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Diablo 2 gets patched, 9 years after release...say hello to 1.13!
UncleSporky
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=21730644778&sid=3000
Surprise!
Ok, so it's not up yet. You can play it on a Public Test Realm though! Where have I heard of that before?
Patch notes:
Seems much in line with the direction WoW patches have been going...that is, making things easier and more convenient.
Respecs are in the game? Holy crap. I remember last time this topic came up and everyone was up in arms over it...still I think this will be the #1 thing in getting people back to this game.
High runes with an increased drop rate...I wonder how much. It'll have to be quite significant to offset item duping fixes.
Necros didn't need a buff! Corpse explosion is even better?! Blood Golem might actually be useful?
Anyway. Discuss. Discuss how addicted you will be!
So addicted.
Surprise!
Ok, so it's not up yet. You can play it on a Public Test Realm though! Where have I heard of that before?
Patch notes:
“We traveled for an eternity...” - Marius
Travel no longer my friends - the Diablo II 1.13 Public Test Realm is LIVE!
Q: How do I begin testing on the PTR?
A: When you start Diablo II change your Battle.net gateway to “ClassicBeta”. When you log in the 1.13 patch will be applied to your game and you can begin testing the changes made in the patch. Since it's a new realm you'll need to create a new account.
Q: I don't see the ClassicBeta realm in my gateway list!
A: Log into one of the other gateways first, then back out and the classicbeta realm will appear.
Q: What if I want to play the normal game again?
A: Simply choose any of the other (non-PTR) gateways. Your game will be reverted to version 1.12 and you’ll be able to play on the live realms as normal.
Q: Where are my characters?
A: The PTR realm is separate from the live realms so your current characters aren’t carried over. You’ll need to create a new character to begin testing. But, cheats are enabled and you may use the following cheats by typing them into chat while in a game:
Gold # - Will provide the amount of gold specified
Level # - Will increase your level to the number specified
Waypoints 1 - Will activate all waypoints. You must still reach an act before that act’s waypoints will be unlocked with this cheat.
Q: What happens to my characters once the PTR testing period ends?
A: They remain on the PTR realm to be removed once the test ends. Characters on the PTR realm won’t transfer to the normal realms.
Q: How long with the PTR run for?
A: As long as we deem necessary to ensure the patch and changes are solid.
Q: Where can I give feedback and what kind of feedback do you want?
A: All 1.13 PTR feedback and bug reports should ONLY be posted in the Diablo II Test Realm Forum here: http://forums.battle.net/board.html?forumId=20601702&sid=3000
• All post should have a subject line that clearly describes the bug or feedback being given
• Use the search feature to ensure a thread doesn’t already exist before posting
• When reporting a bug include as much information as you can, including steps to reproduce it if possible
• Any non-constructive posts may be deleted and the poster’s privilege to post revoked
• This is a chance for you to ensure the 1.13 patch includes changes and balance tweaks that you think would lead to a better overall experience. Getting the information to us in a clear and logical way helps us understand your view and makes it easier for us to collect feedback for any potential updates to the 1.13 patch before release.
Q: What is the new "Mystery" mentioned in the patch notes?
A: It's related to the respec system implemented in the patch and can grant additional respecs beyond the three given for completing the Den of Evil quest in each difficulty. You'll have to play to find out how though.
- Patch 1.13
A new Mystery has been revealed!
- Players of Hell Difficulty Realm games are hereby warned once again,
that a series of new and challenging tests await you! The answer lies
within Diablo's Bosses, which span across the world from the Den of Evil
to the Throne of Destruction...
Major Bugs
- Fixed an item dupe bug.
- Video improvements for Intel Mac machines with OS 10.5 or greater.
Minor Bugs
- Uber Mephisto now checks for both Uber Baal and Uber Diablo to be killed before spawning summoned minions (Before he would only check for Uber Baal).
- The game will no longer stop and then restart the game music after the window loses and then regains focus.
- Fixed an issue where the game window would minimize when running in windowed mode when it lost focus.
- Fixed an issue where the game window wouldn't center properly when it was created.
Specific changes/improvements
- Respecialization is now possible! Completing the 'Den of Evil' quest will now additionally reward 1 free respec which can be saved. Players who have already completed this quest should receive 1 free respec in Hell difficulty.
- Increased the drop rate of high runes.
- Support for blit scaling in windowed mode. The game can now be maximized to the largest 4:3 resolution supported (hooray widescreen users).
- Some rare drop items now have an orange color. i.e. Runes and items required for Uber Tristam.
- Modified the gold bank limit to be a flat cap not bound by level.
- Nightmare/Hell WilloWisps champions/uniques have had their damage greatly reduced.
- Removed the requirements to create a hardcore character.
- Greatly reduced the explosion damage dealt by Fire Enchanted monsters.
- Uber Mephisto and Uber Baal's summoned minions no longer give experience.
- Removed Oblivion Knight's Iron Maiden curse.
- Hellfire Torch Firestorm proc rate has been reduced to 5%.
- Users can now toggle the display of text over the Health and Mana globes by clicking on the bottom area of each orb.
- Updated two Act 5 mercenary names to Klar and Tryneus.
- When creating a single player game, pressing the 'Enter' key now automatically creates a Hell difficulty game if possible.
- When creating a game, each difficulty button is now bound to a unique key: Normal 'R', Nightmare 'N', and Hell 'H'.
- The 'Enter Chat' Button in the battle.net waiting room is now bound to the 'Enter' key.
- Added the windows system buttons to the game window (MIN, MAX, CLOSE).
- Added new command line parameter '-nofixaspect' which allows users to not fix the aspect ratio to 4:3 when maximizing windowed mode. This lets the game 'stretch' to fill your monitor.
- Added support for '-sndbkg' command line switch. This enables sound in background.
- Added support for '-nosound', '-window', and '-windowed' command line options.
Revised Skill balance for Player Character classes
Amazon
-Immolation Arrow - Increased radius of Explosion effect by 33% and Immolation effect by 50%.
-Immolation Arrow - Explosion effect damage increased by 20%.
-Immolation Arrow - Increased base duration by 33%.
Assassin
-Shadow Master - Increased resistance range per point from 5-80 to 5-90.
Barbarian
-Whirlwind - Reduced initial mana cost by 50%.
-Masteries - Changed critical strike chance from 0-25 to 0-35.
Paladin
-Blessed Hammer - No longer ignores resistances of undead and demons.
Druid
-Werebear - Damage bonus increased by 15% across all ranks.
-Werebear - Increased health by 25% and armor by 1% per point.
-Shockwave - Synergy from Maul adds 5% damage per point.
Necromancer
-Blood Golem - Removed negative shared life effect (player no longer loses life when golem takes damage).
-Corpse Explosion - Increased base damage dealt from 60% - 100% to 70% - 120% of corpses health.
-Poison Nova - Increased base damage by 15%.
Sorceress
-Firewall - Synergy receives 1% damage per point of Inferno and Blaze and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Blaze - Synergy receives 2% damage per point of Firewall and 4% per point of Warmth.
-Hydra - Increased base damage by 15% per rank.
-Hydra - Increased base speed of Hydra projectile.
-Hydra - Reduced cooldown by 25%.
-Lightning Mastery - Reduced overall effect by 15%.
Seems much in line with the direction WoW patches have been going...that is, making things easier and more convenient.
Respecs are in the game? Holy crap. I remember last time this topic came up and everyone was up in arms over it...still I think this will be the #1 thing in getting people back to this game.
High runes with an increased drop rate...I wonder how much. It'll have to be quite significant to offset item duping fixes.
Necros didn't need a buff! Corpse explosion is even better?! Blood Golem might actually be useful?
Anyway. Discuss. Discuss how addicted you will be!
So addicted.
Switch Friend Code: SW - 5443 - 2358 - 9118 || 3DS Friend Code: 0989 - 1731 - 9504 || NNID: unclesporky
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White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Also notice how it only mentions "free" respecs given from the quest, perhaps implying a non-free version will be added.
Other exciting things:
Knights don't have Iron Maiden anymore, mercs rejoice
Stupid elite lightning gloam things are weaker
Is IM completely out? From the monster side I mean.
I guarantee that's exactly what it's a sign of.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Well as usual, this is PTR, meaning more could be changed, and they don't usually document every change.
You know what I would like, is the Stone of Jordan selling requirement for Uber D to go away. Yeah, duping saturated the market and made them the official currency, that's been fixed, can we please have an easier method for the man to show up? Maybe have him walk once a day on a random server...
Yeah I'm fairly certain that's the case.
That alone will probably guarantee that I play D3 a lot more than D2 (which I already had a lot of time on, of course).
Also respecs blow. But you know that from my history.
Fuck.
Yes.
They tried. But they ran into some unforeseen problem that was apparently pretty serious and had to scrap it. I think it was part of the reason the patch was so delayed.
Weird. TitanQuest was able to do it, as well as Torchlight. Hell I think Hellgate ended up having it in the end.
But I guess it could be the way they programmed the game. Change one variable, gotta comb through the rest to figure out what the hell happened.
The ability to rechoose your skills. People like the idea because they dislike one bad choice holding a character back from it's full potential and because it discourages experimentation. People dislike the idea because, um, I never really understood why really, it's not hardcore enough or something.
Originally, once you put points into skills or stats, bammo, that's it. You're stuck with it on that character.
Now you can change out your skill setting if you end up not liking it without having to level up again.
I agree.
Well, that might make blood golems actually useful.
I am intrigued, but don't really want to install again at such a busy time of year.
While I do realise it is petty, the fact that they advertised a beta opening "within a few weeks" more than six months ago together with how underwhelming the patch notes are means I probably will not even try this.
It doesn't turn you off from the game, does it? Would you be super angry if you were playing with some guy and he was like "hang on, I'm respeccing?" I mean, it's just a thing.
Personally I think it's cool since we can now use one spec to get us through normal and part of nightmare, then switch to our endgame spec. In some situations you do end up saving up a lot of points that would make life easier if you could feel free to spend them. And there are classes that might have an easier time early on in one tree, but not hell viable; at which point you can switch.
Basically with this patch I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. It's nothing super ultra crazy awesome but hey, they're patching an ancient game! Thanks guys!
The way I look at it is that it adds an entirely new dimension on the game play. Someone who knows what they're doing will utilize a respec to their benefit. I.E. a build for pre and then post Hell. It complicates things, and the people who have worked their ass off on this current system to perfect a non-respecable build will feel ire. A single pure build is tossed out the window. People who are more casual will probably just use it as a throw-away perk. For current hardcore players it essentially makes what was hard for them to achieve much easier, wouldn't you feel a little miffed?
Not to someone who plans to get past level 40 in HC mode. I understand where you're coming from, and I don't disagree. All in all it's a good addition, but I also understand why some people will be irritated, as stated above.
I don't think it complicates anything, considering you can still play the game as you always did. Why is a single pure build tossed out the window? In the end, you still have one build that you will be using in the end since it's the most optimal. The perfect non-respeccable build that's been made is still perfect.
They're also making Hydra better for sorcs, and buffing necros. Doesn't that mean the game is slightly easier for them? Why isn't there a huge outcry over that? We worked so hard on our characters, but if we'd just waited a few years we could've had an easier time! This is awful!
It's the same thing with WoW and it's just as silly there. Things like mounts which used to cost thousands of gold now only costing a few hundred. Only a few outspoken people complained, everyone else was too busy enjoying their cheaper mounts.
And yeah, I've been burned by patches that make things easier and more convenient. I farmed so much food at the start of Wrath for the daily cooking quests, and came back a few months later to see the requirements cut to 1/3. That's a lot of wasted time. I was slightly frustrated, but then I shrugged and enjoyed the easier time I've had doing it since.
also only two respecs then? ehh
It's not quite the same thing as in a Fallout 3 or Oblivion sort of game, where your being a caster or fighter or sniper or sneaky thief will actually change the experience.
To bring an example closer to home (that home being Blizzard) I would've quit the fuck out of WoW way sooner than I had if I had to start a new character every time I wanted to change my build. Hardcore I STUCK WITH IT aside. And I did have cases in WoW where I happened to stick with things that the hardcore people though sucked. But that's because there was also that measure of success no matter what you did; it's just a matter of how much you can succeed. In Diablo 2, you can right fuck yourself if you try something radically different and - frankly - dumb in skill builds. To the point of you not surviving the latter parts of the game. CHECK OUT MY LEVEL 20 FIRE FEET WOOOOOOO! You don't get to play the game that way. You simply die. And to fix your character you have to reroll it.
I know you already agreed with the viewpoint Mind, I was just reinforcing it with this post.
This is also partly a problem with the skill tree system they used but no respecs compounded the problem.