakanoth
  • Izual

Dette drop er afhængigt af at du har 5 NV stacks; uden kan de simpelthen ikke droppe. MPL har dog også indflydelse, som vist her:

  • MP 0: 20%
  • MP 1: 23.2%
  • MP 2: 26.912%
  • MP 3: 31.218%
  • MP 4: 36.213%
  • MP 5: 42.007%
  • MP 6: 48.728%
  • MP 7: 56.524%
  • MP 8: 65.568%
  • MP 9: 76.059%
  • MP 10: 88.228%

Den hurtigste måde at farme plans på, er ved Ghom runs. Vælg questen 'Kill Ghom', og tag så WP til Keep Depths 1, tjek rummet lige før WPen, for at se om der er et champion pack, og gå så derefter ned i level 2, og clear indtil du har 5 NV stacks. Hvis du ikke får 5 stacks af Keep Depths level 2, foreslår jeg at du tager en TP tilbage til byen, og så tager wp til Keep Depths 3, og så går baglæns, da der tit er et pack i gangen ned til Ghom.

Afhængigt af gear, og held, kan det gøres på så lidt som 2 minutter, og bør sjældent tage mere end 10-15 minutter.

48
Off Topic / Dota 2 keys
« Dato: Januar 19, 2013, 04:57:24 pm »
har 8 dota 2 keys på steam, og vil gerne af med i hvert fald 6 af dem, så add mig på steam :)

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Mads-wm3

49
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls / PTR: Patch 1.0.7 notes
« Dato: Januar 15, 2013, 11:10:31 pm »
Vi har allerede fået et bredt overblik over de forandringer der var planlagt til 1.0.7, men nu får vi altså nogle flere ændringer, og desuden tal på dem der tidligere blev beskrevet. Det sker i anledningen af at patch 1.0.7 nu er tilgængelig på Patch Test Realm!

Citér
Public Test Realm -- Patch 1.0.7 Notes


               

Below you'll find the preliminary PTR patch notes for 1.0.7. Please note that this isn't the final version of the 1.0.7 notes and that some changes may not be documented or described in full detail.

To provide feedback on these changes, please visit the PTR Feedback forum. To report any issues you experience while playing, please visit the the PTR Bug Report forum. Additional information about the PTR can be found in the PTR FAQ.



   PTR Patch 1.0.7 - v.1.0.7.14161

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

  • Patch Features
  • General
  • Auction House
  • Battle.net
  • Bosses
  • Classes
  • Crafting
  • Items
  • Monsters
  • User Interface
  • Bug Fixes


   

    Patch Features

New Feature: Dueling

For those who wish to test their mettle against fellow Nephalem, your time has come. Players will now be able to duel one another in a new zone designed specifically for this style of combat. This zone can be accessed by speaking with Nek the Brawler located at the inn in New Tristram, and supports 2 to 4 players in a Free-For-All format.

To learn more about dueling, click here!


    General
  • Nephalem Valor stacks will now persist through Acts
  • Base pick-up radius for all characters has been increased from 1.5 yards to 3 yards
  • The resurrection timer will no longer increase if a player is killed multiple times in a row
  • Players should no longer play a flinching animation (causing them to briefly lose control of their character) if they are hit by multiple monsters at the same time
  • The experience bonus rewarded for killing monsters on Monster Power levels 1-10 in Inferno has been increased:
   
  • MP 1: 25% (up from 10%)
  • MP 2: 50% (up from 20%)
  • MP 3: 80% (up from 30%)
  • MP 4: 120%(up from 45%)
  • MP 5: 165% (up from 60%)
  • MP 6: 215% (up from 75%)
  • MP 7: 275% (up from 95%)
  • MP 8: 340% (up from 115%)
  • MP 9: 420% (up from 135%
  • MP 10: 510% (up from 160%)
   
   
  • When resuming a game, players will now be placed in town instead of at the last known checkpoint (a portal will be available to take you to your last known checkpoint, if desired)


   

    Auction House

   User Interface
   
      
  • Cancelled PayPal auctions will now display a UI error
   
   
   Bug Fixes
   
      
  • Stash Tab Art will now properly update when viewed in the Auction House
   
   


   

    Battle.net

   General
   
      
  • Monster Power is now available for Public Games
  • Players can now select their desired Monster Power level from a drop-down when joining Public Games provided that the “Enable Monster Power” box has been checked in the Options menu
  • “Report Botting” has been added to the right-click > report player menus
  • The Battle.net UI now displays how many players are online
   
   


   

    Bosses

   General
   
      
  • Izual is now included in the list of bosses that grant an extra reward when you have 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor, and the overall reward for killing him has been increased
   
   


   

    Classes

   Barbarian
   
      
  • Bug Fixes
  • Threatening Shout – Grim Harvest should no longer cause monsters to drop loot multiple times
      
      
   
   
   Demon Hunter
   
      
  • Bug Fixes
  • The Reflects Damage affix will now properly reflect damage caused by Bola Shot
      
      
   
   
   Monk
   

Active Skills
   

Cyclone Strike
         
Weapon damage increased from 100% to 313%



         
      
         Dashing Strike
         
            Weapon damage increased from 160% to 303%
         
         
      Exploding Palm
         
            Explosion damage increased from 30% to 50% of the target’s maximum health
         
         Inner Sanctuary
         
            Radius increased from 8 yards to 11 yards
            
Skill Rune – Forbidden Palace
            
            Damage bonus increased from 10% to 15%
            
            
            Skill Rune – Sanctified Ground
            
               Now reduces enemy movement speed by 80% (up from 60%)
            
            
         
         
         Lashing Tail Kick
         
            Weapon damage increased from 235% to 470%
         
         
         Mystic Ally
         
            The amount of damage a Mystic Ally can take from a single hit is now capped
            
               The cap scales with the player's level, and is further reduced by the player's Armor and Resistance
            
            
            Skill Rune – Eternal Ally
            
               Weapon Damage increased from 40% to 60%
               The Eternal Ally now has a 100% chance to be reborn after 3 seconds (up from 50% and down from 5 seconds)
            
            
            Skill Rune – Fire Ally
            
               The cooldown of the Fire Ally’s special attack has been reduced from 8 seconds to 4 seconds
            
            
            Skill Rune – Water Ally
            
               The Water Ally’s special attack now reduces enemy movement speed by 60% (up from 30%)
               The cooldown of the Water Ally’s special attack has been reduced from 8 seconds to 4 seconds
            
            
         
         
         Sweeping Wind
         
            Base weapon damage increased from 15% to 20% per stack
            Skill Rune – Blade Storm
            
               Weapon damage increased from 20% to 26% per stack
            
            
            Skill Rune – Cyclone
            
               Weapon damage increased from 20% to 26% per stack
            
            
         
         
         Tempest Rush
         
            Weapon Damage increased from 85% to 155%
         
         
         Wave of Light
         
            Weapon damage increased from 390% to 829%
         
         
      
      
      Passive Skills
      
         Near Death Experience
         
            Dying will now reset the cooldown
         
         
      
      
      Bug Fixes
      
         Fixed an issue where Sweeping Wind was not actively updating its damage and attributes from the player

      
      
   
   
   Witch Doctor
   
      Active Skills
      
         Spirit Barrage
         
            Skill Rune – Well of Souls
            
               The secondary missiles fired by this rune can now hit the primary target

            
            
         
         
      
      
   
   
   Wizard
   
      Active Skills
      
         Arcane Orb
         
            Weapon damage increased from 175% to 200%
            Skill Rune – Obliteration
            
               Weapon damage increased from 228% to 260%
            
            
         
         
         Blizzard
         
            Weapon damage increased from 210% to 510% over 6 seconds
            Proc coefficient increased from 0.01 to 0.0125
            Skill Rune – Grasping Chill
            
               Proc coefficient increased from 0.01 to 0.0125
            
            
            Skill Rune – Frozen Solid
            
               Proc coefficient increased from 0.01 to 0.0125
            
            
            Skill Rune – Stark Winter
            
               Proc coefficient increased to from 0.005 to 0.0125
            
            
            Skill Rune – Snowbound
            
               Proc coefficient increased to from 0.01 to 0.0125
            
            
            Skill Rune – Unrelenting Storm
            
               Weapon damage increased from 280% to 680%
            
            
         
         
         Shock Pulse
         
            Weapon damage increased from 105% to 150%
            Proc coefficient increased from 0.667 to 0.8
            Skill Rune – Fire Bolts
            
               Weapon damage increased from 152% to 195%
               Proc coefficient increased from 0.667 to 0.8
            
            
            Skill Rune – Explosive Bolts
            
               Weapon damage increased from 70% to 105%
               Proc coefficient increased from 0.5 to 0.8
            
            
            Skill Rune – Lightning Affinity
            
               Proc coefficient increased from 0.667 to 0.8
            
            
            Skill Rune – Living Lightning
            
               Weapon damage increased from 37% to 52%
            
            
         
         
      
      
      Passive Skills
      
         Critical Mass
         
            Critical Mass now affects the cooldowns of Archon: Teleport and Archon: Slow Time while in Archon Form
         
         
         Temporal Flux
         
            Now reduces enemy movement speed by 60% for 3 seconds (up from 30% and 2 seconds)
         
         
         Unstable Anomaly
         
            Now activates upon receiving fatal damage (changed from when a player is reduced below 30% Life)
            Dying will now reset the cooldown
         
         
      
      
      Bug Fixes
      
         Blizzard Critical Hits now correctly have a chance to proc Arcane Power on Crit

      
      
   
   


   

    Crafting

   General
   
      A new crafting reagent, Demonic Essence, has been added to the game
      
This reagent is account-bound and can be acquired from Elite monsters in Inferno difficulty

Nephalem Valor will not be required in order for Demonic Essences to drop

However, each level of Monster Power will increase the drop chance of Demonic Essence from Elites according to the following values:

         
  • MP 0: 20.0000%
  • MP 1: 23.0000%
  • MP 2: 26.4500%
  • MP 3: 30.4175%
  • MP 4: 34.9801%
  • MP 5: 40.2271%
  • MP 6: 46.2612%
  • MP 7: 53.2004%
  • MP 8: 61.1805%
  • MP 9: 70.3575%
  • MP 10: 80.9112%
         
      
The drop rate for Blacksmithing Plans and Jeweler Designs has been increased by 400%
   
   
   Blacksmith
   
Four Rare recipes have been added to the Blacksmith: Archon Spaulders (Shoulders), Archon Gauntlets (Gloves), Archon Armor (Chest Armor), Razorspikes (Bracers)
      
         Each crafted item will have the following characteristics:

         
  • iLevel 63
  • 6 Affixes
  • Account-bound
  • Similar to the Hellfire Ring, it will have four variants, each guaranteeing a fixed core stat which will have the highest range available in the game
         
         Crafting the item will require 1 Demonic Essence (other reagent costs will vary per recipe)
      
      
   
   
   Jeweler
   
      A new Rare recipe has been added to the Jeweler for an Amulet
      
         This amulet will have the following characteristics:

         
  • iLevel 63
  • 6 Affixes
  • Account-bound
  • Similar to the Hellfire Ring, it will have four variants, each guaranteeing a fixed core stat which will have the highest range available in the game
         
         
         Crafting the item will require the 1 Demonic Essence as well as:
         
            
  • 100,000g
  • 1 Perfect Gem (varied depending on which core stat you select)
  • 1 Fiery Brimstone
         
         
      
      
      A new tier of account-bound gems of has been added to the game: Marquise
      
         Marquise Gems stats are as follows:

         
            Marquise Emerald
            
  • Weapon: Increased Critical Hit Damage by 110%
  • Helm: +33% Extra Gold from Monsters
  • Armor: +62 Dexterity
            
            Marquise Topaz
            
  • Weapon: Melee attackers take 2200 per hit
  • Helm: 33% Better chance of finding magical items
  • Armor: +62 Intelligence
            
            Marquise Amethyst
            
  • Weapon: Each Hit adds +700 Life
  • Helm: +19% Life
  • Armor: +62 Vitality
            
            Marquise Ruby
            
  • Weapon: +150 Minimum and +150 Maximum Damage
  • Helm: Increases Bonus Experience by 33%
  • Armor: +62 Strength
         
         
         These gems can only be created at the Jeweler and will require the following reagents:
         
  • 3 Radiant Star Gems
  • 20 million gold
  • 1 Demonic Essence
         
         Un-socketing Marquise gems will cost 5 million gold

         The designs for the Marquise gems will drop randomly from all level 63 monsters
         
            Note: The designs are not account-bound

               
      
      
   
   


   

    Items

   General

   
      Crafting Plans and Jeweler Designs have been added for all of the new Rare recipes listed above
      
         These plans (excluding the chest piece) will drop randomly in the world, but have a 50% chance to drop off the following bosses when you have 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor:

         
  • Skeleton King
  • Spider Queen
  • Maghda
  • Zoltun Kulle
  • Ghom
  • Cydaea
  • Rakanoth
  • Izual
         
         The Archon Armor recipe can be purchased from Squirt the Peddler for 1.5 million gold each
         Please note that neither the Crafting plans nor the Jeweler Design are account-bound

      
      
      Holding shift while buying health potions will attempt to purchase 5 potions at once
      Follower items below iLevel 60 will now no longer drop in Inferno
      Goldskin now has a limit on the number of times it can proc on a single target

   
   
   Vendors
   
      Squirt the Peddler no longer sells Dyes, but (as noted above) will now sell the plans for the Archon Armor recipe for 1.5 million gold each
   
   
   Bug Fixes
   
      Goldskin will no longer proc when attacking monsters that drop no loot

      Plans: Staff of Herding can now be dropped on the ground, or sold to a vendor for 0 gold

      All Staves of Herding can now be sold to a vendor for 0 gold

   
   


   

    Monsters

   General
   
      The Reflects Damage affix has been redesigned:
      
         It will now apply a short duration buff to the monster and will only reflect a percentage of damage dealt back to the player while that buff is active

         A visual effect will display whenever the durational buff is active
      
      
      Damage dealt by pets to monster with Reflects Damage affix will no longer be reflected back to the player

      Damage dealt by the Molten affix has been reduced by 40%
      Damage dealt by the Plagued affix has been increased by 120%
      Fallen Lunatics should now detonate in a more consistent manner
      The Triune Berserker before Alcarnus should no longer swing faster after a few attacks



      Keywardens:
      
  • The Act II Keywarden (Sokahr) should now only use its mortar ability in Inferno difficulty
  • The Act III Keywarden (Xah’Rith) should now only use its rain of corpses ability in Inferno difficulty
  • The Act IV Keywarden (Nekarat) should now only use its earthquake and charge abilities in Inferno difficulty
      
      
   
   
   Bug Fixes
   
  • Rare Sand Dwellers will now spawn in The Forgotten Ruins
  • Champion Plague Swarms will now spawn in Cryder’s Outpost
  • Champion Fallen Cur will now spawn in The Storm Halls
   


   

    User Interface

   General

   
      Legendary items now have a new mini-map icon
      
         This icon should now persist properly and be shown on the mini-map so long as the player is in the same zone as the dropped item
      
   Note: The icon will only display when Legendary items are dropped by a monster, not a player

      
      
   
   
Bug Fixes
   
      Fixed an issue causing the Enable Monster Power option to reset
      Fixed an issue affecting the scroll speed of text
      Vendors will now properly display an Armor tab when you are in an Inferno game with Monster Power set above 0
   
   


   

    Bug Fixes


   Fixed an issue where new Hardcore characters were not labeled as Hardcore on the homepage
   Fixed an error that could occur when closing the World of Warcraft client while the Diablo III client was still running





Kilde


Alt i alt rigtigt mange spændende ting!

50
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls / Patch 1.0.7 preview: Dueling, Crafting og mere!
« Dato: Januar 12, 2013, 01:05:41 pm »
patch 1.0.7 indeholder massere af spændende ting, så tag et kig!

Citér
Patch 1.0.7 Preview



Patch 1.0.7 is currently under development and many of the changes included in that update will soon be on the PTR. Before we hit you with patch notes, though (and a new client to download), here's a preview of what's coming.

  • Dueling
  • Class Updates
  • Crafting Additions
  • Monster Power Changes
  • Monster Affix Changes
  • Quality of Life Improvements



   
The Scorched Chapel: Dueling

As Jay discussed in his PvP update, patch 1.0.7 will introduce dueling, allowing players to test their mettle against fellow Nephalem. Here's a quick rundown of how dueling will work in Diablo III as well as some insight into our design philosophy for the system.

How it Works:

   
  • To duel another player, you’ll need to speak with Nek the Brawler at the inn in New Tristram
  • Speaking with Nek will take you and your party to the Scorched Chapel, a new zone designed specifically for player combat
  • This zone has custom geometry and features four different areas: the church, the graveyard, the river, and the lake
  • Dueling currently supports up to four players in a Free-For-All format, which means you can battle your friends either one-on-one, three-player FFA, or a full four-player FFA

Our intent is to provide players a safe, opt-in location where they can fight one another for bragging rights (or maybe science) without the potential for griefing as it existed in Diablo II.



The game doesn't keep score and there are no objectives. We wanted dueling to be as simple and straightforward as possible, so we created a minimalist system -- we know that even without rewards and objectives, some players just want to beat each other up. Some matchups may be one-sided, and we don't expect that battles will be necessarily balanced. But that's okay, because dueling in Diablo III is more about kicking ass and taking names in a no-holds-barred sort of way, and this design certainly allows you to accomplish that.

Additional Info:

   
  • If you die in the dueling world, you will be resurrected in the dueling zone
  • Death is not permanent in the dueling zone, even for Hardcore characters
  • You don't take any durability damage while in the dueling zone
  • When you're done dueling you can take a portal out or use your Town Portal to return to town.

 

   
   
   Stay Classy, Sanctuary

In terms of class balance, we focused on improving the Wizard and the Monk this patch.

Wizard

The Wizard is seeing a damage buff to skills such as Arcane Orb, Blizzard, and Shock Pulse. We're also making other small changes such as allowing Illusionist to reset the cooldown of Slow Time and increasing the slow effect of Temporal Flux from 30% for 2 seconds to 60% for 3 seconds.

Monk

The Monk is getting a big damage buff to all Spirit Spenders. One of the most common uses for Spirit is to recast Mantra of Conviction-Overawe for the 3 second bonus.  While this is totally legitimate, we want to provide alternate uses for your extra Spirit. As a result, we are greatly buffing all the damage-dealing Spirit Spenders to try and provide an alternate use for your Spirit.

Although the Wizard and Monk are receiving the most changes this patch, that doesn't mean we feel the other classes are perfect. Other classes have received more substantial changes in previous patches, and we still have lots of ideas for the Barbarian, Demon Hunter, and Witch Doctor, but constantly changing class skills can often do more harm than good.


 

   
   
      Item Hunting


One of the most common requests we get from players is that they'd like to find more items (through drops or crafting) that are as awesome as those that they can get from the Auction House. The Auction House has its advantages: you get to pick the exact stats that you want, it can be thrilling to find a bargain, and if you find a cool drop that your character can't use, the Auction House provides a way to earn gold to put toward an item you prefer. But it has some downsides. The biggest downside is that some players find it more rewarding to collect items from slain monsters or crafting.

Patch 1.0.5 and the Infernal Machine event were successful in this regard, particularly with the Hellfire Ring reward. The Hellfire Ring is account-bound, and all the reagents to make it are also account-bound. So, you can't just go to the Auction House and buy a ring that someone else had found or made—you have to farm the reagents and ultimately craft the Hellfire Ring yourself. And as you play through the event more, you have additional opportunities to roll new Hellfire Rings with potentially better stats (or stats that are more suited to your play style and needs).


New Crafting Recipes

We feel like the Hellfire Ring was a good first step and would like to introduce more items like it. So, working off this design, in 1.0.7 we're adding a new set of Rare crafting recipes that will create account-bound gloves, pants, wrists, a chest piece, and an amulet.

These new items will have six affixes and feature a primary stat (Str, Dex, Int, Vit) that extends higher than what is currently available in the respective slots. The items will also require an account-bound crafting reagent called Demonic Essence, which drops from Elite monsters in Inferno.  Much like the reagents in the Infernal Machine event, the chance of getting a Demonic Essence will increase at higher Monster Power levels. Currently we are planning for a 20% chance to drop at Monster Power 0, and each Monster Power will increase the chance of Demonic Essence dropping by 15% (MP1 will be 23%, MP2 will be 26.45%, etc. up to 80.91% at MP10).  These are the numbers we’ll be going to PTR with and are subject to change.

The Archon Armor recipe (the chest piece) can be purchased from Squirt the Peddler for 1.5 million gold. The other plans will drop randomly in the world, but also have a 50% chance to drop off the following bosses when you have five stacks of Nephalem Valor:


  • Skeleton King
  • Spider Queen
  • Maghda
  • Zoltun Kulle
  • Ghom
  • Cydaea
  • Rakanoth
  • Izual



   

New Gems: The Marquise


In addition to new items, we're also adding a new tier of gems for those who really want to push their character farther. The new tier is called "Marquise" and most of its stats are in line with the current gem progression.

We also took the opportunity to modify the Ruby effect in weapons. At the moment, the Critical Hit damage bonus provided by the Emerald is a clear choice for anybody looking to do more damage with their weapon.  The new tier Ruby is a significant bump up that should make it the preferred choice for those who favor attack speed over Critical Hit chance, or for those who use skills which do not benefit as much from Critical Hit such as Sentry and Hydra.

Players often ask why their Sentry or Hydra doesn't inherit their Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage. The answer is that we want players to be able to build their characters in different ways, and we would rather Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage weren’t always automatically the right answer. While this is not something that will change overnight, "different stats for different builds" is a high-level design goal and introducing a very strong Ruby is a step in the right direction.

The current design is that these gems can be combined at the Jeweler for a substantial reagent and gold cost (3 Radiant Star gems, 20 million gold, and 1 Demonic Essence), and the designs will drop randomly from level 63 monsters around the world.


 

   
   
      Monster Power Changes


Overall, we've been very happy with Monster Power. Players are playing at a variety of Monster Power levels and upping the challenge. Different builds are of varying effectiveness at different Monster Power levels and we’re seeing a lot of build diversity there.

We do think there are two clear areas where we can improve: making Monster Power available in Public Games, and increasing the XP bonuses for players in Inferno.


   Monster Power in Public Games

When the Monster Power system was first introduced, we were wary of making it available for Public Games for two reasons. One, we didn’t want to reduce the pool of games that players could be matched into. And two, we wanted to avoid the potential group tension that could occur if somebody joined a Public Game at a Monster Power level higher than what they’re ready for. (For example, you wouldn’t want a severely undergeared character to join your Monster Power 6 game and constantly die. That can be very hindering to an otherwise powerful group.)

What we realized is that 1) choosing a Public Game and ending up in a game by yourself, but at the Monster Power you want is still preferable than not being able to play in a Public Game at all, and 2) undergeared characters can pretty much roadblock groups in Inferno anyway (if they really want to). We feel that the damage we’re doing to public games by not supporting Monster Power is greater than the potential damage we’d be doing by increasing Public Game waiting times or exposing Monster Power groups to possible leechers.

So, in patch 1.0.7 we're going to be rolling out Monster Power support in public games. You need to have the Monster Power option enabled to use it, of course—same as for making private Monster Power games. Once the feature is enabled, you can choose a Public Game and set a desired Monster Power level from the dropdown. From there, the game will work to match you into a group with the same Monster Power level selected.


Experience Bonuses in Inferno

We're increasing the experience reward for playing on Monster Power levels 1-10 in 1.0.7. Before I go into what's changing, though, here’s a little note on design philosophy. . . .

People often ask what the intention of Monster Power is. Am I supposed to just turn the Monster Power up as high as I can until I die? No, not really. Just because you’re able to beat something doesn’t mean that it’s optimal. In fact, we think there’s a real risk that if the most efficient path for XP or item farming involves playing on the highest Monster Power setting available regardless of the gameplay experience, then the game might actually become a lot less fun for a lot of people.

To take an extreme example: What if we made every monster on Monster Power 10 worth 5000x more experience? In that case, killing even one monster in Monster Power 10 would be worth hours of play at Monster Power 1. But is that what’s best for the game? Players who are looking to be efficient would likely play on Monster Power 10, but they’d be forced into a smaller number of defensive builds. Many players are able to kill things on Monster Power 10 already, but it might require them to use a skill build they don’t enjoy as much and the game can start to feel extremely tedious as you spend a lot of time attacking a monster that takes forever to die. We don’t want to overly-incentivize players into that kind of play style, and making Monster Power 10 the most efficient would undoubtedly cause this to happen.

We believe that Diablo shines when you can spend the majority of your time slaughtering hordes of enemies and then having that punctuated by the occasional difficulty spike either in the form of a particularly challenging set of normal monsters (like an elite pack) or a boss. With that in mind, what we want to do with Monster Power is set the reward so that there are incentives for playing at a higher level, but not make the incentives so powerful that players feel like they need to make the game less enjoyable in order to achieve a faster reward rate.

In line with all of that, we’re currently planning to increase XP bonuses for Monster Power levels to the following values:


  • MP 1: 25% (up from 10%)
  • MP 2: 50% (up from 20%)
  • MP 3: 80% (up from 30%)
  • MP 4: 120%(up from 45%)
  • MP 5: 165% (up from 60%)
  • MP 6: 215% (up from 75%)
  • MP 7: 275% (up from 95%)
  • MP 8: 340% (up from 115%)
  • MP 9: 420% (up from 135%
  • MP 10: 510% (up from 160%)




These numbers are still being worked on. We're going to monitor how things play out on PTR and make adjustments as necessary.

 

   
   Monster Changes


And speaking of monsters, we're making some changes to a few affixes this patch:

Reflects Damage

We've adjusted the Reflects Damage mechanic. Monsters with this affix will now pulse a damage reflection shield on and off. While the shield is down, the monster does not reflect damage. When the reflect shield is on, the monster will Reflect Damage the way it does now on live. The shield has a strong visual associated with it so you’ll know it is reflecting. (We’ve also made it so that pet damage is no longer reflected back to the player.)

Molten and Plagued

We've made changes to Molten and Plagued, too. Molten often feels like one of the more threatening ground-based damage effects, and Plagued feels a bit low. So, we’re reducing the damage from Molten packs and increasing the damage from Plagued.

 

   
   
 Quality of Life Changes

Finally, we’re making some other quality of life improvements to the game that we hope you can all appreciate.

  • We're removing the incrementing resurrection timer on consecutives deaths. With the removal of enrage timers in the previous patch and the emphasis on players selecting their level of challenge via the Monster Power system, long resurrection timers no longer serve a useful purpose. It will now be a flat 5 seconds in Softcore. (The resurrection timer in Hardcore remains unchanged. :D)
  • We're also increasing the base pickup radius by a small amount.  The intention here is to ensure that players who are actively trying to pick up a piece of gold are able to get it. The current radius felt just slightly too small, such that even when you ran quickly past a piece of gold on purpose, you would sometimes fail to pick it up.  We still want a meaningful pickup radius to be a gearing choice, so the buff to the base pickup radius is modest. Many players may not even notice. For those who are very meticulous with health globes, the new radius is still small enough that you can avoid picking up a health globe in melee range if you so choose.

   


   
   
      PTR Coming Soon. . .

These are really just a few of the topline systems changes we’ll be making in 1.0.7, and we hope you’re looking forward to them as much as we are. This patch will be on the PTR very soon, and we encourage you to participate, test out what’s new, and let us know what you think!

--Wyatt


kilde


Så hvad er jeres tanker? rigtig mange store forandringer, men er det til det bedre eller værre? Og hvad ser i mest frem til? :)

51
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls / D3X GUIDE: Monster Power Level
« Dato: Oktober 26, 2012, 06:35:25 pm »
Monster Power Level
Monster Power Level (herefter 'MPL') er en indstilling, der gør spillet sværere, men samtidig også giver dig nogle fordele i form af magic find, gold find og xp bonus (på inferno får du en chance for at monstre dropper et ekstra item når de ellers dropper noget). Desuden spiller det ind på drops af keys og organer (mere om dette senere). Efter patch 1.0.7 spiller det også ind på chancen for at elite monstre dropper Demonic Essences og på chancen for at specifikke bosser dropper de nye crafting plans (ligeledes mere om dette senere)

Når MPL aktiveres på inferno, får man samme drop chance for de forskellige iLvls (items levels) i alle acts;
iLvl 61: 24,1% chance
iLvl 62: 16,1% chance
iLvl 63: 8,0% chance

MPL går fra 0, altså ingen MPL, til og med lvl 10, som er det sværeste.

Hvordan gør det spillet sværere? Og hvor store er de bonusser jeg får?
Monstrene du møder i spillet vil have væsentligt mere liv, og en del mere skade per MPL. Desuden bliver alle monstre (på inferno) gjort til level 63, lige meget hvilken act du er i. Altså vil Act 1 monstre være samme level som Act 3 monstre. Derfor er Act 1 og Act 3 teknisk set lige svære. Der forekommer selvfølgelig forskelle i de monstre man møder, så det afhænger også af build. At alle monstre er level 63 betyder også, at alle monstre kan droppe de bedste items i spillet.

Her er en tabel over monstrenes skade, liv og den bonus xp, magic find, ekstra item og gold find du får på de forskellige MPLs (på inferno-sværhedsgraden) Bemærk at XP bonus og skade bonus er blevet ændret, og derfor ikke svarer til hvad der står i tabellen (se under tabellen for info):



Efter at patch 1.0.7 gik live er XP bonussen på Inferno som følgende:

MP 1: 25% (up from 10%)
MP 2: 50% (up from 20%)
MP 3: 80% (up from 30%)
MP 4: 120%(up from 45%)
MP 5: 165% (up from 60%)
MP 6: 215% (up from 75%)
MP 7: 275% (up from 95%)
MP 8: 340% (up from 115%)
MP 9: 420% (up from 135%
MP 10: 510% (up from 160%)


bemærk dog at efter d. 23/10/2012 er monster damage bonussen reduceret betydeligt, som det står her:

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%)

På andre sværhedsgrader end inferno ser det sådan her ud:



MPLs indflydelse på nøgler og organer
MPL har stor relevans, når man leder efter nøgler til Infernal Machine og organer til Hellfire Ring. For hvert MPL får du 10% større chance for at der dropper en key/et organ. Altså har du 10% chance for et organ ved MPL 1, 20% ved MPL 2 og så videre. (bemærk at du skal have 5 stacks NV, Nephalem Valor, før at de overhovedet kan droppe)

Mere om Infernal Machine og Hellfire Ring kan læses her; Guide: Infernal Machine og Hellfire Ring.


MPLs indflydelse på Demonic Essence og crafting plans drop rate

Med patch 1.0.7 blev der tilføjet et nyt drop, Demonic Essences fra elite monstre, bosser, treasure goblins og visse ingame events der giver NV stacks, og nye crafting plans der droppede fra nogle specifikke bosser.

Chancen for at der dropper Demonic essences er kun afhængig af MPL og altså ikke NV stacks. Chancen for at de dropper er følgende:

MP 0: 15.0000%
MP 1: 16.5000%
MP 2: 18.1500%
MP 3: 19.9650%
MP 4: 21.9615%
MP 5: 24.1577%
MP 6: 26.5734%
MP 7: 29.2308%
MP 8: 32.1538%
MP 9: 35.3692%
MP 10: 38.9061%

De bosser der kan droppe de nye crafting plans er:

Skeleton King
Spider Queen
Maghda
Zoltun Kulle
Ghom
Cydaea
Rakanoth
Izual

Dette drop er afhængigt af at du har 5 NV stacks; uden kan de simpelthen ikke droppe. MPL har dog også indflydelse, som vist her:

MP 0: 20%
MP 1: 23.2%
MP 2: 26.912%
MP 3: 31.218%
MP 4: 36.213%
MP 5: 42.007%
MP 6: 48.728%
MP 7: 56.524%
MP 8: 65.568%
MP 9: 76.059%
MP 10: 88.228%


Hvordan aktiverer og ændrer jeg MPL?
Det første du skal gøre for at aktivere MPL, er at gå ind i indstillinger, og derefter vælge "Gameplay"-menuen. Her skal du sætte kryds i boksen i højre side med "Enable Monster Power Selection"

Herefter kan du ændre, hvilket MPL du vil spille på, ved at gå ind i 'Change Quest' og bruge den drop down-menu du finder her.

Hvis du har problemer med at finde disse indstillinger, kan du videoen nedenfor:
(click to show/hide)

Bemærk, at spillet nogle gange resetter din settings i forhold til MPL - typisk efter multiplayer games. Hvis du lige pludselig mangler muligheden for at ændre MPL, skal du gå ind i gameplay tab i indstillinger og aktivere det igen.

Hvordan kan jeg se hvilket MPL jeg er på?
Hvis du er i menuen, kan du se det i venstre hjørne, hvor du også ser questen:



Hvis du er inde i et spil, kan du se det i højre hjørne over kortet:



Blizzards tanker om MPL
Blizzard ønskede at skabe lidt større udfordring for spillerne, da nogle spillere havde så godt gear, at de kunne nedkæmpe alt på sekunder på Inferno. Derfor lavede de MPL. Tanken bag MPL er, at spillet skal gøres sværere, uden at være umuligt. Det er også grunden til, at monstre får meget mere liv, end de får damage. Lav skade bonus og høj health bonus for monstrene betød at det blev ønskværdigt at få mere damage, hvilket Blizzard mente, ville være sjovere end at være tvunget til at gøre alt for at få højere overlevelsesevne.

Desuden giver MPL også spillerne mulighed for selv at bestemme, hvor svært spillet skal være, uden at gøre det umuligt at finde gode items. Desuden gælder det nu også for spillerne om at finde det bedste MPL i forhold til effektivitet; altså hvor meget spillerne dør i forhold til, hvor hurtigt de dræber monstre.

52
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls / Patch 1.0.5: Monster Power Level
« Dato: Oktober 11, 2012, 07:42:18 pm »
Blizzard giver os et nærmere kig på monster power level og deres tanker om det:

Citér
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....


   

   Setting Your Monster Power Level

Monster Power will be disabled by default, so before you can make any adjustments, you'll first need to enable the system. To do so, open up the Game Menu, click the Options button, and then click the Gameplay tab. You'll see the Enable Monster Power Selection box on the right side of the screen -- check that, and then click Accept.



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.



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.)


   

   More Guts, More Glory

Starting at MP1, each level of Monster Power will increase monster damage and health by a scaling amount depending on difficulty. To reward your audacity, your hero will receive a scaling bonus to experience, Magic Find, and Gold Find (which will stack above the 300% cap).
For Normal, Nightmare, and Hell, the bonuses look like this:


   
In Inferno, in addition to increased experience, Magic Find, and Gold Find, whenever a monster dies and drops an item normally (whether it be gold, a potion, or a piece of gear), the monster also has a chance to drop an additional bonus item. The chance to drop a bonus item will scale up with each MP level as detailed in the table below.


   

For players in Inferno participating in the Infernal Machine event (we’ll provide more info on this event soon), Monster Power will also increase the drop chance for Keywarden Keys and Demonic Organ Pieces by 10% for each MP level, all the way up to 100% at MP 10.


In Inferno at Monster Power 1 or greater, monsters in every Act will also be bumped up to level 63 and share the same high-end item drop rates. This means that no matter which act you're progressing through, the monsters in that act will all have the same shot at dropping items level 61-63, including crafting recipes, Legendary items, and set items.
   
   
   
With the change that allows item affixes to roll at the monster's level instead of the item’s levels, all items in Inferno at MP 1 or greater now have the ability to roll level 63 affixes.

While monsters in Inferno will all be level 63 at MP 1 through MP 10, their skills, abilities, and attributes will still vary from act to act. This means that certain Acts or Chapters may still be more difficult for you than others based on what monsters and Elite packs appear in each, but -- since the rewards will be identical across the entire difficulty -- where you choose to play is ultimately up to you and your personal play style.

   
      
   
      The Method Behind the Monsters

Now that we've explained the mechanics, let's delve a bit deeper into the design philosophy.  The intent of Monster Power is not necessarily to make the game "unbeatable," but to provide better ways for players to measure their progress as they become more powerful. We've designed the system around this idea, with two primary areas of focus:
   
*Monster Damage vs. Monster Health

Since the goal of this system isn’t to make the game ultra-hard, with each Monster Power level there's a heavy emphasis on increased monster health rather than monster damage. This is because, in general, it's more fun to find ways to maximize your damage than it is to be forced into taking every available form of damage mitigation. We also didn't want to create situations where "hard to beat" could become "impossible to beat" because players couldn't survive long enough to make any progress. In our testing, we found that while scaling up monster damage certainly made some fights more challenging, it did so in unfair ways…and also made it quite easy for heroes to be one-shot. Increasing the health of monsters, on the other hand, allowed the game to scale up in difficulty more naturally and in a way that still felt manageable.
   
*Efficiency

By now, some players have reached a point where they can kill monsters so fast that even Inferno provides almost no challenge, and enemies die as soon as they appear on the screen. For these players, the bottleneck for efficient farming is actually the speed at which they can traverse the map rather than how well they can dispense with enemies.

This is where Monster Power can shine. Players who can clear every Act of Inferno without much problem can increase their Monster Power for a more enjoyable and interesting challenge -- as well as better rewards -- and keep pushing their limits all the way up to Monster Power 10. Will some players be able to kill Diablo on Monster Power 10 as soon as 1.0.5 goes live? Absolutely. Will that be the most efficient Monster Power level at which to farm items? For most, probably not. Monster Power allows each individual decide what that "sweet spot" is for them.


   
   
      
         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.




kilde

53
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls / Patch 1.0.5 Sneak Peek
« Dato: September 13, 2012, 05:28:58 pm »
Vi har i forvejen fået et kig på deres ideer til Crowd Control changes i den næste patch, men blizzard kommer nu med et par saftige små hints til hvad vi kan forvente:

Citér


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.


kilde

(opdateres)

patch 1.0.5 previews:
Crowd Control changes
Defensive Bonuses and Monster Damage

54
Citér

Shortly after Diablo III launched, I remember watching Jay play his barbarian. He was having a blast, killing monsters left and right, casting their giblets to the wind with every successful strike. 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 the 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.

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 awesome, 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 diminishing CC. 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, 45, 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.

   
   
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 reduce 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 limits 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. The order the stuns were applied changed the total stun duration by 1.75 seconds! That seems like more micromanagement burden 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 solutions 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 the World of Warcraft and StarCraft II. One of the great things about working at Blizzard is being able to tap the creativity of other developments 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 did not.

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 stunned 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 (3 seconds * 70% CC effectiveness = 2.8 seconds). The monster now has 58.4% CC resistance (30% from the first 3-second freeze + 28.4% from the 2.8-second fear).

3. After 5.84 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 8.4% CC resistance (58.4% - 50% = 8.4% CC resistance).

4. A monk casts Blinding Flash applying a 3 second stun blind. The monster is blinded for 2.75 seconds (8.4% CC resistance off of 3 seconds) and the monster now has 35.9% 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 its 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 Flash. :(

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 (4 seconds * (100% - 34.8%) = 2.61 seconds), and the monster’s CC resistance is back up 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 both cases, the total stun duration is 6.4 seconds.)


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!


kilde

55
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls / Patch 1.0.4 preview: Monk
« Dato: August 16, 2012, 07:19:58 pm »
så er blog updaten om monk i patch 1.0.4 landet!

Citér

The most important changes for the monk in 1.0.4 are aimed at improving damage-focused Spirit Spenders. We're happy with where Spirit Generators are right now, but unfortunately once you have Spirit, there aren’t very many appealing ways to use it.  In many cases, the most effective use of Spirit has been to recast a Mantra repeatedly for the three-second bonus.  While this is certainly one possibility, it doesn't seem as exciting as using one of the more offensively-focused Spirit Spenders (or at least having that option available).


Spirit Spenders

Exploding Palm:

From a strict usability standpoint, we think the visuals for Exploding Palm can be a little difficult to interpret.  It's hard to tell who's affected by the Bleed and who's being damaged by the resulting explosion.  Our Visual Effects team has made some improvements in 1.0.4 which will make it easier for players to tell who's bleeding and who's getting damaged.
From a mechanics standpoint, the three-second Bleed can make the explosion hard to pull off, and the damage just doesn't seem enough to be worth the Spirit cost.  To help with both of these issues, we’re increasing the duration of the Bleed to nine seconds as well as its damage per second, which should make it more likely that monsters you’ve touched with Exploding Palm will go boom when they die.
   
Current: 220% weapon damage over 3 seconds

1.0.4: 745% weapon damage over 9 seconds

(Don't worry, Impending Doom is also having its duration increased to 15 seconds.)


Seven-Sided Strike:

The original intent for Seven-Sided Strike was for it to be a solid damage dealer that you could use for a quick burst. Where Serenity granted you an amazing period of invulnerability, and your other combat skills could put out some damage, Seven-Sided Strike would ideally exist somewhere in the middle by offering some invulnerability and some damage. Unfortunately, the way it currently plays out, Seven-Sided Strike feels more like a bad version of Serenity, and the damage just doesn’t seem worth it. To address this, we’ll be doing a straight damage increase to Seven-Sided Strike to make it an attractive option for those who are looking for a skill that really packs a punch.
The damage buff to Seven Sided Strike is significant.  And although players rarely complain when a skill gets buffed, it does leave one wondering why a lower damage existed in the first place.

The answer is: our initial design was flawed in several ways. To get the skill where it needed to be, we  identified three distinct problems that were plaguing not only Seven-Sided Strike, but other class skills as well, and each problem merited a damage increase.


  • First, we're upping the damage of many skills with longer cooldowns in 1.0.4.  Across all classes, if I can only hit a button once every so often, it needs to dole out some significant damage to justify the spot on my bar.  While some skills, like Archon and Wrath of the Berserker, are significant enough to make the cut, there are a lot of skills that need DPS improvements to make their cooldowns worthwhile.  Indeed, many monks use Seven-Sided Strike for the brief invulnerability, not the damage.
  • Second, we're also upping the damage on skills that spend Spirit. As mentioned in the introduction, Spirit Spenders are getting buffed because the Spirit cost needs to be weighed against the benefit of using that Spirit on something else -- such as refreshing your Mantra.
  • Third, we're taking a hard look at distinctive, class-defining skills that create better tension on your skill bar. We'd like to promote skills that help to fulfill the fantasy of a class; skills that make you feel happy that you chose the class you did.  Since the fantasy of a monk involves being fast, agile, and hard to hit, Seven-Sided Strike seemed like a natural candidate.

We looked at making these improvements across all skills and all classes, and Seven-Sided Strike benefitted all three times.  As a result, the 1.0.4 version of the skill is incredibly potent (we'll save the details for the patch notes).  

Wave of Light:

Wave of Light is the kind of skill that just needs to do way more damage. It has a big Spirit cost, but it doesn’t seem to pay off based on the amount of Spirit invested into it. In general, we’d like Lashing Tail Kick to be a skill that’s good against a small number of targets and feels relatively "spammable," and for Wave of Light to be a skill that’s more of an investment -- something that you don’t use as frequently, but pays out with bigger damage numbers when you actually do hit the button.
   
Current: 215% weapon damage as Holy + 45% damage as AoE

1.0.4: 390% weapon damage as Holy + 45% damage as AoE

This is just for the base skill. Wall of Light, Explosive Light, and Pillar of the Ancients damage has also been buffed up by a fair amount.



Passives

In terms of passives, it's pretty clear at this point that One With Everything is considered a mandatory passive for all monks.  While "mandatory" passives aren't great, making any major change would do more harm than good, particularly when a) incoming damage is so high and b) monks need the extra durability in order to survive. Additionally, as a result of this passive, monks are more heavily tied to their current gear, so making changes to One With Everything would have very noticeable negative repercussions to the gear monks have invested in.

While we'd prefer that there wasn't an "absolutely mandatory" passive, we're going to let this one ride for now. If we do try to make changes we'll ideally do it in a way that doesn't invalidate the passive, doesn't hurt monk survivability, and doesn't undermine the gear people are currently wearing.

Last but not least, we added the ability for monks to wield two-handed weapons in 1.0.3, along with supporting animations. This has allowed some monks who enjoy two-handers to play this way, but it's not always effective. In the Systems Preview, we mentioned that two-handed melee weapons are getting a buff, and that will help.  As additional support, the Spirit generation bonus granted by The Guardian's Path is going to be increased from 25% to 35%.


Be sure to check out our other class previews for patch 1.0.4:[/color]


Wyatt Cheng is a Senior Technical Game Designer for Diablo III. He's currently debating whether to level his Shadow priest or "Laser Chicken" to 90 first when Mists of Pandaria comes out.

kilde

56
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls / Patch 1.0.4 preview: Wizard
« Dato: August 16, 2012, 04:49:25 pm »
tænkte den lige skulle smides op som en nyhed ;)

Citér
Like the other classes, the wizard is also seeing a lot of tuning improvements to help promote build diversity. Rather than focus on those minor adjustments, though (which you'll be able to learn more about in the 1.0.4 patch notes), I’m going focus the majority of this preview on Hydra.
Here are the major points I'll cover:

   
  • Skill design philosophy for Diablo as a whole
  • What makes Venom Hydra as strong as it is
  • Why, rather than nerfing Venom Hydra, we're simply going to buff all the other Hydra variants


Nature of the Beast

From a development standpoint, we love Hydra and put a lot of effort into its design. In fact, Hydra took many times more development time to create than an average skill.  There are more art variants, more spell effects, and more lines of code associated with Hydra than almost any other wizard skill in the game (except potentially Archon).  We did this because Hydra is an iconic skill in the wizard’s arsenal and we wanted it to stand out.  When you’re in a multiplayer game and you see that Hydra spawn, it’s instantly recognizable.  And for those who are familiar with the class, you can also immediately tell which rune variant a wizard is running with.
Our goal for Hydra is to not just have each rune variant be visually distinct, but also for it to be better at something than the others. Specifically:

  • Arcane Hydra: Best at AoE
  • Lightning Hydra: Good against targets that move a lot
  • Venom Hydra: Good against targets that stand still
  • Frost Hydra: Good for snaring
  • Mammoth Hydra: Best in hallways


New Tristram, We Have a Problem

Despite these goals, it doesn’t take long to figure out that Venom Hydra is simply the best Hydra to use, regardless of the situation.  This is mostly to do with its very high damage output.  Although (technically) against fast-moving targets the Lightning Hydra does slightly more damage, Venom Hydra does three times more damage if you get the target to stand still, and that difference is simply too big to pass up.
The other rune variants have similar issues. The range on the Frost Hydra is too short to be useful.  The DPS loss Arcane Hydra takes for being good at AoE makes it too weak versus single targets (especially when you consider that most of the hard fights are against high health Elites).  The niche for Mammoth Hydra is very narrow and, if you can get a target to stand still, Venom Hydra does more damage in hallways than Mammoth Hydra anyways.



Five Heads Are Better Than One

To address these issues, we’ve decided to boost the damage of Lightning, Frost, Arcane, and Mammoth Hydra. Venom Hydra will remain the best against stationary targets, but if the targets are moving in any way, Lightning should be a clear winner.  The range of Frost Hydra has been more than doubled as well, which should allow it to fill the intended role of snaring.  Arcane Hydra will do less damage than Venom Hydra versus a single target, but rather than doing approximately 60% less damage, choosing it should only cause about a 15-20% DPS hit against single targets -- and you should be much better against groups.  Mammoth Hydra will be getting a modest bump, but ultimately "good in hallways" just doesn't seem like a very good specialty. We're going to keep an eye on this one for now, but down the road we’d like to find something much cooler for the Mammoth Hydra -- like giving it the ability to move around the battlefield without needing to be recast (just as an example).


Skill Diversity

One concern is how this change will affect skill diversity.  If our goal is to promote a large variety of builds, why are we taking one of the most powerful wizard runes and then bumping all of the variants to match it rather than simply nerfing Venom Hydra?

From our point of view, it's okay for Venom Hydra to be extremely powerful.  One of the trickiest things throughout our design process has been creating lots of appealing skills.  You only have six skill slots, so the more appealing skills we can make, the more significant your choice becomes of which skills earn a spot on your bar.  If a Signature skill is on the strong side, it starts to trump the other Signature skills.  If a Signature skill is way too strong then it starts to trump your Arcane Power spenders as well.  This hurts build diversity.  Similar situations exist for Arcane Power spenders, many defensive skills, and the trio of Armor skills (Ice Armor, Storm Armor, and Energy Armor).

However, in the case of Hydra, the risk of trumping other skills is much lower.  It’s totally okay for Hydra to be one of the most used skills because there’s still a lot of flexibility beyond making it your only source of DPS.  If you can spare the skill slot, you’ll almost certainly want to combine it with a Signature skill to cast while the Hydra is out.  If you can spare two skill slots, you can do even more damage by adding a secondary Arcane Power spender.



Trigger-Happy

While patch 1.0.4 has very few nerfs, one of them does affect the wizard. Rather than waiting for players to discover this change in the patch notes or while playing, I wanted to call it out here because it affects a build that I find to be quite cool and enjoy a lot.

Energy Twister is having its proc coefficient reduced from 0.25 to 0.125.  For players who may not know what proc coefficients are: they affect how effectively a skill triggers procs (or effects that have a small chance to activate).  Many skills (like Magic Missile) have a proc coefficient of 1. Skills that hit multiple targets or pulse multiple times have lower proc coefficients.

In the case of Energy Twister, specifically Wicked Wind, the 0.25 proc coefficient causes the skill to generate more procs in a given time period than any other skill.  Currently, this is used in combination with Critical Mass to lower the cooldown on skills like Frost Nova and Diamond Skin.  By reducing the proc coefficient from 0.25 to 0.125, the build still works and remains fairly strong, but it won’t be quite as good as it is now.  (For those with extremely high Crit rates, you may not even notice much difference, but I wanted to call it out anyway. )

Originally, we weren’t going to make this change, but 1.0.4 also brings with it a number of new Legendary items, and many of them have phenomenal new proc effects.  If we left high proc coefficients as they were, then a handful of skills with higher coefficients would become the de facto choice to use with these sexy new items.  We were faced with a choice: we could either reduce the proc coefficient, or we could make it so these skills could not trigger the procs on Legendary items at all.  We opted for the former because it seemed like getting a Legendary with a proc effect but never seeing it trigger would be very disappointing.  Regardless, having well-balanced proc coefficients on all skills is not only better for Legendaries, but also for the game in the long term.


Buffs, Buffs, and More Buffs

The reduced proc coefficient is just a drop in the bucket, and overall wizards are seeing their fair share of buffing.
In addition to the Hydra buffs, we're also increasing the damage of some lesser used Signature skill runes.  A few skills are very popular right now such as Seeker (Magic Missile) and Piercing Orb (Shock Pulse), so we’ll be buffing the other runes to match.  We'll be revisiting all of the other Signature skill runes with much the same philosophy as Hydra.

Meteor and Arcane Torrent are both going to get buffs, as well, since neither of those feel strong enough to justify the Arcane Power expenditure.  Meteor requires the player to correctly predict enemy movement in order to deal maximum damage, and Arcane Torrent requires you to stand still for extended periods of time to do damage.  Since a player is putting in some extra effort to use these skills, some extra damage seems justified.


Be sure to check out our other class previews for patch1.0.4:


Wyatt Cheng is a Senior Technical Game Designer for Diablo III. He loves all of you. Especially you.

kilde

57
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls / Patch 1.0.4: Systems preview
« Dato: August 10, 2012, 07:30:02 pm »
Blizzard har gennem Wyatt Cheng ("Wyatt Cheng is Senior Technical Game Designer on Diablo III, and as a member of Blizzard’s Beef Jerky Club is ordering jalapeno, habenero & ghost chili jerky this month.") udtalt lidt mere om, hvad de har tænkt sig med den store 1.0.4 patch.

(Hop ned i bunden af indlægget for at se et lidt kortere resumé på dansk.)

Citér
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.[/colour]


kilde

(tråden opdateres med hovedpunkter, når jeg lige har læst igennem selv ;) )


ændringer af co-op:

Blizzard føler ikke at nok spillere, spiller co-op, og dette føler de skyldes at det bedre kan betale sig at spille solo; derfor vil de ændre MF, så man har individuel magic find i co-op games, og altså ikke har et gennemsnit af spillere i gamets mf. Derudover vil monstre på alle sværhedsgrader få præcis 75% mere i liv per spiller: lige nu er det 75/85/95/110% alt efter sværhedsgraden.

ændringer af monstre (mindskning af mellemrummet imellem Elites og normale monstre)

Blizzard føler at de fleste almindelige monstre bare er fyld, og at elites til gengæld opleves som en murstensmur. Resultatet er at de almindelige monstre får 5-10% mere liv på inferno (og bedre drop rates for rare og magic), imens Elites (champions og rares) mister 10-25% liv. Desuden vil de pille ved nogle af de affixes (evner) Elites har, blandt andet fire chains og shielding og de fjerner invulnerable minions helt. Desuden vil de også kigge lidt på de monster typer som er meget stærkere end de andre monster typer, fx skull cleaver skeletterne, der som bekendt render rundt med en tohånds-økse og slår meget hårdt ;)


ændringer til våben

Blizzard føler at alle våben burde have muligheden for at være brugbare. Som det er nu ved man allerede når våbenet dropper, om det er brugbart eller ej, før man overhovedet identificerer det. Derfor vil man lade ilvl 61 og 62 våben have mulighed for at have lige så meget damage som et ilvl 63 våben.
Desuden er der ændringer til two-handed våben, som får nogle nye stærke affixes, der vejer op for de stats man ville kunne få ved brug af et off-hand item

desuden skal skills være nemmere at forstå, så en del skills der før gav fx "75% weapon damage for 5 seconds", bliver nu til "X% weapon damage over 5 seconds" dette har også givet dem mulighed for at inkluderer weapon speed i regnestykket, så en skill der gav "75% weapon damage for 5 seconds" med et 2.0 attacks per second våben bliver til mindst "750% weapon damage over 5 seconds"

ændringer af hensyn til effektivitet i forhold til sværhed

Elite packs mister deres "enrage timer" og "heal back to full", hvilket betyder at du nu kan bruge lige så lang tid du vil på et elite pack, uden at du begynder at tage skade over tid fra enrage timeren. Desuden vil de nu heller ikke få fuldt liv hvis du forlader kampen ved fx at dø. "De store" bosser har dog stadigvæk deres enrage timer, men denne enrage timer er som bekendt noget der har at gøre med bossernes opførsel, og ikke DOT på spilleren.

Repair cost på "hig-end" gear bliver desuden reduceret med 25%

ændringer af legendaries: Endnu mere legendarisk!

legendary items får et buff, og der vil komme meget mere info om 1-2 uger. Man skal dog bemærke at items fra før patchen ikke bliver bedre end de er.

ændringer af classes og skills

Blizzard vil gerne gøre de mindre brugte skills til gode alternativer til dem der bruges som standard, igennem enten buffs, eller bedre overblik over deres brugbarhed.

Det samme gør sig gældende for runer, hvor de vil prøve at buffe runer, som lige nu er fuldstændigt udkonkurreret af en specifik rune.

Blizzard håber at opnå større build-variation med dette tiltag


Patch release

Citér
shortly before the patch goes live – which, by the way, is currently targeted for the fourth week of August.

58
Citér
Items

   General
   
         The drop rates for high-end items (items level 61-63) have been increased for Acts III and IV of Hell difficulty and Acts I – IV of Inferno difficulty
      
           The new approximate drop rates are as follows:
         
            Hell – Act III and Act IV
            
                  iLvl 61: 9% to 13.9%
                  iLvl 62: 1.9% to 3.45%
                  iLvl 63: 0% (no change)
            
            
            Inferno – Act I
            
                  iLvl 61: 17.7% to 23.9%
                  iLvl 62: 7.9% to 12.6%
                  iLvl 63: 2.0% to 4.8%
            
            
            Inferno – Act II
            
                  iLvl 61: 18.6% to 23.3%
                  iLvl 62: 12.4% to 18.6%
                  iLvl 63: 4.1% to 9.3%
            
            
            Inferno – Act III and Act IV
            
                  iLvl 61: 24.1% to 27.1%
                  iLvl 62: 16.1% to 21.7%
            
            
                     iLvl 63: 8.0% to 16.3%
         
         
      
      
   
   
   Bug Fixes
   
         Fixed a bug with several items that would allow those items to block pathing when dropped on the ground
   
   

Bosses

   Bosses are now guaranteed to drop at least 1 Rare item for players with 4 stacks of Nephalem Valor and at least 2 Rare items for players with 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor

Bug Fixes

   Fixed a crash that could sometimes occur when a player was interacting with environment objects (e.g. opening chests or clicking on a lectern)

Så bliver item drops da lige boostet! Og bosser igen gjort mere værd, hvilket imo er nice!

59
Tech. Support / Adobe flash player
« Dato: Juni 19, 2012, 08:23:54 pm »
nogle andre der har problemer med flash player? hver gang jeg går ind på en youtube video fryser hele min browser i 10 sekunder, hvorefter jeg hører en lille smule af lyden, og så fryser min browser igen... hvis jeg er heldig spiller lyden uden problemer efter ca. 1 minut, og videoen lagger, efter yderligere ½ minut virker både video og lyd... hvis jeg er uheldig crasher adobe flash player og beder mig om at genindlæse siden for at prøve igen...

formoder at jeg har fået en af deres u-testede beta updates, eftersom problemet lige er opstået... ser dog ud til at det er den samme version de har liggende på deres side...

60
Blær og Tud / Første legendary endelig! gange to?
« Dato: Juni 10, 2012, 01:10:35 pm »
spillede på min DH på act 3 NM, på vej hen til siege breaker... nakker en gruppe mobs og der dropper sgu mit første legendary item! et par bukser... jeg kigger så lige på det andet loot der ligger og bemærker... et par legendary pants til!







altså fuldstændigt identiske på nær den ene stat, som bare er lidt mindre på det ene par... rimelig weird når man kigger på de variabler som bukserne har:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/hammer-jammers


ærgerligt at det ikke var på min wiz at jeg lige fik dobbelt drop på et par lvl 60 legendaries :p men okay gold find busker... og nice reference til Mc Hammer  :P

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