Category Archive: Diablo 3 News

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1.0.4 Official Launch!

  By admin | August 21, 2012 - 2:50 am | Diablo 3 News Leave a comment

If you’ve missed out on the official patch notes for 1.0.4, you can check it out here on the official Blizzard forums!

Personally, the biggest change to Diablo 3 has arrived since launch and I’m glad to hear it. Only 3 months after the launch, it’s pretty soon but there are quite a few significant changes to Diablo 3 and it’s not stopping here. Blizzard has already teased quite a few changes in their up and coming 1.1 Patch but for now, we’ll settle for what they’ve already done for 1.0.4!

Paragon System

The Paragon Levels apply immediately upon a character hitting level 60 where each point of experience beyond level 60 will be attributed to Paragon Leveling. Currently, there are a hundred levels of Paragon and each level of Paragon will provide your character with additional stats (the amount your character would attain from leveling from 59 to 60) as well as 3% in Magic Find and Gold Find!

This alone makes being 60 and in Inferno a little better as characters will still be able to progress in more ways than just attaining better gear. Even if a farming run doesn’t prove profitable (Gold-wise or Gear-wise), your character will still be getting experience points which will give you a better edge in the next run.

Even more, the core mechanics of Co-operative play were tweaked this time around as Magic Find, which used to be shared by all players in a game were made to only affect players individually. So if you’re running with 300% Magic Find and your Co-op buddy isn’t, you won’t have to worry about them halving your chances of getting better loot.

Touching on Co-operative games, the amount of bonus health monsters get in Inferno (all difficulties but Inferno is the most noticable) has reduced to only 75% where it used to go up to 105% more Health per additional player in a Co-op game. Furthermore, ALL monsters now have a higher chance of dropping Magic and Rare items which makes skipping enemies much less desirable.

In addition to the huge changes to mechanics, there have been a slew of changes across the board to all classes and you should definitely go through them personally to see how it affects your current playstyle and build. I’ll be going over a few of them that have affected me personally but as I don’t play all 5 classes religiously, I may not be able to cover as much ground as all of you!

Diablo Patch 1.0.4

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1.0.4 Coming Soon!

  By admin | August 13, 2012 - 7:59 am | Diablo 3 News Leave a comment

1.0.4 Patch is coming soon to Diablo 3! Expected to arrive in the 4th week of August, there have been a slew of changes Blizzard has planned for their hit game of 2012. Some of which I’m especially excited for changes to Co-op that reward players for grouping up, as compared to flying solo. Of course the changes are actually a nerf to the amount of Health enemies have while in a cooperative game, there will also be buffs to normal enemies as well so it will probably not be much of a different in a group of 4 players.

One thing to note is that not everything on their list of changes they wish to make to Diablo 3 are going to be in effect for 1.0.4. There are many, such as changes to the classes themselves, which will be pushed forward to a much larger patch, 1.1. But for now, the list is huge and definitely worth giving a read.

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Battle.net Security Update

  By admin | August 10, 2012 - 8:08 am | Diablo 3 News Leave a comment

Seems that Blizzard is having a hard time right now as their internal network has been accessed by unknown sources. Sadly, even with all the precautions they’ve taken with physical authenticators and security questions, if their servers themselves are vulnerable, all that information will be compromised as well.

It would seem that credit card information, billing address and identities are yet to be determined to have been compromised, but information such as emails, security questions and certain information related to authenticators were.

For more information on how what you should do to change security questions, passwords and emails, you should visit the official battle.net site. You’ll be able to find the links in Mike Morhaime’s official apology at http://www.us.blizzard.com/en-us/securityupdate.html.

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Wizard’s God Mode Exploit

  By admin | July 23, 2012 - 5:49 am | Diablo 3 News, Diablo 3 Tips, Diablo 3 Walkthrough, Diablo 3 Wizard Guide Leave a comment

For many of you who play a Wizard (myself included), there has been an exploit going around and apparently has been in the game ever since launch. Apparently it’s been discovered about 3 weeks ago and is primarily used in Hardcore mode to farm for items in Solo. For those of you who would like to try it out, I found an instructional video to cause the exploit to occur here.

Of course, whether it’s a bannable offence or not is yet to be seen. I’ve tested this myself and it indeed works but only in Solo mode. Me and a few buddies decided to test it out by getting Diablo (Inferno) kills for everybody and their alts but shit promptly hit the fan as it seems to bug out during Multiplayer games.

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Recent Diablo 3 Updates/Changes Planned

  By admin | July 20, 2012 - 9:26 am | Diablo 3 News, Diablo 3 Tips Leave a comment

Mike Morhaime recently posted on the Official Diablo 3 Forums regarding the upcoming changes coming to Diablo 3 in 1.0.4 and 1.1. Simply follow this link for the full post he made.

Link to Mike Morhaime's Post

What’s exciting about it is there will be a whole slew of balancing for all the classes which means much MUCH more viable builds. As of now, you’ll notice there are Skills which are redundant and quite possibly useless. One example will be the Wizard’s Ice Armor and Storm Armor. There’s absolutely no need to use either of them other than Energy Armor due to the 65% Increase in Armor and Skill Runes which are amazingly powerful. Pinpoint provides 5% to Critical Chance, Force Armor reduces any hit to 35% of the Wizard’s total HP and Prismatic Armor provides 40% increased Resistances. How do they compare!?

That being said, with changes comes opportunity. In Mike Morhaime’s post he also mentions there will be a slew of new Legendaries coming into the game which will make gearing up a little different. As Andariel’s Visage was the “Best-in-Slot” when Attack Speed was King, I’m absolutely certain more of these Legendaries which earn their position as “Best-in-Slot” will turn up. Hence, the excitement.

For now, I’m patiently waiting for more specific news. As always, Blizzard is generally tight-lipped on their changes as they do not want repercussions from the public should they withdraw or change direction from their original plans. For now, good hunting!

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RMAH Commodities in 1.0.3b

  By admin | July 12, 2012 - 8:06 am | Diablo 3 Auction House, Diablo 3 Items, Diablo 3 News, Diablo 3 Tips Leave a comment

Now that we’re able to sell commodities on the Real Money Auction House, you’ll be glad to know that you can finally offload your Salvaged Materials for Real Money instead of just for Gold. However, if you’re not familiar with how commodities work on the Auction House, I’ll be going through a few things that I’ve uncovered while posting up a few of my own sales.

1. First off, commodities can be stacked up to the maximum amount in a stack. For example, if you’re selling Iridescent Tear, you can actually post up a 100 of them at one go.

2. You’re also able to REMOVE the posting whenever you want unlike the usual Weapons and Armor where you’re required to leave it there for the full duration. This means if you’ve mistakenly posted a commodity up for a price which other players aren’t willing to pay, you can just take it down and post it up again for a lower price.

3. Whenever you’re about to sell anything, whether it’s a commodity or not, it’s always best to check the going rate (Average price over the last 10 days) before doing so. The quicker you wish to move the item, the lower you post the price below that average.

Well those are the most important Tips I can think of while using the RMAH to empty out on your commodities. Personally, I’ve managed to garner quite a bit already from selling those that I’ve been hoarding up since the start of farming in Inferno and am doing alright so far. Like many others, I’d prefer not to have to put any money into my Blizzard Bucks so this is one of the methods added to my repertoire of making USD on the RMAH so I’ll have access to items which require USD to purchase.

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Diablo III Item Drop Hotfix!

  By admin | June 29, 2012 - 7:38 am | Diablo 3 Farming, Diablo 3 Items, Diablo 3 News, Diablo 3 Tips Leave a comment

Exactly what the Title says, there’s been a Hotfix which increased the drops for end-game items in Hell and Inferno difficulty. For those in Inferno Act I to IV, item drops for Item Level 63 have doubled. This makes it more likely that players will see useful items. Of course there will still be terrible items and such but at least it’s a tweak on the positive side for us.

One thing to note is with the assumption that players continue putting in the same amount of hours into farming, will prices of Items on the Auction House go up or down? More Items injected into the Market make items lose value but then again there’s Gold continuously appearing from each and every farming run! For now, let’s leave it at that and get back to the grind. . . Good hunting everybody!

Items

  • 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: 13.9%, up from 9%
        • iLvl 62:  3.45%, up from 1.9%
        • iLvl 63: 0% (no change)
      • Inferno – Act I
        • iLvl 61: 23.9%, up from 17.7%
        • iLvl 62: 12.6%, up from 7.9%
        • iLvl 63: 4.8%, up from 2.0%
      • Inferno – Act II
        • iLvl 61: 23.3%, up from 18.6%
        • iLvl 62: 18.6%, up from 12.4%
        • iLvl 63: 9.3%, up from 4.1%
      • Inferno – Act III and Act IV
        • iLvl 61: 27.1%, up from 24.1%
        • iLvl 62: 21.7%, up from 16.1%
        • iLvl 63: 16.3%, up from 8.0%

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

 

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Patch 1.0.3 Increased Attack Speed

  By admin | June 21, 2012 - 7:58 am | Diablo 3 Classes, Diablo 3 News, Diablo 3 Tips Leave a comment

Well we heard from Blizzard that there were going to be changes to Increased Attack Speed because of how Players felt it was a required stat. And here it is! In Patch 1.0.3 Attack Speed on all items were halved. So for items like Lacuni Prowlers, you’ll notice quite a significant chunk of DPS gone.

From 10-12% of Attack Speed dropping to 5-6% Attack Speed is pretty huge considering the other stats on the item aren’t amazing to begin with. Right now, probably the only reason to use Lacuni Prowlers would be the Increased Movement Speed which isn’t at all bad. Personally, from a Wizard’s perspective, I’ll be replacing mine with Crit % the first chance I get. However, I still recommend these Bracers as a Start-off point as they make kiting a whole lot easier. Have a good one all!

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Infernal Staff of Herding

  By admin | June 8, 2012 - 4:53 am | Diablo 3 News, Diablo 3 Tips, Diablo 3 Walkthrough Leave a comment

I’ve been getting a few emails and questions about how I went about getting the Infernal Staff of Herding. I mentioned in my previous post that to unlock the NPC which sells the upgrade for your Staff of Herding you’ll need to at least clear Izual in whatever difficulty it is that you selected. Therefore, to unlock the Infernal Staff of Herding it would have required me to kill Rakanoth and Izual in Inferno mode.

As you can see here, I’m about to join a public game heading to Diablo on Inferno difficulty. And as you can see as well, I haven’t completed any of the prerequisite quests to get there. For example in Act IV, the first 3 major quests are greyed out.

To do this, simply Change Quest to Prime Evil in Normal Difficulty. Once you’re in the game, step into the Waypoint and teleport to just outside Diablo’s room. From there, exit the game and click Public Games in your main menu and you should immediately see “Prime Evil” Inferno Difficulty there. Join the game, and head over to the NPC to make your purchase.

Congratulations! You now have access to Inferno Whimsyshire! Good hunting!

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Staff of Herding Upgrading

  By admin | June 7, 2012 - 5:00 am | Diablo 3 News, Diablo 3 Tips, Diablo 3 Walkthrough Leave a comment

Now that I’ve gotten my Wizard to 60, I’ve managed to save up some Gold along the way and have always been curious as to what farming Whimsyshire would be like. Before, I already had the (Normal) Staff of Herding as in my previous post I showed you how to get all the ingredients to craft it. However, at level 60, you don’t want to be farming Normal Mode because the gold and loot is nowhere near being efficient. So I went about upgrading my Staff of Herding all the way to Inferno.

First off, if you’re looking to upgrade your Staff of Herding, you need to know that you should be on the Quest to kill Diablo which means you’ve already defeated Izual. So if you’re doing this by yourself, simply Change Quest to Prime Evil on the difficulty you want to upgrade to and head over to “Gorell the Quartermaster” who’s standing on the east side of Bastion Keep (Standing next to the Healer).

One thing notable is that you’ll need to upgrade the staff progressively. This means you won’t be able to unlock Hellish Staff of Herding without first upgrading to Nightmarish Staff of Herding. Prices can be seen below:

Nightmarish Staff of Herding: 200,000 Gold
Hellish Staff of Herding: 500,000 Gold
Infernal Staff of Herding: 1,000,000 Gold

As my Wizard was a fresh 60 and looking to just farm up some Gold (Since I’d spent it all on the Staff of Herding), me and a group of friends decided to just head into Hell Difficulty to see what it’s about. A full completion of the map took about 20 minutes and we got about 100,000 Gold each per hour. This was without any Gold Find or Magic Find and without any Nephalem Valor stacks (Although we did get stacks within Whimsyshire). Item drops were 50+ and at times 60 so it truly is the Act V of Hell in that sense where the enemies are harder than Hell but easier than Inferno’s Act I.

My experience with Whimsyshire in Hell got even more interesting as we’d managed to kill “Creampuff”, one of the rare spawns in Whimsyshire which then proceeded to give us a legendary sword named Spectrum.

It’s more of a novelty item than anything since it’s Level 30 and the stats are fairly low on it. But otherwise, it was cute to see my Wizard running around casting spells with a sword which can create rainbows. There are several reports on d3db that the exact same drop can come from Normal Mode, Nightmare and Hell so this item is most likely only dropped in Whimsyshire and from that particular rare mob spawn. So if you’re looking to farm this weapon, at least you’ll know where to look. Good luck and have fun!

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