Hearthstone Patch 8036 - Blackrock Mountain, Three New Card Backs
Brawl with the Blues - Feb 26th, Murky Changes Incoming, Practice Mode Issues
Feb 25 Hotfixes, Dev Q&A on Feb 27, Ashran Changes, Blue Posts, DLC #478
PTR 2.2 Undocumented Changes
DiabloFans awesome moderator Bagstone has put together a thread on Undocumented Changes for Patch 2.2 on the PTR. Information is still being gathered, so it's far from a complete list, but there are some interesting changes documented so far. If you find any undocumented changes, make sure to post your contribution.
Official Patch Notes here, but as usual there are some things that are missing from the patch notes. If you come across anything post here and we'll add it to the list!
Items not in the patch notes
- Corrupted Ashbringer (@derekdddragon)
- In-Geom (@derekdddragon)
- Blood Brother (@derekdddragon)
- Eun-Jang-Do (@derekdddragon)
- Gloves of the Night Sky (@iamloupgarou)
- Hand of Kazzulk (@iamloupgarou)
- Nagelring (@Rasmous)
- Arcstone (@Rasmous)
- Broken Promises (@ranggarn)
- Omryn's Chain (@SevenSkies/Proteus12)
- Laws of Seph now refunds 75-100 spirit instead of 125-165. Seems retroactive (@Geekorner)
- Hellcat Waistguard no longer rolls elite damage (@Jonseee)
- Focus and Restraint set have 150% bonus damage (not 100% as in patch notes, @Kallizk)
- Slave Bonds now roll with four instead of five primary affixes, one still MS (@Hebalon)
- Gyana na Kashu's damage proc was nerfed to about half as much (@Arthe)
- Sacred Harvester lost its legendary affix (@iamloupgarou)
- Hellfire Ring and Hellfire Amulet now have a level 70 level requirement and can't be equipped by a level 1 character anymore (@Altistic)
Other changes
- Rifts now close instantly (@CrowSpine)
- Clicking on crafting materials of a type picks up ALL of that type within your pickup range (@Yttrius)
- Elite packs/champions in Nephalem Rifts now drop progress globes.
- Orlash (Rift Guardian) now uses Mirror Image and Diablo's Lightning Breath. (@Tergand)
- Rumors that there are no pylons in Greaters Rifts anymore (read this on multiple occasions but it's hard to believe?)
- Collector's Edition's wings show up on character selection screen (@bleu42)
- Set items now show which slot they belong to in the item list (@Jonseee/@sprky1)
New Sets Focused Feedback
Nevalistis has put up a thread for gathering feedback on the new and revamped class sets. If you are taking part in the PTR and helping test these new items, make sure to leave your thoughts on how they perform at the end-game in the specified thread - posting it elsewhere decreases the odds of devs seeing your feedback! By the way, they are not looking for feedback on the Wrath of the Wastes set yet. There are also reports that the new class sets aren't dropping - expect a hotfix very soon!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Welcome, nephalem, to the Patch 2.2.0 PTR!
This upcoming patch features numerous quality of life and item revisions for Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. For more information on the full scope of Patch 2.2.0, please check out our latest PTR patch notes here and our Patch Preview here.
We want to make the most of your testing efforts, so while we welcome any and all feedback, we are currently looking for focused discussions on the following topics:
- Updates to existing Class Sets
- Immortal King's Call
- Roland's Legacy
- Natalya's Vengeance
- Inna's Mantra
- Raiment of a Thousand Storms
- Zunimassa's Haunt
- Firebird's Finery
- Tal Rasha's Elements
- New Class Sets
- Unhallowed Essence (Demon Hunter)
- Delsere's Magnum Opus (Wizard)
For this first PTR, we've left out the Wrath of the Wastes (Barbarian) set as it's still receiving iteration. While you're welcome to test it out in its current state, we’re not yet looking for feedback on it and you should expect changes in a future PTR patch.
To help guide your feedback, we ask that you use the following format:
With that said, thank you to all our PTR participants. Your feedback is appreciated and continues to be integral to our design and iteration process. Happy testing!
- Name of the set you are testing:
- What do you like most?
- What do you like least?
- How do you feel about the playstyle provided when this set is fully equipped?
- Approximate power level (Highest Greater Rift reached, Torment difficulty played, etc.)
- Do you feel this compares with other sets for your class? Why or why not?
- Additional comments:
Please Note: In order to facilitate focused feedback, posts in this thread that are not relevant to the topics listed above will be deleted. Please create a new thread for your concerns if they are outside the above topics. Thank you!
GR 35 Keys Trick
Doing Greater Rifts at around level 35 is currently regarded as the most efficient way of farming experience and bloodshards. The problem is having enough Keystone of Trials, which require you to clear Nephalem Rifts before, and then farming the GR 35 keys. Philosophios uploaded a video explaining a method to "recycle" higher GR keys (40-50) into 35 ones, for maximum efficiency, without having to specifically farm 35 keys. Check it out!
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Posted Feb 26, 2015bruhh, ive got like 300 regular keystones and 200 trial stones :/
so much work to be done xD
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Posted Feb 27, 2015Yes, that's very smart. Forcing players to switch characters and throw keystones on the ground because they won't change how trials work and they consume so much time it's not even funny. Really, why can't they at least let us use 10 or so keystones at once? This is the worst part of Diablo 3 right now in my opinion.
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Posted Feb 27, 2015I'm quoting you Liquirius, but this isn't necessarily a direct reply to your post.
I keep seeing this complaint about how people are "forced" to go through Trials to play what they want - attempting to break a GR record or leveling up gems, and how they want the developers to scrap the whole thing.
Common complaints include how it takes time, requires specific gear or skill builds and/or can be failed, forcing the players to try again. I find it all incredibly weird to be honest, because all these seem to be actual varied end-game gameplay.
Trial Rifts are part of a very clear logical progression through the end-game. You can't do Rifts if you don't do Bounties to get the keys -> you can't do Trials unless you've reached a specific gear progression (usually doing Rifts and Bounties) -> you can't do higher Greater Rifts unless you can do Trials consistently -> and you can't upgrade your Gems unless you've reached a certain GR progress.
The fact that it takes some time to farm the Trial Keys, then a little more to get the GR keys, then some more to actually attempt to break those records is seen as a "bad" aspect? People just want to click a button and jump straight into the RNG part of the process (aka how good is my GR), without working at all for it? Show me someone in the top 50 of the leaderboards (specially seasonal) and I'll show you someone who has busted his ass off to reach that level (or at least has friends who did so, but that's another issue). He probably fought through the GR RNG over a few hundred hours to get there? Also take this generic argument with a grain of salt though - because Pylons =/ a grain of salt, not a pound.
Requiring specific gear and skill builds seems another good Trials aspect. It gives purpose to some very specific "arena type" builds, that wouldn't serve any purpose otherwise. Different builds for different purposes: T6 Rfit speedfarm, T6 Bounties speedfarm, powerleveling (less important with Gem of Ease), mid GRs for exp/shards, high GRs for gem and records, trials. There's already limited build variety in the end-game as is, how removing something from that list improves the end-game?
And lastly - that it's fallible. I've seen players complain that they have overshoot and gone too high in GRs, or how they "know they can get to and clear GR50 but fail in doing so in Trials". Well... serisouly.. working as intended? There's almost no "game overs" in D3, with deaths being almost meaningless in the long run, that Trials being that test sounds like a great end-game feature, to check how coordinated and precise your group really is.
The more I see arguments against Trial Rifts, the more I see it as a "lemme skip this because I wanna compete without having to put time in it". I fail to see how removing a feature that seemingly only adds to end-game goals can be a positive thing? Someone please enlighten me.
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Posted Feb 27, 2015You are right in some parts and wrong in some. I wasn't in the top 50, I was ~70 on the wizard leaderboard in the first era but I got there in a legit way, so I really know how much time you have to spend just to get the keys. I'm not saying they should remove trials alltogether because clearly they don't want to. But the trials are: unfair (for example I have to do them on my DH instead of any other character because he deals with them much much better), time consuming (you spend a few minutes just to get a single key to a rift you will probably leave because you NEED a great rift to finish it, no other way, winged assasin elites? leave. bad layout? leave, no reason to spend so much time with no chance of succeeding), not rewarding (you only receive a little amount of experience and gold for each trial, that is useless) and require a party for higher keys (you will never get a key as high solo as with a group, that means that people who don't like playing with a group have a disadvantage in solo rifts just because they can't get high keys by themselves). The only reason I know because of which they don't want to change trials is because they are ufesul for assessing strength of public parties. Why would you not want to have a possibility of earning multiple keys at once and how the hell is it not competing? If i can reach f.e. key 48 consistently, why can I not do this in a single try instead of multiple chores? Because trials are exactly that, a chore, not fun nor competitive play. What you said, "lemme skip this because I wanna compete without having to put time in it". is completely false because the way to compete is doing greater rifts, not trials. If for every rift you take there are a few minutes of doing a useless trial something is wrong and I do not see it as a feature by any means.
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Posted Feb 27, 2015I was defending trials for a long time, but I'm done with it ever since in January there was this trial exploit that allowed gear swapping and getting ~5 levels higher keys using some timed mechanic (thankfully fixed quickly, but not quickly enough as a lot of people got stacks of 60+ keys that gave them an unfair advantage). Travis explained perfectly why trials are annoying and pointless: you go on a rollercoaster ride, but before you go, you need to check your body height with a measuring stick. After you come back from the ride and want to do it again, you need to be measured again - why?
Yes, trials are part of natural progression. However, trials take up too much time for no reward; if you're doing trials for your highest GR level (e.g., aiming for 60+ keys) you can easily spend *hours* doing nothing but trials just to get a few keys. In this time you get no loot, no XP, no gold, no materials, nothing. It might be part of the regular progression, but in all other parts there's some stuff to discover (in bounties you can encounter the Vault if you kill a goblin, in T6 you can get goblin packs, in in GRs you get legendary gems and upgrades thereof). And in all those three parts of progression you get loot and other rewards. In bounties you get nothing. You see the same five different types of mobs over and over again, for hours, just to be able to play at your highest level for progression.
There's a million of potential fixes.
- Give us the highest key we have completed (in a group, take the average). You could even make it character-specific, which would incentivize to play a different class and you can't simply hop on a GR45 with your barb just because you got a DH with good trial gear. - Give us 10 keys instead of 1, to at least save some time. Trials always have lots of RNG, so in the end you spend about as much time in trials as in GRs which is just bad design. - When a group assembles, let them do ONE TRIAL to skip the first 55 levels, they'll start at that level, and either upgrade key (if they succeed) or try again (they already did the trials to get access to that level).
The trial system needs a fundamental change.
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Posted Feb 27, 2015What if there was a way for seasoned players to get get keys more easily, like you said 10 or 15 keys for a single Trial? Going through a Trial level increases the amount of keys you'd get the next time. Veterans are able to get say 15+ keys for a single "well done" Trial, and it doesn't invalidate the entire system for new players. Would that help alleviate the issue?
I still fail to see how "spending time" at an end-game activity can be considered a waste of time. By GR 40+ (or 55+ in groups), isn't someone getting dozens of "high GR" keys solely for the competition? In that case, does it really matter if you're spending hours without a "reward"? What exactly would be a good reward for someone only aiming to get into the leaderboards? Wouldn't a real reward for someone at that level be something that only happens every dozen or so hours anyways (or even hundreds)? If it had slightly worse rewards than GR (time-wise), would that improve the issue?
I'm not even gonna go into the issue that trying to make the entire thing a "fair competition" is a pointless exercise. Time and efficienty will always be an issue, and you're truly competing with what 0,0001% of the playerbase? So why people worry this much with the RNG factors of these systems? Do they really believe that there's a way for the competition to ever be fair? D3's base systems don't allow it to ever be a reliable PvE competition, as WoW seems to be - how hard is to just accept that?
The rollercoaster comparison makes it seem like the issue is Trials "not being fun" (another common argument), rather than being a time sink, whereas GRs are. Is that only because it doesn't have rewards? Or because the activity in itself is problematic? To me bounties are fun, they encourage exploration and doing different activities - but for most so called "competitors" they are pointless (useless!) because their reward isn't end-game worthy.
I'm not arguing Trials don't have any issues (!), as some seem to think: specific class having too much of an advantage, trial monster RNG determining success, trials themselves not being necessarily a "tactical" or "fun" activity, progressing through waves taking too much time, exploits, etc. Those are all fair concerns, but I'm not seeing (anywhere) solid suggestions to solving those.
I'm all for changes, specially those that improve the system and make it a fun activity - what I don't get is the urge to remove a system that seemingly has lots of potential for varied gameplay. (who knows maybe even the Cursed Realms are related to all this in a way)
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Posted Feb 27, 2015For the record, I really like some of the suggestions you mentioned Bag, and I miss the good old vanilla days when people would argue these back and forth to no end, usually reaching a very reasonable conclusion. Forums seem particularly dead on these lately, and the playerbase's trust in the devs seem a little shaken after so many dismissed suggestions.
One case in particular comes to mind - those attempting to make the AH and Trading work, only for the devs to take the most radical reaction as their first measure, removing the entire thing overnight (which is what I wouldn't like to see in regards to Trials).
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Posted Feb 27, 2015As someone who is still going better rolls on all my gear, I skip trials completely (Port out of trial and raise its level by clearing low level rifts for good set/legendary drops). some of the changes would mess up my method completely and slow my gearing process.
This tends to take quite a bit more time, but its far more fun and gives a good amount of items/gems/mats. not everyone plays this game for maxing GR tier.
they should just add an option to "Clone" a rift key, or even pay a trial stone to reset/randomize a GR, so you don't have to farm a bunch of trials to get a good rift.
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Posted Feb 27, 2015Are the Hellfire Ring/Ammy going to be retroactive? Or do I need to make some of those to ease the leveling future characters?
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Posted Feb 27, 2015Yes, retroactive
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Posted Feb 27, 2015Wow, that's kinda bullshit. Missed that the first time I read through this. I know Gem of Ease makes it much easier, but I see no purpose in removing the Hellfire Ring from the equation, if anything it's a great incentive to have people farm Hellfire Rings/Ammys at all (speed leveling alternates even faster than with just Gem of Ease).
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Posted Feb 28, 2015I really can't fathom why they aren't even considering changing both the Jade and Helltooth sets for Witch Doctors. The (2) and (4) piece of Jade are so bad, and really don't do anything to improve the build. And Helltooth is the most useless set in the game.
Most sets give you actual skill based benefits, whereas Jade is just nonsensical stat increases and useless mana regeneration. Zunimassa's was already a decent set, and it was the set that I feel needed the least help. Granted, yes, Jade is your GRift 40+ set regardless of its (2) and (4) sets bonuses being trash, but I still think they could possibly buff the effectiveness of Haunt/Locus Swarm in those 2 and 4 bonus slots, or reduce the cooldown of Soul Harvest (so you aren't relying on huge CDR for burst, or giant density for Grave Injustice procs). Just, SOMETHING.
And Helltooth, we all know, just needs to be completely revamped. I'd like it to be a set that's much more engaging. Maybe something that involves Bears, or Spirit Barrage, or Acid Cloud.
I just want some love for the Witch Doctor going forward is all. It's still a fun class, but they could be even cooler with some small changes.
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Posted Mar 1, 2015Any reason why Quin C's video wasn't chosen instead? He gives a lot more information on that vid and on that channel's other vids. Both of these were made the same day.
Although, in this guys defense, he is by far way less annoying to a lot of people (quin's most said word is by far "guys", more than any other word he speaks probably).
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Posted Mar 1, 2015When choosing youtube content, I try to be as fair and alternate content from players, as well as assess general presentation quality - which is obviously subjective. Since Quin was featured a couple times over the past couple weeks, when putting it on the balance I opted for this one, specially since Quin already has a strong follower base as well, which means some players might have already seen his videos (which seems to be the case here) - and providing an alternative source of information to put aside his sounds useful for a healthy discussion.
Either way, thanks for your feedback on this o/