Season 19 starts in Diablo 3 this week. Blizzard is bringing some adjustments in update 2.6.7a based on community feedback. Particularly, Barbarians are excited.
What is this update about? A few days ago, Blizzard announced the details for the start of Season 19 in Diablo 3. Shortly after, community manager Nevalistis published a post in the forum addressing another update. This brings changes that will take effect right at the start of S19.
The update is called 2.6.7a, which is an adjustment of the already existing new patch 2.6.7. With the update, a few balance issues will be addressed so that there are fewer problems in the new season.
What’s in update 2.6.7a – Patch Notes
- Lamentation
- Now increases the damage of Butchery by 100-150%
- The initial input of Lamentation in patch 2.6.7 on the PTR was too strong, say the developers. By completely removing the bonus, it was too harsh on the Whirlwind/Butchery Barbarian. After reading “tons of feedback,” the D3 team made this compromise.
- Originally, the damage of Butchery was increased by 150-200% on the PTR. Then, the item was completely removed and didn’t make it into the live version 2.6.7, much to the annoyance of the Barbarians.
- Shield of Fury
- The bonus from this item is now stackable up to a limit of 20
- The developers explain that Crusaders became incredibly strong due to patch 2.6.7. They look forward to Crusaders performing better with their new set, but this cap on stacks should bring the damage down to a more reasonable level.
Check out our tier list for Season 19 in Diablo 3 to see how well Barbarians are performing there.
Bug Fixes in Patch 2.6.7a
These bugs have been fixed: In the new monk set “Patterns of Justice,” there was a bug where the counterwind rune of Tempest Rush was not applied when Tempest Rush was interrupted. The problem has only been partially fixed. There is still the bug on consoles, which is expected to be removed in a future update.
For the Fjord Cutter, a problem was fixed where the weapon increased all damage on slowed or frozen targets instead of just the damage of Seismic Slam.
The fist weapon Won Khim Lau caused Epiphany to trigger a teleport while Tempest Rush (with Electric Charge) was being channeled.
Community manager Nevalistis writes that they still need to work on the Rathma Necromancer, the Bazooka Wizard, and the general performance of the Demon Hunter. No updates can be released yet, but they are sifting through the feedback and experimenting with potential solutions.
In the future, they also want to extend the testing times on the PTR so that new set items can be thoroughly tested.
What players say about the changes
Why is this important? In the Diablo 3 community, players are really happy about the communication between the D3 team and the fans.
On Reddit, a player writes, “I LOVE this new era of high-quality communication in the community. Thanks Nevalistis, you are amazing!”
Especially Barbarian players feel understood here. While the planned change with the removal of the Butchery bonus hit them surprisingly hard, they are looking forward to the new compromise.
“On behalf of the Barbarians: Thank you,” writes user voinbobar on Reddit.
“I have to be honest here. I was looking forward to the Butchery change for WW Barbarians. And when they removed it again, I lost interest. Now, I imagine the ‘Opening the gate a little’ meme often,” writes player Infernalism. Another Reddit user then made this meme for him.
What do you think of the new changes and how Blizzard is responding to feedback? This developer has a lot of work ahead:
