Patch Notes 2.2.0 Build 64236 (all platforms) – April 29, 2025

Vessel of Hatred

Rune Words

Xan

• The duration has been increased from 0.25 to 0.35 seconds.
• Excess Effect
  • Previously: Increased damage.
  • Now: Increased duration.

Tec

• The damage has been decreased from 1,000% to 700%.

Spiritborn

• Aspect of Captivating Fear has been moved from the Versatility to the Offensive category.
• Raging Claw
  • The damage has been increased from 60% to 80%.
• Sepazontec
  • The damage has been increased from 50-100% to 80-130%.
• Gorget of the Sunbird
  • The damage has been increased from 150-300% to 200-400%.
  • Additional function: Makes your storm feathers now also a jaguar skill.

Fixed Bugs

• A bug has been fixed that caused the description of the Gorget of the Sunbird to not match that of similar effects.
• A bug has been fixed that caused Veil of False Death to appear to grant a skill point to all central passive Spiritborn skills.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the Aspect of Unyielding Strikes to not interact as intended with the Gorget of the Sunbird and the primary Eagle Spirit Hall.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the Rune Igni to not affect the target of the skill it activated.
• A bug has been fixed that allowed the effect of the Rune Xan to be consumed by a reputation skill.
• A bug has been fixed that caused Holy Orbs to persist after phase completions in the encounter with the Messenger of Hatred.

Base Game

Belial’s Resurrection

Andariel’s Flame Skull

• Main Boss Power
  • Damage reduced from 1800% to 450%.
• Modifier
  • Damage-over-time bonus reduced from 21-40% to 10.5-20%.
  • Damage over time no longer requires enemies to be burning.
  • Additional burn damage on triggering main boss power has been removed.

Belial’s Eye Rays

• Main Boss Power
  • Damage reduced from 1750% to 438%.
  • Damage reduction decreased from 75% to 50%.
  • The number of eye rays decreased from 6 to 5.
  • Eye’s circling speed slightly increased.
  • Eye’s duration reduced from 3.5 to 2 seconds. Damage over time duration is unaffected.

Salvo of the Messenger of Hatred

• Main Boss Power
  • Damage reduced from 400% to 250%.
• Modifier
  • The vulnerability bonus has been corrected and is now multiplicative.
  • A cooldown of 1 second has been added to the activation of this modifier.

Urivar

• Main Boss Power
  • Damage reduced from 800% to 400%.
  • This skill now has a cooldown of 1 second.
  • The 5-second cooldown reduction for ultimate skills has been removed.
  • Receive a 15% cooldown reduction.

Duriel’s Lair

• Primary Boss Power
  • The damage has been reduced from 200% to 100%.
• Modifier
  • The dodge duration has been increased from 2 to 5 seconds.

Sinerat

• Primary Boss Power
  • The damage has been reduced from 200% to 50%.

Greed

• Modifier
  • The damage bonus per resource point has been reduced from 1.5%-3.4% to 0.01%-0.20%.

Lilith

• Primary Boss Power
  • The damage has been increased from 250% to 400%.
• Modifier
  • Only 1 bubble can exist per elite enemy and 2 per boss.
  • Bubbles can no longer be executed by abilities that bosses cannot execute.
  • The damage of bubbles to elite enemies has been reduced from 5.25%-10% to 2.1%-4%.

Chest Beam of the Wandering Death

• Primary Boss Power
  • The beam has been adjusted to start closer to the player character.
• Modifier
  • The execution threshold has been changed from 15%-34% to 15.5%-25%.

Sabotage of the Extortionist

• Modifier
  • The barrier strength has been reduced from 20%-58% to 11%-30%.

Allek’s Claws

• Primary Boss Power
  • Channelled base skills can now trigger this skill while channeling.

Hatred of Embrace of Hatred

• Modifier
  • The maximum bonus on critical hit chance has been reduced from 22.5%-70% to 12%-50%.

Disruption of the Flesh Cutter

• Modifier
  • The increased damage against vulnerable targets from the loss of control bonus has been increased from 0.25%[x] to 0.5%[x].

Grigoires Lightning Square

• Main Boss Power
  • The damage has been reduced from 300% to 250%.

Prince Zirs Puddle of Blood

• Modifier
  • The amount of healing has been increased from 5.5%-15% to 17%-36%.

Skergs Toxins

• Main Boss Power
  • Changed to ‘Whenever you take direct damage’.
  • The damage has been reduced from 1000% to 600%.

Varshan’s Lifesteal

• Main Boss Power
  • The blood-sucking beam now always affects one enemy nearby.
  • The damage is dealt over 1 second instead of over 3 seconds.
  • The damage has been increased to 700%.

Lesson of the Beastmaster

• Main Boss Power
  • Summoning now stuns for 2-4 seconds, instead of taunting.

Barbarian

Skills

Whirlwind

• The damage has been increased from 32% to 52%.

Furious Whirlwind

• The bleeding damage was changed from 40% of Whirlwind’s base damage over 5 seconds to 120% [weapon damage] over 5 seconds.

Developer Comment: We noticed that none of the options were previously attractive for a pure Whirlwind build, so we have significantly adjusted the bleeding option to compensate with a powerful second choice.

Double Swing

• The fury cost has been reduced from 25 to 20.
• The damage has been increased from 60% to 66%.

Hammer of the Ancestors

• The fury cost has been reduced from 35 to 30.
• The damage has been increased from 90% to 98%.

Stir Up

• The fury cost has been reduced from 40 to 35.
• The damage has been increased from 120% to 132%.

Rend

• The fury cost has been reduced from 35 to 30.

Mighty Throw of the Warrior

• The damage bonus has been reduced from 200 %[x] to 50 %[x].

Developer’s Comment: The value has been adjusted to a reasonable level to compensate for the fixes to the Mighty Throw of the Warrior, but ultimately it will lead to more powerful BONKS.

Steel Grip

• The base damage has been increased from 35% to 80%.

Steel Grip of the Fighter

• The damage bonus has been reduced from 400 %[x] to 200 %[x].

Steel Grip of the Warrior

• The maximum number of charges received has been increased from 1 to 2.

Developer’s Comment: We have shifted part of the basic damage bonus for Steel Grip to make gaining additional charges a more attractive option. This is a damage increase for both options.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Items

Aspect of the Executioner

• The damage per 100 strength has been decreased from 15% to 5%.
• The cap for damage bonus is now 200%.

Developer Comment: Earthquake builds have had a clear advantage over other builds on the PTR, even after updates aimed at balancing them. These changes aim to bring them to the level we want and make room for more Barbarian builds to shine.

Twin Strikes

• The critical hit chance affix has been replaced with the double damage chance affix for Double Strike.

Druid

Skills

Storm Strike

• The jump radius has been increased by 50%.

Cyclone Armor

• The resistance to non-physical damage has been increased from 15% to 20%.

Ravens

• Passive damage has been increased from 31% to 90%.

Poison Vines

• Passive damage over 2 seconds has been increased from 47% to 65%.
• Active damage over 2 seconds has been increased from 126% to 180%.

Passive

Abundance

• The spirit generation from basic skills has been increased from 6/12/18% to 10/20/30%.

Earthly Power

• While the buff effect for guaranteed critical hits is active, it now additionally grants 50%[x] increased critical hit damage.
• Earthly Power can now be triggered again after a very short delay while the buff effect is active.

Wrath of Nature

• Channeling skills now periodically activate Wrath of Nature.
• Stone Barrages triggered by Wrath of Nature now channel to maximum size before exploding.

Spirit Blessings

Gift of the Stag

• The maximum spirit has been decreased from 40 to 30.
• The spirit gain has been increased from 5 to 10.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Items

Aspect of the Incoming Tide

• Previously: Damage caused by Storm Strike is increased by 50 %[x], while damage taken by the target from other skills is also increased by 20-40 %[x] for 6 seconds.
• Now: Storm Strike jumps to double the number of targets and increases the damage that targets take from your other skills by 30-50 %[x] for 6 seconds.

Wildheart Hunger

• The decay rate has been reduced from 2% per second to 0.5% per second.

Gathlen’s Birthright

• The duration of Anima of the Forest has been increased from 10 seconds to 15 seconds.
• Landing a critical hit on a boss now grants 5 stacks.

Developer’s Comment: The pause between the benefits of Anima of the Forest allows this effect to provide much larger bonuses, but after feedback and testing, we have decided to increase the duration of the effect by 50%. This way, it becomes much more effective in boss fights, making the moment of power feel more consistent.

Necromancer

Skills

Blood Spear

• Spreads the Impaled effect to another enemy even if a non-impaled enemy is hit.

Blood Wave

• Damage has been increased from 450% to 500%.

Bone Storm

• Damage has been increased from 300% to 350%.

Passive Skills and Effects

Horror

• Previously: You deal an increased shadow damage of 3/6/9 %[x] to enemies that are slowed or chilled, and an increased shadow damage of 3/6/9 %[x] to enemies that are stunned, incapacitated, or frozen. These bonuses are stackable and affect the shadow damage dealt by your minions.
• Now: You deal an increased shadow damage of 3/6/9 %[x] to enemies with loss of control and an increased shadow damage of 3/6/9 %[x] to elite enemies and bosses. These bonuses are stackable.

Developer’s Commentary: This bonus still applies to shadow damage from your minions. Your minions benefit from all your damage bonuses, so it was redundant to include this clarification here.

Vampiric Curse

• Now counts as a curse skill for various necromancer effects, specifically for ailments, increased damage, frailty, aspect of the damned, glyph: enhance, and damage against cursed enemies.
• Damage from unleashed souls now counts as a summoning skill.

Paragon

Legendary Node: Flesh Eater

• During the duration of the bonus, devoured corpses now count for refreshing the bonus.

Legendary Node: Smell of Death

• Previously: When at least 2 corpses are nearby, you gain a 15% damage reduction. When there are no corpses nearby, you deal 15 %[x] more damage.
• Now: You gain a 15% damage reduction and deal 30 %[x] increased critical hit damage.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Items

Aspect of Unholy Bonds

• Now grants Unstoppable instead of Unhindered.
• The duration has been reduced from 6 to 5 seconds.

Aspect of Service and Sacrifice

• Damage from the Skeleton Warrior’s explosion is now considered damage from Summoning skills.
• Damage has been increased from 100-200% to 200-300% weapon damage.

Sanguivore, Zir’s Blade

• The inherent affix has been changed from Mage and Golem damage to Summoning damage.
• The damage bonus per soul has been increased from 5-10% to 15-25%.
• The value of the Intelligence affix has been increased to match other two-handed weapons.
  • Previously: 160-188 Intelligence.
  • Now: 214-242 Intelligence.
• Soul from Vampiric Curse can now only be unleashed with Army of the Dead, not with Defensive, Macabre, or Agility skills while this weapon is in use.

Hunter

Skills

Shadow Clone

• Is now always an Assassination skill, not just with the Rank 5 bonus.

Death Trap

• The base cooldown has been increased from 50 to 60 seconds.
• The cooldown reduction from killing or overwhelming has been decreased from 10 seconds to 5 seconds.

Supreme Death Trap

• The bonus damage for traps has been reduced from 50%[x] to 20%[%x].

Items and Hardening

The hardening recipe Trap Expertise has been moved from the Offensive category to the Versatility category.

Thief’s Leather

• The inherent affix no longer adds grenade skills to the core skill marker.
• Unique property
  • Previously: Your trap skills can be thrown and summon a death trap every 10 sec. When your death traps appear, you stride through the shadows to them and gain 10-30 %[x] increased damage for 5 sec.
  • Now: Your trap skills can be thrown and summon a death trap every 10 sec. that grants you 10-30 % increased damage for 5 sec.

Wizard

Skills

Ice Shard

• Shard projectiles now appear slightly further behind the player to hit nearby enemies more consistently.

Familiar

• The casting of Familiar has been refined, resulting in smoother gameplay.

Passive

Avalanche

• Previously: Lucky hits: Your frost skills have a chance of up to 30 % to ensure that the next use of Ice Shard, Frozen Orb, or Blizzard does not consume mana and deals 60 %[x] more damage. The damage dealt is increased by another 25 %[x] against vulnerable enemies.
• Now: Your frost skills cost 30 % less mana and deal 60 %[x] increased damage. The damage dealt is increased by another 25 %[x] against vulnerable enemies.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Items

Shuddering Aspect

• The damage has been increased from 20%-40% to 35%-55%.

Aspect of the Frozen Tundra

• Ice spikes created by this aspect now scale with ranks of Deep Freeze.

Glacial Aspect

• Ice spikes created by this aspect now scale with ranks of Blizzard.

Aspect of the Frozen Pull

• Ice spikes created by this aspect now scale with ranks of Ice Armor.

Aspect of Frozen Memories

• Previously: The core passive skill Avalanche now affects 2 additional effects; and damage against vulnerable enemies is increased to 50-75%[x].
• Now: The core passive skill Avalanche reduces the cost of Frost skills by an additional 30%, and damage against vulnerable enemies is increased to 50-75%[x].

Developer Comment: The cost reduction for Frost skills is additive with the core passive skill.

Greeting from Verglas

• The affix for maximum life has been changed to cooldown reduction.
• The spread of ice shards has been reduced.

Paragon

Legendary Node: Enchantment Master

• Before: Your enchantments are 30% stronger and each equipped enchantment grants you an additional 30% increased damage in its main element.
• Now: Your enchantments are 30% stronger and each equipped enhancement grants you an additional 40% increased damage in its main element as well as 20% increased damage for the second enchantment if it belongs to the same element.

Hardening

In the recipe for Elemental Control, tiers of Shakes have been replaced with tiers of Static Discharge.

New Hardening Recipes

New Offensive Hardening Recipes for All Classes

• Elemental Finesse: Day
  • Fire Damage
  • Physical Damage
  • Lightning Damage
• Elemental Finesse: Night
  • Cold Damage
  • Poison Damage
  • Shadow Damage

Belial, Lord of Lies

After considering PTR feedback, the final form of Belial, Lord of Lies, has been made meaner and more challenging.

• His health and damage have been increased.
• He has also received a few new tricks to make hell hot, such as a second smash attack in the first phase of the encounter.

Miscellaneous

• The reduction of experience reward between levels 1 and 25 has been softened to narrow the gap between this season and the last.
• The ranger increase for magical seasonal powers now costs 40% less spectral ashes, and for rare seasonal powers 20% less spectral ashes.
• We have adjusted the probability of upgrading Paragon glyphs when the pit level is lower than the glyph level.
• The probability of upgrading Paragon glyphs when the pit level is lower than the glyph level has been adjusted.
  • Before: You had a 0% chance to upgrade a glyph if you were not within 10 pit levels.
  • Now: You have a 1% chance to upgrade a glyph if you are within 50 pit levels. It doubles every 10 pit levels.
• The increase in monster life per pit level has been softened to reduce the difference between this season and the last.

Fixed Bugs

Belial’s Return

• A bug was fixed that allowed defeating a Hideout Boss to grant Reputation.
• A bug was fixed that caused the breast beam of the Wandering Death to continue dealing damage after the player had stopped channeling.
• A bug was fixed that prevented the Appearance Raid Whisper in the Giant’s Field from completing.

Barbarian

• A bug was fixed that caused the Curse of Ahjad-Den to pause its timer when weapons were swapped.
• A bug was fixed that caused the tooltip of Whirlwind to adapt based on weapon speed.
• A bug was fixed that granted Warrior’s Mighty Throw an additive instead of a multiplicative damage bonus.

Druid

• A bug was fixed that prevented damage in human form from being displayed in the character stats window when receiving multiplicative damage bonuses.
• A bug was fixed that caused Stone Salvo with Aspect of the Anticlinal Explosion to overwhelm on the second explosion stage in some cases.
• A bug was fixed that prevented Anima of the Forest from refreshing the central passive skill Earthen Power when the Anima boost effect was recovered very quickly.
• A bug was fixed that prevented the critical hit bonus of Earthen Power from being removed when losing the central passive skill.

Necromancer

• A bug was fixed that caused Bone Storms created by Lidless Wand to not benefit from “chance for Bone Storm to deal double damage” affixes.

Hunter

• A bug was fixed that caused the cooldown of Death Trap to sometimes not be reduced by Preparation or Overwhelm and sometimes not be overwhelmed with the Talisman of the Exiled Prince and Thief’s Leather.
• A bug was fixed that caused Poison Trap, when copied by Shadow Clone, to not scale as intended with the correct skill markers, such as damage with ultimate skills.
• A bug was fixed that caused the passive skill Aftereffect to generate additional resources when triggering an extra Death Trap via Thief’s Leather.

Wizard

• A bug was fixed that caused Aspect of Frozen Steps to not activate correctly when dodging with the enchantment Teleportation.

General

• A bug was fixed that caused the chance to upgrade a Paragon Glyph with 6-7 levels below the completed pit level to have slightly lower probabilities than expected.
• A bug was fixed that caused certain projectile attacks from Drowned enemies to not deal damage to the player character.
• A bug was fixed that prevented players from teleporting to Hell Hordes from inside dungeons.
• A bug was fixed that caused the Blood Maiden to drop less Exquisite Blood than expected in certain scenarios.

Miscellaneous

• A bug was fixed that stated that Craftmaster Stones could be found in Hell Hordes.
• Various improvements to graphics, user interface, stability, and performance.

Vessel of Hatred

Game Updates

New Items

Sunbird’s Gorget

• Affixes
  • Standard: +30 % resistance to all elements
  • +16-25 % movement speed
  • +2-3 ranks for Powerful
  • +2-3 ranks for Forge
  • +2-3 ranks for Acceleration
• Unique Trait
  • Picking up a Storm Feather creates a Firestorm around you for 8 sec, dealing 200-400 % fire damage every 0.5 sec.
  • With every 5th additional Storm Feather you pick up, the Firestorm grows, increasing its damage by 100 % [x], but its duration is not reset. Storm Feathers are now Jaguar skills, and the Firestorm is an Eagle, Jaguar, and Storm Feather skill.

Tearing Aspect

• Raging Claw deals 10-30 % [x] increased damage and is empowered based on the number of charges when used.
  • 1: Heals for 15 % of your maximum health.
  • 2: Guaranteed Overwhelm.
  • 3: Guaranteed critical hit.
  • 4+: Hits an additional time.

Spiritborn Updates

Skills

Raging Claw

• The base damage has been increased from 50 % to 80 %.

Sovereign Raging Claw

• Previously: – When Raging Claw hits an elite enemy, you gain a 10 % increased evasion chance for 6 seconds.
• Now: – Raging Claw now has 12 maximum charges. Using it consumes all charges to increase the damage dealt by 50 % [x] per charge and hits a larger area.

The Seeker

• Rank 5 bonus capped at 200 % [x] damage increase.

The Devourer

• Rank 5 bonus capped at 200 % [x] damage increase.

Passive

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of Returning Feathers

• The legendary ranks have been increased from 8 to 21.
• Damage has been increased from 50-64% to 75-150% of weapon damage.

Aspect of Falling Feathers

• The legendary ranks have been increased from 8 to 21.
• Damage has been increased from 50-64% to 75-150% of weapon damage.

Aspect of Wild Claws

• Damage has been increased from 45-65% to 65-85% of the base damage of Rake.

Aspect of Power Levels

• The legendary ranks have been increased from 8 to 21.
• Damage per stack of Fury has been increased from 2.0-4.1% to 2.0-5.0%.

Runewords

Xan

• Previously: Your next skill critically overwhelms. Excess: 1% damage per 10 sacrifice.
• Now: Your next attack grants you guaranteed critical hits that overwhelm for 0.35 seconds. Excess: Increased duration.
• Duration increased from 0.25 to 0.35 seconds.
• Required sacrifice reduced from 700 to 300.

Qax

• Previously: Your next skill that is not a base skill consumes your entire primary resource to deal up to 100% increased damage based on the percentage of resource spent.
• Now: If you cast a skill that is neither a base nor defensive skill, your entire resource is consumed to increase your damage by up to 100% for 1 second.

Vex (for 10 seconds +1 to all skills. Excess: More ranks, up to 3.)

• Sacrifice cost reduced from 150 to 100.

Lum (Grants max resource)

• Sacrificed gain increased from 2.5% to 3.5%.

Ahu

• Previously: Lucky hits: 100% if a wounded enemy is hit.
• Now: Lucky hits: 100% if an enemy is hit who is not healthy.
• Generated sacrifice reduced from 25 to 15.

Tec

• Damage reduced from 1,400% to 700%.

Fixed Issues

Spiritborn

• A bug has been fixed where the passive skill “Complexity” did not retain the correct skill last used after switching to a new zone.
• A bug has been fixed that allowed snapshotting for the passive skill “Hardened”.
• A bug has been fixed that displayed resource generation values for other classes in the character stats of spiritborn players.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the casting of “The Predator” to partially trap Wanderers underground.
• A bug has been fixed where the legendary spiritborn Paragon node “Melee Fighter” did not display its bonus and acquiring a new stack did not reset all stacks.
• A bug has been fixed where Complexity was not triggered by the Deathmarked effect.
• A bug has been fixed where the aspect of the returning feathers sometimes stopped functioning when other players also had Storm Feathers nearby.
• A bug has been fixed where Replenishing Devastator was not properly triggered by “Life on Killing an Enemy” bonuses.
• A bug has been fixed where the bonus from Focus Point was not doubled when using Poison Skin or Devastator.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the affix “Chance for Core Skill to hit twice” to make Sovereign Impacts deal double damage instead of hitting twice.
• A bug has been fixed where Child of Wonder’s Tempo was activated on uncast skills.
• A bug has been fixed where the legendary Paragon node Convergence did not take all intended bonuses. Its description has been updated to clarify the current bonus amount.

Runes

• A bug was fixed that caused the Xal rune to play the healing sound effect while at full health.
• A bug was fixed that allowed a weapon swap to end the teleportation buff effect of the Jah rune.
• A bug was fixed that occasionally destroyed the NaguCeh combination when the target died before the spirit wolf could execute its ice explosion.
• A bug was fixed that caused part of the Que rune’s text to be displayed in the wrong format.
• A bug was fixed that caused the Neo rune to not generate offerings when damage was blocked by a barrier.
• A bug was fixed that allowed the Xan rune to be activated mid-sailing by spirit-born.
• A bug was fixed that did not consistently trigger the effect of the Poc rune when using the unlimited spirit power generated by Mjölnir’s Ryng.
• A bug was fixed that caused the Que rune to trigger the passive skill Counterattack from druids.
• A bug was fixed that allowed the Que rune, in combination with the Feo rune, to not remove control loss effects when a player character equipped the improved earthen bulwark as a druid.
• A bug was fixed that caused the removed Met rune to still be dropped in rare cases. (Hey! Who allowed the Met rune to hang around the campfire again?)

Miscellaneous

• A bug was fixed that displayed two identical timers for runs of the Kurast undercity in local co-op.
• A bug was fixed that prevented Raheira’s opponents from being knocked down and stunned by his skill Heroic Valor.
• A bug was fixed that caused shrines in the undercity to trigger cooldown resets more frequently than intended in certain situations.
• A bug was fixed that allowed shrines in the undercity Mighty Throw and Steel Grip to grant cooldown reduction when the aspect of Deferred Extinction was used.

Base Game

New Items

Barbarian

Curse of Ahjad-Den – Unique Gloves

• Affixes
  • + 4-6 Ranks for Mighty Throw
  • + 114-150 % Critical Hit Damage
  • + 7-10 Fury per Sec.
  • + 8-12.5 % Cooldown Reduction
• Unique Property
  • Every 12 seconds, the impulses of your next Mighty Throw explode immediately as Fire Damage, dealing 400-600 % increased damage.

Aspect of the Delayed Extinction

• Mighty Throw and Steel Grip now receive multiplicative damage instead of cooldown through cooldown reductions, and their damage increases by an additional 125-250 %[x].

Druid

Gathlen’s Birthright – unique headpiece

• Affects
  • Inherent: Forest’s Anima grants 15% attack speed
  • +10.5-15% Willpower
  • +224-296% Willpower
  • +2-3 Ranks for Humanity
  • +17.5-23% movement speed in human form
• Unique Property
  • If you critically hit enemies with nature magic in human form 400-200 times, you gain Forest’s Anima for 15 seconds.
  • As long as you are filled with Forest’s Anima, you gain the central passive skills Perfect Storm and Earthly Might.

Aspect of the Rising Tide

• Storm Strike bounces to twice as many targets and increases the damage targets take from your other skills by 6 seconds for 30-50%[x].

Necromancer

Sanquivor, Zir’s Blade – unique two-handed sword

• Affects
  • Standard: +60% summoning damage
  • +32-50% chance for Army of the Dead to deal double damage
  • +214-242 Intelligence
  • +1,060-1,142 maximum health
  • +2 Ranks for Skeleton Warrior Mastery, Skeleton Mage Mastery and Golem Mastery
• Unique Property
  • The damage inflicted by your summons curses enemies with Vampiric Curse. Consuming a corpse also grants a soul for Vampiric Curse, which can now stack up to 20 souls.
  • Army of the Dead can now unleash the souls of Vampiric Curse, causing both Army of the Dead and the souls to deal 5-10 15-25% increased damage per unleashed soul.

Aspect of Service and Sacrifice – Offensive Aspect

• Skeleton Warriors explode upon death, dealing 200-300% physical damage to nearby enemies. They lose 25% health per second while in combat.
• Skeleton Mages take 90% reduced damage and deal 50-100%[x] more damage.

Hunter

Band of the Ichor Rose – unique gloves

• Affixes
  • Standard: + 4 Maximum Poison Traps
  • + 10.5-15 % Attack Speed
  • + 3-5 % Maximum Poison Resistance
  • + 41.5-55 % Poison Resistance
  • 18.5-27.5 % Chance to trigger Poison Trap twice
• Unique Property
  • Poison Trap always deals full damage over 3 seconds and benefits from all upgrades, which are increased by 50-100 %.
  • Benefits of Combo Points: Each Combo Point increases damage by 30 % and critical hit chance by 10 %.

Aspect of Contagion – legendary offensive aspect

• Poison Trap deals [150-250 %] Poison Damage when triggered. If it lands a critical hit, it deals 20-40 % increased Poison Damage for 5 seconds.

Wizard

Greet of Frost – unique headpiece

• Affixes
  • Standard 1: 7.5 % Maximum Cold Resistance
  • Standard 2: 50 % Cold Resistance
  • +10.5-15 % Intelligence
  • + 8.1-8.8 % Cooldown Reduction
  • + 10.5-15 % Attack Speed
  • + 4-6 Ranks for Ice Shards
• Unique Property
  • Ice Shards now spread with 2 additional shards. You deal an additional 1-2 % damage each time Ice Shards hit an enemy for 5 seconds, up to 50-75 %.

Chilling Aspect

• Enemies take up to 20 35-40 55 % increased damage depending on how chilled or staggered they are. You cause 15 % more chilling.

Updates to Balance

General

Unique Items and Legendary Aspects

Fists of Fate

• “Lucky Hit: Chance to apply a random loss of control affix” has been replaced with “Lucky Hit: Chance to make enemies vulnerable for 3 seconds.”

Blue Fury

• The affix damage for lucky hit chance to deal cold damage has been increased. The exact amount depends on the item power. The maximum damage has been increased by approximately 150%.
• Previous: Lucky Hit: Chance up to 20% to freeze enemies for 2 seconds and deal cold damage to them.
• Now: Your hits with this weapon make enemies vulnerable for 3 seconds and chill them for 10-30%.

Frostfire

• Previous: Lucky Hit: There is a chance of up to 20-60% to freeze enemies for 3 seconds.
• Now: You deal 15-35% increased fire damage to chilled enemies and 15-35% increased cold damage to burning enemies.

Aspect of the Shattering Strikes

• Previous: Lucky Hit: When you deal damage to an enemy, there is a chance of up to 20% to make them stunned for 2 seconds. You deal 5-25% increased damage to stunned enemies.
• Now: Your stun effects last 20-40% longer. Stun an enemy increases your movement speed by 20-40% for 3 seconds.

Paragon

Glyph: Dominate (Barbarians, Druids, Necromancers)

• The maximum legendary bonus has been reduced from 20% to 12%.

Harden

Harden Recipe: Mundane Favor

• Lucky Hits: Chance to trigger Control Loss affixes has been removed.
• New affixes: Lucky Hit Chance, Impairment Reduction, Control Loss Duration.

Harden Recipe: Natural Schemes

• The Control Loss Duration affix has been replaced by the affix for bonus to Stalement generation.

Barbarian

Skills

Improved Mighty Throw

• Before: While a thrown weapon is away, you gain a 25% increased attack speed.
• Now: Mighty Throw grants a 25% increased attack speed for 6 seconds.

Fighter’s Mighty Throw

• Before: Changing weapons near a weapon thrown by you creates an additional pulse. Each additional pulse generates a barrier equal to 5% of your max health for 5 seconds.
• Now: Changing weapons near a weapon thrown by you creates an additional pulse. Mighty Throw generates a barrier equal to 20% of your max health for 5 seconds.

Whirlwind

• Base damage increased from 24% to 32 52%.

Developer’s Comment: The base damage of Whirlwind is determined by your weapon’s attack speed. These values are based on an attack speed of 1.0.

Brutal Whirlwind

• Before: After you use Whirlwind for 2 seconds, the skill deals 35% increased damage until canceled.
• Now: If you channel Whirlwind for 2 seconds, the damage of your next weapon mastery skill is increased by 35% if used immediately after Whirlwind ends.

Steel Grip of the Warrior

• Previously: When Steel Grip deals damage to an enemy, you enter Berserk mode for 2 seconds.
• Currently: The damage dealt by Steel Grip is increased by 400 200 %. When you deal damage to an enemy with it, you enter Berserk mode for 2 seconds.

Strong Charge

• The cooldown for charging against bosses has been increased from 4 to 6.

Double Swing Improvement

• Moved to “Brutal Double Swing.”

Brutal Double Swing

• Moved to “Enhanced Double Swing.”

Stomp

• The base damage has been increased from 80 % to 140 %.

Tactical Stomp

• The damage bonus has been reduced from 900 % to 100 %.

Developer’s Comment: The damage of this upgrade has trivialized the leveling progression, causing players to skip elite groups even on higher difficulties.

Iron Maelstrom

• Rank 5 bonus limited to 200 %[x] damage increase.

Wrath of the Berserker

• The Rank 5 bonus now always deals 500 % damage, instead of scaling based on skill ranks.

Passive

Shockwave

• Before: Lucky hit: Skills with blunt weapons have a chance of 10/20/30 % to stun enemies for 2 seconds. With two-handed blunt weapons, the chance increases to 15/30/45 %.
• Now: Lucky hit: Skills with blunt weapons have a chance of 20 % to stun enemies for 2 seconds. With two-handed blunt weapons, the chance increases to 30 %. This also causes 30/60/90 % physical damage.

Paralysis

• Before: Your bleeding effects have a chance of 15/30/45 % to slow healthy and injured enemies by 70 % every time they take damage.
• Now: When you apply a bleeding effect to an enemy for the first time, you slow them down by 70 % for 2/3/4 seconds.

Expertise

One-Handed Mace

• The duration of the berserker mode has been doubled from 1.5 to 3 seconds.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of the Terrifying Whirlwind

• The number of seconds required to reach the cap has been increased from 3 to 5 seconds.
• The formula has been made more generous. This means that the critical hit chance of Whirlwind has increased from 3-8 % to 9-36 % to 6-10 % to 28-50 %.

Aspect of the Grasping Whirlwind

• Before: Whirlwind pulls enemies towards you at regular intervals.
• Now: Whirlwind pulls enemies towards you every 6-3 seconds.

Aspect of the Dust Devil

• Before: Whirlwind leaves dust devils that deal X damage to enemies in their path.
• Now: Whirlwind leaves dust devils that deal X damage to enemies in their path. If you hit enemies with dust devils, your damage from all other damage types increases by 25 % for 3 seconds.

Aspect of Bul Kathos

• Earthquake damage has been removed.

Unique Items

The Third Blade

• Before: Your weapon mastery skills are now also core skills that have no cooldowns but cost rage and deal 50-70% of your normal damage. Their rage cost is reduced by 5 for each additional charge that the skill would have had.
• Now: Your weapon mastery skills are now also core skills that have a 100% cooldown reduction but cost rage and deal 50-70% of your normal damage.
• The rage cost for all weapon mastery skills has been fundamentally reduced by 5.

Developer’s Comment: This cooldown reduction lifts the cap from 75% and provides the maximum bonus of 75% that the cooldown reduction would normally grant with the Aspect of Delayed Extinction.

Ring of Red Fury

• Before: After consuming 100 rage within 3 seconds, your next use of Hammer of Ancestors, Stir or Death Strike will critically hit within 5 seconds and deal x% critical hit damage additionally.
• Now: After consuming 100 rage within 5 seconds, your next non-channeling core or weapon mastery skill will critically hit within 5 seconds and deal x% additional critical hit damage.

Battle Trance

• New inherent effect: Lucky Strike: Chance of up to 10% to gain a stack of Frenzy.

Gohr’s Devastating Graspers

• Damage is now dealt based on the damage caused by Whirlwind and scales according to it.
• Before: Whirlwind explodes every 2 seconds as well as at expiration and deals 50-80% of the dealt base damage as fire damage to nearby enemies.
• Now: Whirlwind explodes every 3 seconds as fire damage and deals 300-600% increased damage. Critical hits from Whirlwind reduce the duration until the next explosion by 0.2 seconds to 1 second.

Fang Helm of Joritz the Mighty

• The damage bonus has been increased from 25% to 35%.
• The rage generated per second has been increased from 2 to 6.

Twin Strikes

• Before: After casting Whirlwind 4 times, your next Whirlwind hits 2 additional times, with each hit dealing 50 to 80% increased damage and stunning for 1 second.
• Now: After casting Whirlwind 4 times, your Whirlwind continues to hit 2 additional times, with each hit dealing 70-100% increased damage for 3 seconds.

Paragon

Glyph: Stomp

• Is no longer multiplicative per stack, but additive and stackable with itself.
• The damage to bosses and enemies with loss of control has been reduced from 10% per stack (50% max) to 3% per stack (15% max).

Glyph: Dominate (Barbarians Only)

• The interval for free overpower has been reduced from 15 to 12 seconds.

Druid

Skills

Grim Storm Strike

• Before: Storm Strike had a 50% chance to make enemies vulnerable for 3 seconds.
• Now: Storm Strike makes enemies vulnerable for 3 seconds.

Improved Cyclone Armor

• Before: Enemies pushed back by Cyclone Armor are also slowed by 70% for 2 seconds.
• Now: Enemies pushed back by Cyclone Armor are vulnerable for 5 seconds.

Preserving Cyclone Armor

• Before: Every 10 seconds, Cyclone Armor becomes stronger, granting 30% damage reduction for 2 seconds.
• Now: Cyclone Armor pulls enemies in instead of pushing them away, granting 10% damage reduction for 4 seconds.

Innate Cyclone Armor

• Before: Enemies pushed back by Cyclone Armor are vulnerable for 3 seconds.
• Now: Enemies hit by Cyclone Armor are slowed by 70% and take 15% increased damage for 6 seconds.

Improved Blood Howl

• Before: Killing enemies reduces the cooldown of Blood Howl by 1 sec.
• Now: Killing enemies reduces the cooldown of Blood Howl by 1 sec. and hits against a boss reduce the cooldown by 0.3 sec.

Stone Salvo

• A change to Stone Salvo has been reverted that slowed the rate between casts to the version from Season of Rising Rage.

Grizzly Rage

• Rank 5 Bonus
  • Before: Casting your Grizzly Rage knocks down enemies in the area for 5 sec. and deals 500% damage.
  • Now: Companion skills can be cast while you are in Grizzly Rage.

Cataclysm

• The damage between consecutive casts is no longer retained.

Rending

• Rank 5 Bonus capped at 200% damage increase.

Passive

Charged Atmosphere

• Before: Every 14/11/8 sec. a lightning strike hits an enemy nearby and deals [45%] damage. Your lightning strikes deal an additional 10/20/30% damage.
• Now: Every 3 sec. a lightning strike hits an enemy nearby and deals [30/60/90%] damage. Your lightning strikes deal an additional 10/20/30% damage.

Spirit Blessing

Overload

• The chance of lightning strikes has been increased from 1% to 35%.

Legendary Aspects

Lightning Dancing Aspect

• Previously: Critical hits with Thunderstorm create 3 Dancing Lightnings that track enemies in the area and deal [110-155%] lightning damage.
• Now: Critical hits with Thunderstorm and Lightning Strike have a 50% chance to create 3 Dancing Lightnings that track enemies in the area and deal [155-200%] lightning damage. Your Dancing Lightnings deal 30% increased damage.

Aspect of Anticline Explosion

• Previously: Stone Salvo deals 10-30% increased damage and when the skill is cast at or above 75 Mind Power, it instantly reaches maximum size.
• Now: Stone Salvo deals 10-30% increased damage and guaranteed overwhelms when it explodes at maximum size.

Aspect of the Raging Promotional Beast

• The critical hit damage per stack has been changed from 10% (200% max.) to 3% (60% max.) and now grants instead of additive multiplicative critical hit damage.

Developer’s Comment: This change results in a significantly higher damage bonus than before.

Paragon

Legendary Node “Dark Vines” (formerly “Constricting Vines”)

• Previously: Lucky Hit: Nature magic skills have a chance of up to 40% to ensnare the enemy with vines, immobilizing them for 2 seconds, poisoning them, and dealing 300%[x] of base damage over 4 seconds.
• Now: Nature magic skills deal 35% increased damage to poisoned enemies. Lucky Hit: Nature magic skills have a chance of up to 40% to deal [800% weapon damage] poison damage over 4 seconds.

Necromancer

Skills

Blood Spear

• Before: Throws a Blood Spear that remains in enemies for 3 seconds, dealing 80% damage to it and all other affected enemies. Blood Spear pierces enemies that are already impaled, dealing 10% less damage to all enemies after the first.
• Now: Throws a Blood Spear that remains in enemies for 3 seconds, dealing 80% damage to it and all other affected targets. If the Blood Spear hits a pierced enemy, it deals 100%[x] increased damage and impales another enemy in the vicinity.

Iron Maiden

• Now has a lucky hit chance of 5% and can critically hit.

Blood Wave

• Bonus for rank 5 capped at 200%[x] damage increase.

Enhanced Blood Wave

• The Blood Orbs were reduced from 6 to 3.

Bone Storm

• Bonus for rank 5 capped at 200%[x] damage increase.

Army of the Dead

• Bonus for rank 5 capped at 200%[x] damage increase.

Passive

Kalans Edict

• Previously: Your minions gain 3 %[+] attack speed and 3 %[x] increased damage per active minion.
• Now: Your minions gain 3 %[+] attack speed and 3 %[x] increased damage per active minion. When one of your minions dies, your other minions become filled with wrath, causing them to deal 20 %[x] increased damage for 3 seconds.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of the Blood Wave

• The bonus damage from additional blood waves has been reduced from 200-240 % to 40-100 % of normal damage.

Unique Items

Kessim’s Legacy

• The affix that strengthens blood wave’s inherent abilities has been reduced from 85 % to 30 %.
• The damage increase per hit of the unique power through blood wave has been removed.
• The explosion damage of blood wave has been increased from 100-200 % to 200-300 %.

Hunter

Skills

Stab

• The descriptions of Stab and Primary Stab have been updated to refer to “every 3rd stab” instead of “every 3rd use”.

Developer’s Comment: These bonuses should work even when copied by Shadow Clone.

Poison Trap

• Lucky hit chance increased from 20 % to 25 %.
• Disrupting Poison Trap
  • Previously: You deal 15 % increased poison damage to enemies standing in your poison trap.
  • Now: You deal 20 % increased non-physical damage to enemies standing in your poison trap.

Crow’s Feet

• The slow down has been increased from 50% to 65%.
• The damage has been increased from 45% to 60%.

Death Trap

• The base cooldown has been increased from 50 to 60 seconds.
• The critical hit chance has been increased from 8% to 15%.
• The effects that pull in the Death Trap will always occur in the area where the trap is placed or thrown.
• Previously: When Death Trap kills an enemy, the cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds.
• Now: When Death Trap kills or overwhelms an enemy, the cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds.

Supreme Death Trap

• Previously: Death Trap slows all enemies in the vicinity by 85% for 5 seconds upon activation.
• Now: Enemies hit by Death Trap receive 8 seconds of increased damage by 50 20%[x] from your trap skills.

Shadow Clone

• The rank 5 bonus now always deals 500%, instead of scaling based on skill ranks.

Arrow Rain

• Bonus for rank 5 capped at 200 %[x] damage increase.

Passive

Guileful Attacks

• Before: If you make an enemy stunned or incapacitated, your critical hit chance and critical hit damage are increased by 2/4/6 % for 5 seconds up to 12/24/36 % each.
• Now: If you try to make an enemy stunned or incapacitated, your critical hit chance and critical hit damage are increased by 1/2/3 % for 8 seconds up to 5/10/15 % each.

Developer Comment: This passive skill now applies to single-target boss fights. Overall power has been significantly reduced to compensate for this and to make the space in the skill tree less restrictive. Additional bonus stacks no longer behave multiplicatively with each other.

Trap Mastery

• Before: When a poison trap or death trap is activated, your critical hit chance against enemies that are vulnerable or suffer from control effects is increased by 3% for 4 seconds.
• Now: After a trap skill is activated, you gain 4% critical hit chance for 4 seconds.

Overload

• Before: Lucky hits: When you deal damage to an enemy affected by a trap skill, there is a 40% chance:
  • To reduce the cooldown of your trap skills by 30%.
  • To drop exploding flash grenades that deal a total of 80% physical damage and stun enemies for 1.0 seconds.
• Now: Lucky hits: When you deal damage to a trapped enemy, there is a chance of up to 40%:
  • To reduce the cooldown of your trap skills by 30%.
  • To increase the damage caused by your trap skills by 10% for 10 seconds, stacking up to 100%.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of Nebulous Brews

• Before: Using a healing potion grants 3 sec. of 35-55 % movement speed and you can now consume healing potions at full health. For every 20 meters you travel, you summon a healing potion.
• Now: Healing potions can be used at full health and grant 3 sec. of 35-55 % movement speed. For every 20 meters you travel, you refill a healing potion.

Developer Comment: Healing potions are now automatically added to the total instead of being dropped on the ground.

Aspect of Iron Rain

• The chance that the smoke grenade creates arrow storms is now always 100 %.

Unique Items

Winding Band of Deception

• Before: Casting your Deception ability leaves a decoy trap that permanently taunts and attracts your enemies. After 2 seconds, it explodes and deals shadow damage. This effect is treated as a trap skill and can only summon one decoy trap every 6 seconds.
• Now: Your Deception skills create a decoy trap that taunts and attracts enemies, dealing shadow damage over 6 seconds. Counts as a trap skill. Only one decoy trap can be active at the same time.

Developer’s Comment: Decoy traps now deal damage over time and can be recast and repositioned. When used with thrown trap skills, they are placed where the skill aims.

Thief’s Leather

• The inherent affix no longer adds the marker core skill to grenade skills.
• New affixes
  • 16-25 % movement speed.
  • 21-35 % damage against ensnared enemies.
  • 171-225 % trap damage.
  • 10.5-15 % damage reduction against enemies affected by trap skills.
• Before: While you have unlimited energy through Inner Eye, there is a 60-80 % chance when casting a core skill to create Crow’s Feet, a Poison Trap, or a Death Trap. Grants 10-20 % damage through core skills.
• Now: Your trap skills can be thrown and summon a Death Trap every 10 seconds upon use, granting you 10-30 % increased damage for 5 seconds. Your trap skills can be thrown and summon a Death Trap every 10 seconds upon use. Whenever your Death Traps appear, you move through the shadows to them and gain 10-30 % increased damage for 5 seconds.

Paragon

Legendary Node: Deadly Ambush

• The damage bonus for critical hits of your traps has been increased from 23% to 30%.

Wizard

Skills

Greater Fireball

• Previously: Fireball deals 10% of the burning damage you dealt to enemies as additional damage.
• Now: Fireball deals 10% increased damage against burning enemies. When an enemy that is not a boss takes this damage at less than 25% health, they are instantly killed.

Lightning Spear

• The targeting for Lightning Spear has been improved. It now tries to prioritize closer enemies.

Blizzard

• New terms (Frostbite/Frozen) for frost damage over time.
• New description: Summons an icy blizzard that deals 210% frostbite damage and continuously chills enemies for 8 seconds, reducing their efficiency by 18%.

Deep Freeze

• Rank 5 bonus capped at 200% damage increase.

Passive

Shocks

• Before: Shock skills have up to a 7% chance to stun opponents for 3 seconds.
• Now: You deal an increased damage of 5/10/15 %[x] as long as you have Crackling Energy. You collect Crackling Energy in the vicinity at regular intervals.

Crackling Energy

• Marked as a shock skill.

Shocking Effect

• Marked as a shock skill.

Burn

• Damage against burning opponents has been added to the calculation.

Developer’s Comment: Now works exactly like the Flame Warden glyph.

Unique Items

Shattered Winterglass

• Now summons only summons equipped in your action bar.

Falling Star Diadem

• The cooldown of Meteor has been changed from 10-3 to 5-2.5.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of the Rending Cold

• Previously: Ice Shards pierce 10 times and deal 4-10 %[x] more damage per subsequent enemy hit.
• Now: Ice Shards pierce 5 times and deal 35-50 %[x] increased damage as well as 10 %[x] more damage per subsequent enemy hit.

Aspect of the Shattered Stars

• Meteorites now deal their own damage.
• The bonus damage from Meteor now applies to all Meteorites while this Aspect is equipped.

Aspect of the Frozen Pull

• Previously: While Ice Armor is active, you leave behind exploding ice spikes that deal X damage. Your ice spikes deal 15 %[x] increased damage to frozen enemies.
• Now: While Ice Armor is active, you leave behind exploding ice spikes that deal X damage. Summoning an ice spike increases the damage of your ice spikes up to 30 times for 2 seconds by 3 %[x].

Paragon

Static Surge

• Before: If you hit enemies at least 8 times per second with Shock skills, you restore 30% of your maximum mana and your damage is increased by 50% for 8 sec.[x] Cannot be updated while active.
• Now: If you hit enemies at least 8 times per second with Shock skills, you restore 30% of your maximum mana and your damage is increased by 50% for 8 sec.[x] Can be reapplied only once per second.

Enchantmaster

• Before: Your enchantments are 30% stronger.
• Now: Your enchantments receive 40%[x] increased damage for each enchantment element and 20%[x] for the second enchantment if it shares the same element. Your enchantments are 30% stronger and each equipped enchantment grants you 30%[x] increased damage in its main element.

Glyph: Frostbite

• Renamed to Cryopathy Glyph.

Miscellaneous

• The damage of Ice Spikes has been standardized for the aspects of the Blue Rose, Frozen Tundra, Frozen Pull, and Glacier aspect.

Group Finder

• After successfully joining a group, the group finder window will now close automatically.
• If the group leader or difficulty level changes, the entry will be automatically relisted.

Loot and Activity Rewards

• Bosses in Encounter Events now grant an experience bonus.
• A whisper has been added for Encounter Events.
• Whisper Chests
  • Chests no longer contain Nightmare Dungeon Sigils. Instead, chests now have a high chance to contain Sigil Powder.
• Legacy Chests added with the Season of the Witch’s Power are now fundamentally available.
• Unique Items
  • The bonus rate at which unique items were inherited has been removed. Unique items now have the same inheritability rate as legendary items.
• Bosses previously known as Endgame Bosses have been divided into 3 tiers: Aspirant, Major, and Exalted Hideout Boss to clarify their different difficulty levels and rewards.
  • Aspirant Hideout Bosses: Beast in the Ice, Grigoire, Lord Zir, Varshan, and Urivar (available only to owners of “Vessel of Hatred”).
  • Major Hideout Bosses: Andariel, Duriel, and Herald of Hatred (available only to owners of “Vessel of Hatred”).
  • Exalted Hideout Bosses: Belial, Lord of Lies.
• Aspirant, Major, and Exalted Hideout Bosses
  • Hideout Bosses no longer require boss materials to summon and drop no loot upon death. Instead, when a Hideout Boss dies, a chest called “Hoard” appears containing its loot. Each player must spend boss materials called Hoard Keys to open their Hoard. Here are the Hoard Key costs per Hideout Boss type:
    • Aspirant: 12
    • Major: 4 3
    • 4 2
  • The first unique item a Hideout Boss drops comes from its unique selection. Additional unique items drop with a 50% chance from the general pool for unique items. At torment level III, you are guaranteed to receive an additional unique item from the item pool.
  • When playing in a group, Hideout Bosses drop an additional unique item from their unique selection with a 33% chance per additional party member.
  • Hideout Bosses now drop 57 unique items instead of 6 at torment level IV.
  • The number of Hoard Keys you receive each time has been increased:
    • Hellflame Chests drop more Living Steel.
    • Nightmare Dungeons drop more Distilled Fear.
    • The Blood Maiden drops more Exquisite Blood for each contributed Heart of Malice.
    • Legion events drop more Exquisite Blood.
    • World Bosses drop more Exquisite Blood.
    • Random Boss Keys are more likely to be a different key than the Malevolent Heart.
• The quality of rewards from the Curiosity Vendor has been significantly increased at torment difficulty levels. There are now increased chances for legendary, unique, and inherited items.

Developer’s Comment: In this season, we are focusing on Hideout bosses and their role in the player journey. Unique items will deviate in two directions. On one hand, they are equipment with unique powers that can enhance builds and should definitely be found. On the other hand, they are super-rare items that represent a real achievement when finally obtained. In previous seasons, Hideout bosses relied heavily on the former. In our next season, we aim to strike a balance, where unique standard items are made available through Aspirant and Great Hideout bosses, but the path to acquiring unique items is directly tied to defeating the Exalted Hideout Boss Belial, the Lord of Lies. As Belial can grant unique items, we want to give players more freedom in how they reach him. By equipping Aspirant and Great Hideout bosses with the chance to drop any unique item, fights against these bosses should feel more relevant over time. And while we appreciate the social aspect of boss farming, the efficiency achieved in a group is too high. By adjusting boss spawns, the experience should feel fair regardless of group size, while still maintaining a small bonus for cooperative play.

• After level 6, no items of common quality will drop. Magic quality items will be most common until around level 25, after which rare and higher-quality items will take precedence.
• Magic items now appear with 1-2 affixes, with 2 affixes becoming the standard as the player character’s level increases.
• Rare items now always appear with 2-3 affixes, with 3 affixes becoming more common as the player character’s level increases.
• Changes to legendary items
  • The drop rates for legendary items have been reduced for the leveling phase.

Developer’s Comment: We have increased the power of magic and rare items during the leveling phase and simultaneously reduced the drop rates for legendary items, taking into account feedback suggesting that legendary items quickly become the only rarity that matters to you.

• The chance for loot keys to drop has been reduced.
• The ethereal reward for Hell Hordes from the Butcher has been increased from 25 to 75.

Updates on Hideout Bosses

All hideout bosses have been updated to make their fights more challenging and engaging. This includes increased hit points and damage in all cases, as well as changes to the fight itself.

Duriel

• New combat mechanics.

Lord Zir

• The damage dealt by Lord Zir has been significantly increased. A warning cone has been added to help players anticipate his attack.
• Lord Zir’s blood puddles have been reworked. Fewer will appear now, but they can become larger.
• Lord Zir now summons fewer blood seekers with higher health and damage.

Gregoire

• New mechanics have been added to the Boss Arena.

Varshan

• Each monster absorbed by Varshan’s Tormented Echo will now become a persistent homing projectile.

Developer’s Comment: The mechanic by which Varshan’s Tormented Echo summoned and absorbed monstrous creatures was complex, poorly communicated, and could grant Over-Varshan some potentially frustrating bonuses (such as constant shield regeneration and blinding on hit). This change is intended to clarify to players what is happening.

Beast in the Ice

• Various minor adjustments to the encounter.

User Interface and User Experience

• The capitalization of the words Element and Elemental has been adjusted in relation to damage types to other descriptions.
• We have named 3 damage types that previously had no names:
  • Shadow damage over time has been renamed to corruption damage.
  • Cold damage over time has been renamed to frostbite damage.
  • Lightning damage over time has been renamed to spark damage.
• Tooltips for socketable items have been adjusted to clarify which items can be socketed into what.
• The automatic sorting in the inventory and loot chest has been made more intuitive. The automatic sorting now prioritizes the most important items at the top. This also includes better sorting by rarity and the presence of large affixes.
• The dot in the tab of the game menu no longer appears when the only new item is a cosmetic item.
• Crafting recipes that cost no gold no longer display costs that were always 0.

Miscellaneous

• The experience gained from killing monsters up to level 25 has been reduced.

Developer’s Comment: With the reintroduction of seasonal power systems, player power has increased significantly. This distorts the initial player experience, where the pace of leveling does not align with other elements of progression. This change reduces the necessity to constantly improve items from early game, increases the relative value of activities and seasonal rewards, and provides a smoother gameplay experience in the early game.

• Players within a group can now quickly teleport to other group members through the friend menu.
• Cosmetic items can now be consumed and unlocked while playing any class.
• Shrines of connection no longer appear.

Developer’s Comment: We have taken note of the feedback regarding the shrines of connection. We are disabling them indefinitely while we revise them.

• Skills that cost health will now not be cast if the cost is greater than the current health of the player character, instead of reducing the character’s health to 1.

Fixed Bugs

Accessibility

• A bug was fixed that prevented the screen reader from reading everything in the Power Codex menu when using a controller.
• A bug was fixed that caused the screen reader to read activity information before announcing the message of a successful group listing.
• A bug was fixed that caused the screen reader to not read the page control during character creation after the first start of the game.
• A bug was fixed that caused character names to be read aloud when leaving the player screen.

Gameplay

Barbarian

• A bug was fixed that prevented the aspect of the Executioner from increasing when using a two-handed weapon or an amulet.
• A bug was fixed that caused the aspect of the Chieftain to not function properly when two summons were used simultaneously.
• A bug was fixed that caused the Ugly Bastard’s helmet to influence some sources of indirect damage, such as thorns.
• A bug was fixed that prevented the bonus rage granted by the aspect of Deletion from being granted in cities.
• A bug was fixed that caused all versions of Earthquake to deal double the damage they should.
• A bug was fixed that caused the dust devils and earthquakes formed by the Call of Ancients using Arreat’s Stance to not scale properly with damage bonuses from ultimate or summoning skills.
• A bug was fixed that prevented Mighty Throw from benefiting from Weapon Expertise as intended.
• A bug was fixed that caused damage from Earthquake not to fully benefit from the “Tremor” glyph.
• A bug was fixed that caused the rage generated by the aspect of Berserker Rage not to count for the demonic aspect.
• A bug was fixed that allowed the Call of Ancients to spawn an unlimited number of Ancients. The limit for Ancients is now 12.
• A bug was fixed that caused the central passive skill Unleashed to extend the duration of Berserk mode.
• A bug was fixed that reduced the lucky hit chance of Mighty Throw when its size was increased.
• A bug was fixed that caused the passive skill Vulnerability Uncover to carry over the duration of Vulnerable when the attack would otherwise have triggered Vulnerable, for example with Strong Kick.
• A bug was fixed that sometimes caused the second and third attack of Iron Maelstrom to have an incorrect cooldown.

Druid

• A bug was fixed that caused Wrath of Nature to sometimes not work when attacking with Thunderstorm.
• A bug was fixed that caused Stone Salvo to explode at the second size tier by default regardless of the skill rank when channeling.
• A bug was fixed that allowed Veil of False Death to reduce the number of summonable companions.
• A bug was fixed that caused Aspect of the Blurred Beast to not add damage increase with all uses of Tear Apart.
• A bug was fixed that caused the effect of Mjölnir’s Ring to occasionally stop functioning.
• A bug was fixed that caused the passive skill Assemble to not work when Unquenchable Fury was used.
• A bug was fixed that caused the size-increasing hardening affixes for Hurricane to be inconsistent when augmenting Hurricanes around Wolf Companions or when the aspect of the Wolf Storm was used.
• A bug was fixed that caused the Aspect of the Stormwalker to not grant as many ranks for Shape-shifting skills as expected in some scenarios.
• A bug was fixed that caused damage against distant enemies to not consistently apply to storm skills from the legendary Paragon node Struck by Lightning.
• A bug was fixed that affected Ironhide from snapshotting when Unquenchable Fury was used.

Necromancer

• A bug was fixed that caused Bone Spear to always drain life when Indira’s Memory was equipped, instead of only doing so when a corpse was nearby and another Bone Spear appeared.
• A bug was fixed that caused the additional Bone Spears from Indira’s Memory to appear even when there were no further corpses to consume.
• A bug was fixed that caused the Reaper to self-trigger when using Soul Rend and utilize certain lucky strike effects.
• A bug was fixed that made Bone Prison weaker than intended.
• A bug was fixed that caused the lucky hit chance of Bone Storm to be slightly lower than the intended 40%.
• A bug was fixed that caused the Paragon Glyph of Reviver not to apply to all Paragon nodes for minion bonus damage as intended.
• A bug was fixed that allowed Indira’s Memory to drain the player’s character’s life down to 1 and prevent normal regeneration.

Developer’s comment: Indira’s Memory will no longer trigger when the player’s character’s health is at 10% or below.

• A bug was fixed that caused fewer Bone Spears than intended to penetrate enemies when Indira’s Memory was equipped.
• A bug was fixed that caused the second Bone Spear from Immortal Visage not to heal the player’s character when the upgrade Supernatural Bone Spear was equipped.
• A bug was fixed that caused Bone Spear not to overwhelm consistently.
• A bug was fixed that allowed the Aspect of the Protective Storm to create a Barrier without Bone Storm dealing damage to enemies.
• A bug was fixed that caused the Hot-Blooded Aspect not to state that the maximum number of Stained Blood Drops that can appear is 3.
• A bug was fixed that caused the passive skill Mutilated Flesh not to trigger on certain enemies.
• A bug was fixed that caused Acolyte’s Bloody Harvest not to generate a corpse when used against certain enemy types.

Hunters

• A bug has been fixed that allowed the Iron Rain aspect to have a chance of over 100% to trigger.

Developer’s Comment: This aspect is now always rolled with a 100% chance, with the only deviation being the damage caused by the Arrow Storm.

• A bug has been fixed that counted the use of fulfilled skills and base skills with the Ice Grip aspect as always using a cooldown for Beastfall Boots.
• A bug has been fixed that prevented Beastfall Boots from empowering trap skills when they were also core skills due to Thief’s Leather.
• A bug has been fixed that allowed the Saboteur’s Seal and the Thief’s aspect to summon fewer grenades and caused the grenades to deal too little damage.
• A bug has been fixed that allowed the Hardening recipe for rare agility increases to sometimes have a chance that Blade Storm does not consume charges, instead of that Blade Storm deals double damage.
• A bug has been fixed that prevented Shadow Clones from gaining bonuses from the dagger or bow bonuses of the passive skill Weapon Mastery.
• A bug has been fixed that prevented the Crow’s Feet of your Shadow Clone from granting the effects of Improved Crow’s Feet correctly.
• A bug has been fixed that prevented the Shadow Clone from duplicating Crow’s Feet from Shadow Touch.
• A bug has been fixed that sometimes caused the Shadow Clone to stop functioning when moving too far away from it.
• A bug has been fixed that caused Disruptive Poison Trap to not apply its bonus as intended when applied to the Shadow Clone.
• A bug has been fixed that prevented Shadow Infusion and Poison Infusion from causing increased damage with bonuses affecting Shadow Clone when applied to the Shadow Clone, such as the damage of the ultimate skill.
• A bug has been fixed that caused Shadow Touch to trigger more frequently than intended.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the Arrow Storm aspect and the Vengeful aspect to trigger a second Arrow Storm when they hit an enemy with Improved Shadow Step.

Wizard

• Several bugs have been fixed that caused the Flame Death enchantment not to interact with the Spark Strike aspect as intended.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the second hit of Electric Whip to have no visual effect.
• A bug has been fixed that caused elemental synergies to incorrectly add the fire damage bonus for familiars next to the current element, even after the familiar had switched elements.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the explosion of Shards to not deal damage to bosses after they stopped staggering.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the passive skill Energy Focus to completely disappear after taking damage.
• A bug has been fixed that caused Sidhe Bindings to not always receive increased ranks for Primordial Binding when completed.
• A bug has been fixed that caused Inner Flames to grant more damage against healthy enemies than intended.
• A bug has been fixed that caused Supreme Deep Freeze to not benefit from Barrier Generation.
• A bug has been fixed that affected the Spark Strike aspect by snapshotting when a Hydra attacked from the enchantment: Flame Death.
• A bug has been fixed that caused an increase in the burning zone of Flame Shield not to increase the size of the visual effect.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the splitting effect of the Flame Weaver aspect to be inconsistent when standing near a fire wall.
• A bug has been fixed that caused players to receive less teleportation cooldown than intended with the aspect of swift connection when adding Teleportation ranks.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the Winter Hand aspect to not receive vulnerability and damage advantages when Frost Nova was first cast.
• A bug has been fixed that caused the target tracking of Ice Shards to be inconsistent when enemies were close to the player character.

General

• A bug was fixed that caused the toggling of damage variants in the training ground not to work.
• A bug was fixed that occasionally removed the bonus from the element aspect from the player or could repeat the same bonus after a weapon switch.
• A bug was fixed that occasionally prevented Lucion’s Crown from increasing damage from other sources.
• A bug was fixed that caused the Illuminator’s gloves not to interact as intended with Lucion’s Crown.
• A bug was fixed that caused the empowered chests from the Whispering Tree not to always drop empowered items.
• A bug was fixed that could cause climbing a transition to fail if the player continuously held a directional input while crossing the transition.
• A bug was fixed that prevented the Hell Tide Commander from appearing for the portal invasion event if the player character benefited from stealth effects at the time the commander appeared.
• A bug was fixed that prevented some events and event controls from being completed by using stealth effects to avoid monsters.
• A bug was fixed that could make Lilith’s Echo invulnerable during the first phase of the fight.
• A bug was fixed that prevented Crackling Energy, drops of Unstable Blood from the Blood-soaked Aspect, and Blood Orbs under loss of control from being collected.
• A bug was fixed that could cause repeated casting of a channeled skill to make projectiles appear from Tyrael’s Might.
• A bug was fixed that could cause multiple Cursed Rituals to appear in the same Hell Tide zone.
• A bug was fixed that caused Andariel and Lilith to execute all 4 of their phases at 1 HP instead of at the intended health thresholds.

Group Finder

• A bug was fixed that allowed Vessel of Hatred-exclusive bosses to be set as a Group Finder activity by players who do not own Vessel of Hatred.
• A bug was fixed that prevented entries in the Group Finder from being created from the stronghold map.

User Interface and User Experience

Barbarian

• A bug was fixed where the descriptions of the deletion aspect did not match between what was on an item and in the Power Codex.
• A bug was fixed where the description for the Luck aspect displayed the bonus to critical hit chance as multiplicative instead of additive.
• A bug was fixed where the increased critical hit chance from the passive skill “No Mercy” did not display character values in cities.

Druid

• A bug was fixed where the tooltip of Airidah’s Unyielding Will did not clearly describe the power.
• A bug was fixed where Innate Bloodhowl was not displayed.
• A bug was fixed where the damage displayed from Hurricane did not increase due to duration bonuses.
• A bug was fixed where the bonus description for Bestial Ferocity contained incorrect information.
• A bug was fixed where the description for Improved Claw displayed the attack speed bonus as additive instead of multiplicative.
• A bug was fixed where the description for the Scythe of Malice stated that the damage would be “on”, not “by” increased.

Necromancer

• A bug was fixed where damage bonuses from Golems, Skeleton Mages, and Skeleton Warriors were not displayed in the character value window.
• A bug was fixed where the aspect of the Protective Storm did not display decimal places in amulets.

Wizard

• A bug was fixed that caused the description of the elemental constellation aspect to imply that all skills had to be cast instead of the listed types.
• A bug was fixed that caused the penetrating static aspect to decrease the displayed damage number for combo strikes.
• A bug was fixed that caused the awakened spirit aspect to not display the duration of the barrier.

All Classes

• A bug was fixed that caused the description of the metamorphosis aspect in the power codex to not include how the aspect affects escaping.
• A bug was fixed that caused the description of the inheritor of damnation to not accurately state the distance from which it steals the mother’s favor from allies.

General

• A bug was fixed that prevented items from being marked as junk or favorites after interacting with the occultist.
• A bug was fixed that failed to display the number by which a player character was above the maximum movement speed in the character stats.
• A bug was fixed that caused the recipe for crafting a Wicked Heart to not have the option to display the required materials.
• A bug was fixed where no heading for difficulty and hardcore status was displayed on the user interface in the pit.
• A bug was fixed that caused the indicators for wave count and amount of aether to appear incorrectly on the user interface when playing hell hordes in local co-op mode.
• A bug was fixed that caused the scroll speed in the skill tree menu to be faster than intended when playing with a controller.
• A bug was fixed that allowed notifications for the appearance of a world boss to be displayed when no world boss appeared.
• A bug was fixed that caused the icon for maximum hell tide threat to not change when threats were reset.

Miscellaneous

• A bug was fixed that prevented the achievement “Master of Tactics” from awarding the corresponding title.
• A bug was fixed that caused the assistance aspect to be dropped before an ultimate skill was available.
• A bug was fixed that prevented the “Fata Morgana” quest from being completed correctly.
• A bug was fixed that caused the “Reanimation” and “Bony Attack” challenges for necromancers to not receive progress from opponents killed by minions.
• Various improvements to stability, performance, user interface, graphics, and audio.