by Andrew Chambers Aug 14, 2012 6:34 PM PDT

Soon after we released Diablo III, many of you commented on Legendary items. Most of those comments were fairly harsh, but they were also dead-on accurate. In many ways the Legendary items that we released with the game were just Rares with flavor text. You called us on it, and we’ve listened.

Since then I’ve been working hard with the team to give Legendary items some of the flavor and feeling that they deserve. With patch 1.0.4 just around the corner, and the new Legendary items coming in that patch, I wanted to share some of the changes with you here today.

Let’s talk about the biggest complaints we heard from you all, along with some we had from our team, and look at what we’ve managed to do to address them.

They Should Feel Unique

Many of you commented, rightly, that the Legendary items in the game didn’t feel unique enough. Something that Diablo II did really well was to create some very memorable items, and they were called “Uniques.” While we call them Legendaries now, the word “unique” was something we tried to keep in mind when making these changes. The rarity of Legendary items combined with their color means that when they drop you should feel like you’re getting something special, something that isn’t just another sword. A truly legendary item should have history behind it, something that you can imagine a powerful wizard imbuing with special magics from within the depths of his musty library.

Part of that feeling comes when you equip the item, and you see that it has special, custom artwork that sets it apart from every other item in the game. The artists already nailed this part of it, but with 1.0.4 they’ve gone the extra mile to ensure these items show off, visually, how truly epic they are. But we’ll cover that in a bit.

On my end, the design end, to get the uniqueness into Legendary items, we’ve added custom effects to over 50 of them. Here are just a few.

 

 

We’re letting players exact some revenge on rare and Champion and Rare packs by giving players monster affixes through Legendary items. This is just one example.

 

Reminiscent of the Enchantress ability, this lets you turn enemies against each other.

 

 
Aside from looking really cool as it leaves a trail of fire behind you, this lets you create some interesting traps.

 

There’s some just-for-fun stuff too. Everyone wants to be just like Ghom! These pants make you “stinky”, complete with debuff and gas cloud effect — you can even spread this effect to friendly players.

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A giant column of light shoots down, summoning an Angel to fight by your side. ‘Nuff said.

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This sword has a chance to summon a demon to fight with you — with a twist. This demon has the Fire Chains affix, and the other end is attached to your character. Mwahaha!

Promote Build Diversity

Because Legendary items are unique, we can do some fun stuff with them that we can’t really do with other types of items. One of the main goals of Diablo III and the skill/rune system is providing a huge amount of character customization. With Legendary items we can help support those goals.

In 1.0.4 we’ve added a number of items that really fit into a niche skill kit. This can help people to branch out into less common builds by seeing this item and thinking, heck, why not give it a try? They may not have the highest DPS stats in the game, but they can help you play your class in new and interesting ways.

Some people want to try out a ranged barb. We think that’s awesome. Here you go.

 

 

The melee wizard concept is pretty popular, and we think this wand will be too.

 

Certainly not an uncommon build, but this is a great item for any pet-focused witch doctors, and with the pet buffs also coming in 1.0.4 we think it’s going to be very desirable.

Provide Interesting Choices

With great power comes great responsibility. Some affixes in the game seem like they’d be too unbalanced if we let them stack too high. So how do we make sure we can go higher?

 

 

Goldskin is a good example. 100% gold find on it, plus monsters have a chance to drop gold when you hit them. Not too bad, right? But the tradeoff is it can’t roll core stats. We instead follow the flavor of the item, and being a skin of gold (!), provide you with some additional resistances and mitigation. It’s going to create some interesting choices on how you can make this item work for you. You have to find other ways to get the stats that you really need if you really want all that sweet, sweet gold. Balancing your items out like this can provide some fun and interesting challenges.

Honoring Our Ancestors

We brought a lot of items back from the Diablo franchise for Diablo III, but in many cases all we really did was bring back their name. I don’t think we did a great job initially of bringing back the way that they helped you play the game. We’ve done a pass on all the “ancestor” Legendaries to make sure they remain as true to their name as we could make them, and in some cases we’ve made them even better.

 

New Frosties feel a lot more like old Frosties, with big bonuses to Cold Damage and Cold skills

 

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Honoring the original by giving all projectile attacks a chance to pierce through the target’s defenses.

They Feel Powerful

We used to reduce the value of certain affixes on Legendary items because we were concerned that having fixed affixes would make them unbalanced. What it actually did was make those items kind of crappy. For example, if the item’s level (ilvl) was 50, the first affix would always roll at 50, then the next would roll at 47, and the next would roll at 43. This was done to offset the power of fixed affixes in a random world, but we’ve learned it’s not necessary, and Legendary items being powerful is OK. So lesson learned, we no longer reduce the value of any of the fixed affixes on Legendary items.  For example, if an ilvl 50 Legendary item had Strength as one of its fixed affixes, previously it may have rolled a range that you would have seen on a level 45 item, making it seem really underpowered, but now it will always roll within the range of a level 50 affix.

In addition, Legendary items used to cap out at ilvl 62, making it near impossible to find a weapon that had strong DPS. No more. We’ve promoted a LOT of the new Legendaries so that they will roll at ilvl 63, giving them access to the highest possible affix rolls that are in the game.

We’re also working on some changes for 1.0.4 to make two-handers better in general, and this will affect two-handed Legendary items as well.

Here’s a good example of all-of-the-above.

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BOOM.

Everything Else

That probably about covers it for the major points we’re hitting with Legendary items in 1.0.4, but there’s a few extra details on how they’re going to work once the patch hits we want to make sure everyone is prepared for.

Going Forward - As a reminder, these changes will only affect Legendary items that drop after the release of patch 1.0.4. This includes items that haven’t been identified yet (as items are rolled when they drop). With the extensive changes being made we can’t exactly translate old Legendary items to new. What might have been a decent item could become worse if we re-roll it, and vice-versa.

Not Everything is Changing! - Sometimes a Legendary just being really powerful is enough, and some Legendary items are already really good. Helm of Command, for example, won’t be changing in 1.0.4.

What About Sets? - It’s worth clarifying that green Set items are Legendary items (just with a set bonus) and so the above philosophy applies to them as well. Some set bonuses are changing, they’re becoming more powerful, and a lot of them are having their base ilvl increased to 63.

New Set Names - As set bonuses won’t interact between pre-1.0.4 and post-1.0.4 sets, the new Sets will have new names, as well as new individual pieces, to prevent confusion.

Crafted Legendaries - If you currently have a crafting plan for a Legendary item, and if we change the item that you’re able to craft in any way, you will NOT have to get a new crafting plan for that item. If you craft something right after 1.0.4 comes out you’ll get the new item.
We thank you for your continued feedback, and look forward to seeing how the new Legendaries treat you in 1.0.4 and beyond. Look out for additional 1.0.4 info blogs as we near the patch release.

One More Thing…

I’m really proud of how the entire team came together to make these changes — and it truly was a team-wide effort. When we were first discussing buffing Legendaries and making them cooler, a bunch of the artists got really excited and went out of their way to make them a whole lot sexier. Here’s a sneak peek at just a few of the changes they’re making to the items, as well as some of their proc powers.

Please enjoy!

Andrew Chambers is Senior Game Designer on Diablo III, and spent six months running a live action Vampire the Masquerade game for over 100 people, and it mostly wasn’t to meet girls… mostly.

 

1.0.4 BARBARIAN CHANGES!!

 

Patch 1.0.4 Preview: Barbarian

Players and Friends,

Even when you are in the business of fun, not every week ends up being fun. This week, our security team found an unauthorized and illegal access into our internal network here at Blizzard. We quickly took steps to close off this access and began working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened.

At this time, we’ve found no evidence that financial information such as credit cards, billing addresses, or real names were compromised. Our investigation is ongoing, but so far nothing suggests that these pieces of information have been accessed.

Some data was illegally accessed, including a list of email addresses for global Battle.net users, outside of China. For players on North American servers (which generally includes players from North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia) the answer to the personal security question, and information relating to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators were also accessed. Based on what we currently know, this information alone is NOT enough for anyone to gain access to Battle.net accounts.

We also know that cryptographically scrambled versions of Battle.net passwords (not actual passwords) for players on North American servers were taken. We use Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) to protect these passwords, which is designed to make it extremely difficult to extract the actual password, and also means that each password would have to be deciphered individually. As a precaution, however, we recommend that players on North American servers change their password. Please click this link to change your password. Moreover, if you have used the same or similar passwords for other purposes, you may want to consider changing those passwords as well.

In the coming days, we’ll be prompting players on North American servers to change their secret questions and answers through an automated process. Additionally, we’ll prompt mobile authenticator users to update their authenticator software. As a reminder, phishing emails will ask you for password or login information. Blizzard Entertainment emails will never ask for your password. We deeply regret the inconvenience to all of you and understand you may have questions. Please find additional information here.

We take the security of your personal information very seriously, and we are truly sorry that this has happened.

Sincerely,
Mike Morhaime

Patch 1.0.4 Information Coming Soon
The Diablo III developers have been hard at work on some exciting new features and updates for the game. Many of you have asked for more details, and we’re busily preparing several developer blogs filled with information on what’s coming in patch 1.0.4. In the meantime, here’s an overview of the information we’re planning to share here on the Diablo III community site in the not-too-distant future.

• Fixed a bug that allowed wizards to become permanently invulnerable

• Fixed a health regeneration bug that occasionally affected barbarians when using Furious Charge

Heroes of Azeroth, prepare to embark for an exotic new frontier! World of Warcraft®: Mists of Pandaria™ is launching on September 25, 2012 and you can be ready to play when the servers go live by pre-purchasing the game digitally. Plus, for the first time ever, players will have the option to upgrade a pre-purchase to the all-new Digital Deluxe Edition which comes with all of the in-game items from the retail Collector’s Edition, including a World of Warcraft pet and mount, banner sigil and accent for Diablo® III, and Battle.net® portraits for StarCraft® II.

Beginning September 25, 2012, World of Warcraft players around the world will be able to set sail for the long-lost continent of Pandaria, where they’ll explore forgotten dungeons, vanquish risen evils, and play their part in the Horde-Alliance conflict as it reaches a critical breaking point.

Whether you plan to level your existing character to 90 or start fresh with a new pandaren monk, it’s never too early to begin preparing for your adventure. Simply log in to your Battle.net® account, and then pre-purchase Mists of Pandaria. You’ll then be flagged to automatically download the expansion content prior to release so you’ll be ready to go when the game launches.

During the pre-purchase process, you’ll have the option to grab either the Mists of Pandaria Standard Edition for $39.99 USD or the all-new Digital Deluxe edition for $59.99 USD — or, if you snag the standard edition now and decide you want to upgrade to Digital Deluxe later, you’ll have the opportunity to do so for an additional $20.

The Digital Deluxe edition includes a full digital copy of the expansion, as well as a selection of Pandaria-inspired in-game content for World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and StarCraft II. If you’re looking for even more plunder, a special Mists of Pandaria Collector’s Edition with additional bonus items will also be available exclusively at select retail locations for a suggested retail price of $79.99 USD.

Learn more about the Digital Deluxe Edition
Learn more about the Collector’s Edition

For more details on the September 25, 2012 release of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, be sure to hit theofficial press release, or head to our new Mists of Pandaria game page to learn more about the expansion and prepurchase your digital copy.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Official Forums)

 (Article’s main image credited to Hellyeahcomics.com and Oskar Pannier ~~ Link)

Loot-hoarders and demon-slayers, take note: our Diablo III Game Guide on Battle.net has been hit with a volley of new information. Today’s update includes:

1. a complete roster of all current monster affixes
2. a new game difficulty page. The page includes a chart demonstrating how monster resistances to crowd control scale in higher difficulty levels.
3. information about the difference between dual-wielding and two-handed weapons
4. the hidden workings of Magic Find
5. details on health globe drop rates
6. a list of emotes and commands

Isn’t any fun changing skills when you want to if you lose your stacks of NV. You’ve got to understand that, right?

Being able to experiment with skills and try out different things is not the same as min/maxing builds against enemies by being able to swap skills mid-fight. When we say build variety, we mean there are many options to choose from, not that you should literally be swapping between tons of builds in a single session.

Before release there was a huge outcry that there was no permanence to characters. You essentially had all skills at all times. We agreed, and when we added the NV system we discouraged skill swaps (by removing stacks) to encourage character permanence. The system and solution were almost unanimously applauded as a system hitting multiple issues in an elegant way.

Now, in practice, some people really want to be able to swap around skills whenever they want so they can have a better chance at different encounters and types of fights. That’s understandable, of course. Everyone wants to be optimal at all times all of the time. That’s not the opposite of viable build options, though. So we have a situation where we agree with all those pre-release voices and do like there being some build permanence, finding that build that can deal with a lot of situations is more compelling and difficult than just swapping out to different builds to deal with each situation. On the opposite end there’s a lot of people now that think that min/maxing sounds like a lot of fun, and the little bit of character identity it adds be damned.

I don’t really have much to add at the moment except we understand the situation, we’re aware of what people want to be able to do, and considering all the factors we don’t have a consensus except that the system is working well enough right now that we’re not going to rush to change it.

 

 So, when are you going to nerf Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage affixes?

We’ve no plans to nerf +Crit Chance or +Crit Damage. While +Crit Chance and +Crit Damage are very strong right now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with something being strong. As mentioned above, players doing too much damage is not enough reason for us to bring out the nerf bat. Neither affix is having a negative impact on build diversity (we’re seeing a pretty good balance overall), and there aren’t any technical issues with them being stacked to higher values. It’s something we’re keeping an eye on of course.

 

Why aren’t monster affix combinations restricted in some way?

Monster affixes are actually grouped into categories and then restricted based on those categories (to a degree). Our restrictions aren’t as tight as some players have suggested, but in the end we found that adding extra limitations often made Elite pack encounters very predictable and repetitive, which kind of went against our design goal for these types of monsters.

We know that not all players will see eye-to-eye with us on how these categories are organized, and we expect some criticism and disagreement, especially from such a passionate group of gamers. While we’re happy with where affix combos are right now, we’re open to feedback and especially constructive discussion.

Here are the categories:

Strong CC (Limit 1):

• Knockback
• Nightmarish
• Vortex

Defensive (Limit 1):

• Avenger
• Extra Health
• Health Link
• Horde
• Illusionist
• Missile Dampening
• Invulnerable Minions
• Shielding
• Vampiric

Aggressive (No Limit):

• ArcaneEnchanted
• Desecrator
• Electrified
• Fast
• Fire Chains
• Frozen
• Jailer
• Molten
• Mortar
• Plagued
• Reflects Damage
• Teleporter
• Waller

 

Is Whimsyshire considered an Act I or Act IV zone?

It’s considered an Act III/Act IV zone, depending on difficulty. The monsters in Hell are considered Hell – Act IV monsters, and the monsters in Inferno are considered Inferno – Act III/Act IV monsters. The drop rates buffs from June 28 affect the zone accordingly.

No updates to share right now, but we do understand that this is something players would like to see in the future. It’s definitely feedback that we have relayed, but we just don’t have any new information to share about the auction house UI at this moment.

SIDESHOW COLLECTIBLE GIVEAWAY!!